Soon, the police, firefighters, ambulances, and ergency response teams all arrived at the scene within a matter of minutes.
rlin High School was already reduced to a smouldering, crumbling ruin. Thick smoke still rose into the air, staining the sky a dirty grey as the last flas licked at the collapsed remains of the building.
Firefighters unleashed high-pressure streams of water in an attempt to extinguish the stubborn embers. The ground sizzled beneath them, steam hissing up like whispers from the dead. As the blaze finally weakened and began to die out, the search for bodies comnced.
But what they found shocked everyone.
Instead of charred corpses buried under rubble, four motionless bodies were discovered lying outside the collapsed structure, near the edge of the empty schoolyard under a large, shadowy tree.
"We found survivors!"
One of the rescuers yelled, disbelief thick in his voice.
Paradics rushed forward and carefully lifted the unconscious bodies onto stretchers. Their skin was burned and bruised, clothes torn, yet sohow—they were alive.
The ambulance took off toward rlin Hospital, sirens slicing through the tension.
While chaos and questions exploded among the authorities and onlookers at the scene, elsewhere—hidden from sight—
Valra stood at the base of a mountain, cloaked in silence. A white-hooded figure stood beside her. The two remained completely still, blending into the shadows of the rocky slope, watching the unfolding disaster from a distance, their expressions unreadable.
"What do you an... Eden didn’t want to stop him?"
Valra asked quietly, but her voice carried weight. There was a flicker of disbelief in her eyes, though her tone remained cold and collected.
She had just learned that the Mage Association had chosen not to intervene.
It didn’t make sense.
The hooded figure nodded slightly,
"I don’t know the full reason. But for so reason, everyone agreed not to act."
Valra’s brow furrowed.
"That’s insane. You saw what happened. This many people... normal people... they saw sothing they were never ant to see. Sothing supernatural. Are we just going to let them rember it?"
"No. Of course not. We’re already handling it, mory part except that.... we couldn’t intervene about Mage"
"The firefighters, the dics, the police—every single one of them is one of ours. Agents. They’re already working on altering the mories of the students and staff. But erasing all of it completely is difficult. It happened in broad daylight. There were too many witnesses—civilians. And the energy surge... It was too massive to fully cover up. So instead of erasing, we’re tampering. Bending the truth, shifting what they saw."
Valra’s gaze remained sharp, thoughtful. After a mont, she turned to leave, her face serious and unreadable.
As she walked away, the hooded figure stared after her for a beat, then murmured to the wind,
"Things are shifting, Valra... Sothing bigger is coming. Sothing far beyond us all."
Valra paused for just a second—barely noticeable—before she continued walking. A few ters away, she saw Pride standing silently under the sa tree where the four bodies had been found earlier.
anwhile—
Deep in a forest that sunlight never touched, a castle stood, old and buried beneath thick overgrowth.
Inside that castle.
A laboratory.
A dark, chilling place filled with twisted equipnt—glass tubes bubbling with fluorescent liquids, tal clamps and surgical tools gleaming under flickering lights, IV stands, chemical burners, filters, strange chanical arms, and rune-engraved machines that humd like they were alive.
In the centre of the room, a tallic chair stood bolted to the floor.
Camazotz sat in it, his arms and legs restrained tightly with thick clamps that dug slightly into his skin. An IV tube was inserted into his forearm, and a pale, transparent liquid slowly flowed into his veins.
His expression was blank, but his eyes remained locked onto the figure in front of him.
A man stood there, tall and eerily composed. His long white hair flowed down his back like silk. His eyes were a piercing crimson red, bright and unsettling in the dim lab light. He wore a clean, bloodless lab coat, despite the ss around him, and moved with elegance.
He was beautiful in an inhuman way—so beautiful that even won would seem plain next to him. His face was flawless, symtrical, with not a wrinkle or mark on it. His physique was sculpted like a statue from ancient tis—every muscle defined, lean, hardened. Not an ounce of fat. Not a single blemish.
It was as if his body had been engineered for perfection through relentless training and strict discipline.
The only unnatural thing was his skin. It was pale. So pale it seed bloodless, almost translucent, as if sunlight had never touched it in centuries.
He was not just a man.
He was sothing far worse.
He was Ophis’s father.
Dracula.
Dracula stood at the head of a long tal table, where tubes, syringes, and glowing vials lay scattered like toys. He was examining a fresh vial of blood... thick and red.
"The blood of the Fated One,"
He poured the blood into a crystal filter tube. As the liquid touched the runes etched on the surface, the entire tube began to glow, emitting strange letters and symbols that floated in the air. The blood started to boil violently, then flowed into a connected glass pipe, where it cooled instantly, condensing into droplets that shimred like rubies.
From there, the blood passed into a thick, tallic chamber lined with obsidian carvings and seals. A low humming filled the air, then silence.
Minutes passed.
Nothing moved.
And then—
Drip...
A black, thick, slug-like substance oozed out from the bottom of the chamber. It slithered into a small beaker below, hissing softly as if alive. The substance reeked of rot and darkness.
Suddenly, the temperature in the room plumted. A bone-deep chill swept through the air, heavy and unnatural, as if the very shadows were holding their breath.
Camazotz’s body tensed instinctively.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
A cold sweat began to trickle down his spine, despite the IV fluid still dripping into his veins. It felt as though the room itself had sensed sothing ancient—sothing vile—had just been awakened.
His eyes widened in horror as he looked toward the black substance still slowly dripping into the beaker. There was sothing terrifyingly familiar about it. Sothing that pulled a long-buried mory to the surface of his mind like a corpse rising from a swamp.
"I-It’s..."
"Indeed."
Dracula interrupted him before he could even finish.
His voice was calm. Too calm.
He stared at the thick, black liquid with quiet intensity, watching every sluggish drop fall into the glass container with fascination. The light from the lab flickered for a mont as he whispered,
"The power... of a god."
Camazotz flinched, his jaw tightening. "B-But that’s impossible... A Human caring the Power of God? Impossible, Especially That kind of power—no one can contain it. It doesn’t belong in this world..."
Dracula chuckled softly, the sound dry and cold like rust scraping tal. He shook his head slowly, never taking his eyes off the substance.
"Nothing is impossible... Especially when a fool dares to do the unthinkable."
With slow, deliberate movents, he reached for a large glass syringe and carefully drew the black liquid into it. The strange substance resisted slightly as if alive, pulsing once inside the syringe like a heartbeat. Dracula handled it with precision before injecting it into the IV drip connected to Camazotz’s arm.
Camazotz’s eyes widened again, panic flashing behind them.
"M-Master... are you trying to change ? If this thing gets ... I-I will be..."
His voice trembled, filled with hesitation, his fingers twitching as he stared at the blackened IV tube now feeding directly into his body.
Dracula turned his head slightly and offered a smirk that sent a shiver straight through Camazotz’s soul.
"As long as you remain in control," Dracula said calmly, "it won’t harm you. But lose that control... and it will consu everything you are."
Camazotz swallowed hard and gave a nervous nod, his lips quivering. The black substance mixed into the IV liquid and began to swirl like ink in water. Then it flowed down the line... and into his vein.
"AARRHH!"
Camazotz scread, his entire body jerking against the restraints. His muscles bulged, trembling violently as he gritted his teeth, trying to contain the raw energy surging through him. His veins darkened, rising like black snakes under his skin, throbbing with power.
His eyes rolled back slightly as the colour drained from them, turning dull... lifeless.
Dracula said nothing. He simply stood there, unmoving, his arms crossed as he stared at his subject with analytical precision.
For the next thirty minutes, the room remained silent. The machines ticked. The IV bag slowly emptied. And Camazotz didn’t move again.
But the mont the last drop of the blackened fluid was gone—
Camazotz’s eyes shot open.
They blazed with a wild, flickering green energy, filled with violent tension and raw hunger. He gasped loudly, chest rising and falling with animalistic fury, and then his gaze locked on Dracula.
That look.
It was pure killing intent.
Camazotz let out a snarl, snapping his restraints tight. His body writhed like sothing inside was trying to break free.
Dracula, however, remained completely calm.
Without a hint of panic, he raised his right hand. A glowing tattoo on the back of his palm pulsed with deep crimson light—the mark of his authority as master.
He said sharply,
"Camazotz... Look at !"
The effect was instant.
Camazotz’s entire body froze mid-struggle, his limbs trembling like a wild beast held back by an invisible leash. He panted heavily, sweat soaking his skin as he slowly cald down. His mouth opened in shock.
"I-I’m sorry, Master!"
He cried out breathlessly.
"I don’t know what ca over ... I-I just... I couldn’t stop it..."
Dracula narrowed his eyes, then finally gave a slow nod.
"It’s fine. In fact... that ans it’s working. The transformation has begun," he said, voice low and satisfied.
"Now tell —what do you feel?"
Camazotz blinked slowly. Then a smirk slowly stretched across his face. He licked his lips, a wicked gleam entering his flickering red eyes.
"I feel... Thirsty."
Dracula grinned, revealing a glint of his fang-like teeth.
"Good... very good,"
He raised his hand again, and with a snap of his fingers, a black book appeared out of thin air, hovering in front of him. The book trembled for a mont, then flipped open on its own, glowing symbols dancing across the pages.
Dracula studied it briefly, then looked back at Camazotz with a twisted smile.
"It’s almost nightfall... Shall we go for a hunt?"
Camazotz’s eyes burned with anticipation as he nodded slowly, his breath quickening.
"Yes... let’s."
His irises flickered violently between red and green as his wicked grin grew wider.
Sothing dark had awakened.
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