The first dawn never came.
Here, night was eternal — the sky a lid of swirling black clouds streaked with faint veins of red lightning.The city below pulsed like a living corpse — towers shaped like fangs, bridges carved from bone, canals flowing with blood that shimmered faintly with magic.And within its shadows moved creatures older than empires.
For Lumiel, Daniel, and Luminous… it was hell.
The Streets of Predators
They moved through narrow alleys where even whispers bled.Every doorway hid eyes.Every market stall smelled of blood — not food.
Luminous wrapped herself in a stolen cloak, her hair hidden, her aura dimmed.Lumiel wore exhaustion like armor, his Red Code flickering weakly beneath pale skin.Daniel trailed behind, still dizzy from transformation, golden-red light pulsing in his veins.
"They can smell it," he muttered."What?""That we don't belong here.""Good," Lumiel said. "Maybe they'll think we're too crazy to eat."
A shadow drifted past — tall, slender, wearing a porcelain mask. Its eyes glowed faintly blue.It stopped beside them.
"Lost, little bloodlings?""Exploring," Lumiel said. "We're tourists.""Tourists die first," the figure hissed, and vanished into smoke.
Daniel exhaled. "Friendly place."
"Hospitality's overrated," Lumiel said. "We need food."
The First Theft
They found it in the market of whispers — an open square filled with stalls selling bottled blood, soul crystals, and cursed trinkets.No coin of gold or silver here; everything traded in memory and life essence.
Luminous leaned close.
"Those bottles — tiered essence. Old blood. It'll keep us alive for days.""How do we pay for it?""We don't."
Lumiel smiled faintly.
"Finally, something we're good at."
They waited for nightfall — though here, night never changed — and moved through the stalls.Luminous distracted a merchant by feigning faintness.Daniel slipped through the back, hands trembling but sure.Lumiel covered them both, whispering low runes of confusion — Red Code illusions flickering like reflections in broken glass.
They stole three vials and ran.
The Blood That Burns
The blood was ancient — stronger than anything from Frostheim.Each sip seared their throats, flooding their senses with echoes of old memories: wars fought before time, gods screaming beneath frozen suns.
Daniel nearly collapsed.Luminous caught him, her voice rough.
"Easy. It's not food — it's history.""Tastes like regret," Lumiel muttered, wiping his mouth."You'll get used to it," she said."I'd rather die human," Daniel replied."Too late for that," Lumiel said quietly.
For a brief moment, their laughter almost sounded like life again.
The Hunt
It didn't take long for the market to notice.By dawn-that-never-came, whispers spread: "New blood. Stolen essence. Unregistered."Hunters moved through the streets — masked vampires carrying chains etched with ancient runes.
Lumiel, Daniel, and Luminous hid among the abandoned cathedrals on the city's edge.They slept in corners, fed in silence, planned in whispers.
"We can't keep stealing forever," Daniel said."We can't stop either," Lumiel replied."Then we need a plan.""We survive. That's the plan.""That's not a plan!""It's worked so far."
Luminous cut between them.
"Argue later. Feed now. We move before the hunters smell us."
The Spark of Rebellion
One night, while scavenging, Daniel found a mural beneath the dust — a faded carving of a winged woman of light, holding a scroll made of flame.He touched it, and his blood pulsed gold.
"Lumiel," he called. "This… it feels familiar."Lumiel studied the carving — ancient runes embedded in the stone.Lines of Red Code faintly shimmered beneath.
"This isn't vampire work," Lumiel said. "It's older.""Older than them?" Luminous asked."Older than the world."
The runes flickered — and a whisper filled Lumiel's head:"Fragment… located…"
For the first time since the storm, hope.There was a Red Code fragment hidden in the city.
Lumiel grinned, teeth sharp in the dark.
"Looks like the gods forgot something valuable.""And we're going to steal it?" Daniel asked."Of course," Lumiel said. "We're broke, starving, and cursed — we might as well be ambitious."
Closing Scene
That night, under the blood-lit towers, the trio huddled together, planning their next theft — not food this time, but divinity itself.Outside, hunters searched. Inside, Lumiel's Red Code pulsed faintly against the ground, syncing with Daniel's golden bloodlight.
In the stillness between hunger and hope, Luminous whispered:
"You realize this city eats thieves alive.""Then it's about to choke," Lumiel said.
The shadows shifted, and somewhere deep below, Cartethyia's dormant voice stirred —a whisper of code, faint as a heartbeat in the void:
[Fragment One—Detected. Reflection: Active.]
And the city's blood ran just a little faster that night.