Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 417 417: Which Count?

Brogan took his eyes off Alexia while spreading his arms and looking almost aghast at the vampires' corpses on the ground.

"My, my," he said in a deep voice before looking back up into Alexia's face to smirk and flash his fangs again,

"Just look what you've done. I smell more dead that way… Found a few other corpses on the way here. Tsk tsk, you've sure been busy."

"You're their leader?" Alexia asked.

Caius noticed she hadn't struck yet, as she had against the other vampires she had fought today, and he wondered if her caution was due to her sensing she could learn more from this Vampire, or if she were weighing her options as her instincts warned her this would be a far more difficult battle.

Brogan grinned at her question.

"Wouldn't you like to know," he said with a chuckle.

"Are you— Are you an idiot?" Alexia asked and she seemed legitimately annoyed, "Why would I ask if I didn't want to know?"

"You're a little spitfire aren't you?" Brogan asked with a chuckle and then raised his face as he took a long breath of air and then expelled it before speaking again,

"Before I kill you, you should know it's nothing personal really."

"Nothing personal?" Alexia repeated with a scoff.

"You see, I'm a bit upset. After so long at this, I have yet to meet him. And now, tonight I learn a Vampire Hunter has been going about interfering in my business… Well, you can understand why I had to do something.

So believe me when I say, it's nothing personal."

"Meet him? Who's 'him'?" Alexia asked with a frown.

"A Count… Oh, I doubt you'd know," Brogan said.

"A Count," Alexia said, "Which Count?"

There were so many Counts in the Capital. Lucian Von Helsing himself was a Count. Was Brogan referring to him? Alexia wondered.

Caius's brows furrowed. Naturally, Alexia's mind had gone to normal nobility but Caius knew there was another option. One that would make sense for why Brogan said Alexia wouldn't know. One more likely since Brogan himself was a Noble;

The Count he was referring to was a 'Vampire Count'.

There are not many of those. And there are none in the Capital. At least, there should be none in the Capital but there was one now;

Caius himself.

The one who held that title before him, Anton Orlock had his territory at the outskirts of the Capital with a Manor that was shielded with Magical enhancements that had been meant to keep out intruders but also hide him and his vampiric operations from anyone who would come snooping.

The enchantments had also protected Anton Orlock from Athenodora, Caius's Vampire creator, who had a grudge against him. Athenodora had used Caius to gain access to Anton and then killed him during which Caius had claimed the Vampire Count title.

'They're here for me,' Caius thought, and as the thought formed, he became especially convinced he was right.

Unless Athenodora told them, the other Vampire Nobles didn't know who he was but still, he couldn't help but wonder why they would target him even if they did know. Courtesy demanded that they at least meet with him first and acknowledge his ascension into vampiric Nobility…

And that was when Caius understood; His nobility hadn't been acknowledged. As far as the other Nobles were concerned, he had stolen a title that should not belong to him.

Sure, Athenodora had technically acknowledged him as she had performed the necessary rite herself but that likely didn't win Caius any favors since Athenodora wasn't exactly loved by her fellow nobles. She had no alliances with any of them. Hell, she didn't even have a Coven. She just went about doing whatever she pleased.

They probably still didn't even know she had sired her first and only spawn. The only Noble to know of it was Anton because it was the loophole that had allowed Athenodora to enter his protected home and kill him as well as his coven of hundreds of Vampires.

The other nobles probably thought that Athenodora performing the 'Rite of Noble Ascension' for a Vampire that had not been acknowledged by them all was another way of her giving them the middle finger before she continued in her nomadic ways.

And now, they were waging war—or at least preparing to wage war—against this new unacknowledged Noble.

This was all still conjecture but Caius was sure he got a lot, if not all, of that correct.

Brogan sensed Caius watching him and glanced over.

"You're not a Hunter, are you, boy? You don't have the stench on you," Brogan said with a smile while wrinkling his nose,

"Makes me wonder why you'd be here with her. At least, she can defend herself. Not against me, of course. But still…"

"Stay the hell away from him," Alexia said, brandishing her sword for the first time.

"Ha!" Brogan laughed and unleashed magical energy.

The Eighth Circle.

"You should know better than to fight a losing battle," Brogan said as he began to lift off the ground just by the strength of his magic while spreading his arms to summon spell circles above both his hands.

Alexia's brows remained furrowed.

"Of course, I do," she said, "But this isn't that."

~Von Helsing Arts: Monster's Bane~

It wasn't a spell, it was an innate ability within her blood, and activated by the induction ritual. A torrent of magical might spread out of Alexia's form in a powerful wave. It was well past the sixth Circle and well into the Seventh and yet, it didn't seem to actually have a rigid circle classification.

It ebbed and flowed as though unstable and yet, was balanced. A violent torrent that consumed all rationality and yet brought a wave of calm and clarity. Such were the contradictions within the Von Helsing Arts and the source of their great aptitude against monsters.

It was as though the presence of the vampire before her disgusted Alexia so much that she gained strength greater than her own through sheer will.

Without a word, platforms of wind appeared and she went climbing into the air while swinging her sword. When her sword flashed, it didn't unleash a barrage of slashes as it had done for as long as Caius had known and seen her fight. Instead, it sent a single slash that was colored in a violent red that was quite akin to blood and bearing a detest and desire to rid the world of the monster's existence.

Brogan flicked a few fingers and summoned a shielding spell that blocked the attack with ease before thrusting his arms towards Alexia to unleash the spells within the spell circles it still had above its hands. Tendrils of water spun out but they were a very dark shade.

Water is an element with two sides. A nurturing/nourishing side and a turbulent side. Usually, the two are in balance but Brogan's spell seemed to have completely stripped away the nurturing/nourishing side to keep the turbulence.

It was a lot like how Storm Magic contained and used the chaotic side of water but somehow, this felt more vicious.

The tendrils went swinging and thrusting at Alexia who sidestepped a few with her wind platforms while swinging her sword to cut the others.

Alas, her attacks didn't quite cut through as easily as she would have hoped. She was pushed off the platform she was on, and would have fallen hard to the ground had she not created another one.

But while she contested with a couple of tendrils with her sword, more came at her from all sides. But right before they made contact, an Arcane Symbol flashed in the air and a wind cyclone surrounded her. The cyclone had a violent red mixed in— a sign that it was being empowered with the 'Von Helsing Arts'.

"Ngh!" Alexia groaned under the strain of the tendrils. And then, she just gave up. She stopped using her sword to clash against the tendrils and canceled the cast of her wind cyclone shield.

*BANG!!!*

The tendrils slammed into her from all sides, with the sound of an explosion before splattering into drops that came down like rain. Each drop struck the ground with the impact of boulders and Caius couldn't help but flinch at the strength within the spell.

But mostly, he just stared in horror at the spot where Alexia had vanished within the water. And then he heard a sound of struggle and looked a few feet down from there to see her about three feet off the ground.

In a flash, Caius understood what had happened;

Alexia pushed back against the tendrils as hard as she did just so that when she let them go, their crash into one another would be particularly violent. That crash had now gotten rid of every single one of the tendrils Brogan had cast.

And that would have been acceptable for Brogan if Alexia had actually been caught within the explosion. But she had canceled her wind platform just in time to fall faster than the tendrils could smash into each other.

And now, after catching her own fall with an urgently conjured wind platform, she directed her eyes at Brogan and propelled herself upward to launch a powerful attack.