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Chapter 199 – The Birth of Veylan
Chapter 199 – The Birth of Veylan
The dim torches flickered as an unnatural chill spread through the laboratory. Seraphis stood frozen, her heartbeat steady but her instincts sharp.
The Sleeper’s body trembled.
It was subtle at first—just the faintest twitch of the fingers. Then the motion grew stronger. The corpse that had lain motionless only moments ago shuddered violently against the steel table.
A lesser being might have stepped back in fear.
Seraphis did not.
Instead, she reached for the ritual dagger on her belt, gripping the cold metal handle with steady fingers. The blade was blackened steel, its edge razor-sharp, inscribed with runes of blood-binding. She knew this was a gamble—a dangerous one.
Yet, she had no choice.
The Ritual Begins
Seraphis lifted the blade and dragged it across her palm.
The pain was sharp but fleeting. Dark crimson blood welled up from the wound, pooling in the center of her palm before dripping onto the Sleeper’s lips.
A single drop landed.
Then another.
As the blood touched his skin, something shifted.
A pulse of energy—subtle but undeniable—coursed through the air. It was as if the world itself recognized the ancient ritual being performed. The language of the Raven Bloodline was old, older than most could remember. It was a tongue of power, of control.
And she spoke it now.
“By my will, by my blood, by the ties that bind the forsaken to the living, I claim you as kin.”
The words echoed through the stone chamber, slipping into the darkness like whispers from another world.
Then—
Silence.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then—
The Sleeper’s eyes snapped open.
The Sleeper Awakens
His gaze locked onto hers.
The irises were unlike any vampire she had seen before. They were not crimson, not gold, not black. They were a shade of deep silver, like the moon reflecting off a still lake at midnight.
And then—he spoke.
“Hello, Mother.”
The voice was smooth, deeper than she expected. Polished. Controlled. There was no hesitation, no confusion—only certainty.
Seraphis inhaled.
The gamble had paid off.
She stepped forward, examining him. His body, once in stasis, was now fully awake.
His skin, previously cold and lifeless, now carried a faint warmth.
His muscles, previously stiff with undeath, were fluid and strong.
His heartbeat—steady.
He had changed.
Her blood had completed something that had been missing before. The Sleeper was no longer just an anomaly—he was the final stage of vampire evolution.
And he was hers.
The First Test – The Bond of Blood
Seraphis lifted a hand.
Without hesitation, she placed her palm against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm beneath her fingertips.
“Your body has changed,” she murmured, mostly to herself.
The Sleeper—no, Veylan—tilted his head slightly, his silver eyes watching her with something that felt dangerously close to reverence.
“Yes,” he said simply. “You gave me life. You gave me purpose.”
Seraphis narrowed her eyes. “Can I see your memories?”
Veylan did not hesitate.
“Of course.”
His hand lifted, his fingertips barely brushing her forehead—
And then the world shifted.
The Vision of the Past
Darkness.
Then—pain.
A man stood before her. Or rather, a blur of a man.
His face was obscured, as if something refused to let her see his true identity. But his presence was undeniable.
Cold. Overpowering. Monstrous.
Seraphis watched as the man experimented on the Sleeper. She saw the torture, the tests, the forced mutations. The way Veylan’s body had been pushed beyond its limits, forced into a state of unnatural existence.
But the most horrifying thing—
He never died.
No matter what was done to him, no matter how many times he was broken, he never truly died.
Seraphis’s fingers curled into fists.
She saw more—dozens, no, hundreds of failed experiments.
Failed vampires. Failed Sleeper mutations.
Bodies piled high, discarded like trash.
And then—she saw him.
Veylan.
The only one who had survived.
The only one who had lasted long enough to reach her.
The vision ended.
The Aftermath
Seraphis stumbled back, gasping. The weight of the vision clung to her like a second skin, her breath uneven as she processed everything she had seen.
Veylan’s gaze never left her.
“You understand now,” he said. It was not a question.
She did.
She had uncovered everything.
The experiments. The true nature of the Sleeper project. The unnamed man who had orchestrated it all.
Seraphis exhaled sharply, pressing a hand against her temple.
She turned away, moving swiftly to her desk. Ink, parchment, quill—she needed to record everything.
She wrote:
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Sleeper Vampires are not natural.
-
They were created, shaped, and tortured into existence.
-
There was only one success—Veylan.
-
He is the final stage of vampiric evolution.
-
My blood allowed him to complete his transformation.
-
The one behind this remains unknown.
Seraphis set the quill down.
Then, she turned back to him.
“You need a name,” she murmured.
A moment of silence.
Then—
“Veylan.”
The name came from him, as if he had always known it.
She smiled, just slightly.
“Veylan, then.”
A name fitting for what he had become.
A New Future
Seraphis looked at her creation—no, her child—and considered what came next.
Veylan was not an ordinary vampire.
He was something beyond.
And in claiming him, she had unknowingly altered the course of fate itself.
The true question was—
Had she created a savior… or a monster?
She would soon find out.