MTLNOVEL Chapter 165: Time Runs Thin...
Vlad the Impaler. Vlad III Dracula. The Vampire Progenitor. The Oldest Vampire Ancestor… His titles were plenty.
But the real deal… Excluding all the names and status that lesser beings had bestowed upon him…
The real him.
That Vlad was unimaginably more terrifying than the stories depicted him to be.
And at the very same moment a familiar bloodline inheritor entered Nightingale, Dracula's eon-old eyes shot open.
"...."
The monster as old as Earth—one not synonymous with the Dracula of fairytales—sat in deep contemplation, seemingly thinking about things beyond mortal understanding.
For the longest while, his cold blood-red eyes stared off into distances unknown.
Unblinkingly, his pale purple lips began to move, and an antiquated string of words followed:
"The END nears; the Abyss follows… The Abyss lags… Yet the Descender approaches…"
Dracula turned his head upward, where a spark ignited within his voided crimson irises.
"Time… It runs thin…"
With that, an ancient sigh echoed through cracked halls that had been empty for a very, very long time.
No lovers and no family were there beside the horrifying entity who had been walking the dredges of existence for what felt like eternity. The only thing keeping him company were the secrets—the Truth—Immortal Mysteries that prevented him from interacting with anyone.
The price for Knowledge was a hefty one, and Count Dracula had paid a price that knew not of mercy…
—-----------------
—Outside of the Main Building of Hoshito General High, on the Trial Floor of the Ascension Tower of Humanity—
"Have you heard?!"
"Why else would I be here?! It's freaking hot as hell out here, ya know??"
"You don't have to be so rude…"
Even students unrelated to Classroom 4-A had gathered outside, with every single one of their eyes glued to the tension-filled standoff between one of the more well-known seniors and an unknown student.
Though some of them had seen Cassius once or twice before, none of them could possibly overlap the images of the Cassius of before and the Cassius of now.
But what they did know was that this new guy was extremely handsome… and extremely stupid…
After all, only the stupidest of people would decide to fight someone in the C-Rank when they had not the slightest smidgen of aura. Foolish would be an understatement for what this guy was doing.
More than a few girls among the gathered crowd felt it a great shame for someone so good-looking to be so stupid. For the boys, however, when they saw the girls lament the fate of the newbie, they started to cheer even louder.
"Die!!"
"Drop over dead!!!"
"Why aren't you dead yet!?!?"
The boys shouted, calling for the newbie's death, even though the duels weren't actually to the death…
A few students, attracted by the commotion, paused their lessons and came out to see what the noise was about. When they saw the pandemonium about to unfold, they prepared to put an end to everything and get the students back to class.
However, before they could act, the Principal's voice sounded inside their heads.
It was fair to say that all of the teachers stopped in their tracks. Afterward, they took the stance of spectators. Only if one of the students' lives were put in danger would they interfere and call for the end of this charade.
OOOM!
The air separating Cassius and Arthur boiled over, with every bit of the heat produced by the enraged Arthur. If, at first, he heavily disliked the young man who hovered around the girl of his dreams, then now his heart was filled with a burning drive telling him to mangle his pretty, delicate face.
"You said I can make the first move…?" He asked, taking brief pauses between each word. His raging yellow aura grew appropriately, and before long, even the weaker teachers felt the air around them tighten.
Cassius, unbothered by the useless display of the weak aura, simply nodded and stretched out his hand. He cupped that hand and waved it toward himself, beckoning the blonde-haired young man standing opposite him.
"!!!"
No longer able to restrain his anger, Arthur summoned forth a mighty five-meter-long golden lance of energy. Then, with a step forward like an uncontrollable dragon, he burst forward and released a wild roar.
"Take this, you foolish bastard!!" He bellowed, with his overwhelming filaments of golden energy hollering in unison. They surrounded the expressionless man from all sides, making escape impossible. "We can't kill each other, but that doesn't mean I can't cripple you and prevent you from ever walking or reproducing!!"
Cruel.
A cold gleam passed through Cassius's bluish-red eyes as he nearly counterattacked with his killing intent out of habit. But luckily for Arthur, he had enough self-control to stop himself just in the nick of time.
"What are you doing, Arthur!? Are you trying to kill him!?!?" Several teachers yelled, worry etched across their faces.
They had expected him to go easy at first and then gradually increase the intensity of the battle until they were forced to step in, but no! He had gone all-out right from the get-go!
And from the looks of it, he was aiming to commit an atrocity!!
'Hahaha!! There's no stopping me now!!! I'm too powerful!!!'
A sadistic smirk formed on Arthur's face as the sharp tip of his golden energy lance thrust forward, instantly reaching a point less than five centimeters away from Cassius's third leg. The split-off filaments of the golden lance also struck toward the limbs they were targeting.
Arthur was going for a complete cripple!!
Then the beautiful silver-haired woman would be his!!
His thoughts turned lecherous as he acted carelessly and stole glances at the bluish-silver-haired woman calmly watching from Classroom 4-A.
In his negligence, he failed to notice the slight look of surprise appear on the groggy face of the previous girl of his dreams.
That same surprise quickly spread to the other students and exponentially multiplied.
Before long, even the students rushing to the scene slowed to a shocked crawl… and just stared at the mind-boggling scene before them.