Third floor of Allen Manor, the patriarch’s master bedroom.

Her Majesty the Queen had just swallowed the seed. She lay naked upon the bed while the gramophone beside her played Veyn, Please Don’t Cry for Me.

The old attendant knelt respectfully at the bedside, silently praying.

“I feel somewhat thirsty.”

“I will fetch water for Your Majesty.” The old attendant rose, but just as she was about to move, she saw that dense black roots were spreading across the queen’s skin.

The queen opened her eyes and raised her hands. The roots were growing fastest at her palms. The flesh there split open, and vine-like tendrils emerged from within.

“Oh. So it is they who are thirsty.” The queen smiled, opening and closing her fingers. The black tendrils wound between them as though they possessed their own spirituality. “They are telling me they long for the blood of the Allen family.”

“It seems the research was correct,” the old attendant said. “The ancestors of the Allen family once controlled it, but it was taken back midway by that brave ancestor of the Gloria family.”

“Yes. We must thank our ancestor for sacrificing his life to seize this seed. Though that makes me even more curious; If this seed is so miraculous and magnificent, then the Allen family’s ancestor must have possessed something even greater at the time. Yet after so many years, why has the Allen family continued to decline?”

“There are many reasons for a family’s decline, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm.” The black roots upon the queen’s body thickened, rising like spider legs and lifting her from the bed.

“I want to devour Judia first.” The queen licked her lips. “I can already smell the fragrance upon her.”

“You may do as you wish. You are the supreme sovereign.”

“No.” A thick vine lifted in place of her hand. “The finest things should be reserved for the end. Open the door.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” The old attendant walked to the bedroom door and tried to open it, but it would not budge.

She stepped back, her voice turning solemn. “Benevolent and great Lord of the Abyss, to carry out Your will, grant Your follower the power to traverse boundaries.”

When the chant ended, a white light flickered over her body. When it faded, her form grew faint. She walked toward the door, and half her body passed through.

At that moment, a red ring of light flared across the center of the door. The old attendant let out a muffled groan and was forced back. She turned and called out, “Your Majesty, the Allen family has activated their ritual array and sealed this place.”

The queen approached the door, supported by the vines. “Could they have sensed something?”

The old attendant drew a purple scroll from her robes. “Your Majesty, the array should not be able to block the scroll’s transmission. I will notify the captain of the escort.”

“No need.” The queen shook her head. The vines behind her swayed with the motion. “I will open the door myself.”

Black vines spread across the door. Red light flared again where they touched, producing a harsh sizzling sound. The black began to adhere to the surface as the red faded.

“The power of this seed exceeds my expectations. I only meant for it to break open the door, yet it tells me it can assimilate and take control of every ritual array within this manor. Its roots are able to follow the paths of the arrays and spread throughout, devouring the Allen family.

“Oh, this is far simpler than I imagined. I need only stand here and do nothing.”

“If you do nothing, where is the pleasure in that?” A man’s voice came from outside the window.

The queen immediately turned around, but her old servant arrived at the window first. “Your Majesty, there is a ritual array here. He cannot enter.”

The protective bars outside fell away. The window opened, and the man stepped inside. Blue ripples passed over him without slowing him at all. “Do you know why the Allen family’s ritual array doesn’t block family members? It’s because we believe that if our patriarch fails, any capable clansman may kill him and replace him. That is a normal and healthy form of natural selection within a family.”

The man who entered lifted his head. Beneath the pirate hat was a withered face.

“Who are you!” The old attendant roared and lashed a black whip toward him.

Rekar simply grabbed it. Frost spread down the whip. The old woman instantly released the holy relic, yet her wrist was already completely frozen.

Rekar vanished and appeared in front of her. His left hand seized her head. He vanished again, reappearing before the queen.

This time, there was a head in his hand. The old attendant’s body still stood in the same place, only headless.

Rekar released his grip. The head struck the floor. The body collapsed a moment later.

The queen stared at him in horror. She could sense his power and was terrified. She also felt strength rising within herself, but she had not yet consumed the Allen family’s blood. The seed was still in its sapling stage.

“You are Gloria the Ninth?” Rekar asked.

“Yes. I am the queen of Veyn.”

“Good. You must be in pain.” Rekar extended his hand. A giant hand of water formed and seized the queen’s body, which was then pulled downward.

Multiple tearing sounds could be heard. The queen was like a plant whose roots had burrowed deep into the structure, but she was torn free, her connection to those roots severed.

The roots within the building gradually turned to ash.

“Icebound Domain!” Ice formed beneath her. Walls rose on all sides, surrounding her. The vines recoiled from the cold. Rekar also sealed himself within the domain.

He walked toward her, showing no surprise at her youth or beauty.

The queen shrieked. Black vines transformed into venomous streams that shot at him. Wherever they touched his body, they froze and shattered.

He continued forward, ignoring her resistance. The flesh at his mouth was tight and unwilling to form a smile, so he tilted his jaw to one side to create an exaggerated curve.

“Great Ancestor, grant me the power to resist evil!” White sacred garments covered the queen’s body.

Rekar paused. A nostalgic light appeared in his blue eyes. “I used to enjoy it when she summoned the sacred garments...”

He stepped forward, vanishing and then reappearing before her. His boot struck her shoulder. The sacred garments shattered, and the queen was pressed underfoot. “Still only a sapling. Too fragile. If you had grown by consuming blood, you might have been entertaining. Why did he not awaken me later? What was his experimental purpose.

“Forget it. I have no time. Be freed, Queen of Veyn. A queen should not be raised in a pigpen.”

He raised his fist and breathed upon it. He remembered doing this before leaping onto enemy flagships during naval battles.

His fist descended. There was no explosion of flesh. Instead, a crater of ice formed in her back. Frost spread rapidly across her body. The roots retreated in terror.

The queen became a sculpture of ice.

Rekar tapped her head with his knuckles. A cracking sound followed. The frozen body fragmented and fell apart. Within the shards, a cluster of black roots writhed.

He picked them up. The roots tried to burrow into his skin. They succeeded.

He watched as they pierced his palm and arm without reaction. Soon, they withdrew. His body contained no vitality. There was nothing to feed upon. The roots withered further. “Who would have thought this was a Seed of Light.”

He clenched his fist. When he opened it again, only a seed remained, frozen in ice.

He surveyed the room and walked to a frost-covered chest. The master bedroom had become a world of ice.

He opened the chest. Judia was nailed inside of it, trembling from the cold. She struggle greatly to raise her head. Tears filled her eyes. “Father...”

Rekar removed the nail from her chest, froze the wound, and lifted her from the chest.

“Father...” She clung to his neck. Blue light flowed around her, harmoniously merging with his own aura.

“You are worthy.”

She did not hear him. She had already fallen asleep.

Rekar disappeared with her and reappeared in the study. Borg stood near the door, monitoring the bedroom. He felt a sudden chill and turned. A tall stranger stood behind him.

“You—” He tried to blow his whistle, but the air froze.

Rekar placed his hand upon Borg’s head. Cold surged. Red light flared around Borg to resist. A weaker blue glow assisted. “You are also promising.”

Cold continued pouring in. Borg’s blue light did not collapse, but expanded until it matched the red that opposed it. Moments later, Borg lost consciousness.

***

In her bedroom, Eunice slept, unaware of the figure beside her bed.

“You are...hope itself.” Rekar pressed his fingertip to her forehead. “Bloodline awakening.”

***

In the dark dining hall, Master Anderson lay unconscious, his hands covered with wounds. He had controlled the family ritual array core at Pu’er’s instruction, but the queen’s forced assimilation had caused backlash.

Pu’er stood upon the table and turned her head. Rekar stood behind her, holding Eunice while also carrying Borg and Judia. He placed them all on the table.

Man and cat faced each other.

“I did not expect to find such a darling here,” Rekar said.

“I don’t like that term,” Pu’er replied.

Rekar gestured at his own face. “I believe I should be frowning, but these muscles cannot manage it.”

“My situation is complicated,” Pu’er stated.

Rekar reached for her, but Pu’er stepped back. “You cannot break my ward.”

“I can try.”

“Very well.”

Rekar placed his hand upon Pu’er’s head, and cold descended. Her eyes suddenly flared. “You are not Tier-8!”

Rekar withdrew his hand and pulled his mouth open to form a smile. “I cannot break your ward. Your body would not survive the attempt.”

“You are Tier-9. No, beyond Tier-9! That is impossible! The family records cannot be wrong.”

“The records aren’t wrong. When I climbed out of my grave, I was also surprised by how powerful I have become.”

“Why?” Pu’er demanded. “Your water attribute surpasses even my understanding of fire at Tier-9.”

“I think I know.”

“What is it?”

“Because I was dead, and dead for a long time.” Earl Rekar spread his palms, and a layer of frost hovering above them. “The extreme of the water attribute is freezing. Our progenitor’s portrait in the study is not about the blending of water and fire at all, but the blending of life and death. Ridiculous, isn’t it?

“When I walked out of the tomb after dying, my water-attribute faith system actually completed an ascension, because death is the ascension of freezing.”

“H- how is that possible?” Pu’er was utterly stunned.

“So that little queen darling in the master bedroom, she swallowed that seed and still died in a suffocating way. Because on the water-attribute faith system, I have already reached our ancestor’s level. If nothing goes wrong, I should be the highest one in the family’s history on this water-attribute faith-system path.

“What nonsense, utter nonsense. I am actually a dead man, and I can feel that it won’t be long before I die again, and this time I will die completely. The Allen family’s faith system is simply a joke. You have to die first to reach our progenitor’s peak level.

“She is still acceptable.” Earl Rekar pointed at Judia, who lay asleep atop the dining table.

“This little one, with two attributes in natural symbiosis, is also acceptable.” Earl Rekar pointed at Borg, who remained unconscious.

“This one has the highest bloodline talent. I helped her awaken her bloodline. She may be fatigued for half a year, but when she wakes, she will be at least Tier-3, likely Tier-4.”

Pu’er turned her head to look at Eunice, who was still sleeping, and immediately cursed, “Your hands are cheap. She is supposed to get married. If you cause her to sleep for half a year, how is she going to get married? How is she supposed to have children?”

Earl Rekar sat down by the dining table, looked at Pu’er, and asked, “Is she to marry the one who awakened me? I know he has a marriage agreement with the Allen family.”

“Yeah.”

“So our family now has been penned in by the Church of Order?”

“Hm?” Pu’er looked at Earl Rekar in confusion. Why is he suddenly asking that? Shouldn’t he have already spoken with Karon?

“No?” Earl Rekar saw Pu’er’s reaction, nodded, and said, “Then the family is being privately penned in by that Archbishop. The demonkin servant beside him, when he used that attunement ritual array, carried a heavy scent of the Church of Principle. The Church of Principle has always been the most obsessed with running all kinds of experiments.”

“Huh?”

Earl Rekar tossed the frozen seed onto the table. “Has the Gloria the Third family also been penned in by him? Also, what exactly was the goal of tonight’s experiment? Was it to use the Gloria the Third family’s fusion constitution together with the Allen family’s blood feed to study the habits of the Seed of Light? Or is it to use the opportunity of my awakening to study the true principles behind the Allen family’s faith system, to study the essence of our progenitor Allen?

“Forget it, I won’t ask. I don’t have much time left, and I can’t keep wasting it.

“Take those three and run. Those three are the future hope of the family that I selected. The Church of Order’s awakening art cannot control the awakened one’s soul and body, which means that right now, I am still free, and for him to awaken me, he must have paid a considerable price. He definitely is not at his peak right now. So, I am going to fight for a chance for you to escape this place, and I hope to severely injure him.

“Of course, he may not know that the awakened me has already surpassed ordinary understanding in faith-system terms. If our progenitor blesses me, I might even have an extremely small chance to kill him.”

Pu’er was dumbstruck.