Soren glanced at Freyja.
She met his eyes and gave a faint nod, silent confirmation.
Blade's experience with vampires, his instincts honed by years of bloodshed, would prove valuable. If anyone could lead them to Lorelai's trail faster, it was him.
Soren, however, was already thinking ahead. Lorelai was a dangerous variable, but she wasn't the endgame.
There were greater threats looming. The Avengers… Ultron… the Mind Stone.
He had no intention of letting history play out as it had before. Vision would never be born. This time, he would shape the outcome.
After a short discussion, Blade led them to his stronghold, a concealed facility beneath the ruins of an old church.
It was dark, utilitarian, cluttered with weapon racks, maps, and half-disassembled tech.
There, Soren met Abraham Whistler, Blade's grizzled mentor, a seasoned vampire hunter whose body bore the marks of a hundred battles.
Whistler squinted at Soren as he approached, recognition sparking immediately.
"Well, I'll be damned. The miracle doc himself." He muttered, extending a hand. "Didn't expect to meet you in a vampire bunker."
Soren shook it with a faint smile. "Didn't expect to find a vampire hunter who reads scientific journals either."
Whistler chuckled. "Man's gotta stay informed. Especially when the world's turning upside down."
The two talked for a while, war stories and theories exchanged like old friends, despite the age gap. Whistler didn't hide his awe, but his respect was real, grounded.
The Next Morning
Blade was already geared up before sunrise. Silver-lined blades, ultraviolet grenades, incendiary stakes, and anti-vampire ammunition. He had even prepared a small cache for Freyja.
Freyja inspected the weapons with amused curiosity. "Primitive… but clever."
She mused, admiring the gleaming craftsmanship of a silver shotgun shell. "Your world's soldiers wield ingenuity like a dagger. I like it."
Blade grinned. "You should see what I do to bloodsuckers with that thing."
Soren raised his hand, drawing a glowing sigil in the air. "No need to waste time flying halfway around the world."
A shimmering doorway opened in the air, warping the space around them. With a simple step, they vanished and reappeared amid the arid sands of West Asia.
They stood near a weather-beaten town straddling the Syrian border, a remote place nearly forgotten by the modern world. Its people, few and wary, whispered stories of buried gods and cursed tombs.
To most, it was myth. To Soren, it was a trail.
Beyond the settlement, endless dunes stretched into the horizon.
Somewhere in that sea of sand lay a ruin, weathered, broken, barely distinguishable from the desert itself. The surface held nothing but fragments of forgotten stone.
But Soren could feel it.
"Lorelai's after whatever's under there."
"This isn't just a tomb."
Far beneath the ruins, in a narrow corridor carved by time and obsession, Lorelai walked alone, her fingers trailing across the cuneiform-covered walls.
Her eyes glimmered with interest. She had lived a thousand years, long enough to recognize traces of empires lost to memory.
"These writings…"
"Sumerian? Akkadian? No… Fragments. Ritualistic."
Behind her, a hunched vampire elder followed closely, his eyes hollow from centuries spent in service.
"Lady Lorelai," He said with reverence. "This is the place. We have confirmed it."
"There's… something below. A humanoid figure, tall, still, unmoving. When our elites went down to investigate, none returned."
Lorelai turned slowly, arching a brow. "None?"
"Not a whisper."
"We believe… the Supreme One sleeps here."
Lorelai's expression shifted, doubt clashing with curiosity.
"I've heard many titles: Supreme One, Progenitor, Immortal King. But I've never seen proof."
The elder bowed his head. "You will now. If we awaken him… the vampire race will rise beyond mortality."
Lorelai stepped closer to the stone seal at the end of the corridor. A faint hum resonated beneath her feet. Something was calling.
"I'll be the judge of that." She whispered.
The gathered vampires stood at the threshold of legend, centuries of myth, bloodshed, and ambition had led to this moment.
They had long hunted the traces of this ancient power, a being said to rival even the gods.
This being, like the infamous Daywalker, was immune to silver, garlic, and the burning kiss of sunlight.
To awaken this entity meant more than victory.
Lorelai stood still among them, her eyes narrowed, sensing something in the air, faint vibrations, old energies, like echoes of the dead whispering from below.
Something slept in these sands. Something that breathed even in stillness.
Her expression tightened.
She turned to the gathered elders. "There's a presence…"
"Something stirs in the dark. This cage…"
One of the vampire elders, robed in black and bearing a staff of bone, stepped forward. "That's why we must act quickly, my queen. We must not let this opportunity slip away."
But Lorelai hesitated. Her instincts screamed caution. What if the stories were true? What if this being was too powerful, too willful to control?
If it turned on her…
"What's the situation with Faith and the church?" She asked suddenly, turning sharply to the elder.
The elder's face darkened. "My queen… news has reached us. The Blood God… has fallen."
"What?" Her voice was sharp.
"The human Healer cut him down like wheat before the scythe Those who fled the cathedral were hunted like rats. None made it out alive."
Lorelai's eyes flared with rage, then darkened with calculation. Faith… you idiot. All that power, and still useless.
She turned toward the ancient wall, her fingers brushing the etched cuneiform runes. This was her last card.
Her only chance. If she wanted to survive, if she wanted to win… she had to act.
"I'll go alone." She declared suddenly, eyes hard with resolve. "The rest of you, stay here."
"No, my queen, wait!" one of the elders blurted, then quickly approached her, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"There is… another way. According to the old scrolls, the being requires a sacrifice to awaken. A powerful one. Without it, you may not survive the attempt."
She turned her head slightly, intrigued.
The elder bowed his head. "I've already prepared it. For you."
A smile curved Lorelai's lips. "You think ahead. I like that."
Her gaze lingered on him just long enough to make his ancient heart flutter in his chest, as if he might drop dead just to please her.
"If this being awakens and serves me, your loyalty will be remembered." She brushed a finger along his cheek before stepping away.
A moment later, she called over a handful of young vampires strong, proud, freshly turned. They gathered, clearly honored, puffing out their chests as she addressed them.
"You five, come with me." She said with a soft smile.
"I need those I can trust at my side for what lies ahead."
Their faces lit up, eager, naive.
"Yes, my queen!"
They followed her into the darkness, they didn't know the truth.
They were the sacrifice.