The Vault Council Chamber did not sleep. Even when silent, the blackstone walls pulsed with memory—echoes of blood oaths, betrayals, and the eternal calculation of vampire ambition.
Alex stood in its center, spine straight, eyes unreadable. Elara Vex lingered behind him in formal armor, her presence calm and steady like an anchor behind a shifting tide.
Above them, the seated heads of the nine great vampire families whispered in low, calculated tones. Names carved into blood-iron plaques glimmered in the flickering torchlight. Sael'Var. Zar'Kar. Aen'Dohr. Mirelan. Thorne. Vaezeth. Yul'nar. Grellos. Drazune.
And below them all, on the floor of judgment, stood a C-Rank orphan with a star burning beneath his skin.
🩸 A Test of Blood and Shadow
Rhaenys Sael'Var rose first from the semicircle of thrones. Her robe shimmered faintly in the low light, layered with folds of ivory and starlight-silver, as if reality distorted around her form.
"Council Elders," she said, voice echoing like cold wind in a crypt, "this candidate is not here by accident. He sealed Rift anomalies the Thorne family failed to contain. He showed spatial control without fracturing the veil. You called for control. I offer a stabilizing hand."
Raegor Val'Zar scoffed, his massive form slouched in his throne like a coiled predator. "Control? You bring us an unmarked bloodline anomaly and call it stability? Don't piss on tradition and call it progress."
The room stirred with discomfort. Some smirked. Others narrowed their eyes.
Alex said nothing. Not yet.
The Elders took their turns—a chorus of suspicion and condescension dressed in protocol.
The Aen'Dohr representative, a young noble with golden implants instead of eyes, turned his faceless gaze toward Alex. "C-Rank, awakened less than three months. No registered noble bloodline. And yet here you stand, boy. How do you plead your presence?"
Alex raised an eyebrow. "I didn't plead. I was summoned."
There was a pause.
Even Raegor blinked.
A chuckle broke the silence—from Lady Grellos, whose family specialized in mental manipulation and soulcraft. "Cheeky. But I like him better that way."
🩸 Permission in the Shadows
As the questioning turned toward protocol, Alex felt it—a faint shift in his perception. A cool breath brushing across the edge of his awareness. The Origin Star System was stirring.
[Origin Star System Notification]
Surveillance density exceeding safe threshold.
Recommendation: Reinforce Phantom Interface: Veil Mode with active shielding (Tier-2).
Cost: 2 Merits. Initiate upgrade?
He paused mid-step. The lights above flickered ever so slightly as the whispering eyes of the council grew sharper—less curious now, more suspicious.
"System," he murmured internally, "what's different?"
Threat vectors increasing. Multiple Council members utilizing embedded resonance-scan artifacts. Probability of inner world detection: 8.7% and rising.
Tier-2 shielding will camouflage inner domain turbulence, sigil fluctuations, and bloodline anomalies.
Alex frowned slightly. The Sael'Var glyph on his collar was supposed to protect him politically—at least outwardly—but he could already feel a few of the council's less diplomatic minds brushing against the veil of his aura.
He gave a subtle mental nod.
Confirmed. Tier-2 Veil Shield activated.
2 Merits deducted. Remaining: 728.
A cold breeze passed around him, but no wind blew. The world around his form darkened just enough for reality to lose focus—like his outline no longer mattered to the scan artifacts senses.
Let them scan.
Let them guess.
They wouldn't find anything.
Not yet.
As the system fell quiet again, Alex exhaled. A cool veil slipped over his skin—not visible, not tangible, but definite. He felt lighter… hidden.
Across the room, Raegor's red-ringed eyes narrowed as if something just slipped past his senses.
🩸 The Test They Didn't Expect
"I propose a measure," Rhaenys said, drawing attention back. "Rather than theory, let the boy demonstrate. Let him show what the families would otherwise dismiss."
The Yul'nar elder, a stooped figure whose body had fused with part of his chair, rasped, "In the Archive?"
Rhaenys smiled coldly. "There's a contained Rift shard under the Citadel. It remains inert—but volatile."
Even Alex's breath caught for a moment. A Rift shard? Beneath this place?
Raegor stood, towering. "If he fails, the chamber burns. You willing to risk that?"
"I am," Rhaenys said simply.
The other elders glanced at one another. In vampire politics, silence was often consent.
Alex stepped forward. "You want me to contain it?"
"You must not seal it," Rhaenys corrected. "You must walk into its spatial tension… and return without bleeding."
🩸 The Chamber of Fracture
Moments later, Alex stood in the lower vault, accompanied only by an older Archivist and Elara—granted exception as his 'attendant.'
The shard hovered in midair like a shattered mirror. Through its core, glimpses of warped space twisted like oil on water—black holes and cracked geometry.
Elara leaned close.
"My lord, it isn't safe."
Alex replied without looking. "It's never safe."
He stepped forward.
[MERIT TEST ACTIVE: Spatial Endurance Trial]
Required Stability: Maintain form integrity for 8 seconds. No external flare. No bleed.
Timer begins on breach.
He inhaled… and walked into hell.
Spatial pressure struck like gravity from eight angles. His bones creaked. The veil around his system flickered—but held.
He lasted three seconds.
Five.
Seven.
Eight.
And then he stumbled back, breath ragged but bloodless.
[TRIAL SUCCESSFUL]
+200 MERITS
Total: 928
System integrity stable. Veil Mode holds.
🩸 Echoes of Judgment
When Alex returned to the Vault Council chamber, even Raegor couldn't entirely hide his interest.
Rhaenys spoke first. "No aura bleed. No instability. He returned whole."
The Zar'Kar marshal leaned back with a grunt. "Hmph. Not impressed."
But he said nothing more.
The Elders remained silent.
Then Rhaenys stepped aside. "Then let it be noted. For the next thirty days, Alex of Crescent District is to be recognized as Provisional Rift Specialist. Attached to Sael'Var jurisdiction."
The gavel fell—silent, telepathic, like a ripple through bone.
🩸 Aftermath – Smoke Behind the Stars
Later, back within a quiet antechamber, Elara removed her mask and knelt beside him.
"Your Majesty," she said softly—only now, in privacy. "You didn't show even a fraction of what you are."
Alex sat slowly, leaning back. "That was the point."
The Origin Star System pulsed again.
[Note: Phantom Interface remains active until dismissed.]
He didn't dismiss it.
Instead, he looked out the black-glass window toward the voids of Crescent City—lit by torchlines, hovercraft, and distant cathedrals of power.
For now, he was a provisional. A whisper in the court.
But he had passed their test without revealing anything.
They feared what they could see.
They had no idea what waited beneath.
The Emperor had walked into their fire—and left no shadow behind.