Chapter 159: Fighting Vladimir

Chapter 159: Fighting VladimirThe sky above New York was cracked with silent lightning.

Lucifer’s wings tore through clouds as he flew, the city burning below in crimson veins of fire and collapsed steel. His horns glowed faintly in the dawn light. Each beat of his wings sent shockwaves rippling through the smoke around him. The world blurred beneath his flight path—skyscrapers like blackened bones, streets strewn with blood and overturned cars. His mind pulsed with his father’s last words. Go to the Vampire Realm. Gather your people. Live to fight again.

But every muscle in his body ached to fly toward Adam. To end it now.

His breath shook as he cut through the upper air currents, wings trembling with raw new power. Flying felt wrong. His body was used to running, killing on land, hunting from shadows. Not this. Not open sky and cold wind slicing against his face.

"Focus..." he growled to himself, adjusting mid-flight as his wings tilted awkwardly. A sudden crosswind slammed into him. His right wing folded half a second too late—

—and he spun out of control.

The world flipped upside down in a blur of smog, glass, and iron skeletons. He snarled, forcing his wings open again, chest burning with strain. He stabilised a few dozen feet above a half-collapsed apartment block, breath ragged. He could feel every gust, every gravitational pull, his instincts screaming at him to land.

But he didn’t.

He rose again, pushing higher into the burned sky.

Then—something hit him.

Hard.



A black mass smashed into his chest like a meteor, driving the breath from his lungs. Pain flared across his ribs as he twisted mid-air, wings thrashing out of reflex. The force sent him tumbling back down toward the streets. He caught himself just before impact, wings snapping outward in a burst of red aura that scorched the cracked pavement below.

He hovered there, panting. His eyes locked onto the monster in front of him.

At first it looked like a shadow made flesh. Its wings were ashen, glitching between tattered feather and flickering darkness. Its body was thin, limbs long and twisted with veins of blackened energy. Its eyes burned crimson-gold, deep and sick with fury.

Lucifer narrowed his gaze.

"...Vladimir," he said quietly.

The creature twitched at its name, head jerking once. Its mouth opened in a grin too wide for a human jaw. Rows of serrated fangs dripped with thick black saliva that sizzled as it fell to the burning street below.

"Lucifer Origin..." Vladimir rasped. His voice was deeper now, layered with static and something hollow. "You’ve grown... magnificent."

Lucifer’s wings twitched behind him. He flexed his claws once, feeling the blood magic hum under his skin. The wind whipped around them, stirring broken debris through the cracked avenue.

"What did you do to yourself, Vladimir?" Lucifer asked, voice low.

The creature laughed softly, bones creaking with each chuckle. "I ascended... in my own way." He tilted his head, one eye flickering with unstable light. "You took everything from me, boy. The Grimoire. The ritual. My chance to return home."

Lucifer clenched his jaw. "You did that to yourself."

Vladimir’s wings twitched violently, shattering a streetlight behind him with their mere movement. "NO," he roared, voice shaking the shattered glass on nearby buildings. "You were nothing! A failure thrown out by his own mother! And now... now you think you’re will be a king."

He lunged.

The world blurred. Vladimir moved like darkness given hunger. His clawed hand raked toward Lucifer’s chest, leaving a trail of black lightning in its wake. Lucifer folded his wings inward and dropped, feeling the claws skim past his horns with a scream of displaced air.

He twisted mid-fall, wings snapping outward to stabilise him above the burning avenue. Vladimir slammed down where he had been, concrete exploding upward in a burst of shattered rebar and molten debris.

Lucifer dove.

He struck from above, claws outstretched. Vladimir turned, catching his wrist mid-strike. Their eyes locked. For a brief moment, Lucifer saw what remained of the man inside. Broken. Terrified. Burning alive in his own rage.



Then Vladimir’s mouth split open wider, unhinging as he roared point-blank into Lucifer’s face. The sound rippled with demonic force, slamming into Lucifer’s chest like a freight train. He was flung back, wings folding instinctively to protect his torso as he rolled mid-air. He felt another gust slam into him from the side—Vladimir was moving again, a blur of glitching wings and claws.

Lucifer spun, narrowly avoiding a swipe aimed for his throat. He countered with a knee to Vladimir’s gut. The impact cracked the air, but Vladimir didn’t react. Instead, his claws sank into Lucifer’s shoulder, tearing through muscle to the bone. Blood sprayed across the air, sizzling against Vladimir’s corrupted flesh.

Lucifer roared in pain, his aura exploding outward in a burst of crimson light. Vladimir was flung back, smoke rising from his burned chest where Lucifer’s blood had seared him.

Lucifer hovered, panting, feeling the gash in his shoulder knit itself back together with burning agony. He raised his hand, summoning a spear of pure blood-forged essence. It vibrated with killing intent, the runes along its length glowing brighter as his rage poured into it.

"Don’t make me kill you, Vladimir," he said softly.

Vladimir laughed, wings glitching violently behind him. "Kill me...? You think this is about me dying? No..." His eyes flickered gold and red as his grin widened further. "This is about you dying with me."

He lunged again.

This time Lucifer was ready. He shot upward, feeling Vladimir’s claws scrape across his foot as he ascended. The air roared past his ears as he climbed into the smoke-choked sky, wings burning with every beat. He twisted mid-flight, spear raised. Vladimir followed, flying in jagged, glitching movements that bent reality around him in warped ripples.

They collided mid-air.

The impact shattered windows for six blocks below. Lucifer drove the spear forward, aiming for Vladimir’s throat. Vladimir twisted at the last second, letting it pierce through his shoulder instead. He roared, black blood spraying across the wind as he grabbed Lucifer’s horns and pulled him forward, headbutting him with enough force to send sparks cascading from their impact.

Lucifer felt his vision flicker white. He snarled, wings flaring wide to stabilise himself mid-air as Vladimir lunged again. This time Lucifer kicked downward, driving his heel into Vladimir’s sternum. The impact cratered his chest inward with a sickening crunch. But Vladimir didn’t stop. He laughed, mouth dripping with black blood as he grabbed Lucifer’s leg and twisted, flinging him sideways.

Lucifer spun out of control, wings folding to protect his body as he crashed through the top floors of a burning skyscraper. Metal screamed as he ripped through girders and broken glass. He emerged on the other side in a burst of smoke and flame, wings beating hard to stabilise his fall.

He hovered above the ruin, breathing heavy. His blood dripped in slow trails down his arms, glowing faintly in the dim light.

Vladimir floated a few dozen meters away, chest caved in, arm hanging limp, black blood seeping from his torn shoulder. But he was smiling.

"Come on, boy," he rasped, his voice glitching with static. "Show me what a Progenitor can really do."

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, feeling the rage burning through him like wildfire. His wings stretched wide, red aura curling around them like living flames. His horns glowed brighter, runes along his arms pulsing with every beat of his heart.

"You want to see?" he said softly.



Then he moved.

He blurred forward, faster than sound. Vladimir raised his remaining arm to block, but Lucifer was already past it. He drove his fist into Vladimir’s gut, feeling ribs shatter under his knuckles. He twisted, grabbing Vladimir’s throat, lifting him upward through the smoke-filled sky. Wind roared around them as they climbed higher and higher, clouds whipping past in streaks of black and crimson dawnlight.

Vladimir choked, clawing at Lucifer’s wrist. His wings flickered, unable to stabilise him. Lucifer didn’t stop. He punched again, and again, each strike sending ripples of blood aura through Vladimir’s body. The monster’s chest caved further, black blood spewing from his mouth as he laughed through the pain.

"You’re strong..." Vladimir rasped. "But you’re... not... enough..."

He raised his good arm. A glyph burned across his palm, flickering with unstable light.

"Die with me—"

Lucifer roared, wings flaring wide. He slammed Vladimir downward with all his strength, sending him plummeting toward the burning city below. The force of his throw cracked the sky itself, a thunderclap rolling across the horizon as Vladimir smashed through the roof of a skyscraper, exploding through twenty floors before disappearing into fire and smoke.

Lucifer hovered above, chest heaving, blood dripping from his claws.

His wings folded slowly behind him as he exhaled, steam curling from his lips.

"Rest, Vladimir," he whispered. "Your time is over."

He turned away, wings beating hard as he flew into the rising dawn, the city burning quietly beneath him.

And far above, beyond the clouds, Adam watched in silence, golden eyes narrowing with quiet amusement as the new day began.