In my case, I had created that sun once before.

But that had only been possible because I’d been granted permission a single time.

There was no way I could repeat the same thing again.

-Foolish Valarak!!!

But.

That was only true for me.

‘Karhin is different.’

He was a vampire with tremendous vitality.

After I left to find Ariella,

the ones who had remained in the city must have searched out prey to feed Karhin and presented it to him.

-At last, the time has come!

Having eaten his fill,

Karhin must have recovered his strength once more.

And unlike me,

as long as that bastard had enough vitality to spare,

-I shall drench this land with your blood!!!

...that light from the island—

he could reproduce it as many times as he wanted.

“Children!”

At the shout echoing from far away,

the Grand Duke looked down at his children and yelled,

“Hide yourselves beneath the shadows!”

A swift command.

At those words—

Kreeeeeeeeek...!

the monsters filling the city began moving in a panic.

Inside buildings, beneath bridges, in underground sewer pipes—

the monsters crammed themselves into anywhere they could possibly avoid the light.

But.

‘There are too many of them.’

The monsters filled the city in the most literal sense.

Even if they tried to hide somewhere now,

there was no way many of them could actually find room. The city had been packed to begin with.

And so—

Paaaaaaaaaah...

glowing in the distance,

a circular sphere slowly rose into the sky.

{Ah... no.}

{Why?}

As that enormous sun rose into the heavens—

{A sun... in this place...!}

Pshhhhhhhhhhk!!!

The countless monsters turned to dust in an instant and scattered on the wind.

***

Pshhhhhhhk—

Countless monsters burned away and came apart,

and the air above what had once been a great capital filled with gray ash.

“...Quite bold of you.”

The Grand Duke frowned at the sight.

But even he had no room to spare.

Paaaang...

The sun Karhin had created was still slowly rising higher into the sky.

Its light had not yet reached the place where the Grand Duke and Ariella stood,

but once that sun reached sufficient altitude, the place they were in would be exposed to its light as well.

I knew the nature of that light because I had wielded its essence myself.

That was a curse born from the ill-fated bond between their Progenitor and the sun.

Unless it was the Progenitor in person, no one—

not even a Grand Duke—could be free from that light.

“It can’t be helped. First, I’ll have to move—”

So saying,

the Grand Duke started to rise while still gripping Ariella by the throat.

But then—

Kkwwaaaaaaaaak!!

“...What are you doing, Marquis?”

“What does it look like...?”

Huge pillars sprouted from Ariella’s body and drove themselves into the ground,

resisting the Grand Duke’s attempt to drag it away.

“If you stay here, that light will reach you. You’re vulnerable to that light as well.”

“I know that.”

“Then why?”

“Well.”

Ariella grinned.

“Whether I die being devoured by you, or die turning to dust in the sunlight... what difference does it make to me?”

“......”

“No matter how great Your Grace may be... thanks to your generous assistance, I’ve at least become capable of slowing your steps a little. If you mean to take me with you, then I’ll resist however I can.”

The sun rose higher and higher.

Its light drew nearer to them.

“How about it... would you care to die together with me?”

“Tch.”

Pak!

“We’ll see each other again soon enough.”

At that,

the Grand Duke released Ariella’s throat and retreated far away.

Ariella was prey he had to devour somehow.

The replacement he had only barely found after Isabella’s death.

There was no way he could lose it like this.

Paaaaaaaaah...

Only then

did the light of the fully expanded sun reach the place where Ariella stood.

“Kh...!”

Exhausted from the fight with the Grand Duke, it couldn’t get away in time.

And just before that light touched its body—

“Good work.”

Pak!

I threw myself forward and blocked the light with my own body.

***

“Cough, kh...!”

“...You all right?”

“This is an insane plan, utterly insane...! I almost died, damn it!”

“Well, you didn’t die, so it’s fine.”

After I barely managed to drag the bastard into the building’s shadow,

I looked up at the sky.

“......”

A gaze I could feel from far away.

I could sense the Grand Duke, hiding in some distant patch of shadow, staring at me.

‘If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it just now.’

But.

Since Ariella had rejected the Grand Duke’s touch,

he must have needed someone else to protect it from the sun.

That was why he hadn’t killed me, even knowing I was nearby.

“So?”

I asked Ariella, who was still gasping for breath.

“What’s your impression after facing the Grand Duke directly?”

“Kh, your comrade’s on the verge of dying and you don’t have an ounce of consideration...!”

Then,

after a brief hesitation, it bit its lip and said,

“The gap is... utterly overwhelming.”

“...Hmm.”

At those words,

even I couldn’t help frowning a little.

“Your plan is completely insane, yes, but I thought our chances of victory would be high if it succeeded. But I’ve changed my mind. Even if the operation unfolds exactly as planned... I can’t see us defeating that one.”

“You said you’ve gained enough power to serve as the head of a bloodline too. Is the gap between heads of bloodlines really that big?”

“It is. ...Far greater than even I first imagined.”

Then, after steadying its breathing, it said,

“But there is some good news.”

“What is it?”

“Just as you said, the only reason a Grand Duke famous for being a fool can put on such a composed act is probably because he devoured the other two Grand Dukes. But...”

Ariella recalled the battle from moments ago.

It had been so one-sided that it couldn’t say it had dragged out everything the Grand Duke possessed.

Even so—

“He couldn’t perfectly control the mist or the shadows. Not even the beast form.”

“You mean—”

“It means that even if he swallowed the souls of the other two Grand Dukes, that doesn’t mean he can wield their powers perfectly.”

That made sense.

If using another bloodline’s power were that easy,

Ariella—who had already devoured the Grand Duke’s direct bloodline—would have been rampaging around with monstrous strength already.

“The total amount of his power may have increased, but he still can’t wield the authorities of other bloodlines. Perhaps... that’s why he seeks the blood of all the Grand Dukes.”

“Something might change after he devours all four?”

“That would be my guess.”

If that was true, then all the more reason

we could not afford to lose this battle.

If the Grand Duke became something like that, then even if we somehow made it back to the unit, there would be no easy way to deal with him.

And.

The first step toward that victory was—

Paaaang...

that thing floating up there.

That enormous sun.

Ever since the vampires burst out of that castle,

the old capital of this nation had existed beneath red clouds, without a single ray of light.

Now, for the first time in a very long while, that land was bathed in bright light again.

In many ways it had already become little better than ruins,

and countless gray motes of ash were drifting through the air from what had just happened.

Even so, there was something deeply stirring about seeing this old capital regain its brightness.

But.

‘This won’t last long either.’

To begin with,

if they could have exterminated these bastards with a method like this,

there would have been no reason for Karhin to hole up on that island, secretly stockpiling power.

And just as I expected—

Kkwagwagwagwang...

“...Were those clouds always that good at moving?”

“This is only your second time seeing them, right? I’ve seen them often enough that I’m used to it.”

The clouds overhead began to churn violently.

And then—

-You bastard, Valarak...!

Kkwaaaaaang!

-Whatever it is you desire, you shall never accomplish it so eas...!

Kwang!

That enormous cloud covered both the sun and Karhin standing beneath it.

‘...It didn’t seem like mist with attack power of its own. No need to worry.’

To begin with,

that mist was Grand Duke Kirchhoff’s corpse.

Ariella had said Grand Duke Valarak couldn’t wield the powers of the other two Grand Dukes.

So that corpse, too, could probably only be moved around like this—

not controlled perfectly the way Kirchhoff himself once could.

‘...Though I do feel a little bad for the bastard trapped inside his own Grand Duke’s corpse.’

Well.

He was probably cursing his lungs out in there.

Anyway.

Thanks to being surrounded by that blood-red mist,

the sunlight that had been brilliantly illuminating the surroundings vanished in an instant.

But...

‘This is enough.’

I smiled to myself.

With the Grand Duke’s power,

he could have retreated to a place beyond the sunlight and sniped Karhin to death from there.

But he didn’t.

More accurately, I should say he couldn’t.

‘Because we’re here.’

If he pulled back and sniped Karhin,

the moment that sunlight disappeared, Ariella and I would be free to move.

By then, the distance between us and the Grand Duke would inevitably be considerable.

Possibly enough for Ariella to escape using its ability.

A situation the Grand Duke, who wanted to keep us pinned here, would have preferred to avoid.

And so,

instead of shooting Karhin down, the Grand Duke chose to use that mist.

A thick mist dense enough to block even sunlight.

But—

‘If it’s anything like what I saw when he took Jinlei away...’

in the end,

the total amount of that mist was fixed.

A considerable volume of it had descended to the ground to cover the sun,

which meant the sky above had no choice but to develop that much empty space.

Paaaang...

In the distance,

I could see light pouring down at the outskirts of the city.

He couldn’t create an opening for the sun to shine down directly over our heads,

so he must have pulled in the nearest mist available,

using mist from places that wouldn’t directly affect the city itself.

Paaaaaak...!

And so,

a massive ring of light formed around the surrounding area.

Sunlight pouring down as though encircling the city.

“...So now there’s nowhere left to run.”

There was surely intent in that too—to make sure we couldn’t escape.

But for us, it wasn’t entirely bad news either.

‘A wall of light has formed around the city.’

Now,

the vampires farther away wouldn’t be able to approach this city either.

Also,

most of the vampires in this city had already been turned to ash by Karhin’s sun and were now drifting through the sky.

Which meant—

‘Their forces have been greatly reduced... and no reinforcements can arrive.’

Right.

This was exactly the situation I’d wanted.

After all—

“Brothers!!!”

No matter how much we tried to build up strength,

those bastards had already turned most of the monsters on the continent into their thralls.

There was no way this would be a proper fight otherwise.

So.

“Our lord of souls is there!”

We had to balance things out a little, didn’t we?

***

“Advance!!!”

The troops that had arrived nearby in ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) advance and hidden underground—

...the thralls under Ariella, the ones who had been staying in Qingdao, rose up,

and Kangil’s voice rang out thunderously as it led them.

{Grrrk...!}

{It’s the enemy!}

{Those traitors who know nothing of the Grand Duke’s grace have come leading an army!}

In response,

the vampires hiding in the city’s shadows

confirmed that the sunlight had vanished and emerged once more.

“Bring those bastards down and offer the Grand Duke’s head to the Marquis!”

{The Grand Duke’s great work is nearly complete. No matter what, we must stop them!}

And so,

the two bloodlines who had endured from the great Progenitor and remained as the final survivors—

{Crush them with the power of Melchiorn!}

“Glory to Karshtein!!!”

KWAaaaaaaANG!!!

Between Karshtein and Melchiorn, the bloodline war began.