Red Thorns

Dorian didn't bother to look up when the door to his prison unsealed with a hiss, and four armoured men stepped in.

Each step they took echoed through the vacuum-sealed chamber.

He could already feel the pain he was going to receive from how they moved.

"Stand," barked the same man who had mocked his friend.

Dorian slowly raised his head and shook his hand, letting the chains rattled, "As you can see, I'm cuffed to the chair, genius."

The man didn't reply. Instead, the two without armour moved in and grabbed him by the arms.

They unlocked the chains from the floor but kept the cuffs in place.

The moment they stepped out of the cubicle, the air changed, regular, warm air instead of the filtered cold one constantly fed into the cubicle.

He could hear the voices around him, some laughed, some murmured, and others sounded like pity.

As they dragged him past the hallway, they came across Rose, who exchanged eye contact with him but hurried away as fast as she could.

They finally arrived on the first floor, where an open field was.

They dragged him to the tiled center and chained him to the ground.

The other subjects, from 1 through 15, stood not far from where Dorian was, just on a slightly raised platform, with a boy who looked similar to Dorian beside them.

Chief Breanna, looking as divine and serious as always, with the pair of glasses that covered her eyes and the hair net and lab coat she wore, watched from the observation deck behind glass doors, leaning against the railings.

She didn't have to give orders before they started hitting Dorian with clubs, boots, and pipes.

She normally didn't allow that, but with how much trouble he had caused since his birth, she felt it was right.

However, when Dorian looked up at her, blood seeping from his lips, along his chin, and down the corner of his collar, she flinched.

He groaned when another hit came, but he barely moved, he just stared up at the deck with empty eyes.

"Mom."

Breanna's head jerked slightly.

Dorian coughed and spat blood before looking back at her with teary eyes.

"Aren't you going to help me? You can't just kill me because I failed to awaken. I am your son too!"

Her silence was incredibly loud, sshe wanted to slap him hard for uttering those words.

One of the attending staff looked at her, unsure whether to acknowledge the remark or pretend nothing was said.

"Bring me water."

The female staff bowed, left the platform, and returned with a bottle.

Breanna took the glass, poured it, and turned toward the railing as she raised the cup to her nose.

She paused, swirled the contents, and squinted, she squinted again and even took off her glasses to be sure she wasn't seeing things.

Inside the clear liquid, small specks of white and grey flecks drifted like powdered bones, and they seemed to change shape if one looked hard enough.

Her brows slowly knit together, a frown forming on her face for the first time since the staff had seen her physically.

She turned on the staff holding the bottle.

"Where did you get this?"

"I–I just—" the woman stammered. "Just the kitchen... same floor as the boy—"

Smack.

The entire floor echoed when her hand met the poor lady's cheek.

She staggered back, her hand pressed to her reddened face. She could taste blood inside her mouth, but she dared not make a sound.

"That water, that tank is for purification testing. It's connected to the lung filters of Specimen 403. Do you understand what you just gave me?"

"I didn't know, I swear, I thought—"

"Who else was near it? Who else touched it?!"

"Just… just Rose. Rose told me to go there."

Then Rose barged in, panting heavily like she had been running for hours. She didn't bother to look around the room.

"Chief? Chief! I'm sorry! I told her to head to the pantry on floor two, She wasn't supposed to go in there! I forgot to lock the door."

"What do you mean she wasn't supposed to go in there? Who gave you clearance?"

Rose hesitated and glanced at Dorian, who remained still at the center of the field, unmoving. In fact, everyone's attention had shifted to the observation deck.

Breanna's voice dropped.

"Did he drink the water, Rose?"

Rose hesitated, and Breanna choked.

The tiles beneath Dorian suddenly started glowing, a thin red line appeared and traced a circle around him.

Another one appeared on the other side and looped around it.

Strange symbols began to form, like they were being drawn by an invisible hand.

The blood that had pooled beneath his knees slid into the lines like they were carved, since the blood didn't flow past the lines.

The unarmed staff backed away slowly, two of them grabbed tasers, while the hefty men stood in their spots to better assess the situation.

"Is that a summoning seal?" someone whispered from the observation deck, causing Breanna to panic.

No one answered.

Dorian arched slightly, his eyes flickered, and his body had started heating up suddenly.

A voice then rang in his head, a calm, distorted tone echoed, followed by the appearance of a strange holographic panel.

『System Initializing...』

『Protocol Override: Accepted.』

『Blood Sync... In Progress.』

『Shard Detected: Riftborn Essence (Grade 1).』

『Awakening Commenced.』

『ERROR: Unknown Hybrid Signature... Recalculating.』

All across his body, the blood on his skin began to vibrate.

At first, it shimmered, then began to shift, forming tiny ripples.

From his shoulders, his spine, his ribs, red thorns burst outward like jagged coral, dripping with more blood, they twitched and shook violently.

One of the staff stepped closer, lifting the knife in his hands. He hadn't even moved a full step when—

Twack!

One of the thorns stretched out and impaled him through the chest.

Another voice echoed in Dorian's head.

Winona's voice... but different, like she lost her composed voice, replaced with a mechanic, unhinged tone.

『You offered your soul for this power, but you know there are ways to keep it active... and grow stronger.』

『Look around you, so much blood. Give me that, and I give you more power, those tiny crystal shards from the beasts too, they suffice. Like what you drank, that was enough to trigger the system.』

The thorns around him pulsed again, and grew longer.

『Take it as an offering. The more blood and shards you give, the more the system reacts... and you grow stronger. Maybe even strong enough to find me within a month and kill me, but it doesn't have to be much. A drop to about cup's worth of any type of blood.』

Dorian didn't reply, he lifted his head slowly, looking straight at the cameras pointed at the field.

Another voice crackled through the comms, shouting from another floor.

"Chief! Should we intervene? Should we shoot?!"

Breanna didn't respond.

She was still staring at him, at the circle, at the thorns, and at the look on his face.

"Mom..." Dorian called, voice hoarse. "Am I still a failed subject?"

He slowly rose to his feet and turned fully to face the deck.

"You wanted them to kill me because I couldn't do anything right, right?"

"N-no," she stammered, "You weren't supposed to drink that water..."

"The water didn't do this," he said coldly. "That was just to trigger the system, using the shards from the beasts, the same beast that it's DNA was forced into my body."

Her eyes widened.

Memories flooded her mind, of tubes, wires, and thick cables forced into his small frame, connected to the core of a black crystal-skinned, fifty-foot creature with soulless black eyes.

Particles floating in those eyes, just like the ones in the water.

Her hands trembled, it was one thing to force things into a child till they became terrified of you.

It was another to shock their brain till they lost their sense of reason, and he was only fifteen then, too young for that.

It was all her fault.

If she hadn't been so desperate to prove that the family curse hadn't passed down... if she hadn't used him... then maybe....

Maybe she wouldn't have created this.

A red, beast-like urchin.

Something she had never seen or heard of before.

Her gaze shifted to the other subjects, and to Silas, Dorian's brother, who now stepped forward, ready to move on her command.

The two hefty guards clenched their fists and glanced at each other.

"Fuck it. He's just a kid, right? We can break those."

"Are you insane? You see that thing? It drains blood if it touches you."

The other shrugged. "It isn't fast. He has blind spots. If we can pin him down, the Chief'll pay us handsomely."

"Oh my God…" the other muttered, raising his palms to his face. He looked again at Dorian, who wasn't even focused on them, his attention remained on Breanna.

The man heaved a sigh, "All right. Let's do it."

The system screen flashed before Dorian immediately.

『Blood Required: 88 / 100%.』

Then Winona's voice followed, no longer confined to Dorian's mind, now it rang in every mind, then through every speaker.

『So much Blood!』

『More.』

『More.』

『More!』

Every single person in the room stared at Dorian in horror.

Except Breanna, who stood frozen, trembling terribly.

Then the alarms went off, and yet... Winona's voice didn't stop.

『More.』

『More.』

『More...』

"What the hell is going on—"