Alucard summoned the Star Phaser into his hand, and with a bored expression, he immediately rushed towards the first knight.
The knight raised its shield, and the vampire couldn't help but smile as he shifted into a ghostly form, bypassing the shield and the knight's defenses, stabbing through its stony heart.
A wave of flames burst from the spear, annihilating the stone knight.
Alucard breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well, the boy hasn't had time to recover fully from the Blood Moon. I know for sure that Lucian will be at full strength," Alucard said, then gazed at the other knights who had already surrounded him.
He stomped on the ground, making the tomb bounce and raising the knights off their feet.
With precision, he disbanded all of them with one swing of the spear, powered by the golden flames of the sun.
The statues didn't break like the first one; they were only sent backward.
Alucard sighed as he saw this and then proceeded to take care of them one by one.
...
He managed to do it in less than ten minutes and finally approached the casket made of hard stone.
He put his hands on it and pushed it open, the sound of stone grinding against stone echoing around the tomb.
His brows creased deeply as he was confused by what he saw inside the casket.
"I expected to see a body... but this?" He was speechless.
Inside the casket lay a small vial of blood and a black bracelet, which seemed to glimmer as the light from the torches hit it.
"Dracula was not majorly known for his blood abilities but for his power to manipulate the forces of darkness to bend to his will," Alucard said, picking up the vial and the bracelet.
The blood within the vial immediately reacted to his touch, moving around the little bottle as if it were alive.
Alucard recalled that he had seen something like this before.
No, it wasn't in his memory, but in Dexter's.
[A demonic artifact 'Whispering Shadow' has chosen a new master.]
Alucard now had a helmet on. It wasn't a full helmet but allowed his long, shoulder-length black hair to flow freely, covering his face, ears, and neck while leaving his hair untouched.
The eyes glowed a bright purple, and a transparent shadowy cape, which seemed intangible, draped down his back.
He turned around to see shadows on the ground. The shadows rose to reveal seven knights manifesting in shadowy forms.
It was hard to differentiate them from real people unless one looked into their eyes, which only had a purple light.
"The seven knights who followed Dracula on his path for hundreds of years. Eternal servitude..." he mumbled.
He stretched his hand towards the knights, who had their heads down. The spear in his other hand returned to his right arm as a bracelet, and the shadows were absorbed into it.
"Now, to finally teach my brother a lesson," his voice sounded hoarse within the mask.
He walked back into the darkness he came from, and soon, the tomb was left empty and devoid of life.
...
Back in the real world, the spiral symbol in the middle of the World Tree glowed brightly, and a man appeared above it.
Alucard looked around, and the mask covering his face folded away into the armor.
As he was about to leave, he suddenly heard a cracking sound. He looked at his finger, noticing that his mini dimension ring had cracked.
*Clank!!*
The ring burst into fragments, and three people materialized out of the little pieces.
Jude, Collins, and Hannah emerged successfully and then all looked at him.
"Ah, how did you...?" Alucard asked with a confused but calm look. Collins summoned his sword.
"I am no longer human. Now, tell us how to bring back my brother. You don't have much time," Collins said, and Alucard could see a wall of ice forming around the entire tree, like a dome.
A smile crept onto his face, and then he released a black mist from his body, making the others' hair wave. The mist suddenly filled the entire dome, enveloping them in thick darkness.