As the outline of a castle became visible in the distance, Tim finally let out a sigh of relief. He had finally made it back after going through countless bloody battles. During that ancient battle between the two worlds, the races above ground were not the only one that had fallen into chaos; the Abyssal Race’s whole way of life had also been shattered. After that long and chaotic war, not every underground race had remained respectful to vampires, especially not to a vampire that is alone.
Though vampires were born with excellent regenerative abilities, Tim was still covered in wounds. Even his clothes were torn, which gave him a wretched appearance. However, as soon as he saw the castle in the distance, Tim sped up as if he had felt an injection of energy. Unfortunately, he couldn’t fly around as a bat in the Abyss; he was too defenseless in that form and could easily be killed by predators lurking in the dark.
Just then, a swarm of black dots rapidly approached him from a distance. As they flew nearer, Tim noticed it was a swarm of bats. He was very much delighted by that, as the approaching bats were probably his clansman.
As expected, the bats landed near Tim and turned into their human forms, surrounding him in the middle.
“Oh my! Isn’t this our Young Master!” A youth dressed in black with an undisciplined look walked up and circled around Tim, then exclaimed, “What happened to you? Did you find a group of Abyssal Sirens on the way?”
Tim frowned. He didn’t expect for this bastard to be the one greeting him. He was famed for his venomous tongue among the younger generation, and regardless if you are in a good situation or a horrible one, you can always be sure of one thing when you meet Kamen: you will be in a bad mood.
Under normal situations, Tim probably would have squabbled with him for a bit, but his long journey had already tired him out greatly, and he instead chose to ignore Kamen’s banter. He said in a low voice, “I want to see the Ancestors.”
Kamen’s expression instantly changed. “What happened?”
Tim bit his lips and said one word at a time, “My mother and Caroline died!”
The vampires present immediately froze in shock, and the atmosphere became extremely tense. After a while, Kaman finally asked, “Who did it?”
Tim shook his head. “Now is not the time for questions. I need to see the Ancestors!”
“I can take you there.” Kamen hesitated at this point. Normally, he would never let go of a chance to jab at Tim, but the issue at hand was so serious, he had decided to stop. “But…”
Tim gritted his teeth. “I know! I will personally wake the Ancestors!”
“Personally? By yourself?” Kamen’s mouth hung open. “Are you trying to kill yourself?”
“Who other than the Ancestors can avenge my mother? What else do I have to live for?!” Tim shouted with bloodshot eyes.
“What about Zaganide?”
“Him?!” Tim coldly humphed.
Kamen sighed. “Alright, I’ll take you there.” He turned to lead the way, but went on mumbling, “I fucking knew those damned humans couldn’t be trusted. See? Your cheap dad is a lord, why….”
Tim followed behind with a hateful expression on his face as well. After his mother had been killed, his father Zaganide had not only remained silent, but had also started getting together with that whore! Of course, no matter how angry Tim was at Zaganide, he would never dare show it in front of Zaganide even if someone gave him an extra gut. But, he had already made up his mind to tell the Ancestors everything. With their tempers, the Ancestors were bound to be enraged and personally teach his heartless father a lesson.
Some vampires had already informed the clansman inside the castle, and by the time Tim arrived at the gate, it was already wide open. Even though Tim was an insignificant vampire in the grand scheme of the clan, his mother Betty was quite famous. Not every vampire was born with natural power, and different kinds of power could often decide one’s future position within the clan. Betty was definitely outstanding in her generation, at least in terms of her natural power, and her death was a big loss to the entire clan as well.
More importantly, Betty’s son wanted to wake the Ancestors, something that no vampire had done in centuries! The ‘Ancestors’ did not refer to a single person, but rather a group of ancient vampires that had lived for millennials. Any single one of them was powerful enough to plunge the entire Abyss into a bloody conflict by themselves, but more importantly, there was a price to waking them: blood!
Vampires treasured blood as much as their life, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t run out of blood. Though waking the Ancestors was not something unheard of, it was usually a group effort. If Betty hadn’t died, she could have easily led her followers to wake the Ancestors together. That way, every vampire would only need to sacrifice a portion of their blood, and though that would temporarily hurt their sTimgth, the loss was so insignificant it might as well be nonexistent.
But this time, Tim was by himself. When Betty had followed Zaganide above ground, she had brought every vampire loyal to her with her, which meant that, in the Abyss, in the home of all vampires, there was no one who would sacrifice their own blood for Tim. After all, a vampire’s blood was his life.
Could you wake the Ancestors with a single person’s blood? Many vampires in the castle were curious, but one thing was for sure: no one would help Tim. Everyone watched Tim with interest as he walked into the castle, thinking that he was headed to his own death.
If it were someone’s first time inside the vampire headquarters, they were bound to be surprised. Aside from an enormous hole that sent out waves of cold air, there was nothing inside the castle. However, at the edge of the hole, one could see light coming from its depths. The vampires had actually built their headquarters completely underground. This confused many other Abyssal Races as well: why would a clan as powerful as the vampires only claim such a tiny piece of land?
If one could unearth the entirety of the vampire’s nest, it would appear to be akin to a giant pyramid; the castle that showed above ground was only the tip.
Tim chanted a spell to transform into a bat and promptly dove into the cavern with Kamen following immediately after. As for Kamen’s underlings, they had to go back to continue their patrol; they were on duty today.
As Tim dove down, some vampires also transformed into bats to follow him. After all, waking the Ancestors was a grand affair that was only seen every few centuries. Even some who held a grudge against Betty decided to follow, if for no other reason than to watch Betty’s child die.
The cavern was extremely deep and reached tens of thousands of meters in depth. As they dove deeper, signs of manual construction disappeared, and the cavern walls began to be filled by rocks which glowed with a faint light. After a long while, Tim finally arrived at the bottom. The bottom of the cavern, which spanned for at least a thousand meters, was inscribed with an enormous magic matrix. The matrix was drawn in deep notches on the ground, and the dried, black blood left over inside emitted a strong smell of blood.
Tim’s expression slightly changed. Even though he was determined to wake the Ancestors at all costs, his heart almost sank to the bottom when he saw the criss-crossing notches. He wouldn’t be able to fill half of it even if he drained every single drop of blood in his body!
The flapping sound of the wings didn’t stop with Tim, and vampires continuously arrived and hung upside down on the cavern walls. When Tim raised his head, he saw a dense swarm of at least several thousand bats. He bitterly smiled in his heart. Watched by this many clansman, he had to continue even if it meant his death, or else he would be shunned for the rest of his life.
No matter what, mother’s blood couldn’t go to waste! After a deep breath, Tim kneeled on the ground and slit his wrist with his sharp nail. Fresh blood instantly came pouring out, and Tim immediately pointed his wound at the notches on the ground to avoid wasting any blood. As his blood fountained out, a red stream gathered in the notches and slowly moved forward.
Several sighs came from above. Tim knew that anyone with eyes could see that this little blood was nowhere enough to power such an enormous magic matrix. “But so what if I give up my life to avenge my mother?” Tim thought to himself. His mind was starting to blur as his life gradually left him along with his blood.
Inside a dim cavern even deeper than where Tim was, six enormous coffins were arranged around a hexagram. If Tim were present, he would have noticed that the hexagram was almost identical to the enormous magic matrix, just smaller in size.
Inside the hexagram matrix, a small stream of blood slowly flowed. Every time it touched a rune, the rune would light up in a bloody red. But the stream flowed extremely slowly, and only a small part of the runes in the matrix were lit.
Tim, who was still pouring blood into the magic matrix above ground, still persistently reopened his wounds with his nail despite his increasingly blurred consciousness. In that moment, the regenerative ability vampires were gifted with almost seemed like a curse.
When the blood stream flowed past one of the coffins, something inside it suddenly trembled. An ancient and angry voice soon followed, “Damn it! What is that smell? Alquete! Wake up right now, damn it! Look what you’ve done!”
A moment later, a scornful laugh came from another coffin. “Victor, please, before you start yelling so rudely, remember your age. You are not a child anymore anymore.”
The first voice’s pitch suddenly rose even higher. “Alquete! If I were you, I would go and kill that damned bastard right now instead of suffering in this disgusting stench!”
Alquete’s voice sounded surprised. “Me? Why me? Aren’t you the one that was awakened?”
“Because that bastard is your descendant! Alquete, I truly did think you were one to allow your descendants to engage in such shameless activity! Our reputations as vampires are all ruined!!”
Alquete stayed silent for a moment before speaking again, “It seems that you are right. He is my offspring, and… mhm, I do smell human. Well then, I must admit, it is indeed my fault.”
Since Alquete had admitted to his mistake, Victor had no more reason to continue the argument. Instead, he grumbled in an annoyed tone, “Hurry up and take care of that bastard. I hate this smell.”
Alquete’s coffin rose as if an invisible hand was carrying it, and soon, an elderly man with white but inexplicably combed hair slowly sat up.
“Fine, fine, I’ll go. Happy now? Victor, there really is no need for all this complaining. Why spoil your mood because of a little child?” Alquete said as he stepped out of the coffin.
“Because that bastard tarnished our noble bloodline!” Victor’s voice sounded especially enraged.
“Oh come on, don’t be so old fashioned,” Alquete said with a nonchalant expression as he walked onto the magic matrix. But immediately after, his face froze.
“Damn it! There isn’t enough blood to activate the magic matrix!” Even Alquete seemed a little annoyed now.
“That is to be expected. Did you really expect a bastard like him to give up his power?”
“So be it!” Alquete sighed. “I will do it myself. Who cares about losing a little blood…”
“I agree, I totally agree. Who would care? After all, aside from those Black Dragons and Specter Dragons, no one in the whole Abyss would dare touch you! Losing a little power definitely wouldn’t matter.” Victor smiled maliciously.
Alquete suddenly turned toward Victor’s coffin. “Ah, my dear Victor. Then, don’t you think you should help an old friend? See, you are sleeping here as well, so there is no harm in losing a little power, right?”
“Why should I?!” Victor angrily yelled. “That’s your descendant. Why am I being dragged into this?”
“Come on, do you really want me to die from a loss of blood? No one benefits if I die!” Alquete said with a smile, completely ignoring Victor’s rage.
“Why don’t you ask the rest of them?!” Victor still didn’t want to lose his precious blood.
Alquete shrugged. “You really want me to wake everyone up for something this trivial?”
After a moment of hesitation, Victor finally reluctantly said, “Meeting you was the worst decisions of my life!”
Alquete’s smile widened. “Ah, I knew I could count on our dear Victor.”
“Shut up. What do you mean ‘our dear Victor’?! You disgust me!” Victor reluctantly started his incantation after his tirade, and a drop of blood which glowed with a golden light flew out from his coffin.
Alquete reached out to grab the drop of blood while also chanting a spell. A similar drop of blood flew out of his forehead, and when the two drops of blood landed on the magic matrix, every rune in it instantly lit up, filling the whole cavern with a blinding light.
At the same time, Tim finally went past his limit and fainted, but before he closed his eyes, he saw that the enormous magic matrix had suddenly lit up with a blinding light.
When the light faded, Alquete stood in the middle of the matrix.
