The creature, still holding the pulsating object in its hand, placed it on the ground with the gesture of someone who had already consumed enough of it. Then it crouched down, almost as if performing a macabre ritual. It bent over the fallen young girl’s body and, in a quick and grotesque motion, picked up the corpse in its arms. The dry sound of bones snapping echoed, and the creature lifted the girl with unexpected strength.
With empty eyes and a completely unshaken expression, the creature brought the girl's body to its mouth and, in a repulsive movement, bit into her neck with violence. The sound of flesh being torn echoed through the room, and dark liquid began to drip from the victim’s orifices, her life slowly being drained.
The two watched, eyes wide and mouths dry. What they were witnessing went beyond any rational explanation. The creature didn’t seem to kill just to feed—there was something strange about its hunger, something that made the scene even more macabre and twisted.
That’s when Anon’s instincts finally spoke up. He whispered, barely audible:
“It’s a vampire... but not like the others.”
Tekime, her voice almost imperceptible, replied:
“No... it's not an ordinary vampire... This is different.”
What they were seeing was far from traditional. Although the creature was drinking the girl’s blood, the act didn’t seem like mere feeding—it radiated an energy of corruption, as if it was devouring more than blood, as if it was consuming the very soul of its victim. The way it bit, with insane ferocity, felt like an abyssal need, like it was feeding on something deeper, something that defied death itself.
As the creature devoured the girl with a blank, remorseless gaze, it paused for a moment and raised its head. Its eyes glowed with an intense, muted light—a light that seemed to reflect absolute dominion over suffering and death. The energy pulsed and surged, and what was happening there wasn’t just a massacre. It was a ritual, something of unspeakable magnitude and horror, as if it was tearing reality apart.
Tekime and Anon, now completely paralyzed by fear, could hardly react. They remained silent, not knowing what to do, forced to witness that unspeakable spectacle of horror.
The creature, with the girl's body now nearly drained, finally pulled away from the corpse and looked toward the two hidden figures. A wave of agony and despair filled the room, and the vampire stared at them with a grotesque expression, as if it knew it had already marked them with its presence.
The silence in the room was absolute, interrupted only by the sound of flesh being consumed and blood dripping slowly onto the floor. Tekime and Anon were frozen, but something began to stir inside Anon. His eyes narrowed, and he took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind. He didn’t know what to do in the face of such terror, but he knew he had to act—at least try to understand what they were up against.
That’s when, with a sudden motion, Anon activated his ability: Aether Sight.
The aura around Anon changed instantly. His eyes glowed with an intense light, and he focused on the creature before him, forcing his ability to dive into the depths of that abyssal being.
Information began to flash before his eyes in a fast, uncontrollable stream:
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Race: Shadow Monarch
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Class: Arcane
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Ability: Bloodthirst
The intensity of the information made Anon's body falter. Sweat started to drip from his forehead, and he bent backward, trembling uncontrollably, feeling his body lose control under the weight of what he had just seen. It was more than he could endure.
"This can't be... this doesn’t exist..." he whispered to himself, his voice weak and desperate. The words came out shaky, his mind in shock. A Shadow Monarch, of arcane class... And the ability it possessed—Bloodthirst—was nothing Anon had ever heard of. It made no sense in any known world. It was far beyond anything they had ever faced.
The vampire, who had been feasting with insatiable hunger, heard the noise and, with superhuman speed, turned sharply, its eyes glowing with supernatural ferocity. Its presence was even more terrifying now that Anon had precise information about it. The vampire’s immense and crushing aura flooded the room, and Tekime and Anon felt a terrible pressure in the air.
But before the vampire could react aggressively, Anon had already ducked behind the pillar again, crouching and holding his breath, hoping the creature hadn’t seen them.
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The creature, with its piercing gaze, looked around but couldn’t pinpoint the source of the noise. The Shadow Monarch then slowly walked away, its heavy, echoing steps resounding, completely ignoring the fact that it had been detected.
Still hidden behind the pillar, Anon and Tekime began to wonder if they were just imagining things. The heavy silence continued to loom in the room. No sound, no threatening presence.
Carefully, they looked back to where the vampire had been, expecting to see the creature still devouring the body—or perhaps already gone. But what they found made their spines go cold. Nothing.
The girl’s body had vanished, and the monster was no longer there. Everything seemed peaceful… for a moment, at least. Nothing moved, and the environment felt far too calm for what they had just witnessed.
That’s when, like a nightmare returning to manifest itself, they felt a presence. Not just a presence, but an aura so heavy and crushing it almost suffocated the air around them.
As they slowly turned, their eyes met something completely unexpected.
Suddenly, the vampire’s presence reappeared. But not in the form they had known. Now, the being before them was no longer the grotesque monstrosity that devoured raw flesh and pulsed with auras of insatiable hunger. No. The being now standing before them was a pale man, elegantly dressed in a flawless dark suit, with golden details that shimmered faintly under the ambient light.
The vampire, now with a commanding and refined posture, approached with an enigmatic smile on his face. His eyes were piercing, as if reading every thought Tekime and Anon had.
Before they could react, the vampire’s aura hit them with overwhelming force. It was as if the very space around them distorted, making them fall to their knees instantly. The pressure was immense, almost as if the air had become too dense to breathe.
With a simple gesture of his hand, the vampire seemed to dominate the environment around him. His presence exuded a sensation of absolute superiority, of being above all things and beings. He was no longer the disfigured beast that hunted them from the shadows, but a creature worthy of immeasurable power, now in full control of the room—of everything.
Tekime and Anon were completely crushed under his presence, barely able to lift their heads. Every movement he made was hypnotic and terrifying, and with every step he took, it felt like he was creating an unbridgeable gap between them.
The vampire, with his oppressive and incomparable aura, looked at Anon and Tekime with a cold, piercing stare. The softness of his voice, though calm, was so macabre it seemed to cut through the air, sending chills down their spines.
"What are you doing here?"
The question sounded like a funeral melody, and each word weighed like a death sentence.
The two stood silent, frozen by the crushing aura the vampire exuded. Their bodies trembled, their minds frozen in absolute fear of his presence.
The vampire then tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing their reactions, before asking with an almost disturbing lightness, as if he were bored:
"Where's that other boy? I don't feel his presence."
At that moment, the distraction was Anon's last chance. He didn’t think twice. Feeling the vampire was momentarily distracted, he prepared to strike. His punch came with speed and determination, but before he could make the move, the vampire reacted with supernatural speed.
In an instant, the vampire moved from where he stood and, with a fluid and precise motion, extended his hand and pierced Anon’s chest, slicing through flesh as if it were paper. Not even his Protection magic worked. Anon screamed in pain, but before he could react, the vampire was already holding Anon’s heart in the palm of his hand, having pulled it through the other side of his chest.
The heat of blood still pulsed through his veins, but now, Anon’s life was being drained directly from his body. The vampire watched with a cold smile, his piercing eyes locked onto the young man, as if savoring the fear radiating from his victim.
"What a waste..." he muttered, his voice filled with both disgust and pleasure, as if it were nothing more than a simple game.
The vampire tossed Anon’s body aside like a dead weight, then casually brought the heart to his lips.
The sound of tearing flesh echoed through the room as he devoured the organ, each bite more ravenous and grotesque than the last, as if he were savoring the victim’s soul along with the meat.
After finishing the heart, the vampire slowly lifted his head and looked at Tekime, who was lying on the ground. Her body was soaked—likely from the cold sweat that covered her—while her eyes were wide open in pure terror. She couldn’t even react, completely paralyzed by the crushing presence of the monster before her.
He observed her for a moment, his eyes reflecting a macabre curiosity, before he spoke with a terrifying calm, his smile growing even wider:
"I was thinking of taking yours too..." he began, his voice still soft and seductive, but with a dark undertone.
"But since you're already like this, just from fear... I think I'll savor it a little more."
With a cruel smile, the vampire revealed his teeth—sharp and deadly, sharper than sword blades. They gleamed with a cold, sinister light as he slowly advanced, the sound of his footsteps echoing across the room.
Tekime felt her heart race in terror, but she couldn’t move. Fear held her completely still in front of the creature approaching with a sickening calm, ready to shatter her sanity.
The vampire stepped up to Tekime with a twisted grin, his eyes glowing with an immeasurable hunger. He gently, yet with monstrous strength, grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her off the ground, as if she were just a fragile doll in his hands.
Tekime, eyes wide with terror, couldn’t do anything as the vampire prepared to sink his fangs into her neck. The anticipation was unbearable—but before he could make the first move, something unexpected happened.
Tekime, eyes shut and mind in desperation, reached out to Hitory through thought, as if he were still with her. Her voice, though weak and nearly inaudible, rang clearly in his mind, filled with gratitude and emotion:
"Thank you... thank you for everything, Hitory..."
It was a farewell—a silent message carrying the weight of everything she had lived alongside him, the weight of the connection they shared.
The vampire, still wearing his cruel expression, didn’t notice the small moment of communication between them, his attention fully focused on Tekime and the next step of the ritual.
End of EP 23: The Blood Monarch