Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Go up against the monster

Damien stopped in his tracks and gazed at Nephelia with wide eyes. An Ascendant? He'd always believed that he was just a human. But how had he been able to enter the Domain before? Just as Nephelia had said, had he truly been an Ascendant all along?

But when had it happened? How was that possible without him noticing?

Yet before the questions could reach his tongue, a bloodcurdling growl sounded above him.

*Gruoooh!

His train of thought was interrupted. There would be time for answers later. They were now in enemy territory. He motioned to the girls and walked forward, his hand on his pistol, ready to fire at a moment's notice. His footsteps echoed up the old wooden stairs.

When he reached the top, he found himself in front of a closed door. The lights were out, but he could see clearly thanks to his night vision. And what he saw made him frown.

A large amount of red blood flowed from under the door and slowly trickling down to his feet.

Ugh...

Even though he was a vampire and the smell of blood was supposed to make him hungry, after drinking his wife's blood, the smell of other's blood was repulsive, like rotten eggs.

He exchanged glances with Nephelia, who also had a disgusted expression on her cute face. He closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.

With a determined look, Damien kicked the door with all his might. It shattered and flew inside as he entered in with his gun.

Huh?

He quickly scanned the room but for a moment saw nothing out of the ordinary.

*Drip! *Drip!

Next, his eyes caught the movement of crimson drops falling from the ceiling.

He stopped, raised his head, and watched with a stoic gaze as his eyes studied every detail. A huge creature had clung to the ceiling with only its feet. Its skin seemed stretched, with lumps crawled over muscles like hungry worms.

In its hands it held the severed head of a woman whose face reflected sheer terror in her final moments.

The monster licked slowly at the bloody neck while its dark, empty eyes stared back at Damien with a hollow stare.

Then it sank its misshapen teeth into the skull with a sickening crunch. It ripped the head clean off and dropped the brain into its mouth before swallowing it.

'How can I put it...? Even that werewolf was more pleasing to the eye.' Damien disparaged the monster in his mind.

Damien raised his pistol with a steady hand. *Bang! He fired, but the creature moved at breakneck speed for its size. It dodged the bullet with ease and let out a deafening roar.

Nephelia watched the scene with a grimace. "This is no simple loss of control."

"Hm? External interference?" Damien spoke barely, his eyes fixed on the creature as he followed it with the cannon.

"Likely," Nephelia agreed in a more serious tone than usual. "A low-ranking Ascendant in this state would retain some human form. This transformation... it's an abomination that only the higher ranks attain. But... even though it has this transformation, it's only marginally stronger than a rank 1."

Damien pulled the trigger again, but his target dodged the bullet with equal agility. This time it climbed up the wall using only its lower half. He lunged at Damien, who barely had time to duck before a huge claw sliced through the wall like a hot knife through butter.

*Bang!

The beast lunged at Damien in a blur of speed. At the last second, he raised his gun and pull the trigger.

The bullet left a white glow as it tore through the air and finally hit the monster's mass. But unfortunately for Damien, it reacted and was able to move just enough so that the bullet only grazed its thick arm instead of its heart.

The deafening roar it let out shook the walls. It lunged forward without stopping. This time it was too fast even for Damien's heightened senses. Cursing inwardly, he barely got his arms crossed in an X shape before a huge claw crashed down upon him.

The impact was devastating. He felt his body shoot backwards, accompanied by a metallic taste in his mouth. He spat blood as he slammed into the far wall and collapsed into a crimson puddle.

His mind clouded over.

His once-blue eyes now turned so dark crimson that they looked black. And a huge, crooked smile with razor-sharp teeth distorted his once handsome face.

Damien slipped a hand to the side and his muscles tensed like steel cables. A snarl escaped between his fangs as his fingers clawed at the wooden floor.

"Kill them. Kill them all..."

"Luomis... Sorus."

A few whispers rang out beside his ears. Dark as if they came from the depths of hell, and screeching as if two metals were rubbing against each other. They were like the whispers of the devil.

Hundreds, no... Thousands of them. It was as if thousands of beings were whispering in his mind.

Damien felt like his head was going to explode. The veins in his temples throbbed, and a blunt knife seemed to pierce his skull from side to side.

Each whisper increased his desire to kill, and in a way, it was as if they were dragging him around the edges of his mind like a poisonous fog.

"Don't listen to them. Block them out and focus on my voice." Nephelia's voice rose above the whispers.

From one side of the battlefield, she watched Damien with a dark expression. Suddenly, her eyes fell on the monster lunging toward him. In the man's current state, it was quite certain that he wouldn't make it out alive if he was attacked now.

She slowly raised her arm, waved her hand, and muttered, "Don't bother."

Small snowflakes began to fall from nowhere. From the ground came a bluish ice that quickly curled around the monster's paws, which were pinned in place.

Meanwhile, Damien slowly regained consciousness as the whispers of madness faded beneath Nephelia's voice.

Taking a deep breath, Damien opened his dark crimson eyes and wondered what had happened. What were those voices? Were they the voices that drove Ascendants out of control?

Before he could get an answer to his question, Nephelia stopped using her ability. The ice turned to water and the monster began to move again.

The beast lunged at him again with its claws, but Damien stepped back just in time. He felt the wind brush against his clothing.

Then he noticed something else. As the fabric tore, he could see a purple mass slowly emerging from under the skin of his chest, full of crimson veins that seemed to extend its 'tentacles' with every heartbeat.

This tumor grew in size as the bloodlust increased. And even though he was now in 'Bloodlust' mode, this slight loss of control certainly gave him an advantage as he felt a rush of adrenaline coursing through his body.

He pushed himself aside, leaving a crater in the ground, and the monster struck the empty space. Its movements could now be felt by his senses.

He landed and took aim. The crack of the shot echoed, and black blood splattered in the air.

"Yuk." Damien caught the rotting, corpse-like smell and wrinkled his nose.

The bullet was on target this time, hitting it directly in the chest. Its dark eyes flashed with a black glow as its twisted muscles contracted tightly before the white bullet was expelled.

"That's clever...'

But the poison had already spread throughout its body. Its movements were now more clumsier, though still dangerously fast.

The monster made a horizontal strike, as if it wanted to encompass everything. Damien stepped back and, now that he had a physical advantage, caught the monster's arm in mid-air and slammed it to the ground with all the force he could muster.

'Shit!'

For a moment, he forgot they were on the second floor. A deafening roar engulfed them as the floor gave way under the impact, opening a path for the monster's body to fall to the first floor.

Damien peered through the hole in the upper floor. The monster was slowly rising from the debris in the crater.

Before it could fully sit up, Damien was already in front of it.

—Mind Intrusion—

Damien silently named the ability in his mind. A moment later, his consciousness left his body and entered the beast's mind.

It froze in its tracks and its movements suddenly became hesitant. It was barely a moment before Damien was expelled from his enemy's mind.

When Damien came to, the monster staggered with an unfocused gaze.

Even though the monster was only rank 1, the previous bullet had certainly not been enough to reach the vital points. So this time, he used a different tactic: he brought the barrel right up to the monster's mouth and inserted the tip inside.

Since the monster was stunned by his ability, there was no way it could dodge. Damien squeezed the trigger and emptied the magazine without giving it chance to react. One, two, three... the shots echoed in rapid succession. The monster took a step back with each shot.

Damien felt a cruel smile curl his lips at the painful screams. He continued to press the trigger, even after the bullets had been emptied, until only a dry "click" indicated that there was no ammunition left.

When the monster finally fell to its knees, Damien could see the damage his bullets had done at such close range. The top of the monster's head was split open. Blood and brains splattered against the wall.

Although the body had collapsed, it was not yet dead.

"This isn't the first time I've fought for my life."

As Damien contemplated his enemy's condition, instead of feeling sympathy, something more than killer instinct arose in him. He was like a monster who enjoyed watching the work of his own cruelty.

"Survival depends on winning every battle. And I always win. Whatever your nature or origin, I will not allow you to finish me."

Before the monster could roar again, Damien plunged his hand into its bloodied mouth and down its throat until his fingers curled around something hard. Pulling his arm back, he ripped out the spine in a burst of fluid and guts.

The monster gave a final spasm, and life faded from its eyes.