Chapter 26 : First Mission (3)

“Pour in the mercury.” The enforcer took a small bottle from his waist and poured mercury into the vampire’s chest wound.

Another enforcer took out a tranquilizer with a carefully proportioned neurotoxin.

Just as he was about to inject the vampire, a large number of tentacles burst out from the man’s body.

“Ah!”

The scream caught their attention.

The enforcer closest to the vampire was pierced by the tentacles, quickly swallowed.

The other enforcers scattered, staring intently at the writhing body.

Thanks to the development of film and television, vampires have become a somewhat positive term in modern times, associated with elegance and nobility, thus overlooking their true nature as eerie, unfathomable monsters.

“Fall back!” Eve yelled.

She continuously fired her gun at the vampire to attract its attention.

The vampire quickly reformed its body, appearing stronger and more handsome.

Its first gaze locked onto this woman.

Before the enforcers could attack, the man who had been standing still vanished, leaving only a blur too fast to see.

A massacre with no suspense ensued, and blood gushed.

The enforcers and students shifted their guns, firing at maximum speed, but only hit the man’s afterimage.

He was too fast, incredibly fast, and incredibly, he was still alive, even though he clearly had no heart!

Professor Eve dodged, parrying his sharp claws with a reverse-gripped dagger, and they separated.

Eve activated Wind Whisper, and a strong wind blew, cutting the man.

The wounds healed at a visible speed.

Eve tried her best to suppress her shock.

No one had expected a vampire with a damaged heart to still be standing, nor had he fallen into a weakened state.

His body was surrounded by countless wriggling black blocks.

He seemed to want to summon the ghoulish, shambling thralls, but they were not nearby.

“Sorry,” the man said indifferently, “to surprise you.”

The students were terrified, shrinking back.

This was clearly not an ordinary pureblood vampire.

His entire skeleton made deafening noises, and the skin on his back tore like a shedding cocoon.

A pair of red, bat-like wing membranes unfolded, with black blood flowing on them.

It was a Count-level vampire!

“One of the twenty-four Counts…” An executive professor was too shocked to speak, quickly picking up his communicator.

Such an entity required multiple elites to deal with; they had to report to the Enforcement Bureau!

“Cease engagement, evacuate first!” The Enforcement Bureau Operations Department issued the command.

“Looks like he won’t let us leave… May I know the reason, the reason you’re still alive?” Eve put down her communicator and looked at the man.

“Why?” the man asked flatly.

“To update the textbooks at St. Antiona College. In relevant records, there has never been a vampire who could survive after losing its heart,” Professor Eve calmly replaced the special bullets in her gun.

She turned to look at the students who had already distanced themselves.

Only a dozen or so enforcers remained by her side.

After a moment of silence, the man lowered his head and covered the area over his heart.

“I was reborn not long ago and gained the authority of a Count. Humans, your understanding of vampires is too presumptuous. The heart is indeed a weakness, but it is specifically not my weakness.”

“Then what is your weakness?”

“Tsk.” Disgust flashed in the man’s eyes.

“Then it’s your head!”

The gun muzzle was pressed against the man’s forehead.

The man looked up.

Professor Eve had somehow gotten close to him.

The mercury bullet fired from the gun, struck, and splattered a large amount of blood.

The powerful blast made even the seasoned Professor Eve retreat repeatedly, but the man stood still.

Professor Eve continued to fire several shots at the man; now was not the time to be stingy with mercury bullets.

However, she didn’t notice a shadow forming at her feet.

A long, inky black tail emerged from the shadow, its hook poised behind her head.

That was one of the man’s authorities.

An enforcer saw it and immediately roared a warning, but by the time she reacted, it was too late.

“Officer, duck!” An enforcer rushed forward, blocking the tail hook with his arm.

His arm was severed and fell.

The enforcer grunted, enduring the pain.

A glint flashed in his eyes, and he kicked his severed arm towards the dark tail.

At the moment of contact, both the arm and the dark tail were simultaneously frozen.

Eve watched the man, who was still standing, in shock.

He covered his forehead, then lowered his hand, and the wound slowly healed.

“How is that possible…”

More than a dozen enforcers stood in the way, but the man appeared instantly, grabbing Professor Eve by the throat and slamming her violently into a car.

He brutally smashed her face against the vehicle, leaving her disoriented, the back of her head a bloody mess.

She gradually lost the strength to hold onto his hand.

Pain, confusion, suffocation intertwined with her rationality.

Professor Eve opened her mouth, a tooth missing.

How could this be?

This was a Count-level, a supreme monster possessing ranked authority.

Among vampire monsters, from the Count level upwards, their numbers become exceedingly rare and their power undergoes a qualitative change.

While there are hundreds, even thousands, of Viscount-level vampires, there are only twenty-four Counts, eighteen Marquises, and ten Dukes.

Between the 18th and 21st centuries, successful cases of killing Count-level or higher vampires worldwide have been extremely rare.

Furthermore, a new vampire always replaces the fallen one after each kill.

St. Antiona College once conducted research suggesting that a unique power inheritance mechanism likely exists within the vampire hierarchy.

“Your experience is very rich. If you were fully prepared and deployed, you could certainly pose a threat to me,” the man said, his voice indifferent, even more brutal than fierce, as he squeezed her tightly.

“A senior professor from St. Antiona, are you? You’re a troublesome enemy for vampires.”

Vampires don’t allow such enemies to live.

Enforcers ran and fired their guns, even unleashing their powers with high frequency.

Students frequently reloaded their weapons.

He endured the pain in his back, determined to kill Professor Eve.

“Hey.”

Suddenly, someone softly called out.

Authority: [Eye of Gladis].

The man felt a coldness, a coldness vast enough to engulf the world’s edge, capable of shattering thought.

It was an illusion.

The man stood in a winter estate, its courtyard adorned with roses on thorns.

The Eye of Gladis’s effect is to pull a person into an illusion. In this illusion, anything can appear, including the most desperate fragments from one’s deepest memories.

Everyone was plunged into a sudden illusion.

The vampire man was bewildered, not understanding what was happening.

He hadn’t noticed the activation of the authority.

He actually felt uneasy, a tremor running deep into his bones.

The man was a new vampire noble from Europe, sent on a mission by the Elder Council to find clues about that family.

In this world, he had never felt uneasy before.

Vampires are inherently cold, feeling no fear towards anything, but this time was different.

The man looked around, reaching out to touch a thorn, feeling incredibly real pain.

The entire estate was enveloped in cold moonlight.

A shadow was cast by a long bench in the courtyard, where a girl sat silently.

Her hair was a beautiful silver, but her eyes were too deep to comprehend.

The girl simply sat there on the long bench, her silver-white hair flowing, dressed in a long gown as vivid as blood, her eyes shimmering crimson.

“Your name,” the man demanded coldly.

The girl ignored him.

The vampire raised his hand and lunged towards her eyes.

“Tell me your name! Thomai Bourville! The one who kills you is the head of the Bourville family!”

But then, he widened his eyes, his body stiffening and falling.

At 3 AM, over a dozen helicopters hovered overhead, their white lights blinding.

Professor Eve woke up, finding herself on a stretcher.

She turned her head, staring blankly at the vampire’s body, illuminated by multiple searchlights.

It was shriveled, like a withered husk.

“It’s too heavy, someone help!” A young man’s voice came from nearby.

Eve looked over.

An Xiaoyi was struggling to carry the heavy anti-materiel sniper rifle.

The distance from the sniper’s rooftop position to the roadside was nearly 100 meters, and he looked like he’d carried the sniper rifle the whole way.

“Don’t damage this gun!” a member of the equipment department shrieked.

“I just accidentally dropped it once,” An Xiaoyi wiped his sweat.

Eve’s pupils contracted slightly.

On the man’s somewhat delicate face, his eyes, when he lowered them for a moment, seemed to transform him into a different person.