Chapter 479: Is it time for Nuke?
On the walk back to Warfall, Eleanor explained more to Victor how the ritual worked.
She explained it in detail for over 15 minutes, and to Victor's delight, the ritual was quite easy to do but difficult to perform and had a set of rules:
First, the ritual can only be performed once in a being's lifetime. As you are changing/adding new genetic code in your body/soul, it is very dangerous to add more bloodlines.
Second, for the ritual to be performed, the tradition must be that the subject who is going to experience the ritual must hunt down a 'monster' and use that monster as his bloodline change fuel.
Third, the ritual must only be performed by members of Clan Adrastea, and the existence of this ritual must remain extremely secret. Drastic measures such as a soul pact are necessary for this condition to be complete.
The soul pact is something similar to the witches' contract, but it is made exclusively through a technique that the Clan Adrasteia has. In that pact, you swear to keep silent on the matter, and only the 'head' of the Clan Adrasteia has permission to disclose this information.
Fourth, if the ritual is performed by a member outside the Clan Adrasteia, that member must immediately unite in some way with Clan Adrasteia, either through marriage or becoming a member of Clan Adrasteia.
The ritual has several levels of effect, and only the 'full' effect should be used if the vampire is competent enough to survive.
If not, the vampire will receive a diluted version of the ritual.
Forgetting the fairly easy-to-understand parts of the ruleset, the method of doing the ritual is simple.
Hunt a monster, and use it to change your lineage.
Victor being Victor, of course, wouldn't choose just any monster. He wanted the best of them, and knowing that, he understood that he wouldn't be able to go through this ritual now. After all, he didn't have the necessary ingredients.
"By the way, what is your monster's lineage?"
Eleanor, who was already back to her vampire form, spoke with an ironic smile:
"... It's a dragon-like monster. Its powers are related to gravity, fire, and poison."
"...." Victor could only display a wry smile, no wonder she looked like a dragon.
"So you're immune to fire?" he asked curiously.
"I have great resistance to fire thanks to my bloodline, but I'm not completely immune like you or the Snow Clan."
"But isn't the Snow Clan immune to fire?"
"Hmm?"
"I mean, fire can't kill someone from the Snow Clan, but we're not completely immune to fire of any kind."
"... What do you mean?"
"For example, if a god with the greater divinity of fire attacks us, we will take damage, it will not kill us like a normal vampire, but we will still receive damage."
"Oh... So it's not complete immunity, huh."
"Yes."
'At least this is true in the base form. In the vampire Count form that Agnes uses, she becomes completely immune to fire since, just like my wife Natashia, she has completely mastered the vampire Count form, thus being able to reach level 3 of the transformation.' Victor thought as he remembered the memories of Agnes leveling an entire mountain range with her vampire Count power.
"...Oh, keep it a secret."
"Why?"
"It's a Snow Clan secret."
"...." Eleanor just laughed and rolled her eyes.
Despite Eleanor's reaction, Victor knew she would keep it a secret.
"Oh yes. Even if you allowed me to go through the ritual, I would not marry you because of it."
Eleanor's cheeks turned slightly red.
"I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you or anything."
"...But you're still going to go through the ritual, right?" Eleanor asked.
"Obviously." Victor wouldn't deny a way to get stronger.
"Jerk. Shameless." Eleanor snorted.
"Hahaha~, just leave that matter aside. After all, I still don't have the monster stuff."
"Let's get to know each other better." Victor laughed in a jovial tone.
"Okay."
"Oh?" Victor raised an eyebrow.
"What? Did you think I was going to let myself be teased the whole time?" Eleanor rolled her eyes. She was a warrior, she had thick skin and toned abs. She wasn't going to remain passive all the time!
"...." The Valkyries that were watching this interaction from a distance just felt like they were eating dog food.
"Now, I hate you, Rose." Anrietha can't help but speak as the Valkyries nod in agreement.
"Why!?"
"Because of you, they are acting in their own world. This is just revolting." Anrietha grunted in annoyance.
"Isn't that a good thing!?" Rose was speechless.
"Yes. But it's disgusting when they do that in front of us. Don't they have any consideration for single women?" Martha explained.
"...." Now that she thought about it, Rose understood why they were frustrated.
"Oh? Did you give up on that Solomon plan?" Juliet spoke.
"...you weren't kidding!?"
"Of course not."
"It is common sense. We are Valkyries, and we must stand with our Valkyrie Queen. Which means, if she marries, we will join them too."
"A light, buy 1 and get 7 in the pack, combo, isn't that just wonderful?" Julieta displayed a smile that seemed to glow.
"..." An uncomfortable silence fell between the Valkyries.
"Okay, it's official. She is brain-fucked." Alexa spoke.
"Wait, Wait, why am I being included!?" Rose asked wordlessly.
"Antiques deserve to be loved too, and you always trained and didn't even have time to leave an offspring in the world. That's a disgrace to any living thing." Juliet was looking like a saint speaking the words of the bible now.
Veins popped in Rose's head when she heard the word antique.
"If Rose participates, I will too." Judy spoke.
"Eh?" Rose was speechless.
"Me too." Alexa spoke.
"Count on me." Martha laughed.
Soon all the Valkyries spoke the same words.
"It's decided. Our futures depend on you, Commander Rose, go to his bed and make a child soon!"
Slap!
Rose tapped Juliet on the head:
"Stop playing around, your games are over the line."
"Ugh..." Juliet held her head.
"But it's no joke…-" She was silent when she saw Rose's gaze glowing slightly blood red.
"Fufufu, you deserved it, Juliet." Martha laughed.
"Gah! You talk as if you weren't in the game too!"
"What are you talking about?" Martha asked, genuinely confused, "I didn't do anything." She looked very innocent.
For a moment, even Juliet seemed to believe her.
"Ugh, Shameless people."
"That's the secret of living a long life, you must be shameless." Anrietha laughed.
The girls began to laugh at Juliet's misfortune.
"Hmm?" Victor suddenly stopped talking to Eleanor and looked straight ahead with a serious expression.
"...." Seeing Victor's reaction, the girls looked at him. They had been with the man long enough to know that when he reacted like that, it was because he saw something.
From Victor's point of view, his vision began to amplify, and soon he saw something, the city that Eleanor built with her power was taken over by various hordes of monsters ranging from behemoths and minions to ogres and predators.
"The city you built has been taken over by monsters." Victor warned the girls.
"What do we do?"
"...." The girls looked at Eleanor.
"Ignore."
"Our priority is to get home now."
Everyone nodded, indicating that they understood Eleanor's words, but everyone had a thought in their heads.
"...I don't think it's a good idea." Rose spoke up.
"Leaving a city this size in the hands of monsters is not a good idea. At least we should destroy the city's structure."
"I agree." Victor spoke.
Realizing that he had the attention of all the girls, he said,
"Although you can easily build a city with your power, we must not let an Alpha take control of this city. We must destroy it."
"...I understand your point, but we don't have an easy way to kill everyone." Eleanor spoke.
"Who said killing the monsters?"
"Huh?"
"I talked about 'destroying' the city, that is, just the structures you created."
"Oh..." Eleanor understood now, then thinking about several things, she made a decision:
"Let me do this."
"It's not a good idea." Rose and Victor spoke at the same time.
"...." The girls were speechless, including Rose and Eleanor herself.
Victor, who was used to talking together because of Scathach, just continued talking:
"Eleonor is our main means of security, and in an emergency, her power to make a city and spread the monsters is very useful."
"We can't afford to make her tired when we're only halfway through."
"...." Ignoring her shock session, Rose nodded in agreement with Victor's words. That was what was on her mind as well.
"The best person for the job is me... I can't kill them with my power for the sake of immortality, but... Destroy a city?"
"That's easy." Victor's smile grew predatory.
The girls close to him couldn't help but display a similar smile. He really was their 'mate' even the attitude was the same.
...
Arriving near the city, Victor said:
"Contacting us in 3... 2...1... Now!"
Victor stopped running, and the girls found themselves in front of the city.
"Victor, please." Rose spoke up.
"I know." Victor threw his Odachi and a bag to Rose.
Rose took the Odachi and looked curiously at the gun and bag that Victor threw at her. Shortly after, she turned her attention back to Victor.
"What will you do?"
"Turn everything to ashes..." Slowly, fire began to cover Victor's body, and in the next moment, two long wings of fire appeared behind him.
His ears became pointed, his teeth sharper, his hands changed to sharp claws, and his feet changed to monster paws while his clothing had long since evaporated.
'Tsk, I was supposed to bring some suits that Scathach made for me.' As it was a suit made especially for Victor, he had great strength in his body attributes, and when transformed into the vampire Count transformation, the outfit would not be damaged.
It's very similar to the material Scathach made with her armor.
The entire transformation was smooth and quick, proving that Victor was quite proficient in the first form of the Snow Clan's vampire Count transformation.
The Snow Clan Vampire Count form was the first form he awakened, so it was understandable that he had more control over it.
"Anrietha, Honey."
Anrietha's body shuddered a little at Victor's melodious, commanding tone.
"Protect the girls if necessary, okay?"
"... Okay." She accepted the orders with a slightly red tone on her face as she took the priestess staff from her back, and spoke some words of incantation, then her body glowed slightly, and she put away the staff and took the shield.
"Good." Victor waved lightly, vanished, and then reappeared over the city.
"Oya, Oya?"
"Not now, Juliet." Anrietha spoke in a definitive tone that allowed no refusal.
Gulp.
"Okay..." Julieta knew when to back off, and teasing Anrietha right now wasn't a good idea.
...
"Now that I've stopped to think about it... Shall we try a new technique?"
Victor created a fireball and looked at it.
He knew that the powers he used had an incredible range of possibilities to evolve. One example of this is his lightning.
The electricity, if condensed and thrown out, can turn into plasma, which depending on how much power he puts into it, that plasma can be many times hotter than his firepower.
Another thing he thought of doing was using electromagnetic telekinesis. He deduced that he could do it if he had great control over his lightning.
Fire cannot be left out either since he knew that the flame he had was not by far the strongest flame. In the natural aspect of things, the white flame is the strongest and hottest flame.
He had some clues as to how to increase the heat of his flame, but he couldn't think of how to increase that heat to white fire.
Other alternatives are to mix the elements to become a completely new element or one that has the effects of both elements, and that's a level he hasn't acquired yet.
But... He learned something from this trial and error and the experiment he did with wood using water.
The fireball grew to absurd sizes.
"..."
"Is he trying to wipe out the planet?" Dorothy asked with sweat on her face.
"Don't let the size of the fireball fool you. That ball will not destroy the planet, not even it has that power." Rose spoke up.
"Compress…" Verbalizing what he was thinking as a means of control, the fireball that covered his entire body began to compress.
And while it was compressing, Victor was putting on more and more power.
"... Okay, this is dangerous... Let's go a few more KMs away." Eleanor spoke.
"Don't you trust your husband?" Julieta spoke in disdain.
"He's not my husband yet!"
"Yet, huh." Dorothy and Julieta made a shitty smile.
Eleanor snorted and turned away.
ROAAAAAAAR!
The monsters noticed Victor's presence, but it was too late. Victor was already holding a small ball of blue fire in his hand.
Giving a long weary sigh, he finally lets go of his concentration, "Looks like this is my limit..."
Looking at the blue fireball in his hand that was the size of a basketball, he couldn't help but flash a small smile.
'As expected, the secret is to compress fire, but that requires ridiculous concentration, and in a battle, the enemy won't wait that long.' Victor was in vampire Count form, and even in that form, it took him all this time to make his fire hotter.
He couldn't even imagine if he could pull off this feat in his normal form.
"That man, he really did it." Rose couldn't help but comment when she saw the blue fireball.
"What did he do?" Judy asked.
"You will see."
"Well, become my experiments." Victor laughed and threw the fireball at the monsters.
The fireball slowly flew towards the monsters, looking very harmless.
And the key thing here was, 'looked like.'
The moment the fireball touched a monster, a blue flash spread all around.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
...
"...Victor, you're taking the phrase 'the vampire Counts are walking nukes' too seriously..." Eleanor couldn't help but comment.
"Hey, this is nothing. You know that with your power, you can destroy an entire continent with an earthquake, right?" Victor commented as he returned to his normal form, grabbed the bag Rose was holding, and put on his boxers, shorts, and a simple shirt.
The entire time he got dressed, the girls were blatantly staring at him, and even Rose wasn't insensitive to his charm.
"I mean… It's possible. I need to train to achieve the feat of controlling the tectonic plates, but…" Eleanor was simply speechless.
The whole city just disappeared. Nothing was left, just a relatively long hole, while the entire area was incinerated.
"They are coming back." Alexa muttered.
"This regeneration of coming back even if your entire body is wiped out is something to be envied." Victor couldn't help but comment, he knew that not even he could return if his entire body was destroyed.
"Anyway, let's continue. I want to be back home in less than 2 hours." Victor spoke.
"Yes."
.....
