Chapter 647: When Demons Cry. 2
"Victor, your face…!" Leona screamed in horror.
The girls looked up and saw a vision of a paler-than-usual Victor with several black veins running down his face.
Victor spat black blood on the floor and said:
"I"m fine. Whatever it was, it didn"t completely pierce my skin, the armor delayed the projectile, and my body withstood the attack."
[Victor, that"s not the problem. You"ve been poisoned! Your body is deteriorating at an alarming rate.]
Cough!
"Victor!" The girls quickly supported Victor and held him back.
"Anrietha!" Eleonor shouted.
"I"m doing what I can! His body is dying and regenerating at an insane rate!"
Victor shuddered when he felt the pain in his body. If the poison reacted like that in his body which was much stronger than normal, he didn"t even want to think about what would happen in Eleonor"s body.
Despite feeling this excruciating pain, he was grateful for following his instincts at that time; he knew that projectile was dangerous.
[Roxanne, can you handle this?] He got straight to the point.
[Yes, I am using all my available energy to keep your body intact, the wound is already healed, but the poison refuses to leave your system. I will solve this problem in 5 minutes! Good thing your body got stronger. If it was the old you, you would be incapacitated and possibly in a coma for several years. Try not to get hit again by that poison.]
When Victor was going to speak mentally with Roxanne again, he heard Nero"s voice:
"Father... Please don"t leave me..." Nero spoke with an expression on the verge of tears.
"Daddy…" Ophis, with a similar expression, spoke, although she didn"t just speak a word, that word contained all the meaning that everyone needed to know.
Victor"s stern expression softened, and he smiled gently at Nero and Ophis:
"Don"t worry, I won"t die anytime soon…" Victor ignored the pain he was feeling in his body and stood up with a big smile on his face as if everything was fine, "It"s nothing." He pushed away the girls, who let him go rather reluctantly.
"I am stronger than I look, and as my daughter, you two are strong too, right?" He stroked their heads.
A sense of comfort went to the two girls.
"… Mm." The two nodded.
Victor nodded in satisfaction and looked at the women, mainly the Valkyries and Rose, who, despite being aware of her surroundings, still looked at him several times as if she was checking on his safety.
"You too. Don"t lose focus over something like this; remember, we"re still on the battlefield." Victor spoke in a stern tone as if everything he"d demonstrated before was a lie.
An act that could have fooled everyone if it weren"t for his face, which looked like it would crack at any moment.
Those words made everyone involuntarily snap back to reality as they took a defensive stance, but their gazes were still occasionally straying toward Victor.
Nero slammed her palm across her face. "He is correct. We need to get out of here to help my father…" A look of determination appeared on Nero"s face as she took the two Deagle from her holster. She knew that only weapons could deal with the monsters, so she brought them with her just in case.
Ophis bit her lip and remained silent as she looked at Victor"s face, which seemed worse than before.
"Father..." Tears started to form in her eyes. She felt useless now, a feeling she didn"t feel even in the j.a.pan incident; after all, in that incident, she could still do something.
Victor smiled wider and chuckled, "I told you, don"t worry, Ophis. I am fine."
"..." Ophis just nodded, but her face didn"t say she believed him.
"Victor, don"t leave me before you take me, or I"ll kill you myself," Leona growled.
"Hah, death won"t have me any time soon. It still has a lot to dance with me for a long time to come." Victor snorted.
"Jerk, don"t make fun of Death. It"s a dangerous thing, you know!? What if she falls in love with you?"
Victor rolled his eyes, "That"s impossible. You"re ridiculously overreacting."
"Humpf, you say that because you have no idea how charming you are."
"Of course I know how perfect I am~."
Leona managed not to punch Victor"s smug face.
"But as far as I know, death has its own tastes… I"m not her type."
"Impossible. You are literally the type of every woman and species in existence."
"Stop, don"t boost my ego."
"Humpf."
Seeing the casual exchange between Victor and Leona, the group"s tension began to fade further, and they sighed in relief.
Victor is fine… For now, if the indication of his face getting even paler and the black veins more prominent was any indication of his current status.
[3 minutes remaining, Victor.]
Victor felt the pain in his body lessen considerably; now it was at the level he trained with Scathach, a manageable pain because he was used to it.
Victor looked at Eleonor, "That projectile was poisoned."
"What-"
"The poison is destroying my body, but my regeneration is dealing with it."
"If you had received the attack, you would have died," he added.
"..." Eleonor opened her eyes wide.
"I"m only alive because I"m more robust than usual and because of Roxanne helping. Pay attention to that projectile."
"...Is it the same thing Vlad"s son used?" Rose thought when she heard the conversation. As one of the oldest and strongest vampires, coming from a Clan that knew most about the "natives" of the planet, she was sought out by Alexios to find out about some kind of cure for the "poison" that Theo gave to Vlad.
Unfortunately, Clan Adrastea didn"t know of a cure for the problem, but she managed to identify the poison, a deadly poison that contained all of vampires" deadliest weaknesses.
With the hunter"s magic, the poison produced by a vampire-werewolf hybrid, and monster poison, it was obvious that this was a poison created to specifically deal with stronger than normal vampires... Someone like the Progenitor.
Eleonor, who was having the same thoughts, Rose said, "Are you okay...?"
"Clearly," Victor spoke.
"Natalia, can you create the portals?"
"I"ve been trying to do that since the beginning, but I haven"t succeeded yet."
"Don"t stop trying. We need to get Nero, Leona, Ophis, and you out of here."
"Victor-." When Leona would have protested, Victor cut her off by saying:
"I know you can fight, but… You don"t have weapons that can deal with these beings, they are immortal, and only Adrastea Clan weapons can deal with them. That"s the case for the big monsters, but that one white humanoid monster is anyone"s guess."
"...." Leona fell silent at the valid argument; she bit her lip in frustration and worry. Victor"s appearance didn"t seem to be improving.
"Eleonor, stop using the technique to mess up the terrain. Getting tired now is useless; we escaped the trap, and that"s enough for now."
"...." Eleonor nodded her head, stopped using her power to mess everything up, and looked at Rose. The older woman just shook her head, indicating for Eleonor to be silent as if she said. "It"s not the time for that now."
"Let me see you."Anrietha approached Victor and looked intently at him.
"I am good-."
"One of our best fighters cannot be incapacitated now; his health is important both for our survival and our mentality."
"..." Having no way to argue with that, he stayed silent and let her do whatever she wanted while his head thought of strategies to deal with this situation. But, there is one thing he could be sure of.
"They"re after me... Maybe it"s because of that white fireball incident that lit up this planet for two whole hours?" Victor thought: "They judged me as dangerous... And they took the opportunity to try to kill Eleonor and Natalia as well..."
A green light came out of the hand of Anrietha and entered Victor"s body.
A few seconds of silence pa.s.sed with the group arguing about what to do and Victor resting quietly until Anrietha said, "You saved us again..."
"Even stood in front of a bullet meant for Lady Eleonor."
"I would do it again without blinking," Victor answered absently.
Anrietha"s body shuddered at Victor"s instantaneous response, "... It"s really irresistible..." She mumbled in the voice of a mosquito.
"It"s like he said, his body is a mess, but the regeneration is handling everything well... My enchantment is helping too-...Huh?." Before she could continue her thoughts, she found herself being grabbed by Victor.
Victor pulled Anrietha into his chest and jumped back a few times as a dark claw came out of the ground.
"Tsk, slippery." A voice different from the previous one was heard.
The same white being as before started to get out of the ground and said:
"Impressive."
"You received a major dose of something that could cripple even the king of your filthy race, and you remain completely fine as if you suffered nothing."
"You are really dangerous, Alucard."
Another being came out beside the white one, and it was someone similar to him, only completely black, with red eyes, a mouth full of teeth, and several gold tattoos scattered around its body and tail.
The group was agitated and looked at the two beings in front of them with serious and focused expressions…
Except for Victor, who was looking at a completely different place.
Having experienced fighting alongside Victor, the Valkyries were prepared to deal with whatever it was that Victor was looking at right now. They knew that there were few things that could pa.s.s through Victor"s senses.
"Your senses are irritating, Alucard." The complete black being spoke with eyes glowing bright red.
Victor held Anrietha even more firmly and jumped back several times:
"Alexa, Dorothy, Judy, get out of there!"
The aforementioned girls didn"t even have to think twice; they followed the orders as if Rose or Eleonor had given them.
The moment they left where they were, they saw several white claws sticking out of the ground.
"There are various creatures underground!" Eleonor shouted as she stepped on the ground and controlled the earth to squeeze the creatures.
"Tsk, they"re still alive!"
Victor landed close to the group again and made them separate at a reasonable distance so that each one could react to the unexpected.
"Rose, don"t walk away from the girls. You"re the only one after me with senses strong enough to react to them if necessary." Victor spoke to Rose.
"I know..."
"That"s why I"m acting pa.s.sively." Rose thought with a bit of frustration, but even if she felt that way, she couldn"t risk the girls" safety, especially Eleonor and the innocent children.
"Eleonor, keep an eye on the land around us."
"Okay."
Victor looked back at the white creature, "... Annoying? I get told that a lot." he released Anrietha and let the woman move away from him.
"I bet you have. You made a lot of enemies with that annoying effect of lighting up half the planet."
"Oh? It looks like you guys saw it, too, even though you were so far away." He spoke with false surprise.
The creature with the golden tattoos just snarled in annoyance but did nothing.
And that pa.s.sivity made Victor suspicious, especially when he sensed their anxious feelings.
"Why are they standing still? Are they expecting something...?"
Victor"s eyes suddenly glowed violet, and a scene appeared in his head; his entire current group was dead, and him kneeling on the ground in a barren, red land.
He was looking at the bodies of his loved ones with a lifeless gaze, and suddenly a dark power took over Victor, and the vision ended with a roar of a monster coming from the darkness that was Victor.
The moment Victor came back to reality, his eyes flashed with anger and hatred.
FUSHHHHHHH!
A red pillar rose into the heavens, and the oppressive atmosphere bent several times as if gravity had suddenly changed.
The two were in front of Victor, and the one that was hidden in the spot that Victor had looked at earlier shuddered.
"Did he figure out the plan? How? None of these attackers should have seen this technique before."
Despite being very angry, his rational mind was a.n.a.lyzing the scene, and even if it hurt his heart, he needed to do this.
And realizing that the current terrain wasn"t here, it wasn"t Nightingale, and it was a completely different location, retracing the whole encounter he had before, an obvious answer came to Victor"s mind.
Ma.s.s teleportation. Such a thing wouldn"t be impossible, considering the powers they"ve demonstrated so far.
"I don"t know what they"re planning, but… It"s not going to happen!" A golden bolt of lightning fell from the sky on Victor, and soon he was in the Fulger"s vampire count form.
[Go ahead, Victor. Let me deal with the recoil, destroy them!] Roxanne screamed with an anger similar to Victor"s.
Every action so far didn"t even take four seconds; everything was so sudden.
The glint of madness was obvious in Victor"s eyes. They"d woken up a monster.
He needed to eliminate them, he needed to erase them from existence, or they would all be in danger! Victor didn"t care about anything anymore. He just focused on erasing them from existence.
"d.a.m.n it-." White beings started coming out of the ground where the white humanoid monster was, while the black humanoid monster tried to disappear.
Yes, the correct word is tried.
Again, time began to slow down from Victor"s perspective.
And in the span of a millisecond, Victor appeared in front of the two beings and attacked them with Junketsu with the full intention of making them disappear from existence.
He slashed and sliced several times, all in the blink of an eye, and soon the two beings were cut into thousands of pieces. Then, not satisfied, he summoned pure plasma from his hand and attacked their bodies.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Victor hadn"t held back; in his anger, such a luxury was not possible. The result?
Everything in front of the plasma was completely obliterated, with nothing, not even ashes, left.
"Impossible! That speed is on par with that woman! And this power is much greater than expected! That"s not what they said!" The last one who was hiding thought in horror.
"... But it"s okay. As long as I live, they will come back to life. I need to get away from here-."
Victor glared at the place he had looked before and disappeared again. In the next moment, he was holding another humanoid monster of white colors, with black designs scattered throughout the creature"s body.
He was clearly very different from the two, some strange and unknown symbols were also drawn on his body like a tribal tattoo.
The humanoid monster shuddered in fear when he saw that creature covered in golden lightning looking at him with blood-red eyes.
"You will disappear." Victor held the monster"s head, and raw power began to gather in his hand.
When Victor was about to evaporate the monster from existence, he heard the disdainful voice, "Holding me was foolish. The technique was already complete from the moment we arrived here. You just helped complete our objective."
A dark liquid came out of the black parts of the humanoid monster and started to cover Victor"s body.
"From the beginning, the target was you, Alucard!" A maddened gleam was seen in the humanoid monster"s eyes.
"I know." That"s all Victor said before throwing the monster to the ground, and with Junketsu, he did the same attack he did before, but not before hearing:
"All Hail Our G.o.d! Our Savior! The accursed invaders will die for our G.o.d!" Soon Junketsu evaporated the monster from existence, but even after it was killed, the black stain did not stop growing all over Victor"s body.
Suddenly, Victor"s eyes s.h.i.+ned violet again, and he saw the same vision as before. Again, he was in the same arid terrain, but this time he was alone, and that made Victor sigh in relief.
He didn"t mind being in danger, but his loved ones were a big no.
"I must rea.s.sess my opinion about Adonis" power… I need to master this power in case something similar happens in the future, but I must keep an eye out so as not to fall into the paranoia that this kind of power can cause." Victor thought.
"Victor, you-..." When Leona was going to ask Victor something, she was interrupted by Victor"s orders.
"Rose, don"t hold back when the monsters come! They haven"t died yet! I see several centipedes and Predators hiding in the rubble and several minions regenerating as we speak. They are rising to the surface now."
"We don"t know what kind of plans these beings have or if more of them are hidden!"
"Vic-." Rose was going to say something too, but Victor didn"t have time, so he continued to issue orders:
"Eleonor, as soon as you get back to Warfall, equip Leona with monster weapons, and let her fight the invasion."
"Natalia, take my daughters back to Nightingale and tell everyone what happened, and tell them I apologize for putting myself in danger."
"If they yell at you, tell them I said it was better for me to be in danger than for them or anyone else here."
"..." Natalia just nodded her head with a quivering expression of pain.
"And daughters…" Victor displayed a small smile.
"Be strong. You are my daughters, the daughters of Victor Alucard. You are my pride."
"Father-."
"Remember, Girls, I will not die over something simple like this."
"I"ll see you later, Girls." Those were Victor"s last words before the black liquid completely engulfed him, and he disappeared.
"Father/Victor!"
...
Victor"s vision suddenly changed, and he was in a barren red land, just like in his vision.
"Well, that power comes in handy in situations like this." He reaffirmed his thoughts of mastering that power.
Victor looked at the black liquid on the floor that was starting to disappear. He tried to take some of this liquid as a sample, but it disappeared even after he held it in his hand.
"Tsk looks like Ruby won"t be getting a present." He grumbled inwardly.
[Roxanne, are you there?]
[Of course, I"ll be with you wherever you go, Darling. After all, my main body is in your soul.]
[It"s comforting to hear that, how is my body?]
Victor felt a buzz and looked at his hand, and he felt Junketsu complaining about him.
"Hahaha, I"m glad you"re here too, Junketsu."
Junketsu sent happy feelings to Victor.
"Looks like she gained more sentience," Victor thought.
[...You are completely healed; the poison has been removed from the body.] Roxanne informed after a few seconds of checking his body.
[I see... Looks like you saved my life, Roxanne.]
[Fufufu, spoil me a lot later!]
Victor smiled, [Of course.]
[Yay!]
"Now, where am I…?" Victor patted his clothes to remove the dust, looked around, and, as expected, only saw a desert of red sand.
He looked up to the sky and saw a gigantic golden door in the heavens that was wide open with millions of creatures heading towards it.
"Well, this is a new one."
[... Darling... This place... This negative energy.]
"Yeah..." Victor looked into the distance towards the creatures in the sky, his eyes began to zoom in as if they were a camera, and he saw several familiar creatures.
"Demons…"
"We are in h.e.l.l… literally speaking."
"And to think that that weird power was able to throw me into a dimension that only the dead can enter..." Victor thought.
ROOOOOOOOOOOAR.
Victor heard a roar in the distance and saw thousands of demons of various sizes, and types, all looking at him as if they were looking at prey.
Victor took a few moments to absorb what he saw until:
"…HaHaHaHa~" His crazed, amused laugh echoed across the entire battlefield.
His face darkened completely, and only his predatory smile and blood-red eyes were visible:
"I don"t know who planned this, something I"ll definitely find out, but I have to say this is the best welcome home party I could ask for, Hahahaha~."
Victor slowly removed Junketsu from her scabbard and said:
"Let"s Dance, Demons!"
ROOOOOOAR!
.....