"Can you still do what you did just now?"
"No, is my perception declining because my body is starting to collapse? Anhalt's Dead Qi has cursed the land within a thousand li. Although this layer of Dead Qi is almost negligible, it just happened to sever my connection with the ground."
"Then Anhalt should be at his weakest now. Do you have a way to kill him?"
"No, my power now is no different from that of a 13-year-old human child. Even if he is so weak now that any Magus could kill him, I cannot do it."
"Then how much longer will it take for your seal to be broken?"
"One hour and forty-six minutes. I can't beat him to it, no matter what."
"Try it. Will my blood have an effect on your seal? After all, it's blood infused with dragon blood."
"...It tastes very good, and there's a very special feeling, but there are no signs of the seal loosening. It seems the dragon blood you fused has been dormant for too long, and its activity hasn't been fully activated. Otherwise, the current situation wouldn't be like this."
"Damn it!"
With hope after hope denied, Rin and Black Princess seemed to have no choice but to wait here for Anhalt to recover and then effortlessly eliminate them.
At this moment, the trend of Rin's body cracking finally stopped. Both internally and externally, Rin's powerful recovery ability and physical constitution, comparable to the highest Phantasmal Species, finally overcame the tendency of overdraft and collapse. However, she could not recover before Anhalt, no matter what.
Watching Anhalt's incomplete body gradually recover, in a life-or-death situation, Altrouge very solemnly and seriously said to Rin, who was lying on the ground: "Rin, are you willing to become a Dead Apostle?"
Becoming a Dead Apostle... Most Vampires are Dead Apostles. They are basically humans who have undergone certain processes to transform. Originally, they were emergency food prepared by the "True Ancestor." True Ancestors would prepare humans in advance to prevent themselves from being unable to suppress their bloodlust. To prevent them from escaping, they would drink their blood and place them under their control. The humans who had their blood drunk would also become Blood-sucking Race like the True Ancestor, and would be driven as immortal emergency food for the True Ancestor. They could indeed be called "Dead Apostles." However, the Dead Apostles' act of drinking blood is for survival. To serve the long-lived "True Ancestor," the servants' lifespan must also be long. Dead Apostles who drank the blood of others gradually began to feel the superiority of this act of bloodsucking, strengthening their consciousness. Dead Apostles who escaped the True Ancestor's control fled into human society, repeating the act of bloodsucking to prolong themselves. This is the origin of Dead Apostles, the beginning of Blood-sucking Race transformed from humans. The first Dead Apostles to escape the True Ancestor's control are called the Twenty-Seven Ancestors. Some of these twenty-seven have undergone generational changes, while others still lead their clans as Ancestors to this day. The transformation from human to Dead Apostle usually takes a long time. After being bitten by a Vampire, one typically goes through Ghoul → Living Corpse, and then grows into a fully-fledged Vampire. Some Vampires will then defeat the Dead Apostle who turned them and become a new Dead Apostle... The higher the physical potential a person is born with, the higher the chance they have of surviving to the later stages of this process. There are also some extremely rare humans who have the potential to skip this process and immediately become a Vampire. Additionally, the level of a Dead Apostle's ability is influenced by the Vampire whose blood they consumed.
In fact, Rin had no resistance to becoming a Dead Apostle, because Dead Apostle transformation is also the most common method of achieving longevity in this Nasuverse, and many Maguss eventually use magical research to transform themselves into Dead Apostles. A considerable portion of the Twenty-Seven Ancestors of Dead Apostles were self-transformed Maguss.
Altrouge herself is the dominator of blood and contracts. As the dominator of blood contracts, her transformation into a Dead Apostle does not require too many processes, and Rin also doesn't think her aptitude would be inferior to Mayu Arima. Even if she couldn't temporarily awaken all the way to the Ancestor level, as long as it allowed her to recover before Anhalt, that would be enough.
Rin took a deep breath of the cold air, opened her eyes, and looked at Altrouge, who was watching her, "Come."
Bloodsucking, infection, and creating familiars are the innate primal abilities of Blood-sucking Race. Even if Altrouge had lost all her power at this time, she still possessed these basic abilities.
Altrouge bent down, crawled over, and gently touched the left side of Rin's smooth, snowy neck with her cherry lips. Her small tongue gently scraped against it, and then, "I am a hybrid of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle, the dominator of blood and contracts. Anyone who makes a contract with me can definitely become a Dead Apostle. In that case... become my Dead Apostle, Rin."
The next moment, Rin felt two sharp teeth pierce her neck, puncturing the carotid artery. Subsequently, a strong sense of numbness shot up her spine directly to her brain nerves. Rin instantly felt her consciousness begin to blur. Blood flowed out along Altrouge's piercing fangs, and her whole body felt drowsy, as if in a fog.
Then, a cool, alien blood was injected into Rin's body from the vampiric fangs! This was Altrouge's Dead Apostle blood. Perhaps saying so is not quite right. Altrouge is a hybrid of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle, and also a child of gaia. It would be more accurate to say that this is the blood of a child of the world!
Unlike the dragon blood injected last time, which had slumbered for countless years, this heterologous blood, injected directly from the original owner's body, was incredibly active, rapidly spreading throughout Rin's entire body.
Rin instantly felt an immense heat and… a legend says that when vampires draw blood and embrace their thralls, it brings a fatal pleasure to both parties.
Altrouge had never personally bitten anyone with her small fangs before Rin, because no creature was worthy of being personally infected by the Ancestor of the Dead Apostles's Princess.
Therefore, Rin was Altrouge's first embrace.
Rin's consciousness gradually dispersed between sexual pleasure and a hazy numbness, and with the injection of Altrouge's blood, Rin felt that something dormant within her body was gradually awakening… What the hell… is this world's fusion of Heterologous Blood equivalent to an aphrodisiac?!
Rin lost consciousness amidst her final angry internal monologue.
After Altrouge's blood had been injected to a certain extent, she seemed to feel that it was enough and then switched from injecting to drawing, beginning to suck Rin's blood, which had been fused with Dead Apostle blood.
Her true goal, in fact, was the awakened Dragon Blood within Rin!
As Altrouge consumed Rin's activated Dragon Blood, immense changes occurred in her.
First, her hair color, originally pure gold, gradually began to lengthen and darken from bottom to top.
At the same time, her body also grew taller and larger at a visible speed… Finally, in less than ten seconds, the original golden-haired loli had transformed into a stunning mature woman with knee-length black hair, a height of over 1.75 meters, and a nearly perfect figure.
Even the clothes she wore transformed into a pitch-black dress, her dark and mysterious aura like that of a princess!
The mysterious and noble Black Princess retracted her unseemly canine fangs, standing forward with grace and elegance.
Her small foot, hidden beneath the black dress, gently tapped the muddy ground, and the death energy that had sealed the thousand-mile land instantly shattered!
The Black Princess, with her feet on the earth, she was the true reality of the world!
Cold, elegant, aloof, noble, the eldest princess of the Blood-sucking Race, the Dead Apostle-side Vampire Princess, daughter of Crimson Moon, child of gaia, Ancient Red — this was the true Altrouge!
The Dead Apostle Princess with hair like a waterfall turned to look at the Avenger Knight, who had already fully healed.
Her blood-red eyes reflected the tall figure with an indifferent gaze, as if seeing nothing.
"Eighteenth Seat, your insolence ends here."
The Avenger Knight's face was ashen.
He could never have anticipated such a scene.
Although he appeared recovered on the surface, in reality, his heart, the source of his Dead Apostle power, had been largely cut away by Rin's sword.
While it didn't kill him, his current strength was less than one-tenth of what it once was.
Facing the Black Princess, who was at the very pinnacle even among the Ancestor of the Dead Apostles, the situation truly reversed in an instant.
He had completely lost his chance.
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