Chapter 510 - 281: Im... pos... sible

The sheer intensity of the explosion was hard to imagine.

When the white light faded, Roy came to his senses and rushed forward. He saw that all the Griffin Knights, Dragon Attendants, and Cultists who had been surrounding Baron Constantin’s corpse were now nothing more than scattered, mangled limbs.

Then, he saw a faint, fluorescent glimmer in the darkness.

It appeared to be a Dragon formed from a ball of fire. It hovered within a cloud of gray dust, which shrouded the Baron’s form.

The Fire Dragon’s claw seemed to be clutching something. With his Griffin Knight’s keen vision, he saw that it was a vial filled with blood, bearing the crest of the Van Helsing Family.

Without a second thought, Roy instinctively moved to pursue the flame.

But it was too late. The Little Fire Dragon crushed the vial with its claw, pouring the liquid, which reeked of blood, into Baron Constantin’s mouth.

A mix of terror and horror seized Roy, and he instantly transformed into a Dragon Attendant—by relying on the Dragon Soul in his Dragon Spear, he had successfully fused with a member of the Second Generation Silver Dragon Race, granting him combat power equivalent to a Pseudo-Silver.

He lunged at Baron Constantin’s corpse, his sharp blade a whirlwind of motion, as if intending to tear the body to shreds.

But an invisible barrier blocked him. His blade scraped against it, sending brilliant sparks flying.

The Little Fire Dragon glanced at him, then flapped its wings, dragging Baron Constantin’s corpse into the darkness.

Furious and unwilling to give up, he unleashed his Authority in a frantic barrage against the invisible barrier, but it was useless. The bulwark was like an insurmountable mountain standing between him and Baron Constantin.

’He didn’t know what he was afraid of. Baron Constantin’s heart had been crushed. In the realm of the occult, the heart was the most vital vessel for a person’s Divine Soul. Even a Living Dead, a creation that defied the Death Law, still had its own heart. No one could survive losing their heart.’

’A Dragon Knight’s regenerative abilities, no matter how heaven-defying, couldn’t possibly go that far. I’ve only ever seen someone come back from the dead after losing their heart in the myths of my childhood.’

’That’s true even with that mysterious blood.’

’Only the Blood Race can use blood to heal their wounds, and Baron Constantin is clearly not of the Blood Race.’

’Maybe I’m overthinking it. This barrier isn’t a sign of Baron Constantin’s resurrection. Perhaps a third party, hidden beyond the battlefield, needs Baron Constantin’s corpse. They must have used some kind of Alchemy Matrix or a Taboo Item to summon this barrier and buy time. The explosion earlier might have been their doing as well.’

’Elder Pence did say there might be a deeper, unseen organization behind Baron Constantin. Otherwise, without their help, even as a Dragon Knight, how could he have so easily escaped the Inner Side Law Enforcement Organization’s repeated pursuits?’

’The priority now is to find the mastermind who took the Baron’s body.’

Roy stopped his assault on the barrier.

Although he was loath to admit it, a strange fear had instinctively gripped him when he saw that ball of flame make the Baron drink the blood and then carry him away.

’It’s as if Baron Constantin, who had lost his heart, could grow a new one and come back to life because of that blood.’

The entire ruins of the Dragon Family estate were enveloped in an Alchemy Domain with Roy as its core. Whoever took Baron Constantin, there were only two ways for them to leave: either Roy let them go willingly, or they killed Roy.

Roy regained his reason and composure, forcing himself to think like his older brother, Jill, who had always been held in high regard by the family elders.

He quickly gave an order, sending the Knights and Cultists under his command who hadn’t been knocked unconscious by the earlier explosion to search any potential hiding spots near the ruins of the Dragon Family estate.

After leaving some Knights and Dragon Devourer Cultists to tend to the heavily wounded Law Enforcers from the battle, he took a group and gave chase in the direction the barrier had vanished.

The deeper he went, the more Roy felt that something was wrong. The surrounding trees and thickets were smeared with viscous blood, and he had a faint, unsettling feeling about it, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue at you in the dark.

Following the blood trail for a long time, they arrived at an area shrouded in thick fog.

Just then, a searing white bolt of lightning flashed through the clouds, bleaching the world in its pale light.

Roy’s face also turned deathly pale, for he saw a dark figure appearing in the intermittent flashes of white light.

The dark figure was like a Ghost; with each flash of lightning, it was closer to Roy and his men than before.

The footsteps were deep, low, and slow, like a tiger pacing through a forest.

A Griffin Knight by Roy’s side, trying to hide his fear with a show of bravado, summoned a Griffin Feather and shouted at the figure, "Who are you!?"

The figure did not reply and continued to advance.

The Griffin Knight used his Promise.

But the Griffin Feathers passed right through the figure’s body upon contact, as if the person were truly a ghost or a spirit.

And then, the Griffin Knight who had used his Promise suddenly screamed, clutching his neck as he collapsed to the ground and began to convulse. But the convulsions didn’t last long before his body went rigid.

The Griffin Knights immediately went on high alert. One of them stepped forward to check the fallen man’s condition, then looked at Roy and shook his head. "He’s dead. Cause of death was a puncture to the carotid artery in his neck by a sharp object... But the strange thing is, I can’t find any bullet fragments inside him. We can rule out an Alchemy Bullet for now."

Roy looked and saw it was true: there was a massive, bloody hole in the fallen man’s neck.

The Griffin Knights’ expressions froze, growing grim. A chill ran down their spines.

’If it wasn’t an Alchemy Bullet, that means the killer used a weapon at close range. Yet none of us detected a thing. This can only mean the attacker’s combat experience and Tier are far superior to our own.’

Roy turned to look at the dark figure, barely visible in the gray fog. Without a doubt, the culprit was this person in the mist.

’The mysterious figure behind Baron Constantin,’ he had already subconsciously reached this conclusion.

He looked at the Dragon Attendants and the Dragon-Transformed Cultists circling nearby.

The Dragon Attendants and Cultists understood his signal. With a furious roar, they charged into the gray fog.

A cacophony of roars, clashing weapons, and the sounds of a brutal struggle echoed endlessly from within the fog.

Until a sudden clap of thunder from the sky drowned everything out.

Everything suddenly fell silent. Torrents of blood flowed out of the fog, spreading to the feet of Roy and the Griffin Knights.

The scene was like a vision of Hell.

The Griffin Knights swallowed hard, their Adam’s apples bobbing. They were clearly terrified.

Roy, however, transformed into a Dragon Attendant. With a powerful beat of his wings, he summoned a gale that blew the dense fog away.

At that moment, the sky erupted with thunder. When the flash of light faded, Roy’s pupils constricted to pinpricks. "How can this be..."

The Knights followed his gaze and were stunned into silence.

They saw Baron Constantin—the man whose heart Roy had crushed—standing there, silently watching them.

His face was pale, the clean, stark white of a corpse.

His pupils were cherry-red. The front of his black trench coat was also red, with blood dripping from it drop by drop.

In his hands, he held two equally crimson Long Sabers. The blades were long, slender, and resilient, like two curved willow branches, their tips glowing a fiery red.

"Is... is that a ghost?" a Griffin Knight stammered.

"Baron Constantin..." Roy’s voice trembled as well. "This can’t be possible."

’I clearly remember crushing his heart. In the annals of Alchemy, there has never been a single case of someone being resurrected after losing their heart.’

His gaze hardened in an instant. "No, you’re not the real Baron Constantin. You’re an imposter... Baron Constantin is a Dragon Knight. Dragon Knights have the Golden Eye. His attacks use Dragon Flame. You are not him."

Roy felt he had discovered the crucial difference in this version of Baron Constantin, and he breathed a sigh of relief. For a terrifying moment, he had instinctively believed he was facing the resurrected Baron Constantin.

But anyone with half a brain knew that was impossible.