Adrean alucard's Arc

Chapter 10 of 28

Yahweh's grey body slumped against the bone floor. Adrean's veins still burned gold with stolen power. He should have felt joy. Instead he felt the throne pull at him from across the hall, its cracks glowing bright. Every god in creation now turned toward him. He needed allies. He turned to leave the castle and find them. The great hall beyond held others of vampire blood. Beautiful women stood among them, pale and sharp-eyed. Demons with horns lined the walls. Adrean walked toward the nearest woman, ready to speak, to charm. He had always known how to make people want him. He smiled. She stepped back. Her nose wrinkled. "You reek," she said. The demons near her hissed and drew away. One covered its face. "Divine rot. Stolen god-blood." The woman spat on the floor. "It burns to stand near you." Adrean reached for her. She fled. The whole hall emptied, women and demons pressing against the far walls, eyes wide with fear. The stolen divinity that made him strong had made him foul. His charm meant nothing. They smelled the power on him and ran. "You wear it wrong." The voice came from the shadows. Lucifer Morningstar stepped out, black wings folded, red eyes calm. He had warned Adrean before that all of heaven felt his rise. Now the fallen god crossed the hall alone, unbothered by the stench that drove the others off. "Raw divinity screams. It has no master. The living feel it like a wound." "Then how do I stop it?" Adrean asked. Lucifer nodded toward the throne. Its gold light throbbed. "That seat crowns you only if you surpass its old rival. You drained him. You are close." He circled Adrean slowly. "But power you have not tamed rules you instead. Sit. Let it bind to your blood. The throne will fold the divinity into you, or it will reject you a third time." Adrean looked at the dark chair with its purple runes and glowing veins. Twice it had refused him. If it refused him now, with Yahweh's power in his hands, he did not know what would break. He climbed the steps. He sat. The runes flared. Pain tore through his chest as the throne reached into him. It gripped the stolen power like a hand closing on smoke. Adrean gritted his teeth. The gold in his veins pulled inward, deep, quiet. The reek burned away. His body cooled. When he opened his eyes, the demons no longer fled. The women crept back, drawn now, not repelled. Lucifer smiled. "There. You smell like a king, not a thief." Adrean stood, crowned at last in the throne's dark light. He held Yahweh's power now without stench. But the seat's grip had shown him a truth. It had only tamed what he carried. To hold the seat, he would need more. The old god's strength was a single meal. Every god alive was still coming.