Chapter 148 | From Galgame Nobody to Eternal Sovereign

Although Claire had once come close to the edge of the battlefield, he had never truly laid eyes on the real faces of the Witches from the era of the old empire.

At this very moment, with that insurmountable, abyss-like, despair-inducing gap laid bare before him, he no longer doubted what he was facing.

Those eyes, without a doubt.

The New Moon Witch!!!!

...

When Claire opened his eyes again, he found himself lying face down in the mud in a highly unseemly posture.

Against the crushing weight of the Red Moon, even a Duke like him was nothing more than a speed bump. Fortunately, as he drew closer to the moon, his healing capabilities had reached their limit alongside the replenishment of his mana.

He had recovered from his comminuted fractures. Truly cause for celebration.

But what was the cost?

Claire instinctively tried to condense a wisp of blood mist to test his strength, but only a few specks of dark red dust seeped from his palm, scattering instantly in the wind.

Five hundred years of accumulated strength, shattered cleaner than the rubble beneath his feet.

Five hundred years ago, he had only wanted to ask for directions, only to be completely drained of his Blood Essence by the aftershocks of the Witches' battle.

Five hundred years later, he had simply gone out to complete a mission for the council, only to be run over by a Witch again.

How could he be this unlucky?

All his hard work... all the Blood Essence he had accumulated... completely gone.

Claire sat up and surveyed his surroundings. What met his eyes was a half-destroyed ruin.

The sky was blanketed by dark clouds, blocking out the moonlight.

A collapsed clock tower, a severed network of blood vessels, and shattered brickwork.

This was Black Gallows Town.

Or rather, what used to be Black Gallows Town?

The half of the town that had been swept into the sky by Gravity Reversal had now turned into architectural debris scattered all over the ground.

But what made his breath hitch was not this tragic post-war ruin.

It was what was happening on the open ground not far away.

In the center of the Black Gallows Blood Nest, there had originally been a massive heart, as large as half a clock tower.

That was a masterpiece he had personally orchestrated and taken great pride in.

And now, that massive heart of the Blood Nest had been completely uprooted.

Not only that, but several people who hadn't been sent out on missions—originally connected to the giant heart by Eno and just recently turned into blood servants still gathering strength—had also been properly rescued.

“Th-Thank you, Lady Sophie...”

Nega was excitedly helping up his three teammates. These three unfortunate adventurers had originally been turned into mindless materials for blood servants by Eno, but they had now miraculously regained their human heartbeats and breathing.

What was going on? Weren't those three turned into blood servants?

Could monsters actually be reversed back into humans?

No, wait. The New Moon Witch was here.

Then it wasn't surprising at all.

Claire gave up trying to make sense of it and focused his gaze on that giant heart.

The uprooted giant heart was currently skewered by a massive tree trunk stripped of its branches and leaves.

Raging magical flames licked beneath it, forcefully roasting this sweet hunk of meat, which reeked of blood, into an unimaginably massive skewer of... roasted chicken hearts.

Sizzle, sizzle.

Grease dropped onto the fire. The white-haired vampire was flying in the air, using a brush to coat it with oil.

The giant heart emitted the savory aroma of cooked food.

Beside the massive skewer, the New Moon Witch—who had just used a Forbidden Spell to play billiards with him—waited in eager anticipation.

The black-haired, barefoot girl rested her chin in her hands, her eyes locked onto the giant, sizzling roasted heart, a trace of glistening drool faintly hanging from the corner of her mouth.

“My Saintess, is it ready to eat yet?” Miaoyue asked impatiently.

Sophie rolled her eyes from the side, brushing oil and sprinkling seasoning onto the giant heart. “No one's fighting you for it. If you eat it undercooked and get diarrhea, don't come crying to me.”

Was this thing really edible?

But since Little Yue said she wanted to eat it, they might as well try.

It wasn't like Sophie was the one eating it anyway.

“Hmph, as a god, I would never get diarrhea!”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Sophie responded dismissively as she landed on the ground. “It's ready to eat.”

The black-haired girl nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, and her figure dissolved into moonlight.

“Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.”

The crimson moonlight kept orbiting the giant heart, leaving tiny bite marks wherever it passed.

She wasn't actually going to finish the whole thing, was she? This heart was easily five or six times larger than Miaoyue herself.

Sophie stared blankly as the heart continuously shrank.

What kind of bottomless pit was this?

Claire was equally dumbfounded.

He wanted to say something, but in the end, a thousand words could only coalesce into a long sigh.

Just destroy everything already. I'm tired.

What kind of absurd development was this?

But even this wasn't the most absurd part to Claire.

Having lived for hundreds of years, he was highly experienced; from the Demon Realm to the human realm, he had seen his share of major storms.

Yet he keenly noticed the extremely abnormal way Sophie and Miaoyue interacted.

Their subtle interactions, their casual tone, and the completely defenseless posture of the Witch while being fed...

Were they female colleagues?

Without a doubt.

Before, he had merely treated this low-tier vampire as a nobody by the roadside.

Now, it was clear she was someone favored by the Witch.

A forbidden canary!

Dammit, he wanted to be the Witch's kept man too.

There was nothing wrong with being a regular Duke, but taking it a step further would open up a whole new world.

Getting babied and fed by a Witch... wouldn't that be absolutely amazing?

Right then, Sophie clapped the seasoning dust off her hands and turned to look at Claire on the ground.

“Oh, you've been awake for a while.” Sophie walked over to him, looking down at the once-haughty Vampire Duke with an analytical gaze. “You're surprisingly calm. What, aren't you going to try to escape or something?”

Claire: “...”

Es... Escape?

Where could he even run?

“...I don't have much Blood Essence left. There's no need to waste it.” Maintaining the last shred of his dignity as a Vampire Duke, Claire waved his hand to summon a branch to use as a cane. He shakily stood up and spoke with feigned composure.

This was a bit troublesome.

Sophie pinched her chin, observing Claire, who still maintained his noble aura.

Vampires were monsters that cared deeply about status and etiquette. This Duke, despite being reduced to such a wretched state, still insisted on keeping up appearances, which proved as much.

Her mission was to thoroughly investigate the border town and find the missing people. Now that she had caught the mastermind, she still didn't know where the missing residents had gone.

Aside from those few adventurers, she couldn't find anyone else in the town, and it was highly unlikely they had been killed by the Duke.

Vampires weren't ghouls; living humans were obviously far more valuable to them.

Surely they hadn't taken these people directly to the Chaos Wasteland as livestock?

At first, Sophie had suspected whether they had constructed the giant heart out of corpses, but she quickly dismissed the idea because...

【Blood Nest Heart Building (Temporary) Lv.1: You can consume Blood Essence to construct a giant Blood Nest heart and deploy a Blood Nest field. Within the Blood Nest field, the vitality of flesh and life force is enhanced, injury recovery speed is increased, and targets connected by blood threads can more easily maintain their life state.】

This was the skill she had just pickpocketed from the unconscious Claire.

Gold coins dropped by a Milestone Boss.

The boss's mount, the boss's weapon, the boss's treasury, the boss's skills...

When a boss gets beaten, they drop loot. It was the natural law of things.

In 《Red Moon》, since the game lacked linear enemies, as long as the system deemed that you had progressed far enough, it would designate a certain obstacle as a Milestone Boss.

And Eno had coincidentally become that Milestone Boss.

How could a flimsy, superficial innate magic match the deeply rooted points of the system?

Sophie had directly stolen the other party's innate magic as well.

【Life Theft (Special) Lv.Max: You can designate a target and steal the ability they rely on most, fear losing most, or which currently serves as their core capability. The target temporarily loses this ability, and you temporarily acquire it. This skill can only retain 1 stolen ability at a time; when you designate a new target and successfully steal from them, the previous stolen ability will be replaced.】

<“So-called talent, bloodline, and destiny are nothing more than inheritances that have yet to be written with someone else's name.”>

Since it would cause others to lose their abilities, Sophie could naturally only use this skill on enemies.

It was also through this ability that Sophie confirmed the heart was purely created by brute-forcing Blood Essence, rather than being piled up from corpses.

How strange. Where did the townspeople go?

She had also asked Nega, but Nega had been busy playing host to guests all this time and didn't know the specifics either.

“You...” Sophie was still pondering what methods to use to make him talk.

Claire moved first.

“No matter what your question is, my answer is only one!”

Claire snapped the branch in his hand and dropped to one knee on the ground.

“I shall pledge my loyalty to you!”

“Great Lady Sophie, your power is as unfathomable as the abyss. I, Claire, am willing to serve you with all my heart. As long as you require it, I shall be your most loyal hound.”

Sophie: “...”

Nega and the others watched from the side, their eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

This... This was the direct superior of the Vampire Marquis who had thoroughly thrashed them earlier?

How could his spine be even softer than theirs, the lowliest of adventurers?

“If you're going to be this cooperative, then... that's actually great,” Sophie said after a brief silence.

“I desire progress far too much,” Claire said resolutely.

If he couldn't be the Witch's lackey, there was nothing wrong with being the lackey's lackey.

As long as he could return to the Demon Realm, Claire was willing to do anything.

“Your attitude changed way too quickly.” Sophie looked at him with some suspicion. “Weren't you quite proud when you were up in the sky earlier?”

“We demons have a saying: 'A wise man submits to circumstances.' In the face of absolute power, pride is merely a poison that accelerates one's demise.”

Hehehe, I must survive.

Go home alive.

What's more, with a Witch present, this wasn't a humiliation—it was a monumental historical opportunity!

He absolutely could not miss it.

“If you're willing to talk, then all the better.” Sophie waved her hand, getting straight to the point. “I spared your life because I have questions for you. You'd better answer honestly, otherwise...”

Claire took the hint immediately. “Ask whatever you wish! I shall tell you everything I know, without holding back a single detail!”

“First thing.” Sophie pointed to the ruins of the Blood Nest in the distance, where the giant heart had been uprooted. “You were the one who made that disgusting Blood Nest, right? Why did you come to Solitude to build one?”

“To answer your question, my Lady, Black Gallows is not the only Blood Nest.” Claire replied honestly. “In this vicinity, there are mining towns, warehouses, abandoned outposts, trade route waystations... There are dozens of Blood Nests of this scale.”

“Dozens of them?” Sophie frowned. “Are you out of your mind, building so many illegal structures? Do you have that much Blood Essence to burn?”

“It's not just me...” Claire said. “It would be more accurate to say 'us'.”

There were others? A coordinated operation?

Sophie's brow furrowed.

This was not good news. If the proud vampires were operating as a group, there had to be a higher-ranking vampire guiding them.

This was getting a bit tricky.

“Those missing citizens, miners, children, elderly... Where were they sent?” Sophie asked.

Claire lowered his eyes and reported truthfully, “In the direction of Silvervein City. The orders I received were to transport all controlled citizens, whether they are severed limbs or intact decoys, to Silvervein City in batches.”

Silvervein City?

Wasn't that where she had just come from? How did they not cross paths?

And why specifically target that place?

Could some Witch be plotting in the shadows?

Sophie instantly grew alert. She took off her top hat and held it over her chest to protect herself, scanning her surroundings before continuing her questioning.

“What are you sending people to Silvervein City for?” Sophie pressed. “And Nega and the others mentioned that you intentionally made people wail to attract the Hero and rescue teams?”

“Yes, my Lady.” Claire did not hide a thing. “It was to create pressure. Those crying decoys are the perfect tool for stalling. As long as they continue to cry out for help, they can fulfill their maximum utility...”

As Claire spoke to this point, his voice suddenly faltered.

Crying decoys?

She herself wasn't Miss Hero, so what was the point of using this against her...

Wait.

No!

When it came to Miss Hero, her Super Galgame Intelligence instantly took over Sophie's thoughts.

0.000001 seconds later, the Super Galgame Intelligence provided the answer.

The vampires' movements, the anomalies at the border, the scant few adventurers who could return, the Counts operating in groups...

Her previously sluggish thoughts rapidly connected under the guidance of her Heroic Intelligence.

Who else could be held back by cries of distress besides Miss Hero?

There was no hidden Witch at all. These vampires were targeting Miss Hero!

“How many of you are there? Who are your strongest forces? What is your plan?”

Claire was stunned to find that the aura of the white-haired girl before him had abruptly shifted.

A sleeping lion opening its eyes?

There was no actual change in her mana level, but merely looking into her deep, crimson eyes...

Claire felt as though he was not facing some twelfth-generation vampire fledgling at all.

But a giant.

A giant stepping into a children's playground.

Something that had been dormant deep within this night had finally awakened.

Yet all of this seemed like a mere illusion.

The twelfth-generation vampire before him still exuded a weak aura.

“I...”

Claire opened his mouth, wanting to continue.

He indeed knew the details of the mission, and he knew what kind of conspiracy lay behind the collaboration between the Vampire Council and the royal family.

But the moment he prepared to utter the word “plan”...

“Ugh...”

Claire's pupils suddenly contracted. His throat felt as if it were being choked by an invisible force, and his tongue instantly became completely rigid, leaving him unable to produce a single clear syllable.

It wasn't that he didn't want to speak; his body refused to make a sound.

“Why did you stop?” Sophie narrowed her eyes, staring at Claire for a moment before coming to a realization. “I see. There's some sort of restriction in place, preventing you from actively revealing the details.”

She stepped forward, stood on her tiptoes, and directly grabbed Claire by the neck, squeezing with her palm.

Claire: “?”

It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, he physically couldn't.

Besides, vampires didn't need to breathe, so what was the point of choking him?

But in the next moment, a sudden warmth surged into his body.

Claire could clearly feel that he was receiving treatment. Since his body was already perfectly healthy, this therapeutic energy began to accelerate the condensation of his Blood Essence.

This... This was?

Claire was somewhat dazed.

But the white-haired girl before him had a cold gaze, clearly with no intention of explaining.

Claire had never truly tested the boundaries of this secrecy restriction.

That icy force felt as though it was gently pinched by something, and then it shattered.

Claire's eyes widened as he heard his own throat speaking of its own accord.

“The plan was personally finalized by the Ancestor, to be executed together by the council members...”

He actually said it?

How was this possible?

This was a restriction personally placed by the Ancestor!

Claire's eyes bulged as his body continued to speak entirely on its own.

Sophie listened expressionlessly, while activating her skills.

【Physical Silencing Art (Reversed) Lv.1: When you block, suppress, or interfere with a target's vocal structure in a non-lethal manner, there is a chance to force the target into a [Forced Speech] state, making them more likely to reveal what they originally intended to hide within a short period. If the target's mouth is blocked by a foreign object, the spoken content may manifest as mumbled whimpering, eye signals, physical struggling, or system log translations.】

【Unarmed Combat (Reversed) Lv.1: When you perform unarmed attacks, the amount of healing caused is slightly increased. This healing is still affected by Strength, unarmed damage modifiers, and the target's defense.】

【Torture (Reversed) Lv.1: When you make a target feel comfortable, secure, or well cared for, they are more likely to proactively reveal information. The more relaxed and comfortable the target is, the higher the success rate.】

Without a doubt, if Sophie wanted someone to talk, she obviously didn't need their consent.

The threat posed by the previous generation's Hero... the trap set for this generation's Hero... the Vampire Council alerted by Elizabeth's unusual movements...

Like spilling beans from a jar, Claire poured out all the information.

Sophie's gaze grew increasingly grim.

There was no time left.

Sophie instinctively looked up.

The dark clouds had been torn open by the wind, revealing a sliver of the reddish moon beneath.

Tonight.

It was tonight.

Miss Hero was still in Silvervein City.

And Black Gallows was a full three days' carriage ride away from Silvervein City!

...

Silvervein City.

When the night bells rang, dusk had already been compressed into a thin line.

Dong.

The first chime rolled between the Twin Towers, passing along the black lead-tiled roofs, the vaults of closed corridors, and the layered Moon-Shading boards on both sides of the canal, all the way out of the city.

By all accounts, at this time, the lamplighter should be walking down the street corner with a long pole, lighting the fires inside the brass lanterns one by one.

The patrol should be blowing their short whistles, urging the merchants still moving cargo to pack up their stalls.

Yet tonight's streets were too quiet.

The lamps were lit.

The scent of magical ritual ingredients lingered in the air.

People bustled past, each walking toward their home accompanied by their Night Companion.

But tonight, the sentry box stood empty, the embers in the hearth reduced to a mere layer of gray ash.

Two patrol short spears hung on the wall of the beacon tower, and the beacon light on the southern gatehouse still flashed on schedule, but the answering whistle delayed in sounding.

Beside the North River Sluice, where the footsteps of paired night watchmen should have been heard, there was only the sound of water crashing against the gate.

The mobilization orders had come too suddenly.

The border blockade needed men.

The refugee carriages needed men.

The mine shaft accident needed men.

Transfer orders were dispatched one after another, each sealed with official wax. Viewed individually, every single one was perfectly reasonable.

By the time the seventeenth transfer order was sent, there were no more names left to cross off on Silvervein City's patrol roster.

Some might have had doubts, but after all, it was just a temporary overnight transfer for a busy administrative affair.

The first cry for help arrived.

The sound was very faint; an old man with blood in his throat cried out for help from afar.

Inside the city gates, someone lifted their head behind a wooden door.

Immediately after, a second sound rang out from the west—a woman's shrill, agonizing shriek.

The third came from the shadows of the southern cargo sheds, like a shivering child calling intermittently for their mother.

Then, they erupted from all directions.

Cries for help rose one after another outside the city.

On the highways, riverbanks, mine cart tracks, abandoned warehouses, and Night-Redemption Carriage depots outside Silvervein City—every path leading to the gates—figures slowly began to emerge.

Shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, they slowly merged into several long rivers of living flesh, flowing silently along the highways, riverbanks, and mine cart tracks toward the gates of Silvervein City.

The moonlight fell upon them but did not consume them, for they were not truly alone.

Blood threads slithered out from necks, wrists, and ankles, winding in coils among the crowd, before extending into the lead-tiled shadows of broken carriages, the cargo sheds' Moon-Shading cloths, and the temporarily erected black canopies.

They were alive.

A miner's hand still gripped a broken pickaxe handle, his knuckles turned purple by the tight binding of blood threads; a little girl clutching half a ragdoll was sandwiched in the middle of the crowd, her eyes wide, only able to raise her hand under the pull of the blood threads; an elderly woman's lips trembled as a muffled sob escaped her throat, only to be forced to blend with hundreds of surrounding voices in the next instant, becoming a deliberately staggered but ceaseless cry for help.