When Hiiragi Shinya opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the place where he was being held captive.
"Yo, you're awake. Being young is great—you just drop off and sleep, huh."
Luke's voice drifted over. Shinya turned his head to look at him, and just as he was about to explode and fight Luke again, Luke immediately stopped him.
"Don't be impulsive. I was just joking with you earlier. I'll tell you about Guren right now."
Shinya looked down at the bloodstains on the clothes at his chest. You call this a joke?
But Shinya wasn't in the mood to argue with Luke; Guren's business was what he cared about most.
Seeing Shinya assume a posture of serious listening, Luke felt a sense of realization.
As expected, Shinya's switch is Guren!
Luke cleared his throat, but his expression remained extremely casual, as if he didn't take the matter too seriously, and spoke.
"You simply want to know the purpose behind some of Guren's actions, right?"
Shinya didn't react, merely staring at Luke, waiting for him to continue.
Luke gave an awkward laugh and grumbled internally.
You kid, not giving any emotional value at all, huh? Am I doing a solo performance? Whatever, I won't bother arguing with a guy whose head is filled with nothing but Guren.
"He wants to resurrect all of humanity."
"Huh?"
Shinya thought Luke was messing with him again, but just as he was about to press further, Luke immediately followed up.
"Don't disbelieve it. The Apocalypse Virus and the Four Horsemen of John are real. You should have heard of the 'seraph of the end' experiment, right?"
Shinya reined in his thoughts, his brow furrowing. He had indeed heard rumors of it and nodded.
Luke continued.
"Guren wants to use the Seraph Experiment to resurrect all of humanity."
Luke's tone shifted, the corners of his mouth curling up as he spread his hands.
"Of course, that's just his high-sounding reason. As for what his true goal is, I don't know either."
Shinya looked at Luke in confusion. After all that talk, you don't even know the real purpose?
Luke easily saw through the thoughts behind Shinya's expression.
"I'm not a tapeworm in Guren's stomach, but the Seraph Experiment does indeed have the possibility of successfully resurrecting all of humanity. At the very least, Guren has that as one of his goals. It's just that Hiiragi Mahiru, that bad seed, might be leading Guren toward a different objective."
Shinya pondered for a moment before asking again.
"If it's to resurrect all of humanity, why would Guren keep it from us? That shouldn't be something worth hiding."
Luke snapped his fingers.
"Good question! Because Guren feels guilty and afraid."
A faint sense of unease rose in Shinya's heart as he pressed on.
"Why?"
Luke gave a mysterious smile and explained.
"Because the apocalypse eight years ago is directly linked to Guren. To put it another way, Guren killed nine-tenths of the people in Japan. He is now seeking a way to resurrect the dead as atonement."
Upon hearing this, Shinya couldn't believe this explosive news and froze on the spot for a moment.
"Unbelievable, isn't it?"
I couldn't believe it either when I saw this part in the manga!
Shinya's soul, which had been scared away, returned to his body as he shouted.
"Impossible! Where would Guren get the power to trigger an apocalypse of that scale?!"
Luke remained quite calm, sitting on the chair and crossing his legs.
"Guren alone certainly doesn't have that kind of power, but what if you add the Hyakuya Sect, Japan's number one sorcery organization from eight years ago?"
Shinya thought back to some of the events that happened then; indeed, traces of the Hyakuya Sect were everywhere.
"With the help of the Hyakuya Sect, Guren had enough to complete the Seraph Experiment to achieve his goal at the time. However, what Guren did using the Seraph exceeded common sense, bringing Seven Angels down to the human world, and thus the apocalypse arrived. But the most terrifying part is that this level was only the beginning of Hiiragi Mahiru's plan."
Shinya still found it hard to accept.
"Are you telling me a fairy tale?"
"Think what you want. I've told you everything I can tell you. I haven't broken my word."
Shinya caught the key phrase in Luke's words.
"What do you mean by 'everything you can tell me'? How much more do you know? You also haven't told me what Guren did with the Seraph Experiment eight years ago!"
Luke put his hand to his forehead and shook his head.
"Your Japanese grades in school definitely weren't very good. Since I called it 'what I can tell you,' the rest is naturally what you aren't allowed to know."
Shinya was somewhat defiant.
"Tell me!"
Luke grew a bit impatient, staring into Shinya's eyes.
"Why are you so stubborn? You'd die immediately after finding out. Guren knows this well, which is why he's willing to fight Hiiragi Seishiro on our behalf. Even so, do you still want to know? It makes no difference to me."
Shinya felt unnerved by Luke's stare and fell into silence.
Luke withdrew his gaze, stood up from the chair, and walked outside.
"Follow me. I'll take you to the place where you'll be living from now on. Although you won't be staying there for long—we're about to prepare for a full-scale war with the Imperial Demon Army. When that time comes, the Imperial Demon Army won't hold back against you. If you want to stand there like an idiot and let them hack at you, that's up to you. Just don't go out and say you're my Familiar."
Shinya followed behind Luke and replied.
"I still don't know who you are..."
Luke didn't even look back as he answered casually.
"Luke, Ninth Progenitor of the Vampires, and boyfriend of the Third Progenitor Krul."
Waves of shock rolled through Shinya's heart again. Vampire Progenitors were the strongest part of the Vampires; he hadn't expected this Vampire, whose words and actions revealed a playful nature, to actually be a Progenitor! He was certainly very strong, but could there really be such an unreliable Progenitor?
Also, wasn't that last sentence a bit redundant? Who cares whose boyfriend you are?!
"Oh, I should remind you: use byakkomaru sparingly. Although I don't see any side effects in you, a Vampire directly using a cursed gear is still hard to imagine. There's no guarantee you won't actually undergo Demon Transformation one day."
Luke had been observing Shinya's condition ever since he woke up—he was perfectly fine, with no signs of being eroded by the power of the curse.
Shinya looked at his own hands and nodded. The feeling of being forcibly controlled just now had indeed made him uncomfortable, even though byakkomaru had done it to protect him.
Although he had lost control of his body at the time, he had been fully aware of what was happening outside.
Unless byakkomaru released the possession of its own accord, he was powerless and couldn't even communicate with byakkomaru.
Luke was the type who couldn't sit still and tried to chat with Shinya.
But Shinya wasn't as cheerful and sunny as in the anime at all; his responses along the way were very perfunctory.
Yet he perked up the moment Guren was mentioned.
Bah! Double standards!
Lacus is better; he's easy to talk to.
Right, speaking of which, the war is about to start. I can put together a small squad to go wild!
Let's see: Krul, Mika, Hiiragi Shinya, Lacus, René... six Vampires, two Progenitor-level combatants, and four Noble-level combatants. This is bound to make the Imperial Demon Army kneel and kowtow!
You will get 30 chapter ahead for this fanfiction.
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