CHAPTER 135: THE VAMPIRE’S REDEMPTION

Dmitri POV

I tore the dimensional door open with my bare hands, the fabric of reality screaming as it ripped apart. Power I’d forgotten I owned surged through me like liquid fire, and for the first time in thousands of years, I felt like the Original Vampire I truly was.

"Stop!" Sage grabbed my arm, her touch burning against my skin. "You’re making it worse!"

But I couldn’t stop. Through the swirling portal, I could see another timeline falling - buildings crumbling, people running in terror as their world simply ceased to exist. The Moon Goddess was accelerating her plan, using my corrupted brothers to tear apart reality faster than ever.

And it was all my fault.

"Don’t you understand?" I shouted over the portal’s roar. "Every reality that dies is because of what my kind did! We broke reality in the first place!"

The guilt was eating me alive from the inside. Each recovered memory brought fresh horror - images of the Original Vampires carelessly ripping holes between realms, stealing whatever they wanted from other worlds. We’d thought we were so smart, so powerful. We never considered the effects until it was too late.

"That wasn’t you," Sage said desperately. "You were barely more than a child when it happened."

"I was still part of it!" I released the door, letting it snap shut with a sound like thunder. "I voted in their councils. I cheered when they brought back treasures from other worlds. I never once questioned if what we were doing was right."

The memories wouldn’t stop coming. I saw myself laughing as older vampires demonstrated their portal-making skills. I remembered feeling proud to be part of such a powerful species. The guilt was overwhelming.

"You can’t change the past," Sage said softly.

"No, but I can fix what we broke." I turned to face her, my mind made up. "There’s a way to fix the dimensional damage. It needs Original Vampire blood and power, freely given in sacrifice."

Sage went pale. "Sacrifice? You mean..."

"Death, yes." The word came out easier than I’d expected. "When an Original Vampire dies freely, their life force can be used to repair tears in reality. It’s written in the oldest books."

I’d found the information in my recovered memories - knowledge the Ancient Council had hidden away because they were too selfish to consider such an answer. But now, facing the damage our species had caused, it seemed like the only right choice.

"Absolutely not," Sage said strongly. "There has to be another way."

"There isn’t." I took her hands, remembering the warmth of her touch. "Don’t you see? This is why I survived when the other Original Vampires were hunted down. Not as punishment, but so I could make this choice when the time came."

Tears filled her eyes. "I won’t let you throw your life away out of guilt."

"It’s not guilt," I said, though that wasn’t fully true. "It’s duty. My species broke reality. Now I have the chance to help fix it."

Before she could argue further, I began the ritual I’d found in my old memories. My vampire abilities flared to life, but instead of tearing new holes in reality, I focused the power inward. The energy that once let me move between dimensions now turned against itself, preparing for the sacrifice that would heal the damage.

"Dmitri, stop!" Sage tried to disrupt the ritual, but protective barriers of energy pushed her back.

Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt shot through my body. It was like every cell was being torn apart and remade, over and over. But through the agony, I could feel something amazing happening. The dimensional tears around us were starting to close. Reality itself was healing.

"It’s working," I gasped. "I can feel the damage reversing."

For a moment, hope grew in my chest. Maybe this would be enough. Maybe my death could undo what my species had done wrong.

Then the routine suddenly stopped working.

The pain disappeared, leaving me gasping on the ground. The dimensional tears I’d been healing tore open again, wider than before. Reality shook around us like a building in an earthquake.

"What happened?" Sage rushed to my side, helping me sit up.

I checked my memories furiously, trying to understand what went wrong. The ritual had been working brilliantly. The dimensional damage was healing. Then something had interfered.

"The other Original Vampires," I realized with growing fear. "Viktor and Elena. They’re still alive and under the Moon Goddess’s control."

Sage looked confused. "What does that have to do with your ritual?"

"The sacrifice only works if all surviving Original Vampires participate willingly," I explained, my heart sinking. "As long as my siblings are alive and corrupted, my death alone won’t be enough to heal reality."

The cruel irony hit me like a physical blow. I’d finally found the courage to make the ultimate sacrifice, only to discover it was meaningless without my corrupted brothers’ cooperation. And they would never gladly help repair what they were actively destroying.

"Then we find another way," Sage said determinedly. "We save your siblings and break them free from the Moon Goddess’s control."

I wanted to believe her positivity, but I’d seen Viktor and Elena. They weren’t just controlled - they were changed on a basic level. The Moon Goddess had rewritten their very souls, removing their ability for guilt or doubt. They genuinely thought that destroying reality was the right thing to do.

"You don’t understand," I said sadly. "They’re not inmates anymore. They’re willing players in the Moon Goddess’s plan. Even if we could break her power, they might choose to continue helping her."

"We have to try," Sage urged. "I won’t let you give up."

Her trust in me was touching, but I could see the truth clearly now. My recovered memories showed me exactly what my brothers had become. The Moon Goddess hadn’t just controlled them - she’d perfected them, changing them into ideal versions of what Original Vampires could be. No shame, no hesitation, no moral qualms about using their power.

Part of me envy them. It would be so much easier to accept that cold perfection than to struggle with the weight of our species’ crimes.

"There might be one other option," I said slowly, a terrible idea forming in my mind. "But you’re not going to like it."

"Tell me," Sage said.

"If I can’t convince my brothers to sacrifice themselves willingly, I could force them to. Use my power to take their life force along with my own." The words tasted like poison. "It would mean murdering my own family, but it might be enough to complete the healing ritual."

Sage stared at me in shock. "You’re talking about becoming everything you hate. Using your power to hurt people, just like the Original Vampires did before."

She was right, and the truth cut deep. To save reality, I would have to become the very monster I was trying to restore. I’d have to kill my own brothers - the last family I had left in the world. "Sometimes there are no good choices," I said quietly. "Sometimes you can only choose which evil you can live with."

"Or die with, in your case," Sage said coldly.

Before I could respond, the air around us started to shimmer. A portal was opening, but not one of my making. Someone else was coming through.

Viktor stepped out of the whirling energy, his perfect smile as cold as ice. "Hello, little brother. We’ve been looking for you."

Elena followed, moving with predatory ease. "The Goddess wants to speak with you, Dmitri. She has a plan."

My blood turned to ice. Somehow, the Moon Goddess had found us. And now I was faced with a choice that would decide not just my fate, but the fate of every timeline still in existence.

Run and try to find another way to stop them, or face my corrupted brothers knowing I might have to kill them to save reality.

Either way, the guilt would kill me long before the ritual ever could.