Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 33: First Step Into The Old Realm

The hoverships flew towards the locations of the raid gates, and after about half an hour, hovership D4 lowered itself onto the ground.

"Divers. Unboard the ship," the pilot announced in all of the passenger cabins.

Rudy slowly opened his eyes.

Divers of his cabin had left their seats and were walking towards the exit with grim expressions.

He stared at the empty seat before him and thought, ’Should I return to the syndicate afterwards?’

Yes, Crimson Saint wasn’t thinking about whether he would live or die — he was thinking of what he would do after returning. To him, his return was not a chance but a guarantee.

He stood up from his seat and walked towards the exit.

’I can also join the Moon Weavers, and they won’t have any suspicion of me because to them I’d be entirely unrelated to Rudric Ironwell, who had sold them out... what a bad person he was. It’s good that Melissa killed him.’

His thoughts continued as he stepped down the hovership, and his gaze fell on a gigantic tear into the space itself.

Mystical silver light seeped out of the gate, and just by looking at it, he felt calmer.

"Raid gate..." he mumbled.

"Stop stalling and move forward!" The enforcer shouted furiously.

The divers held their hearts as most walked towards the gate with shaky steps, some were calm, and a few were already in tears, mumbling about their wills and guaranteed deaths.

Rudy moved towards the silver raid gate, his lips curled upwards, and he whispered, "Finally..."

Various emotions filled him, but the ones at the zenith were joy and fury.

Joy at finally stepping into the old realm and fury at not being able to do it before.

As he neared the gate, he hummed a tune which drifted into the ears of divers around him.

Hearing him, they swallowed hard and thought how someone could stay so relaxed and cheerful in such a situation.

It was a matter of life and death; no one should be able to stay calm and relaxed.

No one except the Scarlet Scion, of course.

Without a single faltering step, Rudy stepped inside the raid gate, and the silver light consumed him.

Other divers followed, and all forty-nine of them entered the gate, and with a sonorous whir, the gate crumbled into silver sparks.

Rudy’s vision turned dark for a moment, and a voice he hadn’t heard for the past few moments resounded in his head.

[Warrior Rudric, we welcome you to the Soulstar Lake!]

Mist covered all of him except his face as he found himself standing on the surface of the soulstar lake.

"I thought it would directly throw me somewhere into the old realm," he mumbled and looked at the starry sky.

’Somewhere within those numerous stars is a red star that belongs to me...’ he thought with a smile and mumbled, "Final Will."

White runes appeared before him.

×××××××

Name: Rudric Ironwell

Moniker: Crimson Saint

Path: [Blood]

Rank: [Deviant]

Attribute: [Scarlet Scion]

○ Grade: [Apex]

○ Description: [You are the last child of the Blood God]

Traits: [Divine Blooded], [Cold Headed], [Lesser Vampire], [Blood Expert]

Skills: [Scarlet Sight], [Blood Manipulation], [Crimstone Construct], [Blood Usurpation]

Artifacts: [Dark Spatial Ring #15692], [Haloband #17394738]

Essence Shards: [24 / 1000]

×××××××

’No more hiding.’ He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Final Will whispered.

[You are being sent to the Old Realm!]

[We wish you great fortune.]

Blinding light consumed him, and he disappeared from the soulstar lake.

—

Within a strange desert full of dunes of pale white sand, similar to finely crumbled bones, lay Rudy.

The sunlight fell onto his body like spears of heat, and his body shook slightly before his eyes shot open.

He raised his arm to shield himself from the sun and mumbled, sweat running down his face, "It’s hot..."

He dug his hand into the pale sand and forced himself to rise to his feet.

No matter how much he looked around himself, the only things that entered his vision were the pale sand, thick ribs, monstrous skulls, large spines, and other ancient skeletal remains scattered and buried throughout the desert.

He breathed a sigh of relief and mumbled, "It’s an undiscovered location."

Irritation filled his face, and he whispered, "But it’s too hot..."

He immediately retrieved a dark hood from his spatial ring and put it on. "Much better."

The hood stopped the sunlight, but the heat still assaulted him, the sand scattered around as he turned and mumbled, "Where should I go...?"

Having no clue, he tapped onto his haloband for any help he could get, but it glowed red, and a holographic screen floated above the round screen.

[Signal unresponsive!]

[Please retry at a different location.]

"Dammit!" He gritted his teeth and decided to use [Scarlet Sight] to see if it could help him in any way.

However, just as he did so, purple orbs appeared deep beneath the sand, and his eyes widened in disbelief. "Corrupt Cores...?"

"Why are there corrupt cores under the sand?" He mumbled with knitted brows.

At the same time, a large pale tower that was sticking out of the ground entered his vision.

He ignored the corrupt cores because, even if he had collected them, as he couldn’t absorb them like others, he would gain nothing, and all the work would be fruitless.

"I can climb that tower to see further," he mumbled, and stepped towards the pale tower.

However, as he took the step, he felt a wisp of blood essence trickle out of his essence core.

"What the?!" He staggered back in shock, and as his feet touched the sand, more wisps of essence left him.

’What is going on?’

’Why do I keep losing my essence?’ He frowned and looked at the ground.

He stared at it for a few moments, and his jaw tightened as a theory came to his mind.

’It shouldn’t be possible...’ He thought, then took a step forward, as before, essence escaped his core.

"With each step, the desert is sucking a bit of my essence..." Dark clouds gathered around his face, but he shook them off.

He tightly clenched his fist and spat, "Is this all the old realm can do to stop me? How pitiful."

He locked his gaze on the tower as he channelled some blood essence to his legs and dashed towards it with a speed no slower than that of a horse.