Ch.64Chapter 64: Vampire (20)

“Grrgh!! Blood Burst.”

BOOM!!

Ishuran barely manages to activate her magic to attack Kulea, but the recovered Kulea easily dodges the spell.

“Tsk, that’s why I said we should kill them. Why keep them alive just to cause trouble?”

As Kulea growls while looking at Prok, Prok shrugs his shoulders.

“I’m not an indiscriminate murderer. If we obtain the blood tears, they could become loyal subordinates of our council. Wouldn’t that be worthwhile?”

What they planned to do with the Strigoi’s blood tears was to subjugate vampires as their servants.

Relatively speaking, vampires are more prone to subordinate relationships than humans.

For example, Raculad, the first vampire, had five subordinates who followed him, all of whom were humans transformed into vampires by Raculad’s own blood.

Since Lilith wasn’t a perfect true-blood, her subordination contract only lasted 30 minutes, but a genuine true-blood can go beyond subordination contracts to transform the entire race, making it impossible for them to defy their superior beings.

The Strigoi’s blood tears possess such power.

They plan to use that power to subjugate all vampires and use them as chess pieces.

Vampires, already positioned somewhere between the Ein race and monsters, were an excellent race to exploit.

That’s why they had imprisoned many vampires using the divine artifact known as Franz’s Mirror.

It seems some had somehow escaped, but once they obtain the Strigoi’s blood tears, everything would be resolved.

On one side are Prok from the 8th floor, the masked figure from the 6th floor, and Kulea who has recovered his strength.

On the other side are Ishuran, who has regained her power but is injured, and Bladir, who has weakened from not drinking blood for a long time.

Prok couldn’t find any reason why their mission would fail in the current situation.

What worried him was who had rescued them from Franz’s Mirror.

And why wasn’t the bug girl responding to communications?

There were clearly some variables, but obtaining the divine artifact was the priority now.

Step-

Step-

“Ugh! No!”

“What do you mean, no…?”

Prok approaches the divine artifact with ease and picks up the Strigoi’s blood tears.

“Hmm… So this is it…”

A brilliant blood-red stone.

Similar to a vampire’s, but containing magical power—no, divine power that can be felt.

An immense power from the resonating divine artifact forming the barrier, too great for any ordinary human to handle.

“Kulea! What is the meaning of this? Why are you—!”

As if wanting to show off even in this situation, Kulea takes out a monocle from his spatial pocket and puts it on his right eye.

“Haha, it’s nothing special. Just a petty revenge.”

“Revenge?”

Kulea receives the Strigoi’s blood tears that Prok had picked up.

The blood tears begin to resonate in response to the true-blood’s blood.

Bladir and Ishuran are shocked at the sight.

The blood tears can only be activated by vampires with Raculad’s true-blood lineage. Currently, the only true-bloods in Brasov are Bladir, Ishuran, and Lilith.

“Y-you, how??”

“200 years ago, did the traitor who rebelled, killed the former king, and usurped the throne not know that the former king had another child? Brother?”

“B-brother?”

Kulea smirks at the surprised expression of King Bladir.

“Well… I was probably just the result of one night’s entertainment for His Majesty the former king, but I was born and made it here. It’s too long a story to tell everything.”

He harbors no vengeful feelings about his father’s death. But Kulea was a man of strong desires.

He learned that true-blood flowed in his veins on the day his mother died.

So Kulea bided his time, pretending to be a loyal servant to King Bladir.

After 100 years, he accidentally made contact with this mysterious group and learned of their plan to devour vampires.

Kulea agreed to the deal, planning to make all vampires his subordinates.

Kulea extends his hand toward one of the masked figures.

SWOOSH-

CRACKLE-

Strings of blood extend from Kulea’s body, binding the masked figure.

“Ugh?”

The masked figure is pulled to Kulea in an instant, and Kulea’s fangs sink into their neck.

CRUNCH!

The Strigoi’s blood tears begin to weep again.

WOOONG-

“AAAAARGH!”

The scream is brief.

The fallen masked figure prostrates before Kulea and says:

“Give me your orders, Lord.”

In an instant, the powerful figure from the 6th floor had transformed into a vampire and become Kulea’s servant.

Watching the scene, Prok strokes his chin.

“Hmm… Even better than expected…”

No matter how much humans pledge loyalty, they are prone to betrayal.

But in the subordinate relationship of vampires, there is no such thing as betrayal.

Reliable chess pieces.

Absolutely obedient subordinates.

This is why Prok’s organization is using such an expedient method.

It means they can kidnap hidden powerful figures from across the continent and simply sink fangs into them to create loyal subordinates.

Prok thought the vampire race had tremendous utility value.

“Increasing your kind like this has no meaning! Why don’t you understand?!”

At King Bladir’s outcry, Kulea merely snorts.

“Hmph, that’s just your opinion, brother. With this ability, vampires will become the most prosperous race after humans. Don’t you understand that?”

“Why don’t you understand that mere numbers don’t make them true kin! Without awakening the true-blood, even using a divine artifact cannot create true kin!”

“That’s for me to figure out.”

Kulea continues, looking at Prok.

“Hey, are we keeping those two alive?”

“There must be vampires swarming outside, so they still have value as hostages.”

“Hmph, I told you we should kill them… They’re my superior bloodline, so I can’t even control them.”

But Prok did not kill King Bladir.

“My master ordered me to capture them alive if possible. Any objections?”

“Grr…”

Even Kulea had to back down in the face of Prok’s intimidating aura.

“Besides, we need to leave this place. The exit seems quite complicated.”

They had obtained the divine artifact, but the barrier was still active.

The barrier created by the divine artifact prevented any teleportation magic from working.

“We’ve achieved our goal, so let’s move.”

***

“What should we do?”

At Lati’s question, Valt and Lilith fall into contemplation.

Following Lilith’s guidance, they are currently hiding and observing the situation.

Fortunately, they seem to remain undetected thanks to the barrier.

“The situation is too unfavorable.”

Not only are their opponents formidably skilled, but the moment they clash, Ishuran and King Bladir could be taken hostage, leaving them unable to act.

Of course, this would be even worse for Lilith.

Moreover, Lilith had explained the function of the Strigoi’s blood tears.

She wasn’t sure about true-bloods, but ordinary vampires would find it difficult to resist the power of the divine artifact.

If these enemies go upstairs, potentially ten thousand vampires could all become their enemies.

“We need to set priorities,” Valt says.

Everyone listens attentively.

“The priority is the divine artifact. You understand why I’m saying this, right?”

Even if they have to abandon King Bladir and Ishuran, they cannot allow the Strigoi’s blood tears to go upstairs in enemy hands.

Lilith nods, gritting her teeth.

“Can you communicate with the king and Ishuran?”

“I can, but Kulea will detect it. Vampires can generally sense such things.”

“What about earlier? Wasn’t he there then too?”

“He probably thought the situation was advantageous to him. Or maybe he just didn’t care…”

Lilith’s guess was correct.

Kulea thought that Lilith helping vampires escape could put pressure on Prok.

Without him and the divine artifact, it would be difficult to stop 10,000 vampires.

Kulea knew very well that remaining useful until the end was advantageous for survival.

“Then we have no choice. When they’re most off guard, we’ll strike and seize the blood tears first.”

So Valt’s group waits for an opportunity.

Observing the enemies, they could see that King Bladir was trying to stall for time, just as he had when they first arrived.

He seemed to be trying to buy time.

Though concerned about Ishuran’s wounds, King Bladir’s choice was unavoidable.

“I’m sorry.”

Understanding what King Bladir meant, Ishuran could only smile.

“I should be the one apologizing, brother. Don’t worry.”

“Stop with the melodrama and lead the way quickly.”

Even Kulea doesn’t know the path here properly.

Having bought a little time, King Bladir could do nothing but pray for a miracle to happen.

If only that miraculous opportunity would come to him just once, he was prepared to sacrifice his life.

***

“I’ve decided. We’ll strike when they’re almost at the exit.”

“Will it be okay?”

“We need to prepare. We can’t get help from non-true-blood vampires because of the divine artifact. We have to do this ourselves. Lilith, is there any way I could learn blood magic in a short time? Even just converting life energy into magical power would be helpful.”

He already knows there’s an enormous amount of life energy in his body.

If he could convert this to magical power, it would certainly strengthen Valt’s abilities along with physical magic.

“For that level… there might be a way.”

Hearing that there might be a method, everyone began to focus on Lilith’s words.