The stairwell ended in silence. Noctis stepped into the prison sanctum, boots clicking against scripture-carved stone. The chamber stretched wide, ribbed walls lined with cages. Iron bars bent like marrow, chains of scripture glowing faintly with pale light.
Inside the cages, prisoners writhed.
Saints in rags, their eyes dim with false sanctity. Vampires branded with scripture, fangs blackened, snarling in weak desperation. Humans in hoods patrolled between cells, zealots with whips and priests with chains, muttering hymns to keep their captives docile.
The sight did not slow him. His face remained calm, but in his veins, scripture burned.
A priest turned, eyes widening. "Sound the—"
Gravesong cut him in half.
The sanctum convulsed. Zealots rushed him, steel raised, prayers screaming. Noctis's foot touched the floor and Hemorrhage Field spread outward. Veins split stone; crimson pulses detonated under their skin. Blood sprayed across the bars as they screamed and fell.
Blood Flood followed, crimson waves surging down the aisles.
Damage: 1,420 AoE
Zealot HP: 800 → 0
[+9 Blood Essence][+11 Blood Essence | +1 Faith Essence][+8 Blood Essence]
Bodies collapsed. Blood hissed into the floor, absorbed by his Testament.
The cages rattled. Saints clawed at bars, zealots whipped them back, but scripture brands flared, breaking their restraint. Vampires lunged from broken cages, feral and bound, chains still hanging from their wrists.
Noctis did not hesitate.
A vampire thrashed forward, eyes glowing red, scripture carved into its chest. His palm flared.
Testament Brand.
Scripture burned across its veins. It convulsed, blood spraying from its pores.
Brand Damage: 240/sec bleed
Vampire HP: 1,200 → 720
Noctis caught it by the throat, pulled it close, and bit.
The taste was sharp — not just blood, but scripture-twisted essence. He drank until the thrall's body collapsed into ash.
[+15 Blood Essence | +2 Faith Essence | +1 Iron Essence]
The Grid tore open unbidden.
Not the Testament. A new fragment pulsed faintly at its edge, shaped in scripture-etched crimson.
Predatory Inheritance activated.
New Branch: Scarlet Covenant
Covenant Pulse: restores minor HP on kills.
Sanguine Exchange: convert Blood Essence into Faith or Iron.
Ashen Respite: minor regeneration while standing amid corpses.
His veins hummed. His body remembered the thrall's feral desperation, and it rewrote itself into survival.
Memories burned in his mind — chains, cages, priests chanting.
Blood Remembrance: Memory Fragment (Vampire Thrall)"We bleed in scripture. Not for freedom. Not for feeding. For the womb. Always the womb."
Noctis smirked faintly, amused by the irony. Drinking kin had given him a support doctrine, a covenant of survival.
The sanctum erupted further. Saints surged out of cages, priests screamed orders, zealots fell. Noctis moved through them like silence.
Vein Rupture: his claws tore saints' marrow, regeneration collapsing.
Damage: 812 per strike
Saint HP: 2,400 → 0
[+22 Blood Essence | +6 Faith Essence]
Scripture Veins flared: a vampire froze mid-step, dragged toward him against its will. Gravesong split it open.
[+14 Blood Essence | +1 Faith Essence]
Bloodstorm roared, cyclone shredding zealots, saints, and vampires together.
Damage: 1,512 ×3 AoE
Prisoner HP (avg. 1,000) → 0
[+122 Blood Essence | +24 Faith Essence | +6 Iron Essence]
Another vampire stronger than the rest snapped its cage, brands glowing deep crimson. It charged, claws ripping through the storm.
Noctis met it calmly.
Piercing Fang. Gravesong punctured its chest.
Damage: 2,144 (Critical)
Vampire HP: 4,200 → 2,056
It clawed him back.
Damage: 442
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 1,958
He sank his fangs into its throat, draining until scripture burned into ash.
[+38 Blood Essence | +9 Faith Essence | +2 Soul Essence]
The Grid flickered again.
Predatory Inheritance: Blood Frenzy (from Vampire Elite)
Attack speed rises briefly when wounded.
Blood Remembrance: Memory Fragment (Vampire Elite)"The god unborn stirs. They will break every chain when the chalice overflows."
Noctis straightened, calm, cloak dripping with blood. A faint laugh escaped him, sharp and low. A vampire, now perfected as a vampire slayer, inheriting kin's desperation as weapons.
The prison sanctum grew still. Ash blanketed the floor. Chains lay shattered. Zealots, saints, vampires — all silent, all consumed.
Noctis walked through the carnage without a word, scripture glowing faint beneath his skin.
Ash drifted across the prison floor. The last chains still rattled faintly, metal groaning as they cooled. Noctis stood in the silence, his cloak dripping with blood, his breath steady. Gravesong hummed faintly on his back, the phantom choir gone quiet for now.
He closed his eyes. The Grid opened.
The lattice bloomed across his vision — crimson veins threading outward, golden scripture blazing through their paths. The Crimson Testament pulsed at one edge, scripture etched bright across its nodes. But something new had formed alongside it.
A separate cluster. Not veins, not scripture. A shifting, amorphous weave.
The Blood Archive.
Unlike the other branches, this one was fragmented, irregular. Each node wasn't shaped by his own evolution, but by the essence he had consumed. Every feeding kill left a mark here.
The first branch glowed faintly.
Predatory Inheritance: Scarlet Covenant(Support Path — derived from Vampire Thralls)
Covenant Pulse (Cost: 25 Blood)
Each kill restores minor HP.
Current potency: +120 HP per kill.
Sanguine Exchange (Cost: 35 Blood + 5 Faith)
Converts Blood Essence into Faith or Iron at a 3:1 ratio.
Ashen Respite (Passive)
Regeneration improves by 8% when standing amid fresh corpses.
The Archive whispered faintly — not his voice, not the Grid's system tone. Fragments of vampire thralls echoed inside: snarls, screams, hymns broken by chains. Their skills had become his, their survival etched into his marrow.
Another node pulsed deeper in the Archive, glowing brighter.
Predatory Inheritance: Blood Frenzy (from Vampire Elite)(Support Passive)
Attack speed increases by 15% for 10 seconds after taking damage.
Triggers once every 30 seconds.
It thrummed in his veins, fast and sharp. He felt it twitch in his muscles, ready to ignite when struck. The memory fragment bled into his mind again: a vampire roaring in chains, claws tearing at scripture, frenzy in despair. He had stolen that frenzy and made it his own.
The Archive dimmed. Another panel unfurled: not skills, but fragments.
Blood Remembrance — Memory Fragments
Vampire Thrall: "We bleed in scripture. Not for freedom. For the womb."
Vampire Elite: "The god unborn stirs. They will break every chain when the chalice overflows."
Noctis's eyes opened. The words still rang in his skull, faint and broken. He smirked faintly at the irony. His kin had bled and died here for nothing but the womb of a god. Now even their scraps had become his weapons.
He turned from the ash-strewn floor. His veins glowed faintly gold-crimson beneath his skin, scripture woven with blood. His cloak dragged through blood and dust as he moved toward the next stairwell.
Calm. Silent. But his body thrummed with new power, Archive nodes burning at the edge of his vision.
The cathedral had made him not only a predator — but a thief of essence, skills, and memories alike.
The stairwell curved downward, stone steps wet with condensation, the air colder than before. Noctis descended without a word, cloak trailing behind him, his veins still glowing faintly with scripture. Ash clung to his boots, falling like black snow as he moved deeper.
At the base, the stair opened into a wide hall. Pillars of marrow rose to the ceiling, each chained with iron scripture. Between them, zealots knelt in prayer, their heads jerking up as the echo of his steps reached them. Beyond, cages lined the walls again. Inside, saints slumped with hollow eyes, vampires snarled against their shackles, and priests whispered hymns to keep them subdued.
The first zealot pointed at him. "Intruder—"
Gravesong cut his jaw away before the word finished.
The chamber erupted.
Zealots rushed in, blades raised, prayers howling. Noctis didn't move fast; his stride was calm, steady, but every step left a trail of blood. Hemorrhage Field spread underfoot, cracks splitting the stone. Zealots convulsed, their veins bursting, blood spraying into the air.
Blood Flood surged outward, drowning the first wave.
Damage: 1,350 AoE
Zealot HP: 750 → 0
[+7 Blood Essence][+10 Blood Essence | +1 Faith Essence][+8 Blood Essence]
The floor ran red.
From the cages, a vampire thrashed free, scripture chains snapping. It lunged at him, claws slashing. Its eyes burned red, but its body was gaunt, weakened by starvation.
The Testament flared in his veins. Scripture Veins dragged it forward against its will. His palm branded its chest — Testament Brand igniting its veins. Blood ruptured through its pores as it screamed.
Brand Damage: 220/sec bleed
Vampire HP: 1,200 → 760 → 540
Noctis caught its skull and bit deep. Blood poured into his mouth, hot and bitter with scripture.
[+14 Blood Essence | +2 Faith Essence | +1 Iron Essence]
His wounds tingled faintly. A pulse surged through his body, alien but familiar.
Scarlet Covenant — Covenant Pulse triggered.+120 HP restored.
The Archive whispered inside him — the thrall's survival instinct turned into his. Every kill now fed him not only essence, but life.
More poured free — saints glowing with pale light, priests shoving them forward, vampires staggering from chains.
A priest raised his staff, light flaring. Noctis stepped through it, Gravesong cleaving the man in half.
Vein Rupture burned through the saints. His claws struck ribs, marrow splitting, regeneration collapsing.
Damage: 792 per strike (Amplified)
Saint HP: 2,400 → 0
[+21 Blood Essence | +5 Faith Essence]
His wounds burned again.
Scarlet Covenant — Covenant Pulse triggered.+120 HP restored.
The cycle was clear now. Every kill fed him blood, essence, life.
A vampire hurled itself at him, claw raking across his chest.
Damage: 448
Noctis HP: 2,320 → 1,872
His veins flared. Blood Frenzy triggered.
Attack speed surged by 15%. His strikes blurred, calm precision turning savage. Gravesong cut three lines through the vampire before it even finished its scream.
Damage: 1,100 ×3
Vampire HP: 3,000 → 0
[+19 Blood Essence | +2 Faith Essence]
Covenant Pulse triggered. +120 HP.
The chamber was chaos. Zealots prayed and died, saints bled out, vampires shrieked and burned. Noctis walked calmly through them, every step dragging scripture, every strike feeding his Archive.
Bloodstorm roared once more, cyclone tearing through cages and bodies alike. Blood rained, ash scattered, screams cut short.
Damage: 1,480 ×3 AoE
Prisoner HP: average 900 → 0
[+102 Blood Essence | +18 Faith Essence | +5 Iron Essence]
His veins pulsed.
Covenant Pulse triggered ×14.+1,680 HP restored.
His body thrummed, whole again, cloak soaked in blood.
The last cage broke. A vampire stronger than the rest stumbled forward, chains dangling, eyes glowing red. It roared and lunged at him, but Scripture Veins pulled it into his brand. Testament Brand lit its chest. It convulsed, blood exploding from its veins.
He didn't hurry. He stepped in and fed until it dissolved into ash.
[+32 Blood Essence | +7 Faith Essence | +1 Soul Essence]
The Archive pulsed.
Predatory Inheritance — New Node Gained: Viscera Shroud
Passive: brief armor boost after feeding kill.
Memories bled into him, sharp and fragmented.
Blood Remembrance — Memory Fragment (Vampire Prisoner):"We were taken from clans… bound to scripture… made to bleed for centuries. The god unborn is not their god. It is a weapon."
Noctis opened his eyes. Calm. A faint smirk tugged at his lips — irony settling deeper.
The chamber fell silent. Ash drifted, blood pooled. The last zealot's body slid from Gravesong's edge, thudding against stone.
Noctis stood in the ruin, calm and still. The Scarlet Covenant pulsed faintly inside him, Archive nodes glowing with new power.
He turned toward the next stairwell, cloak trailing, scripture veins glowing faint beneath his skin.
The stairwell dropped him into another hall, narrower than the prison sanctum but no less oppressive. The walls here were scored with claw marks, the stone bent inward as though something massive had dragged its weight along the marrow.
Noctis walked in silence. His cloak trailed through the bloodstains. Gravesong hummed faintly on his back, the Testament burning steady in his veins.
At the far end, the shadows stirred.
A figure uncoiled itself from the wall, rising with the slow sound of iron links clattering. Seven chains dragged across the floor, each one hooked into its flesh. Its body was part saint, part vampire, stitched together with marrow and sealed with scripture. Its eyes burned pale gold, its mouth fanged and twisted.
The Warden of Chains.
It hissed, chains snapping taut, scripture glowing along their length. The hall shook as it raised both arms.
Chains lashed outward.
Noctis stepped sideways, calm. The first whip split stone where he'd stood. The second came low, fast — he caught it in his claw. Scripture burned into his palm, light searing against his veins.
He pulled. The Warden stumbled forward, massive frame dragged by its own bindings.
Testament Brand. His claw ignited, scripture burning across the creature's chest. Veins bulged, blood rupturing through its seams.
Brand Damage: 310/sec bleed
Warden HP: 18,000 → 17,070
It bellowed, swinging another chain in a wide arc. The blow caught him across the side.
Damage: 712
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 1,688
His veins flared. Blood Frenzy triggered.
His movements sharpened, speed surging. Gravesong flashed three times in a heartbeat, cutting into the Warden's ribs, marrow screaming as it split.
Damage: 1,200 ×3 (Critical Burst)
Warden HP: 17,070 → 13,470
The Warden howled, its chains erupting with sanctity. Scripture symbols flared into the air, slamming down around him like a cage. Shackles coiled across his limbs, trying to bind.
Noctis flexed. Viscera Shroud flared across his skin, armor boiling from the blood of the last vampire he had drained. The chains scraped sparks but didn't bite deep. He tore them apart, the Testament veins burning scripture into ash.
The Warden reeled back, pulling its chains taut, slamming them down like titan hammers.
Stone cracked. Debris exploded. Noctis stepped through calmly, cloak swirling in dust. His veins blazed.
Vein Rupture.
Claws tore into its chest, marrow breaking open. Blood fountained from the wound.
Damage: 1,048
Warden HP: 13,470 → 12,422
Zealots poured in from a side door, dozens of them chanting in panic, sent to support their Warden. They rushed him with maces and prayer-songs.
Noctis turned his head slightly. Calm. His claw spread.
Hemorrhage Field.
The floor split, blood detonating under their feet. Zealots convulsed and fell screaming.
Blood Flood.
The tide swept through, drowning them in their own veins.
Damage: 1,320 AoE
Zealot HP: 800 → 0
[+9 Blood Essence][+12 Blood Essence | +1 Faith Essence][+10 Blood Essence]
The pulses ran back into him.
Scarlet Covenant — Covenant Pulse triggered ×7.+840 HP restored.
His wounds sealed, his body whole again.
The Warden lunged while he drank, swinging all seven chains in a storm. They crashed into his shoulders, his chest, his legs.
Damage: 388 ×4
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 844
His veins flared, scripture burning through his skin.
Blood Frenzy triggered.
Gravesong sang. His strikes blurred, faster than the chains could recoil. He cut through two at once, sparks exploding as the links shattered.
Damage: 1,400 + 1,380 (Critical)
Warden HP: 12,422 → 9,642
Blood sprayed from the creature's chest, Testament Brand rupturing every second.
Brand Tick: 310/sec ×3
Warden HP: 9,642 → 8,712
It staggered back, roaring, swinging the remaining chains in desperation.
Noctis walked forward. Calm. His cloak dragged through the blood pooling at his feet.
The Testament veins blazed. He raised Gravesong in both hands.
Bloodstorm.
A cyclone tore down the hall, ripping zealots into ribbons, slamming the Warden back against the wall. Chains snapped one by one, scripture unraveling as the storm carved into its flesh.
Damage: 1,460 ×3 AoE
Warden HP: 8,712 → 4,332
It roared, staggering, dragging itself upright on broken limbs. Chains hung slack, glowing faintly.
Noctis closed the distance.
Oath of Ash.
Scripture erupted through his veins, his body splitting into ash for a heartbeat, reforming as he drove Gravesong through the Warden's chest. Blood poured, sanctity screaming as its veins burned. The body collapsed into scripture-etched ash, chains crumbling to dust.
Damage: Finisher (4,332)
Warden HP: 4,332 → 0
The hall fell silent.
The Archive pulsed.
Predatory Inheritance unlocked: Chain Rend (Active Skill)
Summons scripture-veins in lash form, binding and damaging enemies.
Noctis's body remembered the chains. His veins itched with their weight, his claws flexed with their reach.
A memory fragment bled into his skull.
Blood Remembrance — Warden Fragment:"We bind the saints. We bind the vampires. We test the vessels. None escape until the womb opens."
His eyes opened, calm. Ash swirled at his feet. A faint smirk touched his lips. He turned toward the next stairwell, leaving the hall of broken chains behind.
The hall narrowed, then widened again. Noctis stepped into a vaulted nave carved of marrow and scripture. Choir stalls lined both walls, high and hollow, but no singers waited in their seats. Instead, cages hung from the rafters, each filled with saints whose eyes glowed dim with false light. Zealots stood below, whispering hymns, feeding blood into scripture bowls.
Chains rattled overhead. Shadows moved between the stalls. Vampires. Elites. Their bodies were scarred with scripture, their faces gaunt, but their eyes burned bright.
They turned toward him as one.
The zealots froze when they saw him. Their hymns broke. The silence cracked, then shattered. Screams, prayers, chains all roared at once.
The chamber erupted.
Zealots surged from the floor, charging with blades raised, prayers breaking their voices. Noctis stepped forward, cloak dragging through dust. His claw touched stone.
Hemorrhage Field.
The nave split. Veins tore through the ground, blood detonating beneath zealots' skin. They shrieked as their veins burst, spraying the stalls with crimson rain.
Blood Flood.
A tide rolled across the choir stalls, drowning zealots where they stood, sweeping bodies into the aisles.
Damage: 1,420 AoE
Zealot HP: 800 → 0
[+7 Blood Essence][+9 Blood Essence | +1 Faith Essence][+10 Blood Essence]
The stalls ran slick with blood. The saints inside their cages screamed, their voices breaking into warped hymns. Scripture flared from their ribs, beams of sanctity lashing down into the hall.
Noctis didn't slow. He raised his claw, scripture veins burning across his arm.
Chain Rend.
Blood-veins lashed out from his palm, weaving into scripture chains. They whipped through the air, coiling around saints and zealots alike. The bindings snapped tight, crushing bone, dragging bodies into the air.
He clenched his fist. The chains constricted.
Damage: 1,050 Binding Crush
Zealot HP: 750 → 0
Saint HP: 2,200 → 1,150
The captives screamed as their marrow cracked. Noctis released the lash, corpses collapsing in heaps.
[+13 Blood Essence | +3 Faith Essence]
The vampires moved.
From the stalls, three leapt at once, scripture scars glowing, claws bared. They dropped with the force of falling stones, the air splitting around them.
The first struck from the left. Noctis caught its claw, turned it aside, and branded its chest. Testament Brand flared, blood rupturing in bursts across its skin.
Brand Damage: 320/sec bleed
Vampire Elite HP: 3,400 → 2,760
The second slammed into his side. Claws raked his ribs.
Damage: 512
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 1,888
His veins flared. Blood Frenzy triggered.
His counter was immediate. Gravesong flashed twice, faster than the eye could follow.
Damage: 1,180 ×2
Vampire HP: 3,600 → 1,240
The third came head-on, chains still dangling from its wrists. It swung with both hands, scripture brands glowing. Noctis lifted his claw.
Chain Rend.
The lash snapped across its chest, wrapping tight. The vampire shrieked, dragged off its feet, slammed into the floor hard enough to crack stone.
Damage: 1,200 Binding Slam
Vampire HP: 3,800 → 2,600
Noctis stepped calmly into its shadow. Gravesong pierced its throat.
[+22 Blood Essence | +4 Faith Essence | +1 Iron Essence]
Scarlet Covenant — Covenant Pulse triggered.+120 HP restored.
The other two elites circled, their movements sharp, feral. They came together, one low, one high. Claws slashed. Noctis raised his cloak, Viscera Shroud flaring across his skin. Sparks scattered where claws struck, shallow lines burning across his flesh but not breaking deep.
He caught the low one by the skull, slammed it into the ground, and bit. Blood poured into his throat, scripture venomous but sweet.
Damage: Feeding Kill
Vampire HP: 1,240 → 0
[+28 Blood Essence | +6 Faith Essence | +1 Soul Essence]
Covenant Pulse triggered. +120 HP.
The last vampire shrieked, scripture burning across its chest. It lunged, claws cutting into his shoulder.
Damage: 420
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 1,960
Blood Frenzy triggered.
Gravesong blurred. Three cuts in a second — chest, ribs, throat. Blood fountained. The body collapsed before it finished roaring.
[+24 Blood Essence | +5 Faith Essence]
The saints still screamed above. Priests lashed them with scripture rods, forcing their hymns louder. The sound shook the nave, sanctity beams crashing into the floor, breaking stone, burning crimson pools into white light.
Noctis lifted his hand. Chain Rend lashed upward, coiling around one cage. He pulled. Metal screamed. The cage tore free, smashing into the stalls below. Saints inside screamed, their light erupting, then collapsed in a burst of blood.
[+31 Blood Essence | +8 Faith Essence]
Another vampire dropped from the rafters — larger, heavier, scars deeper than the rest. Its eyes glowed white, its chains thicker, dragging across the stone.
It roared, charging.
The impact shook the chamber. Its claws raked across his chest.
Damage: 630
Noctis HP: 2,400 → 1,770
Blood sprayed. His veins blazed. Blood Frenzy triggered.
He moved with brutal precision, not haste — every strike deliberate. Gravesong cut into its ribs, Vein Rupture tearing marrow open.
Damage: 1,200 + 1,080
Vampire HP: 4,800 → 2,520
The vampire convulsed, scripture flaring. It swung chains in a wide arc, slamming him against a pillar.
Damage: 544
Noctis HP: 1,770 → 1,226
He pushed off calmly, cloak heavy with blood. His claw flared.
Oath of Ash.
His body split into ash, reforming behind it. Gravesong pierced its back, scripture veins exploding from its chest. The vampire screamed, then collapsed into scripture-etched ash.
[+41 Blood Essence | +10 Faith Essence | +2 Soul Essence]
The Archive pulsed.
Predatory Inheritance unlocked: Shadow Step (Active Mobility Skill)
Vanish into scripture-shadow for one heartbeat, reappear behind an enemy.
Memories poured into him.
Blood Remembrance — Elite Fragment:"The choir sings not for worship. We are tuned. We are resonance for the womb. Our blood is sound, our veins are hymn."
Noctis opened his eyes, calm. His veins glowed faintly beneath his skin. He smirked faintly at the irony.
The choir stalls lay in ruins. The saints were ash, the zealots butchered, the vampires devoured. Silence returned to the nave.
He turned toward the next stairwell, leaving the Shattered Choir behind.
The nave lay silent. The saints in their cages were ash, the zealots in their robes torn apart, the vampires hewn down and drained. The choir stalls dripped with blood, scripture cracked along the marrow walls. Noctis stood in the center of the ruin, cloak heavy, his veins glowing faint beneath his skin.
The Grid pulsed in his mind. He closed his eyes, exhaled once, and opened it.
The lattice spread outward across his vision, infinite veins branching in crimson light. Gold scripture threaded through, weaving into the paths he had claimed. The Crimson Testament burned steady at one edge. The Blood Archive hovered at the other, pulsing faintly with stolen memories. Between them, countless nodes flickered, some dim, some flaring bright with potential.
He felt the weight of his essence pools inside him. Blood, Faith, Iron, Soul. Enough to reshape himself again.
He began.
⚔️ Shadowmeld
The first node pulsed faint, a whisper in the lattice. He reached for it.
The world around him darkened. His veins bled shadow as scripture veiled itself over his presence. His body sank into silence, his outline fading until even the blood pooling beneath his feet no longer reflected him.
For a heartbeat, he was gone.
When he reappeared, the Grid whispered in acknowledgment.
Shadowmeld unlocked.[Cost: 30 Blood + 8 Faith][Blood Essence: 694 → 664 | Faith Essence: 116 → 108]
⚔️ Crimson Grasp II
Another node burned brighter — a path he already knew, now flaring again. He pressed into it.
Pain lanced through his arm. His veins split open, blood pouring out and knitting itself into chains. They writhed like serpents, sharp enough to tear flesh, strong enough to bind marrow. When he flexed his claw, the chains snapped taut, their bite deeper, hungrier than before.
Crimson Grasp II unlocked.[Cost: 40 Blood + 10 Faith][Blood Essence: 664 → 624 | Faith Essence: 108 → 98]
⚔️ Exsanguinate II
The next node flared like a bursting heart. He touched it, and his chest seized.
Blood erupted from his veins, spiraling outward in crimson arcs. Every drop glowed with scripture, sharper than blades, faster than arrows. The chamber filled with phantom slashes as though he had torn the marrow of the world open.
He staggered once, the flood subsiding, then steadied. His veins pulsed.
Exsanguinate II unlocked.[Cost: 60 Blood + 15 Faith + 5 Iron][Blood Essence: 624 → 564 | Faith Essence: 98 → 83 | Iron Essence: 20 → 15]
⚔️ Sanguine Recovery II
The node hummed like a heartbeat. He pressed into it, and warmth spread across his body.
Every wound he remembered tore open again — the Warden's chains, the vampire claws, the saints' beams. But with each imagined cut, his veins surged, blood stitching flesh together faster, stronger. The pain collapsed into silence, leaving behind a steady hum of resilience.
Sanguine Recovery II unlocked.[Cost: 65 Blood + 18 Faith][Blood Essence: 564 → 499 | Faith Essence: 83 → 65]
⚔️ Ghost Vein II
The next node pulsed cold. He touched it, and his blood froze.
His senses sharpened. Every vein in the ruin around him sang — echoes of blood still seeping into stone, iron tangs of marrow drifting in the air. He could hear it all, each pulse, each whisper, no matter how faint. His own veins vanished into silence, leaving only others to guide him.
When the power settled, the world around him throbbed with unseen lines, trails of blood stretching into the dark.
Ghost Vein II unlocked.[Cost: 55 Blood + 15 Faith][Blood Essence: 499 → 444 | Faith Essence: 65 → 50]
⚔️ Eucharist Blade II
The lattice trembled. This node flared brighter than the rest, scripture lines bleeding through it. He pressed into it, and Gravesong screamed.
The blade erupted in pale fire, sanctity wreathing its edge. Noctis felt it in his hands — scripture made blade, light bent to blood. The weapon pulsed as though it were alive, eager to bite into holy wards and false prayers.
The glow dimmed, leaving Gravesong quivering against his back.
Eucharist Blade II unlocked.[Cost: 70 Blood + 20 Faith + 1 Soul][Blood Essence: 444 → 374 | Faith Essence: 50 → 30 | Soul Essence: 9 → 8]
⚔️ Soul Spire II
The final node he could reach now burned at the heart of the lattice. He pressed into it, and his chest split with light.
A tower erupted inside him. Crimson veins spiraled upward, scripture carved into their surface, burning into the marrow of his soul. The spire roared, blood arts echoing louder, amplified until the world itself seemed to pulse with his veins.
He staggered once, smoke curling from his skin, then steadied. The tower remained, a permanent monument etched into his being.
Soul Spire II unlocked.[Cost: 80 Blood + 22 Faith + 2 Soul][Blood Essence: 374 → 294 | Faith Essence: 30 → 8 | Soul Essence: 8 → 6]
The lattice dimmed. The Grid closed. Noctis opened his eyes.
His veins burned with scripture and blood, golden lines glowing faint beneath his skin. His cloak was heavy with ash, his weapons thrummed in resonance, the choir stalls around him stilled into silence.
He flexed his claw once. Shadows stirred. Chains rattled. Blood whispered. Sanctity bent. Every art he carried now blazed sharper, heavier.
For a moment, he smirked faintly, calm amusement flickering across his face. A vampire, rewriting himself into the perfect vampire slayer, vein by vein.
Then the smirk faded. He turned toward the next stairwell, cloak trailing through ash and scripture dust.