Chapter 770: What is your limit?
Chapter 770: What is your limit?
Vampires rule over blood, That was the one power that made them one of the most powerful demonic races to exist. However, even this strong ability on the level of a unique skill had drawbacks.
It all depended on the blood that they wanted to control, and their own blood. A vampire's ability to control blood depended wholly on their own blood. Quality controlled quality. A vampire who had consumed the blood of lowly beings could only control beings of a lower level.
While one that had just been born, but feasted upon the blood of a great being could control so, so much more. Blood that had not even left the body of the prey they had their eyes on... A control over your blood that you could not fight against unless you had an overwhelming difference in quality, or supply of energy.
Alan had both, which was why, Victor truly was helpless against Alan... originally.
Alan was a dragon, a frost dragon to be exact. He had the purest and greatest quality of blood originally just from his race, however, he had also absorbed Lanesha and Ariel's ichor, as well as possessed the bloodline of the Phoenix.
Two primordials, One Supreme. The difference in quality was too great for Victor to even make a dent, no, to even think of doing something to Alan's blood, whether it was in or outside his body.
It was like a pebble trying to move a mountain range. No matter how much it tried, it really couldn't be compared to it. It wasn't even in the same league.
However, this difference in quality was overturned when Alan ordered his blood to lose all of its special effects and turn to ice.
A frost dragon can command their body to a level other dragons can't. Ordering his blood to freeze the moment it left his body only made it lose it's special qualities, and thus the quality of it slimmed down.
The blood that would guarantee the success of any alchemical process, the blood that was the most valuable, would lose its qualities if its owner deemed it to be. And Alan had done just that, unaware that what he thought would protect him actually doomed him. Had he simply done nothing, and let himself bleed normally, he would have been fine?
The blood Victor had feasted upon, all his life was of the greatest quality one could imagine. Hailing from the strongest beasts, the greatest of demons, and even the blood of a Warrior of a Prime Race.
His control over blood was unrivalled, but even then, he could barely order the remaining crystals of 'leftover' blood to bind Alan, fueled by his powers.
But then again, it was the only thing he needed to do. Use his utmost to hinder the dragon for but a mere moment, and it was all he needed.
In one quick movement, His hands grabbed Alan's shoulders, and his teeth pierced his skin. Victor's jaw began to hurt, his gums began to bleed as Alan's scales, his tough skin and muscles, proved to be an obstacle. But they couldn't stop the vampire.
He bit into Alan's neck, and began to drink his blood. Each drop that entered his throat was filled with so much power and flavor, he struggled to keep himself sane. The race that derived power from blood tasted the blood of an heir.
He was the first to do so, quite literally. No other vampire had accomplished this feat. Only few existed who had tasted the blood of the prime species... but never had one tasted the blood of an Heir.
Not even his mother had the honor of tasting the blood of an heir.
Victor felt fulfilled, like the purpose of his life had been completed, but this magnificent feeling, one he wouldn't mind dying thousands of times for... was only for a fleeting moment.
A burst of mana unlike any other, a strength that had finally been freed from his grasp, acted upon him.
Alan grabbed his jaw, digging his fingers into his mouth through the cheeks, cutting into them with his claws, and ripped his jaw from his face. But he wasn't done, from his mouth shone a light unlike any other, aimed at the bat still hung to his neck.
A charged breath, at point-blank range. A beam of pure destruction that obliterated all of Victor's body, turning it to something less than dust.
Freed, Alan fell to his knees, clutching the wound on his neck. Pain unlike any other surged across his body as he saw a vortex of blood rise in the distance. It was the damn vampire, reforming his body once more like it was nothing.
"FINALLY!"
A joyful shout resounded throughout the area, almost crippling Alan's ears. Victor emerged from the vortex of blood, a strange glint in his eyes as he gazed at Alan with eyes full of reverie.
"FUCKING FINALLY."
A tremor emerged from within Alan's body, tying him to the ground, blood escaped from his mouth, ears, nostrils, and even his eyes, in an endless stream.
"I can finally be a damn vampire again!"
Alan struggled to stand, as Victor approached slowly, raising his hands in the air. Blood rose from the ground, condensing into a small ball in each of his hands, which expanded into the shame short swords he had been using.
Only this time, there was a chilly, white mist at the edges of the blades, a black aura that could not be defined, and a deathly stillness.
Alan shivered, as he found himself unable to stand, unable to do anything at all really. All he could do was watch as the flow of his blood reversed.
All he could do, was scream silently in pain as his body convulsed, as multiple ruptures appeared in his skin, leaking out blood that dripped to the ground, only to be absorbed by the planet.
Victor stood above him, and kicked Alan in the jaw, throwing him to the ground.
"Do you know, how to defeat someone with regeneration like ours?"
He stepped on Alan's chest, as the boy tried everything he could to move, but failed. Every attempt brought him pain unlike any other, but he still tried.
"We live our entire lives being destroyed, cut apart, dancing in front of death's door... but even we, Even we, have a limit."
He slit Alan's throat with his short swords, and then his tendons, ligaments, and even drove the short swords into his eyes.
"We don't die, but we do. Every time we lose a limb, suffer such an insane injury... We die within. Each injury carries with it a part of us to the grave.
Do you know, that the fight we just had... Would kill someone? Not from the injuries, of course... But from the pain.
Pain, Pain, pain."
He licked his lips, as he watched Alan regenerate anew, only to perform those vicious cuts again.
"Pain is what defines a biological being. Everybody fears it... But us? You and Me? How long has it been since we avoided pain?
How long has it been... since we didn't want it? Since we chose the easier route, to just get hit and deliver a hit in return?
I've met only a few beings with regeneration abilities, all of them weaker than ours. But do you know what they had in common? They didn't care for pain. Over time, we develop this sort of... resistance to it.𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
This sort of ignorance to it, lethargic acceptance, I guess?"
"But we can all be killed, Every one of us has a weakness, Dragon's have a dragon heart, and me... Well I shouldn't tell you that. Every being can be killed, after all... You should know best.
Heir of death, isn't Ariel absolute? Is death not the eventual end? The absolute law?"
He chuckled, bursting into maniacal laughter.
"But I don't want to kill you. Over time, we yearn for death... Killing a regeneration ability user is actually doing them a favor... You must be the same.
We hate life, meaningless life... You can kill a regeneration user, but you cannot defeat them... unless you break them."
He crushed Alan's chest with his foot, caving it in and letting the fragments of bone tear into his organs.
"I will break you, But I wonder... Are you like me? Or are you like the others? This is the first time I met someone with regeneration greater than my own... So tell me... Do you have limit like them?"
"We are only indifferent to pain until a certain level... So tell me, What is your limit?"
Blood. Blood and flesh. Blood, flesh, and bones. Again, and again, and again and again and again.
"My own mother tried to do this with me, But I was different from the rest, I didn't break."
One eye looked to the left, one to the right, but the body was focused on Alan below. Victor sat down on Alan's chest, stopping it from regeneration, causing an endless cycle of pain where his own organs tried their best to survive, but failed each time.
His bones tried to reform, but were broken and turned his flesh to mush once more.
Victor dug his swords into Alan eye's once more, and grabbed Alan's neck, strangling him, pushing down on his throat with his thumbs.
"I think you will break, though."