Chapter 132: First Order

Reinhard looked at him calmly, while the Bloodkin continued studying him with an amused expression. After a few seconds, the Bloodkin tilted his head. "You smell familiar."

Reinhard raised an eyebrow. "Do I?"

The Bloodkin narrowed his crimson eyes and took another breath, as though trying to identify the scent. "Have I eaten you before? Perhaps you were prey that escaped me."

Reinhard looked him up and down, then smiled. "Maybe you were some bug I crushed but accidentally allowed to run away." He continued without the slightest concern. "Perhaps I thought you’d learn your lesson and become a better person." He sighed as though genuinely disappointed. "A pity that wasn’t true."

The Bloodkin’s expression darkened. "You—"

He disappeared.

Two swords flashed toward Reinhard’s neck. Reinhard leaned backward and allowed the first blade to pass over his face before raising his arm to block the second. The impact pushed him several meters across the ruined gravel road, but he quickly regained his footing.

The First Order was already there again, one sword coming from the left while the other swept toward Reinhard’s waist. Reinhard twisted his body between them, then countered with a punch that the Bloodkin narrowly avoided.

Unlike the Third and Second Orders, this Bloodkin didn’t fight through instinct alone. His swordsmanship was refined, trained, deliberate in a way the lower-ranked Bloodkin’s attacks never were.

Every movement connected to the next, and whenever Reinhard created an opening, the Bloodkin used the surrounding Blood Mana to close it. Blood rose from the ground and formed blades around him, while crimson spears emerged from the ruined buildings and attacked from different directions.

Reinhard laughed as he avoided another sword. "There we go."

The Bloodkin’s expression soured further.

He swung both swords, and the blood scattered across the battlefield rose with them. Swords formed beside him. Spears appeared above Reinhard. Whips lashed through the ruins while dozens of blood spikes erupted from the ground.

The entire battlefield had become the Bloodkin’s weapon.

Reinhard raised his hand and activated All-Cutting Slash.

An invisible slash tore through the blood weapons rushing toward him, one after another splitting apart before they could reach him, the attack adapting as it cut, gradually becoming more effective against his Blood Mana.

It was the kind of ability that got more dangerous the longer a fight dragged on, which was exactly the sort of fight Reinhard preferred.

The First Order’s regeneration slowed. His eyes widened slightly. He could feel it, the invisible edge learning the shape of his defenses faster than he could rebuild them, the gap between each wound closing and the next one opening growing shorter every time.

The First Order flooded the battlefield with even more blood, the surrounding ruins shaking as crimson liquid poured from the cracks in the ground and rose into the air.

"That’s a lot of blood," Reinhard said.

The Bloodkin grinned. "Then I’ll drown you in it."

The blood suddenly spun.

A massive Blood Tornado formed in the middle of the ruined road and swept toward him. Reinhard raised his hand and activated Spatial Push, bending the front of the tornado away from him, then escaped through the opening with Spatial Step. The tornado tore through the ruins behind him.

The First Order laughed. "What’s wrong?"

Reinhard landed several meters away and dusted off his coat. "Nothing. I’m just wondering why you’re trying so hard to kill yourself." His tone sharpened slightly. "You’re fighting like someone who doesn’t care whether he survives."

The Bloodkin’s expression twisted with anger. "You try being locked away and forced to starve for over a decade."

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed. Over a decade. He didn’t interrupt.

The First Order charged again, swords cutting through the air as blood weapons formed around him. "Then you can tell me whether you still care about surviving."

Reinhard blocked one sword and moved around the second, the statement staying in his mind. The Bloodkin weren’t simply crazed because they enjoyed killing. Something had happened to them. They had been confined. Starved. And whatever had happened had apparently lasted for years.

He’s too angry to talk normally. He could keep fighting and force answers out of him slowly, or there was an easier way.

Reinhard activated Mind Glance.

The world around him briefly changed. Fragments of the Bloodkin’s memories surfaced. Blood surrounding him, ancient, human, the Bloodkin drinking it, swimming through it, bathing in it. People from the Outlands hunted, their blood flowing through the garden area.

A city where Bloodkin moved openly, humans screaming as they fed without fear or secrecy or restraint.

We could drink whenever we wanted.We could hunt them.We could swim in their blood.

Then the thought changed.

And then that damn Pale One.

The memory blurred. Another figure appeared. A father. The emotions filling the memory turned to resentment.

Our foolish father had to change his ways because of that damn Pale One.

The First Order remembered being forced to stop hunting humans, remembered the fury of it, the refusal to understand why, the hatred for a father who had taken away the way they’d lived for generations.

Another memory surfaced. A town, an enormous amount of blood, the image chaotic, almost impossible to parse, fragments of sound and color bleeding into each other faster than Reinhard could sort them.

We thought he’d finally decided to change his ways.

He bathed the entire town in blood.

The town was covered in crimson.

Bloodkin screaming and bodies filling the streets. The memory was too fragmented to show exactly what had happened, but the scale of the slaughter was unmistakable.

Then blood chains appeared, countless crimson chains wrapping around the Bloodkin, dragging them backward into the Old Garden as though something had forcibly sealed them inside.

And then he locked us away.

Mind Glance ended.

Reinhard returned to the present. The

First Order was still attacking him, two swords coming down together, but Reinhard stepped aside and let the blades cut through empty air, his mind already putting the pieces together. The Bloodkin had once lived outside the Garden, hunted humans openly.

Something had caused their father to change his ways, something that involved the Pale One. Then something had happened in a town which left their father covered in blood and then them locking the entire Bloodkin away.

Reinhard still didn’t know who the father was. He didn’t know who the Pale One was and he had no idea how any of this connected to the Garden they were fighting through now.

But a Bloodkin powerful enough to drown an entire town in blood and then lock away his own children for a decade was not a minor detail to leave unanswered.

The First Order roared and attacked again, blood erupting from every wound scattered across the battlefield as the corpses of the dead Awakeners became sources of Blood Mana. Spears formed and shot toward Reinhard. Blades appeared around him. A Blood Tornado rose behind him.

Reinhard used Spatial Push to knock several attacks aside, but one blood spear slipped through and cut across his arm. The First Order noticed the wound immediately, his eyes brightening as the blood leaking from it moved, pulled away from Reinhard’s body.

Reinhard felt his strength draining as the Bloodkin tried to control the blood inside the wound.

He used Mia and the injury closed, stopping the blood from escaping.

The First Order attacked again, opening another wound across Reinhard’s side and trying to pull the blood from it. Mia closed it before he could take advantage.

"That’s getting annoying," Reinhard said.

The First Order charged. Reinhard remained still until the final moment, then activated Spatial Pull. The Bloodkin’s body lurched forward, eyes widening as space itself dragged him in. Reinhard pulled back his fist, the spatial attraction concentrating around it, and the First Order was dragged directly into the punch.

The impact shook the ruined street. The Bloodkin’s body bent around Reinhard’s fist before being launched backward through several walls, snapping stone and timber as it went.

Before he could recover, Reinhard activated All-Cutting Slash again, the invisible slash tearing through his body. The First Order tried to regenerate, flesh knitting back together at the edges of the wound, but it wasn’t fast enough. Reinhard didn’t give him the chance.

He pulled out Heavenpiercer and threw it. The legendary weapon pierced through the Bloodkin’s chest, lightning and fire erupting from the impact as five additional golden spears descended together.

The First Order’s body was torn apart. The remaining Blood Mana scattered across the ruined street.

Reinhard stood over the remains and shook his head, almost disappointed in him. "You really should have taken that opportunity to become a better person."

He turned and continued walking.

After several steps, Reinhard expression grew more thoughtful. His mind returned to Emily. He had no idea where the Special Order had sent her, only that she’d said she would find Maki and Lily first, then head toward Yuna and him.

It had sounded like a plan at the time, back before the ground started shaking and the sky kept lighting up crimson every few minutes.

He considered going after her and then stopped. She’s Emily. She knows what she’s doing.

He lightly scolded himself for doubting his wife, of all people. She had been handling Bloodkin, Abnormalities, and worse long before he’d ever known her name. She wasn’t someone who needed to be constantly protected. If she said she would find him, she would.

Still, he’d feel better once he knew where she was.

The ground trembled as a massive explosion erupted somewhere in the distance. Then another. Several powerful Mana signatures appeared across the Garden almost simultaneously.

The surrounding trees shaking as crimson light shot into the sky, bright enough to throw long shadows across the ruined street.

Something is happening.

He pulled out his communication crystal and switched to messaging, sending Lily and Maki first.

Reinhard: You two okay?

Lily: YES! I’M FINE! STOP INTERRUPTING ME!

Reinhard smiled. He could practically hear her shouting through the message.

Maki: I’m fine. We’re together.

He relaxed slightly. At least those two were safe. He opened Yuna’s channel next.

Reinhard: You okay?

No response and he waited a minute but still nothing.

He looked toward the distant explosions. She’s probably busy.

He wasn’t too worried. Yuna could take care of herself, especially with this many teams operating through the Garden.

He opened Emily’s channel, stared at the empty conversation for a moment, and typed.

Reinhard: Be careful, honey.

No response.

He looked at the screen for another few seconds, then smiled. She’s probably busy too.

He sent messages to the remaining Nephilim. Some responded quickly. Others took longer. A few didn’t answer at all. The entire operation had become too chaotic for everyone to constantly communicate.

Still, he found himself checking the screen more often than he probably needed to, as though staring at it hard enough might make Emily’s reply appear a few seconds sooner.

Reinhard put the crystal away and continued deeper into the Garden, the Blood Mana thickening the farther he traveled.

Explosions continued to erupt throughout the distance, the communication network filling with reports from different teams. Some advancing. Others struggling.

The Spears were still fighting Bloodkin outside the containment zone. Archon was moving toward the Origin.

The Special Orders were still somewhere within the Garden. And Reinhard was still heading toward the Heart, one more fight closer to whatever was waiting for all of them underneath this place.

One thought remained in the back of his mind.

Emily.

He checked the crystal again. Still no reply.

Reinhard smiled faintly. "Come on, honey." He continued walking deeper into the Garden. "Don’t make me come looking for you."