BLOODY FEST (4)
Rumble-
Dust from the collapsing building scattered in a pale cloud of concrete particles.
'… What the hell is this?'
Jang Sung-jun couldn't tell if the scene of destruction unfolding before his eyes was a dream or reality.
It was still night, and with the dust not yet settled, visibility was poor-but as a telekinetic, he could sense the changes in the environment around him.
'Expand.'
As he extended the range of his telekinetic spatial awareness, Jang Sung-jun's jaw gradually dropped wider.
""
Thanks to his consistent training, his spatial detection could easily stretch out for several hundred meters.
'This can't be…'
That's how he was able to perceive the true nature of the scene earlier than anyone else.
'This is insane.'
Where the target hotel once stood, there was now a massive crater dozens of meters wide instead of a high-rise building.
It looked like the aftermath of a giant bomb explosion.
Surrounding buildings were completely devastated.
One nearby building was half-destroyed, and even those more than a hundred meters away from the blast center hadn't emerged unscathed.
'Just what is Jaehyun…'
Right before the explosion, there had been a warning from Kim Jaehyun, and
they had been instructed to stay far from the target building.
So this scene was clearly the result of Kim Jaehyun's power.
'Can a single person… really cause this?'
But Jang Sung-jun didn't realize-
That this was a weakened version of what Jaehyun had intended.
Babel had accelerated far too much.
More than half its mass had vaporized due to the heat caused by friction with the air, greatly reducing its destructive power.
Even so-
Squirm-
"Huh?"
That's when Jang Sung-jun sensed something squirming inside the crater.
[Everyone be careful! It's not over yet..!]
Kim Jaehyun's voice rang in his head, sounding strained.
And in the next instant-
Gasp!
He felt the thing that had been squirming suddenly rush toward them at incredible speed.
Terrified, he shouted,
"Everyone, get back!"
But in doing so, he exposed his own location to the blood-mass rushing toward them.
'This is bad!'
Sensing the rapid approach, Jang Sung-jun quickly wrapped himself in layers of telekinetic force.
One layer. Two. Three.
Even with all his preparations-
Thud!
The thing pierced right through his defenses and drove straight into his abdomen.
"Guh!"
And then-
Squelch, squelch-
Blood began pouring from his body at a terrifying rate.
Only then did he realize—it was a tentacle made of red blood that had pierced him.
"Hup!"
Sharpening his telekinesis like a blade, he slashed at the tentacle impaling him.
SPLASH!
As the tentacle was severed, thick, dark red blood splattered to the ground.
Some of that blood, sprayed through the air, was undoubtedly his own.
"Hah… hah…"
Barely clinging to life, Jang Sung-jun panted heavily as he glared in the direction the tentacle had come from.
There was a figure approaching-slowly this time.
Having taken a direct hit from the sky-fallen projectile, it seemed even that monster wasn't unscathed, dragging its steps awkwardly as it advanced.
Then-
Shff!
Sung-jun sensed someone appear behind the creature.
'It's him! Jaehyun's father, wasn't it!?'
He had witnessed the man's power with his own eyes.
Truly a terrifying force, worthy of being in Jaehyun's bloodline-the way he single-handedly annihilated the rampaging vampires on the bridge was still vivid in Sung-jun's memory.
Like Zhang Fei at the Changban Bridge, he alone had stood his ground against the horde, and the memory had sent chills down Sung-jun's spine.
But then-
'…What?'
Suddenly, he could no longer feel the movements of either the monster or Kim Dong-hyuk.
It was as if an error had occurred in the flow of information transmitted via
telekinesis.
BOOM! BOOM!
Loud explosions echoed from afar.
A battle was raging.
And soon, Jang Sung-jun realized-it wasn't that his senses were malfunctioning.
It was that they simply couldn't keep up.
'This is way beyond my level to interfere.'
He realized that trying to assist with his telekinesis was a delusion born of
arrogance.
RUMBLE! CRASH-
As he felt the nearby skeletal remains of a building collapse, Jang Sung-jun swallowed hard.
It was at that moment.
Squirm.
The pool of blood on the ground twitched, and Jang Sung-jun, whose senses were on high alert, immediately picked up on it.
Whoooosh!
Jang Sung-jun quickly used his telekinesis to leap far away from the spot.
Right after that…
Gurgle, gurgle.
The blood swelled up, and from it emerged a vampire in the form of an adult male.
It was a grotesque vampire, its entire body made of blood.
Then it began charging toward Jang Sung-jun.
Calmly, Jang Sung-jun formed a blade of telekinetic energy and aimed straight for its heart.
Slice!
It seemed like it would be subdued with absurd ease.
Splat!
But the split blood immediately splashed toward Jang Sung-jun.
Ssssss-!
The blood that clung to his body instantly began to melt it away.
"Aaaaargh!"
And it wasn't something happening only there.
In the city night, the dust had finally settled.
The moon, just shy of being full, brightly illuminated the streets, and vampires
made of blood clashed head-on with the retainers.
[Citizen Kim Gun's loyalty has reached 100.]
[Citizen Kim Gun is already registered as a retainer.]
[Retainer capacity has increased.]
[Citizen Jang Sung-jun's loyalty has reached 100.]
[Citizen Jang Sung-jun is already registered as a retainer.]
[Retainer capacity has increased.]
Perhaps due to the overwhelming scene, the loyalty of two retainers hit 100, increasing the limit by two.
But even after confirming the increase in retainer capacity, I couldn't relax.
'Why those guys?'
The monsters currently fighting with the retainers were clearly high-ranking vampires.
'Seven of them.'
Though they had expressionless faces made of blood, their distinctive appearances made it easy to recognize them at a glance.
'All of them are here except for the female vampire who showed up with that guy back then.'
I had thought it strange that no notifications had popped up about high-ranking vampires being hunted, but I hadn't expected them to end up like this.
'Did he devour them?'
Judging by their state, it looked like they had been consumed by the very one they used to worship as "the one."
'This is a problem.'
The issue was that being devoured seemed to have amplified their powers even further.
'And now, they don't even have a weakness.'
The once-unshakable truth that destroying the heart would kill them no longer applied.
Their bodies were entirely made of blood-there was no heart, no core to destroy.
'Piercing Arrow, summon.'
Even using Kim Ga-young's arrows to precisely pierce their chests had no effect.
'The only ones whose abilities seem to work are Lee Jun-hyuk and the twins.'
Lee Jun-hyuk, who could control water, and the twin brothers Moon Ji-hoon and Moon Sang-hoon, who emitted freezing energy that could freeze blood, were the only ones making any impact thanks to their ability traits. Everyone else was struggling.
The only saving grace was that Kim Da-jung was among them.
Her healing abilities, now strengthened by level-ups, were powerful enough to instantly recover even severe injuries.
Of course, healing wasn't a cure-all.
But-
'Assign quest to Jang Sung-jun. Quest reward: full recovery.'
[Citizen Jang Sung-jun has completed the quest.]
[100,000,000 won has been consumed for the quest.]
With enough money, anything was possible.
The problem was that even using quests this way had its limits.
'About three times per person is the max.'
The atmosphere on the battlefield clearly showed the retainers being pushed back.
'This isn't good.'
Fighting against vampires that wouldn't die was only draining stamina.
What's worse, each of them was a high-ranking vampire. Facing those who used unique blood-based abilities was no easy feat.
'They're just puppets now.'
Ultimately, the only way to end this situation was to kill the real body.
'Dad can't handle this alone.'
Thanks to the shock of dropping Babel and the blessing from Kim Da-jung,
Dad was barely holding the balance of power-but even he was slowly being overwhelmed.
"If this continues…"
It would be a disaster.
If all quest opportunities were used up and my support cut off, the retainers wouldn't be able to handle these blood vampires.
And if those things joined the fight between Dad and the True Ancestor after that, the outcome would be obvious.
'I was hoping Dad could be the one to hunt them.'
Right now, the most efficient way to earn experience points was for a family member to kill the monsters directly.
That would grant a fivefold EXP bonus along with all buffs received by citizens.
'It's a bit disappointing, but it can't be helped.'
I was planning to kill them myself anyway, even if it meant losing out on some experience.
So there was no reason to hesitate now.
After a brief moment of hesitation, I made a decision.
Among the retainers over there, only one person met the conditions necessary to use "that."
[Ms. Oh Eon-joo. Can you get close to the target?]
Losing Oh Eon-joo would make things harder for the retainers, but once we took out the true body controlling the puppet vampires, it would all be over
anyway.
"Grrr!"
Oh Eon-joo nodded as if to say she understood, then forcefully pushed off the ground.
She leapt toward the center of the explosion, using the crumbling wall of a building its windows shattered from the blast just moments ago—as a springboard.
BOOOOM!
Chunks of concrete flew in every direction as Oh Eon-joo's body shot toward the crater's center.
THUD! CRACK-!
The vampire bastard and my father were still engaged in a brutal fight.
The blood swirling around the progenitor relentlessly attacked my father, but he withstood it, wrapped in his body-enhancing energy.
The faint glow overlaying that energy was Kim Dajeong's blessing-faint enough to mean it was about to run out.
He had used teleportation at the perfect moment to dodge an attack and appear behind the enemy.
SMACK!
But his kick was blocked by a membrane of blood that appeared instantly, making it useless.
A shockwave rippled out, and once again, a storm of blood resumed.
BOOM!
The blood surging toward my father exploded and scattered in every direction.
Even just watching it, the battle was too intense to intervene easily.
[Can you get any closer?]
"Grrrr…"
Seeing Oh Eon-joo hesitate made me consider leveling her up again. But taking her from level 50 to 51 would cost a staggering…
"30 billion won."
Not an amount I couldn't afford.
The profits from the vampire battles far exceeded that.
"Manage retainers. Level up Oh Eon-joo."
Spending a whopping 150 billion won, I boosted her level to 55. Her hesitant eyes began to track the movements of my father and the progenitor.
"Grrr!"
Determined that she could manage it, Oh Eon-joo moved toward the progenitor without hesitation.
And in that moment-
BOOOOM!
Suddenly, the blood swirling around the bastard exploded all at once.
Then-
"Grrr?"
Ssssshhhhh-
The ground all around turned blood-red.
It looked as though we were standing on a river of blood.
'What… is this?'
From Oh Eon-joo's perspective, it was impossible to understand what was happening.
But from my viewpoint, watching from the sky, I could see it clearly.
A river of blood was flowing through the entire city.
Death and blood had spread across all of Ulsan, forming a giant circle centered on the bastard.
Blood rivers were flowing inward from the outskirts, all converging on him.
It looked like a true Festival of Blood.
'So this is the Blood Festival they were talking about.'
CRAAACK!
A massive lightning bolt tore through the air, and a thick blood mist poured out from the crater's center.
"Hahahahahahahaha!"
From within, the laughter of a madman rang out.
I instinctively knew:
Something ominous was about to happen.
As a sinister, blood-red energy enveloped the bastard's body and began to expand-
"Grrr!"
Oh Eon-joo reached her destination.
And then-
'Domain Expansion.'
WUUUUUM!
This time, a bright light spread out from Oh Eon-joo in all directions.
It was only a small semicircle with a 15-meter radius, but it contained immense power.
It was part of the "Pre-Deployment" phase, a newly unlocked feature from upgrading the Dignity of the Household Overlord skill to level 6.
It could only be used once, and only by a retainer with 100 trust and 100 loyalty. The duration was short, but—
'Descent.'
FLASH-
The effect was nothing short of overwhelming.
The scenery around me flashed and shifted-and when I slowly opened my
eyes…
"Kyaaaargh!"
At the center of a blood-drenched hellscape, the apex of the vampire race, engulfed in black flames, was screaming in agony, its body writhing.
I spoke to it:
"The festival is over, you bloodsucking mosquito bastard."
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]
IF you want to buy the rest of the chapters in one go , then i can give you discount. Enjoy reading.