Shaking the wine glass, his lips stained with fresh blood, as a scarlet wisp of ghostly fire drifted closer, he drained the last sip.
"Crash!"
The intricately carved crystal glass was tossed aside, shattering on the ground, scattering a small cluster of starlight under the moonlight.
He slowly rose from the throne, gathering a large amount of blood between his hands. The bodies of the Blood Race that had just died convulsed, streams of blood rising into the air, flying toward him from every corner of the hall.
The blood formed a constantly writhing blood sphere, merging into King Vani's body.
Meanwhile, the tune of the pipe organ soared to a climax, a series of high notes and exquisite melodies lingering in everyone's mind.
Satanah was the first to notice, her eyes snapped wide open.
"The music is a spell, he's been casting since we entered, and now he's reclaiming all the descendants' blood, he's become the Blood God!"
Upon hearing this, Hel immediately set out to find the one playing the pipe organ. In a small house on the side of the hall, she found only a corpse.
This vampire had gouged out and crushed its own heart, collapsing on the ground with a strange smile, yet the keys of the organ seemed to still be pressed by invisible hands, the dark symphony continuing relentlessly.
Hel swung her sword, smashing the massive pipe organ like a wall into pieces, blasting a tunnel through the rock wall behind it.
But as the dust settled, the music continued, the eerie tune growing higher and faster.
The corpse on the ground seemed to be mocking her, and expressionlessly, Hel stowed away her weapon, crushing the skull underfoot.
Like a tomato, fragments sprayed everywhere, and she returned to her companions, leaving a trail of bloody footprints on the ground.
"Too late, can't stop it."
"That's fine, hey, Skull, go help." Satanah dabbed powder onto her face, tilting her delicate chin to signal Evil Spirit Knight and Deathstroke to join forces and attack King Vani.
Evil Spirit Knight remained unmoved, his head rotating one hundred and eighty degrees, the flames in his eyes swirling like a vortex, locking onto Satanah's eyes.
"You are guilty."
"Wow, no, don't look...don't look..." Satanah covered her eyes, hiding behind Hel. Although the Eye of Judgment from Evil Spirit Knight had little effect on the Lord of Hell, having one's soul burned was still quite painful.
Su Ming walked slowly, raising the Giant Sword in his hand: "No need for your help. He neither has a proper spell nor enough sacrifices; this is just a clumsy imitation of the Blood God."
Creating a Blood God requires at least three conditions, none of which he meets.
First, a night marking the turn of the century, like the year 1900 or 2000; second, the life and blood of twelve Vampire Dukes; third, the Black Magic Holy Scripture that created the original vampire—the "Darkhold" by Sithorn.
None of these conditions are met now, so even if he increased his power, there would be no significant qualitative change.
King Vani seemed to revel in a drug-induced high, shivering with a sharp sniff. He wasn't surprised by Deathstroke's words, but instead smiled.
One has to admit, as the Clan Leader of the vampires, his every move exuded both charisma and an eerie allure. Once the addict's high passed, he transformed back into a dashing nobleman.
"No wonder you're the Supreme Mage, you're even familiar with our blood magic." He clasped his hands together, drawing out a longsword made of black and red energy: "But even so, my current power isn't something you humans can withstand."
After finishing, he burst apart into thousands of bats, instantly vanishing.
Su Ming still stood quietly, leaning on the Great Sword where he was. Cloning plus invisibility, just the same old tricks.
Sometimes, gluttony is not a good thing. He drank so much blood that Strangulation had already pinpointed his true location.
But Su Ming understood how King Vani forced the symbiote to proliferate; as long as he kept performing the Clone Technique, the symbiote would inevitably split and reproduce.
Through this method, he could acquire a large number of spores and thereby develop the V1 Bloodsucker.
However, his internal symbiote was certainly not as strong as Strangulation; constant splitting could only harm the symbiote rather than benefit it.
Against a vampire slightly stronger than Dracula, Su Ming was confident. And Strangulation facing a weaker kind, it too had confidence.
By changing the color of part of the lens, Strangulation marked King Vani's position with a tiny arrow, mimicking the display technology of the original helmet.
Su Ming sighed helplessly; Strangulation and he could communicate through neural transmission, so why mark it on the lens and be so redundant?
Collecting and transferring information one more time wastes 0.02 seconds, which in a superhuman battle is time enough to be fatal.
Strangulation retreated shyly, having overdone it.
The swarm of bats always rekindled many memories for Su Ming—the sound of wings flapping in the dark, Batman learned a lot from it.
But Su Ming was there to slay, and he wouldn't be afraid.
Amid countless bats, he locked onto the correct one. The Great Sword flashed a light, slicing the sharp-toothed little creature in half.
That bat turned into black smoke, and all of its blinding illusions exploded instantly, filling the hall with masses of black smoke.
Was a fatal strike still unattainable? Turns out the opponent was indeed a Symbiote Host.
Su Ming retracted his weapon, observing quietly. King Vani's capabilities had risen significantly.
As the black mist appeared, Satanah released a Flame Magic Barrier, a circle of fire rising from the ground, forming a crimson protective shield around her and Hel.
As for Evil Spirit Knight, there was no need; he was the one who restrained the Blood Race the most. Even a slight touch was unbearable for them.
Su Ming looked around, his vision heavily obscured, almost seeing nothing but blackness, as the fake moonlight was now hidden by clouds.
If only I had the Lasso of Truth or the Obedience Lasso...
This thought flashed through Su Ming's mind, but even without the suitable tools, he found a way.
Even when the blood race vaporizes, Giovanni is still the symbiote's host, and even if the symbiote splits into individual tiny cells, it will still be detected by Strangulation.
Vampires excel in various blinding techniques in the darkness, launching lethal strikes between illusion and reality.
But Deathstroke is the strongest in the darkness.
He suddenly thrust his Great Sword fiercely into the air behind him, and at that moment, King Vani appeared in the same position.
Both of their weapons hit each other.
Giovanni was pierced through the heart by the Nightfall Greatsword, while the dark red Long Sword in his hand also pierced through Deathstroke's armor, stabbing into his heart.
The two separated upon contact, bringing out two sprays of blood, one hot and the other cold.
Giovanni stepped back a few steps clutching his chest, while Deathstroke merely looked down to see the chest penetrated from behind, slowly turning around with a bright flash in the red single eye.
"What exactly are you?"
Su Ming swung down with a blow at Giovanni's head, the sound of the sword slicing through the air echoed, but Giovanni agilely dodged it.
"As you can see, an ordinary human."
The Vampire Duke sneered coldly, only a fool would believe such a claim; how can an ordinary person still move freely after their heart is pierced?
But he still had a backup plan, as long as there is blood, the blood race can do many things.
He licked the blood off the sword's tip, a flash of red color surged in his eyes, and he immediately mobilized his energy, starting to manipulate Deathstroke's blood through that wound.
This was a new power, one that allowed him to remotely control the blood he remembered, no matter how far the target was, he could still dominate their life and death.
As his palm raised, Su Ming's entire body was like a statue of a fountain, blood spurting from all over, the volume of blood loss instantly exceeded what a human could bear.
No matter how quickly Strangulation reacted, desperately wrapping around the host's entire body, blocking all blood-spurting pores, and reinforcing all blood vessels, that moment undoubtedly severely injured Deathstroke.
Su Ming could still fight.
If it were someone else, such blood loss would be a big problem, but Deathstroke was different, his self-healing ability's blood production function was also very fast.
The only thing was, a feeling of hunger emerged from his abdomen, and now he just wanted to eat the vampire raw. The long-lost bloodthirsty emotion surged back as if it had never left, but...
"Wow..."
Deathstroke fell to the ground, twitching and kicking his legs, then died.
Palham was ready to act immediately, with his gun raised, but Hel stopped him, shaking her head slightly, mouthing the words.
"Playing dead."
As the God of the Netherworld, Hel could clearly sense the position of the dead, she could still distinguish between the dead and the living.
After absorbing the blood from Deathstroke, King Vani felt invigorated, as if he had discovered some delicious treat, his eyes brightened.
As for whether Deathstroke was really dead, he wasn't worried; after all, the opponent was now lying on the ground, having given up resistance.
Completely harmless.
He raised his hand again, but no more blood flowed out, so he lunged forward himself, but couldn't bite through the armor, used a weapon, but the armor would quickly heal as well.
For a moment, he felt extremely frustrated.
This blood was the best he had tasted, but the man's armor couldn't be broken, it was like a can full of delicacies placed in front of him that couldn't be opened.
He looked at Deathstroke's teammates, they were hiding far away as if intending to negotiate, so he turned his attention back to Deathstroke.
He walked a few steps around Deathstroke's 'corpse', suddenly thinking of something.
A large bundle of red tentacles burst from his body, lunging toward Su Ming; if the opponent relies on the symbiote for defense, all he needs is to have his own symbiote destroy the opponent's.
Unbeknownst to him, his thirst for blood played right into Su Ming's hands.
No matter what means, after the blood race resurrects or ascends, the first thing to do is replenish a large amount of fresh blood.
Even Dracula, for a period after each resurrection, lacks much rationality, and the thirst for blood drives the King of Vampires into madness, even sucking blood from prostitutes infected with syphilis and gonorrhea.
His only remaining rationality could only remind him not to be discovered by more people, to target lone individuals at night, his whole being was like sleepwalking.
Any creature, when falling into an extreme state of hunger, easily loses rationality, Su Ming thought of these from himself.
The blood of many descendants only provided King Vani with the energy and casting cost to ascend, his body craved blood, he was starving.
Thus, the plan came.