Vampire: World of Blood-Chapter 168: It Ended Before It Started

Rytha was falling from the air, her body plummeting faster than she could react, the sensation of freefall engulfing her like a cruel embrace.

As she fell, all she could see around her was towering skyscrapers, impossibly tall and alien in their architecture.

These colossal structures spiraled upward into the heavens and were made of smooth silver and black metal, their surfaces reflecting distorted fragments of the world around her. The further she fell, the more these spires multiplied, stretching upward and outward into the horizon, bending space as they went along.

There was no horizon here, no tangible endpoint—just a sprawling maze of skyscrapers reaching for a sky that didn’t exist. The dizzying heights made her head spin as she twisted in the air, trying to gain her bearings.

She squinted against the wind rushing past her face, her sleek, armored exoskeleton gleaming with metallic hues of silver and dark obsidian. Her translucent wings shimmered, fluttering to slow her descent, catching invisible currents of the strange, swirling air. But the more she tried to stabilize herself, the more the skyscrapers seemed to shift, tilting in ways that shouldn’t be possible, as if they were teasing her with their gravitational pull.

There was no sky, not really—just a murky, kaleidoscopic expanse of colors and energy, swirling like a cosmic ocean without form or limit. Clouds of multicolored gases floated through the air, their eerie glow casting an unnatural light over the scene.

Stars blinked in and out, but not like the stars of any universe she had known. These were distant, cold, and fractured, as though they were dying or being born all at once, trapped in the infinite cycle of this realm.

Looking down, she saw no ground—only more skyscrapers shooting upward beneath her, stretching into an unfathomable depth, giving her the sensation that she could fall forever and never touch anything solid.

It was as if she was trapped between layers of endless upward structures, an infinite descent into an endless climb. Each building was impossibly tall, vanishing into the sky above and below her, with no start and no end.

Realizing the sheer scope of where she was, Rytha flicked her wings, propelling herself toward one of the towering structures. As she approached, she felt the strange gravity tugging at her.

Each skyscraper had its own pull, a unique force that shifted the moment she drew near. She landed with a jarring thud on the side of one spire, her talons gripping the smooth metallic surface. To anyone else, it would appear as if she stood sideways on a vertical wall, but here, there was no up or down. Gravity bent to the will of this place.

She stopped to catch her breath, her sharp yellow eyes scanning the endless spires stretching into the distance. Some pulled at her more strongly than others, creating a disorienting sensation as though each step could suddenly become heavier or lighter, depending on the whim of this strange environment.

Her streamlined body was built for speed and precision, yet even she felt the strain of moving through this bizarre realm.

’What... is this place?’

She thought to herself, as she began to look around.

She took a moment to analyze her surroundings. The air here felt thick, oppressive, charged with an energy she couldn’t understand. It pressed down on her, a subtle but unrelenting pressure that made her muscles tense.

"Oi!"

A voice cut through the eerie silence, sharp and menacing.

Rytha’s entire body tensed, her wings instinctively flaring out as her sharp yellow eyes snapped upward—or perhaps downward, it was hard to tell in this warped place. Gravity bent in strange ways, but there was no mistaking the direction of the sound. Hovering above—or behind her—was a figure, arms folded, silhouetted against the swirling chaos of colors and light that stretched into infinity.

The woman was unlike anything Rytha had seen before, yet there was something about her—a familiarity. Her presence radiated danger, and it only took a moment for Rytha to realize: that this was one of the intruders, the blond head.

The woman floated effortlessly in the air, her long golden blonde hair flowing behind her like liquid light, contrasting starkly against the backdrop of the kaleidoscopic void. Her neon blue eyes glowed with an unnatural, nocturnal hue, cold and predatory, locking onto Rytha with a hateful look.

Her body had an aurora of esoteric purple plasma that wrapped and swirled around her, naturally, this was due to the Tagmar physiology Substance naturally has since the Tagmar DNA was a part of her gentic archive.

As she began to settle upon the same skyscraper as Rytha.

Substance, as she was called, oozed a dark, gothic appeal. Her form was wrapped in tight, black uniform clothing that clung to her curves, exuding both elegance and intimidation. A snug, cut blouse revealed just enough to unsettle, yet it was the air around her that carried the true threat.

Her lips were painted in rich, unnatural black lipstick, and they twisted into a smirk that belonged to someone who could only communicate via violence. Her stance was relaxed—too relaxed—as though she knew she knew victory was hers.

Rytha instinctively crouched, her talons flexing against the metallic surface of the skyscraper. Her predatory eyes narrowed, watching Substance with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. There was something deeply unsettling about this woman she couldn’t put her hands around—the way her aura or rather her ki was leaking like it was bleeding into the air itself, it was thick and oppressive.

"So you are the bitch that ambush my master...

She said, her voice barely audible, and even if it was, Rytha could not understand her; making communication impossible to begin with even if they tried.

On the other, Substance rage was increasing by the second, the black and crimson red aura around getting more menacing as time went on.

"There is so much I want to say to you right now...

"But no words can express the depth of my hate for you. Not the insults, the threats, or even the twisted things I imagine doing to you—they can’t ease the hatred burning inside me."

"So I will just express it the only way I know how to."

She said.

From there, she didn’t speak anymore, for she did not need to. The air itself trembled under the weight of her bloodlust, a force so palpable it seemed to ripple inwards and outwards like a predatory wave. Rytha could feel it, like claws scraping against her mind, tugging at her instincts—danger. It was as if every fiber of Substance’s being screamed for destruction.

Without warning, Substance’s body surged forward, moving so fast that the space around her distorted. Before Rytha could even react, Substance was upon her, a brutal fist already sailing towards her face.

*CRACK!!!*

*BOOOOOM!!!*

Rytha’s head snapped back, her armored body lifted off the ground as the impact sent shockwaves rippling through the skyscraper. She barely registered the pain before she was flung backward, her wings folding instinctively as she crashed through multiple towering structures, metal, and debris exploding in her wake.

Substance didn’t relent.

With a growl of raw hatred, she launched after Rytha, her fist now encased in a seething black miasma. The energy crackled, heating the air around it as the flames licked at her skin. Each step she took warped the air as if reality itself bent to her rage. Her hate burned hotter, fueling the violent fire swirling around her fist, of course, this was Merciless’s ability to increase miasma heat and potency that burn the anger within as fuel.

"GRHHAAAAAHHHHHHAAAA!!!"

A rage fill scream escaped Substance’s mouth, as she rushed towards Rytha with great speed.

Rytha managed to twist in the air, her talons gripping the side of a skyscraper to stop her momentum. But the moment she looked up, Substance was there again—this time too close to evade.

A second blow landed square on Rytha’s abdomen, the force of the punch reverberating through her armored exoskeleton. The metallic sheen of her armor flickered, struggling to hold under the immense pressure.

A feral scream tore from Rytha’s throat as she skidded backward, claws scraping against the skyscraper’s surface.

"What the hell is up with this uncanny strength?!"

Her mind spun—this woman, this intruder, shouldn’t have been able to match her physical prowess. Yet here she was, overpowering her as if her exoskeleton was paper. Rytha braced herself, prepared to retaliate.

But Substance wasn’t done.

Her fist clenched again, miasma roaring around it like a sentient firestorm. The heat was unbearable now, the flames fueled by her hatred. Substance let out a primal roar, charging once more with reckless abandon. She was a storm of violence, her movements wild and furious. Each punch, each strike that landed felt like it was designed not just to hurt—but to destroy.

For every punch Substance landed, countless amounts of her physical cells were being erased from existence.

But due to the Lanca, as long as energy is prominent, she could regenerate indefinitely without worry, and that was exactly what she was doing. Then and again she must say that this blond-haired woman was insanely strong, that was a fact she couldn’t deny.

But her lanca was one that was made for close combat battles, if anything it functioned best when she could get close and personal.

Rytha, her armor taking the brunt of the savage blows, growled in frustration. Her body, built to withstand attacks capable of wiping out entire galaxies, strained under the relentless barrage. With a surge of effort, she caught Substance’s wrist mid-punch, stopping the strike just inches from her face. Their gazes locked, Rytha’s yellow eyes burning with fierce determination.

"Enough!"

Rytha snarled, her other arm drawing back, gathering energy from the depths of her Lanca.

And then that’s when it happened a golden light began to leak from her being, as her eye went from yellow to gold in an instant, but the crazy part was, Substance was a physical beast with enough physical power and striking force to blow away several large moons into dust bits if place in a straight line, given that she uses her full power striking force.

The weight of her current fist was enough to destroy a continent in a single blow was suddenly caught by Rytha like it was no more than an approaching ball of feathers coming her way.

All the kinetic energy from that attack was absorbed right into her as well acting as additional fuel for her Lanca.

And then the golden light began to wrap around Substance’s fist, then her entire body, and even the miasma itself, along with her chi, and all other energy in her body, and around the area even the ones Rytha did not understand was being absorbed by this weird golden energy.

Substance tried to absorb back the energy being taken away but failed, and to do that she needed to intercept the golden energy which was Rytha Lanca, by absorbing it first, and understanding it, but to no avail she could not understand this energy as such it failed miserably.

And then Rytha began to speak.

Rytha’s grip tightened even more around Substance’s wrist, her yellow eyes narrowing with a feral intensity.

"AGHHHH!!...

For the first time ever Substance groans in pain.

"You feel that, little girl? Your energy, your life, your strength—everything that fuels you—is being siphoned away by my light."

Rytha hissed, her voice low and resonant.

"Flesh stripped from your being, slowly, inevitably. It’s a natural process, you know. My power doesn’t have the fancy tricks you might expect. No, what makes my Lanca unique is its singular purpose—a subjective force that generates countless outcomes from the drain it exerts on reality itself."

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Rytha explains, twisting Substance’s wrist slowly, to the point a snapping sound was soon heard.

As a result, she began to punch away at Rytha, she couldn’t understand what she was saying but she knew instinctually that she was being mocked; and she didn’t like it one bit.

Substance fists were powerful, as she punched at Rytha’s face constantly, but it was like she was hitting an unbreakable wall all of a sudden.

Naturally, Substance had information about this enemy, but, something was wrong, she began to forget all of a sudden, no who was she again, she began to wonder.

Rytha leaned closer, as Substance started to lose her strength the tension between them thickening the air itself.

"Witness the power of my Monarch Butterfly little girl, this power treats everything in existence as drainable energy. Physical, non-physical, it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re weaker or equal in power, my abilities will work. Everything I see, hear, smell, or feel is within my reach. I can drain it all down to nothing... and soon you will be a husk, and from a husk, you will become nothing more than a fleeting memory that once existed."

"Look around—see how the materials that once held form are being erased from existence?"

Rytha said as Substance began looking around, and that’s when she saw a piece of the skyscraper fading into oblivion.

Even the wind itself stopped blowing, some colors in the distance became black, and her body, too was starting to fade into nothing.

"My Monarch Butterfly started as a simple debuff you see, but as I drain more it starts to target your things like your concepts, your mind, your very soul, and memories, and all of that will be treated as absorbable energy which is then converted into to power that burns away the more I use it... like gas a vehicle."

"Each piece I extract boosts my strength, durability, and defense. But the more I drain, even at a conceptual level, the more meaning is stripped from the world around me."

"There is no way to get around this little girl.... your death... has already been decided before the battle even begun."

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"Now, rest within oblivion."

"If no one remembers you, then at least I will…

With that, Substance faded from existence, and her very essence drained until nothing remained.

Or at least, that would have been the case if this battle hadn’t already ended the moment it began, from Substance’s perspective.

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"Oh, my child, for someone so beautiful, you eat like a wild animal child."

Xana remarked, watching as Substance devoured Rytha alive.

Substance had already consumed all four of Rytha’s limbs and was now tearing into her entrails, pulling out an organ resembling a liver. When bitten, it bled a deep red, strangely similar to human blood.

Substance looked over at Xana, who spoke through Baset—a sphere of black miasma no larger than a basketball floating beside her.

"So, you’re a devil, huh? I won’t lie; this woman had some pretty troublesome powers that Master warned us about through the hive’s genetic memories."

Substance remarked to Xana, as she continued to speak out.

"I’m glad you showed up when you did you know...

"Otherwise, we’d still be strategizing on how to handle her back in the Aether Bridge during Master’s genetic singularity. By the way, are you sure five souls a year is enough to borrow Baset’s power? It seems almost unfair, considering how strong Baset is."

Substance directed her question at Xana, who floated nearer, responding with a sly smirk.

"I revealed myself when the timing felt right. Besides, I’ve already shown the contract to the young prince, so I mean no harm, and he knows that too; but to be brutally honest, I have been watching the young prince for a while now, and never in all my life have I seen a more abnormal vampire than him, soo much so, he makes abnormals look normal."

Xana said as she poured every last bit of honesty into that speech.

And continued then some.

"You couldn’t have handled her alone—not with her power. I’ll admit, that her abilities were formidable, but her arrogance left her vulnerable. Now, you’re free to enjoy her body as your reward."

"Although... these spawnlings; how fascinating... to think a creature like this, has lived among us for so that even this woman is old as even the most ancient of devils."

Taking another bite, Substance asked.

"I get that I trapped her in her own mind, but can you explain Mangetsu to me again?"

Xana chuckled, her lips curling as she began explaining the retribution aspect of the seventh miracle.

"This power is one of the sub-powers under the three core abilities of Mangetsu. When you struck Rytha, it activated the pride aspect of Retribution, casting her into a hypnotic state—a dream world driven by her own pride."

"Because she is equal to you in strength but not superior, she becomes ensnared in a fantasy of her own making, imagining herself in control, achieving victory. The irony is that she’s trapped as long as she clings to her arrogance. Anyone can break free from Retribution, but her pride blinds her."

Substance’s brow furrowed in realization.

"So, she must let go of her pride to escape?"

Substance asked.

To which Xana replied.

"Exactly...

Xana affirmed, her voice almost melodic.

"But pride is both her strength and her downfall. Her genetic memories suggest she’ll struggle against this truth, remaining ensnared by her arrogance. It’s a twisted justice—binding her with her own flaw. And remember, each sin under Retribution has specialized abilities to address those with matching vices."

As Xana spoke, Substance bit into the brain of Rytha, feeling an understanding of Rytha’s abilities flow through her, her eye turning gold as she devoured more of it.

"You know."

She commented.

"You’re quite an ironic figure—a devil-wielding powers of justice."

Xana let out a haughty laugh.

"Irony or not, this power makes me unpredictable."

"Mhm... it surely does."

Substance replied back.

And after finishing her meal, Substance stood, absorbing the blood that remained into her pores, and then into her body.

And right after, she began to open an Aether portal to the next subjective reality. She arrived just in time to see Ana standing atop an enemy, crushing their skull with gravity as strong as a sun’s weight.

"Oh, that child is something else. I see so much potential in her—fascinating."

Xana noted while Substance replied.

"Nice, you go, Ana, show that motherfucker a lesson, stomp the fact in that head of his, and keep torturing him, it is the only way these insects learn, but I wonder how the others are doing."

Substance turned to Exile’s reality, finding it empty of enemies, only Exile asleep. Shifting spatial coordinates, she saw the enemy body drifting in the dead zone, within the Death faze one can reach through the dimensional portal of her first stomach.

"Where’s the head?"

She muttered, seeing they needed the brain to extract the understanding fully, as Substance began searching Exile’s second stomach, where she finally saw it—dissolving in stomach acid.

On that note, she grabbed it from the other side of the portal and place teleported it back into her master’s lab.

Meanwhile, the Dampas, in their new Nosferatu form, wielded different versions of Zakcry weapons, Oblivion, and Magma or perfect replicas of them, dispatching remaining elite foes in other subjective realities, empowered by Merciless’s enhancements, genetic augmentation, and new laws within their blood, with the authority to control these subjective reality once inside his world as they please.

Giving them an immense advantage, against stronger foes, as they have multiple factors aiding them to victory.

Xana then began to say.

"Oh my, you just love to see it, things are going quite well, don’t you agree?"

Substance responded.

"Well, credit goes to Master for this overwhelming victory. He planned every detail—terrain, weapons, buffs at the last minute, kind of scary not going to lie. And it was done so well, that our chances of failure were so low they were almost nonexistent. The real threats were this woman I just ate, and the queen herself... which master should be apprehending by now."

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