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  Looking through the window of his office, a young vampire man with skin as pale as dlewax, long dark blue hair, and sharp red eyes g the three moons above the sky.

  His face, which was in a perpetual expression of distaste, seemed even more ahan usual, and it was for something that he had been w about for the st four days.

  Indeed, it has beely four days sihartez Von Sahe Fourth Prince of the Iron Blood Empire, heard any news from his three spies. The three butlers he had employed to “take care” of Vd and his family of useless parasites of the empire, as he often called these people,.

  They were a group of sickly people who were seen as nothing but trash by the entire Imperial Vampire. In the beginning, Vd’s mother was seen as a strong maiden with a powerful affinity fid the blessing of an Evil God…

  But that stopped being the case when she gave birth to Vd, who was born sickly and crippled. And even worse, a Dhampir. She had attempted to have a sed child with the emperor several years ter, asking for a sed ce.

  And that’s how Camil was born; simirly to her brother, the girl was born much smaller than the rest, diagnosed with dwarfism and also being a Dhampir.

  The Emperor couldn’t take such disgraymore, quickly exiling Teressa’s entire family to the outskirts and assigning them a small town with only three weak dungeons, Elderbridge, which was mostly dominated by several gangs of criminals.

  Some called this a wise decision, but others became furious, not because Teressa unished but because she was not punished enough.

  Asthartez and his mother had particurly bee very jealous of Teressa, who was given a territory all to herself without any effort, unlike Helena, Asthartez’s mother.

  They tried to tell the Emperor that his decision was unwise and that they didn’t even deserve that, but the Emperor, as ruthless and cold as he was, could simply not throw his own bloodlio the streets.

  “It’s not that I don’t feel disgraced by seeing them, but even if cursed, those children carry my bloodline, and it would be even more of a disgrace to not give them, at the very least, a house to live in,” the Emperor spoke, and his es and children could no longer retort his words.

  At that time, however, Asthartez and his mother were still resentful, especially his mother, who had worked so hard for the pce she had acquired. She was born a oner who became a powerful soldier and gained great prestige and renown in the wars against the Barbarian Invaders from the west.

  She became the fourth e of the Emperor through effort and earned his reition, his love, and his seed, which created her beloved and only son, Asthartez Von Sange.

  Helena raised her son to bee perfe every sihing; she wanted him to stand out, even if he was the fourth son. He grew up in excellend riches, yet his talents were only subpar.

  Upon achieving Tier 4 of the Blood Core Realm, he was uo gain the reition of any god, being "unblessed,” as the vampires called them.

  Members of the royal family had strong bonds with the Evil Gods, those who were blessed at a young age were given, naturally, special bes and a much higher ce, if not guarao bee a big part of the entire Empire.

  Yet Asthartez was not blessed; the Evil Gods did nnize his efforts, and this made the Emperor turn his eyes away from his fourth son.

  Although they were never banished and are still reized within the family, their social status within the royal family has plummeted siderably.

  “Damned Dhampirs…”

  The frustration of being ed and ignored by the Emperor made mother and son turn their anger against those more unfortuhaeressa awo children.

  Despite being more unfortuhahey were jealous of how the Emperor showed some kio them, such kihat he had never shown to anybody else before.

  Why?

  Why did he show kio the Dhampir but not to the rest of his family?!

  “They must be purged from the family; that father let them live is but a mistake, mother!”

  Asthartez once med, smming his fists into the table in front of him and shattering it into two halves.

  CRASH!

  “I know, my dear son, I know.” A tall, imposing woman remained unmoved in front of her raging son. Her long, silky blue hair reached her ankles, her hips were wide, her bosom was busty, and her beauty was almost unparalleled. Yet at the same time, her beautiful face carried the handsomeness of a warrior, the bravery, and also the ingness of a survivor.

  “But how could it be?” Asthartez wondered. “The butlers, our spies, have yet to even respond! What’s exactly happening there? Don’t tell me. Did that woman, Teressa, kill them?”

  “She is not as strong; she lost her blessing after giving birth to Camil too.” Helena said. “It seemed that her patron, Gu, did not like her having children. He crippled them both to punish her. Yet she was given aire town with three dungeons.”

  “You’re saying she couldn’t do it? Then who? That useless of Vd? He ’t move at all!” said Asthartez. “Camil? Impossible… Could it be? Have they betrayed us and ran away?”

  “Or perhaps their message has been deyed. Or maybe they did run away; there are tless possibilities,” Helena said, her long blue nails gently grasping a little golden cube that her son had thrown into the ground. “But is it not easier to simply find the ahrough this artifact? Or have you fotten already, son?”

  “The Golden Soul Cube?” wondered Asthartez. “That is the soul-binding artifact I use on our servants. Mother, is there another use to it?”

  “Although you ’t really use it aside from Soul Binding, you ... Well, let’s say you break the tract,” she smiled.

  “But wouldn’t that kill the oath-bearer?” Asthartez wondered, perplexed.

  “Yes, let us try this. If we sense his soul breaking, they are still alive. If there is no respohey are long dead,” said Helena.

  “…Very well,” Asthartez didn’t even doubt that those three spies were raised and specifically created to be spies and nothing else—disposable tools at best.

  “Then…”

  The Vampiress smiled, her tongue lig her blue lips, as her cold breath activated the item within her cws, a fsh of golden light surging from it.

  Helena then spoke cursed words.

  “Shatter, Soul.”

  Two cursed ruered the golden cube, their light darkening and breaking down.

  CRACK!

  The sound of something shattering made mother and son expet, but then silence came.

  Nothing.

  “One of them is dead,” Helena said.

  “Try the other two, mother,” Asthartez insisted.

  “Very well.”

  They tried it two more times; all three of them were dead, their souls long gone. In fact, it felt like their souls weren’t eveo the Void but gnawed and devoured.

  “They were not only defeated, but their souls had beeen.” Helena uttered it with a voice of disbelief. “W-What is this? Who did this?”

  “Could Teressa have been hidirue strength? Or perhaps… There’s another family member you are not aware of?” wondered Asthartez.

  “That ’t be. Teressa’s parents are dead; we killed them,” said Helena. “Her brother was also hunted down by my dogs... The only thi is them—the only ones protected. The butlers did well in infiltrating this whole time without creating any more problems. But it seems their family might be more mysterious than we imagined.”

  “It’s hard to believe…” Asthartez sighed.

  “Whatever the case, they killed three of us, so we are forced to retaliate, right?” smiled Helena. “My son, the w is now in our favor for self-defense. What do you think we should do?”

  “If it were up to me, I would kill them all and pce their heads on pikes outside our house…” Asthartez groaned, looking hateful.

  “Good idea,” Helena smiled. “I am sure the Emperor… my dear husband, would not mind, right? If we tell him they killed our family…”

  “Retaliation against unjustified aggression is fine and often protected by the ws of the Empire,” he son.

  “Then?” smiled the mently caressing her son’s fad looking at him in the eyes. “What shall we do, my dear?”

  “We kill them… Drink their blood and annouheir deaths. We take their territory, and our influence rises, and then… Father finally look at us again,” Asthartez smiled.

  “That’s right~” his mother said, caressing his with her long, blue nails. “I’ve taught you well, my dear son~”

  “When do we begin, mother?” Asthartez was ready.

  “…Not so hasty; let us prepare. There was someorong enough to kill three Tier 3s. Let’s bring an army if needed,” said Helena.

  “Would that be alright?” wondered Asthartez, panig slightly. “If father learns we’re waging war against his favorite toys before...”

  “Shhh, it’s fine.” Helena smiled. “It’s alright~ Mommy has everything covered up, don’t worry.”

  The woman walked towards the window, looking at the three moons.

  “We’ll begin preparatiht away, and we’ll depart on two more cycles.”

  “Very well.”

  Mother and son were up for blood.

  These were the rules of a Vampire Family.

  If you ower, tear it apart from the corpse of your brother.

  .

  .

  .

  “I love the armor, but you have to calm down a bit with the equipment, Paul; you almost couldn’t even move. Are you that obsessed with being a floating brick of steel or something?”

  Chris reprimanded Paul as the two made their way to the dungeons once more.

  “Look, I had calcuted everything correctly, almost.” Paul muttered. “I mean, I didn’t know that my weak body wouldn’t be able to take over fifty thousand Ara, okay?”

  “That’s a ridiculous number, even for someoh none.” Chris facepalmed. “At least you move now, eh?”

  “Yeah, as long as I don’t activate all the rings,” Vd said, looking at his own hands.

  He was wearing ten rings, one for each fiwo bracelets, one for each wrist, and two neckces. Each ring was identical, of a dark red and bck color, with small beast core fragments embedded into its surface.

  The bracelets had rger ones and more, looking like shiny jewelry, and the neckces had several embedded into a siringle-shaped bck steel piece.

  The problem arose when Paul equipped them all and tried to ect the Auras of Ara between all the equipment, amounting to over fifty thousand Ara total.

  Which was too much even for him; the pressure was s he ended up falling to the ground and being uo even lift himself with the float spell.

  But that was quickly resolved once Chris helped him get his sh*t together; they found out that as long as he didn’t activate all the Ara, it would be fine.

  He could still get their little bonuses, but if he activated their internal Ara, the pressure would crush his body again.

  Still, he could maintain his whole armor, his wand, and both neckces, bracelets, and tws active, but the ht rings were for reserve Ara for now.

  It was fine; he had po use them as “Ara Batteries” anyway.

  “You could spare some for me, you know?” Chris worying to act cocky again.

  “What? I gave you too much already; you owe me at least a huhousand Credits from your premium equipment, so you’re paying that from now on,” Paul said.

  “Eh?! They weren’t gifts because you loved me as your friend?” Chris made a shocked expression.

  “What? No…” Vd looked elsewhere. The embarrassment alpable, but he tried to ig. “Of course… not.”

  “Hmm~ I don’t know you’re all embarrassed; you tend to get embarrassed about everything, dude. Calm down.” Chris patted his shoulders, but the armor was so hard it ended up hurting his hands. “Ouch… Anyway, we’re here. Um, the same as before, then?”

  “Yeah, this time I don’t want to transform and see how strong we are with equipment,” said Vd. “Let’s go to the stro dungeht away.”

  “Without you transf?! Isn’t that suicide? Also, they don’t yield any blood or life force; they’re all undead!” Chris pined.

  “It’s a test of power; they might not yield that, but they be sold food price,” Vd insisted. “Let’s go.”

  “Ugh, fine… Only because you keep insisting and begging me,” Chris shrugged. “It ’t be helped.”

  “Stop ag like I am not going to carry you now.” Paul acted cocky for once.

  Whewo were teleported ihe Dungeon, the dark temple and the bck skeletons greeted them. Almost instantaneously after appearing here, the undead were charged with murderous i.

  “Let’s test the new equipment then,” Paul smiled, his red and bck armor overflowing with a powerful Aura of Ara.

  However, there was something odd about them.

  Red crystals were growing over their bodies.

  “Um, Paul, don’t they look a bit weird to you?” Chris wondered.

  As the two frohe army of strange skeletons, something else awakened within the depths of the dark ruins.

  The fabric of space was tearing apart.

  -----

  Pach