Blood God Reborn as the Mudblood Heir

A few hours later.... Morning came without kindness.

Cold light slipped over the ridge and touched the stones around the small shelter. Elowen woke with stiff limbs and a face that still looked tired from crying. She sat up too quickly, then winced because her legs had not forgiven the night's climb.

Lucard was already standing outside.

The old Stoneford map was open in his hand. A small red blood circle floated beside it, giving just enough light to show the faded lines. He had not built a fire. Smoke was a message to anyone with eyes. Elowen understood that without being told. She drank a little water from her mother's ring, ate one piece of hard travel bread, and tied the dark cloak tighter around herself.

Lucard glanced at her feet.

"Can you walk?"

"Yes," she said at once.

"That answer was too fast."

She looked away. "I can walk."

He studied her for a moment, then pointed toward the north. "We are going to the Blood Pit."

Her hand stopped near the pouch at her waist. "You still want to go there?"

"Yes."

"The old records say wounded beasts vanish around that place. Hunters avoided it."

"That is why I want to see it."

Elowen wanted to argue, but she remembered what he had said about dangerous places. To Lucard, a warning did not mean stay away. It meant something valuable might be waiting there. That way of thinking was frightening, but she was beginning to understand it.

They left the shelter before the sun rose fully.

Lucard did not walk on the easiest ground. He chose dry stone, shallow stream beds, and patches of hard earth where footprints were weak. Elowen followed with clenched teeth. Several times, her foot slipped. Twice, she caught herself before falling. Lucard did not praise her, but he also did not call her weak again. That felt like victory in a small and strange way.

After an hour, the land changed.

The white cliffs near Moonwater Hollow faded behind them. Ahead, the ground became darker. Red-brown soil appeared between black stones. Thorn bushes grew lower and sharper here. The trees were twisted, with thin leaves and bark that looked burned even though no fire had touched them recently.

Elowen slowed when she saw the first animal bones.

They lay half-buried beside a stone. Small ribs. A broken skull. No bite marks.

Lucard crouched beside them for a moment. "Drained."

"What drained it?"

"That is what we will find."

She swallowed and followed.

They found more signs as they moved deeper. A dead bird lay under a bush, dry as old paper. A fox-like beast had crawled halfway into a hole before dying, its body thin and empty. Farther ahead, a larger beast had collapsed near a dried stream. It looked like a horned deer, but its skin had sunk tightly against the bones.

Elowen covered her nose. "There is no smell."

"That is the strange part."

"Dead things should smell."

"Yes."

Lucard touched the dead beast with one finger. There was no blood left worth taking. Not even enough for taste. Something had emptied it completely and cleanly. No torn throat. No claw marks. No feeding bite. It had died as if its blood had walked out of the body.

His interest grew.

The unnamed blood bug inside his heart stirred faintly. It did not hunger wildly this time. It was alert, like a young beast smelling a stronger predator. Lucard noticed that reaction and became more careful.

He gave a silent command.

"Stay quiet."

The blood bug obeyed.

Elowen saw him pause. "What is wrong?"

"Maybe nothing."

"That means something is wrong."

"It means keep walking and speak less."

She nodded quickly.

By midday, they reached a broken marker stone. The old map showed three stones there, but only one remained standing. A faded carving of a red dot was still visible on its side. Elowen touched the symbol with two fingers, then pulled her hand back as if the stone felt cold.

"This is the old warning mark," she said. "The Blood Pit is close."

Lucard looked beyond the stone.

A shallow valley opened ahead. It was not beautiful like Moonwater Hollow. It looked sick. The ground dipped into a wide basin surrounded by jagged black rocks. Red soil covered the lower slopes, and thin mist clung to the ground even though the sun was above them. In the center of the basin was a deeper hollow, but they were still too far to see what lay inside.

Lucard raised his hand.

Elowen stopped at once.

That was better.

He listened.

At first, there was only wind. Then came a faint metal sound. A chain. Then voices. Not close, but not far either.

Elowen's eyes widened.

"People?"

Lucard nodded.

"Hunters?"

"Too many."

He led her down behind a line of stones and moved along the side of the basin instead of entering openly. Elowen followed low, one hand holding her cloak so it would not scrape against rock. She had improved from yesterday. Fear was teaching her faster than tutors had.

They moved until they reached a ridge above the deeper hollow.

Lucard lowered himself behind a black stone and looked down.

Many people were gathered around the Blood Pit.

There were at least forty of them. Some wore hunter leather. Some wore gray cloaks. Some carried long spears with hooks at the end. Several mages stood in a circle with staffs planted into the ground. A few strong guards waited near pack animals tied to the rocks. The group had no open banner, but their order was too clean for ordinary hunters.

At the center of the hollow was a pit filled with dark red liquid.

It was not water.

It moved too slowly. The surface trembled now and then, as if something underneath breathed. Around the edge of the pit lay several dead beasts, all drained like the ones Lucard had seen on the way. Their bodies had been dragged into rough lines, perhaps as bait or offerings.

Elowen crouched beside him and looked down.

Her face went pale. "That is not on the map."

Lucard kept his eyes on the people. "The map is old."

"What are they doing?"

"Waiting."

"For what?"

Lucard did not answer immediately.

Near the pit, four men were pulling a chain from the red liquid. The chain was thick and dark. Something heavy was attached below the surface. Every pull made the pit ripple. The mages around it kept chanting under their breath, sending weak lights into the ground to hold the edge of the hollow steady.

Then one of the men slipped.

His boot touched the red liquid.

He screamed.

The others pulled him back, but it was too late. The liquid climbed his leg like living blood. It entered through his skin, and his body shriveled from the foot upward. His screams lasted only a few breaths before one mage cut off the leg with a wind blade.

The man fell back, alive but fainting.

Nobody rushed to comfort him.

A cold voice from below said, "Do not waste time. Seal the stump and continue."

Elowen gripped Lucard's sleeve without thinking.

Lucard looked at her hand.

She quickly let go.

"Sorry," she whispered.

He ignored it and looked toward the owner of the voice.

A tall woman stood near the pit, wearing a dark red coat with black fur at the collar. Her hair was tied up with a silver pin, and a half-mask covered the left side of her face. She did not look like a hunter. She looked like someone used to being obeyed. Two guards stood behind her, both with better weapons than the others.

Lucard studied her blood from a distance.

Strong.

Not simple.

Perhaps Fourth Rank. Perhaps stronger if she hid part of it.

Elowen followed his gaze and whispered, "She is not from Stoneford."

"You know her?"

"No."

"Then do not guess."

Elowen lowered her voice even more. "Her coat has Velkhur stitching."

Lucard looked again.

Small red flame patterns had been sewn near the edge of the woman's sleeve. They were subtle. A common person might miss them. Elowen had seen noble clothing enough to notice.

Lucard's interest sharpened.

Velkhur again.

The woman near the pit raised one hand. The workers pulled harder. The chain rose inch by inch from the red liquid. Something black appeared under the surface for a brief moment, then sank again. The mages strained to hold their circle.

One of them shouted, "The thing is resisting."

The masked woman's voice remained cold. "Then make it stop resisting."

"My lady, the blood mud is eating the anchors."

"Replace them."

"We already lost six."

"Then lose six more."

The mage lowered his head and continued.

Elowen's breathing became unsteady. "They are going to kill their own people."

"They already are."

"How can they act like this?"

"Because the thing below is worth more to them than the people above."

She looked sick but did not speak again.

Lucard watched the chain, the pit, the mages, and the masked woman. He did not yet know what they were pulling out, but the Blood Pit was not just a hunting place. It was an old feeding ground, and someone had found something inside it.

A beast?

A relic?

A blood stone?

A sealed creature?

Whatever it was, the red liquid reacted like hungry blood. The dead beasts around the edge had not come here by accident. Something had drawn them in and emptied them.

Lucard's blood moved slowly.

The Blood Mage Vessel wanted to study it.

Blood Absorption wanted to taste it.

His caution told him to wait.

Below, the chain jerked.

The red liquid rose in a bubble.

The workers shouted. The mages pressed their staffs harder into the ground. The masked woman finally stepped closer to the pit. Her gloved hand lifted, and a dark red flame appeared above her palm.

Lucard's eyes narrowed.

That flame was not ordinary fire.

It carried Velkhur's Ember Core trace.

Weaker than Dorian's in purity, but more controlled.

The bubble burst.

For one short moment, Lucard saw what was tied to the chain.

A dark red coffin.

Not wood.

Not stone.

It looked like hardened blood crystal, covered in black lines that pulsed like veins.

Then the liquid swallowed it again.

Lucard became completely still.

A blood coffin.

In a lower world.

Under an old Blood Pit.

That was no ordinary treasure.

Elowen whispered, "What is that?"

Lucard did not answer.

For the first time since entering the Maw Range, he felt something inside his old soul stir with true attention. Not danger alone. Recognition. The coffin's shape was crude compared to things in Null, but the principle was familiar. Blood storage. Sealing. Preservation. Something or someone had used blood arts here long before these lower world mages began digging.

The masked woman turned her head suddenly.

Lucard's eyes sharpened.

She was looking toward the ridge.

Not directly at him, but close.

A thin red flame moved in her palm again, and her voice rose.

"Someone is watching."

Elowen stopped breathing.

Several guards below turned at once.

Lucard moved before they could search properly. He caught Elowen by the arm and pulled her backward behind the black stones. She almost cried out, but his other hand covered her mouth before sound escaped. He drew a blood circle in the air and pressed it flat against the rock.

The red light vanished.

Their breathing faded.

Their scent dulled.

Their presence sank under the stone like blood under skin.

Elowen trembled against him, eyes wide with fear.

Below them, footsteps began climbing the ridge.

Lucard held her still in the shadow between two rocks and looked through the narrow gap toward the people below.

The masked woman was still staring upward.