“So when are you going to tell me what’s inside this room?” Vincent asked her, sounding annoyed.

“I may as well explain when you see it, considering we’re-” She paused, and took a step into a room. “Here it is.”

Vincent and the others looked into the room curiously. “Here? What’s in”

She stepped over the mana ink-painted carpet as her silver-haired aide stared at the room, aghast. “Lucy, what have you done?!”

Covering the entire carpet was a maze of thousands of lines of silvery ink, organised into strings of runes that gradually grew denser as they led towards a circle in the centre of the room. And within that painted circle was the main body of the Bloodline Essence and Source Obtainment Catalyser and Purifier, the massive glass sphere she had trapped Scytale inside when they inspected the Founder’s vault before the Forerunner’s Event. The mana lamps inside of the sconces had been removed from their positions, leaving the room with only natural light streaming in from a window on one side of the room.

She avoided touching the spell lines as she spoke to the others, Vincent glaring at her, “Now, please do not step on or cause any sort of displacement to the carefully arrayed mana-circuits as a change in their formation could disrupt the mana-transferal system I’ve set up here-”

“Lucy, you’ve ruined the carp-”

“-and disruption could lead to emission of high-density mana into the room, forming reactions with the damaged circuits to cast potentially catastrophic effects the mana-circuit was not intended to create,” she continued, “Including risking elemental conflicts and other highly devastating explosive scenarios-”

“Lucy, the sconce lamps have been removed from their scon-”

“-and the emission of high-density mana would mean said high-density mana is absorbed by your body, with the possible side-effects of that being mana poisoning, temporary loss of the senses, minor decreased control of the body, and spontaneous human combustion. So if you could please stay over there, and not come any closer,” she continued cheerily, stepping into the circle of the glass orb, “I would appreciate that. I don’t want us to explode.”

There was silence. The four of them stared at her, and she stared back.

“…I’m having second thoughts about this after hearing that last side effect,” Sedric eventually muttered, breaking the silence.

The expression on Vincent’s face was very, very dark. “I’d like to know how you thought you could hide this from me, Lucille.”

She sighed and bent down to pick up a pen and inkwell from where they were lying on the ground. “It’s only temporary. I set this up so I could see the information on the device’s Item Sheet, and then this will be removed. The device won’t be able to stay here, anyway, so don’t think I’m planning on keeping it in this room permanently.”

Vincent frowned at her and then took a glance around the room. “But I thought the mana-detection arrays were active everywhere on this floor. The alarm systems would go crazy if you tried to activate the device here.”

She stared at him, then glanced at the wall she knew the arrays were contained within. Vincent’s eyes widened in horror. “Don’t tell me you removed the-”

“I asked Ashale’viaf to temporarily turn them off,” she replied calmly, kneeling to start connecting the mana-circuit to the device with mana ink.

Vincent sighed in relief, then scowled at her for intentionally making him panic. Hargrave was watching the floor cautiously as if it might explode at any second, and Scytale had climbed onto a couch near one of the walls, away from the circuit. Not because it was about to explode, but just because he wanted to be lazy and have something comfy to sit on.

Sedric bent to have a look at the mana-circuit. “You called this a mana-circuit, so I’m assuming this is what a lot of the Coalition’s machines use?” he asked. She nodded, so he continued, “So what makes this different from a mana-circle?”

“Well, one is that it’s still a first-layer mana-circle,” she explained, continuing to draw the linking lines from the device to the runic circle around it. “But a very large one. Size is important with mana-circuits, and can affect its strength. Another is that this is for distributing power so the runic arrangement is different.” She looked up at him. “A mana-circuit has only two major functions. One is to distribute mana, another is to convert it either to or from mechanical power. Which is why they hardly ever use elemental runes, and mostly only arcane runes.”

“Only arcane?” he replied curiously.

She smirked as she continued drawing the rune lines. “Because mechanical motion uses the mundane forces to work.”

Sedric’s eyes widened in realisation, while Vincent narrowed his eyes at the room’s walls. “Lucille, could you please explain to me why you thought it a good decision to remove the mana lamps?”

She shrugged. “I needed to access the mana somehow. If this was my home world…” She grinned. “Then you could plug whatever tool you wanted into a hole in the wall purposely made for accessing power, but it seems the Commission doesn’t approve of unsanctioned usage of its manalines occurring here.”

“I believe that’s because the normal outcome of unsanctioned manaline access in the Empire is an enormous elemental explosion created by overly eager mages testing out their extremely inefficient new equipment,” her aide responded dryly.

“Which is why I’ve linked the mana-circuit to all the sconces rather than just one, so I have enough mana,” she said. “The device is only going to be turned on so I can see its Item Frame. It won’t have its core function activated, because we have no way of using its core function at all.”

“So then… what does this giant orb actually do?” Sedric asked. They all gave her curious looks.

She finished drawing the final few silvery lines to the glass orb, and then carefully walked over to a nearby wall, avoiding the mana-circuit. “I suppose it’s time for you all to see for yourselves.” She flicked a switch.

The room, which had been somewhat dark because of the removed mana lamps and only the window for light, lit up as the mana from the sconces travelled down the silver lines on the walls to flow into the mana-circuit. The glowing mana was sent into the giant glass sphere, where its switchboard buttons began to flicker and hum as power entered the construct. The bronze engraving lines covering each of the layers of crystal glass glowed blue, and multicoloured sparks fizzled and crackled within the centre of the orb. Eventually, the flickering of the switchboard stopped as the glow became steady and solid, and the device was fully turned on.

Lucille stepped forward to insert the extraction cylinder into its slot, then nodded as another lamp lit up on the switchboard. “This should be functional now.” She focused on her right eye for the shard to bring up the Item Sheet.

[Apparatus – Type: Catalyser, Magic Item ]

Name: Bloodline Essence and Source Obtainment Catalyser and Purifier

Rarity: Ancient

MP: 912/100,000

Desc:

This device’s concept was created during the first years of the Mystical Realm’s assimilation, where the people of the realm felt threatened by the immense power held by those of the nonmortal races. As one of the final versions of its kind, this particular device is a model that brings a twist to the nefarious purposes of this creation, in that it can purify the bloodline essence and source of a monster as well as the normal function of erasing the residual mana and spiritual signature of the slain being’s bloodline essence and source. Do not mistake that this construct was birthed from anything other than the atrocious desire to steal a nonmortal race’s very power for the User themself, however.

Abilities:

Lifeforce Catalysation and Purification – Erasing the control of a dead being’s blood, and granting its bloodline salvation.

* Degrades the residual mana and spiritual energy signature of the dead existence in its blood, reducing the chance of the bloodline essence attempting to control the assimilator of the bloodline and ultimately killing the assimilator. Mana cost: 1000 per minute. Length of time needed to degrade mana and spiritual energy signature increases depending on strength of existence’s bloodline.

* Reverts the monstrous essence of the bloodline to normality, restoring normal mana levels and patterns within the bloodline essence. Mana cost: 2000 per minute. Length of time needed to purify bloodline increases depending on strength of monstrous bloodline.

Racial Core Catalysation and Purification – Erasing the control of a dead being’s race, and granting its power salvation.

* Degrades the residual mana and spiritual energy signature of the dead existence in its source, reducing the chance of the mana backfiring and clashing with the assimilator’s mana and ultimately killing the assimilator. Mana cost: 5000 per minute. Length of time needed to degrade mana and spiritual energy signature increases depending on the strength of the existence’s source.

* Reverts the monstrous essence of the source to normality, restoring normal mana levels and patterns within the source. Mana cost: 10,000 per minute. Length of time needed to purify source increases depending on strength of monstrous core.

[ ]

Lucille crossed her arms as she read the Item Sheet. Vincent, Sedric, Hargrave and Scytale just stared at the device, taking in its description – which wasn’t hidden from them even with its high rarity as the device had no information protection enchantments – and forming conclusions about what the existence of this device meant.

Vincent and Sedric went slightly pale when they realised it, Hargrave narrowed his eyes, while Scytale let out a low whistle.

“Yeah, uh, Lucy… this is one nasty device you got here. I feel mandated as the only magical beast here to say…” He turned around to face Vincent, Sedric, and Hargrave. “You humans suck! Seriously!”

Sedric pointed a finger at the machine. “Um… Lucille, I hope I’m wrong here, but is that description saying… the Empire made these things to create their own magical beasts?” Then he winced. “Or, I mean… maybe not create, considering how it works, but to steal all their abilities and give them to the Empire’s people instead…?”

“Not just magical beasts,” she replied, watching the mana-circuit to ensure nothing went haywire. “This device was created so humans could gain the abilities of Tartarus’s natural undead, and the demons too.”

They considered that for a moment. Vincent and Sedric gained strange expressions. “Yeah, I can’t say I’m feeling that guilty about those two…” Sedric said.

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She rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, it didn’t work, just so you know. Undead don’t have bloodlines, so those who tried to gain their sources just died due to the death mana or became lesser undead, while those who gained demonic bloodlines became either half-demons, witches, or warlocks.”

Then Lucy shook her head. “As for those who tried to absorb a demon’s source as well as a bloodline, I can only say they were utterly stupid. A demon’s source is their astral form, a part of their very soul, while having the existence’s bloodline is essential to try to absorb their source so it would make them part demon, and when demons get stronger by absorbing other demons’ soul power…” She smirked. “It only ended up bad for the assimilator. Demons can’t die permanently, after all.”

They stared at her as she recited morbid facts to them, then looked back at the device. “I feel like a device of this sort would be under strict regulations if using one is even allowed.” Vincent frowned.

“Oh, it’s outlawed,” she casually said, making him go wide-eyed. “But only to make them,” she added as he sighed in relief. “Owning and using a pre-existing one isn’t illegal.”

“…why would using one of these not be illegal?” Sedric asked sceptically. “I find it hard to believe the Empire would allow these to continue to exist at all.”

She considered how to answer, but eventually just sighed as she disconnected the giant sphere from its surrounding runic circle. “The Empire allows devices like this to exist, because at the end of the day… these devices allow the Empire to gain strength. Even if the Empire is on good terms with the ruling beast clans, the realms are all still in competition with each other. The System encourages us to fight, after all. If a powerful Empire User manages to emerge from stealing a beast’s bloodline, they’ll accept a magical beast’s death as an acceptable price.”

Lucille opened the glass sphere taller than herself, and took out the smaller clear orb container inside of it, holding it in her arms. She stepped outside of the mana-circuit. “Good news is that I brought this out only because of its ability to purify monster bloodlines and sources. After it’s achieved its purpose…” She glanced at Hargrave and then looked back at Sedric and Vincent. “Then I’ll likely turn it into the Empire for its destruction.”

Lucy smirked. “The reward for giving these devices to the Empire back then was a Legendary-level gemstone, the kind used for controlling the more powerful Wizard Towers and powering Forbidden items. As time went by, Legendary gemstones were used less as rewards for varying things as the Imperial Treasury increased restrictions on the amount of high-rarity items allowed to be taken out of the Treasury.”

She gave them a wide grin. “Considering we’re probably looking at one of the last few Bloodline and Source Catalysers in the Mystical Realm, I highly doubt they bothered to change the reward over the years. I’m looking forward to seeing them having to relinquish their precious treasures just because a few politicians were lazy.”

Sedric and Hargrave gave her strange looks, while Vincent just rolled his eyes. Lucy gestured to Hargrave. “Anyway, I need to discuss something with him, I assume you, Vincent, have more work to do,” she said to her aide, then turned to Sedric, “And I assume you also want to get back to crafting, Sedric, so I’ll take my leave for now. As for Scytale…”

She glanced at her winged bond… who was asleep. She rolled her eyes. “We can leave him be.”

“Yeah… crafting… I had forgotten about that,” Sedric muttered. He nodded and then turned around, walking away.

Vincent sighed. “And I suppose it’s true that I have more work left. I’ll see you in a while, then,” he replied. He began to walk back to the study.

Good, he got side-tracked. Now he’s not going to ask me how I’m going to remove all the spell-lines.

Lucille turned to Hargrave, who was watching her carefully. “And as for what I want to discuss… it involves the first draconic monster Ravimoux will find for you.”

The tall red-haired man blinked at her in surprise but then paused as she handed over the large orb in her hands as well as the extraction device to him. “But first, take these two. They’re two essential components of the device needed to help you gain the bloodlines, so I assumed you might like to be in control of the location of these parts.”

He put them into a dimensional item of his own and then followed behind her as she walked away from the living room, looking interested after she told him that. She continued to tell him what he would need to do to gain the bloodlines he wanted.

“The device won’t be activated here at Headquarters once you’ve slain a draconic monster, but instead at a location such as an outpost in the wilds of the Beast Realm, where the draconic monster will have been specifically led to,” Lucy explained. “This is because the mana cost to run the device is far higher than what the Headquarters can support, and also to ensure you can quickly absorb the bloodline and source before mana begins to leave them by having the device located nearby.”

She gestured to him. “Which is another reason why I gave those two components to you. The first thing you need to do after killing a draconic monster is to store the bloodline essence and monstrous dragon heart so you can get back to the main body of the device in time. The dragon heart just needs to be stored in the orb, but the bloodline essence is obtained through extracting it with that extraction cylinder.” Lucille glanced at him. “And the location it’s extracted from is the heart, which is why bloodline essence is also known as heart-blood.”

She paused her steps when she saw the man frowning at her. “Is something wrong?” she asked, finding his reaction odd.

He frowned further, staying silent for a while, but eventually said his question. “Why do you know so much about my Origin Skill?” he asked, crossing his arms. “Nobody should be able to know about it. I’ve never told anyone anything regarding it.”

Lucille blinked. “Oh.” She hesitated for a moment. “I suppose that’s something I probably should’ve explained when I made my offer to you. Yours is the normal reaction when someone doesn’t know much about the Empire’s history.” She coughed. “Well, to put it simply… I’ve read about you.”

Hargrave stared at her. “About me?”

She tilted her head as she considered it. “Not you personally, but…” She glanced down the end of the corridor as she had an idea, and then turned back to him. “Actually, let’s leave the conversation about your first draconic monster bloodline for later. I believe this is something I should show you first. Let’s go down to the Library.”

…

They stepped through the tall hall filled with towering shelves of books. Lucy called out to the seemingly empty room, “Ashale’viaf, is there a copy of Aeternus and Arcana: Ancient Era Myths and Lore in here?”

The spirit materialised with a shower of petals, making Hargrave flinch beside her. “By Everdeen Vendimelas?” he asked her.

She nodded, and so the spirit disappeared in a second shower of petals, to return only a few seconds later with a thick book in hand. He walked over to a nearby table to deposit the heavy tome with a thud. A cloud of dust was kicked up from its pages by the action, and she walked over to see it.

“I didn’t expect anyone to know of this book anymore, considering the last time someone requested to see it was over a thousand years ago,” Ashale’viaf murmured. He glanced at her. “Was there anything else you needed, Faction Head?”

She shook her head. “No, that’s all I need, thank you.”

The rose spirit nodded and dematerialised his incarnation.

Hargrave watched the spirit go with caution, then turned to her. “Is… he capable of sensing everything in this building? Did he hear our conversation?” he asked, sounding to her like he could be worried.

She hummed as she turned the dusty pages of the ornately decorated tome to find the right passage. “Spirits who have yet to fully form a core or physical body of some kind use unusual intermediaries to sense the material realms, unlike demons and other spiritual energy using existences, so for a rose spirit like him, he can only use the magic arrays and plants within the building to see and hear us speaking. He would indeed normally be able to hear our conversation,” she said, “But spiritual perception negates spiritual perception.”

She gave the red-haired man a smirk. “And I use spiritual energy. So he’s incapable of hearing any of my conversations I don’t want him to due to the spiritual perception field surrounding me.”

“And you could clearly overhear my conversation…” Hargrave muttered.

She paused and then gazed at him with a strange expression, while he didn’t seem to know what he had said until his thoughts caught up to his mouth and his eyes went wide, finally realising what he had just let slip. “I- uh…”

“Here it is,” she said, returning to the book and deciding to help Hargrave by changing the topic. She stepped out of the way to let him read the page.

Hargrave came forward to read it, then began frowning as he saw what it said. He read through the page, a complicated look forming on his face. “This…”

“The existence known as the ‘Blood Patriarch’,” Lucille began, reciting what was written on the page, “Is someone born to the human race every iteration of what is known as a ‘cycle’. Their fundamental abilities on the surface show themselves as an individual with an extremely rare Superior affinity for the element of blood, but this is not the case. While their affinity, if tested, shows itself as a Superior affinity for blood, their abilities directly control their very form of existence using blood as a medium.”

Lucy used a finger to tap on one of the passages. “They absorb the essence of any bloodline in its entirety, and face no struggle dominating bloodlines due to their authority over blood. But they also gain the ability to devour the sources of non-human races, becoming them if they have both source and bloodline. These characteristics are added to their nonhuman form gained by absorbing other racial sources and bloodlines. Historically, they have been known as terrifying, distorted abominations with unknown origins, but uncovered manuscripts have indicated that these creatures were human before their change.”

She crossed her arms as she looked at the frowning man to her right. “I hope this has explained some of my knowledge.”

Hargrave ran a finger under one of the lines. “What’s a ‘cycle’?”

“It’s a period of twenty thousand years,” she explained. “Very few people know about it, but several phenomena occur that point to there being a twenty-thousand-year cycle of some kind. The black dragon I mentioned when I made the offer is another example of an existence whose manifestation is born every cycle. The Dragon Sovereign’s rebirth and the Citadel of Fate’s Prophetess are also like this.” She gave him a look. “However, I’ve found no mention of the ‘Blood Patriarch’ existing in the last cycle, which means it’s jumped a cycle. Normally, this means the existence’s strength is increased the next time they appear.”

He held his chin, re-reading and pondering over the page. “But…” he turned to her. “It says here that the ‘Blood Patriarch’ is born with hair and eyes the colour of blood, and keep that appearance until they gain another bloodline.” He gestured to his face. “My eyes aren’t red.”

Lucille sighed. “I don’t know the reason for that. It could be that it’s a change due to the increased power you’ve obtained from the cycle being skipped by the ability, or something else.” She placed her hands on her hips. “But do you think this passage could refer to anyone else but yourself?” she asked him, an eyebrow raised.

In actuality, Lucy had a vague theory about why his eye colour might not be red and was amber instead, but the implications of that were quite frankly very scary, so she didn’t want to think about it at all, if possible.

Hargrave grimaced as he heard her question, but didn’t answer it. He looked back at the book. “How many people besides you would know about my abilities and this ‘Blood Patriarch’?”

She considered it. “Very, very few.” She gestured to the tome. “Aeternus and Arcana: Ancient Era Myths and Lore is a very old book written during the first millennium of the Mystical Realm’s assimilation, and wasn’t very popular. In fact,” she continued, “It was highly unpopular because nobody believed what was written inside of it. It’s a book detailing myths from before the System assimilated the realm, but the author’s theories and research added into it made very few people treat it seriously.”

She smirked at Hargrave. “However, considering I’m talking to one of the very ‘myths’ mentioned in this book, I believe the author deserves more credit than they received.”

He just gave her a funny look, but then she paused as she thought of something. “I should be careful to warn you though, that revealing any hint of your abilities before members of the Evernight March would be an extremely bad idea.”

“The Evernight March?” he said with a confused frown.

Lucy nodded. “The name of ‘Blood Patriarch’ was only coined after a certain inheritor of the ability managed to absorb a specific collection of sources and bloodlines, and wasn’t a title that existed from the very beginning,” she explained. “As absorbing sources and bloodlines permanently changes the race of a Blood Patriarch, that particular Blood Patriarch had children which can be considered the first members of what we call the ‘Vampires’.”

She walked over to the book and shut it. “As a result, they termed the progenitor and first ancestor of their race the ‘Blood Patriarch’, and essentially worshipped any Blood Patriarch afterwards as the leader of their race, even if only one Blood Patriarch could ever be called their ancestor. So, if you don’t want to be kidnapped and forcefully placed on a pedestal as their ruler so the March can use you as justification to begin a coup d’état of the Empire, replacing the Emperor with you,” she said with a bright smile, “Don’t let them know what you are. It won’t end well for you.”

Lucille picked up the book as he gazed at her strangely. “Just avoiding them altogether is preferable, as the entire reason they accepted becoming a Marquess family was so they had the power to search out the Blood Patriarch each cycle to fulfil their secret plans of realm domination. But you didn’t hear that from me,” she added.

She called out to the empty room again, imbuing spiritual energy into her voice like she had done so before so the spirit could hear her, “Ashale’viaf, I’m done reading.”

The white and pink-haired spirit materialised with a cloud of petals once more, then glanced at the book in her hands with a strange look on his face. “I hope you found what you needed in that book because all I know is that the Athenaeum branded it as fiction some sixty thousand years ago.”

Lucy smirked and handed it over. “I did. Thank you for your help.”

He nodded and left once more. Lucy walked towards the Library’s lift as Hargrave followed her. “Now, about the draconic bloodlines and sources… I presume you intend on gaining them all over a longer timeframe?” she asked, using her access card to take them to the fortieth floor.

“Yes.” The red-haired man nodded. “I need to strengthen myself in other ways besides obtaining the strength of the draconic monstrous beasts.”

“Then I can allow Ravimoux to devote more effort into finding draconic beasts with greater bloodline strength…” Lucille mused. She glanced at him. “Does a draconic monster once a year up until the 6th year, then giving you twelve months of preparation before the Dragon’s Gate sound good?”

He nodded. She hummed as she thought it through further. “I suppose you’ll also want to obtain information on the monsters and prepare to fight them for several months leading up to the fight, so you don’t waste the encounter by allowing it to escape or damage the dragon heart accidentally in some way. Then I should tell Ravimoux to ensure the draconic monsters can be found near outposts around June each year.”

They stepped out onto the fortieth floor. “Then, as for your first draconic monster, I suggest you absorb a water-element one,” Lucy said.

Hargrave frowned slightly. “I was going to hunt a fire-element one originally.”

“If you truly want that, then I can organise it for you,” she replied, following the path to her living room. “But I’m not suggesting this without thought. The water element, as a component of the mid-level element of blood, is more similar to your affinity, and so you’d be able to learn more easily how to control it, gaining power quicker,” she explained. “And the water element will help you suppress the fire element when the time comes for you to absorb a fire element bloodline. I’m taking the elemental reactions into account.”

He thought for a moment, and then slowly nodded. She asked one last question. “I assume you’re only going for regal draconic bloodlines and sources? Not oceanic or celestial ones?”

“I only want draconic bloodlines and sources of the six essential elements,” he said, shaking his head.

“That’s what I expected,” Lucille said, nodding. She smiled and gestured to him. “Then, I’ll organise the search for a water element draconic monster with Ravimoux sometime after the Empire’s banquet. We won’t be seeing each other for about two weeks after this week.”

She looked around, then turned back to him. “I hope what I showed you in the Library helped you assuage some of your worries about what I know about you.”

Hargrave went to nod, then hesitated as he realised there was something else distinctly off about all this. “But… how did you know that I’m this ‘Blood Patriarch’ you read about when my eyes aren’t red?” he asked with confusion.

Lucy blinked once and then gave him a wide smile. “Oh, no, I’m not telling you that. Certainly not. How am I supposed to be this ‘scheming mastermind’ you and Sedric seem to think I am if I go ahead and just tell you everything?”

And with that, she left the frozen stiff Hargrave to his own devices, walking into her living room and shutting the door. She sat down on her couch.

Then she sighed because this would be the last time she would have such a relaxing day until after the Empire’s annual end-of-year banquet. Where she’d be given her Honorary Count Title, her existence and name would finally be spread throughout the Mystical Realm, and she’d meet privately with Archduke Stolas Septamere Eterial, the ruler of the Aethereal Duchy, one of the Seven Eternal Duchies of the Aeternus plane.