Luminous is dead. Not merely losing the physical form of Knight Jeref Parvian, the vessel containing the embodiment of the spirit, but the essence itself, the mind, has been extinguished.
Is it instinct that makes me aware of this, being a spirit of darkness while he is a spirit of light? I once thought concepts like mind and soul were vague, but I could confidently assert Luminous’s demise.
However, there was no time to be relieved. The light he left behind, determined to self-destruct, collided with my darkness, creating an explosion that quickly engulfed me.
The searing heat and deafening roar rip my eardrums apart. In a single second, my entire body seems to ignite and regenerate dozens of times.
Luminous, that wretched creature.
I curse inwardly and desperately suppress the explosion.
It would be easy to escape the blast. But that would mean the entire area would be caught in the explosion’s fallout. If it blew, certainly the entire Luminous Kingdom would be sent flying.
There are people I must protect behind me. My sisters, friends, subordinates, and the citizens.
To leave them in the death vortex, akin to a nuclear bomb, is not an option.
I desperately layered shadows to forcibly contain the energy trying to expand outward.
My life force is rapidly depleting. Yet, the immense heat rising like an endless lake doesn’t show any signs of diminishing.
This won’t do.
I needed to change my method. But could I? I have gained great power, but as this is my first time using it, I don’t know everything.
But I had to succeed. A victory earned through someone else’s sacrifice holds no meaning. I cannot afford to fail if I wish to protect everyone.
I focus my mind amidst the explosion. No longer relying on shadows created by moonlight or torches.
I don’t need to consider efficiency anymore. Manipulating shadows is a method optimized for Stella, not my own.
I am a spirit of darkness. And dawn is the time when all things sink into darkness. At this moment, the space itself can become my weapon.
I rely on instinct to slice through the night sky. I cover the suppressed energy with the darkness I’ve cut away.
Just before I completely seal it, I pull my body out into the open. The cold air rushing into my lungs invigorates my senses.
I push. I compress. With all my might, I suppress the explosive fallout from escaping outwards.
A terrifying force tries to seep away, and fatigue sets in. But I can hold on.
Enduring has never not been my specialty. If I consider this my last hurdle, I feel confident I could endure even if I were thrown into hellfire.
Three minutes pass. What feels like an eternity of tug-of-war comes to an end.
Confirming that I no longer feel any resisting force, I kneel on the spot.
I hear busy footsteps from behind. Even without turning, I know who it is.
“Sister!!”
“Aria, are you okay?!”
“I’m fine.”
The people I was trying to protect. I looked around once more to confirm with my own eyes that they were safe.
“Nya ha ha! Cardan, didn’t I tell you? We really won!”
“Indeed, you have sharp instincts.”
“Your Majesty! That was—”
Everyone was safe. They were in rough shape, certainly not looking well, but at least no one from the faces I had met right before leaving seemed dead.
“Shete. Please assist with the cleanup here with Slein.”
I approached Shete and Cardan, who were laughing while holding their swollen right arms.
I felt that as Luminous perished, the humans who had been his puppets were released all at once, but someone needed to confirm this directly to announce the end of the war.
Even though I called the name casually and didn’t use the queenly tone as before, there was no resistance.
Shete, surprisingly tough for an injured person, got up and soon followed after Slein, who was already a good distance away.
Originally, I should have done it myself, but there was something I needed to prioritize.
Not everything had ended yet. To say this war was over in a true sense, one more task remained.
“Bianca. Can you find Jeil’s presence?”
The last stretch.
I needed to find Martini, Jeil, and Stella, who were captured by Luminous and trapped somewhere.
While it’s true I can detect living beings within a fairly wide range, in a situation where tens of thousands are crammed into a narrow area like this, it’s far easier to follow the connections tied by blood rather than rummaging around on my own.
“…Yes, yes! Your Majesty! I’ll do it right away.”
Bianca, who had been in a daze, jumped up quickly and stepped forward.
Luckily, the connection between Bianca and Jeil was still intact. We moved forward with her leading, feeling for the faint presence.
We stopped, as expected, on top of the ruins of the Luminous Kingdom’s Palace.
A wasteland where nothing remained. Just as ominous thoughts began to swirl in our minds, Bianca pointed below, slightly uncertain.
“I feel that… it should be down there.”
“Does the Kingdom Palace have a subterranean facility?”
Lavina peered down at the heap of debris, looking dizzy. It was I who answered.
“It does. I know because I was trapped in the basement there.”
After Selin revealed my identity to the Kingdom Palace, I had been confined underground until I was moved to Raul Carlos’s laboratory.
It wasn’t a long time, but it was unforgettable, so I remember it clearly. If I recall correctly, the basement area was considerable, so there was a good chance Luminous left Martini’s group there.
“I’ve also heard there was one. But I’ve never been in.”
With Pluto’s testimony, we all began moving the debris nearby. While I could have erased it all in one go and dug straight down to the basement, I chose not to. If Martini’s group is down there, reckless destruction is not a good choice.
Fortunately, the search didn’t take long. Not even 10 minutes later, Eleonora announced that she had found a path.
“Master, there are stairs going down.”
“…Won’t it collapse while we’re clearing the blockage?”
Bianca glanced anxiously.
Surely, the blocked entrance looked ominous, but in other words, despite the building overhead collapsing and the debris clogging the entrance, it hadn’t crumbled to the point of nothingness; it seemed sturdy enough.
Perhaps if we clear the way, the passage inside should be intact. And the expectations were spot on.
For several meters at the stair’s end, debris had pressed in, but beyond that, the passage was unscathed.
And having made it this far, I felt certain. There were definitely living beings above ground.
Three of them. The presence was nostalgic but faint. Unease crept in. I hurriedly followed the presence.
“…”
“Lies, it… It can’t be! This can’t be, this can’t be…”
Bianca mumbled in a daze. And neither Pluto, Eleonora, nor Lavina could find the words.
I felt something in my chest crumble.
Before me, three weak yet familiar presences flickered, but the figures of Martini, Jeil, and Stella were nowhere to be found.
Only three hearts were contained within transparent vessels.
The unbearable reality that I wanted to deny. But undeniable proof. The three vampires Luminous left behind to study the ideal vessel remained barely existing, preserved in a state of mere existence.
“If we take them out of the vessel! Their hearts will still be intact…”
“The fluid inside the container is a preservative. If you carelessly remove them, it might be worse… Moreover, no matter how excellent a vampire’s regenerative ability is, I wonder how it would fare with only a heart left…”
Lavina hesitated, trailing off, but I scarcely heard her.
Being a vampire myself, I could certainly tell. This cannot be considered alive. The three hearts, marked by the traces of being minced by the spirit of light, have lost their regenerative ability.
The True Blood that sustains the vampires had lost its strength, and while those hearts still beat, they were merely preserved on the verge of death.
Was Luminous planning to drain the darkness from the bodies of the three vampires and inject his own power to restore them? I couldn’t be sure now.
What was clear was that it was too late.
The moment they are taken out of the preservative, the hearts, which have had their time momentarily paused, will begin to flow again, and the life force they barely possess will run straight toward death.
“In the end… is this how it turns out?”
I was desperate not to lose any more.
When I reached a realm of transcendence clinging to the slightest chance, I thought a miracle had occurred. Once I confirmed Luminous’s demise and quelled the explosion’s fallout, I felt I might truly reach the best conclusion.
Yet, reality was not so complacent.
Was it too greedy to want to protect everything? The three vampires who had sacrificed themselves for me now lay here, merely shells of their former selves.
Frozen in place, Bianca knelt as if her soul had left her body. Eleonora cast her gaze downward. Pluto and Lavina bit their lips in silence.
No. It cannot end like this.
This is not the outcome I wished for. A crown of victory woven from the sacrifices of precious people, I will never allow that.
In that moment, Yustelein’s parting words flashed before me.
[To those who transcend the fate set by you.]
[To those who defy the world’s principle and step beyond destiny.]
[Thus, finally leaving their footprints in a pristine snowfield that no one has reached.]
[In those times, we called ourselves transcendent beings.]
I swear it. This time, I will seize the perfect conclusion.
…But if this is what fate decrees. If living subjected to this damned fate that endlessly demands sacrifice is what is meant to be.
“I will no longer accept victories won through someone else’s sacrifice.”
I will shatter it. Instead of uselessly collapsing and praying, I will claw my way up and seize it with my own hands.
I will rewrite this incomprehensible ending with my own hands.
I sprang to my feet and headed toward the containers holding the three hearts.
“What… what are you planning to do?”
Bianca, who had sunk to the ground, asked. I replied briefly.
“I’m going to make the three of them my followers.”
“…Sister. It’s impossible to turn a vampire into another vampire.”
Did Pluto think I was in denial of reality? She hesitated before speaking.
I know. But to revive the dying spark of life in an instant requires an extraordinary level of regeneration.
True Blood can make it possible. Just like I turned dying Pluto into a vampire and brought her back, True Blood has the power to pull someone back from the brink of death.
However, Martini, Jeil, and Stella are already vampires. As Pluto said, it’s impossible to turn someone who is already a vampire into another vampire. So—
“I’ll seize the authority and overlay it with my blood.”
A method I shouldn’t typically attempt.
But the ‘parents’ who made them vampires are no longer in this world, and now, I am more powerful than any vampire in history.
Could I not seize the empty throne that has lost its master? And if I could overlay it with my True Blood, I could save them with even just half a heart.
“That’s impossible…”
“It will work. Trust me.”
Everyone, including Bianca, looked at me. And once again, they chose to believe my unreasonable assertion.
“Thank you, everyone.”
I will make this work no matter what.
I hope that, in the end, I can conclude this journey with a smile.
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