Dawn on the vampire planet looked like the sky was bleeding—which, Erwin had come to understand after proper scrutiny. Also, the day is Tuesday here. It was a surprise that these vampires used some familiar naming system like back on Earth. The twin moons still hung at the horizon, gold and silver—the same ones he'd been staring at through Vance's window two nights ago when the Sovereign had told him about Godhood Rituals and centuries of planning and the inevitability of war. He stood on the eastern deck of the Fourth Castle, sixty feet above the approach roads, and watched thousands of vampires approaching. They moved like a tide. Not the disorganized rush of the soldiers he had trained against for the last two days. He didn't need anyone to tell him that these ones were different, but as far as they weren't as strong as the Sovereign, he'd be fine. "How many are they?" he muttered. "Twelve thousand," Vance said from beside him, his mismatched eyes calm as always, his silver ha

"You killed him," Erwin muttered, his eyes fused on Malachai face unblinking. "I did what the war required." Vance's voice carried no emotion, his gaze coldly staring down at Erwin still kneeling with Malachai's body in his arms. "I'll kill again if you proceed with his last wish, I heard it you know. Too bad the dying man's last wish is unfortunately not something attainable. "Don't forget your place as a tool for me and no one else, or you will join him." Erwin looked at him for a long moment. 'Vance, the sovereign of the Fourth Castle, is not your friend... Malachai, the sovereign of the Fifth Castle, is not your ally.' The words were replaying in his head. 'I'll agree with the first part of that statement you once made, Selene,' Erwin turned his gaze from Malachai's corpse. 'But not the second part.' He laid the body away and turned to Selene, who had been standing at the far end of the deck since Malachai fell and had not come closer, only watching expressionlessly. She wa

Herria's fists flared with pure essence energy as she lowered into a fighting stance. She and Erwin were locked in gaze, no one making a move yet, but now Erwin was also taking a stance, staying on high alert. "Herria, I don't know what has gotten into you, but you need to stop. I was warned to destroy the ritual chamber and prevent anyone from ascending, and lastly, this Haemagogi thing! You need to—" She was already moving again. [Dimensional Creation Activated] Erwin wasted no time as fifteen dimensional swords materialized simultaneously in a spread formation, launching toward her from different angles and heights. Not to kill. Not aimed at anything vital, but at positions that required her to deal with them instead of striking him. 'Damn! He's cornered me!' Herria's jaw tightened in realization as her eyeballs frantically darted around the swords coming at her. 'My Impact requires me to strike a particular object and make the impact manifest elsewhere. I can't strike all t

Blood sprayed out from Gideon's nose and his will also finally gave up. Gideon's hand dropped that was looming above slowly dropped, then his body followed. Thud. He hit the floor with a soft thud and the crystal blade rolled and came to rest against the wall. By now, the crystallized blade has melted into blood. And now, Vance stood over him. Looked at the scar-covered face still, the black eyes no longer open. "You warm up would have been well appreciated if only you hadn't come when I had something else to take care of." Vance wiped off the blood stains on his lips and turned his focus back to the gap leading underground where Erwin had escaped to. "Now, it's time to... "GIDEON!" The voice boomed from a distance away, hitting Vance like a physical force that caused his eyes to widen. He turned and he could see who he was hoping he wouldn't see yet, Xed! Xed stood at the far end of the deck wall, having come over the top of the castle's inner battlements. He had not arri

It began when the godhood ascension ritual was introduced into the vampire world over a thousand years ago. It is common knowledge that vampires are creatures that take pride in strength. War was normalized in the vampire world, but the moment the ritual became known, the war rate skyrocketed and intensified. With the uncontrollable urge to be the strongest, all the vampires wanted to perform the ritual and ascend above their peers. Unfortunately, however, the ritual had a major restriction. It needed the blood of all six blood anomaly possessors. And blood anomaly, unfortunately, was not something all vampires possessed because it cannot be learned, only passed down from the previous owner. Due to the fact that a blood anomaly is not learned but inherited in the vampire world, there were only six anomaly possessors at a time. The six total blood anomalies in the entire vampire world were owned only by the sovereigns of the first to sixth castles, respectively: the instant telepor