The hallway echoed with a single, firm voice. "Absolutely not!"The room was a stark contrast to the verdant world outside. Fluorescent lights hummed over a long, polished table, where the community's top brass, the administrators and executives, sat in a formidable line. Opposite them stood Palmer, Valen, Fenris, Max, and Dylan, an island of outsiders."If what you're saying is true," Claudia Draxen, the Chief Administrator, said with a voice like a guillotine's blade, "doesn't that mean we risk revealing this place to them when we bring the relics together here?""This is the best place to keep them!" Dylan countered, his face a mask of frustration. "They can't reach the orbs here.""You say that, but you've already brought some of them to us," Reginald Veynar, the Chief Administrative Assistant, said, his fingers steepled on the table. "What makes you so sure there aren't more of them...more than can breathe in a place that's supposed to be deadly to their kind?""Reginald has a po

"You see," Alistair adjusted his long, dark leather coat, his smirk faintly illuminated by the setting sun. "The demons don’t want anything except to see humans in utter despair. They don’t care about hierarchy or politics… unless Auraeus is involved." His eyes flicked toward Elijah and Lilith. "I was able to gain their assistance with that condition." "Is that so?" Aurora's voice slipped through the shadows, cold and deadly, seemingly disembodied. "Perhaps I gave the demons too much credit." The crimson dust settled slowly, revealing her silhouette. Dangling in her hand, the head of the demon that had charged her, her figure now plain in sight, a thin line of blood dripping from her lips. "They never struck me as beings that would work as underdogs for skinwalkers." Alistair forced a grin, though a bead of sweat betrayed him. "Oi, oi, oi. That demon carried spiritual energy equal to a Noble vampire, you know?" His thoughts churned. Just how much stronger has she become in these ye

"Every five hundred years, some of the children of Primeus, the man who sealed Auraeus, reincarnate." Garghat's eyes slid open, his shadow a looming giant cast by the candlelight flickering in the vast hall. "Who would’ve thought the statue built in Primeus’s honor would also serve as a beacon to his bloodline’s? These reincarnates are then raised to reproduce, enabling us to breed future knights with their divine attributes." He paused, turning slowly to Alistair. "Thanks to this cycle, the Church has kept every supernatural threat in check since the Dawn Era."He rose slowly from his ornate chair, the light of the candles bending toward him like they feared to defy his presence. "But that has changed now that I am the Grand Elder." A smirk twisted his lips. "What's more, we were blessed with three of Primeus's children in this era: Xantrax, Odinson, and Veridan. Each of them is just as powerful as they were in the dawn era. Each is strong enough to hold their own ground against th