Vampire's Chronicles: Multiverse Online

"Still reading those cultivation logs?" Mirae sat across from him, her own tray stacked with roasted marrowfruit and rice bread.

Thalos didn't look up. "They're more useful than gossip."

She gave a half-smile. "True. Most don't care about that stuff until they hit their wall."

"You sound like you already hit yours."

"I did," she said. "A month ago. My wind path's a Common – Good-High, but I can't refine it any further without adapting my form."

"And?"

"I'm re-learning half my spellweaving posture."

He blinked. "That sounds… painful."

"It is," she said, shrugging. "But pain is better than stagnation."

That line stayed with him.

By the end of the week, Thalos had completed four more missions: two E-rank herb runs, one D-minus ward reinforcement with a small team, and one undead culling where he mostly scouted and supported.

He earned 31 Merits total, along with a handful of low-grade materials and a minor healing salve he tucked away for emergencies.

His latest log read:

Shadow Slash (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 27%

Blood Step (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 22%

Crippling Mark (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 16%

Blood Enhancement (Tier 1) – Proficiency: 32%

And though the Academy halls still whispered of noble duels, elite instructors, and mysterious heirs, Thalos kept his head down, his blade sharp, and his pages full.

...

The next morning, after drills and a cold rinse in the east hall baths, he returned to his room to find it, a single note, slipped beneath the door, folded once, the ink clean and deliberate.

It began there.

"Interested in a merit mission? Mid-tier risk, high payout. Meet behind the east wing courtyard after dusk."—Mirae

Thalos had stared at it for a while. Missions were opening to first-year students now that the academy deemed them "competent enough not to die in ten steps." Most of the early ones were basic: foraging, escorting, perimeter sweeps. Safe, if dull. But not this one.

Sixty merit points. Enough to cover half the cost of a proper cultivation art, assuming he survived.

And Mirae was asking.

He found her waiting with four others by a covered bench just outside the warded wall. She gave him a glance, more formal than warm, and gestured for him to join.

"We're going into the Grey Hollow," she said. "C-rank cooperative mission. Five-person clearance."

Thalos blinked. "That's deep territory."

"That's why the pay is high," said a tall, broad-shouldered vampire in a sleeveless reinforced coat. "Bren. Blood Warrior path. I'll take front line."

Another girl gave a slight nod. "Vaela. Vein Archer."

The last was pale, thin, eyes sunken but alert. "Saelin. Hexweaver."

Mirae's eyes returned to Thalos. "We need two spellblades. I've seen how you fight. And I know you don't freeze when things go bad."

Thalos folded his arms. "Why me? You could've picked stronger students."

"Because stronger students don't listen." She tilted her head. "You're methodical. And you don't break formation."

It wasn't a compliment.

But it was a reason.

Thalos looked at the others, then back at her. "Alright. I'm in."

...

The Grey Hollow was worse than he'd imagined.

A crater sunk into twisted forest. Thick mist clung to everything. No birds. No animals. No wind. Just the low hum of magic and the occasional shriek that echoed without direction.

They crossed the perimeter boundary by early afternoon. The temperature dropped instantly.

"No visual markers," Mirae said. "Map's outdated. We move formation and rely on the fracture compass."

They traveled in a spread. Bren took point, Mirae and Thalos behind him. Saelin and Vaela watched flanks.

Fog swallowed their visibility, but they advanced without issue until they didn't.

A crunch of bone underfoot. Then silence. Then...

A skeletal hound lunged from a shattered statue. Two more burst from the brush.

Thalos reacted without thinking. His blood surged, the familiar strain crawling through his veins as Blood Enhancement took hold.

He ducked the first hound and slashed across its spine. Mirae caught another with a precise thrust. Bren met the third with an axe to the skull.

It wasn't hard.

But it was coordinated.

"Scouts," Saelin murmured. "Something's leading them."

"No shuffling, no moans," Vaela added. "Too clean."

They didn't linger.

Twenty minutes later, they reached a collapsed gate half-buried in mist. The first fracture.

"Leyline distortion ahead," Saelin warned. "Glyph traps."

Mirae nodded. "Thalos, with me. The rest, perimeter."

They moved to a spiraling glyph set into the stone near the gate arch. Faint lines pulsed with residual magic.

"Three layers," Thalos muttered. "One bait trigger."

"Find the anchor node," Mirae said.

He traced the sigil, tapped a corner rune with his blade, and watched the pattern shudder. Mirae followed with a secondary disarm, severing the link. The trap fizzled out in a puff of light.

"Nice work," she said.

Before Thalos could respond, a low, gurgling sound echoed from the darkness beyond the arch.

A moment later, something charged them.

It was tall, hunched, made of bone and stretched muscle. Its arms dragged behind it, tipped with claws. A stitched mask covered its face.

It howled and lunged.

Thalos dashed left, Mirae rolled right. The thing barreled between them and smashed into Bren.

The Blood Warrior roared, catching it mid-charge and pushing back. But it didn't stop. It slammed him into a boulder and kept clawing.

Vaela's arrow pierced its shoulder, but it barely noticed.

Saelin cursed and began a sigil chant. Thalos circled, activating Blood Step, his vision narrowed and the world tilted as he blurred forward, aiming for the creature's flank.

His sword hit its side. A shallow cut, too shallow.

It whipped around. Thalos backpedaled, heart pounding.

Mirae's blade flashed again. A clean slice across the leg, staggering it.

"Mark it!" she yelled.

He drew Crippling Mark mid-step, etched the glyph on the blade, and slashed. The symbol stuck, pulsing dark red.

The creature jerked. Its limbs twitched, spasmed.

Bren growled and drove his axe into its ribs with a crunch. Saelin's curse finally triggered, locking its spine in place.

Together, the team brought it down.

It took nearly two minutes of coordinated strikes.

When the creature fell, it left behind only silence and a slick trail of corrupted blood.

Thalos leaned on his sword, breath ragged.

"That wasn't on the scouting report," he said.

Mirae wiped her blade. "We're deeper than most go. We're going to see things the scouts missed."

"Great."

"Still want those merits?" she asked.

He gave a tired grin. "Wouldn't be here otherwise."

They moved again. The path narrowed into deeper mist. Ruined structures loomed in the distance, what used to be part of a mansion, now half-swallowed by the earth.

As they advanced, Thalos caught a glance from Mirae.

"Nice mark work," she said quietly.

"Better than last time," he admitted.

A pause.

"You should speak more."

He raised a brow. "Why?"

"You're not stupid. You just hide behind silence."

"And you think calling me out will help?"

"No," Mirae said. "But it might stop you from thinking no one notices."

Thalos blinked, caught off guard.

She didn't say more.

But the tone was less sharp now. Not exactly friendly but less distant.

The mansion ruins loomed like a slumped beast in the fog, half its wings buried in overgrowth and the central hall swallowed by crumbling stone. Thorny vines pulsed faintly with residual mana, suggesting warded barriers long since shattered.

"This is it," Bren said. "The heart of the fracture."

"Target's inside," Saelin murmured. "Ley energy is spiking."

Thalos could feel it too, an unnatural pressure in the air, like static across his skin. His instincts urged him to draw blood, to brace for pain.

Mirae glanced around. "Form up. Defensive entry. Thalos, you're with me again."

"I'm getting used to that," he muttered.

"Good. Don't die."

They stepped through the rotted archway.

Inside, silence fell like a lid. The air was thick, stagnant, and smelled of mold and dried metal. Faint echoes of movement came from above, drips, scrapes, clicks.

Too many directions.

They moved room to room, clearing spaces. The first floor was empty, save for broken furniture and old glyph wards carved into the floorboards.

"A ritual site," Saelin said, crouching. "Failed or sabotaged."

"Same pattern as the traps," Mirae added. "Could've been a sealing spell."

"Something that didn't hold," Thalos murmured.

Bren gave a sharp grunt from the hallway. "Footprints. Fresh."

They followed them to a spiral staircase leading downward. And deeper.

The basement was colder.

They entered a broad chamber lit by eerie blue moss growing along the walls. Pools of foul water collected near collapsed beams and busted stone.

Vaela paused near a wall, fingers brushing a faint line.

"There's another trap here."

Saelin confirmed with a whisper of magic. "Dormant glyph. Probably a tether to the fracture."

"I can diffuse it," Thalos offered.

Mirae gave a short nod. "Do it."

He knelt by the wall, tracing the outline. This one was more intricate, layered with blood signatures. Not vampire-specific… something older.

He triggered a soft pulse of his mana, syncing the rhythm of his blood core to the pattern. It resonated for a moment, then shuddered.

Click.

The trap faded.

But something else clicked behind them.

A stone slab shifted. Then a metallic shriek tore through the chamber.

From the far end, the wall cracked and something dragged itself out.

A massive construct of bone, blood-charred steel, and stitched-together muscle. A fractured soul beacon pulsed inside its chest, part magic core, part undead catalyst.

Its mask was full-faced this time, eyes glowing with chained runes.

"Back!" Mirae yelled.

The monster slammed its fist down. The impact shattered stone and sent Thalos flying into a pillar.

He rolled, groaned, activated Blood Enhancement, and surged to his feet. Already, the others were in motion.

Bren charged first, axe blazing with bloodlines. Vaela fired two arrows that embedded into the creature's thigh, glowing and flaring. Saelin chanted behind a ward.

Thalos used Blood Step, blinked to the side, and sliced with Shadow Slash. His blade cut through one of the thinner joints, shallow again, but it tore away a tendon.

The creature turned with unnatural speed, nearly crushing him beneath a sweep of its arm. Mirae intercepted, her blade drawing a wide arc across its chest.

"It's regenerating," she warned.

Saelin shouted. "That beacon, it's a grafted soul fragment. Feeding it passive energy from the Hollow."

"Can we destroy it?" Thalos asked, dodging again.

"Not directly. We have to overload it!"

Bren and Vaela coordinated their strikes, distraction and disruption. Mirae moved in close, forcing the construct's attention.

Thalos circled and looked for an opening.

His Crippling Mark wasn't fully reliable in chaos, but he had to try. He focused, drew the rune mid-spin, and flung the mark onto the creature's exposed back as it lifted Mirae into the air.

The mark pulsed, stuck.

The thing jolted.

Mirae slashed downward with a scream and tore free, landing in a rough roll. Blood streamed from a cut on her brow, but she stood.

"Hit the chest!" Saelin cried.

Bren roared and slammed his axe into the ribcage. The beacon flared red.

"Now!" Mirae and Thalos moved together, her blade hitting the left side, his right. The mark enhanced his swing, biting deeper than it should have.

The core cracked.

There was a surge, dark energy spiraling outward.

"Move!" Vaela shouted.

The entire room pulsed.

They dashed back as the creature staggered, core convulsing. Saelin tossed a suppression sigil that wrapped the beacon just as it detonated in a burst of shadow and raw magic.

The backlash shook the ground, but it didn't collapse the room.

When the smoke cleared, the construct was crumpled, motionless.

Its core was gone.

Thalos leaned against a pillar, breathing hard. Mirae was crouched beside him, inspecting a shallow cut on her leg.

"Well," she said after a moment. "That was stupid."

"But effective," Thalos replied.

"Barely."

He gave a lopsided grin. "We're not dead."

"Yet."

The rest of the group regrouped. Saelin confirmed the ley distortion was collapsing, the fracture node was severed.

Mission complete.