Nate’s hands dripped with blood diluted by the rainwater running down his fingers. The cold droplets slid from his fingertips one after another while he stared blankly at the dark red stains covering his small hands.

The rain kept pouring heavily again.

His tears mixed together with the rainwater flowing down his face, making it impossible to tell which was which anymore.

His breathing came out rough and visible beneath the freezing night air.

"What’s a kid doing out in the rain?"

A man’s voice echoed from behind him.

Nate didn’t turn around.

He simply remained there kneeling beside the corpse.

"Is he mute?"

The man walked closer through the puddles, boots splashing water lightly while his sharp eyes quickly noticed the body lying on the ground and the pool of diluted blood spreading slowly around it.

Another man suddenly ran toward him from the opposite direction.

"Boss Rinor!"

The subordinate laughed loudly while scratching the side of his neck.

"We found an opened house nearby with a dead lady inside. Hehe... Hehe..."

He grinned shamelessly.

"She had her clothes torn apart too, and from the look of things..." he gestured crudely with his hands while laughing harder, "the guy she was doing it with probably got a little too rough."

The other gang members arriving behind them burst into laughter.

The sound echoed unpleasantly through the rain, then one of them noticed Nate still kneeling there without moving.

"Boss, isn’t that a kid?"

He pointed toward Nate.

"We can take this one back and sell him for money."

The man licked his lips greedily and started walking toward Nate with a malicious smile on his face.

"Stop."

Rinor grabbed the subordinate’s shoulder before he could get closer.

"Huh? Boss?"

The man turned back confused.

Rinor narrowed his eyes slightly while observing Nate carefully.

The boy never cried loudly.

Never screamed again nor did he beg for his life.

Even with blood on his body and a corpse beside him, he simply stared downward quietly like his soul already left somewhere else.

Rinor smirked.

"I like this kid."

He slowly walked toward Nate before crouching down to match his height.

"Is this the man who killed your mother?"

His gaze briefly shifted toward the corpse and the items scattered nearby.

Silver coins, copper coins and a small hairpin lying in the mud.

Nate remained silent, not because he wanted to ignore the question.

He simply had no energy left to speak anymore.

"Interesting."

Rinor stood up slowly.

Then without asking further, he carried Nate over his shoulder casually.

"Let’s go."

And just like that...

Nate entered the underworld of Kosmos.

From that point onward, Nate lived beneath the shadows of the Krovik District in Peja, working under one of the largest gangs controlling the area.

That place smelled of blood, drugs, sweat, smoke, and death.

Children disappeared there almost every week.

Some were sold, some became workers under him while some became corpses.

Nate saw all of it.

Underground fighting arenas, Drug trafficking, Human trafficking, Smuggling, Executions and Debt collection.

The deeper he sank into that world, the more he understood something terrifying.

Britannia never truly cared about ruling Kosmos.

They conquered it, yes, but they never took control over it.

Instead, The Britannians simply established military camps around the borders while already preparing for another war against the neighboring nations of Servia and Arbenia.

Kosmos itself had become little more than a rotting stepping stone.

A dying nation being squeezed dry.

It was during that period of his life that Ashenlocke’s guards finally found him.

The truth they revealed completely changed the direction of his life.

His father was once a soldier under Val Ashenlocke’s army.

An injured survivor abandoned after war and because of that blood connection and service mark...

Nate was ordered to return with them.

***

The method used to locate Nate and the other children tied to the Duke Family relied on Blood Alchemy.

An expensive process controlled by the Derlis Family.

All noble families of Britannia brand their servants and subordinates with blood marks connected to their lineage.

Those marks passed down through blood inheritance, even if generations passed and even if distance separated continents...

The Derlis could still track those bloodlines.

Dead or alive.

Near or far.

No one escaped the power of their Blood Alchemy easily.

***

Nate slowly exhaled inside the darkness with his Cognis finally stabilized completely.

The second star within him settled properly, though only less than a quarter of it had fully formed.

Still...

With this, Nate had officially stepped into the Binder Rank.

Sweat dripped down his chin while exhaustion spread across his body heavily.

He slowly stood up and walked carefully in the darkness until his hand touched the cold wall within the black room, then he sat down resting his back against it.

The darkness remained endless.

No light, no sound except breathing, no sense of time.

Nate tilted his head upward even though he could not see anything above him.

"Ahhh..." He sighed weakly. "When will this trial finally end?"

His voice echoed softly.

"How many months has it even been..."

He slowly counted on his fingers.

"One... two... three..."

Then he stopped.

He could not even see his own hands anyway.

Nate laughed quietly beneath his breath.

"I really had to remember that time, huh..."

His tone carried bitterness.

"But... I guess it’s good."

He lowered his hand.

"At least now I remember why I was excited to come here in the first place."

His eyes slowly sharpened within the darkness.

"To find out what the Britannians are truly planning."

His grip tightened.

"Why destroy my homeland if they never intended to truly rule it?"

He leaned his head against the wall.

"And why are they doing the same thing again to other countries?"

His breathing became calmer.

"I’ll find out."

His voice sounded firm.

"I’ll finally understand why my life became this mess."

His fist slowly tightened harder.

"I will."

***

Outside the hall grounds...

Raymond and Freya walked through the silent corridor lined with sealed doors from the first floor to the very top.

The cold atmosphere inside the hall felt heavy, almost oppressive.

"The trial should be entering its peak now."

Freya spoke while glancing at the sealed rooms.

Raymond nodded once.

"Hopefully they still have their minds intact."

His cold eyes remained fixed ahead.

"Only two days remain before the second month ends."

"And the Ninth Trial will begin." Freya folded her arms. "I hope they survive too."

The Eighth Trial had already reached its most dangerous stage.

The darkness was slowly consuming many of the candidates with some already beginning to lose themselves, some laughed alone while some cried endlessly, some spoke to hallucinations as though they were real people and others still desperately struggled to maintain their sanity, even Veda and Vera were not exempt from the effects of the darkness.

In fact, it could be said they suffered among the worst.

Within the endless darkness of his room...

Veda relived everything again.

His mother’s death, his maid’s execution, the years Felix, Gareth, Freed, and the others made his life miserable, the nights he slept covered in bruises after being beaten and the years he and Vera passed each other silently without speaking despite being twins.

Every painful memory resurfaced one after another.

"Why did it take you so many years to finally change?"

The voices echoed from different directions.

"If you were always going to become this strong... Why wait until after I died"

"Why did you abandon me, brother?"

The voices became louder and heavier, each word dug into his heart.

Meanwhile, his breakthrough process continued, but the emotional turbulence affected his Cognis violently.

"It’s your fault we all died, Veda!"

The voices screamed again.

"If you never came back stronger, this trial would never have existed!"

"My daughter died because of you!"

"My brother died because of you!"

"My sister died because of you!"

"My friend died because of you!"

"My..."

Silence.

Then...

"Everyone hates you."

The whisper slid directly into his ear.

Veda spat blood onto the ground slowly.

His veins bulged violently as unstable Cognis surged throughout his body.

"Yeah... it’s all my fault."

Veda spoke quietly inside the darkness while forcing his Cognis to calm down.

His breathing came out uneven.

"All I ever did was stand there and watch while I lost everything in the first place, and even after I finally decided to break out of that weakness... I still ended up dragging everyone into danger. I still created this mess. So yes..."

He slowly lowered his head.

"It’s all my fault."

The moment those words left his mouth, the flow of Cognis inside his body became more unstable.

His veins suddenly stiffened beneath his skin.

Blood dripped slowly from his nose and stained the floor beneath him.

Inside his mind realm...

The flow connecting his stars began reversing violently.

The Cognis that normally moved in a stable line from the first star to the second and then toward the incomplete third star suddenly flowed backward like a river reversing direction.

The third star trembled.

Cracks spread across it slowly.

Then faster.

The incomplete structure started shattering apart piece by piece.

Veda’s body shook violently.

Pain spread through every nerve in his body like thousands of burning needles stabbing into his veins.

If this continued...

He could either regress in rank or worse...

Die.

The darkness around him almost seemed alive now.

The voices returned immediately.

Louder and closer.

"That’s right."

"It’s your fault."

"You destroy everything around you."

"You pretend to care about people, but everyone around you suffers because of your stupidity."

"Your maid died because of your weakness."

"People suffered because of your actions."

"Everyone hates you."

The voices overlapped one after another until it sounded like an entire crowd whispering directly into his ears.

Veda gritted his teeth so hard blood leaked from the corner of his lips.

But then...

His trembling hands slowly clenched into fists.

"That’s why..."

The unstable Cognis around him surged wildly.

Wind exploded outward from his body and slammed against the dark walls of the room.

"That’s why I’m going to do everything possible to make everyone happy."

His voice shook slightly, but it didn’t break.

"I accept every mistake I made." His body trembled harder. "And I’ll turn all of them into growth."

The voices screamed louder.

"You are selfish, Veda!"

"YES!"

He roared back instantly.

The violent surge of Cognis exploded again.

"I am selfish!"

His veins glowed brightly beneath his skin.

"I’m naive!"

The pressure filling the room became heavier.

"I’m someone stupid enough to dream about peace in a family like this!"

Blood continued dripping down his chin.

"I know I don’t yet have enough power!"

The reversing Cognis trembled harder.

"I know I don’t have enough strength!"

The shattered pieces of the third star shook violently.

"I know I don’t have enough wisdom!"

His breathing became rough.

"But..." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Veda slowly raised his head and his eyes sharpened.

"But I made a promise."

The violent flow of Cognis paused slightly.

"I promised myself..."

He forced the Cognis flow back into its proper direction little by little.

"That no matter what happens..."

The shattered third star slowly stopped collapsing.

"No matter how painful things become..."

The cracks started reforming.

"I would never back down again."

The flow normalized further.

"Not now."

The third star slowly reconnected.

"Not ever."

The violent wind around him calmed little by little.

"I’ll continue fighting until this family becomes something better than what it is now."

The Cognis stabilized completely.

"And if I have to fight this entire nation just to make that happen..."

The third star reformed perfectly.

Veda slowly exhaled.

"I will do it."

His voice no longer carried hesitation, fear nor doubt.

The darkness became silent again and the voices disappeared completely.

***

"Two days left before the Ninth Trial begins."

Vera sat quietly with her back resting against the cold metal door behind her.

The darkness around her remained endless as always.

Yet unlike many of the others who had already begun losing themselves, Vera simply sat there calmly with one leg crossed over the other.

She had already completed her advancement meditation.

Although she failed to reach the Meister Rank...

She was now a Full-Star Binder Rank Alchemist and a Full Alchemist at that.

Vera stared into the darkness ahead of her quietly like it was something normal.

Something familiar, then she sighed softly.

"I’d love to act mysterious and say I’m already used to darkness..."

A faint smirk appeared on her lips.

"But honestly, you look weird for a dead hallucination, Palmer."

Her bored eyes stared toward the figure standing in front of her.

The image of her dead fiancé smiled gently at her.

"You’re still the same, Vera."

His voice sounded warm.

Vera stared at him silently for a few seconds before resting the side of her head against the wall again.

Vera Ashenlocke.

The child Elder Portia, the former head of Ashenlocke, gave the title – Jewel of Ash.

A genius whose talent burst forth so brightly it shocked the entire family, a potential monster among monsters.

But before all of that...

Nobody in the family actually believed she was the special twin. Back then, many believed Veda to be the golden twin.

Meanwhile Vera...

Was treated as the wasted twin by many elders and adults within the family, because unlike the other children...

Vera barely spoke, barely reacted and barely smiled.

She would simply sit quietly somewhere observing everyone around her with those unreadable eyes, like a doll pretending to be human.

Nobody could understand what she was thinking, nobody could read her emotions.

Even when insulted...

She never reacted.

Even when praised...

She looked uninterested.

The adults disliked that about her and her fellow mates feared that personality of her.

But, Vera herself...

Never cared enough to be understood.

That was why, even now, sitting alone in endless darkness while staring at the hallucination of her dead fiancé...

Her expression barely changed.

"You know..."

Palmer smiled softly while looking at her.

"You really were lonely back then."

Vera narrowed her eyes slightly.

"That’s a rude thing to say to someone sitting alone in darkness."

Her tone remained calm, then she added flatly...

"Especially for a dead person."