NOVEL NEXT Chapter 199: Duke Crestmore
"So, you're that womanizing bastard's son," the pale-faced man suddenly said, causing Cassius to instinctively step back. "You're the one… who seduced my daughter. I see…"
Cassius had no idea what this guy was talking about! Why was he suddenly bringing up him being someone's son? Whose son!? He didn't understand!
But what he did understand—what he understood very well—was the feeling that this pale-faced, silver-haired man gave him. Looking at him was like staring at dozens of world-sized snakes, with every single one of them venomously piercing the very core of his existence.
"Tell me, boy," Alaric Crestmore said coldly. "What is it that you hope to attain in this life of yours? What are your goals?"
Cassius, not expecting to hear a question like this from such an unfathomable man, took a second to screw his head on straight.
Alaric gave him that time. He even went so far as to hold his unruly daughter back, preventing her from jumping him. However, when he finally heard what the young man had to say, his expression turned unreadable:
"I want power. I want to see the peak of everything. Why? Maybe… maybe I just believe there to be more beauty the higher you go up."
Cassius had no clue why he answered the question so truthfully, even going so far as to reveal things that he himself didn't fully understand. However, his candid way of speaking was not yet over, as the Vampire Duke spoke once more:
"Your belief is wrong. There is no beauty when you reach the peak. It's all just bloodshed and suffering—"
"Perhaps you just haven't reached the true peak, then," Cassius interrupted. "If all you see is the bloodshed, then blood has obscured your vision. Blood only touches the bodies of those below, never those on top."
Alaric Crestmore's expression changed in a way that emulated just how amazed he was by the young man's words. He pondered them, with each further insight leaving him increasingly perplexed. 'He's right… This boy… He really is that bastard's son.'
The Vampire Duke didn't want to admit it, but that friend of his always had a way with words. And that specific gene didn't seem to end with the womanizing bastard, for the womanizing bastard's son also had the potential to be a wordsmith.
Nonetheless, as a father, he had made a promise to his daughter, and he wasn't planning to renege on that promise simply because of a few words.
OOOM!
Although Alaric's aura was severely limited on this plane of existence and his power was reduced to barely anything, it was still far more than enough to qualify him as the #1 expert in the world. And when Cassius felt this aura weigh down on him, he briefly lost control of his Newbie 9 Equipment Set.
'Sh*t!'
Thinking fast and moving even faster, Cassius shifted his legs forward and zipped around the globe. In an instant, he had already reappeared in the most isolated part of the Antarctic. When he did, the weight he had lost control of a moment ago finally registered.
BOOOOM!!!
A fourth of the Antarctic continent split in two, with polar bears, walruses, icebergs, and various other things being forced to fly down both sides. Like two table flips from hell, the tops of both sides of the broken landmass collided with one another in destructive fashion. A hailstorm of snow and chunks of ice as large as cities plummeted from the collision point of the icy table flips.
Yet, in the same moment countless lives were put at stake, time seemed to freeze. Your journey continues on My Virtual Library Empire
But no, that wasn't it.
Time hadn't frozen; Cassius had simply sped up so quickly that it might as well have been the equivalent of frozen time for everyone else.
While wandering in the speed stream, he cautiously looked left and right, then up. That was when he saw the mesmerizingly dangerous spectacle raining down from above. Within that beautiful danger of light blue hues and sparkling blue oceans turned upside down, he also saw Gates. Those Gates were no longer stuck to the ground, for the ground had now become the falling sky.
There were even a number of Red-ranked and a couple of Purple-ranked Gates among those falling from the sky. Furthermore, next to the aerial position of the Gates were hundreds of men and women wearing shiny armor. Beside them were also researchers, scientists, and natives of these frigid lands.
Cassius had chosen the most isolated spot he could find on such short notice, but there was no possible way to fully contain such immense physical weight. Even if that weight was only unleashed for a fraction of a second.
Fortunately, Cassius had become so fast that he could save everyone and everything in the blink of an eye.
However…
FWAZIP!
The same portal that had appeared in the street outside Hoshito reappeared here, and the same father-daughter duo walked out.
"Why did you run from me, Hubby!?" shouted Bella. "I showered multiple times for this day to make sure everything was perfect for when we consummated our marriage! I promise you that I smell really, really good!!"
"???" Cassius had no clue who the hell this girl was, but it sure as hell wasn't the Bella that he knew. 'Is this imposter another one of the Gremlin Extraterrestrial Fiends? But my S-Rank Extraterrestrial Sight Skill isn't going off…'
Then again, there's the existence of her 100-score Affection Rating, which is just as high as the crazy Yimin. It shouldn't be too surprising that she had actually been concealing her true personality all this while.
'But what's all that spiel about a marriage and me being her husband? What's she talking about…?'
Cassius honestly couldn't figure anything out. His Intelligence stat wasn't helping much in this quandary of his.
Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw what looked like… fangs… sharp, deadly fangs protruding from where her canines should be. Moreover, for some reason, they looked awfully similar to the pair he gained when he—
'Wait… The fangs, the pale complexions, the bloody auras, the pale-faced man's cape, Bella hiding her strength, Bella turning out to be crazy and delusional… Ahh… They are…'
"Vampires."