thud thud
“L-Lord, have mercy.” Clenching their throats with saliva forming near their mouths, all of their canines came out and their eyes glowed intensely due to the presence of a blood mist around them, which blurred their senses and caused them to fall to their knees, feeling their minds being devoured.
This was what a Vampire hierarchy looked like. A man who held the purest noble bloodline stood firmly, while the veterans possessing inferior bloodlines were on their knees, begging for mercy.
“….It’s fine, it was just anger from elsewhere.” Keith straightened his clothes and dispelled the blood mist, his mind calming down after venting his anger at finding someone so close to the man holding the bloodline of Alisia Devereau. He regretted missing the chance.
If he had been aware that Bella was related to Ryuk Devereaux, he would have made sure to kill her. But now, they had already arrived at a distance where entering Jade Dominion was much easier than Heindal.
“About Amayara, turning her into a vampire would not provide much benefit.” Keith rearranged his thoughts, having initially considered making Amayara a vampire. However, he realized that as a seedling vampire, she would likely lose control and harm the children and Bella, as she would not in a stable mental state. Keith rejected this idea, knowing that woman would start to hate him if something like this happened.
About her attacking him, he could simply keep his men near her. After he weakens, they can then save him and neutralize her. After all, becoming weak for that woman didn’t bother him.
“Haa…haa…As you wish, My Lord.” All the vampires on the floor felt relieved as their senses returned, thankful to have escaped a fate where their blood would evaporate, and their sanity would be lost, turning them into ghouls.
Ghouls were the beasts created from vampires who lost their sanity.
“Ryuk Devereaux is in Jade Dominion, is that correct?” Keith calmed himself before taking a seat, tilting his head as he picked up a document and reviewed it, continuing, “hmm, if he is there, then it’s likely for training.”
Keith calmly analyzed the reason for Ryuk’s presence in a land where he would likely not find a flagbearer. It was improbable for a flagbearer to choose a continent where they could not bring in their army, whether branch family members or others.
Thus, Keith concluded that Ryuk was there for training.
“Have you obtained information on his strength?” Seated with a calm demeanor, Keith lifted his head to look at the ceiling, waiting for a reply.
“Lord, it’s As..Ascendancy,” the man stammered, feeling his words catch in his throat as he felt Keith’s glare on him, the atmosphere becoming stifling with a metallic scent filling the room.
“That is incorrect information,” Keith directly refuted the claim, looking at the man who had brought this false rumor instead of factual information.
After all, it was evident that someone at such a high level would not be training in a place where the power system was so disrupted, causing a bottleneck at this level.
“Yes, you are correct, my Lord.” the man nodded under the pressure felt from Keith.
‘How did he do it?’ Keith thought to himself, realizing that this information was not simply based on rumors, as the man’s expression and demeanor suggested he was skilled at gathering information. It led Keith to ponder how Ryuk Devereaux had manipulated his power levels under the advanced technology of the Devereaux family.
All of this was nothing but assumptions from Keith, but he wasn’t neglecting any of these facts, knowing well that they were true.
After Alisia Devereux eradicated the entire clan of Bloodmoon Vampires, Keith survived as he was inside her mother’s womb at that time, even though his mother died at the hands of Alisia Devereux.
For some reason, he still remembered the cries and tears of his mother begging, mentioning her pregnancy and asking for mercy, but he only heard the faint sound of his mother’s heartbeat stopping.
The last thing he remembered was opening his eyes in the hands of a few vampires from the remaining Bloodmoon clan who were outside the continent at that time.
His memories were vivid as he turned his gaze towards his mother, only to see a headless body and an opened womb.
‘Your actions will haunt you, Alisia Devereaux,’ Keith gritted his jaws with anger evident in his red-veined eyes and clenched hands. The armrest of the chair broke under his visible anger as determination surged through him. He vowed, ‘But before nightmares, you will shed tears of blood when you see your son’s mutilated body.’
“Increase the ship’s speed. I will go ahead to kill him,” Keith commanded, knowing that it was impossible for Ryuk Devereaux’s strength to be at that level. With his own peak Legendary strength, killing someone like him without the need for an army would be easy.
“As you command,” the man rubbing his neck bowed before lifting his gaze and turning back towards the large window of the battleship, approaching a servant driving the ship before commanding, “Increase the—What is this!?”
The man’s eyes widened as he saw a sudden space rift forming in front of him and a sharp amethyst sword streak appeared, filled with intense sword intent, directly cutting through the ship’s front and arriving an inch away from his pupils, cutting his front eye lens in half, with his mind already prepared for his head to be sliced open.
“MOVE ASIDE!” Keith’s body arrived much faster than the speed of the sword streak, his hand pulling back the man and throwing him behind. Keith brought both hands forward and crossed them together as he activated his blood technique.
SKCHLT!
‘!?!’
The man who was thrown away looked back at his master who protected him. His eyes widened as he saw the shadow of Keith’s hands swinging in the air, separating into two pieces as the sword streak disappeared into thin energy shards before cutting through the blood technique Keith used, and then his hands.
THUD
“Khwakkk!? Arghh.” Keith’s body fell to the ground as a gust of blood came out of his mouth. His reddened eyes looked towards his hand, which had just been cut off below the wrist by that unknown sword strike that took everyone by surprise. He wasn’t able to manifest all of his strength at once, leading to this situation.
“Agghhh! Damn it!” Keith’s mind went blank as he realized how he was distracted by thoughts of Ryuk Devereaux, which caused him to lower his guard and not notice someone attacking them. He shouted, “Kill the one—?!”
As he roared with his red eyes, his pupils reflected a dead body being flung in his direction from the broken ship’s open front, landing in front of him. He remained on his knees with visible veins on his neck as he looked towards the headless body.
“This?” Instead of the stench of blood, the first thing his senses caught from that man was the same dirty and hateful stench he had smelled from Bella, causing him to cover his nose with his hand before his pupils trembled. “D-don’t tell me”
Everything came back to him from the information about Bella having some relation with Ryuk Devereaux and the same smell coming from this body with a head that seemed to carry the same energy signature as the sword strike. He understood that the sword strike was made by none other than, ‘Ryuk Devereaux.’
With his head turning down due to pain and visible anger rushing through him, gritting his teeth as he understood the level of strength behind this sword strike, he commanded, “We are returning to Bloodmoon. Turn the ship away from Jade Dominion.”
One sword strike caused all this drama?
