SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God - Chapter 595

Chapter 595: This is betrayal
Lirae’s wrist stayed firmly in the older elf’s grasp, but her body remained rooted exactly where she stood as unmoving as a mountain.

“Grandmother,” she said with impeccable politeness, “please let go.”

The old woman tugged again, indignant. “Don’t be ridiculous, child. We are leaving. You are clearly tainted and not in your right mind.”

Lirae tilted her head. “Grandmother,” she repeated, a little firmer, “let go. I am not tainted nor am I muddled in the head.”

“Then what are you?” Another voice cut in, stern, heavy, authoritative.

A tall elf approached, his posture rigid enough to shame statues. His robes were embroidered with moons and branches, each thread glowing faintly with ancestral mana. His jaw was carved into a permanent look of disapproval.

Beside him stood a woman equally regal, her expression cold and assessing, as though she had been waiting her entire life for Lirae to “cause trouble.”

Two more elven men stepped in behind them, wearing nearly identical faces, sharper versions of Erelion’s features. Siblings? Cousins? Damon didn’t care. Their gazes held the same mix of disdain and superiority.

Behind them came three young elven women, elegant and poised, each carrying expressions that ranged from disgust to thinly veiled jealousy. Their eyes lingered on Damon for a second, then flicked toward Lirae with something almost hostile.

Damon’s gaze swept across all of them.

The entire royal brood. The elven equivalent of walking into the lion’s den wearing steak armor.

Lirae, however, stood calmly as a moonlit shrine.

The tall, rigid elf, clearly the patriarch, came to a stop in front of her, eyes narrowing at the faint crimson glow in her irises. “Explain yourself, child,” he said, voice quiet yet sharp enough to carve stone. “Your aura is wrong. Your bloodline is wrong. Your very presence is… wrong.”

Lirae didn’t look away. “My presence is exactly as the Legacy intended it.”

Murmurs rippled through the new arrivals.

“That is impossible.”

“The Legacy purifies.”

“It rejects foreign essence.”

“This… this is blood corruption!”

But Lirae remained steady. “The Legacy does not reject what belongs,” she replied softly. “It accepted me. Nothing in me is wrong. My husband’s blood doesn’t corrupt me.”

The patriarch’s brows dipped. “Accepted? Husband? You stand before your family with blood pollution threading through your veins, silver tainted with crimson, and you dare use a word reserved for the holiest of revelations?”

Lirae’s eyes sharpened, silver and red glowing in tandem. “Yes.”

Damon simply folded his arms and watched.

The patriarch stepped closer, ignoring Damon completely, even while standing within arm’s reach of a venom-soaked vampire who had nearly killed his heir minutes ago.

“You will return to the sanctum,” he commanded. “The ancestral seals can still undo this. We will cleanse you. Slowly, if necessary.”

Lirae’s smile faded. For the first time, a hint of frost entered her gaze, a quiet, regal coldness that felt older than anyone in the room. “No,” she said.

The entire family froze. The patriarch blinked. “What did you say?”

“No,” Lirae repeated, her voice soft but unyielding. “I will not undergo any cleansing ritual. My blood is not corrupted. It is whole.”

“That is not your decision to make!” one of the younger men snapped. Lirae turned her gaze toward him. He immediately flinched and stepped back, color draining from his face.

Still, the patriarch persisted, “Your bloodline belongs to this family. As its future matriarch, your body and your power are responsibilities that-”

“I am not your heir anymore,” Lirae said calmly.

Lirae stepped closer to Damon. She gently reached out and threaded her fingers through Damon’s, pulling him to stand by her side.

And then she declared, “I did not come here of my own will. Where was my family when I needed them the most? You neglect me for the most of my life and when I am finally worth something, you all come flocking to me? I choose my own path. And I choose him.”

Her words landed like a tight slap. The grandmother gasped. The three young elven women inhaled sharply. Erelion’s brothers looked like they were witnessing the downfall of their lineage. The patriarch’s face twisted in a direction Damon privately found amusing.

Lirae raised their joined hands slightly. “Grandfather. Grandmother. Uncles. Aunts.” Her gaze swept through the room. “I am not corrupted. I am not lost. I am not stolen. I stand here of my own will, next to him. And I will forever be right by him. That’s where I belong.”

“I walked into the Legacy whole… and I walked out something greater. Not elf. Not vampire.” Her voice deepened with power. “But the first of what our ancestors saw fit to bless. A Blood Elf.”

The entire elven royal family stood frozen, utterly at a loss for the first time in decades. The patriarch was the first one to respond. “What nonsense are you spouting? What blood elf? Where is the legacy artifact?”

His gaze snapped to Damon, full of venom, hatred, and the kind of murderous contempt only a centuries-old royal could muster. “I will not allow you to simply hand over our legacy to this rotten bloodsucker!”

The entire chamber exploded with noise at once.

“You gave him the artifact?!”

“She abandoned the family for a vampire?!”

“This is blasphemy!”

“This is betrayal!”

“Grandfather, stop her! Stop her NOW!”

More elves stepped into the room fully blocking the path. Damon bitterly smiled. This was the exact scenario he had wanted to prevent and yet here he was standing right in the middle of it. Without giving the opposition anymore time for preparing, he silently started releasing paralyzing poison in the room.

At the same time, Lirae’s aura surged. It looked like her elemental powers had become a lot stronger now. Not just that but a red aura surrounded her. The moment it appeared, the health of all the elves in front of her started slowly draining away.

“Don’t force my hand and make me use what I do not want to use on my own family!”

***

Chapter 5 Mass Release sponsored by Teoswig