A few days later, a special ceremony was being conducted. Apparently, all it took was one marriage for some vampire clans and houses that were on the fence to finally join themselves to house Darkrose. Perhaps they just didn’t think it was worth it before? After all, Ingrid's tend to have no political future without the ability to sire proper children that can take after them.

But the marriage between Van and her had fixed all that. Though now half of them seem to be trying to get into his parents' good graces… and him as well… giving him undo flattery and more…

But that didn't matter at the moment…

For right now… was a momentous occasion…

The birth of an archduke…

First will be a ceremony to rank Rosalyn into a high vampire. You at least need that much to become an archduke. Once that was done, all the nobles that came to visit her will swear their fealty, giving her the needed authority and power to step from a big time duchy, into a small-time archduchy.

More importantly, it seemed that now that everyone knew she was finally transitioning into an archduke, everyone was trying to hop onto the bandwagon. What was at first just a few new vassals, swearing their loyalty, became a dozen, and then dozens! Giving her more than enough to safely rank up her duchy and then some.

With the stage set, Van walked forward to his corner of the giant magic circle that Rosalyn was standing in the center of. One so large that it had to be held outside, and was on a slightly raised dais, with a large crowd surrounding it. Noble vampires from near and far, were here to see a once-in-a-lifetime birth of a new archduke.

In the other four corners of the circle were other vampires of great wisdom and renown for their ability to help evolve and rank people up. Sages in their field, making him feel somewhat out of place. Though Rosalyn insisted that he join, saying that she’s seen what he was capable of, and his joining in would put her mind at ease.

Katherine then entered the dais and turned to address the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered here for a momentous occasion. The birth of a new Archduke!” Cheers and clapping immediately began, as the crowd's excitement could be felt all around.

Katherine raised her hands to quiet them down, and they did so reluctantly. “I just want to say… that this wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t all for you, in all your contributions, big and small… because of it, we have gathered the resources, the personal, and the fealties of enough people to allow for something like this to happen. An occasion that might as well be… once… in a lifetime…”

The crowd began to clap again, though now a tad more subdued as the importance of this ceremony seeped into them. After it had died down, Katherine spoke once more, giving a quick speech of all of Rosalyn’s accomplishments and everything she has achieved in just thirty years of her life. It went on for about half an hour before she finally gave up her position.

“And now… Rosalyn Belladonna Lanira Darkrose… will have a few words to say before the ceremony begins…” Katherine then moved out of the way as Rosalyn moved out of the circle to the edge of the dias to address her people.

Taking a deep breath, and in a voice filled with emotion, but steady with determination and conviction, Rosalyn began to speak.

“I just want to thank everyone here for everything they’ve done to help me reach this point… House Avar, House Moonglade, House Nightwing, and so many more that stood with House Darkrose and gave me their support, even after… an Ingrid took over… without all of you… I would never be here right now…”

A few clappings and cheers were heard, and some raised glasses in a toast to a few certain groups within the crowd, no doubt the houses in mention.

“I also want to thank the Hall of Blood and Justice, the Knights Star Trading Company, and the East Starlight Treasure Garden Auction House, for all the contributions that they provided to this wonderful city, as well as-” she then rattled about another dozen companies and guilds before finishing. By the end of which, another round of clapping was heard.

Rosalyn then began to thank all the houses individually, talking about specific things they had done that she took notice of, heaping praises upon them. She thanked all those who recently swore fealty and those who just came here to watch. And finally…

“And finally I want to thank my husband. Who without him, I would never have been able to be here standing before you now.” turning to look at him with a big smile.

A roar of applause was heard, making Van go a little red in the face and wish he was somewhere else. But stood his ground and waited it out for Rosalyn’s sake.

Finally, it was time, and after a few final words, Rosalyn walked back into the center of the magic circle. Over thirty hundred million Crava’s were used in the making of this magic circle, alongside all the other necessary equipment and materials. Such as herbs, cores, and even a few metals, plus a bunch more stuff. Partly thanks to Van’s unique ability to know evolution requirements, also thanks in part to Ren.

One of the mages gave the signal, and all five of them began their chant. It was Van’s first time working with others, and he was very nervous, but they had practiced together over the past few days, so they should be alright and he was honestly just there to provide some extra mana if necessary. Though that still didn’t help with his nerves…

First they will rank her up into a high vampire, and from there, directly into an archduke, though that doesn't mean she would also become an arch vampire… though there was a chance of that happening…

Van felt the power emerge from his body and linked with the other four mages. It felt weird… and he didn’t enjoy the lead mage taking complete control… but he rather preferred someone with centuries of experience than himself to take responsibility for such an important ceremony… Even if he felt like there were a few things he could do better with how the mage was weaving the magic.

As the power gathered into the center of the circle and the runes began to glow, Rosalyn began to rise as mana and the energies of the universe started to flow and hug her body, trying to weave themselves into her. The clouds above seemed to dissipate a bit, as if the heavens themselves wanted to see what was happening below…

The chanting grew louder, Van and the other four mages speaking with one voice and will. Yet it also sounded like echoes of their words were being heard, a split second from each other, slowly multiplying in number until one couldn’t tell where the chant began and ended…

Rosalyn’s body began to glow and lose form as she ranked up into a high vampire, then transmissioned directly into the process to become an Archduke. Van could feel all the invisible threads of power that connected her to all her vassals and followers. It seemed the universe was right now checking one by one if she had what it took to become an archduke. If she met the requirements if she had the will, the power to seize it and to be worthy of it. It felt like the very fabric of reality was watching the six of them. Van felt a strange presence enveloping them, watching them without thought or any real intelligence… yet there, all around them…

He felt like if he wasn’t so busy concentrating on the task at hand and just gave in for a few hours that he might reach a form of enlightenment…

And it was because of this process that he felt something was… off…

He tried to figure out what it could be… the chanting was perfect… the runes were good as well… holding up just fine… but something was tickling into the back of his mind that something was terribly… wrong!

He spread his senses around to the other four mages. Two of the oldest ones were holding up just fine, their experience and power on clear display with how they weaved the magic into Rosalyn. The one on his right seemed to have some difficulty keeping up and was a little less experienced, but was still going strong and seemed determined to make it through to the end as a matter of pride.

The one on his left though…

“What the hells is she doing!” Van inwardly exclaimed as the power of the circle began to build up and the flow of mana began to rise, making it more difficult to control.

Van felt it. The mage on his left was clearly holding back! Not just holding back, but trying to drag him down as well! He knew that experienced mages were difficult to come by. Not just everyone can evolve or rank up others. Which was why each of the four mages here now had a serious background check done on them and centuries of experience.

The oldest mage here was a sent from House Umbra and was the leader of the magical ritual. The second mage was in house, a mage trusted by House Darkrose for centuries. The third one that was struggling a little was provided by several trusted Vassals, working together.

The last one though… was paid… It was hard to find mages with the right skill and experience for such an important ritual, so no expense was spared to finding one. This mage was the one on Van’s left, who supposedly was from the neutral faction and had a trusted background with centuries of experience and good reviews. They even followed up on her background check and made sure she was legit by asking several of the people she supposedly helped, some going back over two hundred years! And she checked out!

SO WHY WAS SHE HOLDING BACK!?

Worse, Van felt her pull on the magical link she had with him, trying to throw him off balance, magically speaking. It was subtle at first, but she knew he now knew, she threw all pretense out the window and began trying to unravel the ritual. A difficult thing to do, since one wrong move could spell disaster and blow them all up. Something she seemed not to be willing to do just yet.

It was clear what her original objective was though… She wanted the ritual to fail and put the blame on Van. But Van found out because he wasn’t as unskilled as she thought he was. And now they were in a bit of a tug of war where Van was trying to not only do his and her job at the same time, but also contend with her trying to distract or pull at him to stop him.

A few minutes later and it seemed like the other mages were finally wising up that something was going terribly wrong. At first they thought it was Van’s fault, thinking that in his inexperience, he was ruining the ritual. Fighting him for contention of the ritual. Only for it to backfire when the evil mage in their midst used that opportunity to mess with the ritual even more, causing Rosalyn to scream in pain!

Now the crowd knew something was up, sensing that the magical energies of the ritual were slowly unraveling and becoming more chaotic.

Once they realized their mistake, the other three mages began working with Van to try and stop the rogue one in their midst.

Rosalyn’s body began to glow more, but instead of reaching her new form, parts of her began to dissolve away.

“REN!” Van thought into his soul realm, sending his intentions and trying to gain complete control over his soul realm.

Waves of mana began emitting from the magic circle as the ritual began to lose all cohesion. People panicked and started taking their distance as guards rushed up and tried to figure out what they could do to help… which was nothing since this went far beyond their expertise. Duvessa paced like a caged tiger around the circle, knowing full well that any action on her part could worsen the situation instead of helping it.

But thankfully, by combining their efforts into one, Van and the other mages were able to suppress the rogue mage. The only problem now was that she was technically still part of the ritual, and they couldn’t well kick her out of it mid chant. To do so would probably kill them all…

Another problem, even suppressed, she was causing issues… it took extra effort on their part to keep her contained, and then they had to not only waste that concentration on her, but also pick up her slack. But slowly, they were able to salvage some of the damages done, and began to prioritize healing and fixing up Rosalyn’s body first before anything else.

Now came the hard part… how were they going to continue the ritual?

It was not like it was impossible with just four mages… more difficult, sure, but not impossible… but now those four mages had to deal with a traitor amongst them that had already forced them to spend most of their reserves of power. This made the ritual close to impossible.

Subconsciously Van was glad he in the end accepted helping out with the ritual. If he wasn't here, Rosalyn could very well have died…

But that wasn’t important right now…

He shut his eyes and began to concentrate, asking the lead mage to trust him and aid him for what he was about to do next. Slowly he began to absorb all the energy within his soul realm, pouring it out of him like a tsunami of pure mana and energy. Providing enough power for five mages alone!

The other mage's eyes widened, and immediately began work on trying to weave the excess power now within the circle as fast as they can as Van took a fifth of that power alone to completely block the traitor from interfering so that they can focus on the task at hand. He also began to bring forth more herbs, more cores, more metals, more everything to add to the ritual and to make it more effective. He used the soul connection he had with her and began to reinforce it, sending power through their bond.

Taking his lead, Van began to rank Rosalyn up from a High Vampire, into an Arch Vampire. Giving her greater power and authority. Effectively trying to force an evolution to repair the damages done to her.

But it wasn’t enough…

The damage had been done. The ritual to get her to become an archduke was too unraveled, too chaotic. They were able to give her this much, but they couldn’t do any more than that.

It was just a miracle that she was going to survive this…

But Van wasn’t going to go down without a fight!

He looked inwardly, felt the energy of his soul realm, and drew more power! So much that he felt like he was going to become weak. So much so that some of the people who lived inside him fainted from exhaustion. Rosalyn became like a miniature sun, yet the universe had lost interest!

“Not on my watch!” he growled inwardly, feeling his nerves fray and his eyes dilate. “I AM A GOD! YOU WILL LISTEN TO ME!” using every ounce of faith energy he had gathered over the years to force the universe to pay attention once more. He then began to use what was left and put it into Rosalyn.

The strange presence snapped back into place from where it was just about to leave. Van felt like it almost had whiplash… though he wasn’t sure if he was just imagining it…

Van felt blood run down his ears and eyes, some down his nose as well, and could taste it in his mouth. The other mages didn’t seem to be faring much better, fighting tooth and nail to weave the massive amounts of mana being poured into the ritual. Even the traitor had stopped fighting their efforts and seemed to be trying to weave some sort of protection against what she presumed was some sort of explosion that was imminent.

And then…

Rosalyn’s body began to change once more. To form. To… grow…

All that power began to confine itself into an impossibly small form, becoming denser and denser. The first that formed were her crimson eyes from that swirling ball of energy. From there her face, lips, hair and then her body…

Van and the other mages had completely lost control over the ritual at this point. Now they could only stare in awe as the mass of pure energy began to change and become a beautiful and stunning woman. Rosalyn became even more mesmerizing than when she was an ingrid.

She was gorgeous! Magnificent! Her body exuded pure sex appeal and power! Grace and Lust! Superior quality and simple perfection of every inch of her body. Her golden hair shined like a rich tapestry of gold with stars trapped inside, reflecting every ounce of light as if it was the sun itself. Her body glowed with youth and vigor, unblemished and brimming with vitality. Her crimson eyes looked soft and inviting, yet held a hardness like a diamond underneath and the intensity of a dragon. Her lip's, her nose, her ears, her breasts, her feet, her long legs, her every curve! Made one want to drool with desire.

Wings of black night then form out of her back, beautiful just like the rest of her. She used them to gently land on the ground before letting them disappear once more.

She looked down on herself now, checking herself out every which way. Her breasts were a tad bigger, and it seemed like her but was a bit firmer, her waist didn’t look half bad either…

Van noticed as well she seemed to have grown almost six inches.

“Rosalyn?” Van asked, feeling the weight of her gaze as they turned to meet his own. It made him freeze up. Like he was a mouse speaking to a tiger, despite the actual size difference.

The traitor mage was the first to come to her senses and tried to turn and flee. But with a casual wave of Rosalyn’s hand, sent the mage flying into the air where the guards immediately tried to apprehend her. She didn’t even bother to look towards the traitor, her eyes locked on only with Van’s.

“How… uh… how do you feel?” Van asked.

Rosalyn blinked as if such a thought never occurred to her. She looked down once more, then opened and closed her hands, feeling the power in them before turning back to with a dazzling and loving smile. “I feel… wonderful… simply… wonderful…”