---
Kael moved silently, guided by the glowing red marking in his book. Beneath the forest canopy, The trees thinned as he descended into a dark part of the woods... Untouched, overgrown, and hungry.
With every step, the air grew colder. Not from wind, but presence.
Something ancient lived here.
---
The book pulsed in his hand.
> Location Identified: Ruins of Fal'Rhem - Feeding Ground of the Crimson Moon
Danger Level: High
Trial: Unstable Bloodbeast Detected
▸ Trial Objective: Feed. Survive. Evolve.
---
Kael reached a clearing wrapped in twisted roots and bone-white stones. At the center: a sunken stairwell descending into blackness. Runes glowed faintly along the edge, the same symbols etched into his dreams.
He stepped forward.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the forest behind him vanished.
The air shifted.
Sound disappeared.
Only the stairwell remained.
---
Kael descended.
The walls were slick with dried blood. The deeper he went, the more he felt his hunger gnawing at his insides, not just for food…
…for power.
---
He emerged into a chamber beneath the earth.
Tall pillars of bone and obsidian lined the hall. At the far end stood an altar - cracked, faded, but humming with energy.
A pile of bones surrounded it.
And something moved.
---
The beast emerged from behind the altar. A towering, mutated thing with wolf-like limbs, eyes like lanterns, and veins glowing red beneath cracked skin.
> [Bloodbeast – Miasma-Bound Alpha]
▸ Status: Corrupted Vampire Spawn
▸ Blood Value: High
▸ Threat Level: Tier 5 – Crimsonborn
---
It roared... but not with sound. The pressure hit Kael like a wave.
He dropped to a knee.
His blood screamed back.
The book opened beside him on its own, flipping wildly.
> ▸ Blood Instability Reached Critical Threshold
▸ Mutation Opportunity Detected
> Initiating Blood Trial…
---
Kael stood. His eyes were red now... fully, violently glowing.
The hunger took over.
He charged.
---
The beast swung first, a claw that could tear through steel. Kael ducked, rolled, and slashed with a broken fang-bone he'd picked up earlier.
It sliced clean through corrupted flesh.
But the beast didn't bleed.
It pulsed.
And regenerated.
---
Kael moved faster than he ever had... his limbs lighter, sharper. His body bent around strikes that would have killed him before. He leapt onto the beast's back, digging his claws in.
Claws?
He didn't remember growing them.
He didn't care.
---
The fight blurred... a dance of instinct and fury.
The beast pinned him once. He tore its eye out.
It bit his shoulder. He drank its blood through the wound.
Each exchange fed the thing inside him.
Until finally, Kael slammed the beast against the altar and bit deep into its throat, and drank.
---
The blood was poison.
It was pain.
It was power.
---
> [Mutation Triggered]
▸ Blood Veins Unlocked
▸ Temporary Buffs: +Strength, +Speed, +Reflex, +Regeneration
▸ Visual Change: Vein Bloom (glowing red network under skin)
▸ Warning: Extended Use Risks Ferality
---
Kael roared as the transformation flooded him.
His muscles burned. His vision turned red.
The beast shrieked...
but too late.
With a final lunge, Kael ripped out its core, a throbbing mass of corrupted blood, and crushed it in his hand.
---
Silence returned.
The chamber dimmed.
The runes stopped glowing.
Kael stood still, body steaming, fangs bared, red veins glowing beneath his pale skin like rivers of molten fury.
---
He was changing.
Faster now.
Deeper.
The book floated beside him, showing a new message:
> Blood Trial Complete. Mutation I Achieved.
You are no longer prey.
---
End of Chapter 7
---
/> Lore Fragment – Extract from the Field Notes of Arch-Inquisitor Velan
"We found it beneath the southern glade... a feeding chamber built of obsidian and bone. Symbols long forgotten marked the walls. The scent of blood hung in the air, centuries old. Our torches dimmed the moment we stepped inside. One man went mad. The other? He vanished. I sealed the entrance. Whatever lies beneath should never rise again."