Chapter 38 - Black Tower ②

Cid watched Razel disappear from sight.

He was provoked by a mysterious man dressed in black.

The man introduced himself as Quinque, Cid was really angry.

"You wretched wretch!"

He drew his sword and approached Quinque. He made no move, just stood watching him approach.

The sharp sword approached Quinque's neck.

He stopped.

"...!"

Cid didn't understand what happened, it was Quinque who explained it to him.

"What you are seeing is part of our abilities as the supreme chosen beings."

His hand moved to the collar of his uniform and lowered it a little for Cid to see.

His veins were glowing as at the same time they were hardened.

"This is known as Blut. Thanks to the power of our blood, the magic power we use increases in potency."

"What you see is defense Blut, it allows us to defend against normal attacks and magical attacks."

"This is attack Blut."

Quinque had red bracelets with wings on his wrists.

His hand that held his sword moved as if something was forcing it to do so.

Cid covered himself, but it was useless because the sword protecting him broke into pieces.

"This is the Blut's power of attack. Thanks to our blood heritage from us superior vampires. Our blood can move at its own will."

"Isn't it amazing? I don't have to move a single finger to kill you, my blood will move my body to do it. It is known as involuntary movement according to you."

On Quinque's ankles appeared the same as on his wrists.

Like a motorcycle, he accelerated.

Cid looked to the sides looking for a way to avoid the damage, but he had nothing to do it with.

So he decided to use his own power.

"Alchemical water magic..."

He raised his hand and a blue magic circle manifested.

"Stinging rain!"

A large jet of water shot out from that magic circle, forming a sphere in the sky.

With the passing of seconds, it launched a large amount of liquid stingers.

Quinque paid no mind and continued straight at Cid as the needles hit him.

Cid shouted again.

"Transmutation!"

Thanks to Cid's alchemical magic. The needles embedded in Quinque's body turned to steam.

"Burn!"

Quinque reacted due to the burning his skin felt.

His clothes were intact but his body manifested second-degree burns.

That made him annoyed.

"Miserable insect with a timer."

He said as his body regenerated the burned parts.

"You seem to be an insect that puts up a fight. Fine, I'll play on your turf."

Quinque stepped back and stood several meters in front of Cid.

"Cursed blood magic: Angel's Ascension."

He raised his hands and strange tumors grew from his back.

The tumors tore part of his clothing, but that didn't matter to him.

With a slight jump. Quinque soared into the sky and showed beautiful red wings.

He looked at Cid mockingly.

"I stopped being a fallen angel and now I ascended to heaven. You can't touch me anymore, you insect."

"Flügelschnitt!"

Shouting his attack, the red wings launched blades straight at Cid.

He activated a water shield.

But it was useless.

The blades pierced the shield and some cut through his skin and flesh.

Blood was pouring out.

"Gyah!"

Cid's cry of pain was very explicit.

His flesh was being torn mercilessly.

After a while the attack ended.

Quinque was still in the sky and saw Cid who was still alive.

"Tch. You are a truly disgusting insect."

"Let's finish this head on."

Quinque was coming down to end Cid's suffering. But he was interrupted by golden threads.

"...!"

The body was caught in them and the net was getting smaller.

Using a little force, he broke them.

But that was not all that happened. A whirlwind-shaped object was coming towards him.

Quinque barely dodged it.

But what he couldn't dodge was that Manfred was behind him.

"But what?"

"Silent assassination."

With those words.

His back was cut off and so were his wings.

His Blut was activated, so damaging or cracking those wings should be impossible.

But it happened.

Manfred clipped Quinque's wings and Quinque fell to the ground.

Then Cid a little wobbly realized that three figures were in front of him.

"What are you doing in this place, Bryes?"

John shouted at him as Clement approached to heal him.

"Thread magic: Regroup."

Clement's magic couldn't heal. What it could do was replace dead cells with new cells.

New tissues and organs appeared in the ones that were cut away.

Cid spat out some blood as he asked.

"What are the teachers doing here?"

"That's our question, you idiot. What the hell are you doing here? This is no place for brats!"

John yelled at Cid out of concern.

After a while, Quinque stood up.

His face showed that he was very upset.

"You insects have dared to bother me more than I already am."

"And that is unforgivable for my complexion!"

Quinque rose once again, the same attack happened.

A large number of wind blades fell straight at them.

But this time the same thing would not happen.

Manfred and John jumped up and repelled several of those blades.

Manfred's sword repelled the blades at the same speed as they fell.

While John used his tonfas and nunchakus to knock down several blades.

Clement in the background created a net that caught several blades that were not cut.

Because his threads were at the same level as a defensive Blut, he was able to destroy them.

That annoyed Quinque.

"They're annoying me to the point that the stress will leave me with green gray hair!"

"I'll be sure to end this as soon as possible!"

Again he soared into the sky and transformed again.

"Blood magic cursed: Archangel Executioner!"

The wings on his back grew larger.

On his head a halo of blood formed.

His hands glowed a deep red.

He was no longer in the air, he was now on the ground.

He looked at them all and said.

"You won't get out of here alive."

"Stop this nonsense, you are no match for us!"

Manfred shouted as he quickly approached.

"Truly... insects never learn."

The right hand that held his sword moved as if it were a snake.

It moved in different ways and Manfred couldn't dodge a cut that came from behind.

It pierced him near the lung area.

"Puah!"

He spat blood.

Then he was thrown to the side.

Clement wanted to run to heal him, but he couldn't leave his student unprotected.

John understood that and went for Manfred.

He was almost there, but Quinque was much faster.

John took cover and jumped back.

Quinque put down his sword and stretched out his hand.

He smiled as John didn't understand his actions.

His right hand seemed to twist into tentacles with blades that pierced almost all of John's body and he was also thrown to the side.

In a short span of time.

Two of them were defeated without trouble.

Clement was thinking about what to do.

But Cid tapped his shoulder and said.

"Professor, take the other teachers and escape."

Clement shouted at Cid.

"What the hell are you talking about Bryes-kun?!"

"This enemy is too strong for us!"

Quinque didn't move as he wanted them to do it first.

Cid looked at him as his determination grew stronger.

"I know, but you guys got hurt for protecting me. It's my turn to defend you a little while you escape."

"And then what will you do?"

"I'll run away of course."

With those words, Clement hesitated a little.

But he bit his lips and said.

"That's fine."

Clement let out to use a net of threads that caught John and Manfred as he grabbed them and ran.

Quinque saw him and did nothing.

Moments later the door closed.

Clement shouted for Cid to run, but there was no response.

"I was thinking about the possibility of you running like a bug after seeing your friend die and those two half dead."

"I told him that to get him to leave. This is my battle. I came here for one purpose."

"To wipe this place out once and for all."

Cid's eyes focused on the sword-cane Manfred wielded.

Quinque seemed to indicate with his nose, "Pick it up," so Cid did so.

He picked up his sword and magical power poured from his body.

"I want to get this over with as quickly as possible and go finish off the other plagues. Then I will go and notify His Excellency of everything."

A great spiral of blood manifested.

"Dieee!"

Quinque approached Cid.

He thrust his sword in Quinque's direction, then recited a spell.

"Water magic..."

Thanks to the moonlight increasing the magic power, along with Cid's own magic power, he used his best attack.

He didn't use it earlier as it required his opponent to be unable to dodge it.

And that was...

"Sea dragon roar! "

A magic circle formed around the sword and from there a blue water dragon emerged.

Quinque could not understand what happened.

He could not try to escape as it was too late.

"Defensive Blut!"

He stiffened his veins, arteries and blood vessels just before the water dragon engulfed him.

It hit him in different parts and then went straight up into the sky.

The floors prevented him from climbing much, but Cid didn't notice that Quinque was really having a hard time.

Almost reaching the second to last floor, the water dragon stopped.

Cid sighed and then walked.

It was almost ten minutes that he had to climb as he watched the bloody water fall like rain.

As he walked, he thought of Razel.

(That dude can't be dead.)

(If he didn't die against Regulux or that creature, I don't think he could have really died.)

He made it to the second to last floor.

A few stairs up was his target.

Cid planned to recharge his strength until then.

Only a few seconds passed when he felt a presence behind him.

"Now you've done it, you piece of shit."

As he was about to turn around, something hit him hard.

He rolled several times and crashed into the door and fell down the stairs a few floors.

He let out a cry of pain, he seemed to have broken his leg.

Cid watched in pain, as a strange being came down.

His clothes were torn and covered in red.

His body had mutated.

This was the ultimate awakening.

It was what happens when the Blut is not stable and the power goes out of control, thus making the awakening of his vampire powers go berserk.

"Cursed blood magic..."

Said a distorted, horrifying voice.

Coming down like an angel. There was Quinque transformed into a monster.

His left arm was white in color and its size was the same as a whale's fin.

His right arm was smaller. His sword and hand merged to be a huge white stinger.

His cap was gone and his hair was exposed.

His face was also hideous.

One of his eyes was bigger than gold and his teeth grew to look like a shark.

Quinque was saying to Cid as he stepped on the ground.

"You have forced me to show this grotesque form. I congratulate you, it's been years since I last used it. But in this case it is not to protect Gerhardt-sama it is to eliminate a pest like you."

The giant hand was raised.

"I would use my sting to kill you, but I want you to suffer for mocking me."

"Take thiiiiiis!"

The hand struck Cid.

It rose again and struck him again.

And again.

And another one.

Cid's body was being crushed and blood was coming out of his mouth.

As he was being beaten.

A certain memory came to his mind.

When Cid was a child living in the palace.

He was always compared to Regulux.

Despite being the same age, he was more talented than Cid.

That made Cid grow up with a lot of complexes towards Regulux.

Cid forgot about it, but they were still in his head.

When they entered the academy, he heard voices of teachers and students saying.

"He's the fourth prince, right? What's he doing in the class with the worst grades?"

"I heard that his score was very bad, that it was a shame for a prince to enter that class, but the palace said not to waste influence on him. That Prince Regulux was better even though he was not the heir."

All those comments made Cid (from the game) generate a dark desire for his half-brother.

That desire grew every time Regulux did something and Cid was compared to him.

No one was on the side of a prince without power.

A dark shadow appeared in Cid's eyes (not from the game) so his fate was to be the same as the game.

The sin of envy was running through his veins.

Until one day a person interrupted his life.

That person was Razel.

He was the first to speak on equal footing with him.

He was the first to never compare or criticize with him.

He was also the first to become his friend.

Razel's existence made the darkness in Cid's heart only a bitter memory.

When that day came, when Elize was entering her end, Cid wanted to defend her, but seeing who her opponent was, he could do nothing.

But the one who motivated him to defend her was Razel who stood before a member of the imperial family and other young men from important houses.

Razel watched Razel duel against four young men.

In three he won without a problem. When it came his duel against Regulux, he lost, but because of the referee.

Then they were attacked by a monster.

Cid wanted to run away, but his hands wouldn't move to make his Pegasus listen to him.

In the distance he noticed an intense white light and a blue light.

When he went to that direction.

Various explosions happened and when he arrived he found Razel wounded carrying a wounded Lambert.

Although Razel denied it. Cid knew what happened.

Quinque got bored of hitting Cid.

"It was a good way to take the stress off. Now for the others."

He walked away from there very relaxed until he was stopped by a voice.

"Stop."

The voice was rough and a gasp could be heard.

Quinque turned to look and observed Cid pointing his sword at him.

He made a terrifying grimace of disgust with his mouth.

"You're so annoying, why don't you just die already?"

The big fist came at Cid and after hitting him, he went flying against the wall.

A crack was beginning to form.

Quinque was sick of hitting Cid, he was coming out when he was stopped by several rocks.

Once again, Cid stood up and this time he used his Quinque stinger.

It pierced Cid's stomach.

"Aaaaah!"

He let out a cry of agonizing pain as Quinque laughed.

"Do you see? You are but insignificant life forms compared to us vampires."

"You should be grateful that we allow you to be our food."

He lifted Cid and threw him against the cracking wall.

The red moonlight in the sky and flames on the floor of the gray district showed a hellish scene.

"Observe how on this night we shall regain what was lost!"

"When our queen rises! You will be only cattle!"

With all his strength, Cid got back to his feet.

His stomach had a hole in it.

Quinque became annoyed and lunged toward Cid.

"Die you scum!"

As the stinger approached, a blue glow appeared on the stinger.

Quinque immediately stopped and noticed something strange.

"But what?"

Not only the stinger, but also the surroundings began to show a blue hue.

The atmosphere was warm, but it started to get cold.

Quinque's breathing was visible.

"Why is the atmosphere freezing?"

Quinque did not understand why the atmosphere was crystallizing for no reason, it was then that Cid spoke.

"In my training with Razel in the Rosenberg Duchy, I discovered that my magical attribute was more of a transmutation state than a liquid one."

The hair and eyes began to turn an icy blue.

The right shoulder and some parts of his body also crystallized.

Cid picked up the sword and it also began to crystallize.

"I can only achieve this when two requirements are met."

"The first is the amount of magical power in the environment, and the second is that the amount of moisture must be enough to affect it."

With each step Cid took, the ground became more crystallized, the atmosphere became colder.

"Huh? And that-"

Quinque was stunned because his Blut did not respond.

"How? It's impossible, my arteries are freezing."

Quinque felt his legs freeze as the ice was swallowing him.

"My magic power is superior to yours! Then why can't I use my Blut?"

Quinque was beginning to despair as Cid stood in front of him.

He spoke the words that would mark his end.

"Ice Make..."

Ice condensed on the edge of the sword.

Quinque could not say his last words because his vocal cords froze.

"Absolute Zero!"

A large amount of ice was approaching Quinque who thought.

(T-That's very beautiful.)

Those were his final thoughts as much of the tower was engulfed in icebergs growing out of it.

◇◇◇

At the top of the tower, the final floor, was Gerhardt drinking wine.

It was not wine, though, but blood.

He felt a slight tremor and then as something approached his door.

The door was destroyed by an ice blizzard and an object flew out near him.

Uninterested he looked at what it was.

His eyes did not move even though he saw that it was the head of his frozen right hand.

Part of the spine was visible as frozen.

As it cracked like glass, Quinque said to him.

"Ger... hardt... -sama."

"Run.. away-"

Quinque's head snapped back.

Gerhardt's cold, disinterested eyes turned upward.

He heard footsteps approaching.

It was Cid who stamped his foot and pointed his sword at him.

Gerhardt never asked who he was, but Cid introduced himself.

"I am the third prince in the line of succession of the Arklight Empire. Cidfert von Bryes. Because of your crimes and monstrosities, I will end you here and put an end-"

"It is late."

Gerhardt cut off Cid's vigilante presentation.

His pale hand moved and his black fingernails pointed to a place.

It was a coffin.

"Thanks to your increased magical power. Mother absorbed more blood so she wouldn't feel cold. It's thanks to your idiocy that she was resurrected faster."

The coffin moved slowly.

Gerhardt looked at Cid like a lion looks at a wounded enemy about to die.

"It was all over from the moment they set foot in this place."

The resurrection of the vampire queen had begun.