First Signs Of Saint Blood Awakening

Blood.

Blood was everywhere.

Red, sticky, warm, wet blood.

A sea of blood.

It was everywhere.

She could not tell where it ended and where it began.

All she knew was that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

She could not think straight, her head was pounding as if a thousand nails were being hammered into her skull. Her chest felt like it was going to burst any moment, but tears would not fall. Breathing became an arduous task as she scrambled through the pool of blood in search of a familiar face.

"Anyone there? Anyone!" she cried. But no answer came.

"Dad! Aunt Li! Yei Yi!" She screamed, blood splashing onto her face.

"Princess, get out of here…" Came from the dark hall.

Qing Yue froze, stunned to hear a voice, and scurried towards the sound, hope the only force fueling her, moving her forward.

Everything's okay. Everything will be fine. Nothing bad will happen. I am only overthinking.

She chanted in her head, desperately wishing her words to prove true.

"Dad! Sister Na, Sister Chu! Where are you?" She screamed, she yelled, and she cried.

But the thin voice she heard earlier did not reply.

Locked in a glass palace in the midst of a void of darkness, a sea of sticky blood surrounded the girl from every corner, caging her in its nauseous sea of crimson mire.

Qing Yue fell face-first in the sea of blood and paled, the nauseous metallic scent churning her stomach as she crawled on all four and wrapped her arms around herself.

With a haunted look in her eyes, she listlessly stared into the endless void of darkness and waited.

Waited for him.

Waited for his appearance.

As she knew he would appear.

A few heartbeats later, the dark void wrapped and she sensed a man shrouded in darkness and a cruel smile on his lips, appear before her and kneel to peer into her blood-soaked face.

"Waiting for me, pretty thing?" He drawled in a sickly sweet voice.

"Leave me alone..." Qing Yue's sounded like a croaking frog, the garbled words passing her throat barely coherent, as she fearfully choked.

"Go away! Go away!"

She desperately screamed but she saw nothing.

Before her eyes, she saw nothing but red, darkness, and then more red.

But the voice...The voice was still there.

Grinding, gritting, and scratching on her skin like the hairy legs of poisonous spiders. Loud and clear as her own heartbeat.

The next instant, the darkness vanished and Qing Yue found herself standing before a sea of corpses.

Her jolting mind was not able to register what her eyes were seeing. The mangled bodies of children; young, weak, innocent children were piled upon one another.

Limbs, blue and purple, from torture or poison, were strewn about.

And a river of bubbling blood, boiling like a concentrated acid, flowed among the corpses.

But strangely enough, the blood wasn't leaking from the body of the corpses.

No...it appeared...to be seeping into the corpses!

"This...?" Qing Yue had the strangest notion that the nightmare tonight was different, and not just because there were no torture sessions.

No, they were different because they felt more than just a nightmare.

In this dream, she sensed an ominous foreboding. A looming danger.

Lighting streaked across the sky, and as if the last string of her crumbling mind was snapped, she fell.

Before darkness enveloped her, a desperate rasp left her throat.

"No..."

A weak, silent plea. A weak, silent denial.

But no one was around to hear it.

***

Stranded in an unfamiliar land, Qing Yue ran as fast as she could, trying to outrun the shadows relentlessly chasing after her.

Her robe got caught in a stubborn twig, and as she pulled it free, she fell and crushed into numbing ice.

Her eyes teared and her skin seared, the fall drawing more than blood as she got to her feet, leaving a piece of her flesh stuck to the ice.

She could not stop, could not pause. There was a nagging feeling in her heart pushing her to keep moving, keep sprinting, keep running to hide from the menacing presence...

The blinding pain was now starting to slow down her pace, blurring her vision as tears streamed down her numb face.

She felt herself gasping, her lungs burning desperately for more oxygen. But the motion was involuntary as she couldn't think of anything more than escaping.

Her whole body screamed for a moment of respite.

But she kept running, afraid of what will become of her once she was caught by her pursuers. Ahead, she could hear or see no sign of life. The trees were dead and frozen, small icicles dangerously jutting out from them.

"It's alright. Once I cross this boundary, I'll find help. I'll find someone to help me." She whispered the words, convincing herself of a better outcome than what her senses told her otherwise.

She struggled to make her way around the frozen trees as gingerly and quickly as possible, trying not to incur another wound to slow her down even more.

And as the warm breath of her pursuers brushed against her nape, goosebumps formed over her bare arms. Terrified out of her mind, she shuffled forward, her wild eyes and turbulent mind screaming for familiar grounds.

But what she saw...

Her pulse quickened and her stomach tightened as nothing but a frozen and desolate landscape stretched before her.

No...

No! No! NO!

This can't be! Where are the people? Where is everyone!?

Qing Yue looked at the black body of water and dazedly drifted towards it, her blank mind unable to process anything further. Then her nostrils flared as the scent of blood and sweat overwhelmed her senses.

"Blood...? Is it mine?"

She looked at her hands, but no...

The scent was coming from the body of black water...

"Why would a nice, clean sea of water smell like blood?"

She moved closer and stared into the black water, her mind jolting at what her eyes perceived. she blinked and saw...

It was nothing more than a sea of black water...then what had she seen awhile ago?

Qing Yue could've sworn she saw an eye!

It was a giant eye smeared with various vein-like throbbing bloodlines.

But the disturbing part wasn't the veins.

It was how the intersecting veins resembled the waterlines of the New World Formation?

What's going on...? How could the veins of an eyeball possibly resemble the waterlines of the New World Formation? And why would they resemble the New World Formation at all?

Qing Yue was baffled. Her mind buzzed with numerous questions and she felt dizzy as she dazedly gazed at the body of black water.

She felt as if some power was trying to tell her something, warn her of an impending disaster.

It was a strange feeling...one she had never felt before.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake off the feeling, nor could she see past the film covering the lenses of her mortal mind.

She couldn't understand what the otherworldly presence was trying to tell her.

"I know you're trying to warn me of something. I know. But I can't seem to understand what it is that you're trying to convey..."

Helplessness and powerlessness made her stomach clench, and the sudden lack of mobility caused the cold air to seep into her skin.

Qing Yue looked at the black water and a sudden recklessness sprouted in her heart.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to see, what I'm supposed to know. Since I can't understand anything from here, then I'll just jump into the sea to find the answers to my questions!"

No longer caring about what became of her, she slowly turned her head to the side.

She at least wanted to take a glimpse of the monstrous shadow relentlessly chasing her.

And the moment she did, she screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped without hesitation.

*

"Ah!"

Qing Yue jumped awake, her breath coming out in strangled gasps as she clenched her chest. Sweat dripped from her forehead, and Qing Yue shakily raised a trembling hand to soothe her throbbing temples.

"It was a nightmare. Just another nightmare." She whispered the words, clutching onto them like a lifeline as her heart drummed in her ears.

"Nothing more than a nightmare." Unfortunately, the words sounded unconvincing even to her own ears. Looking to the side, she saw that it was only 1 in the morning. She still had 5 more hours to go before morning descended.

Because of the advanced weapons used in the Great War, the climate of both the Old World Formation and the New World Formation had changed drastically. One of these changes in the New World Formation was the enshrouding darkness that descended at exactly 7 and didn't lift until 6.

Qing Yue laid back down on her bed, her eyes swirling with the drea...no, nightmare she had tonight.

Different from the usual nightmares, Qing Yue sensed the presence of something...leading her.

And the thing she saw...

She shuddered and turned to her side.

It was best not to recall that which shattered her sense of reality.

Breathing deeply and evenly, she counted the seconds until daylight would descend and banish her nightmares away.

*

Long Tian froze. His face was a mask of icy frost as his Dad's words reverberated in his mind. Setting down his cup, he coldly sneered and leaned back in his seat.

"Commander Long, say that again. I don't think I heard you right."

Long Hongwu looked at the ugly expression on his son's face and crossed his legs. Folding his arms across his chest, he repeated his words with an equally frosty expression.

"Long Tian, I said I fixed your engagement with my friend's daughter. After the New World Formation's inauguration, I'll announce your engagement to the public. Prepare yourself because I'm not going to accept your refusal."

"Heh...Commander Long, you are quite something, aren't you? Who gave you the right to interfere in my marital affairs? What makes you think that I'll willingly do as you say? I don't even know this girl you're talking about, but you want me to marry her? Did you ask for my opinion?" Long Tian's eyes were cold, particularly shooting daggers at his father as he glared at the man.

"I gave life to you and as you're parent, I have the right to decide who will become your wife and the future Young Mistress of the Long Family. Long Tian, I know what's going on in your head. But I'm telling you right now. I don't accept Lu Jin as your future wife and the daughter-in-law of the Long Family. So don't even think about bringing her home!"

"Commander Long, I love Lu Jin. Aside from her, I won't accept anyone else as my wife. As for your friend's daughter, you can deal with the situation yourself." Pushing out of his seat, Long Tian turned and walked out the door.

Long Hongwu hopped out of his seat and banged on his office table.

"Long Tian, I'm warning you. If you dare bring that model to my house, then you'll no longer be my son! I'll disown you!"

Long Tian paused, then resumed his stride towards the wing stairs, his straight back displaying his determination.

Bang!

He closed the door and pressed on his black sleeve button. A hologram with a green connecting screen popped up and a second later, Lu Jin's face appeared.

"Tian Tian, did you miss me?" Lu Jin smiled broadly, her eyes shining as she held her cheeks and lovingly gazed at Long Tian.

"Lu Jin, come out and meet me at the Disco Club. We need to talk."

"Meet? Right now...?" Long Tian didn't miss the hesitant look on her face as she asked.

A dark frown appeared on his face as he recalled his Father's words.

Heh...marry? Why would he marry a random person when he already had someone he liked?

"Yes. Right now. Why? Is that a problem?" He coldly asked.