The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

It was a demon. If Albertus was like a dark wind earlier, she appeared more like a demon now.

Her strength, speed, size, anything and everything looked completely different.

I made the split second decision to move to the side to evade her gigantic self. Albertus crashed head first into a closed shop and that was all it took for the building to crumble as if it were no more than a pile of bricks.

Although it was nighttime, that did not mean there were no people around. The air was filled with screams from unlucky passersby and people who were staying in the same inn as me. However, Albertus did not seem in the least concerned about causing an uproar.

She shook off the debris, turned around and glared at me.

This… is dangerous. Can vampires really make a subordinate out of such a monster?

I thought perhaps growing in size might dull her intelligence, but that does not appear to be true. Not a single footstep could be heard as that huge body leapt into the air.

The moon hidden from view by her black silhouette, the surroundings grow dark for an instant.

It… is impossible to parry this blow. The monster descends. I kicked back to evade it. Its claws smashed the surface of the unpaved road and did not stop as it lunged towards me, mouth open. Let alone an arm or two, that mouth looked capable of tearing me right in half. Gigantic jaws. I retreated and hurriedly evaded it.

Its body felt as if it was on fire. I tried to kick it in the face as I retreated, but I did not make the slightest dent. Those eyes burned with loathing as always.

Ahh, how abominable… curses are.

For a moment, I set aside the fact that I was also cursed and sympathized with her circumstances. However, I need to defeat her no matter what.

How can I take down this monster in front of me?

Should I wait for Senri? When would she get back?… No, I should not let Senri face this monster.

I am well aware of her strength , but this monster – a pseudo werewolf is most likely not an undead, so positive energy would not be its weakness.

This is my enemy. It has come to kill me. I need to be the one to deal with it.

Albertus advances towards me crushing the ground she steps on. Her limbs stomped over the ground, scattering earth everywhere. I frantically retreated, but she was much faster than even me, a vampire. I manage to evade a few attacks but her claws that tried to slash me, graze my body. The impact from that attack was so strong that it felt like my body was being torn apart.

I lose consciousness. When I came to, I was lying on the first floor of a house.

There was a huge hole in the wall. I seemed to have broken through quite a few walls. The bones in my body that were on the verge of breaking apart, heal and return to their original state and my torso that had been torn to shreds heals up in the blink of an eye. I may have died a hundred times over had I been human.

Luckily, I had blacked out only for an instant.

However, this is impossible. I need a weapon. Nevertheless, I cannot wield a silver weapon which is probably her weakness.

I made the mistake of letting go of the Blood Ruler back at the inn. Would it be possible for that machete to cut into that fur, flesh and bone?

Well… I have no other choice but to take the risk. I cannot imagine a weapon better than that to conveniently lie around somewhere.

I only thought about it for a second.

Albertus ran towards me breaking through houses and walls as if they were mere sheets of paper. I frantically slid to the side to evade her.

I managed to avoid her claws. But she found an opening and swung her tail at me.

Covered with bristles and fiercely strong, it was a lethal weapon in itself.

It hit me right in the abdomen and gouged out a large portion and I was sent spinning before slamming heavily into a wall. The throbbing pain made my vision flicker.

The pain itself was not unbearable. However, I felt immensely thirsty. Since I had to recover from several fatal injuries, I was running out of energy. If I completely run dry, I would stop recovering like before when I was tortured by Neville and the rest of the knights.

I need to replenish. I supported my spinning head as I thought it over.

We are in the middle of the town. A lot of the townsfolk are probably running helter-skelter at the unexpected occurrence of a disaster, so there should be no lack of resources.

Albertus is targeting me. If I quickly feed a little….

The internal conflict lasted but a moment.

No… I promised Senri I would not feed on any other humans, and I doubt I would be able to gain the strength to defeat this monster by drinking a bit of blood.

I do not have the luxury to feed on anybody… in the first place.

Again, Albertus came at me from above decimating every obstacle in her path. To have all this strength and not as many weaknesses as a vampire is simply too unfair.

I cannot even spare a moment to go pick up the machete. A storm is what she was like.

Though she was carelessly sending me flying far, she did not lose sight of me. Is she perhaps able to detect me through my scent?

I need to get away. I need to escape somehow… and gather my bearings….

Her forelimb slashed at me. And her dark, gigantic self from above. I made the impulsive decision to not move to the side but leap forward.

The ceiling began to collapse. My entire vision is blocked by its dark mass. I crouch down and frantically slip away. I shudder at the sounds of destruction coming from behind.

Somehow I manage to not be turned into a pancake and slip underneath Albertus.

I manage to buy myself a second of breathing room. Before Albertus turns around, I stealthily make my way to the road where we originally started.

She is much faster than I am. Merely running away will only get me easily caught.

Nevertheless, Albertus really put me through the wringer. My abdomen was slit open several times with blood splattering everywhere.

If she really was locating me through my scent, then this might be able to confuse her. Given the whole place was a mess with debris everywhere, I have plenty of places to hide.

It took me a lot of effort to put a distance of a few houses between us. My sharp sense of hearing could clearly make out Albertus violently tearing down houses in an effort to turn around.

I particularly found a room that looked like an appalling scene of murder with my blood spattered everywhere coupled with the destructive remains of the house. Although not ideal, I may be able to hide here.

My claws came out and I slit my arm to scatter more blood around. Losing a bit of blood is nothing if it can serve to fool Albertus.

After scattering fresh blood around the room, I hold my breath, find a broken table near the scene of spatter and lay down in its shadows. I make sure to stay as quiet as a mouse.

Albertus’ footsteps draw closer. Considering how large she grew, it should be impossible to move around the house without making a sound.

She did not charge like before and her footsteps sounded more unhurried.

Looks like I was right about her detecting me through my scent. And probably also sound.

Chasing me down would be simple if I were moving, but if I quietly stayed hidden somewhere, it should be hard for even a beast to find me.

I become one with the table as I wait for the footsteps to draw closer. I could sense a huge presence nearing me smashing through all the wreckage. And that presence came to a halt in the room I was hiding.

The sound of the beast breathing. The sound of it sniffing around. Debris tumbles over nearby and my normally feeble sounding heart, stops beating all together.

Though I was not in pain, I felt lightheaded. I need… blood.

Maybe she had sensed something, for she did not leave the room right away. I could hear the half destroyed furniture being tossed around. Perhaps… the fresh spatter of blood meant to confuse her had raised doubts in her instead. Did my plan to hide my scent backfire on me?

I am dead if found. A direct attack from her forelimb could easily crush my skull.

Forget it. Forget trying to counterattack and only think about hiding right now.

I curled up like a small animal. Unable to move with death looming over me reminded me of my previous life when I was bedridden.

I try to become one with the wreckage. At that moment, I noticed my arm… the color of my skin change.

☠ ☠ ☠

Strange. I lost sight of him.

The beast that was once Albertus squinted as it followed his scent. There is no doubt that he was right in front of me just now. A few more minutes and he would have been ripped to shreds.

However, he was nowhere to be found. Albertus’ senses were quite sharp. In particular, her sense of smell was exceptional, but her sense of sight and hearing were quite extraordinary as well. No matter the day, it was impossible for her to lose sight of someone.

There is no doubt that he is nearby. He had no luxury to get very far.

Blood and tissue from the lesser vampire were scattered in the vicinity. She detected the faint scent of blood particular to undead as she searched for the target. A spark of annoyance was beginning to smolder in the corner of her mind.

She violently kicked through the wreckage, searching for the vampire that was certain to be hiding somewhere.

The full moon shone brightly in the sky. The full moon grants more power to the vampires, but the same goes for Albertus as well.

They were overwhelmingly mismatched in terms of fighting strength. The target is not a vampire. It was only the chrysalis of a vampire, a lesser being.

It does not possess most of the powerful abilities particular to vampires. There was no way she would lose.

In the midst of a whirlwind of emotions, with what little reason I had left, I recalled a scene from my past.

The sudden destruction of peace. Arrogant, cruel and overwhelmingly strong, the King of the Dead suddenly attacked her.

The feeling of being deprived of something precious through being fed on and the extremely terrifying feeling that came with being forcibly made to transform.

It was simply a coincidence that Albertus was chosen to be the first victim of its ability. And perhaps her good luck as well.

The ability that had been gained through forcible transformation was imperfect. The being that was supposed to gain control over Albertus, instead self-destructed from the backlash of using its incomplete ability, leaving behind a curse that could not be undone and her murderous rage against vampires.

Animal instinct was taking over the human mind. Even so, I will not be at peace if I do not exact vengeance against vampires that took everything from me.

This time, I will be the one to take everything and replace it with fear. She had already committed to memory the faint scent of vampires that normally even beasts are unable to detect.

I am no mere dog. I am the hound that drives vampires into a corner and hunts them down.

I am not doing this for anyone’s sake. I do not need gratitude, sympathy or even any significance in life. Albertus surrendered herself to her instincts and howled into the moonlit night.

The atmosphere shook and the sound unsettled the wreckage. Making use of the shock waves that brought forth, she caught a rough sense of her surroundings.

And so, Albertus spotted a house. She found something standing still above its roof.

Steeped in darkness, it was a boy with a very feeble presence.

Without a scent, completely silent, he had blended into the dark. Standing still, even Albertus would have a hard time spotting him.

I see… it was the ability of a Dark Stalker. Albertus dusted out some knowledge buried in the depths of her mind.

That weak undead before evolution into a vampire was better than the latter at one thing and that was in concealing itself.

It was the special characteristic of an Ancestor, which gets stronger through evolution, to use abilities from its other stages of evolution. It was the one defining characteristic that set it apart from undead that are turned by other vampires.

That boy – the lesser vampire called End, held a large, black machete in his hand.

He was clad in clothes that had been shred apart from Albertus’ attacks, that they were naturally reduced to rags. However, it was not anger reflected in those eyes as they quietly observed Albertus.

What a futile attempt. Silhouette, the ability of a Dark Stalker cannot be wielded for longer periods of time.

Having gotten your hands on a weapon, you think you can defeat me, Albertus?

You could have lived a little longer had you fled here….

A weapon like that is no more than a wooden stick before me. I will toy around with you before tearing you apart.

Filled with pure murderous intent, Albertus howled. Brandishing the machete, the vampire swooped down on her.

And thus, the final battle began.

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