Chapter 61 Bloodborne Vs Moonreaver (1)

HAHAHA!!! He took the bait!

I couldn’t control my smile as I watched Talon Bloodborne collapse on the floor. His face was pale, and his eyes were bloodshot. Each time he purged a mouthful of blood, I could hear his heart beating faster and his organs failing. I’d never thought that my plan would work so perfectly.

My gamble worked out perfectly! Even though my Creation Magic was powerful, there were its limitations. For instance, I couldn’t just ‘create’ a bomb inside of his brain and detonate it remotely. My magic power wasn’t nearly strong enough to overwrite the composition of his body. Therefore, I had to get creative. I could tell he was wary of my ability to stop time, and consequently, he kept his distance while he attacked from afar.

Using Talon’s apprehension to my advantage, I ‘changed’ the air around him into a deadly poison that I’ve seen which was harmful even to the regenerative Vampires. Every time I launched a spell at him, I secretly changed the compounds in the air with my Creation Magic, slowly poisoning him with invisible gas.

In the end, Talon didn’t even notice that he had inhaled a fatal dosage. He struggled to stay awake as the poison invaded every part of his body, gradually ripping his life away. If everything went well, the man would pass into the afterlife in two or three minutes. However, I didn’t want to leave it to chance.

I locked the Space that surrounded the Shadowfiend leader and created several sharpened steel swords. Without even giving him a chance to think, I willed the blades into the sky, and like an executioner releasing the guillotine, I aimed all of those swords at his neck.

Vampires could only die once they were decapitated. It didn’t matter if they were a Blood Servant or the direct descendant of the Vampire Progenitor. So long as their heads were severed, their regenerative factor would cease to exist. Which was why I used everything that I had in the tiny space between the tip of his nape to the base of his neck.

Alas…

Brvvvvttt!!!

Before my steel swords could send Talon to the River Styx, his entire body ignited into a blaze of ruby flame. Smoke escaped from each of his pores as he turned into the incarnation of the Flame Giant Sutr himself. Burning like a flaming torch, the Bloodfire melted the swords before they could do any form of damage, and gave the Shadowfiend leader a layer of protection that I couldn’t penetrate.

Fuck! I knew that it couldn’t be that easy! To think that he could engulf himself in pure Bloodfire without harming his body… No, he should be feeling the agony of being burnt alive. However, by burning away all of the toxins in his body, the fabled Bloodborne’s regenerative factor could finally do its work, out-healing the damage that the fire was dealing to him.

After a full minute of recovery, the man grabbed his knees and started to pant like a marathon runner who had just completed the feat of his lifetime.

He recovered from that? What a fucking monster.

“You bastard…”

Talon raised his face, shooting me a glare with bloodshot eyes resembling a terminally-ill patient high on drugs. Grabbing onto his Blood Katana, the Bloodborne elite raised his magic power, reaching a level that I couldn’t reach with my current, young body. The magic power in the air somehow made my skin crawl, and the worst part of it was… Talon’s Bloodfire was fully ignited, and his Blood Katana was wreathed in the ruby flame like it was blessed by the Goddess of Fire herself.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!”

Lost in his rage, Talon unleashed all of his pent-up power. He’d long forgotten about his mission and his duty to the Bloodborne House. All he wanted to do was kill the person who had caused him so much pain.

Me.

“Fuck!”

I immediately used all of the evasive manoeuvres in my arsenal, unwilling to hold a single thing back. Talon was rushing with a sword filled with flame, and each time he swung his blade, Bloodfire spewed out like a Dragon’s dignified breath. When he was fully sane, his swordsmanship sliced through the air like a tempest and flowed effortlessly like a never-ending river. However, with his mind gone now, the only thing he resembled was a berserker brute who flailed his club around.

Alas, even with his mind gone, I couldn’t underestimate him. Just one brush with the Bloodfire would be enough to send me into agonising pain and likely cut my connection with this created clone body. And so, I threw everything that I had.

Locking space up, throwing spells to slow him down, sending boulders weighing a full tonne flying in his direction.

I tried everything.

Even the Luce Stellarum joined the fray as they attempted to stop Talon Bloodborne, the Blood Katana, in his tracks. However, he was just too powerful. Neither the Luce Stellarum nor my attacks worked. Each attack encroached closer and closer to my body, bringing me a sense of helplessness with his every swing.

‘Tsk, there’s no other choice!!!’

I clicked my tongue in annoyance. If none of my attacks worked anymore, there was only one trump card that I could rely on. The one I’d been practising ever since I got to the Moonreaver Dimension and began my training.

All of my remaining magic power flowed into the middle ring of my finger, and almost instantly, an azure light shone brighter than the artificial Blood Moon in the sky. If his mind was clear, Talon would have sensed the immense danger that this attack posed. However, he clearly ignored his instincts and flew right before my eyes.

Just inches away, I could feel the intense heat of his Bloodfire, and I knew what kind of damage I would suffer if it hit me. However, I didn’t move away. Rather, I chose not to move away. With everything I had, I cast the spell I was innately aware of. The first-ever power that I’d become accustomed to.

With all of my heart and soul, I shouted:

“STOP!!!”

And just like that… The world stopped.

No, the world stopped in my eyes. Time was flowing just fine outside my influence. However, everything that was within my control… stopped. It didn’t matter if it was Talon who was attacking me. Lilith who was protecting me. The Luce Stellarum that attempted to stop Talon. Not even the Lord of Flies, the grandson of the Vampire Progenitor, or Capella Moonreaver, the Asterias that was on the same level as Sirius, was immune to my time-stop.

I looked up and saw Talon’s Blood Katana just a few centimetres away from my face. Unquestionably, if I was just a millisecond too late, his blade would have sliced my head in two and quite possibly destroyed my clone in one fell swoop.

Once again, I couldn’t help but awe at his technical prowess. How long would it take for me to reach his physical level? How much training would I have to endure to attain such ungodly speed?

I couldn’t tell.

However, that was inconsequential right now. With time stopped, I could freely move to safety and even launch an all-out attack on the man before he could even react. Alas… My magic power was quite insufficient.

I could only stop time for one second, and that wasn’t enough for me to completely decapitate his head off. The only thing I could do in this position was gather all of my remaining power in my hand and extend it with what little force I had left.

And that’s what I did.

Magic power entered my middle finger, turning my entire fist into an azure-golden punch. If any Kung Fu fanatics were watching, they might have misidentified my punch with the mythical Shaolin Fist.

And with everything I had, I threw the hardest punch in my life, sending a force equivalent to a thousand charging elephants down into one point in the Shadowfiend’s abdomen. Space folded, and my control over time loosened. With all that energy focused, Talon’s stomach could not handle the pressure and was ripped apart by the simple fist.

Bits of flesh and bone flew out from the man’s back as another mouthful of blood was sent flying in my direction. Talon, who was now unable to control his body, released his grip on the Blood Katana and was immediately pushed back by the force of my punch.

Like a broken puppet that was fired out of a cannon, Talon slammed violently onto the floor, bouncing dozens of times before splattering into a pool of flesh and blood a full kilometre away. The man’s body twitched, and his magic power started to subside. He showed no signs of recovering, and it was likely that it would stay that way for a while.

Urgh…

Finally, I can rest.

???

Jin’s little stunt wasn’t just noticed by Lilith and the other spectators who were watching from the safety of the mansion. Horatio and Capella, who were in the midst of their own battle, could clearly feel that something had changed in the world. They were beings close to the origin of magic, and their spatial awareness was probably among the world’s top five hundred. And so, when the fabric of Spacetime was altered… It naturally drew their undivided attention.

The Lord of Flies stopped his relentless onslaught on Capella and darted his eyes at the Vampire who dispatched Talon. Although he didn’t witness that attack first-hand, he felt the aftermath of that deadly strike.

Talon was lying in a pool of his own blood while the boy was clearly in the pink of health despite being a little fatigued. Not only that, with his advanced Vampiric senses, Horatio could tell that the ‘Jin’ that was before him, was nothing more than a clone or an incarnation.

He didn’t even use his real body, and he could defeat Talon? One of the rising stars of the Bloodborne House? Now that was something worth his attention.

‘Not only that… What was that oppressive feeling? It felt like…’

Horatio shuddered as he recalled the mysterious phenomenon that occurred just a few seconds ago. At that moment, it felt like the entire world was oppressing him. In front of its massive grandeur, Horatio was nothing more than a leaf in the wind. A helpless baby that couldn’t move against its mother.

That power to dominate and suppress…

The grandson of the Vampire Ancestor had only felt it once before.

And that was when…

SLINCK!!!

A beam of starlight flew past Horatio’s distracted face, exploding into a deadly nova once it reached the apex of heaven. Frowning, the Lord of Flies turned to his attacker, who held no sense of timing.

“Do you really have the luxury to be daydreaming?!”

“Capella… Who was that boy?”

“I am under no obligation to tell you!”

Capella’s seven bodies viciously attacked the Bloodborne Prince, only to be encountered with a flurry of Bloodfire Butterflies that detonated upon contact. Horatio turned into a kaleidoscope of butterflies to escape Capella’s advance, only to recongregate a dozen metres away.

This time, the Lord of Flies didn’t have his signature disgusting smile. He alternated his eyes between Capella and Jin, trying desperately to map out a connection. Jin didn’t seem like a Moonreaver, and his unique traits didn’t match any of the Noble Houses he knew. So he should be an independent, first-generation Vampire.

So why was he in the Moonreaver Dimension then? And why was he fighting the Bloodborne House?

Horatio had so many questions.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Horatio chuckled and raised his arms again. “I can slowly extract my answers once I’m done with you.”

“… You sure are arrogant!”

“Haha, I’ve said it before, darling…”

Horatio’s body started to turn. Magic power filled his veins as blood broke free from the tears in his body. His fingers turned into deadly claws, and the man’s body doubled in size. His legs turned into horse hooves as goat horns broke free from the top of his head. Like a demon that had ascended from the blazing hells, the man’s eyes turned crimson red.

Once again, his bloodline exuded pressure upon Capella’s body, bringing forth a sense of dread with every move she made. Holding back her sweat, the silver-haired Vampire clenched her rapier tightly and watched as Horatio sneered at her with genuine overconfidence.

“I’m not arrogant… I’m just stronger than you!!!”