"In The Face of Certain Death, We Rise."

by Knight of Crows

Prologue: Vein

Author's Note:

This is basically just so people unfamiliar with Code Vein can learn enough about the world so the character and things in future chapters will be easier to understand. It's not exactly necessary. With that said though, SPOILERS!!!

If anyone has a problem with how "edgy" the MC looks, to be fair, this is Code Vein we're talking about. If you haven't played it, think Dark Souls meets vampires and God Eater (never played God Eater, but I have seen the anime). Also doesn't help that almost all the characters look like edge lords anyway.

(Gaol of the Stagnant Blood)

In a large room filled with blood surrounding the path up to the throne lies a young man of silver hair and red eyes, dark cracks around his left eye wearing mostly black and red, and a Blood Veil to best enhance dark Gifts. This man has sacrificed more than anyone else in the short time he remembered. No, he was no man, but a Revenant, a human with a parasite attached to his heart, essentially making him nearly immortal and powerful at the cost of his memories and a thirst for human blood. He has no memory of his life as a human, only that he awoke as a Revenant in a warzone and was sent to the front lines during Operation Queenslayer. This Queen once went by the name of Cruz Silva, a victim of an attempt to create an enhanced version of Revenants with a reduced bloodthirst to combat the Horrors after the Great Collapse caused by massive spikes erupting from the ground, this failed procedure created a monster with only one objective; kill. While she helped greatly while she was sane, she was in the end, more dangerous than anything the world had yet to offer.

When Cruz frenzied, she layed waste to everything wherever she went in the already ruined city. In many cases such as the Miasma, turned Revenants into monsters so numerous that they were more of a threat than the Horrors they were created to fight. The Operation was an act of desperation, Revenants were being made from almost any available corpse to combat her. Lead by her father, Gregorio Silva, the Operation was a success. The Queen's death brought about by this Revenant using his Blood Veil as a last ditch effort to kill her, impaling her through the heart and draining her of her blood in doing so, prompting his comrades to kill him as the Queen's blood was causing him to frenzy. This man, unknown to him until later, became the first Successor, the Successor of Blood.

It had been found that simply destroying the Queen's heart wasn't enough, unlike every other Revenant. Instead, a piece of her was implanted in Revenants with a sufficient compatibility. Her Ribcage, Throat, Heart, Eyes, Breath, Claw, and Brain were all implanted in other Revenants to prevent her return. With the exceptions of the Eyes, Throat, and unknown to anyone until later, Blood, each Successor was sealed away in a Crypt and a Watcher stationed to each one, their duty was to kill the Sucessor if they came close to frenzy and await for the Relic to be transferred to a new host.

After the Operation, Gregorio Silva became the Successor of the Brain to put up the Gaol of the Mists to keep the city safe from the Horrors and to keep the problem with the frenzied Revenants contained while his organization, "Cerberus", maintains some order as a provisional government. This was until he was forced into a frenzied state himself by a mad Revenant named Juzo Mido and was put down by the same Revenant that killed the Queen. Without someone to keep the Mist up, this Revenant took up the responsibility after calming the Relics and becoming the only Successor left.

So now this Revenant sleeps, Cruz rests peacefully, the city is safe from the Horrors. Though this surely can't be the end of one who's willing to go so far as to sacrifice his freedom and even risk losing his sanity for a world beyond saving. Perhaps he will dream of a new life? Or perhaps he will simply sleep until he is stirred from his slumber?