— Father or Fiend —
The crowd held its breath.
Layer upon layer, people pressed forward, afraid to blink. The air itself seemed frozen — every breath trembling with unease.
Everyone wanted to see what kind of monster could slaughter dozens from the Veyne family.
Without hesitation, Darius bent down and flipped the shadowed figure lying on the ground.
Thud.
The body rolled onto its back.
For one dreadful heartbeat, no one moved.
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd.
The face revealed was like old, dried wood — pale, bloodless, lifeless. White hair clung to a skull of deep wrinkles and hollow cheeks. His body, drained of all essence by Eren, was barely human anymore.
But it was the eyes — two black voids with no white at all — that made every soul shudder.
Eren and Lyra froze.
Their pupils shrank violently as cold dread raced down their spines.
"H–How... how can it be him?!"
That face — that voice — was unmistakable.
It was Lucien Veyne, patriarch of the Veyne family.
Lyra's world cracked.
"Dad... Why? Why would it be you?! This can't be! It's impossible!"
Her cry shattered like glass in a silent hall.
All color drained from her face as she trembled violently, blood spraying from her lips.
Her mind couldn't hold it — not after everything.
First, Eren's true identity.
Now, her own father — the butcher of her family.
It was as if her entire universe had just detonated.
"Lyra!"Eren caught her before she fell, channeling pure magic into her body, stabilizing her faltering heartbeat. He could feel her soul fraying at the edges.
On the ground, Lucien gave a broken laugh — rough, rasping, full of death.
"E...Eren... You really did it... You uncovered it... after all..."
Eren's eyes darkened like a storm.
"Lucien," he said coldly, "why did you do it? Who made you? Was it Damien Vale? Those were your own kin — your own daughter!"
Lucien's cracked lips twitched into a faint smile.
"Damien Vale...? What's he got to do with this? Eren... have you gone mad?"
"What?"Eren's mind reeled as though lightning struck.
Not Damien? Then who?
A chill coiled through his heart.
If Lucien wasn't acting of his own will, then whoever controlled him... was something far worse.
Lucien coughed, his laugh turning hollow.
"Willing? No one's willing to slaughter their blood... unless the darkness itself holds the knife."For an instant, terror flickered across his eyes — then despair — and finally, a strange, twisted reverence.
Eren saw it and felt his heart sink even deeper.
"Lucien," he said, voice like ice, "tell us everything."
Lucien's gaze drifted between Eren and Lyra.
His lips curved into a grotesque smile.
"You really want to know? The truth isn't salvation, boy — it's damnation. Once you hear it... you'll wish you hadn't."
"What do you mean?" Eren demanded. His voice cut like steel. "Is there someone behind all this?"
Silence.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Finally, as the last flicker of life dimmed in his eyes, Lucien exhaled a weary sigh.
"Fine... I'm dying anyway. Let me... tell you everything I know."
The air seemed to stop moving.
No one spoke—they waiting for the truth.
— The Origin of the Bloodshed —
"Everything... began twenty-three years ago."
Lucien's voice was low and hollow—like a whisper seeping out of a tomb.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Even the air stopped moving.
"Back then, the Veyne, Voss, and Morven families were nothing—crawling ants in the Novalis Sector.
And the Caelthorns..." His tone twisted with a bitter laugh. "They ruled above all—unshakable, absolute."
He paused, eyes dim with the memory.
"Until that day—when he appeared."
A murmur ran through the hall.
"He ordered our three families to slaughter the Caelthorns. We refused... and nearly paid with our blood."Lucien's lips trembled. "He was beyond comprehension. Just meeting his gaze felt like staring into a god's wrath."
He drew in a shuddering breath. "And what he offered us... was irresistible—power, fortune, cultivation techniques, everything mortals crave."
A bitter cough tore from his throat.
"So we obeyed. Using the 'Mirage Incense' he provided, we crept into the Caelthorn estate that night.
We drugged every last one of them—men, women, children. Then... we butchered them in their sleep."
His words fell like stones.
"Blood covered the marble floors. The screams... the flames... even the cry of a newborn—
they still echo in my skull."
Lucien's eyes were hollow, his voice barely human.
"We took the child. We took their wealth. We took their name. And from that night on, our families rose—built on stolen blood."
Silence engulfed the room.
The truth hung there—thick, foul, undeniable.
Then, his voice rasped again, weaker. "We thought it was over... but thirteen years ago, he returned."
Eren's brows knit. "Returned?"
Lucien nodded slowly, as though reliving a nightmare.
"He ordered us to form a syndicate—the Crimson Tide. He wanted us to run drugs across the Sector."A mirthless chuckle escaped him. "A man who could shatter mountains... wanted us to push narcotics."He shook his head. "We didn't question. We obeyed."
"And so the Crimson Tide was born. For thirteen years, we bled the underworld dry—money, corpses, silence.
No one ever knew the truth: the three noble families of Novalis... were nothing but drug lords in disguise."
The room froze.
Aveline and Arden exchanged horrified looks.
They had always believed Alaric Morven alone was the villain. Now they realized—they'd been living in a web of lies spun by three patriarchs.
Lyra's face went ashen. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.
Her father—the man who'd taught her kindness and grace—was a butcher, a drug lords.
Her entire world shattered with that thought.
Lucien wheezed, the madness in his eyes flaring. "For twenty-three years, I lived like a king—on another man's grave. And then you, Eren, appeared!"
His voice cracked into a scream. "If you hadn't stormed into Veyne Corporation, none of this would've unraveled!"
Eren's jaw tightened, silent.
Lucien's breath came ragged, half sob, half laugh.
"I investigated you... and I found it—the truth. You were sent to an orphanage the night before the massacre—by the Caelthorn patriarch himself, Oliver Caelthorn!"
The words hit like thunder.
Gasps rippled through the room.
Lucien's fingers shook uncontrollably. "That meant there were two infants in the Caelthorn bloodline! That I'd failed the mission from the very start!"
He clutched his head, voice breaking. "I tried to contact the mysterious man, to confess, to beg for mercy—but he vanished. For years, I searched in vain."
His body convulsed with a sudden tremor. His eyes widened, terror flooding them.
"Then one day... he came back."
Lucien's voice dropped to a whisper, trembling with despair.
"And from that moment—"
He raised his gaze, pupils dilated, a faint, unnatural glow flickering within.
"—the nightmare truly began."
— The Twisted Motive —
Lucien shut his eyes tight, as if the truth itself burned. His face was carved with pain and something darker—despair.
"As punishment," he rasped, "he made me butcher my own family—and blame it on you. He gave me the Mirage Incense... and I raised the blade myself."
His voice turned rough, tinged with bitter laughter.
"He also gifted me a demonic art. Powerful beyond imagination... but its price was madness. To master it, one must cut away all feeling—kill kin, kill children, kill everyone you ever loved. Heh. Maybe I would've done it anyway... for that kind of power."
The air froze. Even breathing felt dangerous. A cultivation that demanded such horror—how could it exist?
"Then why didn't you kill me?!"
Lyra's scream shattered the silence. Tears streamed down her face. "If you had, I wouldn't have to live through this!"
Eren caught her trembling form. His voice cut cold through the air.
"You spared her because—she isn't your daughter, is she?"
The words struck like lightning. Lyra's body jolted; she nearly collapsed.
Lucien gave a hollow smile. "You even guessed that? Yes. She's not mine. She's the baby I took from the Caelthorn estate twenty-three years ago. The mysterious man didn't take her—he told me to raise her."
Lyra stared blankly. "I'm... not your daughter? I'm from the Caelthorn family?"
Her world shattered. Her eyes rolled back, and she went limp in Eren's arms.
Eren checked her pulse—still steady. He forced his rage down.
"Continue," he ordered.
Lucien's lips trembled. "The man told me to spare Lyra—and demanded that you and she... be bound together."
His tone broke into a sick laugh. "At first, I thought he'd lost his mind. Even for me, that command was too vile."
He looked up, eyes flickering. "Now I understand. Some rare souls awaken only through unbearable pain. The man wasn't sure who it would be—you or her. So he pushed both of you to the edge... to awaken one."
Lucien's voice hardened. "I thought it was Lyra. I even had Hawthorne create life-or-death trials for her—but you ruined them all. You grew too fast. Too strong. Now I see it—the one he wanted was you, Eren."
He clenched his fists, voice rising in fury. "If you hadn't appeared, none of this would've happened!"
Eren said nothing. Inside him, everything twisted.
The truth he thought he'd found had only opened into deeper fog.
Who was this man?
How could he command Mirage Incense, a GVA secret?
Why destroy the Caelthorn family?
And who am I, really?
A horrifying thought crept in, cold and silent.
If Lyra and I are both Caelthorn blood...then we're—siblings.
The memory of that night flashed before his eyes. His heart froze. His breath turned to ice.
"Lucien!"
Eren's voice cracked like thunder. His killing intent filled the room.
"Who is that man?!"
No answer came—only the echo of Eren's vow, sharp and absolute:
Whoever that man was, he would find him.
And tear him apart—piece by piece.