Chapter 156: ¹⁵⁶New Toy

?Hundreds of blood spears struck from all directions.

?Ethan didn’t take a single step back. He pulled his right arm back, and Velcrasia uncoiled from his grasp. The deep red whip pulsed like a freshly severed vein.

?Too many to count. So I won’t bother.

?He lashed out to the side.

?A single horizontal sweep. A wave of reddish-black Sin Mana cleaved through the air at chest height. The vanguard of spears shattered into splatters of blood. It sounded like heavy rain drumming against a tin roof.

?"Left!" Isolde shouted.

?"I see them."

?Isolde stomped her foot. A wall of black ice erupted on their left, right as the spears launched from the ruined tower slammed into it. The impact produced a teeth-grinding screech. The ice shuddered, but didn’t crack.

?From behind, Lilith spread her membranous wings wide. A sickly-sweet aroma permeated the air. The spears that slipped past the defenses suddenly veered off course, passing right through Ethan as if he were just a phantom, before embedding themselves into the ground behind him.

?Silence.

?The courtyard was littered with slanted spears, resembling a field of sharpened bamboo stakes.

?"Is that it?" Lilith muttered, half-joking. Her breathing was slightly ragged.

?"Don’t celebrate just yet," Isolde replied. "That was just his greeting."

?Ethan remained silent. He kept his eyes on the tip of a spear lodged near his boot. It began to melt, dripping slowly into the cracks of the cobblestones like ice under the sun.

?Anies tilted his head. His brows furrowed in confusion, looking like a kid whose cake had just been snatched away.

?"Huh?" he blurted out. "Why didn’t they hit you?"

?He lowered his hand. The remaining spears evaporated into a red mist, then flowed downward and vanished into the gaps of the courtyard stones.

?Ethan watched closely. It was fleeting, but he caught it.

?The blood is returning to the earth.

?Anies looked at them one by one. Ethan, then Isolde, then Lilith. He pouted.

?Then, he vanished.

?No. He was just too fast. The ground cracked where he stood, and a split second later, he was right in front of Ethan, his tiny hand raised to face level.

?A wall of black ice instantly jutted up between them.

?CRASH.

?Anies rammed his shoulder into the ice. The surface splintered into a spiderweb of cracks, but it held. The boy staggered back a step, rubbed his nose, and glared.

?"Ow. Who did..." His eyes shifted to Isolde. "Oh. You."

?"Go play somewhere else, kid," Isolde said coldly.

?"But I wanna play with him!" Anies pointed angrily at Ethan. "You, move!"

?Isolde didn’t budge.

?Anies huffed, then dashed straight at Isolde. But this time, Lilith was faster. She flicked a black fingernail, and the world around Anies warped.

?The stone courtyard vanished. Suddenly, Anies was standing in a vast, green meadow under a clear blue sky, with a gentle breeze blowing. He skidded to a halt and spun around, utterly bewildered.

?"Ugh. What’s this?"

?"A little gift," Lilith said with a sickly sweet smile. "Do you like it?"

?"No!"

?Anies stomped his foot hard. The meadow shattered like glass, pulling him back to the grim courtyard. He breathed heavily in annoyance, his small fangs bared.

?"You guys are cheating."

?"You’re the one who brought hundreds of spears to a fight," Lilith shot back breezily.

?"That’s different!"

?"How is it different?"

?"It just is!"

?Isolde let out a short, stifled breath. It almost sounded like a laugh, but she quickly masked it with a cough. He really is a kid, she thought. A kid who just wiped out an entire city.

?Ethan remained standing behind them, silent.

?That’s enough. Time to take a look.

?Ethan’s eyes shifted. A crimson glow ignited within his dark brown irises. The Eye of Desire opened.

?His vision changed. Fine red lines drifted through the air, mapping out the flow of mana. Isolde glowed a pale blue—neat and dense. Lilith radiated a pinkish hue—wilder, yet perfectly controlled.

?Anies’ aura was much darker than both of them combined.

?Pitch-black. Churning. Highly unstable.

?Ethan read the details one by one. Early SS-Rank, slightly below his own level. Massive, but crude power. His mood fluctuated wildly; he was easily bored and deeply impatient. He only had one battle pattern: play around first, and only get serious when forced.

?And then there’s that.

?Thin crimson lines streamed from the cracked stones beneath Anies’ bare feet, creeping up his body like roots. The blood staining the courtyard wasn’t just a puddle. It was his reservoir. As long as there was blood seeping into the ground, his spear supply was practically infinite.

?The soil beneath us must be soaked in it. No wonder he’s so relaxed.

?He waited a beat. Usually, at times like this, a sarcastic voice would echo in his head, making some snide remark about his stupidity or brilliance.

?Nothing.

?Asmodeus was still dead silent, just as he had been since that night in Elara’s room. Ethan clenched his jaw and forced himself to refocus. He didn’t have the luxury to worry about that right now.

?If I go all out now, I’ll burn out halfway through. He’s absorbing blood from the entire courtyard. I need to know exactly how far his range goes.

?And the only way to find out was to let Anies drain it all.

?He’s selfish and gets bored easily. If I attack now, he’ll just absorb more blood and laugh it off. But if he’s forced to fight them by himself, he’ll blow through his reserves.

?It was a cold, calculating gambit. Ethan knew that. He didn’t even try to deny it.

?Ethan exhaled softly.

?"Isolde. Lilith."

?Both of them glanced slightly over their shoulders, keeping their eyes locked on Anies.

?"Hold him off for a bit. Don’t push too far forward. And don’t use all your strength."

?"What are you planning?" Isolde asked, her tone suspicious.

?"Just watching him."

?"Just watching?"

?"Just watching," Ethan replied flatly. "Trust me for a second."

?Isolde clicked her tongue, but nodded. Lilith cast him a sidelong glance, a faint smile playing on her lips. "Don’t take too long, Master."

?Anies tried to lunge at Ethan again.

?Behind a collapsed pillar, Caelum held his breath.

?He wasn’t a fighter. He barely understood half the things happening in that courtyard. But he could recognize patterns—it was the one useful thing his royal education had actually taught him.

?He’s incredibly fast. But he always attacks in a straight line. He gets bored quickly; every time an attack fails, he switches targets.

?Anies attacked Isolde. Blocked. Attacked Lilith. Evaded. Glared back at Ethan. Scoffed.

?He can’t focus on multiple things at once.

?And right on cue, Anies locked all his attention onto Ethan once more. It was as if the boy had completely forgotten anyone else was in the courtyard.

?Now or never.

?Caelum turned around. He slipped away along the half-crumbled outer wall, staying low, carefully stepping over the rubble. High above him, in an upper window missing its glass, a pair of red eyes briefly flicked in his direction.

?Only for a fleeting moment. Then they returned to the courtyard.

?Nobody stopped him. And that was exactly what sent a chill down his spine.

?He kept moving.

?The corridors inside the castle were pitch-black and reeked of iron. The floor was slick with something he desperately didn’t want to think about. Deep claw marks gouged the stone walls all the way to the ceiling, and in one corner, a half-burnt ragdoll lay abandoned, its button eyes staring blankly.

?Caelum paused. His black leather-gloved right hand touched the stone wall, tracing it as if trying to recall a memory.

?The west wing. The grand library is in the west wing, past the portrait gallery.

?He used to know these halls with his eyes closed. Now, they were practically unrecognizable.

?He swallowed hard, adjusted his dirt-stained gray coat, and pressed on.

?Anies was growing increasingly frustrated. His movements were getting faster.

?"Move!" he shrieked. "Move! Get out of the way!"

?Isolde conjured five layered walls of ice. Her expression was strained. Cold sweat trickled down her temples—it was the first time Ethan had ever seen her look so pressured.

?"Lilith, now!"

?Lilith darted in from the flank, her sharp black nails glinting. She cast three illusions simultaneously: one Lilith on the left, one on the right, and one directly above Anies. Anies looked left. Then right. He scowled.

?"Too many," he grumbled. "Which one’s the real one?"

?Then he violently clapped his hands together, and all three illusions shattered into dust.

?"I’ll just smash them all."

?He punched the first wall, and the ice exploded. The second shattered. Then the third. The fourth. The fifth one cracked, the fissures spreading wildly before Anies burst straight through it, laughing maniacally.

?He slammed his tiny palm right into Isolde’s chest.

?Isolde was sent hurtling backward. Her body crashed into a stone pillar, and the remnants of her ice walls blew apart in a shower of frost.

?"Isolde!"

?Lilith retaliated with a tidal wave of lust. A blinding pink aura surged from her core. Anies staggered for a second, his red eye going glassy, but then he stomped his foot down with terrifying force.

?A shockwave of pure, suffocating pressure swept across the entire courtyard.

?Lilith collapsed to the ground. Her membranous wings were torn at the base. She tried to push herself up, managing to get on her knees, before tipping over onto her side, unmoving.

?Ethan clenched his fists.

?He knew this was going to happen. It was part of the plan. But anticipating it and watching it unfold were two completely different things. It felt like an icy hand was squeezing his gut.

?Then he felt it. Isolde and Lilith’s Lust Brands pulsed faintly in his mind—weak, but steady. Alive. They were just unconscious.

?Good.

?He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through his nose.

?Anies stood in the center of the ruins, breathing heavily. His pitch-black hair was a mess. His pale cheeks were flushed. He looked thrilled, yet incredibly annoyed.

?Then, he turned around.

?"There," Anies said. His voice was still squeaky, but there was a dark, new undertone to it. "Now nobody’s holding me back."

?He took slow, deliberate steps toward Ethan, his bare feet leaving bloody footprints on the stones.

?The stench of blood thickened. All around the courtyard, the red pools seeping through the cracks slithered closer, crawling toward Anies’ feet like obedient pets.

?"You were just standing there earlier. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?" He grinned maliciously. "You did it on purpose, didn’t you? Let them get tired out first. You’re pretty mean."

?"I get that a lot," Ethan replied in a deadpan tone.

?He cast a brief sideways glance at the unconscious Isolde and Lilith. Then to the rubble where Caelum had been standing. Empty. The prince had successfully slipped away behind the ruins.

?Perfect. That’s one thing out of the way.

?Ethan shifted his unyielding gaze back to Anies.

?He raised his right arm. Velcrasia shot forth from his grip, cutting through the air in a long, shrieking arc aiming straight for the boy’s chest.

?Anies smiled. He didn’t even try to dodge. The whip tore right through his shoulder, cleaving flesh all the way to the bone.

?But the blood from the cracks instantly snaked up like thorny vines, mending the wound in a flash. In the span of a single breath, his shoulder was completely whole again.

?"That tickles," Anies taunted. "Try again."

?Ethan didn’t step back.

?He stepped forward. One step. Two steps.

?Velcrasia pulsed in his hand, coiling back into his grip like a starving beast.

?His glowing crimson eyes never left the vampire boy.

?"You know," Anies said, tilting his head with morbid curiosity, "you don’t look scared at all."

?"Should I be?"

?"Usually, yeah. They usually cry first." Anies looked slightly disappointed. "But it’s okay. You’re a lot more fun when you aren’t crying."

?The corner of Ethan’s mouth twitched upward into something resembling a smirk.

?"Finally," he said quietly. "I’ve been waiting a long time for this."