Chapter 15: The Blood-Crested Throne
The transition was violent. Most world-jumps felt like falling, but this felt like being crushed inside a hydraulic press made of cold iron. When my lungs finally expanded, they didn't draw in air; they drew in the heavy, metallic scent of ancient rot and expensive incense.
I was standing in a hall of obsidian pillars, my boots planted firmly in a pool of cooling, silver blood. At my feet lay a young man, his throat opened by the jagged edge of my **Writer's Quill**, which had automatically shifted into a dagger of black glass.
[**WORLD: THE SYSTEM OF VAMPIRES**]
[**NARRATIVE EMERGENCY: PROTAGONIST PRINCE 'ALEC' DECEASED**]
[**NEW ROLE ASSIGNED: THE CROWN PRINCE OF SHADOWS**]
"Oh, you've done it now, Feng'er," a voice chuckled. Su Qingxue hadn't materialized beside me yet, but I could feel her presence—closer, colder, like a shadow stitched to my soul.
The heavy doors at the end of the hall burst open. A dozen guards in armor made of dragon-scale lunged forward, their eyes glowing a predatory crimson. But they stopped ten feet away, their faces twisting from rage into absolute, soul-shattering terror.
From the shadows behind the throne, something *ancient* stepped out.
**[CHARACTER IDENTIFIED: LORD VALERIUS, THE PRIMORDIAL KING]**
**[POWER LEVEL: SYSTEM OVERFLOW]**
Valerius looked at the body of his son, Alec—the "Hero" of this world—and then he looked at me. I gripped the glass dagger, preparing for a fight. But Valerius simply tilted his head. He scanned my soul, seeing the 999 lives of villainy and the dark mana I had stolen from the Architect.
"Alec was weak," Valerius whispered, his voice sounding like dry leaves on a grave. "A soft heart in a world of fangs. You... you smell of a thousand massacres. You have the scent of a man who has died and refused to stay in the ground."
The King stepped over the corpse of his own flesh and blood and placed a heavy, ice-cold hand on my shoulder.
"The Prince is dead," Valerius announced to the guards. "Long live the Prince. From this moment, this... *anomaly*... is my blood. My heir. The new Crown of the Night."
[**SYSTEM OVERRIDE!**]
[**ALIGNMENT: CATASTROPHIC VILLAIN**]
My leather coat transformed into a mantle of raven feathers and silver chain. My skin turned a deathly, translucent pale, and my canine teeth sharpened into points of surgical precision. I wasn't a "Saint" anymore. The System had looked at my history and decided I was the ultimate predator.
"My Lord," a guard stammered, "The High King of the Eastern Coven has arrived with his daughters. They come to celebrate the Prince's... well, they come for the Prince."
"Show them in," Valerius sneered, sitting back on his throne of bone. "Show them the new face of our dynasty."
The doors opened again, and a procession of noble vampires entered. But my heart stopped—not out of fear, but out of the sheer, dark irony of the script. Leading the procession was a King in white silk, and beside him, draped in a gown of blood-red lace, was **Su Qingxue**.
She looked at the dead prince on the floor, then she looked up at me. She didn't look shocked. She looked *hungry*.
**"Lin Feng,"** she mouthed, her eyes glowing a deep, manic violet.
[**RELATIONSHIP STATUS: POLITICAL RIVAL / BETROTHED**]
"Lord Valerius," the Eastern King bowed. "I see the rumors were true. Your new heir looks much more... formidable."
Su Qingxue stepped forward, her heels clicking on the obsidian floor with the rhythm of a ticking clock. She stopped inches from me, the scent of lilies and fresh blood radiating from her skin.
"So, you're my new fiancé," she whispered, her voice a low, dangerous purr. She reached up, her cold fingers tracing the line of my jaw before digging her nails into the skin. "The bad villain who killed the hero. I like this version of you, Feng'er. In the last world, you were so boringly 'Holy'."
"I'm not your fiancé, Qingxue," I hissed, my fangs aching with a sudden, uncontrollable thirst. "I'm the glitch that's going to burn this coven down."
"Then burn it with me," she smiled, leaning in close. "In this world, the **Honeymoon Clause** isn't a penalty. It's a Commandment. The System here demands that the King and Queen be... inseparable. If you try to be a hero, you'll die. But if you stay the villain... I'll let you rule the void by my side."
[**VILLAINOUS QUEST: THE GREAT PURGE**]
[**OBJECTIVE: ASSASSINATE THE EASTERN KING TO CONSOLIDATE POWER**]
[**REWARD: TOTAL NARRATIVE FREEDOM WITHIN THE VAMPIRE REALM**]
I looked at the Eastern King. I looked at Valerius. I looked at the woman who had followed me through death just to see me bleed.
"Fine," I said, the black glass dagger appearing in my hand. "If the world wants a villain, I'll give it a god-complex."
I didn't lunge at the King. I lunged at the **Throne**. I drove the dagger into the obsidian seat, right between Valerius's legs.
"I'm not the Prince," I roared, the 'Heroic Halo' turning into a jagged ring of black fire above my head. "And I'm not the King's son. I'm the one who writes the ending!"
The floor of the cathedral began to crack. But this time, the world didn't delete me. The System groaned under the weight of my corruption and then... it yielded. The red ink of the Editor turned black, merging with the shadows of the vampire realm.
[**CONGRATULATIONS!**]
[**YOU HAVE STABILIZED THE ANOMALY.**]
[**CURRENT DOMAIN: VAMPIRE KINGDOM (SECURED).**]
Valerius laughed, a terrifying sound that shook the pillars. "Yes! That is the spirit of a true King! Take the throne! Take the girl! Take the world!"
Su Qingxue grabbed my arm, her eyes burning with triumph. "We stayed, Feng'er. We finally stayed in a world that can't kick us out."
I looked out the high windows of the cathedral. The blood-red sun was rising, but it didn't burn. It felt like home.
---
**CLIFFHANGER:**
As Lin Feng took his place on the throne with Su Qingxue at his side, a new notification appeared—one that wasn't from the System or the Editor. It was a private message, flickering in the corner of his vision.
**[SENDER: ABDULLAHI_WAHEED]**
**[MESSAGE: "Nice move. But did you really think the 'Real Author' would let you keep the crown that easily? Look at the Eastern King's shadow."]**
Lin Feng looked down. The Eastern King was still bowing, but his shadow wasn't a shadow at all. It was a hole in reality, and something—someone—was crawling out of it.
**"Wait,"** Lin Feng whispered. **"The dead Prince... he's coming back as a Wraith."**
**[CHAPTER 15 END]**