Origins of Blood (RE)-Chapter 179: Ruby’s Cry (1)

Aston’s POV

“An iron rain served cold yet warm. Gods worshiped, thus brought harm.”

—Aston von Rosenmahl

The world to my left is empty. To my right, it’s a graveyard of limbs and bones. My hands plunge into something thick—warm—and I jerk back, slipping into more of it.

“Don’t come...” The words fall out of me, hollow, stripped of thought.

Blood fills my sight. It runs down my arms, seeps between my fingers. A sharp sting pierces my left eye, and for a heartbeat, I can’t tell if I’m seeing or dreaming.

“T-they’re dead...” I whisper. The words taste like iron. My heart stops. Everything stops.

Falling to my knees, I vomit until my throat tears. My hands tremble before me, painted Red. All of them—gone. Exploded; shredded into nothing.

My thoughts twist to escape what my eyes can’t forget. The mountain that once held us stands stripped bare—its crown washed away in blood. Their blood.

I heave again, and the stench burns my lungs; the air itself feels toxic, as if the world’s begun to rot.

Ruby is gone—swallowed whole by a Red Sea; what’s left of hope drowns with it.

“APOLLO!”

A scream—Harmon’s roar—slices through the storm. He is losing his mind—eyes blazing a wild orange glow. But the rage does not last. Tears roll down his face, streaking through the grime and blood.

This is absurd. One mome,nt I was up with the children, the sky dim but calm. Then—Red. The color burst across the heavens like an open wound, and bodies began to fall. Now the moon itself bleeds.

I press my fingers against my left eye—warm, wet.

Blood, not Red.

Blue.

My blood.

“You did this,” Eriksson growls a few meters away. “You killed them all.”

A tremor crawls up my spine, though I cannot feel much of anything. My nerves are numb, my mind slipping.

“You brought us here for a trade!” Eriksson’s shoulders are squared, his voice cracking with something between grief and fury. When he turns his head, just enough for me to see his face—he’s breaking.

“No...” Harmon whispers, his tone shifting, hollow again. “I did it for Selina.”

Silence drops, heavy as ash.

“I only wanted her back,” Harmon says, shaking. “I still want her back.” His tears hit the dirt, Orange mixing with Red. “I’m sorry, but I—”

Splash.

Blood bursts across my face. I blink, too slow to grasp what’s happened before Eriksson is gone—leaping forward, his silhouette tearing through the air.

Pow!

One punch, and both tumble off the edge, falling into the Red Sea below.

“Erik!” I shout, but his legs are already moving.

“Vis! Wake up!” Lenny’s voice cuts through the chaos from the side.

Stumbling to the cliff’s edge, I gasp and look down into the abyss—the Red Sea below churns with corpses—limbs floating like driftwood in a crimson tide.

Evelyn and Valea rush to my side, their faces tainted by Red. Grim joins but does not hesitate—he jumps; his body cuts through the air, falling fast.

Pound.

My heart slams against my ribs.

Pound.

Blood drips from my face; Red’s or mine, I do not know anymore.

Pound.

“What’s wrong with my eye, Evelyn?” I rasp, turning to the Green standing nearest. Her lips part, stuttering sound. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Pound.

“I—it’s... missing.”

Pound.

I slap myself once, then again, harder; my teeth feel loose. The world tilts, spinning between Red and Blue, noise and silence.

“What about the others?” I ask, grabbing Evelyn by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me.

Her voice dies before it can form.

“E—except for the three below, only Dellin and Leonard are missing.” She lowers her head, “and for the Children, only Doran seems to be on the mountain bird. Vis is unconscious...”