The darkness fell away.Air rushed back into Adrian's lungs like a flood, and light returned — soft, pale, and trembling.He was no longer in the void.
He was lying within the Crystal Sanctum, deep beneath the Palace of Noctharyn.The floor beneath him pulsed faintly with mana veins, their glow matching the rhythm of his heartbeat.Above, translucent ceilings reflected constellations that weren't supposed to exist. Stars that whispered. Stars that watched.
And standing at the edge of that faint light was Carmila Noctharyn, pale and breathless, her crimson eyes wide with something he had never seen in her before.
Fear.
"Adrian…" her voice trembled. "What… what did you do?"
He tried to rise, but the world shuddered beneath him.The air rippled, humming with a resonance that wasn't sound — more like the memory of thunder.Symbols of ancient creation flared across the marble — golden, silver, and crimson all at once — forming a perfect circle around him.
"I—I didn't," he said hoarsely. "It moved on its own. The seal… it woke up."
Carmila stumbled forward, grasping his shoulders. "Your mana — no, it's not mana anymore—"She froze mid-sentence.Her breath caught.
Because around him, the air itself bent.
Far above, in the highest towers of the vampire capital, the skies cracked open.A tremor unlike any recorded shook the entire continent.The night split, the moon bled light, and a crimson aurora spread across the heavens.
Every vampire — from the lowest thrall to the oldest Duke — fell to their knees as their instincts screamed submission.
Even the Overlord, the Lord of Demon Lords, far beyond the eastern rift, opened his eyes — eyes that had not stirred in centuries.
"That presence… no. Impossible. That is not a being. That is the concept of existence itself awakening."
His power, SS+, known to shatter realms, flickered like a candle.The throne of obsidian beneath him cracked.He looked toward the mortal plane — toward Adrian Kaelthorn — and whispered a name only the oldest gods had ever known.
"The Boundless Core…"
Back in the sanctum, Carmila staggered backward.Every rune in the chamber was burning now, lines of power carving themselves into the walls.Her magic — the ancient vampiric mana inherited from her mother — refused to respond. It trembled, cowered, before whatever radiated from Adrian.
"What… what are you?" she whispered.
Adrian lifted his gaze. His pupils had become twin galaxies — swirling with light and shadow intertwined.
"I don't know," he said. "But something inside me does."
He clutched his chest — and for a heartbeat, the seal pulsed beneath his skin.He saw glimpses — entire civilizations kneeling, suns collapsing, universes devoured by an unseen force.
And through it all, a whisper:
The Absolute Being will rise. The one who will not rule — but become the law of existence itself.
Carmila's hand shook as she reached for him again. "Adrian, there's a prophecy—"
He looked up. "The one you mentioned before? About the ruler of existence?"
She nodded, eyes glistening with the reflection of his light. "Yes. It said when the seal of the Boundless Core stirs, the world will shake, and all creation will bow before its host. It said… that being would surpass all known Ranks — even the SSS."
Adrian laughed weakly. "Surpass them? Carmila, I don't even understand them."
Her voice trembled. "You don't need to. None of us were ever meant to."
She gestured toward the sigils still glowing around him — the symbols of the Seventeen Ranks, now shattering one by one.
G-Rank through SSS-Rank — each a reflection of mortal and divine ascent.But tonight, they burned away, undone by something greater.
Carmila whispered, "The Demon Overlord is SS+, and even he fears this… Do you understand, Adrian? That means whatever is inside you stands beyond creation's hierarchy."
He looked at her — really looked — and in her eyes, he saw not only fear but awe.He wanted to speak, to deny it, but the seal pulsed again — a deep, resonant thrum that echoed through his bones.
And somewhere beyond the stars, gods screamed.Realms twisted.Time stuttered.
The seal is breaking.
Carmila fell to her knees, clutching her chest as waves of pressure filled the sanctum. "Adrian—stop—it's killing you—!"
He forced a breath through the chaos, his voice raw. "If I stop now… it'll consume everything."
Then let it.Let the Boundless Core awaken.
The whisper came again — vast, gentle, final.And with it, reality fractured like glass.