Chapter 478: Here I Am
[V6C8 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
This flower was incomparably beautiful, but this extremely bloodthirsty flower of terror also symbolized status—a power in the face of which there was no room for disobedience.
Furthermore, there was an old man with a profound aura standing beside the youth’s throne. He was only an ordinary count, but he was also a true count of the Monroe clan, unlike the youth who had only returned to the clan because he had awakened his bloodline during his growth process.
The vampire youth’s face became increasingly flushed as he became more and more riled up. Fury and excitement mixed together, reaching the extremes in the blink of an eye. He leapt out of his seat, pointed at the sky, and sent his hysterical voice ringing throughout the castle.
“Who? Who will take this lowly human’s head for me? Who will go and defend the Monroe clan’s ten thousand years of ancient glory? Go! All of you will go. Find that human! Find him and kill him!!!”
As if in deep response to his words, the earth began to shake and explosions rumbled in the distance. The entire castle was trembling as dust and stones fell continuously from the ceiling.
The change was so sudden that the entire hall was immediately silenced. People glanced at their surroundings in hopes of finding from whence the transformation had arisen. The vampire youth’s hands were still raised in the air, but his expression became frozen—even his mouth was still open in its previous shape.
An inexplicable haze and pressure quietly pervaded the air.
The heavy doors at the castle entrance flew off from its tracks and crashed onto the floor. The several warriors pressed under the metallic structure had long since gone silent—only a stream of flowing blood from underneath extended outward.
Qianye calmly walked into the castle with East Peak on his shoulders. He then said slowly, “There’s no need for that. I’m already here.”
At the same time, cannon fodder from the dark race combat squads charged clamorously into the castle courtyard which was wide enough to accommodate several horse carriages. Meanwhile, those charging down from the castle stairs were the true dark race soldiers. They arrived like a black tide and swarmed toward Qianye in many layers.
Far off in the distance, a certain figure was traversing the mountains and rivers like a bolt of tempestuous lightning. It was traveling at an inconceivable speed. Its movements were domineering, with every step of its feet producing a big depression on the ground. However, its movements in the air were extremely smooth and would cover dozens of meters with every stretch of its straight torso. It was almost like a bird gliding through the air.
It would cross over any and all obstruction without the slightest bit of hesitation, even bounding over hundred-meter precipices in a single leap. His route was in an absolute straight line, and at the end of it was the castle Qianye had just stepped into.
He had just stepped onto a mountaintop when he came to a sudden stop. The transition from extreme action to utter stillness flowed naturally as though the development was what it should’ve been all along.
There was an isolated mountain standing before him, and upon it stood a graceful figure. She was shrouded in faint mist, but that didn’t affect her charm at all—on the contrary, it even added a touch of mystery to her allure.
The blonde man’s blue eyes were profound as he spoke with a deep voice, “Twilight.”
Twilight responded with a faint smile and called out softly, “William.”
William slowly loosened his collar and laughed protractedly. “Are you trying to stop me?”
Twilight chuckled charmingly as she replied, “No, I just want to chat.”
William’s expression blossomed with a radiant and sincere smile. “I don't talk to old, ugly women.”
Twilight’s smile froze momentarily and only returned to its original state after some contortions. Immediately afterward, she made a grabbing gesture in the air and said, “But I like plucking the fur off of big dogs!”
Big dog was a derogatory term the vampires used to call the werewolves, but William wasn’t angered. On the contrary, he revealed a pondering expression as he looked up at the Iron Curtain above. Both he and Twilight had surpassed the limits of the Iron Curtain. It would surely be an arduous battle with their powers restricted, and there was no telling when the battle would end. Twilight excelled in speed, so the battle could drag out for an indefinite length of time should she entangle him in a protracted fight.
There was a firm resolution in William’s eyes when he looked back at Twilight.
Twilight felt somewhat flustered as she forced out the words, “William, what are you doing? Don’t be impetuous!”
“Step aside!” With that, William let out a long howl and raised his power abruptly. He rushed past the restriction boundary and showed no signs of stopping.
“You!” Twilight was shocked out of her wits. She had been operating under the Iron Curtain for a long time. How could she not know Sky Demon’s terror? Moreover, why would William go so far as to seek mutual destruction even if he knew that she was scheming something?
However, William didn’t stop at all. His power rushed up to the count-rank and was still climbing!
Twilight’s last hopes of getting through by a fluke had disappeared. Her own strength was inferior to William. She would be badly injured, if not killed outright, should she allow William to open up his full combat strength while hers was kept restricted. A flash of hatred flickered through her eyes as she bit her lower lip and pounced toward William. The distance of a hundred meters was crossed in an instant, and her dagger was already at William’s chest.
A simple, unadorned twin pistol had appeared in William’s grasp at some point. The muzzle flickered with brilliance as it blasted twice at Twilight on the brink of this incoming crisis. Twilight’s hair almost stood on end when the series of profound light patterns emerged at the muzzle!
The timbre of the gun was like thunder and not inferior at all to that of a heavy cannon. The mountain peak under William’s feet was filled with cracks as his feet sank into the rocks no less sturdy than metal alloy. This went to show just how powerful those two shots were.
Two blobs of green light vanished into the mountaintop where Twilight had been standing before and erupted in an earth-shattering explosion. Rocks, broken trees, and soil flew out in all directions as the entire mountain top was shaved off.
However, Twilight’s figure vanished just as the origin bullet arrived close to her. The next moment, she was already behind William! Her left hand turned into a claw which thrust straight down, drawing five bloody streaks on William’s back.
But this degree of injury was nothing to William. He waved his gun backward and shot out a beam of condensed light which turned into a blade radiance as it slashed past Twilight’s body!
Twilight’s figure was cut through the waist, but it distorted a couple of times before vanishing into wisps of black smoke. Apparently, it was just an illusion.
Twilight appeared several dozen meters away and stood in the air, her face somewhat pale. Several strands of hair in front of her forehead had been cut and was slowly floating down. It would seem William’s attack just now hadn’t missed entirely and still managed to make her suffer slightly.
This all-out attack gave the two a good understanding of the other’s combat strength. All vampires excelled in speed, but Twilight had pushed this attribute to a brilliant extreme—she was almost able to teleport during the short moment of her eruption. Meanwhile, Twilight’s domain had the effect of confusing the opponent’s senses. Together, her abilities were mysterious and unpredictable.
However, werewolves weren’t too far off either in terms of speed. They were proficient in melee battles, so it went without saying that speed was an important link in their strategy. William also specialized in alacrity—he might not be as swift as Twilight for short distance movements, but his strength and physique were far above the vampire lady.
The two sides each had their own advantages, and it would be difficult to decide on their relative superiority on the short term unless they used their trump cards. Moreover, Twilight shockingly found that William might already have advanced to the mighty count rank. This would place her in a disadvantage.
Just when Twilight was hesitating, the peace in the sky was torn asunder as leaden clouds billowed and the Iron Curtain bubbled about. Sky Demon’s peerless and frigid intent descended all of a sudden, and a gigantic eye was slowly forming in the sky.
Twilight’s expression changed drastically, but how could she run away so easily with William around? Even she might find it difficult to escape this tribulation once the eye was completely opened.
William suddenly let out a long howl and leaped forward. A flash of intense radiance erupted from his body as he transformed midair into a giant wolf. His speed increased abruptly, covering a great distance in the blink of an eye.
Sky Demon’s will swept over William’s giant wolf form, however, it only paused slightly before letting him go and turning toward Twilight!
Twilight was dumbfounded. She suddenly came to and recalled how void existences like Sky Demon were exceptionally lenient toward the various beast races, paying little attention to them even if they were evidently past the level restriction. It was just that there were very little native beasts who grew past rank-ten on Evernight Continent. Everyone had overlooked this loophole.
Meanwhile, it was rumored that William of the Summit of Peaks possessed an exceptionally powerful bloodline and had awakened an ancient blood never seen in a thousand years. It turned out that William’s combat form was actually an enormous ancient wolf capable of deceiving Sky Demon.
For a moment, Twilight couldn’t help but become dazed at William’s shamelessness. But how could she have the luxury to be stunned? At the juncture of life and death, a brooch on her chest burst apart, and a drop of translucent ruby-red blood emerged from within.
The drop of blood transformed into a bloody mist which enveloped Twilight inside. Immediately afterward, a sinister looking beast appeared therein. This hundred-meter-tall giant beast howled toward the sky and leapt straight at the giant pupil, crashing violently into Sky Demon’s gaze!
The giant beast was blasted apart, and the mass of bloody mist vanished into nothingness. However, it was indeed powerful, so powerful that it actually blocked Sky Demon’s gaze for a moment. Only when the mist was completely dispersed did Sky Demon’s gaze continue forward and fall upon Twilight’s body.
The figure left standing in place distorted momentarily before disappearing. Her main body had taken this opportunity to escape, thus avoiding the search by Sky Demon’s will.
It was just that the quality of the blood collected within the brooch was almost at the origin blood level. After transforming into the giant beast, its might was equal to an attack from a mighty marquis. It was a life-saving measure for Twilight and undoubtedly an item of extreme value. It could be said that half of her entire fortune was in this blood brooch. Now, however, she had no choice but to use up her trump card in order to escape.
Moments later, Twilight’s figure appeared in a distant forest and glanced at the giant eye still hanging in the distant sky. Her face was pale, and the terror in her eyes had yet to fade away. A person with senses as sharp as hers would be much more sensitive to Sky Demon’s suppressive might. The situation just now was a brush with death. Had the sanguineous giant beast failed to block Sky Demon’s vision, the one turning into nothingness would be her.
But Twilight couldn’t help but feel the pain after recalling the value of this brooch. She gazed at the direction in which William had run away with the flames of fury burning in her eyes.
But there was no way to deal with William’s cheat-like methods under the Iron Curtain since Twilight couldn’t use the various restrictive measures in her arsenal. William didn’t even need to waste any effort should they meet again. He only needed to attract Sky Demon’s will and run away in his giant wolf form—but Twilight had no second brooch.
Twilight suddenly broke into a frown after calming down. “Something’s not right! Why is William here instead of looking after his war zone? Could the Summit of Peaks be up to something?”
At this moment, William was in the form of a giant wolf. With nothing more to fear, he raised his speed time and time again, turning into a flash of silver lightning which tore through the sky.
Back in the castle, Qianye was walking toward the main staircase with East Peak in his grasp. The cannon fodder and dark race warriors swarmed around him, and the guards on the high ground had also come to and were firing continuously.
As the many different attacks were just about to approach his body, an enormous oceanic wave emerged beside Qianye to cover the entire castle courtyard.
The ground beneath his feet cracked open, and the fissures spread rapidly in every direction. Every dark race warrior in his domain was immediately pressed to the ground, even the werewolves and arachne, with their superior physiques, were no exception. The incoming origin bullets were all deflected and sputtered into the ground around him. Some stray bullets even entered the group of dark race warriors.
A kinetic pipeline on the borders of the courtyard was twisted apart by the pressure of the oceanic power. Large amounts of steam were spewed into the courtyard in the blink of an eye, shrouding it in waves of white. The high-temperature steam scalded a fair number of cannon fodder, producing a mixture of miserable cries and the shrill scream of servspiders.
The steamy courtyard seemed like an immortal dawn, but the stench of blood within was growing increasingly dense.
Qianye walked out calmly, climbed the stairs with brisk steps, and arrived before the magnificent doors. There he paused for a moment before stepping into the castle’s main hall.
The vampire youth stood dazed upon the throne. Disbelief was written all over his face as he watched Qianye walk over calmly. He came to after Qianye entered the great hall, but his first order wasn’t to surround and kill. Instead, he asked the elder beside him, “Don’t we have many soldiers outside?”