Chapter Ninety-Two: Return

I looked at the golden-robed girl kneeling on the ground in utter despair before me and said coldly, “I am generous enough to allow you to state your last words. What are they?”

“Bah!” The Sunlit One said scornfully, “Save your false kindness. You bloodsucking monster, even if I die, I will never yield to you.”

“I think you are overestimating yourself. Whether you surrender or not has nothing to do with me. I am not interested in you. If it were that white-robed old man from last time, perhaps he might have aroused a little interest in me. Letting you speak your last words is merely a matter of noble courtesy and respect for life.” I said lightly to the golden-robed girl, who was grinding her teeth at me.

“Respect for life?” Hearing my answer, the golden-robed girl seemed to hear the funniest joke in the world, and laughed derisively. “And you, a cold-blooded executioner, dare speak to me of respecting life? Don’t be ridiculous!” At the end, the golden-robed girl roared furiously, “A monster whose hands are stained with blood, and you call that respect for life?”

“Perhaps to the likes of you, we of the bloodline are indeed bloodsucking monsters. But whether you believe it or not, there is no race in this world that respects life more than ours.” I said calmly to the furious girl in gold. “Since you have no last words, then you may die now.”

My claws slashed toward her throat, preparing to end her life.

“Then let us die together, cold-blooded monster!” With a smile of release at the corner of her lips, the Sunlit One shouted at me. Then a blaze of brilliant light burst before my eyes and swallowed my figure.

The light gradually faded, and the world around me returned to its former state. Space rippled, revealing my silhouette once more.

My whole body was scorched, wisps of smoke still curling from me, as though I had just been burned by fire.

“I was careless.” Looking at my ruined body, I gave a bitter, helpless smile.

At the very moment I was about to end the Sunlit One’s life, I had not expected her to burn through her own life force first and become a sphere of light. Taken completely by surprise, I had no time to evade. If I had not hidden myself in a crack of space in time, I would likely have already been reduced to ash by the sunlight.

She must have planned this from the very beginning. She simply had not expected that, before she acted, the blood hunters present would not only fail to hold me back, but instead be slaughtered to the last. Still, I had never imagined she possessed such power; likely no bloodkin other than myself could have escaped a mutual destruction with her. A grave mistake. And yet, I had never thought that one day I would be saved by this impure blood. What irony.

Looking at the blood-drenched earth before me, I could not help but sigh softly. So many lives had been lost at my hands again. I had grown weary of the feel of slaughter.

What I had just said to the girl in gold had not been a lie. The bloodkin truly are the race that respects life most in this world. For bloodkin are a race suspended between life and death, abandoned by life yet not belonging to death, forever forced to move on in lonely exile at the edge of existence, longing for salvation. Therefore, no other race in this world craves life more than the bloodkin.

As for why vampires are detested by the bloodkin, it is not because they have lost the so-called glory of the bloodline, nor because they have forfeited its pride, but because their wanton slaughter and blood-hunting violate the bloodkin’s reverence for life. That is why vampires are hunted down by the bloodkin.

And now, ever since the blood hunters went to war against the bloodkin, countless lives have vanished forever. Humans and bloodkin alike. Every bloodkin can only watch one living life after another slip from their hands, helpless to stop it. No bloodkin enjoys killing, and yet this world has forced every one of them into a cold-blooded executioner. Perhaps it is rather laughable: the reason humans continue to perish at the hands of bloodkin is, in the end, humanity itself.

Hidden within the darkness, I watched all of this, and only sorrow remained in my heart.

So much time had passed, yet the wounds on my body showed no sign of healing. I could feel the lingering power of sunlight still gnawing at my flesh.

“Must I force myself again?” I murmured with a bitter smile. Even though I was not a pure bloodkin, sunlight was still fatal to me. If it were only a little sunlight, this body could still resist it, but to be struck directly like this had left an injury that would not heal.

So be it. It was not as though this was the first time. I just needed to find a place and sleep for a few days, and I would be fine. That was what I thought.

Wait. Why do I know this is not the first time? Why do I know that I am not a pure bloodkin? Only then did I realize that a jumble of memories had suddenly surfaced in my mind. These were Lilith’s memories. No, these were the memories of Liliana Lilith Dracula.

“Because the injury is too severe?” I said helplessly. Perhaps because of the damage from the sunlight, I found my consciousness beginning to blur. It seemed that another self was waking within my mind, and I had gradually lost control of my body.

“Am I about to awaken, I who was sealed away and cast into slumber?” I gazed at the night sky and murmured. A trace of reluctance flickered in my eyes; I did not know when I would next be able to see this sky. My consciousness grew heavier and heavier, until at last it slowly sank into sleep.

“Little one, I hope you can live well in this cold world.”

I spoke to my other self, and then I plunged wholly into the boundless darkness of icy silence.

“Where is this? Why can I not see a single ray of light? What has happened to me?” The one who slowly awoke staggered forward, searching for an exit. At last, in the distance ahead, I saw a faint glimmer of light. I quickened my pace, stumbling toward that fragile brightness, until my fingertips touched it.

Slowly opening my eyes, I felt a wave of weakness. Where was this? I looked at the cold corpses strewn across the ground and the earth stained red with blood, and a deep confusion filled me. Where was I? What had happened? My mind was a blank.

I only remembered that in the battle against the Vampire King, I had unleashed the power of the sealed bloodline, and after that, I had lost consciousness completely. Had the bloodline been sealed again?

Looking at my body, I could only smile bitterly. There were scorch marks all over me, and wisps of light smoke rose from my skin. The searing pain tore at my nerves, and the sensation of utter weakness almost swallowed my consciousness. What sort of battle could have left things like this?

I swept my gaze over the surrounding scene, but found no clue at all. Right now, the most important thing was to find a place to recuperate. These injuries would likely require a long slumber to heal. I wonder how Lilil and Ang are doing? Ang, who should have been at my side all along, was nowhere to be seen, and I could not help but worry for them. And Xingyu, this person I cannot bring myself to let go of—are they doing well now?

Thinking of these things, my figure vanished into the darkness.