Chapter 7: The Blood Gate
The portal screamed like a living wound.
It pulled Shadow inside with a force that bent light and sound, dragging him into a crimson void.
When he opened his eyes, he wasn't in the academy anymore.
He stood on a field of shattered glass each shard reflecting fragments of his past lives.
He saw flashes battles, faces, deaths.
The weight of centuries pressed against his chest.
So this is the Blood Gate, he thought. A place where memory and malice fuse together.
Echoes of the Past
The ground rippled beneath him. From the shards, figures began to crawl out distorted shapes of people he once saved, twisted by shadow.
"Why didn't you protect us?" one hissed.
"Why did you survive?" whispered another.
Shadow exhaled slowly.
"I did protect you," he said quietly. "But not everyone wants to be saved."
The figures lunged.
He moved faster his blade cutting arcs of darkness and light, each strike erasing another ghostly scream.
For every one that fell, ten more rose.
Endless, he thought. Just like before.
The Demon's Heart
A shadow larger than the rest rose from the center of the void a monstrous figure with black wings and burning eyes.
It spoke with his own voice.
"You pretend to fight the dark, but you are the dark."
Shadow's expression didn't change. "Maybe. But at least I know which side I'm on."
The creature raised a hand. The air split apart as tendrils of energy lashed out. Shadow deflected them, his aura flaring calm, cold, absolute.
Then he vanished.
In a flash, he reappeared behind the demon and drove his blade through its heart.
The world exploded in light.
The Truth of the Gate
As the creature disintegrated, a red crystal floated where its heart had been.
Shadow caught it. Inside the crystal, something pulsed faint, like a heartbeat.
Lyra's voice echoed faintly through the void. "Master! We're reading a surge in dimensional energy. You have to come back now!"
He examined the crystal. Symbols appeared across its surface the same runes he'd seen on the cultists.
"This isn't a gate," he muttered. "It's a prison."
The realization hit him like thunder.
They're not summoning demons… they're freeing them.
Return
He slashed the air, opening a rift back to the academy. The red void shattered around him, and the night rushed in like a flood.
He landed in the courtyard cracked stone, burning mana, chaos everywhere.
Students and knights were fighting against corrupted beasts that had poured from the gate. Elaria stood at the front lines, her sword glowing gold, her mana nearly spent.
When she saw him appear, she froze. "Cid…? Where did you "
He walked past her, silent. Shadows rippled around his feet, spreading like living smoke.
The beasts stopped moving. Then, one by one, they disintegrated into black dust.
Elaria watched in stunned silence as the courtyard went still.
Shadow turned toward her. His eyes glowed with quiet resolve.
"They're using your bloodline as the key," he said. "You and your sister are targets."
She stared at him. "Then why help me?"
"Because I've seen this before," he said softly. "And last time, I couldn't save everyone."
The Omen
Later, as dawn broke, Shadow stood on the academy tower again, holding the red crystal up to the light.
It pulsed once, faintly, like it was alive.
Lyra's voice came through the crystal communicator. "Master, our scouts report two more gates forming one in the northern empire, one near the capital itself."
Shadow's cloak rippled in the wind. "Then our hunt begins again."
He crushed the crystal in his hand. The fragments turned to ash.
"We are the Shadow Organization," he murmured.
"We lurk in the shadows… and hunt the shadows."
Far away, a bell tolled.
The first war between light and abyss had begun.