I'm Going to Kill Him!

On the third floor of Allen Castle, inside the patriarch's master bedroom. Her Majesty the Queen had just swallowed the seed. She now lay unclothed upon the bed while the gramophone beside her played the melody "Vien, Please Don't Cry for Me." The elderly maidservant knelt reverently beside the bed, silently offering prayers. "I feel... a bit thirsty." "I shall fetch some water for Your Majesty." The old maidservant stood, but just as she was about to pour the water, she saw dense clusters of black roots erupting across the Queen's skin. The Queen opened her eyes as well. She raised her hands; the roots were growing fastest at her palms, where they had already ruptured flesh and skin to reveal small, vine-like tendrils. "Oh... so it's them that are thirsty." The Queen smiled, clenching and opening her fists. The black tendrils wove endlessly between her fingers, as if endowed with their own semblance of consciousness. "They tell me they crave the blood of the Allen family." The old maidservant said, "It seems the research was correct. The ancestors of the Allen family did indeed once possess it, but that courageous forebear of House Gloria wrested it back from them." "Yes, our thanks go to that ancestor who risked life and limb to claim this seed. Still, it makes me all the more curious—if this seed is so miraculous and wondrous, the Allen forebears must have held treasures far greater than this in their hands back then. Why, then, after so many years, has the Allen family fallen into relentless decline?" "There are many reasons why a family might decline, Your Majesty." "Mm." The black roots upon the Queen's body grew progressively thicker, resembling spider legs as they hoisted her up from the bed. "Now I truly want to devour Judia first," the Queen murmured, licking her lips. "I can already smell the enchanting fragrance upon her." "You may do whatever you please, for you are our supreme sovereign." "No." A thick vine raised a "hand" in the Queen's stead. "The finer the prize, the more it ought to be saved for last to be properly savored. Go open the door." "Yes, Your Majesty." The old maidservant walked over to the bedroom door and tried to open it, only to find it completely immovable. Puzzled, she took two steps back and intoned in a low voice, "Benevolent and mighty Lord of the Abyss, that I may deliver Your will, grant Your believer the power to traverse boundaries." As the chant ended, a gleam of white light flared across the maidservant. When the light subsided, her form had grown translucent. She walked toward the bedroom door, and the upper half of her body passed directly through the wood. Right at that moment, however, a ring of red light flashed from the center of the door. The old maidservant grunted as she was violently repelled backward. She whipped around and cried out to the Queen, "Your Majesty, the Allens have activated their family array! The room has been sealed!" Supported by the vines, the Queen glided up to the door. "Have they noticed something?" The old maidservant drew a purple scroll from her robes. "Your Majesty, an array should not be able to block the transmission of this scroll. I shall alert the captain of the escort guards at once." "No need." The Queen shook her head, the black vines swaying behind her in tandem. "I shall open the door myself." Tendril after tendril of black vines crept over the door. Red light flashed once more across the surface, emitting a crisp, sizzling hiss where it met the vines. The black hue began clinging to the door, causing the red light to fade. "This seed's power surpasses my expectations. I only wished for it to break this door open, yet now it informs me that through assimilation, it can seize control over all the arrays throughout this castle. Furthermore, its roots can spread along the array's pathways, allowing it to drain everyone of the Allen bloodline within the stronghold. Oh... things are far simpler than I imagined. I need only stand here and not lift a finger." "If you just stand there without moving, where's the fun in that?" A man's voice drifted in from outside the window. Her Majesty immediately swung her gaze toward the window. The old maidservant rushed ahead of her, declaring, "Your Majesty, there is an array here—he cannot enter!" *Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!* The exterior protective grating dropped away, and the window swung open. A man stepped through, blue ripples washing over his body without offering the slightest resistance. "Do you know why the Allen family's arrays never bar our own kin? Because we believe that if a patriarch does a poor job, it is only natural for a capable member to kill and replace him. That is simply how a family ensures the survival of the fittest." The man who stepped into the room tilted his head up. Beneath his pirate tricorn was a withered, mummified visage. "Who on earth are you?!" the old maidservant roared, snapping out a black-and-white leather whip straight at the intruder. *Smack!* Count Rekar's hand clamped directly onto the whip. Freezing power surged along the length of the whip. The old maidservant hastily released the sacred relic, but even so, her right wrist had already frozen solid. Count Rekar vanished from the spot. The next instant, he appeared right before her, his left hand darting forward to seize her head. His form vanished again, reappearing right in front of the Queen. Only now, he held a severed head in his grasp. Back where she had stood, the headless body of the maidservant remained upright for a lingering second. Count Rekar opened his fingers. The head struck the floor. *Thump.* *Thud.* The latter was the sound of the headless corpse collapsing. Her Majesty stared at the man in sheer terror. She could sense his terrifying might. Although she could feel raw power continually welling up within herself, the seed had not yet had the chance to gorge on Allen blood, leaving it still in its sapling phase. "Are you Gloria IX?" Rekar asked. "I am! I am the Queen of Vien!" "Very well. You must be in quite a bit of agony right now." Count Rekar reached out toward the Queen. In an instant, a colossal hand composed entirely of churning water seized her body in a crushing grip. Then Count Rekar wrenched downward. *Crack! Snap! Crash! Boom!* A series of rupturing sounds reverberated through the air. The Queen was like the core root of a plant, having already extended countless tendrils into the architecture. Now, she was ripped out by the roots, violently severing her connection to them. Deprived of their source, the roots embedded within the structure withered into ash. "Absolute... Glacial Domain!" A sheet of ice spread beneath the Queen's feet. Walls of ice promptly sprang up on all four sides, expanding until she was completely encased within. The tendrils upon her body seemed petrified of the bitter chill, recoiling violently at the slightest brush against the frost. At the same time, Count Rekar sealed himself within this icy domain as well. He strode toward the Queen. From beginning to end, he displayed not the slightest trace of surprise at her "youth" or "beauty." "Aaaahhhh!" The Queen shrieked at Count Rekar, the black vines on her body transforming into virulent venom that lunged toward him. Rekar did not even flinch. Every vine that made contact with him was flash-frozen on the spot, followed by cascading cracks as their vitality was extinguished by the cold. Disregarding the opposition entirely, Rekar continued toward the Queen. The skin around the corners of his mouth was stretched tight, making it difficult to smile, so he cocked his jaw sharply to the left in an exaggerated grimace. "Great Ancestor, grant me the strength to confront evil!" The Queen unleashed her family faith system. A pristine white sacred vestment draped over her form, endowing her with an air of inviolable nobility. Seeing this, Count Rekar paused. Deep within his blue-glowing eye sockets, a glimmer of reminiscence surfaced. "Back when I was behind her in bed, I used to love having her summon this sacred vestment to spice things up." Count Rekar raised a leg and vanished from the spot. The next instant, he was right before her. His leg came down, the toe of his curved boot stomping directly onto her shoulder. *Crack!* The sacred vestment she had just summoned shattered instantly, pinning the Queen beneath his foot. "Still just a seedling—can't take a beating. Had you fed on blood and grown a bit, you might have been fun to play with. So why couldn't he have awakened me a little later? What was the goal of his experiment, anyway? "Never mind. Let me grant you release. A Queen of Vien ought to be free, not kept like cattle." Count Rekar raised his fist to his face and exhaled a breath of mist onto it. He paused for a second. He remembered that in naval battles past, he would always perform this exact gesture before leaping into the air to smash down upon an enemy flagship. His fist descended. *Boom!* The strike struck the Queen's back. There was no explosion of gore; instead, a crater of ice indented deep into her flesh. The freezing power rippled throughout her body, terrifying the black roots embedded in her pores so badly that they recoiled into hiding. Her body rapidly froze through, forming a human-shaped ice sculpture. Count Rekar tapped his knuckles against the Queen's head. A sound like shattering glass rang out, and her body fractured into fragments, spilling across the floor. Amidst the broken ice, a bundle of black roots lay curled, writhing incessantly. Rekar reached out and picked it up. Upon contact, the roots seemed to believe they had found a new host and tried to bore into his skin. In fact, they succeeded. Rekar merely watched as they pierced his hand and forearm, utterly indifferent. Moments later, the roots retreated entirely. After burrowing into his body, they discovered that it was completely devoid of life; they could not extract a single drop of nourishment from it. The retreating roots looked visibly withered and listless. "Looking at you now, who would have thought that you were once a Seed of Light?" With that, Count Rekar clenched his fist. Terrifying glacial power condensed rapidly. When he opened his palm again, the roots had long since died, leaving only a lone seed frozen within a block of ice. He glanced around the room and strode over to a frost-covered trunk. Following the battle, the patriarch's master bedroom resembled a world of pure snow and ice. Count Rekar threw the trunk open, revealing Judia shivering with cold, a large spike pinning her chest to the interior. Judia struggled to lift her head. Staring out at the desiccated, corpse-like man standing over the trunk, crystalline tears welled in her eyes. "Pa... pa..." Count Rekar reached down, ripped the great spike clean from her chest, and sealed the wound with frost before lifting her from the trunk. "Pa... pa..." Having regained her freedom, Judia disregarded her injuries and exhaustion, wrapping her arms around Count Rekar's neck. A blue sheen began to circulate over her skin, blending in profound harmony with the aura radiating from him. "You're not a complete disappointment." Judia could no longer hear his words; she had already drifted off to sleep. Like an orphaned girl who had finally returned to her father's embrace, she felt safer than she ever had in her memory and sank into a sweet, peaceful slumber. Holding her, Count Rekar vanished from the bedroom and appeared inside the study an instant later. Boge stood just inside the study door. His assignment was to monitor the situation in the master bedroom, and no place was better suited for it. Naturally, that also meant facing the greatest danger, as he was closer to Her Majesty the Queen than anyone else. All at once, Boge felt a bitter chill. He turned in astonishment, only to find a tall, unfamiliar figure standing behind him. "You..." Boge moved to blow the whistle at his lips, but the surrounding air froze solid, preventing the whistle from making any sound. Rekar placed a hand atop Boge's head. A piercing frost descended. A red radiance immediately flared from Boge to resist the cold, accompanied by a fainter blue luminescence that aided in neutralizing it. "You aren't half bad either." Cold energy poured relentlessly from Rekar's palm. Rather than neutralizing the frost, Boge's blue radiance was forcefully stimulated, growing until it stood on equal footing with the red. Because Boge had previously absorbed Mr. Mike's fire-attributed power, he had advanced to Rank Two in the family faith system. Now, he possessed Rank Two strength in both attributes. Having just broken through, Boge lost consciousness and was scooped up by Count Rekar. ... Inside her bedroom, Eunice was fast asleep, completely oblivious to the man who had appeared at her bedside. Count Rekar gazed at the sleeping Eunice. "You... are hope." Count Rekar gently pressed a fingertip against her forehead and murmured softly, "Bloodline... awaken." ... Inside the pitch-black dining room, Old Anderson's hands were covered in wounds. Acting under Purr's instructions, he had used his strength to control the core of the family array, but when the Queen forcefully assimilated the castle's defenses, the backlash had knocked him out cold on the floor. Purr stood on the table beside him. Suddenly, Purr turned to look behind her. Count Rekar stood there, Eunice in his arms and Boge and Judia slung over his shoulders. He set Eunice, Boge, and Judia down onto the dining table one after another. Then man and cat stared at each other. Count Rekar remarked, "I truly never expected there to be such a treasure here." "I don't care for that term," Purr said. "What... happened to you?" Count Rekar pointed at his own face and added, "I ought to be frowning right now, but my current muscles can't manage the expression." "My experiences... are rather complicated," Purr replied. Count Rekar reached out to grab Purr, but the cat stepped back, dodging his hand. "You cannot undo my seal." "I can try." "Fine." Count Rekar placed his hand on Purr's head, and frost descended. Purr's eyes snapped wide. Forgetting that he was attempting to undo the seal, she asked in sheer disbelief, "You aren't Rank Eight!" Count Rekar pulled his hand back, manually tugged the corners of his mouth apart into a grin, and said, "I cannot undo your seal. This body of yours cannot endure my attempts either." "You're Rank Nine... No, you're beyond Rank Nine! How is that possible?! The family's secret records couldn't contain such an error!" Count Rekar nodded. "The family records aren't wrong. In fact, when I first clawed my way out of the grave, I was astonished too. I had suddenly become... so powerful." "Why?" Purr pressed. "Your water-attributed power completely exceeds my understanding of the fire-attributed power I possessed at Rank Nine!" "I can hazard a guess." "What is it?" "Because I died. And I stayed dead for a very long time." Count Rekar held out his palm, where a layer of frost hovered in midair. "The pinnacle of the water attribute is absolute freeze. The portrait of the Ancestor hanging in the study isn't about the harmony of water and fire; it is about... the harmony of life and death. "Ridiculous, isn't it? "When I walked out of the tomb after death, my water-attribute faith system underwent a sublimation—because death is the sublimation of the freeze." "How... how could this be?" Purr was stunned beyond measure. "That is why that little treasure of a Queen in the master bedroom died such a pathetic death, even after swallowing that seed. In the water attribute of our family faith system, I have already reached the realm of our Ancestor. "Barring any surprises, I am likely the one who has climbed highest along the water path in our family's history. "What a load of nonsense. Complete nonsense. "I'm a dead man. "And I can feel that before long, I will die again—and this time, it will be absolute. "The Allen family's faith system is an absolute farce. Only after dying can one reach the Ancestor's summit?!" "She is passable," Count Rekar said, pointing to Judia, who was still asleep on the dining table. "This little fellow with the natural dual-attribute symbiosis is also passable," Rekar said, gesturing toward the unconscious Boge. "And this one has the highest bloodline talent. I helped her awaken her bloodline. She might sleep for nearly half a year, but once she wakes, she will be at least Rank Three, normally Rank Four." Purr turned to look at the slumbering Eunice and immediately cursed, "Are your hands itchy?! She's preparing to get married! If you make her sleep for six months, how is she supposed to get married and have children?!" Rekar sat down by the dining table, looked at Purr, and asked, "Married to the man who awakened me? I know he has a marriage contract with the Allen family." "That's right!" "So the family has been kept like domestic livestock by the Church of Order now?" "Huh?" Purr stared at Count Rekar in confusion. Why was he suddenly asking this? Shouldn't he have already spoken with Karen? "No?" Count Rekar nodded at Purr's reaction. "Then the family is being kept as personal livestock by that Archbishop. The servant aberrant demon by his side carried a distinct scent of the Church of Principles when he cast that rendering array. The Church of Principles has always been the most obsessed with running experiments." "What?" Count Rekar tossed the frozen seed onto the table. "Is House Gloria being kept by him as well? "And what was the true theme of tonight's experiment? "Was it using House Gloria's assimilative physique and the Allen family's blood to study the habits of the Seed of Light? "Or was it using my revival as an opportunity to study the true principles of the Allen family's faith system, to dissect the nature of Ancestor Allen? "Never mind. I won't ask. I don't have much time left, and I cannot afford to waste it. "Take the three of them and flee. They are the hope for the family's future that I have chosen. "The Church of Order's Awakening Technique cannot control the soul or body of the awakened. "Which means, right now, I am still free. "And he must have paid a steep price to awaken me. He certainly isn't at his peak right now. "Therefore, "I shall go and secure an opportunity for you all to escape this place. I hope to inflict a grievous wound upon him. "Naturally, "He likely does not know that the faith system of the man he awakened has already surpassed ordinary comprehension. If the Ancestor blesses me, there is even a minuscule chance... that I might kill him!" "..." Purr.