Chapter 183: Lucifer was still Lucifer.

Valecar let the silence stretch.

His silver hair drifted faintly as he leaned further back into his throne, crimson eyes half-lidded with bored amusement. The nobles watched him carefully, tension flickering through their sharp gazes as their claws rested lightly on belt hilts.

Finally, he exhaled a quiet, bored sigh.

"I see," he said softly, his voice echoing across the cold obsidian hall. "So... you come here seeking shelter, like stray dogs fleeing a burning hut."

He tilted his head faintly, gaze flickering lazily from Zane to Greta, then to the trembling witches pressed close to her chains. His eyes narrowed in faint disgust at Serah’s tear-streaked, bloodstained face.

"And you expect us," he continued, his voice dropping into quiet contempt, "the pure bloodlines of the Vampire Realm... to stain our lands with such filth?"

A faint ripple of laughter flickered through the nobles. Cold. Sharp. Mocking.free\.c o(m)

Zane’s aura pulsed outward, silent red lightning flickering across the polished stone beneath his boots. His crimson eyes narrowed dangerously, but before he could speak, Clone Lucifer raised a trembling hand, stopping him.

For a moment, silence.

The witches turned to look at Clone Lucifer, their tearful eyes flickering with fear and confusion. Even Greta’s chains curled tighter around her as she studied him carefully, sensing something shifting in his quiet presence.

Clone Lucifer lowered his hand.

He took a slow step forward, his bare feet silent against the cold obsidian floor. His black hair fell around his pale face in limp, blood-matted strands, and his crimson eyes burned softly under the flickering torchlight. His wings twitched faintly behind him, folded tight against his back.



Valecar raised an eyebrow faintly, bored curiosity flickering in his gaze.

"And who are you," he asked softly, "to stand before me without bowing?"

Clone Lucifer said nothing at first. His red eyes flickered as he scanned the silent hall, taking in the nobles, the assassins, the chained thralls lining the walls. He could feel it. The deep hum of the realm’s power pulsing through his bones. Familiar. Ancient. Cold.

Home.

He raised his gaze slowly, locking onto Valecar’s bored crimson eyes without flinching.

"My name..." he whispered softly, his voice trembling with exhaustion and quiet grief. "...is Lucifer."

The hall fell silent.

Valecar blinked once, then smirked faintly, revealing sharp white fangs as soft laughter slipped from his lips.

"Lucifer...?" he repeated, amusement flickering across his pale features. "How dramatic. You speak as though we should know that name."

Clone Lucifer didn’t react. His wings twitched faintly as he took another slow step forward, his aura flickering around him in trembling arcs of black mist.

"You don’t need to know it," he said softly. "But you will remember it."

The nobles shifted uncomfortably. Whispers flickered between them like silent knives.

"Arrogant..."

"His aura... it feels like nothing..."

"Is he mad...?"

Valecar leaned forward slightly, resting both elbows on the throne’s armrests as he steepled his pale fingers before his lips. His crimson eyes burned brighter with silent threat.

"You stand here, in my realm, in my throne room," he said quietly, his voice trembling with cold power, "and threaten me... with a name no one knows?"

Clone Lucifer lowered his head faintly, his black hair drifting across his eyes. For a moment, his shoulders trembled with silent grief. Images flickered through his mind. Battles fought under pale moons. Promises whispered in darkness. Francisca’s tails curled in death’s stillness against his chest. The warmth of Origin. The quiet weight of Lucifer’s memories settling into his bones like old ghosts finding their graves.



He raised his gaze again, tears flickering in his crimson eyes, but his voice remained steady.

"I’m not threatening you," he said softly. "I’m telling you. If you refuse to shelter these people... if you force them back into a dying world... if you cast them aside like worthless filth..."

His wings flickered outward behind him, massive and black, feathers dripping faint trails of dark mist onto the polished obsidian floor. His aura pulsed outward in a trembling quake that pressed silent ripples through the torchlit hall.

"...then I will show you," he whispered, his voice low and quiet and final, "exactly who Lucifer is."

The nobles flinched back instinctively, their claws clicking faintly against stone as the silent pressure of his presence pressed into their bones. Even though his aura lacked the unbreakable gravity of a Progenitor, the quiet certainty in his eyes flickered deeper than any power.

Valecar narrowed his gaze, silent anger flickering behind his calm crimson eyes.

"You dare—"

Zane stepped forward, placing a single hand on Clone Lucifer’s trembling shoulder. Red lightning flickered softly around his fingers, casting shadows across Lucifer’s black hair and pale face.

"He’s right," Zane said softly, his voice calm and low. "You think yourself immortal, Valecar. You think this realm unbreakable. But that is only because Lucifer has never stood here before."

Valecar tilted his head faintly, studying Zane’s burning crimson gaze for a long, silent moment. Then he leaned back slowly, resting his chin against his hand once more, boredom returning to his sharp features.

"Amusing," he said softly. "Very well."

He raised a single pale finger, flicking it dismissively toward the witches behind Greta’s protective chains.

"Kill the witches. Chain the rest. Throw this ’Lucifer’ into the Black Pits. Let him rot there with the other mad ones."

The nobles moved instantly.

Assassins flickered forward, claws flashing in silent arcs of black steel. Their blood-red eyes burned with savage hunger as they lunged for the witches, blades aimed for their trembling throats.

Clone Lucifer’s wings snapped outward in a silent explosion of black mist.

He vanished.

Appeared in front of the first assassin, his clawed fingers already buried in its chest. The vampire gasped, blood erupting from its lips as Lucifer twisted his wrist, ripping out its heart in a single brutal pull.

Before the body fell, he moved again.



Appeared behind the second attacker, his claws slicing clean through its neck, severing its head from its shoulders in a silent spray of blood. The third assassin lunged from behind, blades flickering down for his spine.

Lucifer didn’t turn.

His wings flickered once, feathers slicing backward, shredding the attacker into drifting crimson mist that dissolved into the cold air.

Silence fell.

The nobles froze, their eyes wide with silent horror. Valecar narrowed his gaze faintly, studying Clone Lucifer’s trembling wings, the quiet grief burning in his crimson eyes.

For the first time, a faint ripple of unease flickered across his cold face.

Clone Lucifer lowered his claws slowly, his breath trembling as black mist drifted from his wings in silent arcs.

"No one," he whispered softly, his voice trembling with quiet rage and unbreakable grief, "will harm them while I still stand."

And under the silent twin blood moons, the Vampire Realm pulsed with quiet, trembling fear.

Because even without a Progenitor’s aura—

Lucifer was still Lucifer.

And he would not bow to anyone.