The Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture did not begin by asking Noctis to surrender a disposable treasure or something collected from an enemy. It required his own living blood essence and a physical fragment taken from the structure supporting his current existence. Both could be replaced eventually, but the original materials had become permanent parts of the Initiation Blood Crystal.
Noctis understood the logic more clearly after experiencing the process himself. The method forced the cultivator to establish ownership through personal cost before the blood essence of countless external beings could ever enter the vessel. Everything gathered later would be foreign material, but the foundation of the Initiation Blood Crystal had been created from Noctis first.
Once the pain settled into something more manageable and the reconstruction showed no signs of instability, Noctis returned to the practical problem created by the next stage.
One million valid blood essences could not be treated as something likely to complete itself through occasional combat. Noctis would inevitably accumulate sources from enemies he needed to kill anyway, and there would be no reason to waste viable essence from those encounters, but relying entirely upon incidental progress would turn the initiation into a process with no meaningful timetable.
He needed situations where large numbers of hostile living beings could be encountered without making the requirement itself the only reason for killing them.
Ordinary hunting on the current planet offered little beyond the blood essence collected from whatever monsters happened to be found. Noctis could search wilderness regions, clear nests, move through monster territories, and gradually increase the Initiation Blood Crystal's source count, but that approach would consume enormous amounts of time relative to the scale required. Even substantial monster populations were scattered across regions rather than gathered conveniently in a way that made one million sources an efficient target.
His existing circumstances offered better opportunities because he was already involved in a planetary conflict and already possessed access to a mechanism capable of sending him beyond the planet entirely.
The Holy Fortresses represented the most immediate possibility because conflict with the Church already existed independently of the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture. Noctis was preparing to infiltrate holy territory regardless of his cultivation requirements, and the Church maintained fortresses, observation stations, military routes, religious strongholds, and supporting forces throughout that territory. Any casualties created through necessary operations there could begin contributing toward the Initiation Blood Crystal without forcing him to manufacture an unrelated war.
That did not make the first observation mission an excuse for mass killing.
Its value came from information.
The Church still lacked a complete understanding of what had happened around the former 3-Star Fortress. Aurelion had disappeared, Malgoryth had disappeared with him, and the destruction left behind did not tell the surviving Holy Gods that Noctis had reached godhood or that he had killed both divine avatars. Preserving that uncertainty remained strategically useful, particularly while Vaelrath and Ceravath maintained their positions and the holy side continued trying to understand a battle whose true outcome it did not know.
Launching immediate attacks against multiple Holy Fortresses would reveal that a new and highly capable force had begun operating against the Church even if the holy side still failed to identify Noctis personally. Such attacks could change reinforcement patterns, communication routes, defensive preparations, and the behavior of the surviving Holy Gods before Noctis understood how the existing network functioned.
The observation mission allowed him to learn that structure before forcing the Church to adapt.
If Noctis could determine how stations relayed information, how quickly neighboring positions responded, which fortresses served as communication centers, and what degree of interference attracted attention from higher authorities, later operations could be chosen according to strategic value rather than convenience. A fortress containing several thousand enemies would be useful to the Initiation Blood Crystal, but its greater value might come from controlling a major route, supporting several observation stations, protecting a resource region, or serving as a reinforcement center for surrounding territory.
Some Holy Fortresses might therefore be more useful captured than destroyed.
Others could be isolated by disrupting the network around them until their military value collapsed.
A stronghold functioning primarily as a staging point for forces moving toward demonic territory might be worth eliminating completely, while another positioned along an important route could become valuable infrastructure once taken intact. The source count created by such operations would matter, but Noctis had no reason to measure every objective solely by the number of bodies it contained.
The overlap was what made the holy campaign useful.
Enemies killed only because the Initiation Blood Crystal required numbers would provide one benefit. Enemies killed while dismantling a strategically important Church position could simultaneously weaken the holy faction, interfere with the Celestial Dawn Sect's local influence, provide territory or resources, and contribute viable blood essence toward the million-source requirement.
Even then, the Holy Fortresses were unlikely to provide the entire requirement conveniently. Reaching one million through the Church alone would require a war far larger than the current infiltration plan, and escalating too quickly could alter the balance of the planet enough to attract responses Noctis had not yet studied. The Celestial Dawn Sect and Nine Hells Sect operated beyond the local conflict, and Noctis did not know enough about either outer sect to assume they would ignore dramatic changes in the planetary balance indefinitely.
That made the holy territories a reliable beginning rather than an ideal sole solution.
The Demon Crucible offered a different possibility because it could remove the political limitations of the current world entirely.
Noctis already knew the Demon Crucible could send participants elsewhere, including environments disconnected from the world they entered from. He could not choose the destination and therefore could not treat another entry as a guaranteed answer to the million-source requirement, but the potential scale available on another planet made the possibility too valuable to ignore.
A civilized destination would not automatically become useful simply because it contained large populations. Noctis had no interest in entering another world and slaughtering unrelated civilizations merely because the Initiation Blood Crystal needed blood essence. Such a planet might still contain hostile factions, monsters, ruins, resources, or other opportunities, but the existence of intelligent inhabitants would introduce the same kinds of political and ethical complications present on his current world.
A planet dominated by hostile monsters or aggressive beasts would be different.
If the Demon Crucible sent him into an environment where predatory life occupied enormous wilderness regions and attacked anything entering its territory, Noctis could pursue the initiation requirement far more directly without manufacturing wars against civilizations that had no reason to oppose him. Vast forests, mountain ranges, cavern systems, plains, oceans, swamps, deserts, and other ecosystems could support populations far larger and more biologically diverse than the forces concentrated inside individual fortresses.
The value of that possibility came from scale and freedom rather than simply from the number of available bodies. On the current planet, every large military action affected the balance among the Church, Demon Academy, Royal Demons, surviving gods, and the outer sects connected to them. A monster-dominated world might allow Noctis to move from one hostile territory to another without needing to consider whether destroying a population would collapse a political structure or provoke a distant sect.
Such an expedition could also provide benefits completely independent of the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture. Powerful monsters could possess rare cores, unusual bloodlines, valuable biological materials, or abilities worth studying. Unfamiliar worlds could contain ores, herbs, ruins, artifacts, spatial anomalies, or other resources unavailable on the current planet.
Devour could remain selective rather than being applied indiscriminately to every creature Noctis killed. Weak monsters might contribute useful blood essence without possessing anything worth consuming individually, while evolved species, unusual rulers, powerful creatures, and rare bloodlines could justify separate attention. Blood Memory could preserve useful information about unfamiliar species or environments, and anything valuable enough to return to his followers could be collected without interfering with the initiation requirement.
The uncertainty surrounding the Demon Crucible remained significant because Noctis did not know whether another entry would produce the destination he wanted or what conditions might govern the transfer. A barren world, a sparsely populated environment, or a civilization-dominated planet could provide little immediate help with the Initiation Blood Crystal. There could also be limitations involving duration, objectives, exit conditions, or other rules that Noctis would only understand after entering again.
None of those uncertainties made another attempt unreasonable.
A poor destination could still offer resources or information. A favorable destination could provide the population scale required to transform the million-source condition from a requirement accumulated slowly across wars into an objective Noctis could pursue deliberately during a sustained expedition.
The Royal Demons presented a third possibility, though the conditions surrounding them were entirely different.
Noctis did not need to discover where the Royal Demons were or whether their territory contained meaningful populations. Their military structure, lands, strongholds, resources, subordinate forces, and political authority already existed on the current planet. Malgoryth's betrayal had also created a legitimate unresolved problem between Noctis and the Royal Demon King, particularly because Malgoryth had changed sides only after receiving direct contact from the royal faction.
That history did not give Noctis a reason to abandon the position he had already explained to Valdred.
Malgoryth had chosen to betray him and had died because of that choice. The Royal Demon King's involvement had not been forgotten, but Noctis had no intention of initiating another war if the Royal Demons left him and his people alone. Forming the Initiation Blood Crystal did not suddenly justify contradicting that decision simply because the Royal Demons represented another concentration of viable blood essence.
Waiting cost him very little.
If the Royal Demon King chose restraint, Noctis could obtain sources elsewhere without destabilizing the demonic side while it remained engaged against the Church. If the Royal Demons acted against him again, threatened his followers, interfered with the captured fortress, targeted his holdings, or attempted to eliminate him before his position strengthened further, the political restraint Noctis had chosen would cease providing any benefit.
A conflict under those circumstances would involve far more than blood essence.
Noctis already controlled enough people and assets to resemble the beginnings of an independent power rather than a solitary fighter. His companions remained with him, the fallen angels and transformed clergy served under him, and the captured 1-Star Fortress gave them a defensible stronghold after the destruction of the former 3-Star Fortress. What he did not yet possess was a broad territorial base with the infrastructure of an established faction.
Royal Demon territory could provide that if the faction forced him into a war worth finishing completely.
Their strongholds, military positions, cities, resource regions, administrative structures, and subordinate forces could become the foundation of something far larger than a single fortress. Eliminating a hostile royal structure and replacing it with his own authority could remove a recurring threat while giving Noctis's followers territory secure enough to develop without depending upon isolated holdings.
The blood essence gathered during such a campaign would therefore become another benefit rather than the reason the campaign existed.
That distinction mattered to Noctis because he did not intend to let the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture determine his morality, politics, or priorities merely because its initiation demanded a large number. Cultivation was a means of advancement. It did not need to become an excuse to create conflicts that offered no value outside the scripture itself.
The three possibilities therefore served different purposes within the same longer-term objective.
The holy campaign already existed and could begin contributing immediately once actual fighting became necessary, while also weakening an established enemy and producing intelligence about the local conflict. The Demon Crucible offered the possibility of finding another world where hostile populations existed on a scale large enough for Noctis to pursue the million-source requirement far more aggressively. The Royal Demons remained conditional, but a future conflict with them could provide territory, resources, military infrastructure, and additional sources if their king chose to act against Noctis again.
No single route needed to provide all one million.
That flexibility reduced the pressure to force any one campaign beyond its strategic value. Noctis could gather blood essence from holy forces now, accumulate far larger numbers during a favorable Demon Crucible expedition later, and still receive additional sources from a Royal Demon conflict if one eventually occurred. The diversity requirement would benefit naturally from the same approach because holy beings, demons, monsters, beasts, and whatever other lifeforms Noctis encountered would broaden the biological foundation within the Initiation Blood Crystal without requiring him to construct an artificial distribution in advance.
The immediate order of action therefore did not need to change simply because the cultivation requirement existed.
The holy-territory operation remained first because it was already prepared and because information about the Church's network would remain useful regardless of how many sources the first mission provided. The Demon Crucible would become a deliberate objective once the current planetary situation allowed Noctis to leave without abandoning something more important. The Royal Demons could remain untouched unless their own decisions turned the unresolved tension between them and Noctis into open conflict.
Other opportunities would inevitably appear as Noctis learned more about the Nine Hells Sect, the Celestial Dawn Sect, and the worlds connected to them. Conflicts involving outer sects could eventually operate on scales large enough that one million sources no longer appeared exceptional, but there was no reason to base his present plans on possibilities he had not yet encountered.
The opportunities already available were sufficient.
By the time Noctis finished organizing those conclusions, continuing to examine the Genesis Core would have added little. He understood the distinction between his existing power and formal cultivation, the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture had been selected, the Initiation Blood Crystal existed, and the million-source condition had become a practical long-term objective rather than an abstract obstacle. The only matter requiring immediate attention was the damage he had inflicted upon his own core to create the vessel.
Nocthyrael had remained nearby while his concentration stayed turned inward. She could not see Genesis and therefore had no direct way to know what Noctis had been studying or what had happened during the formation process, but she had spent enough time with him to recognize changes that most people would never have considered unusual. The tension around his torso, the deliberate reduction in his internal output, and the occasional change in his breathing all indicated that whatever he had done had affected him physically rather than merely occupying his thoughts.
She allowed him to finish without interrupting and approached him afterward in the same way she normally did when they were alone in their chambers. Nocthyrael had never been particularly reserved about physical affection with Noctis, and the privacy of the mansion gave her no reason to become so now. She settled close, kissed him with the familiar expectation that he would respond, and allowed her hand to move across him as the affection naturally began developing into the more intimate direction their private evenings often took.
Noctis returned the kiss but stopped her gently before the activity became more demanding.
"Not tonight."
The refusal changed her attention more effectively than any explanation could have done.
Noctis had postponed intimacy before when an urgent problem demanded his attention, but there was nothing outside the room requiring him now. They were alone, the mansion had already become quiet, and Noctis had still chosen to stop something he normally had little reason to refuse. Nocthyrael remained close rather than withdrawing, but the playful intent behind her touch faded while she studied him more carefully and asked what had happened.
Noctis saw no value in making her extract the answer through a series of questions. He kept his hand over hers and explained that the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture required an Initiation Blood Crystal before the first cultivation circulation could begin, and that he had formed the vessel while examining the Genesis Core. The method had first required him to refine his own living blood into concentrated blood essence, but the more serious requirement had been an actual fragment removed from his core and used as the crystal's nucleus.
Nocthyrael understood enough about cores and cultivation to know that he was not describing ordinary energy expenditure. The fact that Noctis had stopped her made that distinction even clearer before he finished explaining it. When she asked whether he had literally removed a piece of the core itself, Noctis confirmed that he had and explained that the fragment now remained inside the Initiation Blood Crystal while his body reconstructed the missing structure separately.
Her concern sharpened once the nature of the injury became clear. Noctis tried to qualify the amount by explaining that the fragment itself had been small, but Nocthyrael pointed out that the physical size mattered little if the injury was serious enough for him to refuse intimacy for the first time without some outside interruption forcing the decision.
Noctis accepted the point rather than continuing to minimize it.
He told her that separating the fragment had been substantially more painful than he expected. His regeneration had initially fought the process, forcing him to suppress it around the portion he intended to remove, and completing the separation after that had caused his breathing to break, blurred his vision, and left his hands trembling by the time the final connection gave way.
Nocthyrael had seen Noctis survive enough violence to understand what those details meant.
Most physical injuries no longer affected him long enough for pain itself to become important. She had seen wounds close before anyone could meaningfully help him and had watched him continue fighting through damage that would have incapacitated almost anyone else. No visible wound marked him now, yet he was describing involuntary reactions she had rarely seen from his current body.
The hand she had been using very differently a few moments earlier remained still against him while she shifted closer with an entirely different intention. Nocthyrael did not withdraw her affection, but she stopped asking anything physical from him. She helped him settle more comfortably and curled against his side, keeping one arm around him while the desire she had approached him with was deliberately placed aside.
Noctis assured her that the injury was stable. The core was already reconstructing the missing section, there was no sign of damage spreading through the rest of the foundation, and ordinary movement did not threaten the recovery. What he needed to avoid was unnecessary strain until the architecture was rebuilt enough to carry his full output safely again.
That explanation eased some of Nocthyrael's concern because it gave her something more useful than a vague reassurance that Noctis would eventually be fine. The damage was real, but it was not deteriorating, and his body was already repairing what had been lost. She could do little to accelerate that process, so her attention shifted toward making sure he did not create another problem by treating the injury as less significant than it was.
Noctis did not argue when she decided he would remain in the mansion until the core recovered further.
He had already reached the same conclusion.
The planned infiltration into holy territory did not carry a deadline that justified entering enemy territory while knowingly limiting his own output. Vaelrath and Ceravath continued maintaining the larger situation, the surviving Holy Gods still lacked a complete understanding of what had happened to Aurelion and Malgoryth, and a short delay would not destroy the uncertainty that currently benefited the demonic side.
Nocthyrael relaxed more once she realized Noctis genuinely intended to rest rather than merely tolerate the pain until she stopped paying attention. The usual lust behind much of their private intimacy remained present, but she did not allow it to dictate what happened next. She stayed curled against him, gave him occasional quiet kisses, and kept the rest of her affection gentle enough that Noctis could relax without needing to stop her a second time.
That change carried more meaning than repeatedly telling him she was worried.
Nocthyrael normally had little reason to restrain herself around him, and Noctis rarely gave her one. Tonight she accepted the boundary immediately after understanding why it existed and converted the same physical closeness she had intended to make more demanding into simple comfort instead.
The pain within Noctis's core gradually changed as they remained together. The sharpest sensation from the separation had already faded, leaving a deep pressure around the missing section that occasionally intensified whenever too much power moved through the recovering architecture. Keeping his output low prevented most of those reactions, and Noctis eventually stopped monitoring every small change once he was satisfied the reconstruction remained stable.
Nocthyrael asked only enough to understand whether the condition was improving. Once Noctis assured her that the missing structure continued rebuilding normally and that nothing suggested the injury was worsening, she stopped trying to extract constant updates from him. Her concern remained visible in smaller ways, particularly whenever his breathing changed or he adjusted his position, but she did not turn the remainder of the night into a medical interrogation.
Noctis found the quiet comfortable.
There was nothing else inside the Genesis Core that required his attention, and reopening the interface would only return him to information he had already organized. The Initiation Blood Crystal was complete and secure within Blood Space, the next stage depended upon obtaining external blood essence, and none of his strategic plans required action while his core remained incomplete.
For once, remaining still was the most efficient choice available.
Nocthyrael remained with him until the tension caused by the injury eased enough that her own concern no longer kept her alert to every movement. Even then, she did not resume what she had originally intended for the evening. She stayed close, rested against him, and allowed their intimacy to remain limited to warmth and affection while the missing part of his core continued rebuilding itself.
Noctis eventually allowed himself to sleep with her still wrapped around him.
By the time he woke, the condition of the core had improved substantially. The deep pressure surrounding the damaged region had faded until only faint discomfort remained, and natural circulation could pass through most of the reconstructed section without producing the sharp response that had forced him to limit his output the previous evening. He examined the recovery through his ordinary internal awareness rather than reopening Genesis and found that only a small portion of the deepest structure remained unfinished.
Nocthyrael woke sometime afterward and recognized the improvement through the differences available to her. Noctis no longer held the same tension through his body, his breathing had returned completely to normal, and he did not react when she settled more comfortably against him. When she asked how his core felt, Noctis told her that the missing section was nearly restored and that normal circulation no longer aggravated it, although he intended to wait until the reconstruction finished completely before treating himself as fully recovered.
That answer relieved her enough that some of their usual morning affection returned without immediately becoming more demanding. Nocthyrael kissed him more freely than she had during the night and stayed close without worrying that every shift in position might hurt him, but she still chose not to push beyond that while part of his core remained unfinished. Noctis understood the decision and saw no practical reason to challenge it when waiting a little longer benefited both his recovery and her peace of mind.
They remained together without needing to spend the morning repeatedly discussing the injury. Noctis checked the core occasionally and found the irregularity steadily diminishing, while Nocthyrael gradually stopped watching him as though every movement might reveal a problem he had neglected to mention. Once it became clear that his condition would continue improving without intervention, the conversation moved naturally toward something more ordinary.
Nocthyrael asked what he intended to do during the day.
Noctis had no intention of leaving the Demon Academy and immediately proceeding toward holy territory simply because his core had recovered enough for ordinary activity. He told her that his first step would be meeting with Vice Principal Valdred and obtaining an updated picture of the situation before deciding what their next move should be.
The original plan involving the southern observation station had been made before Noctis spent the night occupied with the Genesis Core and recovering from the Initiation Blood Crystal. A short period of time did not necessarily mean the strategic situation had changed, but there was no advantage in assuming that everything remained identical when Valdred could confirm whether the Church, Vaelrath, Ceravath, or the surviving Holy Gods had done anything relevant since their previous discussion.
Nocthyrael asked whether that meant the holy-territory operation might be delayed or altered rather than beginning immediately.
"It depends on what Valdred has," Noctis explained. "If nothing changed, the original plan remains useful. If the Holy Gods moved, the Church reinforced the southern network, or something else developed, then we adjust before entering their territory instead of discovering it afterward."
That reasoning satisfied her far more than the idea of Noctis waking, declaring himself functional, and immediately leaving for hostile territory. The meeting with Valdred created a natural pause between recovery and the next operation while also ensuring that Noctis would act on current information rather than a plan made under older conditions.
They did not spend the rest of the morning speculating about reports Valdred might or might not have received. Noctis had already established that the next decision belonged after the meeting, and Nocthyrael had no reason to turn every hypothetical movement by the Church into another discussion while they were still in bed.
Instead, they remained together while the final portion of Noctis's core finished reconstructing.
The improvement continued gradually enough that Noctis did not need to test the recovering section repeatedly. His body was following the established structure surrounding the injury, rebuilding the missing architecture according to its original pattern until the distinction between old and newly restored material became increasingly difficult to perceive. He occasionally increased circulation through the area just enough to confirm that the response remained stable, then allowed the process to continue without interference.
Nocthyrael became increasingly comfortable as the morning passed. The caution that had governed her behavior throughout the night slowly disappeared, and her usual familiarity returned in the way she remained against him without worrying about whether her weight or movement would aggravate the injury. She still respected the fact that the reconstruction had not completely finished, but the restraint now came from patience rather than fear that something was wrong.
At one point she asked whether she should accompany Noctis when he met Valdred.
Noctis had no objection if she wanted to come, but the meeting itself did not require everyone staying at the mansion to attend. Valdred already knew who had returned with him, and the discussion would likely consist of reports, troop movements, and whatever new information had arrived from the broader conflict. Nocthyrael could accompany him if she found the discussion useful or remain at the mansion if she preferred.
She considered the choice before remarking that staying behind might at least give someone a chance to make sure Rengar did not consume half the household's food before Noctis returned. The comment brought a faint smile from Noctis because the possibility was considerably more believable than it should have been, and the conversation moved on without turning Rengar's appetite into another subject requiring analysis.
By then the final irregularity within Noctis's core had nearly disappeared.
He allowed natural circulation to pass through the reconstructed section and found no remaining pain or resistance. The newly rebuilt structure carried the flow identically to the surrounding core, and increasing it modestly produced no sign that the repair remained incomplete.
Nocthyrael asked whether it had finished when she saw the tension leave him completely.
Noctis confirmed that it had.
The relief she showed remained quiet rather than dramatic because there was no longer anything uncertain about the situation. His core had reconstructed the missing portion successfully, the Initiation Blood Crystal remained intact within Blood Space, and no lasting weakness remained where the original fragment had been removed.
They stayed together a little longer even though recovery no longer required it.
Nocthyrael's affection returned naturally to its usual warmth now that she had no reason to restrain herself for his sake, although neither of them treated the completion of his recovery as a reason to abandon everything else they intended to do that day. The previous night had already given them more time in bed than either normally spent doing nothing, and Noctis still wanted to speak with Valdred before deciding what would follow.
When they eventually got up and prepared to leave the chamber, Nocthyrael no longer watched every movement for signs that he was hiding discomfort. The concern that had governed the night had served its purpose and did not need to follow them after the injury itself disappeared.
Noctis preferred that.
The Genesis Interface remained closed while they dressed. The Initiation Blood Crystal was complete, the Bloodgrave Ascension Scripture remained selected but uninitiated, and nothing else concerning the cultivation method could progress until Noctis began gathering viable blood essence from external sources.
The next useful information would come from the situation beyond the mansion rather than from another examination of Genesis.
Noctis left the chamber with Nocthyrael beside him, intending to speak with Vice Principal Valdred first and determine their next move only after he knew whether anything had changed while his attention had been elsewhere.