Chapter 39: Killing

Dorian saw a small number of armored men emerge from a few of the mansions or palaces, looking up at the sky in confusion. He also saw a few vampires, humans, and even an Aethmen, dressed in fine suits or robes, step out as well, pointing upward.

He glanced up, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. He assumed it had to do with his devouring of the gate. He gave a mental apology to anyone innocent he inconvenienced.

He also saw, from the mansion he was targeting, the figure of the vampire Wizard emerge, alongside another vampire clad in black leather armor. He glared at the man, the bud of anger in him raging forth.

‘Your soul has finished its adaption period.’ Aursa’s voice in his head went off with perfect timing, informing him.

‘Evolving to Human’s 2nd Growth Stage.’

Immediately, his form began to shift as his human form reached its growth completion. Thankfully, he was hidden behind a large tree, out of plain view.

There didn’t seem to be an active permitter or guard in this area. The inhabitants probably assumed their magic gate was enough.

–

-Human – Growth Stage: (2/2) Human Adult –

Growth Progress – 59,494/0 –

–

He didn’t even take time to look at his appearance as he immediately switched forms.

–

-Titan – Growth Stage: (2/4) Titan Young Adult-

– Growth Progress – 59,494/8,052 –

–

‘Evolving to Titan’s 3rd Growth Stage’ Ausra cut herself off, abruptly, and then continued,

‘Evolving to Titan’s 4th Growth Stage.’

–

-Titan – Growth Stage: (4/4) Titan Great Adult-

– Growth Progress – 624/0 –

–

Dorian felt his body began to elongate as his Titan form evolved, absorbing almost all of the energy he had gained, leaving him with a pitiful 624 units left. Gradually, his arms and legs began to stretch, as did his chest. He began to grow, transforming into an enormous, 3 meter tall hulking Titan.

‘Condense!’ Before his body finished forming, Dorian activated his Condense Ability, immediately shrinking his height and condensing his figure. An incredible feeling of strength and power rested in his hands as he did so.

His body that had previously looked like a muscle covered body builder slimmed out. Bulging muscles were replaced with lean, tough muscles in his Condensed form, the density of which was mind-boggling.

He casually waved his hand, feeling as if a light touch from him could easily decimate the tree in front of him.

–

Dorian – Soul Status

Soul Stage: Grandmaster (Peak)

Health: Perfect

Energy: 814/814

–

He smiled as he looked at his status. By evolving his Titan form, his soul had grown from the middle of the Grandmaster Class to the peak! His energy levels had quadrupled.

He took a brief look around. Once more, he noted that the world around him seemed to have slowed down, just slightly. His perception of time had been enhanced. Compared to before, everything seemed to be moving half again as fast. His visual acuity had jumped an entire realm, letting him pick out things he hadn’t been able to see before.

As he glanced upward, he saw faint distortions in the air. They were almost imperceptible, even with his increased vision, but seemed like writhing snakes, twisting and turning. It seemed the barrier protecting the gate had gone all the way up into the sky.

As Dorian felt his body reach a perfect condition, he turned his focus to the vampire Wizard that was just now returning back inside his home.

He rubbed his palms together.

A moment later, a small lizard could be seen, darting across the grass towards a certain mansion…

..

At the same time, as the morning dawn came into its full fruition, its light shined upon the majestic palace at the very center of the city. The City Lord’s Mansion.

The City Lord of Potor, Uberon Bank, a Lord Class Wizard, looked down at the slim blade that had just stabbed through his heart in sheer, utter shock.

“Marilyn?” He sputtered out, red blood bursting from his mouth as he looked at his wife in horror. He had been caught completely off guard, the sudden attack somehow piercing through his innate barrier.

He was standing in his foyer, in the City Lord’s Mansion at the center of Potor City. A grand bookcase lined with ten thousand books set across the wall, rising above the stained oak wood floor. A few small couches rested in front of a lit fireplace, while a dozen paintings of past City Lords stood placed on the walls, in between large, white windows.

The Lord Class vampire stumbled down, his hands grabbing ahold of the blade. A timeless feeling of exhaustion spread through his body, some type of nefarious poison killing his ability to regenerate.

His wife was a petite, tan human with long red hair and a buxom figure. Uberon had a variety of tastes, but he’d discovered that humans were his favorite unique choice, in both blood and in bed. He’d married Marilyn, his wife, years ago, binding her to obey his will thanks to the vaunted Control Magic he practiced.

Of anyone to betray him, she was the last person he would have suspected. The thought ran through his mind, the sheer impossibility of anyone breaking off the Lord Class control spell he’d laid on her, as his vision began to blur.

His beautiful, red-haired wife gave him a pitying look.

“Marilyn is this form’s name no longer.” She shook her head, her voice echoing softly in the empty foyer,

“My name is Mello.”

..

Dorian crossed the yard in a few seconds, slinking across a small bridge that crossed over a moat. He snuck inside the house, slipping in through a slightly open window. As he moved in, he noticed a guard standing at attention out front, looking up at the sky above.

The inside of the home was as luxurious as its exterior. Expensive looking white flooring, fine paintings decorating the walls, marble statues lining the sides of the home, everything looked extravagant and pricey.

From a room past the entranceway, Dorian could hear a pair of voices talking.

“…and contact the head of the 12 Palaces immediately! This is unheard of, a fatal flaw in the fees I paid.” The vampire Wizard’s irate voice rang out, filled with irritation and anger.

“Yes sir, yes sir.” A harried female voice responded.

A few moments later, an irate looking female vampire wearing a slim, black gown emerged from a doorway, and headed towards the entrance. Dorian hid behind one of the busts as she left, storming off in a huff.

He heard a great sigh from the other room.

His eyes narrowed, Dorian crept down the white hallway and into the entranceway the woman had emerged from.

He found himself in a grand looking dining room. A large, brown wooden table was set in the center, while a dozen comfortable looking chairs with plush pillows on them surrounded it. Several cabinets full of fine cutlery or decorated pieces of jewelry dotted the walls.

A large window looked out onto a field full of blue flowers, and the sky above at the end of the room. The vampire Wizard was currently staring outside, his hands crossed behind his back.

Dorian glared at the man. Should he transform and give the Wizard a chance to explain himself first?

He thought about it for a moment, and then made his decision.

His small lizard body scuttled across the room in an instant, making almost no noise.

Despite that, the vampire Wizard came alert, slowly starting to spin around in surprise. Vampires, especially those at a high Class, were known for having adept senses, especially in environments where there was nothing else distracting them. Even the slight sound of Dorian’s claws on the wooden floor was enough.

As Dorian came up behind the vampire Wizard, he willed himself to transform, but stay Condensed.

It only took a split second for his Titan form to stretch and emerge, the lean, devastatingly strong Titan form appearing.

Titans, at the maximum growth of their bloodline, were Grandmaster Class beings at the very peak of the Grandmaster Class.

When Condensed, their physical strength entered a range where they could be considered Pseudo-Lord Class. At that level, a concentrated punch from a beast could create a five meter wide crater in the ground, a devastatingly powerful blow that could obliterate meters wide trees with a casual touch.

Dorian’s fist landed on the right shoulder of the vampire Wizard, just as the man was turning around in surprise and confusion.

BOOM

The wooden floor beneath Dorian cracked and exploded from the force of his punch as he sent the vampire flying, completely destroying the dining room. Cutlery, wood, and glass peppered the air as Dorian lifted his arm to cover his face, charging after the vampire Wizard’s figure.

A huge hole could be seen in the wall in the side of the dining room, leading into a now partially destroyed kitchen. Random foodstuffs could be seen lying around, several packs of fresh fruit mixing with Magic Herbs and a few random strings of meat.

Dorian burst into this room, and then kept running, seeing another hole in the wall of the once fine looking kitchen. He knocked aside a wooden counter as he ran forward, glancing about to make sure no one else was here.

As he dived through the second hole, Dorian made out a figure lying on the ground, covered in fallen wooden boards and pieces of stone. He appeared to be in some type of study, a long pair of tables and chairs set with a few books and maps open on them. Several windows lit up the area with the gleaming light of morning.

He had sent the Wizard flying through the air for roughly twenty meters, though two reinforced walls of stone and wood.

“Arrgh.” Ralf struggled to stand, blood pouring out of his mouth as he looked up blearily, the sheer shock of the attack almost killed him. His prized innate barrier had managed to block a good portion of the impact, but the force of the attack had still been enough to badly injure him.

“What did you do to the Aeth merchants?” Dorian’s voice was cold as he stalked over, not giving the Wizard time to get his bearings. He rubbed his hands together, feeling a raw feeling in them.

Punching the Wizard had felt like punching an iron wall. His fist had collided with the barrier he knew the Wizard had, and he’d been forced to push through it with all his might. It felt like he was trying to lift up an unbelievably heavy weight.

The feeling had started to give, after a split second, and his fist managed to make contact with the Wizard. But it had definitely been a close thing.

“TALK!” His voice contained iron as he looked down on the Wizard, cracking his knuckles.

Faintly, he could hear voices yelling out in the background. The few guards the Wizard had stationed would arrive here soon.

Ralf glared up at the blurry figure of the Titan and then clasped his hands together. The blow he’d taken had sapped him of a tenth of his energy. If he took many more like it, he’d be left unable to defend himself.

“Blood Magic: Scatt-”

Before he could finish speaking, Dorian’s chest heaved forward, and a wave of Emerald Flames blasted down on the vampire, bursting from his mouth.

“ARRRGH!” The man yelled out, feeling his innate barrier tremble, excruciating pain running through him. The flames began to eat up the raw power his soul pumped into the barrier, starting to melt through it at an incredible rate.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Please!” Ralf screamed out, blood bursting from his nose and dripping down his eyes.

Dorian pulled back his Emerald Flames as his cold eyes glared down at the Wizard, merciless.

..

A few minutes later, Dorian found himself running from the fancy palace area, carrying the unconscious body of a young, 12-year-old girl.

He was wearing a set of loose grey leather leggings, strapped in around his legs and a smooth white shirt. A fine, black ring was set on his hand, gleaming in the morning light.

After forcing the Wizard to surrender, Dorian had managed to gain a great deal of information.

The Wizard had kidnapped the daughter of the Aeth merchants, intent on using them to frame Dorian and deal with him using the law. Murdering inhabits in this city was a dangerous hobby, and the Wizard had thought it wiser to simply force them to obey him by using a hostage.

He glanced down at the ring on his finger. It was a rare Spatial Ring, a commodity worth tens of thousands of gold mints. It had previously been the treasure of the Wizard, Ralf, as he learned his name was. In it, he found several hundred Magic Herbs, ones he recognized as his own. He also found three labeled boxes filled with blood, a huge store of gold, and several odd black relics he wasn’t able to decipher.

‘Black Ambian Eagle, Midnight Bladetiger, Ester Ground Dragon.’ He read the names on the boxes aloud. Without even a second of hesitance, he absorbed each bloodline, storing them for later use. He took a moment to analyze the past few minutes.

After the Wizard had given up his ring, and the information Dorian had wanted, he’d made the Wizard order his guards away and show him where he’d kept the merchant’s daughter, locked away in a sideroom, asleep under a spell that would wear off in a couple hours. He’d then made him lead him to his closet, and stolen several different outfits.

After that, Dorian had given the man a blank, emotionless stare, and pierced his heart, blasting through the Wizard’s already shattered innate barrier.

The Wizard died with an aggrieved look on his face, passing from this world into the next.

Dorian looked down at the body of the Wizard. He gave a very slight bow, his eyes calm. He walked up and absorbed the blood of the Wizard, just in case, feeling the energy in the dead man’s body absorb into him.

“Life is precious. I hope you value yours and spend it more wisely in the next.” He glanced away from the corpse without feeling anything special.

The first time he’d killed someone else it had been a shocking occurrence that shook him to his core. He’d ignored how it felt, deciding he’d deal with the emotions later.

Just minutes after that, he’d been forced to kill again, this time a huge, mighty Titan, and he’d watched the closest thing he had to a friend in this world, William, almost die trying to save him.

As he took a brief moment to look at the dead vampire’s body, mentally, Dorian came to a cold conclusion.

There were simply people in this universe that needed to be killed. He would not pity them, or let himself feel emotionally torn over killing them.

If he was to be labelled a murdering devil for doing so… then so be it.

He looked down at his hands. They were stained with blood, blending in with the red skin he had in this form.

Almost as if the bloodstains were a part of him now.

He took a deep breath, and then let it out.

He turned around, and he did not look back.

He switched forms, transforming back into his human appearance. His body was well figured, hard muscle outlining and giving him a lean, but buff appearance. He didn’t have much choice in the matter, knowing that the guards were out in force looking for his Titan form.

He longed to return back to his Myyr Dragon form, or to create a hybrid form using some of his trained bloodlines. He’d gradually found that he hated this complicated, busy life as a humanoid. People were cruel and conniving, whereas nature felt far more simple to him. At least if someone wanted to kill you, they would just do it openly.

He then put on a set of the simplest looking clothes from the closet of the Wizard, grabbed the daughter of the merchants, and left, slipping out of the vampire Wizard’s mansion from the back.

Instead of exiting through the gate, he simply hopped over the side of the stone fence that blocked off the area. Since there was no protective barrier, escaping was easy enough.

He then began to jog through the city, trying to look casual as he kept the girl on his back, as if he was giving her a piggyback ride.

Thankfully, the city itself seemed to already be abuzz with confusion, and his odd appearance drew little notice. Large groups of guards were running up and down the streets, hundreds of civilians were standing out, talking in large groups. He ignored his surroundings as moved down sidestreet after sidestreet, thankful for the lucky break.

He quickly made his way over to the house of the Aeth merchants, intent on dropping the girl off and ending the poor family’s sorrow.

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