Chapter 419
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 419
Chapter Title: Vampire Lord (2)
Having looted two vampire bases, Rokan pressed on to the next phase.
However, he did not head toward the "center" where the Vampire Lord resided.
The ultimate goal was to take down that bastard, but the preparations along the way were just as crucial.
Acquiring divinity and strengthening his world.
A ruler who commanded and managed dozens of vampires was no pushover. Even Rokan needed time to prepare methodically.
'Pretty damn lucrative, huh?'
Circling the Vampire Lord's massive castle at the heart of the vast territory like the hands of a clock, he began hunting down vampires one by one.
Distant kin to the Vampire Lord.
They were mere fledglings who had inherited only bloodline power as progenitor vampires, never having faced true fangs of battle. They didn't even dream of facing Rokan.
Perhaps because they knew their near-brothers had been annihilated without landing a proper blow, many chose flight from the start or had already vacated their bases by the time he arrived.
It was a shame, but catching them would yield only scraps of divinity, so Rokan didn't mind.
He destroyed each base, siphoned off their stockpiled resources, and slowly squeezed the life out of the vampires.
Though alone, it looked for all the world like he was besieging and constricting the vampires' kingdom.
"Oh ho?"
After looting over a dozen bases, he finally encountered a vampire group ready for a real fight.
"About ten of them, huh?"
No fewer than ten demigods awaited him.
"Hope these ones pack some real nutrition this time!"
"Rokan! We'll make you wish for death! We'll hang you alive and use you as a blood pouch!"
Outwardly, they looked no different. But with this level of confidence, maybe he could afford some expectations?
"You were calling my blood filthy before, weren't you? Heh heh!"
Rokan grinned broadly.
The banter ended there. Now it was time to prove themselves with raw power.
"King of Violence, power of the absolute!"
No questions asked.
Rokan activated his power first.
His foes responded in kind, stirring no small amount of divinity, but for ten demigods, it left him unsatisfied.
These single-life vampires seemed like they could go all-out for an early finish, yet that very fact held them back from unleashing everything.
"Tch, no romance in these bastards!"
Daring to hold reserves against him, thinking of retreat.
To teach them the arrogance of that notion, Rokan unleashed his power.
It began, as always, with a full-body charge and blink!
"Explode!"
Leaping straight into the heart of the enemy lines, Rokan slammed his battle axe into space itself, detonating force and divinity.
"Urk!"
"Progenitor awakening!"
"Bloodflow acceleration!"
"Vampire fortress!"
"Blood barrier!"
Was this different? Or just strength in numbers?
The ones who weathered his area attack began unleashing their own powers.
A massive fortress plummeted down, blood magic circles overlapped to form barriers, and debuffs rained on Rokan.
Knowing offensive blood magic wouldn't work, they'd pivoted to debuffs and physical enhancements.
"Oh, not bad?"
Rokan still exuded leisure, but his swollen muscles strained like overripe fruit, ready to burst.
A relaxed face belying full exertion.
Meanwhile, the vampires sharpened further.
Fangs elongated, faces paled, torn eyes wept bloodlight.
The power of the ancient progenitor vampires, drawn from the history in their blood.
Clang!
For the first time, Rokan's battle axe was blocked.
Not one-on-one, but two simultaneously raising divinity-infused claws halted it mid-air.
"Shatter!"
In that instant, the nature of Rokan's divinity shifted. From pure force to one laced with destruction and violence.
Grind!
Claws sheared off. The blockers recoiled in shock, trying to flee, but elongated talons sliced faster, rending their bodies.
Neither bat transformation nor blood puddle escape worked.
Struck parts disintegrated instantly, not a drop of blood spilling.
"Th-this...!"
"Impossible!"
Fellows rushed to save them, managing only one.
And even that one returned far from whole.
"Healing isn't working!"
Even after withdrawing from battle, it persisted.
Vampires could heal wounds by expending blood, reattach or regenerate limbs—yet neither ability nor healing spells mended the gashes.
That was Rokan's authority of destruction.
A fatal blow from the vampires' perspective.
With blood magic sealed and recovery nullified, their strongest racial traits were utterly locked.
"Crush him with raw power!"
In the end, they resorted to brute force.
But it was also the simplest, surest path.
Drag it into a divinity slugfest and win by total volume.
"A power contest? Sounds good to me!"
Frontal clashes suited Rokan just fine.
Before his clash with Wildstorm, it might've been tough, but now he held the edge in such divinity brawls. He'd grasped the method.
"Blood history!"
The vampires' powers merged.
Similar blood divinity intertwined, forming a single mass.
"Descent? Nah."
A colossal blood vampire, brimming with immense divinity like a summoned ancient progenitor who'd ascended to godhood, lunged at Rokan.
Aiming to end it in one strike, it drew all divinity and thrust at him.
Dodging was impossible now. Blink and such skills were blocked by that ominous blood divinity.
Red droplets ensnaring even space spread from its body, enveloping Rokan and the world.
"I'll smash you!"
Rokan countered with his own divinity.
Unique divinity infused with his essence.
The violence that shattered even divinity clashed against theirs.
"Grraaah!"
But it was too much.
His divinity's nature could've split and devoured their combined ten into fragments, but he lacked the volume.
Using every ounce might've done it, but facing the Vampire Lord soon, he'd judged it unwise to expend so much.
His body was pushed back, blood divinity lacerating him everywhere, swallowing him whole to erase him completely.
"Krahahaha! How dare a mere human defy the great bloodline!"
"What a pity! We should've drained you to eternal limbo!"
Exhausted from pouring out all power and divinity, the vampires still reveled in victory's swagger.
"Uhe heh heh, no worries. As a visitor, he'll respawn in a nearby city soon. We wait and capture him... Uh, wha—?"
Boom!
In that moment, their blood vampire exploded.
Mission accomplished?
No. This power, forged by ten demigods' divinity and worlds, wasn't the type to vanish on command.
"Gahk!"
"Wh-what...!"
"Impossible!"
Plus, heart-bursting agony.
Like the backlash from shattered divinity.
No, not like— it was exactly that. Their inexperience delayed certainty, but it was.
"Heh heh heh! Don't worry. I'm right here."
"H-how?!"
As vampires writhed from divinity destruction backlash, Rokan strolled out from the clash zone.
How? They'd overwhelmed him!
Meanwhile, his mangled body had healed.
A smidge of divinity supercharged regeneration, restoring him to normal.
Terror.
The vampires felt it for the second time in their lives.
First from their lord Vampire Lord's overwhelming might and majesty.
Now, they envisioned death.
Despite near-immortality.
'Whew, came close to dying there.'
But Rokan approaching them wasn't in great shape either.
Feigning nonchalance, his body wasn't recovered enough to decapitate them yet.
Backlash from using 'immortality authority' immediately.
More precisely, the price of tanking their divinity attack with his body.
Spotting he couldn't win a power contest, he'd hastily twisted his divinity's nature, berserk-like, summoning undying force.
An instant shift in divinity quality.
No better way to exploit their assumption he'd die mid-burst.
[Title Unyielding Will effect: All stats increased by 100%.]
Plus, doubling his own stats.
"Att-attack him! He can't be at full strength!"
"Blood nail...!"
The vampires hesitated briefly but rallied their will.
Overcoming fear, they scraped every last drop of power and charged Rokan.
Splat!
One's head promptly caved in, dead.
Rokan had partially recovered, and his divinity had reverted to destruction—unfixable shattered skull.
Death loomed from abstract terror to immediate reality.
"Th-this can't...!"
"To a mere human...!"
"Oh, Lord!"
As comrades fell one by one, near-screams echoed.
They should've fled by now, but lost will or some constraint left them dithering or half-mad, lunging at Rokan.
Prideful vampires—perhaps the Vampire Lord threatened self-death if they failed to kill him.
"Saving strength just turns to shit, huh?"
Like moths to flame, they suicided, boosting Rokan's power.
Divinity swelled, plus every drop of blood from the slaughter.
His eyes sparkled confirming the absorbed divinity haul.
Whether they'd hoarded till the end or he simply lacked usable reserves before, converting and absorbing their worlds yielded a massive amount.
'With this much...'
Maybe he could finally use what he'd envisioned.
Rokan's gaze turned afar.
Toward the Vampire Lord's colossal castle.
The vampires there would be the real deal, unlike these posers.