Under the thick smoke, a courtyard that once looked like a castle had become utterly ruined, like the wreckage left after a war.
The originally majestic mansion was now broken, large chunks of stone collapsed, rubble scattered everywhere, a scene of complete decay.
The fountain statues in the courtyard were destroyed, leaving only unrecognizable fragments of stone lying all over the ground.
The smooth roads had become uneven, sand and gravel pushed up through the solid debris, breaking the flat ground apart.
Demi-humans and noble lords were scattered across this ruined courtyard, stepping on the rocks beneath their feet.
The faint green flames on their clothes flickered like stars in the night, eerie white bones exposed beneath armor or robes.
Deep ghostly flames shone from their eye sockets, streams of soul fire burning along their bones, making them look especially strange.
Together, they raised their heads, looking toward the sky that was almost completely filled with blood-red color.
At this moment, Laurien floated high in the air, his eyes filled entirely with crimson.
The three pairs of blood-red wings spread behind him reflected the bloody moonlight, like a blood moon rising at the horizon.
A thick scent of blood lingered in the air, spreading like a plague.
Everyone felt that dense, bloody aura enter their hollow eye sockets, stinging their vision slightly.
This… was the true blood race.
Compared to this, August, with his thin blood wings and pale skin, looked like a fragile moth in a sea of blood.
The truly noble and elegant bat now stood high in the sky.
August stood surrounded by undead warriors, yet he could only watch Laurien in the sky.
His eyes were filled with longing and unwillingness.
'No, it shouldn't be like this.'
He and Count Laurien had clearly made an agreement.
He would gather enough blood energy for Priscilla, successfully reviving her.
In the end, he would marry Priscilla, making her the queen.
And he himself would ascend alongside her, becoming a true immortal of the blood race.
But in the end, everything changed.
Because of his failure, Count Laurien took back all the power that had originally been granted to him.
All the blood energy he had absorbed was taken away by Laurien.
Even the portion that belonged to him as a warrior was stripped away completely, like a punishment.
At this moment, August had lost all his strength.
He was even weaker than an ordinary person.
His frail body was like a collapsing mansion, his face pale.
The nearly vanished strength made him feel an unprecedented heaviness.
At this moment, August's heart was filled with despair and regret.
But now, no one cared about him anymore, even if he was still nominally the king of the Kante Kingdom.
Looking at Laurien in the sky, the noble lords of the kingdom and the twelve foreign ministers were all filled with disbelief.
Even though they had been temporarily transformed into undead by the soul fire, their skeletal jaws still trembled slightly.
Revealing their shock.
'Count Laurien was actually… a true blood race?'
No one dared to believe it.
During the reign of the previous king, Count Laurien had already been granted his noble title.
He had deep ties with other nobles and was highly praised by the former king.
Even the terminal station of the magic train had been established in his territory.
If anyone from outside the kingdom wanted to take the train into the kingdom, they would inevitably arrive at Count Laurien's territory: Shulben.
This undoubtedly represented the king's trust and reliance on him.
He was absolutely loyal, and a perfect lord deeply loved by his people.
For the sake of agricultural harvests, he had even chosen to worship the Goddess of Abundance.
In the end, he gained the goddess's recognition and received the divine wheat sheaf.
Because of this, the agricultural yields of Shulben surpassed those of all other noble territories every year.
And yet, such a lord who cared for the people, who even willingly worshipped a goddess, was actually a blood race!?
Such a person, who had devoted himself to the people and would be remembered for generations, was actually a blood race?
Honestly, if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, none of the nobles present would have believed it.
Especially those who had known him for a long time and shared close ties with him.
When they saw the three pairs of blood wings spread from his back, their emotions became a tangled mess.
In fact, when Priscilla reappeared as a revived blood race, the nobles had already begun to suspect something.
But when Count Laurien truly revealed his identity, they still found it hard to accept.
"…Why?"
A noble who had already turned into an undead blurted out, as if questioning Laurien high in the sky.
However, the count's blood wings blocked the blood-red moonlight.
In the shadow, his crimson eyes followed the voice and looked down.
"I need a large amount of blood to accomplish my goal."
'Goal?'
'What goal?'
Count Laurien flapped his six blood-red wings, keeping himself suspended in the air.
Each movement of those massive wings stirred powerful gusts, carrying the sound of tearing air.
"If His Majesty August had succeeded, then at exactly midnight, a large number of bombs would have detonated."
"I would have used that massive amount of blood to complete my daughter's revival."
Count Laurien slowly raised his head, looking at Priscilla, who was bathed in blood-red moonlight and seemed connected to the moon itself.
"The blood energy of high-level warriors is enough to make her the most perfect blood race."
Hearing this, everyone present trembled.
Just as August had said, their goal had never changed.
If the Empire's princess and Viktor hadn't interfered, they would all have become nourishment for Priscilla's revival.
The nobles couldn't imagine how long Laurien had been planning this for his daughter, or how insane he had become.
He had even manipulated and controlled the king.
Was he not afraid of Duke Barlow?
But it wasn't over yet.
Because something even more terrifying happened next.
Count Laurien lowered his head, looking at everyone with a cold, emotionless gaze.
It felt like countless icy spears piercing into their hearts, craving the blood beneath their bodies.
His hollow, echoing voice slowly descended from the sky, falling into their ears along with the moonlight, "But none of you died, so I still need more blood."
The nobles froze, the ghostly green flames in their eyes flaring violently, as if they had seen something horrifying.
Laurien suddenly spread his three pairs of crimson wings.
Specks of blood-red dust burst from his wings, like countless wandering souls drifting around him.
Beneath the wings, blood flowed continuously, as if filled with endless power.
Everyone felt the thick scent of blood around them, as if their feet were glued to the ground, unable to move at all.
Under this terrifying atmosphere, even the moonlight turned deeply crimson.
Fear crawled up their spines like countless worms, reaching their hearts.
Laurien hovered in midair, extending a hand filled with flowing blood energy, slowly raising it.
The blood energy around him began to surge, gathering and swirling in his palm.
A mass of churning blood gradually formed, restless and pulsing as if trying to break free from invisible restraints.
"Now, it's time to end all of this."
As Laurien spoke coldly, the blood sphere began to expand.
A dense crimson domain spread across the sky, enveloping the land for dozens of miles.
As the domain expanded, Laurien's aura surged dramatically.
His hollow blood-red eyes twisted, and the three pairs of wings behind him grew even larger.
The massive wings carried gusts of wind, blood-red particles drifting like a storm.
The blood aura spiraled around him, rising endlessly like a crimson hurricane.
The swelling blood moon continued to emit its deep red glow, making the land below even more crimson.
[Sea of Blood]
Within that crimson halo, the shattered vampires on the ground began to be reshaped by the bloody wind.
One after another, tall, gaunt figures emerged from the rubble, letting out echoing roars.
As their bodies touched the crimson particles, they became stronger, the red in their eyes turning even more terrifying.
They stretched their pale necks and roared toward the blood moon.
Feeling this overwhelming and terrifying presence, the nobles trembled, their hearts filled with fear.
This was the true blood race.
However, at that moment, Viktor slammed his staff heavily onto the ground.
The effects of the great prosperity began to fade.
As magic power surged back, crimson patterns spread across his coat.
A radiant red glow flowed behind him like molten lava.
At this moment, the surrounding air became scorching hot. Countless cracks spread across the vast land, cutting off all vitality.
[Scorched Earth]
In an instant, blazing magma filled the fractured ground, spreading intense heat.
Like an inextinguishable fire, it burned fiercely across the land.
The scorching flames touched the vampires, causing them to scream in agony.
Yet within these overwhelming flames,
the undead army suffered no harm at all. Instead, the soul fire on their bodies burned even more fiercely.
The raging flames collided with the blood domain.
Even though the noble lords had become undead, they could still feel that terrifying heat.
At this moment, Viktor held his staff and raised his head.
His gaze met Laurien's blood-filled eyes.
At that instant, Laurien's health bar and level appeared before Viktor.
The scorching wind blew his coat, and his voice carried through the heat, "End?"
"We're just getting started."
[Laurien Niss: Blood Prince]
[Lv60]