Not long afterward, Sousa witnessed more of Howard’s tricks.
The Dark Gospel was two hundred years older than Sousa, and his acc.u.mulated combat experience was much more abundant. He had been roaming the edge of the battlefield all this time, avoiding a direct clash or any form of retaliation. He would even expend essence blood to flee when there was simply no way to evade. In short, he wasn’t going to come into direct contact with Sousa.
Howard was surrounded by several prowling beasts. These creatures were formed of blood energy and possessed different abilities.
These creatures were vivid and lifelike, possessing different abilities. Some of them would increase Howard’s speed and acceleration, or help him redirect a blow. These sanguine beasts doubled Howard’s power and agility, making it difficult for Sousa to attack him
Sousa’s thoughts went back to their last battle. He had just become a great dark monarch back then, but he simply couldn’t capture Howard despite the clear rank advantage. This vampire primogenitor had been secretly fighting with the Lightless Monarch for many years.
Howard still had the capacity to reinforce Nighteye while evading Sousa’s attacks, granting her a pair of sanguine wings that increased her speed by ten percent. Nighteye was fast, to begin with, and now, she was as swift as lightning. She followed Sousa while launching constant attacks, adding more and more injuries with her blade.
Under the effects of the Gemini twins, Qianye’s strength had reached a level where he could contend with Sousa. The chaos origin power also began to prove its might by slowly draining the werewolf’s origin power.
With Qianye tanking the great dark monarch at the front, Nighteye attacking from the rear, and Howard disrupting from the sidelines, Sousa couldn’t find the opportunity to put his shocking strength to use.
Howard seemed the least useful person in the field, but he would pull off various unimaginable tricks at the most critical moments and save the other two from danger.
Then again, taking down Howard was no easy task. This old fellow was as sly as a fox and had countless tricks up his sleeve. He might have prepared a different seat of blood beasts for every enemy. Besides, both Qianye and Nighteye were far stronger than ordinary dukes. A single misstep might end up with him getting injured severely. Things would probably be easier if he were fighting two princes instead.
It would seem that a certain price was inevitable in order to win this battle and capture Qianye alive.
Understanding this, Sousa stomped on the ground and pushed the trio away with a repulsive force.
Sousa stopped attacking, the anger on his face completely gone. He was so indifferent that it seemed like the fight from before had nothing to do with him.
“Since that idiot Brock is dead, why would I keep risking my life?”
The change came so swiftly that Qianye was startled.
Sousa adjusted his robes. He picked up a drop of grey-tainted blood from his wound and licked it. He then gazed meaningfully at Qianye, saying, “I’m going back to report in, do you have any intention of stopping me?”
“No,” Qianye replied.
Sousa’s departure was naturally a good thing. This battle had shown Qianye that this werewolf great dark monarch wasn’t all brawn and no brain. His strength was indeed fitting of a great dark monarch. The powerful gravitational power and brute physical strength worked together perfectly, turning several hundred meters around the monarch into a death zone.
Talking about weaknesses, Sousa’s attack and control range was limited. Theoretically, a combatant who could roam about at high speed could whittle him down. That was no easy feat, however, since Qianye was dragged out of Spatial Flash several times.
The problem was that the Demon King had mobilized Sousa this time, but what about the next? The Wolf Ancestor? The Eternal Flame? Or even himself?
The Demon King would not let them go now that Grand Duke Brock had fallen on Dawn.
Qianye and Nighteye retreated to either side and opened up a path.
Sousa said, “Oh right, I forgot to do something.”
He raised his hand and squeezed out a drop of blood from the wound on his palm. The blood began to burn and soon turned into a giant rune that fell onto Qianye’s body.
This rune was faster than any other attack he had launched. It appeared on Qianye almost at the same time that it appeared. Someone watching without blinking might see the rune appear in two areas at the same time.
“A curse!” Nighteye drew her sword and slashed at Sousa.
The great dark monarch pushed Nighteye away again, saying, “Yes, this is a curse, but it won’t affect him for the time being.
Howard said gloomily, “This is an ancient rune, something akin to a tracking mark.”
Sousa laughed. “As expected of the Dark Gospel. You even know so clearly about our ancient runes. Now that Qianye has been marked, there’s no need for me to tell him what he should do. I hope he’s not as dumb as Brock.”
With that, the werewolf left and disappeared into the distance. Moments later, an airship flew a couple of circles above the trio and flew off into the void.
Qianye couldn’t help but feel impressed. Despite knowing that a mark had been left behind, he simply couldn’t find where it was.
Howard said thoughtfully, “From what I know, the werewolf ancient runes are extremely powerful, but they’re not as detailed in the utilization of energy. If this is indeed a tracking rune, Sousa will have one on him as well, and he will have to find your location by relying on the connection between them. A third rune is actually needed in order to pinpoint you accurately. I’m sure Her Majesty Nighteye knows more than I do.”
Nighteye said after some thought, “That’s indeed the case. The current rune can only sense the general direction and not Qianye’s actual location. This means that Sousa can only sense Qianye’s direction whether he’s a thousand or ten thousand kilometers away.”
Howard said, “If the target moves fast enough and far enough, he can still lock onto the distance by sensing the changes in the connection.
Nighteye shook her head. “No, it’s common for such runes to deviate ten degrees or so. This error will only disappear if the target moves thousands of kilometers. This move was completely unnecessary.”
“Why would he do this then?” Howard was puzzled.
“That’s true.” Howard fell into contemplation. “The Demon King might not need the tracking rune, but the same can’t be said of other people. The supremes’ movements are impossible to fathom. The Demon King must have his reasons for not appearing in person, but that doesn’t mean other great dark monarchs won’t come.”
All of a sudden, the atmosphere grew tense. Sousa alone was difficult enough to handle; they would have no choice but to flee if two great dark monarchs came after him.
Qianye said all of a sudden, “Since that’s the case, letting me stay here will just keep attracting more experts.”
Nighteye and Howard exchanged knowing glances. The two recent fights had proven that the target was actually Qianye.
The Dawn Continent was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The secret flight route itself was a natural barrier that could restrain the size and speed of enemy fleets. The demonkin vanguard fleet had arrived so quickly because of Brock’s Wall of Sighs.
This guess wasn’t unfounded. On one hand, Qianye had seen how half of the fleeing airsh.i.p.s had fallen into dire straits after leaving the continent’s airspace. Several of them were destroyed by the scorching flow of origin power. On the other hand, he had learned from the captives that they had a sizable main army and rear-guard when they set out, but those forces never arrived. This went to show that the Dawn Continent wasn’t so easy to approach.
If Qianye were to leave now, the demonkin would lose their real objective. It wasn’t a certainty whether they would risk greater losses in order to wipe out some weak vampire descendants. Staying here would only give the enemy an accurate target, drawing out more people like Sousa.
Howard said after some thought, “Ignoring Sousa’s plan, for now, the best way to deal with the rune and scrying is to keep moving. Even the supremes’ perception will take time to cover all the continents. It’s best if you go into hiding.”
After some discussion, Nighteye would follow Qianye and Howard would stay behind to lead the vampire survivors and build a new home here.
Not only was Fort Continent a domain he had built up from scratch, but it was also where William and the Summit of Peaks were present. He needed to understand the Summit’s stance since the demonkin seemed intent on unifying all of Evernight. The vampires and werewolves shared a long history of enmity, but this was no longer important in the face of extermination.
Qianye did not drive the Martyr’s Palace to Cerulean Wave City out of caution. Instead, he left the airship with Nighteye and Zhuji to enter the city in secret.
After his return, Qianye was stunned by the scenery before him.
The slums outside of the city had been completely leveled, and there were buildings being constructed everywhere. The area had expanded far beyond their previous scope.
The slums had been divided into areas of different shapes and sizes, each housing buildings of different styles. The different areas were now marked by different flags and totems, showing who the owner and protector were.
Although the area looked just as messy as the previous slums, the scent of potential prosperity was in the air.
It hadn’t been very long since Qianye left the city. How did it thrive so quickly?
