t [V6C50 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
“Very smart, no wonder you have the Holy Son’s constant attention and Her Majesty Lilith’s favor.” Yuri’s smile felt sinister no matter how amiable he was. “His Majesty Edward asked me to tell you that he’ll be entering Giant’s Repose very soon and that you still have time to reconsider his offer. The time… is twenty-four hours.”
Nighteye replied immediately, “There’s no need to think it over, I refuse.”
Yuri sized Nighteye up with narrowed eyes like a butcher would his prey and bowed deeply. “I hope you don’t regret it. His Majesty Edward has prepared a special present for you… and it’s something worth looking forward to.”
Yuri fell back all the way until the end of the tunnel before turning to leave. That exaggerated etiquette of his left one under grave pressure.
Eden spoke after a fair length of silence, “Your Majesty Nighteye, I hope you’ll consider my previous offer. I’ll contact the overseeing elder outside once you agree. It’ll be useless even if Edward himself arrives.”
Nighteye didn’t refuse immediately this time and only stood with her head lowered. Finally, she said with a barely discernible sigh, “No, thank you, Your Excellency Eden.”
“Don’t use honorifics with me in the future.”
“Very well, Eden. I wish to be alone for a while, so let’s part ways here.”
Eden was startled. “But…”
He stopped speaking after seeing Nighteye wave her hand. The latter gazed into his eyes and shook her head slowly. She then left and vanished into the darkness of the cavern.
Quite a while after her departure, Eden fell kneeling to the ground as though he had lost all strength and smashed the sturdy rock with his fist.
The battles in the depths of Giant’s Repose grew fiercer by the day, and the rumbles of battle could be heard at all times. Enemies lurked in every corner. The beasts and aboriginals no longer appeared in swarms, but those that did appear were abnormally powerful and difficult to handle. These creatures were exempt from the suppression and possessed high resistance against origin power attacks from either faction.
But no matter how powerful the wild beasts were, they were a far cry from the factional experts in terms of tricks, techniques, and killing experience. As such, the battles mostly ended with the wild beasts suffering defeat. The path to the core region, on the contrary, became the smoothest leg of the journey.
But the good fortune ended before long. What caught up to them from behind weren’t the promised reinforcements but an endless tide of wild beasts.
There was only a fine line between heaven and hell.
There was alternating day and night in this suppressed world, but only endless bloody nights remained in these interweaving caverns. All experts were struggling to kill the inexhaustible wave of beasts and aboriginals. The fangs of the reaper were everywhere without a single respite to be found—all they could do was kill repeatedly.
The experts of Evernight and the empire were fighting back to back for the very first time, setting aside factional differences in the face of death. But not everyone had truly let go of the enmity. Many a time, the comrade from just now would turn into an enemy even before the beasts had been killed off.
The beast tide receded after what seemed like an endless period, and almost everyone was left in utter exhaustion.
The extreme silence within the deformed cavern was terrifying and broken only by the occasional sound of dripping water. There were still beasts running past the nearby tunnels from time to time, but all of them avoided this area subconsciously. It was perhaps due to the intense stench of blood hanging in the air or possibly by virtue of their instincts.
There was a tiny flame pulsing in the depths of the cavern.
Qianye was smoking with his back against the cave wall. Little over a day had passed since he was injured by the Black Titanium Bullet of Annihilation, and the wound was no longer seeping blood. However, the other places on his body were in a far worse condition.
The military uniform on his body was no different from a ragged loincloth, one from which he could wring out blood. The battle armor inside was full of scratches, but fortunately, there was no lethal damage. The most eye-catching was that badly mangled wound on his thigh.
East Peak had been casually tossed aside randomly. The blade—tainted by neither dust nor blood—was now suffused with a layer of dark red, likely by virtue of excessive exposure to blood.
There was a beast head rolling around under his military boot. It was the size of a bull’s head with its lidless single eye wide open. One could see, under the faint light from Qianye’s cigarette, that the entire cave floor was littered with beast corpses, and some were even stacked atop one another. The mere sight was enough to make one shudder.
The heat of the tobacco lingered around Qianye’s lips, and the blood within his body was almost aboil.
Life Plunder was indeed a peerless killer weapon while fighting against the beast tide. But despite the overflowing essence blood, Qianye was in no mood to operate the Mystery Chapter at the moment. After that bout of extreme massacre, Qianye only wanted to sit quietly without thinking and watch the smoke rise from his cigarette.
However, the blood energy in his body initiated a state of blood boil on their own and began absorbing the essence blood via the most primitive of methods. The energy flowed little by little through his veins to repair the wounded organs and flesh.
The flame finally burned out. Qianye threw the cigarette stub away, picked East Peak up and headed toward the depths of the tunnel.
At the center of a different cave-hall, Nighteye was scanning her surroundings. The hall here was exceptionally wide, but no beast had appeared here—something was fairly abnormal. Nighteye simply stood there as though she were waiting for something.
A resounding clap echoed through the wide hall as a man dressed in black formal attire entered. The insignia on his collar depicted a bloody rose with a small golden snake at its stamen. He wore a black mask which exposed only his sharp chin underneath.
“Beloved Nighteye, you’re just as beautiful as the half-moon. Truly makes it difficult for one to control himself.”
Nighteye shot him a glance and said coldly, “Your Majesty Edward, I’m humbled by your praise.”
Edward opened his arms and said with an exaggerated tone, “Believe me when I say that I’ve prepared a present for you. It’ll definitely surprise you!”
“I look forward to it.”
Edward pondered for a moment. He then raised his hand but paused halfway and asked, “Before I hand you this precious gift, I wish to know what your thoughts are on my offer.”
“I refuse.” Nighteye had always been concise with her words.
“Oh! Truly sad!” Edward pointed toward his chest and sighed deeply. He then said with a snap of his fingers, “Darling, you leave me with no choice but to give you that present.”
Footsteps rang out in the passage beside them as two rows of vampire elites walked into the hall with a certain man in tow. That person appeared extremely weak and was unable to walk on his own. He was being half-carried and half-dragged by two vampire warriors. His drooping head was covered in a black helmet, and his face couldn’t be seen clearly.
Edward walked over to the man and removed the helmet. Nighteye gasped in shock despite her best efforts to remain calm.
That was Count Klaus, Nighteye’s father!
“Edward!” Nighteye’s voice was full of anger and even somewhat shrill.
Edward removed his own mask to reveal a handsome countenance characteristic of the vampire race. It was just that there was a hint of madness in his brilliant, ruby-like eyes. He extended an arm toward Nighteye and said, “Beloved, what do you think of this present?”
Nighteye’s chest heaved fiercely, and it took her great effort just to calm down. “What do you want?”
Edward kept on smiling just as before. “You’re very clear as to what I want. Ah, no matter, I’m very patient and respectful toward my companion. I. Want. You. To. Marry. Me.”
“This isn’t…” Nighteye hadn’t finished speaking when Edward cut her short.
“My dear, do not refuse me in such a hurry. That’ll hurt my feelings. Ah, I understand. It must be that this present isn’t sincere enough. Let’s do it this way, I’ll decorate the gift a little bit, just a bit.”
With that Edward pried open Klaus’ mouth and shot a strand of blood energy into his throat. Agitated by the energy, Klaus roared like a beast, revealed his vampiric fangs, and bit down on Edward’s finger.
However, the latter’s pale hands were as solid as a metal alloy that had been refined countless times. Klaus’ fangs simply couldn’t punch through the skin. Edward pinched one of the fangs with his finger and exerted some force, shattering the front half of the fang with a loud crack.
Klaus emitted a cry of incomparable agony as his body spasmed in pain. He then fell unconscious moments later. An injured fang was one of the greatest torments for a vampire.
Even the expressions of the Perth clan members turned unnatural after seeing this. All vampires could sympathize with this pain.
Edward, however, had no intention of letting Klaus off so easily. His fingers grabbed onto the remaining portion of the fang and said indifferently, “Dear, have you finished considering? I’m looking forward to this little ‘modification’!”
Nighteye’s body was trembling. Suddenly, her eyes erupted with a sanguineous light and Edward’s figure appeared within her pupils.
The latter turned pale all of a sudden. The blood energy on his body erupted with great ferocity and formed a pillar of surging blood energy which almost reached the ceiling.
Nighteye emitted a muffled groan and staggered backward with her eyes shut, a stream of blood trickling down the corner of her eye.
Two streaks of fresh blood flowed down from Edward’s nose as he gradually scattered the pillar of blood energy. He produced a handkerchief to wipe his face. The madness in his eyes increased after seeing the bright red stain on the white cloth.
Nighteye forced herself to open her eyes. At this moment, there were countless tears and bloody strands in her near-perfect eyes. Only her pupils remained just as deep and abstruse as before.
Edward didn’t touch the clearly wounded Nighteye. Instead, he pried open Klaus’ mouth anew and used his blood energy to draw out the latter’s vampiric fang, which he then pinched lightly with his fingers.
“My beloved, you must know that your attitude is very important to me. The results will be completely different if you’re willing to cooperate. That’s why I don’t want to force you unless absolutely necessary. But my patience is limited, and it’s almost at the very end now. Can you give me a final answer before I shatter these fangs? Yes or no?”
The pain from the wound roused Klaus from his coma. He saw Nighteye in his daze and immediately became sober. “Leave quickly, don’t mind me!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Nighteye’s face was filled with unbearable agony. She clenched her teeth and said, “The Monroe won’t let you off!”
Edward broke into a laugh. He patted Klaus’ drooping head and said, “For whom? Him? A rural noble from Evernight Continent? Hehe, haha!”
Edward suddenly stopped laughing and said coldly, “Dear, this joke isn’t funny. Now, reply!”
Nighteye glanced at Klaus who was struggling in great pain. She closed her eyes with a pained expression and said lightly, “I…”
It was at this time that a gunshot rumbled through the cavern, and a beam of black light pierced through Klaus’ chest with the momentum of a thunderbolt. That was an extremely powerful origin bullet, one which immediately reduced the count’s blood core to nothingness.
Freed of his torment, Klaus’ expression relaxed as he looked up at Nighteye with his remaining strength. He couldn’t produce any sound, but one could still read his last word from the shape of his lips. “Go!”
Eden rushed out from the darkness and fired a frantic volley of bullets toward Edward. At the same time, his domain pushed toward the Perth clan warriors. He rushed past Nighteye and left a single word, “Run!”