My Wives Are Seven Beautiful Demonesses-Chapter 131 - No. One Final Stretch (1)

[Location: Dungeon—Vampire King’s Castle]

It was then, Alucard raised his hand towards the sky.

Tti-ring!

[The Vampire King Alucard has activated ’Skill: The Army of Night’.]

’....The Army of Night??’

Tti-ring!

Tti-ring!

Tti-ring!

Several warning bells rang one after the other in my ears.

[Mindless-High Vampire Soldiers have been summoned!]

[Mindless-High Vampire Soldiers have been summoned!]

[Mindless-High Vampire Soldiers have been summoned!]

[Mindless-High Vampire Soldiers have been summoned!]

Along with the messages filling up my view, an army entirely consisting of mindless vampires appeared around the Vampire King. Even at a casual glance, there must’ve been over a thousand of them.

’So, this must be the beginning.’

When Alucard arrogantly lowered the hand pointing at the sky in my direction, the vampire army rushed at me like a black tide.

Rumble-!!

The ground vibrated from the forceful march of the vampires.

I stared at the Vampire King’s army as the corner of my lips arched up.

’I also have soldiers, too, you know.’

I opened my mouth.

"My shadows...."

In the blink of an eye, my shadow spread out to all the surrounding areas. I had activated the skill King’s Call to its maximum limit, and the ability unlocked from levelling up to level 4 was activated, "King’s Domain". When the Vampire King’s army set foot within the darkened land, I finally summoned my Shadow Soldiers.

"....Show yourselves."

My shadows stood up all at once to answer my call.

’....!!!’

I could acutely feel the confusion and panic among the enemies’ ranks.

Wuuoooohhh!!

Kkkrrroar!!

Immediately seizing upon this opening, the two ’physical’ type Knight grade soldiers, Paimon and Draugr, ran forward with everything they had and crashed into the enemy.

Kaboom!!

"Kuwaahk!!"

"Kehgehk!!"

Dozens of vampires screamed and were flung away from the absurd strengths of the two Shadow Soldiers. Right behind them, over one hundred soldiers rushed forward like a black tidal wave.

"Heh~" I snorted mockingly toward the Vampire King, who hadn’t said a single word till now.

And from the expression on his face changing, I can say he heard me.

"...brat," Alucard’s crimson eyes finally narrowed. "Even Helel pays respect to me, and yet here you stand—his descendant—barely understanding the weight of what you face."

The blood rain thickened.

Each droplet struck the ground with a dull, wet sound, sizzling faintly as if the land itself rejected it. The sky above churned, clouds twisting into vast crimson spirals, as though the heavens were slowly bleeding out.

"Say... is that fool still... alive?" His voice quivered at the end, though his face remained carved from ancient stone—cold, regal, and utterly unyielding.

I didn’t answer immediately.

Not because I was intimidated.

But because I was listening.

The rain.

The sky.

The way the land itself reacted to his presence—every drop of blood-rain sinking into the ground and vanishing, as if being devoured by something deeper.

This floor wasn’t just Alucard’s domain.

It was his body.

"...Alive?" I finally echoed softly.

My gaze remained fixed on the Vampire King as my shadow soldiers clashed violently with his summoned army. Screams echoed, steel rang, bodies shattered and dissolved into crimson mist that was instantly reabsorbed by the floor.

"Helel," I continued calmly, "is not someone you get to speak about like that."

For the first time—

Alucard’s expression changed.

Not anger.

Recognition.

The dragon beneath him—Fafnir—shifted uneasily, massive claws digging into the ground. Its greedy eyes flickered, nostrils flaring as if catching a scent it didn’t expect.

"...That tone," Alucard murmured. "You don’t worship him."

I tilted my head slightly. "I don’t need to."

The battlefield exploded outward as Paimon smashed through a cluster of High Vampires, her shadow-forged blade cleaving bodies in half with mechanical precision. Draugr followed like a siege engine, crushing skulls and torsos alike with raw, brutal strength.

But for every vampire that fell—

Another rose.

Their bodies reformed from blood mist, eyes vacant, mouths stretched into silent screams.

"Tch." I clicked my tongue.

"So they’re recycled."

Alucard raised his hand again.

The sky screamed.

No—

It howled.

The blood clouds above twisted violently, forming a massive sigil that burned itself into the sky like an open wound.

Tti-ring!

[The Vampire King Alucard has activated ’Skill: Crimson Dominion’.]

The moment the skill activated, I felt it.

Pressure.

Not physical.

Existential.

My King’s Domain shuddered—not collapsing, but being contested. The shadows beneath my feet rippled violently, as if something ancient and hostile was pushing back.

"Did you really think," Alucard said coldly, "that borrowed dead would be enough to challenge a king who ruled when gods still feared the dark?"

The vampires screamed in unison.

Their bodies twisted—muscles swelling, bones snapping and reforming grotesquely. Wings tore through backs, claws elongated, fangs grew jagged and serrated.

[Mindless-High Vampire Soldiers have evolved into Blood Thralls.]

"Annoying," I muttered.

I raised my hand.

Not in command.

In judgment.

The shadows answered instantly.

Astra materialized, her feminine figure wrapped in flowing blood-ink shadows, hair long and drifting like a silk banner in moonlight—rose-pink at the tips, but darkening into void-black at the roots. A cracked porcelain mask covered half her face, revealing only one glowing eye: A golden eye.

"My King~"

"Yes."

"Yes."

Both Alucard and I instinctively responded, but a grin was plastered on my face, while an annoyed frown appeared on Alucard’s face.

"She is not your Mana anymore, but my Astra."

"Yeah, back off, you creep. I’m Astra of my king~" Astra floated forward, hands clasped behind her back, posture relaxed—almost playful—yet the air around her bent unnaturally, shadows compressing as though gravity itself favoured her existence.

Alucard’s gaze hardened.

"Mana..." he began, then stopped himself, crimson eyes narrowing. "No. That presence—twisted, reforged, claimed."

Astra tilted her head, golden eye gleaming through the fractured porcelain mask. "Wow, you do notice. Took you long enough, grandpa bat."

Fafnir let out a low, rumbling growl, wings twitching. The dragon’s greed-slicked gaze lingered on Astra for a fraction longer than necessary, pupils dilating as if tasting her existence.

"Tch," I muttered. "Eyes up, lizard."

Fafnir’s head snapped toward me.

For a brief instant, something ancient stirred behind its eyes—not rage, not fear, but appraisal.

"...Interesting," Alucard said softly. "You bind shadows like a sovereign, yet your aura is incomplete. Fragmented. You walk a throne that should have crushed you."

I didn’t answer.

Because words were unnecessary.

I extended my will.

The shadows surged.

King’s Domain expanded another step, dark land swallowing crimson soil, black and red grinding against each other like tectonic plates. Where the two domains overlapped, the ground cracked, veins of shadow and blood crawling up shattered stone.

The Blood Thralls lunged.

They came not as a disorganized mob, but as a tide shaped by will—Alucard’s will. Their movements synchronized, bodies flowing around each other with predatory grace, claws flashing, wings slicing the blood-soaked air.

"Formation Theta," I said quietly.

The shadows responded instantly.

Vael appeared at my left, body half-phased, eldritch sigils crawling above his shadowy hands as his presence distorted the air. On my right, Draugr planted his feet, shoulders rolling as his massive frame anchored the line. Paimon slid forward without a word, broadsword angled low, stance perfect.

The first clash was violent.

Blood Thralls slammed into shadow soldiers, claws tearing through darkness, only to meet resistance far denser than flesh. Shadows didn’t bleed. They absorbed. Every strike that failed to destroy them outright fed my domain, thickening it, reinforcing it.

"Krrrsshh!!"

Draugr swung his claws.

The impact pulverized three Thralls at once, bodies exploding into mist—but instead of reforming instantly, the blood hesitated, suspended midair, trembling.

Vael lifted a hand.

The suspended blood warped inward, collapsing into itself like a star being born—and then vanished.

The hesitation was subtle.

But it was there.

The blood that should have returned to Alucard’s dominion—blood that should have screamed back into form—simply... didn’t.

It vanished.

Alucard’s eyes flickered.

Not in panic.

In calculation.

"...You erase," he said slowly.

I didn’t correct him.

Vael’s fingers curled, eldritch symbols sinking back into his shadowed skin as his form stabilized. He exhaled once, long and controlled, the way a scholar might after confirming a dangerous hypothesis.

Then bowed toward me. As I can feel "praise me" energy radiating from him.

Bob vibrated harder.

Not metaphorically.

Physically.

The shadow mass that constituted his existence began oscillating at an alarming frequency, edges blurring, form destabilizing like a badly-rendered image caught between frames. His single, uneven eye spun in its socket, locking onto the Blood Thralls rushing the flanks.

"Bob," I said flatly.

Bob stopped vibrating.

For exactly half a second.

Then—

BZZZZZZZZT

He shot forward.

Not ran.

Not flew.

He teleported in a jittering stutter of shadow, appearing directly in the middle of a tightly packed cluster of Blood Thralls.

And exploded.

Not outward.

Inward.

The shadows around Bob folded in on themselves, collapsing into a dense singular point that dragged everything nearby toward it—blood, limbs, wings, screams. The Thralls howled as their bodies were pulled apart, compressed, crushed into nothingness.

When the shadow implosion released—

There was nothing left.

No blood mist.

No reforming.

Just empty space.

"...What," Alucard said quietly.

Bob reappeared beside me, wobbling proudly, eye spinning faster.

I sighed. "Good job."

Bob vibrated happily.

The battlefield shifted.

For the first time since the clash began, Alucard’s army stalled—not retreating, but hesitating. Blood Thralls slowed mid-charge, movements desynchronizing as the domain struggled to reclaim what was lost.

Lost.

That word mattered.

Because the blood that vanished here didn’t return.

I could feel it.

Not absorbed by me.

Not claimed by my shadows.

Simply... erased.

This floor devoured blood.

But my shadows devoured concepts.

Alucard descended.

Fafnir’s wings folded slightly as the dragon lowered itself, claws crunching into fractured stone. The Vampire King stepped down from its back, boots touching the ground with ceremonial slowness.

The moment his feet met the land—

The pressure multiplied.

Crimson Dominion surged.

The sky bled harder, blood rain falling in sheets now, the ground rippling as if liquefying. My King’s Domain groaned under the weight, shadows tightening, compressing, resisting.

"You stand on my corpse," Alucard said, voice resonating unnaturally, echoing from everywhere at once. "Every step you take is upon my veins. Every shadow you cast is swallowed by my blood."

I met his gaze.

"You’re at your full power, right, you dried raisin?"

The insult landed wrong.

Not because it lacked bite—but because it didn’t register as one.

Alucard didn’t react with rage. Didn’t sneer. Didn’t scoff.

He simply looked at me.

And smiled.

It wasn’t wide. It wasn’t cruel. It wasn’t even mocking.

It was the kind of smile worn by something ancient that had long since forgotten the difference between insult and noise.

"Full power?" he repeated softly.

The blood rain slowed.

Not stopped—slowed. As if the sky itself leaned closer to listen.

"Yeah, no need to prolong this further. Before stepping onto this floor, I only speculated about it. But after seeing this domain with my own eyes," I continued calmly, finishing my thought as my gaze never left him, "I’m certain of one thing."

I lifted my chin slightly.

"You’re not at full power."

The smile on Alucard’s face did not vanish.

But something behind it... shifted.

The blood rain resumed its previous pace, heavier now, droplets striking the ground with renewed violence. The floor pulsed beneath our feet, veins of crimson light flaring and dimming like a massive heart struggling to keep rhythm.

"...Explain," Alucard said.

It wasn’t a demand.

It was curiosity.

I took a step forward.

The moment my foot landed, the ground cracked outward in a web of fractures—half crimson, half shadow—neither yielding, neither dominating.

"You’re sealed," I said. "Not just physically. Conceptually."

His crimson eyes narrowed by a fraction.

"You’re fighting me," I continued, "through a domain that was designed to contain you. Every technique you use is filtered. Compressed. Redirected."

Astra floated beside me, humming softly. "He means you’re fighting with one arm tied behind your back~"

"Silence," Alucard said.

But it wasn’t directed at her.

It was directed at the floor.

The land answered with a tremor.

"I am aware of my condition," Alucard said coldly. "And yet you stand before me with borrowed dead, fragmented authority, and an aura that contradicts itself at every layer."

His gaze sharpened.

"Why?"

That question carried weight.

Not how.

Not what.

Why.

I smiled faintly.

"Because you’re not the real obstacle here."

For the first time—

Alucard’s smile vanished.

The dragon Fafnir lifted its head sharply, wings unfurling with a deep, resonant thunder. Its greedy eyes flared, locking onto me with predatory intensity.

"You dare—" Fafnir growled, its voice reverberating like grinding gold.

I didn’t even look at it.

"You," I said to Alucard, "are just the gatekeeper."

The world went still.

Not silence.

Stillness.

The kind that presses against the skin, sinks into the bones.

Alucard stared at me for a long moment.

Then—

He laughed.

It wasn’t loud.

It wasn’t mad.

It was soft. Almost fond.

"Gatekeeper," he repeated, tasting the word. "You speak as though you know what lies beyond me."

"I don’t," I replied honestly. "But I know enough to recognize a prison ward when I see one."

The blood rain twisted, spiralling upward for a moment before slamming back down harder than before.

"And you," I continued, "are a king shackled to his own corpse, guarding a threshold you were never meant to cross again."

Fafnir roared.

The dragon lunged forward, wings snapping open as its massive body surged through the air, maw opening wide to reveal rows of jagged, gold-stained fangs.

"Fafnir," Alucard said calmly.

The dragon froze mid-charge.

Its claws scraped the ground, digging deep furrows into the stone as it skidded to a halt, muscles trembling.

"...Later."

Fafnir snarled, greed and fury warring in its eyes—but it obeyed.

Always obeyed.

Alucard stepped forward.

Each step he took caused the domain to pulse violently, crimson veins bulging, shadows writhing in response. The pressure intensified, crashing against my senses like a rising tide.

"You speak boldly for someone who does not even know the time I was feared just for existing, you think as if you’re already a victor. Don’t forget why I was sealed in the first place; Even Helel couldn’t kill me at his peak, so tell me, brat, what gives...."

***

Stone me, I can take it!

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