The ritual had begun, and Asiva could feel her body responding to the ancient process. The air in the room thickened as she mixed her own blood with the finely ground Dragon's root. A sizzling sound filled the chamber, as the blood and Dragon's root reacted, releasing a dense, fragrant mist into the air.
Breathing in deeply, Asiva felt the mist enter her lungs, spreading into her bloodstream. It was a unique sensation, almost as if she could feel the individual particles from the Dragon's root and her blood seeping into every corner of her body, triggering a cascade of reactions within her cells.
She could acutely feel her blood pressure rising, every blood vessel in her body expanding as if trying to accomodate a faster flow of blood, faster than anything the body had ever undergone naturally.
Her heart pounded wildly, the rhythm echoing in her ears as if it were a drumbeat of war. With every breath she took, her body seemed to drink in the lunar energy emanating from the moonstones. She was the vessel, and the mystical ingredients of the ritual were the catalyst, the key to unlocking her bloodline.
Holding the Lunar Tear against her chest, she could feel its pulsating energy seeping into her. It was as if the Tear was drawn to her, pulled by some unseen force.
As she began to sweat from all the increased cardiovascular activity, the solid gem-like teardrop started to dissolve, its fragments sinking into her skin, disappearing like water drops on a hot stone.
As the Tear dissolved completely, the air around her seemed to pulse with energy. A shockwave went through her, pushing her consciousness to the edge. It was as if a dormant part of her was suddenly jolted awake. The sensation was overwhelming, it felt as if she was caught in a storm, her senses assaulted by waves of raw power.
The back of her head hurt badly, it felt like someone was poking 1000 needles per every centimetre of her skull and then twisting it viciously to give her the maximum amount of pain possible.
" Max- " Asiva murmured as she bit her lip and tried to endure the pain.
She knew the risks of the procedure before she started it, there was no backing off now so she could only soldier through to the very end.
Despite the intense pain and disorientation, she held onto her consciousness, aware of the significance of this moment. This was it. This was the bloodline awakening she had read about, the moment when her brain would reconnect synaptic connections that lay dormant in her own body and make her evolve into a moonlight warrior.
Gradually, the torrent of power subsided, the storm within her calming. The room fell silent. The once vibrant moonstones now glowed with a soft, muted light. Asiva collapsed onto the cold floor, her body spent, her mind a whirl of thoughts and emotions.
She looked absolutely haggard as if she had just undergone the most intense sex sessions with Max as she had her hair disoriented and her body covered in sweat from head to toe.
For a good while she laid there silently as she felt the throbbing headache in her head subside before trying to gather her strength and move.
With a grunt, she pushed herself off the ground. But as her palms pressed onto the stone floor, an unexpected thing happened. The solid stone floor cracked under her touch, spiderweb fractures spreading out from where her hands rested.
The floor was solid reinforced concrete, it was not supposed to crack while she was just trying to push herself up-
Asiva's eyes widened in shock as she tried to reassess her current state. It was too soon to fully comprehend her new abilities, but she felt different, more powerful.
As she stood back up and dusted herself off, she began to clear the altar of all the materials she had used for the ritual wanting to leave no proof behind of what had transpired here.
As she grabbed the ancient book the record of the Nightblade clan, her eyes seemed to be able to see something different written under the book cover text, something that was invisible to her before-
"When the bloodline awakens, the shadows become the ally, the moonlight the armour, and the night the battlefield."
Asiva's heart pounded at the words, her blood humming with newfound power. She had successfully awakened her bloodline. The ability to read this subtext was proof that she had awakened it!
Quickly flipping the book open, Asiva glanced at the pages once more, shocked to see that between each line of black text that she was able to read before there was a hidden text written in red that was only visible under the moonlight to her eyes.
There were seemingly more secrets to this book than she thought there was and considering that the book was in the possession of the Saint Maximus Clan for over 500 years, she might be the first vampire from the Nightblade clan in over 500 years to read them.
************
( Meanwhile Max )
Max read the letter from King Regus and decided to put his troops on the high alert.
The vampire king suspected that because Matumba had fallen in battle, the mercenaries would not take his death kindly and retaliate with an even bigger force.
The target would be both the Bloodfall clan and the Twilight clan alike and Regus suspected that the mercenary forces would be too much for the clans to hold out against.
Regus wanted Max and Falken to be prepared for a siege and a slow war fight as well as be prepared to sacrifice the orb and fall-back if need be.
The vampire king had given them the permission to fall back to more central lands and help other clans in war effort if their positions became impossible to hold.
He did not wish for them to be fighting a losing war and emphasised that self-preservation took priority over fighting a losing war.
It was kind and logical for the King to say so, but Max was not ready to give up on his position just yet, not while his Bloodfall clan was still filled with loyal and energetic vampires who would give any invading army a tough run for their money.
If the mercenaries wanted some, they could come get it!
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/// A/N - it's June 20 and the upload schedule resumes as usual. Bonus for gifts are now open as usual. Thankyou for the wait///