< The Vampire, the Fairy, and the Test Subject (3) >As there were many dimensions, the names used in different places for those who had reached the realm of transcendence varied as well.
Profound Realm, Grand Master, Forerunner, Overlord, Gran Magia, Immortal, and so on.
As such, there were some differences in the finer details, but they all had one thing in common: they were beings who had surpassed a certain limit and reestablished their own grade of existence.
Whether by cultivating for long years and pioneering a new realm, wielding a special power imbued with such a grade, or inheriting the karma of a bloodline accumulated over an immense span of time.
Those who reached transcendence in their own ways reigned at the summit in any world, and Earth, the crossroads of countless dimensions, was no exception.‘Overwhelming power has always been no different from authority.’But naturally, even among those who had crossed that wall, differences in level were bound to exist.
Just as the top student in a high school could become last place at a prestigious university, hierarchy existed everywhere, did it not?‘And Earth’s Awakeners are generally lacking in various ways compared to the strong from other worlds.’Since their power had been obtained comparatively easily with the help of the system, it was inevitable that they would be somewhat deficient in mastery and the like.
To put it a bit bluntly, one could call them mass-produced.‘Of course, my avatars received help from the system too.’However, Harley, who had repeatedly evolved, surpassed the limits of a living being, and even embraced “madness,” and Harris, who had become one with nature through the World Tree’s assistance and grown another step by learning the martial arts of the Ganghwan Realm, were...
Simply too great in the power they held within to be lumped together in that way.
So much so that the two of them alone could clean up every remaining bastard here.
And Heinz II, who, like those two, ranked among the upper echelon even within the realm called transcendence, was—
Currently facing yet another great upheaval.
“Hoo
— hoo—.”
His breathing grew ragged.
The dense blood mist mixed into his exhalation scattered through the air.
Before the remains of the one who had been the “Duke,” now slowly turning to ash and crumbling away, he took deep breaths and struggled to control the power boiling up inside him.
Of course, the Duke, a powerhouse capable of contending evenly with him, could not be brought under his command.
The best Heinz could do was to plunder every last drop of his blood.
Since he had not expected otherwise from the beginning, he did not hesitate to proceed.‘This... I had guessed as much, but...’And immediately afterward.
He was hit with a backlash fiercer than he had imagined, unable to move carelessly as he struggled on the spot to gather his energy.
If Harley and Harris had not been smoothly controlling the situation, wouldn’t he have been in quite a difficult position?‘If it really came to that, I’d have no choice but to unsummon him... ugh!’The blood flowing through his body writhed as if it had become a separate living creature.
「Progenitor of Blood」, which was no different from his foundation, activated violently and began affecting every skill connected to it.「Hybrid Evolution」, 「Mystery of Blood」, 「Refined Blood Crystal」, and so on...
All of his skills extended branches toward one another, connecting more organically, compensating for each other’s shortcomings, and growing even further.
At that point, it was only natural that physical changes would follow.
Crack—
Crack! Crunch!
And after a fairly long time had passed.
At last, when the battles unfolding elsewhere were also beginning to reach their conclusions.《Collecting a new vampiric factor. Under the influence of the special skill 「Hybrid Evolution」, the individual’s existence becomes even clearer.》《The karma possessed by the individual has reached a critical point.》Several lines of the message he had been waiting for appeared before his eyes.
No, the notification window did not simply end there.
Soon after, a few more lines began to scroll up beneath the first message.《All abilities of the individual increase explosively.》《The individual has fulfilled the conditions and grows. The special skill 「Bloodline’s Craving」 evolves into 「Return to the Origin」.》And following that.
At the same time as something dwelling within Heinz swelled as if it would burst—.《The individual awakens, and the racial value has been changed to “Vampire (Divine Blood)”.》He was finally able to achieve what he had desired.***“Guuugh...”
“Good grief, to think you really tried to run. If not for the barrier, I might’ve almost let you get away.”
From between the densely packed trees came both the groan of someone dying and the rough voice of a man.
Crack!
Immediately after the brutal sound of something being crushed rang out, a massive barbarian with something gripped in one hand soon emerged, pushing through the underbrush at a leisurely pace.
And that man—Harley, who had at some point returned to his original form—carefully collected the corpses of the victims, including the one in his hand, then looked around once more.‘Still, thanks to this, I secured plenty of materials for Hans. All top-grade, too.’On top of that, the fact that he had been able to drastically reduce the strength of the Beoncheon Society’s European branch was a great gain.
Who could have imagined they would be trapped in the barrier they themselves had set up, unable to go anywhere, and be hunted down?
Wasn’t this exactly what people called reaping what you sowed?
“Let’s see, then now...”
Harley, still wearing the magical beast mask pulled deep over his head, scratched his chin roughly.
In the past, the moment a battle ended, he would have shoved meat down his throat without rest to replenish his energy, but now that he could expend madness in its place, the hunger he felt right away was not that great.
In other words, if he set his mind to it, he could continue fighting even now.
“...I suppose I should clean up.”
But Harley specialized in all-out battles accompanied by destruction, and was not much help in other matters.
The one with abilities useful in the current situation was not him, but someone else.
An outer region located a short distance from the central area where he was.‘Hmm.’Leaning languidly against a tall tree, Harris swept his gaze over the area again with 「Observer of the Milky Way」, then slowly nodded.‘It’s over.’He gently stroked the colorful spirits manifested around him, then looked over the barrier that still enveloped the entire forest.‘As expected, that isn’t ordinary either. There was a fight of this scale inside, and yet it’s still maintained...’Though it had accumulated fatigue and was now in a tattered state, practically on the verge of collapse, the fact that it was still functioning after withstanding that level of aftermath was truly impressive.
Moreover, wasn’t that a special product that had taken an incredibly short time to activate?‘...As expected, it’s the Doctor’s work. Then the one observing the inside through that right now is also...’Harris, his expression languid, tilted his head slightly to the side.
As the battle continued and the aftermath caused the barrier to tremble, he had realized that someone of unknown identity was using it to look inside.
He had been planning to step forward soon anyway, so having his identity revealed did not matter, but the thought that someone was observing him one-sidedly was rather bothersome.‘...Wait. Looking at the barrier’s condition now, I might be able to slip out at least one spirit in secret.’Since it had been prepared with transcendents in mind, even that would have been difficult if the barrier were operating normally.
But the situation was different now.
And since spirits were also incorporeal spiritual bodies, it was easier still.‘This works out nicely. And if I use that well...’Whoooosh—
A softly swirling whirlwind.
Harris carefully operated his energy to send Pascal, the wind spirit, outside the barrier.
There was a moment during the process when the barrier seemed about to react, but by applying even the harmony formula of the 「Void Eight Trigrams Secret Art (Modified)」, he ultimately succeeded in stealthily sending all the spirits outside.‘Now—please, Pascal. Search every corner of the city and find any suspicious location. Among them, there must be a place connected to this barrier.’The reason they had deliberately come all the way to Europe was entirely for Heinz’s growth.
And that goal had just been completely achieved.
But now that the being called the Doctor had happened to enter their sights...‘If it’s Pascal, a highest-grade spirit, sweeping through a single city shouldn’t take that long.’Soon, a refreshing gust of wind swept toward the place Heinz had originally intended to go—the direction of Bucharest, the capital of Romania.***A holographic image continued to play on one wall.
From the moment the fight in the forest began until it neared its end, the Doctor, standing in place and using 「Eye of Truth」, stared straight at it without so much as blinking.
Of course, since he was not an ordinary person either, his eyes were not greatly damaged by that alone, but his two eyes, bloodshot and dyed crimson, were more than enough to evoke a scene from a horror film.
“...He can freely adjust that massive size? What’s his muscle density, then? His basic weight looks considerable too... Is he controlling it by moving the surrounding energy? Judging by the amount of flowing energy and the degree to which the ground caved in, he should easily exceed one ton. Then what on earth is the structure of his organs...?”
Huff— huff—
On top of that, the sight of him muttering like a madman while letting out rough breaths only highlighted his grotesqueness further.
The way he persistently dug into and analyzed one person with eyes gleaming like a lunatic made him look, to anyone, like a dangerous criminal.
Of course, in reality, he was indeed a criminal.
“...Hm? What is this, is it already over? The other places too... Tsk, how can they be this pathetic!”
To him, the battle situation that had ultimately ended in the Beoncheon Society’s defeat was nothing more and nothing less than a source of dissatisfaction.
He no longer cared in the least about the safety of the European branch.
He was only regretful that he could no longer continue observing his test subject.
“I misjudged the Duke, and badly at that! I still thought he was a somewhat useful fellow! To think he’d be taken down so pointlessly... hm? What’s that? Hooh...”
When he, who had been absorbed in Harley’s body the entire time he watched the footage, checked the situation elsewhere, the first thing he saw was—
Heinz, who had just devoured the Duke and was facing a tremendous change.
“That is...”
The figure of Phantom engulfed in an enormous mass of deep crimson blood magic.
A flash once again sparked in the eyes of the Doctor, who had been venting his frustration.
The situation immediately after a vampire devoured one of its own kind!
And were not both predator and prey monsters evaluated as being at the very edge of Level 9?
This was truly a rare sight he might never see again.
“Ooh... Ooooh?!”
As expected, it was extraordinary.
Blood magic of a purity he had never once seen before writhed and surged violently around a single vampire.
However, what was truly regrettable was...
“Aaaah—! No! It isn’t enough! It isn’t enough! I should have been there! If only I could have seen that directly!!”
The fact that the energy was so dense that he could not observe the interior of the body where the change was taking place.
Naturally, no matter how excellent the effect of this video magic tool was, it was bound to have limits.
And there was no way he could observe through such a method a mystery that he might or might not be able to see through even if he were facing it in person.
“Aaaagh! To miss such an opportunity like this!”
In suffocating frustration, he beat his chest and roared at the top of his lungs.
Of course, even in the midst of that, his gaze never left the screen.
“There are two such delectable test subjects right there...! And I cannot get my hands on them? Nothing is going right because that idiotic Duke bastard botched the matter! Useless vermin! I should have drained every drop of his blood instead—aaagh!”
After he had fumed like that for some time, his thoughts suddenly stretched elsewhere.
Both of the two he had observed earlier were extremely interesting beings.
Then what about the remaining one?
With a feeling of expectation, he immediately checked another location inside the barrier...
“Oh? Oooooh!”Through 「Eye of Truth」, he discovered a being assimilated with nature as though becoming one with it, and once again let out an exclamation of admiration.
“That is... real! I wondered if it could be, but it really was! A being from another world, truly on Earth!”
His eyes, which saw through truth, were telling him.
That this was not something involving a transformation ability, but a being whose very foundation, which made up its existence, originated wholly from another dimension.
Because the other party’s level was high, he could not grasp the details, but for now, even that much was enough.
“The fairy race I had only heard of! I was so disappointed that they did not exist in the world I came from, and now one appears like this! What heavenly gift is this!”
The Doctor exhaled in a voice full of emotion.
But he, having been greatly excited, soon realized that he could not obtain them right now, and like a child whose precious gift had been taken away, stared blankly at the screen again.
Three treasures he desperately wanted had appeared all at once, yet he could not possess them. To him, there was no tragedy greater than this.
As his emotions bounced up and down, he finally clutched at his chest, steeped in resentment and bitter injustice.
“Guuuuugh!”
A line of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and dropped to the floor.
Obsession and possessiveness surged fiercely in his eyes as he chewed his lips to shreds.
While the Doctor was utterly absorbed in the screen, unable to come to his senses—
The corner of Harris’s mouth, one being within that screen, rose ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly.‘Found it.’In truth, finding the destination had not been as easy as he had thought.
Bucharest, the stronghold of the Beoncheon Society’s European branch, had far too many suspicious places, including areas covered by barriers.
But by concentrating his remaining power on Pascal alone, Harris had at last found a place faintly connected to the barrier here.
If signals had not been transmitted in real time because someone was still watching this place even now, perhaps he would not have found it this quickly.‘Now then...’From this point on, speed was life.
The newly awakened vampire of divine blood.
It was time for Earth’s one and only Level 10 vampire to step forward.