Chapter 320: Decoy of the Night

Black cities stretched under twin crimson moons as the first tear opened above the capital. Korrath stepped through first, void-forged armor catching the light of the mana reactors far below. Galaxies swirled inside the cracks of his plating. Selene followed, her starlight body drifting, black-void eyes already scanning for the hybrid signature they had locked onto. Alarms did not sound. The realm had been ready for this.

Damaris stood on the highest balcony of the Origin Palace, golden eyes fixed on the sky. Lucian waited at the base of the palace steps, black hair stirring in the rising wind, crimson eyes cold and focused. He was no simple copy. Years of absorbing residual authority, refining every technique left behind, and standing in the dark had pushed him past the level of most living Progenitors. When he moved, the night itself seemed to lean toward him.

Beside the palace gates stood Heron.

No one fully understood what Lucifer had created the night he tried to turn that man. The process had gone wrong—or right in a way no one could explain. Heron had become the Draugr: pale as bone, eyes empty yet painfully aware, a living anomaly that continued to grow stronger and smarter with every passing year. Even Damaris treated him with cautious respect. Heron said nothing. He simply watched the sky, spear held loose at his side.

Korrath’s white fire flared. "There. The hybrid."

Selene’s detection net tightened. "Signature matches closely enough. Begin."

They dropped from the sky like falling stars.

Lucian raised one hand. Shadows exploded outward in a perfect sphere—not wild tendrils, but a disciplined domain of absolute night. Korrath’s first fist met that domain and slowed, the force bleeding away into darkness. Lucian stepped forward inside his own night and met the Reaver head-on. Their clash cracked the plaza stones for a hundred meters in every direction. Lucian’s fist, wrapped in dense shadow, drove into Korrath’s chest plate hard enough to stagger the larger being. Galaxies inside the armor flickered.

Selene moved at the same time, twin blades of starlight forming in her hands. She aimed for Lucian’s exposed back. Heron was already there. The Draugr’s spear—black metal that seemed to drink light—intercepted the first blade with a shower of cold sparks. Heron did not speak. He pressed forward, each thrust precise and economical, forcing Selene to give ground while Lucian kept Korrath occupied.

When Korrath swung a wide, reality-crushing fist toward Lucian, Heron stepped in and caught the arm. Bone-pale fingers sank into void-forged metal. For a moment the two locked strength. Heron’s empty eyes studied Korrath the way a craftsman studies a flawed tool. Then he twisted. Armor plates along the Reaver’s forearm cracked further. At the same time Heron’s body began to adapt—cuts that should have lingered closed faster, movements sharpened, predictions landing a fraction of a second earlier with every exchange.

Across the capital the Progenitors’ preparations activated.

Michael’s quiet angelic scouts, already positioned along the outer barriers, flared with pure light and reinforced the upper sky, slowing any further tears. Fenrir’s advanced packs poured from hidden gates—werewolf forms larger and more disciplined than common beasts—slamming into residual shockwaves to keep civilian districts from collapsing. Inari’s newly woven barriers shimmered between the floating districts, redirecting destructive force into empty air. On the lower levels, Dera’s human enforcers linked through the Authority began evacuating non-combatants with practiced speed.

Korrath roared and released a pulse of pure termination energy. Entire sections of the plaza simply ceased to exist. Lucian answered with a limited but still potent Absolute Command. Blood from every fallen vampire in the area rose and formed a spinning storm of blades that forced both Reavers onto the defensive. Heron used the opening to drive his spear toward Selene’s core. She twisted, her starlight body thinning to avoid the point, and answered with a wave of erasure that turned the stones under Heron’s feet to dust. He stepped onto solid shadow Lucian provided without ever looking down.

The fight escalated. Lucian’s shadows fought to contain the damage while still striking with Progenitor-level force. Heron continued to evolve mid-battle—each exchange making him harder to read, stronger, more efficient. Selene noticed first.

"This one is changing," she said, black eyes narrowing. "Continuously. He is not a normal creation."

Korrath’s frustration peaked. He stopped holding back and brought both hands together. A sphere of collapsing reality formed between his palms—the same technique that had ended lesser gods in the Loom. Lucian, Heron, and the surrounding shadow constructs moved as one. Lucian’s domain wrapped the sphere, draining its cohesion. Heron’s spear pierced its outer edge and disrupted the core. At the same time the Draugr walked directly into the remaining force and absorbed part of it, body flickering as it converted the energy into still more strength.

The sphere detonated early and off-target, carving a deep crater but leaving the defenders standing.

Selene’s voice stayed calm even as her starlight dimmed. "This is not the primary hybrid. The power is high. The structure is close. But the core is incomplete. Aeloria’s decoy."

Korrath’s white fire burned so hot the air around him warped. "Then we make the decoy scream loud enough that the real one has to answer."

They pressed harder. The plaza became a storm of clashing authorities. Lucian’s shadows worked to keep the destruction contained. Heron never took a single step back, his spear and evolving body meeting every new threat. Distant howls and angelic lights showed the other Progenitors’ forces holding the outer lines, preventing the fight from spilling into the rest of the capital.

The Vampire Realm’s strongest arsenal—Lucian and the anomaly called Heron—stood its ground, buying every second they could while the true storm continued to gather beyond the seals.

A/N

Thanks for reading this far, I know it’s not that good, but this is the best I can do with the little time I have.

I Will try in the future to do more better when I have free time.