Frostheim's harbor shone beneath the aurora, sails glittering like veins of ruby and sapphire.The Crimson Wake waited — a ship carved from redwood and ice-steel, forged by Lumiel's own hands, runes humming faintly with Red Code.
They called it a voyage of diplomacy, but to Lumiel, it was more than that.It was a test — the chance to see if the empire they built could stand beyond their frozen skies.
"We'll make allies, trade secrets, and come back legends," he said, grinning as the ship cut through the mist."Or we'll crash into something horrible," Daniel muttered."Then we'll rebuild it better," Lumiel replied.Luminous sighed. "You two have a very specific definition of optimism."
The Voyage Begins
For weeks, the sea was calm.They traded songs and stories, taught their small crew fragments of Red Code chants, and recorded maps of aurora routes unseen by mortal eyes.Daniel spent nights sketching trading plans; Luminous leaned on the railing, her hair catching the light like molten frost.
"You know," she said one evening, "this feels too peaceful.""That's how every disaster starts," Lumiel said.Daniel frowned. "Please don't say things like that."
The wind shifted. The aurora dimmed. And far below, something moved.
The Storm
It began as a vibration in the hull — deep, rhythmic, like a heartbeat in the ocean.Then the sea split open.
A mountain of darkness rose from the depths, crowned in lightning: Leviathane, the Devourer of Worlds, the Abyssal Echo of the Red Code itself.Its eyes gleamed with script, lines of living data burned into its scales.
"It's… reading us," Lumiel gasped."Then what's the output?" Daniel shouted."Extinction!"
The sky erupted. Red lightning tore through the masts, setting runes aflame.Waves taller than towers smashed into the ship.Crew screamed, vanishing into the black water.
Lumiel tried to stabilize the Red Code wards — but Leviathane's roar drowned out even thought.The creature's voice thundered through their minds like a system message from hell:
[Reflection Detected. Unauthorized Creation. Initiating Reset.]
The ship splintered. Reality fractured. The aurora imploded into black light.
The Fall
Lumiel felt the world vanish — the sea, the wind, even his heartbeat.There was only code, burning red and whispering in a language older than gods.He reached for Daniel and Luminous, but his body dissolved into motes of light.
"Don't— let— go—" Daniel's voice echoed through the void."Never," Lumiel whispered.
And then—silence.
The Shore of Eternal Night
When Lumiel awoke, his lungs filled with ash.He was lying on black sand beneath a dead sky.No aurora. No moon. Only endless towers of obsidian and cold red lanterns glowing in the distance.
He turned, coughing — Daniel lay nearby, pale and barely breathing, his blood frozen in his veins.Luminous was farther away, her clothes torn, her eyes open but distant, whispering something about "echoes in the dark."
Lumiel staggered to his feet, shaking.The sea behind them was gone — replaced by a cliff of frozen mist.Their ship had been erased, not wrecked.No supplies. No food. No magic reserves.
Only hunger.
The City of Eternal Night
They followed the faint red lanterns until they reached the city — a vast necropolis of marble and bloodstone, where towers bent like fangs and canals ran with dark crimson light.Vampires walked its streets — ancient, silent, eyes like stars that had forgotten warmth.
The trio hid in the alleys, trembling.Lumiel's Red Code flickered weakly, too drained to defend them.
"We can't fight them," Luminous said."Then we steal," Lumiel replied."And if they catch us?" Daniel asked, his voice faint."Then we die quietly," Lumiel said, "but not before we eat."
They scavenged for scraps, hunted rats, and raided refuse.But the longer they went without blood or mana, the more the hunger gnawed.Lumiel could feel it in his fangs, in his bones — the Red Code whispering, Feed.
Daniel's breathing weakened by the hour.His heartbeat slowed.His body — too human still — began to shut down.
Closing Scene
Luminous turned to Lumiel, her voice trembling.
"He won't last the night.""I know.""If you give him mortal blood, he'll die like them. If you give him vampire blood, he'll lose his soul.""Then I'll give him mine," Lumiel said.
He looked at his hand — glowing faintly with Red Code fire — and whispered the ancient words of Nihility.
"My blood carries death. But it also carries life."
He knelt beside Daniel, cut his wrist, and let the crimson-black drops fall.
The Red Code stirred.The air trembled.Somewhere, in the depths of the void, a voice whispered back:
[Reflection Initialized…]
And thus began The Blood Oath of the Fallen Brothers.