Chapter 37: Fainted

The blood mist began to slowly gather, condensing into a longsword in Flosi’s hand.

Flosi took step after step toward Emilia.

But Emilia was completely unaware of all this, still searching through the items on the table.

At that moment, Emilia seemed to have found something and turned around.

A spray of blood burst forth, staining Emilia’s cheek red.

Emilia’s pupils shrank abruptly, and she took several steps back, looking at Flosi in front of her.

The longsword in Flosi’s hand did not stab at Emilia, but instead pierced straight through her own heart.

Flosi’s perpetually expressionless face finally changed.

It was struggle, pain, and a trace of madness.

Emilia watched Flosi warily as a purple scythe condensed in her hands. She swung the purple scythe, aiming directly at Flosi.

Inside Flosi’s mind, countless chaotic thoughts clashed with one another, countless frantic voices filled her brain. Gritting her teeth, the world before her eyes blurred into chaos.

She tried to take control of her body, but after just stabbing through her heart, she had completely lost control.

She had no time to leave this body, which meant…

She was still in a corrupted state!

Flosi’s heart sank as she felt her consciousness gradually sinking, slowly assimilating with those frenzied voices.

She could clearly sense her body being polluted bit by bit, but the blood mist she had used earlier to protect herself was working.

The corruption could only attack the blood mist first and could not reach the vampire’s pure blood, or rather, the vampire’s very essence for the time being.

“Flosi, what’s wrong?” Emilia asked, but the scythe in her hand quietly rose—if Flosi made any sudden move, the scythe would instantly strike down.

Flosi looked at Emilia’s action and made a bold decision with a flicker of thought.

She directly withdrew from the fight for control over the body.

In Emilia’s eyes, Flosi’s movements stiffened for a moment, but the next instant, the Flosi who had been struggling suddenly calmed down.

She began pulling out the longsword stabbed into her body.

Emilia frowned, uncertain about Flosi’s current condition.

“I’m fine now. Had a little problem just now, but it’s solved,” Flosi said.

Emilia’s frown deepened, still on high alert.

The longsword piercing Flosi’s body was slowly withdrawn. At that moment, Emilia noticed the expression Flosi had been hiding in the shadows from the very beginning.

She saw the eerie smile on Flosi’s otherwise calm face.

It was exactly the same expression as the vampire prince who had been corrupted during the “Corruption” incident years ago!

Without hesitation, the scythe instantly chopped off Flosi’s arm, and blood flew as her head was severed in the next moment.

“How about it? Can you still turn into a Blood Raven?”

Emilia frowned, asking Flosi.

Flosi didn’t answer. The vampire essence rose from her corpse, then slowly began to recondense into Flosi.

Flosi staggered, exhaling a long breath of stale air, looking at her own corpse on the ground with lingering fear.

She tested her body, but in the next moment, her expression changed.

She seemed to faintly hear that frenzied laughter and murmuring.

The moment Flosi noticed this, the voices deep in her mind started to echo again.

The corruption, after all, had spread a trace into her vampire essence!

But then, a sudden unique scent filled Flosi’s nostrils.

This smell was extremely familiar to Flosi, and the moment it appeared, the chaotic voices abruptly stopped, returning to silence.

As if… sealed away.

After the maddening sounds ended, the unique fragrance in her nostrils also slowly dissipated.

Flosi frowned slightly. She felt like she had smelled this scent somewhere before, and it was very familiar.

But for some reason, she just couldn’t remember it for now.

However, the immediate priority was not to track down the source of the scent, but to leave this place.

Flosi parted her lips slightly and uttered a string of strange syllables toward Emilia.

Upon hearing the syllables, Emilia slowly lowered her guard, though her face remained grave. “What exactly happened just now?”

“Let’s leave first,” Flosi said. Then the blood mist enveloped them both, instantly leaving Divine Norton Castle.

*****

Meanwhile, in the vampire’s ancient fortress.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Ivy felt every cough was accompanied by sharp pain in her chest, as if her lungs were about to be ripped out.

At this point, she had completely lost the last bit of strength; she couldn’t even lift her eyelids.

Her body was utterly weak, with only her toes just touching the ground, but she lacked the strength to stand on tiptoe and was instead left hanging by the ropes.

This fever had come on suddenly; even Ivy didn’t know the cause.

According to the original owner’s memories, since becoming a hero, she rarely fell ill. Most illnesses came from exposure to plague magic.

Now, with her power sealed, Ivy seemed to have become an ordinary person, even her constitution was ordinary.

Ivy’s complexion was pale, but her cheeks had a strange flush. Her lips were completely cracked and dry.

Every breath brought an itchy urge to cough and sharp chest pain.

Well… I’m finally going to die.

But not at Flosi’s hands, but from a fever instead.

Would I be the most miserable hero to die in this world?

This thought crossed Ivy’s mind, but immediately after, she smiled.

But that smile brought on several violent coughs.

Ivy tasted a metallic sweetness in her mouth.

She was coughing up blood.

Ivy spat out the blood and gasped softly.

Her consciousness grew blurry, and the dark and hollow world before her eyes began to spin.

But at that moment, Ivy suddenly felt the world before her was no longer dark and empty, but a faint light began to appear.

Is this my last breath?

The lantern show is starting.

Ivy raised her eyes and looked toward the source of the light.

A table, the tightly closed door, the cramped room, and the interrogation tools.

“Hmph… so it really is the lantern show…”

Ivy lowered her eyes again and sighed deeply as she murmured.

Hmm…

Hmm?

Ivy’s eyes flickered. She raised her gaze again, looking around.

It wasn’t a lantern show—she really had regained her vision.

Not only that, but her ability to speak had also returned!

“Cough, cough—”

But before Ivy could rejoice, she erupted into another violent coughing fit.

More blood flooded her mouth.

This time, though, she had no strength left to spit it out.

She felt the brightly lit room before her slowly darken.

Or rather, her vision began to fade to black.

Ivy’s consciousness blurred, and in the haze, she seemed to see a familiar figure.

Ivy squinted with effort.

She saw Lia’s silhouette.