Victor continued holding Grace in his arms for a few more seconds, calmly observing her completely disoriented expression. The surrounding forest remained silent, broken only by the distant sounds of monsters moving among the enormous trees of that region. Small pieces of ice still floated involuntarily near her body, probably a result of the absurd fright she had experienced seconds before.
Grace seed to have stopped functioning properly.
Her normally cold face was now completely flushed, while her blue eyes avoided direct eye contact with him. Victor honestly didn’t know exactly how to react to this. From the beginning of the Ritual, Grace had demonstrated the emotional personality of a frozen tombstone. So seeing her practically short-circuiting from being caught off guard seed strangely funny.
Still, he let out a small, tired sigh before finally placing her on the ground again.
Grace imdiately took two steps back.
Too fast.
Too fast.
Victor slowly raised an eyebrow, observing this.
"...Are you okay?" "Are you okay?" he asked in a relatively neutral tone.
Grace partially looked away, crossing her arms in an extrely obvious attempt to recover so lost dignity.
"I-I’m fine."
Victor remained silent for a few seconds, looking directly at her.
Then he calmly replied:
"You stuttered."
"...I didn’t stutter."
"...You literally stuttered."
"...It was a breathing error."
Victor continued staring at her for a few seconds before finally sighing in defeat.
"Okay."
Silence fell between them again for a few monts as the cold wind slowly swept through the dark forest around them. Victor kept his hands in the pockets of his adaptive suit as he calmly observed his surroundings through the monstrous perception he had previously awakened. Several red lines still crossed his ntal vision constantly, indicating living creatures scattered across entire kiloters of that region.
But at that mont, his attention remained mainly on Grace.
Because clearly she wanted sothing.
Victor then tilted his head slightly before asking directly:
"So." His eyes remained fixed on her. "What exactly do you want from ?"
Grace seed slightly taken aback by the question.
Victor continued calmly:
"You’ve been following for a while." He partially glanced at the destroyed trees further back. "So I imagine it’s no coincidence."
Grace imdiately replied:
"I wasn’t following you."
Victor looked at her.
Just looked.
Without changing his expression.
Without saying anything.
Just staring directly at her with such an obviously disbelieving expression that Grace slowly began to lose strength in her own defense.
Her eyes drifted slightly to the side.
Her shoulders tensed a little.
Then she lowered her head slightly before murmuring softly:
"...Sorry."
Victor imdiately let out a small nasal laugh.
That was so absurdly honest that he honestly couldn’t even make a big deal out of it. Grace clearly wasn’t used to lying normally. The problem was, she also seed terrible at trying.
Victor then calmly asked again:
"Okay. So why?"
Grace remained silent for a few seconds while organizing her thoughts. Small frozen crystals kept involuntarily appearing near her feet as the wind slowly swept through the dark forest.
Then she finally began to speak.
"...I found a group."
Victor remained silent, listening.
Grace’s vision slowly returned to a few dozen minutes earlier.
She moved silently among the frozen trees of that region while tracking nearby monsters using her thermal perception. The entire environnt remained relatively silent in that part of the forest until multiple presences began to erge within her senses.
Many.
Grace imdiately slowed her movents while partially concealing her own presence among the high branches.
Then she saw them.
A large group.
Vampires.
Participants in the Ritual.
More than twenty people moved together through the forest in a formation clearly too organized for simple territorial exploration. All were ard and bore extrely hostile expressions.
But the main detail was who was leading it.
Jake Valentine.
Grace watched silently as the group continued advancing through the forest.
"Are you sure he’s in this area?" one of the participants asked, scanning the surroundings.
Jake replied imdiately:
"He is." His voice carried evident irritation. "That monster can’t completely hide the tracks he leaves behind."
Another participant seed to hesitate for a few seconds before asking:
"...Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Jake imdiately shot him a cold look.
"What’s wrong?" he asked curtly. "Are you scared?"
The participant partially looked away before replying:
"After what happened in the Ritual... nobody knows exactly what he’s beco."
Jake clenched his teeth, visibly irritated.
"He’s still just a vampire," he replied aggressively. "If we kill him in here, it’s over."
Another mber of the group then comnted:
"But what if—"
"Enough." Jake interrupted imdiately. "We have enough numbers."
Grace remained hidden, observing this for a few seconds.
Then she clearly realized.
They were hunting Victor.
Not for points.
Not for strategy.
This was planned murder.
The flashback ended slowly as Grace looked directly at Victor again.
"...They’re looking for you," she said calmly. "Jake gathered a whole group."
Victor listened silently.
Then he shrugged.
"...Okay."
Grace blinked slowly.
"...That’s all?"
Victor kept his hands in his pockets as he calmly replied:
"Jake is too weak to do anything to ." He said it without exaggerated arrogance. It seed like just an objective statent. "Not in a million years will that guy be able to touch ."
Grace stared at him for a few seconds.
Then she frowned slightly.
"...You’re getting a little too cocky, aren’t you?"
Victor slowly shifted his gaze to her.
The atmosphere around them seed to grow slightly heavier at that specific mont.
Not from released energy.
But from intention.
Victor then slowly walked towards her while maintaining a completely calm expression. Grace remained motionless, watching him approach until Victor finally stopped right in front of her.
Then he placed one hand on her shoulder.
And looked directly into her eyes.
At that instant, Grace felt it.
The presence.
It wasn’t just ordinary magical pressure.
It felt like a predatory creature directly observing vulnerable prey. Her body’s instincts reacted imdiately before her mind could even organize any logical thought.
Her blood froze.
Her breath caught.
Her muscles involuntarily stiffened.
Her eyes widened slightly as she stared at Victor.
Because at that specific mont... he didn’t seem human.
His red eyes held an absurd calmness. A monstrous calmness. Like sothing completely confident that it could destroy anything around it without real effort.
Then Victor asked softly:
"Want to find out?"
Grace’s entire body trembled involuntarily.
Not from cold.
From instinct.
She imdiately took a step back, moving away from him almost automatically, while her heart raced absurdly in her chest.
Victor observed this for a few seconds.
Then he simply let out a small, tired sigh.
The pressure disappeared imdiately.
"Relax," he comnted, stretching slowly. "I won’t attack you."
Grace still seed to be trying to reorganize her nervous system after that.
Victor then put his hands back in his pockets, partially averting his gaze to the surrounding forest.
"You can go now," he comnted casually. "I have no interest in eliminating my grandmother’s disciple."
Grace remained in absolute silence, listening to this. Grace remained motionless for a few seconds after that, trying to catch her breath. The forest remained silent around them, but now her heart was beating too fast to ignore easily. Her instincts were still tense after the absurd pressure Victor had released earlier, just to provoke a reaction from her. And that honestly irritated Grace more than it should have.
Because she hated realizing her body was reacting that way.
Especially in front of him.
Her blue eyes remained fixed on Victor as he kept his hands in the pockets of his dark suit, completely relaxed, as if nothing important had happened in the last few minutes. That was also irritating. From the beginning of that Ritual, Grace had noticed that Victor possessed an extrely specific kind of calm. It wasn’t common arrogance. Nor exaggerated confidence.
It simply seed like an absence of worry.
And that made him difficult to predict.
Grace partially looked away as small frozen crystals involuntarily appeared near her own feet. Her thoughts kept returning to Jake Valentine and the large group she had encountered earlier crossing the forest.
She knew Jake.
Much better than Victor apparently imagined.
Jake was arrogant, aggressive, and obsessed with superiority, but he wasn’t an idiot. He would never try to confront soone like Victor directly without possessing so hidden advantage. That simply didn’t fit his way of acting. Jake always used numbers, traps, or manipulation when he realized he couldn’t win alone.
And this clearly looked like a trap.
Grace slowly tightened her arms around her body as she thought about the absurd number of participants gathered in that group. More than twenty vampires walking together in that territorial forest wasn’t normal. Especially when they all seed specifically prepared for a targeted hunt.
Victor might be too strong.
But still...
Jake probably already had sothing planned.
Grace let out a small sigh before finally speaking:
"...I’ll stay by your side."
Victor slowly turned his face towards her.
His expression remained completely neutral for a few seconds.
Then a small curve slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Grace noticed imdiately.
And instantly regretted opening her mouth.
"...Are you flirting with ?" she asked calmly.
Her brain simply stopped for approximately two full seconds.
Then Grace’s entire face imdiately turned red.
Not partially.
Completely.
She turned her face so quickly that so silver strands practically hit her own face while small frozen fragnts involuntarily exploded around her.
"N-No, that’s not what I ant!"
Victor continued to stare at her with that absurdly irritating, lazy expression.
Grace clenched her teeth imdiately while looking away even further.
"...Bastard."
Victor raised an eyebrow slightly.
Grace began to mutter softly, almost unconsciously:
"Damn opportunistic idiot..." she murmured irritably. "He keeps provoking younger won all the ti..."
Victor heard perfectly.
Naturally.
His monstrous senses could now pick up even distant heartbeats. Hearing Grace muttering like that practically in front of him was ridiculously easy.
Then he slowly approached without making a sound.
Grace continued to look to the side, muttering increasingly disorganized things about problematic n, annoying vampires, and emotionally questionable individuals.
Then she felt sothing lightly resting on her shoulder.
Her body froze instantly.
It was his chin.
Victor had simply moved his face close behind her and casually rested his chin on her shoulder while speaking in a completely calm tone:
"I like older won," he comnted naturally. "No need to be nervous."
Grace imdiately let out a startled scream.
"WHAT?!"
She practically leaped forward at an absurd speed, violently spinning her body towards him. Small, frozen spikes involuntarily sprouted around her as her face remained completely red.
Victor remained in the exact sa spot, calmly observing.
As if he hadn’t just completely destroyed her nervous system.
Grace imdiately pointed at him with a completely indignant expression.
"Y-Y-You...!"
She tried to continue.
She couldn’t.
Her brain was clearly still trying to survive the absurd psychological assault it had just suffered.
Victor watched this for a few seconds before sighing slowly.
"...You’re very easy to provoke."
Grace imdiately frowned.
"...Shut up."
Victor let out a small nasal laugh as he slowly resud walking through the dark forest with his hands in his pockets. Grace stood still for a few seconds watching his back as she tried to lower her own body temperature before she literally froze half of that area unintentionally.
That was absurd.
Completely absurd.
She really couldn’t understand how Victor could alternate so naturally between that terrifying, monstrous presence and this completely irritating casual behavior.
Minutes ago he seed like a predatory creature capable of crushing anything alive in that territory.
Now he was making silly jokes while calmly walking through the forest as if he were strolling in a park.
Grace pursed her lips slightly before finally starting to follow him again.
Keeping a certain distance this ti.
As a psychological precaution.
Victor noticed imdiately.
"...You’re walking further away now."
Grace replied instantly:
"Survival instinct."
Victor let out another small nasal laugh.
Silence gradually returned as the two traversed the territorial forest at an abnormal speed. Victor continued to casually eliminate monsters in his path without even slowing down. Enormous creatures erged from among the trees only to be destroyed seconds later by black lightning, ice, or simply absurd physical force.
Grace watched in silence.
And honestly...
It was still hard to believe.
She had grown up surrounded by talented monsters within the Valentine Family. She had known prodigies, veteran warriors, and absurdly dangerous creatures since childhood.
But Victor seed different.
Wrong.
Mainly because he clearly still didn’t fully understand his own power.
That was the scariest thing.
Because all those monstrous abilities still seed incomplete. Instinctive. Like sothing that continued to constantly evolve since absorbing the Primordial Blood.
Grace watched silently as Victor pierced the chest of a gigantic creature with only one hand before continuing to walk normally.
Then she suddenly asked:
"...You really aren’t afraid?"
Victor turned his face partially toward her as the monstrous corpse collapsed behind him.
"Of what?"
Grace hesitated for a few seconds before answering:
"...Of losing control."
Victor remained silent for a few monts.
The question didn’t seem to bother him.
But it didn’t seem simple either.
The wind slowly swept through the forest while his red eyes calmly observed the distant trees.
Then Victor answered:
"...I haven’t had ti to think about it yet."
The answer ca out honestly.
Without dramatization.
Without arrogance.
Grace imdiately noticed this too.
Because it was true.
Everything had happened too fast since the Ritual. The abilities had awakened violently within him in just a few hours. His own body seed to still be adapting to the absurd changes caused by the Primordial Blood.
Even so...
Victor remained strangely calm.
Grace lowered her gaze slightly as she walked behind him.
Then she murmured softly:
"...You’re strange."
Victor heard.
Naturally.
And replied almost imdiately:
"That’s offensive coming from you."
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