OLD Chapter 203 (UPDATE AS OF 11/23/23 - These original chapters 195-210 will be pushed out to another future part of the book or recycled. New chapters starting at 195 are being posted after the original 210, and these original chapters will soon be removed. For now, skip ahead to the NEW Chapter 195 past old 210) (Patreon)

Chapter 203

Nearly 300 Years Ago…

Sheline sat meditating upon an ocean of blood, her vampiric heritage roaring about her while her ancient, spunky grandmother - Nephridi - went on and on about how annoying her most recent suitors were.

The beautiful, pale vampire rolled her eyes - but a smirk still played at her lips.  “Grandmother, can you just settle down and pick one already?  You’re going to give yourself another headache.  And that’s on top of the one you’re already giving me!”

Nephridi humphed, scowling down at the woman who would no doubt claim the throne to the Blood Moon Requiem when Nephridi handed the reigns to a successor.  Her long white robe flowed out around her, a stark contrast to the blood red and black dress her granddaughter had on, but their features and long brown hair that shifted like silk in the wind were one and the same.  “Oh let an old woman gossip, will you!?”

The high queen laughed sitting down on their chosen cultivation spot and sending ripples across the otherwise perfectly smooth ocean beneath them.  Flipping her hair over one shoulder and snorting at her granddaughter's expression, she raised a hand.  “Fine!  Fine.  Let’s get on with the plan then.  Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be!” Sheline muttered under her breath, calming her beating heart and clasping her hands tightly around one another before closing her eyes.

She was still young and hadn’t fully grasped the concept of forcing her malignant prophecy to activate, but she could prod and poke at it until it did something.  Whether or not it did what she wanted to was something else entirely, but Nephridi had faith in her and Sheline didn’t want to disappoint her grandmother.

Plus if anything happened, Sheline’s grandmother was strong enough that she’d be able to fix whatever it was that went wrong.

Sheline searched, tugging at the little filaments of soul particles that swirled around her constructing sin core - with each piece of sin having cost the royal family sums of money beyond imagination and a debt to one of the other great vampiric clans.  The Sin of Wrath raged inside her, constantly screaming at her to get up and kill without reason or direction - but she’d already gotten used to the nagging sensation and was well on her way to clamping it down altogether.

That would likely change for the worse when the core finished though, and that was why they were doing it the safe way.

The world began to turn gray around her, and unlike the thin clouds overhead that stopped in their tracks amidst the shifting winds: Sheline found herself staring down at her body from a phantasmal form.  She looked right to where her grandmother, also a holder of the gift, stared back at her - waving in the eerie gray.

A black door formed in front of her on the ocean of blood, and despite the time freeze - it slowly began to etch runs of gold into the black backdrop.  The symbol of three dragons, each eating the next to form a circle, took form in front of her eyes.

The phantasmal figure of her grandmother came to stand beside her, one of only a handful of people across the cosmos that could enter Sherine’s malignant zone.  She turned to look at her concentrating grandaughter, smiling in appreciation and approval while the three dragons began to spin faster, and faster, and faster.

“Have I ever told you the legend of the Temple of Time, dear granddaughter?” Nephridi asked with a slight cock of her head.

Sheline grunted while continuing to channel her sin energy into the door, manipulating it and simultaneously forcing malignant prophecy to activate outside the bounds of normalcy.  “You know you haven’t grandmother.  You always keep that information close to the chest.  Why?  Now that we’re finally here, you’re going to spill the secrets?  Is that it?”

An amused chuckle followed that, and the high queen sagged her shoulders into a more relaxed posture while the golden circle of devouring dragons began to blur - sending sparks of mana across the black door as the barrier between their world and the abyss began to crack.  “Well let me tell it to you now then.  Once, in the age before this one, long before the cycle of nirvana had come to fruition to destroy the old and replace it with the new, three dragons were born.  One was imbued with the power to manipulate the past, one was imbued with the power to manipulate the present, and one was imbued with the power to manipulate the future.”

There was a long pause as the high queen considered her words, and eventually her granddaughter gave another huff of irritation and glared up at the older woman.  “Don’t just stop there!  Tell me damn you!  You’re doing that on purpose!”

“I would never!” High Queen Nephridi said, aghast at the accusation, but winked with another laugh and clasped her hands behind her back.  “So the first of these dragons, that which could control the past, was named Steadfast.  For steadfast was the nature of the past, it was set in stone outside the manipulations of this dragon and could not be changed otherwise.  The second of these dragons, that which could control the present, was named Balance.  For it would balance out the actions between past and future, and manipulations of the past needed to be controlled in order to not let the future run rampant with shifting possibilities.  As time spreads out from the past and into the present, the possibilities begin to shift into a spiraling network of more and more futures.  Which leads us to the dragon of the future - the last of these dragons.  This dragon that could control the future, was named Malignancy… for it is the nature of the future to be malignant - to have an ever spiraling growth of possibilities.  Each of the three dragons grew so powerful that they even surpassed the death of the old multiverse, and were birthed here into the new.  But they were too weak to continue on their own after the transition, and their heritages were split amongst the most powerful of bloodlines that they deemed worthy.”

The golden cracks spreading out from the sigil of the three dragons began to break down, and the door now began to crumble - revealing a never ending sea of black behind its doorways that opened up into the resting place of the elder gods.  The resting place of the birth of creation and chaos.

Sheline’s eyes widened at her grandmother’s words, and her gaze shifted through the world of gray to stare at the high queen with mouth ajar.  A look of understanding crossed over her, and she slowly nodded.  “I think… I think I’m beginning to understand.”

Nephridi chuckled.  “Yes.  Our bloodline, that of Malignant Prophecy, is that of the dragon of the future.  One day, Sheline, your children will embark on a journey into the Abyss.  And when that day comes, we need to have prepared keys for them to find.  That of Past, and that of Present, and perhaps then - finally - after untold millennia - we will finally be able to claim the ultimate prize that the divine and profane have so long fought for.  We will steal it right from under their noses.”

Sheline’s eyes were like saucers now, and the rest of the door faded away as dust in the wind.  “My… children?”

Her smile softened, and a blush overcame her.  “What will I name them?  Have you seen it?  Who will the father be?  To think myself a mother… it is insanity.”

“Telling you such things would only ruin the surprise and potentially change the timeline.”  Nephridi replied with a ghostly pat on the shoulder.  Then she turned to look at the approaching figure, and gestured for Sheline to get up.  “We have a visitor.  Come child, stand, and meet the Keeper.”

Sheline stood up, frantically doing as her grandmother said when out through the door to the Abyss walked a figure wreathed in gold.  The mechanical, almost golem-like person with an immaculate crown holding up a halo shifted his eyes between the two vampires, then looked around at the world about them before settling back on Nephridi.

“I sense one of the keys within your blood, vampires.  It has been too long.”  The golden figure bowed.  “As a custodian of the Temple of time, it is my duty to welcome you to the trial grounds.  However, I must tell you that only those who have not entered the E grade may pass.  Cultivation of the essence must be maintained from the start, otherwise all will be lost.  It is the only way.”

Queen Nephridi nodded her head, and to Sheline’s surprise - the high queen bowed.  “Of course, Keeper.  It is an honor to be in your presence.  As for the trial… we are not yet entirely prepared anyways.  We summoned you here today in order to set up the trial for future generations, as you and I both wish to see the gates of the three dragons opened for our own individual reasons.  The angels and demons and their elder gods have long fought over the birthplace of creation, the Temple of Time, and the other consecrated sites of the abyss.  Perhaps you could help us deceive them long enough to let us both benefit.  Perhaps we could strike a mutually beneficial deal.”

The Keeper’s eyebrows raised, but he remained silent for quite some time before eventually speaking.  When he did speak, his voice was hardened - calculating, and a small grin began to creep across his lips.  “You have my attention, Queen of the Blood Moon Requiem.  Please, continue.”

***

[Malignant Prophecy has activated.

Desired Action: 77204A3aFF9327FhjAD.  SYSTEM ERROR.  ELYSIUM UNABLE TO INTERVENE.  Extremely High Tier Manipulation.  Current Willpower stat: 454.  Sufficient Willpower to perform desired action.  Performing this act will put your malignant prophecy on cooldown for significant amounts of time.  Do you wish to proceed?]

The error message was a first.  So was the ‘Elysium Unable to Intervene’, but they’d already been informed that Elysium was not the end-all-be-all power here in the Abyss like it was over the rest of the multiverse.

And despite the misgivings about not knowing what was going on, both siblings had received the notification in unison.  It appeared to be a joint decision, and knowing that this ability their bloodlines had was one that only ever acted in their best interests was enough to go ahead with it.

[Desired action has been selected: ERROR.]

[Your manipulation of fate has gained you ___ Malignancy Points.

Your manipulation of fate has gained you ___ Malignancy Points.

Your manipulation of fate has gained you ___ Malignancy Points.

ERROR.  SYSTEM UNABLE TO INTERVENE.

ERROR.

MAXIMUM POTENTIAL MALIGNANCY POINTS HAVE-

MAXIMUM POTEN-

MAXIM-

ERROR.

System recalibration complete via outside-

…

…

…

Calculating.  Update in progress, system to notify participants when done.  WARNING: Impending tribulation is likely.]

The gray landscape around him and his sister turned back to normal - but the threads of fate remained etched into both of their minds.

Silently joining up with the others and making sure the overpowered angel that’d touched down earlier was nowhere to be found, Riven blinked - showing Fimrindle appear inbetween the time it took to do so on Riven’s right hand side.

“I sense… a disturbance.” Fimrindle muttered, scythe held low with carved X’s for eyes peering into Allie while she walked down the stone steps of the battlements to stop before  them.

“You look paler than usual.” Athela confirmed, reaching out and patting Riven’s skin down where sweat had beaded across his pale skin.  She glanced over at the other, more heavily armored Clone Riven wearing Messenger - and frowned.  “What’s going on?”

“... We don’t know.” Riven eventually said with thin-lipped confusion underneath his hood, planting his basic caster’s staff into the ground of the ruined building overlooking the sprawling mists and cities below.  “Something happened with our Malignant Prophecy and it’s giving us a bunch of errors.  That’s never happened before.  It also warned us about a tribulation, but it’s never activated without a need.  It’s saved our lives multiple times now.  I have a feeling something very bad is about to happen.”

Allie nodded, clutching her wand nervously and shuddering slightly.  “I feel… cold.  We need to leave.”

“Leave where?” Athela asked, now very concerned.  She new very well Malignant Prophecy was nothing to take lightly, and if both siblings had experienced it - they needed to follow the signs.  “What did the prophecy say?  What did it tell you to do?  Are we going to high-tail it up the battlements to follow Yattazi’s markers or do we need to retreat and hide?”

Allie shook her head, pointing towards one of the crevices in the cliff face where a thin red thread of fate still shimmered in the minds of the two siblings.  “It wants us to go that way… There’s a path that leads up and into the city beyond the battlements above.  There we will find a hidden door, and we need to open it.  After that…”

“After that we’re not sure.” Riven said.  “The vision ended there.  Something inside is calling to us, and every time I think about not going - a feeling of dread sets in.  By experience, I feel like if we don’t go - we’ll almost certainly die.”

From far up above, a thunderous boom of holy energy tore through the clouds.  Arcs of golden and white light rained down, turning the clouds into a celestial storm.  From far below in the depths of the mists, a roaring echo resounded and lit up the cliff face with a shockwave - showing hundreds, thousands and then tens of thousands of flying figures ignited with infernal and unholy energies roaring upwards like a the gates of hell had been set loose.

Angel met demon in a mad and explosive rush, creating cataclysmic shockwaves across the abyss as the full might of both sides was let loose in the air around them.  But what was even more scary was that these opposing swarms of monsters and warriors alike began rushing into the city - looking for… something.

Or someone.

Massive titans of unimaginable size began to emerge from the clouds and mist alike, dwarfing their smaller cousins by massive proportions.  Eldrich horrors of nightmares rose from the depths, tentacles and claws the size of skyscrapers reaching up to meet blazing winged titans of gold that radiated formidable brilliance.

The crimson thread of fate began to pulse more quickly nearby, and Allie screamed at them before turning to sprint ahead.  “I DON’T KNOW WHY, BUT THEY’RE LOOKING  FOR US!  RUN!  NOW!”

Without a word Fimrindle disappeared.

“I love you, Athela.” Riven said, kissing her passionately before opening up the portal to her nether realm.  “You’ll be safe, I’ll see you soon.”

“RIVEN!” She screamed, raging at him with worry and despair etched into her features while the portal began to close shut behind her.  “NOOO!!  GOD DAMN IT RIVEN YOU BASTARD!”

It snapped closed behind her, banishing her back to safety.  Then he began to sprint after his sister.

He would not lose Athela again, and if there was anywhere in existence where she was in more danger - it was here, now, where hundreds of thousands of creatures likely having the blessings of commandments were nosediving the area Riven now found himself in.  If the single sword gifted to the cultists could do it, he had no doubt that at least a couple of these swarming creatures could too.

No.  If they were going to die, Athela would stay out of it.  He didn’t know how or why the two hidden armies of the eternal war had suddenly converged on their position, why they were suddenly scouring the battlements and multiple layers of ancient city on the enormous cliff face, but this was no coincidence.  Whatever the Malignant Prophecy had done, it’d allerted them all to the presence of the two vampires.  And for whatever reason, neither side wanted Riven and Allie to escape.

Too bad for them, because Riven planned very much to run his sorry ass as fast as he could to safety.  He could only hope that the thread of fate was correct in the path it chose to take them, it hadn’t failed him yet - but there was always a first time for everything.