Chapter 438: The Awakening of the Hunger
Alexander stood in the center of the valley, maintaining both his [Dark Mist Body] and [Vampire Emperor Shadow Armor Lvl 1]. Despite emanating pressure, he felt an instability within; his power lacked coherence.
Before his eyes, the interface displayed the fusion prompt.
"It’s all or nothing," said Alexander, staring at the notification with ragged breathing. "If I succeed, I’ll attain a new tier of power... but if I fail, I’ll lose everything."
He looked out over the abyssal desert, knowing he had no choice left but to gamble. Without hesitating, he selected fusion.
The greyish mist interwoven with the dark energy in his core. His shadow wings folded over his torso, molding into a cuirass draped in a mantle of darkness, while atop his head, a crown forged of bone shrouded in aura arose, concealing his face.
[Skill: Lord of the Night fused successfully]
A patch of absolute darkness expanded from the soles of his feet. His eyes turned black as night. From the depths of his shadow, dozens of vampires emerged; no longer shadow projections, but real beings that dropped to their knees in submission before him.
Alexander felt power overflowing his mana channels, but alongside the surge came a ravenous hunger. His mind and body demanded one thing with clarity: he no longer sought shadows or undead—he was desperate for fresh blood.
"Blood... I need blood..." muttered Alexander, his voice warped by the bone crown.
His eyes flashed crimson. He launched into the sky, shooting forward like a dark missile toward the surface. Behind him, the swarm of newly summoned vampires ascended, following in his wake like a constellation of black comets.
Wasting no time, Alexander sprinted back to the entrance of the TMC shelter. Upon breaching the stone doors, he found the complex deserted.
"Where are they?!" roared Alexander, falling to his knees as the agony and bloodlust began consuming him.
The agony clouded his judgment, flooding his mind with impulses urging him to kill, destroy, and feed on anything in his path. Losing control, Alexander turned the base upside down, obliterating terminals, walls, and structures in a search for any mechanism that could return him to the outside world.
Finding no exit among the shelter’s ruins, Alexander stumbled outside.
He let out a roar toward the sky of The Breach, shaking the upper zone as his army of vampires echoed his agony.
Amidst the storm clouding his mind, Alexander’s sense of smell caught a faint scent in the distance. It was a sweet fragrance that cut through the sulfurous stench of The Breach.
"Blood..." said Alexander, locking his gaze onto the horizon.
Without a second thought, he kicked off the ground and shot toward the source of the scent, leaving a crater in the rock.
Kilometers away, a squad of twelve men clad in black tactical combat suits moved in formation across the rocky surface.
"Ma’am, according to reports, Commander Blue Dragon was supposed to meet us in this sector, but he has yet to arrive," reported one of the soldiers, adjusting his helmet visor. "I fear something happened to him."
A few paces behind them, a young woman with white eyes and silver hair surveyed the desolate surroundings with indifference.
"That idiot is always trying to act on his own," said the silver-haired woman, clicking her tongue. "If he got eaten, he deserves it for being a fool."
"But General... shouldn’t we search for him?" asked the soldier, pausing.
"We have orders," stated the General, picking up her pace. "The ruins have materialized, and we must hurry before other factions find out, or we’ll be forced to fight for the relic."
"Understood, General. Let’s move," agreed the soldier.
The twelve operatives accelerated, surging forward toward the tectonic fault.
Sensing his prey moving, the scent of blood grew sharper in the air. Alexander pushed his speed, transforming into a streak of black lightning that sliced through the atmosphere.
However, the mist entities in the sector detected the density of energy emanating from him. Viewing his presence as a feast, hundreds of beasts erupted from the ruins and swarmed to cut him off.
"Out of my way!" commanded Alexander.
With a sweep of his arm, he unleashed a wave of dark energy shaped like a scythe that swept across the valley. The shadow blade cleaved every beast in half in a single strike. Immediately after, the swarm of true vampires following him descended upon the remains, ripping out the Awakening Stones and dissolving the mist bodies.
Delayed by the brief interruption, Alexander caught the sweet scent once more and resumed his pursuit to close the gap.
The silver-haired General came to a halt atop a ridge, causing her twelve soldiers to freeze and draw their weapons.
"General, is something wrong?" asked the officer in charge.
The young woman’s white eyes narrowed with warning as she locked her gaze onto the sky.
"Something is coming," warned the General, tightening her grip on the hilt of her short sword. "A monstrous presence is approaching at speed."
"Is it a Level 4 mist creature?" asked the officer, signaling the soldiers to close ranks.
"No, this isn’t mist," said the General, feeling the air turn heavy. "It’s a mass of dark energy and pure bloodlust... Defensive formation, now!"
The twelve men reacted, activating their tactical mana barriers and aiming toward the horizon just as a gust of black wind broke the sound barrier above them.
In the sky, Alexander’s silhouette plunged down like a crimson meteor, flanked by thousands of vampires that blotted out the light of The Breach like a mantle of darkness. His red eyes gleamed with madness as he locked his sight on the group.
"Open fire!" shouted the General, unsheathing her silver blade.
The twelve operatives stepped forward and channeled their powers. The surrounding air distorted as high-tier magic materialized around them.
"[Impact Nova]," commanded the first soldier, blasting a shockwave of golden energy.
"[Lance of the Lightning Lord]," shouted the second, hurling a javelin of electricity that made the atmosphere crackle.
"[Divine Fire Sphere]," screamed the third, releasing a mass of flames that scorched the ground.
Beside them, the remaining soldiers unleashed spikes of ice, spears of spatial compression, and torrents of wind. All twelve Platinum-Tier skills converged in a strike, tearing through the sky until colliding with Alexander’s descending silhouette.
The clash triggered a detonation that shook the crust of The Breach. A cloud of dust, magical flashes, and energy erupted at the heart of the explosion, blanketing the area and concealing Alexander’s figure behind a veil of smoke.
The General kept her sword raised, staring into the center of the dust as the swarm of vampires hovered overhead in silence.