Chapter 213: I Found You.
As he fell into the world of unconsciousness, Carlos suddenly opened his eyes.
Carlos found himself in a dark world completely devoid of "nothing".
"Where am I?" His voice echoed through the void. It was as if he had spoken twice, three times, four times.
It was a strange feeling.
Carlos tried to recall his last memories, "... Hmm, I remember being caught by the vampires and being tortured by Maria..."
Again, his voice echoed across the void, and it repeated over and over, like a broken record.
"Oh... Mary." Carlos made a sad expression. He really didn"t want things to end like this and felt regretful since if he had been stronger in the beginning, he could have stopped that Fulger Clan heiress from doing something to Maria.
"If I had been honest with my feelings..." This was one more regret he felt, that he should have been more honest and pointed the middle finger at the church and left the organization.
But...
He knows this was an unrealistic dream. He couldn"t do this because the moment he became a hunter, he knew this was something he would do until his death.
"..." Carlos stopped thinking about the past and looked around again, and, seeing only infinite darkness, he couldn"t help but be a little apprehensive.
After all, where was he?
"The concept of good and evil is vague, it"s like a fine line that is easily lost if you don"t pay attention." A majestic voice echoed throughout the void.
"!!!" Carlos quickly looked around for the voice, but he didn"t find anything.
"To some beings, you were like an angel who was sent from the heavens to help them." Suddenly, several images of human children began to appear around Carlos.
"...Is that...my memories?" He asked, but his answer was never answered, and he didn"t need answers either, as he knew these were his memories.
"To other beings, you were like a demon that was there to sentence them to death." Soon the images changed again, and he saw his memories of when he would hunt vampires.
Several vampires who had done nothing wrong, several vampires who had been living quietly were killed by Carlos" unbridled madness.
Looking at these memories, Carlos felt nothing. After all, in his view, this was just work...
At first, he felt nothing, that is.
But when the memories stopped him decapitating a maid, and when his memories saw Sasha walking into her old mansion.
"Ugh..." He placed his hand on his chest as he felt an immense pain, as if something was invading his body.
"In the end..." The being"s voice started to get louder.
Unconsciously, Carlos looked up, and the moment he looked up, he saw something that terrified his entire existence.
"...Wha-..." He was so shocked that words couldn"t come out of his mouth. Just what was he looking at?
A gigantic formless being was looking at him. He had blood-red eyes like a vampire and a huge mouth that showed all of his teeth.
What is this being!? Wasn"t he dead!?
"There is no good and evil." The being"s smile seems to grow in a distorted way.
"Good and evil are decided by limited beings with finite lives."
"There are only choices, and the consequences of those choices."
"And you, Carlos Reiss. You chose the worst possible choice."
The creature"s voice seemed to increase, and the whole place seemed to tremble at the voice of this being:
"AND NOW, YOU WILL SUFFER FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!"
…
"!!!" Carlos opened his eyes, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw himself in reality again, or so he thought.
In front of him was the same being he saw in his "dream".
"HIIII!" He looked like a little girl who got scared when she saw a monster.
Perhaps he was still dreaming? What are those monster-like red eyes?
"Welcome back, Carlos." Victor"s smile grew.
"…Eh?" He didn"t understand. Was he still dreaming?
"Oh?" Seeing Carlos" scared face, Victor"s smile grew even wider, "It looks like you had a good dream..."
"...?" Seeing Victor"s smile, Carlos" body visibly shook.
"Hahaha~"
"!!!" The laugh was the same! The laugh was the same! He seemed to be freaking out internally.
"A good dream indeed."
"...You...Did you know what-" Carlos was going to ask Victor something, but Victor didn"t want to hear anything from the man.
Victor got up from the floor, "I have something to show you." When he finished speaking, he moved aside to allow Carlos to see a vision.
A Maid with long golden hair was standing in front of him. Unlike the former appearance that looked something close to the undead from before, her entire body had a healthy glow, and she seemed to have grown a few inches longer.
Her body gained a few more curves and reached its "peak".
And her former sapphire blue eyes changed to a permanent red.
The woman looked at the man with a neutral gaze that contained nothing, no emotion directed at him, only indifference.
And soon, several red threads began to dance around the woman as if it had a life of its own.
A creature from h.e.l.l was standing in front of him, but why... Why was she so beautiful?
Victor walked towards the Maid and stopped next to Maria as he looked at Carlos with the same smile:
"Why that look?"
"Looks like you saw something surprising."
"... Who is this woman?"
"Oh? Does it feel like your mind has been affected more than expected? Have you already forgotten your "lover"?"
Suddenly Maria"s neutral face distorted into disgust:
"... Master, please don"t say that even jokingly, I feel like throwing up." Maria"s expression was very sick, and it was as if she really was going to throw up at any time.
"...Hahahaha~." Victor chuckled lightly amusedly, looking like a child who had laughed at a harmless joke.
"… Is she Maria…?"
"But why does she feel so..."
"Alive?" Victor continued.
"Yes..."
Victor stood behind Maria, bent down a little, and leveled his face close to Maria"s, while he gently touched his Maid"s chin and turned her face to the right.
Soon the sight of two fangs were being shown to Carlos.
"M-Master, stop. Please..." Maria"s face was a little red with embarra.s.sment, how can he show this place for all to see!? Lewd!
"Now, she"s no longer a flawed vampire like she used to be. Now, she is a full-fledged n.o.ble vampire."
"..." Carlos opened his eyes wide, he was shocked by Maria"s reaction, but he was even more shocked that Victor was able to create n.o.ble vampires.
"... You... You... Just what are you?"
"Who knows?" Victor"s smile grew wider, "Why don"t you ask your G.o.d? After all, he was the one who raised me." He made a little joke that contained a little bit of truth, considering G.o.d created all humans, right? And he was a human before, so come to think of it, he was created by him, right?
Although this joke of his also had its origin in the charm he speaks when he enters the form of a vampire count.
But Carlos didn"t seem to understand it that way, "G-G.o.d, created you..." In a strange way, Carlos" face filled with envy.
"Well, that reaction, I didn"t expect it." Victor"s smile grew a little, and then he pulled away from his Maid.
"..." Maria pouted, despite being embarra.s.sed, she was enjoying it, you know? Why did he stop!?
Victor created an ice throne and sat on it proudly as he rested his chin on his right hand in a relaxed pose, while the magic circle of the glove on his right hand started to glow blood red.
Slowly he raises his left hand to his face, and Victor"s left hand starts to be covered in an eerie energy that is a red so dark it appears to be black and streams of blood-red energy course around his arm while the veins in his arm appear to glow with his power.
"..." Carlos stared at Victor"s hand since, in a strange way, that hand looked very similar to the dark power he used.
Victor looked at his hand for a few seconds, and then looked at Carlos with eyes glowing blood red, while he showed a small smile and said:
"Shall we do a little experiment?"
"!!!" Carlos" body shook, and then he started to struggle, he had to get out of here, or something far worse than being eaten alive would happen to him! He needed to get out of here.
"Oh? Didn"t you like it? But I thought you were used to experiments?"
"Let me out! Let me out! Mons-." Before Carlos could continue talking, he felt something cut his throat.
"Silence, pig." She spoke in a cold and cruel voice while making some gestures with her fingers.
"Master is speaking, it is your duty to listen in silence!" Suddenly hers changed to an angry voice:
Her face distorted, and her mouth grew full of sharp teeth, and then she spoke with the same angry tone:
"If he wants to do it with you, you must accept it with a smile on your face! Be grateful, pig!"
"... Well, that was a sudden change, wasn"t it?" He thought inwardly with a small smile on his face since he more or less had an idea of what had happened to Maria.
But to put it quite simply, she was trying to please him, and her s.a.d.i.s.tic personality was heightened by the Vampire transformation.
"Maria."
"Yes, Master~. What do you want?" She spoke with a happy smile, a complete change from the att.i.tude she was having with Carlos.
"..." Again, Victor was surprised by the change in att.i.tude.
Okay, he"s going to be honest. He"s not understanding anything.
But what the f.u.c.k? Is it because she"s been through too many things at once, and her personality has taken a great deal of damage?
What Victor didn"t know was that Maria was normally like this to the person she sees as "G.o.d", but... Her personality has been twisted a bit thanks to the events she"s been through.
Not to mention that, by transforming into a n.o.ble vampire, she didn"t completely lose the powers of King Ghoul.
After all, originally, this race was a subspecies of vampires. Technically speaking, they are still vampires but flawed. And the moment Victor turned Maria into a full-fledged vampire.
The two powers merged perfectly.
And not to mention...
Victor"s influence from being a Night King and the "progenitor" is quite significant in the vampires he creates.
In fact, it would be strange for her not to be acting like that because despite being called "King", the Ghoul race mostly follows their instincts and desires.
And Maria"s instinct and desire now were to stand by her "G.o.d".
Putting all these events together with Maria"s personal experiences, a new "Maria" was created when Victor turned her into a vampire.
Now, she was no longer a hunter, she was no longer a King Ghoul, she was something more, something far more terrifying, something that will strike fear into many beings in the future...
A Maid...
And not just any Maid, she is Count Alucard"s Maid.
"Hold it." Victor ordered.
"Yes!" And Maria did his bidding to the best of her ability.
The red threads that were dancing around Maria suddenly moved and pinned Carlos to the chair.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Looks like his throat was already healed...
Crack, Crack, Crack.
Sounds of broken bones can be heard.
"... Maria, I told you to hold him and not kill him."
"Ah... Sorry, master. I"m having trouble controlling my powers." She spoke in a regretful tone, and soon she loosened her strands further.
"Good, hold it."
Victor points his left hand at Carlos.
And then something starts to happen.
"!!!" Carlos" body begins to struggle furiously.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Victor narrowed his eyes, "Annoying, Maria. Shut him up!"
"Yes, Yes!" Maria uses her wires, and holds Carlos" mouth, just in case she also removes the man"s entire throat! She must do a perfect job!
Victor looked at the vampire mark on the man"s neck, and he focused only on that mark.
"Come to me."
BLUSHHHHHHHH
Suddenly an explosion of blood happened.
Holes opened all over Carlos" body, and rapidly an enormous amount of black blood began to flow out of his body.
Victor didn"t care or try to a.s.suage the pain. Instead, like a greedy beast, he just pulled whatever he wanted.
And in less than a few seconds, Victor was holding a pure-blooded black ball in his hand.
"Interesting..." Victor watched with curious eyes as the ball of blood began to fade from black to blood red.
And before Victor can understand anything, his hand absorbs the blood.
"...Greedy as alw-." Victor looked like he was going to say something, but he couldn"t.
Sounds of chains breaking can be heard, but Victor is sure only he can see it.
He grips the ice throne tightly as he lowers his head a little.
"Ugh..." He bit his teeth hard while he looked like he was having a really bad headache.
And soon, something starts to appear in his vision.
As if it were a movie that was playing at high speed, he was seeing the "memory" of the blood.
But as he didn"t know what was going on, he just saw a few things.
"Master!?" Maria quickly approaches Victor.
"Project… Hybrid… Maria… S-000?" He seemed to be muttering incomprehensible words to himself. The only thing he understood was "maria", "hybrid", and "S-000", which was probably the codename of some experiment.
"Master, are you okay!?" As she didn"t know what to do, Maria hugged Victor in an attempt to make him better:
"I will kill him! That pig! How dare he!" Maria thought as she looked at Carlos, who was in a state where it was not known if he was alive or not.
"If that pig dies, I"m going to h.e.l.l to get it back and kill it again! How dare he do that to master!"
… Isn"t she being very irrational?
"..." Victor was silent. He didn"t answer, as he seemed to be focusing on something, a memory he made sure not to let go of.
He enters a dark office and says:
"Oh, you finally came, Carlos Reiss."
"General James."
Observing the man"s appearance through Carlos" memories, Victor"s smile distorts in such an unnatural way that it could scare any being.
"I found you."
.....
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