Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 127: Suspicious Vampire

Opening his eyes, Adrian found himself in a...

’...A cave?’

The structure in front of him appeared to be a dark cave illuminated by a campfire. His body lay on the hard surface of the ground.

He tried moving his body, but it was completely unresponsive. Even barely turning his head was an extremely hard task.

’Why am I...?’

Setting aside how he was in‌ good enough condition to wake up, he should be in the middle of a charred crater, not in a cave. Someone must’ve brought him to this cave while he was unconscious.

’But who?’

Evangeline’s face suddenly flashed through his mind. Making him pause.

Maybe she had returned with help, and they had put him in this cave temporarily after finding him in a near-death state and healing him. That was the most likely explanation.

But as he was lost in thought...

"So you’re awake now, huh?"

The unfamiliar voice of a young man entered his ears, pulling him out of his thoughts and making him alert. Turning his head after an intense struggle, he saw someone standing near the entrance of the cave.

It was a young man with pale skin and sharp facial features, standing still with a polite smile on his face. He had white hair that reached his shoulders and wore ‌a dark attire similar to marginal noble clothing.

But the most distinct feature of the young man was his glowing crimson eyes.

Behind him, the sky outside was completely dark, signaling that it was currently the middle of the night. And that darkness enhanced the crimson glow of the young man’s eyes.

He looked at Adrian curiously for a bit and then spoke in a gentle tone.

"Child, I know you are confused right now, but you—"

But before he could finish, Adrian channeled his mana towards his face. He quickly opened his mouth, and a dark, starlit ball materialized in front of it. Adrian launched Space Implosion straight towards the young man.

It was the smartest decision he could make. After all, even though the young man looked like a harmless human, Adrian could easily tell that he was actually a monster.

A Vampire.

"Woah, woah, chill out."

The young man was quick to dodge, causing his attack to fail.

"Ugh-! Cough-!"

And moments later, Adrian suddenly began coughing up blood and experienced an intense pain throughout his entire body. He would be screaming right now due to the pain if not for Immutable numbing the pain’s effect on his mind.

The young man hurriedly came closer and placed his hands on Adrian’s body.

He clicked his tongue and grumbled.

"Are you some wild animal? Can’t you stay still?"

Moments later, mana began gathering below his palm. It turned into a dull grey energy that enveloped his entire body. Adrian didn’t know what this monster was trying to do to him, but he couldn’t even struggle since his body wasn’t responding to him at all.

But slowly, the pain began to recede until it turned to the same intensity as before.

’...Uh?’

The vampire was covered in sweat by now and visibly panting. He looked spent even though he didn’t seem to have done much. But even Adrian could understand the current situation, even though it seemed absurd.

The vampire was healing him.

After a while, the dull grey energy faded, and the vampire removed his hands, panting heavily.

"Huff... Huff..."

As his breathing slowly returned to normal, he turned his glowing crimson eyes to Adrian and asked in an exhausted tone.

"Are you going to try something again, or will you listen to me first?"

Adrian remained silent, staring at the vampire without any reaction. He would’ve attacked the creature instantly or would’ve made a run for it if not for his current state. Right now, he was helpless and completely at this monster’s mercy.

Maybe taking his silence itself as an answer, the vampire began speaking.

"As you can guess from your current circumstances, I am the one who saved you from that explosion. I am also the one who treated those horrible cracks that were covering your entire body."

"..."

"Sadly, your body’s current state is still horrible, and you will die within a day unless you receive the correct treatment. Now, do you have any questions?"

Adrian narrowed his eyes and asked in a sharp tone.

"I do. I remembered my vision being blinded by the light of the explosion, which meant you would only have a second at most to save me and bring me out of the range of the explosion. That can only be possible if you can teleport."

The vampire nodded.

"Indeed, you guessed correctly; I can teleport, and that is exactly how I was able to save you."

But Adrian narrowed his eyes even further.

Disregarding how rare the space element was, it was clear from his presence that he was only a Phase One or Phase Two. There was no way he would have enough mana to use any form of teleportation spell.

Perhaps understanding the reason behind Adrian’s reaction, the vampire hurriedly added.

"I can’t use teleportation spells. It is my Origin ability that allows me to teleport. I can place an imprint somewhere, and I can teleport there no matter how far away I am."

’So it’s that ability.’

Having memorized the entire compendium, Adrian could instantly remember an Origin ability that had such a function. It didn’t have a cost, and the user could teleport along with things he was in physical contact with.

The vampire continued.

"Anyway, as I was saying, you will die within a day if you don’t receive the correct treatment. And I just so happen to be someone who can provide you with the necessary treatment. That is because I possess the affinity for the rare Time element."

Adrian frowned.

"What does the time element have to do with you being capable of treatment?"

Adrian had never given the time element much attention since it was even rarer than the space element in the current era, and he was unlikely to encounter someone possessing time affinity. This was why he knew almost nothing about the time element.

Still, it sounded strange that it was suddenly mentioned in the conversation.

The vampire, meanwhile, gave him a strange look. His expression practically screaming, ’you don’t know?’

After a moment of awkward silence, the vampire opened his mouth.

"You seemed pretty strong for your age, child, but it seems you are rather ignorant about things. Did your kin not tell you, or are you some kind of hermit?"

"..."

"Anyway, the time element is the only known way to heal others aside from certain Origin abilities. You turn back the time of their body to before they got hurt or fell sick, thus curing them completely."

Hearing that, a conversation he once had with Alisardarc suddenly flashed through his mind. Back then, Alisardarc had mentioned that the time element would be just as useless as the space element if not for the single redeeming quality that it has.

’So that single redeeming quality is that... it can be used for healing?’

The vampire cleared his throat to get Adrian’s attention and smiled politely.

"Now that that’s out of the way, how about we talk about the matter at hand? All I want to say is... let’s make a deal, one where we both benefit from each other and get what we want."