Bloodline Evolution: I Can Choose Opposing Paths-Chapter 28: A Relic, Hidden

Aren found Lily near the inner barricades, where the soldiers had funneled civilians into rows and lines that were just barely orderly.

She saw him before he spoke.

"You’re leaving again," she said.

Aren didn’t bother denying it.

"Captain Eric’s team," he continued. "They’ve lost contact."

"Isn’t that...?" her eyes widened.

He nodded slowly.

"I have a signal," he replied quietly. "Luna’s alive."

After a pause, Lily declared quickly.

"Then I’m coming."

He shook his head. "No."

She frowned. "Aren—"

"It’s too dangerous," he cut in, not raising his voice. "I’m moving alone."

"And I need someone inside the dome," he continued, meeting her eyes this time. "Someone I trust."

She froze.

"If something happens here," he went on, "if the dome destabilizes, or people panic, or my family gets caught in it... I won’t be here."

The unspoken settled between them.

"So I need you," Aren said. "Here."

Silence stretched. Lily looked away first.

"...You’d better come back," she muttered.

Aren didn’t promise anything. He just nodded once and turned away before either of them could say more.

He chose the spot that was the most silent and slipped back outside. His foot still stung, but he’d just have to deal with it.

Aren moved low and fast, keeping his ether inward until it was little more than a flicker beneath his skin, his eyes fixed on the blinking red marker on his phone.

Central High.

As he moved, his thoughts turned inward, to the question of why Luna had fled to their school.

That was when the answer came.

Central High was the main school within District 8, which bordered the agricultural fields of Sun City. The Fertile Core’s main purpose was to absorb excess life energy from places like these.

Maybe it had just been close—close enough to influence the school. Enough to explain why geniuses kept appearing there but still written off as a coincidence.

The Core’s storage area might be closer than he’d ever realized.

And if that was true...

Then Luna being there wasn’t random at all.

Aren kept moving.

The main roads were a mess.

Burned-out vehicles blocked intersections. Craters split the asphalt where something large had landed and moved on. Distant roars echoed between buildings.

Aren didn’t take any of them.

He cut left, vaulting a low fence and dropping into a narrow maintenance corridor that ran between warehouses. His feet found the path without conscious thought.

Paths he’d learned back when being late meant detention instead of someone’s death.

Back then, he’d mapped the district out of necessity, half-forgotten service roads that bypassed traffic and were unlikely to be found. Routes no one bothered to remember because no one had a reason to.

Now, they mattered.

When a demonic beast lumbered into a street ahead, Aren slowed, crouching behind a collapsed wall.

Not worth it.

He doubled back, slipping through a broken greenhouse frame and into a strip of overgrown farmland that had already begun to wither. His path curved naturally, just barely skirting danger instead of confronting it.

Every avoided fight mattered, as it saved his strength for any unforeseen circumstances to come.

The school came into view all at once.

Central High loomed ahead, its familiar outline changed by destruction. Sections of the outer wall had collapsed inward. Windows were shattered, blackened from the inside. The front gates hung crooked on their hinges, one completely torn free.

Aren stopped short, pulling back into the shadow of a half-toppled storage shed.

The grounds were crawling.

Demonic beasts prowled the courtyard, clustered in loose packs. Dark shapes slunk across the cracked pavement, claws scraping softly as they circled and doubled back on one another.

Soldier-class: Blight Dogs.

Dozens of them.

Maybe more.

Their bodies were lean and twisted, flesh mottled with black veins that pulsed faintly with corrupted ether. Their eyes glowed a dull, sickly red as they sniffed at the air, as if looking for something.

Aren frowned but noticed something.

The upper floors were quieter.

One of the classroom windows on the third floor hung open, the frame bent outward as if something had climbed through in a hurry.

Aren didn’t hesitate.

Ether surged briefly through his legs as he leapt. He barely managed to catch the frame, pulling himself through in one smooth motion before sealing his ether again to erase his presence.

The smell hit first.

The pungent and sour smell of rot and blood filled the entire space.

The classroom was a ruin.

Desks were overturned, chairs snapped or shoved aside. Dark stains soaked into the floor, some dried black, others still wet enough to glisten faintly. Bodies lay scattered across the room—students, some still half-slumped in their seats.

They were already decaying.

Aren’s eyes swept the room without lingering.

He recognized a few faces. Members of Clara’s group.

Bullies who’d once laughed at his family every time he’d walk by.

Now they were gray-skinned and hollow-eyed, frozen mid-flight or mid-fall, expressions twisted into something closer to confusion than fear.

Aren said nothing.

He stepped around them carefully, avoiding the stains, his gaze already shifting toward the hallway beyond the classroom door.

If Luna had passed through here...

Then this wasn’t the worst he was going to see.

And wasting time mourning the dead wouldn’t save the living.

Aren slipped the phone from his pocket again, checking the screen as he stepped into the hallway.

The marker hadn’t moved. He exhaled slowly and tucked the phone away. If he followed the signal blindly, he’d waste precious time

So, Aren thought.

If Luna was injured, she wouldn’t keep moving. She wouldn’t wander the halls or hide randomly.

She’d go somewhere familiar. Somewhere she’d been trained, even casually, to go in an emergency.

"The nurse’s office," Aren murmured under his breath.

It was stocked with medical supplies and even basic antidotes for student Mystics. If she was hurt, that would be the first logical stop.

Aren turned at the next junction without hesitation, moving deeper into the building.

The problem was...the nurse’s office was on the second floor, likely taken over by Blight Dogs.

Aren slowed the moment he reached the steps.

Two blight dogs sniffed at the hallway, but he moved before they got the chance.

Jumping overhead, he delivered an ether-infused punch that knocked the first one’s head straight into the floor, skull cracking as its body slumped.

The second dog flinched but attacked all the same, snapping a jaw towards his throat.

Aren ducked under it, pivoted, and drove his elbow down into its spine. He followed through instantly, heel slamming into its head before it could even howl.

The second was thrown into the wall and went limp immediately.

Silence returned to the corridor.

Aren straightened and dusted off his hands.

Soldier-class blight dogs weren’t weak. But they were predictable.

And he had killed things far worse than this.

He stepped over the corpses without looking back and continued down the hallway before he finally saw it:

The nurse’s office.

Aren stopped a few meters short.

From the outside, it looked nothing like the rest of the floor.

Chairs were stacked against the door, overturned tables wedged sideways, cabinets dragged forward to reinforce the frame. Someone had even torn metal rails from a bed and jammed them through the handles.

Thoroughly barricaded.

Aren didn’t force it.

He stepped forward and raised a hand, knocking twice against the reinforced door.

"Luna," he said calmly. "It’s me."

For half a second, nothing happened.

Then—

The barricade shifted.

The door swung open just enough for a figure to slip through, and before Aren could react, someone slammed into his chest.

Arms wrapped around him.

"Aren—!"

Luna clung to him like she’d been holding herself together through sheer will alone.

Her grip was tight, fingers digging into the back of his coat as if letting go wasn’t an option.

For a moment, he just stood there, surprised.

This wasn’t like her. She was always composed, even under pressure. Slowly, Aren raised a hand and patted the back of her head.

"I’m here," he said quietly. "You’re safe."

She didn’t answer right away.

They closed the door behind them and shoved the barricade back into place. Only then did Luna let go.

The nurse’s office was dim, lit by a single emergency strip along the wall. Supplies were scattered across the counters.

Aren’s eyes flicked over it all before settling on her.

"What happened?" he asked.

Luna took a breath. Then another.

"We had the Core secured," she said quietly. "Or... as secured as it could be."

Her hands tightened at her sides.

"The moment we took it out for transport, everything went wrong."

Aren frowned. "Immediately?"

She nodded.

"The Defilers," she said softly. "They were waiting."

"But it wasn’t possible," Luna continued. "There was no way they would’ve known the location..."

Aren nodded once.

"Captain Eric, and the rest...are they—?"

She shook her head. Luna wiped at her eyes, but the tears kept coming.

"They weren’t just soldiers," she said hoarsely. "They were... friends."

Aren stayed silent.

"Captain Eric knew right away," she continued. "The moment the ambush started, he understood what it meant." Her voice wavered. "He told me to run. Said they’d buy me time."

Her fingers clenched into the fabric of her sleeve.

"I didn’t want to leave," she whispered. "But he yelled at me. I’d never heard him shout before."

Aren felt something tighten in his chest.

"He said I was the priority," Luna went on. "That if they caught me, it’d all be over."

She took a shaky breath.

"I didn’t understand why at first."

Slowly, she reached down and opened the medical bag she’d been clutching since he arrived.

She pushed aside bandages. Bottles. A folded emergency blanket.

At the bottom—

Light spilled out.

Luna looked up at him, tears still streaking her face.

"I’ve had it with me," she said quietly. "This whole time."

Aren stared at the bag, wide-eyed, then muttered softly:

"The Core..."