Victor walked slowly through the dark forest of the Ascension Area, keeping his hands in the pockets of his adaptive suit. The surrounding environnt remained too silent for an artificial territory created specifically for violent survival, but that was mainly because most of the nearby creatures were already dead.
The black suit perfectly followed his body movents, while tiny, extrely discreet red lines ran across the dark surface of the adaptive fabric. Serafall had originally bought it purely for aesthetic reasons, but honestly, the item was absurdly useful. The material responded directly to the user’s blood energy, modifying its shape, density, and resistance depending on the wearer’s conscious intention.
Victor simply transford the original outfit into sothing much more functional.
Now the suit seed practically a natural extension of the darkness around him.
No exaggerated symbols.
No flashy details.
No ridiculous appearance typical of most noble vampires.
It looked like clothing made for killing people.
The partially raised hood concealed part of his face while the Blood Demon Concealnt energy continued to completely cover his biological presence. There was no sll. There was no perceptible blood pressure. There was no spiritual signature leaking into the environnt.
Victor had essentially vanished from the territory.
The result was simple.
The creatures scattered throughout the forest died before they even understood what was happening.
The monstrous body of a lupine creature fell violently among the trees while black blood slowly dripped from its destroyed throat. Victor didn’t even slow his pace after piercing the creature’s neck with only a small blade created from black ice.
The corpse was left behind imdiately.
The insignia attached to the monster’s body was unceremoniously ripped off before disappearing into the suit’s pocket.
Fifteen points.
Victor had honestly stopped counting how many monsters he had killed since entering that territory.
The problem was that common creatures were almost worthless.
Most offered between five and fifteen points depending on the biological classification recorded by the Ritual organizers. So rare monsters reached fifty.
Territorial bosses were worth one hundred.
Those were the ones that mattered.
Victor continued advancing through the forest while his eyes remained partially altered by his newly awakened ocular ability. The world around him held darker tones now, but the red lines connecting living creatures remained absurdly clear within his perception.
Thousands of them.
Smaller animals.
Hidden participants.
Artificial monsters scattered throughout the territory.
Victor ignored almost all of them.
He was specifically looking for the densest presences.
The most violent.
The true predators of that territory.
Because honestly? Hunting ordinary participants seed like a waste of ti.
The strong monsters offered far more points and far less political drama.
Victor glided silently between gigantic trees, observing the red lines constantly appearing within his own perception. So hidden creatures didn’t even notice his approach before dying.
A grotesque serpent lunged from the subterranean roots, attempting to attack from behind.
Victor didn’t even turn his body completely.
Black rays exploded discreetly between his fingers for less than a second.
The creature’s entire body simply disintegrated partially before colliding with nearby trees in a charred mass of destroyed flesh.
Silence again.
Victor continued walking as if absolutely nothing had happened.
The entire territory seed different now within his perception.
Slower.
More predictable.
The creatures’ biological movents were absurdly easy to interpret using his ocular ability. Heartbeats, muscle tension, and blood flow practically gave away attacks before they even happened.
It was unfair.
Honestly ridiculously unfair.
Victor calmly walked through a partially destroyed area of the forest, observing recent signs of combat scattered throughout the environnt. Broken trees, fresh blood, and remnants of magical energy still lingered among the gigantic roots.
So participant had fought there recently.
Probably died.
Victor showed no interest.
The organizers themselves had made it clear from the beginning that this phase of the Ritual would function as a controlled massacre. Participants were constantly hunting each other in that territory, and this would only intensify as the hours passed.
The difference was that Victor wasn’t exactly playing the sa ga.
While the others survived...
He was hunting.
Victor slowly raised his eyes, observing a much larger red line erging several kiloters ahead within his monstrous perception.
Finally.
That seed interesting.
The biological presence of that creature was too heavy to be an ordinary monster. Even from a distance, Victor could feel the absurdly dense blood flow coursing through its body.
Probably a territorial boss.
Or sothing close to that.
A small smile appeared on his face as he continued calmly advancing through the dark forest.
But then...
Victor slowed his pace slightly.
The sensation returned.
That presence.
Discreet.
Controlled.
Following him for too long.
Victor didn’t turn his face away imdiately.
He continued walking normally while his exaggeratedly sharp senses analyzed the surrounding environnt. The sll was familiar. Very faint because of the distance and the relatively competent attempt at concealnt, but still recognizable.
He had slled it before.
During the Ritual. "Probably inside the underground chamber."
Victor remained silent as he continued walking among the gigantic trees.
"Interesting."
The person maintained a safe distance, using reasonably good stealth movent techniques. Blood flow also remained extrely controlled, probably to avoid biological detection.
For normal participants, that might work.
Against Victor?
Not at all.
Especially now.
He could literally hear that person’s blood circulating through their veins.
Victor maintained a completely neutral expression as he calmly analyzed the situation.
It didn’t seem like an examiner.
Examiners observed from a distance using magical artifacts and hidden barriers scattered throughout the territory. That presence was too close. Too interested.
Besides...
It was specifically following him.
Victor slowly shifted his gaze to a specific direction in the forest without moving his head completely.
Nothing visible.
But the red line remained there.
Parallel to his movents.
Observing.
Waiting.
The small smile on Victor’s face widened slightly.
Finally, sothing interesting began to happen in that territory.
Because until now, it seed more like an extrely violent walk than a true Ascension Ritual.
Victor traversed the artificial forest at an absurd speed while dozens of monstrous corpses lay scattered along the path behind him. The gigantic vegetation of that region was already partially destroyed due to the continuous sequence of combats he had been provoking since the mont he entered the territory. Trees split in half, craters opened in the ground, and black burn marks covered practically the entire length of the path he had traveled.
And honestly?
Victor was bored.
The monsters in that territory simply couldn’t offer enough resistance to hold his interest for very long. Even creatures classified as rare ended up dying too quickly after Victor began to better understand his own newly awakened abilities.
A grotesque creature leaped between the trees, attempting to attack his neck directly. The body resembled a deford mix between an insect and a wolf, possessing four elongated hind legs and absurdly wide-open jaws.
Victor didn’t even change his expression.
Black rays discreetly exploded above his right arm.
The monster simply vanished.
There was no exaggerated explosion or dramatic impact. The creature literally ceased to exist from the waist up as the rest of its body passed through so trees before sliding down across the leaf-covered ground.
Victor observed this for a second.
"...Wow." He sighed wearily as he continued walking. "This is getting ridiculously easy."
The monster’s insignia flew to his hand using almost unconscious blood manipulation. Victor tucked the small tallic emblem into his pocket without even looking directly at it.
The points continued to increase too quickly.
Even so, it still seed uninteresting.
Because his real distraction at that mont was sothing else.
The presence continued to follow.
Victor could clearly feel the red line maintaining a constant distance behind him as they traversed different regions of the artificial forest. The person was careful. Competent, even.
But not enough.
Especially now that Victor’s monstrous senses were functioning at absurd levels.
He could hear the person’s blood circulating among the trees.
He could feel slight changes in body temperature.
Even the sll was recognizable at that point.
Victor destroyed another gigantic creature using a blade of black ice, piercing directly through the monster’s chest before finally losing his patience.
"...Okay." He murmured as he watched the corpse fall heavily to the ground. "That’s enough."
The presence behind him hesitated slightly at that instant.
Victor noticed.
A small smile slowly appeared on his face.
Then it disappeared.
The Blood Demon’s Concealnt completely enveloped his body as the Mist Steps were activated simultaneously. The result was instantaneous.
No sound.
No presence.
No sll.
Victor simply ceased to exist within that forest.
The person hidden among the trees froze instantly.
Victor appeared behind her the next second.
"Seriously..." his voice ca calmly directly from behind the figure hidden on a high branch. "Why are you following ?"
The reaction was imdiate.
Grace Valentine was genuinely startled for the first ti since the beginning of the Ritual.
Her body completely lost its balance on the branch as her blue eyes widened violently. Small frozen fragnts involuntarily exploded around her as the girl fell from the tree, unable to react properly.
Victor noticed this instantly.
And honestly?
It was too funny.
But before she hit the ground, Victor had already moved.
He appeared beneath the fall almost instantly and held Grace in his arms without any difficulty, as if it had been completely planned from the beginning.
The impact didn’t even happen.
Grace remained motionless in his arms for a few seconds.
Completely still.
Victor also stopped moving.
The silence of the forest seed strange at that specific mont while small frozen particles still floated slowly around the two of them.
Grace was blushing.
Very much so.
Victor noticed this imdiately.
Her normally pale cheeks now had an extrely noticeable reddish hue, while her eyes remained fixed directly on his face.
And honestly?
It seed surreal.
Because Grace Valentine normally conveyed the emotional intensity of a murderous, lab-created iceberg.
Seeing her completely destabilized like that was too strange.
Victor watched her calmly while still holding the girl’s light body in his arms. His dark suit contrasted sharply with her light hair as the forest remained silent around them.
Grace clearly tried to say sothing.
She failed.
Then she tried again.
"...I..." she looked away for a mont before continuing, visibly nervous. "I was hunting."
Victor kept looking at her without changing his expression.
Grace continued quickly:
"You appeared in my hunting path."
The silence lasted approximately two seconds. Then Victor let out a small, nasal laugh.
"...Fool once, sha on you."
Grace blinked slowly.
Victor kept his gaze fixed on her as he continued speaking in an absurdly calm manner:
"You’ve been after for over half an hour, girl." The small smile on his face widened slightly. "Stop lying."
Grace froze completely again.
Literally.
Victor could feel her heart racing violently at that mont as small ice crystals involuntarily ford around the girl’s arms.
She clearly hadn’t expected to be noticed so soon.
Or maybe never.
Victor honestly didn’t know.
Grace partially looked away as she tried to reorganize her thoughts. The problem was that it was difficult now considering the absurd position she was in.
She was still being held in his lap.
And Victor clearly didn’t seem in any hurry to let her go.
"...Did you realize you did all this?" she finally asked in a low voice. Victor shrugged.
"More or less."
That was a lie.
He realized it almost imdiately.
But honestly, there was no need to say that now.
Grace finally looked directly at him again. Her blue eyes remained extrely attentive despite the evident embarrassnt rising in her normally cold expression.
"...Then why didn’t you say so before?"
Victor thought for a few seconds.
"Because I was curious," he answered honestly. "I wanted to know if you really intended to keep following until the end."
Grace partially opened her mouth.
She closed it again.
Then she looked away again, visibly annoyed with herself.
Victor observed this in silence.
It was strange.
Very strange.
The coldest girl in that entire Ritual now seed emotionally lost simply because she was caught spying on soone.
Honestly?
That was kind of cute.
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