Chapter 141: Assion Ceremony (Part Eight)

  Yet Duke Brad's resistance was pletely iive, as the bzing fmes mercilessly engulfed the vampire progeny bound to the stone pilrs.

  The Duke's eldest daughter, the symbol ance, Alexia, was thus obliterated.

  She was the oldest, , and most powerful of the vampire progenies, a perfect embodiment ance. Duke Brad had fantasized tless times about the intoxig power he would gain from abs her.

  Unfortunately, she was gone now.

  "Let it all end."

  The air twisted from the heat of the fmes, white smoke billowing everywhere.

  Cassius closed his jaws with satisfa, gng at the nearly deranged vampire hurtling toward him from the sky.

  "No, Alexia, my one and only treasure."

  "Die—"

  Duke Brad's enraged roar turned increasingly shrill, finally transf into an ear-pierg screech. His form abruptly expao nearly five meters, his pupils turning a deep bck-red, his pale skin darkening to gray, his fingers sharpening into cws, and enormous bat wings unfolding from his ba inplete assion, transf him into an undead monstrosity.

  At this moment, Duke Brad had shed all his former nobility, appearing like a feral beast, pletely naked. On his exposed chest, a sinister bck tattoo was visible.

  The vampire became a shadowy blur darting through the air. From his body, tless shadowy tendrils emerged, along with a dense, greenish ic mist.

  【Withering Touch】

  This neantiergy drained all water and life from any living being it touched, redug them to blood feed.

  Cassius responded swiftly, his pupils gleaming with violet magical light, predig the monster's ghostly flight path.

  "I've spotted you."

  Just as the mist-shrouded shadoroached—

  【Anti-Magic Field】

  A shimmering barrier enveloped Cassius, calming the chaotic weave and dispelling the withering energy. Stripped of its shroud, the vampire's grotesque form was exposed.

  The red dragoended a massive cw, seizing the unprepared vampire mid-air and dragging him forcefully to the ground, swatting him down like a pesky fly.

  The vampire struggled futilely, trying to break free, but against the overwhelming strength of the red dragon, all resistance was futile.

  The impact shattered the rocky ground, pinning the vampire several feet deep, nearly redug him to pulp.

  "No—"

  The vampire let out a pierg wail, attempting to dissolve into blood mist and flee. However, the anti-magic field rehe weave imperable, nullifying his spell-like abilities entirely.

  Though crushed beh the red dragon's cw, his body mangled and bones broken, the vampire's "gluttony"-enhanced regeive powers kicked in, allowing him to heal at an incredible speed.

  Blood from the surrounding area surged toward him.

  As long as the tless lives he had absorbed over turies remained, he could regee endlessly. No one could kill him.

  Fresh flesh and beed rapidly, rest the vampire's body repeatedly as it was smashed and crushed over and ain.

  Despite his body being ravaged beynition, the vampire cackled maniacally. "Lizard, you 't kill me! I am immortal!"

  "I outst you here for eternity."

  "Until you're dead!"

  Cassius gazed down at him with disdain.

  "A pitiful wretch ging to life…"

  A cruel and violent smile crept across Cassius's face—perhaps even he was unaware of its savagery, typical of an enraged red dragon.

  "Then I'll show you the true meaning of 'a death forever out of reach.'"

  Cassius's forelimb flexed, muscles bulging and veins popping as white smoke emanated from his body.

  This ure physical strength—the hallmark of a red dragon.

  "Boom!"

  With a resounding impact, the stoform crumbled further uhe pressure.

  "It's useless."

  The vampire's words were cut short as he was crushed into pulp once more. Blood and brain matter spttered everywhere, bones shattered, and the ground was left with a deep, blood-soaked pit. The vampire momentarily lost sciousness. Even with his regeive abilities, this level of damage required seds to recover.

  At that moment, Cassius lifted the anti-magic field.

  His chest glowed with molte, his throat radiating a blinding white light.

  【Empowered Fme Breath】

  A torrent of fmes engulfed the vampire's grotesque form.

  Cassius didn't stop.

  The intense white fmes tio buring the ground into a viscous, red-hot magma flow. The molten roveloped the vampire's body, sizzling and crag.

  Briefly regaining sciousness, the vampire realized the anti-magic field had lifted.

  Attempting to dissolve into blood mist within the magma proved futile. His essence could not escape, only fueling his immotion further and deying his regeion.

  As he realized this, the magma burned his flesh to a crisp, melting his body repeatedly.

  New flesh regeed, only to be burned away again.

  "Impressive regeion."

  Even Cassius was impressed by the vampire's resilieer abs the sin of "gluttony." The destru and regeion occurred simultaneously. Layers of charred flesh formed a grotesque shell around him.

  The vampire writhed and struggled in the molten pit.

  "Pain."

  "It hurts…"

  A muffled voice emerged from the magma's depths.

  "I curse you…"

  "I’ll give everything to kill you."

  Cassius sensed an overwhelming surge of magical energy from the magma's depths, his eyes narrowing in arm.

  "Does he still have a trump card?"

  The red dragon immediately reached into the magma with his cw, effortlessly pulling the vampire out.

  The vampire's appearance was utterly wretched—his face charred beynition, his body covered in bed scars, and magma dripping slowly from his form. Yet the mysterious tattoo on his chest radiated an ominous glow, dev all surrounding light.

  Brad La stared directly at the red dragon, his grotesque face twisting into a sinister grin.

  "I’m about to die."

  "But so will you."

  "All of you will die."

  The vampire's eyes widened, his mouth agape. Every orifi his body glowed with eerie light.

  His body exploded into a dense cloud of dark, malevolent mist.

  Yet this time, he did not reform.

  Instead, he slowly asded, flowing toward an unknowination.

  [You have sin 【Blood Duke - Brad La】, gaining 13,000 XP.]

  The vampire who had domihe Northnds and ruled the La Duchy for two turies was finally dead. Cassius earned immense experience points, but he felt no joy iing such a formidable foe—only a growing unease.

  "That power surge…"

  "Damn it, what did he do?"

  The red dragon's golden eyes glimmered faintly in the darkness as he locked onto the rising bck mist and gave chase.

  FAL