Chapter 253: Calm Before The Storm

Walking up to Peter’s door, Cia knocked on it and awaited a response.

Under her sleeve was a vial of translucent orange liquid with flakes of red. It was made using the cooking utensils in her dorm room kitchen, which they furnished quite well at military base 1 for some odd reason.

’Since the plan is tomorrow, it’s better if I use the crimson veritas fruit on him today,’ Cia thought.

However, after a few minutes, no one came to the door. She knocked again, but there was no response.

’Is he out with someone?’ Cia glanced around to see if he was nearby, ’I thought I separated him enough from his friends... That’ll mean I need to push even harder tomorrow.’

She didn’t like the idea of pushing this back even further, but she wasn’t going to wait around his door like a creep. Instead, she left the vicinity.

’I wanted to say goodbye to you in better circumstances... but Pure comes first.’

—

Peter and Fex managed to push through the crowd a bit more, and saw a beautiful blonde woman constantly punching and kicking the contraption as it moved. The way she moved, and how fast she did it, seemed impossibly fast, even for Fex.

"How is she this good at Block Block?" They heard a guy next to them say.

"Is that what this game is called?" Fex said, "Surely they could’ve given it a better name."

"Forget the name!" The guy spat out, "That woman just made it to level 7! LEVEL 7!?"

"What’s special about level 7?" Peter asked.

"This game’s max level is 8!" The guy cried, "Most people only make it to level 3, 4 if they’re good!"

They continued to watch the woman, her smile wide as she kicked the poles of the machine before they even moved. It looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Hey, is she a...?" Peter asked in a lower voice.

"No," Fex answered, "She doesn’t smell like it, and that’s scaring me."

Peter’s head twisted to Fex, "She’s not like you ? But— How is she so fast?"

"I don’t know, but she reminds me of Vorden in a way," Fex said, "Aside from the blonde hair, he does share her unnaturally fast speed, despite them both being human."

That made them wonder if the two were related, and if someone like Fex was even capable of beating this woman.

’If the two of us ever end up in a fight, I think I’ll end up as a bloody paste on the wall,’ Fex gulped, ’It might be a different story if my sister fought her, but she’s a vampire knight. A human shouldn’t be able to compare to a vampire knight!’

—

Further away from the crowd, Pai looked down upon Vorden. A thick tension in the air.

When it came to the Blades, they all had a set of very common genes amongst them, blondness being the most noticeable, but height was a big one too. As a result, Vorden was 6’2", but Pai, and by extension, Vicky, were also quite tall, even taller than Vorden.

"I’m taking you back to grandfather," Pai said, then reached out to grab Vorden’s shoulder.

"Wait!" Vorden blurted out, "I can’t go yet—"

"Why not?" Pai interupted, "You of all people should know that you can’t escape him forever."

Vorden nervously scratched at one of his arm scars, and gulped, "I’m aware, but you... You can’t make me go back."

Raten inside of the mind froze hearing those words. Sil similarly writhed.

"Are you crazy!?" Raten shouted, "I know that this is the most Sil has acted like his old self, but you can’t possibly think—"

"I thought you said it yourself you didn’t want to go back there!" Vorden shouted in the mindscape.

"That was before all of this!" Raten shouted back, gesturing to the outside world.

Vorden outwardly shook his head and muttered, "Stop it. I know, I know!"

Pai had a feeling about what was going on with Vorden. There was some sort of argument, which Pai found he couldn’t blame them for having.

"How about we make a deal—" Vorden managed to get out, shaking his head, "You can take me back... under one condition."

Pai crossed his arms, waiting for the answer.

Vorden took in a deep breath, "You let me go until the inter-base tournament ends at the end of the week."

Pai glared at him, "Are you trying to make grandfather angry?"

Vorden shook his head, "No, I mean it. All I want to do is help out a friend. When that’s over I’ll do whatever he wants."

Pai stared at Vorden, which made sweat form on the back of his neck. He sighed, and looked over at his sister.

"... Fine, I’ll tell Vicky not to tell the others about you, but no promises."

’Wait, others?’ Vorden mentally repeated.

"What do you mean by others?" Vorden asked.

"So you haven’t seen them?" Pai glanced around, "It’s not just us two, but mother and father."

That made Vorden’s heart drop. Did grandfather really put in all of this effort to find him?

"Of course he would," Raten fumed, "Why wouldn’t he? We can’t have anything to ourselves."

Deep inside of their mind, Sil stirred, and tears fell from his eyes. Vorden worried he might try to take over, so had to finish the conversation fast.

"Thanks for the warning," Vorden muttered, and walked away.

Pai turned around, and returned to his previous spot against the wall. He’d tell Vicky about all of this once she’s done.

—

Elsewhere in the arena, Erin just got done topping off her blood bank, as well as gaining enough stat points to increase her charm stat up to the 20s.

[Blood bank 100/100]

[Charm: 22]

For the past hour or so, Erin was telling students to meet up with her in shady areas, and taking their blood. With an increased charm, it was getting easier and easier.

’I still haven’t gotten the blood addiction yet,’ Erin thought, ’Just how much blood do you need to take before it happens?’

"You’d be surprised at how little it can be," the system commented.

Ignoring the system’s words, Erin spotted another student waving goodbye to their friends, and heading off.

[Inspect]

[Aqua Spout]

[Blood type O+]

’It is late, so a bunch of people are returning back to their bedrooms.’

It would mean Erin could only get one last stat point before she’d have to leave as well. Since her blood bank was topped out, all she needed was a drop.

Walking up to the boy, she saw he had sandy hair and wore glasses.

Erin tapped his shoulder and stared into his eyes.

"Can you come with me for a minute?"

Easily, Aqua nodded, and she led him behind a corner where she didn’t hear anyone around. All this would take is a minute, and she’d tell him to forget and leave.

Erin’s eyes glowed red, "Hold still."

Aqua did as asked, and Erin cut the tip of his finger with her rapier. Then, she touched the droplet of blood that came out, and licked it.

[You have gained 1 free stat point]

[Charm: 23]

That was a system message Erin had gotten very used to recently, and she’d hope that’d be the last of it. Unbeknownst to her, fate had other plans.

Erin told Aqua to forget about the past minute, and to return to bed. Similarly, she did the same herself, and rested up as much as possible for the big day tomorrow.

That morning, the first thing Erin the system informed her of was bad news.

[Your hunger starts to grow]

[You must consume blood within 24 hours]

[Every hour 1 HP will be lost until blood is consumed]

"... Damn it."