CH 230

Angela greeted Kim Jin-Woo immediately as if she had been waiting for him. She looked deathly exhausted, as if she were suffering from a serious illness, and her hands propped up her tired cheeks. She remarked, “I’m looking quite unsightly, am I? I couldn’t help it, since I was too busy preparing for the ritual.” In response, Kim Jin-Woo asked what had happened while looking at her.

“Before filling myself up with the True Bloodline, I have to empty myself of all the old blood within me,” Angela answered with a sad expression, adding that she would have loved to draw out all the old blood inside her if she could, but she couldn’t risk her own life doing so.

“Do you really have to go this far?” Kim Jin-Woo asked. Was the True Bloodline so great that she had to risk her own life? He shook his head as he looked at Angela, who looked as dazzling as ever despite her sickly appearance.

“If Master were blind, how far would you go to regain your eyesight?” Angela asked. Kim Jin-Woo found himself unable to answer that question. All he could vaguely feel was the desperation behind her question.

“For me, that’s what the True Bloodline is to me. Fake becoming real. No longer having to be a parasite that latches onto the lives of others. Being able to see the world through my own will and eyes. That’s the difference between a Vampire who has the True Bloodline flowing through their veins and one who doesn’t,” Angela said in a resolute tone.

“How can I help you with this?” Kim Jin-Woo asked. As time passed, Angela’s face increasingly began to resemble that of a corpse, and he could only become more conscious of that fact.

“The same as ever. Please provide me with your blood, Master,” Angela said as the voice that flowed through her pale blue lips gradually became weaker. “I just need more blood than usual.” She was now unable to even control her own body, desperately clinging on to Kim Jin-Woo.

Kim Jin-Woo frowned at the weightlessness of the body in his arms and said, “I understand, so let’s stop talking for now.” He laid her down on the small bed that had been prepared by her side.

“One… One more thing.” Angela’s eyes were almost closed at that point, and she reached into her possession and pulled out a sharp dagger. “I may lose control. If that happens, don’t hesitate…” She didn’t finish her sentence, but it wasn’t difficult to understand what she was trying to say.

“Now’s not the time to worry about that,” Kim Jin-Woo said.

If the ritual failed, she would become a monster that craved blood every single day just to survive. Her sense of reasoning would be eroded by her primitive vampiric instinct, and her body would crumble into an ugly mess. Nevertheless, Angela didn’t hesitate to the end.

“Mm.” Kim Jin-Woo felt a tingling sensation on his wrist. He squinted as he looked at Angela.

The ritual turned out to be longer and more tedious than he had expected. Angela was drawing blood at a terribly slow pace. She was completely different from the vampire who had been head-over-heels for her master’s blood.

Thanks to that, although considerable time had passed since the beginning of the ritual, the amount of blood Angelahad drawn wasn’t much. Thus, Kim Jin-Woo felt no pain, let alone dizziness. His forearm simply felt sore from being stuck in the same position for a long time.

He looked down at Angela. She was still pale, and her complexion was still looking bad. He might have mistaken her for having fallen asleep, if not for her occasionally sucking blood from his wrist.

But he knew. He was already feeling the great change that was starting to occur within her.

Psssssshk.

Angela’s honey-blonde hair broke and split before scattering across the ground. Her pale but soft-looking skin dried up and cracked like a rice field in a drought, and her body slowly began to corrode and age.

“Urgh.” Kim Jin-Woo, who had been silently watching over her, suddenly frowned at a sudden stab of pain. Angela had begun sucking the blood from his wrist as if she were sucking out his very soul. The amount of blood flowing through the wound was increasing exponentially.

At that moment, her transformation accelerated. Her hair fell, and then regrew. Her skin cracked and wrinkles appeared, and then her supple flesh reappeared.

Time, which had seemed to slow down, began to speed up in an instant, as if reality itself were fast-forwarding like a video.

“Ah.” Instantly, Kim Jin-Woo’s head started to spin. As a large amount of blood had been drained at once, he felt his body turning limp immediately. Still, Angela continued to suck away his blood, not showing any signs of slowing down.

“I may lose control. If that happens, don’t hesitate…”

Kim Jin-Woo remembered what she had said right before the ritual began. The light reflecting off the sharp blade of the dagger caught his eye…

No, not yet. He could hold on a little longer. He bit his lips hard as he looked at Angela, who had turned old again. But the worst was yet to come. Her unstoppable hunger for his blood had reached a dangerous peak.

In that short time, Angela fluctuated between youth and old age dozens of times, and Kim Jin-Woo could feel the fatigue setting in. Now was truly the time to make a decision.

She had mentioned something to him before the ritual. She had mentioned that she might overdo it because of her innate character, and that if the ritual failed, she would turn into an ugly, bloodthirsty monster.

Despite the danger, she longed to perform the ritual. Her desire to obtain the True Bloodline and become a perfect servant to him, or her desire to stand proudly by her master… Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t sure which of the two was more important to her.

Or perhaps she was trying to use him? Obtaining the True Bloodline meant ascending into a being that relied on nobody else. The newly reborn Angela would no longer need Kim Jin-Woo. The problem could all be due to her innate selfishness.

As Kim Jin-Woo felt his body becoming heavier, his contemplation took a darker turn, and the dagger by his side became more and more attractive. But ultimately, he didn’t pick up the dagger.

Kim Jin-Woo decided to trust Angela just a little more.

“Angela.”

He mustered up his strength, and in that brief moment, in a deep voice, he called out her name.

“I’ll definitely make you pay for my blood.”

He wasn’t sure if Angela, who was busy lusting after his blood in her frenzy, could hear him, but he didn’t care.

“So make sure you obtain your True Bloodline. And serve me.”

A soft whisper echoed back, and as if to respond to him, a message appeared in midair.

[The Vampire, Angela, has begun to transform into a True Blood Vampire.]

***

While Kim Jin-Woo was busy helping Angela with the ritual, there was chaos in the Underworld. An unstoppable monster was hunting down all the nearby lifeforms it could see.

At first, only a few units had been sacrificed. However, a nearby reconnaissance squad had found the occurrence to be strange and searched the area, and what they had witnessed was sheer chaos.

Kurgh.

The Ant Ghost burped, delighted with its full stomach. However, it seemed as if the burp had emptied its stomach again and left it ready for more food. In the end, there was plenty of prey to hunt down when it was finished digesting its meal.

“Kyargh!”

Screams echoed across the Underworld as prey was swallowed into the monster’s belly. The Ant Ghost continued to eat up everything around it indiscriminately.

At some point, the Satyrs that had been charging wildly toward the monster began to run away. Their fighting spirit was suppressed by the sheer strength and appetite of the monster.

The Ant Ghost, however, was in no hurry. It had eaten so much that it could have gone for several days without eating anymore, and besides, there was plenty more prey nearby that it could hunt whenever it wanted. Thus, it didn’t chase after the retreating Satyrs.

A long time passed, and the monster began to change.

The Ant Ghost had lived its entire life suffering from hunger. Its only goal in life had been to make sure that it was full enough to survive. But that same Ant Ghost was now living a life of luxury. Its belly was full, it had abundant prey, and if it waited long enough, food would just walk into its jaws.

Because of that, it got used to feeling full, and no longer suffered from hunger. With its hunger sated, it began to think for the first time. It evolved, and started to develop a desire for a tastier meal. That one thought began to dominate its mind.

And the Ant Ghost knew what was delicious: The huge masses of energy it had already eaten several times. Labyrinth Cores were the Ant Ghost’s favorite food.

Thus, it began to move toward the direction of the smell of the delicious food. It began to move in the direction the Satyrs had come from, toward their castle.

***

[Angela has successfully obtained the True Bloodline.]

Kim Jin-Woo, who had been staring at the message that appeared in front of him drowsily, was finally able to grasp the situation much later.

The gamble with Angela’s life had turned out to be a success.

[Angela has evolved from a Vampire into a True Blood Vampire.]

[True Blood Vampires are completely different from ordinary Vampires. Unlike ordinary Vampires, who can only live through blood contracts in a parasitic relationship with their source of life, a True Blood Vampire is a distinct species in itself.]

[Angela is now completely free from the constraints of being an ordinary Vampire.]

[Her physical abilities have increased dramatically, and she has also acquired unique powers.]

[The newly awoken True Blood Vampire is like a child. She will take some time to realize and use her own abilities. However, her newly found physical prowess alone is enough to overwhelm the average Underworld Noble.]

[It will take quite a long time for Angela to complete her transformation into a True Blood Vampire.]

On the outside, nothing much had changed. She had simply become younger and more beautiful than before. But that alone made Angela seem like a totally different being.

Her old presence, which had still been beautiful but somewhat gloomy, was now as bright as a freshly bloomed flower. She looked full of vitality, and her cheeks were red with youth. It was as if a porcelain doll had come to life.

[The extinct True Blood Vampire Clan has reappeared in the Underworld. The birth of a new clan is a blessing to the Underworld.]

[The news of the return of the True Blood Vampire Clan has spread across the entire Floor. The scattered Vampire Clan will gather upon hearing this news.]

[Only after bringing them all to their knees in front of her can Angela become the true Queen of Darkness.]

[She is now able to create new entities.]

[She is now accepting her clanmates.]

Kim Jin-Woo wasn’t sure how great an existence a True Blood Vampire was, but the fact that the ritual had succeeded was more than enough for him.

[In the past, when the Highlords ruled the Underworld, Vampires were so powerful that they stood shoulder to shoulder with the Ancient Lords. The True Blood Vampires’ ability to rule the darkness was something that not even the mighty Lords could take lightly, and the numerous clans and creatures that followed the True Blood Vampires were as powerful as the armies of the Highlords.]

[The Highlords were able to avoid making a terrible enemy out of them by recognizing them as Lords and by granting them dominion over the Underworld.]

[However, in the nightmarish Twilight that befell the Underworld, the True Blood Vampire Clan perished without leaving any descendants, and the Right of Succession to the Lordship was lost.]

Kim Jin-Woo, having gotten new information on yet another Highlord when he least expected it, subconsciously looked at Angela who had fallen asleep.

[Ordinary Vampires are born with a curse to live a parasitic life via others. Unlike the powers of the other Highlords that were scattered across the Underworld, the Power of the True Blood was bound by the curse of blood and was not able to establish itself anywhere in the Underworld.]

[The fact that the clan of True Blood Vampires has been reborn in the Underworld also means that the Power of the True Blood, which was wandering aimlessly in the Underworld, has finally found a vessel.]

At that moment, Angela, whom Kim Jin-Woo thought had fallen asleep from exhaustion, opened her eyes. But her eyes seemed so unfamiliar and distant. A gaze full of boredom looked back at Kim Jin-Woo, as if those eyes belonged to an absolute being that had reigned over the Underworld for a long time.

[Unlike the powers of the other Highlords that were diluted down to fragments, the Power of the True Blood, which has never revealed itself in recent history, contains not only its powers but also its vanished memories.]

[Angela has become the avatar of an Ancient Lord.]