"You an... Blooddawn?" Aether blinked in surprise, "The red sky?"
Xara nodded slowly and firmly.
"Blooddawn... we don’t know what it is, or why it happens randomly at night. It only stains the skies of the Void Empire, never the other empires. Mary once said it was a curse, a punishnt cast over her land. During that night, her people would transform into irrational, blood-driven monsters, enslaved by their own bloodline. Each bloodline twisted into its darkest form, unable to resist." Xara’s voice carried a grim weight, her face locked in seriousness.
Aether gave a faint nod... a truth he already knew well.
Xara shifted her weight, settling herself comfortably on his lap. Sothing pressed against her, but she ignored the hard poke and the strange, hungry look on the man’s face.
Shrugging lightly, she pressed on, her tone steady.
"No matter what we did, the composition never fused into their bodies. We tried, we failed. We tried again, and failed again. Tireless, endless failures... until one day, by sheer coincidence, sothing happened. Honestly, I didn’t expect it at all. It was almost as if fate had intervened..." her words lingered, stretching into the silence.
Xara Seraphine’s POV
"Sigh... you so fucked up, bitch." Mary’s voice cut through the bloody air. Her tone dripped with disgust, her face twisting with barely contained rage, as though one more mistake would push her to slit my throat.
I sighed. At this point, I didn’t care if she killed or not. Death might have been a release... because this damned composition was already destroying everything.
My eyes drifted to the two golden liquids swirling before . They shimred with unnatural light, so beautiful and so terrifying that I felt my sanity slipping.
I could barely breathe as I stared... They were literally driving mad.
No matter what we tried, no matter the adjustnts, the result was always the sa. By the end of the result, the people would change into monsters. So of them... so of them even burst apart, their bodies ripping under the strain.
"Sigh... arrh... forget it," Mary muttered, her voice breaking into a groan. She turned away, her clothes snapping against her legs as she walked out of the chamber. Annoyance carved deep into her eyes, as though she had already abandoned the hope of success.
What else did she expect to do?
It was obvious.
Painfully obvious!!
This was not going to end well.
That’s what I thought... until she ca.
Morgana!
This was the first ti she had co into the underground chamber where I was willingly confined.
"How about... giving it during the Blooddawn?" she murmured.
I frowned, "What do you an? Do you think Blooddawn would change the effect? Of course not! That’s not how blood works. No matter the circumstance, blood never changes. Its nature is absolute!" I barked with fury.
What ridiculous thinking!
There was no way it would be possible!
Blood stays the sa... no matter the freaking circumstances!!
She only tilted her head, those sharp, condescending eyes looking down on as though I were a child clinging to broken rules. Her expression made my skin crawl, as if she was mocking for not daring to see beyond the obvious.
She... pissing off for so reason... even more than that bitch Mary!
Morgana humd... Then, slowly, she said, "Well... just give it a try. We aren’t losing anything... are we?"
Her tone was calm, too calm, but beneath it, there was a certain logic that pressed into .
Hmm... she wasn’t wrong. That part, at least, I couldn’t deny.
We already reached the end... no matter the result, it was not showing up.
So... it’s not bad to give it a try... I suppose?
Mary’s eyes lit up with curiosity. I saw it... an almost eager gleam sparking inside her, even after all her anger.
She wanted this too... as if she was excited.
Hmm... She always gets excited! Maybe she gets aroused every ti... was she fucking horny bitch?
Sigh!
I exhaled a long, defeated breath and nodded. "Fine. Don’t co crying and complaining if it doesn’t work," I said firmly.
And for the first ti in a long while, I stepped out from the underground.
Damn... it felt really good after being locked up in a stony room all this ti!
Walking on the stony corridor... feeling the fresh breeze gently swaying before my face.
Sigh... breathed in... wow... the freshness of the... Blood?
I froze, blinking in shock. The scent hit harder with every breath.
The entire outside reeked of blood, heavy and tallic, as if the wind itself carried slaughter.
I looked up at the sky and saw... the red glow already spreading across the heavens.
Blooddawn... ah?
My throat tightened... That cursed phenonon had arrived again.
I blinked quickly, my eyes darting forward. The two walking ahead of seed completely unaffected.
Their steps were calm, their bodies moving in perfect rhythm, as if nothing had changed.
Hmm?
Shouldn’t all Void-born people be affected by this Blooddawn?
Their blood should be boiling, their sanity cracking apart. Yet these two...
"Why are you guys fine?" I finally asked, curiously leaning towards them.
Both of them stopped. Slowly, they turned their heads toward . Their eyes glowed—dangerously, unnaturally—and the sight alone sent a cold shiver rushing down my spine.
""We are... not monsters.""
They spoke at the sa ti. The words overlapped, the voices almost indistinguishable, chilling in their unison.
For a mont, I swore they were the sa person speaking through two bodies.
...Shit!
Before shugging and continuing to walk as if I never asked anything.
Anyway... what does that an?
Not monsters? So they weren’t truly Void-born? Or... did their bloodline belong to sothing else entirely?
I wanted their blood... Needed it!
If I could get even a drop into my hands...
But they were alert, too sharp. Every movent scread caution. There was no way. If I tried, I’d be dead before my fingers even brushed their skin.
I clenched my jaw... Fuck!!
A groan slipped out of , weak and bitter. It felt impossible. If I failed, not only would I lose my life, but all my research would collapse with . And that—
That was sothing I could not give up.
’Sigh... whatever...’ I thought, shrugging my shoulders in nonchalance. They kept walking, steps echoing down the long corridor.
My eyes lingered on their backs as my mind turned restless.
What kind of subjects was I going to get now?
Hehe~
Just the thought alone sent a thrill racing through .
My lips curled into a grin.
Maybe... maybe sothing new?
A type I hadn’t experinted with yet?
I grinned from ear to ear, almost trembling in anticipation. Hoping... no, craving... sothing special.
Sothing unique!
Sothing I had never touched before!!
Sothing... sothing...
"E-Emperor?"
Definitely not the one I ever expected in my life.
My grin faltered.... I blinked, turning my gaze to stare at the Emperor’s room. The two had pushed open a massive, blackened door.
Beyond it stretched a chamber.... dark, cavernous, the walls flickering with the glow of scattered candelabras.
The air inside was heavy and thick with the stench of blood.
A man sat there, at the heart of it. Black-haired, crimson-eyed, his presence devouring the room itself. Won draped themselves around him like offerings, their bodies pale, ssy... horny?
He drank from them slowly, lips stained with crimson, his gaze both languid and rciless.
And around his bed throne... piles of corpses.
Bodies lay strewn across the ground, motionless, emptied. As if their very blood had been drained, leaving them as nothing more than husks.
Third Person’s POV
"Wait! Wait!!!" Aether said as she snapped out of her story and looked at him. Aether’s brows knit together in a confused expression.
"What? Things are getting interesting." Xara frowned.
"I know, but before you go on... you’re telling ... Alucard was still alive? Exactly when did all of this happen? I’m a bit lost here," Aether asked.
Xara blinked, tilting her head as if trying to recall. "Well... I think just recently... I an... not recently recently. Maybe around a hundred... or two hundred years back? Yeah, maybe that’s right... yup."
Aether raised his eyebrows, "You an... wait... how old are you again?"
Xara’s cheeks flushed pink. "You shouldn’t ask that, idiot!" she muttered under her breath, swatting him lightly with her words more than her hand.
But Aether wasn’t kidding.
The tilines felt twisted in his mind, tangled knots he couldn’t make sense of.
Just how long did these people live?
He thought of dragons, elves, vampires... creatures whose lifespans stretched over centuries, even millennia. That made sense.
But Xara? She seed human—normal.
So why did she still look like she was only in her mid-thirties?
Aether clenched his teeth. The more he thought about it, the more confusing it beca.
This whole world’s ti flowed in ways that drove him mad.
He muttered to himself, "Then how co Mary was Empress before? I an... didn’t she rule the Void Empire when the final trial was going on?"
Xara’s expression fell into silence. She simply shrugged with a faint frown. "I wasn’t born at that ti."
Aether’s mind pieced things together on its own.
"Ah, right... it’s just like Aria. Or... kind of. Mary was only a concubine before. But when she bore the title of the chosen one, Alucard elevated her and placed her as Empress. That must be how it worked... I guess that makes sense."
Xara tapped her chin, her gaze thoughtful. "Well... it does, I think. Hmm..." she nodded again, more to herself than to him.
Aether humd, still half lost in thought. After a pause, he asked, "Exactly what level are you?"
"Level ninety," Xara answered flatly.
Aether’s mind raced. He nodded slowly but wondered in silence, ’So levels are tied to lifespan?’
He shook his head and pushed the thought aside.
"Anyway... continue," he said at last.
Xara inclined her head. "Well, after seeing the Emperor, I was almost shocked beyond reason...."
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