Chapter 928: The Vampire’s Folly
Arthur was pissed off.
Which was only natural, considering his soul had just been invaded and his memories read by another being.
If his soul hadn’t been strengthened to its current level after the battle against Valkalonex in Valmone, he doubted he’d have been able to drag Lithy’s consciousness into his Soul Realm and force her spiritual body to manifest.
Even then, he’d only managed to inflict a small percentage of soul damage on her before she broke free.
Sure, he’d knocked her to the ground and threatened her with Lostvayne, but if it had truly come to a fight, the outcome wouldn’t have been in his favour.
Not just because of the power gap between him and Lithy, but because of the location.
One Aspect Activation had already drawn thousands of Deities’ attention, along with a few Candidates. Who knew what would have happened if he’d gone further? He hadn’t forgotten that he was threatening a dragon, on a dragon-ruled planet, in the capital galaxy of a dragon-ruled universe.
That was why he’d looked up to let the Memoria Dragon know he’d sensed him, and then changed locations.
Thankfully, Lithy was someone the Memoria Dragon valued, so even if Arthur still couldn’t kill her using Extreme Nothingness at point-blank range, the soul damage she’d sustain from his Unique Authority combined with Lostvayne’s Weapon Authority would be significant enough to be impossible to ignore, which is why Frago had to step in and stop him.
"Tsk... this is irritating."
What was supposed to be his free day had turned into this, and Arthur was far from satisfied with this result.
He glanced around at the crowd gathered near the entrance of the pyramid dungeon he had just left and saw a long line of people waiting to enter it, eager to challenge the floors and reach the treasure room at the top, overflowing with jewels, weapons, and artifacts.
Dragon guards manned the entrances, though Arthur barely spared them a glance before turning his attention toward the exit of the massive estate.
’I’ll just return to Chazat, enter Barda’s Training pocket universe, and stay there.’
He had just made the decision and was about to raise his hand to input the coordinates for Chazat, located in another galaxy, into the Cosmic Teleporter, when a strong stench of blood suddenly filled his nose.
It was immediately followed by a burst of cosmic energy from the direction of the pyramid, accompanied by shockwaves that pushed Arthur’s body back a step.
’What the hell?’
Arthur raised the hand he had been using to operate the Cosmic Teleporter to cover his nose, pivoting toward the source of the energy while expanding his spatial perception.
The moment he did, cracks split the ground, and blood gushed up like geysers, shooting into the air and raining down onto the earth.
At the pyramid’s entrance, the blood erupting from the fissures swirled upward like a tornado, tearing apart the bodies of the dragons who had been guarding the dungeon’s entrance.
Arthur’s spatial perception expanded over the entire estate containing the pyramid, and there, at the centre of the blood tornado, he spotted the origin of the commotion.
’A Vampire?’
The 3D image generated in his mind by his spatial perception revealed a pale-skinned man with crimson slit-pupiled eyes and dull grey hair, dressed as if he were some kind of noble, his white shirt stained with the blood of the person whose neck his fangs were sinking into.
He was a typical vampire.
’And an Elder Breed at that.’
The Vampire tossed the drained body to the ground, cackling loudly as he licked the blood from his lips before shouting.
[The treasures of this dungeon are about to come into my possession! Who gave you all the audacity to try and claim them, huh??!!]
In an instant, he closed the distance and grabbed another dragon guard who attacked him by the neck, slamming them into the pool of blood at his feet, then generated chains of blood that wrapped around the ankles of the others who tried to attack him and dragged them into the expanding pool of viscous crimson liquid.
Arthur rolled his eyes and looked away, already certain that those dragged into the blood were finished.
Part of why he had left Draco Sirus earlier was to avoid whatever vampires were doing in this universe after being attacked by the clone of an Ancient-Breed, and he still intended to steer clear of them.
But just as Arthur decided to ignore the commotion and head back to Chazat as he had planned, his eyebrow rose, and he immediately turned, extending his right hand and activating his Anti-Divine Gravity Authority.
A second later, a flash of crimson light descended on his position with a nuclear-level explosion, bright crimson clouds of smoke and dust rising into the sky as shockwaves rippled out for dozens of miles.
A powerful waveof energy blew away the wind and debris, revealing the ground zero of the blast, which was completely unscathed, unlike everything around it that had been blown to bits, aside from the pyramid itself.
Piercing down from above was a spear of blood, struggling to advance as it was repelled by the invisible barrier of gravity between it and Arthur, who stood with his right hand raised, eyes locked on the one standing on the blood spear’s tail.
"You...you were spying on me earlier, weren’t you?!"
The vampire Arthur had just observed across space, now on the spear’s tail, shouted at him, his face contorted with rage.
’To think he noticed me... He’s sharp.’
Arthur couldn’t help but feel genuine admiration for this Elder Vampire who had noticed him after only a momentary focus while he scanned the area to generate the 3D image in his mind.
This Elder Vampire was perceptive enough to not only notice that Arthur had scanned him, but had also pinpointed Arthur’s location and launched an attack in less than 5 seconds.
Arthur clenched his fist, and the gravity acting on the spear intensified by several levels, causing cracks to spread along the sides of the hardened blood spear until it shattered into fragments that crumbled onto the broken floor.
The Vampire jumped away before it fully collapsed, landing a few metres away with a clearly annoyed expression.
He immediately attempted to manipulate the hardened blood fragments, but the moment he exerted control over them, he found himself unable to lift or liquefy them due to the immense weight keeping them pressed against the ground.
’This is...gravity??’
Just as the vampire had that thought, Arthur’s voice echoed in his ears.
"You made such a commotion and then get annoyed because someone looked at you?"
His tone was incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe the absurdity of what he was hearing. Rolling his eyes, he began conjuring a spatial gate to leave as he spoke.
"Oh well, I care not what you’re up to anyway. Carry on."
But just before he could step into the gate, a spear of blood erupted from the ground around the vampire and shot towards him. However, it never reached its target, blocked by the gravity shield generated by his still-active Gravity Authority.
"Who gave you permission to leave my sight?"
The vampire’s condescending voice reached Arthur’s ears, and he slowly turned around, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Twice. You’ve attacked me twice now," he said. "Out of respect for the Ancient Vampires present, I decided not to get involved in whatever it is you’re doing in this universe. But..."
An immense force bore down on the vampire’s body, bringing him down to his knees faster than he could react, and if he hadn’t placed his hands on the floor in time, he would have fallen face-first onto the ground.
The gravitational force acting on him distorted the surrounding space, its pressure crumbling the already cracked earth around them, and even when the vampire tried to activate his Authorities, the force didn’t reduce, but instead intensified.
Arthur was exerting a precise level of control over gravity, hitting the vampire with enough force to immobilise him, while carefully applying a counterforce upward that kept him from sinking straight toward the planet’s core.
Cosmic energy flowed into Arthur’s tongue as he spoke, finishing his earlier statement in his True Voice.
|...that doesn’t mean I would tolerate any attacks on my person.|
Arthur took a deep breath after speaking, controlling himself so he didn’t unleash his anger from the earlier situation on this vampire, especially since he could now sense far more gazes than before.
’Why the hell aren’t the dragons doing anything anyway? This guy just killed several people who were likely participants during their festival dungeon hunt or whatever? Or is that allowed?’
He didn’t dwell on the question as he turned toward his open spatial gate and stepped into it.
But just as half his body disappeared beyond the swirling portal, a chain of blood erupted from the ground and wrapped around Arthur’s hand, yanking him out of the gate with enough force that he nearly fell on his back.
Then the grey-haired vampire, staggering to his feet, unleashed a powerful burst of cosmic energy infused with an Authority that pushed against Arthur’s Gravitational Authority dominating the surrounding space as he shouted.
|I said... did I give you...permission...to leave?!|
The vampire’s body erupted with blood-red energy, his Unique Authority over Blood activating, along with a crest hovering at the back of his head.
Arthur ignored all the display, glancing down at the chain of blood still wrapped around his arm, and then he sighed.
"Fuck it."
Arthur’s restraint broke in the same instant his destruction energy snapped the chain, and just as the vampire opened his mouth to speak again, Arthur’s fist collided with his face.
