Chapter 272: When The Night... Falls

[A/N: General Salvatore’s full aspects will be shown much later... I haven’t decided how deep I want to go with his plotline!]

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Seeing General Salvatore in such shock, the group gave him a long moment to compose himself and adjust to his new condition.

Only then did he begin to explain what had happened, and to Liliana’s surprise, her father had undergone not just a Bloodline Evolution, but also a Star Evolution.

The strange part was how quickly it had occurred, and even more unusual was that he hadn’t needed to fight for this new destiny.

What they didn’t realize was that this was the true power of Akasha’s latest star after incorporating Melvin’s path.

In the past, Liliana, Amber, and others who evolved under Akasha’s influence had always done so through the Mountain’s power or abilities derived from the path of Lucid Dreaming.

This time, however, Akasha had introduced a new possibility—essentially freezing a being’s altered potential and setting the exact moment it would manifest.

It was, without a doubt, far superior to any path he had taken before.

After a brief discussion, General Salvatore wisely shared little, revealing only that he had become a Threshold Vampire of the Divine Rank—essentially a vampiric variant capable of setting thresholds or limits through the use of blood.

Once they addressed his evolution, they quickly shifted their focus to the world of Loreua itself and, more importantly, began aligning their purposes to avoid conflict when they descended toward the supercontinent below.

With Liliana’s goals the same as her father’s, the focus obviously fell on Melvin as they wondered what exactly brought him to this world.

"I’m here to kill every... Loria Human." Melvin uttered in a flat tone that held absolutely no warmth.

As soon as he spoke, an awkward hush settled over the group, stretching uncomfortably into the space between them.

For a few beats, no one responded, the stillness broken only by the whisper of wind sweeping across the elevated meeting ground.

Although his objectives were, ironically, in alignment with those of Liliana and the others, the tone he conveyed—the detached, emotionless aura that surrounded him—told an entirely different story.

It became startlingly evident that Melvin harbored a vendetta against the Loria unlike any other.

"Where the hell is my Amber?" Liliana wondered, Melvin’s words instantly bringing her daughter to mind.

It had been a while since she’d seen her, and with Melvin’s intent so obvious, she could only hope Amber was far from Loreua today.

"I will give you all the grace and respect because of my Master," Melvin said, pulling Liliana from her thoughts as his gaze swept over them, breaking the silence himself.

He couldn’t quite figure out why his words had caused such a heavy pause—whether they had ties to the Loria or not was irrelevant to him.

"But... that grace and respect will end if either of you tries to stop me."

His warning hung in the air. Then, with deliberate calm, he raised his hand and drew the Dreamer’s Mask from his divine ring before letting himself fall.

The clouds parted around his descent in long white sheets.

Wind tore past white robes and longer black hair with a rising whoosh, cold and absolute, until he set the mask against his face mid-fall—and vanished from ordinary sight as if the sky had agreed to forget him.

Liliana’s eyes narrowed on the empty air he left behind.

"Well, it seems everyone has some sort of vendetta against Loria."

On the journey here, she had finally spent the divinity needed to uncover the truth about her mother, and the knowledge still left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Back in the Land of Yomi, her father had shared a little of what happened, but never in detail—only claiming the Empire had sworn an oath binding her mother’s Siren clan to them.

Which was, of course, completely false, as there wasn’t a Siren clan anywhere in Orin. In fact, Liliana’s mother had always been seen as an enigma in the Underside of Loreua.

Among Vampires, Shadow Demons, and Dead Kami, it was rare to find any other race at all.

And... back when the war of the Great Severance began, the Empire didn’t bind a clan—they bound a single woman.

Liliana looked straight at Salvatore, her question untempered.

"Why didn’t you tell me that the Princess of Loria took my mother... Milan?"

Salvatore’s pure white eyes, each marked with a red dot, flickered with a brief tremor.

He let out a long, slow breath, the weight of it pulling his shoulders down.

"Because they’re despicable," he muttered, a frown creasing his face.

"And that woman? Everyone knows she’s got a habit of using women—and others—for her own pleasure."

The rage in his voice was heavy, simmering just beneath the surface, but never rising in volume.

"I didn’t want you running off to witness something you weren’t ready to see before you were strong enough."

Liliana stayed silent at first, her eyes drifting back to the vast supercontinent below as her red garments fluttered wildly in the fierce wind. After a long pause, a sly smile curved across her lips.

"I’ll take care of this, Old Man," she said, casting him one last look. "Just make sure no one leaves the world."

With that, she plunged through the skies, hurtling toward Loreua in pursuit of Melvin, who had already disappeared.

She didn’t give General Salvatore the chance to stop her or even speak—not out of anger, but because she understood him far too well.

Liliana was no child, nor was she so immature as to believe, before meeting Akasha, that she would ever stand in such a position.

That understanding only strengthened her resolve to reach his heart, to earn his love, because she saw that as the truest way to repay him.

Not with grand or reckless feats, but by letting him embrace the softer, more peaceful parts of life.

She wanted to be his anchor, and that made the current situation all the more ironic in its quiet amusement.

After all those years spent searching for her origins, everything had been brought before her now—just when she finally possessed the power to face an entire Empire, relying solely on her own strength.

HUMMMMM!!!!