LOGINThree months later.
Adrian was awake from his nap on the couch when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in!" he said.
The door opened, and the small amount of light that entered made Adrian curl up and cover his face with his hands. Yes, this workspace had become Adrian's new home. Dark, with dim light, he had become accustomed to living without sunlight for the past few months.
"What do you have there?" Adrian asked his employee who came in.
"I want to report that the company's finances have grown rapidly since last month. It's very good and strange simultaneously because we have yet to release any new products or do any promotions. Congratulations, Mr. Adrian; it seems like this company will rise again."
Adrian stood up from his sofa and approached the woman in the red shirt. He took the files into the woman's hands. Everything was written clearly, a significant increase; sales were up, and everything looked perfect.
"I did it!" exclaimed Adrian. He hugged his employee while muttering to himself. 'Only nine virgins, and everything is going well. I must find one more to keep this company going for the next two years!'
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Adrian, my neighbor is looking for a job. Coincidentally, your secretary has resigned; I mean... can she apply to be your secretary?"
"Is she still a virgin?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
Adrian chuckled; he was just too excited when he heard the woman. He quickly shook his head and said, "No way! I just watched a movie about a girl wandering in the big city. I'm sorry. Yes, you can bring her to the office now."
"Oh wow! Okay, I'll let her know."
Adrian clenched his fists and hit the wall. "Damn, I'm so stupid! Why did I say that? I have to be more careful. But it's not important. I have to find one last girl. Shit! But where? For the past two weeks, I have only been getting girls who are no longer virgins. I can only get nine virgins among all my victims, which now number 150. Damn it! This requirement is so difficult!"
A knock on the door sounded again, and Adrian stopped his complaints and opened the door. Adrian was stunned at the sight of a beautiful woman standing behind the employee who had just given him the financial report.
"Mr. Adrian, let me introduce you to Emily. She is my neighbor who wanted to apply as your secretary. Coincidentally, she was around the office, so I asked her to come and see you immediately."
The girl smiled thinly. Her beauty differed from Adrian's; he couldn't smell her body's scent. Curiosity peaked inside Adrian. It had been a long time since he had been captivated by a girl like this.
"Okay, please come in, Emily."
Adrian's heart was pounding; the only scent he could smell from Emily was her perfume and hair. Two conflicting desires stirred within Adrian, one wanting Emily for his pleasure, while the other wanting Emily's blood.
"So, tell me about yourself. By the way, I am allergic to sunlight; my skin will turn red if exposed. That's why I keep my windows closed during the day; I hope you don't find me strange."
"Of course not, Mr. Adrian. It's common; I've met someone who experiences the same thing. Well, I'm Emily, 21 years old. Honestly, I haven't had any work experience before. This is my first time applying for a job. I just dared to live independently. And I'm an economics graduate. That's it, Mr. Adrian."
"Damn, how could I enjoy every word that came out of her mouth so much. She's so captivating. I've never met a girl as charming as Emily," murmured Adrian to himself.
"Interesting. Young and brave. What made you leave home at the age of 21?"
"I was just tired of living with strict parents. I wanted to experience freedom in my youth. I should have left like teenagers in big cities, at 19, going with their lovers. It's exciting. Unfortunately, I come from Ellicottville. Being daring is the only thing I have until I arrive in New York."
Emily's explanation was like a breath of fresh air to Adrian. Clues like strict parents and her desire to live with her lover were seen as a sign that Emily was a virgin. Of course, if that were true, Adrian could easily get his prey without looking for it.
"The passion of youth is too wild to be suppressed. However, living with parents until any age is not a bad thing. But, sorry in advance, from your words... it seems you have never been in a relationship with a man. Is that true?"
"Yes, Mr. Adrian. That's true. I've never dated; my parents are too devout to the religion they adhere to. Even by the standards of a girl in New York, I'm too old to be a virgin."
Adrian's heart was pounding. His interest in Emily's looks quickly turned into an obsession with her blood. He imagined how he would tear Emily's neck apart and suck her blood until she became weak.
"Okay, that's enough. Congratulations, Emily, you have been hired at this company. Working in my company can make you feel comfortable and have a good experience.
Adrian extended his hand to Emily. She replied with a wide smile and said, "Thank you, Mr. Adrian. This is an opportunity that I won't waste."
"Okay, you can meet your friend, she will explain your duties. She's my temporary secretary."
Emily nodded and walked away from Adrian. Just before she closed the door, Adrian stopped her and said, "Emily, would you like to have dinner with me?"
"Sure, Mr. Adrian."
"Good; wait for me in the parking lot at seven tonight."
Emily closed the door. Adrian grinned widely with shining eyes. His heart was still pounding because of Emily's charm, but his desire to suck her blood was much stronger.
"Ten virgin girls will soon completed. Great! All of my wealth will return!" he said.
The world felt different after the cavern—quieter, softer, almost as if the air breathed with less weight. Emily didn’t know if it was her perception or if something about reality itself had shifted when the Light Source finally released its grip. All she knew was that morning sunlight felt warmer than she remembered.She stood on the small balcony of the cabin they’d taken refuge in—deep in the forest, far from cities, far from the cracks between realms—watching the sun climb slowly over the distant treeline. The breeze played with her hair, brushing the back of her neck with a gentleness that felt like a blessing she didn’t know she needed.Behind her, soft footsteps approached.Adrian leaned against the doorframe, still unsteady in the mornings, still wrapping a blanket around his shoulders like his body hadn’t fully caught up to the warmth of this world. His chest rose slowly, as if savoring every inch of air he inhaled. A faint gold shimmer lingered in the scar that now marked th
The light roared like a collapsing universe the moment Emily wrapped her arms harder around Adrian’s trembling body. The Source surged around them, its glow rising in towering waves that shook the dimension with the force of a dying star refusing to let go of the last two sparks that defied its will.Emily tightened her hold until her wrists hurt, burying her face against Adrian’s shoulder, refusing to let the light pry even a single inch between them. His breath shuddered against her collarbone, painfully uneven, a sound that made her chest feel like it was splintering.He was cold—colder than she had ever felt him. The kind of cold that didn’t belong to flesh but to souls left suspended in places they weren’t meant to survive.“Emily…” His voice cracked, rough and fading, like he was speaking through layers of frost. “You… shouldn’t be here…”She lifted her head, cupping his frozen face with both shaking hands, her forehead pressed to his. “Stop saying that,” she whispered fiercely.
The path did not appear as a doorway or a tunnel or even a shift in the stone. It unfolded like a tear in reality—thin, silent, shimmering—stretching open as Emily stepped forward. The white light curled around her ankles first, winding up her calves in slow spirals that felt like fingers tracing ancient sigils into her skin. She inhaled shakily, bracing herself, but the moment her foot crossed into the rift, the cavern behind her vanished. No sound. No echo. No Lilith. No First Shadow. No stone. No air. Just a sweeping wave of brightness that swallowed everything, pulling her into a realm that felt vast and crushingly empty all at once.The ground beneath her feet wasn’t ground at all—it was a surface of shifting luminescence, like walking on the inside of a star. Nothing had edges. Nothing had shape. The horizon melted into itself. The sky—if it was a sky—was a gradient of white and pale gold that pulsed in slow breaths, as if this entire dimension was an enormous living organism.E
The light didn’t wait for her. It pulsed once—slow and deliberate—like a lung inhaling the entire cavern, and Emily felt the pull wrap around her spine before she could fully steady her breath. Still, she forced her steps forward, one shaky movement after another, refusing to let fear take the lead even as her pulse hammered loud enough to drown out the cavern’s distant rumble.Each step she took felt heavier, as though the light dense in the air thickened around her bones, but she didn’t stop; she couldn’t stop—not with Adrian’s heartbeat flickering in the back of her mind like a dying lantern begging for someone to shield its flame.Behind her, Lilith stood silently, eyes narrowed—not in warning, but in a solemn acknowledgment that what Emily was doing was something no one else could help her with. And the First Shadow watched without a trace of hostility, its massive form half-silhouetted against the glow, posture lowered in a strange, unnerving reverence as if witnessing a coronat
When the Light Source tore Emily out of Adrian’s arms, the universe didn’t split—it folded, collapsing into a thousand impossible geometries that twisted like shattering mirrors around her. For one sickening instant, she wasn’t sure if she was inside her own mind, dragged into the Source’s core, or simply dissolving into a dimension that had no shape for her to cling to.Everything felt wrong.The light wasn’t warm; it stabbed at her, slicing into her senses until she felt peeled open. Not bleeding—just exposed, stripped of anything that felt like protection. And the worst part wasn’t the pain.It was the absence.Adrian wasn’t there.The moment the bond snapped taut and went silent—like a severed nerve—Emily’s breath collapsed. She curled inward instinctively, arms wrapping around her ribs even though she wasn’t sure she still had a body.“Adrian—”Her whisper vanished instantly, swallowed by the crushing radiance around her.She tried again, louder. “ADRIAN!”Still nothing.. No fami
CHAPTER 66The detonation of white light didn’t just fill the cavern— it erased it. For a split second, there was no stone.No bodies.Just light, folding reality in on itself.Emily felt her consciousness peel away from her skin, her bones, her breath—like she was being lifted out of her own body and suspended in a place that wasn’t a place at all. It was weightless, endless, terrifying. She wasn’t falling or rising; she was simply unmoored, drifting in a blinding void where her identity thinned into something small and trembling.And then— there was Adrian.Not at her side. Not in front of her. Not physically.He appeared in her mind like a flame— red-gold, fierce, trembling with strain— and she clung to that flame instinctively, desperately, because it was the only thing that still felt real.“Emily—”His voice echoed inside her like a heartbeat shaking loose from a dying body.“I’m here—don’t let go—don’t let go—”She reached out in the void, fingers grasping nothing, yet somehow t







