The Crimson Reaper-Chapter 76: Alex’s Revelation

"So... This Qi... How do you know it’s not made up?" Helen questioned. This all sounded like it came from a fiction. She could listen, but without any data or proof to back this claim, she couldn’t believe him or use it in research.

"Because it’s not." Alex, who was still half listening to the two, decided to answer while cleaning the dust from the top of the machines with a random, dry cloth he found lying around.

"What’s shocking is that vampires know about it." He added, getting closer to the two while cleaning the bedside table.

He could see why Luciel wanted to get away from others. He would be revealing the source of vampires’ unique abilities. If humans learned how to counter them more efficiently, they would be at a great disadvantage.

"Wait, how do you know about it?" Alex was the last person who Luciel expected to know about Qi, especially since he never talked about it.

Alex let out a sigh, pulling up the chair so he could sit down.

"Because it’s the base of cultivation techniques in Noa," He answered. Every time Noa would come up in the conversation or anything related to them, his demeanor would change.

His eyes would become dull, body still while his voice carried a certain level of resentment which was unusual for his character.

"In fact, divine arts that the Church has are based on the concept of Qi." He explained it like it was common knowledge and Luciel was able to quickly connect the dots.

The feeling he would get during cultivation practice until he awakened was similar to when he would use his divine arts before he turned.

"Wait, why didn’t you tell me about that before?" Luciel didn’t know how to feel about this. The answer he was searching for to the question of why divine arts shorten the hunter’s life was right under his nose.

If he had decided to keep the mechanism behind his mist ability to himself, then he might have never found out.

"And put you and me in danger? The Church would imprison me for blasphemy!" Alex shivered at the thought of spending the rest of his youthful days in the prison cell. Having minimal requirements to live while being tortured once a week.

"Then why are you revealing it now?"

"Because I don’t see them helping us out. Those cowards left at the first sight of trouble. I would rather be on the run with my friends than continue to serve them."

Luciel and Helen exchanged some looks after hearing Alex’s reasoning. He was usually goofing around so it was easy to forget that he was actually thinking with his head from time to time.

"That’s fair." Luciel mumbled, scratching his chin, "Wait, and how do you know that the divine arts are based on Qi?"

"Oh, because Noa invented them. Those are spells for temporary power-up."

"Temporary power up?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded with Luciel not taking his eyes off him, still not being able to believe that his friend knew about all of this.

He started to give a quick explanation of how the divine arts work. Unlike a typical cultivator who had to create Qi channels (except vampires) to use powerful abilities, divine arts surpass that.

The incantation would draw power from the divine realm, hence the need to have a strong belief in beings that were above them.

Instead of taking hundreds of years to have a chance to reach a peak, divine arts would allow powerful spells to be mastered in around five years if one had the talent.

"And what’s the price?" Luciel said through his teeth as he clenched his fist. He already knew the answer but wanted to see if Alex knew as well and just decided to hide it.

"There’s a price?" Alex questioned, tilting his head a bit. This was the first time he heard that he had to pay for something like that. The Church would provide that knowledge for free if you were willing to serve them.

Luciel let out a sigh of relief once he didn’t hear Alex’s heart skipping a beat, he was telling the truth.

Hearing his wife saying something, he turned his head toward her.

"The price... It’s your life..." She repeated herself, her eyes darting around the room. She was not into this Qi thing, but the way the boys had explained it, the price was obvious.

"W-what do you mean?" Alex stuttered, feeling a lump forming in his throat.

"It’s obvious." She said to him before continuing her reasoning.

The way they described it was like a power circuit. Put too much power and it overheats, causing the breaker to trip.

Humans were not machines, but with the constant overloading and trip breaking, hence the limited time to the spell usage would mean putting the body under constant stress and causing a shortage of life.

"Now we know why George and Dash look so old despite being in their thirties." Helen added after a long silence before starting at her husband, "And why does Luciel look younger." She added, but of course, vampirism did its charms as well.

"You know what, I can’t take this stress, I’m going back to cleaning!" Alex cried out before getting up abruptly and walking away from the two.

All of this was too much for him after finding out that he was actively shortening his life all this time. It kinda scared him.

He continued to whip the specs of dust while humming to himself, trying not to listen to the two.

The two stared at Alex who continued to clean, not sure where should they continue or start with their previous conversation.

"Anyways, you really think that I look younger?" Luciel asked his wife, breaking the silence before pointing toward his face.

"Yeah, more handsome as well," Helen nodded with her head, turning her head from Alex so she could face her husband.

"With fangs or not." She added, going to lift Luciel’s upper lift to reveal one for a moment before letting go, giggling a little after receiving a tiny glare from him.

"Thanks..." Luciel scratched the back of his neck, feeling a little bit embarrassed for whatever reason. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"And you," He continued, leaning closer towards his wife, "Smell absolutely mouthwatering. Like hot chocolate with strawberry syrup." Luciel finished with a smooth voice, licking his lips.

"I do?" Helen’s cheeks turned slightly red at the compliment she had received, even if it came from Luciel’s predatory nature.

"Yes... The most delicious thing I have ever tasted." He answered with a low, slightly seductive voice, licking his wife’s neck before giving a small smooch.

Helen tensed after sensing his warm breath on her skin and closed her eyes, bracing for the bite that never came.

Cracking her eyes open, she was faced with Luciel’s gentle gaze that kept observing her face.

"You are not going to...?" She pointed toward her neck where he licked her.

"No, it’s true that I feel thirsty, but I don’t want to put you in danger," Luciel replied. He could feel the constant need to feed on her blood, but he already did so, twice, in a short amount of time. After finding out that she was carrying his child, he didn’t want to put her in danger by taking more.

To Luciel, the thirst was even worse than when he turned, the only difference was that he learned how to control it and Qi circulation actually helped him greatly.

"I’ll see what I can do for you, all right?" Helen tenderly caressed his cheek with the tip of her fingers, staring at his crimson eyes.

"Thank you..." Luciel raised his wife’s chin. His eyes were full of life as he stared at her. He got closer to her and just when their lips were supposed to touch, Luciel flinched at the sound of something crashing.

"Helen! I made a mess!" Alex called out after accidentally knocking down the stand with glass test tubes.

"Urg, I better go and make sure he doesn’t make any more mess." Helen groaned, resting her head in her hand before getting up. "Get some rest, all right, you deserve it. We will talk about all of this later." She placed her hand on his shoulder before walking toward Alex, pulling up her sleeves.

"Really dude?" Luciel whispered at Alex, furrowing his eyebrows at him for breaking the moment.,

"What?" Alex whispered back, scratching the top of his head while wondering what he did wrong now.

"Oh forget it." Luciel rolled with his eyes before finally laying down, closing his eyes. He felt grateful that he would finally be able to get good some sleep, probably.