Chapter 189: In Chains

Chapter 189: Chapter 189: In Chains

Three weeks had passed since the destruction of the European All-Star Academy.

A figure appeared above the ruins.

She floated in the sky — suspended by an invisible force, her silver hair whipping in the wind. She was young. Sixteen. Maybe seventeen. Her eyes were green. Her features were delicate and beautiful. And unmistakably similar to Lucian’s.

She stared down at the ruins below. The skeletal remains of buildings that had once trained the strongest young cultivators on Earth. The place where her brother had studied. Fought. Grown.

Her aura exploded.

The shockwave flattened the ruins beneath her — sending dust and debris spiraling outward in a perfect ring. The pressure of her cultivation pressed against the earth itself, cracking stone, bending metal. Birds fled for miles. Beasts in the surrounding forests howled and ran.

Her voice was cold.

"Fucking vampires. I’m going to kill them all if anything happens to my brother."

She vanished. A streak of silver light — gone before the dust settled.

New Miami. Knights of the Horizon headquarters.

Clara and Ryan stood in Miss Solstice’s office. The pink-haired woman sat behind her desk, her expression serious, her fingers steepled in front of her. She looked tired — dark circles beneath her eyes, reports scattered across her desk, communication devices blinking with unanswered messages.

Clara’s silver eyes were red-rimmed. She hadn’t slept properly in three weeks. Her silver hair was unkempt — pulled back in a messy ponytail that was unlike her usual beautiful appearance. Her hands trembled at her sides.

Clara said. Her voice shaken. "The academy is gone. The Vice Principal is dead. The Head Instructor is dead. Lucian is missing. You have to help us find him."

Miss Solstice listened.

"Lucian is one of us," Miss Solstice said finally. "A Knight of the Horizon. We will send agents to find him. Every resource we have is being redirected toward locating the Vampire families and the Dark Order’s operating bases."

Clara exhaled. A fraction of the tension in her shoulders released.

"But —" Miss Solstice’s voice hardened. "Worse comes to worst, we may not find Lucian alive."

The words hit Clara like a physical blow. Her knees buckled. Ryan caught her arm, steadying her.

Miss Solstice stood. She walked around the desk and placed a hand on Clara’s shoulder. "I’m not saying that to be cruel. I’m saying it so you prepare yourself. The people who took him are Astral Realm cultivators. If they wanted him dead, he’d already be dead. The fact that they took him alive means they need him for something. That gives us time. But time is not unlimited."

Clara nodded.

"Find him," Clara said. "Please."

Clara and Ryan leave the office. Miss Solstice wondered what they actually needed Lucian for.

The Chevalier mansion. Paris.

Rose knelt in her father’s study. Her forehead pressed against the cold marble floor. Her red hair spilled around her like a pool of blood.

"Please, Father. Help me find him. Help me find Lucian."

Pierre Chevalier sat behind his desk. His expression was unreadable. His fingers drummed against the armrest of his chair.

Arthur stood beside him. His arms were crossed. His face was tight with a frustration that had been building for three weeks.

"Father," Arthur said. "Lucian saved my life in New Geneva. He saved Rose’s life. He saved hundreds of students. We owe him. If the Chevalier family has any honor —"

Pierre raised his hand. Arthur fell silent.

The patriarch studied his daughter. Rose had always been strong, stubborn and independent. Seeing her on the floor, pleading, told him more about the depth of her feelings than any words could.

He looked at Arthur.

"Very well," Pierre said quietly. "I will contact the World Government’s intelligence division. And I will reach out to our allies in the Hunter Guilds."

Rose looked up. Tears streamed down her face. "Thank you, Father."

Greece.A mansion on a cliff overlooking the Aegean Sea.

Lemora Du Maurier stood in her mother’s study — her violet eyes blazing, her fists clenched, her entire body radiating defiance.

"I demand to see Lucian!"

Louisa sat in a chair by the window, overlooking the sea. Her dark hair was pinned up elegantly. Her burns had healed completely. She looked like a painting — beautiful, serene, untouchable. Her violet eyes regarded her daughter with cold amusement.

"You demand nothing. You are a child who nearly got herself killed trying to protect a boy who doesn’t belong to you."

Lemora stepped forward. "He saved my life! You can’t just —"

"I can." Louisa’s voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. "You are my daughter and you will obey."

Louisa turned to the maid standing by the door — a tall, severe woman with grey hair and expressionless eyes. A Late Grand Core cultivator. One of the Du Maurier family’s most trusted retainers.

"Lock Lemora in her room. Watch her. Ensure she doesn’t leave."

Lemora’s eyes widened. "Mother, you can’t —"

The maid moved. Her hand closed around Lemora’s wrist with iron grip. A mana cuff materialized — clicking shut around Lemora’s wrist with a soft CHNK. The cuff sealed her mana. Her necromantic energy vanished. Her vampire strength drained away, leaving her as weak as a human teenager.

"Mother!" Lemora struggled. The maid held her effortlessly — dragging her toward the door.

Louisa didn’t look up. "For your own good, darling."

Lemora’s screams echoed through the mansion as she was dragged up the stairs and locked inside her room. The maid stood guard outside the door.

Somewhere underground.

Lucian woke up.

His body ached — every muscle stiff, every joint protesting. His left arm was gone. The stump at his elbow had sealed — regeneration closing the wound to prevent further blood loss — but the arm was still missing. Without Blood Energy, it wouldn’t regrow.

He was sitting against a stone wall. His back was bare — his shirt gone. A metal collar was fastened around his neck. Chains connected to the collar and wrapped around his right wrist and both ankles. The chains glowed faintly with runic inscriptions — mana-restricting seals that locked down his cultivation entirely.

He pulled. His vampire strength — normally enough to bend steel — was completely suppressed. The chains didn’t even rattle.

He looked around. A cell.

His Blood Sense was suppressed. His Primordial Sight was sealed. His mana was locked. He was, for all practical purposes, a normal human strapped to a wall.

The system’s voice sounded in his mind. "Well, well, well. It seems you’ve got yourself in a difficult situation."

Lucian’s lips curled. "Look who finally decided to show up."

The small white figure materialized in front of him — floating at eye level.

"It’s not like I could help you. No matter what I would have told you in that situation, you would have still lost. Those guys are not your average cultivators. Even for humans, they are very strong."

Lucian said nothing. He knew the system was right. Declan’s S-Rank Teleportation alone was an insurmountable advantage. Add Hassan’s S-Rank Explosion and the two Grand Core realms between them, and no amount of tactical advice would have changed the outcome.

Lucian’s head turned toward the cell bars. His enhanced hearing — one of the few vampire traits not fully suppressed by the collar — caught footsteps.

A figure appeared at the cell bars. Dark hair, violet eyes and a smile that definitely belonged on a snake.

Louisa.

Lucian’s eyes blazed with killing intent. To get his hands around her throat. To wipe that smile off her face forever.

Louisa unlocked the cell. The door swung open. She walked in.

"My little puppy." She tilted her head. "How have you been doing?"

She reached for his face. Her fingers extended toward his cheek.

Lucian slapped her hand away.

Louisa’s smile didn’t waver. She grabbed his throat. Her grip tightened. She leaned forward and licked his neck. Her tongue was cold and wet. The sensation made his skin crawl with revulsion.

"It seems you’ve forgotten your master." Her voice was a whisper against his skin. "This blood pumping through your veins helped me reach the Astral Realm." Her violet eyes glazed over — hazy, drunk with desire. "I wonder what will happen if I take more."

Her fangs extended. She leaned toward his neck — her breath cold against his skin.

"Hey, Louisa." Hassan’s voice cut through the cell. "What the heck are you doing?"

Louisa froze. Her fangs retracted. She released Lucian’s throat and stepped back, smoothing her hair with composure.

"Well," she said, turning to Hassan with an easy smile. "Just ensuring he hasn’t forgotten me."

Lucian spat in her face.

The globule of saliva struck her cheek. Louisa’s expression didn’t change. She wiped it away with one finger and smiled.

"Don’t worry," Lucian said. His voice cold. "I will never forget your face, bitch."

Louisa’s smile widened. She turned and left the cell without another word.

Hassan stood at the cell bars. He tossed a bottle through the bars. It landed on the ground beside Lucian with a CLINK.

"Drink up."

Lucian picked up the bottle. He opened it.

"Don’t worry," Hassan said. "It isn’t poisoned. If I wanted to kill you, I could easily do it."

Lucian scoffed. "Generous of you."

Hassan shrugged and left.

Lucian raised the bottle to his lips and drank. The blood was lukewarm and gamey — far inferior to human blood. But his thirst didn’t care about quality. His body absorbed every drop. The Blood Energy that had been completely depleted began to refill.

The system materialized again.

"I’m pretty sure you aren’t getting out of here."

Lucian snorted. "Thanks, genius."

"Since you’re stuck in the meantime —" the system floated closer, its tone shifting from mocking to practical, "— why don’t you train in the system space? At least right now, one hour here equals eight hours in that space. You could comprehend your skills and spells, train your Mind Palace, maybe even ignite more stars."

Lucian looked at the floating figure. The system space — the training dimension that Model 2.0 had unlocked. Five times time dilation. No mana for cultivation, but skill comprehension and mental training worked perfectly. His body was chained. His mana was sealed. But his mind was free.

He closed his eyes.

His consciousness shifted — pulled inward. He appeared in the system space — an infinite white void, featureless and vast. His mind palace stood in the distance — a glittering structure of mental architecture that had grown significantly over the past months of alchemy training.