Modern Cultivation : The Strongest Couple Bonded by Vampire System

Thepes looked at Marcell.

The old Sovereign forced his eyes open. He could not lift his head, but he saw Soren's body beside the ruined platform. Relief passed across his exhausted face before his eyes closed again.

Thepes noticed it.

"He opposed Soren," Alex said. "Some of the others probably did too."

"Yet they still failed. What a weak species"

Thepes stepped down from the broken platform.

His bare foot landed in the blood covering the floor. The blood moved away from Alex's green light and gathered around Thepes instead.

He looked over the surviving Sovereigns one by one.

"You ruled worlds," he said. "You commanded armies. You called yourselves the strongest race in this universe."

Marcell's hand tightened against the stone.

Thepes continued walking.

"Then you hid. You waited for people who never came. You let your children become slaves while you prayed to an empty promise."

Mingyue's expression became colder.

"You were born from their sacrifice," she said. "Do not pretend that makes you better than them."

Thepes stopped. He looked at her sword, then at her face.

"I did not ask them to make me."

"No," Mingyue said. "But what you do after waking is yours."

Thepes's eyes narrowed.

The pressure around him increased. Blood lifted from the ground and floated around his body.

Alex finished stabilizing the woman with the chain through her side. He left enough life force inside each survivor to keep their bodies repairing, then turned his full attention back to Thepes.

"Soren wanted you to fight us," Alex said. "You killed him because he tried to control you. Think carefully before you do anything else."

Alex try to negotiate. He want to avoid fighting if possible, since he don't know can they win or not.

Thepes looked at him.

The memories inside his eyes shifted. Alex could not know which lives he was seeing, but the anger remained clear.

"You came after the work was finished," Thepes said. "You came after the blood was taken. After the children died. After the old race had already accepted that no one would save them."

"We came when we learned what was happening."

"That changes nothing."

Thepes raised one hand toward Alex and Mingyue.

"Soren wanted me to kneel to his purpose. You expect to kneel to you?"

"I didn't ask you to kneel," Alex said.

"There can never be two God on the same species."

Thepes could feel the same thing every vampire felt near Alex and Mingyue. Their blood recognized the two Vampire Progenitors.

Even the power inside Thepes responded to them, because much of it had come from vampires who had waited for their arrival.

The blood around him shook.

"The Vampire is finished," he said.

He pointed toward Marcell and the other survivors.

"They spent thousands of years proving that they could not protect it."

Then he turned his palm upward.

"I will make a race that's stronger. A superior race above all other."

One of his nails cut across his palm.

Blood poured from the wound, but none of it fell. It gathered above his hand and formed a dark red mass. The wound closed while the mass continued growing.

Alex's runes moved around him.

He could stop part of the blood before it reached the bodies, but attacking now would begin the fight with Thepes while Marcell and the other survivors still lay exposed around the chamber.

Mingyue understood the same problem. Ice spread beneath the nearest survivors and lifted them away from the blood without touching Thepes.

Thepes watched her move them.

"Keep the failures," he said. "I don't need them."

He threw the mass of blood into the air.

It split into dozens of smaller pieces.

Each piece flew toward a corpse.

They did not enter every dead vampire. The blood chose the bodies that still carried the strongest power: dead Sovereigns near the pit, high-ranking vampires around the broken platforms, and the guards whose bodies had survived the collapse.

The blood entered their mouths, eyes, and open wounds.

The first corpse jerked. Its back struck the ground, and both arms twisted against the stone.

New blood spread beneath its gray skin. Broken bones pulled together. Empty veins filled as Thepes's dark blood forced the dead body to move again.

Another corpse sat up. Its eyes opened. They were completely red.

There was no recognition inside them. No fear. No confusion. Only the violent instinct carried by Thepes's will.

More bodies began moving.

One dead Sovereign pushed a broken chain off his chest and rose. A woman whose neck had been cut stood with her head hanging at the wrong angle.

The wound closed enough to heal them, but her eyes remained empty.

The newly awakened vampires turned toward Alex and Mingyue.

Their mouths opened, and fangs pushed through their gums.

Marcell heard them. His eyes opened again, and this time fear replaced the relief on his face.

"Those bodies were our people," he whispered.

Thepes heard him from across the chamber.

"They were not your people anymore," he said.

Mingyue moved her left hand without lowering her sword. The ice carrying Marcell and the other survivors slid farther from the center of the chamber.

Broken stone rose between them and the red-eyed vampires as the ice pushed the survivors into the safest space still standing.

Marcell tried to raise himself. His arms failed, and he fell back against the ice.

"Don't waste what he gave you," Mingyue said. "Stay down."

Marcell stopped fighting his wounded body. His eyes remained on the corpses standing behind Thepes.

Alex released another set of runes. They formed a wide line between the survivors and the approaching dead. Green fire filled the center of each rune, ready to burn anything that crossed.

Thepes studied the barrier, then looked at the life force still moving through Marcell.

"You spend your power on those who trash," he said.

"That's not for you to decided," Alex answered.

Thepes did not argue. The red light beneath his skin became stronger instead.

He had rejected Soren, but the anger Soren placed inside him had not disappeared. It now belonged to Thepes, and he had chosen where to direct it.

The red-eyed vampires gathered behind him.

Some stood straight. Others remained bent because their bodies had been damaged before death.

Thepes pointed at Alex and Mingyue.

"The old race waited for its promised Progenitors," he said. "My race will begin by defeating them."

The red-eyed vampires roared and rushed forward.