CA - Chapter 219
Chapter 219
Witch City was perpetually devoid of sunlight, its environment damp and cold. When Erin awoke from her deep slumber, her hair was already damp with dew, yet her body felt as warm and comfortable as if she were soaking in warm water. She raised a hand to rub her eyes, but the back of it touched something soft.
Erin: “…”
The heavy arm resting on her waist instantly cleared Erin’s muddled thoughts. She tilted her head back and stared blankly at the person practically pressed against her. Because the person’s head was lowered, she could only see strands of gray hair.
…Wait, why had she suddenly fallen asleep when she was perfectly fine just a moment ago? A sense of alarm rose in Erin’s heart. She carefully removed the arm from her waist and rolled over twice, moving away from the person.
Her black robe was wrinkled and crumpled. Erin scratched her hair and stood up, her first instinct being to look for Little Fur Ball. But after patting herself down, she couldn’t find a trace of it.
Wolf Fang, who had been sitting in a tree with her eyes closed, slowly opened them upon hearing the commotion below. With her arms crossed, she leaned against the tree trunk, quietly observing Erin.
The moment Erin moved, Little Fur Ball woke up. Her mind was not yet developed, and she acted purely on instinct. Having spent so much time with Erin, she had grown accustomed to seeking closeness with her.
Little Fur Ball stood up from the ground, wrapped her arms around Erin’s waist from behind, and tucked her head into Erin’s hood, wanting to go back to sleep.
Erin’s body stiffened. She struggled but couldn’t break free. She pulled out her bone staff, her heart pounding with nervousness and unease, but she still feigned a commanding tone and shouted, “Who are you? Let go of me, or I’ll use magic.”
A few skeleton rats had already silently emerged from the ground, but they didn’t dare approach Little Fur Ball at all, merely circling around Erin’s feet.
Erin glanced down at the uselessly summoned skeleton rats, then reached her right hand to her waist and took out a scroll.
A hand suddenly clamped down on her wrist, stopping her from unfurling the scroll. Perhaps sensing Erin’s anxiety, Little Fur Ball let go. She picked up an E Leaf that Erin had accidentally dropped while grabbing the scroll and blankly put it in her mouth.
The moment Little Fur Ball released her, Erin leaped away. She raised her staff and aimed it at the girl, freezing for a moment when she saw her eating the E Leaf. “You…”
After finishing the E Leaf, Little Fur Ball stared blankly at Erin and held out her hand again.
“Little Fur Ball?” A thought struck Erin, and she asked tentatively, “Is that you?”
Little Fur Ball stared at her without blinking, then pointed down at her Space Gem.
Erin watched her for a moment before tentatively taking out a few E Leaves. Little Fur Ball’s eyes lit up at the sight of them. She walked over, grabbed Erin’s hand, lifted it, and leaned in to bite the leaves directly.
“My hand… hand… you’re biting my hand…” Erin huffed, pushing at Little Fur Ball’s shoulder with her other hand.
When pushed away while eating, Little Fur Ball simply pressed closer again, determined to stay near Erin.
Watching her “self” act so shamelessly below, Wolf Fang’s fingers twitched unconsciously. She remained silent for a long while, experiencing a sense of helplessness for the first time. In the end, she simply closed her eyes.
After verifying Little Fur Ball’s preferences and habits from various angles, Erin could finally confirm that this strangely dressed but rather good-looking woman was indeed Little Fur Ball.
Although she didn’t know how Little Fur Ball had suddenly turned into a person, the place reeked of strangeness, so Erin could only bury her questions in her heart.
After some very stern correction from Erin, Little Fur Ball finally stopped hugging her and settled for resting her head on Erin’s lap instead.
Little Fur Ball couldn’t speak. Erin tried to communicate with her for a long time, but the girl remained the same. Finally, Erin gave up with a sigh. She took out some E Leaves from her Space Gem to feed her and muttered to herself, “I wonder where Kama ran off to…”
“This place feels very strange to me, not like the Witch City I grew up in.” Erin habitually stroked Little Fur Ball’s head, saying distractedly, “I suspect that teleportation array brought us to the past.”
“The Garcia witches seem so odd, and that Darkness Temple… Tonight, after the witches finish their prayers, let’s go inside and take a look, okay?”
Little Fur Ball was focused on eating her leaves. When she saw Erin looking down at her, she slowly nodded. Seeing her response, Erin paused for a moment, then smiled. “You’re not that dense, after all.”
With Little Fur Ball having turned into a person, Erin felt an inexplicable sense of security.
The Garcia witches had a fixed time for praying in front of the Darkness Temple. Erin and Little Fur Ball hid nearby and waited until all the witches had left before cautiously approaching.
From the outside, the Darkness Temple looked sinister and gloomy. Erin held Little Fur Ball’s hand, glanced around, and then pulled her inside.
The temple doors were wide open, revealing pitch darkness within. Erin paused at the entrance, then gritted her teeth, gripped Little Fur Ball’s hand, and stepped inside. The two were instantly swallowed by the darkness.
Wolf Fang’s figure slowly materialized at the temple entrance. The Blood Demon, which usually floated above the temple, was nowhere to be seen, causing her to frown involuntarily. She pondered for a moment but decided that Erin and her suddenly appearing “soul” were more important, so she lifted her foot and followed them inside.
In a valley deep within Witch City, the Blood Demon floated in mid-air as a cloud of red mist. It stared at the Black Witch below and asked, “What did you see when you went to the Zakariya Plains?”
The Zakariya Plains was the place where Wolf Fang was sealed.
The Black Witch’s expression was numb, but when she answered the Blood Demon’s question, her tone was exceptionally respectful. “There was nothing unusual there, and the seal has not been touched.”
“Impossible.” The Blood Demon’s voice suddenly rose. “If the seal hasn’t been touched, then… how did the soul sealed inside escape?”
Its voice had become so shrill it was uncomfortable to hear, but the Black Witch felt nothing of the sort. In her mind, she was conversing with the Dark God.
“…The soul inside is gone, but the seal truly has not been touched.”
The red mist circled the Black Witch several times, and a voice filled with jealousy emerged from within. “I don’t care how she got out. Send someone to kill that strange little witch for me.”
She was on the verge of dissipating this half of her soul just to break the seal, yet Wolf Fang had regained the other half of her soul and her body without paying any price?
She could forget about it!
The Blood Demon had already noticed how peculiar Erin was. “That witch is near the temple. Go kill her.”
What she couldn’t have, Wolf Fang shouldn’t have either.
Blood Domain.
The trembling underfoot continued. The flames of light had stopped falling from the sky, but this only made the gray-haired vampire’s expression grow graver. He put away his quill and gave Lucille a meaningful look. “Follow me.”
Lucille stared at his back for a moment before choosing to follow.
As outsiders, the Tzimisce clan’s territory in the Blood Domain was naturally not near the center. However, they had found Prince Bernard’s resting place and obtained his blood. Therefore, the closer they got to their dwelling, the stronger the Blood Domain’s protective shield became, influenced by the Prince’s blood.
Thanks to the Holy See’s attack, the gray-haired vampire was able to lead Lucille to the Tzimisce clan’s hiding place.
The ground beneath their feet no longer trembled. The gray-haired vampire stopped to rest and explained to Lucille with great enthusiasm, “The barrier here can withstand the light magic of those madwomen. The Tzimisce clan must be nearby.”
“Finally, we’re about to find them. I must study them thoroughly.”
As he spoke, he took out his paper and quill again.
Leaning against a tree trunk, Lucille glanced at him and asked with a frown, “Why are you so obsessed with the Tzimisce clan?”
The gray-haired vampire was heavily injured, and from his tone, this Holy War had been a failure, dealing a significant blow to the vampires. Many second-generation vampires had lost heart and gone into slumber to recuperate. Yet here he was… insisting on studying the Tzimisce clan before going to sleep.
“They’re very interesting,” the gray-haired vampire said with a slight smile. “Although many clans want to break the law, they are the only ones seriously researching it.”
“I want to see the results of their research.”
Lucille shifted her gaze from him, looking up at the blood moon in the sky. “Is breaking the law that important?” she asked faintly.
“It’s both important and not important,” the gray-haired vampire said casually as he wrote. “Even if we could break the law, we can’t become gods. There will always be someone above you. What difference does it make whether the law is broken or not?”
“But the process of researching how to break the law is very important.” The gray-haired vampire’s eyes lit up as if he had thought of something fascinating, his tone becoming exceptionally excited. “Did you know? The Tzimisce clan is studying Prince Bernard’s blood. They want to absorb the energy in the blood to break the law and transform into first-generation vampires.”
He let out a low chuckle. “What an interesting idea. It’s just a pity they are doomed to fail.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re vampires,” the gray-haired vampire said, glancing sideways at Lucille. “We can’t consume the blood of our own kind, nor can we convert their power for our own use.”
“The energy in Prince Bernard’s blood is too immense. The result of absorbing it directly is…” The gray-haired vampire mouthed the word for an explosion and grinned happily, “…saying goodbye to this world.”
“But it would be great if we could solve the problem of vampires being unable to convert the energy contained in the blood of their own kind.” The gray-haired vampire stroked his chin, his eyes darting around. “A pureblood vampire can’t do this.”
Lucille hadn’t been listening intently, but his sudden change of topic made her pause and turn to look at him.
As if struck by inspiration, the gray-haired vampire lowered his head and took a few steps, his speaking pace gradually quickening. “The law only applies to vampires. If we created a being that relies on blood to survive but isn’t purely a vampire, would the law still exist?”
“Ah… a hybrid, for example…” The gray-haired vampire narrowed his eyes. He was no longer concerned with whether Lucille was listening; he was now talking to himself. “The elves are protected by the Forest Goddess, the werewolves are the pets of the God of War, and the God Race Descendants were created by the Light Goddess… All these races are related to gods. If they were to create a hybrid, the vampire traits would surely not persist.”
“Only humans.” He nodded thoughtfully. “That’s right. If a hybrid were to be created, humans would be the most suitable race.”
Lucille interrupted him with a displeased expression. “Vampires can’t reproduce with other races.”
His train of thought broken, the gray-haired vampire came back to his senses and shrugged. “You’re right. That’s why I was just thinking out loud.”
“But if a hybrid could really be created, then pureblood vampires could also break the law.”
“The Tzimisce clan’s greatest skill is blood transfusion.” The gray-haired vampire patted his own wrist. “Transfuse the hybrid’s blood into one’s own body. The power doesn’t need to be too high; reaching the third generation would be enough to absorb Prince Bernard’s blood.”
“However, even a Malkavian like me thinks creating a third-generation hybrid is impossible.”
The Malkavian clan’s leap of logic greatly exceeded Lucille’s expectations. Her hand fiddled with the small black bottle in her sleeve, her peripheral vision occasionally glancing at the gray-haired vampire. This person… had just described almost everything the Tzimisce clan would do five thousand years later.
If she hadn’t already confirmed that this was indeed five thousand years in the past, she would have thought this man was a Tzimisce in disguise.
But while the gray-haired vampire’s theory was well-reasoned, in this era, no one had ever seen or even heard of a hybrid. Thus, he could never have imagined that he was standing right in front of one.
In a valley several thousand meters away from them, a few vampires in black robes were gathered around a blood pool, searching for something with grim expressions.
“…Where’s the blood?” A white-haired vampire slammed his fist on the ground in fury, gritting his teeth. “Didn’t I tell you to keep it safe?”
He glared, his red eyes looking as if they could drip blood.
The vampire he was staring at looked extremely pale. He searched himself carefully again and said in a low voice, “I swear, I was holding Prince Bernard’s blood the entire time, but it suddenly vanished.”
“Suddenly vanished?” a female voice came from behind, its shrillness making it sound sarcastic. “Could it be that you hid it?”
“Sunny,” the man warned, glaring at her. “Shut your mouth.”
Sunny snorted. “The Grand Elder and the Second Elder are both dead. It’s not even certain if we can successfully create a new third-generation vampire. At a time like this, you lose Prince Bernard’s blood. Between the two of us, who should be shutting their mouth?”
“I told you, I didn’t lose it.”
“Enough, stop arguing,” the white-haired vampire barked with a cold face. “Keep searching.”
Prince Bernard’s blood was a matter of life and death for their Tzimisce clan. It absolutely could not be lost.
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