Chapter 148: Velath’rein: The Rite of Lineage Echo

Chapter 148: Velath’rein: The Rite of Lineage EchoOrigin HQ – Lower Levels, Personal Study Hall

The room was quiet.

Not by accident.

Lucifer had sealed it himself—every inch of the wide, stone-lined chamber bound with runes to block noise, aura, and even time-based interference. A pale red glow flickered across the dark walls, pulsing from a single source at the center:

The Crimson Grimoire.

It hovered above the obsidian pedestal, pages open and turning by themselves—slowly, like fingers dragging through ancient memory.

Lucifer stood before it in silence.

Shirtless. Hair wet from a cold shower. A half-finished glass of bloodwine sat untouched on the desk beside him. The shadows at his back shifted with his breath, reacting to his mood.

He’d been searching for hours.

Not for power.

Not for destruction.



But for a name.

A presence.

His father.

Lilith had told him days ago—casually, as if it weren’t the most important thing he’d never known.

That his father... was gone.

Vanished one night. No sign. No goodbye. Just a shadow, leaving a deeper silence in his wake than death ever could.

And it gnawed at him.

Not because he wanted some emotional reunion.

Not because he needed answers.

But because something inside him... just wanted to know. The same way a wolf needs to know where it was born before it chooses a direction to run.

He spoke softly now, eyes scanning the red text that pulsed like burning blood.

"...There’s got to be something in here."

The Grimoire shifted. Pages fluttered again. Then stopped.

A page surfaced from deep within—one Lucifer hadn’t seen before.

The ink was darker. Black-red. Like dried marrow. The language wasn’t just vampire script. It was something older. A dialect even his mind hesitated to read.

But his blood understood it.

It called to him.

Like a whisper through his veins.

He stepped closer.

The spell was titled:

"Velath’rein: The Rite of Lineage Echo"

Underneath it:

To call through blood and bind to what once was. If the bond was true... the blood will respond.

Lucifer stared at it.

Then read on.

Instructions:

Prepare a vessel of your blood. Not spilled. Given. It must come from the wrist of your dominant hand, willingly offered into a consecrated chalice of bone.

The Grimoire must be at the ritual’s center. Open. Bound with no seal.

Speak the incantation in the tongue of the origin—let no other presence be near. No breath. No echo. Only silence and blood.

Burn a strand of your soul—manifest it through memory. Choose a moment from your past that defines you. Let the memory unravel into the flame.

Once the flame dies, drink from the chalice. Then ask. And wait.

Lucifer narrowed his eyes.

No guarantee.

No result listed.

Just wait.

He looked at the top again.

Lineage Echo.

"...You’ll answer me," he murmured, "or I’ll drag you back myself."

—

Preparation – One Hour Later

The room was darker now.

Only the Grimoire and a ring of candles lit the ritual space. Each candle burned red—real fire, but touched by vampire mana. The flames hissed and trembled when he walked past.

Lucifer sat cross-legged in the center.

Before him, a consecrated chalice made from hollowed vampire bone rested on a flat slab of dark granite. Runes were etched into the stone beneath it, all leading back to the Grimoire floating just inches above.

He extended his right wrist.

No hesitation.

He clenched his fist, pushed his veins forward—and with one quick slice from a bone-dagger, he let the blood spill into the cup.

Not fast. Not shallow.

A full stream, steady and controlled, until the chalice was filled halfway.

He let the wound close by itself.

No healing magic. No vampire restoration.

Pain was part of the offering.

He looked at the memory crystal beside him.

Inside it?

A moment.

The first time he ever killed.

He remembered the exact face. The smell. The sound of bones cracking beneath his palm. That one moment—unforgiving, brutal, but real.

He placed the crystal into the miniature soul-flame altar at his side.

The fire caught immediately.

A pale blue-white flame rose upward, flickering unnaturally as the memory bled out of the crystal and into the air—like ash drifting upward into nothing.

Lucifer spoke the first line of the incantation.



His voice dropped lower.

Steadier.

"Vael thurai... meshtar nox."

The shadows pulsed.

The air changed.

The Grimoire trembled slightly in the air—glowing darker.

He continued.

"Zel’vakth... inorai kell rem."

The candlelight dimmed.

The blood in the chalice stirred.

It was working.

Lucifer’s heartbeat slowed. His eyes never left the flame.

He reached forward.

Lifted the chalice.

It was warm now.

Too warm.

Like it remembered something he didn’t.

He raised it to his lips.

Then drank.

—

Stillness.

No reaction.

Lucifer sat still, waiting, eyes half-closed, blood drying down his forearm.

Seconds passed.

Then minutes.

Then more.

The soul-flame finally died.

The candlelight returned to normal.

The shadows stopped pulsing.

The Grimoire closed itself with a soft thump.

Nothing.

Lucifer opened his eyes.

Blinking.

His throat tightened—not from the drink. From the silence.

No voice.

No pull.

No answer.

He was still alone.

He looked down at his hands. Then at the chalice. Then back at the Grimoire.

"...That’s it?"

No thunder.

No echo of bloodline.

No whisper from the abyss.

Just... stillness.

He sat there a while longer.

Not moving.

Not thinking.

Then he let out a long, slow breath.

"...Guess that’s your answer," he muttered.

He stood.

Wiped the blood from his palm.

The candles flickered out one by one.

The chamber went dark again.

Lucifer didn’t say another word.

He walked to the door.

The Grimoire stayed behind—silent. Closed. Its secrets once again buried under blood and silence.

As he stepped into the hallway, Alessia appeared from the far end, leaning against the wall like she’d been waiting.

She didn’t ask.

She just looked at his face.

"...Nothing?"

Lucifer walked past her.

"Nothing."



Then he stopped at the corner.

"But it wasn’t for nothing."

Alessia raised an eyebrow. "How do you mean?"

Lucifer looked up at the ceiling.

"Because now I know one thing."

"...Which is?"

He turned his eyes toward her—calm, unreadable.

"If he is alive... he doesn’t want to be found."

And with that, he walked away.

Leaving the spell.

And the silence.

Behind.