November of the Sainted Year (First Civil Month) - Present Day

Saint Sylia had more than enough to contend with. Relentless attacks assailed her, her children, and her friends. It was overwhelming but in a world so deeply corrupted, such trials were to be expected. Sooner or later, she would have to make difficult decisions to protect those she held dear.

Her confrontation with one of the Kings and the Sovereign Duke of the Province two years earlier had certainly halted further assaults on her son Danielu and his full siblings. The intervention of the Master of Blood Lords had done the rest.

If she were being honest, his declaration and plan had been the most effective when it came to safeguarding her son Danielu. The Great Master knew precisely how to inspire fear.

Naturally, no one else could have achieved what he did.

To destroy an entire Kingdom under the protection of the Blood Lords' Churches was not something accomplished lightly. Doing so risked making enemies of the entire world, since everyone feared the Blood Lords and with very good reason.

So, when the Master of Blood Lords, who was known universally as the most benevolent among them, ordered the annihilation of a Kingdom shielded by his own Flock and chose to bless a tiny boy, one protected by Lord Chester, to carry it out, the world took notice.

Chester had celebrated wildly with his Flock as they watched from the Outer World. He had even commented, with unmistakable glee, on how adorable Danielu's vampire fangs were—the very ones the Master of Blood Lords had gifted to the young boy born under the Chipmuck Mascot's protection. With a smug grin, Chester had declared that all that cuteness came from his side.

Sylia knew many had rolled their eyes at that. At least, those outside Chester's Flock. Even her own Source had made a dramatic show of doing so.

Those gleaming red eyes and long Vampyri Mage fangs had, after all, been truly terrifying.

Not that anyone could say that aloud to Chester, as their Great Father had reminded them. Chester had inherited far too much from him in that regard. Their Great Master always found vampire fangs and glowing red eyes adorable, and naturally, his son Chester thought a tiny Vampyri child's features just as endearing. It made perfect sense.

The Dark Lord himself admitted he couldn't help but find the boy who was made formidable with those two terrifying traits, irresistibly cute. As far as he was concerned, Danielu looked like the sweet child of a Chipmuck Mascot.

Their Great Father thought his friend, the Master of Blood Lords, had done splendidly by granting the boy the Vampyri Knight's gift, an honor usually reserved for the finest among the Blood Lords' Churches. It had sent a crystal-clear message to every worshipper of those Churches: "Destroy anyone who dares threaten Danielu or suffer a fate far worse than death."

It was an incredible message to send to those 'bad kids.' They would run wild and cause chaos. Mathias would be leading them, of course. He would never allow the cute kid, personally blessed by his father, to come to harm. Not under his watch.

Mathias had probably already gone to fetch his flashy red Samurai armor to fight in person. She never understood why, but he loved that one.

Apparently, his Chipmucks looked great in it.

Worst of all, Chester agreed with that statement. He loved seeing those adorable Chipmucks, dressed in their tiny armors, tearing apart all the big bad guys with their equally adorable katanas.

Truthfully, Sylia couldn't deal with Mathias' devious plans right now. If he wanted to fight, so be it. She already had enough on her plate.

Her memories had begun returning, piece by piece, about many things. She had realized early on that her Source had prevented her from remembering everything as a way to test a few Gods. While Sylia hadn't been happy that her other self had made that decision, she couldn't really blame her since she had done the same to her own Divisions. At least, she was consistent with herself.

Sylia could take pride in being patient. She never punished right away. She preferred observing people before judging them. They all had motives of their own. She had made mistakes because of that, but it was fine.

She still regretted being too lenient with a few individuals. It was not all her doing, though. Her Source had insisted on certain matters while Mathias pressured her to look the other way for other cases.

That Godly man had his own reasons. His life was almost as complicated as hers. Maybe even more so, if you knew how many powerful beings resided within his original body.

He luckily used a different body whenever he came to the Slums. If he had used his main one, he would have given them all away.

Truthfully, Sylia would have gone insane with so many presences inside her, but Mathias was more than capable of handling it. After all, he was the kind of cunning, calculating Lord who thrived on impossible situations and experimenting with new things.

Mathias had an even bigger problem, since his Source created Divisions that were very different from the original person. Each had their own preferences and personalities.

Talk about a personality disorder in the Lords' world!

Sylia's Source was the complete opposite. All her Divisions, except the partial Divisions made from different Sources for a specific purpose, had the same personality and tastes. It was almost eerie. Even without their memories, they retained the same mindset, with very few differences.

It was a trait of the Dark Lord's Flock. The Great Father of them all had tested that theory countless times with the help of his friend, the Master of Blood Lords. He had just returned after pushing those experiments to an entirely new level.

They had been lucky he left a small Division of himself each time he departed on another endeavor. Those Divisions of his tended to grow in his absence, allowing him to reabsorb part of them when he returned.

Sylia now remembered him clearly.

The Dark Lord, their Great Master.

The one Mathias called 'uncle' and without irony, thought to be the nicest uncle anyone could have. Sylia and her Source often laughed about that. It only showed that Mathias was a bit of a masochist at heart; which made perfect sense. After all, no one could come from the Blood Lords' Flock without being a masochist. Not with the Master of Blood Lords as their leader.

But enough about her Lords' problems. Sylia had plenty of trouble just dealing with the Mortals. One of them was Magali, daughter of Tasha Bimal and granddaughter of Grenar Krevoski. The young woman had absorbed far too much corruption and could become dangerous to everyone.

Sylia had already snatched and contained her, but it was still troublesome. She had many plans for her, and now she had to change most of them. At least the Mage she had managed to make from Magali's blood, after many attempts, had turned out well.

Very well, actually.

Even Mathias liked that one. Probably, because of his bottomless stomach more than anything else. His Division, Mathew Two the Bunny, liked her for… the same reason.

Megan had certainly been a great help. The events of that Friday evening had proven it. Megan had handled it well. The incident happened right after Grenar announced Sylia's sale to the National State Church on the last day of the First Civil Month of the Sainted Year. Sylia had been busy with the Krevoski family and had neglected certain things. Fortunately, she had been able to count on her daughter Rozen and on Megan to cover for her. They had both done very well.

Sylia was proud they handled things so efficiently. It reassured her to know she could count on them when things went south.

Megan had proven to be a good asset. She had also noticed the changes in Hanna Canteros before most of them ever did.

Sylia knew she could rely on her from now on and had decided to help her achieve happiness in this life.

Megan had been, so far, her greatest achievement where Magali was concerned. She had managed to prove that few things were truly lost forever. At least, most of the time. Megan's blood might have been corrupted beyond anything, but with effort and persistence, it could be brought back to a safe level.

Great bloodlines, even when passed through the worst trash, could grow back into something good again. Mathias had likely been unnerved to hear of Sylia's successful experiment. He had tried the same with his "cousin" Kareena and failed. Probably, because he hadn't persevered after the first attempt. He had always lacked Sylia's patience.

Sylia's Source had to intervene personally in Kareena's case, for reasons that would become clearer later. She had sent one of her Flock to contain the situation, and it had worked. The real Kareena was mostly gone, but they had reconstructed her to avoid more trouble with Mathias's family.

Because of Kareena, they had almost lost Diams, a casual Noble lover of Sylia's Division, Cesylia, with whom Cesylia had several children. One of them even lived with his father.

Diams had started to corrupt under Kareena's influence and it had become very problematic for everyone.

Even Kareena's powerful and Spirit-protected husband, Lord Teryon Sefraz, had been affected. For Kareena's corruption had reached Celestial level due to the influence of a Malevolent and highly corruptive Celestial from Mazeros' Flock.

Sylia couldn't just stand by while two of her lovers, even if one was through a Division, were being corrupted. Teryon was too powerful to corrupt. He was a Duke-class stuck at Count-class because of a few corrupted individuals in his family who were about to be purged. He had also been her lover for almost two decades.

While Sylia had had many lovers among the Nobility, Teryon had always been special. He was closely followed by a few Spiritus and even powerful Spirits. The reason was that he had been sent to assess the corruption of the Sefraz family in their world.

Teryon was a first-generation Soul. He might have been annoying and arrogant, but he had been originally made that way by two goofy Spirit and Spiritus Wolves working for Lord Chester.

Those two troublemakers were created by the Blood Lord Chester used to share a body with. So the least one could expect from Teryon and his Wolf Guardians was trouble.

In fact, Teryon had been under attack since day one by those around him. To give him some reprieve, more Souls like him had been sent to their world. Two had even been made specifically to support him. One of them was now engaged to Sylia's daughter, Rozen, as her future Third Husband. That one's Maker and Guardian was "goofily" excited about it.

Sylia scoffed. What else would you expect from Wolf Spirits and Spiritus who enjoyed watching people's torments, especially the wicked ones'?

Those mean Wolves were still extremely scared of Saint Sylia and her Source. And they had good reason to be. Sylia had almost gutted one of them when their little plan went against her interests. They had apologized profusely and corrected things, but not enough for her taste.

Now, her Source's own Flock would be doing some correcting of their own.

Expect something great.

It was one thing to send the little players. It was another to send a Lord's Guardian to terrify the Nobles and send many packing.

***

Our next story begins right before the Autumn Festivals.

Things had become complicated among Noble society, as the Royal Family and the Irdalenvi Sovereign Duke sent some of their allies to mess with the Saints in Erlankor City. The goal was to shift the loyalty of the City's Nobles back to the King and to the Irdalenvi Duke.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And yes, it worked. Most of the City's Nobles were corrupted and feared the Saints would soon come after them. They weren't entirely wrong.

However, most of them had only accelerated their fate, as a few would soon come to realize in this episode.

October of the Sainted Year (Third Civil Month)

(Celestial Bird)

Baron Diams Dersacci stood as a figure suspended between duty and desire, between the weight of lineage and the quiet erosion of personal certainty. At twenty-eight, he had long ceased to be seen as simply the heir of a Baron House within a prestigious and old Marquess family, the Dersacci.

The family, originated from the Semi-Province of Dersacci, had long had significant political influence in Irdalenvi with which they maintained good relations. The once Ducal family had long lost their Ducal rights as their bloodline had started weakening. Though much of their former lands had been claimed by other Noble families during wars and political shifts, the Dersacci remained a subdued but recognized force in their Semi-Province. Their name alone opened doors that would have stayed closed for more powerful families.

As the family's Head, Diams' father, Marquess Claudius Dersacci, presided with prestige over their Family Domains located in the Semi-Province of Dersacci, which stood near the border of Irdalenvi and was under the rule of the dominant and wealthy Lescuria Province.

Baron Diams Dersacci who had mixed bloodlines and powers both from his paternal and maternal side was never considered within the Dersacci family hierarchy and Diams had lived all his life away from his Main Bloodline's Noble family. He had carved out for himself a life different from his family across the border, in Irdalenvi, a Province that had quietly become home to Noble sons and daughters who no longer fit the structures and demands of their birthright.

Marquess Claudius Dersacci has had a somewhat distant relationship with his son from the beginning and had discarded him at birth leaving him with his maternal family. Diams had known early on that Claudius only cared about his official sons. One was a Marquess-in-waiting, the other a Count, and both fit better the expectations of the Dersacci.

Diams himself had been raised by the Derfions side of his bloodline: his grandfather Count Derfions, his uncle Baron Derfions, and his aunt Barona Clodine, whose criticisms of his decisions, particularly his marriage to Lyane, still rang clear in memory. His mother, Sira Derfions, had died when he was still a child. Her absence had shaped him more than any presence, and her family's guardianship had defined his early years, placing him forever at a remove from his father's official household and from the rigid Dersacci succession.

He was still counted within the family's influence, but only loosely. He reminded himself and others often, bitterly.

Lyane, three years his senior, was his First Wife, and perhaps, in the truest sense, his only personal choice. She had been his first love. His only passion for a very long time. Diams could have moved the earth for the woman. He had only been a boy back then, eighteen, when he had first begged her to marry him. It had taken him almost two years to convince her.

Their marriage had been born of his desperate plea to marry her and her own affection for him, though not without complexity. A lower Noble Gentlewoman from the modest Caliamera line, Lyane bore the old blood of an extinct Ducal family whose prestige had faded eight centuries earlier. Her father was a teacher, her mother a nurse, and her uncle, an old countryside Baronet. She had taken her family name from her mother and carried with her the quiet pride of a forgotten nobility.

Before the marriage, Lyane had been the long-standing mistress of Count Teryon Sefraz. Their affair had lasted many years, and it had not ceased with her union to Diams. In fact, their arrangement was an open one. Teryon's status as an official Lover-Consort had been written into the marriage contract itself. Lyane's heart had always belonged to Teryon, and while Diams had known this, he accepted it. Their relationship became one of mutual respect, an act of stability more than affection over time.

Of Lyane's five children with Teryon, two were born during her marriage to Diams, and another, a son, was born shortly after. One daughter, with stronger ties to Lyane's lineage, remained in her custody. The eldest son, whose Count-class potential had justified so much of the marriage's structure, had been claimed by Teryon.

Kareena had come later—his Second Wife by status but his First Wife by function. She was of higher lineage than Lyane, despite the Commoner blood she inherited from her father John Dwarions, a lower Gentry man. Her maternal family's influence and connections had compensated for all Lyane's ancestral blood.

Kareena's mother who had descended from a strong Noble line had arranged her daughter's match with the Dersacci as a business alliance. In truth, Diams had been intended to marry Kareena's older sister, but status prevailed over age. Kareena was the more strategically valuable bride, and the families agreed to adjust accordingly.

Though their marriage lacked love, Kareena, only a year younger than Diams, proved adept at navigating the role of a First Wife that had been officially Lyane's. She handled public duties, commanded social functions, and held her position with a quiet force. Her history was no less tangled than Lyane's. She was also married to Count Sefraz, as his Fifth Wife—an exceptional arrangement afforded only to high-ranking nobles. Despite this multiplicity of unions, she had made a place for herself in both of them. She bore Diams a son, now four, and had children with Teryon as well—children of clear Noble class, one bearing Count-class potential, the other Viscount. Her twins reflected her dual lineage, one child markedly shaped by Teryon's bloodline. Her non-Noble son, born of a lower-Gentry consort, remained lesser-known, but not hidden. Kareena had always claimed her choices, and Diams had respected her autonomy. Diams, for his part, had treated Kareena's other children kindly, not as rivals of his own son or burdens, but as his own family members.

The affair with Cesylia or as she called herself Cesynda had upended the balance of all things.

Baron Diams Dersacci had not fallen into her orbit by chance. He had been sent to the Slums to investigate Cesylia at the request of Herve Kwarion, whose suspicions had grown after observing her closeness with Diams. It was Mathias Herves who passed along the request, asking his brother-in-law, Baron Diams Dersacci, to look into the woman who had begun attracting whispers among the Gentry and Noble Gentry. But from the moment he entered her world, it became clear he would never leave it unchanged.

Unlike the calculated ambitions of Kareena Dwarions or the quiet endurance of Lyane Caliamera, Cesylia had made no room for compromise. She offered nothing but herself, veiled, restrained, and impenetrable. She was already glamoured when he found her, cloaked in a power she never explained and never commented on. Whether she accepted him or merely tolerated him remains uncertain. But she bore him a child within a month of their affair. A boy of Duke class. The bloodline markers and the Church's examinations left no room for doubt. The boy was claimed at once by his father Marquess Claudius, who saw in him a new foundation for the Dersacci legacy. A year later, Cesylia gave birth to another son. This one of Marquess-tier potential. One he had been allowed to keep so far.

Cesylia had made no attempt to keep either child. Her detachment from maternal claims seemed complete, and yet no one mistook her silence for surrender. She let them go, perhaps because she had already determined their course.

Since the early days of the entanglement, Baron Dersacci shielded her from scrutiny of his family and acquaintances. Cesylia's long-running affair with Sir Damien Kendralzo, the husband of Kareena's sister, Monalisa Vernes, had only added fuel to the fire. It was, after all, that very affair which prompted Monalisa's overprotective cousin, Herve Kwarion, to request the investigation into Cesylia in the first place. Kareena and her maternal family had long shared Herve's suspicions of Cesylia and supported the investigation.

Herve Kwarion, still intent on protecting his cousin Monalisa Vernes, had pushed for answers. Mathias had pressed him to disclose the findings of his investigation. Diams answered neither. He kept Cesylia's secrets or perhaps he had never truly uncovered them.

When Herve Kwarion saw how deep the entanglement had become, he withdrew. The affair had already damaged Kareena's fragile marriage; to push further would serve no one. And in truth, Herve now suspected Cesylia was far more dangerous than anyone had realized and far too dangerous to provoke. Mathias' constant hints had finished convincing him that he risked more than just his life if he pursued the truth about the woman.

Diams' household, once a complicated but a harmonious web of wives, children, and negotiated peace, had begun to splinter. Lyane remained emotionally tethered to Count Teryon Sefraz and Diams' affection had long waned and they were now almost strangers with no descendants in common.

Of the children born to their union, none lived to see their third year. The first, a delicate boy with blond lashes and his mother's high brow, fell ill before his second birthday and passed in sleep one brittle winter dawn. The second, another boy born with a vibrant cry and dusky eyes, died not long after her third autumn, taken by a sudden fever that no healer could name. The third, whom Lyane carried with care despite her mounting weariness, was stillborn, his tiny form marked by a malformed spine and an absence of breath. Though never spoken of beyond whispered prayers, the losses were etched into the rhythm of her being, woven into the silence she wore. Lyane buried them without ceremony in the small ancestral grove kept by her mother's family, and did not speak their names again.

Amid the turmoil that shadowed their household, Kareena, Diams' Second Wife in title, First in function, pursued her own ambitions. She moved between the duties expected of a Baron's official wife and the enduring loyalty she still gave to Count Teryon Sefraz.

Meanwhile, Marquess Claudius, once distant and disinterested, had turned his attention back to Diams' affairs with a suddenness that displeased the Baron more than he would ever admit. Worse still, Diams' father and siblings had grown fond of Cesylia. The Marquess had gone so far as to invite her to live permanently within his household, offering her wealth, marriage, and recognition. She declined them all without hesitation.

Diams had quickly become aware of a peculiar complicity between Mathias Herves and Cesylia—who, outside the Slums, referred to herself as Cesynda and never once appeared in her true form. Beyond those borders, she adopted only the guise of a blond or brown-haired woman, her actual appearance concealed entirely.There was a shared rhythm to their laughter, a private humor that surfaced most often in the presence of Count Teryon Sefraz or Lyane Caliamera. Even Kareena Dwarions had immediately suspected an affair between the two. Both Cesynda and Mathias denied it at first. Later, they stopped denying it altogether.

Kareena had been among the first to notice, alongside Diams, that the pair's amusement had taken a more pointed edge—at times bordering on cruelty, especially when directed at Lyane or her relatives. Sefraz himself had once taken offense. The mockery, subtle yet deliberate, was out of character for both Mathias and Cesylia. It had taken the intervention of a distant cousin of Mathias to shed light on the matter: the two were Spiritualists, and what they laughed at were not the people, but the Spiritus clinging to them—spectral traces bound to Sefraz and Lyane that only they could perceive. More than laughing at them, they were joking with them.

That revelation had resolved some of the tension, but not all. The most recent events had cast a darker light on Lyane's nature. After nearly a year of slow and tense negotiations, Diams had finalized his divorce from her. It had taken both his father's insistence and his own waning affections to bring it about. At first, he had offered her a position as Third Wife to preserve her social standing—an arrangement she accepted. But as of this autumn, their marriage had been fully dissolved.

The divorce had been handled personally by his uncle, Over-Count Ekyor Kensington of the Egradia Kingdom, far to the north beyond Estradia, the kingdom that bordered Mardiova.

The man had come like a storm, furious, unrelenting, and entirely justified. His anger struck at Diams, but even more so at his own brother, Marquess Claudius Dersacci, who had waited far too long to inform him of the existence of those children. That man was none other than Ekyor Kensington, a first cousin to the King of Egradia. Diams had resolved, without hesitation, to obey everything Kensington demanded.

It was then he learned the full truth. His father Claudius had kept him bound under a spell, maintained with the quiet complicity of his maternal family, to ensure he never discovered the truth of his own bloodline. Diams was not Claudius' natural son. He was the illegitimate child of Ekyor Kensington himself. Fearing scandal, and concerned with preserving the image of the Dersacci house, the Marquess and his allies had agreed, early on, to name Claudius as the boy's legal father.

Kensington had his own reasons for the concealment. His political standing in Egradia, coupled with his precarious position as a foreign noble in a Kingdom where his son could still inherit titles, had made public acknowledgement dangerous. So he had allowed the ruse.

Claudius, out of habit or fear of what truth might bring, had maintained the spell even after his favored son Diageri was gone, killed in a duel for Lyane's honor. Diageri, who had long admired the woman, had once proposed to her. But Claudius had pushed for Diams instead, seeing in him a better match. Regardless, Diageri had remained faithful in his affections, not only to Lyane but later to her sister Justine, whom he eventually married in secret.

The man had not come alone.

He had come with a hundred soldiers and knights of high caliber, and even more of lower ranks. The Province Lord had nearly sounded the alarm for an invasion. It was not an invasion though… well, not really.

Diams had been seated at one of Kareena's beloved afternoon teas when the man stormed into the Countess of Gladyris' house, where they had been graciously invited. Without pause or introduction, the man had pointed directly at him and gestured toward the door.

"You. Out."

(Kensington)

Diams was on his feet at once, instinct overtaking courtesy. But Kareena, who had never laid eyes on the man before, moved quickly to block Kensington, in a poor attempt to protect Diams, fear flashing across her face at the sheer force he radiated. Kensington was clearly a military man, his bearing unmistakable. And the men who accompanied him… they seemed of even higher caliber still.

Then, without warning, a Bird appeared on Kensington's shoulder. It laughed.

"I rather like this one," it said, eyeing Kareena. "He can keep her. She's a bit crazy though, thinking she could stop you. Better explain things now, before someone gets nervous. She likely doesn't even know who you are to the boy."

Kensington gave a respectful nod to the Bird Guardian, then turned his attention to Kareena and Diams with a long, impatient sigh.

"I am that idiot's biological father," he said flatly. "I have no time for nonsense. Diams, you are to bring me to the boy now. My son, Marquess Madeas Clawsvio, is outside. He will explain everything to your wife and escort her back."

Diams snapped. "What? Let's put aside for a moment this absurd claim that you're my father. Why do you want to see my son? He is off-limits to you. To all of you. I already warned my father. That boy is mine. Cesylia left him in my care."

Kensington's face tightened. "Don't be ridiculous. Do you ignore what you did to us? To our country? You got yourself entangled with Cesylia—the Saint of All Saints, Dark and Light alike. Do you even know who she is? She's already sent several of your children, some fully grown, to serve the Guardians of our Kingdom. I had to learn this from them after your Saint-daughter and your Saint-Knight son descended upon us with a few of their adult siblings. One of them, a child, was sent to become a Saint or Sainted One for our country. She is being kept now by the Kingdom's main Guardian, in his fortress. Apparently, you had children with multiple Divisions of Cesylia."

Diams stammered. "What…?"

(A defiant Kareena)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.