Read Novel Full Chapter 762: What Lies Behind the Blood Moon
Chapter 762: What Lies Behind the Blood Moon
Nikolai struggled to move after hours of drinking with his father and grandfather. Not long after training together, the trio ended up upstairs, where the expensive leather sofas could unfold into beds. He spent the night listening to their complaints about the situation… Though it wasn’t hopeless, he kind of understood their worries.
“Don’t sacrifice myself… huh?”
He leaned back against the warm leather, his hair a mess as the morning sunlight peeked over the horizon.
“Haa…”
His mouth tasted horrible.
The combination of beer, blood whiskey and whatever Viktor eventually found inside the cabinet left Nikolai feeling as though something had died inside his throat during the night.
‘Damn those two…’
Ivan remained asleep several metres away, one enormous arm hanging from the edge of the sofa while Viktor had somehow stolen three cushions and wrapped himself beneath an expensive blanket like an oversized child.
Nikolai found it amusing, before something beyond the enormous windows caught his attention.
“…Hm?”
Morning had already arrived.
The sky carried the pale orange light of sunrise, while thin clouds stretched across the distant horizon. Yet above them remained something that shouldn’t have looked so vivid beneath the growing sunlight.
Nikolai slowly sat upright.
‘The Blood Moon…’
He hadn’t thought about it properly in days.
After the first nights, once the initial madness disappeared and the supernatural population gradually adjusted to its influence, the crimson moon became little more than part of the scenery.
‘Why is it still here?’
He couldn’t help but connect this to Alucard and the insane doctor Franz.
Thump…
Nikolai placed one hand against his chest.
‘No.’
He wasn’t ignoring this, especially when the island assault hadn’t begun yet. If the Blood Moon had anything to do with Alucard or the Nosferatu, Nikolai wanted to know before stepping into their territory.
He carefully stood.
His skull immediately protested.
“Ugh…”
‘First, I’m finding water.’
…
Almost forty minutes later, Nikolai entered the underground research wing beneath the main Volkov estate.
The headache remained, but several bottles of water, a shower and enough coffee to kill a normal human had at least made him functional again.
Unlike the training chambers, the laboratories had changed almost continuously over the past several months.
Clean white walls surrounded him.
Transparent screens covered several sections of reinforced glass while strange machines hummed beyond them, many combining human technology with supernatural materials Nikolai still couldn’t identify at a glance.
‘I wonder how much this place costs to run…’
Several researchers passed through the corridor carrying tablets, sealed containers and samples of blood, but most simply bowed their heads when they noticed him.
“Morning, Patriarch.”
“Morning.”
Nikolai raised his hand lazily before continuing further into the complex.
‘Where the hell are they…?’
He hadn’t visited the laboratories recently. Most of his time had been consumed by the alliance, his family and the increasingly troublesome situation with Alucard, while Anastasia seemed perfectly happy being left alone whenever she buried herself inside another research project.
Sasha was somehow even worse.
Once the mermaid became interested in something, Nikolai suspected she’d forget to eat if nobody dragged her away from the laboratory.
He eventually caught the familiar scent of seawater mixed with chemicals and blood.
‘Found her.’
Nikolai followed it towards one of the larger research rooms.
Before he reached the door, Sasha’s voice passed through the reinforced glass.
“No! You’re wasting it!”
“I’m not wasting anything.”
“You used almost twice the required amount!”
“Because the previous sample degraded after forty-seven minutes.”
“That doesn’t mean you can just use more!”
Nikolai raised an eyebrow, a little amused by the tone she used and filled with curiosity.
‘Who is she arguing with?’
The second voice wasn’t Anastasia.
He pressed his palm against the scanner.
Hisss!
The reinforced door opened.
Sasha immediately turned towards him, her pale-blue eyes widening behind a pair of protective glasses.
“Nikolai!”
“Morning.”
He stepped inside before stopping.
Anastasia stood beside the central terminal, completely ignoring Sasha’s shouting while studying several streams of information moving across the transparent displays.
That wasn’t surprising.
The woman standing opposite Sasha was.
Nikolai stared at her for several seconds.
“…Marianne?”
The young vampire stiffened.
Her long black hair had been tied behind her head, leaving several loose strands framing her pale face, while a white laboratory coat covered the dark clothing beneath it. Her wine-red eyes slowly shifted towards Nikolai before she offered an awkward smile.
“G-Good Morning!!”
Marianne’s reaction was cute; the way she blushed and turned away was kind of silly, but unlike his wives, this girl was quite naive.
Nikolai glanced around the laboratory once more as though checking whether his headache had somehow created a hallucination.
“What are you doing here?”
Marianne lowered her eyes towards the tray she carried.
“Working.”
“Well, I can see that… but just what exactly are you doing?”
He wasn’t trying to be insulting, but rather worried that this earnest and silly girl would get dragged into their crazy experiments. When she moved to this mansion, he wanted her to enjoy a calm and quiet life after what she endured.
Sasha immediately smiled.
“She’s my assistant!”
“Temporary assistant,” Anastasia corrected without looking away from the screen.
Marianne’s cheeks became slightly red.
“For now.”
Nikolai rubbed the back of his neck.
‘When did this happen?’
His relationship with Marianne had always been strange.
She was Alexei’s younger sister, someone he’d helped rescue from the Nosferatu, but there had always been something slightly uncomfortable between them since then. Marianne wasn’t afraid of him, nor did she dislike him, yet whenever they remained alone together, she became strangely nervous.
Nikolai never really understood why.
No, that’s a lie; he knows… how could he not know the meaning of those eyes?
‘But another woman… I might actually get stabbed.’
“Does Alexei know you’re down here?”
Marianne’s lips twitched.
“He was the one who suggested I stop sitting around doing nothing.”
“That sounds like him.”
Sasha hurried towards Nikolai while carrying several transparent vials.
“More importantly, look!”
Inside each vial rested a small quantity of dark crimson blood.
Nikolai stared at them.
“Blood?”
“Marianne’s blood.”
“…Why are you showing me her blood like it’s some rare treasure?”
Sasha’s expression became offended.
“Because it practically is!”
Marianne looked increasingly embarrassed while Anastasia finally removed her attention from the monitor.
“Her blood accelerates natural healing.”
Compared to their excitement, Nikolai shrugged; he knew this. He was the one who saved her from the laboratory back then… and she’s the woman who helped save his mother.
A debt he couldn’t forget.
“I know.”
Sasha froze.
“You know?”
“I was there when we discovered it.”
“…Oh.”
Her excitement deflated for several seconds before suddenly returning.
“But you don’t know how useful it is!”
“Fine. Explain.”
Sasha placed the vials carefully onto the table.
“Her ability isn’t regeneration in the normal sense. Marianne’s blood doesn’t simply force wounds closed or replace destroyed tissue. Instead, it accelerates the body’s existing healing process.”
Anastasia finally joined them.
“Which means the body still performs the recovery itself.”
Nikolai glanced towards the samples.
“So it’s less likely to reject the treatment?”
“Exactly.”
Anastasia tapped one of the nearby screens, displaying several images of damaged muscle tissue.
“We’ve tested small quantities on compatible supernatural samples. Tears that normally require several hours to begin repairing showed measurable recovery within minutes, while more serious damage healed considerably faster than expected.”
Nikolai’s brows rose.
“Could you use it on our soldiers?”
“Eventually, but the biggest beneficiaries are humans… and their organs.”
“Humans, huh…?”
Marianne finally spoke, breaking the strange atmosphere.
“We’re trying to find a way to reproduce or refine the effect without needing my blood directly.”
Nikolai looked towards her.
“You’re not letting them drain you dry, are you?”
Her lips curled into a faint smile.
“No.”
Sasha immediately looked away.
Nikolai narrowed his eyes.
“Sasha.”
“I haven’t drained anyone!”
“Hah, as if I believe you… have you forgotten how you almost killed me, taking my blood for your precious ‘samples’ again?”
“Y-You don’t understand! I-I was just checking something!”
While Sasha became defensive, Anastasia stepped in with a sigh.
“She’s fine, Nikolai. I control how much blood Marianne provides. I also believe that Mari is enjoying this role and the profits that come from it.”
“Profits?”
He glanced at the vampire, but she just whistled and avoided his gaze.
‘I see… this greedy girl.’
Marianne lowered the tray onto the workbench.
“I wanted to help somehow. Alexei and everyone else are preparing to fight, but I’m not strong enough to join them.”
Her fingers tightened slightly around the edge of the table.
“If my blood can help people recover faster, then at least I’m doing something useful.”
Nikolai studied her expression for a moment.
There was no hesitation.
Whatever remained from her captivity hadn’t disappeared completely, but Marianne no longer looked like the fragile woman he’d first rescued.
“Just don’t push yourself.”
“Mhm.”
She smiled more naturally this time.
Nikolai returned the expression before remembering why he’d come here in the first place.
“Anyway, I didn’t come down here to check on your experiments.”
Anastasia folded her arms.
“Then why are you here?”
Nikolai glanced towards one of the displays showing the exterior of the estate.
The morning sky appeared across several surveillance feeds.
Despite the growing sunlight, the crimson moon remained visible above the distant buildings.
“That.”
Sasha followed his gaze.
“The Blood Moon?”
“Mhm.”
Nikolai’s expression gradually became serious.
“I almost forgot the damn thing existed.”
Anastasia didn’t respond immediately, but then her eyes widened as she quickly rushed to her terminal and began typing rapidly.
It took quite a while for her to finish before she glanced up from the monitor. “You’re right… the effects seem to have become negligent at best… what the hell is going on here? During the first night, thousands died.”
Nikolai turned towards her, nodding as he spoke.
“The first few nights were strange. Everyone felt it, animals went insane, supernatural beings became more aggressive, and the entire city changed.”
“Then the effects weakened, and we all stopped caring.”
Sasha and Anastasia met their eyes before glancing down at their monitors, no longer acting jovial about Marianne’s blood.
“Sorry, Patriarch, we also completely forgot the effects… and stopped researching it.”
To hear his aunt apologise and speak so formally, Nikolai couldn’t help but swallow his words and nod back. “Don’t be… this means there is something wrong after all.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll look into it!”
‘Fuck…’
Nikolai’s bad hunch was right.
There was something dangerous about that looming red sphere…