The "Trial of the Iron Blood" was not held in a training hall or a sparring ring. It took place in the Subterranean Maw, a series of damp, mana-thick caverns deep beneath the Valcor Estate. For centuries, the Valcor family had used these caves to cull the weak. They would throw their youth into the dark, and only those who emerged with blood on their hands were deemed worthy of the name.
Rimmer stood at the entrance of the Maw. He was now four years old, though his body looked closer to that of an eight-year-old due to the constant Aether refinement. His silver hair was tied back with a black ribbon, and his violet eyes seemed to swallow the dim torchlight of the cavern.
Behind him stood Boras, his father, looking like a statue of iron. To Rimmer's left were Elara and his two sisters.
Elara's face was a mask of suppressed agony. Every maternal instinct she possessed—warped as they were by Rimmer's growing infection—screamed at her to snatch him away from this place. But Boras's presence was a heavy mountain, and she was not yet ready to defy him openly.
"You have seven days," Boras said, his voice echoing in the gloom. "There are thirty 'Shadow-Hounds' in these tunnels. They are beasts of hunger and malice. Bring me their ears, or do not come out at all."
Rimmer didn't look back. He felt the System humming in his mind, a red pulse that mapped out the cavern ahead.
[Trial Analysis: Shadow-Hounds (Rank 1 Beasts).]
[Special Ability: Fear Aura.]
[Host Counter-Strategy: 'Aura of the Sovereign'.]
"I'll see you soon, Mother," Rimmer said, his voice carrying a strange, chilling sweetness. He turned his head slightly, catching Liora's tearful gaze and Seline's narrowed, intense stare. "Make sure my bath is ready when I return. I expect you all to be there."
With that, the small figure vanished into the darkness.
Inside the Maw, the air was thick with the scent of rot and old mana. Most four-year-olds would have been paralyzed by the silence, but Rimmer moved with the grace of a cat. He wasn't afraid. Fear was a modern luxury he had abandoned the moment he felt the "Key" in his soul.
[Warning: Shadow-Hound detected. 10 meters. Behind the stalagmite.]
Rimmer didn't reach for a sword. He didn't have one. Instead, he raised his small right hand. Red Aether began to coil around his fingers like miniature vipers.
"Come out," Rimmer whispered. "I need your essence."
The beast leapt—a mass of oily black fur and glowing red eyes. It was twice the size of Rimmer, a nightmare of teeth and claws. But as it mid-air, Rimmer didn't flinch.
[Skill Activated: Emotional Infection - 'Despair Burst'.]
A shockwave of dark energy erupted from Rimmer. It wasn't physical force; it was a concentrated blast of the "ugly" emotions Rimmer had carried from his past life—the feelings of being unwanted, hated, and small.
The Shadow-Hound, a creature of pure instinct, hit a wall of absolute psychological horror. It whimpered mid-air, its momentum collapsing as it crashed to the stone floor, shaking uncontrollably. It looked at the four-year-old boy, and for the first time in its predatory life, it felt prey.
Rimmer walked up to it, his violet eyes glowing. He knelt beside the beast and placed his hand on its head.
"In my old world, I was the one who hid in the dark," Rimmer murmured, his voice a low purr. "In this world, the dark belongs to me."
[Target Infected. Draining Essence...]
[Foundation Level 2... Level 3... Level 4...]
The beast shriveled, its life force being sucked into Rimmer's Aether Core. The System was acting as a filter, turning the beast's raw malice into pure, refined power. Rimmer felt his muscles knit tighter, his senses sharpening until he could hear the heartbeat of insects in the walls.
Seven days passed in a blur of slaughter and refinement. Rimmer didn't just kill the hounds; he consumed them. By the fifth day, the remaining beasts were actively fleeing from him, huddling in the deepest corners of the cave, whining in terror.
On the morning of the eighth day, the heavy iron gates of the Maw groaned open.
Boras stood there, expecting to find a corpse or a broken, traumatized child. Elara, Liora, and Seline were there too, their faces pale from lack of sleep.
Out of the darkness stepped Rimmer.
He was covered in black blood, his clothes shredded. In his left hand, he carried a heavy sack that dripped with gore. But it was his face that stopped Boras's heart for a split second.
Rimmer wasn't crying. He wasn't shaking. He was smiling. A slow, beautiful, and utterly terrifying smile. He looked like a young god who had just finished a pleasant stroll through a garden of corpses.
He dropped the sack at Boras's feet. Dozens of black, furry ears spilled out.
"Thirty," Rimmer said. His voice had dropped an octave, vibrating with a new, dangerous power.
[Current Cultivation: Foundation Level 5.]
[Status: Peak of the Foundation Realm.]
Boras stared at his son. He felt a prickle of genuine fear. At four years old, the boy had reached Level 5. It was unheard of. It was monstrous. "You... you have done well," Boras managed to say, his pride fighting with his instinct to kill this threat before it grew further.
"My reward, Father," Rimmer reminded him, his eyes flicking to the three women behind Boras.
"The South Wing is yours," Boras grunted. "And the servants... do as you wish."
Rimmer turned to Elara. She looked like she was about to collapse. He walked up to her, ignoring his father entirely. He was covered in filth and blood, but as he reached up, Elara instinctively knelt to meet him.
"I'm tired, Mother," Rimmer whispered, leaning into her. "I need you to take care of me now."
[Infection Level: Elara Valcor - 35% (Status: Transitioning to Obsessive Devotion)]
Elara gathered him into her arms, ignoring the blood staining her expensive silk gown. She felt a surge of possessive love so strong it made her dizzy. "I have you, my love. I have you. No one will ever hurt you again."
The South Wing - Rimmer's Private Chambers
The bath was a large, sunken pool of steaming water infused with healing herbs. Rimmer sat in the center, his eyes closed. The "System" was processing the massive amount of essence he had taken from the Maw.
Behind him, three pairs of hands were at work.
Elara was washing his hair, her movements slow and reverent. Liora was scrubbing his back, her small hands shaking with a mix of excitement and awe. Seline, the proud eldest sister, was kneeling by the edge of the pool, rinsing the blood from his arms with a silk cloth. Her movements were stiff, but she hadn't left. She couldn't.
"You've grown, Rimmer," Seline whispered, her eyes fixed on the defined muscles of his back—muscles that shouldn't belong to a child. "In just a week... you feel like a different person."
Rimmer opened his eyes. He reached back and caught Seline's wrist. She flinched, but she didn't pull away.
"I told you, sister," Rimmer said, his voice dropping to a seductive crawl. "The world is about power. I have it. And soon, I will have more. Do you know what the System tells me?"
"The... System?" Seline asked, confused.
"It tells me that loyalty isn't something you give," Rimmer said, turning around in the water to face all three of them. The steam rose around them, creating an intimate, closed-off world. "Loyalty is something that is taken. Slowly. Through the heart, and through the body."
He looked at Liora, then Elara, and finally Seline.
"Mother," he said, his voice soft. "Do you love me?"
"More than my own life," Elara whispered, her eyes glazed with the red tint of the infection.
"And you, Liora? Would you do anything I asked?"
"Anything," the young girl breathed, her face flushed with a feverish heat.
"And you, Seline?" Rimmer asked, his grip on her wrist tightening. "You used to call me a runt. You used to look down on me. But now... when you look at me, do you feel that ache in your chest? That's not fear, Seline. That's the start of your devotion."
Seline's breath hitched. She wanted to deny it. She wanted to slap him. But as she looked into his violet eyes, she felt a wave of "infection" hit her—a concentrated blast of Rimmer's desire.
[Skill Activated: 'Seeds of the Harem'.]
[Target: Seline Valcor. Resistance: Crumbling.]
"I... I don't know what you're doing to us," Seline stammered, her face turning a deep crimson.
"I'm giving you a purpose," Rimmer said. He stood up in the water, completely unashamed. He looked at them—his mother, his sisters—and saw the future. "In this life, I don't want 'family'. I want a kingdom. And a King needs his consorts to be the most beautiful, the most powerful, and the most loyal."
He leaned in close to Elara, his lips brushing her ear. "The way Father treats you... it's a waste. A woman of your beauty and power deserves to be worshipped. Not ignored. I will be the one to worship you, Mother. But only if you belong entirely to me."
Elara's breath came in ragged gasps. The taboo of his words should have horrified her, but the Infection had bypassed her logic. It was feeding on her years of loneliness and her resentment toward Boras.
"I... I am yours, Rimmer," she whispered, her hands trembling as they rested on his shoulders. "Everything I am... is yours."
[Infection Level: Elara Valcor - 45%.]
[Infection Level: Liora Valcor - 25%.]
[Infection Level: Seline Valcor - 10%.]
Rimmer sat back down, a look of absolute triumph on his face.
"Good," he said. "Now, scrub harder. We have much to discuss. I hear there is an Academy entrance exam in two years. I plan to attend. And I plan to bring my 'attendants' with me."
As the three women continued to serve him, the System displayed a new notification in Rimmer's mind.
[Growth Path Updated: The Path of the Corruptor.]
[Next Goal: Reach 'Foundation Seed' Realm (Level 10).]
[New Mechanic Unlocked: 'Tainted Love' - Physical intimacy now grants 5x Cultivation Experience.]
Rimmer smiled. This world was going to be so much fun to break.