Vampire: World of Blood-Chapter 173: There is No Second Chance

In the vastness of space, the remnants of Queen Melizha floated—or rather, what was left of her, after the battle.

A single golden brain, with blue veins spread across like a sheet, the tad bit of Lanca that remained.

Currently speaking, inside her own mind, an intricate web of thoughts, flickered in and out like a dying star. She could feel the strange energy, the flames of decay, clawing at the essence of her existence, gnawing at the very fabric of her being.

A chilling realization swept over her: she was dying.

The remnants of her identity burn away, making her weaker and weaker as time goes, closer to eternal silence.

’Why?’

She lamented internally.

’How can this be happening to me?’

Her thoughts were laced with disbelief and fury, her once-immense power now reduced to whispers within the dark recesses of her consciousness.

She could sense her soul, composed of the twelve primordial aspects of existence as all souls within this fruit are made up of the twelve main aspects of existence, fracturing under the relentless onslaught of Merciless’s unreadable and unknown energy, birthed from the combination of two energy types.

It was a slow erosion, yet she felt every agonizing moment as if they were shattering the core of who she was.

’I will not succumb to this…

Her thoughts spiraled into a frenzy, grappling with despair as she confronted the enormity of her loss.

’I have ruled countless galaxies!...

Yet here she is, such a feat meaning nothing in the end.

’I am the Queen’s 16th strongest Aristaeus nest out of the ancient 50!’

But the title rang hollow now, a fading echo in the abyss as she came to terms with a terrible truth.

All her hard work, the sacrifices made, the bloodlines cultivated over millennia—everything could be rendered meaningless in an instant.

A bitter sensation surged within her. The truth clawed at her mind, nagging like a persistent phantom: her demise would open the door for a new queen, one who would assimilate her beloved nest into a colony of her own design.

The thought stung deeply.

’All I’ve built will be claimed by another!’

The reason for this grim reality was simple: The Aristaeus Empress, ruler of the entire Aristaeus race; mother of the fifty Queens of Dawn—essentially the fifty queens the Empress had personally birthed—could sense when one of their golden children had perished.

Over the years, eight had fallen, and now she might be the 9th.

From these golden queens, new queens could arise, as long as the power mark of the golden queens remained on them; the Golde Queen has control of these lesser queens only in status of course, since these queens can mature enough to rival golden queens.

However, as these other queens matured, the mark faded until they grew strong enough to establish their own independent colonies.

And that in the truest sense means they are strong enough not to depend on a golden queen.

But lesser queens still have to answer to those who have the golden blood.

After all the Aristaeus species multiplied through a complex biological hierarchy, where the queens sought out powerful males to mate with, engaging in a process that could be considered both primal and strategic.

May it be golden queens, lesser queens, or the Empress herself, they all either choose various mates, who join willingly, or they take forcefully, raping them and forcing them to procreate with them.

During these unions, the queens would assert dominance, resulting in a reproductive act that most of the time proved fatal for the males involved. This phenomenon is driven by the unique genetic structure of the Aristaeus, where offspring have a 30% chance of inheriting traits and abilities from their father’s side while retaining their full Aristaeus lineage that comes from the mother’s side.

However, successful reproduction among the Aristaeus is notoriously rare. While they can mate with various species, the intricacies of genetic compatibility often lead to failed attempts at conception.

Tragically, there are instances where unfortunate males succumb to the overwhelming vigor of their queens, a fate resulting from the sheer force of their reproductive drive.

For Queen Melizha, her Lanca allowed her to transcend these limitations.

This subjective power of hers had enabled her to engage in prolonged mating sessions that could last for centuries, ensuring her a seemingly limitless capacity for offspring.

But even then it’s hard to find extremely powerful males to mate with because, at the same time, there is a chance that her powerful genetics completely overwrite the genes the male counterpart has, while she can ensure the genes stay intact without the race changing itself, taking only racial traits, do that for some many children drains her faster than she likes. As such she reserves such rights for her elites.

Hence the reason, why wanted to mate with Merciless, even if it was by force.

During these intimate encounters, the male would essentially become a resource, providing sperm that she could manipulate to suit her reproductive needs. Melizha would release her fertilized eggs from her stinger-like tail in layers, with each session producing thousands of eggs.

The sheer volume of her reproductive output was staggering even more so than the normal Aristaeus queen.

A normal female Aristaeus can never birth as much as a queen, at most they can give rise to small hives in a colony hundreds, to a couple thousand at best, during long cycles of birth and chance.

Given they follow the same ratio of birth scale, all queens face.

For instance, a normal Aristaeus can fill an entire planetary body with their eggs, whereas Melizha can do this ten times over and faster due to her Lanca.

And when these eggs are laid, they would then begin to slowly absorb the lifeblood of the planet itself—essentially draining the planet itself of its entire energy to fuel their development.

So they can hatch and enter the world of the living successfully.

The larger the planet, the more viable the offspring. However, the odds were daunting; from the countless eggs laid, only about one in ten thousand would successfully hatch into a new Aristaeus. Yet, over the course of years, a single nest could hold millions, if not billions, of dormant eggs, each awaiting the right conditions to awaken.

Other queens, while capable of birthing additional queens, lacked the extraordinary abilities of the golden queens like Melizha, hell Melizha was revered as the 3rd most fetile Aristaeus queen in her entire species. with the queen empress being the most fertile Aristaeus there is.

Now even with all that success of cultivating children, she faced her own mortality, the harsh reality loomed: it would not be long before one of her sisters would seek to claim her colony, adhering to the unyielding laws of their society.

Even if resurrection were a possibility, which it currently was due to her lore still being intact, she would inevitably be relegated to the status of a common queen, cause the empress would definitely birth another in her place as she had done for the 8th that had perish in the past.

As Melizha’s thoughts drifted through a haze of despair, the weight of her impending fate bore down on her. In the face of impending annihilation, she wrestled with a relentless tide of memories and ambitions, battling against the encroaching darkness that loomed just beyond her reach.

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And yet even in her last moment, her determination was still as unyielding as ever.

’No, I refuse to be a stepping stone for another!...

she screamed inwardly, her mind racing as she fought against the inexorable pull of death. She had always known that a queen’s fall was but a chance for another to rise, but it had never seemed so real, so imminent, until now that is.

Yet, deep within her, a flicker of hope lingered. If she could survive—if only her mind could withstand this onslaught—perhaps her lore would revive her quicker just enough for the empress to reconsider replacing her, as she did for the 3rd born a couple of million years back, allowing her to the chance to be reborn.

’Resurrection is possible; I am not finished yet!...

But then, the weight of her impending doom pressed down, suffocating the remnants of her resolve.

’Millions of years, built on blood and sweat, could be swept away like dust in the wind.’

’What is the point of all this power?’

She thought bitterly.

’If I cannot even hold onto my own existence?’

The flames of decay still burning her very being, as what remained of her Lanca tried to fight off death itself.

But she would not give in.

The queen who once commanded respect and fear would not go quietly into that good night.

’I will fight, even if my brain crumbles around me!.’

As her essence began to fray at the edges, she dug deep within herself, drawing upon the last vestiges of her power. If she was to die, she would do so on her own terms. She would not allow Merciless the satisfaction of claiming her so easily.

’I will...

She said, but to her absolute shock, a voice echoed within the regiment of her fading mind.

"Shut the fucked up, and become my food."

And then before she could register or say anything else, she lost consciousness as she felt something tear her brain, or what was left of it into two pieces.

No words were replied for in that moment she instantly faded into nothing.

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*TSRHRKKKK!!!... GULP... HWOOOK!!!....

"Mhmmm.... damn if I knew you taste this good, I would have saved more of you to feat one, this shit is even better Zakcry blood."

Merciless said as he ate one part of her brain, leaving another part; but one bite was all it took for Merciless to see all her life memories, and acquire all her muscle memories as well.

"Damn, your body count makes Ophelia look like a child."

Merciless chuckled as he witnessed the queen in her most intimate moments, but he also gleaned valuable information about the genetics of another golden queen he had encountered earlier within his genetic singularity.

However, the stronger individuals were obscured by what he referred to as a "memory cloud," making it difficult for him to pinpoint their exact locations; or what their abilities were, like he said to this queen earlier, this was now skill issues on his part.

Still, with the memories of these queens, he at least knew their names, though sadly not where they currently resided.

On the other hand, Merciless now possessed the queen’s Lanca, "The Gift of Life." Although he needed to recharge this power, his body had begun to assimilate it as part of his own being, allowing for a natural replenishment of energy.

Many of her Magika spells required a specific level of energy to cast, while others demanded a certain amount to maintain. Fortunately, this wasn’t like some video game or anime where he had to enchant spells; the more he understood, the more powers he could access.

The queen possessed a variety of unusual abilities, but each required a certain amount of energy to execute.

Additionally, the Lanca itself was also rechargeable. This meant that not only would the Lanca replenish its energy, but Merciless’s body would be recharging as well, granting him a dual source of power.

For this specific type of energy of course.

"Hmm... I won’t lie; this power definitely suits me. I also have access to the Lanca of others, and all this knowledge is flooding my mind. When I have the time, I have some great ideas for improving myself—and, in turn, my servants. Albedo and Alucard have expertise in engineering, while Abadis specializes in biology. With my keen understanding, I can use this collective knowledge to create that device. It could even help enhance my inner world. If I try the Sleeping Beauty technique I learned from Jordan’s memory, I could use it to maintain and increase the power of my inner realm as well."

"Although I have no idea if it will work, given it a chimera idea, of using biology and advanced tech, with arcane arts to make something to help regulate some of my abilities even better, while naturally increasing the power of my inner world even more like Jordan.... hmmm maybe I should get Michelle to help me since he like building weird shit."

Merciless thought to himself.

But only to quickly put the idea aside for the time being, as he said while looking at the other piece of the brain

"Although let’s get started with feeding this piece to my armor."

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