When the tremors finally ceased, silence fell over Noctharyn.
The air itself felt bruised. Towers that had stood unbroken since the Age of Mana now leaned; the palace's outer wards flickered as if unsure whether to continue existing. Even the moonlight seemed thinner.
Carmila didn't wait for her attendants. She carried Adrian herself through the empty corridors, his body burning with cold fire, veins glowing with that impossible inner light. Every few steps she looked down, half afraid he would dissolve into dust or starshine.
They reached the great atrium at the palace's heart, where a single command could awaken the oldest covenant of their kind.
She pressed her palm to the black sigil set in the marble floor. Her blood sizzled.
"By right of the Noctharyn line," she whispered, "I summon the Crimson Council."
For a heartbeat nothing happened. Then the air tore open.
Figures emerged from the rent in space—six shadows robed in dark crimson. Each one radiated power that bent the edges of the room. Their eyes burned with ancient hunger and old caution.
The eldest, a man with silver hair like frozen mercury, bowed slightly. "Princess. The call has been silent for three centuries. What calamity wakes us?"
Carmila stepped back so they could see Adrian lying on the altar of crystal. "The seal has stirred."
The words hit the chamber like thunder. Even the oldest of them flinched.
"The… Boundless Core?" whispered another. "That is no myth?"
Carmila's voice cracked. "It is no myth. I saw the sigils myself. All seventeen Ranks—burned away. The mana of the continent trembled. Even the Overlord across the Rift felt it."
The council fell silent.
Then, from the far end of the chamber, another presence bloomed. The air grew heavy with the scent of roses and old iron. The Queen of Noctharyn entered, her crimson gown trailing light like spilled wine. Her gaze swept across the council, then settled on Adrian.
"My daughter speaks the truth."
Her voice was quiet, but every syllable carried the weight of command that had ruled the vampire race since the mana first fell to Earth three hundred years before.
"The seal was placed here long before our kind walked this world," she continued. "When mana came, it did not arrive—it awoke. Our bloodline was born from its echo."
The council murmured among themselves, dread and wonder intertwining.
Carmila turned toward her mother. "You knew."
"I suspected," said the Queen. "Every generation, the seal's pulse grows louder. We are its guardians, not its masters. And now—" Her gaze softened as she looked at Adrian's still form. "Now the vessel stirs."
The eldest councilor stepped forward. "If that thing wakes fully, even the gods above the SSS tier will not stand. We should destroy him before the balance collapses."
Carmila's eyes flared crimson. "Touch him and I'll tear you apart."
"Carmila," her mother warned softly, "remember who you are."
"I remember," Carmila said, trembling. "I'm the heir of Noctharyn. The one fated to protect our realm. But I won't kill the man who made me feel alive just because the stars are afraid of him."
For a moment no one spoke. Then, slowly, the Queen inclined her head. "There may be another way."
She looked at the council. "Begin preparations for the Veil of Crimson. We will bind the awakening beneath the old moon. Delay it—until we can understand what lies within him."
The council bowed and vanished one by one into mist.
When they were gone, only Carmila and the Queen remained.
Her mother approached Adrian, tracing the glowing sigils that still shimmered faintly beneath his skin. "Do you see this light, child? That is not power. It is memory. Something that remembers being everything."
Carmila's throat tightened. "Can we save him?"
The Queen's expression softened, almost pitying. "If we can convince Existence itself to sleep again… perhaps."
Above them, the moon cracked faintly, a thin silver fracture across its face.
Far beyond the world, where creation itself bent in uneasy silence, unseen entities whispered—ancient, formless things remembering a name long erased:
Kaelthorn.The Seal of the Boundless Core.
And in the sanctum below, Adrian stirred, the faintest of smiles crossing his lips—as if he'd heard them.