As Giovanni's symbiote extended countless tendrils towards Deathstroke on the ground, Strangulation emerged simultaneously.
The tendrils twisted together like threads, and a microscopic battle unfolded between them.
Every cell, every drop of body fluid, was trying to eliminate the other.
Strangulation gained overwhelming advantage because its host guided it to cheat.
It conducted the newly acquired bioelectricity over to the opposing symbiote, which lacked the same ability and immediately began to convulse, losing all combat effectiveness.
Strangulation devoured each tendril of the opposing symbiote, and charged into King Vani's body in one fell swoop.
Su Ming rose at that moment, abandoning the Nightfall Greatsword and using the electrified Godslayer transformed into a dagger, delivering a stab to Giovanni's chest.
Giovanni naturally wanted to dodge, but suddenly found it was futile; his duplication and mistification abilities had been nullified.
Su Ming stabbed frantically, the sound of flesh being pierced echoed almost uninterruptedly.
"It's useless, your symbiote has merged into every cell of yours."
The truth was, mistified vampires were extremely difficult to pin down and almost immune to physical attacks. But Giovanni, besides being a member of the Blood Race, had another identity—that of a symbiote host.
Now his symbiote was utterly defeated in the struggle, and Strangulation did not completely devour it but instead used the symbiote infused in each of the enemy's cells as an anchor, immobilizing the host.
The number of human cells is between 40 trillion and 60 trillion. Vampires might have slightly fewer, but this number pales in comparison to a symbiote, which can freely increase or decrease its cell count to achieve transformation.
Therefore, it was able to lock the opponent at the moment; even if Giovanni turned into mist, Strangulation could piece him back together!
The current paralyzed Giovanni's body, and he barely managed to utter a word: "You... can't kill..."
"Really?" Su Ming smiled calmly; although he was also wounded, he remained rational: "Cloak! Space!"
Strangulation and the cloak exerted force simultaneously, tightly binding the vampire and host together, and the two shot upwards like a rocket.
First, they broke through the rocky dome of the hall, then, with the Godslayer drill's cooperation, they squeezed upwards from the underground.
A rumbling sound akin to an earthquake echoed, and the silhouette of a person and a ghost vanished instantly.
Satana looked at the hole still dropping rubble, shrugged: "Hmm, that vampire's doomed, indeed even gods aren't a match for Deathstroke..."
Hela simply walked to the side, found a relatively clean chair, and sat down: "Just a pseudo-god, I don't acknowledge any blood god's existence."
Though her words were dismissively light, her face full of disdain, that wasn't what she truly thought.
'Right, can't let Satana know that I also lost to Deathstroke!'
Once a weakness is exploited by Deathstroke, they won't have the strength to retaliate. At least, he definitely wouldn't give vampires such chances.
This vampire is indeed done for.
Satana's eyes rolled, and then her little face showed a charming smile, hopping and jumping onto Hela's lap, giving Hela a kiss and wiggling in a coquettish manner.
"You seem to know him well? Tell me how you met."
Hela looked at her coldly, picked her up from her lap, and tossed her aside, wiping her face fiercely to remove the traces of lipstick: "Introduced by a friend."
Satana sat weakly on the ground, turning a blind eye secretly, who believes that? What friends does Hela have?! Does she really think the Hell Storm Clan are fools?!
However, after raising her head, she still smiled as if she wasn't at all angry about being thrown to the ground, only getting up to pat the dust off her skirt.
"That's great, can you introduce this friend to me as well?"
"...."
Hela opened her mouth, suddenly realizing that sometimes it's hard to cover up a lie, what would Loki say in this situation?
..............
At this time, the two ascending in the high air continued rising at a terrifying speed, and the snowfield below was already indiscernible, the boundary between clouds and snow becoming increasingly blurred.
Through the connection of two symbiotes, Su Ming could now communicate with the opponent without speaking.
"You've lost."
"No, you don't understand!"
Giovanni started using his head to bash Su Ming's helmet, seemingly intending to break free with this.
But Deathstroke firmly held onto him with countless dense black symbiote lines fixed, outside of that was the Magic Floating Cloak entwined; is this something a vampire can break free from?
During his futile attempts, the two slowly surpassed the atmosphere.
If the speed was too fast, the heat produced passing through the atmosphere could overwhelm Strangulation, because it needed to connect with the opponent, it couldn't metallize.
Therefore, Su Ming had the chance to hear a bunch of chaotic last words.
Giovanni wasn't just a madman; he was an idealist, and his ultimate goal was surprisingly to create a harmonious, coexisting world.
As long as all creatures transformed into bloodsuckers, everyone could coexist; you could suck me, I could suck you, thus eliminating racial distinctions.
It must be said, this is indeed the logic of a madman, but it's not profound, rather somewhat naive.
As long as living beings have thoughts, there will always be subjective views of others, which is unavoidable.
Take ordinary people, for instance, they subconsciously categorize others upon seeing them.
They categorize others as men or women based on appearance, as old or young based on age, as rich or poor based on clothing, as good or bad based on behavior.
Such categorization methods are endless, and often, even before you know the other's name, you have already decided on how to respond.
As long as individual differences exist, fairness will never exist.
Even a madman like the Joker differentiates; to him, humans are divided into two types — either little bats or not little bats...
And perhaps Giovanni stayed too long in the darkness that he developed depression, which is why he entertained the idea of erasing differences.
If diversity didn't exist, human society would collapse.
Everyone would look the same, be the same height, act the same, think the same.
Love oneself, sleep with oneself, give birth to oneself.....
What would be the point of society then? Might as well become a collective consciousness and walk the path of infinite assimilation in the cosmos, which is usually a route mechanical species take; trying to change would be a wasted effort for biological races.
In Su Ming's view, Earth's future paths boil down to two choices, either to form a Utopia, a perfect nation with superb productivity and universally high moral standards to stride into the future together.
Or become a dystopia to its very core, with extreme order maintained through power, law, and force.
Given the external environment in the Marvel Universe, the probability of the latter is much higher, after all, Su Ming himself favors dark order.
"Enough, leave some serious last words."
Su Ming interrupted the incessantly rambling and struggling Giovanni, whose chaotic thoughts were transmitted along the Symbiote to Su Ming.
In the United States, it was indeed night, but in outer space, Su Ming needed only to orbit half the Earth to find the Sun.
And at this moment, if one looked down, a very clear demarcation line on Earth could be seen; it was the moment countless people welcomed the first ray of dawn.
This light would soon shine upon the two floating individuals.
Giovanni was a Vampire, not Dracula; without Varnae's power infusion, he was completely unable to withstand sunlight.
This is the most lethal weapon, the Sun.
A vampire at the end of his rope had never been to space, and the extreme cold there was causing him to stiffen, with thoughts almost coming to a halt, yet a final thought still arrived.
"Can the Blood Race really not coexist with humans?"
Then, the glaring sunlight shone upon the two, and the already frozen Blood Race instantly ignited, sparking like being set aflame inside the ice shell, then exploded.
"Ah!!!!!!!!"
The connection broke.
Strangulation hurriedly retracted its tentacles, watching its kind perish together with its host.
The host was a Vampire; the Symbiote had also assimilated with a blood-sucking organism and was similarly ignited under the sunlight, disappearing.
The other's evolution had wandered onto a wrong path, and all those genes were useless to Strangulation; even what it had devoured before could only serve as pure energy.
But that's the fate of Symbiotes, dying indicates an evolutionary misstep, so there's no need to retain the genes.
Symbiotes devour the weak solely for energy, not to gain the abilities of the weak, bad genes should be excluded from the group, and the abilities evolved by them are useless abilities.
Strangulation was slightly different; it was one of the spores split off from the 'Giant Dragon', plus its host adheres to the finders-keepers principle, scavenging the corpses of the weak is its norm.
But this time was different; Strangulation truly found no value in the abilities of the opponent's unknown Symbiote — rapid reproduction, blood-sucking, floating, parasitism, brain control, semi-transparency, photophobia...
None of these abilities did it want; it retracted back into its host.
Watching the ice crystals shatter before him, Su Ming slowly shook his head, unable to answer Varnae's final question either.
It shouldn't be about asking if humans and the Blood Race can coexist, but rather if humans want to coexist with the Blood Race.
One who lacks the power to arrange others' futures yet wants to decide others' futures is destined for a fatal end.
Watching the Earth below grow brighter as people embraced a new day, Su Ming cast aside these past questions and flew back to the castle at high speed.
Thinking about these matters wasn't as pressing as raiding a bit; Hel and the others wouldn't snatch it, right?
Returning from day back to night, drilling back through the hole at the castle top, Su Ming's cloak swept up as he slowly descended into the throne room.
He saw all three with nothing to do, Hel engaged in conversation with Satanah, while Palham had shed his Evil Spirit form and was gazing at the murals on the wall.
"Back? Did that guy die?" Satanah asked with a smile, her long black hair softly falling over her shoulders.
The armor formed by Strangulation receded from Su Ming's face, and he raised his eyebrows and replied casually, "I took him to see the sunrise, it was beautiful."