The room fell into a heavy silence after Mark finished speaking. No one interrupted him at first. His story filled in missing pieces, yes, but it also opened new wounds and new questions. It felt incomplete, like only half of a confession.

Mark himself seemed to shrink after reaching that point in the narrative, as though that moment on the dock had already been the place where he should have died.

"Then what did you choose?" Seamus asked, his voice steady but sharp.

Mark slowly lifted his head. "I chose to stand on my own side," he replied.

"Living while someone else controls your body and listens to every breath you take is a nightmare. I would rather risk death than surrender my mind. I believed that was the end of it. I was already old. I had already failed enough. But it wasn’t the end." He gave a thin smile. "I ended up like this."

"Is this your real body or a clone?" Seamus pressed.

Mark chuckled faintly. "Sharp as ever. The clones I mentioned when speaking to Ben are the ones you saw in the Red Zone. The doctors there are nothing more than shadows. They retain knowledge, but no true will. Their only purpose is to continue the research."

He looked down at his own hands. "As for me... I am something in between. Not the original, not entirely a clone. A perfected shadow, you could say. My real body remains in Robert’s possession. He can end it whenever he wishes."

Maria stepped forward, her expression hard. "Then what about what I saw in your memory? Was that all fabricated?"

Her voice carried restrained anger. She had lost her eyes because of him. Whatever sympathy he expected, he would not receive it from her.

"I am sorry about your eyes," Mark said quietly. "If one of the twins had been sent instead of me, the result would have been far worse. My mission was simple: either capture Seamus... or retrieve your eyes."

He exhaled slowly. "Robert needs the Progenitor’s heart."

The room tightened.

"I suspected it was with Flynn," Mark continued.

"But I could not confirm it. And now it no longer matters. He is dead. A human body cannot endure more than two centuries, even when preserved. In some twisted way, I am relieved he is finally at peace."

Maria did not respond.

"The memories you saw were not entirely lies," Mark added. "They were truth mixed with omissions. When I was close to death, the serum that extends human life was discovered and made me able to hold a vampire’s power."

"But by then I was no longer the head researcher. Robert allowed me to ’retire’ for a few years. I could barely walk. I had no strength left to escape."

His eyes grew distant.

"I refused the serum at first. But he would not let me die. The work was incomplete. He injected me anyway. From that moment, I stopped being a researcher and became an experiment."

"Then tell us everything," Bianca said firmly. "You still haven’t answered all of it. The war in the North. Latros supported Bjorne’s expansion. Lord Draemir believes it was to gain control over what was hidden there. Is that true?"

Mark nodded slowly. "Yes. However, I am not aware of the specifics of their agreement. Robert met the matriarch of Bjorne alone. No witnesses. No advisors."

"After we discovered the Ember of Life, everything changed. Robert used it to enhance himself and his men. But he required vast quantities. The northern countries refused to hand over their reserves. They understood its value. If refined into a weapon for humans, it would have shifted the balance of power entirely."

His gaze sharpened slightly. "That was unacceptable to Robert. He did not want humans to become that strong. So he started a war."

"Then what about the Emblems’ Crests?" Seamus finally asked, cutting straight to the core of it.

"What were they planning to do with them? And Bjorne’s Emblem are they even alive? You never mentioned Latros’ Emblem either."

Mark let out a dry chuckle. "Latros’ Emblem... I have never seen him myself. But I am certain it is Rohan. If that is true, then his objective would align with Latros to ensure vampires become the rulers of this world."

He coughed lightly before continuing. "As for how Latros’ Emblem can violate the rule of their God... I do not know. Even I was never given that privilege."

Seamus rubbed his chin, thoughts moving quickly. Emblems could glimpse fragments of the future. What if Latros’ Emblem had already seen something that justified letting Robert act unchecked?

He and Isolde wanted the extinction of vampires. If Rohan foresaw that outcome, perhaps every move Robert made was part of a countermeasure.

If the timeline matched, Rohan would have killed the previous Emblem during the era when the Emblem of Enigma had only recently manifested.

Aconite once said she never truly rested because another vampire might rise to kill her. The pattern was not a coincidence.

"Rohan wanted to preserve the vampire legacy," Seamus muttered, his thoughts aligning, "while we want to erase it. That’s why everything is unfolding like this."

He felt the weight of it. If Latros’ Emblem had already chosen a side, then the game was far larger than Robert alone. And if that was the case... What about Madeline?

"You are starting to understand," Mark said weakly. "As for Bjorne’s Emblem... they are dead. The Crest—"

His words cut off. Mark suddenly coughed violently. Blood spilled from his mouth, staining his chin and shirt. His breathing turned shallow.

"So it has come," he murmured. "Robert is ending me."

Dylan stepped forward instinctively. "Wait—"

Mark’s eyes shifted toward him. "Keep training. Learn how a vampire evolves. You will carry power similar to theirs."

"What about the side effects?" Dylan demanded.

Mark shook his head faintly. "The serum I injected into you while you were unconscious was a combination of Crimson Nectar blood, Progenitor Residuum, and refined human plasma."

He coughed again, harder this time. "The process is complex... but Robert realized Flynn’s potential to copy Bloodstyles. That is why the serum exists. Like Seamus... you will survive it."

"And you," Mark forced himself to look at Seamus. "You must go to that location. I scratched the map into the floor with my nails when you tortured me. Find it. Find the heart before Robert does."

Seamus nodded once.

Mark’s voice dropped to a near whisper. "The Crest... you must take it. They want to be freed from the chains of the False God."

His body convulsed suddenly, so violently that the chair rattled across the floor. Seamus lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar.

"We are not finished! What about Flynn? What is my connection to him?"

But Mark’s eyes rolled back. Blood seeped from the wound on his face, and his lips parted without sound.

In the next second, his body began to crumble.

Ash spread from his chest outward, disintegrating him from within. The others could only watch as he collapsed into a pile of grey dust that scattered across the cold stone floor.

Silence consumed the room.