Vampire's Blood Ascension-Chapter 55: Breaking Out

The night passed. Rudy finished offering all the shards he had collected during it and walked over to Sera, who was still asleep on the ground.

Her chakrams lay beside her, and Kalien gazed at her with worry. "Is she fine?"

Rudy shook his head and sat beside her. "I don’t know."

He placed his fingers over her nose, and as her breath brushed his fingers, he said, "She is just tired, I guess."

Kalien nodded and walked towards one of the palm trees. "I should get some fruits. She would be hungry after she wakes up."

"Right," Rudy mumbled, and his gaze shifted towards the silver string wrapped around Sera’s head.

Upon glancing at it, his brows furrowed, and his lips dropped. "What’s that?"

He leaned closer to see better. "I don’t remember her having this."

His eyes gleamed with curiosity, and he moved his hand towards it.

Just as his fingers touched the silver thread, it fell apart into tiny silver speckles that entered his hand, and before Rudy could even react, his eyes rolled backwards.

The memory of him meeting Seraphel Thessyne for the first time replayed itself in his mind, and at the same time, three words continued to resound in his head.

Still in a daze, Rudy turned his head towards the spring and mumbled, "Remember... to... dive..."

He slowly rose to his feet and stepped towards the spring as the voice turned louder and louder, but just as he was about to dive, his eyes regained their dreamy consciousness, and he stumbled away from the spring.

"W-What am I doing?!"

He fell on his butt and stared at the spring in terror.

"How can I dare taint the spring by diving in it?" he mumbled grimly as the hex once again began to tighten its grip around his head.

He twisted his head to Sera and gasped, "What were those memories...?"

He gripped the grass and looked around. "Something’s wrong!"

All of a sudden, the oasis no longer felt like the paradise of dreams or the haven it used to be. Instead, it felt more like a prison, but even then, he was still trapped in its hex.

The words Remember To Dive continued to ravage his mind, and he forced himself to stop listening to them.

He pushed himself off the ground, his expression dark and horrified as he walked under the shade of a palm tree and slumped there.

’Did I get sick as well?’ he thought as he placed his back against the tree and closed his eyes.

However, the voice only got louder.

A clear look of distress and annoyance painted his face, but he denied listening to it.

A few minutes later, Kalien came with the fruits and mumbled, "Here."

But Rudy couldn’t hear him.

"What’s wrong with him now?" Kalien furrowed his brows and shook Rudy’s legs with his foot.

Rudy’s eyes opened instantly, and he looked to his left. "Kalien..."

"Is something wrong?" he asked while offering fruits to him.

Rudy glanced into Kalien’s eyes and shook his head. "Nope. Everything’s fine."

Kalien stared at his face, which didn’t look fine at all, and said as he walked towards Sera, "If you say so."

Rudy lifted the fruits and glanced at them as he, without anyone’s knowledge, stored them in his spatial ring.

"Remember to dive," he whispered as he closed his eyes.

The day and night passed. Most of it was similar to the previous ones, with the only changes being the voice in his head that continued to get louder and Sera, who still hadn’t come out of her slumber.

From that day on. Rudy stopped consuming the fruits, though that didn’t weaken the hex that was already controlling him, but at the same time, it didn’t become any stronger either.

Which was great considering Rudy himself was becoming stronger by guarding the oasis from deviant beasts and fiends. He had also noticed that none of the deviant demons or horrors attacked this place; it was as if they knew what was here, and the weaker ones didn’t.

With each dreadborn that he felled, his control over himself got stronger, and the hex’s effect began to weaken.

On the fifth day, Sera woke up, and much to his disappointment, she was still under the full strength of the hex.

Later that night, he convinced them to stop offering essence shards to the spring every day; instead, they would do it on the last day of the week. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Though it was just a way for him to make sure that whatever dreadborn had formed this hex no longer became any stronger, and once they left this place, they would have enough shards to strengthen themselves.

Before this, Rudy would’ve never thought of helping others, but upon witnessing the true dangers of the old realm, he came to understand why none can survive the old realm alone.

Although everything was progressing well, Rudy still couldn’t step beyond the oasis or dive into the spring because the hex used most of its strength to stop them from even considering those.

More days passed, and on the seventh day since they came here, Rudy side-stepped from a noon scorpion’s claws and his blood-red crimstone sword cleaved it from the center.

[You have slain a Deviant Beast: Noon Scorpion.]

[Your blood has grown pure.]

Blood flooded out of it, and Rudy gathered all of it above his palm and mumbled, "Blood usurpation."

But like the past few days, the result was failure.

[The blood is too weak for usurpation.]

"Tch." Rudy clicked his tongue, then he solidified the blood into a crimstone orb and stored it in his spatial ring.

The corner of his lips and eyes trembled as the voice continued its rambling.

"How the hell do I stop this?" He muttered, annoyed, and called out, "Final Will."

Serene white runes appeared before his eyes.

×××××××

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], [Lesser Vampire], [Blood Expert]

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

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

Essence Shards: [149 / 1000]

×××××××

"149..." he whispered, and his gaze shifted towards Kalien, who was fighting a deviant beast.

Without ceremony, he dashed towards Kalien, and as Kalien was about to defeat the dreadborn, he slammed into him and sent him rolling onto the ground.

"Ugh!" Kalien let out a groan before he fell unconscious, and Rudy swung his sword in a wide arc.

His sword easily cut through the deviant beast, and Final Will whispered in his ears.

[You have slain a Deviant Beast: Noon Scorpion.]

[Your blood has grown pure.]

At the same time, he heard the sound of shattering glass.