I Awakened The Ancient Vampire System

Chapter 146: Chapter 146: The Plague

Bruno crossed his arms. "How are we supposed to inform the Grand Core masters? The shockwaves from their clashes won’t even let us near the area."

He was right. The four guild masters and the Zephyr Eagle were generating enough ambient pressure to flatten anyone below peak Core Realm who got within a hundred meters. Even from where they stood, they could feel the weight of each collision pressing against them.

Wei Chen opened his mouth to respond —

The rain stopped.

Lucian’s head snapped up.

The beasts attacking the wall hesitated. The D-Rank eagles circling above broke formation, scattering in confused spirals.

Then they retreated.

All of them. Simultaneously. As if a signal had been given that only they could hear, every beast outside the wall turned and ran — or flew, or slithered — back toward the Black Forest. The coordinated horde that had been pressing the attack for hours dissolved into a disorganized rout.

Even the Zephyr Eagle pulled back.

The massive beast broke off from the four guild masters with a final shriek — screeeee — and climbed rapidly into the dark sky, its storm-cloud feathers shrinking to a dot, then nothing.

The soldiers on the wall stared.

Then someone cheered.

It spread like fire — one voice, then ten, then a hundred, then a thousand. Soldiers on the ground started shouting, pumping fists, hugging each other.

"We won! We won! WE WON!"

The relief was palpable. People collapsed where they stood, exhaustion finally catching up now that the adrenaline had nowhere to go. Medics rushed to the wounded. Officers barked orders about regrouping and casualty counts.

Lucian didn’t cheer.

He stood motionless, watching the tree line where the beasts had disappeared. Something about the retreat was wrong. Beasts didn’t retreat like that. The horde had been relentless for hours. And then, the moment the rain stopped, they just... left.

Something still felt off.

At this point, Lucian just wanted to leave this city as soon as possible.

The group stayed the night in New Geneva.

Travel back to their respective academies was scheduled for the next morning — military transport had been arranged for all tournament participants once the city was deemed safe enough. The rain had stopped completely, the beasts had retreated, and the immediate threat appeared to be over.

But the aftermath was ugly.

Hospitals were overflowing. Thousands of civilians and awakeners who’d been exposed to the poisoned rain were showing symptoms — green veins, neurological degradation, organ failure in the worst cases. The death toll was still being counted.

The next morning, they made their way back to the Starveil Tower to regroup with the others before heading to the airfield.

The scene that greeted them at the tower’s entrance stopped them in their tracks.

Officers were carrying people out on stretchers — some unconscious, some bleeding, some barely breathing. Medical teams rushed back and forth between the tower and a field hospital set up in the adjacent plaza. The pale inscriptions on the tower’s walls were flickering erratically, several sections cracked or dark.

Clara’s expression tightened. She grabbed the nearest officer — a young man with a bandaged arm.

"Where are the others? The students who stayed behind to guard the tower?"

The officer blinked, confused. "I just arrived at the tower myself, ma’am. I was stationed at the eastern wall during the attack —"

Clara released him and looked at the others. Liang Feng was already moving, approaching another officer. Ryu pushed through the crowd toward a group of medical personnel. Wei Chen and Bruno hung back, exchanging a grim look.

It took twenty minutes of asking around before they pieced together what had happened.

A Grand Core Realm master from the Dark Order had attacked the tower.

The students and officers who’d stayed behind had held the lower floors for nearly an hour. Arthur had led the defense — coordinating barriers, directing attacks, buying time. But the Dark Order fighter had carved through them methodically, floor by floor, heading upward toward the ninth floor.

The guild masters from the war front had arrived before the attacker reached their target. A brief but devastating clash had forced the Dark Order member to retreat. But the damage was done.

Two Chinese Vanguard students were dead. The Summoner — Li Yang — and another student whose name Lucian didn’t recognize. Killed in the initial breach before the defense had fully organized.

The group rushed to the medical wing.

Lucian moved fast weaving through the crowded corridors. The only person he actually gave a fuck about was Rose.

He found her in a side room, sitting upright on a bed, a bandage wrapped around her midsection. Her red hair was disheveled and there were dark circles under her green eyes, but she was alive. The cut across her stomach was almost fully healed, her C-Rank Minor Regeneration working overtime.

Rose looked up as Lucian appeared in the doorway. Her expression shifted — surprise, relief, then a small, tired smile.

"You’re okay."

Lucian crossed the room and sat on the edge of her bed.

Rose’s smile widened. "I’m okay, Lucian. Seriously."

He sighed.

Wei Chen and Bruno arrived a few minutes later and took beds in the same room — Wei Chen’s chest wounds from the Khalil fight still needed professional attention.

Clara and Liang Feng went to find the others.

They found Ryan in the medical lab — a separate wing of the tower where Iris, Sarah, Jake, Bao Lei, and Ethan had set up a makeshift research station. Tables covered with equipment, screens displaying chemical analyses, vials of green-tinted liquid that Lucian recognized as rain samples.

Clara walked in and hugged her brother immediately. "You’re okay."

Ryan hugged her back, but his expression was solemn.

"They still haven’t been able to deduce the cure."

Clara pulled back, frowning. "It’s been almost a full day."

"We’ve tried everything." Ryan ran a hand through his hair. "Standard poison cleansing — nothing. Antiviral protocols — nothing. Blood filtration — nothing. The compound doesn’t respond to any known treatment methodology."

Iris looked up from a screen, dark circles under her own eyes.

"This is definitely a plague," Iris said quietly. "It’s a living compound that replicates on contact with biological tissue and rewrites cellular function. We’re calling it the Green Plague for now."

Ryan turned back to Clara and Liang Feng. His voice dropped.

"And it gets worse. Anyone who comes in direct contact with someone who is already plagued will also be plagued."

The room went quiet.

"Skin contact," Ryan continued. "Bodily fluids. Even prolonged proximity without physical barriers — the plague can transmit through microscopic moisture particles in exhaled breath if you’re close enough for long enough."

Clara’s hands tightened into fists. "So every hospital, every medical wing, every place where the wounded are being treated—"

"Is a transmission point," Ryan finished. "Yes. The medics treating the plagued patients are getting infected. The patients in beds next to plagued patients are getting infected. We’ve already had cases of doctors collapsing mid-surgery because the patient on the table was infected and they didn’t know."

Liang Feng’s face had gone pale. "How many are affected?"

Ryan didn’t answer immediately.

"Last count was forty-three thousand. Across New Geneva and the surrounding fortified zones." He paused. "And rising."

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