She Used Me for a Dare… Now I Own Her Mother - Chapter 254: Revelation and Silence

Chapter 254: Revelation and Silence

The car glided through late morning traffic with unnatural ease.

Victoria drove with barely contained excitement, her hands gripping the wheel like she was restraining a wild animal. The car responded to her touch with eager precision.

“This feels incredible,” Victoria said, eyes bright as she navigated between slower vehicles. “Everything’s so… clear. I can track six cars at once. See their movements before they happen. Process speed, distance, trajectory…”

Her foot pressed slightly harder on the accelerator.

The engine purred in response.

Alex felt the acceleration and spoke calmly. “Slow down.”

Victoria’s expression flickered with frustration, but she eased off immediately. The car returned to a more reasonable speed… though her body language suggested it felt like crawling.

“It’s so slow,” she complained, though her tone carried more wonder than genuine annoyance. “I know we’re doing seventy, but it feels like we’re barely moving. My perception is processing everything faster than the car can actually go.”

She glanced at him, grinning despite herself.

“Is this what it’s like for you? For Catherine? Everything just… slower?”

“You’re still adjusting,” Alex said simply. “Give it more time and you’ll get used to it.”

She shot him a look that was equal parts eager and demanding.

“When are you giving me more resources?”

There it was.

Alex had been waiting for this question.

Victoria had broken through to peak mortal realm yesterday… a transformation that had left her stronger, faster, and apparently unable to appreciate normal highway speeds. The change was visible. Physical. Real.

And now she wanted more.

Alex studied her profile as she drove. Her excitement was genuine, but there was calculation beneath it. Victoria wasn’t just power-hungry. She was competitive.

“I can’t wait to catch up to Catherine,” Victoria continued, not bothering to hide her ambition.

“Hahaha…”

Alex laughed… not mockingly, but genuinely amused.

Victoria shot him a sharp, questioning glare.

“What’s so funny?”

Alex composed himself, though the smile still lingered at the corners of his mouth.

“You are,” he said, keeping his tone reasonable rather than condescending.

“You’re feeling the high of advancement right now. Everything feels easy. Your body is responding beyond what you thought possible. But you haven’t integrated it yet. You haven’t tested your limits. You don’t know where your new threshold actually is.”

He paused, letting that sink in.

“Wait for a bit,” Alex said. “Get a grasp of your strength first. Maybe train at Catherine’s place for a while. I’ll provide more resources when I feel you’re ready.”

Victoria’s hands tightened on the wheel.

“Rushing can do more harm than good,” Alex added quietly.

Victoria turned her attention back to the road, her focus deliberately fixed forward. She didn’t look at him. Didn’t respond.

But her cheeks puffed out slightly… like a child who’d been told no and was determined to show her displeasure without actually arguing.

Alex watched her for a moment, then couldn’t help himself.

He reached over and pinched her cheek gently.

“You look so cute right now.”

Victoria’s eyes widened, her composure cracking instantly. A flush spread across her face… not from embarrassment exactly, but from something warmer. Sweeter.

Inside, her heart did a small, traitorous flutter.

Damn it.

Externally, she sighed, swatting his hand away with more gentleness than the gesture suggested.

“I don’t like your view,” she admitted. “But you’re probably right.”

“Probably?”

“Definitely,” she corrected, rolling her eyes.

“Fine. I’ll train with Catherine. Master what I have before begging for more. Happy?”

“I’m not the one who needs to be happy about it,” Alex said. “This is for your benefit, not mine.”

Victoria glanced at him, something shifting in her expression. Less frustration. More… evaluation.

She returned her attention to the road, a small smile playing at her lips.

Alex leaned back in his seat and stared out the tinted window.

The hum of the engine faded into background noise. Victoria’s presence beside him… still smiling that small, knowing smile… became distant.

What rushed forward instead were the memories from last night.

He’d thought he understood power.

He’d been a child.

Yesterday’s revelations sat in his chest like lead.

Forty-seven thousand dead.

Six weeks of families erasing each other from existence.

Divine blood purchased with oceans of human blood.

The sanitized version of history he’d grown up with… the noble houses, the divine mandate, the enlightened cooperation… all of it was a lie. A pretty fiction painted over mountains of corpses.

Catherine had stripped that fiction away with clinical precision.

’Is Silva still alive?’

The question came unbidden.

Alex’s fingers drummed against his thigh. Catherine had been uncertain about that.

Two hundred years.

Two centuries since divine blood had changed everything.

Silva would be what? Two hundred forty? Two hundred fifty? Older?

’Very possible,’ Alex thought grimly.

’Especially if he’d reached a very high realm.’

If Silva had spent two centuries optimizing his integration, refining his power, pushing toward Ascension…

He could still be out there.

Not defeated. Not gone.

Just… patient.

Still hunting.

Still waiting.

Alex shivered despite the car’s climate control.

Even Catherine didn’t know much about Silva. About any of them, really.

None of the Seven founders had appeared publicly in decades. Maybe longer.

When he’d asked about her ancestors… the original founders of House Blackwood… she’d gone evasive.

“Whether they’re alive or not? No one knows. Not publicly, anyway. Maybe the House Heads know. Maybe a few trusted advisors. But the rest of us?” She’d shrugged against him.

“We’re told our founders are ’in seclusion.’ Whether that means meditation in some hidden monastery or buried in the ground… your guess is as good as mine.”

Seven founders.

Seven mysteries.

Seven potential gods still lurking in the world’s shadows.

Or seven corpses whose descendants traded on their legends.

No way to know.

***

Then the other thought surfaced.

’The prophecy.’

Alex couldn’t shake the words.

A child born when gods died.

Born in blood and fire.

Destined to face the darkness.

His mind went places it probably shouldn’t.

’Could it be… me?’

The thought was shameless. Narcissistic. Exactly the kind of protagonist-complex thinking he’d always found annoying in NovelFires. ’Oh look, mysterious prophecy, must be about ME because I’m special!’

Except.

He’d never used divine blood to enhance himself.

Never integrated the god-essence that powered every other Enhanced in existence.

So what the hell was he?

The question burned.

“Lilith,” he said quietly.

Victoria’s eyes flicked to him for just a moment before returning to the road. If she heard him talking to himself, she gave no indication.

The voice that answered came from inside his mind, carrying its usual mix of amusement and disdain.

“Finally decided to ask me something interesting?”

’Did I use divine blood?’ Alex thought the question rather than speaking it aloud. ’To awaken. To become Enhanced. Did I integrate god-essence like everyone else?’

A pause.

Then something unexpected.

“No.”

Her voice carried… contempt? Disgust?

“You never used those inferior… ”

She stopped.

Cut herself off mid-sentence as if catching herself before revealing too much.

Alex’s pulse quickened. ’Inferior? Inferior to what?’

Silence.

’Lilith. You claim to be a god too. What do you know about those seven gods? The ones who died. The ones whose blood created the Enhanced.’

More silence.

He could feel her presence in his mind. Not gone. Just… considering. Weighing what to reveal.

Finally:

“I will reveal everything once you reach a higher level.”

Alex’s jaw tightened. ’That’s not an answer.’

“It’s the only answer you’re getting.” Her voice was flat. Final. “Your current realm is too weak to understand what you’re asking. Your mind couldn’t process the truth without breaking. So train. Advance. Reach the threshold where knowledge won’t destroy you.”

’How convenient,’ Alex thought bitterly.

“Survival, not convenience,” Lilith corrected. “Some truths require strength to bear. You’re not there yet.”

The presence in his mind withdrew.

Alex exhaled slowly.

So.

He hadn’t used divine blood to awaken.

Lilith had called that blood “inferior” before stopping herself.

She knew something about the seven gods but refused to share.

And apparently the truth was dangerous enough to break his mind.

“Great. Just great.”

Alex’s fingers drummed faster against his thigh. One thought crystallized through the confusion.

’I need to get stronger. Fast.’

If Lilith wouldn’t explain until he reached “a higher level,” then that was his next goal. If Silva was still out there, possibly hunting, possibly planning revenge after seventy years, then weakness meant death. If the prophecy was real… and given everything else Catherine had revealed, why wouldn’t it be?…then whatever darkness was coming would require power to face.

Power he didn’t have.

Power he’d need to earn.

’Conquest Points,’ he thought. ’I need CP. Lots of it.’

Alex’s thoughts shattered as the car jerked violently.

Victoria’s reflexes kicked in… brakes engaged, tires screeching against asphalt.

The vehicle stopped with precision that would’ve been impossible for her a week ago.

Alex’s head snapped forward.

They’d been passing through the industrial district. Empty warehouses. Abandoned lots.

The kind of area where normal traffic avoided.

And standing in the middle of the road, fifty feet ahead, was a figure.

Tall. Composed. Arms crossed.

Recognition hit Alex like ice water.

Adrian.

Victoria’s hands tightened on the wheel, knuckles white.

“Alex,” she said quietly, her enhanced perception processing threat levels.

“That’s…”

“I know.”

Adrian didn’t move. Didn’t speak.

Just waited.

His expression utterly calm.