The summons came at dusk, when the sun's dying light turned the palace windows into molten glass.Carmila led me through the silent corridors, her steps quick, her face unreadable. The guards stationed along the way avoided our eyes. Everyone in Noctharyn could feel it tonight—the pulse beneath the earth, the whisper of something ancient waiting to wake.
At last, we stood before the sealed obsidian gates. Strange runes shimmered faintly across their surface, whispering in tongues older than the vampire race itself.
Carmila's voice was quiet, steady only by force."Once we enter, there's no turning back."
"I know," I said.
Her fingers brushed mine for a heartbeat. Then she pushed open the door.
The Chamber of Truth was vast and circular, a relic from an age before mana had ever graced the world.Its floor was divided into ten concentric circles—the Ten Mortal Ranks—each one engraved with sigils that glowed faintly with blue mana.
As we stepped inside, the air itself felt heavy, ancient, aware.
Carmila's voice was almost reverent as she whispered,"The circles measure power—from the weak to the supreme. G through SSS. Beyond that…" She hesitated. "Beyond that, even the gods are silent."
I looked at the farthest ring—the one that shimmered faintly with silver light.
SSS-Rank: The Cosmic Tier.Existence itself responds to them.
Few had ever reached it.The last known was the Overlord, Lord of Demon Lords—an entity said to hold power so immense it tore through dimensions like fabric.Even he was said to only touch the threshold between SS+ and SSS.Anything beyond that… was myth.
The Queen of Noctharyn stood waiting at the center of the rings.Beside her, the Seer of Blood knelt over a basin filled with black liquid, humming low incantations.
"Adrian Kaelthorn," Queen Lysandra said, her eyes cold as starlight. "We will determine the truth of your nature. You will not resist."
I stepped forward without a word.The moment my foot crossed the first circle, the runes stirred.
The G-Rank symbols flared with white light.Then the F, the E, one by one—rings igniting faster and faster as I advanced.
Carmila gasped as we passed through A, then S, then SS—each circle meant to measure decades of cultivation.The Seer's chanting broke rhythm.
"This… this is impossible," she whispered.
The Queen's tone sharpened. "Continue."
The SSS-Rank circle blazed to life. The entire chamber trembled. The sigils burned so bright they were almost blinding, and yet the pulse inside my chest—the seal—kept climbing, like it was searching for something that didn't exist in their system.
You see their cage of ranks?They built it to measure their fear.
The whisper was clearer than ever. It wasn't just in my mind anymore. I could feel it in the air—reverberating through the stone.
I am what lies beyond their highest circle.
The Seer screamed as the ritual glyphs exploded outward, scattering black light across the walls. The Queen's protective sigils flared, but they flickered like dying stars.
"Contain him!" she ordered.
"I can't!" the Seer cried. "The system can't register it—it's not SSS or anything known! It's—"
The pool of black water at the center boiled, and a voice spoke—not aloud, but through everything.
I am the reason your ranks exist.Before strength, before mana, before gods—you sealed me to define your limits.
Carmila stumbled forward. "Adrian! What's happening to you?"
I could barely speak. The air felt thick, every breath tearing at my lungs. "It's waking."
The Queen's eyes widened—not with anger, but recognition."I've seen this energy before," she whispered. "Not in our world, but in the records of the first mana surge… Three hundred years ago, when vampires first arose."
The Seer fell to her knees. "Then… that seal inside him—"
"Yes." Lysandra's voice was barely audible. "It isn't mana. It's the source. The origin that bled mana into our reality."
Carmila turned to her mother, voice trembling. "You mean—he's connected to the birth of everything we are?"
The Queen didn't answer.
The whisper did.
They called me the First Light, the Endless Hunger, the Seal of Creation.Your mana is the shadow of my heartbeat.
The walls cracked. Runes shattered. The SSS circle—the ultimate symbol of mortal comprehension—split apart, disintegrating into motes of ash.
The chamber fell silent.
Only my breathing remained—and the faint sound of something vast and eternal stirring beneath it.
The Seer's voice trembled. "What… rank is that?"
Lysandra looked down at me, pale, shaken to her core."It isn't a rank," she whispered. "It's a being. Something beyond what this world was built to contain."
Carmila's eyes met mine—fearful, but not of me. Fearful of what she saw through me."Adrian," she said softly, "what are you?"
I exhaled shakily."I think," I said, "I'm what came before ranks."
And what will remain after they're gone.