190: Chapter 190 Gifts and Reckoning
The slaughter in the castle's central courtyard had reached a fever pitch.
The staccato rattle of machine guns, the roar of collapsing walls, and the desperate screams of Death Dealers had completely transformed this centuries-old Vampire stronghold into a Shura Field.
Above the chaos, Qin Ming and Dracula were walking across the expensive carpets of the corridor toward the deep depths of the castle. Dust fell from the walls from time to time due to the violent tremors above, but it was all kept half a meter away by the paper-thin Divine Shield surrounding Qin Ming.
"These Vampires are such trash." Qin Ming listened to the commotion outside, his tone revealing undisguised boredom.
Dracula trailed half a step behind, his right hand resting elegantly on his chest as he smiled and replied, "They are merely defective products of diluted bloodlines, after all. However, is it not because you are too powerful? No matter how arrogant a dark creature is, they can only ultimately submit to your Holy Light."
"Oh my, you're making me blush saying it like that." Qin Ming waved a hand dismissively, though a smirk of natural entitlement curved his lips.
In the courtyard square, Amelia had changed into a set of medieval silver half-plate armor. Holding a steel buckler engraved with her family crest in her left hand and a gleaming broadsword in her right, her figure moved like a bolt of lightning through the night rain.
"Die!" Amelia used the recoil from a wall to leap into the air, her longsword plunging accurately into the back of the giant Lucian.
The blade sank deep into the needle-like black fur and bulging muscles. But before Amelia could withdraw her sword, Lucian's back muscles suddenly clamped down, trapping the blade in a vice-like grip.
The green Enhancement Serum burned wildly within Lucian's body. Tiny red granulations of flesh grew rapidly at the wound, perfectly healing the bone-deep gash within a few breaths, and even the silver sword began to hiss as it was corroded.
"What kind of monster is this!" Amelia cried out in horror, decisively abandoning her sword and retreating.
Lucian's crimson vertical pupils locked onto Amelia in mid-air, a low growl like rolling thunder vibrating in his throat: "No, this is a gift."
His massive wolf claw, accompanied by a sonic boom that tore through the air, struck Amelia's buckler directly.
The steel shield shattered instantly. Amelia was sent flying like she'd been hit by a train, crashing through a second-floor load-bearing wall like a ragdoll and getting buried under a pile of rubble.
Dozens of meters deep in the underground hibernation chamber, the dull thud of the impact traveled down through the foundations.
Dracula stopped, his slender fingers lightly stroking his chin as he took a deep breath of the air. "The scent of blood is a bit heavy down here. Shall I go ahead and clear out those rats?"
Qin Ming kept his hands in his pockets and continued walking leisurely down the steps. "No rush, let's watch their ridiculous performance first."
Inside the hibernation chamber.
Marcus, who had just absorbed a bit of blood, suddenly stood up. Veins pulsed on his pale face as he stared intently at the heavy bronze doors. The flesh on his back throbbed with a faint pain, as if something terrifying was approaching.
"What's happening?" Viktor noticed Marcus's abnormal behavior and asked in a low voice while leaning against the edge of his stone sarcophagus.
"Shut up." Marcus bared two sharp fangs, looking as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
Selene sat slumped on the ground, her face ashen. She knew better than these two elders, who had slept for centuries, exactly what was coming through that door.
"They're here," Selene said, her voice dry.
As soon as she finished speaking, the heavy bronze doors let out a tooth-gritting screech as they were unhurriedly pushed open from the outside.
Qin Ming stepped over the threshold and scanned the dark, damp basement, his gaze sweeping over the two marble coffins.
"You have guests, aren't you going to welcome us?" Qin Ming raised an eyebrow.
Dracula spoke with a contemptuous tone: "They are mongrels, after all. It is only natural they would lack proper hospitality etiquette."
This sentence pierced directly through Marcus's lofty pride. As the progenitor of Vampires, when had he ever been referred to as a 'mongrel'?
"You seek death!"
Marcus roared, his back tearing open as a pair of fleshy wings burst forth. He turned into a blur, his sharp claws lunging for Qin Ming's throat, bringing with them a foul wind.
Qin Ming didn't even blink.
Standing beside Qin Ming, Dracula simply raised his right hand casually, his fingers spread wide.
An incredibly terrifying and eerie suction force instantly erupted within the hibernation chamber.
Marcus, frozen mid-air, felt his body stiffen as his eyes bulged from their sockets. He felt the blood throughout his body like boiling lava, flowing backward uncontrollably through his veins.
"Ugh..."
Before Marcus could even scream, countless fine lines of blood pierced through his skin. Threads of dark red blood were forcibly extracted from his body, coalescing into a viscous sphere of blood in mid-air.
In less than two seconds.
The Vampire progenitor, who had been so arrogant a moment ago, had now become a completely shriveled mummy, collapsing stiffly at Qin Ming's feet.
Qin Ming looked down at the dried corpse on the ground and curled his lip in disgust.
Dracula understood instantly, a flash of crimson light appearing in his pupils.
A cluster of extremely high-temperature black flames ignited on Marcus's shriveled corpse. Silently, within seconds, it burned the progenitor who had lived for over a dozen centuries into a pile of greyish-white ash.
[Ding! Killed High-Level Vampire (Progenitor?), Reward: 100 points.]
Hearing the crisp notification in his mind, Qin Ming flicked his fingernails with satisfaction.
This scene had happened so fast that the brains of Viktor and Selene in the distance completely stalled.
Viktor stared at the pile of ash on the ground, his centuries of calculation and the pride of a ruler collapsing instantly. He quickly assessed the gap in strength between the two sides and reached a desperate conclusion: resistance meant death.
Without any hesitation, Viktor's knees buckled, and he fell to the cold floor tiles with a 'thud'.
"I can submit! I can do anything for you!" Viktor pressed his hands to the floor, his head bowing to the marble. "Please spare my life, the entire Budapest clan can become your dogs!"
Dracula let out a cold laugh.
"With your strength, you think you're worthy of being a dog?"
Dracula flicked a finger, and the sphere of blood floating in the air—containing all of Marcus's essence—instantly flew toward Viktor.
The blood transformed into a high-pressure jet, brutally forcing itself into Viktor's mouth.
The highly concentrated blood of his kin instantly filled Viktor's shriveled body. His aged face became youthful at a speed visible to the naked eye, his muscles bulged wildly, and veins popped under his skin like gnarled tree roots.
Viktor felt an unprecedented, surging power within him, a strength far exceeding that of his prime. He snapped his head up, his eyes filled with fanaticism and greed.
"Hahaha! Power! I feel the power!" Viktor stood up abruptly, spreading his arms and laughing wildly.