Chapter 639: To do what he could not

"Then why not just create more spawns?" Athenodora asked, "It worked once with Viktor; it could work again. She didn’t birth Viktor so why go through so much to try a natural birth if the only Blood Mage she had was turned and not born?"

"Valeria had many spawns. Thousands actually," Conscience explained,

"None was like Viktor. And if she didn’t get another Viktor from thousands of spawns, she accepted that he was an anomaly and became convinced that such a talent should only have been possible through a natural birth. So she became determined to have a child. She didn’t have one with Viktor, but she did eventually have a son.

Once it became clear her son lacked Blood Magic, she abandoned him as she had done with her thousands of spawn and my Creator became the sole object of her desire."

"But why?" Athenodora asked.

"Why what?" Conscience asked, confused.

"Why was Viktor such an anomaly?" Athenodora asked.

Caius could tell she cared very little about Viktor actually. She was asking to know if it was a trait she happened to share with the bastard who slew her ancestor.

Conscience shrugged.

"It’s impossible to tell exactly. It could have been various factors such as the way he was turned and his mental state at the time."

"You’re saying Viktor had Blood Magic because he was mad?" Athenodora asked.

"It’s possible. My creator achieved so much thanks to his fragmented mind. He had ideas and understood magic in a way that would mystify even a Twelfth Circle Mage and drive them mad. He had insights that spawned ideas of overthrowing the gods.

Maybe when the dead infused him with their agony, they supplied a portion of their intelligence, and having all that together not only made my creator mad, it also made him an incalculable genius."

"But I’m not mad and I have Blood Magic," Athenodora pointed out.

"Ah, well I did say it’s impossible to know exactly. Blood Magic is fascinating because it’s definitely a branch of Dark Magic, Yet Blood is the literal fuel that keeps life going. Yet, life is not included in the domain that governs Dark Magic which is the domain of the Goddess of Primordial Darkness.

Life is the domain of—"

"Aether, the Goddess of Divine Light," Athenodora completed for him.

"Exactly."

"But how could I have Blood Magic then? Vampires are exempt from Light Magic," Athenodora asked.

"Well, Aether and Nyx are sisters. They are cosmically intertwined. They are connected a lot more than they will ever care to admit. Darkness can’t exist without Light and neither Light without Dark. They give each other meaning to exist.

Blood Magic is what probably best describes this relationship between Dark and Light.

Blood Magic is most definitely a dark art, requiring a High Affinity with Dark Magic but because of its affiliation with Life, most Vampires—who have the closest relationship with darkness—never develop it.

That little bit of Life is what makes a talent in Blood Magic such a rarity.

At least that’s what my creator believed. Everything I’ve told you is all his findings and conclusions."

"So I have a bit of Light in me then?" Athenodora asked.

She was quite eager. No one had ever been able to explain her talent in Blood Magic. They just claimed it was a gift, and that she was special. Athenodora hadn’t minded back then though. She cared less about the how and more about what she could do with it.

Now however, after learning about the one other Blood Mage to have existed beside her, she couldn’t help but be curious.

Conscience shook his head.

"No. As a vampire, you can’t have Light in you. Aether and Nyx might be cosmically linked but their Domains still counter one another.

You are a creature of darkness and you must flee from light.

Also, Blood Magic doesn’t have Light in it; it has Life. There is a difference between the two even if they are both under the domain of the same goddess."

"You searched my memories before," Athenodora said.

"I was curious about your talent in Blood Magic. I wished to know how similar your circumstances are to those of my creator," Conscience said.

"And are they similar?" Athenodora asked.

"Largely, no," Conscience said.

"What about our Blood?" Athenodora asked.

"What of it?" Conscience asked.

"I am apparently descended from Valeria. And Viktor was turned by her. Wouldn’t that count as a similarity?" Athenodora asked and it looked like it was difficult for her to admit she shared Blood with Viktor.

Conscience looked at her with more scrutiny. A minute passed during which the memory continued to play; Viktor was now forming complicated seals with one hand and the Blood of Strigoi was floating above the other hand.

"A descendant of Valeria," Conscience said slowly seemingly in realization as it ran through all it had learned through Athenodora’s memories, "A born descendant of Valeria. Fascinating."

"That’s what I said," Caius mumbled.

"So Valeria finally got what she wanted. A shame she never got to see it for herself," Conscience said.

"Yeah, a damn shame Viktor killed her," Athenodora said angrily through gritted teeth.

Conscience nailed her with his shimmering eyes.

"Rest assured that killing Valeria wasn’t entirely out of spite. My creator truly believed she was essential to the creation of his masterpiece. And he was right.

Even among powerful vampires of the time, Valeria was... special. Every vampire carries the blood of the first vampire in some form but there are certain properties, certain natural claims to authority that could only ever be passed on through a natural birth."

"You mean..." Philip started slowly.

"I mean Valeria was the only natural-born child of the first vampire, whoever that may have been. Valeria likely learned how to conceive naturally from her parent.

Her Blood—as it was within her body and not as it was within her spawns—was special and vital in the making of my creator’s masterpiece."

"So the Blood of Strigoi being the blood of the First vampire..." Philip trailed off once again.

Conscience nodded.

"Yes, it has some truth in it. Some truth," he said and gestured at his creator still forming complicated seals in the memory being played,

"When it became clear he would be unable to destroy the Blood, and with his time running out after he had pushed himself so far, my creator thought of alternatives. The best he could think of was for another to one day find the Blood and do what he could not.

There were already rumors of what he had been up to for centuries so it wasn’t hard to take control of the narrative and spin a tale of some precious Blood shed by the first vampire which could grant incredible power."

"If he wanted the Blood destroyed, why did he make it sound so enticing?" Athenodora asked.

"So people would search for it. No one goes through so much trouble for something useless," Caius said.

"Exactly," Conscience said.

"So you think anyone who comes here, with such power within reach, would consider destroying it?" Philip asked, laughing at how ridiculous that seemed.

"Why not? Vampires can develop compassion and understand the danger and the possible horrors if such power is unleashed on the world.

Besides, vampires are not the only beings that reside in the mortal realm. What do you think would happen when humans and other humanoids who see vampires as the threats they can be, learn of a power that could make a vampire unstoppable?"

"They’d want it destroyed," Caius said, thinking that was exactly what happened in the original canon.

Aurelius didn’t want anyone to get the Blood so he entered the dimension to get to it first.

"Precisely," Conscience said.

"Oh please," Philip laughed, "The passphrase to open the gateway was in the Ancient Vampiric tongue."

"A language of power and a very secure choice for a passphrase," Conscience said, "It’s also a language that can be spoken by beings other than vampires. My creator specifically left clues that when deciphered would lead to the passphrase regardless of race or innate understanding of the language."

Conscience turned toward the memory and then smiled.

"Here we are," he said, pointing at the memory, "The moment of my birth."

They watched as Viktor completed his complicated string of seals and then unleashed a magic that caused the entire world to tremble. There were limitations on the mortal realm keeping out strength at the Twelfth Circle and beyond. As Viktor was technically still only at the Eleventh Circle, he wasn’t yet targeted by the limitation. However, invoking Twelfth Circle dimension-rending magic was pushing it.

A crack appeared in space and Viktor was sucked into it. Within the dimension, with the Blood cradled still floating above one hand, Viktor waved his other hand, and with every motion, his dimension reacted and was shaped as he wished.

Caius watched as Viktor devised the first Trial. Saw the guilt in his mad eyes as he watched the imitation of the lives lost because of his foolish ambition. Still, he steeled himself and carried on.

He set up the second trial, spent a few seconds looking at the shadow of Valeria before turning away into the final section of the Dimension, standing on the very platform Caius, Athenodora, Philip, and Conscience were currently standing on.