I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Sunken Fortress

A notification flashed in Lucian’s vision.

╔═══════════════════════╗

║ ⚔ EMERGENCY QUEST ⚔ ║

╠═══════════════════════╣

║ Rescue all children without harm ║

║ Reward: 5,000 SC ║

║ Evolution: Scarlet Threads → Rank A ║

║ Penalty: -3,000 SC ║

║ Status: ◉ ACTIVE ║

╚═══════════════════════╝

Lucian dismissed the notification.

"Main entrance is reinforced," Amira said, studying the steel door from behind a rock outcrop. "No side doors and no windows. We go through the front, it’s going to be loud."

Declan cracked his knuckles. Golden light flickered across his skin. "Loud works for me."

He walked up to the steel door and punched it.

BOOM.

The reinforced metal buckled inward. A second punch tore the hinges off their mounts. A third sent the entire door flying into the corridor beyond, where it crashed against a concrete wall with a deafening clang.

"Very subtle, Declan" Amira muttered.

Declan just grinned.

They entered.

The corridor beyond was wide enough for ten people to walk abreast. And at the far end — more than fifty rebels waiting in formation.

Early Neophyte at the front. Mid Neophyte in the middle. Peak Neophyte at the back. They seemed to have heard the door. Afterall, Declan wasn’t quite subtle about it.

"Kill them!" someone screamed.

Fifty rebels charged.

Declan laughed and rushed them.

He hit the front line like a golden meteor. His first punch took three Early Neophyte rebels off their feet — they flew backward in a tangle of broken limbs. His second punch cratered the floor, sending a shockwave that tripped a dozen more. His third punch launched a Peak Neophyte into the ceiling. The man hit concrete and didn’t get up.

"Out of my way!" Declan roared, Golden Body blazing at full intensity. Rebels scattered like leaves before a storm.

Amira moved to the side. The fortress floor was reinforced with steel plates — no earth beneath the surface for her to manipulate. But she’d prepared for this.

She pulled a pouch from her storage ring and scattered seeds across the floor. Then she pulled out a bottle of water and poured it over the seeds.

The effect was immediate.

The seeds exploded with growth. Vines thick as ropes erupted from the concrete, threading through gaps in the steel plates and spreading across the floor like a living net. Thorns sprouted along the vines — sharp, curved, dripping with a faint green toxin.

This was a seed known as Sand Scorpion Seeds. With just a little water, they could grow anywhere.

Amira clenched her fist. The vines lashed outward.

Rebels who’d been flanking Declan were suddenly entangled. Vines wrapped around ankles, wrists, throats. Thorns pierced flesh. The toxin wasn’t lethal — it paralyzed temporarily — but combined with the constriction, it was devastating. Fifteen rebels dropped in seconds, twitching inside cocoon of greenery.

Lucian moved through the chaos with precision. Light Blades flicked from his fingertips. Each blade found a throat or spine. Seven rebels dropped in as many seconds.

A cluster of Mid Neophyte fighters tried to surround him. Lucian raised his hand into the air as a large amount of blood needles formed, the blood needle rain immediately fired down.

The cluster collapsed.

Declan was a blur of golden light in the center of the corridor. Rebels bounced off him like pebbles off a boulder. Every punch launched someone into a wall. Every kick left a crater in the steel-reinforced floor.

A few minutes later, the rebels were down.

"We have to go deeper. I’m pretty sure the big guns must be alert by now." Lucian said.

They ran deeper.

The Sunken Fortress was a maze of concrete corridors and converted storage rooms. Stairs led downward. The air grew cooler and damper with every level. Emergency lighting — dim red strips along the floor — guided them toward the lowest level where the children’s signatures waited.

Then the wall exploded.

An earth barrier materialized from nowhere, blocking the corridor ten meters ahead. A heartbeat later, a massive boulder came crashing toward them from a side passage.

Lucian raised both hands. Multiple Light Shields layered in front of them — three, four, five discs of hardened light stacked like armor plating.

The boulder hit.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Each shield cracked in sequence. The fifth one stopped the boulder completely — the massive rock sat embedded in the light, trembling from the residual kinetic energy. Lucian’s boots skidded backward on the concrete. His arms ached from the sustained casting.

But the boulder had stopped.

His eyes flickered gold. He saw the source — a figure at the end of the side passage. Dense mana signature. Mid Core Realm pressure.

"He’s mine." Declan rushed forward grinning like a maniac. "I’ve been wanting a real fight all night."

""Declan— But—"

"Go." He cracked his neck. The golden aura intensified until he looked like a small sun. "I’ll catch up."

Amira hesitated for half a second. Then she and Lucian ran.

The earth user tried to stop them. "Where do you think you’re going?" he growled, raising a hand. Stone spikes began erupting from the floor behind them.

Declan smiled. "Nowhere. I’m right here."

He charged.

The stone spikes hit him and shattered. The earth user’s eyes widened. Declan crossed the distance in a blur of golden light and threw a punch that the earth user barely blocked with an earthen shield.

The shield cracked.

Declan hit it again. The shield shattered. The earth user stumbled backward, arms raised desperately. Rock formed around his body — a full suit of stone armor.

"This is going to be fun," Declan said, and hit him again.

Lucian and Amira left the fight behind.

The children’s bunker was at the end of the lowest corridor. A heavy steel door with a reinforced lock. Two guards sat outside — one playing cards against himself, the other leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

Lucian’s Eyes of the Eternals identified them instantly. One Early Core Realm. The other — the one with his eyes closed — was Mid Core Realm.

The Mid Core cultivator’s eyes snapped open as they approached. He saw the masks. The weapons. The killing intent.

"Shit—" He raised his hand. A fireball the size of a basketball screamed toward them.

Lucian raised his palm. Light Bolt. A concentrated beam of white light collided with the fireball in mid-air. The explosion lit the corridor in orange and white. Heat washed over them.

"Amira! The children! Go!"

Amira didn’t argue. She sprinted toward the steel door, vines already coiling around her arms.

The Early Core cultivator stepped forward. His hands moved. A blast of compressed sand shot toward Amira’s back.

Lucian raised a Light Shield. The sand hit the disc and dispersed. Before the sand user could react, Lucian sent six Light Blades at him — rapid-fire, from different angles.

The sand user raised a wall of compacted sand. The blades embedded in it but didn’t penetrate. He redirected his attention fully to Lucian, hands weaving patterns that pulled sand from hidden caches in the fortress walls.

"I’ll hold them," Lucian said to Amira over his shoulder. "Get the kids."

Amira reached the door. Her vines wrapped around the lock mechanism and crushed it. The door swung open.

Inside, seven children huddled in the corner. Ages eight to thirteen. Thin and dirty with eyes wide with terror. They seemed to have not been fed properly.

A ten-year-old boy with hollow cheeks looked up at Amira. His eyes were red from crying. "Are you here to save us?"

"Yeah, kid. We’re here to save you."

Amira knelt and started guiding them toward the door. "Follow me. Stay close. Don’t look back."

Lucian engaged both cultivators simultaneously.

The sand user sent a horizontal wave of compressed sand — a wall of grit moving at highway speed. Lucian Phantom Walked through it and appeared at the man’s left flank. Three Light Blades forced him to redirect. A Blood Spear aimed at his chest made him dive.

The fire user launched a volley of fireballs — five of them, staggered timing, each one aimed at a different part of Lucian’s body. Lucian deflected two with Light Shields, dodged two with Light Steps, and took the fifth on his forearm. His vampire skin sizzled but healed quickly.

Mid Core realm. Stronger than the factory zombie. But not by much. This one seems to not have focused much on his star palace as a human cultivator.

He drew the Moon Shattering Blade. The sand user pulled an axe from the wall — a weapon forged from compacted sand and stone, dense enough to rival steel.

They clashed. Axe met sword. Sand met light. The sand user was skilled — his movements were fluid, his combinations were unpredictable, and he used the fortress environment to his advantage, pulling sand from every surface to create weapons, shields, and distractions.

But Lucian was faster. His Light Steps let him reposition faster than the sand user could track. His vampire body let him absorb hits that would have downed a human cultivator. And his Transcendent Core meant his mana was deeper, denser, and more efficient than anything a Mid Core realm rebel could match.

Lucian feinted high. The sand user raised his axe to block. Lucian dropped low, swept his leg, and drove a Crushing Palm into the man’s knee.

The joint shattered. The sand user screamed and stumbled.

Scarlet Threads exploded from Lucian’s fingers and wrapped around the man’s limbs — binding his arms, legs, and torso in a cocoon of hardened blood. The threads constricted. The man couldn’t move.

"One down," Lucian said.

The fire user growled. He pulled a massive fire axe from thin air — a weapon of pure flame, shaped like a battle axe, radiating heat that made the air shimmer.

Lucian raised the Moon Shattering Blade. Light Blade activated along the edge. The two weapons met.

CLANG.

Fire and light exploded at the point of contact. The shockwave cracked the concrete floor. The fire user’s boots skidded backward. But he held his ground.

They traded blows. Axe met sword. Fire met light. The corridor became a tunnel of alternating orange and white flashes. Each clash sent heat rippling through the fortress. The walls scorched black.

Lucian was winning. His mana pool was enormous. His spells were more efficient — the Transcendent Core’s 150% efficiency bonus meant every Light Bolt hit harder, every Light Shield was stronger, every Light Blade cut deeper.

The fire user’s attacks grew desperate.

The sand user, still bound in Scarlet Threads, shouted from the floor. "We have to go all out! If not, Hassan is going to kill us! Those children are our leverage over the government!"

The fire user screamed back while deflecting a Light Blade. "We have to survive first! This guy is dangerous!"

The sand user’s eyes narrowed. He started pooling his mana — gathering it from deep within his core, pulling ambient sand from the fortress walls and floor. The Scarlet Threads strained against the gathering energy.

He’s chanting a spell. He’s doing a full incantation.

Lucian tried to interrupt. Blood Needle Rain — thirty needles aimed at the sand user’s head and hands.

The fire user stepped into the path. A wall of flame consumed the needles before they could reach their target. He followed with a fire lance that forced Lucian to dodge. Lucian immediately fired multiple light blades as the two engage in a fight.

The sand user kept chanting. His voice rose.