My Vampire Harem Will Dominate Everything

The sky split as Ezra flew, his shadow streaking across the clouds like a blade drawn against heaven.

The wind parted before him. The stars themselves dimmed in his wake. Every fiber of his being was filled with power, Eighth Ring power, no longer restrained.

His Aura flickered behind him like wings made from stormfire and shadow, and the weave bent lovingly around him, guiding his path.

A second later, he stopped in midair.

Before him stood the fortress.

It didn't look like a fortress, at least not to the naked eye. It shimmered like a trick of the light, as if the world itself was trying to forget it existed.

The building seemed to shift between states, warping in and out of perception, wrapped in the kind of power that should have made it invisible to all.

But Ezra was not all.

He was the Prince of Darkness, heir of the Progenitor, and the weave obeyed him.

Not even Nihil, another relic could stop him.

He reached forward, not physically, but metaphysically, and gripped the edges of that fragile illusion.

And he ripped it apart.

Reality snapped into place, and the fortress stood fully revealed, a giant and half submerged citadel of blackstone. Ezra could feel the desperation in its very foundations. Akiko had built this place as a last resort. A sanctuary. A trap.

And it didn't matter.

Ezra raised his hand.

The roof of the fortress exploded, torn open by his darkness with a thunderous scream of air and stone. The protections around the building flickered, trying to resist, but the weave around them folded like paper.

Ezra descended, slow and steady, surrounded by a cyclone of power.

And there she was.

Akiko.

She stood alone at the center of the hall, dressed in ceremonial white, her hair tied into a warrior's braid.

Her eyes shimmered with restrained madness. But it wasn't the wild kind. It was the quiet, deliberate kind. It was the kind that believed in something so deeply, it would destroy the world to protect it.

In her arms was Aurora.

Ezra's breath caught.

The baby was silent, swaddled in soft dark cloth, her eyes closed.

"Don't." Akiko said, her voice trembling with both power and threat. "One step, Ezra. Just one. And I'll sever the lifeline. She's bound to me. One thought, and she fades in death forever."

Ezra didn't move.

At least, not in any way Akiko could see.

He was already weaving.

Already unraveling her hold.

Because Akiko didn't know.

She didn't know he could see the threads, the bindings, the safeguards, the soul-tethers.

She didn't know the moment she'd spoken of the bond, he'd already begun overwriting it.

Ezra's eyes glowed, not with rage, but with serenity.

He lifted one finger.

Akiko's smirk flickered.

And the thread snapped.

There was no warning. No buildup.

One moment, Aurora was in Akiko's arms.

The next, she was in Ezra's.

Akiko gasped, stepping back like she'd been stabbed.

Aurora stirred against Ezra's chest, her tiny form squirming before settling.

Ezra held her close with one arm.

Then, he split.

A second Ezra stepped forward from behind him, made of the same body, same will, same weave tethered soul. That was the Eighth Ring ability, Avatar. The ability to create bodies in which all the bodies were the original.

As long as he still had a body, he was still alive.

He handed the baby to his other self.

"Go." He said simply.

The second Ezra nodded and flew upward, vanishing into the night like a star swallowed by the clouds.

The original turned back to Akiko.

She was pale now, lips trembling. "You don't understand. I just— I needed—"

Ezra stepped forward.

And they collided.

The battle was like a symphony.

Akiko was no coward. She didn't flee. She didn't beg.

She fought.

Her relic, Nihil, bloomed with impossible complexity. She vanished. Attacks came from nowhere. Blades of folded space slashed at Ezra. Shadows masqueraded as real threats while real ones hid behind silence. Her aura distorted the room, hiding terrain, rewriting perception.

Ezra bled. But not because he was weak.

Because he wanted her to feel heard.

"Why?" He asked between blows, blocking one of her knives with a shield of frozen darkness.

"Because they never chose me!" She screamed. "Not Caspian. Not Vance. Not even the Progenitor! I was the first of us to rise. I kept the court from falling. I deserved—"

"—a child?" Ezra's voice was hollow. "So you took mine?"

Akiko struck again, this time aiming for his neck.

He didn't flinch.

The blade passed through it, the flesh parting and resealing as his Eternal power kicked in.

But that didn't matter, because he'd found what he was looking for.

And he began unweaving.

Every illusion collapsed.

Every false light dimmed.

He reached into her relic, Nihil itself, and peeled it back from her Aura.

"You weren't born to hide." He said softly. "You were born to rule. But you wanted to be feared, not loved."

Tears welled in her eyes. "I just wanted to matter."

Ezra looked at her soul, and saw it.

Wounded. Brilliant. Alone.

He reached forward and tore her last veil away.

Akiko stood there, no illusions, no glamours. Just a woman broken by centuries of loneliness and poisoned ambition.

"I just wanted a child of my own." She whispered.

Silence.

She lunged.

He caught her.

And with one hand pressed to her chest, he pulled.

Her vitality surged into him, not with struggle, but release.

Her body dimmed, dimmed—

And was still.

Ezra landed softly on the floor, holding her dead body.

Her last words were almost silent.

"I only ever wanted… to be loved."

The room was silent now.

Ezra's Aura blazed, leaving almost physical streaks of gold and black in the air, and the world tilted again.

He stood tall to his full height as power flowed through him, his soul stretching toward the unseen limit.

He crossed it.

Ninth Ring.

He felt it ignite in his blood. The Ninth Ring Ability.

Authority.