(Alistair's POV)
The ritual was complete.
The chamber, once bathed in silver moonlight, now stood in unnatural stillness.
The divine warmth that had once filled the Awakening Circle had vanished, replaced by something colder, darker, endless.
I could still feel it—the abyssal hunger, the weight of something far greater than mortal comprehension coiled within me.
The power of the Ever-Hungry Maw.
It was no longer just a presence.
It was mine.
And yet, across from me, my sister stood, bathed in divine light.
Elaine—the one Artemis had chosen instead.
Where I had embraced the abyss, she had been given the light.
A fitting compensation, I supposed.
House Vaelthorne would not be abandoned.
But I no longer cared.
Because I had already stepped beyond them.
****
I exhaled, feeling the new energy surging through me. My mana core had not just expanded—it had become something else entirely.
Before the awakening, my magic had been precise, controlled.
Now?
It was limitless. Endless.
Like a void that could never be filled.
I clenched my fist, testing it, feeling how it responded instantly, no resistance, no strain.
Power, unrestricted by natural law.
This was what I had sought.
This was what I had trained for.
And yet—
The silence in the chamber lingered.
My father was staring at me.
Not with pride.
Not with approval.
But with anger.
Deep, unforgiving anger.
His emerald eyes, which had always carried calculated judgment, now burned with something far more raw.
His jaw was tight, his hands clenched at his sides. The air around him was thick with restrained mana, as if he were seconds away from striking me down where I stood.
"You are disappointed."
It wasn't a question.
It was an observation.
A confirmation of something I already knew.
His voice was low, seething.
"You have disgraced this house."
The weight of his words pressed down, heavy with accusation.
Elaine flinched beside me, her divine aura flickering slightly, but I didn't move.
I simply tilted my head, letting his anger wash over me like a passing breeze.
"Disgraced?" I repeated, voice calm.
I stepped forward, letting the shadows coil around my hands as I tested my new power.
"No, Father. I have liberated myself."
A cold chuckle escaped my lips.
"I have simply stopped pretending to be something I am not."
The runes beneath me still pulsed with the remnants of the ritual, but the divine energy was gone.
Artemis's presence had rejected me.
And I had rejected her first.
Instead, the Ever-Hungry Maw's presence still loomed behind me, whispering, waiting.
It did not ask for loyalty.
It simply was.
I felt the hunger beneath my skin, the endless void I now commanded.
Power that did not bow to tradition.
Power that did not answer to gods who demanded worship.
Power that took. Devoured.
And my father knew it.
That was why he was angry.
That was why he was afraid.
***
Lord Cedric took a slow step forward.
His posture was rigid, controlled—but his aura burned like a wildfire barely restrained.
"You think this is freedom?" he hissed.
His voice was no longer the cold, unreadable tone of a noble lord.
This was the voice of a warrior, a father, a man whose bloodline had been tainted by his own son.
"You are a fool."
His mana flared, and for a brief moment, I felt the weight of his strength pressing against me.
Even now, even after my Second Awakening, he was still above me in sheer experience, in control, in raw power.
But that wouldn't last forever.
And we both knew it.
"Power is not just something to be taken, Alistair. It is something to be upheld, something that must be wielded with discipline."
I laughed.
"Spare me the speeches."
I took another step forward, standing just a breath away from him, our eyes locked.
For the first time, I could see it.
Beneath the anger, the disappointment, the hatred—
Was fear.
He was afraid.
Because he no longer recognized the son standing before him.
And that meant he no longer had control.
"I am done with this house."
The words left my lips smoothly, naturally—because I had already made my decision.
I turned away from him, stepping toward the chamber's exit.
But then—
His voice, sharper than steel.
"If you walk through that door, you are no longer my son."
I froze.
The words should have mattered.
They should have stung.
But they didn't.
Because the moment I had chosen the abyss, I had already left this family behind.
I glanced back, just enough to see Elaine's stricken expression, my father's hardened stance.
And I smiled.
"Then we are finally in agreement."
With that, I stepped through the threshold.
And I did not look back.
***
The corridors of the estate were empty.
Servants had long since retreated, sensing the tension that had filled the halls.
The once familiar walls felt different now.
Not because they had changed.
But because I had.
Every step I took carried a finality to it.
I was no longer bound to this house.
No longer burdened by its tradition, its expectations, its gods.
The moment I passed through the main gates, the cold night air greeted me.
The sky above was vast and endless.
And for the first time, I felt it.
True freedom.
A single shadow detached from the darkness nearby, stepping into view.
Selene.
My shadow guard.
She had been assigned to me since childhood, bound by duty to House Vaelthorne.
She met my gaze, her silver eyes unreadable.
I expected her to stop me.
To question me.
Instead—
She simply nodded.
"Where to?"
I glanced toward the city beyond.
Beyond that?
The world.
A world that I would carve my name into.
"Anywhere but here."
And with that, I left House Vaelthorne behind.
I did not mourn it.
I did not hesitate.
Because this was only the beginning.
And soon, the world would know the name Alistair Vaelthorne.
Not as a noble.
Not as a warrior.
But as a devourer.
TO BE CONTINUE...