Chapter 134: ¹³⁴The Last Blood

?"Tch. You talk too much," Ethan hissed flatly.

His dark brown eyes, now entirely engulfed in a glowing crimson, locked onto the Astrean ruler’s every move.

"That is your greatest weakness, King."

King Evander chuckled. His rich baritone laughter bounced sharply off the tower walls, slicing through the metallic stench of the night. Beneath the glow of the red full moon, the two monsters locked gazes.

Without a single signal, the death match erupted.

King Evander moved first. His friendly smile remained etched on his face, but his blue irises instantly flared into a deep, bloody red.

Hsssh!

Thick, foul-smelling red mist spewed from the King’s pores. It expanded in the air like a starving parasite before condensing into a dozen blood spears that silently cleaved through the air.

They had a single target: Ethan’s chest.

Ethan didn’t budge an inch. His right hand swung casually forward.

Velcrasia.

The deep-red whip, glowing with a heavy crimson hue, materialized out of thin air, pulsing like the awakened vein of a demon. Ethan flicked his wrist, letting the whip dance through the air with feral speed.

CRACK! CRACK! BOOM!

The tip of Velcrasia struck and shattered every single blood spear mid-flight. The collision between Sin Mana and ancient blood magic triggered a chain of explosions that thundered across Veylor Tower.

The remnants of Alaric’s ice crystals cracked and fell from the walls. The stained-glass windows were pulverized into fine dust.

From within the billowing smoke of the explosion, King Evander’s figure suddenly materialized right at Ethan’s right side. The middle-aged, handsome face looked as pale as a corpse under the moonlight, while the fingernails on his right hand had elongated into pitch-black talons as sharp as daggers.

The claws slashed wildly, aiming straight for Ethan’s throat.

With reflexes far surpassing human limits, Ethan ducked just by a hair. The razor-sharp wind from Evander’s claws severed a few strands of his dark brown hair.

Wasting no momentum, Ethan drove his left palm straight forward, aiming dead center at the King’s chest.

The Sin Mana gathered in his pores condensed into a dense, reddish-black orb of energy.

BAM!

The energy orb detonated at point-blank range.

King Evander was blasted backward. His alabaster boots gouged the ice-coated marble floor—producing a deafening screech before he finally managed to stabilize himself near the black stone altar.

His gold-embroidered navy robe was now charred and shredded at the chest, exposing skin as white as a cadaver.

King Evander stood motionless. He wiped a drop of blood from the corner of his lips with the back of his hand. Instead of flying into a rage, his serene smile grew even wider, baring a row of sharpened fangs.

"Hmm... A highly impressive strike, Ethan Valen," he praised. His voice carried a raspy, dual-layered echo—sounding absolutely nothing like the King of Astrea the world knew.

The King took a slow step, circling Ethan like a predator appraising its prey.

"But you should know, you are not facing Evander von Valois. That frail human died a long time ago... This body, this throne, they are merely theatrical props I’ve been using for years."

Ethan twirled Velcrasia in his hand, letting the tip of the whip sizzle and sear the marble floor. His crimson eyes stared straight ahead.

"A cheap act," Ethan hissed coldly. "You’re nothing but a bloodsucking parasite."

"Hah! A parasite?" The man chuckled softly. "I am Alucard. A Pureblood Noble of the Vampire Race. And what I’ve orchestrated upon this throne is no cheap act, boy. It is a masterpiece. I used human hands to squeeze human blood, gathering offerings for one absolute purpose..."

Alucard halted his steps, staring directly at the black stone altar that was now pulsing ever faster, absorbing Alaric’s blood pooled on the floor.

"To awaken my slumbering Queen," Alucard whispered in absolute reverence.

Ethan’s face remained as cold as permafrost. However, the Sin Mana in the air around him began to pulse densely, squeezing the tower’s atmosphere until it felt like a vacuum.

Alucard turned his gaze back to Ethan.

"Hmm... The Valen family..." Alucard muttered with a condescending sneer. "Your bloodline was always so peculiar. Years ago, your father became a minor thorn in my plan. He was far too stubborn of a human, rejecting my offer of subjugation and attempting to protect his border territory instead."

Ethan’s jaw clenched tight. The crimson glow in his chest throbbed wildly, responding to the dark fury he had harbored for so long.

"Hmm, I didn’t even know your family personally, Ethan. To my kind, you were nothing but pebbles on a highway," Alucard continued, spreading his arms wide. "But annoying pebbles must be kicked aside. I was the one who annihilated your family to ensure my plans in Astrea proceeded without a hitch."

Those blood-red eyes stared at Alucard without blinking. Ethan believed every single word that spilled from the vampire’s mouth. He was the true executioner who slaughtered his parents and robbed Elara of her childhood.

"You just gave me the best reason to expedite your death," Ethan stated lowly, his voice flowing like concentrated venom.

Ethan raised his right hand. Velcrasia snapped back into his grip, pulsing twice as powerfully as before.

Seeing the pure rage radiating from the young man’s body, Alucard broadened his smile. The blood from the altar behind him suddenly erupted into the air.

"Blood Moon Blessing!" Alucard roared.

The levitating blood solidified instantly, forming a colossal red storm that swirled around the altar and Alucard. Every droplet within the vortex sharpened like thousands of obsidian needles before shooting out in unison from every direction, homing in on Ethan.

An absolute attack designed to shred flesh down to the very bone.

Yet, Ethan had no intention of deflecting it.

Abyssal Stride.

In the fraction of a second before the thousands of blood needles could pierce his body, Ethan dissolved into shadows. He vanished completely, leaving the Blood Moon Blessing to strike empty air and pulverize the marble floor.

Alucard’s pupils dilated. His primal instincts screamed a lethal warning from behind!

Ethan emerged from the shadows directly at the vampire’s back. Without missing a beat, Velcrasia whipped out, coiling viciously around Alucard’s neck. The searing heat from the Sin Mana instantly scorched the vampire’s pale skin, triggering a loud sizzle and black smoke reeking of burnt flesh.

However, before Ethan could yank the whip to decapitate the false king, Alucard chanted his escape magic. His body melted into a swarm of red mist, slipping seamlessly out of Velcrasia’s grip, shooting away, and rematerializing near the shattered window.

Alucard gasped heavily, clutching his neck which now bore a black, ring-shaped burn mark.

"Hah... you’re... no ordinary human..." he hissed in disbelief.

Ethan stepped forward. His black shirt fluttered gently.

The young man didn’t reply. Two burning spots on his back erupted without a sound.

Azhyrael.

A pair of massive wings unfurled from Ethan’s back.

The first flap of the demonic wings unleashed a shockwave that swept all the dust and remaining glass shards out into the night sky.

Seeing those wings, the smile on Alucard’s face melted away entirely, replaced by pure terror.

"W-what exactly are you?!"

Ethan gave his enemy no time to process. He bolted with a speed that defied the laws of physics. To Alucard’s eyes, Ethan was nothing but a flash of red and black light tearing through space.

Velcrasia swung from the left and right simultaneously, forming an inescapable net of death. Alucard tried to retreat, intending to use the last of his blood mist to escape into the open air.

But Ethan was already there. He appeared precisely at the vampire’s retreat point, anticipating his movement with absolute calculation.

Alucard’s eyes widened to the extreme as he saw Ethan’s frigid face mere centimeters from his own.

Shrouded in pure Sin Mana, Ethan’s left hand shot straight forward—piercing cleanly through Alucard’s left chest as easily as tearing through wet paper.

Thwack.

Ethan’s fingers clamped around the vampire’s heart that had beaten for centuries. The reddish-black Sin Mana surged instantly, burning every immortal cell from the inside out.

Alucard froze. His body violently convulsed. The heart inside his chest crumbled into black ash under a single, crushing squeeze.

Ethan yanked his hand out ruthlessly, letting thick blood coat the floor.

Thud!

Alucard’s body immediately collapsed. His knees hit the icy marble heavily. Black blood violently spat from his chest and mouth.

Yet, fueled by the dregs of madness still lingering in his dying mind, the vampire slowly looked up at Ethan. That sickening smile crawled back onto his face.

"You... won tonight, Ethan Valen," Alucard whispered hoarsely.

He forced his eyes to glance toward the black altar, which was now throbbing with an extreme red luminescence.

"But you’re too late... The process... has already begun." Alucard coughed, spewing out more blood. "The blood of Astrea’s people has opened the gates. Nothing can stop it now. My Queen... will..."

CRACK!

The sentence was never finished.

Velcrasia whipped out in a single, brutal horizontal arc. Alucard’s head was severed from his neck with the sickening crunch of breaking bone. The head rolled across the icy floor and stopped not far from Ethan’s boots, the mad smile still etched eternally on its face. The headless body crumpled completely.

Moments after Alucard died, the blood from the vampire’s corpse was rapidly sucked out, levitating into the air before merging into the vortex of the black stone altar in the center of the room.

Ethan cast a brief glance at the colossal corpse of Alaric von Rosenberg, lying frozen in his white bear-pelt cloak. His jaw clamped shut. He realized that the northern knight’s sacrifice had been the key to unleashing this catastrophe, but he didn’t waste a single second on mourning.

The young man stepped past the altar, approaching the ruined edge of the tower.

The wings of Azhyrael on his back flapped softly, maintaining his balance as the bitterly cold night wind battered his face. Ethan’s crimson eyes stared far up into the sky above the Astrean Capital.

The night sky violently shuddered. The atmosphere itself was twisting. The red full moon above throbbed like a heart pumping blood across the entire continent. Dark clouds swirled, forming a colossal spiral vortex centered dead above Veylor Castle.

From within the eye of the vortex, a thick red glow slowly descended. Something with an aura far more ancient, dark, and lethal was dragging itself into the mortal realm.

Right at that moment, a familiar resonance vibrated at the base of Ethan’s skull.

But this time, there was no seductive teasing or condescending laughter. Asmodeus’s raspy voice sounded incredibly heavy and absolute.

"My Lord," the Demon of Sin whispered, his voice piercing Ethan’s mind like a warning straight from the bottom of hell. "This entity... it is absorbing the essence of the world’s curse. We are in no position to confront it right now. We must leave. Now."

Ethan didn’t move. His wings remained unfurled, his eyes locked onto the sky that was beginning to tear open with bloody light.

Gale-force winds began to rip away the remnants of the tower’s roof. Behind him, the black stone altar had fully fractured, preparing to hatch the promised apocalypse.

Ethan stood at the edge of the ruined tower, alone between the corpses of two rulers, staring down the apocalypse that had just been born.

"I know," Ethan replied curtly.