The Snake Hidden in the Darkness

This is one of the many unfinished buildings in the Misaki City industrial area.

The location is rather remote.

There were buildings that provided cover in the surrounding area.

Light cannot penetrate it.

A chilly atmosphere continued to spread inside.

Inside such a building, in one of the dimly lit spaces made of concrete, a figure leaned against the wall, sitting there, seemingly dozing off.

The sound of breathing rose rhythmically.

However, it sounded more like the breathing of a ferocious beast than the breathing of a human.

Amidst the frantic breathing that chilled the surrounding air, the person fell into a deep sleep with their head bowed.

In his hand, he held a knife with a blade that resembled the fangs of a wild beast and had a ferocious shape.

"Tick-tock..."

With the sound of liquid dripping, bright red blood flowed from the hideous knife, staining the ground red.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that around the person who was dozing off were dismembered corpses, turning the surrounding area into a sea of blood.

The pungent smell of blood permeated the air.

Until a footstep was heard.

"Roar..."

"Roar..."

A few animal roars rose and fell like accompaniment.

Those sounds all came from people who were gradually approaching.

The man was tall and wore a black overcoat. His face, as hard as a rock, was expressionless, and his eyes were as cold and mechanical as ever.

If Fang Li and Arcueid were here, they would recognize him immediately.

This person was none other than Nero, who should have been dead.

The high-ranking Dead Apostle, ranked tenth among the twenty-seven ancestors, slowly walked over, ignoring the mountains of corpses and seas of blood at his feet. He stepped over dismembered bodies and trampled over sticky bloody ground, heading towards the person leaning against the wall.

Staring at the man leaning against the wall, sitting on the ground, clutching a menacing knife, breathing wildly like a ferocious beast, Nero spoke with considerable indifference.

"It failed."

One sentence made the figure, who was breathing wildly, gradually raise its head.

This was a man with messy long black hair, wearing only a shirt and trousers.

The man's appearance was not particularly outstanding, but his eyes were like those of a snake, with long, narrow pupils.

This man looked at Nero, a smirk spreading across his face, and a cruel expression gradually appeared.

"It doesn't matter if we fail," the man said. "It was just something I did on a whim anyway. If the princess and the agent fight to the death and only one of them remains, that would be great. If not, it doesn't matter."

From the man's words, we can infer that Arcueid and Ciel's sudden encounter was not accidental, but rather intentional.

That makes sense when you think about it.

Just when Arcueid was tormented by the urge to drink blood, Ciel appeared at the perfect moment. To call it a coincidence would be a stretch.

In fact, it was because the man keenly sensed Arcueid's condition that he had Nero send several wild beasts to attack Ciel, luring Ciel to Arcueid's vicinity, which led Ciel to discover Arcueid being affected by the blood-sucking impulse.

You don't need to worry about anything after that.

For the agents of the Burial Agency, who regard heretics as absolute enemies and must be eradicated at all costs, a True Ancestor being influenced by a vampiric impulse is someone they absolutely cannot stand idly by.

Therefore, it was only inevitable that Arcueid and Ciel would clash.

"But how did you discover that the princess's vampire urge had already taken hold?" Nero asked in a tone devoid of any curiosity, simply raising a question, "Although the princess has indeed become very weak, and her remaining strength should not be enough to suppress the vampire urge, the timing of its onset is also unpredictable. And you have been here the whole time, so how could you know the princess's condition?"

After all, unlike Arcueid who can move freely during the day, both Nero and this man, as possessors of incomplete immortality who only Dead Apostle at night, do not go out during the day.

Even Nero only sent a few wild beasts to do things; he didn't go out at all.

Since she hadn't gone out and had stayed here the whole time, how did the man discover that Arcueid was in a bad state?

"I just sensed it." The man sneered, like a cold snake. "You should know, right? My relationship with Bai Ji isn't as simple as it seems on the surface."

Upon hearing this, Nero seemed to understand something.

"I see. That princess was once deceived by you because of her bloodlust, and drank your blood, which turned you into Dead Apostle. You also took away a part of the princess's power, so it's not strange that you have a strange connection with her."

Am I right?

"----"snake"."

Upon hearing this, the Dead Apostle known as "The Serpent" grew increasingly cold and cruel, raising his knife and pointing it at Nero.

"The same thing will work on you," the man said meaningfully. "I also took away your power, and now that the Inherent Skill within you is under my control, I will sense it immediately if you intend to do anything bad."

Without a doubt, that was a threat.

This threat also changed Nero's expression.

It became terrifying.

"Don't worry, I won't forget," Nero said, his voice barely suppressed. "I will never forget all the humiliation you caused me."

"That's good." The man smiled nonchalantly. "We're old acquaintances, after all. Once this is over, we'll have nothing to do with each other. For now, let me take advantage of you."

Nero didn't speak, she just kept staring at the man with a cold expression.

The advice given was only one sentence.

"To be honest, what you've done really makes me wonder if you've gone mad. Aren't you afraid that all the church's dogs will swarm here and execute you?"

This is the man's answer to the question.

"As long as we get the True Ancestor's princess, the people from the Church are nothing," the man said, squinting. "I'm more interested in those two people."

As he said this, the man lightly touched the pool of blood on the ground with his knife.

Suddenly, the pool of blood rippled, and like a mirror, it revealed two faces.

"Nanaya Fang Li".

"Tohno Shiki."

Looking at the two men, the Dead Apostle known as "Snake" sneered.

"As fellow users of these eyes, let me see if you can use them better than I can."