Chapter 226: Chapter 226 Bloodline Suppression_1
Vampires possessed exceptional night vision abilities, and even though the lighting in the room was very dim, the guest was still able to clearly see the appearance of the other party.
Pale, bloodless skin, dark red eyes...
"A fellow creature?" The guest furrowed his brow, "Is this gentleman trying to ’share a table’ with me for a meal?"
"Two against one? You play quite liberally, Your Excellency," Kael said with a laugh, gesturing with his hands, "But let’s not, shall we? The appetite of two, this woman might die."
He came to snatch the prey—after contemplating for a moment, the guest chose to yield, "If you’re hungry, sir, I’ll give you this prey as a favor."
He didn’t know when the other had appeared on the windowsill; he suspected that the other’s title wasn’t low and that he probably wouldn’t be an easy opponent to handle. Rashly initiating a conflict would not be a wise move.
"Ah, no need for that, I’ve given up human blood," Kael lifted his hand.
"Given up?" The guest was taken aback.
"This thing, this one." Kael slightly pulled down his collar to show off a circle of runes around his neck, "The present-day heretic adjudication organizations, they manage quite strictly. Every vampire registered has to wear one of these things, with this on, taking a sip of human blood could be painful enough to knock a person out."
The guest immediately recognized it as a special curse inscribed by the heretic adjudication organizations used to restrict the blood-sucking of vampires. Among vampires, this device was jokingly referred to as a "dog collar."
So he was just a third-rate character saddled with a "collar"—the guest breathed a sigh of relief and also began to look down on the other with some contempt.
Any vampire with a bit of ability wouldn’t choose to be under the control of the heretic adjudication organizations, and within vampire society, those who wore the "dog collars" voluntarily were generally at the very bottom of the contempt chain.
"If you can’t eat human blood, why would you come and disturb my meal?" The guest’s tone grew colder.
"As I said, Your Excellency, dining in this kind of place will cause trouble for others," Kael’s face remained smiling, seemingly unconcerned with the change in the other’s attitude.
"For whom? Her?" The guest glanced at the woman in his arms, whose expression was dazed, "Since when does a hunter need to consider the feelings of their prey?"
"I’m saying it will cause trouble for me. I have a registration with the heretic adjudication bureau, and since Your Excellency is feeding in this city, when the heretic adjudication bureau gets the case, they will definitely take me in for questioning," Kael spread his hands, "So I can’t just ignore this."
"This is none of your business." The guest had completely lost his patience, "Disappear quickly if you don’t want to die, you loser!"
"Your Excellency speaks quite boldly, what’s your title? May I have the honor of knowing?" Kael asked with a smile, spreading his hands.
"...Earl." The guest fell silent for a moment before answering in a lowered voice.
"Trash." Kael was still smiling.
The guest suddenly felt uneasy, the other’s attitude... was his lineage above the Earl’s, or was it just a bluff?
As he hesitated, the other suddenly came down from the window ledge and slowly walked towards him.
"Surrender peacefully..." Kael spread his arms open, "Or do I have to beat you into submission?"
Faced with such provocation, the guest could no longer hold back. He forcefully pushed the woman in front of him toward the other, while slicing open his own wrist with his fingertip.
The blood sprayed out and then transformed into a red dagger in the palm of his hand.
Kael took the woman and pushed her toward the bed, but she had already hurled a dagger at him, aimed directly at his heart, leaving him no opportunity to dodge—the dagger, accelerated by blood magic, was faster than an arrow shot from a strong bow, too fast to even capture an afterimage!
The blood-congealed dagger pierced through his clothes and into his chest effortlessly, and a cold smile appeared on the corner of the lips of the vampire Earl opposite him. Being stabbed in the heart was a extremely serious injury for a vampire, and if it had been a specially made weapon designed for vampires, that stab would have been fatal.
Kael’s eyes widened, and then he reached for the wound on his chest as if he couldn’t believe the result.
Just when the Earl was about to say something, his expression froze on his face the next second.
Because Kael actually reached his entire hand into the wound, as if there was nothing inside.
"Can’t find it, huh... my heart," Kael said with feigned surprise, widening his eyes, and then he pulled his hand back out from the hole. A wisp of grey mist wrapped around from behind him and coalesced on his hand, forming a... heart.
He immediately resumed a surprised expression, "Ah, here it is!"
"You, you are—" The vampire Earl’s eyes bulged.
"Surprised?" Kael smiled with a grin, "This is the vaporization ability only available to Dukes and above, it must be quite rare for you to see, right?"
Before the Earl had time to react, Kael suddenly squeezed his own heart, and bright red blood burst from the vessels on its surface, forming into a whip.
Kael swung the "blood whip" violently and lashed it at the vampire Earl’s neck.
The whip pierced the Earl’s neck as effortlessly as a heated dinner knife through butter, proving to be even sharper than a steel blade.
The Earl’s head thus fell to the floor, and at that moment, he realized that the opponent before him had a lineage status that he could never overcome.
The innate power of vampires was wholly determined by lineage status; this was a matter of overwhelming lineage superiority!
Luckily, for high-ranking vampires, decapitation was hardly a mortal issue. He realized he had to dissolve his body into bats and escape through the window, a transformation ability only available to those of Earl status and above!
"Don’t try to transform, your transformation isn’t as fast as mine, don’t force me to pierce through your heart," the other’s voice descended coldly, severing his last hope for escape.
The Earl struggled to turn his head, which was rolling on the ground, to look at his body and found that the other had turned the sharp whip into a blood-congealed bayonet, positioning it against the body’s chest, ready to pierce the heart at any moment.
"Stop! I surrender!" The Earl shouted loudly.
"I like those who know the right time to act," Kael said with a smile, "Of course, if you had known the right time to act a bit earlier, I would have liked you even more."
"Who are you exactly...?" The Earl asked with an awe-inspired voice.
"A prince," Kael made a scissor gesture with the corner of his eye that was wearing a monocle.
"Why would someone like you... bow to the rules of mortals?" The Earl could not understand at all.
"That’s none of your concern. All you need to understand is the real reason I am finding you," Kael said with a smile.
"The real reason?" The Earl was stunned.
"I know you are a Class B wanted criminal, Nos Feratu, and I also know you are a member of the Blood Moon Cult," Kael said slowly, "For the sake of your life, I hope you can answer me honestly... What exactly do the people of the Death’s Hand intend to do in this city?"
