Chapter 76: Just watching, Not for help

The sky remained pitch black, even though it was nearly midday. There was no warmth, no color. Just fog—hanging heavy like a giant spiderweb, ready to trap anything still breathing beneath it. Gabriel stood atop a hill overlooking the valley where Lucien’s old house lay hidden among tall pine trees. The wind carried the scent of blood and damp earth. Distant sounds echoed like quiet whispers of fear. Kael, his pale-blue eyes glowing faintly, grinned as he spat out the last of the blood from his morning kill.

“Let’s go. The house is right down there. Elara’s probably inside. We strike now. Evelyn’s already messed up the sky—this is the perfect opening.”

Gabriel didn’t respond. His eyes stayed fixed on the valley below, narrowing. The fog was moving. Not drifting like before, it was breathing.

Kael took a step forward, but Gabriel raised a hand to stop him. “Look,” Gabriel murmured. Below, the fog rolled in waves like the ocean. Trees shuddered without a breeze. The temperature dropped so fast it felt like death itself was approaching in some unspoken form. Then they saw it a silhouette, towering, far too tall to be human… or even vampire. Red eyes burned in the mist. Silent, but seething.

Kael swallowed hard. “What... is that?”

Gabriel didn’t answer right away. His voice was steady, but his jaw was tight. “Umbra,” he said at last. “The devourer of balance. An ancient entity from the reversed side of the world.”

Kael gave a nervous laugh. “Come on, that’s just clan bedtime stories. Don’t tell me you actually trust it,”

“Shut up,” Gabriel snapped. “You think Evelyn swallowed the sun without consequences? The world has its rules. And Umbra... he’s the final one. When any one race becomes too strong, he comes.”

The fog crept higher up the hill. The ground beneath them trembled slightly. Even for immortals like them, fear now pressed in, cold and choking.

Kael took a step back. “We can still fight. If we combine our power,”

Gabriel turned to him, eyes dark. “Are you stupid, or just suicidal? Umbra can’t be killed. Not by us. Only two clans hold his seals—Regane and Aurelion. And even they can’t hurt him. All they can do is lock him away again.”

Kael’s confidence faltered. “So... we run?”

Gabriel let out a bitter breath. “We fall back. Not because we fear Lucien. But because Umbra doesn’t care who you are—vampire, human, pureblood, noble, gutter trash. If you’re strong, he’ll hunt you. If you’re weak, he’ll devour you first.”

He looked down toward Lucien’s house. The bloodlust usually gleaming in his eyes had dulled, replaced by something sharper, calculation. “There’ll be a time. But not tonight. Evelyn opened a door that was never meant to be touched. Let her feel the consequences first.”

Kael stared down the slope, cold sweat dripping down his temple. The fog licked at their feet, and Umbra’s presence pressed in like an invisible weight. “And what if... Umbra comes for us?”

“Then pray you're insignificant enough to be ignored.”

The fog still hung heavy over the ground, like a wound left open and unstitched. From behind the dense pine forest that surrounded Lucien’s old house, two figures stood still. They didn’t move, only watched, eyes glowing in the dark, waiting like hungry predators.

Gabriel stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the trunk of an ancient tree that had nearly turned to stone with age.

“Lucien really does have a death wish,” he muttered.

Kael, standing a few feet away, kept his eyes on the house, his gaze sharp and calculating.

“Or maybe... he knows something we don’t.” Gabriel gave a crooked grin. “Or he’s just another idiot vampire with a hero complex.”

Silence settled again. Both of them watched the scene unfold, too far to reach, but too intense to look away. The house was protected by ancient seals, but Umbra’s mist slipped through like a serpent between cracks in the world. Even from a distance, they could feel it, the weight of something old, wild, and starving pressing in.

“You think we can sneak in while he’s busy fighting Umbra?” Kael asked, half-hopeful, half-nervous.

“If he fails, we won’t have to lift a finger. Elara will go to whoever’s left standing.” Gabriel scoffed.

“And if he survives... maybe we steal the moment.”

Kael nodded slowly. “But Evelyn, she’s supposed to be there, isn’t she?”

Gabriel let out a short laugh. “Evelyn? She bolted the second she smelled smoke.” He sneered, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“The so-called Queen of the Night turns out she’s just another glamorous coward who plays it safe.”

Kael looked away. “She’s the one who brought Umbra out.”

“And the first to run,” Gabriel shot back.

Suddenly, the air trembled—like the earth itself was holding its breath. In front of them, Umbra took shape: half-shadow, half-living mist. It tore through the seals guarding Lucien’s house, spreading like black ink in water.

Gabriel hissed, “That thing... it’ll swallow everything.” Kael tensed, hand reaching for the hilt of his blade. But before they could move, a burst of light exploded near the house. Daeron appeared, like a dream sharpened to the edge of a blade. His stance was firm, cloak billowing like wings of the night, his eyes glowing silver. The Regane seals blazed in his hands.

Gabriel clicked his tongue. “Of course Daeron shows up. The universe really does have a thing for Lucien.”

“He’s stopping it,” Kael whispered, barely believing his own eyes.

Daeron threw the sigils into the air, casting a wall of light that blocked Umbra from reaching Lucien’s door. Umbra screeched, a sound sharp enough to crack bone.

Lucien, though clearly drained, stayed standing. The Aurelion gem pulsing in his palm had already fractured. His face was pale, but his eyes stayed locked in focus.

“You’re late, Daeron,” he said quietly.

The fight was fast, brutal, and eerily quiet. No screams, just the clash of raw power, trees torn from the earth, the ground splitting open.

Then, just as Umbra forced nearly half its form into the house... A light broke through. Blinding. Burning. Warm. The sun. The sky erupted in gold, like time had finally decided to move forward again. Umbra let out a furious growl as the light hit. its misty body unraveling, scattering. Not destroyed, not gone. But weakened. Gabriel and Kael could only watch from afar. Kael swallowed hard.

“If we go in now, we die.” Gabriel turned away, stepping back from the battlefield that had nearly become a grave.

“We’ll find another way in. Today’s not our day. But the next night... maybe Umbra hasn’t fully gone back to sleep.”

Kael looked back over his shoulder, toward Lucien’s house now bathed in sunlight. “He's so Lucky”

Gabriel gave a razor-sharp smile.

“Not lucky. Just lucky for now. Let’s make sure he doesn’t get to breathe easy for too long.”