Valdis stared at the enormous black dragon frozen beneath layers of ancient ice.
Its presence alone felt overwhelming.
Even dead, the pressure it radiated could crush weaker individuals instantly.
His blood still churned violently within him, reacting to the corpse as though it had encountered something sacred.
After a long moment, Valdis turned toward his father.
"So, we're descendants of the Black Dragon branch of the Dragon Clan?"
Duke Draven shook his head.
"No."
Valdis frowned slightly.
Draven looked toward the frozen corpse as he began speaking.
"The Ebonhart bloodline began with a Null Vampire."
His words instantly captured Valdis' attention as he had never heard of such a term in his life.
"A Null Vampire," Draven repeated, "is an extremely rare type of vampire whose bloodline has regressed to its primal origin."
His voice remained calm.
"And like a beast's bloodline regression, their blood becomes purer, but it comes at a price as they lose resonance with almost every law except one."
"The Laws of Blood."
Valdis listened quietly as Duke Draven continued.
"Their affinity toward blood laws reaches at least the Heaven grade naturally," Draven continued. "Such individuals are born monsters, as in a battlefield, they are every race's worst nightmare."
A brief pause.
"The ancestor of the Ebonhart House was one such existence, but that was until he encountered the essence blood of a Black Dragon hidden in a hidden spatial zone and refined it."
Valdis' eyes narrowed slightly as it sounded like the Ebonhart ancestor had encountered immense fortune.
"And after refining the essence blood, his bloodline evolved. The dragon blood granted him an affinity for the laws of darkness and fire while greatly amplifying his already terrifying vitality and physique."
Draven folded his arms behind his back as he continued his explanation
"And with that foundation, he rose rapidly, becoming one of the strongest individuals present at the time, and leveraging his power and influence, he married a female Black Dragon of the dragon clan."
Valdis' eyes flickered faintly as he heard this
"And together they founded the Ebonhart Clan."
The underground chamber fell silent for a moment as Draven's voice echoed softly through the frozen hall.
"The clan expanded rapidly after that. The royal family couldn't do much to the new rising clan, as the female dragon in question was one of the daughters of the black dragon chief, and touching them was tantamount to offending the black dragon branch completely."
Hearing this, Valdis nodded his head as he knew that no reigning power would allow another power with the potential to rival it to grow.
"Our bloodline became stronger with each generation. Soon, the Ebonhart name distinguished itself among the top powers of Blackspire, and during the Millennium War, where the Zephyrior Clan was wiped out, leaving one of the four ducal seats empty."
At this point, Valdis already understood where this was going.
"So the royal family allowed the Ebonhart Clan to replace them, becoming the Fourth Ducal House of Blackspire, not because they liked us or admired our power but because we had the subtle backing of the black dragon tribe and they wanted to leverage that connection to survive the war," he said quietly.
Draven nodded.
"Becoming the Fourth Ducal House of Blackspire."
Valdis remained silent as the new information shocked him. After a brief moment of silence, Valdis finally turned to his father and asked.
"Why are we here? Showing me all this?"
His gaze swept toward the frozen dragon once more, as he knew that this corpse was probably the main reason he was brought here, and even if it wasn't, it was tied to it in some way.
"And why are you showing me all this?"
Draven turned toward him.
"There are two reasons."
He raised two fingers.
"Firstly, you will receive one of The Ebonhart's cultivation techniques."
Saying this, he looked at Valdis
"Secondly, before that, you must refine a drop of dragon blood."
Valdis' gaze immediately shifted back to the corpse.
And it was at that moment that everything finally clicked
The reason the family preserved a dragon corpse beneath the treasury.
The reason his blood reacted so violently.
The reason this place even existed.
Valdis looked back at his father and asked
"What will happen after I refine it?"
Draven answered immediately.
"Your body will transform, the dormant dragon marrow hidden within your body will awaken and begin producing dragon blood."
Hearing this, Valdis' eyes sharpened, but Draven continued.
"The amount of marrow stimulated determines how much dragon blood your body can produce, which in turn will determine which cultivation technique you are qualified to practice."
Valdis nodded slowly.
He was brought here not to get a lecture on his family's history but to determine what qualifications he possessed to partake in the family's inheritance.
After speaking, Draven walked toward a nearby cabinet built into the wall of the chamber.
He opened it, and inside lay several tiny crystal vials. Each contained a deep crimson liquid that radiated faint pressure even through the glass.
Dragon blood.
Valdis' gaze focused instantly as he knew what that was.
Draven carefully took one out.
"This vial," he said, "contains heart blood from the dragon before you."
The liquid glowed faintly beneath the icy chamber light as it was held in the duke's hands.
"It is what will permanently awaken your dragon marrow, allowing you to produce dragon blood within your veins.
As the Duke Draven was speaking, a memory flashed through Valdis' mind.
His awakening ceremony.
The burning sensation he felt, the strange reaction within his blood, and the scales that appeared throughout his body, and he immediately looked at his father.
"Didn't the dragon marrow already awaken during my awakening ceremony?"
Draven smiled faintly and said
"You are observant, but the answer is yes and no."
Listening to his father's reply, Valdis got confused, and seeing his confusion, Draven replied
"During your awakening ceremony, the dragon marrow was stimulated for a while, which led to your transformation during your awakening ceremony, but after the ceremony, it will become dormant again. We also use it to differentiate which Ebonhart is born with one and who isn't, so we don't waste dragon blood on those without."
After saying that, he raised the vial slightly.
"That awoke it temporarily, but this will awaken it permanently."
After saying that, he handed the vial over, and Valdis accepted it silently. The moment he held it, his blood roared even louder. As though demanding it
Draven stepped back slightly.
Seeing this, Valdis sighed softly as he knew that this transformation would be accompanied by excruciating pain.
Then, without hesitation, he drank the entire vial in one gulp.
The blood slid down his throat like molten metal.
But
After several moments, nothing happened.
Silence filled the chamber.
Valdis blinked his eyes slightly before looking toward his father in confusion,
Did it fail?
But before he could voice his concerns..... It happened
Boom.
Like a bomb, his blood exploded into motion.
Valdis' pupils contracted instantly as an unbearable heat surged through his body, and his temperature rose sharply.
His veins bulged, and his skin turned red as his body began giving off steam.
His heartbeat thundered violently within his chest, and that's when it began.
Pain.
It erupted from within his bones themselves as though his bones were being torn apart from the inside.
Valdis' body trembled violently as he felt his skeleton cracking internally, as it was broken by the dragon blood's violent energy before being reformed and torn apart again.
This process repeated itself over and over again
His muscles tightened painfully while his marrow felt as though molten fire had been poured directly into it.
A low groan escaped his lips despite his efforts to endure the pain in silence.
The pain was unlike anything he had experienced before.
As this was going on, he felt as though something ancient buried deep within his bones was forcefully awakened