Rudy landed in the forest with nothing but anger. And he landed so forcefully without caring that the ground cracked on impact as the force blew away his surroundings.
The trees and dead bodies were tossed aside like dust in the wind.
"I know you are hiding in the shadows. I don't know who you are or what you were planning to do with Jessica, but I can hear her heartbeat, so that means she is fine. I will give you a painless death if you come out now!"
There was no response from the other side, which made Rudy more furious than before.
"If you want to do it the hard way, then so be it. How dare you even think of hurting her!"
Rudy released his aura to intimidate the shadow, and it was so strong that it physically destroyed his surroundings even more. It felt like his aurora was alive and ready to devour anything in his path.
"You are not a human, and that's obvious. But whichever race you belong to, you cannot escape me. I will chase you down to the depths of hell and find you! I rule everything! I rule every race! How dare you defy my orders!"
The Lord inside Rudy was awakening, fueling his anger even more.
"You think you can hide from me?" Rudy asked with a scoff. "I can still sense your presence. Even if you physically hide, I can see you. I will count to three, so come out obediently.
I don't want Jessica to wake up and see me like this. So let's be done with it. If you don't come out, I will have to rip your shadow out of the horizon, and that won't end well for you."
A few seconds later, the shadow emerged from Jessica's shadow and stood in front of Rudy.
The reason Rudy didn't do anything first instead of threatening the shadow was because it used Jessica's shadow to hide. So to take it out, Rudy would have to use his powers on Jessica, which might have hurt her.
Rudy simply bluffed, but it was a true bluff.
When he released his intimidating aura, the realms quavered in fear. They couldn't see Rudy, but they could sense his presence. And if the faraway realms dropped to their knees after sensing Rudy's aura, what would have happened to the shadow who was standing in front of Rudy?
One would expect it to rub its head on the ground and grovel before Rudy, but surprisingly, it stood its ground.
Rudy's fangs automatically enlarged as he ordered, "Kneeeeeel!"
The shadow couldn't help but kneel in front of Rudy.
"Now, let's see who you truly are before I kill you by peeling your skin off your flesh!"
The shadow was still covered in the mist, but when Rudy touched it, the mist was absorbed by Rudy's body, and it revealed a girl wearing a hoodie. And her head was lowered as she was kneeling to Rudy.
"Raise your head and look at me," Rudy ordered.
At first, the girl didn't move, but she eventually had to. She slowly moved her head up as her hoodie fell off, and Rudy saw her full face.
"...!"
Never in his wildest dream had he ever expected to see or meet 'that' girl in 1989. His eyes widened in bewilderment as all his anger vanished completely as though it had never existed.
"What…" He slowly moved his hand to the girl's face as her red hair swayed in the air. "What are you doing here… Rias?"
The girl was none other than Rudy's vampire wife— Rias.
"How do you know my name?" Rias asked with a confused look on her face.
"Why… oh… you are this timeline's Rias. But why are you here in the human world? No, more importantly. What were you going to do with Jessica?"
While Rudy's anger had indeed vanished, he had to know the answers of Rias' actions.
"First, answer me." Rias furrowed her brows and asked as she pointed her finger at the sleeping Jessica, "What are you to this girl?"
"I don't have to answer your question."
Rias frowned and asked, "You're not a human, are you?"
Rudy shrugged his shoulders and said, "Do I look like one to you?"
"Who are you? And why couldn't I defy your words? Are you a warlock?" Rias asked curiously.
"Warlock? What is that? It's actually my first time hearing that. Is that a race?"
"Warlocks are mostly humans who steal the power of other races and use them for evil purposes. There are many types of warlock, but there is one thing common in all of them, and that is that they are humans.
Only humans can become warlocks. I read stories about them but never saw one. In fact, no one has ever seen one for thousands of years, and they have become a myth, a legend. But it seems they were all true," Rias uttered with a judging glare.
"I am not a warlock, but tell me more about them."
"Blood warlock; they steal the powers of vampires to hunt the vampires. Dragon slayers, who are warlocks, steal the dragon's power to hunt them down. Basically, the slayers of the races are mostly warlocks.
Seriously, humans are such despicable creatures. I have no idea why the Lord has kept them alive. They are the reason for the wars eons ago. They are the cause of every war in history. I hate them to my core!"
"..."
Rias looked at her hand and muttered, "But I can't believe my mother was half-human and half-vampire. I have human blood inside me, and that's disgusting. I ran away from the vampire world so I could meet my mother and ask her why she married a human!"
'Whoa. Her hate for humans is immeasurable. And now I see the perfect influence of Nyxia in her,' Rudy uttered inwardly.
"So you killed all the humans?" Rudy asked while pointing his gaze around at the dead bodies.
"No. They were bad people who were bringing innocent humans into the forest and killing them. Today was their grand meeting, so I annihilated them all!"
"If you hate humans so much, then why did you avenge the death of innocent humans? Furthermore, why did you save Jessica's life?"
"Well…" Rias averted her gaze and muttered, "Not all humans are bad…"
