The Vampire Lord's True Form
“How did you know?���
“Because trash like you tend to pull the same stunts over and over.”
Baek Ara answered Harkia’s hoarse voice with the casual indifference of someone commenting on the weather.
“It sounds like you’ve met opponents similar to me before.”
“Think whatever you like.”
Harkia, still seated atop the coffin, pulled a staff from his subspace and used it to push himself upright. He lifted his gaze toward the gaping hole in the ceiling and stared at the starlight scattered across the night sky.
“You’ve gone and smashed my castle to pieces.”
“Doesn’t it feel nicely ventilated now?”
“Indeed. When a castle collapses, fresh air does tend to flow in.”
Harkia tapped the floor once with his staff. Dozens of magic circles bloomed around them in an instant. These weren’t hastily drawn spells; they were high-tier formations that had been engraved into this chamber from the very beginning, the room where Harkia’s true body resided.
“It doesn’t matter. A castle can always be rebuilt.”
The ancient magic circles carved into the floor flare with crimson light. Dozens of protective barriers rise around Harkia, shielding him completely.
“I’ll show you something interesting.”
At Harkia’s laugh, Ara snorted.
“Another trump card?”
“Of course.”
Because of his previous behavior, Ara was treating Harkia with open contempt. But Enri knew better. What Harkia was about to unleash this time was on an entirely different level.
Harkia used life-draining magic. The moment the phase began, he would activate a massive life-absorption array prepared beneath the castle. The spell converted the life force of every living thing near the fortress into his own magical power. Naturally, players were included among its targets. Unless you prevented the array from activating or prepared a way to counter it, defeating Harkia was impossible.
How will Miss Ara respond to this?
Enri watched with a pounding heart, only to grow bewildered when Ara simply stood there doing nothing as the magic took effect.
“It’s a technique that gathers the life force of living beings, I see.”
“Well… I could block it if I wanted to. But why should I?”
“I doubt that.”
Enri had been about to argue that of course she would die if her life force was being drained, but the sight of Ara standing perfectly calm at the center of the spell left her speechless.
This can’t be right.
Anyone caught in the middle of that magic should have been struggling just to stay on their feet. Enri had tanked the spell with her own body multiple times when the DLC first launched. She wasn’t mistaken. So then… how?
“If it tries to take my life force, I simply refuse to let it.”
Ara looked genuinely puzzled why Enri would even ask something so obvious. In this situation, however, the strange one wasn’t Enri.
It was Ara.
How does that even work?!
No matter how far beyond common sense Miss Ara usually was, instantly countering a spell she’d never seen before was just bizarre! While Enri was busy having a mental breakdown, Ara simply stood there, calmly watching Harkia absorb life force.
As time passed and the gathered power intensified, Harkia’s appearance grew younger. The old man became a middle-aged one, then a man in his twenties.
“So you’re sucking up every living thing near this castle?”
In his current state, Harkia could crush the main story boss Baldur with raw stats alone. Countless veteran players had studied ways to defeat this form of Harkia, but they all reached the same conclusion: it was impossible. His defense was so high that damage barely registered, and any damage that did land was instantly healed. You couldn’t beat him without cheating.
Even after Enri explained all of this without sugarcoating it, Ara didn’t look the least bit discouraged. If anything, she watched Harkia gather power with growing interest.
Before long, the life-draining magic reached its completion. Harkia, now brimming with power, fixed his blood-red eyes on Ara, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.
“You didn’t run. Were your legs too paralyzed with fear to move?”
“I was simply curious what kind of pathetic stunt you were going to pull.”
The moment Harkia threw a punch, a wave of raw power shot past Ara. Her hair whipped wildly as the shockwave gouged the floor beside her, carving a long, deep crater into the basement before finally stopping.
Overwhelming destructive force. Absolute magical power. Transcendent life force.
Harkia had become complete.
Ara glanced at the aftermath of the punch and smiled with her eyes.
“Now this is starting to feel like a proper fight.”
“Let’s see how long that confidence lasts.”
Harkia charged forward, but Ara didn’t retreat. She simply stood with her hands clasped behind her back, watching him move. At first glance, it looked like she had already given up on victory—like she had accepted defeat against an overwhelmingly superior force and abandoned all resistance.
Yet her eyes still curved in amusement, and a smile lingered at the corners of her mouth.
It was Harkia who unleashed the barrage of attacks. Using his overwhelming physical ability, he threw punch after punch without pause. Each strike carried the same terrifying power as the first. Every time his fist flew, the surrounding terrain changed. New chambers formed, ceilings collapsed and merged floors together, and entirely new layers appeared below.
Nor was the speed of his attacks slow. From the instant Harkia closed in on Ara, Enri could no longer track his movements. Yet the person standing at the center of that storm—Ara—remained perfectly still, completely untouched by the countless strikes.
Compared to Harkia’s impossible speed, Ara’s movements were slow enough for anyone to follow. To ordinary viewers, only Ara’s motions were visible. That was why Enri and the rest of the audience thought she looked like she was dancing.
When Ara tilted her head, a massive storm of power roared past her. When she twisted her body, an entire new room was born behind her. When she took a single step, a crater was carved into the ground beneath her feet.
Even as debris flew, the ground warped unpredictably, and Harkia’s relentless assault continued, Ara never made a single mistake.
“It seems you aren’t accustomed to handling such power.”
“Why—?!”
“It’s crude. So very crude. What use is immense strength if you cannot wield it properly?”
“Why—!”
“No matter how long you swing those fists like that, you will never touch me.”
It was a bizarre sight. Clearly Harkia held every advantage. He had countless opportunities to strike, while Ara had none. A single mistake from her would mean a black screen.
Yet somehow, the one growing impatient was Harkia. Despite his absolute superiority, he was the one being chased.
“I’ve seen everything I needed to see. My turn.”
A new motion was added to Ara’s dance. As she moved as usual, she suddenly threw a punch toward empty air. A small shockwave rippled out, scattering debris, followed by a thunderous crash as Harkia slammed into the wall.
“If you’re a sorcerer, stick to sorcery. Trying to throw punches when you don’t know how only ends like this.”
No one fully understood the exchange that had just taken place. It wasn’t something human eyes could follow. Still, everyone watching could vaguely sense one thing: Ara had done something completely impossible.
Harkia, who had crashed into the wall and collapsed to the floor, staggered back to his feet. His golden hair was now gray with dust, and soot stained various parts of his face. Even his once-immaculate suit was torn and ragged. He glared at Ara with eyes full of hatred.
“I’ll give you exactly what you want.”
The moment Harkia pointed a finger at Ara, her brow twitched slightly.
“Fly.”
He flicked his finger upward. Ara’s body shot into the air. The speed at which she rocketed back up through the hole she had created was like a roller coaster in reverse; viewers watching the screen felt a wave of vertigo.
Higher and higher she climbed, until she finally stopped at a height where she could shake hands with the clouds in the night sky.
“This is rather entertaining. I enjoyed that.”
“Don’t worry. As you can see, floating is perfectly possible.”
Just as Ara said, she simply stood beside the clouds without falling. Enri had no idea what principle allowed it, but she had already reached the point of simply thinking, Well… if it’s Miss Ara, I guess that makes sense. She had finally realized that trying to analyze every little thing would only be a loss for her.
“Still, that guy has quite the sturdy body.”
When Ara had driven her fist into Harkia earlier, she had thoroughly rattled his insides. It should have left him sprawled on the ground for several minutes, yet he had recovered in less than a second. His regenerative ability was so phenomenal that even Ara had been momentarily impressed.
“Makes sense. He swallowed that much life force, after all.”
Ara looked down at the ground far below. There lay the lives that had once been Harkia’s subordinates and were now nothing more than his nourishment.
When Enri asked with clear worry, the corners of Ara’s mouth lifted.
“Who exactly are you worrying about? I am not so weak that I require your concern.”
“I do.”
Ara answered Enri’s question indifferently and took a step forward. The descent began instantly. The acceleration was even faster than when she had risen. She glided through the wind, slowing down only a second before impact, and landed as naturally as if she were stepping down a staircase.
“Are you truly human?”
Harkia, who had already returned to the ground, watched the landing and spoke with utter disbelief.
“Thanks to you, I had a rather enjoyable experience. Who would have thought I’d get to stargaze from above the clouds?”
“If you enjoyed it so much, next time I’ll send only your soul up there. You can stare at the stars until you’re sick of them.”
“I appreciate the kindness, but I’ll have to decline. Things like that are only beautiful when seen occasionally.”
The two continued their casual conversation, but their expressions were polar opposites. Harkia glared at Ara with a hardened face, while Ara hummed a small tune, clearly enjoying herself.
“Enri. Do you know how to defeat something that regenerates endlessly?”
“You simply kill it until it can no longer regenerate.”