10 Chapter 10: A New Hope? Or A New Despair?
Nothing to see.
There was a black void all around me.
Nothing to hear.
A pin drop silence!
This space that wasn't cold or hot was so strange that I felt alienated from everything.
Unable to accept or process this otherworldly, alien sensation, a strange nausea crept up my nose.
My consciousness was the only thing keeping me company as I floated aimlessly in this vast, void like space.
"What?!... Where am I?"
Panic rose within me as I realized I had no idea how I got here, or even where 'here' was.
It was then,
"Ahhh!!!"
An involuntary scream came out of my mouth as memories of my predicament rushed into my brain.
My mind was flooded with memories of the recent vampire attack and the agony of having my bones crushed and my blood drained out of my body as I lay on the verge of death.
Thump! Thump!
My heart pounded in my chest, and tears streamed down my face as I remembered how I cried out for help, for a way out of this nightmare.
"Was this it? Was this the afterlife?"
It was the only plausible explanation that came to mind, because I remembered how I cried with no one to help me.
Yet I found myself here after losing consciousness.
Wait!
'If I focus on the moment before I lost consciousness. I think I saw a system notification, about something like this:'
[One way found to reverse the situation.]
[Forcibly activating the Ultimate Skill of the class Unknown Lord....]
"Did the ultimate skill get activated? Or was it too late?"
And even if it did get activated, how was I going to use my skill in this near death state?
"Oh no, shit!"
My confused thoughts became crystal clear as I realized my predicament, and I nervously glanced around.
"No, I have to get out of here."
My mind raced as I searched for a way out of this endless emptiness, yet no matter how I moved or looked, I remained in this seemingly infinite black void.
When suddenly!
Vooom!
It was a brilliant flash of light that came out of nowhere, and instantly engulfed me in this infinite darkness.
Blinding me for a brief moment and dying the space in a crimson red, ominous shade.
However, the flash receded with double the speed at which it came.
As my vision cleared, I was back in the infinite void.
But something was different this time, because I wasn't alone.
In front of me, there was a pulsating red light in the distance.
Just a look at it from afar gave me goosebumps and sent an ominous chill down my spine.
Yet there was an enchanting feeling to it.
Like a voice, both alluring and terrifying, was calling out to me, luring me in, and telling me that this was the only way for me to stay alive.
Like a person under the spell of a magical object, I found myself involuntarily gravitating towards it.
The crimson red glare lessened the closer I got, and the outline of the object became clearer to me.
In front of me was a heart, a red, beating heart that seemed to be the only source of light.
"Lorkrnd welu Ptwya."
Strange sounds came out of it, but somehow I understood them clearly.
It was a guarantee that I would be saved, that I would find a way out of this void, and that I would be able to break free from anything that was holding me captive.
"You're the Lord. Everyone and Everything is under the rule of The Lord."
"With legions of demons at your heel,
Even the mightiest of warriors kneel,
In your presence, we dare not breathe.
A chill down our spine, we writhe and seethe.
May your shadow spread fear and woe.
In your embrace, our spirits aglow."
It was an unusual form of prayer, each line of which seemed to reverberate around this space in time with the beating of the heart.
But each and every word of it was like a hammer being slammed against the inside of my skull, which caused my thoughts to become jumbled and my heart rate to quicken.
I could feel its voice reaching out to me like a siren's song.
And my hands moved instinctively towards it, as if I were possessed.
Nonetheless, it wasn't as if all my senses were lost, so I hesitated at the last moment, my hand stopped just above the heart.
I was unsure if I could trust this strange and alluring presence.
Was it really my only hope?
Or was it a trap, leading me down a path of darkness and despair?
Heh!
Looking at myself in retrospection, I scowled at myself and my cowardly, shallow thinking.
Darknes, Despair?
"Hahaha. How rubbish, as if I hadn't been through enough darkness and despair."
Moreover, do I even have a choice?
"Hahaha."
It had always been like this.
Being raised without a father was not something I actively chose.
To be bullied, to fall in love with Theresa, to be called here, to have this job class, to be betrayed, to struggle, and to get into this situation.
None were what I desired, yet I had to take what came to me and move on.
It was as if everything was against me, with the strings of fate moving me and playing with me like I was a puppet.
"But so what?!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Suddenly, ruthlessness flashed past my eyes.
I didn't know if it was the result of the situation.
Was I going crazy in this situation after suffering so much?
Was it the result of my mentality breaking down?
Was this strange heart enchanting me?
I didn't know.
But what I do know for sure is that:
"I will move, I will survive. I will do whatever it takes to grow stronger."
And then, on that day, I would settle the accounts for everything with everyone with interest.
From whoever was doing this.
Most importantly, I needed to find my way back to her.
My thoughts turned to my mother, who was waiting for me back home.
My only comfort and peace.
The memory of her love and warmth had always given me strength, just as they were giving it now.
Sigh!
As my eyelids dropped, I pressed my trembling lips together to hold my bearings, and my vision got hazy.
Sparkling drops of tears couldn't help but fall out of my eyes.
That seemed to have set off a reaction in the heart, which all of a sudden started spitting out an insane amount of blood vapor, which covered every part of my body.
It was as if it shared my sorrow, felt my pain in its own heart, and shed crimson rivers of tears on my behalf.
And so, I made up my mind.
Whatever this thing was, I had to take the risk, trust in this mysterious heart, and see where it would lead me.
Reaching out my hand, my fingers trembled with both fear and hope, as I touched the pulsing red surface.
Sparkle!
A sudden surge of energy coursed through me like electricity.
Something was changing.
No!
Not something.
But everything was changing within me.
[Ultimate Skill: "LORD" has been activated.]
The beating heart throbbed under my fingers, and I could feel myself being drawn into its consuming power.
But I refused to give in to the darkness, clinging to the memory of my mother's love as an anchor.
Yet the force was so overwhelming that, although I maintained my consciousness, my reasoning was possessed by the crazy bloodlust.
[Extracting the Primordial Vampirirc Genes from the Blood Available...]
[Successfully Extracted]
[Calculating the amount of Primordial Vampire genes available.]
[Primordial Genes Available: 5%]
[Activating the only, currently available chapter of the skill: LORD]
[Chapter 1: Descent]
[Unfloding...]
[Job Class: Unknown Lord has temporarily added a Sub-Class]
[Sub Class: Vampire Lord activated]
I felt the transformation begin as my body convulsed with a wave of pain and ecstasy.
My sleek black hair started to shift, taking on a dark crimson tint that matched the color of the blood that flowed through my veins.
As my pairs of sharp incisor teeth grew longer and sharper, resembling vampire teeth, and my hazel blue eyes transformed into pools of blood-red, glowing with an unearthly hunger and power, I realized that I was truly evolving into something otherworldly.
Yet, even though I knew I was changing into something inhumane, there wasn't any sense of rejection from me.
It was at that point that I realized that within these few torturous days after coming into this world, somehow I had lost even that shred of humanity left in me.
[Awakening...]
Shing!
A final burst of light, and I felt myself being released from the void, back into the world of the living.
