Chapter 581: How to Use Space (5)

Squelch, squelch…!!

The sound of serum syringes lodged in the vampire’s back, pumping and supplying blood. Each time Virgil’s body slowly twitched in response, the entire cavern pulsed violently, like a beating heart.

Fresh blood continuously streamed down from the half-collapsed ceiling and walls of the underground cavern. It was as if the entire cavern had become a living creature, bleeding itself dry, on the verge of death.

In the center of that blood-soaked chamber, the vampire’s form was continuously supplied with blood, elevating itself.

“Virgil.”

Greta looked at Virgil’s face and nodded.

“That pale face of yours hasn’t changed. Did you like my greeting?”

“And you, on the other hand, have aged considerably. Though I suppose there’s nothing to be done, given your original Hierarchy wasn’t that high.”

Virgil didn’t hide his sneer as he mocked her.

“Isn’t it past your time to be out in the field? It seems you still don’t know your place. Decades ago, that attitude got you quite a scolding from Kaiser.”

Glug, glug…!!

The serum syringes pumped faster and faster, and the magic surging explosively from the vampire’s body swirled. A doping process, carried out by injecting his own pre-extracted blood. What did it mean to perform a similar act with the vampire’s own blood, applied in dozens of overlapping layers?

The moment the vampire, standing in the center of the vast cavern completely smeared with crimson blood, waved his hand, the blood soldiers arrayed on either side of Virgil transformed into thousands of blood droplets, scattering in all directions.

Pop!

Subtly glowing red blood droplets paused in mid-air amidst the cavern’s darkness, as if time had frozen. Fine threads of blood extended from the droplets, connecting in all directions, drawing tens of thousands of blood-lines throughout the underground cavern.

Bloodline Unique Ability: Woo-hyeol-ru [優血淚]

[Ten Thousand Blood Frost [萬血瑞理]]

[Water Drops Pierce Stone [水滴石穿]]

Shatter!

A net of blood filled the cavern. Veins of blood stretched out indiscriminately, tracing lines in the air like a painting. The agents, unable to escape their trajectories, had parts of their bodies pierced, and their faces turned pale.

“He’s draining their blood…!!”

A chilling sensation as blood rapidly drained from their entire bodies. It restrained the Agent operatives, rendering them immobile, and simultaneously served as a sacrifice, stealing the power needed to maintain the spell.

Clatter-clatter!

“If you’re touched even once, it’s over! Move!”

“Protect the Director!”

The head of the Cartel’s executive board. Olivera Ron Maize’s right-hand man. But beyond that symbolism, it was also true that the Cartel’s top executive had personally appeared here. If they could just face and subdue Virgil here, it would be tantamount to cutting off the Cartel’s head.

At the last moment, a few veteran agents who had reserved their remaining strength rushed towards Virgil, dodging the pouring rain of blood. Almost simultaneously, from three sides out of Virgil’s line of sight, they unleashed all manner of bladed weapons and firearms.

Clang!

Blades, bullets, and all sorts of explosives pierced through Virgil’s body, emerging from the other side. But Virgil’s body did not get severed, crushed, or turn into a corpse. Instead, countless arms made of blood erupted from within the vampire’s body, seizing the agents, pushing them back, shaking them off, and slamming them down.

Thud!

Virgil didn’t even turn to look at the agents, shrugging his shoulders towards Greta.

“Harsh. Didn’t they brief you beforehand?”

“Because I considered the operation a failure the moment things went this far,” Greta replied indifferently. “From the start, I should have managed the operation timing better to avoid this situation. It was my mistake.”

Greta said that and slowly began to walk among the agents. Her body brushed through the net of blood, getting cut, and though she began to bleed, she didn’t stop.

“But that doesn’t mean I’ll just willingly lose here.”

Greta’s eyes, glancing back at Virgil, glinted.

“Once I start something, I don’t stop until I reach an agreeable compromise. That was my way of doing things. So…”

As she lifted a remote control, the pyromancer’s breathing rapidly grew ragged, and he began to gasp violently.

[Haaah, haaah, haaaah!!!]

Whoosh!

Flames instantly spread along the net of fresh blood, which formed droplets and lines, feeding on Virgil’s [Ten Thousand Blood Frost] to grow in size. The flames, using the magic contained within the blood droplets as their power, rapidly grew in volume, and a massive wall of fire rose up, as if to cleave the underground cavern in half.

Greta nodded, her back to the enormous wall of flames.

“I’ll just have to force that compromise.”

Rumble!

A massive wave of fire surged towards the vault where the executives were located. Anghel swiftly formed hand seals, simultaneously crossing his arms and gripping his own neck tightly.

Whoosh!

The breath he exhaled spread out as chilling cold, directly countering the burning wall of fire. The wall of flames and the breath of cold clashed, repelling each other before neutralizing, and the aftermath unleashed an immense amount of steam in all directions, as if exploding.

Hiss!

The sheer volume of steam released was so immense that everyone standing there was drenched from head to toe. Amidst the swirling steam and vapor, it was impossible to see even an inch ahead. Even O’Neil clicked his tongue in silent surprise and muttered.

“That’s absurd. How much moisture does he even have in his body…!!”

While Greta’s pyromancer conjured flames with his own mental power, Anghel, who countered with cold, was different. The very act of exhaling to create cold was proof that he transformed his own bodily moisture into cold, rather than using power like magic or mental energy. The steam now filling the underground cavern was a result of Anghel expelling his own moisture.

At that moment, as vision was obscured by the hazy steam, a sound echoed from behind Greta. Crunch!

“Kuaaaagh!”

From within the steam, a white beast’s forepaw appeared, mercilessly crushing the agents’ bodies and breaking their limbs.

[Damn it, does that mean all of this is that Anghel bastard’s saliva?!]

Even as she said that, Merlida whipped her tail through the agents, instantly creating a rift in their formation. Boom! With a slight flex of her tail muscles, a shockwave erupted, pushing back the agents’ defensive formation. She roughly kicked O’Neil in his injured stomach, instantly flipping the situation in their favor.

Through the hazy, obscured vision, the beast’s acute senses raced ahead without reservation, surpassing the superhumans’ sensory range. The pyromancer focused on projecting firepower, directly confronting Anghel’s cold, while Kade was practically incapacitated from his fight with Lennok. Only O’Neil and Chain, recovering belatedly, were desperately struggling to hold Merlida in place using their respective magical powers.

Though the presence of just two newly arrived executives was enough to collapse the standoff between the two organizations, Greta paid no mind to this, intently watching only Virgil and Lennok’s movements.

“Given that the situation was set up after a large portion of our forces had already disengaged, it’s not strange for it to collapse this easily.”

Greta smiled, pointing a finger at the ceiling.

“But I’m not without a plan in case things went awry. Are you ready?”

The moment others’ gazes followed her hand towards the cavern ceiling, the steam that had filled the underground cavern to its limit could no longer withstand the pressure and began to collapse the cavern. Rumble!!!

Along the diagonally fractured ceiling of the cavern, the steam, expanded to its limit, leaked out, squeezing through the cracks and revealing glimpses of the surface. As the ground collapsed, buildings all around the Cartel’s headquarters district swayed from the impact. Peeking through the cracks in the collapsed cavern ceiling was the shape of a massive cylinder, radiating a deep violet glow.

Roar…!!

Virgil’s brow furrowed as he realized it wasn’t just a simple bombardment weapon or mechanical device.

“Wait… this magic… an anti-gravity engine…?”

“Perhaps because it hasn’t been fully commercialized yet, people underestimate the value of anti-gravity technology.” Greta flicked her finger, with the massive aura of light, dyeing the night sky entirely violet, hovering above her head.

“What Evan Vylun created isn’t technology that defies gravity with magical power. They don’t truly grasp how incredible the principle of mimicking the Pilenom Autonomous Region’s updrafts is, even after reading the explanations and theses.” The source of the violet aura wasn’t a satellite or a tactical weapon designed for aerial bombardment. Over a dozen anti-gravity airships, which the Agent operatives had arrived on, circled in the air, simultaneously boosting their engine output to resonate. And at the same time, updrafts erupting from all sides of the airships transformed into a massive violet glow, beginning to plummet towards the ground.

“It’s a concept that projects by mimicking specific physical laws themselves. In other words, by simply overloading the engines and concentrating the output, it can be turned into…” Greta said. “…an anti-matter particle weapon that dismantles physical laws.”

Only then did Anghel realize what Greta was saying, and he shouted with a stiff face.

“You’re insane. Are you intending to sink the entire Cartel headquarters district…!!”

Hummmmmm!!!!

Others, belatedly sensing the anomaly, also turned their gazes, but the violet aura filling the sky above the headquarters was already plummeting to the ground. An intuition that sharply pierced through the Cartel headquarters’ schedule and operational gaps. A massive bombardment that understood the essence of anti-gravity technology and unleashed it as a weapon. Even Greta’s cunning in personally acting as bait, stalling for time and dragging the altered operation this far.

Greta, at the moment she instinctively knew the operation would completely fail, had already planned to wipe the entire board clean.

‘If it were an already completed weapon, she wouldn’t have kept it hidden until things got to this point.’ Lennok’s eyes, watching the anti-matter particle cannon plummeting from the sky, calmly settled. ‘It’s reasonable to assume this was brought purely for testing purposes. The fact that she started using it so urgently… means there’s another objective.’

Lennok didn’t actually know if anti-matter itself glowed with a violet aura. He merely conjectured that perhaps the visible light of the particle weapon, manifesting as magic particles mixed in, transformed into light near the end of the spectrum. But the problem wasn’t the power of the anti-matter particle cannon or the misuse of the technology Lennok created, but where Greta’s true objective lay.

It didn’t matter if they couldn’t secure the Cartel’s ledgers in the underground vault. The mere outcome of turning the Cartel headquarters district into ruins through such a small, elite operation would cause the Agent’s prestige to skyrocket. Greta, less than half a year after being reinstated as Director, had brought fewer than a hundred superhuman forces to the brink of achieving such a feat.

Anghel’s face also turned pale as he looked at the violet aura.

“Space will collapse, and all matter in the headquarters district will be mixed and overturned. It’s probably geared towards spreading power across the entire area rather than direct lethality…!!”

[What are you idiots deliberating about?]

Whump!

Merlida, kicking away the agents who were desperately trying to protect Greta, growled.

[Forget the main building. We should be chewing that old hag right now, what are you even talking about?]

“It’s not that simple to just say…!”

[We can just kill the Agent Director here and make up for it! The consequences are for the Chairman to bear, not us!]

“Oh.” Anghel unintentionally exclaimed at Merlida’s words.

“That’s truly a beastly thought…!!”

Boom!

Even amid the chaos, Merlida’s temper was far from ordinary, throwing shattered bedrock at Anghel.

“Prevent the headquarters district from collapsing. Prepare.”

Virgil listened to the executives, then shook his head, uncrossed his arms, and stepped forward.

“Given that we didn’t know Evan Vylun’s anti-gravity engine could be used as an anti-matter particle weapon, we have no choice but to change our priorities here.”

[Virgil, are you out of your mind?!]

Merlida replied irritably.

[Are you going to fall for that cursed old hag’s trick here?]

“Who said I’d fall for it?”

Squelch!

The squelching pool of blood beneath the vampire’s feet surged upwards, transforming into a massive pillar of fresh blood. Arms extended from both ends of the pillar, and simultaneously, the pillar of fresh blood transformed into the shape of a giant resembling a demon, and the blood giant began to chant hand seals in tandem with Virgil’s.

Bloodline Unique Ability: Reverse Blood Shrine [逆血神殿]

Huuuuuuuum…!!

A chilling vortex of blood raged, then a massive gate resembling the gates of hell rose before Virgil and the giant, its two massive doors swinging wide open. Through the colossal gate of fresh blood, demons, their bodies covered in gore, began to crawl out, sporadically reaching with their hands. The moment others realized these were the entities that had just burst from Virgil’s body and absorbed the agents’ attacks.

Groooan!!

Hundreds of demons crawled out of the gate and began to stack their bodies, one upon another, to build a colossal tower. The demons moved in perfect unison, as if to receive the anti-matter particle cannon plummeting from the sky in its stead. Yet, all their gazes were fixed on Greta, standing in the cavern.

Virgil’s eyes glinted coldly.

“The capture of Greta Wilderhild and the annihilation of the anti-matter particle weapon. Both end here.”

“Are you planning to absorb the particle weapon by forming a bloodline ability subspace? But you won’t be able to block all of it.”

At that moment, footsteps echoed from behind Virgil.

“…Van?”

“Greta isn’t wrong. I, too, considered that another possibility that could branch from anti-gravity technology.” Lennok, standing beside Virgil, looked up at the violet aura falling from the sky. “But at this point, it’s not a technology that can be perfectly realized in this manner.”

Greta’s ability to understand how anti-gravity technology actually worked and to discover another destructive effect derived from its function was remarkable. It was, in fact, an intuition she had gained from accumulating overwhelming experience in both theory and practice. But apart from that, the anti-matter particle bombardment must not fall on the Cartel headquarters district now. Even putting aside the Machina tickets stored in the underground vault, and the knowledge of Kaiser’s graveyard promised by Virgil, if the situation escalates further, the conflict might not end until either the Cartel or the Agents are completely annihilated.

A full-scale war between the underworld and the surface world. He had always thought it would happen someday, but he never wanted it to happen like this. It could still be stopped.

“Focus on containing the cavern.”

Lennok gave a slight nod to Virgil, who abruptly turned around.

“As for the anti-gravity engine’s functional overload, I’ll try to stop it with post-factum maintenance.”

“…Maintenance? How in the world…?”

As Virgil turned around, speaking, he saw countless bundles of cables trailing behind Lennok. Lennok had gathered dozens, hundreds of thick cables together, casually inserting one hand into their severed ends. The moment Virgil’s expression changed as he realized it wasn’t to supply power. On the contrary, it was to draw out all the remaining reserve power.

Crackle!!

Through the gathered cables, Lennok began to completely drain all remaining power.

The Cartel headquarters district’s reserve power didn’t just supply electricity to the area around the headquarters’ street. It was a system that circulated through public facilities, train stations, power plants, and underground shelters connected to the headquarters’ skyscrapers, siphoning insufficient power and then replenishing it. And the moment Lennok began to draw out and extract all the remaining energy from the reserve power.

Hum…!!

With a faint pulsing sound, the underground cavern and the surrounding streets were plunged into darkness.