A world where the sun no longer rose.

Buried in darkness, in a landscape where you couldn’t even tell whether it was day or night.

“Then......”

Countless eyes, glinting a blood-red hue, came into view as they approached the city.

“The promised time has come, Sir Ariella.”

“I’ve been waiting, Sir Rashir.”

Red eyes shining eerily in the dark.

Pale skin without the slightest trace of color.

Count Rashir spoke with a friendly smile.

“To be honest, I was a little worried, Count. I don’t know who you are...... so I was concerned you might not understand honor, and would run from this land.”

“Truly useless...... and rude, to worry about.”

“Haha. Then let me apologize, even now.”

At that, I thought to myself.

‘Running...... wasn’t like it wasn’t an option.’

But.

I didn’t choose it.

There were two reasons.

One of them was—

‘That I thought not running might be to my benefit.’

I looked at the procession this noble named Rashir had brought with him, and then at the rear of it.

‘......That’s a lot of troops. More than I expected.’

A procession made up of an enormous number of [knights].

Even lowballing it, it had to be in the thousands.

‘One noble can command that many monsters as retainers.’

......Once again, I could feel just how immense the potential of the species called night nobles really was.

When it came to forming a massive force, it would be hard to find another species like them.

‘No—more importantly.’

But.

What caught my eye right now wasn’t the numbers.

‘As expected.......’

Inside the procession.

The massive wagons the [knights] had brought, and the ornate boxes loaded onto those wagons.

And inside them......

‘I can feel mana.’

Mana—at a substantial scale.

I’d felt it the first time we fought those bastards, too.

Nobles like them seemed to value wealth and honor quite a bit.

Even that procession included all kinds of flashy, valuable goods.

‘In a blood duel, the winner takes everything the loser has.’

And that meant—

anyone who entered the duel did so carrying everything they owned.

“I brought all my forces, and all my wealth.” 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

A species that ruled this whole region.

If he was one of that species, I figured he’d have plenty of precious items infused with mana—

and that guess was right.

‘No wonder it’s been so hard to find mana in the city......!’

As I looked at the mana stones included in that procession, I thought—

‘Looks like while those nobles swept through the city, they looted every usable thing.’

Not just an enormous amount of mana stones, but plenty of jewels and weapons that held strange mana.

To begin with, items infused with mana had significant value not only to us, but to vampires as well.

When they invaded cities and turned every living thing into ghouls, they must have stolen those items on sight, too.

And now.

The results of that pillage—scraped together across this whole land—were gathered over there.

‘If we can get our hands on those.......’

After sizing up that mana by eye, I was sure.

We didn’t even need the ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) mana stones we’d scraped up in the city.

With only the items that bastard brought—

we could secure enough mana to activate the transfer gate.

***

“Then, let’s begin.”

And.

While I was thinking that, Ariella and Rashir kept talking back and forth about something.

Then, as if that conversation had ended, they extended their hands toward each other and spoke.

“I, Rashir, swear upon a noble’s honor that I will face this fight fairly and squarely.”

“I, Ariella, swear upon a noble’s honor that I will face this fight fairly and squarely.”

The words came out at the same time.

And.

There was a strange mana woven into their voices as they spoke.

“I will fight by mobilizing all my retainers and all the blood I possess.”

“I will fight by mobilizing all my retainers and all the blood I possess.”

And.

Watching that, I remembered something Ariella had once said.

‘Vampires are a race that originated from the demon race...... and words spoken while filled with mana can never be broken.’

That was why—

Ariella, who had spoken her loyalty to me with mana, had become a retainer bound to me.

“The winner will take everything the loser has.”

“The loser shall offer everything to the winner.......”

Those words were—

the same as the ‘retainer’s pact’ Ariella had given me.

A duel fought with nothing but each other’s blood and retainers.

An oath neither side could ever break.

“Our great Progenitor will......”

“serve as the judge of this duel.”

With those words, the mana around us began to surge violently.

‘......!?’

Fwaaaak—

From somewhere, an unknown spray of blood burst upward, then spread in all directions, filling the city as if a flood had broken loose.

‘This is.......’

It felt like when I’d watched Ariella’s promotion back then.

[A blood duel has been established!]

The blood that had erupted from all sides shot into the sky—

and walls of blood rose up, sealing off the city in every direction.

[Duelist]

[Count of the Karshtein Bloodline, royal guard commander of the [Steel Legion], Half-Viscount of the Bloodline, Lord of the Veil]

[Ariella Karshtein]

[Duelist]

[Count of the Melchiorn Bloodline, Valarak’s great-grandchild, the Bloodline’s Twelfth Spear, Lord of Qingdao]

In that moment, text appeared in the status window before my eyes.

And.

The instant I saw it, I couldn’t help but flinch.

‘His name is showing.’

The reason he’d stepped into this duel in the first place was because he’d mistaken us for members of the same bloodline.

I was on edge, worried that fact might be exposed...... but—

“Now that the Progenitor has descended upon this land......”

“the duel is hereby established.”

The two nobles were murmuring solemnly, as if they couldn’t see any of that.

Looks like that status window was something only I could see.

Just as I was letting out a relieved breath at that.......

[The duel has been established by the declarations of the two nobles.]

[As the duel’s witness and judge, the great Progenitor - ??? takes their seat!]

‘......The Progenitor—what?’

At the status window’s words floating before my eyes, I unconsciously looked up at the sky.

‘That wasn’t just a formal phrase?’

Words night nobles spoke with mana carried compulsion.

And.

If those bastards said the Progenitor would be the judge, then......

‘It means the Progenitor really descends on this land—no joke, no metaphor......!’

The Progenitor was probably a “divinity” like the outer beings.

If something like that descended here, I thought it would be watching from the sky above.

But...... it wasn’t.

‘There’s nothing......?’

The stars hanging in the sky were still looking down at this place, but none of them were watching this duel.

Still.

The status window doesn’t lie.

The Progenitor was definitely here.

‘If not above.......’

Then that meant......

‘Below.’

I lowered my gaze and looked down.

The moment the duel was declared, blood flowed from somewhere, filled the surroundings, and formed walls of blood that encircled everything.

And.

The instant I saw those walls, I realized it instinctively.

‘This blood.’

The blood filling this space.

No—

this enormous, unknown space itself......

‘The Progenitor.’

This was the form the Progenitor had taken upon descending on this land.

***

This space itself.

The Progenitor they were talking about.

‘......The Progenitor is looking at me from every direction.’

The moment I understood that, a strange fear seized me.

‘From every direction...... it’s looking at me.’

This space itself—

because I realized that bastard called the Progenitor was staring at me.

[A blood duel is a sacred contest fought by two nobles as members of a bloodline.]

[Under the Progenitor’s witness, beings not bound by the two nobles’ blood cannot participate in the duel.]

“......What!?”

And in that moment, I heard screams burst from my unit beside me, so I hurriedly turned my head toward them.

What I saw was—

“C-Commander!”

“Benefactor!”

Blood surged up from the ground, grabbing hold of my unit and dragging them somewhere.

No— it wasn’t just my unit.

“Uh, uhh......?”

“Lord, Knight!”

Even those who clearly “belonged” to vampires—

even the ghouls were seized and hauled up into the sky.

The blood carried them up there, then set them down on nearby rooftops.

Only after seeing that did I understand.

‘This is a blood duel of each noble’s [blood].’

Meaning—

anyone whose blood wasn’t mixed with either noble’s, even if they were vampires, couldn’t participate in this duel.

‘Then what about me?’

......Half my body came from Ariella.

Even if I wasn’t a retainer—

it seemed I was recognized as one of Ariella’s “blood.”

“C-Commander! Damn it...... I can’t use my strength!”

“It’s fine, just stay there and wait!”

That blood seemed to restrict not only physical ability, but even powers like Jeong Sua’s spirit arts.

Anyone without mixed blood was supposed to sit there and watch this duel.

“Hoo...... this is my first blood duel as well. I didn’t know it would be like this.”

And this was......

if you really wanted to get technical, a condition that was more disadvantageous to us.

“It’s a shame that, as we arrived here first, we can’t mobilize the ghouls, Sir Ariella.”

“.......”

“But what can you do? Their blood lord is elsewhere.”

I hadn’t known a blood duel would take this form.

Ghouls aside, I’d thought we’d at least be able to mobilize my unit at full strength—

and now we couldn’t use that strength at all.

“This duel is a fight decided by each side’s blood.......”

And.

Rashir spread both hands with a self-assured expression and said,

“This is the stage where we prove who has built the stronger host!”

As if to match that bold attitude, an enormous number of knights were lined up behind him.

......So many you couldn’t even compare it to Ariella’s forces at her peak.

‘......How does he maintain that many knights?’

If [knights] couldn’t drink high-quality blood for a long time, their stats fell.

There was a reason I’d limited Ariella’s forces early on.

The moment you had more than a certain number of knights, I judged you couldn’t supply them with blood through monster hunting alone.

The fact he maintained that many knights meant

Rashir had the ability to secure that much blood.

I started to think he might be a more capable noble than I’d expected.

“......So?”

......But.

“Are you done talking?”

“......What did you say?”

“Even with the Progenitor here, you keep speaking, so I thought you might have something important to say...... but it doesn’t seem like it.”

With that enormous host right in front of her,

Ariella shrugged.

“Then...... let’s start the duel.”

She gave a light clap.

And.

Watching that, I thought.

‘Running was an option...... but there were two reasons I didn’t.’

One of them was—

that it might be better not to run......

that fighting that bastard might actually be to my benefit.

“Alright, my children.”

And the other was......

“I’ve prepared a rich banquet for the first time in a while...... so enjoy it to your heart’s content.”

KWAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

To begin with, I’d judged there was no reason to run.

“What the—!”

Massive beasts that had been hiding in the city’s shadows threw themselves into the gaps between the countless knights.