Chapter 51: Finding The Way Forward
Edian opened her eyes and for the fist time in centuries she felt awake and in control of her own body, she did not know how long she had been seeing the world as if she was dreaming, a nightmare... that was what the last centuries had been to her. She was confused and she was feeling dizzy, she also had the feeling that knowing what had happened in the last centuries as she was dreaming would be painful and she felt fear.
"Drosia Edian, are you awake? Are you in control of your mind?" The voice took her away from the painful ideas that were haunting her and helped her focusing in the present moment, turning her head she found and old man wearing a white coat that seemed more like an item to protect the clothes below it than a proper coat, the strange clothes and the device that was connected to her own body make her panic for a moment as she found that she could not move her body. "Who are you? What are you doing to me?"
"Drosia Edian, please calm down. You are in Lukedonia and you are safe. That device is helping you to remove the substances in your blood that helped Tradio Ragus controlling you". She felt more panic after she heard that but forced herself to remain calm, anything else would not be of help to her.
"You were captured a few months ago by the leaders of House Du Lac and House Kertia and kept restrained until now that the traitor Tradio Ragus was send into the eternal sleep by the n.o.blesse". The old man released a sigh as he could see how much in took for her to remain calm as the panic was visible in her eyes.
"Lord Raizel sent Ragus into the eternal sleep?" Edian though trying to clear her mind. "What have I done? Please tell me". The old man looked at her for a moment and said. "I"m sorry I cannot answer that as I am not sure myself. You will meet the Lord when you condition is stable and at that time you may get the answers you need, it will not take long I a.s.sure you. Do you need something?" Edian looked lost and she muttered "I don"t know".
Raskreia was standing alone looking at the distance, she could hear the conversation that was taking place in the garden in front of her, but the image was so bizarre for her that she could not completely shake the idea that she was dreaming, but "why would I be dreaming with him?" she tought and blushed slightly. Watching Raizel in Korea had not caused that much of an impact to her as they both were out the familiar environment of Lukedonia, but this was the garden he never stepped before on his own initiative.
"I will tell you now about the blood field, you have no access to this ability now and it is unkown if you will have it one day but it may prove useful to you as you develop your own battle style using your blood energy control".
Vlad was seating on the gra.s.s memorizing every word, he was trying to keep distracting thoughts out of the way, thoughts like... "I think sir Raizel has spoken more today than he did in the past millenia combined".
"The blood field is the ultimate control of blood energy, is obtained either powered by a soul weapon or by taking your understanding of the blood energy to the point that it can affect the surrounding environment in a pa.s.sive way as you release your aura, giving you control over the affected area".
Raizel again gave him time to digest his words and hopefully find guidance on them. "The blood field applied to an area could serve as defense, to reduce the mobility of your enemies or even improve the fighting power of your allies, but these are the most pa.s.sive and energy conserving applications. The real power of the blood field is to condense that power into a smaller area and use it to attack your enemy, you may have seen the whirlpool of blood that I used to send Tradio Ragus to his eternal sleep".
Vlad had a moment of inspiration, he could not use the blood field now and perhaps he would never be able to use it, but he could take the reference provided and found a way to condense his blood energy into a laser style attack. The more condensed the energy the more penetration power it would have, he could work on that.
Edian was still restrained to the infirmary bed waiting as it was all she could do, she heard the door opening and a young woman with purple hair walked nervously into the room. She knew her, it was the daughter of a man she once thought a friend, the man who had betrayed her and forced her to the current situation.
"Drosia Edian, you might not remember me... my name is Tradio Claudia. I can not express with words how sorry I am for the pain that my father forced on you... I..." Claudia was interrupted abruptly by an empty voice.
"Did you a.s.sisted your father in what he did to me?" Claudia bitted her lips and shaked her head fighting the tears in her eyes. "If you did not a.s.sisted him, then you do not have anything to do with me or my situation. I do not have neither interest on you nor the time to help you deal with your problems. I need to organize my own memories, so please let me be".
Vlad was happy and had to many ideas on his mind, too many things to do. He already have a rough sketch of his new battle style, but it will take at best a few weeks of study and preparation. He was having a discussion with Rossaria on the application of s.p.a.ce runes.
"The point of the rotating rune arc is... imagine that you want to move this book from this point of the side of the table to the other, what the rotating rune arc does is take the book out of s.p.a.ce and then placed on the other side. If you instead created a portal, it will be like bending the table until those two point came into contact then move the book a little and unbend the table to its previous condition, this takes too much energy and its a more complicated process as you are forcefully connecting those two points through your blood energy". Vlad was trying to explain his idea but, s.p.a.ce was so exoteric to him that, it was difficult to use words to make sence and most of the time ended frustrated.
Rossaria however seemed to have understood his explanation this time. "So instead of creating a portal to a fixed point to use as a storage destination you want to develop a smaller rune arc that could take things from the storage point outside "our" s.p.a.ce and bring it back to "our" s.p.a.ce at the point where you are. But wouldn"t storing the item directly out of "our" s.p.a.ce will be less complicated? you could just use the rune arc to send things out of "our" s.p.a.ce and bring it back when you need them". Her eyes were shinning as Vlad smile started to grow.
"Well that would solve the issue of "inventory", I will test it while you test the model for your "blood energy battery" hopefully we would only need some small modifications." Said Rossaria.
"Thank you Rossaria, you are indeed a genius rune master... this would have taken me years." said Vlad as he made his way to sir Raziel, it was time to send them back to Korea and he would be able to see Seira... this last ten years seemed too long for him and he missed her.
A blood-rune-arc appeared on Frankenstein"s living room and after a revolution Raizel, Frankenstein and Vlad had arrived at Korea. "Sir Raizel, thank you for your help. I think I will be able to develop my own fighting style in the near future". Vlad said as he bowed with sincere respect to Raizel, who only nodded.
Suddenly Vlad realized that Muzaka had been seating on the living room looking at the exchange with an amused expression, but it only lasted for a moment as Muzaka suddenly felt as if he was being eyed as a prey by something and it realized that Frankenstein was looking at him smiling like a maniac. Muzaka found to his surprise that Frankenstein"s smile sent shivers through his spine.
Chapter 52: The Wheel of Fate
Vlad made his way leisurely as he approached the balcony, he smiled as he found Seira standing there as looking at the stars which were barely visible due to the light on the City. He then walked calmly to her as he knew she had already realized he was there.
"A man must travel half the world just to enjoy a moment of peace with his wife, how is this fair?" He said as he embraced her gently from behind, joining her stars study. She blushed as her calm voice barely reached him. "First, you teleported here. Second, I am not your wife".
He was silent for a moment before saying. "Details, who pays attention to those things. Tell me how had you been? Has there been anything interesting lately?" Seira took her time to answer. "I think I enjoy the life here... humans seem to go through life in a hurry ignoring many things that I think are important and caring too much for things that I don"t understand. It is confusing and fascinating at the same time."
Vlad took a moment to register those words and said. "They ignore thinks that are important. Like watching the stars at night? Enjoying the touch of the wind as you walk to school in the morning?" Seira smiled and say. "Yes, important things like that".
"So you want to take my life force and inject it to Raizel as if I was donating blood? That"s an interesting idea... are you sure it will work?" Muzake was looking warily at Frankenstein he had never enjoyed been looked by a man with "greed".
Frankenstein had managed to hide his maniac smile by now. "Yes, I"m studying the blood stone. It technically steal life force and transformed into power. I want to replicate the process to take life force from you and make a small transformation to adapt the life force to make it more compatible so my Master could a.s.similate it increasing his own life force. Of course, my Master will only accept it if the life force is donated willingly and in quant.i.ties that you can recover in a short time".
M-21 was patrolling, he had found that red-haired kid Shinwoo fighting a group of children. But he was not interested in that, he recognized a woman who was watching the fight from the top of a building, so he made his way there.
When he arrived, the red-haired woman was telling Yuri that she wanted to take Shinwoo with her and he agreed to her request. Thus M-21 decided that these two would be dying tonight. "What do you two think you are doing here? Leave now or I will kill you". Yuri and Aris were looking at him with pity. "Yuri, isn"t this one of the defective products? Why is he talking to us as if he wasn"t trash?" She did not wait for an answer and launched an energy attack at him while her clothes changed into a pink battle suit.
M-21 released his aura and transformed into a werewolf, the energy attack did nothing to him. He reaffirmed his decision since they had attacked him and they wanted to take Shinwoo, they would die. He moved at high-speed and appeared in front of the red-haired woman delivering a blow to her stomach and connecting a second blow to her face. She was on the ground and would be unable to stand for a while, at this moment Yuri attacked throwing a laser beam to his hearth.
Yuri was surprised he could not understand how M-21 had become so strong. He needed to scape and tell doctor Crombel, but he ended attacking out of instinct, trying to pierce his hearth, when he saw an opportunity and thought that bringing its corpse back would be a good contribution. But to his surprise the one who ended with a pierced hearth was him, M-21 was standing behind him and his left hand was piercing through his chest, then everything became darkness.
Aris could not believe what was happening, she had been beaten by a failed experimental product and that same failed experimental product had just killed Yuri. She went crazy with fear and denial as she released all her power trying to kill the monster in front of her. But just as Yuri, a moment ago, she saw her attack failing to hit M-21 and when she reacted, her hearth was already pierced from behind. Tears filled her eyes in disbelieve and denial, as darkness engulfed her forever.
She had no way of knowing that she was not supposed to die tonight, but the wheel of fate had deviated at an important juncture in the past. The wheel of fate had worked to fix the most important trails, but it seemed that she was not deemed of much importance, as the one who would had saved her tonight did not even know she existed...
"M-21 what happened" Tao"s voice sounded on his ear piece. "Aris and Yuri wanted to take Shinwoo with them and tried to kill me when I got in their way. They are both dead and Shinwoo never knew he was a target." Silence only lasted a moment as his ear piece activated again. "I will contact the boss to get further instructions, wait there it will not take long".
Vlad was seating in his garden while concentrating on his telepathic link with Sombra, he had returned last night after enjoyed a moment of calm with Seira, he was engraving the last rune for the "blood energy battery" within Sombra. With this set runes he would lose his "inventory" ability sacrificing comfort for power, the last rune was engraved and the whole array resonated announcing its completion.
Vlad decided to wait for a few hours before trying to store blood energy on it, he would store only 10% of his blood energy and observe for a full week how well the array worked. If there was no important issue he would start filling the battery slowly. But now what he need to do was to practice what he had learned from the n.o.blesse.
He had understood the principle of how to amply his mental powers (telepathy and telekinesis) with his blood energy but he needed to practice as his efficiency was low, his power was indeed amplified but he was wasting blood energy on the process. He tought that a week might be enough to meet an acceptable efficiency that would allow this new ability to be used on battle.
Chapter 53: Edian"s Decision
Edian walked slowly as she made her way to the Throne Hall, she was confused and uncertain. The daughter of the previous Lord was now the ruler of Lukedonia, she had trouble accepting that more than 600 years had pa.s.sed since she was enslaved by Tradio Lagus. She still remember her guilt about her previous mistake more than a millenia ago and how worried she was when sir Raizel had disappeared.
As she entered the hall she could see some familiar faces, both except for Gejutel and the new Lord, most of them were children the last time she meet them and the rest of them had not been born yet. She suddenly felt out of place, out of time... the world she knew was gone along with most of the people she knew.
She composed herself and tried to face her situation with a stoic front, she had been the leader of House Drosia for centuries after all. "Drosia Edian greet the Lord and the family leaders" she said as she bowed tradition required. The Lord appearance was the same as always, as it everything around her were boring and uninteresting to her. But today there was a hint of concern in her eyes, but not pity... Edian would not appreciate that.
"Drosia Edian welcome to Lukedonia, how are you feeling? Are you in total control of mind and body?" Edian responded with a calm and almost indifferent voice. "I will be fine".
After a moment of silence, Raskreia continue. "You had been under the control of Tradio Lagus for more that 600 years. The evidence gathered during the persecution and destruction of the traitors shows that you were not an accomplice to their betrayal against the n.o.blesse neither to Lukedonia. We also know that with the sliver of self control you had during that time you avoided killing others."
Edian was angry and sad, her friends had betrayed sir Raizel! They had hurt the people that they were supposed to protect. She forced herself to listen as the new Lord was speaking again.
"As you know, at my father"s time Lukedonia had 12 pureblood families, now including House Drosia, only 8 remains and a new one was born a few decades ago. I want to know your intentions. You can choose to enter the eternal sleep as the previous family leaders did or you can chose to stand with Lukedonia and help us face the times ahead. But if you decide to remain with us, I would require to read your memories as a precaution. You can take a few days to make your decision, you will stay with Rossaria during this time".
Vlad was seating on his garden again, next to a small fountain relaxing as the sound of the water reached his ears. He started injecting his blood energy to his now modified inventory while observing for any undesired effect. The flow of energy seemed to have no problem and apparently there was not leakage, he smiled as his hope for success grew. He would have to wait a few days to be sure, but everything seemed to be on the right track.
He stood and started walking in direction of Rossaria"s mansion, he wanted her help to check the rune array on his battery and perhaps there would be news of their storage skill experiment.
Muzaka was laying still on an infirmary bed while several needles pierced his body drawing life force slowly, the life force was being filtered by a not to complicated rune array, as Frankenstein explained that they were not transforming the life force just filtering it into a more compatible state for transfusion.
On another infirmary bed, next to his, Frankenstein was laying on a similar fashion as the needles injected the filtered life force into his body. While Tao was paying attention to the rune array and ready to interrupt the process at Frankenstein"s command.
Frankenstein was satisfied with the experiment that he was able to set up in a single day, it will require several modifications as his Master would not be pierced by needles. An uncomfortable feeling keep nagging in his mind since Muzaka had insisted on him explaining the rune array in detail until he had learned it, he had said that he did not trust humans as he had been used for centuries for their experiments, so Frankenstein could only comply to this demands.
When Vlad arrived at Rossaria"s mansion he was surprised to find her on her library drinking tea with Edian, still she was busy with many scrolls and books while Edian seemed lost in her own thoughts. "h.e.l.lo Rossaria, Lady Edian, I"m hope I am not interrupting... I did not have the opportunity to introduce myself before, I am Du Lac Alexandre Vlad pleasure to formally meet you".
Edian just nodded still in her own world, causing Vlad to smile as he said. "You are so much like sir Raizel, perhaps you would also enjoy attending to school with him". This caught Edian"s attention and blushed slightly. "You said sir Raizel is attending school?".
"Yes, in Korea. I think you could as well if you want... Seira and Regis also take cla.s.ses with him while Kairas, Rajak and Rael seem to enjoy working half time there as security enforcers. Anyway, you might like it."
Edian was lost in thought again, but unkown to her she had already made her decision, as she was imagining herself attending school along with sir Raizel as a gentle smile appeared on her face. Vlad noticed this and could not help but wonder how would Edian look wearing Yeran High School uniform or perhaps it would be a black suit as the one Seira used while joining the RK, well he would know soon enough.
Chapter 54: Yeran High School
The silence was so intense that it seemed as if n.o.body was breathing, the boys seemed hypnotized while the girls were slightly intimidated. The ogre-like man who was behind a podium facing the cla.s.sroom seemed to be considering if he should start looking for another school to teach as he was tired of dealing with strange people who have no respect for elders, an almost visible black aura was irradiating from his body as frustration filled his hearth.
But no one in the cla.s.sroom was paying attention to him, he faked a cough while resigning himself and said. "Once again we had an exchange student, she is a foreigner so remember that she doesn"t know our customs, be patient and help her if she needs it. Now introduce yourself."
The beautiful blond caucasian woman seemed to be in her own word as her eyes never left the person seating at the right corner at the end of the cla.s.sroom, so she responded without thinking making a slight bow and placing her hand over her hearth. "Drosia Edian". Silence followed as she say nothing more while her eyes never left that boy, black lines were visible on the ogre-like teacher as he sighed pretending that everything was normal and say. "Take a place and seat".
Edian moved calmly ignoring everything and everyone until she was standing in front of Raizel and bowed deeply while keeping her hand over her heart. "Sir Raizel, I"m happy to meet you again. I hope my presence here will not bother you". Raizel turned his face from the windows and looked at her calmly for a few seconds and then nodded causing her to blush and froze for a moment. She then took a seat next to him while he returned to his intensive study of the ground beyond the window.
Edian keep looking at him in a similar way as he keep looking beyond the window. The whole cla.s.s had watched the exchange not knowing how to react, the ogre-like teacher wanted to yell and demand them to stop disrupting his cla.s.s, but then again released a sigh and pretending that everything was normal.
At lunch time she followed Raizel to buy ramen while he instructed her on how she must wait for it to grow before eating it, causing Shinwoo and the others to sigh in frustration and Shinwoo decided that he needed to teach Rai that there were many wonders that surpa.s.sed ramen, like pizza... yes, he had to take him to eat pizza soon.
Seira decided to join in their waiting for the ramen to grow, somehow she liked this custom. Edian understood that sir Raizel liked this "ramen" that was so strange to her but she decided that she needed to learn everything there is about ramen as determination was shining through her eyes.
Within the dark and deserted Throne Hall a rithmic sound seemed to create a feeling of annoyance, Raskreia"s fingernails were gently hitting the stone armrest as she rested her head over her left hand wondering why she was so annoyed today. She had been happy when Edian decided to stay and join the n.o.blesse to learn about the current world that was so foreign to her, she had read her memories and knew that she took no part on the betrayal.
She had tried to respect her privacy as much as she could, but from time to time she had unwillingly looked at Raizel through her eyes. Why did she felt annoyed every time that happened? What was this "need" she felt to go to that school again? It was as if she would lost something, but she could not understand what. Her mood was growing restless.
Vlad was seating on a boulder at a desert while facing small rock mountain, he had digested most of what sir Raizel had taught him and found his own attack inspired by the blood field whirlpool. A pair of 4 meter long dark wings grew from his back as his eyes were covered by dark energy, he extended his right arm while pointing at the rock mountain with two fingers.
Black energy gathered at the tip of his fingers and started growing until a sphere of black energy with the size of human head was formed. He tried to reduce the size of the sphere but it started trembling and he understood that his current control did not allow to use less energy, he could not make the sphere smaller while keeping its density, so he waited until the sphere stabilized again before releasing the attack. A laser beam was created as the sphere made its way at incredible speed and penetrated the rock mountain in front of him, the small rock mountain was completely pierced and cracks were spreading from the newly created tunnel as residual energy, that had remained through the contact between the blood energy sphere and the rock mountain, spread. A moment later the small mountain collapsed.
Vlad felt that he had spent 25 percent of his blood energy in that single attack, so he could only used two times in battle, if he could reduce the diameter of the energy sphere to the size of a nickel while maintaining the density at the same level of his current attack he would be able to use it a hundred times and each one will have the same effect as the attack he had just released. At that point he might be able to release it at half the power without summoning Sombra.
He needed to work on his control urgently as the current "blood energy battery" design had not worked as well as expected. The energy had started leaking after a day, He was working with Rossaria on an improved design that would be ready for testing in two days.
But now it was time to go back, he had promised to join Seira in her stargazing tonight so he need to make a quick trip to Italy to buy a pizza from that place she had liked during her "coming of age ceremony" trip and a good bottle of wine could not be missing. He stood up and dusted himself as a blood-rune-arc started to rotate around him.
Chapter 55: Tattoo
On the ceiling of a tall building a couple was enjoying the cold night while gazing at the stars in a quiet comforting atmosphere. Vlad was holding Seira gently while resting his chin on her shoulder as they keep talking in low voices from time to time.
"I would have liked to see Edian learning about the wonders of ramen from sir Raizel, I think you are having all the fun to yourself". Vlad said smiling, he still could not picture Edian on a highschool uniform... the idea was just foreign to him.
"I think she care for sir Raizel to the point that she decided to remain with us just to accompany him for a while longer". Said Seira with a light smile as she worried for Raizel situation. Vlad noticed this and said. "Do not worry too much, I"m sure that Frankenstein would have already found a solution to sir Raizel problem, he should just be trying to reduce discomfort from the process. Perhaps Edian will accompany sir Raizel for a long time". He added the last part with a chuckle.
After a long silence, Seira asked with a barely audible voice. "Are you going to join the Lord on retaliation to the werewolf family?" Vlad increased the strength on his arms and said. "I think so, but I am not sure. I think that Karias will be called back now that Edian its here, Ludis will be sure to remain in Lukedonia while either Karias or Rossaria will join him. Perhaps the retaliation will be leaded by the Lord, while Kei, Rajak and myself join her". He sighed before continuing. "But at the end it is not our decision, we can only support her, but worry not your husband will come back and you will not become a widow". He added in a mischievous tone.
"I"m not your wife!" said Seira slightly annoyed.
Raskreia was holding Ragnarok with a cold and elegant stance and she suddenly charged while releasing a blood arc energy attack by waving her sword.
Ludis used his shield and took the brunt of the attack while Rossaria released ten blood laser beams simultaneously forcing Raskreia to release another blood arc to nullified all the laser beams, at that moment Kei appeared at her side releasing a powerful punch that projected blood energy in the form of a tiger head and Raskreia found that her body could not move as her body raised slightly from the floor and remained there floating, she directed her eyes at Vlad with annoyance as he was extending an arm in her direction while he amplified his telekinesis with blood energy forcing her to release the blood field and to place Ragnarok in front of her to receive Kei"s attack.
Dust raised from the ground after the impact but soon two blood arc made their way towards Kei and Vlad. Kei was forced to cross his arms and take the hit moving two meters back while leaving marks on the floor. Vlad again used telekinesis amplified by his blood energy to redirect the blood arc that ended destroying the ground by his side and moving pa.s.s him, he felt his energy draining from that move.
Raskreia suddenly jumped back avoiding blood tendrils protruding from the ground where she had been standing as Claudia joined the fray. Raskreia eyes became sharp as she released several blood arcs in quick succession targeting each of them.
Rossaria teleported to the air avoiding the attack, while Claudia was forced to rise several blood tendrils from the ground protecting her body but failing to nullify the attack and ended been thrown in to the distance with small wounds.
Ludis braced the attack with his shield again but this time choose to redirect it instead of just receiving it, while Kei released another powerful punch but failed to nullify the attack and ended in the same situation as Claudia.
Vlad on his part released his most powerful attack as he created a dark energy sphere in front of his two extended fingers and fired it creating a laser beam that pierced the blood arc and continued its way towards Raskreia, the energy sphere was slightly smaller than his previous attempt but was still far from reaching an acceptable level on consumption. Raskreia was surprised this time and used her sword to redirect the energy sphere that ended destroying the ground behind her while she was forced half a meter to the side by the impact.
Vlad was panting out of breath after that attack and accepted his defeat at the training session, he felt that his progress was notable but he could only release a couple of attacks at this level while keeping enough energy to power his mental skills. It seemed that Rossaria and Ludis were the ones with less damage or consumption. "That short range teleport ability is so d.a.m.n useful" thought Vlad enviously while trying to calm his breathing.
Frankenstein was working on a rune pattern on Muzaka"s right palm that would allow him to pa.s.s life force to a target with the same level of efficiency as the process that they had tried before. This was Muzaka"s idea saying that he disliked needles while causing some level of disregard from Frankenstein, who would have thought that an old monster like Muzaka would be afraid of needles... but he was growing suspicious now that he thought of Muzaka"s interest in learning the runes before and now wanting to apply a temporary rune tattoo on his palm.
"Surely he would not be that stupid" thought Frankenstein, but he suspected that he may be getting himself in trouble in the near future. But then again he was only helping his Master"s friend on putting things in order... "even the old family leaders went to they eternal sleep long ago, why should Muzaka, who was even older than most of them, be denied of the same privilege?". Frankenstein sighed and decided not to think about this issue anymore, he was more concerned with that woman Edian who wanted him to teach her how to prepare the best ramen. "How is it that this woman became so smart? I think Master would not be able to escape from her this time..."
Raizel was looking at the grounds through the window while enjoying the gentle wind entering the cla.s.sroom, he suddenly felt a shiver running through his spine and wonder what would be the cause this strange discomfort.
A young werewolf warrior was walking through one of the labs while wondering if abstaining from the body modifications was the right decision but soon stopped cold on his feet as he saw a woman unconscious within a gla.s.s container. "This woman was a traitor, but a werewolf warrior after all, how could she be here? Are they experimenting on her?"
He suddenly started wondering if the werewolf clan was still something he could feel proud about, he felt like all the thing he had learned while growing up had no meaning now. Was Lord Muzaka really a traitor? Was Garda, the woman that was being used as lab rat, should be treated like this for refusing accepting that Muzaka was a traitor? He felt sad and disappointed of his own family for the first time, but suddenly realized that the feeling had been there long ago he just had refused to acknowledge it.
Chapter 56: Control
Tomorrow a week would had happened since the training session with the Lord and a new one would be staged, Vlad had been mostly training on the desert to avoid damaging his mansion. Originally he had barely been able to reduce the amount of energy necessary to condense his dark energy sphere, but constant training had paid off. He realized that he was depending too much on his soul weapon even while training as gaining control over his powers was easier while wielding Sombra.
Now he avoided summoning his soul weapon for most of his training, controlling his dark energy sphere and his mental powers while amplifying them with his blood energy proved to be extremely difficult without Sombra, but after three days of frustration and hard work he managed to emulate the same level of control that he would had wielding his soul weapon. After reaching this level and summoning Sombra he found that his control had increased tremendously, he could reduce the size of the dark energy sphere to a third of the original while maintaining the density and damage of the attack.
It was also at this time that the new rune array design for his "blood energy battery" was completed and deemed functional, with only a small leakage that would feed Sombra making it stronger over a tremendously long time of course. By now his battery contained two times his total blood energy increasing the time he could fight at his peak by three times. But for the moment this was the maximum capacity of the "blood energy battery" and a new rune array was already been designed.
After another three days he managed to reduce the size of the dark energy sphere to half of the original without Sombra and after summoning his soul weapon the dark energy sphere was reduced to the size of a tennis ball, making it useable for battle even if it was still far from the coin size he was working towards to achieve.
On Frankenstein house the girls were yelling at Shinwoo for creating problems for their fellow cla.s.smates as a group of delinquents had attacked them while looking for him. But the conversation was interrupted by the nervous voice of Edian.
"Sir Raizel, please have a taste of this ramen. I practiced a whole week to make it right and I hope you will like it". Out of the imagination of everyone in the room, Raizel had a slight blush on his face as he walked to the table with visible expectation to try Edian"s ramen while all the kids were left with their mouths open trying not to laugh. "Who would spent a whole week practicing how to make ramen?" "But did you see how excited Rai is?"
On a dark room within the Union Headquarters, Crombel was looking at his monitors while thinking in annoyance. Aris and Yuri were dead, he had felt their telepathic link broke a week ago. He did not care much about Aris as he had already taken over her whole research, but Yuri had been a useful tool for a long time and this tool was destroyed because of his greed.
Yes, he had been greedy to kept Aris as an a.s.sistant allowing her to retain her personality to avoid damaging her genius intelligence. But it was that personality that took her to Korea and surely guide her to chose someone, she shouldn"t have touched, as a lab experimental material. Getting herself killed while taking Yuri on her destructive ride, if he had put more restrictions on her perhaps her intelligence would had been affected but she would had still been useful as a tool, but now his most trusted subordinate was dead.
This will complicate his plans as he would have to nurture another tool before he could continue with his expansion of power, perhaps he would lose the opportunity to gain anything from the near future war between n.o.bles and werewolves.
He was sure that the battle was near as he had reports of three werewolf warriors making their way to Korea, perhaps this would be the start and he was not ready. Frustration filled his hearth as he frowned while destroying the armrest with his grip.
Raskreia was standing calmly while holding Ragnarok on her hand ready to start their training session, the family leaders were facing her in formation. Ludis and Vlad were at the front, possibly to nullify her attacks or redirect them, Rossaria and Claudia stood a few steps behind them as they would be in charge of long distance attacks while been protected. Kei and Rajak, who had just returned, were at the sides of the formation as they would be the main attackers.
Raskreia kept paying attention to Vlad as she had felt annoyed by his telekinetic bind in the last sparring and was sure that she would have to repeat the experience while been attacked to create openings.
She suddenly released a giant blood arc energy attack as she swinged Ragnarok, Rajak disappeared just as Ludis used his shield to redirect her attack to the sky. Raskreia undestood that Rajak would not be attacking immediately as he would wait for Vlad to create an opening for Kei and at that moment Rossaria, Claudia and Rajak would join the fray, she smirked as if amused by the challenge.
But she felt surprised as the telekinetic attack came but she was not binded like last time, this time she felt that only her neck had been restricted and pulled her upwards while squeezing her throat. The notion of been dragged up by her neck while her breath was restricted was so foreign that she wasted time and energy on releasing her own telekinesis to fight the hold on her neck and to float to avoid the feeling of been pulled up only from her neck.
It was at this moment that both Rossaria and Claudia attacked with laser beams and blood tendrils directed at her arms and legs. She finally reacted and released her blood field reducing the restriction on her neck and blocking the incoming attacks, but found that the feeling of suffocation remained and understood that the annoying brat was focussing only on her neck to reduce the area of the attack while increasing the power and her own telekinetic powers were barely fighting back allowing her to breathe.
It was at this time that Kei attack arrived breaking her blood field and forcing her to block with her sword, but the effect was much worst than she had expected as she was pushed back by Kei while the d.a.m.n Vlad was refusing to let go of her neck keeping her in place and producing a few wounds as Kei"s blood energy invaded her body.
Even worst, it was at this time that Rajak had chosen to attack forcing Ragnarok to dance around her deflecting the multiple dagger attacks while gaining new wounds. Claudia and Rossaria joined the attack forcing her to stop fighting against the hold on her neck and use her whole will to release the blood field around her blocking all attacks and pushing Rajak back.
Raskreia was enraged now and she broke through her limits as blood whirlpools started to descent from the sky but when she fixed her burning eyes on the family leaders she saw something that made her even angrier, a giant blood-rune-arc was rotating around them all as Rossaria was taking them away to avoid the brunt of her anger. This counted as her victory, but she was not willing and she was tempted to scream in frustration for the first time in her life.