A crimson haze hung over the jagged, ash-stained mountains of the Blood-Moon Realm. High above, a massive, crimson-tinted moon cast an unholy light across a battlefield littered with shattered battle-chariots, broken spirit-spears, and the pale, draining corpses of both vampire noble clansmen and human cultivators.
In a secluded cavern three miles beneath the war-torn Valley of Screams, the space shuddered.
Clone Twenty-Four, the Portal Architect, jammed his iron quadrant into the obsidian floor. Dark, spatial runes expanded outward in intricate, concentric circles, stitching together the fabric of reality. Behind him, Clone Twenty-One (Star Seer) and Clone Sixteen (Boundary Tracker) stabilized the spatial flow using three hundred high-grade spirit crystals harvested from Black-Grit Outpost.
THUM-THUM.
A sound like a giant’s heartbeat echoed inside the cavern as a towering, ten-foot archway forged of swirling gray void-mist stabilized. The Void Gate was open—a permanent, unbreachable bridge directly connecting the Sinkhole Sanctuary in the Azure Cloud Domain to the Third World.
Lylin stepped through the portal.
His black robes billowed as his golden, liquid-like Golden Core aura flared briefly, adjusting instantly to the heavy, blood-scented air of the Blood-Moon Realm. Behind him stepped Clone Twenty-Five (Shadow Executioner) and Clone Twenty-Seven (Mind Weaver).
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
NEW REALM ENTERED: THE BLOOD-MOON REALM (WORLD 3/11).
ATMOSPHERIC DENSITY: HIGH BLOOD-ENERGY & FRACTURED SPATIAL LEY-LINES.
LOCAL CONFLICT DETECTED: CRIMSON-FANG VAMPIRE CLAN VS. NINE-RIVER SPIRIT ALLIANCE.
SYSTEM ASSESSMENT: OPTIMAL TERROR & RESOURCING HARVEST GROUND.
"Host," Clone Twenty-Five whispered, her eyes glowing like twin silver blades as her liquid-mercury armor shifted around her limbs. "A scouting party from the Crimson-Fang Clan is approaching our cavern entrance. Eight High-Vampire Nobles, equivalent to Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment."
Lylin did not even turn around. "Mind Weaver, Executioner—take them alive. The Mind Weaver will rewrite their loyalty; the Executioner will sever their connection to their progenitor."
"By your will, Master," both phantoms responded, vanishing into the cavern shadow.
Outside, eight bat-winged vampires clad in blood-red velvet armor descended silently onto the crags. Before their blood-sense could register the anomaly inside the cave, liquid mercury daggers whistled through the dark.
SHLICK.
Four of the vampires found their tendons severed and their core energy paralyzed before they hit the dirt. Before the remaining four could shriek, Clone Twenty-Seven materialized among them, his smoke-like face swirling as he pressed his palm against their foreheads.
OBLIVION TOUCH.
The vampires' eyes went blank. Their centuries of blood-lust, clan loyalty, and memories of their progenitor were wiped clean, replaced by absolute, unyielding devotion to the unseen master sitting in the dark beneath the valley.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:
UNITS CONVERTED: 8 MID-FOUNDATION VAMPIRE NOBLES.
SLEEPER NETWORK ESTABLISHED: CRIMSON-FANG OUTPOST #4.
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE SECURED: NINE-RIVER ALLIANCE PREPARING SIEGE ON THE BLOOD-STONE CITADEL IN 48 HOURS.
In the Sinkhole Sanctuary, thirty miles beneath another world, Lylin’s main body smiled as the intelligence feed filled his consciousness.
"A war between two dying giants," Lylin murmured, his Golden Core thrumming with dark anticipation. "Let the vampires bleed the cultivators, and let the cultivators slaughter the vampires. When both sides are exhausted..."
He raised his hand, and across three human worlds, all twenty-seven clones bowed in unison.
"...The Shadow-Rest Association will collect the debt."