Chapter 919: Dragon, Dragon, and More Dragons. 3
As soon as the roars ceased, various eggs of different colors began to form around.
"Oh...?" Victor looked curiously at this phenomenon.
"What happened, Victor? Did they fail?" Scathach asked.
"They didn't fail... What's happening is that their bodies are remaking themselves from scratch."
"Huh? But that didn't happen to us," Morgana said. "I remember our bodies slowly remaking themselves after transforming into dragons."
Victor nodded, he clearly remembered that fact as well.
"... Victor's divinities somehow influenced the girls," Aphrodite said. "And because of that, their process of gaining a dragon's body was faster than ours."
"Remember that when Darling transformed us into dragons, he was still a mortal, he wasn't a god like he is now. Therefore, their situation and ours are completely different."
"I see..." Scathach sighed in relief, seeing that her daughters were okay.
"So, what should we do now?" Jeanne asked.
"We continue the ritual..." Victor said as he turned his gaze back to the goddesses.
The goddesses swallowed nervously when they saw Victor's gaze on them.
"Come a little farther over here," Victor said, pointing to a spot away from the girls who were in the large eggs.
The goddesses nodded and walked toward the spot Victor had indicated. When they gathered there, Victor began to explain:
"Unlike mortals, divine beings are a bit more complex to change their race due to their own divinities, which can interfere with the process. Therefore, I will ask you to do the same thing Aphrodite did. During the process in which your body and soul are changing, you must focus on not using your divinities. Of course, I will assist in the process."
"Do you understand?"
"Yes." They all nodded in agreement. As all of them were ancient goddesses, they knew very well what Victor was talking about.
"Good. Let's begin."
Just as before, a magical circle began to form beneath the goddesses. Victor focused his eyes on their souls, thanks to his immense control over the soul coming directly from his powers as the Progenitor of vampires and a god of negativity, he could more easily see the connection between divinity and the goddesses' souls.
Although it was easier now due to his newfound powers, it didn't mean that what he was about to do was not complex. Because of that, he left the goddesses to be the last to be transformed.
Velnorah narrowed her eyes slightly when she felt someone deeply invading her soul, and instinctively, she used her own divinity to protect herself from this 'intrusion,' but Victor's next words made her relax a bit more.
"Do not resist. I don't intend to harm you; this is a necessary process."
"Okay," Velnorah said.
As soon as her body began to be covered in a blue light, Velnorah could clearly feel the internal structures of her existence being changed.
'Incredible... To be able to change even someone like me who has already reached the peak of her existence... His power is very strong and intrusive... This would be quite dangerous if he weren't a friend.' Velnorah could clearly imagine the kind of harm someone with this kind of power could do to the gods. He could completely reshape an entire being into something that suits his preferences. A power even worse than brainwashing.
...
Nightingale, Royal Capital.
While Victor was going through the ritual with his wives, in Nightingale, a woman with long brown hair and brown eyes was on top of a building, looking at the noble vampires with a calculating look in her eyes.
Despite being in one of the most visible places in Nightingale, none of Vlad's forces seemed to notice the woman; it was as if no one could see her.
"Tsk, I lost sight of him... Is he so powerful that he can simply disappear like this out of nowhere?" The woman wondered.
Suddenly, another deafening roar from several dragons echoed around.
"Hmm..." The woman touched her chin and said, "This time, the roar contained more power and a hint of divinity... But there's something strange; I can't locate the source of this roar..."
With a wave of her hand, runes began to appear around her, and she tried once again to track the source of the roar, but just like before, nothing happened.
Although she was unsuccessful in her attempts, it didn't diminish the woman's determination to discover the source of this roar. She knew that this roar came from another dimension, but this dimension didn't seem to exist within this planet.
'But if this dimension didn't exist within this planet, how can we hear the roars of the dragons?' She thought.
"Ahhhhh!"
"What's this!?"
"... I'm scared... This oppressive feeling."
"Where is the king!? What is he doing!?"
"Calm down, guys."
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Let's contact the authorities!"
"I said; stay fuck calm down! And you stop screaming!"
"... The way they're acting is like headless chickens, what's happening? Why are they so afraid?" The woman spoke, but again, despite speaking aloud, no one could perceive her.
"That's because the Blood Dragon has deep ties to the noble vampires, so the roar of several dragons of the same species is like several higher-level noble vampires suppressing them... That's why they're afraid."
The brown-haired woman shivered when she heard this sudden voice near her. She quickly turned her face and found a woman with long fiery red hair floating beside her. She was wearing a tight black outfit that looked more like a straitjacket due to how restrictive it was.
"You are...?"
"Kali. Nice to meet you, Dun Scaith."
Dun Scaith swallowed hard when she found herself in front of the goddess of destruction, who was also the goddess of darkness and death, although her primary domain was undoubtedly destruction, as evidenced by the oppressive aura of destruction around her.
With just a glance, Dun Scaith could see that the strange outfit she was wearing was meant to prevent her divinity from affecting her surroundings as a form of limitation. Her body was so full of power that it wasn't even funny; just being near the woman sent shivers down her spine.
Even with this strange outfit, the woman's well-proportioned body couldn't be hidden; she was truly a beauty.
"... Nice to meet you, Kali." That's all Dun Scaith could say to this undoubtedly most powerful woman.
"Mm." Kali nodded as she looked around. Unlike Dun Scaith, she wasn't trying to hide her presence now as she was before, although she made a tremendous effort to regulate how much divine power leaked from her body to avoid harming the beings around her inadvertently.
Although even with this outfit, her power was not completely suppressed, and she couldn't interact with things around her if she didn't want to destroy them.
"I bet you're here for Victor, right?"
"Yes."
This simple "yes" made Dun Scaith sigh inwardly. Victor was quite a sinner for attracting the attention of this woman, wasn't he?
'Although I'm the same...' She came out of her seclusion to study Victor's draconic runes; her obsession ended up outweighing her desire for seclusion.
A portal appeared a little distance away from Kali, and from it emerged Vlad with a very serious look as he gazed at Kali.
'Well, when she's not trying to hide, the response was quick... Although it was inefficient.' Dun Scaith thought, slightly disappointed by Vlad's defense system. Although it wasn't really Vlad's fault, he had always relied much more on Alexios's defense of Nightingale and neglected something as powerful as the runes.
'My disciple's runes would have been enough for this kind of surveillance; he wouldn't have needed to use that boy for so long...' Dun Scaith thought, aware that even if Vlad did that, he would still trust Alexios more than Scathach's runes; the man had trust issues.
When Vlad was about to speak, Kali spoke first, interrupting him. "Bring me Victor, Vlad," Kali said with a neutral tone. Shiva had always spoken highly of Vlad's friend, so she had no ill intentions toward the older vampire.
Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Who am I talking to?"
"Kali." A simple response, followed by an intentional leakage of aura that completely obliterated everything within a 1-meter radius.
Silence fell around as Vlad's eyes widened; he didn't doubt the woman's claim. Only she and Shiva had such a strong divinity of destruction, and even though he hadn't met the woman personally due to her seclusion, he still knew her most distinctive feature, which had been personally mentioned by his friend. He now clearly remembered Shiva's words to him.
"Divinity?" Shiva laughed. "My friend, when it comes to divinity, I am far behind Kali. Her divinity is so strong that it affects her surroundings even when she doesn't want it to."
'Yes, that's the normal reaction. I can completely understand it,' Dun Scaith nodded internally as she saw Vlad's reaction.
Dun Scaith touched her lips as she thought, and suddenly, a playful smile formed on her lips. "I'd like to make the same request, Vampire King." Scaith's voice resonated as she dispelled her concealment caused by the runes.
Vlad's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw the appearance of the woman with long brown hair. Despite being dressed in a more 'modern' fashion than Kali, Dun Scaith's distinctive features were quite visible. Plus, Vlad had met this woman once before she became a goddess.
"It's been a while, Vampire," a small smile formed on Scaith's face.
Vlad's reaction was to remain silent as he gave a slightly tired look to the two women; he clearly didn't want to deal with these two women.
"... Please accompany me to my castle; I will try to speak with Victor."
"Mm," Kali nodded.
"Okay," Dun Scaith confirmed with a light laugh.
...
Vampire King's Castle.
Looking at Kali, who was floating with crossed legs in the guest room with her eyes closed, and at Dun Scaith, sitting on the sofa reading some books from her personal library, Vlad couldn't help but grumble:
"I'm not paid enough for this shit." When he saw that Alexios was about to say something, he added, "Actually, I'm not paid; I'm the king, but you get what I mean."
The man closed his mouth as he nodded; he could clearly understand the king's mood. Vlad was someone who didn't like dealing with unknowns, and the appearance of two troubled women whose course of action he couldn't exactly 'predict' left him dissatisfied.
It was as if Two Scathachs had suddenly appeared in front of him, but unlike the original Scathach, where he was more or less aware of her personality, these two women were completely a question mark for Vlad.
Despite having met Dun Scaith in the past, she was human, and he didn't interact with her much. After all, in the past, he didn't have much interest in her. He distinctly remembered that his younger self had heard rumors about a human who claimed to train heroes and became interested in this human. However, when he went to see this human, he wasn't interested because she was nothing special.
She wasn't like Jeanne, who had a unique charm that made Vlad show up and 'help' her.
Remembering these memories, he wished he had slapped his younger self for lacking vision. He knew very well that if Victor had been in his place, the situation would have been completely different. This man had a great perception for finding talents... or wives...
Even Jeanne herself, who was his ex-wife, turned out to be someone Vlad never thought she would be. If he had had this knowledge at the time, he could have treated Jeanne better.
Vlad shook his head internally when he understood his own thoughts. Anyway, there was no point in crying over spilled milk. He needed to do something about this situation because the direct contact he had with Victor wasn't working, and he didn't know what they would do if they waited too long.
If it were just Dun Scaith, Vlad would have room for maneuver and could somehow deal with her. The problem arose when Kali entered the equation. That enigmatic being composed of the deity of destruction was completely unpredictable, and Vlad wasn't very confident that she wouldn't take action due to her friendship with Shiva.
"My King."
"...Yes?"
"You're overthinking again." Alexios warned him with a serious face.
"...Oh..." Vlad fell silent for a few seconds. "You're right," he sighed.
It seemed that he always tended to revert to his habits unconsciously when faced with a situation he couldn't control.
As he reflected on his tendencies, suddenly, the communication device started working, and the call connected. A hologram appeared, and soon the image of... Agnes appeared, and she looked completely different, with new dragon eyes, horns, and slightly pointed ears as obvious indications of her new status as a true dragon.
"What's up, Doc?"
Vlad looked up when he saw the amused gleam in Agnes's violet eyes... Wrong, she wasn't Agnes, was she? She was Violet.
"Violet... I presume."
"Are you going senile, Old Man? Don't you recognize me anymore?"
'For a moment, I thought I was talking to Agnes... Did the race change cause her body to mature?' Vlad thought.
Violet was now the image copy of the 'future' Violet she saw in her visions.
"Kakaka, you seem unresponsive to seeing me, King of Vampires. Did the dragon get your tongue?"
"...What's with the fake condescending laugh?" Vlad asked.
"Due to my new status, I was thinking about doing some cool and memorable laugh, you know? This is called the One Piece effect."
"How about a nobler laugh like Kakaka? Or more mysteriously evil like Kukuku? Or maybe Zahahaha...?" Violet shivered when she said the last. "Wants to know? Forget the last one, it sounds very strange when it's not spoken by a toothless old man."
Vlad didn't know how to react to these words; he had the look of a person who clearly didn't understand the references Violet was making, and Violet also noticed this.
"Tsk, what an uncultured man, that's why your old wives gave you a green hat."
Vlad's eyes twitched a little.
Violet stopped playing around, and her expression became completely serious. "Why did you contact Darling again and again, old man? We're in the middle of something important here."
"...Kali, the goddess of destruction of the Hindu pantheon, and Dun Scaith, the goddess of runes, are here."
"...Oh... That's quick... I thought it would take longer."
"You seem to be aware of the fact that these two individuals are here."
"Yes, indeed." Violet didn't deny it. "No one can escape Darling's senses, you know?"
"...And you guys planned to tell me?"
Violet raised her eyebrow, she appears to sit in a comfortable chair, and crosses her legs elegantly: "Vampire King, although we are not enemies due to Ophis, and our Nightingale heritages, we are not exactly official allies either. "
"The fact that you failed to notice two potentially dangerous individuals in your kingdom is entirely the fault of your inability."
"I thought my help in the war was of some contribution to you letting me know." Vlad looked at her with a resentful look.
"Don't play political games like, King of the Vampires. Me, you, everyone here knows that you only participated in the war for personal reasons. If not for that, you would have let us deal with the problem without getting involved."
Vlad closes his eyes for a few seconds, and opens them again with a completely expressionless look: "... You've grown up, Violet."
"I know." Violet smiled slightly, she wouldn't fall for the old vampire's tricks.
"In 30 minutes we will visit the two women, tell them to wait." Without waiting for Vlad's confirmation, Violet turns off the communicator.
"...Any thoughts, Alexios?"
"Somehow, Lady Violet acquired a rapid maturity much like Victor.""
"Chances of this being caused by the dragon's transformation?"
"The possibility is high, but I suggest observing whether we find such behaviors in other younger women." Alexios spoke while thinking about his daughter.
'She didn't change her race, did she?' He thought a little uncertainly, after all, if she did that, she would lose her power.
"Hmm… We will let the guests know about Violet's words."
"Yes, my master."
....