Lucien stood alone beneath the flickering flame-torches of the arena's edge. His chest still heaved with the ghost of combat, but the void-blade in his grip remained steady—like it had always belonged there.
The arena floor began to shift.
Stone groaned and folded downward, revealing a spiral stairwell descending into darkness lit by violet runes pulsing slowly, like a heartbeat.
[Next Phase Initiated: Bloodline Verification – Inheritor's Trial]Warning: Proceeding will permanently unlock lineage bindings. Irreversible.
Lucien hesitated.
"Inheritor."
The word made his skin prickle. How could he inherit something he never asked for?He barely understood this power, this world—or himself.But something in him, some sleeping instinct, pulled him forward.
He descended.
The staircase led into a cathedral of silence.
Pillars stretched impossibly high, covered in engraved names and family crests. At the center of the chamber stood a throne—not gold or jeweled, but forged entirely of obsidian swords, each blade fused with the next.
A sword-throne.
At its base, a small circular platform glowed. An interface appeared as Lucien stepped on it.
[Vaelthorn DNA Resonance Detected]Identity Confirmed: Lucien Vaelthorn – Scion of the Hollow Line
Blood Trial Commencing. Do not step off the seal.
Violet tendrils of energy slithered up his body like smoke.
"Show us you are worthy."
Suddenly, he was elsewhere.
Not in the cathedral. Not in the Realms.
He stood in a field of corpses, under a blood-red sky.
Storms thundered across the heavens. Fires raged along the horizon. In the distance, massive beings—neither god nor man—fought in silence. Their forms were black outlines, shifting and flickering.
Lucien couldn't move. He was watching through someone else's eyes.
A voice echoed within the dreamscape.
"You come from ruin.""You were born of betrayal. Of flame and void.""But blood alone is not power. Prove your will."
The ground beneath him cracked open, and a creature surged from the earth.
It was shaped like a man, but skinless—entirely composed of swords, each one inscribed with forgotten names. Its eyes were made of broken crowns.
[Trial Entity Manifested: Echo of the First Vaelthorn]
Lucien blinked—and his void-blade was back in his hand.
The creature roared.
He moved.
Faster than thought.
He ducked beneath the creature's first swing, his blade meeting the monster's with a crash of steel on void. Sparks flew. The pressure drove Lucien to his knees. His hands trembled—but only for a moment.
Null Domain activated.
The world around them bent, slowed, colors muting into grey.
Lucien vanished—teleporting behind the creature in a phase-step. Hollow Blink. One clean strike followed.
Crack.
He landed, breathing hard. The creature's head slid from its shoulders and hit the ground with a metallic thud.
It didn't dissolve.
It bowed.
Before collapsing into dust.
[Trial Complete: Inheritor Confirmed]Legacy Access Granted: Soul Archive – Vaelthorn Memories (Locked)Artifact Unlocked: Throneblade – Veyrion, Blade of the Last Scion
Before Lucien, a sword floated in the air.
Unlike his void-formed blade, this one was real—a massive black longsword lined with ancient silver runes. Its hilt bore the sigil of House Vaelthorn.
He reached for it.
And felt it accept him.
The blade pulsed once.
Then again.
Then—
Screams.
Real. Echoing.
The cathedral around him snapped back into view.
The trial was over.
But he was no longer alone.
From the entrance above, figures poured in—armored warriors in blood-red cloaks. Masks of bone covered their faces. They bore spears tipped with obsidian and moved like trained assassins.
[Hostile Faction Detected: Order of the Broken Star]Objective: Eliminate Hollow-Blooded Scion]
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
"Of course."
They were already coming for him.
He raised Veyrion, the Throneblade of the Vaelthorn line.
The air around him shimmered.
Flames curled at his feet.
"You want an inheritor?" he muttered.
"Then come take me from the ashes."
To be continued in Chapter 4: The Broken Star Cult