Chapter 595: Old Enemies.
Unknown location.
At a round table, several men were gathered. These men carried an air of authority and nobility; each one here was gathered for several reasons, reasons that only they know.
"Gentlemen, you are here for one purpose and one purpose only." Niklaus' cold, emotionless voice echoed in the silent room.
A hologram appeared in the middle of the table, showing images of Alucard.
"To kill Alucard."
"I don't need to say the reasons why this mission is so important, right?"Nicholas looked around, and seeing these leaders in silence, he took this as confirmation and continued:
"Since we have a new ally in our ranks who is actively participating in our organization..."Nicholas looked at a man with chocolate skin:
"I will recap why this death is the top priority."
"First, Alucard has proven to be quite unpredictable. His actions cannot be calculated and manipulated; as a man who follows the 'Dogma' of freedom above all else, he is dangerous to our future goals."
"Second, the pace at which this man grows strong can only be considered an… Anomaly."
"In less than a few years, he came out of being a newborn vampire to fighting vampire counts head-on. In the not-too-distant future, he will be a powerhouse that no one can ignore. He needs to be eliminated now."
"..." The chocolate-skinned man raised his eyebrow, "Is this information true?"
"Do you doubt me, Prince of Werewolves?"Nicholas raised an eyebrow.
"No, it's just too hard to believe." Fanir expressed his opinion.
"... Progenitors are beings that should not be measured by common sense, especially those who, even among the progenitors, are abnormal."
Nicholas, Fanir, and the man with blond hair looked at the only human in the room, Former General James of The Inquisition.
"As someone who has watched Alucard's progress since the beginning... I just have one thing to say, it's fascinating." The man touched the table, and a transparent keyboard appeared; he clicked on some buttons, and soon the hologram changed, showing the images he had of Alucard from the first time he appeared until the last time he appeared.
Everyone silently watched the hologram, and pure shock was seen on the face of the blond-haired man Fanir.
"At first, I thought he was an Anomaly that was born from some experiment between the Three Houses of Vampire counts. After all, how can a vampire have the powers of the three strongest bloodlines?"
"I used my sources, and I tried to find something in the three clans, even in the human world, but I couldn't find anything useful. Someone was sabotaging me, preventing me from finding what I wanted... And the only being that can do that is Scathach Scarlett, the woman's influence is undeniable, and her overprotective nature must have transferred to her 'disciple' as well."
"As the entire supernatural world knows, the woman likes beings with potential and talent. She likes to polish these beings to have a fight with them in the future... And Alucard smelled of potential even from 1000 KM away."
James clicked a few buttons on the keyboard, and two documents appeared.
"That 's..."Nicholas opened his eyes wide.
"After the owner of The Limbo Prison spoke his titles..."
"I decided to dig even deeper... Progenitors of vampires, there is a file in The Inquisition that speaks of this species. They are beings who are born with a specific type of blood, a blood that is considered a delicacy in the vampire world."
"RH Null Blood… Or as you like to call it, The Golden Blood. An extremely rare blood in the world."
"Limiting my searches to the United States of America, which was the first location Alucard was seen, I found two files."
Everyone looked at the two documents.
The first document was a death certificate for a girl, and another was a report from a hospital in the California area.
...
Name: Vanessa Lionheart.
Age at death: 12
Blood type: RH Null Blood.
Status: Killed by a wild animal in a nature reserve in Kansas.
.
Name: Victor Walker.
Current age: 23
Blood type: RH Null Blood.
Status: The patient has extreme anemia. After an examination, the patient was placed on a serum and is currently healthy.
...
"The first one, as you can see, the girl was a victim of a wild animal. I did a bit of research and found out that she was killed by a slave vampire... But the girl is not important; the second document is. "
"Alucard."
"..." A silence fell around. Even if the features were different, looking 'less' handsome, even if the boy was a bit skinny in the photo, he was, without a doubt, Alucard when he was younger.
"He was human..." The blond man couldn't help but whisper.
"Yes, Lord Baal, he was a human," James spoke with a hint of curiosity shining in his eyes.
'This is definitely interesting. How did a human manage to become one of the progenitors of an entire race? How is this possible? Is it because of his blood? But... Why are my experiments failing then?' Ever since James got his hands on this information, he had been doing his best to 'recreate' the events that led to Alucard being...Well, Alucard.
But all he got was weak vampires that didn't even come close to Alucard's potential or power.
'The trigger isn't just the blood; it's something else...' That was the conclusion James reached. It was understood in the supernatural world that there cannot be two progenitors in the same era. If a progenitor was born, that progenitor had to die for another progenitor to be born.
'Are the forces of fate acting to prevent another Victor from being born?' James thought it was quite likely. After all, having three progenitors of vampires in the same era... It's something those who regulate existence want to avoid.
'Well, that's just a theory. I'll still continue my experiments.'
"He was a human, a weak human who, since he was a child, had been protected by someone, specifically speaking, the Snow Clan." The hologram changed, and the security camera showed a white-haired child alongside several vampires and a black-haired Maid.
"Violet Snow came into contact with Victor when she was younger, and as we all know the peculiarity of the Snow Clan, the woman was obsessed with the 'human' and protected him from childhood. I must say she did a splendid job, considering this is the only record I could find of the man called 'Victor Walker'."
"I presume Scathach herself did the rest of the work to erase all records of him."
"It is correct to assume that when he came of age, Violet found him again and performed the ritual to turn him into a vampire."
"Yes... and I presume something went wrong with that ritual, and due to various unknown factors, the man who was once a sickly human has awakened as the second progenitor of vampires."
"... This is ridiculous. The series of coincidences involving this man's life is strange. It's like he is loved by the goddess of luck or something. Are you sure you don't have another group pulling the strings from behind?"Fanir was very skeptical.
"I understand your thoughts... I really understand... How could someone like him be born due to 'coincidence'?"
"I refuse to believe something unscientific like that... And to answer your question, I have found no evidence of other groups engaging with Victor Walker."
"... James, in a world like ours where gods are walking among men, the probability of such an event happening due to 'luck' is very high," Niklaus explained.
"Forces such as fate exist, and it is not unlikely that they were behind the 'birth' of this abnormality."
"As far as I know, this force cannot directly interfere or force someone to take the path they want. He is not a sentient being like Limbo; this force is more in a state of non-existence. They are just a concept.
"That's correct... But that doesn't mean that probability 'exists'."
James raised an eyebrow, "...Explain."
"The flow of fate is like a straight line, and within that straight line, there are branches. It is up to the user to decide whether or not to enter these branches."
"... An old friend told me, choices shape your future... Thinking about it in this context, it's easy to understand, right?"
"...Victor unknowingly created this path for himself by being who he is..." James opened his eyes slightly.
"Correct."
"Rules, emotions, thoughts, as well as many other factors prevent beings from acting by their own 'free will'."
"And from the brief contact I've had with Alucard, I can tell that he's a man who dismisses all of that and always exercises his will, no matter if they're dangerous or not, and if Alucard was like that even when he was a kid... No, it is impossible for that to happen; the conditions were already there. It just needed a 'coincidence' for everything to explode."
"The ritual Violet did to turn him, huh."
Niklaus just nodded.
"The third reason is that Alucard is becoming more active," Nicholas said in an emotionless tone.
"And I do not like this. Before, he just reacted. Now he is moving around more. My spies have seen Clan Fulger going to England, and Pepper Scarlett, the daughter of Scathach, has been seen in Japan." James continued.
"Knowing Scathach, The woman wouldn't risk her daughter's safety, she's definitely in Japan, and my speculation is that they've gone to meet the Youkai."
It wasn't news that Alucard and the Youkai had an alliance; Fanir spoke about the meeting to the beings present.
"And finally, the fourth reason; Demon King Diablo wants him dead." Baal continued.
"A complete dossier will be distributed for those who don't know Alucard. Thanks to our new 'helpers', we have enough strength to catch Alucard."
"We can't fight him head-on; god only knows how much stronger he is now," Fanir said.
Niklaus nodded, "And we won't. He's the man who fought Agares and lived to tell the tale, something only a select few can boast of, not to mention his new allies… Vlad's wives."
"Well, he is a very handsome bastard." Fanir huffed irritably, envy dripping from his tone.
"Plans will be made, and the trap will be set. Second seat, James. I leave the mission to you."
"Do not fail."
"I won't... Unlike before, I no longer have limitations from being in The Inquisition."
'To think the angels would care that I was experimenting, although I predicted something like this would happen; because of that, I wasn't even in siege warfare.' James couldn't help but roll his eyes at the hypocrisy from Angels.
They ignored his experiments, but only on a 'clean' order. He had to leave to not be killed.
'Well, they're just tools of an arrogant god.'
Niklaus nodded, stood up, then touched his chest and said, "Gentlemen, for a new dawn, may your paths be made of glory."
"For a new dawn." The three spoke at the same time.
Niklaus turned and started to leave the room, the meeting over.
...
Walking through the halls, Niklaus came across someone, precisely speaking, his daughter.
"Jessica…" Unlike a few months ago, the woman seemed more cold and emotionless, all her 'innocence' was lost, and a somber look was on her face.
She had matured by seeing her father's darkness, but she had matured in a way that Nicholas didn't like very much.
'She's too kind for this place...'
"My brothers are stable; they survived."
Nicholas' eyes flashed, "... Good... Yes, Very Good."
'Vlad is weakened now due to the poison, he can't use 100% of his progenitor powers, but I'm afraid this condition only lasts for 2 years. I need to finish my plans before then.' Niklaus couldn't help but marvel at the regenerative powers of an older progenitor.
The poison he used was a mixture of the most lethal vampire weaknesses, and even then, Vlad was only weakened a little.
"...I heard about the meeting... They will hunt Alucard again."
"Oh? How did you hear about it?"
"...." Jessica just pointed at her father's suit.
Niklaus raised an eyebrow, touched his pocket, and pulled out a tiny bug the size of a mosquito. He wouldn't even have noticed if his daughter hadn't pointed it out.
'When did she put this on?'
"... You are getting better, my daughter." Rather than being irritated, he was pleased his daughter was demonstrating results. Unlike her two siblings, who were experiments, Jessica was the biological daughter of Nicholas, and he knew his daughter's potential, a potential that had always been held back by her personality.
"Do you hate Alucard, Father?"
Nicholas looked at Jessica for a long moment and said, "... I don't hate him."
"In fact, you might even say that I like him a little bit."
"...." Jessica just raised her eyebrow.
"Yes, he wrecked my plans at Nightingale, and that's annoying, so much planning going to waste. It's something I hated to lose at the time."
"…But… He has weakened Nightingale."
"… What…?" Jessica was confused.
Nicholas started walking through the halls, "Currently, Nightingale is divided."
"Vlad as High King holds 50% of Nightingale's forces, but... The three vampire counts are supporting Alucard."
"Just having Clan Fulger and Snow as allies is more than enough to control Nightingale's domestic and foreign policy." Niklaus couldn't help but marvel at this situation.
"You could say that the political situation right now in Nightingale is the same as having two kings in the same country... And Vlad can't do anything to stop that. He can't risk having a civil war and dividing the country in two permanently. He still has one goal to fulfill."
"It can be said that the current Status of the two progenitors is neutrality, they do not antagonize each other, but they do not help each other either."
"Alucard did me a favor; he weakened Vlad, he stole his most loyal subordinates... How can I hate him?"
An imperceptible smile appeared on Nicholas' face, "He made it easy for me, hundreds of years of planning, and he did what I wanted most, just being himself... This man certainly is interesting, and I thank him for that. I thank him for being who he is. .. Because now everything is easier."
His eyes glowed blood red.
Jessica just watched silently, "To think that you would like someone who is your enemy."
"... Yes, my daughter, a funny situation indeed... I can say that this is Alucard's greatest weapon, a weapon that even surpasses Vlad's charisma."
.....
