Chapter 625: Two Progenitors,Two Leaders, Two Progenitors... And One Accord.
Chapter 625: Two Progenitors, Two Leaders, Two Progenitors... And One Accord.
"Explain. Why did the Olympian Goddesses invade my territory?" He spoke in an authoritative tone that demanded answers.
"They are my allies," Victor replied with the same tone, not willing to back down:
"My allies." He kept emphasizing the 'my'.
"...." Vlad narrowed his eyes.
"I will not have foreigners in my territory, foreigners who are not even of use to me."
"...Your territory?" Victor asked.
"Even if they are in the Snow Clan territory, the Counts' territories are nothing before the Crown. They represent me, but the territory is mine."
"..." Victor and Agnes' expressions sharpened.
It was evident that the two did not like what he said at all.
Yes, on paper, the territory of the Snow Clan belonged to the Snow Clan, but the one who owned it was Vlad because he was the King of these lands; everyone knew that.
But to openly claim that the Snow Clan was 'nothing' compared to the Crown was openly denying 2000 years of development that the Snow Clan had accomplished.
Hearing Agnes' teeth grinding, Victor decided to intervene. He understood Agnes' feelings, but it wasn't the time for that now:
"Fair enough." Victor assented.
"It's your territory, right?"
"In that case, we will leave. This planet is big, and we can easily find land to settle down."
"...." Vlad narrowed his eyes.
Victor's smile grew a little, "... Don't tell me you're going to say that the entire planet is your territory?"
"Even you, the Vampire King, in all your arrogant glory, wouldn't proclaim such arrogant words without backing it up, right?"
"You're not that brazen."
Crack, Crack.
The handrest of Vlad's throne started to break. Vlad's expression didn't change, but Victor saw that he had pissed him off.
"Oh, and when I refer to 'us', I mean the Snow Clan, Alucard, Fulger, Scarlett, and 'all' our Allies."
"..." Vlad's gaze grew even harder.
"That way, we won't have any problems, right?" He spoke with a small innocent smile.
"The Snow, Fulger, and Scarlett Clans cannot leave. They are still the Countesses, and they still serve me."
"Hmm, I'm not so sure about that…." Victor's smile grew.
"King." Agnes practically spat when she said that word, "Have you checked our contracts lately?"
"...." Vlad raised an eyebrow.
"Let me get them; it's faster that way."
Vlad opened his eyes wide when he heard what Victor said.
Victor opened his hand as darkness formed in his palm, and three black tomes appeared.
'How does he have those...?' Vlad's head started to spin, and soon he opened his eyes wide, 'The Witches! He saved the Witch's daughter! Knowing that woman, she would give some kind of reward. If Alucard has the mind of Adonis, the man will manage to make a deal that benefits him.'
Victor threw the three tomes in Vlad's direction, and the man caught them; he didn't even need to open them to know that the three contracts he had binding the Countesses to him were annulled.
The reason? Alucard didn't speak empty words, not when it involved his Family.
After all, only two people could void a black contract: the Witch Queen herself, and the owner of the contract, in this case, Vlad.
'That woman forgot everything I did for her and accepted this deal? Is her daughter's life so important-...' Vlad didn't finish his thought because he knew that woman's dream was always to have a family, and he could see the woman presenting any kind of reward for the 'savior' of her daughter.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Victor asked.
"I don't need to; I know they are useless now."
Victor remained neutral, but internally he was holding back a big smile that threatened to break out on his face. He could imagine what Vlad was thinking right now.
'I'm glad I didn't give the full report. Hiding things is always good~' Victor chuckled to himself.
Suddenly, Victor felt excruciating pain throughout his entire body.
[Victor, your body is a mess! You need to get that Energy out of your body now!] Roxanne spoke up.
[Alter, this is your fault! Why did you introduce the Essence of the Progenitor in the mixture!? His body can't handle that much Energy! Mine was enough!]
[I will not lower my head to that man! Never! I refuse!]
[Idiot, this is not about pride! It's about his well-being!]
[...Ugh.] Alter grunted.
[Roxanne, can you contain the Energy rushing into my body?] Victor asked.
[I'm already doing that, but since we're fused now, you still receive small amounts of Energy, so you need to expel the Energy I produced for you!]
[Okay, give me a few minutes. I need to finish this conversation.]
"... There's one thing I don't understand. The Queen and I have an agreement; even if you saved her daughter, she wouldn't break that agreement with me because of that. What did you do?"
"Vlad, you're not stupid. You realize what's going on, and knowing you, you already have an idea of what happened…." Sometimes letting the opponent imagine the answer was more effective than telling them.
"..." Silence was the answer Victor wanted.
"Vlad, I would never leave my Wives 'chained' to something."
"Never."
Scathach wanted to correct Victor and say that she was 'not' his Wife yet, but she knew this was not the time for that.
"They are Countesses; that is their responsibility."
Victor quickly rebutted, "It's not about them being Countesses or not. It's about the contract being a 'chain' so you could control things when necessary."
"And I wouldn't allow that for long."
"…I see. I should have seen this coming, but-." Vlad would continue, but Victor interrupted him, saying:
"But you never imagined that any newborn, even if it were a Progenitor, could meet the Queen and make a deal with her."
Vlad nodded, "… That's the most troublesome thing about you, Alucard. Your unpredictability regarding the evolution of your strength and your actions that have no bearing on your 'Wives' or 'Family'."
That was something Jeanne, Morgana, Natashia, and Agnes could all agree on, too. Victor was too predictable with his Family.
But with all the other matters that had nothing to do with his Family, he was a wild card who did things as he 'felt' right.
It didn't follow logic, and because of that, Scathach had so many headaches when she made war plans, and Victor did something else but ultimately ended up benefiting their group too.
"You've failed at many things, just like your attempt with the World Tree. This is one of them."
"...."
"I am merged with her, and I have her memories."
"And even if I didn't have that, I could tell you felt surprised when you saw my state."
"...Aphrodite..." Vlad felt his headache rising; he could already deduce what had happened.
"... Being the 'lover' of a passionate Goddess like Aphrodite gives you many things, among them being the empathy derived from the Blessing of Love." Victor had no obligation to tell him that he 'married' Aphrodite. He would kick that hornet's nest in the future. Marrying a Goddess like Aphrodite and letting everyone know about it would lead to many problems.
'I need to know if Aphrodite said that to other Goddesses too... She probably did.' Victor sighed inwardly.
Empathy derived from the Blessing of Love and being able to feel Negativity through Roxanne. Put those two powers together, with Victor's absurd perception, and no secret could be hidden from Victor.
Even Vlad was no exception.
"… You have become even more troublesome," Vlad grumbled, and then a thought popped into his head.
'Wait... He just brought several Goddesses as Allies... What if those Goddesses give him Blessings? He will become even more dangerous!' Then, gathering the Gods' information in his head, he realized something:
'It's okay, a Mortal, Progenitor or not, has limits on how many Blessings he can receive in his Soul. After all, too much power and the Soul can break-... Fuck, a World Tree! She is nurturing his Soul; she would never let his Soul break.'
It had been a while since Vlad had spoken bad words, but today was a special occasion. The way Vlad looked at Victor changed; it was the look of someone who was seeing a monster.
'If he can already handle all my pressure in just a few years... In the not-so-distant future, he will be able to fight me...'
Vlad started to fear something... He began to fear Victor's potential.
'All of his growth makes sense. When he awakened as a Vampire, he became a Progenitor with the three Bloodlines of the Strongest Vampire Counts. Just with that power, given time, he would be unstoppable.'
'Scathach trained him and molded that potential into something useful, and due to being a Progenitor, he was already ahead of several Noble Vampires when the training ended.'
'AND then it began to happen; he began to make allies. The Maids he created, the Countesses themselves... Then he merged with Adonis and gained his cunning and beauty, beauty which attracted the Goddess of Beauty herself to him, which eventually made the Goddess fall in love and grant her Blessings to him... Something that was expected, after all, he was 'Adonis', the man that Aphrodite loved.'
'The World Tree accepted him as its host, and even though he didn't know what happened at the time, that power was still nurturing him.'
With each encounter that Victor had with other Beings, he gained allies, and those allies gave him something; Vlad even had reports that Anderson, the Second Prince of The Wolves, was a great friend of Victor's.
And he became his friend with just one fight.
Put all that together with the discipline that Scathach gave him and Victor's own personal goal of getting stronger... He managed several times to break common sense.
Vlad could defeat Victor now. He just needed to enter his True Form and destroy his Soul with all his might.
... Yes, it would be that easy... Or maybe not. To be honest, Vlad wasn't sure anymore.
Since Victor's Soul merged with a World Tree, the World Tree itself was protecting his Soul... There was also the fact that if even Vlad decided to attack, the women here in the room could harm him and possibly kill him.
Not to mention still having the Aphrodite problem... Vlad wasn't confident he could resist Aphrodite's charms.
One-on-one, he could deal with them all, and with Aphrodite, he could make plans to kill her, but if they teamed up.
Vlad wasn't sure of his victory. He was arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. He knew he was at a disadvantage.
'Fuck, just what did I create? I should have done something much sooner.'
It was too late to stop Victor now… too late.
These thoughts only lasted five seconds, five seconds that Victor was silently watching Vlad.
He could feel all of his emotions shifting behind the expressionless mask.
'Heh~, seems like my existence bothers him, huh.' Victor thought.
"… Vlad, even though I think you are a terrible family man."
"...." Vlad's face contorted in annoyance.
"I don't have any particular hatred towards you or anything like that."
Vlad raised an eyebrow.
"The grudge I previously held about you locking me away in the Human World was washed away when I killed your useless grandchildren."
"My feelings against you are neutral, and some part of me also likes you as a friend."
"… Huh?" An expression of utter disbelief was seen on Vlad's face.
"Our relationship is complicated, but it's not bad." Victor ignored Vlad and continued:
"You gave me the opportunity to grow by giving me the Title of Vampire Count, and that gave me more leeway and made me known in the Supernatural World."
"And I helped you with your relationship with Ophis; I know that means something to you."
"...." Vlad's face turned neutral again, and he didn't say anything because Victor was correct.
"I bear no ill will against you and never will until such time as you give me cause to do so."
"Vlad, I don't want to go to war with you."
"The reason? She just left the room with tears in her eyes."
"..." A look of sadness flashed across Vlad's eyes.
"You are a King, Vlad. A competent King. I recognize that."
"…But for god sake, you have a damn 20-inch dick up your ass."
"..." A hush fell over the place, and the pressure Vlad was giving off slowly began to build along with the bulging veins on his head.
"Pfft..." Scathach couldn't keep a straight face and almost laughed.
She wasn't the only one. Morgana's face was contorting a lot now, and only she knew how hard she was holding back from laughing.
Not minding Vlad's glare, Victor continued, "Before you ask about war, why don't you ask why the Goddesses are here?"
"Just because they are only 'MY' Allies doesn't mean the Goddesses can't help Nightingale."
"Get the stick called 'control' out of your ass, and think clearly."
"There are things you cannot control in the world, and you, a being who has lived 5000 years, should know that."
"Just because you're so powerful doesn't mean things outside your control can't happen."
"The war the Demons started is proof of that."
"I am proof of that."
"Nightingale is divided, I have all the war potential on my side, and you have all the remaining numbers and the Royal Guards that are made of Vampire Nobles that you created yourself but lack the potential that the Countesses have."
'Potential that you yourself limit, afraid of Vampires getting out of your control...' Victor thought to himself but didn't say it aloud. That specific point, he could understand. Vampire Nobles were troublesome, especially the men, because they would bear their fangs at the slightest hint of weakness.
'Because of this, Maids are better, and Female Vampires are better~' Victor didn't need to worry about that because all the Vampires he would create in the future would only be female.
'An army of Maids...' Just at the thought, Victor almost drooled with anticipation, 'Although those Maids will be directly subordinate to Kaguya and the girls.'
'Hmm, who needs male Vampires? I can just turn them into Ghouls, and Maria will grow her army even more... Speaking of Ghouls. I need to put into practice the other plan that I had thought of but didn't have time to do because of all these events...'
"If I leave now, Noble Vampires, as a whole, will be vulnerable, and this is not the time for that."
"Therefore, I have a proposal."
"The Goddesses and my future allies will come to Nightingale, but we will also contribute to society at large."
"In return, you do not poke your nose into my affairs and cease all future attempts to spy on me and my allies."
"… I will also help if, in the future, you decide to go to war because of Otsuki Hana."
Vlad's neutral gaze immediately changed to a stern look.
"What do you know, Alucard?"
"I know enough."
"..." Vlad looked at Jeanne and Morgana.
"Yes, we told him. He deserves to know; after all, he is going to marry Otsuki Haruna, Hana's sister." Jeanne spoke.
"...Why the sudden interest in my personal affairs, Alucard?"
"..." Victor looked at Vlad with empty eyes, a look that Alexios and the girls shared.
"…Now, I'm really questioning whether Vlad hit his head at any point in his life or if he's naturally bad at these things," Victor commented with a sigh, then he looked at Alexios:
"My condolences, Alexios."
"..." Literal tears fell down Alexios' face. Finally, someone understood him!
"Believe it or not, he was better before, he really needs to take a vacation and put things in perspective, but he never listens to me." Even the oldest God could become mentally impaired if they followed Vlad's mental torture routine.
The mind needs rest too... Something Vlad rarely does, the last time being when he traveled with Ophis.
"Just know your daughter won't have that problem with me, Alexios. I may not be a good Ruler, but I will never fail to do my utmost." Victor spoke.
"Mm, I trust you on that one."
A mutual agreement was made between the two men there.
Vlad looked at all this with a blank stare. With so many words exchanged, he already understood what had happened.
"...Fuck, I knew he was dense, but this is ridiculous. How did he even get six wives?" Morgana spoke.
"Ruby said that some women like dense men..." Agnes murmured.
Morgana and Jeanne felt hit by those words.
Though Morgana's reason for liking Vlad was because of his power in the beginning.
And in Jeanne's case, it was because Vlad' saved' her from being burned at the stake.
"Now that I think about it, we didn't particularly like him because he was good at talking, huh..." Morgana spoke.
"I should have seen this sooner. I think damsel in distress syndrome and my lack of memories led me to this situation." Jeanne spoke.
"Can we get back to the main conversation?" Vlad felt weird saying that. He felt like everyone, even Alexios, was judging him right now, and it wasn't a very good feeling.
"Haah, I'm done with this shit." Victor finally exploded and said, "Otsuki Haruna will be my Wife in the future. She is the sister of Otsuki Hana, your late wife; they are SISTERS, Vlad. What happens when a sibling is killed by someone else?"
"The remaining sibling will want revenge."
"Correct!" Victor clapped his hands several times, "Someone give him an award! Because I, Victor-kun, don't want to deal with this shit anymore, bye!"
"W-Wait, Victor! You can't go out and leave everyone here! And the deal!?" Agnes screamed.
"Meh, Vlad has no choice but to accept this matter. I don't want to fight him over Ophis, and he doesn't want to make the little girl sad either."
"I have things to do now."
"So... Bye! I will be back in a few minutes!" Before Victor ran, he looked at the women:
"Oh, Scathach, Agnes, and Natashia. Take care of things."
"... Leave it to me.." The three spoke at the same time.
"Hmm." Victor nodded and disappeared in a golden flash.
He appeared several KM away from the Royal Capital.
[Victor now!]
[I know!]
Victor let go of Junketsu, put his hands together, and entered a famous pose as he looked at the moon as if it were his mortal enemy:
"Kaaa-... Mee-..."
Roxanne materialized beside him and yelled,
"Stop!!!"
"Eh?"
"Idiot, do you want to be sued for copyright!? And don't destroy the moon! Who knows what might happen to this planet if that happens!"
"Now, just create a fireball or something!"
"Ugh, fine!"
Victor pointed his right hand toward the sky and concentrated all his power.
In the blink of an eye, a fireball that looked like a literal sun appeared in the sky.
"Fuck! Victor, compress this shit and throw it into space!"
"Easier said than done, you know!?" Victor ground his teeth.
"Just do it!"
"Ughhh!"
Suddenly the fireball began to compress into a basketball-sized white fireball, and the heat of the white fireball was burning everything around him.
Victor poured all the Energy that was overloading his body into the fireball.
If before he was at 200% capacity, this power slowly decreased to 100% of his capacity.
The whole process took a minute... A minute of pure destruction to the environment.
Looking at the fireball that was 5 meters in diameter, he broke out in a cold sweat when he felt the heat.
'This is very powerful!'
"Stop admiring the sphere! Throw it into space now!"
Victor awoke from his stupor and threw the fireball into space... far away from the moon, just in case.
The sphere flew at a ridiculous speed into the sky, illuminating all of Nightingale, and in less than a few seconds, the sphere passed through the planet's atmosphere and flew even further, and... It exploded, illuminating the entire sky.
That day, an entire part of the planet was illuminated by the sphere's light that exploded, bringing chaos to all Vampire Nobles and the Races in the Snow Clan.
And also alerting the other residents of this planet to an existence that could create an attack that could light up a part of the planet for a total of two hours.