Chapter 919 The fish taking the bait
[ Sebastian's POV ]
Stirring up trouble, garnering attention and running away when things got heated were the three skill sets that Sebastian had absolutely mastered in life!
He could play any character, get anyone's attention and run away from any fight no matter who the opponent was.
However, what the universe had not fully comprehended yet was the ability of his followers and The church of cowards.
The capital planet where Dracula resided was a giant planet like Radiance and housed a population of over 6 billion.
It was a diverse planet that was primarily the spiritual home of the werewolves, however, it was taken over by the Kingdom of Life and Beniogre after the dark faction fell.
It was a place where Dracula's power was the strongest, yet even in such an influential city, Sebastian's church of cowards had over a million believers with hundreds of thousands of them being werewolves who had seen their brothers and loved ones dying a meaningless death in the Dimensional War.
Sebastian had never galvanised his supporters on a large scale before and hence the universe was not aware of the sort of influence that he wielded, however, apparently the church of cowards was a faction almost as powerful as any monarchy.
The survival first themed lifestyle resonated much with the poor and the downtrodden as for them Sebastian's orders were paramount.
They genuinely believed that they could survive and serve a higher purpose by executing Sebastian's commands as if the goals of the church of cowards were achieved they were assured to have a better life.
They had always seen rebellions where individuals lost their lives for a cause, however, Sebastian did not ask them to do so.
He asked them to cover their faces and deny their involvement in any uprising when asked so that even if the rebellion was successful nobody ever knew who participated in it and who did not.
A big part of being a coward was to never take credit for dangerous acts performed and to live ignobly and it was this very principle which made any uprising organised by the church of cowards that much more threatening.
Although they shouted slogans and Sebastian revealed his own identity to raise morale, the others performed acts of rebellion under a mask as within minutes several parts of the city were lit on fire as public infrastructure and safety management took a big hit.
To make matters worse, the church of coward believers would ditch their masks and join the ranks of those who were either running away from the fire or trying to extinguish it as they did not engage the local authorities or risk their lives to fight a physical confrontation.
In the end, nobody was any wiser as to who the perpetrators were; however, everyone was busy trying to calm down what the few had started.
Ofcourse the biggest target was Sebastian himself, however, as the owner of both the Vayu and the Indra Astra, Sebastian was not someone who could be tamed by mere tier6 god's as despite being cowardly he was an elite warrior who could easily drive back a dozen opponents alone.
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( Meanwhile Dracula )
Just as Max had expected, even though there was domestic trouble, when the large ships approached Dracula's base he chose to rise above the atmosphere and confront the ships rather than addressing the trouble back home.
He intended to destroy all the ships that Max had sent, just like he destroyed the ships sent by Beniogre and Regus when he first took over Ixtal with the only exception being the ship that DarkSorrow was personally inside as he intended to capture him alive.
Once Dracula revealed himself, all the various ships whether or small or large aimed their weapons towards Dracula and fired at once with the combined strength of their attacks being enough to raze a city with a single impact.
Unfortunately, it was not enough to faze Dracula who used his blood manipulation magic to summon the river of blood Sanguis within space and used it to block off all the incoming attacks.
It was almost unbelievable to see a substance as formless and fluid as blood being able to block of energy attacks that would even turn solid metal to ashes, however, such was the strength of Dracula who had lived for thousands of years.
Once he successfully blocked the attack, he smiled smugly as he sent a barrage of blood attacks towards a single ship hiding behind the largest destroyer that Dracula was in.
" COME OUT NOW- I'VE ALREADY SENDED YOUR PRESENCE " Dracula said as the blood attacks that he sent towards the ship were stopped dead in their tracks before they evaporated into their surroundings as Max calmly walked out of his ship and into the coldness of space, facing Dracula with a confident smile.
He was hoping to surprise Dracula when he was busy fighting the rest of his men, however, he was unfortunately detected early by his opponent, ruining his plan.
Thankfully though, Dracula detecting him and focusing on his ship meant that all the other ships had the time to recharge their weapons and fire another round as Dracula once again faced a strong barrage of energy blasts from the vampire fleet.
Afraid to use blood shield once more since Max could easily weaken it, Dracula was forced to draw out his sword and start deflecting the attacks as he had to expend stamina and work hard to neutralise the attacks much to his own dismay.
" I've just realised! It's annoying to fight you Max Rajput! I don't like doubting my strategies but you make me uncomfortable- " Dracula said as Max had a hearty laugh at this complement.
If Dracula had not deflected the attacks using a sword and had proceeded to use a blood shield, he would have indeed suffered a loss due to Max, which is why he made the right choice by using the sword.
" You talk too much, Lord Dracula, you give us too much room " Max said in response as the third barrage of attacks befell Dracula as much to his irritation he had to undergo the process once more, however, this time around eight separate tier6 vampire lords also outflanked him and sent attacks of their own towards him as one of them managed to get through his defences and cause a miniscule damage of -250,000 points.
" HOW DARE YOU- " Dracula roared in anger as he focused on the counterattack rather than talking this time around, with his attacks covering every single ship and lord present as he decided to take them all down at once.