Chapter 937 - Heretic bloodline

POV Cerulean Parlor

“Pick it up,” the man on the screen says, and the parlor erupts into excited shouts. Some of the people present even stand up, jumping up and down.

“I TOLD YOU! I FUCKING TOLD YOU! I LOVE THAT MOTHERFUCKER!” The demon man with glasses keeps shouting and moving across the room, hitting people on the backs of their heads and collecting his winnings from them.

Even more people rush into the parlor, alerted by the others. A recording of the events so far is already prepared so they can get caught up and place their bets.

“I didn't have the Wraith versus Mana Daddy on my list today.”

“You know that you don't have to call him that anymore, the bet specified that you had to call him that for one day only.”

“How powerful is the Wraith, Lady Greed, if I may ask?” the spider woman politely asks as she stops near the couch on which both Kindness and Greed sit.

It isn't a secret anymore who is actually that man’s Handler, and learning that fact caused its own series of excited conversations and reexaminations of the previous actions taken by both Greed and Greed in her Handler identity.

Some members of the parlor even had fun spreading their own rumors and romanticizing the situation into the story of a Ruler falling for a “mortal man” and, for the first time in tens of thousands of years, forgetting her revenge.

Others talk of a love destined to meet a bad ending, and there was even a person saying the Ruler of Greed surely showed romantic interest in the first person who reminded her of her old master that much, causing old rumors to resurface of the forbidden love between disciple Ruby and The Ancient Monster.

All of those background rumors seem to be forgotten now because, and unlike previously, no one seems to call out the fact of what a risk-taker the man on the screen is, or putting him down by predicting his immediate death.

People are just curious what he will do now, and although they are maybe thinking he might die this time, some are slowly turning into believers. A small percentage of them even begin to say he might come up with a way to survive and become an Absolute after all.

“As you already know, levels are often unimportant with beings like him,” the Ruler of Greed answers and glances to her left as Kindness smiles at her and tugs on her hand.

Kindness is currently possessing the body of a young girl with golden hair and violet eyes. The clone of herself that Lily Chen has been experimenting with ever since she created it from the Adjudicator's arm.

Each of these possessions by the Ruler damages and marks the clone just a little bit more, yet every time, Lily Chen fixes it and learns a bit more as well.

It might even be a hidden intention of the Ruler, as she takes possession of that clone every time that black haired girl enters Beyond with it. This is despite the fact that she has many options of vessels specially grown for her by the Aurate Consortium.

The spider woman looks between both of the Rulers and then back at the screen. The Wraith there, possessing the body of a human man, reaches down and takes the sword, which begins to open and shut its mouth rapidly. It grows in size, and the color of the blade turns the purest red. Each movement of the sword leaves a dense, dark red smoke behind it.

The body of the human possessed by the Wraith grows in size, becoming slimmer and taller as the Wraith twists his head, letting out a series of dry cracking noises as if popping stiff joints after a long sleep. Even his face changes, getting a more rugged, aristocratic feel as the black hair grows longer to frame it and his skin becomes paler.

He testingly opens and closes his mouth, showing the fangs inside. The eyes become orange-golden in color, and the pupils turn deep red instead of black.

In a flash, the Wraith appears in front of Nathaniel Gwyn, who doesn't budge. He doesn't even seem to mind as he looks up at the tall figure towering over him.

“I'm curious,” Nathaniel says while slightly tilting his head as he looks at his opponent, “do you think you can beat me as you are now? What do your senses tell you when you look at me?”

The tension becomes almost palpable as the two of them face each other, their presences crashing together and erasing the buildings around them.

Bottomless mana meets the progenitor's bloodline that was so terrifying at the peak of his powers. According to some, it is even comparable to Primordial Blood, though in an entirely different way.

That heretic bloodline is capable of rejecting all authority, from the power of the gods to the rules of the system. Old stories say the Progenitor was betrayed and tricked by his own love, bringing about his fall under the system.

In the middle of that clash, Nathaniel Gwyn's voice quietens, and that shine reminiscent of a demon appears in his eyes as he whispers, “Why don't you go and take a sip of some nice blood? There is that Empyrean Heir. I wonder what would happen if you did that.”

He stops resisting, letting the Wraith's pressure press against him while he stands there harmlessly, even showing the palms of his hands as if in a gesture to show he has no intention to attack.

And the Wraith disappears the next moment, heading towards where the fight is still going on.

The Cerulean Parlor brims with excitement, breaking the silence, and the demons present giggle like giddy children, with no one seemingly predicting this twist at all.

“Will he be able to do it?” Kindness asks curiously as she yawns while resting against Greed.

The Ruler muses over that question only very briefly. “As he and she are right now? Yes, very likely.”

And as so often, she is right. They watch as the Wraith, in a mere few moments, reaches the battlefield where the Heir still gives a fight. Although against that many people, and with Victoria Gwyn and Flint blocking her way as much as possible, she can't instantly clear them all out.

Calvorn in his hands opens slightly, that dense red smoke following each of its movements as all of the blood on the battlefield begins to pool together and connect, and then rise into the air, growing into dozens of pine trees, each entirely made of blood and different in height from each other.

Everyone within reach begins to groan in pain, twisting their bodies as their own blood boiling inside their veins stuns them, even the Heir.

The Wraith cuts through the warp defenses. The swing of his sword deflects the empyrean projectiles, and he gets closer at blinding speed, opening his mouth unnaturally wide to bite into her neck when, from a piece of flesh nearby, Victoria Gwyn grows and stabs her black arm through his body.

Both the Heir, twisting in pain, and the Wraith seem to be caught off guard for a moment, but the Wraith's body resonates, glows in a red color, and he, through great effort due to the resistance of the black arm, phases straight through Victoria and materializes on the other side, sinking his fangs into the Heir's neck.

His wounds regenerate at rapid speed and his presence strengthens while the Heir tries to desperately push him away and attack him. But she is unable to do so until it is too late, and then she stands there unmoving and confused, looking at him blankly.

Her eyes then turn the same colors as his, and she teleports both of them away, reappearing inside the city where Nathaniel Gwyn sits on one of the benches.

Rustling in the Cerulean Parlor ceases once again, as well as all the betting. When the doors open, the newcomer gets shut off before they can even say anything.

Wiping blood off his mouth, the Wraith takes a casual step forward, pulling the tip of Calvorn across the cobbled street, cutting it as easily as if it were butter. The blade pulsates now, in sync with its owner's heart, whose body grows denser and blood richer after a good meal. An incredible meal. Empyrean blood of the descendant of a godking.

The Empyrean Heir meanwhile rises into the air, manifesting multiple projectiles as they both get ready to face the man who pushes himself off the bench.

Nathaniel reaches out with his hand and drops something at the same time that the Wraith charges him. The Heir launches a projectile, and she and the progenitor vampire watch that item slip out of his hand.

That thing.

A finger.

Before the vampire slams against Nathaniel, Victoria grows from the finger, crashing against his body and pushing both of them to barely miss Nathaniel, who doesn't even bother to move as all the colors get pulled from the area.

From deep underground, below the city, something moves. The road explodes, buildings shake, and taller ones fall as though some sort of giant monster, a huge mana vessel pierces through, hidden until now.

The vessel further compresses and turns pitch-black, shrinking and slamming against the Wraith just as he cuts the duplicate of Victoria in half.

Four huge arms grab around the Wraith, pressing him to the ground, and two duplicates of Victoria regrow from the cut in half body, using the opportunity to stab their right black arms through the progenitor.

A rain of empyrean projectiles crashes against the black vessel, though that word might be too much. The projectiles just enter the vessel, disturb its surface with just a single ripple, and they are gone. Like small stones thrown into dark, inky water.

Nathaniel reaches the held-back Wraith and, using mana oscillating on his finger, cuts into him at the point of a larger vein and pulls blood out of it into the vial he holds.

"Just vampire blood would be good too, but isn't it better with pure Empyrean mixed in?" With all the explosions going around, he just looks at the Wraith as if expecting an answer from the silent progenitor.

Those golden eyes with red pupils fix on him with deep intensity as he, step by step, impossibly, begins to push against both the black mana vessel and the stigma of the Starless Sky. His own blood boils in his veins as he gradually forces his way free.

"Can you get the Heir?" Nathaniel asks his sister.

One of the duplicates looks up at him and nods when Nathaniel adds, "Please."

Inside the parlor, Kindness, who doesn't even seem to be watching the screen, mutters then, "Impressive, isn't it?"

It takes a faint moment for the rest to catch up on what happened while the Ruler of Kindness continues to talk as if to herself, "For such a small part of her to be able to carry her intent still."

From the small droplet of blood on the Empyrean Heir's clothes, Victoria Gwyn duplicates, instantly putting her arms towards the Heir's neck.

Before she can reach the woman, she reacts instantly, severing the black arm, causing it to fall down. But even without the stigma, Victoria continues to attack.

This time, her attack doesn't get warped away as her intent to reach her opponent wins against the defenses, and Victoria stabs her hand through her neck.

She then grabs the spine and twists her hand, crushing it, before pulling her head down and slamming it against the Heir's head, which explodes under the impact.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel appears in the air not that far away, and his vessel, still holding the Wraith, destabilizes, implodes on itself, and then explodes.

That explosion doesn't even reach far, as it is concentrated and contained by his will in a sphere that holds the Wraith, sending a deep tremble instead through the city and cracking all of the walls.

Even then, out of that explosion the Wraith steps out, caught by a part of it but phasing through the rest.

Out of his wounded side, blood drips onto the ground, and as he walks forward, from each droplet a pine tree made of red blood and with golden and white needles grows, each as tall as him.

People in the parlor use the brief break to put on bets, and during that, Kindness whispers to Greed, "What do you think?"

The Ruler watches the man on the screen for a moment before answering, "He is getting too confident, too arrogant. His effort is finally showing, and as of late, things are going well for him and his plans tend to work out in the end."

"Would you like him humbled a bit? For someone to choke back that overconfidence?"

"Yes," Greed answers honestly, but looking at the screen, she adds, "But at this moment, I don't think there is anything in the tutorial capable of doing that to him."

"You could always send him to that Beyond quest."

"I think I will have to."