Mirror World: Destined Return

Erzsebet Melos, a vampire powerful enough to be 44th in the world ranking, vanished from the ranking in my past life, Seong-Hwi said inwardly.

It was not just Erzsebet. Every World Ranker of Consanguineus vanished from the ranking except for Haema Sanguis. As the last member of the Seven Purebloods, he defeated even Una of Redeo to become tenth in the world ranking and the Fifth Fiend.

It wasn’t hard to guess what he did, Seong-Hwi thought as if he could see through Haema’s plan perfectly.

Haema had likely used something similar to how Seong-Hwi used Desire. In other words, he had devoured his own kind.

Also... Seong-Hwi trailed off in his thoughts.

Just then, Erzsebet, who had been staring intently at Seong-Hwi, asked, “Information that will save my life, was it?” She smirked and asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Cheon Seong-Hwi,” Seong-Hwi answered openly.

Erzsebet’s expression crumpled, and blood filled her red eyes. “You’re the one who killed Demens.”

[Activating Unique Skill: Blood Bubble.]

Countless bubbles made of blood shot out of her pores and filled the alley, surrounding Seong-Hwi and Gerard like a bubble bath of blood.

“I can’t believe you came to me of your own accord. Has the arrogance you’ve gained from killing Demens permeated you to your core?” Erzsebet asked as her lips spread further apart, revealing her sharp fangs.

“Of course not. It may not seem like it, but I know my place. It appears I am not strong enough to kill you yet,” Seong-Hwi replied as he prepared to draw out his mana at any time.

He looked up at the sky. Erzsebet’s star had not risen yet.

I may have the Sun Wolf King backing me up, but... I’m getting goosebumps! Seong-Hwi shouted inwardly, but his face did not express any fear whatsoever.

“All or nothing...”

“Gehehe! Give me new stimulation!”

“Call forth Rocinante now!”

“I am the King of Conquerors. I shall obtain everything that I desire.”

Seong-Hwi genuinely did not know if the emotion of fear even existed in him after his psyche had been corrupted to a point that he did not even know.

Seeing that, a corner of Erzsebet’s mouth rose as she remarked, “You’re quite funny. Very well, continue. However, the moment your words bore me, I shall appease Demens’s soul with your life.”

“I had no idea the bonds between the Seven Purebloods were so thick,” Seong-Hwi said meaningfully. “I was under the impression that you thought of each other as emergency blood bags.”

Erzsebet’s brow furrowed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said.” Seong-Hwi licked his lips and proposed, “If what I am about to say interests you, I would appreciate it if you could provide me with information of equal value.”

Erzsebet remained silent—she was at a loss for words at the human’s ridiculousness. She had come outside, drawn by the lyre’s performance, only to be met with her Canis and the man who had killed Demens. The man then claimed to have information that would save her life, and to provide him with information of equal value in exchange.

“Is this supposed to be a comedy?” Erzsebet asked, but the boredom in her expression was nowhere in sight. She happened to be a big fan of comedy. “Very well. Continue.”

***

A silver light flashed once and vanished in the night sky from afar.

“That’s the first signal. It looks like it went well!” Pseraslav said, throwing off his robe and baring his teeth. “Go as wild as you want, boys!”

The hundreds of wolf beastfolk, standing at attention behind Pseraslav, shouted simultaneously, “Yes, sir!”

The wolf beastfolk scattered throughout Blood Castle, and explosions sounded from everywhere moments later.

“Let’s get started, too, Ranko!” Pseraslav shouted.

“Alright,” Ranko replied.

Two stars rose above the skies of Blood Castle. One was a spherical star blazing red and gold, resembling the sun, and the other was jet-black like a black hole. These two stars made it seem like day and night were coexisting in Blood Castle.

Pseraslav took a deep breath, ballooning his chest as he vigorously gathered mana, and the air around him rapidly heated.

“AWOOOOOOOOOO!!!” he howled, activating a skill to let everyone in the dungeon know of his presence.

[Activating Unique Skill: Flame Howling.]

A blazing sound wave spread radially, setting everything several kilometers from him on fire.

“GAHAHAHAHA! My stress is melting away!” Pseraslav shouted, burning away the stifling sensation he had felt from suppressing his powers until now.

“Growl! Don’t forget our objective, wolf. Now isn’t the time for a head-on battle,” Ranko, the Night Tiger, warned Pseraslav as he sank into the darkness.

Red-gold flames fumed from Pseraslav’s nose as he snorted and replied, “I know! We’re supposed to grab their attention until our action commander closes Blood Castle!”

***

The blood bubbles that had been surrounding the alley dispersed like bubbles created from waves after colliding with a seawall.

“How much of that... was the truth?” Gerard asked Seong-Hwi, who had his hands in his pockets, playing with Bulgasal and Echo.

“It has a lot of my assumptions included, but most of it should be true,” Seong-Hwi replied.

“Haema Sanguis will devour the other members of the Seven Purebloods in the form of Lord Mulleus?” Gerard said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Is this the power of that prophecy D Weapon of yours? Even if that may be, this is a bit of a stretch.”

“Is it?” Seong-Hwi asked with a faint smile.

I wouldn’t have jumped to this conclusion either if it weren’t for the portraits Etxeberria brought me, he thought.

The six pieces of paper that Etzeberra of the intelligence division handed him were portraits of the members of the Seven Purebloods, excluding Demens Rabies. Seong-Hwi realized something was wrong the moment he saw the portrait of Haema Sanguis.

In his past life, Haema Sanguis, whose infamy had spread throughout the Mirror World, was a hideously scrawny old man who looked as if he had not eaten for years. It was no exaggeration to call him a mummy.

But the portrait was of a handsome young man.

The Haema Sanguis he knew, and the current Haema Sanguis were far too different. It was not a matter of age difference—they were completely different people. After confirming that, the cogs inside Seong-Hwi’s head turned as fragmented pieces of information swirled inside his head.

Haema Sanguis’s drastic jump in power. The disappearance of the other Purebloods. His obsession with Blood Castle. Progenitor’s Sanctuary. Lord’s Resurrection. Outbreak. A dungeon that’s under strict control so that it can’t be cleared.

The pieces of information piled up like Tetris blocks.

Haema Sanguis regards this dungeon as the most important thing. He only opens it to the public to resupply while summoning the Seven Purebloods and the majority of Consanguineus’s aristocrats to erect several layers of defense. What could be so special about this dungeon that he would protect it to this extent?

Seong-Hwi recalled the description of one of the dungeon quests.

[Lord’s Resurrection (Dungeon Quest)

Rank: S+

Description: Resurrect the Vampire Lord, Mulleus Rubens Sanguineus, and drive away the chaos scurvy plaguing Blood Castle.]

It could only be the existence of the Vampire Lord, Mulleus Rubens Sanguineus.

Could it be... Haema Sanguis’s appearance changed because...

All the pieces finally aligned.

Bingo! Haema Sanguis is preparing to be reborn as Lord Mulleus! He plans to steal his body and make it his own!

Seong-Hwi had used the information from the present and future to realize Haema’s most closely-guarded secret.

Everything makes sense. He sacrificed the other members of the Seven Purebloods to revive Lord Mulleus!

He could perfectly read Haema’s thoughts as if they were twins. After all, Seong-Hwi would have done the same. However, an unsolved question lingered in his head, along with the catharsis of realizing the truth.

Lord Mulleus is a dungeon resident.

As travelers, people from the Mirror World could freely enter and exit dungeons. However, residents couldn’t exit the dungeon. That was an established logic.

Haema Sanguis has something up his sleeve!

However, Seong-Hwi couldn’t figure out what it was, no matter how hard he thought.

But it doesn’t matter. I just have to close the dungeon.

By closing the dungeon, he would utterly destroy whatever plan Haema had prepared.

Even better if he gets so immersed in roleplaying that he gets trapped in the dungeon forever.

No one had ever returned to the Mirror World from a dungeon once it had fully closed.

“Hehe! Second Knight, Second Knight! I beat your finger monster!”

Pwoo! No, I won!

Seong-Hwi stared at his squirming hoodie pocket and smiled. “We need to clear the corruption quest, Outbreak, as soon as possible. Erzsebet should be making her move.”

Multiple explosions sounded from a distance.

“I drew him away. I’ll be counting on you for a hasty transaction,” Seong-Hwi mumbled.

***

Unlike her usual lazy self, Erzsebet was sprinting restlessly toward the Palace of Sovereignty, the abode of the Sanguis bloodline.

There’s no way! He would never! No matter how high your ambition is, you would never devour your own brothers and sisters, Haema Sanguis! she shouted inwardly.

Just then, she heard explosions in the distance. She turned to the source of the sounds and saw a spherical star resembling the sun, and red-gold flames devouring the darkness.

Is the Sun Wolf King truly only acting to draw attention to himself?

No one would think Pseraslav was acting as bait, not even Haema. The blood-red crescent moon, which had been shining down on Blood Castle, began to move toward the sun-like star.

Haema has moved. He’s not in his palace now!

This was the perfect chance. Erzsebet needed to check whether that impudent human had told the truth, no matter what. She recalled what the human had said to her.

“If you have an inkling of where to go, you are free to check for yourself. If my information is correct, we should have room for cooperation.”

Erzsebet gritted her teeth as she ran, then stopped before a giant vertical building. The Palace of Sovereignty was also under distress due to the Sun Wolf King’s sudden attack.

“Sun Wolf King Pseraslav has appeared in the west!”

“Send reinforcements immediately!’

“Tell the other bloodlines!”

Erzsebet’s body fell apart, becoming blood bubbles that wet the ground and seeped into it.

Haema set up bloody pipes underneath his palace, she thought.

As she explored deeper underground, she found a pipeline as complex as spider webs. She infiltrated a pipe through a tiny opening at a junction between two pipes and moved rapidly through it like a car racing down a highway at midnight.

The bent pipes were all connected, heading toward one place. Bubbles seeped out from another opening at a junction between two pipes. They gathered into one and once again took the shape of Erzsebet.

Erzsebet looked around the room with a tall ceiling and arched stained glass. It was the private chamber of the court palace. Echoes were generated from the sound waves from her high heels colliding with the pipes covering the walls.

Erzsebet’s eyes were fixed on a giant coffin in the middle of the room, connected to all the pipes in the room. Her heart raced as her pureblood boiled. She reached the coffin that was emitting a bizarre mana and placed her hand over the lid. She gulped and opened the lid, which struck the ground.

“Lord... Mulleus... Rubens... Sanguineus,” Erzsebet mumbled.

Although he was only a mummy, she could feel an absorptive force from him that sent shivers down her back. It was as if all her blood would be sucked away if she lost hold of herself for even a moment. She couldn’t approach the mummy any more than this.

Just then, she sensed a familiar flow of Blood Force from Mulleus’s mummy.

“This feeling is... Demens’s madblood!” Erzsebet shouted, her pale expression turning blue.

***

A young, handsome man with long white hair, red eyes, and a fluttering cape was flying across Blood Castle’s night sky. He was Haema Sanguis. A red crescent moon flashed with an ominous light as it followed above him.

“Playing hide and seek, are we?” Haema said, his eyes fixed on the red-gold star before him.

It belonged to Pseraslav, who was running away at the same speed as his pursuer.

“Damn mutt. You must have caught rabies or someth—Hm?” Haema mumbled when he suddenly turned toward the back, in the direction of the Palace of Sovereignty. “Who’s there?!”