Crownblood: Novel's Untold Story-Chapter 4: An Unexpected Twist

_BOOOOOM!

The roar of an explosion thundered across the land, echoing for miles. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"WH... GOI... HOW... HAPPEN...!!"

Faint whispers reached my ears along with a strange mechanical voice.

[Synchronizing... (10%)]

The noise sharpened bit by bit.

"EVERYONE!! THE BRIDGE IS BROKEN!" someone shouted.

"SOMEBODY STOP THE BLOODY TRAIN!!"

[Synchronizing... (20%)]

"IT’S TOO LATE! PROTECT THE YOUNG MISS!!" another voice bellowed.

My senses began to return.

’What!? What’s going on?’

"Boy, this way!" Someone grabbed my arm and dragged me along.

[Synchronizing... (40%)]

My vision cleared, revealing a man with red hair and green eyes, gripping me firmly.

’I have seen him somewhere before...’

My gaze drifted forward, and what I saw froze me in place.

A wide river cut through the land below, forests rising on either side.

_CHOO! CHOO!

The floor rattled beneath me. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that I was standing in the doorway of a moving train.

Startled, I tried to step back. But my body refused to obey, as if it no longer belonged to me.

’WHAT THE HELL!?’

"Boy, hold on to me tightly. We’re going to jump."

’We’re going to... what?’ I tried to speak, but no sound came out of my mouth.

"Now, here we go." The man’s voice was low and steady as he bent his knees, ready to leap.

’Wait! No, what the hel-’

I didn’t get to finish the thought. The man held me tightly and hurled us both off the train, straight into the air.

’YOU MOTHERF**ER!’ I screamed in my head.

The sound of rending metal followed them as the train collapsed behind.

For a moment, I felt weightless, the wind roaring in my ears, my stomach twisting as the black ocean rushed to meet me.

I looked back. The train was falling, cars breaking away, windows bursting, people in similar uniforms leaping after us.

_BOOOOOM!

The train crashed into the sea with a thunderous boom. Water exploded upward like a wall, swallowing everything.

I didn’t even have time to breathe.

Somewhere during the fall, the man had released me.

Now, underwater, my eyes widened as I saw the man’s body drifting beside me, an arrow buried deep in his neck.

Only one thought crossed my mind. ’Ah... I’m screwed.’

My body wouldn’t move. It sank like a stone, dragged down into the endless dark.

’What is this? Am I really dying a second time? Was the first not humiliating enough? I don’t think I’ve sinned badly enough for this kind of punishment...’

I tried to clench my fist. This time, my fingers twitched.

Then I noticed a section of the train, torn apart in the fall, drifting straight toward me. Panic shot through me.

’MOVE! MOVE, YOU PIECE OF CRAP! MOVE!’

[Synchronizing... (60%)]

At last, with painful effort, my limbs responded. I could move again.

’YES!! FINALLY!’

Without wasting a second, I began to swim, narrowly dodging the train’s section.

But instead of heading straight for the surface, I loosened my body and let the current pull me along.

The others who had survived the fall seemed to think the same way.

One by one, they drifted toward the riverbank beneath the broken bridge, staying underwater as long as they could.

When they neared the shore, they finally surfaced, gasping for breath before dragging themselves out of the water.

I didn’t follow. I kept drifting, letting the river carry me farther downstream.

After putting some distance between myself and the others, I pulled off my shirt and let it drift on the surface.

When no arrow came flying at it, I finally decided it was safe enough to rise.

I still waited for a few seconds.

Only when I judged it safe did I break the surface carefully, before making my way toward the shore.

After getting out, I sat on the ground, leaning against a rock, trying to catch my breath.

Finally, with some time to think, I tried to understand the current situation.

But nothing made any sense.

I was supposed to be dead in that dead zone, turned into jagged crystals.

I carefully looked around, finding only tall trees and a quiet forest. It was nothing like that haunting dead zone.

’Just what is going on?’

Frustrated, I slammed my hand against the ground and felt something different.

Only then did I realize how light my body was.

I looked at my hand, and my eyes went wide. They were far too burished and a bit smaller than they should be.

I quickly tried to channel mana across my body.

’Gone! It’s gone?!’

But the pain I was expecting from my fractured mana core didn’t come.

Startled, I quickly leaped to the shore, checked my reflection, and froze at what I saw.

In the clear river water, the face reflected was not mine.

Deep red eyes, snow white hair, sharp features, and an oval face that was definitely above average.

A face that belonged to a teenager.

[Synchronizing... (70%)]

The strange mechanical sound rang out again, but I was too shocked to pay any attention to it.

’Who is this?’

Suddenly, a sharp pain coursed through my whole body.

"AGHH!!"

An agonizing groan escaped my mouth as I clenched my head tightly.

I was familiar with this pain; it was the same pain I felt when I had forcefully tried to integrate the SS-rank core with my body last time.

’Why is this happening?’

There were many confusing things right now, but I didn’t have time to focus on them all.

’Okay, one problem at a time.’

I quickly sat cross-legged, trying to resonate my mana core with the new core.

To absorb a new core, I needed to shatter the previous one and slowly merge the shattered pieces with it.

Last time, I failed because my previous core could not match the frequency of the SS-rank core.

And the result would be the same even if this core didn’t match it.

I needed to be extra careful. So, I slowly started to channel mana in and out of his body. And one thing I noticed was...

There was no core in this body.

"What the hell!"

"AGRHH!"

The pain in my head intensified.

Slowly, memory came rushing into my head.