I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Recovery

The city was battered.

The southern wall — once a towering barrier that had protected New Geneva for decades — was gone. What remained was a jagged line of rubble and craters where soldiers had once stood guard. Bodies still lay beneath the debris — soldiers who had survived the plague, survived the beast horde, survived the second wave, only to be crushed in an instant by a force they couldn’t comprehend.

Thousands were dead. The exact number was still climbing as recovery teams pulled bodies from the rubble. Soldiers. Civilians. Grand Core masters. The city’s morgue had overflowed within the first hour, and a secondary site had been established in the eastern district’s underground parking structure. White sheets covered row after row of the fallen.

But the plague was cured.

The remaining scientists — those who had survived the research lab explosion and Hoffman’s sabotage attempt — worked alongside Ryan and Iris in a makeshift laboratory established on the fourth floor of the Starveil Tower.

They worked through the night. Ryan hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours. They produced enough doses for the entire city within forty-eight hours.

The day went by.

Lucian was still unconscious.

He had been moved to a medical room on the sixth floor of the Starveil Tower.

Clara sat beside him in a chair pulled close to the bed.

Rose dozed in a chair on the other side of the bed.

Ryan stood in a different room — Vice Master Yelena’s office on the eighth floor.

Yelena sat behind the desk. Ice burns marked both her arms — white patches where her own ice mana had been forced back against her during the Dark Order’s assault on the tower. Her expression was tired.

Aldric Blackwood stood by the boarded window, peering through a gap in the planks at the southern district below.

Ryan stood between them.

He reached into his dimensional ring and pulled out a small crystal — a recording device embedded in his suit’s visor. He placed it on the desk and tapped it.

A projection materialized above the crystal — a three-dimensional recording, crystal clear, with perfect audio.

Hoffman’s voice filled the room.

"You see, for people like us who were originally born with lesser talents — no bloodline, no divine inheritance, limited from birth — do you know how annoying it is to be trapped in the same realm for more than fifty years?"

"I was finally able to break through my talent’s bottleneck with the help of the Dark Order and reach the Mid Grand Core Realm after fifty years of being stuck. Fifty years!"

"Why wouldn’t I take it?"

Clara’s voice in the recording: "The World Government is meant to protect the people, and you dare — you dare cause harm to innocent lives?"

Hoffman’s response, cold and certain: "For a cultivator, nothing is more important than power... On the path to cultivation, there is no good or bad. There is only the strong and the weak. The weak have no right to exist."

Iris’s voice: "The strong protect the weak. Then the weak get stronger and help those weaker than themselves. That is the law of nature!"

Hoffman: "Young lady, it’s survival of the fittest. I’m truly sorry, but everyone here has to die for my ascension."

The recording continued. Every word. Every rant. Every confession. The crystal had captured it all through Ryan’s visor.

The recording ended.

Aldric’s face had darkened with every word.

"Hoffman." His voice was low. "That bastard. He was standing right next to us, acting like he cared about the casualties — while he orchestrated this entire thing."

Yelena’s expression was cold. "Where is Hoffman now?"

Ryan didn’t blink.

"A mysterious master appeared during the fight. We don’t know who. He killed Hoffman and left. We couldn’t track him — his speed was beyond anything we could follow."

His expression was the perfect picture of a shaken student who had witnessed something beyond his understanding.

He told this lie because the truth would destroy everything. If the World Government knew that a 17-year-old Mid Core Realm student had killed a Mid Grand Core Realm cultivator — a Deputy Councilman — the questions would never end. They would study him. Test him. Prod him. And eventually, inevitably, someone would discover his vampire bloodline. Then Clara’s.

Aldric and Yelena accepted the story. A mysterious master killing a traitor and disappearing was not uncommon in their world. The Dark Order had enemies everywhere. It was plausible.

Aldric’s voice was cold as he says. "Strike Hoffman’s name from all records. Investigate his family. Seize his assets. Everything he owned — property, mana stones, weapons, artifacts — all of it. And report this directly to the Supreme Council."

The Supreme Council. The head of the World Government. Twelve individuals who sat at the apex of human power. They were the ones who made decisions that shaped the fate of nations.

Aldric continued, his voice heavier. "If there are already traitors within the World Government — if a Deputy Councilman was working with the Dark Order — then they already have their hands everywhere. Including this tower."

Yelena leaned forward. "The Medallion of Anvil was stolen too."

Aldric’s head turned sharply. "What?"

"I don’t know how they got information about it. I don’t know how they knew how to use it. And I don’t know how they reached the ninth floor of this tower — the barriers alone should have stopped anyone below Astral Realm."

The Medallion of Anvil. Ryan didn’t know what it was — but from the way Aldric’s eye widened, it was something catastrophic.

Aldric exhaled slowly.

"There are already traitors among us." He straightened. His voice hardened. "It’s time for a purge."

A few days passed.

The city began to rebuild. The plague cure was distributed to neighboring regions.

Lucian’s eyes opened.

He turned his head. Clara sat beside him in a chair, her hand wrapped around his. Her silver hair cascaded over her shoulder as she slept peacefully. On the other side, Rose dozed in another chair.

He smiled.

He reached out and touched their hands. His fingers brushed their skin.

Then the memories hit.

Like a dam breaking. Every moment of the fight flooded back in a single, violent surge — his claws tearing through Hoffman’s chest, the warmth of blood on his hands, the satisfying sound of flesh tearing, the predator’s satisfaction — and then the aftermath. The crimson haze. The loss of control.

"No." His whisper was ragged. He pulled his hands away from theirs and pressed them against his temples. "No, no, no, no. What have I done?"

A few moments later, Lucian is seen standing at the window.

He stood there in a daze.

Rose woke up.

She didn’t see Lucian on the bed. Panic spiked before she turned and saw him standing at the window.

She understood immediately. He was angry at himself. Guilt-ridden. Torn apart by what he’d done to Clara — to her — to Ryan.

She stood quietly. Walked across the room. She reached him from behind and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her cheek against his back.

"Lucian," she whispered. "It’s not your fault."

His voice was barely audible. "But I hurt Clara. I hurt you. Even Ryan."

Rose turned him around. She held his face in both hands.

"But we are okay, right?" She smiled brightly. "That’s all that matters."

She pulled back one hand and pointed to her shoulder — where his claws had torn through her during his feral episode. She tugged the collar of her shirt aside.

"See? Completely healed. You forget that Clara and I both have regenerative traits too." She tapped the spot with her finger. "Not a mark. Not a scratch. So stop beating yourself up."

Clara stirred. The soft sound of their voices had pulled her from sleep. She opened her silver eyes and saw Lucian standing at the window.

"Stop sulking."

Lucian blinked.

Clara walked up to him.

"You still have to be punished, you know," she said. Her voice was playful. "All you have to do is take us out on a date when we get back."

She glanced over her shoulder at Rose. "Right, Rose?"

Rose’s face flushed pink as she whispered. "Yeah."

Lucian stared at them. These two girls —

His face brightened.

A smile spread across his face.

"I’m so lucky."

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