Chapter 290: One small step, one big change... A turning point.
"Why... Why... Why..." A white-haired man was running through the streets of Nightingale with a heavy breath and a frightened face.
Today should've been a normal day, he should've just gone to his administrative job in the Snow Clan territory, and as usual, he should've observed any changes and reported to his superiors.
And who were his superiors?
A high-ranking member of the Snow Clan he was a part of?
Perhaps the Snow Clan countess herself?
Of course not.
His superior was a simple member of the Snow Clan who held a high position within an organization he was a part of.
"The Eye." An organization whose sole purpose of existence was to observe and monitor the three clans of vampire counts.
An organization whose only purpose they worked towards was to 'replace' the current system.
The three countesses.
Agnes Snow, Scathach Scarlett, Annasthashia Fulger.
They wanted to tear down one of these three pillars and replace them with their own members, that way, they would have political control of Nightingale.
...Fun fact, they didn't even consider Clan Adrasteia as an enemy. After all, they didn't want dangerous terrain like theirs, and in the eyes of these men, Clan Adrasteia was worthless.
And, of course, that was a big mistake.
The man turned the corner towards the central square, and he was faced with a shocking sight.
A pile of bodies...
Wrong, a pile of dead corpses, and sitting on top of those corpses was a man with long black hair and blood-red eyes.
He was sitting there with his hand resting on his chin, looking bored.
The white-haired man knew this man.
"A-Alucard."
How could he not recognize him? He may have gotten incredibly handsome, but that cruel look on his face could never be forgotten.
He was the man who ordered this massacre. It all started with a sudden martial law, and then this man declared that no one should leave their houses until he allowed it.
All those who left their houses would be considered a threat and would be arrested.
The white-haired man expected more resistance from the vampires, but unexpectedly for himself, they all obeyed Alucard's order.
Those stubborn and proud vampires listened to someone!
He didn't even have to threaten them.
Alucard's own prestige as a ruthless new count was well known.
Although they had no personal contact with the count himself, everyone knew what kind of personality he had.
Just like Scathach, he was not someone you'd want to have as an enemy. They didn't want to take the risk of taunting this monster and having their Clan turn to ash.
The incident where several Clans disappeared after breaking into Scathach's territory was well known to all, and in this latest incident, Alucard himself participated.
Two vampire counts attacked smaller, weaker Clans and destroyed everything… That was ridiculous.
This incident was a warning to all smart clans, don't mess with Clan Alucard or Scarlett.
The monster's eyes glowed a little blood red, and he spoke in a neutral, simple voice:
"Knees."
"...!?"
CRACK, CRACK.
The man fell to the ground on his knees with a shocked look on his face. He had no idea what had happened.
He just felt the whole world suddenly become heavy, and before he knew it, he was on his knees. It was as if gravity itself was obeying the man's words.
The man's voice had a weight he'd never felt before.
"... That is..."
"A member of the Snow Clan..."
"Even he was not spared."
"Just what's going on...?"
The white-haired man heard whispers through the windows of the houses. It was quite obvious that despite being inside their houses, the population of the Snow Clan territory was curious about what was happening.
'How is this possible? It hasn't even been 10 minutes since he started his genocide! How has he killed so many people!?' The man's head couldn't understand how he had killed so many people in such a short time.
Glancing at the ground, he saw his shadow that was being cast by the city light's acting strangely. It started to move, and soon it seemed to 'break' and go somewhere.
The man knew this phenomenon.
'Don't tell me... The Blank clan...? Why are they listening to this monster!? He's a foreigner! He's not even the count of the Snow Clan!'
From the bald man's memories, Victor could tell that this man was 'red', meaning he was a traitor, but even so, he still hadn't killed him.
Unlike the others, this traitor was just an ant, a worthless soldier who would be used and discarded.
In the bald man's mind, everyone was like that, and upon reading the bald man's memory, Victor understood that the organization itself was not important. They were just a bunch of men frustrated with the current system and who didn't have the strength or balls enough to challenge the leaders of the Clan themselves.
And because of that, they want to use poisonous methods to seize power from the countesses.
They were just a bunch of parasites.
And Victor decided to use this parasite as an example. Originally, a worthless soldier, now taking on a great role as an example that should not be followed.
"Rejoice, worm. I will give your miserable existence a purpose for once."
"..." The man tried to say something, but he couldn't, it was impossible, he didn't have permission.
Upon absorbing Adonis' existence, Victor came to learn about a fact... Parasites individually can't do anything, but if these parasites are together, they could wreak havoc in a moment of weakness, and because of that, he was doing this cleanup in the Snow Clan.
And this territory was just the beginning...
Clan Fulger's territory was next.
Victor didn't need to go to Clan Scarlett, considering they didn't even dare step into Scathach's territory since they were just too scared of the woman.
And Clan Scarlett didn't have many members, meaning that it was difficult to infiltrate into Scathach's house.
'Adonis gave me many things.' Victor looked at his fist for a few seconds and squeezed it tightly.
'1700 years of experience from someone who had no strength, someone who only used their brains to fight...' A complete opposite being of Victor.
Victor used strength, and Adonis used his intelligence. Even with his weak body that couldn't move, he had legs and arms all over the territory, and those arms and legs were Clan Blank.
By absorbing Adonis, Victor's biggest weakness was completely eliminated... A weakness that he was trying to eliminate, but he himself understood that it would take years for that to happen. After all, he understood that to eliminate that weakness, he would have to live long enough to understand vampire society and the snakes that live within that society.
Now, Victor understood that not all vampires would use the methods he liked, fighting head-on in a fight that excited him... Instead, most vampires preferred to use treacherous methods.
And Adonis was an expert in this method.
'If I went the normal way, it would take me thousands of years to overcome this weakness.'
A man stepped out of the shadows and looked at Victor.
Victor stopped staring at his hand and looked at the man.
"...You done?" Victor asked.
"Yes."
"All the insects on the list the master gave have died. Not a soul remains to tell the tale."
A woman dressed in a Maid outfit came out beside the man and continued with a small smile:
"The streets of this city are painted with the blood of your enemies."
"...Good." The man flashed a small smile that sent chills through all the vampires who were watching this scene.
"Have any enemies given you trouble?" Victor asked curiously.
"No. Everyone died before realizing what was happening." Oda replied as he looked at Kaguya for a few seconds, who nodded in agreement with him:
'How did she get so strong in such a short time?'
As the leader of Clan Blank, he was responsible for training all the new assassins, and it was clear that Kaguya was one of his apprentices. At the time, he had judged Kaguya to be exceptional and that she had a great future ahead of her.
She just needed time because when she reached the age of 500, she would awaken most of Clan Blank's abilities.
... But breaking all Oda's predictions, the woman was already able to use those skills that only adult assassins could use.
It just meant one thing:
'She has already reached the power of an adult vampire...'
With the same smile on his face, Victor said, "There's still one left."
The two looked at the man who was still kneeling on the floor.
Cold sweat broke out from the man's body.
"Get up." Containing an inexplicable authority in his words, the man followed what Victor said like a puppet.
He got up from the floor and looked at Victor with a confused look. 'My body is moving by itself!'
Victor's Charm had mutated from a simple command technique and evolved into an authority that no one who was not strong enough could disobey.
"If God commands, the faithful must obey."
This ability was the reincarnation of those words. With one word from Victor, he could influence the weakest beings.
Like a god ordering mortals. After all, who was crazy enough to disobey God?
Victor raised his hand as it began to be covered in red power, and slowly something started to happen.
The man started to float towards Victor. It was pretty clear that Victor was controlling the man.
"... That is...?" Kaguya opened her eyes in shock when she saw this vision. She knew this power very well, as it was the power of one of Victor's Maids.
'But how can he use it? Isn't that power exclusive to that woman?'
The man was pulled with inexplicable force towards Victor, and before he knew it, he was being held by the neck.
"!!!" The man's entire body froze in terror when he saw the face of this monster in front of him.
Victor got up from the corpses he was sitting on, taking a step and walking directly into the air.
As if walking on a floor invisible in the air, he walked towards the middle of the central square.
"Citizens... Vampires."
"This is the result for those who decided to betray the Snow Clan." Victor didn't need to explain to the population, Victor didn't need to say why he massacred so many people today.
That wasn't his job. That was the job of the representative that the Snow Clan would send in the future; his job was to make sure this never happened again.
"These are the consequences of someone trying to betray the Snow Clan." Victor released the man from the air.
Quake, quake, quake.
The ground started to shake as if a small earthquake was occurring, and soon a pillar of ice came out of the ground and pierced the entire body of the man, starting from his ass to his neck.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The man screamed in pain from having his entire body pierced.
Victor snapped his finger, and soon the man's entire body began to burn.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His cries of pain seemed to echo throughout the city.
"...Oh my god..." A female vampire touched her face with a terrified look.
"A vampire talking about God... How ironic." The man who was next to the woman spoke, but as he looked at this sight, he spoke with an uncomfortable look:
"But…yes, that's cruel."
When the man's entire body looked like it would completely burn in the flames, the flames disappeared as if they had never been.
A few seconds passed, as the man's body started to regenerate, and then when his entire body was almost completely regenerated…
The flames appeared once more!
"AHHHHHHHHH!" The man's cries of pain echoed through the city once more.
It was as if the flame had a consciousness of its own!
As the man screamed in pain, Victor's voice echoed throughout the city:
"For three days, this man will suffer from the same power he inherited." His voice was heavy and carried a seriousness that no one could ignore.
"I want you to engrave this scene in your mind and never forget it…" His voice carried a cruelty worthy of a vampire count:
"Never forget the consequences of defying the Snow Clan."
From that day forward, all of those who had experienced that scene would never forget the smile that monster made. It was as if the very image of the man was engraved in the souls of all the vampires present.
His long black hair looked like it was defying gravity, his blood-red eyes, and his smile that made all vampires tremble in fear.
This was the first major political action involving the second progenitor... From that day forward, when historians studied this event, they would understand that it was from that day on that something changed in Count Alucard.
The man who acted impulsively, the man who acted like a mad, impulsive warrior, became more 'calm', and began to take great calculated actions.
Actions that scared people more than the giant sword that rested on his shoulder wreathed in flames.
With just one word from this monster, he could change the entire life of a vampire who lived in Nightingale. With just one word from him, the entire economy of Nightingale could change.
With just a word from him, he could influence other realms, even if it was indirectly.
This was the first step of a tale that would be told in the future by future generations.
The tale of Count Alucard, a rising star who seemed unstoppable by anyone, the man who became the second king of all vampires... and who was eventually seen and regarded as a god to all vampires.
But... this was a story that should be told another time.