Seed of Titan-Chapter 87: First Blood

"That’s why I told you to warn your parents. You should explain your situation to them too if they ask why," Christo said while packing up. He returned the ancestral book into his hidden storage and stood up.

"Come on," Christo said, gesturing for them to leave.

Drai hesitated a bit but still decided to ask, "I now understand why revealing my powers could be problematic, but isn’t that based on the assumption that the ones who know about it meant harm to me? Aren’t they your family members? And in the worst case, you can just tell them that I’m your friend, right?"

Christo sighed and replied, "Like I said, my family isn’t normal, so I’m sure they won’t be doing you any good regardless of whether they’ll harm you or not. And I’m not the main decision maker there, so I probably won’t have a say regarding this matter. After all, they’ll easily justify it by saying it’s for the sake of the family."

Drai didn’t know what else to say. Hearing Christo’s words, he felt like this family was really a pain in the ass.

’No wonder Christo prefers not to talk about them,’ Drai thought as he stood up from the bench.

"Let’s head to the right. Donk and the tall guy went in that direction," Drai suggested.

Christo nodded and they both started walking away from the entrance. Passing by the partially destroyed building, they saw dozens of students lying on the ground. Most of them were unconscious, but a few that had awakened were checking on the others.

"I guess the woman’s spell was released after I threw her into the building. Maybe she fainted," Drai remarked.

Christo didn’t comment since he suspected that Drai had actually killed the robed woman.

As they both left the area, a pair of eyes were looking at them from one of the openings on the destroyed wall.

Venus’ hands trembled as she watched Drai’s figure disappear behind the trees.

"I didn’t notice that he’s the Anomaly from the report! And not just that—he even has that power!"

Venus weakly dragged herself up, holding onto the wall beside her. Unbeknownst to Drai, she had actually managed to summon her teal ropes at the last moment before the impact, which slightly cushioned her fall.

But even if she had survived the attack, she wasn’t in a condition to fight anymore since several of her bones had broken.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Venus slowly reached her hand inside her robe and pulled out a small device.

"I have to inform Nero..." she mumbled while operating the device. After a few seconds, she put the device near her mouth.

"Venus to Rivideria’s Head of Operations. There’s been an emergency, sir. Your presence might be required. I saw—"

Instead of finishing her sentence, Venus let out a sickening gurgle. She instantly dropped her device and reached toward her neck, only to find that a big fuzzy thing was digging into her. And before Venus could cast her spell to free herself, her neck was ripped open.

A red fountain gushed from Venus’ neck as her body went limp, dropping to the floor. Behind her stood a black beast with human clothes, fresh blood dripping from his maw.

After seeing that Venus was no longer breathing, the bear sat down and transformed into Klaus. His face was pale and his whole body was bruised.

Looking at the mangled head lying in a puddle of blood, Klaus felt a bit overwhelmed. This was his first kill after all.

"Serves you right," Klaus remarked, trying to brush off his agitation. He then lay down on the floor and closed his eyes, feeling spent from tonight’s events.

"I hope everyone’s alright..." he whispered before losing consciousness.

***

Thousands of miles away from Soluna Academy, a man was listening to an audio message.

"...Your presence might be required. I saw—"

After a few seconds of silence, Nero played the message again. Yet, it was the same as before, leaving him hanging.

Realizing that his subordinate’s message was interrupted halfway through, Nero’s face turned grim. He tapped his fingers on his desk, contemplating his next move. Shortly after, he stood up and marched out his office.

After walking down a hallway and a staircase, he reached a large hall.

"Sir!" the two guards standing by greeted with a bow.

"Is the teleporter ready?" Nero asked.

"It’s currently charging. It barely had enough energy to send out the last group," one guard said.

"Inform me when it’s ready. I will also be heading to the site," Nero ordered as he turned around and walked away.

"Yes, sir!" the guards complied. They looked at each other in surprise, wondering what had happened for the supervisor to participate in the raid.

Nero headed to his room and prepared himself for departure. He pocketed a few items before opening a metal case and pulling out a long scarlet staff that was adorned with a large purple jewel at the top.

Nero held the staff in front of him and looked at it with a mix of emotions, recalling the past.

"Although it’s been a long time, I still hope we won’t meet again, Zar..."

***

At a dark garden in Soluna Academy, two figures were running around.

"Take back your words, bastard!" the tall figure shouted amidst his chase.

"Fuck you! Get away from me!" the other figure barked while jumping high onto the top of a small pavilion. He kicked the roof and leaped into a nearby tree before hastily climbing to its peak.

Seeing this, the tall figure pulled out a curved dagger. He then released a sharp red aura around his dagger and repeatedly sliced the lower part of the tree which his target had escaped to.

Countless wood chips scattered with every attack, and shortly after, the tree finally began to topple.

The tall robed figure licked his dagger with unbridled bloodlust, waiting for his target to fall. However, he saw that the young man he was chasing had leaped once more from the tree top and slashed his sword midair, propelling himself by shooting out blue crescent qi blades.

"Bye, sucker! Like I said, daggers are just kid versions of swords!" Jian loudly mocked from high above.