Page 136 of Fratelli: Eternal Bloodlines

“The Supreme Draca has chosen Lucio,” Phoenix said. “You are all nothing more than servants now, destined to watch as he takes the throne of the underworld.”

Dolly, her own powers swirled within her, stepped forward. “You won’t take him. I’ll kill you first.”

Phoenix smiled. “You can try.”

Lucio stood frozen.His hand remained on the dying Draca’s brow. The once mighty beast had crumbled under the weight of its wounds. The roar of the victor echoed again, louder, and closer. It vibrated through the very marrow of his bones. There was no mistaking the resounding blare. The Supreme Draca was on the hunt.

The surrounding air turned cold. A black mist swirled in the distance. It coiled like a serpent in the sky. Its presence oppressive and ancient. Lucio felt the pursuit of the dark entity. A pull so powerful that even his Draca, though near death, trembled over its approach.

Lucio clenched his fists, his heart pounded in the void of his chest. The Supreme had come to claim him. To take what little remained of his soul. But even in the depths of this hell, there was a flicker of resistance within him—Dolly and Darlene, the only light left in his heart.

I won’t go without a fight. Not this time.

The mist moved over him and descended. It swallowed him whole. The shadows snaked around him like a lover’s embrace, suffocating yet seductive. And then, from the mist,Draquriaemerged—a colossal figure, its body wrapped in shadow, scales gleamed with a dark, unnatural light. Its wings, vast and leathery, stretched out across the horizon, blocking out whatever dim light remained in purgatory. The Supreme’s eyes, two glowing orbs of crimson red, locked onto Lucio, as if seeing into his very soul.

The Draca at Lucio’s feet let out a final, pitiful whimper before disintegrating into ash. Draquria’s voice thundered through the void, its tone both commanding and merciless.

“Your time has come, Lucio. Vittorio’s time has passed.”

Lucio’s body shook with the weight of the Supreme’s power. He felt it creep into his mind, his very being. Draquria wasnot like his Draca. It was something far older, far darker, and infinitely more powerful.

“No,”Lucio whispered, though his voice wavered.

“You will rule as I once ruled through your coven. I am you. You are me. A King of the Damned. Supreme.”

The words, though terrifying, stirred something primal within Lucio—a dark hunger for power long buried beneath decades of self-loathing. It surged through his veins. It charged his senses. There was no choice here. No escape. But if he was to be taken by the Supreme Draca, he would rise with it. He would become something far greater than the creature he had intended. Dolly had showed him that there is love in darkness. There could be harmony between dark and light. He had not forgotten that lesson.

The mist swirled faster now. It wrapped itself around his limbs, binding him in place as Draquria’s massive form drew closer. Lucio struggled, but it was like fighting against a hurricane—his body was being torn apart from the inside, his mind fractured under the weight of Draquria’s will. He could feel the Supreme push into his thoughts, reshape them and him, pull him deeper into the abyss.

“Accept me.”Draquria’s voice was in his mind now, drowning out all else.“Stop the resistance! You make the vow.”

Lucio let out a roar of defiance, but the darkness swallowed it. The Supreme’s power coiled tighter around his heart, crushing whatever hope remained. The shadows seeped into his skin, into his bones. It burned him from the inside. His old Draca had been a parasite, but Draquria—Draquria was the all consuming disease.

Suddenly, a searing pain shot through Lucio’s chest as the Supreme Draca sank its claws into his soul. He could feel the remnants of his true self, cling to the edges of his consciousness, trying desperately to hold on. But Draquria was relentless.With a final, violent pull, the Supreme ripped the old soul he cherished away, tearing it apart until nothing remained but ash and bone.

Lucio fell to his knees, gasping as the last of his self was destroyed. But in that moment of agony, something else surged forward. Power. Dark, limitless power. As his body started to heal, it also began to reshape itself, despite being broken and weakened. His muscles tightened; his senses sharpened. He could feel Draquria’s blood merging with his own, transforming him, making him stronger than he had ever been.

The darkness no longer felt oppressive. It feltalive.

Lucio rose to his feet, his body radiating with an otherworldly energy. His eyes, once cold and distant, now burned with an intense crimson light, the same as Draquria’s. The monks around his comatose body underneath the sacred halls of the Vatican bowed their heads in unison. Sleek, dark, finely threaded business attire that seemed to shimmer with an inner glow, every inch etched with ancient symbols of power replaced his once-tattered clothes. His hair, dark as midnight, shimmered with vitality, and his presence—his very being—commanded the surrounding void.

He had become the Supreme.

Lucio’s lips curled into a slow, dangerous smile. Lucio could feel the Supreme’s power course through his veins, its hunger becoming his hunger, its will becoming his own. He was no longer just Lucio. He was something far greater—King of the Underworld, ruler of the damned.

He flexed his hand, and the darkness obeyed, swirling around him like a living entity. It bent to his will now. He was no longer a prisoner of the void. Heownedit.

But even in his transformation, one thought remained clear. Dolly. Darlene. They were out there, fighting for him. And now, as the Supreme Vampire, he would return to them. Lucio wouldbring them into his kingdom, make them his, and they would rule by his side. He took a deep inhale of their essence and sent his dark desires for the future to them both. He would not be denied.

Chapter 55

The Fall of the Phoenix

Vatican - Vatican City, Rome

April 21, 2018

(Day of Death)

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