Hell System the Awakening
Elias Blackwood spent twelve years in a bleak orphanage, clinging to a single memory: the roar of a fire that separated him from his family at age five. When he....
Elias Blackwood spent twelve years in a bleak orphanage, clinging to a single memory: the roar of a fire that separated him from his family at age five. When he is finally found and brought home just before his seventeenth birthday, he expects the life promised by his lineage—warm meals, parental embrace, and the security of the vast Blackwood Corporation fortune. Instead, he discovers a household of cruelty. His biological parents, Arthur and Catherine Blackwood, view him as an unwelcome reminder of a past they wish to erase. They deny him a proper bedroom, confining him to a neglected storage room with nothing but a dim oil lamp and a threadbare bed. The staff receive better treatment than he does; he is forbidden from the family table and kept in a state of near hunger, sustained only by Martha, a compassionate maid who secretly brings him bread.The architect of Elias's suffering is his adopted brother, Julian Blackwood. Terrified of losing his status as the sole heir, Julian wages a campaign of social and emotional destruction. At school, Julian brands Elias an outsider, turning the student body against him. At home, Julian steals Elias's exceptional academic results, presenting them as his own to win their parents' approval while Elias faces harsh punishment for supposed failure. Despite the relentless persecution and the marks it leaves on his body and spirit, Elias remains gentle-hearted, keeping his head down to preserve what little peace he can. However, his excellence cannot remain hidden forever. As the college entrance exam results are announced, Julian realizes that as long as Elias lives, the truth of the inheritance—and Julian's own deception—will eventually surface.A young man has just been buried alive by his half-brother. Elias Blackwood, who spent twelve years in a bleak orphanage, clinging to a single memory: the roar of a fire that separated him from his family at age five. When he is finally found and brought home just before his seventeenth birthday, he expects the life promised by his lineage—warm meals, parental embrace, and the security of the vast Blackwood Corporation fortune. Instead, he faces rejection and relentless mistreatment from his so-called family.Julian finally makes his move. He buries Elias, leaving him for dead, but after he draws his last breath, something shifts. A dark, ominous power begins to emanate from the ground, seeping toward the surface. Then his eyes shoot open, glowing with a crimson light. Something otherworldly, something unsettling, awakens inside him: a demon named Raven Mortensen. Then something else stirs: a system—the Hell System—a crimson interface that grants him new abilities and power.