"Father, Father!"
A series of urgent calls pulled Antos back from his daze.
The cacophony of battle cries once again filled his ears, and the human city walls ahead seemed impossibly high, reaching to the heavens and the earth.
Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of Blood Corpse surged toward the city walls like a tidal wave, only to retreat as if they had struck a reef.
Thousands upon thousands of Blood Corpse died, their blood forming countless Blood Pool and swamps beneath the city walls, where one could glimpse their aged face simply by bowing slightly.
Antos looked toward the source of the voice and saw a slightly younger descendant looking at him.
"Father, this city... we've been besieging it for a long time."
Antos remained silent, merely gazing coldly at the Blood Corpse before him.
"Father!"
The marquis knelt down and slammed his head against the ground:
"I beg you to grant me your True Blood, to elevate me to the rank of Duke, and I will bring you victory."
Antos remained unmoved, staring intently at the back of his son's head. After a moment, he suddenly asked:
What is the name of this city?
The abrupt question seemed to startle the kneeling heir for a moment; after a brief pause, he replied:
" The City of Dusk."
" The City of Dusk..."
Antos pondered the somewhat familiar name and suddenly felt a sudden, inexplicable pang of unease.
As a vampire, his heart no longer beats like a human's, but a baseless fear still welled up from the bottom of his heart.
" The City of Dusk... The Twilight Capital..."
As he repeated the name over and over, Antos's tone gradually shifted from calm to trembling.
Why did he attack this city?
When did he arrive? And how long have he been fighting here?
Why... can't I remember?
There's a problem!
Antos clenched his right fist tightly and punched towards his temple with lightning speed.
As the progenitor of the Flesh and Blood Lineage, when he realized there was a problem with his condition, his first thought was to find a solution.
Remove the problematic areas, then regenerate as quickly as possible.
Since the problem lies with the brain, all you need to do is punch your own head and it will explode, then you'll be back to normal.
His fist was powerful and heavy, and in an instant it was covered with a thick layer of bone armor.
His fist was about to smash into his head like a heavy hammer, but at that moment, the "marquis" who was crawling on the ground got up and grabbed his wrist in an instant.
"You!"
Antos's low growl was suppressed in his throat. The "Marquis" grabbed his wrist with one hand and made a shushing gesture with the other.
"Don't rush, don't rush."
The Marquis held Antos's wrist to prevent him from continuing his self-harm, while slowly moving behind him and placing his other hand on his shoulder.
Antos tried to get up, but felt a pressure as heavy as a mountain.
A wisp of long purple hair brushed against his aged face, and a deep voice echoed in his ears:
"You caught me again, huh? That's impressive... Maybe next time we should use a different setting."
You are my most timid younger brother, but also my most perceptive.
Sometimes I wonder, were you so focused on guarding against me that day that you even missed the enemy falling from the sky?
The "Marquis" behind him gradually pressed his entire body against Antos, like brothers and sisters playing in a human family.
"Actually, your precautions were correct. I did intend to target you that day, but every plan has its limits, and in the end, I was just one step behind."
"..."
Antos did not reply, while the "Marquis" reached out and stroked the space in front of him.
Everything froze at that moment; the Corpse Tide, the towering city, and the hellish battlefield fell silent.
He reached out and gently grabbed everything in front of him, turning it into a piece of waste paper in his hand.
This piece of paper was like the curtain behind the stage; without it, Antos was finally able to glimpse the truth.
The truth is that there is no heaven and earth, no up and down, everything is nothingness against a bright red background.
Antos broke free from the "Marquis's" grasp. His skin rapidly festered and disintegrated, and his human-like features vanished quickly, eventually turning him into a ball of flesh and bone.
The size of this fleshy ball was immeasurable, but its surface was covered with countless facial features and the limbs of various animals.
In the boundless space of consciousness, this ball of flesh aimed all its tentacles at the "Marquis" before it.
Antos's deep voice resonated through the mouths of countless creatures, converging into a single name—
Vanessa!
"It's me."
The "Marquis" dropped his pretense and revealed his true colors:
It was a humanoid creature that looked two generations younger than Antos. She had a beautiful face and long purple hair piled high at the back of her neck.
Unlike Rosalind, who was dressed as a noblewoman, Vanessa in the consciousness space was wearing a full set of shimmering metal plate armor, and even a specially made skirt armor on her lower body, like a noble female knight before the Demonic Tide.
When you compare her to Antos, Vanessa seems remarkably human.
Both of them knew in their hearts that the true appearance of vampires was always far removed from that of humans, but Vanessa simply did not want to show it at the moment.
"After all these years, you're still messing around with this piece of junk..."
Antos's voice came again:
You will never get a single drop of my True Blood!
"Oh, really?"
Vanessa, dressed as a knight, smiled:
"This is just the first time you've seen through it. But how many times have you truly revealed your True Blood without actually seeing through it?"
"Calm down and feel your body. You know better than I how much True Blood you have left."
The enormous ball of flesh fell silent for a moment, its imposing aura seemingly diminishing slightly.
Vanessa... you really didn't have to do this.
"We have cooperated many times over the past thousands of years, and this time is no exception. There is no need to go to this extent."
"We can sign a contract, the kind of contract with extremely severe consequences for breaking an oath. I and my lineage are willing to serve you for a thousand years, a full thousand years!"
"Are you really going to kill me? After all, we're blood relatives."
Vanessa shook her head:
"It is precisely because you are blood relatives that I have no hope for the six of you."
"To be more precise, I have lost all hope for the entire vampire race."
"You've all asked me why I associate with humans. The reason is simple: they have morals we don't, and naturally, they can do things we can't."
" Antos, you're my brother, that's why I understand you—"