Chapter 193: The Final Choice

Chapter 193: Chapter 193: The Final Choice

Clovis pulled the blade free.

Lucian staggered. Blood poured from the wound — dark, thick, laced with the ancient toxin that was already spreading through his veins. A burning corruption that crawled through his meridians like living fire, eating through his mana pathways, corroding his cultivation base.

He turned to face Clovis. His crimson eyes were wide with disbelief.

Clovis met his gaze. Calm.

"Why??" Lucian’s voice was raw.

Clovis tilted his head. "You really don’t see it, do you? After fifty years — all that intelligence, all that strategy, all that careful planning — and you never saw me."

He stepped back. His blade dripped with Lucian’s blood.

"I was always working for the rival kingdom. The one that poisoned your King." Clovis explained calmly. "The entire resistance — your fifty years of planning, your network, your generals, your little war — it was allowed to happen. Because it served our purpose."

Lucian’s knees buckled. The poison burned and his vision blurred.

"Let the empire destroy itself from within," Clovis continued. "Let you weaken the throne. Let you kill the Elders. Let you drain the military. Let you do all the hard work — and then take everything."

He smiled.

"You were a tool, Lucian. The best tool I ever used."

Lucian kicked him.

The impact caught Clovis in the chest. BOOM! Clovis flew backward, crashing through a pillar. CRAAASH. Stone exploded around him.

Lucian raised his hand. A blast of devoured energy screamed toward Clovis. FWEEESH!

Clovis rolled. The blast struck the rubble behind him, vaporizing it. He emerged from the dust, bruised, his smile replaced by a cold expression.

"Still fighting? The poison will kill you in minutes."

Lucian activated Devouring Void. The black sphere materialized in his palm — his greatest power, the ability that had consumed armies. He turned it inward, targeting the toxin in his blood.

The void grabbed the poison. Started consuming it.

Then the poison adapted.

The moment Devouring Void touched it, the poison mutated. Changed its composition. Became something the void couldn’t fully process. It spread faster than he could devour it — adapting, evolving, resisting consumption with every second.

His regeneration slowed as his power drained.

Then he heard footsteps and shouting. Reinforcements — palace guards, surviving soldiers, Elders who had recovered — poured into the chamber.

Lucian shouted. "RETREAT! EVERYONE RETREAT!"

His voice carried across the ruined palace. The resistance broke contact and ran.

Lucian ran.

The system kept him alive — barely — by burning through his life force to slow the toxin’s spread. Each second of continued existence cost him days. Weeks. Years of his remaining lifespan.

He didn’t care.

He fought through pursuit after pursuit. Palace guards. Soldiers. Elders who had recovered enough to chase. He killed them — dozens of them.

But the poison was winning.

His movements slowed and his reactions dulled. His vision darkened at the edges. Each kill cost more energy than it provided. The void was still consuming the toxin — but the toxin was still spreading. It became a losing race.

He burst through the palace’s outer wall and flew upward into the sky.

He flew until he couldn’t fly anymore.

He collapsed in a wasteland.

Lucian lay on his back. His crimson eyes stared at the sky. Blood leaked from his mouth, his nose, his wound. The poison had spread through most of his body. His regeneration had stopped.

He smirked.

"So this is how this shit ends."

He laughed.

"Guess I got too greedy."

A notification flashed in front of his face. He blinked.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

Host is dying.

Devouring Void cannot consume the toxin.

Regeneration has ceased.

Life force: 3% remaining.

Estimated time until host death: 4 minutes.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION AVAILABLE.

The System can preserve the Host’s soul and reincarnate it on another world.A weaker world. A world where the poison cannot follow.The System will bond with the Host from birth, unsealing abilities as the Host’s new body grows strong enough to handle them.

WARNING: This process will consume all of the System’s remaining energy.

WARNING: Host’s memories will be sealed.

WARNING: Host’s abilities will be sealed.

WARNING: Host’s bloodline will be sealed at 99.99%.The Host will start fresh.

Does the Host accept?

Lucian stared at the notification. Then he laughed again.

"Yes," he whispered. "I accept."

He closed his eyes.

He died.

The system searched.

It drifted through the void between worlds — carrying a single soul, preserved in a fragment of crystallized consciousness. It searched for a world that met its criteria.

A safe harbor.

It found Earth.

A Tier 1 planet. Three hundred years post-Cataclysm. Mana present but thin. Cultivators existed but were weak by cosmic standards. No vampire clans operated openly. The strongest beings on the planet were Astral Realm — children compared to the powers Lucian had once commanded.

The system sealed Lucian’s soul into a new body. A human body. Born in a village called Hollow Creek, in rural France. To a mother named Elara and a farmer father.

The Ancient Vampire bloodline given by the system became Lucian’s bloodline, sealed at 99.99%. His new body was an infant and fragile. It couldn’t handle even a fraction of his past life’s power. The seal would loosen slowly — incrementally — as his body grew strong enough to tolerate what lay beneath.

The system sealed his memories.

The system sealed his abilities.

He started fresh.

A baby. Silver hair — a physical manifestation of his sealed bloodline, bleeding through even the seal. Crimson eyes. A mother who loved him. A sister who followed.

The system stayed dormant inside him. Slowly unsealing fragments as his body grew. A percentage point here.

Then Louisa killed him.

And the system finally activated.

Meanwhile — in the tomb, on Earth.

Lucian’s body lay against the wall dead.

But something was happening.

Two Life Fruits — pulled from Lucian’s Shadow Storage by the system — materialized beside his body. The system, operating on the last reserves of its energy, dissolved the fruits into pure life energy. The green glow seeped into Lucian’s corpse — through his skin and his pores pouring into the wound in his chest.

The life energy was dense and concentrated. Each fruit contained enough vitality to resurrect a person dead for less than a minute. Lucian had been dead for longer — but his Ancient Vampire bloodline, even sealed, provided a foundation that amplified the fruits’ effects.

The wound in his chest began to close. Tissue regenerated, bone knitted and his ruptured and destroyed heart reformed.

His body stirred.

Lucian’s consciousness snapped back to the void.

He was standing back in the familiar infinite void.

But this time, the throne was there.

It materialized in front of him. The same throne from his first visit

But this time, he was able to clearly see the figure sitting on it.

The figure was tall nad lean with dark hair that fell past his shoulders. Inhuman beauty. Crimson eyes that glowed with ancient knowledge. He looked like Lucian. Like an older version of Lucian. The version of Lucian that had fought fifty years of war, killed armies, and been betrayed by his closest friend.

Lucian Noctis Vael. His past self.

Or something that wore his face.

The figure looked down at Lucian with a smirk. "Well, well, well. You’re back so fast." He tilted his head. "It seems you have your memories back."

Lucian sat down on the floor of the void. His legs crossed. His crimson eyes stared up at the figure on the throne.

"Who the fuck are you?" His voice was calm. "Because I’m sure you aren’t me."

The figure placed a hand over his chest. "Now you hurt my feelings. After all —" he stood up from the throne, "— when you continue to suppress the darkness, the rage, the anger within you —" He stepped forward. The void itself seemed to lean away from him. "— I was born. You created me."

Lucian’s jaw tightened. "Bullshit. I don’t need to suppress any darkness or rage."

The figure smirked.

"And here I thought you got all your memories back." He shook his head slowly. "But I guess you’re still subconsciously suppressing that part you don’t want to remember."

Lucian frowned.

The figure’s crimson eyes gleamed. His voice dropped — carrying the weight of something inevitable.

"Eventually, that dam is going to burst right open." He leaned forward. "And all those emotions, memories, rage, grief you suppressed — will burst right out."