Eduardo looked at her steadily, still not saying anything.
Andrea continued, looking rather amused. "Growing up, everyone was told stories of the great Mikael, the one who made these family leaders piss their pants in fear..."
Their faces twisted in annoyance.
Lord Omar spoke imdiately. "Don’t waste any more ti, Princess. Kill him as you’re ant to."
Andrea shot him a dangerous red-eyed glare. "You will shut up when I am talking."
Omar’s eyes widened in shock, so did the other family leaders.
But Eduardo’s gaze narrowed even further when he heard him call her Princess.
Andrea then turned back to Eduardo, sighing. "That was a mood killer," she said, then added, "but he’s right. This whole thing has been orchestrated for your death."
In that instant, Eduardo blurred forward again, lunging a fist at her.
This ti, she caught it, grinning deviously as they both strained against each other.
"With the Danger Precognition trait of the Morgenstein family," she said, "I will always see your attacks before they land."
Eduardo roared and forcibly pulled his fist back. In the next instant, they both exploded into a flurry of punches without moving from that spot.
Each clash sent shockwaves rippling through the area, bursting windows across nearby buildings.
The ground cratered and splintered beneath them, forcing the surrounding family leaders to step back.
The exchange continued until a final collision of fists sent out a circular shockwave that spanned across the entire block. Then, they both leapt backward.
Eduardo landed with a stern expression. But a mont later, blood dripped from his nose.
Andrea, on the other hand, wore a devious grin, very much pleased with the exchange.
What it looked like was a simple exchange of blows. But it wasn’t.
Andrea wasn’t just fighting with brute force alone.
She was a natural dual-class awakened like her younger sister Isabella; reaching the peak of B-class caster and S-class warrior, with all six ridians opened.
And then there were rlin’s modifications.
Using his near-incomparable magic and alchemy, he had forced Andrea’s body to open a seventh ridian; sothing that should have been impossible, given her talent ceiling wasn’t at SS-rank.
But it didn’t end there.
The Trickster, known for bending the rules of the world, had also made it possible for her to house the trait perks of all seven main vampire families and seven werewolf clans.
The Arcorys wolf clan was known for physical strength, while the Zeidan vampire family possessed a trait called physique modification, allowing bone structure to harden or soften to extre degrees.
With that combined strength and seven open ridians, matching Eduardo at base level in raw power had beco possible.
And then there were the other traits, one of which was Illusory Sensation from the Quin vampire family, which lingered in his mind; tricking him into feeling an endless burning pain even as they fought.
Eduardo had also co to a realization, that whatever this woman was, his base level wouldn’t be enough. Especially not with this aging body of his.
So his body began a transformative change.
His bones cracked and reshaped as raw mana surged outward. His fra expanded, muscles thickening as his human form turned into sothing far more bestial.
He beca a muscular wolf-vampire hybrid humanoid, with his head fully transford into a feral wolf’s skull-like visage. A long, flowing tail lashed behind him, while massive wings unfurled from his back.
His body and the fur of his skin was dark, with subtle red accents tracing along his wings.
The wings especially, was transformation born from his Gerach vampire lineage; the sa trait that allowed the family manifest hulking vampiric beast forms with wings.
It was the reason Omar Gerach despised him most.
Then Eduardo roared a sound that tore through the air like thunder, shaking the entire area as the pressure of his transford presence exploded outward.
The last ti he had taken this form, it was during the battle against all fourteen family leaders.
And every one of them rembered that seeing this transformation ant only one thing; Death.
The mory alone was exactly why the leaders around also took battle-ready stances.
But Andrea calmly raised a hand without turning to them. "None of you should dare interfere."
Her eyes sharpened further into a reddish-amber hue as black veins appeared underneath her eyes.
Then one black wing sprout from behind...
——
Marvin’s convoy was in fast motion, moving towards the designated place.
Then suddenly, a pressure hit the air.
At first, it was subtle. Then, suddenly, a shockwave traveled the air in their direction, bursting the windows of the convoy as the entire line of vehicles ca to a forceful halt.
Silence followed for half a second, then Marvin stepped out of the vehicle and looked in the direction it ca from. "It has begun."
Then he began moving, barking orders without looking back. "Keep coming!"
As he walked forward, his body began to change. His muscles expanded as power surged outward, with white fur erupting across his fra.
A massive white wolf took shape and broke into a full sprint, cracking the ground with each step.
Then he leapt an enormous bound that carried him so far across the road and into the direction of the collapsing battlefield.
——
At the hidden house...
rlin hovered in mid-air, sitting cross-legged in a ditative posture. Around him, magical circles rotated slowly in layered dinsions and moved in constant motion.
Fragnts of energy orbited him like satellites. Papers, sigils, and arcane diagrams floated mid-air as though gravity had been rewritten inside the room.
But the most standout item hovering in front of him was a Divine Artifact known as the Chalice of Verdona.
A luminous blue ethereal energy, swirling smoke, rose from the rim of the floating chalice.
The room itself filled with so much magic energy.
Then the door opened and Alistair stepped in.
For a mont, he simply observed the scene, narrowing his eyes slightly at the scale of the spell being maintained.
"The battle has begun," he said quietly.
rlin slowly opened his eyes.
"I should be able to hold this spell for another fifteen minutes, but that’s all."
His gaze shifted slightly toward the chalice.
"Even with Verdona... I can’t extend it further than that."
He looked back at Alistair. "So your sister should finish that battle within that ti..."
rlin, as a magician knew so of the most powerful spells in history, but his true power lied within his ability to cast the most power Illusions.
Illusions so powerful, that only gods could tell the difference.
These were not just the regular kind that deceived the human mind or senses. His illusions could go as far as deceiving reality’s interpretation of itself.
In other words, he could fool the environnt; making reality accept what he created as "truth."
Space, energy, even the way power was asured and categorized could all be subtly rewritten under his influence.
And right now, with the Chalice of Verdona acting as a divine conduit, rlin was forcing the "mind" of the world to acknowledge Andrea as a higher existence than she truly was.
In truth, even with all her traits, Andrea would only be able to fight Eduardo at base level; or survive his true transformation for a few minutes at most, but nothing more.
But under rlin’s illusion, the battlefield’s own logic treated her as a Grand-Class entity. Making it the only reason, she could currently match him in his transford state.
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