Chapter 3: The Call from the Dark

The northern industrial zone of Valenfort, once the heart of the city’s mechanical age, was now nothing more than a wasteland of rusted steel and crumbling concrete.

From afar, the collapsed factories looked like the gaping jaws of a dead beast, frozen mid-roar in an endless nightmare.

Overhead, a Hunter Order helicopter circled, its searchlight cutting through the night and sweeping across shattered rooftops.

Below, Delta-7 Squad moved in perfect silence six members, fully armed, led by Evelyn Cross.

She raised a hand, her voice steady through the comms:

“Maintain formation. The energy source was traced to Factory Nine. No one acts without my command.”

A familiar voice Adrian Wolfe came through with his usual dry humor:

“Roger that, Commander. Let’s just hope we don’t bump into another ‘living legend’ tonight.”

Evelyn ignored him. She knew Adrian was only trying to lighten the tension, but the air around them was too heavy, too still.

The city in the distance was shrouded in red mist, and here here was silence so deep it pressed against the bones.

---

They passed through the corroded iron gate and entered Factory Nine. The air was freezing.

Under the beam of their flashlights, dark stains painted the floor hundreds of blood marks forming twisted, ancient symbols: the sigils of the Blood Cult.

At the center stood a long steel table, and from it hung a human body upside down, completely drained.

“Dear God…” one of the hunters whispered.

Evelyn stepped closer and activated her energy scanner. The needle spiked violently.

“Someone performed a summoning ritual here. This level of energy… it’s inhuman.”

A faint sound, the quick, strangled gasp of breath came from behind.

The entire squad turned, weapons raised.

“Show yourself!” Adrian barked, sweeping his flashlight through the shadows.

A small, trembling figure stepped into the light a young woman, maybe twenty, hair tangled, eyes cloudy with fear.

Evelyn lowered her weapon.

“Who are you?”

“P-please… don’t shoot…” she stammered, her voice shaking. “They… they took me. They wanted my blood…”

She collapsed, trembling violently. As Evelyn knelt to steady her, the light caught a faint mark on her neck two shallow punctures.

Not deep, but unmistakable.

“You were Turned.” Evelyn murmured.

The girl shook her head frantically, tears streaking down her face.

“No… he said… I’m the key. The Awakener. He’s coming for me…”

“Who?”

“The man with eyes… red as blood.”

Before Evelyn could respond, the girl’s body convulsed.

Her veins glowed crimson beneath her skin then burst apart in a scream that tore through the air.

Blood exploded, splattering across Evelyn’s visor.

“Fall back!” she shouted.

But it was already too late. From the darkness, dozens of creatures surged forward, turned Vampires, half-formed abominations with cracked skin and blank white eyes.

They howled like rabid beasts and swarmed the squad.

Gunfire erupted. Silver bullets split the air, each shot flashing in the dark but there were too many.

Evelyn pivoted, plunging her dagger into Turned's throat before drawing her gun and firing into its skull.

Adrian’s shout cracked through the comms:

“Eve! Behind you!”

She turned claws slashed across her cheek, blood spraying. Evelyn spun, striking hard her blade severed the creature’s head in a blaze of crimson sparks.

Smoke, screams, gunfire, and blood chaos became music.

---

When the last Turned fell, Evelyn stood amid the carnage. Her breath came ragged, her armor torn, her arms slick with blood.

She scanned the room. Three down. Two critically wounded.

Only she and Adrian remained standing.

“That wasn’t a random ambush,” Adrian rasped, reloading. “It’s like… someone knew we were coming.”

Evelyn’s grip tightened on her dagger.

“Someone’s leading them.”

As the words left her mouth, the lights flickered then died.

Darkness swallowed everything.

A cold wind swept through, followed by a voice low, smooth, and commanding echoing from every direction.

“Little hunter… you shouldn’t have come here.”

Evelyn froze. That voice she could never forget it.

“Lucien Draven.”

A soft chuckle brushed against her ear, like breath on her skin.

“I told you… Valenfort is awakening. The blood calls and you… are its answer.”

Adrian swept his flashlight across the walls, but only saw moving shadows twisting like smoke.

“Where is he!?” he yelled.

“Everywhere…” the voice replied, resonating through the air itself.

“In every drop of your blood, Evelyn Cross.”

Suddenly, the Blood Cult sigil on the floor ignited blazing red.

Flames spiraled outward, forming a ritual circle.

At its center, the air distorted and from it emerged a tall figure in a black cloak, silver hair cascading down, crimson eyes burning like the abyss.

Lucien Draven.

Evelyn raised her gun, but he only tilted his head, a faint smile on his lips.

“You still don’t understand, do you? It was your Order that brought me back.”

“Lies.”

“Truth. They used my blood to create you. They thought they could harness an ancient power but no one controls the blood of a King.”

The words hit her like a blow.

She remembered Marcus’s warning… and the photo.

Lucien stepped forward, his gaze softening filled with a strange sorrow.

“Evelyn… you are my final creation. The last remnant of the Black Blood Era.”

“Shut up!” she screamed, firing.

The bullets passed through him, his form dissolving into smoke. His voice lingered, whispering like flame before fading into the dark.

“When you’re ready, I’ll be waiting… where the blood first began to flow at Crimson Cathedral.”

The fire died.

Darkness reclaimed the world.

Evelyn sank to her knees, gun still clutched tight, heart pounding.

Adrian rushed over, grabbing her arm.

“Eve… what the hell did he just say?”

She stared into the void, voice hoarse more to herself than to him.

“Crimson Cathedral... Where Valenfort was born… and where the blood once ended.”

---

Outside, the wind howled through the ruined rooftops. Far away, in the slumbering city, the bell of the ancient cathedral tolled a deep, haunting note that hadn’t been heard in two centuries.

Valenfort was awakened.