A pale blue light flashed in the corner of the sky. Arcueid glanced at it, then turned her attention back to the figure nearby.
Vlov was dead. She could feel it. Although her protective membrane's strength had drastically decreased due to her temporary departure, the two of them, with a little sacrifice, killing an Ancestor wasn't a difficult task after all.
This didn't mean Arcueid didn't care whether Naoki and Aoko lived or died. Although their time together wasn't long, the two of them—plus Gray—were her only friends in the eight hundred years since her birth, and she had been very happy in the past few days with them.
But the joy and longing in her heart couldn't stop her from carrying out her mission.
No, more accurately, her execution.
Although it had been hidden very well all this time, after reaching this distance, now less than fifty meters away, Arcueid could clearly feel it: the serpent she had been hunting was there!
Even though its body was shrouded in deep darkness, Arcueid could sense it!
Without the slightest hesitation, Arcueid instantly ran as fast as she could towards the figure in front of her. The five fingers of her white hand curled into sharp claws. As long as she could touch that person, they would definitely die!
No need for much talk, just like the dozen times before, kill him here!
*THWACK!*
Without offering the slightest resistance, the black shadow was instantly pierced through by Arcueid's body. But the moment she actually did it, Arcueid suddenly felt that something was wrong.
Resistance?
Why did Roa die so easily this time?
[You really are persistent with me, Princess. I knew that as long as I released my aura, you would definitely come to my side]
The corpse in her hand showed a rather strange smile.
"Roa!"
[This body, I'll just leave it for you. It's useless anyway. Congratulations, Princess, this time you can easily achieve victory]
Easily achieve victory?
What did he mean?
Had Roa just completed reincarnation and was about to start the next one immediately? In such a short time, he had already found the next reincarnation body?
"Where do you think you're going to run!"
[Run? I'm not going anywhere. Perhaps our next meeting will be sooner than we expect—anyway, thank you, Princess. Thank you for being so easily provoked by me. If it's now, over there must be defenseless]
Over there?
Where?
"What... is this guy talking about?"
Arcueid's heart was already filled with doubt. She didn't understand at all what Roa was trying to do.
Roa's reincarnation standards were two: the first was a wealthy family. Being born into such a family would greatly help him expand the number of his subordinates as a vampire. The second was a family with special abilities, not Magecraft that could be learned later, but innate abilities from birth.
The original owner of the body Arcueid had just killed should also have been like that. But from his level, Roa's personality should have just completely replaced him. He hadn't even started his previous actions, let alone look for the next reincarnation body.
Then why did he...
"Arcueid Brunestud?"
Just at that moment, Ciel's voice sounded from above. Landing not far in front of Arcueid, Ciel saw the corpse in her hand: "That...?"
"This generation's Roa. For some reason, he didn't resist at all and I killed him instantly."
Casually throwing away the corpse, Arcueid flicked the blood off her hand: "You're a little late. If you want to resolve your situation, wait another dozen years."
"...."
Not answering, Ciel only stared sharply at Roa's corpse, then sighed helplessly: "Then that was truly pointle—"
*CRASH!*
Before she finished speaking, in the sky not far away, right in the direction where the pale blue light had flashed earlier, like a fountain, a jet-black wave suddenly shot into the sky, and black rain instantly fell from the sky. And when the black rain hit the surrounding trees, the trees suddenly burst into flames!
'A curse?!'
Arcueid instantly recognized the true form of the black rain.
'But this is different from Vlov... this curse is—could it be!'
A bad situation flashed in Arcueid's mind. If it was really as she thought...
"Who cares about Roa! This country is going to be destroyed!"
◆━⊰✧⊱━◆
Time rewinded three minutes ago.
Right after Arcueid and Roa met.
The moon floating in the sky was reflected in his eyes. Because his whole body ached so badly, Naoki was too lazy to move his arms and legs. He just lay on the ground and started to laze around.
"Looks like it worked."
The moon was covered. Aoko came to Naoki's side: "You were really reckless. Couldn't you have discussed it with me first?"
"This kind of operation method can only rely on tacit understanding. Besides, I wasn't sure if Vlov would give us time to discuss, so I could only bet that Miss Aoko could guess my thoughts."
"Tacit understanding..."
Aoko squatted down: "We've only known each other for a few days, and we've only fought together once before this. It's amazing you can say the words 'tacit understanding'."
"Didn't Miss Aoko herself say it? We are very similar people, so I thought, if it were you, after seeing my actions, you should be able to guess what I wanted to do."
"Then what if I didn't guess it?"
"Then I would have tried a little harder to kill Vlov." Naoki said with a smile.
Seeing him like this, Aoko unconsciously smiled wryly: "You really are reckless..."
Although he had Magic Resistance, receiving the full force of a Magic Cannon without defense, the pure physical impact alone was enough to make him suffer. In this condition, it was estimated that he would have to lie in bed for a day or two.
"Rather than that, didn't you just directly call my name earlier?" Aoko suddenly smiled, "Even calling it out very loudly."
"Ah... no... you could say it was because of the emergency situation that I naturally just called it out."
"Hmm~ Because of the emergency situation... Well, it's not like I can't understand. To be honest, I also felt a bit awkward if you kept calling me Miss Aoko. From now on, just call me Aoko. Here, give me your hand. Can you stand? Let's go home."
Slightly surprised, then grabbing Aoko's hand and struggling to stand up, Naoki sighed: "Thank you, Aoko Miss—"
"Hm?"
"Aoko."
"Hmm hmm."
Supporting Naoki, Aoko looked around, then walked towards a slope not far away. Because of the fight with Vlov earlier, the ground had slightly subsided. The two of them were now below ground level and had to climb up.
However, just as the two of them reached the ground surface—
*THWACK!*
A snake suddenly spurted out from a crack in a large rock, directly towards Naoki, and bit his neck!
The sudden attack stunned the person who had just felt relieved after the battle for a moment.
Hurriedly pulling the snake off and throwing it away, Naoki held his neck: "Ugh... what the hell... wha—!?"
Doubt hadn't even reached his heart yet. The feeling that suddenly arose inside his body instantly made Naoki's face turn deathly pale. Without caring about Aoko's condition, he directly punched her away from his side with one blow!
"Wait—Naoki! You—"
*CRASH!*
The black mist spreading from Naoki's neck instantly exploded and expanded!
A jet-black fountain suddenly shot into the sky!