Chapter 542: The Apostle's Destiny (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 542: The Apostle's Destiny (1)
Was it because the reliable safety net I could always lean on was gone?
Or was it because I was furious that all my hard work had been for nothing?
One mountain after another.
It was a situation of endless obstacles, yet my mind grew strangely calm.
Perhaps it was because my thoughts could branch out no further.
Survive, using every means at my disposal.
Nothing else came to mind.
In my broadened field of vision, I could see Viktor Vadim, exulting with the True Ancestor's heart in his hand.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Hmm… Go ahead. I'm in a good mood, so I'll answer whatever you wish.”
I frowned.
I appreciated him answering, but I really didn't like that arrogant look on his face.
“I get why you stole the heart.”
As I said before, a vampire's power comes from its heart. That means if one could take the True Ancestor's heart, they could effectively become a second True Ancestor.
“What do you want to do, going to such lengths?”
I was curious.
What on earth did he want to do with that power?
It clearly wasn't for patriotic reasons.
Then, he answered.
“Anything.”
Anything, he says.
“So you just want to live however the fuck you want.”
“Your choice of words is hardly refined… but, well, you're correct.”
Viktor Vadim readily agreed.
Maybe I should needle him a bit more.
“I don't know what you want, but is it worth giving up your humanity for?”
“Of course.”
He nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Huh.
That's not the reaction I expected.
“Is one's race so important?”
“Well…”
“Are humans good, and vampires simply evil?”
“……”
“No. You couldn't possibly say yes to that. Among the humans you've seen, there must have been some who were more demonic than demons themselves.”
…He wasn't wrong.
Not all humans are good.
Lately, it feels like there are more who are closer to evil. That must be why people like Francis were praised so highly.
“Race and all that nonsense doesn't matter. I simply wanted power.”
The heart, still throbbing despite being out of its owner's body for some time.
As Viktor Vadim gazed at that tenacious life force, his face was filled with a thick, cloying desire.
“The power that stained a third of Romania with blood in an instant.”
Humans are sometimes seized by strange sentiments.
For instance, when they witness an overwhelming sight that far surpasses their imagination.
“I see.”
Wallachia, including the capital, Bucharest.
Watching one of the three regions that make up Romania get destroyed in an instant, Viktor Vadim must have looked at the True Ancestor standing tall at the center of it all and felt something he shouldn't have.
“You admired the True Ancestor.”
A feeling of admiration, of all things.
You'd think it was absurd.
Not hatred for the one who brutally destroyed his homeland, but admiration.
Does that even make sense?
But sometimes, incomprehensible phenomena and emotions push us into a state of confusion.
The smile on Viktor Vadim's face vanished.
“You're starting to become frightening.”
A thick killing intent slowly spread from his gaze.
“My intuition is whispering to me. That if I cannot have you, I must kill you.”
The genuine killing intent soon vanished like melting snow. In its place was a sense of leisure.
He must already think of me and everyone else as fish caught in a net.
He continued his story.
“It was when I was escaping the collapsing city. The True Ancestor definitely saw me then. And yet, he just watched, doing nothing. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of emotion.”
As if recalling that moment, a madness crept onto his face as he looked up at the sky.
“He was the very definition of a true powerhouse. The nation I had worked so hard to build was so fleeting. In the end, to build a powerful nation, a powerful leader is needed.”
“So you crawled to him? To the one who destroyed your country?”
Viktor Vadim nodded.
“I was certain. Certain that if I could obtain that power, I could rebuild a country like this any number of times.”
With every word we exchanged, his intentions were revealed.
It seemed he wasn't even trying to hide them.
Perhaps he thought that now that he had great power, there was no longer any need to be cautious.
“You asked earlier, didn't you? What I wanted to do after becoming the True Ancestor.”
Lifting the throbbing heart, he continued.
“I intend to build a new nation. A rich and powerful nation ruled by the True Ancestor and a new race that has inherited his blood. A nation that no one can ignore, a nation that everyone must bow their heads to!”
After finishing his grand speech, Viktor Vadim brought the hand holding the heart to his mouth.
“So wait a moment. I must devour this heart before more time passes.”
“And you have what it takes to devour it?”
“If it were impossible, I wouldn't have even tried. But didn't I tell you? I am an Apostle of the Seven Deadly Sins.”
His mouth opened wide.
“Believe it or not, this body was chosen by a god.”
Sharp fangs took a large bite out of the heart in his hand.
SQUELCH!
Blood burst forth.
He devoured the heart greedily, his face smeared with bright red blood like a child eating messily.
A sigh of admiration followed.
“Delicious, so delicious…! It's so good, it's a damn shame I can only taste this once in my life!”
It must have been truly delicious.
Tsk… Slurp!
He even licked every last drop of blood from his palm and fingers.
After he finished his feast, a change began in his body.
Over the red energy that flowed like a proud river, a familiar black energy began to ripple.
At the same time, the Gluttony that had been sleeping quietly in my stomach began to stir violently.
“Kekekeke… Yes, this is the power…!”
Black and red.
The two different-colored energies seemed to clash for a moment before quickly mixing together.
They clung to each other naturally, as if they had originally been one.
Soon, an energy that was black yet red, and red yet black, was complete.
Watching it, I finally realized.
“It's finally complete…!”
The reason why the Gluttony sleeping in my stomach had squirmed incessantly whenever it saw the Duke.
Because he was pretending to be human and hiding his vampire powers?
No.
What it had reacted to was not the power of a vampire, but the power of the Seven Deadly Sins.
“Greed and the True Ancestor's vampirism… The two combined to create the Blood Eater!”
He was an Apostle of Greed.
Just like me.
* * *
The blood of a True Ancestor nullifies the blood of all others, staining it with its own color.
That is how strong it is.
So strong that a single drop can overcome all the blood in a living creature's body.
So what makes the blood of a True Ancestor so different?
The first reason is compression.
A True Ancestor is given the Divine Authority to compress blood. Enough to concentrate the blood of dozens of humans into a single drop.
In other words, a single drop of a True Ancestor's blood is equivalent to the total volume of blood from dozens, even hundreds of humans.
So it was no great feat to obliterate a human's blood with just one drop.
The second is the will imbued within the blood.
The blood of a True Ancestor perfectly reflects its master's will.
This means that if a will is imbued in the blood, the moment it leaves the body, it can move blindly according to that engraved will without any further commands.
That was why.
Why Viktor Vadim, the Apostle of Greed, coveted the power of the True Ancestor.
“Come forth.”
He cut his finger and let the blood fall.
Drip!
Drip-drip!
Three or four drops of blood fell.
They soon swelled up, forming a single shape the size of a house.
Grrrrr…!
The completed form was a red lion. Each time it moved, the red liquid that formed its body sloshed, creating a bizarre flow.
“Kekeke… Yes, this is it.”
The power emanating from the low-growling lion was comparable to that of an S-rank.
Can you believe it?
A beast created in an instant from just three or four drops of blood possessed S-rank power.
A level of power that could be called world-shaking.
His ecstatic gaze turned to Kim Do-jin.
He wanted to test it.
To see just how strong the beast he created was.
“Are you just going to stand there? If you come at me now, I'm willing to grant you the first move.”
Hearing those words, Kim Do-jin’s grip tightened.
“If that's your offer, I'll gladly accept.”
Kim Do-jin slowly approached, raising his aura.
The red lion blocked his path.
The will imbued in the blood that formed the lion was singular.
“Now, show me your power.”
To bite to death any who show hostility to its master.
Reacting to Kim Do-jin's killing intent toward Viktor Vadim, the Blood Lion charged, shaking the very earth.
Kim Do-jin was dumbfounded.
“Hah, grant me the first move, my ass.”
In the blink of an eye, a shadow fell over him.
A massive paw, large enough to crush a human without a trace, came crashing down.
He gripped his sword with both hands and slashed down at the thick wrist.
SCHLICK-!
Blood scattered.
But he had only cut about ten centimeters deep.
Worse, it absorbed the blood that had spilled onto the ground and completely restored its form.
Seeing this, Kim Do-jin sighed.
“…An even more fucked-up monster has been born.”
When the beast swung its paw, red claws shot out like missiles.
Startled, Kim Do-jin retreated, batting them away one by one.
An attack that fired its own claws.
Because the beast was made of blood, its attack patterns were utterly bizarre.
It was while Kim Do-jin was tied up with the Blood Lion.
Drip, drip, drip!
The blood flowing from Viktor Vadim's finger created other beasts.
A pack of long-faced crocodiles that crawled on all fours, flat against the ground.
They charged madly and threw open their long snouts.
KWAAAAANG-!
KRAWK!
“……!”
Kim Do-jin kicked off the ground and flew up by a hair's breadth.
But it wasn't over.
The crocodiles that had missed their prey closed their mouths and curled their bodies into balls.
The bumpy scales on their curled backs were ejected one by one, then flew toward Kim Do-jin all at once.
“Kgh…!”
Red scales filled the air in every direction.
Realizing he couldn't dodge, he swung his sword at high speed.
CHANG-CHANG-CHANG-CHANG!
Each time a scale touched the sword, it reverted to its liquid form and fell to the ground as a drop of blood.
Those watching felt a chill run down their spines, as the falling blood looked as if it were coming from Kim Do-jin's own body.
The sword, swung at a blinding speed, completed another spell formula.
「Lava Shell」
Scarlet lava flowed heavily around his body.
The scales rained down upon it.
Tssssss-!
Tssss!
No matter what form they took, their essence was still blood.
Unable to withstand the high temperature of the lava, the blood vaporized, leaving behind only the coppery scent of blood.
Another crisis averted.
Just as he was preparing a strike to clear a path for a smooth landing among the crocodiles with their jaws wide open,
Vrrrrr!
A strange vibration in the air passed over his head.
He hurriedly looked up to see giant red bees, each the size of a forearm.
“……?!”
He twisted his body and unleashed the sword strike he had prepared for the crocodiles.
THWACK!
THWACK!
The bees were sliced apart.
But their overwhelming numbers quickly filled the empty space.
He twisted his whole body to launch more strikes against them, but it was no use.
THUNK!
“……!”
Finally, a bee's thick stinger pierced through Kim Do-jin's shoulder.
A wave of intense pain washed over him.
Now he understood.
Why Elena and Shin Yu-jeong had been in so much pain.
‘Dammit…!’
Beyond his crumpled vision, he could see the Blood Bees swarming and digging into his body.
His body was soon being riddled with holes.
THUNK!
THWACK!
SQUELCH-!
As if he'd been shot, holes were punched all over his body.
In an instant, his body was reduced to rags.
Barely managing to keep his focus, Kim Do-jin succeeded in slaughtering the bees that had embedded their stingers in him, and his body fell limply.
Thud!
He just barely avoided the disgrace of crashing into the ground.
But it was the worst-case scenario.
‘My vision…’
It was blurring.
It seemed he had lost too much blood.
It wasn't just because his body was full of holes.
Blood Eaters.
They had literally pierced his body and absorbed his blood. If he hadn't reacted quickly, he might have become a mummy on the spot.
“Huu, huu…”
His appearance was wretched.
Watching Kim Do-jin stagger and gasp for breath, a mad laugh erupted from the Duke's mouth.
“Khahaha-hat! Amazing, truly amazing…!”
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
A round of applause poured out.
He was moved.
By his own new power.
A thrill ran through him.
To think that with just a few dozen drops of blood, he could reduce the opponent who had pushed him, the Duke, into a corner to mere rags.
‘With this, it's possible.’
He was certain.
With this much power, he could surely seize victory against the entire world.
‘Yes, of course it's possible!’
Now he understood.
Why the True Ancestor was always so relaxed and full of leisure.
It wasn't born from simple strength, but from overwhelming power.
His gaze settled on Kim Do-jin.
He no longer felt any lingering attachment to him.
A mere pawn who could be stopped by a few beasts was someone he now had no use for.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I now have a rough idea of how strong I am.”
He decided to show him proper courtesy.
To grant a painless death to the opponent who had given him both a crisis and an opportunity.
“Go on ahead and wait. I'll be sending your comrades along shortly.”
“……”
At his gesture, the beasts began to swarm.
They rushed forward, vying with one another as if in a competition.
To win their master's favor.
To prove that they were the ones who would follow his will.
The beasts charged, none waiting for the other.
Just before the fangs, reeking of blood, could reach his body, which could barely even stand,
BOOOOM-!
The beasts of blood lost their forms one by one, melting down into a single puddle.
A puddle deep enough to submerge one's ankles.
From within it, Kim Do-jin lifted his head.
With an utterly ominous smile.
“……?!”
Viktor Vadim's face twisted.
What in the world just happened?
While he was wondering, Kim Do-jin opened his mouth.
“This is delicious.”
A voice completely different from before.
An irreverent, ominous, and unpleasant sound smacked its lips.
“Give me some more.”
Simultaneously, a pitch-black energy that looked as if it would devour everything began to rage behind him.