Chapter 200: Bloodline Of Ruin

The throne room was quiet.

No flames burned. No guards stood.

Just cold stone, crimson banners, and the echo of footsteps that had long faded.

Lucifer sat alone on the throne—high-backed, jagged, shaped from a single slab of black obsidian. It looked more like a weapon than a seat. The same could be said for him.

His arms rested on the edges. His coat hung open, boots crossed at the ankles. Eyes half-lidded, staring into nothing. It had been days since he’d taken the throne. And not once had he given an order.

Not because he didn’t want to.

But because he didn’t know where to start.

Stronger...

The word lingered in his head, heavy and dull.

He had fought beings. Lost cities. Made clans. And yet, when Adam tore the mortal realm apart, he could only watch. Too weak to stop it. Too slow to matter.

And that reality dug deeper than any wound.

Lucifer leaned forward slightly, elbows on his knees. His hands hung down, relaxed, but his jaw was tight.



He could kill more. Feed. Take quests from the system and level like before. But it wasn’t enough. Not now. Not for what was coming.

He wanted something else.

Something faster.

Something real.

Even if it meant using methods outside the system.

His eyes flicked toward the edge of the room. The shadows didn’t move, but something inside him did.

"...Damaris."

No voice replied, but he felt the presence almost immediately—settling into his mind like smoke into a locked room.

"You finally called," came the voice. Calm. Regal. Cold.

Lucifer didn’t look up. "You’ve been watching?"

"Always."

A pause.

Then: "I need help."

"Say it clearer."

Lucifer’s fingers curled slightly.

"I need to grow stronger. Faster than what I’ve done so far."

He waited.

The voice of Damaris was silent for a moment, as if weighing his words.

"You’re the king now. Of the vampire realm. Do you know what that means for the system?"

Lucifer frowned. "No."

"It recognizes you differently. Not just as a leader. But as a pillar. And pillars reshape systems."

Lucifer straightened.

"You’re saying it’ll change?"

"It already has."

Lucifer’s heartbeat slowed.

His eyes narrowed. A low breath escaped him.

"Show me."

The system responded instantly. A soft chime. A familiar blue glow flashed before his vision.

[SYSTEM UPDATE – UNLOCKED FUNCTION]

— Blood Trial Tower —

Classification: Independent Realm Construct

Access: Vampiric Monarch-Class Only

Description:

A dimensional tower designed by the ancient Progenitor through the First Fang Protocol.

The tower houses 100 floors, each one a sealed battlefield containing relic beasts, cursed aberrations, nightmare-born titans, and forgotten creatures from the Great Purge.

Every floor contains challenges scaled to the soul-depth of the climber. Defeating enemies grants temporary ability duplication, unique trait inheritance, and soul-forging materials.

Every ten floors unlocks a ’Sanctum Node’ where permanent system evolution can be triggered.

Time operates independently inside the tower. One hour inside equals ten seconds outside.

Death is permanent beyond Floor 30.

Entry costs one vial of Progenitor Blood per floor.

Maximum daily climb: 10 Floors

Floor Guardians beyond Level 50 are permitted to speak.

Final Floor (100) houses the "Unliving Crown" — a god-class relic fragment bound to the Bloodline of Ruin.



WARNING: Only one may reach the top. If you begin, you must finish.

System Priority: Tier-Zero Access Only

[Enter Tower?]

YES / NO

Lucifer blinked.

The text was clean. Precise. No nonsense. No theatrics.

He liked that.

He stared at the floating prompt, expression unreadable.

A tower...

He hadn’t expected something like this. He’d heard whispers of trial realms, seen minor pocket dungeons under the system’s management—but this... this was different. A separate realm, isolated in time, designed for him.

Not to test.

To reforge.

The thought made his chest feel heavier.

"So this is what happens when I sit on that damn throne," he muttered.

"This was always meant to appear. But only for the one who awakened the Throne Mark."

Lucifer leaned back.

The memory of the bell tolling played again in his head. That low, old sound, vibrating through every bone in the realm.

It wasn’t just a symbol.

It was a key.

"What’s the ’Bloodline of Ruin’?" he asked aloud.

"A lie they buried. The first blood forged for war. You carry it—mixed, but intact."

Lucifer didn’t speak again for a while.

He tapped his fingers against the throne’s arm.

He could feel it—deep in the marrow of the world. Something had shifted when he sat down. Not politically. Not socially. But metaphysically. The system had changed its eyes. Stopped looking at him like a player.

And started watching him like a variable.

A threat.

A possibility.

He closed the system prompt.

Didn’t accept.

Not yet.

He stood slowly, his coat sliding along the obsidian as he rose.

He glanced around the room—empty, tall, quiet. Not a single soul present.

Only echoes.

He began walking. Past the twin pillars. Past the chained statues of forgotten monarchs. Through the heavy door that led to the upper gallery.

The shadows stretched longer behind him now.

Somewhere outside, the blood moon still hung low over Vhalcrest, casting everything in a red hue.

The people would wait for his word.

But he had none.

Not until he was ready.

As he crossed the hall, his thoughts circled again.

Ten floors a day. That’s manageable. And the reward scaling... it might actually push the system growth.

He could still kill. Still do quests. Still run missions. But this would fuel everything else. Like burning better coal under a war engine.

Fast. Focused. Brutal.



His kind of path.

Lucifer paused at the end of the gallery. Stared at the distant peaks in the east, where the wind howled beyond the cliffs.

Then turned.

And made his way toward the sanctum chamber.

The tower would be summoned there. A realm anchor waited beneath it—he remembered the glyph when he walked past it a week ago. It hadn’t pulsed back then.

It would now.

As he descended the spiral stairs, he felt it rising.

The pulse of a dimension beginning to open. Not a gate.

A wound.

Something meant to be torn through.

"You ready?" Damaris asked in his head.

Lucifer smirked faintly. "Not really."