Inside the glass dome, Malakai and Renlo made their way to a corner and stood. Other youths began arriving, and soon enough, the space filled with quiet chatter as they discussed among themselves.
Malakai's gaze shifted to the Iron Saint, who now stood at one end of the dome alongside several other Blooms and Blood Champions.
'Looks like they're taking this seriously.'
They were about to leave the city. And aboard this beast were the future geniuses of the Sanguine clan, youths who would one day lead.
The dangers that could come were too many to count. But with the presence of Blooms and Blood Champions, many of the participants felt a sense of relief.
With everyone on board, the massive doors of the dome slammed shut.
Then, the beast began to rise.
Malakai felt the shift in the air. Spirals of intense wind whipped around the Skeldrith. The air grew lighter, and in the next second, the beast shot forward, tearing through the skies at blinding speed.
The sudden movement sent many of the youths tumbling.
"What… what… what!"
Malakai grabbed Renlo by the sleeve before he could fall, helping him regain his footing.
"Thank you, Ninth Vein," Renlo said, breathless.
"You need to work on your balance," Malakai replied. "When we get back, I know what will do the trick."
Renlo instantly felt dread. His earlier excitement about riding the Skeldrith vanished in an instant. He could already feel the pain coming.
Malakai ignored the lazy boy and turned his gaze toward the others. Many had fallen and were still trying to catch their breath.
'So it's true,' he thought as he looked outside.
The world was a blur. Winds howled around them.
They were moving fast, faster than even the Equiladors, despite those being over a hundred times smaller.
He had read about it in books. But seeing it now, it was… something else.
The Skeldrith could control air currents just like the Equiladors. That was how it could fly, despite having no wings.
It was truly incredible.
Due to its incredible speed, the ride lasted only thirty minutes.
"Get ready to disembark," the Iron Saint's voice suddenly echoed out.
The moment the words fell, the youths, who had been relatively quiet, burst into excited chatter. They all made their way to the edges of the glass dome and peered downward.
Malakai's gaze locked onto the vast forest that stretched endlessly below.
'The Dark Forest.'
"Damn, this place still gives me the creeps," Renlo muttered beside him, crossing his arms like the very sight of the forest sent chills through his body.
Malakai didn't respond. Instead, his attention remained on the forest, and its history.
It hadn't always been a forest. Long ago, it was one of the strongholds of the West. A vast and bustling city.
But then… a calamity struck.
The wrong person had died.
A Grade Four Corruptor had been spawned, and what followed was nothing short of annihilation.
The battle that came after reduced the city to ashes, erasing all life within it.
And from the ruins, the land began to change. Trees sprouted, but they weren't the trees people knew. None of them were green.
Tainted, abyssal-black trees grew in droves, unnatural and twisted, born from the devastation. And thus, the Dark Forest came to be.
'A Grade Four…'
Malakai clenched his fist.
It was a Grade Four that had killed his parents. That had wiped out an entire city in moments.
He couldn't even dream of facing one right now.
This was the world they lived in. One where the death of the wrong person could spell the end of millions.
As the Skeldrith reached a halt above a massive platform hovering just over the Dark Forest, the glass dome's doors hissed open, and once more, the Iron Saint's voice rang out:
"You can disembark now. Remember, we'll all be watching. Raise the Sanguine name to the peak."
The youths all clenched their fists and bowed respectfully to the Iron Saint.
As the Veins began disembarking, the rest followed.
And soon, a sea of red haired youths moved across the expansive platform, led by the Veins.
The sound of chatter soon reached their ears.
They turned their gazes toward the front, where the noise was coming from.
Youths. Thousands of them, scattered across the platform, each with varying traits, conversing with one another.
"Wow… there's a lot of people this time," Renlo whispered beside Malakai, his eyes wide with shock as he took in the crowd.
"It's a region-wide competition. What were you expecting?" Malakai replied.
Renlo scratched the back of his head, mumbling, "Still… during the last one, they weren't this many."
This was Renlo's second time participating in the hunt, so Malakai wasn't surprised by the comment.
He turned his attention to the crowd. The Sanguine youths were already more than a thousand, and these new additions had easily tripled that number.
'The Aurelius and Glandis clans,' Malakai noted.
The hunt was a region-wide competition, meaning any youth who met the requirements was allowed to participate.
Amongst the crowd, Malakai had spotted two of the great families of the West, the Aurelius and Glandis clans.
The former were a group of youths with pure white hair and calm demeanors. The Aurelius clan specialized in lung control, mostly using their breath to amplify their physical prowess.
The latter, the Glandis clan, were harder to ignore.
Malakai had fought one of them before… back in the Pit.
Where he had been forced to kill for the first time.
A memory of the girl he had murdered surfaced, but he shut it down. The thought was dead. He had made his peace. Sёarch* The NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
Now wasn't the time.
His gaze settled on the Glandis youths, mostly women, with vibrant pink hair.
They were the second great clan of the West, with abilities centered around the manipulation of hormones and enzymes, capable of controlling emotions, reactions, and actions through sheer biological influence.
Malakai's gaze didn't stray from those two.
Aside from the other Sanguine descendants, they were the only ones who posed any real threat during the hunt.
The rest of the participants came from other clans across the West, each with their own unique abilities, but none that stood out as much.
As the crowd took notice of the approaching Sanguine youths, a hush fell over the space.
The air grew colder.
They stared at the Sanguine like prey watching predators approach.
The rulers of the West.
The bloodline whose overwhelming might placed them on par with the other overlords of the Dome.
The Sanguine youths held their heads high, radiating the raw dominance that came with their lineage.
In that moment, many of them had never felt prouder to be born Sanguine.
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