Gods of the Broken Gate

The world reassembled in silence.

One moment, Jace stood inside the collapsing fragment—blood still fresh on his fingers, the last flicker of the Nullblood Shade's corrupted sky fading behind him. The next, he was breathing air too clean to be real.

Artificial.

Controlled.

He staggered forward onto polished black marble, the Gate light behind him dimming to nothing. Cool air blasted across his sweat-soaked skin, carrying with it the sterile scent of recycled oxygen and synthetic pine. He blinked several times, adjusting to the brightness.

Violet stepped beside him, silent and composed despite the blood still caking her side.

They had arrived.

Ascendria Academy.

Or more accurately, its Gate Processing Sector—a pristine glass-and-metal coliseum hidden beneath the main campus. White-coated medics and uniformed enforcers stood at the edges of the room, watching like hawks. Most bore cold expressions, hands hovering near weapons.

Jace took it all in with a single glance.

They're not celebrating us.

They're containing us.

The first voice to greet them came not from a welcoming instructor, but a dry, mechanical tone from the overhead speaker system.

> "Candidate Jace Thorn. Candidate Violet. Proceed to Isolation Unit B7. All possessions, including Codex-linked equipment, are to be surrendered immediately."

Jace clenched his fists.

"I'm not handing over the Codex."

An awkward silence followed.

A moment later, a new voice—this one human—crackled through the speaker. Older. Calculated.

> "You misunderstand, Mr. Thorn. We're not asking."

---

Escorted down a long corridor of mirrored walls, Jace and Violet were separated the moment they entered the Isolation Sector. Dozens of reinforced doors lined either side, all sealed with biometric locks.

A burly enforcer shoved Jace into one of the chambers without a word.

Inside, it was… empty.

Just a metal bench, a glowing observation orb hovering above, and a single chair bolted to the floor.

He sat.

Waited.

Ten minutes passed.

Then the door hissed open.

A man in a gray coat stepped inside—mid-fifties, salt-and-iron hair tied back into a tight knot, and golden cuffs indicating his role as a Bloodline Registrar.

"Jace Thorn," the man said, not bothering with formalities. "Son of no recorded line. Born in Sector 9. Registered non-awakened. Now… top-ranked trial survivor with confirmed Codex integration."

He set a datapad on the chair between them.

"You have no idea what kind of storm you just walked into."

Jace raised an eyebrow. "Didn't walk into it. Survived it."

"Semantics," the man said dryly. "You wield a system we believed extinct. One banned after the Obsidian Collapse. That system—the Bloodbound Codex—was responsible for more than a dozen wars before the Cataclysm."

"Not my problem," Jace said flatly.

The man leaned in. "It is now."

---

Meanwhile, in a neighboring chamber…

Violet stood at the center of a ritual circle, her relic sword confiscated and floating midair, suspended by energy fields. Six robed figures surrounded her, each wearing masks shaped like animal skulls—members of the Covenant of Sealed Flame, the Academy's hidden faction for monitoring rogue inheritance holders.

"She's hiding something," one said.

"Of course she is," another hissed. "But the relic isn't rejecting her. It's bound by blood."

"She isn't from any known line," a third added. "Possibly a sleeper agent from the Dust Courts."

"She saved the boy."

"And risked exposure."

They turned toward her.

"Tell us, Violet," one finally said. "Why protect a hybrid? Why bond with one?"

She met their eyes calmly.

"Because the last time a Codex bearer awakened alone, an empire burned."

---

Back in his cell, Jace's conversation had taken a sharper turn.

"You think I'm a threat," he said. "But the Shade would've killed every candidate in that trial if I hadn't stepped in."

"Correct," the Registrar said, hands folded. "Which is why you're not dead right now."

"Then what do you want from me?"

"Obedience."

Jace laughed bitterly. "Wrong guy."

The Registrar sighed.

Then reached into his coat—and dropped something onto the table between them.

It was a black crystal. Familiar. Pulsing faintly.

The Nullblood Core.

"You didn't destroy it," Jace whispered.

"No," the man replied. "Because it responds to your Codex. And we need to know why."

---

Before Jace could speak, the lights dimmed.

Alarms blared.

A siren echoed through the facility.

> "Containment breach. Multiple systems disabled. Unknown energy signature detected in Sublevel Six."

The door behind the Registrar slammed shut.

Red emergency lights flickered.

The man stood slowly, face pale.

"…That wasn't supposed to happen."

"When the Core Beats Again"

The sirens echoed like war drums through the glass-and-steel corridors of Ascendria's Isolation Wing. A deep crimson hue washed over the walls as emergency shutters slammed into place, sealing off entire sectors.

> "Sublevel Six lockdown engaged."

"Unauthorized signature detected—Null classification."

"Containment breach priority: Omega."

Jace stood from the bench, his fingers twitching with residual energy. Even without the Codex interface flashing, he could feel it.

The Core was calling to him.

Across the room, the Bloodline Registrar tapped his communicator frantically, trying to override the lockdown.

"Containment ward just imploded. That shouldn't be possible without a direct—" He stopped mid-sentence. Turned toward Jace slowly. "You."

Jace arched a brow. "Me?"

"You're bonded to the damn thing! It's reactivating because you're here."

A blast shook the room—muffled but close.

Dust fell from the light fixtures. The emergency orb above them flickered.

> [Codex Alert – Unknown Resonance Detected]

Warning: Nullblood Core is adapting. Mimicry in progress.

Jace stepped toward the sealed door.

The Registrar barked, "Don't move!"

But it was already too late.

Jace's right arm pulsed—veins glowing black with faint crimson traces. The residual link to the Core was forming again. Not by choice. Not by desire.

By design.

Another tremor rocked the floor.

Then, a hiss.

The wall behind Jace split open like a mechanical iris.

A hidden passage.

The Registrar backed up, eyes wide. "That's not on any schematic—"

Jace didn't wait.

He slipped into the darkness.

---

Elsewhere...

Violet wasn't waiting either.

The instant the alarm sounded, she headbutted the nearest robed figure and caught her falling relic blade mid-air before the energy field could snap closed again. Runes flared along her arms as she burst forward, slicing a path through two more masked observers. Their cries of shock were swallowed by the chaos echoing from the upper levels.

The remaining acolytes shouted, forming sigils in the air.

But Violet was already gone—vanished in a blur of purple flame that rippled across the stone floor.

She had to get to Jace.

---

Beneath the academy, Jace followed the hidden passage downward, his surroundings shifting from steel to stone—ancient, cracked, and humming with forgotten power. The air thickened. Every breath tasted of rust and memory.

Then he saw it.

The Nullblood Core.

Or… what was becoming of it.

The black crystal now floated mid-air, veins of red and gold webbing through it like lightning. Surrounding it were half-formed limbs—twisted arms, faces without features, skeletal wings twitching against gravity.

And at the center, a heart.

Not metaphorical.

A literal beating heart was forming inside the crystal.

It pulsed once—

—and Jace's Codex flared.

> [Codex Notification: Forced Interface Detected]

Nullblood Core attempting system integration.

Fusion Compatibility: 13%

Result: Unknown

Proceed with Override or Detachment?

"Override?" Jace whispered. "Can I even stop this?"

The crystal pulsed again.

Stronger.

A shadow fell across the chamber as something began to take shape from the far wall—a creature built of bone and black mist, armor-like plates forming from fragments of the Core's outer shell.

> [New Entity Forming: Nullblood Echo]

Estimated Combat Rating: A-Class (Unstable)

Warning: It remembers your blood.

The echo opened its eyes.

Jace's own eyes stared back.

---

The battle was instant.

The Echo lunged—its claw swiping where Jace stood a moment earlier. He ducked, rolled, and triggered Blood Fang Slash, sending a crimson arc across the chamber. The Echo absorbed it. The mist reformed around the cut.

Jace gritted his teeth. It's learning faster this time.

He launched a flurry of strikes, mixing glaive cuts with the short burst of Strength Surge, but the Echo moved like him—thought like him. Every motion was mirrored with cold perfection.

Then it spoke.

"You don't belong."

Its voice wasn't human. It was layered—Jace's voice distorted beneath something ancient.

"You carry blood that was sealed for a reason."

Jace hissed through his teeth. "You're not real. You're a parasite."

The Echo tilted its head. "I am the memory of what you'll become."

Jace roared and leapt forward, glaive spinning—this time faking high, slashing low. The blade sank into the creature's leg.

Mist bled out.

The Codex chimed.

> Weakness Detected: Core Sync Unstable

Suggested Response: Full Codex Synchronization – Integration Surge

Jace's vision blurred.

His body ached for release. The same emergency transformation as before. He could feel it just beneath the skin—coiled, hungry.

But if he used it again so soon…

Mutation chance: 9%.

Screw it.

> [Activate Integration Surge]

---

The room ignited in bloodlight.

Jace's form erupted with power—veins like rivers of fire, claws reformed, and his eyes split with vertical slits. Not entirely human. Not entirely vampire.

Something new.

The Echo paused.

In that moment, Jace struck—slamming his palm against its chest.

> [Codex Override]

Command: Absorb Remnant]

Confirming…

…Absorption Initiated.

The Echo screamed—a sound that shattered every crystal in the room—as its form collapsed into spiraling bloodmist, pulled into Jace's Codex like ink into water.

Jace dropped to his knees, breathing hard.

> [Nullblood Echo Absorbed]

Legendary Crystal Acquired: Fragmented Core Essence

Codex Integration: 18% → 21%

Unlocked: Codex Form – Partial Manifestation Available

New Trait: Adaptive Reflex Chain

New Ability: Null Pulse (Interrupt & Disrupt enemy systems for 2 seconds)

---

A moment later, the chamber door exploded inward.

Violet stood there, eyes wild.

She looked at him—bloody, shaking, and glowing faintly with Codex sigils.

"You good?" she asked.

"…Define good," he wheezed.

She helped him up.

Together, they walked toward the surface.

"The Fire Beneath the Marble"

By the time Jace and Violet emerged from the lower chamber, Ascendria Academy was in full lockdown.

Armored guards stood at every hallway intersection. Drone patrols buzzed through the air, scanning with enhanced lenses and Codex interference sensors. Red emergency lights still pulsed faintly above, though the immediate danger had passed.

Technically.

But the real threat wasn't the Nullblood Core anymore.

It was the boy who absorbed it.

They didn't walk freely.

Two dozen enforcers had met them at the gate of Sublevel Six with plasma rifles drawn and containment cuffs primed. Jace's body still pulsed with residual Codex energy, so it took four attempts to fully scan him—and even then, the systems glitched with every reading.

> Classification: Unknown Hybrid State

Codex Level: Unmeasured (S-Tier Potential)

Threat Rating: Pending Reassessment

They didn't detain him again.

They escorted him—under heavy guard—to a high tower on the western edge of the Academy.

Violet wasn't separated this time.

Either because they feared what she'd do if they tried again—or because the brass upstairs finally realized these two weren't just candidates anymore.

They were variables.

And no one trusted variables.

---

The tower suite they were placed in was a luxury prison.

One expansive room, marble floors, reinforced windows with a full view of the campus grounds below. A private bathing chamber. Food delivered by drones. No obvious weapons or terminals, though Jace was sure the room was monitored from every corner.

He stood near the window, arms crossed, silent.

Violet sat on the edge of the bed, checking her relic blade for cracks.

She didn't speak until the drones finished delivering their meal and hovered back toward the ceiling.

"You didn't have to fight it alone."

Jace didn't turn.

"I didn't want you caught in the middle if it went wrong."

"I already am in the middle," she said. "Ever since I agreed to the bond."

Silence stretched between them.

"You almost mutated again," she added.

Jace closed his eyes. "I know."

"You're getting stronger too fast."

"I know."

"You're not scared?"

He turned finally. "I'm terrified. But I'd rather be terrified and free than obedient and dead."

She nodded. "Good."

---

That night, when the lights dimmed and the surveillance drones powered down for recharge, a hidden panel opened on the far wall.

A figure stepped through—tall, robed in Academy colors but with a red crystal embedded in his forehead. His aura was strange—silent, like a breath held too long.

Jace tensed.

Violet stood instantly, blade half-drawn.

The figure raised his hands calmly.

"If I meant harm, the room would already be full of smoke and bone."

That didn't make either of them relax.

"Who are you?" Jace asked.

"A watcher," the man said. "One who remembers the last time a Codex bearer walked these halls."

He moved slowly toward the table, poured himself a glass of mineral water, and took a sip like he lived there.

"You're not safe here, Jace. And neither is she."

Jace scowled. "You're with the Academy."

"I work within the Academy," the man corrected. "But I serve no council."

He set down the glass.

"There are factions inside these walls. Some want to dissect you. Others want to weaponize you. And a few… want you dead before your Codex advances to Phase Two."

Jace stepped forward. "And you?"

The man smiled faintly.

"I want to prepare you."

He pulled a small case from his coat and set it on the table.

Inside was a crystal—darker than any Jace had seen, swirling with mist, etched in ancient script that glowed red when Jace looked at it too long.

"A Vampire King's Memory Core," the man said. "It was sealed away after the Obsidian Wars. It may help you control your next transformation. Or kill you outright."

"Comforting," Jace said dryly.

The man laughed.

"You'll need it soon. Because the trial brought more than attention. It woke something."

He turned toward the hidden panel again.

"A soul weapon will awaken in you soon. Possibly more than one."

"How do you know?" Jace asked.

The man didn't answer.

He was already gone.

---

The next morning, the skies above Ascendria turned gray.

But hundreds of miles away, in a place the sun no longer touched, a cloaked figure knelt before a frozen throne.

Behind her, legions of shade-born creatures knelt, motionless.

A voice whispered from the ice.

> "The Codex burns again."

The woman nodded. "It has chosen a bearer."

> "Then send the Daughter. Bring him home… or break him."

The woman rose.

And the darkness around her opened its eyes.