“It’s never excessive to take one of the twelve major clans seriously, let alone the fact that the Dark Gospel Howard is here. Even though our spy succeeded in stopping him from a complete recovery, a crown prince isn’t someone an ordinary duke can handle. There will be a lot of problems if he escapes. So, it’s best for me to come personally.”
Progia glanced into the hall. “Those pawns weren’t bad at all. Who would’ve thought there would be traitors among the vampires, considering how strong their bloodline restraints are?”
The old duke clenched his teeth. “You’ll have to step over my corpse if you want to go in!”
“There’s no need for that, you’re too weak.” Progia swung his hand casually, sending the duke flying into the wall. The old man immediately fell unconscious from the impact. He had lost a large amount of essence blood to awaken Howard, so much so that he couldn’t take a single blow from the great dark monarch.
Progia entered the great hall, saying, “Howard, are you still not coming out?”
The roaring sounds behind the thick doors came to a sudden stop. A dark suppressive force expanded outward to cover the great hall. “Progia?! Are you trying to provoke an all-out war?”
“The war has already begun.” A shadowy wave flung the giant door off its hinges and flung it to the side.
In the inner hall, an ancient coffin stood upright and slowly opened its lid. Howard’s voice erupted from within, “When did the Masefield clan become so rampant?”
The darkness surrounding Progia didn’t budge. “That’s something you can take your time pondering on after you return to the river.”
The coffin lid shot toward Progia all of a sudden, but the demonkin split off a mass of black shadow toward the incoming projectile. The coffin lid immediately dissolved into nothingness after sinking into the lid.
“Spare yourself the trouble. As the Dark Gospel, you should enjoy a certain level of dignity before you return to the River of Blood.”
An old vampire was standing inside the open coffin, still in a sleeping posture with his hands crossed in front of his c.h.e.s.t. His body was dried and shriveled. Although it wasn’t as dried up as a vampire in deep hibernation, he was still a ways off from full recovery. Apparently, Howard hadn’t completed his recovery process.
Progia laughed coldly. “It’s said a crowned prince is comparable to a great dark monarch in strength. You’ve fought great dark monarchs before as well. I wonder how much strength you have left at the moment?”
Howard opened his eyes and walked out of the coffin, his movements clearly a bit slower than usual. He drew a large sword from behind and raised it high. “Since you people have failed to uphold even the most basic level of dignity, there’s nothing left to say. Her Majesty will not let you off!”
With that, a storm kicked up in the great hall as Howard’s body bulged up. As though he had inflated himself, his aura began to rise exponentially as gushing blood energy enveloped his body. He let out a loud cry when his energy reached its peak, firing countless beams of blood energy from the gemstone embedded in the hilt of his sword.
Progia roared furiously as he condensed numerous dark spears. The weapons burst out in all directions and nailed themselves into the walls.
Howard’s figure vanished. Soon, the entire hall trembled as he collided into a dark barrier that had formed on the ceiling.
The barrier was shattered, but the prince also came crashing back down from the impact.
Outside of the great hall, numerous vampires collapsed with blood pouring out of their orifices. It was clear that they would not live long.
Howard and Progia had engaged in a direct confrontation just now. The shockwaves produced from the clash weren’t something ordinary experts could handle.
Howard’s expression shifted drastically. “The Forbidden Spear! You’ve even brought out the council’s holy weapon!”
Progia said, “What’s so surprising? Isn’t Awakening Dream in the vampire race’s hands? But all of them will soon belong to His Majesty the Demon King. I think you should save some energy to figure out an escape route.”
Howard’s expression darkened slightly.
The Forbidden Spear possessed the power to freeze space, the bane of all teleportation abilities. With this holy weapon in hand, Progia had effectively blocked Howard in the mountain hall. The prince would not be able to escape even if he were in his peak state.
Howard revealed a bitter smile. “Looks like you made ample preparations to kill me.”
“The fall of a crown prince will weaken the vampires for hundreds of years. No price is too great.”
“Very well, let’s fight then! Let’s see how capable the Masefield clan lord is!”
Progia glanced at his surroundings in a leisurely manner. “This is a pretty good place for a fight.”
With that, the darkness around him formed a giant palm. The simple act of this hand forming a fist caused the entire castle to tremble, the shockwave turning hundreds of vampires into corpses.
Sensing all the deaths through his bloodline connection, Progia was infuriated. “Progia! Do you have no dignity left?”
“It’s the vampires dying anyway, saves me having to clean up.” Progia laughed
Even Castle Midas couldn’t handle a fight of this level. Most of the castle had collapsed from the fight. Progia wasn’t holding back as monarchs usually do when they fought on the ground. On the contrary, he was even more reckless than normal.
The tens of thousands of vampires living and fighting in this ancient castle thus became sacrifices. How could Howard not feel angry?
Progia was clearly making it difficult for Howard to attack, thereby increasing his chances of victory. This was a shameless tactic, but the vampire prince could do nothing.
Howard raised his blade once more, saying, “The Queen will punish you for your evil!”
“You’ve said that twice now.”
Howard ignored Progia’s provocation and simply focused on muttering something. Soon, a letter of blood condensed in the air, covered in drifting runes.
The blood energy appeared and vanished in a flash as the blood letter shot through the walls and into the void. The surrounding black barrier could do nothing to stop it, almost as though the paper could traverse space itself.
Howard didn’t seem happy even after he had sent the message, his gaze fixed on Progia.
The demonkin was exceptionally calm during this process, making no move to interfere. He even voiced his surprise, “Oh, so that’s how the blood river letter looks like. It must’ve drained a lot of your blood energy?”
“Why did you not stop me?” Although he didn’t believe Progia could’ve stopped this unique ancestral communication method, Howard couldn’t help but ask.
Progia laughed. “Why should I?”
The speed with which the message traveled through the void wasn’t measurable with the normal concept of speed. It should’ve reached the Queen of the Night by the time they had exchanged a few words. However, his connection with the message was cut off at this point.
The feedback at that moment allowed him to understand a lot of things. “Medanzo!”
Progia laughed out loud. “With the Lightless Monarch around, you can forget about sending a message to the Queen.”
“Why would he betray the Queen and the race?!” Howard was livid.
He sank his consciousness into the River of Blood, calling out to the other primogenitors to see if any of them was awake. However, the river remained still.
“That… you’ll have to find a way to ask him after you return to the river.”
Progia formed four long swords of darkness, which slashed at Howard at lightning speed.
The vampire prince lifted his sword with a grunt, deflecting the four blades with exquisite swordsmanship. It was just that he would be pushed back ever so slightly with each parry.
Progia let out a long laugh. “This is where you return to the river!”
This time, dozens of swords formed in the air. The next barrage was going to be extremely violent.
In the blink of an eye, countless swords began attacking Howard at lightning speed. Even someone as strong as the prince seemed to be in despair. He was merely defending to uphold his dignity as a primogenitor, hoping to draw his last breath in combat.
It was at this moment that the two heard a crisp sound, the sound of the Forbidden Spear’s domain cracking. Immediately afterward, the dark hall was filled with a dreamy resplendence.
This radiance was something Progia was highly familiar with. Who would’ve thought it would appear here?
Awakening Dream!
It was a contest between two holy weapons, but the Forbidden Spear was not specialized for combat. Add to the fact that Awakening Dream had focused all of its power on one point, it managed to hack open the black barrier and slash at Progia.
The demonkin was extremely calm. “Insolence!” He condensed his demonic energy into a giant palm that grasped at the sword radiance.
After all, Progia was the lord of the Masefield clan and a great dark monarch. Even though he was splitting off part of his energy to keep the Forbidden Spear active and attacking Howard ferociously, he could still spare the power to block Awakening Dream head-on.
The giant black palm was split into two, but the blade radiance had also turned into an arrow at the end of its flight. The attack sank into the darkness and was slowly dissolved.
Progia turned around to find himself reflected in a pair of eyes!
His image in those blood amber eyes wasn’t just a mass of darkness but his actual form. Progia was shocked. Just like the Eternal Flame’s fire, the darkness around him was born of his demonic energy. It wasn’t so easy to see through it.
In those eyes, cracks appeared all over Progia’s reflection, which soon shattered into pieces.
Progia felt his demonic furnace suffer a heavy blow. The darkness around him scattered all of a sudden, vaguely revealing his outline.
“Eye of Destruction!” Progia’s voice hadn’t even faded away when he felt a chill from the bottom of his being, spreading all over his body.
This was a sign of mortal peril!
Progia turned around to see Qianye standing nearby, his luminous wings just merging into Dragonsgrave. Soon, a bullet of extreme heat shot out from the barrel, and a small black feather flew around it!
In the blink of an eye, Progia recalled Qianye’s final shot in the latter’s last battle.
He had fired that shot into the air, but its might left a deep impression on the demonkin. From up close, Progia could tell that this shot wasn’t inferior to an attack from a heavenly monarch. However, he quickly realized that he had still underestimated its power.
The origin bullet arrived in front of the great dark monarch almost at the same time that he saw it.
Amidst a thunderous howl, the Forbidden Spears in the vicinity shattered, and the fragments formed a black wall in front of Progia. The barrier collapsed immediately upon contact, barely managing to affect the bullet’s momentum. All of the darkness around Progia immediately swept forward to engulf the incoming origin bullet.
The origin bullet finally exploded in a shower of Venus Dawn This purest form of light and heat immediately evaporated the darkness. That small black feather emerged from the engulfing energy and drilled into Progia’s body.
The demonkin monarch let out a muffled groan. He glared at Qianye with a pair of eagle eyes, overflowing with killing intent. Being injured by a duke was a great humiliation to him.
Progia’s breath resounded like thunder. The darkness around him reformed in the span of a single breath, slowly hiding his body once more. However, he had no time to settle the score with Qianye. Awakening Dream and the great sword struck him with neither pause nor mercy.
Qianye frowned. He hadn’t expected that this shot would only wound the Masefield clan lord and not actually deprive him of his fighting power. A great dark monarch was indeed powerful.
This was the perfect moment to strike at the weakened Progia, but Qianye had no more bullets condensed from Venus Dawn.
Qianye had no time to think since opportunity would never knock twice. He poured his new chaos origin power into Dragonsgrave, forming a bullet that had never been seen before.
This bullet possessed no resounding power, nor did it bring about a chill in the eyes of the beholder. All it carried was a strange scent as it tore through the darkness and entered Progia’s body.
The demonkin was stunned for a split second as the darkness around his body melted away like snow in the sun. His expression shifted drastically in a mixture of shock and fury. Then, with an explosive roar, Progia crashed his way through the mountain and vanished into the flames of war.
