Chapter 466: Crimson Ascension
Lucius stared at him with a dumbfounded expression. Despite the situation, he could not help but feel a hint of pity for his future son-in-law.
Despite Dorian being one of the strongest vampires alive, there was no one Lucius knew who was more hardworking and uptight than him.
If Dorian had volunteered himself to be Elion’s mentor when the time came, then that would certainly be an interesting turn of events.
Painful, perhaps, but interesting.
Still, there was no one better to provide instruction for someone who aspired to stand at the top of this world.
And if the rumours of the boy’s talent were true...
No, Lucius already knew they were. From Celeste’s words alone, he already knew the boy was talented.
That meant one thing.
If provided with the correct guidance, Elion had the potential to become a terrifying existence in this world.
"I have made my report, so I will be heading back to my task now," Dorian said.
The only reason he had returned was because he thought Celeste would have finished her trial by now. Otherwise, he would have taken longer to search for Elion before coming back.
But knowing that Celeste was yet to wake put his mind slightly at ease.
He had hoped to find Elion before she awoke. Unfortunately, this damned brat was proving far too elusive.
Dorian was just about to walk out of the cavern when the communication talisman in the pocket of his robe rang.
He stopped, raised a brow, and took it out. A short message had been sent to him. He read it, and a moment later, a triumphant grin spread across his face.
Lucius noticed it immediately. "What is it?"
Dorian looked back at him. "The boy has been found."
Lucius was briefly surprised, and then a smile of his own appeared on his face. No further words needed to be spoken.
Dorian did not waste another second.
His form disintegrated into dark particles where he stood, leaving Lucius and the sleeping Celeste alone once again.
However, at that exact moment, as if on cue, Celeste’s eyes snapped open. Her awakening was immediately followed by a violent flood of mana rushing into the cavern.
Lucius’s eyes widened. Under his shocked gaze, Celeste’s crimson eyes began burning like twin suns.
Her body slowly rose from his embrace as the cavern trembled.
The Ancestral Heart in the basin pulsed violently, releasing deep waves of ancient blood energy that filled the holy land like a crimson tide.
"Celeste?" Lucius’s voice came out in a whisper.
Outside Dreadmoor Hollow, the dark space suddenly brightened. It was as though a sun had finally decided to rise over a land where no sun should ever shine.
Vampires across the territory froze.
Lesser vampires looked toward the sky in confusion and terror, their instincts screaming at the impossible sight above them.
A sun.
There was actually a sun rising in their territory!
For a race that had always feared the light, the sight should have been a disaster, and yet...
It was not golden, or white, or the merciless light that burned away their strength. It was a deep, bloody red.
A crimson sun!
And instead of weakening beneath it, every vampire in Dreadmoor Hollow suddenly felt their strength rise by at least fifty percent!
Even Lucius felt it.
His eyes widened further as the power flowing through his veins surged in response to that bloody light.
The entire clan was trembling. Among the lesser vampires, one thought spread like wildfire: ’ Is this the start of some sort of disaster?’
But Lucius, who had the privilege of witnessing the source directly, trembled for a different reason.
Anticipation, excitement, and disbelief.
Celeste’s floating form continued to transform before his eyes.
Her raven-black hair drifted weightlessly around her, glowing with a dark crimson sheen. Faint blood runes flickered across her skin like living sigils, vanishing and reappearing with every pulse of the Ancestral Heart.
Her aura deepened, widened, and grew into an ancient presence that felt way too overpowering, even for someone like Lucius.
He was feeling suppressed beneath it!
Lucius slowly stood up with trembling hands, not from fear, but hope. "Is her bloodline ascending once again?"
All signs pointed toward that conclusion, and the possibility both shocked and excited him. "Did she really do it?" he whispered inwardly.
Was there truly hope for their race? For centuries, perhaps millennia, their clan had chased the impossible.
They had sought to return to a purer origin.
To awaken the ancient blood that had thinned generation after generation.
To reach a state no vampire had managed to touch in ages.
And now, beneath his astonished gaze, Celeste’s body continued rising within the crimson light, her power resonating with the Ancestral Heart as if it had finally recognised its rightful successor.
Outside, Dreadmoor Hollow watched in stunned silence as something they had never witnessed before unfolded.
The sun had risen in vampire territory.
A bloody sun.
Lucius stared at his daughter as the truth settled into his soul. There was no doubt or room for denial.
After millennia of failure, after countless hopes crushed beneath time and blood, after generations of vampires reaching toward an origin they could never reclaim...
A Progenitor Vampire had finally been born into this world.
...
What was truly shocking about the bloody sun was that it could not only be seen in the vampire clan’s territory.
All around the world, wherever it was daytime, the bright sun turned a deep crimson without warning.
And in places where it was night, the moon underwent a similar change.
A bloody moon hung in the sky.
Those knowledgeable about such phenomena first assumed it was a regular eclipse or some rare celestial event, only to quickly realise how wrong they were when the unusual sight of a bloody red moon and sun remained for the next twenty-four hours instead of the usual few minutes.
From that day onward, this event would be remembered across kingdoms, empires, clans, and hidden territories by one name.
The Crimson Ascension.