Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

"Nikolai?"

A shocked voice filled with confusion leaked from Lunaria seemed to have lost her focus and became flustered.

'How did he get here without alerting me... even with all my abilities and experience?'

Her eyes widened when she saw his skin and hair.

"Tell me, Lunaria."

Nikolai's clothes looked torn and damaged from his transformation, and the burns from the cursed silver remained, but his wounds and other injuries started fading. Lunaria's eyes widened upon seeing him, and her arm trembled. She tried to grip it tight with her other arm to stop the tremors, but it failed.

"H-How are you here?"

Nikolai felt there was something wrong with her voice; she sounded like she couldn't believe he was here, and her voice contained a mix of fear, sadness, happiness, and regret.

"I just walked through the garden."

"Don't joke around with me, the plan was...!" She gasped. Covering her mouth. In complete shock.

"What exactly was the plan?"

He crept closer, trying not to alert her too much, slipping his gaze towards Risa and Kumiko and feeling relieved they weren't in danger.

'And what is the Hybrid Project?'

Lunaria stood still for a moment before she looked up and smiled.

"You are too stubborn; I cannot believe you actually outsmarted that idiot Valan."

"I didn't just outsmart him, I crushed him." Nikolai bragged.

Contrary to his expectations, Lunaria didn't change her expression to a negative one. Instead, her cheeks became red, and she looked delighted to hear it. However, the instant she caught this reaction herself, a complicated expression appeared on her face.

Forcing herself to show an aggressive reaction, she snapped.

"Enough... you won't get anything from me!"

"I don't need anything from you, just tell me or I'll..." His words ended because the stunned expression on her face and tears forming at the corners of her eyes stopped him from saying any more.

'There is something wrong with her, but I cannot ask or find out, so I will prioritise getting those two out of her safely.'

"Ah..."

Lunaria seemed to realise she was acting strange again before she covered her face and hid her expression as icy mist swirled around her entire body. The frost and ice in the air intensified before a flicker of flames appeared in a circle around her.

"I cannot let you go, Nikola. you must not leave this island... please." She begged, her voice suddenly becoming weak, as if it was her true feelings.

"I cannot do that," he said, shaking his head. "Tell me what the Hybrid project is? And I'll take you with me."

"I-I cannot."

The fire around Lunaria expanded and ignited even faster, like a spark igniting a pile of dry leaves, an explosion of flames spreading through the beautiful garden, as she looked at him with a distraught expression.

"Step aside, and I'll take you from this island... let's go together, Lunaria!"

Nikolai extended his arm out to her, but she just froze and stared at his hand, and then behind her, the agents who helped Ivan grabbed both Kumiko and Risa... an Elder werewolf able to secure them thanks to being a member of the Markov suited for stealth.

However, the moment Lunaria noticed the pair had vanished, her eyes started to glow, alternating between different colours. She seemed to be struggling with something, groaning in pain while grabbing her hair and pulling it. Nikolai didn't know what to do, and his mind filled with worry.

"Ngh... hah... damn that bastard..." She mumbled.

She suddenly raised her head, and her eyes became a deep-blue colour, her face indifferent, as if she had turned into another person entirely. It resembled when Selene entered her blood frenzy and became violent and fiery.

"You lied to me, just to save them... I see, it's all just for them."

Her tone took on a cold and desolate one.

Nikola felt there was something wrong; this didn't seem like her normal self, but it was too late, as she had already charged at him.

"Whoa..."

Clang!

He swept his claws to deflect her attack after she turned her arms into sharp ice spears from the forearm down. Lunaria's hair became wreathed with fire, burning brightly, creating an ominous shadow around her body, making her appear like a monster. As he realised that to escape, he would need to defeat or knock her unconscious, Nikolai became uncomfortable.

Her eyes, lacking intelligence, flashed before she darted forward and stabbed at Nikolai with dozens of sharp thrusts.

"Damn it!"

A series of strikes forced him to retreat until he found himself back to back with a tree.

Lunaria just moved without pause, not leaving him a single chance to breathe.

Her flames spread towards him like a ring of fire.

'Not good.'

Nikolai rolled to the side to avoid getting caught in the blaze.

With her relentless ice and fire attacks, it became clear he couldn't defeat or stop her without transforming.

But the exhaustion of constant fighting left him spent...

"Luna! Can't you hear me anymore?" He shouted, gritting his teeth as her sharp blue tips constantly poked at his body, trying to skewer his flesh. The cursed silver was still in his blood and wounds, slowing his movements, which meant he needed to be wary and careful with every move, but he didn't want to fight back, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to dodge her attacks.

Lunaria's body blurred, resembling the illusion of an icy butterfly, before she struck him with the side of the spear of ice, causing him to skid back several feet and feel an intense chill spreading through his arms.

"Shit... I have no choice."

Ba-Dum...

The moment he started pumping blood, Nikolai could feel the strain on his hearts, a tight sensation like something squeezing them all at once, but he had to transform.

White fur exploded from his skin, and muscles expanded, his height and weight increasing by almost half a meter. He couldn't use his evil god bloodline and instead transformed using his Volkov bloodline.

"Even in this form you..."

A whisper came from Lunaria's lips as she stopped movement for a moment upon seeing him transform.

Her body froze, which made Nikolai feel confused as he tried to get closer.

"Lunaria?!"

*Woosh*

However, Lunaria's expression turned vicious as she pierced towards him, barely missing his neck and head.

The moment he got close enough, her ice spear's length shrank to make close combat fighting easier, while the other became a thin but sharp ice sword, almost like an Icy rapier.

She stabbed forward, slashing at him with a speed that resembled lightning, her body flickering like a phantom, as if she wasn't there.

Every strike forced Nikolai to use all his concentration and strength to stop her from cutting or piercing his body.

His speed and vision enabled him to see her movements, but when he stepped forward, her flames would billow and push him back.

'Not again!'

He couldn't even get a second to breathe, his stamina draining away faster and faster.

"Stop it!"

Nikolai's anger increase, and tired of being pushed back, he punched out, and his claws broke through her flames, sinking into her abdomen. His punch lifted Lunaria off the ground. As blood oozed from her lips, her flames became weaker and weaker until they disappeared entirely.

She groaned in pain while he held her in the air, his claws sinking deeper.

"Lunaria!" He called out, hoping she might listen.

"I am sorry... I cannot say more..." She coughed up more blood. Lunaria's voice became weak, tears forming at the edges of her eyes as she looked up at him. "I just wanted to..."

She wouldn't die, but there always seemed to be something wrong—he could feel it, like an itch he couldn't scratch.

"Tell me what?"

Her body suddenly froze, and another chill started spreading out through his hands.

"Kukuku... so the doll couldn't win after all."

Another voice came out from the shadows. It was someone who looked similar to Valan... eerily identical.

"It seems you did a good number on my son earlier, delightful work. Brute."

The person wasn't someone that Nikolai knew well, but it was someone he saw at the party... someone who spent a long time on the main stage and was considered the host.

"You..."

"Ah, you're right. I was the temporary head of Nosferatu, nice to meet you. Nikolai Volkov." The man's smile twisted into one that resembled Valan.

"Temporary?" Nikolai found his presence to be very annoying because too many things had happened in the past few days. He struggled to keep up with them and knew that this situation wasn't good.

There was the Nosferatu, then the traitors and finally this artificial hybrid project.

"That doesn't matter anymore, that old coot has taken back his seat of power, now the other clans have been weakened by their foolish game of war and dominance. I only care about one thing... hybrids. Making the perfect monster!"

'Ah he's fucking crazy...'

Nikolai tried to back off, his claws slipping out of Lunaria's stomach with a disgusting and wet sound before her body fell limp. She just knelt there in silence, staring at Nikolai as blood flowed from the wound on her stomach.

"This useless hybrid... costing so much money to capture, to experiment on... and create. Haha."

"That can't be true, what do you mean create?!"

The man looked at Nikolai, a crazed excitement as if delighted he asked him...

"Well, Nikolai... once upon a time there was a vampire king and that kings wife was carrying twins."

"D...don't listen to him..."

Luna muttered in a desperate voice, as if adamant to stop Nikolai from hearing the story.

"..." The man's gaze became sharp before he suddenly vanished from sight.

"Eh?"

The next moment, he kicked Lunaria, who flew into the distance before smashing into a wall, breaking the concrete, but she didn't move and remained embedded in the rubble.

"You?!"

"Ahem, where was I? Ah..."

He ignored Nikolai's complaints and existence and resumed his speech...

"That Vampire king learned that one of his children was likely going to be still born... now, what do you think that vampire king did?"