Chapter 60: Sea of Blood

I had to roll my eyes at the typical villain line. Like, seriously? All right, he was dominating the melee battle for now, but he hadn't actually won yet.

Not that I was given a chance to point that out. Mikhail lunged at me, swinging his spear. Flames trailed his weapon, gouging huge chunks out of the earth as he slashed. I parried the strike because he was too fast for me to evade. Even though I had thrown up several layers of ice to absorb the force of the blow, he easily smashed them apart in seconds.

"Ugh!"

Despite parrying the blow, my arms went numb from the tremendous impact. Beneath my feet, the ground shattered, unable to endure the force behind the attack. Honestly, my body wouldn't have been able to withstand the hit if I hadn't cast blood magic to physically reinforce my flesh and muscle. If I had gimped myself with the Chains of Void, even though I would technically be able to nullify Mikhail's magic, I would still have died from the sheer raw strength behind his strikes because I wouldn't have been able to reinforce myself with blood magic.

That was probably the reason why Stella managed to survive as well, but she had an edge in terms of her sword skill.

Unfortunately, Mikhail had the advantage in magic, and I could see more fireballs and wind blades arcing toward me. I froze all of them with my ice magic, the azure blast flash freezing them in an instant and causing the twisted mage to curse.

Spinning his spear above his head, Mikhail then swung it at me, unleashing a massive wind strike that immediately turned into ice before it crashed into me. I then barreled through the ice, catching him by surprise.

At first, Mikhail parried my blow with great strength, his feet digging in deeply as he stopped my strike. However, I applied a blood spell to boost the power of my blow and he was sent hurtling several paces back.

The both of us readied our stances before charging forward and colliding in a massive explosion of fire and ice. Crimson mana battered against azure mana, flames blazing ferociously before being engulfed by cold frost, which was then evaporated by the sheer heat.

Trading a few blows, I allowed Mikhail to knock me a few meters back so that I could widen the distance between us. Skidding to a stop, I took a deep breath before swinging both of my swords. Black and azure mana streaked out from both blades, only to collide with a wall of fire that Mikhail conjured. The tremendous explosion reduced the ground to debris, but thanks to the spear's life essence draining abilities, its wielder remained unharmed.

Snarling, Mikhail charged at me. I hastily reinforced my physical constitution with a blood spell before parrying the blow, but even so, the single thrust from his spear blew me several paces back. Embers trailed the sharp blade of his spear as he swung it downward, only for me to block it with my crossed swords.

Another huge explosion rocked the area, a combination of wind and fire magic, which only ended up being frozen by my ice.

Standing my ground, I defiantly repelled his blows, the two of us practically blitzing across the landscape. Trees were uprooted and obliterated by the sheer force of our exchange, and entire hills were erased, colossal chunks of earth hurtling around and crushing broken carriages that were being swept away by the shockwaves generated from the exchange of our weapons.

"Ugh!"

"Kuh!"

Mikhail tried to swat me away with his spear, but I parried his weapon with Nocturne before countering with Blood Angel. The crimson blade glowed ravenously, infused with my blood magic, and the power of my attack was heightened considerably. Despite his spear's ability, Mikhail was still caught by surprise and he found himself hurled high into the air. Grunting, he tried to stop his momentum with a wind spell, which took the form of a tornado.

"You bastard…!" he growled. Then he noticed that I had kicked off the ground and was thrusting Nocturne toward me. Sucking a deep breath, he spun his spear about and cast an immense fire spell that took the form of a flaming star. "Supernova Strike!"

"That looks pretty hot," I remarked. But I continued hurtling upward, determined to slice through the flaming star. Azure mana surrounded Nocturne and I channeled a freezing spell into my blade.

It wasn't enough.

Mikhail's Supernova Strike detonated, hurling me several dozen meters from the air and into the ground. My body crashed and carved a colossal crater into the ground, splitting the earth and leaving a huge scar.

Even so, I had managed to land on my feet. Breathing heavily, I righted myself and narrowed my eyes to peer at my hovering opponent through my enchanted glasses. The smoke slowly cleared, revealing Mikhail's figure as he landed back on the ground. He gripped his spear tightly and glared at me.

"I can't believe you're still alive," he growled.

"Just barely," I replied flippantly. The cuts and burns on my body were slowly healing. Blood withdraw into their vessels, which sealed under mending skin. A few seconds later and there weren't even scars to indicate any trace of the injuries I had sustained in the exchange.

Mikhail scowled. "Your vampire regenerative abilities are really troublesome!"

"I could say the same about your damned spear," I replied.

"You can't have it!" Mikhail shouted, clutching his spear protectively. "This is Chairwoman Miranda's property! You don't deserve this! I'll never give this to you!"

"Are you mistaken about something? I don't care about that spear. I don't want it. I would sooner destroy it rather than take it."

"I…I won't let you destroy it!" Mikhail spluttered, backing away.

I shook my head, too tired to argue with him. Instead, I glanced at the bloodshed around us, particularly at the remains of the monsters' corpses.

"You've murdered the innocent Gensies…and for what? Just for your own strength? You and Miranda conducted cruel experiments on innocent villagers, all for your own benefits, and then you twist logic and claim that they should be honored to be your victims. You claim it's for progress, but it's just for your own satisfaction. You make real researchers feel ashamed of you. I'm not going to pretend that I'm some sort of ally of justice, but I won't forgive you for this. Call me a hypocrite. Take it as if I'm doing this for my own self-satisfaction. I don't care. I'm still going to kill you."

I knew for sure that I couldn't allow him to get away. If he escaped now, he would definitely repeat his atrocities somewhere else. More innocent people would fall prey to his horrifying experiments and lust for power. And he would surely come back for his beloved Miranda and save her. Well, he wouldn't be able to, not when I was done with her, but…

…I knew I couldn't let him get away with this.

Mikhail surrounded himself with a ring of fire while launching fireballs in my direction. I countered them with icicles before lunging forward and slashing at him. He parried my two swords with the thick shaft of his spear, only for me to unleash a powerful ice spell that engulfed his body in ice.

Flames exploded around him as he roared, melting the ice, but I ducked under the clumsy swing of his spear and kicked him in the chest. He grunted and doubled over, sailing across the air before vanishing in a small explosion when he struck a small boulder and shattered it.

The battered mage emerged from the debris, spluttering and coughing. Blood trickled from his mouth and he clutched at his chest while wheezing painfully. Seemed like my kick had broken a few of his ribs. Whatever strength that spear granted him when absorbing the life essences of his victims, it didn't bestow upon him healing abilities.

"Damn it! Get back here and protect me!"

Mikhail screamed at his mutants. A few of them disengaged from Stella and the four mages, turning on their feet to pounce on me. Scrabbling against the ground and on capsized or wrecked carriages, they practically flew across the air and cleared the distance between us in a couple of bounds.

"You know, you made quite the terrible mistake."

"Huh?!" Mikhail snapped, taken aback by my sudden comment. I glanced around and shrugged, not wanting to elaborate. I should have known better than to gloat.

"Never mind. Pretend I haven't said anything."

"Hah! You're just bluffing, aren't you?!"

"Maybe. Who knows?" Now I was thoroughly enjoying how unsettled he looked. Psychological warfare was yet another weapon in my arsenal. If I could take away some of his certainty and made him lose confidence, then he was more likely to make mistakes.

"S…shut up! Get him!"

The mutants were converging on me, but I didn't pay them any attention.

I didn't have to.

In a single strike, I impaled all of them with blood stakes. The stakes all came from the blood lying all over the ground. In his massacre, Mikhail had splattered the ground and carriages with a lot of blood. He didn't know that vampires grew more powerful the more blood there was lying around. Then again, Mikhail was completely unaware that I was a vampire. At least not until I engaged him in close combat like this.

"!!!"

His eyes widened when he saw all of his mutants impaled on powerful blood stakes. They struggled to work their ways free, but these weren't ordinary blood stakes. They were empowered by the presence of so much blood. In his bloodthirsty slaughter of the Gensies to power himself up, Mikhail had essentially handed me a sea of blood to work with, thus inadvertently giving me (and Stella) a massive advantage.

I continued to ignore the monsters, knowing that my comrades would take care of them for me. Just as I suspected, elemental projectiles of several variants sailed across the air and bombarded the incapacitated creatures, disintegrating, incinerating or obliterating them. Mikhail could only watch in horror as his army was blown apart, ash and body parts gruesomely littering the ground behind me.

"H…how?!" he spluttered. Was he stupid? Did he expect me to explain my abilities to him?

I shook my head and cast my final spell. It took a long while, but I finally finished setting everything up for the massive spell. The more powerful a spell, the longer its casting time and more complicated it was to cast. Fortunately, with all the blood that had accumulated all around us, I could easily power up my spell.

Sheathing Nocturne, I switched Blood Angel to my right hand and held its blade parallel to the ground. Taking a deep breath, I whispered an incantation.

"Divine Ascension," I intoned. "Night of the Bloody Armageddon."

"…what?"

Mikhail blinked, not sure what he had just heard. He felt the subtle shift in mana, as if something was changing, but saw nothing. Snarling, because he was offended at being tricked, he then lunged at me with his spear.

"I'm going to finish you once and for all!"

He never reached me.

The sea of blood that surrounded us, spilled from the corpses of his victims, gathered around me like a whirlpool. Mikhail skidded to a stop, but he was too late. Not that it mattered. Even if he hadn't recklessly charged into combat, he still wouldn't have been able to escape. It wasn't just him. All of the mutants had also been caught in the vicinity of my spell. Having recognized my intent, Stella had used her superior speed to withdraw and thus she wasn't caught in the spell. The four mages had already known about this, and as such were positioned at a safe distance.

Therefore only Mikhail, his mutants and I were encapsulated by this new red barrier of blood.

We were all surrounded by a sea of blood, which resembled a formidable barrier. An isolated world, a pocket dimension cut off from the rest of reality. Everywhere was dyed an ominous crimson. Mikhail couldn't help but shudder.

"What…what is this?"

"My ultimate blood spell," I replied. It was similar to Red's Andromeda Blood Barrier. A far more potent version, in fact. With a swing of my sword, I sent a tide of blood crashing down upon Mikhail and all of the mutants. For a moment, they stared at me, baffled. Doused by thick, viscous blood, they looked sort of ridiculous.

Then, as if furious at me for playing what seemed like a prank on them, the mutants charged.

They never got far.

The blood hissed as it ate away at their bodies. A potent acid, it rapidly ate through their flesh and muscle, leaving scorched bones. Their inner organs were corroded in an instant, leaving skeletal remains. And even the skeletons weren't able to withstand the potent effects of the blood, dissolving rather quickly.

No matter what it was, the moment they came in contact with the blood, they disintegrated almost immediately.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Mikhail screamed as he was burned away by the acid. He swung his spear up, flailing helplessly as he tried to cut the acid, but to no avail. Wind blades dispersed harmlessly against the blood while his flames were smothered.

But I didn't kill him. Not yet.

"Ugh!?"

Controlling the acidity of my blood spell, I hardened it into something akin to thick armor and restrained him inside something that resembled a red coffin. It was airtight, and within a moments, the suffocating Mikhail passed out from the lack of air.

With a snap of my fingers, I dismissed the blood barrier that surrounded us after ascertaining that the mutants had been annihilated. I turned to a horrified and astonished Stella and gestured for her.

"Grab the Chains of Void," I instructed her and pointed at the incapacitated Mikhail, who was still wrapped inside the blood tomb. "Then bind him."

"You're not going to kill him?" Stella asked with a frown. I shook my head and smiled, pushing up my gleaming glasses.

"Not yet. First, I would like to unite him with his mistress. Then…" I chuckled darkly and lowered my voice. "…they will have my permission to die."