What a feeling! Demens thought as he smiled, looking down at his kin worshiping him. His sharp fangs shone, reflecting the light from the chandelier. World Ranker! Ahhh, World Ranker! What a sweet-tasting word!
Although the seven bloodlines that have inherited the purest of the Vampire Lord’s blood were referred to as a group known as the Seven Purebloods, there was a hierarchy among them. The Sanguis bloodline was undeniably at the top, and the Melos bloodline was second, which Demens could understand. However, he couldn’t endure the disrespect of the Rabies bloodline from the Amor, Dirae, and Sigillum bloodlines.
There was no gap in our powers from the beginning! It was only because that bitch, Scite Amor, started sucking up to Scourgify Sanguis when he became a consul of the Sēmen!
It had already been over a century since Demens realized his unique caliber. His precious Blood of Madness shone brightly at a magnitude of 8.5, and he was now ready to write unforgettable history.
Ninety-eighth?! Technically, I’m ninety-seventh since the seat of the Tenth Fiend is still vacant... It’s too low!
Demens was highly dissatisfied with his current rank. Since Scite Amor was eighty-fifth, he believed it was only right that he was also ranked in the eighties.
This is only the beginning!
Demens planned to use this year’s Night of the Full Moon to herald the Rabies bloodline’s meteoric rise, and the opening remarks he had prepared also carried his aspirations.
“Let us raise our glasses,” Demens said.
Each of his kin raised the crystal wine glasses they were given. Just then, Viscount Motusch Rabies, a handsome man with red hair, stepped forward and bowed to Demens.
“My Lord Demens Rabies, inheritor of the madness of the great twin moons. I, Motusch, have brought the opening drinks.”
Once Motusch glanced at Peter Geraghty, Wang Chen gestured to the Blood Cross clansmen and Seong-Hwi’s party. Dozens of humans pushed wagons carrying wooden casks toward the center of the party hall.
The vampires couldn’t hide their anticipation after smelling the casks.
“Hmmm. Whoa!”
“What a fragrance.”
“I heard they had prepared something special for this year, and it sure seems like it!”
Demens immediately recognized which race’s blood was in the casks because he often enjoyed it. “Oh? Dragon blood.”
“That is correct. Not just that, but the blood is from that of royal dragons,” Motusch replied.
The atmosphere in the party hall soared.
“Dragon blood?!”
“The best of the best!”
“Whoooaaa!”
Dragon blood contained immense amounts of mana, heightening the wine’s alcohol content. High-ranking aristocrats have drunk dragon blood at least once, but it was that of inferior or intermediate dragons, or superior dragons on rare occasions. However, only a select few had ever drunk royal dragon blood.
“It is quite valuable. Where did you acquire this?” Demens asked.
“That is...” Motusch trailed off.
Just then, Wang Chen, disguised as Peter Geraghty, stepped forward and remarked, “Marquis Demens Rabies. My name is Peter Geraghty of Clan Blood Cross, the supplier of the wine for the opening ceremony and the parties to come. May I be permitted to speak?”
“Very well. But before that, remove your trivial disguise,” Demens replied.
Wang Chen swallowed his saliva and thought, It’s okay! This was within our expectations!
Once he removed the Myriad Cheoyong Mask, the fat white man vanished, and in his place appeared a hideous Asian man.
Motusch’s eyes widened once he realized the Peter he knew turned out to be someone else, and the other kin expressed their disgust.
“What the—”
“Hah, how dare that insolent human try to pull a trivial farce before the marquis?!”
“What is that item? I couldn’t detect it. Is it a high-ranking artifact?”
“I would expect nothing less from Marquis Demens!”
Demens smirked as he looked down at Wang Chen and said, “You have impressive guts to use a disguise skill before me.”
“My sincerest apologies. I believed my appearance would be distasteful to show the honorable aristocrats,” Wang Chen said, his voice wheezing.
The aristocrats who saw his face understood. His skin was contorted from burns, his nose was severed, and a part of his lips was gone, exposing his teeth even with his mouth closed.
“Tsk, it is indeed distasteful.”
“Was he tortured?’
“I wouldn’t want to drink from that, even if I was offered.”
It was only natural that one wouldn’t want others to see such a face. The Blood Cross clansmen were also confused, but considering the venue, they forced their confusion down.
He established a small amount of trust! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly, watching from the sidelines.
Removing the disguise before Demens Rabies was a gamble. Whether Myriad Faces was seen through or not, Seong-Hwi had prepared lines for Wang Chen to say for either situation. Ironically, having the skill seen through was far more in their favor.
By having them figure out the lie and be satisfied with a legitimate reason, they unconsciously believe they are not being lied to.
It was a trivial psychological trick.
“Since it is a wondrous day, I will allow a small mistake. You have done well to supply us with a special wine, after all,” Demens said benevolently as he nodded.
Wang Chen bowed and replied, “Thank you for your mercy.”
“Where did you acquire the dragon blood?” Demens asked again, waving his hand as if telling Wang Chen to do away with the flattery.
Wang Chen recited, “A few weeks ago, dragons of Nivalis invaded the human Capital. I managed to acquire the blood of some of Biphatogenes’s children, who were killed during the battle, with much difficulty.”
The Rabies bloodline’s kin chatted joyfully among each other, mocking the fall of the great dragons.
“Oh, I remember hearing about that.”
“Kekekek! Echion sure has become weak!”
“I guess humans aren’t so weak after all! Ahaha!”
“I heard there wasn’t even a trace left of Biphatogenes.”
“What a shame!”
“Ahahaha! Fantastic. So, you’re telling me this is the blood of the ice dragons?” Demens laughed as he bared his fangs, snapping his fingers and activating a skill.
[Activating Race Skill: Blood Control.]
The dozens of wooden casks on the wagons were destroyed, but the dragon blood inside the casks floated upward, not even a single drop dripping on the floor. Demens then evenly filled the vampires’ crystal wine glasses with the dragon blood using Blood Control.
“The blood of the ice dragons is known for its refreshing taste! Raise your glasses!” Demens shouted.
The fangs of the vampires with the dragon blood before them lengthened, and their eyes turned even redder. They each appreciated the wine’s scent.
“Whoooaaa! What a mystical scent! It’s as if I’m in the middle of a field of ice!”
“Ahhh... I’m having trouble holding myself back.”
They stared desperately at Demens, who raised his glass and was about to begin his opening remarks when Wang Chen interrupted him.
“There is a different wine prepared for you, my Lord.”
“Hm?” Demens expressed, turning to Wang Chen. All eyes shifted to Wang Chen. Demens asked, “What are you talking about?”
“To celebrate your entry into the world ranking, I have prepared a special wine that you have never drunk,” Wang Chen replied.
Demens’s eyelids subtly shook. “A wine I have never drunk?”
“That’s correct.”
“Hah, hahaha! Did I hear you right?” Demens shouted, laughing at the absurdity.
He was confident that in his millennia of life, as long as it had blood, whether they be dragons, demons, angels, elves, beastfolk, or the like, he had sliced their necks and drunk their blood.
He couldn’t be happier that he was Lost to the Mirror World, a wine storage that overflowed with various kinds of wine. Any wine connoisseur like himself would adore the Mirror World, so he couldn’t believe that there was wine that he had never tasted.
“Ahahahahahaha! Very well. If you present me with wine I have never tasted, I will reward you handsomely,” Demens said.
“I promise you will not be disappointed,” Wang Chen said as he turned around and glanced at Seong-Hwi, who nodded and stepped forward. Wang Chen ordered, “Bring it out.”
“Yes, sir,” Seong-Hwi said, pretending to be Wang Chen’s subordinate, as he grabbed a small, trembling entity from his pocket.
It was Echo, a fairy with golden hair and eyes, restrained by a chain whip. She sniffled and hiccupped in terror as hundreds of red eyes were fixed on her.
***
“Ya—hoo! Yaaa—hoo! Is anybody there?”[1]
Echo was alone ever since she became aware of her consciousness. She was always alone in a pitch-black space.
“Ya—hoo! Yaaa—hoo! Is anybody there?”
Her voice returned to her as an echo. Echo fell to her knees and wiped her tears. The crying of someone with golden hair and eyes as bright as the sun made it seem as if the space were becoming even darker.
What am I? Where am I? Will someone come to get me? Echo wondered again and again in the space without time.
One day, the pitch-black world was split into two.
“Ahhh!” she shouted, covering her eyes with her tiny hands. “It’s too bright... Hm?”
Once Harmony Force flashed from the twenty-four wings on her back, the light was no longer blinding. She flew up toward the sky and looked down at where she had been. It was a cradle of leaves, split into two.
“So, this is what I’ve been inside! Huh?”
Echo looked around and saw the thousands of dry leaf cradles beside the cradle she had come out of.
She shaped her hands like a trumpet as she flew around and shouted, “Ya—hoo! Yaaa—hoo! Is anybody there?”
However, all she could hear was her echoing voice.
“I’m... alone again,” Echo mumbled sorrowfully, hugging herself.
Just then, odd visions suddenly played inside her head.
“I must find her! She has to be somewhere! I will find her, even if I must search the entire Mirror World!”
The voice came from a large man with a golden right arm, looking around. A black drawing of what Echo had never seen connected his left ear and the crown of his head. He had no hair, so his head was shiny.
“First... Knight!” Echo mumbled.
The next vision played. This time, it was of an expressionless man with black hair and eyes. He felt as if one would get cut just by approaching him, but Echo didn’t feel scared by him for some reason.
“Second Knight!”
Echo realized everything as if she had reached a sudden enlightenment. She had these two men to thank for her being born in the leaf cradle. The wheel of fate began to turn due to their appearance, and she was certain that her solitude would vanish upon meeting them.
“First Knight! Second Knight! Where are you?” Echo asked, but there was no answer. She thought intently for a while, then clenched her tiny fists and shouted, “That’s it! I just have to find them!”
She resolved to fly out of the forest. She had no idea, but she was born in the Phantom Forest, located in the northwest area of the Mirror World. It used to be an infamous forbidden zone in Pavelaya, the fairies’ home dimension.
Echo managed to escape the forest after months of losing her way, but unfortunately, she ended up meeting a black clan that had been killing and collecting rare flora and fauna in the Phantom Forest.
“What’s this?”
“A fairy?”
“Why does she have so many wings?”
“She must be a mutant.”
They sold her to Clan Blood Cross, a major player in the black market. Peter Geraghty, who had been looking for rare tributes, trapped her in a bronze-cast Venus de Milo statue, overjoyed by the special cask that had come just in time.
“Ya...hoo... Yaaa...hoo... Sniff!”
Echo cried from being trapped in a dark world once again and fell asleep from exhaustion. When she woke up, one of the men in her visions was before her.
“Fairy, is your name Echo?”
Her knight had come for her—he had come to save her from the dark world.
Echo smiled brightly and shouted, “Second Knight! Where have you been all this time! Echo’s been waiting for you!”
***
Demens expressed disappointment as he stared at the hiccupping fairy, looking around with her wide golden eyes.
“All you have is... a fairy?” he asked.
He couldn’t believe an inferior race was all they had prepared after all that anticipation. Fairy blood was indeed refreshing, but the wine from their blood was far below his heightened expectations.
“It is too early to be disappointed. This fairy is...” Wang Chen trailed off as if he were the host of an awards ceremony. He smiled satisfyingly and continued, “The Fairy Queen.”
“What... did you say?” Demens asked.
The vampires murmured.
“What is that human talking about? The Fairy Queen?”
“Does something like that exist?”
“No way... The dragons would have never let such a fairy be!”
Demens scanned Echo with his blood-red eyes.
“Eek!” Echo yelled, closing her eyes to avoid the cold gaze.
She would have never accepted this kind of request if it had not come from the Second Knight.
“Oh? Twenty-four wings,” Demens mumbled, his disinterested gaze blazing fiercely again. He licked his lips and nodded. “It is indeed... wine I have never tasted!”
“Please savor the aroma,” Wang Chen said as he turned to Seong-Hwi.
Seong-Hwi nodded and summoned a two-meter spear with a lanceolate-shaped head and a pointed tail.
“This is an item that induces mass bleeding. I will begin,” Seong-Hwi said as he pointed the spear at Echo.
Echo blinked as she stared at Seong-Hwi and thought, There’s no way the Second Knight would harm me!
She was not afraid in the slightest because she had absolute trust in her Second Knight. Seong-Hwi thrust the spear, seemingly with the intent to pierce her neck.
One, two... Echo counted inwardly.
“KYAAAAAHHH!” she screamed as loudly as possible once the cold metal touched her neck.
Red blood spurted like a fountain toward the sky.
“Ah...Ahhhhh!” Demens expressed, his nose twitching.
He had never smelled such a fantastical scent. He was certain the blood held a phenomenal amount of history. A catharsis spread from his head to toe as if he were struck by lightning.
“The highest... quality!” he shouted.
1. Yahoo (야호) is something that Korean hikers shout when they reach the peak of a mountain to hear echoes. ☜
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