Book 9: Chapter 28: Forbidden Spell

“I’m a bit hungry!” Alucard withdrew his gaze and looked up at the sky. A fluctuation originating from the depths of his soul spread out from him, sweeping across the entire city of London. The pools of blood from corpses all over the city suddenly began to move strangely, frantically surging towards a certain direction.

“Someone is coming this way. If you don’t run now, you will die here!” The vampire straightened his body, turned around, and looked at Qin Lun with an indifferent expression.

“Is that so? But I still want to try!” The blood-red color in Qin Lun’s eyes grew thicker. As a member of the Hunter Profession, he had sensed the abnormality earlier than Alucard. The missile attacks had been going on for more than ten minutes. The superhuman powerhouses gathered in England had finally identified the main assault direction of the commando team and were now converging towards this location.

Qin Lun’s left hand gave a sharp shake. The Frostwind Chaser once again disassembled and reassembled into the shape of a Weapon Case, but a tripod abruptly popped out from the bottom. He placed the Weapon Case on the ground, and a cylindrical object slowly extended from the bottom of the case, gently touching the ground.

After doing all this, a glint flashed in Qin Lun’s eyes, and he pounced towards Alucard again.

“Are you Germans always so stubborn?” Alucard sighed softly, his hands dropping to his sides. The original black and white twin guns slid from his sleeves into his palms. He began to shoot at Qin Lun, no longer engaging the youth in close combat.

Amid the continuous shooting, Alucard stole a glance at the Hell Hound – Baskerville in the distance. Seeing it clearly, his heart sank. This black hound was not the true Hell Hound beast – Baskerville. The real Baskerville was a Legendary Creature, not something a Sixth Tier Cerberus could match.

It was merely a trace of a Soul Mark that the vampire had obtained from the real Baskerville beast at some point during the Middle Ages. Using this Soul Mark, he could condense his internal soul power to create a phantom beast of Baskerville, possessing roughly thirty to forty percent of the original’s abilities.

However, the weakened phantom Baskerville was clearly no match for the true abyssal demonic beast – the Inferno Hound. Actually, this Baskerville phantom was still quite strong. Its ferocious fangs and sharp claws not only had powerful physical attacks, but its body, composed of a fallen soul, also had corrosive and polluting abilities.

But Cerberus belonged to the demonic type of creature, with an extremely high Soul quality. It completely feared the Baskerville phantom’s fallen corruption. It was like polishing a diamond with sand; besides making the diamond more brilliant, it had no other effect.

As for the phantom hound’s fangs and claws, they were utterly useless against Cerberus, whose entire body was clad in molten armor. Instead, it was the phantom hound that was being scarred all over by the magma and highly corrosive bodily fluids of the Inferno Hound.

Both hellhounds were massive demonic beasts, fighting fiercely in the distance, stirring up dust and darkness. However, the Baskerville phantom was clearly at an absolute disadvantage. Its huge body was frequently torn apart by its equally ferocious opponent, with large chunks of flesh being ripped off and devoured raw.

The summoned beast was exactly like its master; even its fighting style was completely countered. However, while Alucard had countless lives to squander, this Baskerville phantom did not.

After only a few minutes of fighting, it was already lying on the ground, barely alive. Its abdomen had been completely torn open by Cerberus, revealing a mess of filth inside. The Inferno Hound seemed to really like this large pile of green food. It was pawing at the Baskerville phantom’s body, eating with great relish.

This was the best proof that quantity could not overcome quality, and it was also the greatest weakness of the vampire species. Once suppressed by a higher-level creature in the food chain hierarchy due to bloodline, they would show absolutely no resistance.

Alucard expressionlessly withdrew his gaze. The Baskerville phantom, like himself, possessed an undying body. As long as the Soul Mark stored within him remained intact, it could resurrect countless times using soul power. What was being devoured by the Inferno Hound now was merely some fallen soul matter.

The vampire raised his head, his blood-red pupils glinting coldly as he looked deep into the night sky. At the end of the street where the two were fiercely battling, he could already see thin lines of blood seeping through the gaps in buildings, bypassing street corners, and rapidly surging towards them at high speed.

Due to the distance, these seemingly thin blood lines were actually formed by the convergence of blood pools flowing from countless corpses. In some areas, the blood pools had even merged into rivers of blood, raising blood waves half a person high along the way.

What was most eerie was that where the blood rivers passed, they left no traces behind. It was as if an efficient cleaner had scraped away all the bloodstains along the path. It looked like a blood-colored dragon madly charging forward along the streets.

“It’s about time!” Feeling the influx of numerous blood rivers into his Perception field, a sharp light flashed in Qin Lun’s eyes. He leaped backwards through the air, landing lightly on the top of the Ayala Weapon Casket, which was propped open by the tripod behind him.

“A final gift!” Qin Lun bared his white teeth, smiling at Alucard as he stomped heavily on the Ayala Weapon Casket.

After fighting Alucard for so long, Qin Lun had initially thought he had no chance of killing the vampire and was simply enjoying the thrill of battle. However, as the fight progressed, he keenly noticed a weakness in Alucard’s personality.

This vampire was too arrogant. Even when fighting an opponent like him, he remained very lazy and often did not go all out.

If their roles were reversed, and Qin Lun were the vampire, the moment the youth realized the enemy had the ability to sever his soul power, he would immediately and continuously replenish it during the fight, never giving the enemy any opportunity.

But Alucard only started wanting to replenish the soul power within him when his vitality hit rock bottom, truly threatening his survival. Or perhaps, as he himself had said, he had long lost his own sense of existence and had been yearning for a human to give him a perfect end.

With Qin Lun’s somewhat unusual smile, Alucard suddenly trembled all over. For a moment, he felt suffocated and instinctively sensed a huge threat to his life. It was as if a God of Death was staring down at him from above, about to reach out and drag him into another world belonging to the dead.

“This is… long time no see, Death!” Alucard’s gaze became somewhat unfocused. He raised his hands high towards the night sky, as if wanting to embrace the deity presiding over death in the unseen realm.

“Alucard, I order you, you must come back!” Just as a feeling of relief and joy surged in Alucard’s heart, a graceful and heroic figure flashed before his eyes.

“Integra!” Alucard’s eyes suddenly cleared. He let out a long roar towards the sky, his long black hair flying upwards. “No, I cannot die yet. At the very least, I cannot die at the hands of a non-human!”

Alucard paused his steps, turned around, and flew back in the opposite direction from Qin Lun, quickly closing the distance to the blood river behind him. This was the first time since the fight began that he had avoided a direct confrontation.

“Only realizing it now? Isn’t it a bit too late?” Qin Lun sighed, looking at Alucard with pity. Perhaps because the enemy was quite similar to himself, the youth felt that even if he killed the vampire, he probably wouldn’t feel very happy.

“Arid Glacier!” Qin Lun silently closed his eyes, channeling his Stamina/Energy Points wildly into the Ayala Weapon Casket.

“Hum!” The Ayala Weapon Casket under Qin Lun’s feet faintly emitted a terrifying aura. An icy cold airflow, capable of freezing even the soul, shot up into the sky like a pillar holding up the heavens, instantly tearing apart the floating clouds in the night sky.

The next moment, with the pillar of cold air at its core, visible shockwaves rippled outwards in circles, forming layered frost rings like waves.

“Crack, crack, crack!” The nearby buildings quickly frosted over and froze. Bamboo shoot-shaped ice spikes sprouted from the ground, forming clusters of ice thorns. The temperature in the vicinity began to drop rapidly. Pure white snowflakes drifted down from the sky one after another. The area where Qin Lun stood had completely become a world of ice and snow.

The humans hiding in the surrounding streets felt as if they were in the cold Arctic Circle. Waves of uncontrollable drowsiness washed over them.

Although they instinctively felt something was wrong and started rushing out of their rooms, wanting to escape the area, they found it difficult to move. Their steps grew slower and slower. A layer of frost covered the surfaces of their bodies. The blood inside them froze and hardened. Soon, they turned into ice sculptures in various poses.

With the Ayala Weapon Casket at the center, except for Qin Lun and the others, there was not a single drop of liquid that could flow within a circular area of about a three-hundred-meter radius.

At the edge of the circular area, the river of blood surging towards this place could barely advance. It only managed to push forward a meter or two before directly solidifying into Blood Crystal. The subsequent waves of blood flowing in only served to thicken and widen this wall of Blood Crystal, until it formed a Blood Crystal wall over three feet thick and more than ten meters high, surrounding this area.

Looking down from above, a slightly inwardly arched Blood Crystal wall enveloped this area like a protective shield, leaving only an opening at the top.

The moment Qin Lun cast Arid Glacier, the superhuman powerhouses in London all somehow sensed it and looked in this direction. The fluctuation of a Forbidden Spell-level ability made everyone tremble inexplicably.

The Ayala Weapon Casket was different from the Burial of Light and Darkness. Although both were Legendary Equipment, the Burial of Light and Darkness was a set; a single piece of equipment only had Dark Gold Quality, and its Artifact Spirit had not reached the Legendary Rank either.

The Ayala Weapon Casket was different. After the Dryad Ayala awakened, she was a genuine Legendary Rank. Combined with the Sub-Legendary Ice Sprite, the Frost Gem capable of storing large amounts of ice element, and the Elemental Burst Bead, it was enough for Qin Lun to cast a pseudo-Forbidden Spell. The youth’s Stamina/Energy Points merely acted as a catalyst.

“What ability is this?” Alucard had already stopped moving. He faced Qin Lun with a relaxed smile.

Watching Alucard’s body gradually crack and disintegrate, the blood-red color in Qin Lun’s eyes slowly faded. He nodded calmly at him and said, “Arid Glacier. One of the new magics I learned.”

“Just one? If I had known, I should have been more serious and experienced a few more!” Alucard grinned, the skin on his face cracking and shattering, turning into fine powder in the cold air.

“Alucard!” Integra, who was about to reach the HELLSING headquarters, suddenly felt a pang of heartache. She stuck her head out of the car window, looking towards the north bank of the Thames River. “Don’t die…”