Aetherhold Academy stood tall beneath the twin moons, its towers clawing the sky like fangs, each carved with sigils of ancient Houses. The banners of bloodlines fluttered along the wind paths—each a legacy, each a promise of power.
Cain watched from the treeline.
The academy was alive with midnight activity—duel arenas lit up like ghostly lanterns, training grounds echoing with the clash of steel and raw magic. Students practicing late-night rituals. Professors pacing with arcane scrolls. Wardens patrolling in pairs.
> And none of them noticed the boy watching them.
The one who was dead.
---
🎭 Inside the Academy
Dormitories were divided by House. House Embersteel. House Veylan. House Droskin. And below them all—if they were acknowledged at all—was Dorm Null. Where Cain used to be.
Where the bloodless were thrown like waste. Where names were replaced with numbers. Where even the servants didn't bother hiding their scorn.
Cain slipped through the outer wards—his presence still unregistered.
> The Sovereign Genebreak Interface distorted nearby enchantments. Not with power, but with paradox.
The system had no proper genetic frequency to read, so the academy wards simply ignored him.
> Just like everyone used to.
---
🧬 [System Notification – Resonance Ping Detected]
> Target Identified: Rulien Fex – 3rd Year – Pyroclast Bloodline
Status: Active Flame Core | Mutation Grade: B-
Threat: Medium
Relationship to Host: Abuser
Memory Tag: [Initiated hazing. Singed host's skin repeatedly.]
> "Bloodline imprint viability: 61%
Initiate?"
Cain didn't hesitate.
> "Yes," he whispered.
---
🔥 A Room of Flames
Rulien was alone in the thermal chamber beneath House Embersteel's dorm. Shirtless. Muscles flexing as he channeled fire through his hands. Sweat glistened on his bronze skin. Flames curled from his back in waves of controlled combustion.
Cain stepped from the shadows.
> "What the hell—" Rulien spun, startled. "Who—wait… Cain?!"
Cain said nothing. His shadow warped unnaturally, tendrils reaching for the floor.
> "You're supposed to be dead! I saw the report—"
He lunged.
Flame surged.
Cain didn't dodge. He consumed.
---
🧬 [Sovereign Genebreak Interface – Cloneblood Link Initiated]
> "Absorbing Pyroclast Strain… Decoding genetic fireprint…
Success Rate: 61%...
Core Thread Acquired: Combustive Surge (Lesser)
Trait Adaptation: Mimic Node Activated."
> "Warning: Bloodline is not native to host. Clone effect is temporary. Further stabilization required."
---
> Cain fell to one knee, body trembling. His skin smoked—not burned. His veins glowed orange then dimmed.
His hands flexed—heat swirled around his knuckles.
> He could use it. It wasn't his… but he could use it.
Rulien lay unconscious, twitching. Not dead. Cain had taken just enough.
He didn't need to kill.
Not yet.
---
> As Cain exited the chamber, whispers filled his mind again—static whispers of other bloodlines nearby.
Dozens. Hundreds.
Every bloodline in the academy was a potential node. A puzzle piece. A weapon.
> He'd spent sixteen years praying for power.
Now he had a system that gave him all of them—piece by piece.
---
🧬 [System Update – Cloneblood Status]
> Bloodline: Pyroclast (Imprinted)
Trait: Combustive Surge (Lesser) – Emit a pulse of heat that destabilizes target spells
Duration: 12 minutes
Status: Incompatible | Decay begins in 2 hours
Solution: Absorb Primary Anchor Trait
> Directive: "Collect more strains. Create a Sovereign Core."
---
> Cain didn't smile.
> This wasn't a victory.
> It was a test.
> And tomorrow… he'd walk the academy halls again, among those who had buried him in silence.
As a ghost.
As a glitch.
> As the sovereign who would steal their future, their smiles and everything.