The Extra Wants Control

As she neared the castle, a young woman with now cut red hair and red eyes materialized on the balcony. It was Eliana the exact copy of Valeriana .

"Mother!" Eliana exclaimed, her voice laced with surprise. "You are back! But… it has been a day! Where were you? Are you okay?" She shot a barrage of questions.

Valeriana landed gracefully on the balcony, her crimson robes billowing in the wind. "Indeed," she replied, a hint of a smile playing on her lips. "It seems time has a different meaning on the other side."

Eliana's brow furrowed. "You left in a rather… awful state," she ventured cautiously, her gaze flickering over Valeriana's face, searching for any hidden emotions. "But you seem… different now. Lighter, somehow."

Valeriana chuckled softly. "Let's just say, I… had a meeting with your brother," she said, opting for a vague explanation.

Eliana remained silent for a moment. Valeriana knew Eliana come to require more details eventually, but for now, she chose to just tell her of how she went to the Vampire Continent met the queen of vampires, then met Neveah.

There was no need to burden Eliana with the weakened state of Neveah, or the complexities of the two energies within him, or the memories she saw or the things she learned about Neveah's past, she didn't need to know that yet. She just told her that Neveah is willing to build a relationship with them and that was good for now.

Sensing Eliana's unspoken concern, Valeriana offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Eliana," she said, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder," You will see Neveah soon, and I assure you."

Eliana returned the smile, a flicker of relief warming her eyes. "That is... good ," she said, her voice filled with genuine warmth but with great nervousness. Valeriana noticed her nervousness but didn't say anything, she knew building this relationship with Neveah was going to be difficult.

*****************

Six months passed. Each day was a brutal onslaught, a relentless test of Neveah's endurance. Verona, his tormento... Ahem his trainer pushed him to his absolute limits, leaving him battered and bruised, questioning his very existence.

"This is the only way I know how," she'd say with an innocent smile whenever Neveah questioned the harshness of the training. "Why does it have to be beatings and pain?" As he'd often ask.

Neveah, though perpetually sore and exhausted, had to admit a twisted kind of effectiveness to Verona's methods. He was changing, adapting in ways he never thought possible. There were hints of progress, subtle shifts within him.

He'd discovered a strange thing within himself – he had a human form and a vampire form. His human form, devoid of the supernatural abilities vampires possessed, held a surprising advantage – an exponential boost to his comprehension.

This, coupled with his pre-existing Adaptation Soul trait, turned him into a terrifying being. It seemed tge longer he fought, the more he got he was becoming a monster – a being who thrived on conflict, who grew stronger with every battle.

One day, as Neveah lay sprawled on the cold floor, gasping for breath, Verona materialized beside him, studying him "Intriguing," she said in amusement.

Neveah who was barely able to lift his head asked. "What? What's intriguing?"

" Nothing." She said but internally she was thinking...

"The way he absorbs energy," Red Verona explained, "It's… minute, in very small traces, he is absorbing it without even knowing. What's more interesting it's that he is absorbing both energy types in almost similar quantities... It's like he is being helped."

" Yeah cause he still can't detect the energies... Is this because his body is still mortal? He didn't get the 7 star qualitative change." Said Violet eyed Verona.

" You still can't manipulate the energy in the atmosphere?" Asked Verona.

Neveah grunted, the effort of forming words almost unbearable. "Yeah," he rasped. "There's… nothing. Just… mana."

Verona circled "hmmm," she said, "Perhaps… there's more to this than we thought."

A spark of curiosity flickered within Neveah, he forced himself to sit up. "What do you mean?" he managed to ask.

" There's still a lot to do."

Neveah closed his eyes, a wave of exhaustion washing over him.

Six months of unrelenting torment had yielded undeniable results. Neveah's body, battered and broken countless times, had rebuilt itself stronger each time. It was a testament to his dual nature – human resilience and adaptivity intertwined with vampiric regeneration. His physical form comparable to a pseudo 7-star being. Yet, a crucial qualitative leap remained elusive.

Frustration gnawed at Verona. Every training session ended the same way – Neveah, he was so close to the leap. She'd pushed him to his limits, exploring the boundaries of his human and vampire sides, but the qualitative shift that marked the 7-star threshold remained frustratingly out of reach.

Teaching him to control and aborbythe chaotic energy within was out of the question. Verona didn't understand what would happen of one side of the energies became greater than the other, and unleashing it could have catastrophic consequences. They were stuck.

Then, a daring thought flickered in Verona's mind. Neveah's body had adapted remarkably, but perhaps it needed a… nudge. A forced evolution. Her crimson eyes narrowed, a predatory glint igniting within them. 'You are what you eat', she thought.

Neveah needed a power boost, something to supercharge his growth. Verona knew exactly what – the blood of her father, the very first Vampire King, the progenitor of their entire race, her inheritance which she never took. His blood could be the catalyst Neveah needed.

A cruel twist of fate, she thought with a wry smile. One of the locations the two figures had instructed Neveah to visit just happened to be her father's "grave." Grave wasn't quite the right word as it didn't have the Progenitor's corpse. It was more of a hidden vault, a repository of her father's legacy.

Verona glanced at Neveah, who lay sprawled on the cold stone floor,.

With a flick of her wrist, she conjured a swirling portal, a gateway to the hidden vault.

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