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Darkness.

I was endlessly sinking into that void.

The abyss of nonexistence. The deep unconscious.

From within that darkness, a faint sensation pulled me up, as though it had snatched me from the depths.

“Gah!”

I coughed violently, as if expelling water that had filled my lungs.

With the recoil, heavy air rushed into me.

The bitter yet faintly sweet scent of blood filled my lungs deeply.

Instinctively, I surveyed my surroundings, while simultaneously rewinding my memory.

When I awoke, an unfamiliar place greeted me.

It was clear—I had been kidnapped by her.

I glanced down at my body.

I was seated, leaning against what seemed like a pillar.

My upper body was bare, stripped of clothing.

I couldn’t move.

It felt as though everything below my neck was paralyzed.

Only the sensations above my neck were intact.

“You’re awake, I see. Hehehe.”

A cracked voice pierced my ears.

I turned my head toward the sound.

Long black hair grew wild, enough to cover his eyes. A deep scar ran down his left eye.

His right eye, the normal one, was unnervingly dilated.

In short, he looked like a madman.

“… Where is this?”

I muttered, my voice hoarse.

It felt like I hadn’t had water for a long time.

My throat burned with dryness and thirst.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh…!”

Instead of answering, the man laughed like a lunatic.

… What an annoying bastard.

I cursed silently and examined my surroundings.

It was an enormous open space, as vast as a soccer field, its floor entirely covered in sand.

However, there was something unusual.

Dozens—no, hundreds of people were kneeling in rows, heads bowed.

“…”

The bizarre scene left me stunned.

I glanced back at the man next to me.

He was kneeling as well, his head raised with a mad grin plastered on his face.

The laughter didn’t cease.

“Where the h*ll am I?”

I deliberately made my tone firm.

When dealing with people like him, showing weakness was dangerous.

The man finally spoke.

“Where else? This is the Bloodstone Cult’s main stronghold.”

“… The main stronghold? Of the Bloodstone Cult?”

“What, you didn’t know? Keh-heh-heh, looks like you’ve lived quite the sheltered life.”

His tone grated on my nerves, but I held it in.

Anger wasn’t my priority right now.

The information he mentioned was far more alarming.

“How do you know about the main stronghold of the Bloodstone Cult?”

The Bloodstone Cult—they were the largest villainous organization in Lichten Academy’s world.

Yet their headquarters had never been discovered.

There wasn’t even a single clue or rumor about its location.

“Heh. Yeah, you’re sheltered, alright. Keh-heh-heh.”

The man continued laughing like a lunatic.

“Shut up, brats.”

This time, the voice came from my left.

It belonged to a bald man with a rugged, menacing face.

‘… Familiar.’

If my memory served, he was a high-ranking wanted criminal in the world of Lichten Academy. If I could recognize his face, he must be at least Grade 2.

Most likely, his crimes included numerous murders.

He pretended to be tough, but I remembered him as someone who softened up with flattery.

I spoke.

“I’m disoriented and have many questions. But do you know anything about this place, sir? To my knowledge, the Bloodstone Cult’s headquarters is a closely guarded secret.”

“You’re sitting in the headquarters, waiting your turn to die, and that’s what you’re curious about?”

“… Yes. I have a hard time resisting curiosity. Apologies if I’ve offended you.”

“You’re insane.”

The man looked at me like I was the craziest person he’d ever met.

I wanted to shrug my shoulders, but my body wouldn’t move.

“It’s just a rumor. Word in the underworld is, if you make a big enough name for yourself, you might get the privilege of visiting the Bloodstone Cult’s stronghold. Now shut up. You’re going to die soon anyway.”

… So there were rumors like that.

It made sense. It wasn’t easy to keep track of whispers from the underworld.

Playing as a criminal is impossible in Fantasy X Academy.

The system doesn’t allow it.

At that moment—

Step, Step.

Footsteps echoed.

Two men in bright red robes approached.

“Wow, you caught a lot this time.”

“It was quite the effort.”

“You didn’t skimp on anyone midway, did you?”

“Of course not. We’ve got to meet the quota, after all. All of these will be drained for life force and offered to the inner sanctum.”

“You sorted them properly, right? You can’t just pick up random ones like last time and throw them in the infirmary.”

“Come on, do you think I’d make the same mistake again? Sure, I might skim a little for myself, but I double-check those things!”

“Right, right. Wait—so you’re saying you did skim a little, you bastard?”

Their idle chatter was full of laziness, tinged with annoyance about the work ahead.

“…!”

The madman to my right started struggling, thrashing wildly.

He seemed to be trying to yell, but no sound came out.

I realized the same—my own voice wouldn’t come out either.

The madman’s eyes bulged as if they would burst from his sockets.

It wasn’t hard to guess why.

Far away, at the edge of the sandy expanse—

Boom!

A dull, explosive sound rang out.

The sound of a human body detonating.

Blood splattered briefly, followed by a strange sight.

Fssshhh!

From the hands of the two red-robed men, something like mana unfurled.

No—it couldn’t be called mana.

It was unnaturally red and oppressively dark.

A sinister energy.

It wrapped around the shattered fragments of the body.

In an instant, the remains began to compress.

First, they shrank back to the size of a human body, then to the size of a basketball, and finally to a bead no bigger than a marble.

‘… Ugh.’

I felt nauseous.

I knew what it was.

Bloodstone.

A bead made from human life.

I was witnessing, for the first time, the creation process of something I’d only ever heard about—and never properly depicted, not even in the game.

“!!!!!”

The madman beside me thrashed even more violently, his long hair whipping wildly and almost hitting me.

Surprisingly, I felt calm.

If anything, I was slightly annoyed.

‘It’d be better if he just stayed still.’

That way, his turn would’ve been much later.

The red-robed men had only just started working on the first row of captives.

However—

“Hey, look at this one losing it again.”

The madman’s actions drew their attention.

The red-robed men began walking over, their steps steady.

It didn’t take long.

– Splat!

Blood sprayed again, and the remains compressed into something even smaller than the usual Bloodstone.

“This one didn’t have much to offer, huh? The bead’s pretty small.”

“Not the first time we’ve seen that kind.”

It was a pitiful end.

To have one’s life reduced to nothing more than the size of a bead, judged and discarded by Bloodstone Cultists.

The real problem was—

“… Do you see this guy?”

The red-robed men’s gazes were now fixed on me.

“What’s with that calm face?”

“Does he not even realize what situation he’s in?”

They poked at my cheeks lightly, as if amused.

“Doesn’t seem like he passed out with his eyes open.”

“Should we just get it over with?”

The younger one spoke as if annoyed.

The older man nodded but shot him a glare.

“… Wait a second. Did you mess up the sorting? Are you sure this one came from the storage?”

“I told you—it’s correct!”

“That cranky old doctor throws people into the storage after patching them up, so you have to pick carefully. Remember last time? You accidentally processed one of our cultists.”

“Come on, boss. Does this guy look like one of us? Look at him—clean and polished, like some pampered noble. Doesn’t even seem like he’s ever bled before.”

“Hmm… Well, maybe not pampered noble, but yeah, he doesn’t look like he’s ever bled.”

They lazily sized me up, their gazes insolent.

First, it was absurd to be judged by men like this.

Second, my own powerlessness was ridiculous.

‘… I can’t do anything.’

Whatever they had done to me, I couldn’t use mana, let alone invoke any powers.

My entire body was paralyzed—no, it wasn’t just paralysis. It was as if my functions had been completely shut down.

Am I going to die like this?

The two men raised their hands.

I stared blankly as their hands gathered red and black energy.

Soon, that energy would explode me into pieces and compress the remains into a bead.

“…”

Death approached, and it felt like such an empty way to go.

Even sighing was impossible.

I was trying everything I could in these final moments.

When I had finally accepted there was no way out—

—Fwoosh!

The energy shot toward me.

I watched it, unmoving.

The sight of red and black intertwining was grotesque, almost mesmerizing.

It would touch me.

It would spread.

And then it would explode.

The three stages of the spell unraveled in my mind, a cruel foretelling of my demise.

The energy neared my skin—

—Tzzzt!

Suddenly, something enveloped me.

A thin barrier surrounded my body.

The ominous energy bounced off, rendered futile.

—Step.

Footsteps echoed.

I turned my gaze toward the sound.

Black hair, as dark as the depths of this world’s shadows.

Skin pale as moonlight.

Eyes glowing a menacing red.

“… The Third Pillar!”

The two red-robed men, their foreheads wrinkled in confusion just moments ago, immediately bowed their heads in reverence.

That was as far as they got.

Their heads rolled across the ground.

The headless bodies collapsed away from me, lifeless.

It didn’t matter.

All I could do was stare at the figure approaching me.

“… I’ve been searching for you everywhere.”

She spoke, her voice trembling as though on the verge of tears.

Her eyes and lips were smiling all the while.

“My baby.”

The Blood Witch had arrived.

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