Chapter 2: The academy

Evren awakened anxious, reliving memories as nightmares became more common to him in the latest months making him fear sleeping. When he realized he was still inside the train, his mind finally calmed down.

He had the appearance of an eighteen-year-old boy with dark gray hair and lifeless dark red eyes, dressed in simple clothes and carrying what appeared to be a large musical instrument case on his back, Evren blended easily into the crowd of travelers who, just like him, had just arrived in Vernöva one of the biggest cities in the country.

While he tried to move through the crowd and find the entrance of the station his phone started to vibrate, only then did he remember how much time has passed since he checked his phone for messages; The travel was tiresome, and his lack of sleep had made just even more stressful so he had to avoid his phone like a disease to have at least some hours of sleep

When the notifications and messages started to pop up without stopping, he realized how much time he had been off-line but what truly worried him was that most of the messages came from the same person.

[Call me when you arrive here ok]

[Also don't forget to eat]

[Are you here already?]

[ANSWER MY MESSAGES EVREN]

[You have 30 more messages]

Looking at the messages made him sight and prepared for what was waiting for him.

***

Evren entered a skyscraper, astounded by how far individuals were ready to go to impress others. The large-company building kept some kind of classic feeling on the inside. Some paintings of important personalities who passed by or worked there could be seen on the walls. All the decoration was perfectly designed and placed to give an impression of oppression and respect.

That was one of the HCC buildings.

An organization was created with the purpose of "preventing accidents involving hemokinesis users" or that is what they are supposed to do, in reality, they essentially recruited hemokinesis users, often known as blood manipulators, with promising talents.

There were many organizations with this same goal or ideals, but without a doubt, HCC was one of the biggest ones.

Their success came from the academy developed to train blood manipulation; most of the academies were part of a well-known ancient bloodline, and with the support of powerful families and an academy to nurture new talents, HCC kept growing.

"EVREN" Before he could keep staring at the facing decorations a female voice called out his name, drawing the attention of those waiting in the entrance hall as well.

Before he could turn to face the owner of the voice, Evren felt something soft hit his body. A woman hugged him; she had navy blue eyes and her long black hair was a little untidy as usual; she seemed to be in her mid-twenties and had a slim shape; her hands were covered with scratch marks, indicating how much time she had spent on the battlefield.

"Good to see you too Hina now stop choking me," he said trying to catch his breath in her tight embrace.

"I didn't see you for a long time bear this just a little" She wasn't stopping so he just accepted.

They weren't related by blood but Evren considered her his sister; she tried her best to be his big sister, and sometimes even tried to fulfill a mother's role.

"Also" Hina displayed a "gentle" smile remembering the stress she had been through before Evren arrived from the travel, he rarely replied to any of her messages making her only wish that nothing bad would happen.

"Answer my damn messages, you have no idea how worried I was," she remained upset, so she hugged him to avoid choking him.

"----we have to see that old man so let's hurry up".

"Yes, we unfortunately do". Hina replied her face becoming serious.

They started walking into the building together. Evren gave a little chuckle. After going past the lavish entryway with its rich ornaments and paintings, the rest of the structure became a regular office building with plain offices and employees who appeared to be dead on the inside.

"I never thought you would move to this city," Evren said while walking along Hina.

"Yeah me too, life is unpredictable most of the time".

Hina answered, her gaze falling on Evren, who had a bland face and worry began to rise in her head, but she decided to keep on.

"Look I'm sorry for dragging you to this city, I know your history with this place but...".

"It's not your fault don't apologize" he promptly cut her off before the mood got sour.

As they walked Hina drowned Evren in a flood of advice on how to deal with the vice-director.

"Do you think he will try to recruit me as he did to you?".

"Probably but if he tries to use you for his schemes I swear we are leaving this place".

"You don't have to worry".

The two came to a halt in front of the deputy director's office door, which Evren quickly opened. A middle-aged man with black hair and dead fish eyes sat behind a desk in a big chair. Despite the expensive ornaments, the space was tiny, especially considering it was a vice director's office.

"Mr. Caddel Evren I guess you're not the type to knock before entering," He said in a carefree tone, but his eyes showed that he was annoyed by Evren's attitude.

"So what you called me for Vice-director," Evren asked studying the man's face and wondering if he was truly alive or just a corpse, with his skeletal appearance, it was impossible to tell if he was truly alive.

"Straight up to business huh? I like that, take a seat, please".

The boy sat on the chair and stared at the old man, waiting for what kind of trap he had prepared. Hina had warned him about how Thale was a cunning man who knew how to use his cards very well; after all, no one could reach the position of vice-principal without knowing how to use a little bit of trickery.

"I know how you and Ms. Hina hate listening to long speeches, so I will keep mine short," He said, looking straight into Evren's eyes.

"Ever since mankind awakened the capacity to manipulate blood ages ago, the balance of power has been altered

"hemokinises, as we now call it, have become what determines an individual's standing in your society, and while I believe things should not be this way, there is no sense in fighting back reality." He made a quick pause to make sure that Evren was still alive and paying attention to him.

"Did you know most of the strongest blood arts users are part of the ancient bloodlines?".

"Yes".

"The ancient bloodline families have the strongest blood art users, they have too much power to the point they can rival the government, and that's where organizations like He came to help the balance"

"What do you mean?".

"Organizations Like Hcc aren't created just for some random purpose they are also meant to help the balance of power; Think with me Evren what do you think would happen if the high blood families and the government were the only ones with a great number of hemokinesis users?

There would be a battle for power that could even result even on a war between the two, that's why organizations are important we are not associated with either of them, but at the same time we can help the two of them with the academy and our services of course for the right price, we exist to balance things on this world".

"Ok, but what does that have to do with me," Evren asked trying to remember thale of his promise of being quick with the speech.

"We need people like you Evren, promising youths capable of using hemokinesis".

"Promising huh? How can you say that with such confidence?" Evren asked trying to see how much the vice-director knew in theory a few people were supposed to know that his hemokinesis abilities awakened despite him being older than the natural awakening age.

Usually, humans would awaken the ability to control blood from three to ten years old after that was rare to awaken the ability.

"I have a lot of connections but being honest, Evren your history is full of inconsistencies. I mean you are under the care of Ms. Hina Arisu an ex crimson combatant even though you are not part of a well-known bloodline. After the delayed awakening of your skill, even so, miss Hina kept a secret from everyone" he paused and turned to face the window.

"No matter how many times I think about it I can't understand why she would do this... but it doesn't matter, right now I'd want to take advantage of the fact that you've moved to this city and make you an offer".

"What offer?" Evren asked already expecting what kind of offer would be.

"I want you to join our academy"

"That is it? You want me to attend classes at your academy?".

"Who said you need to attend classes to be in the academy?" He said with a smug grin on his face.

"Even though HCC is considered a big organization we are in dire need of more people, for this reason, we created The upper five curriculum, academies that are part of this curriculum will be sent on missions and will be rewarded accordingly they also will have privileges that normal students don't have such as not having to attend all classes".

"So basically you plan to throw teenagers on the field because of your lack of Manpower?" Evren made it sound more like an affirmation than a question but the Thale's face didn't change.

"If you want to put it this way," he said with a shrug.

"Ok, I accept"

"You didn't even think about accepting even though you criticized me one second ago," he said with a surprised tone but Evren responded with a shurg.

"Take this as a welcoming gift," He said while taking a sword out of a rectangular case, the weapon had a thin and slightly curved blade.

"This one of the new Eosium's models that we are working on it's a médium grade"

Eosiums were weapons from the Eös series; designed to increase the user's power by feeding on their blood; powerful hemokinisis users could create entire weapons of their blood but depending on the weapon size, the amount of blood necessary would put a great burden on the body while Eosium consume less blood and some of them would even increase the bloodline ability of the user.

"Thanks but I already have one," Evren said studying Thale's reaction.

When the vice director's face writhed in a frustrated frown for a second before returning to his usual neutral expression Evren had to control himself to not let a grin appear on his face, he was sure that the Eosiumin wasn't just a present but had some kind of device that would extract data from his as soon as he used.

"Since you accepted my offer I should go to the academy now to receive your access card you may have permission to skip classes but you still have to sleep in the dormitories".

***

The HCC academy was located beside the HCC main building while heading towards the dormitories Evren noticed the student's gaze following him, the lesson had already started but seeing someone without the academy uniform caught the attention of the bored students.

"Hello".

Evren felt someone nudging at his shoulder, he looked back and saw a girl with a beige hair so bright that seemed to shine on the sun, her big brown eyes were staring at him with curiosity she used normal clothes instead of a uniform revealing that she wasn't a student, she was caring a big Eosiumin case on her back.

"You are Caddel Evren right?".

"Yes," He replied rising an eye brown making the silent question of how why she was looking for him.

"Nice to meet you my name is Melia Vlaith the vice-director said to wait for you so we could pick up the access cards together since we are both new here," She said

'So that man was already expecting me to accept the deal, ' Evren thought, making a mental note to never underestimate the old man.

"Nice to meet you too, so where we can get the access cards".

"With professor Kasumi, she's currently at the combat training facility".

Melia was staring at him as if she was sizing him up when she noticed his gaze she quickly stopped and looked away, seeing her behavior a question appeared on Evren's mind.

"You waited for me all this time just because he asked you to do it?" He said while his lifeless dark-red eyes seemed to see through her.

"I..." she averted her gaze again.

"I don't want to walk in a combat class full of nobles with overblown egos all by myself," She said blushing a little in embarrassment, she didn't want to admit that.

Evren laughed.

"I understand you".

The two of them started to walk through the campus, Instead of just one large building for the academy the HCC decide to make different buildings to better accommodate the students.

"You are part of the Vlaith clan don't you?".

Evren asked trying to see if his suspicions were right.

"Yes that's my family," She said with a faint smile.

"Isn't Vlaith a high blood Family, doesn't being a Vlaith make you also a rich kid with an inflated ego?".

"I think my case is different,"

Evren immediately recognized the nature of her relationship with her family but chose to remain silent.

Melia's eyes suddenly became filled with curiosity and a childish smile appeared on her face.

"What about you, it's not every day a student can enter the academy with the upper five curriculum".

Evren's eyes widened slightly in surprise; if she knew it as well, it meant that other people had access to this knowledge as well.

"How did you know?"

"Well, I heard that information travels fast in this academy also the vice-director is the type of man who talks a lot if you pretend you are listening".

"You think I should worry about other people sticking their nose into my life?".

Evren asked concerned bout the other people digging into his personal information.

"No one knows who you are and people love mysteries".

"That's why I'm planning to lay low".

"That's my plan as well, Lay low and no one will bother you".

When the two of them walked into the training facility, two students were warming up to fight each other, as soon as they entered some students started glaring at them while Evren just ignored them Melia started to feel uncomfortable.

"Ugh, that's why I didn't want to come here alone".

"Just ignore them"

"I wish I was capable of being indifferent to everyone like you".

Melia looked around until she spotted a woman with short light-pink hair and a friendly demeanor, dressed in a lab coat that didn't suit her youthful looks, her name was Anne Lunieve she was in charge of the combat classes.

"Professor Lunieve I am Vlaith Melia and this is Caddel Evren the vice director sent us here to get the access cards"

"Eh?"

The woman made a confused face it took some seconds until she finally remembered the faces of the two new students that the vice-director talked about.

"Oh, I see you two are the new students that Thale talked about"

She started to search for something in her coat pockets and then pulled out two grey cards.

"Just give me one second I need to register them for you".

She started to tap on the smartphone, Meanwhile, the two students in the battle arena seemed to have finished their warm-ups and were excited about the mock battle but seeing their teacher distracted with another task a frown formed on both their faces.

"TEACHER WE ARE READY ALREADY"

One of the boys in the arena screamed.

"Oh my, I forgot you two, Sian and Lucan can start the mock battle"

A high-pitched sound echoed warning had been authorized and a translucid barrier surrounded the place to protect the students who were watching.

Both Lucan and Sian had the armband on their arms; the objective of the mock battle could be won in two ways; one: incapacitate the opponent to fight; two: break their armband.

Lucan smiled and pulled his Eosiumin out of his case it resembled a spear with deep blue strikes all over the weapon.

Sian's Eosiumin was a sword with a grey blade that started to change to red as began to suck the blood from the master.

Sian moved first his speed above a normal human, he was using his blood to strengthen his muscles and move with an inhuman speed.

Lucan didn't look impressed as he blocked Sian's consecutive swings, his movements with the spears were precise letting all the attacks be redirected by the blade on his spear.

When Sian tried a wide swing Lucan's smile only grew, he blocked the attack With the spear and kicked Sian's guts making him lose balance and fall to the ground.

The boy managed to roll just seconds before Lucan's spear pierced his armband, he tried to retreat but another two of Lucan's kicks sent him flying to the other side of the battleground.

"He is good with the spear," Melia said impressed by Lucan's movements.

"He lacks strength" Evren replied looking at Lucan.

"What do you mean?"

"This boy with the sword-shaped Eosiumin left many openings on his defense Lucan could have finished him but he lacks the strength to do it".

"Don't you think is a bit pretentious to measure his strength already?" Melia asked.

"No"

While everyone else's eyes were only seeing the two boys' movements, Evren's eyes were different; he could see their blood flow, which revealed how, despite Lucan's talent with the spear, he could not manipulate blood; instead of using his blood to empower both his body and weapon, he was pouring eveosiuming on the weapon.

'He's 'too confident on that eosium I wonder what it does' He thought.

The blue trikes on the weapon started to shine, they resembled veins that were pumping something, the blade on the spear Split in two, and a red sharp object started to form n the middle of the now split blade.

There was a blue flash together with an explosion, and the red projectile was launched at a high speed taking Sian by surprise his speed-reaction only being able to partially dodge the projectile

It was so fast that all they saw was a blue lightning bolt traveling so fast before hitting the other side of the arena.

Sian was choked as well when the projectile passed a few meters besides him.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting that," Lunieve said with an excited smile.

Melia looked at the teacher with a confused expression.

"Aren't the teachers supposed to check out the student's eosiums to see if they are according to regulations or something like this?" Melia asked with a concerned expression.

"Oh...I think you are right" She replied with an innocent smile making Melia question the sanity of the vice director to put this woman as a Teacher.

Another blue lightning bolt flashed in the spear blade and Sian was barely capable of dodging the projectile again.

"Let's see if you can keep dodging" Lucan laughed.

'So that's why you are so confident on that spear' Evren thought while his eyes glowed red showing the blood flow inside the spear.

One of the substances that composes the plasma within the blood was ammonia, Lucan was mixing this component with the Nitrogen trichloride in the spear blades to create an explosive reaction and shot the projectile that was also formed by his blood.

Talented hemokinesis users were capable of using different components of the blood to amplify their power; some clans had unique properties on their blood making them capable of using different abilities the more rare particularity ability more valuable than the bloodline would be.

It seemed that Lucan's blood lineage was capable of stimulating the creation of enough ammonia in his blood two to create explosions when it came in contact with other chemical components in its eosium.

Lucan fired again this time a wound opened on Sian's right arm, the wound would have been bigger if he hadn't dodged at the last moment, blood started to come out but he stopped the blood and forced it to get back at his veins, he couldn't afford to lose his blood on a simple wound.

Seeing another blue flash Sian barely dodged again this time the blood projectile pulled out a few strands of his hair, he decided to move, running around the arena his speed increased by the blood being pumped into his muscles.

Lucan fired five more times every shoot being close to hitting his target.

"Are you planning on just running away" Lucan yelled.

"No, I'm not" Sian replied.

The blood on his blade started to flow to his left hand forming another sword he also used the blood leaking from his wound to make a replica of his Eosium of pure solidified blood.

When Lucan fired again, he didn't dodge; his eyes were fully focused on Lucan's movements; when the projectile came, his blood sword became a blur and deflected the bullet.

Every time Lucan fired Sian deflected using both swords. His swordsmanship was different from the begging of the battle; there weren't any wasted movements, and his posture was always adapting to better deflect the bullets.

Evren could see that Lucan was running out of blood, his Eosium put a great burden on his body.

"Shit" Lucan felt the strength leave his body the cost of using his blood technic was starting to show.

Seeing this Sian advanced toward Lucan and their Eosiums clashed again, this time Lucan's strength was not enough to hold against Sian's merciless swings

Sian hit the spear tip breaking the already poor balance of Lucan's stance his body bent down. Seeing the opening Sian rotated landing a kick on his opponent.

Lucan's body fell to the floor his breath was irregular and sweat covered his face he looked like a bug ready to be crushed.

"OKAY THAT MATCH IT'S FINISHED SIAN IS THE WINNER"

Lunieve announced the winner and was about to handle the access cards for Evren and Melia when she had been interrupted by a masculine voice.

"Professor Lunieve".

A tall boy with dark hair approached her with a serious face, beside him was another boy with red hair.

The students all looked at them with admiration and fear; they knew who these boys were and the clans they belonged to.

The red-haired boy looked at Melia and Evren slightly annoyed before returning the serious look to face the professor again.

"Kendall and Adler, is there something wrong?" Lunieve was wondering why the two suddenly showed up; usually, they didn't even bother participating in the class because of their status as one of the strongest students in the academy.

"We want to participate in a mock battle"

Kendall responded with his facial expression Not changing at all.

"...Eh?"

The professor was confused she wasn't expecting the two promises of noble clans who considered themselves too important to care about simple mock battles to propose a duel.

"Ok who you want to battle against"

Kendall pointed towards Melia and Evren.

"These two".