Clara stood over what was left of Adam.
His small body was curled against the stone, arms limp, headless. Smoke still drifted from the jagged stump of his neck, the sll of scorched flesh still very much potent in the air.
But even as she looked at him, she didn’t cry after all, their eting was still very much fresh.
However, regardless of this, sothing inside her was still very much clenched, like a fist closing slowly.
He was five years old after all.
A monster, a pervert, he could be called many things, but still, a child was a child.
And this child was her master. Her only link to sothing that resembled purpose in this new life.
The silence stretched, as she watched his body, there was not a single ounce of hate, anger, or rage in her eyes. Yet sothing small like a fire lit inside of her, slowly growing like a slow-burning ember.
Then, from behind her, the sound of footsteps ca closer.
The masked man approached, dusting his gloves as he walked. His voice ca before his face did, calm and conversational.
"Hmmm... I will admit, I did not account for his death."
Admitted the noble vampire, as he continued to speak.
"The lady said you would be the only real threat down here. Sothing about an unknown factor, with a weird sword technique, but all I see is a normal, bland peasant."
He tilted his head slightly, passing a still-shocked Clara as he stepped around Adam’s body, like examining the aftermath of a ssy painting.
"She didn’t say a word about a kid using construct magic like that. Honestly, he gave more of a fight than you have so far."
His eyes, still hidden behind that featureless porcelain mask, turned toward her.
"Still. One problem solved."
He gave a little shrug as he said to Clara.
"Let’s finish the second."
Clara, on the other hand, slowly moved her eyes from Adam and then to the vampire before her; she had no sword at this mont, as the feathered sword Adam had made for her was destroyed by the purple lightning.
But even then, Clara began to lash out at the noble vampire.
There was no scream... No battle cry.... She just acted. Her hand opened, and her shadow surged like it had been waiting for an excuse.
The darkness peeled off the ground and wrapped around her arms, condensing into jagged tendrils. Her blood followed, dripping from her skin unnaturally, responding to her call. It curved around her shadow, then hardened into brittle spikes and blades that trace the shadow itself. Her muscles tensed, reshaping slightly, flesh mutating, bones adjusting as she combined three of her natural abilities, transforming both her hands into a grostique claymore blade.
But also densing each muscle in her body, making herself stronger, faster, and more durable than before.
She closed the distance in a heartbeat, no wasted movent. Her blood-forged claymores slashed at his throat and chest.
However, the noble vampire was relaxed in this mont, he didn’t even see Clara as a threat.
As he rely stepped back once with great speed, both hands in his pockets at this mont, and dodged her attack with great ease.
Then backhanded her across the face.
SLAPPPP!!
The force of the hit itself sent her flying high into the air, as she spun mid-air, skidding across the cavern floor. Bone, of course, began to crack, as she quickly found herself with a dislocated shoulder.
But even then, she quickly got up, her injuries healing passively at a rapid rate.
And soon, Clara lunged again.
Or rather her own shadow, burst forth from the ground as a series of giant black shadow spikes rage themselves across the floor, towards the noble vampire.
"It’s pointless."
He said in a bored tone, and the mont the waves of spike ca his way, they burst into a mist-like state, as he re-altered her shadow attack with zero effort.
She lunged at him again, faster this ti. Part of her wanted to draw on her family’s sword technique, but instinct held her back. For the re fact that, over ti, as a knight, she had developed a sense for what could be cut... and what she couldn’t. And this man? She knew, without needing to test it, that the Phantom Blade technique would be useless here.
So she discarded the notion, instead, she depended on her new vampiric abilities, but deep down, she also knew this was pointless.
As the difference in power is just too great.
But she proceeded to stab from multiple angles, trying to box him in.
However, no matter what she does, the result remains the sa.
It got so bad that the noble vampire stopped bothering to dodge entirely. He just stood there, unmoving, and caught Clara’s blade-arms mid-swing with his bare hands, one in each palm, as if they were nothing more than falling branches.
His grip tightened, and without rcy or care, he twisted them brutally.
Bone ground against bone as the muscles in her shoulders scread under the strain.
With one fluid, jagged motion, he tore both arms to the side. There was a sickening tearing sound, then the long, wet sound of tendons stretching past their limit, until they snapped like pulled flesh in a slaughterhouse.
The mont this happened, a horrific scream escaped her mouth, as pain hit her hard.
"A...AAGHHH!! AAAAAHHHHHGGG!!.. Ghhk... AAAAA!!"
Clara didn’t even get the chance to react. She hit the ground as her sword arms were torn clean from her body, spraying blood in a wide arc.
"...Bastard...
She said in frustration as a reaction finally escaped her.
"hiyee... why am I not healing?"
She asked, her breath ragged; however, confusion soon hit her, as she realized her wounds were not healing, and that’s when he realized.
That was until she realized sothing glowing on her chest, and when she looked down, that was when she saw it.
"When did he put this here?"
Clara asked, clearly confused at the sight of a green magic circle.
And right after seeing it, the noble vampire spoke up.
"Nature Magic: Confused Biology... a nasty spell that tricks the body’s functions into believing whatever the caster wants. In this case, most of your body function thinks it’s just an ordinary human. There is not much you can do now... I took the liberty of taking away your natural abilities with this spell."
"....Ahhh... this isn’t over."
Clara gasped, panic tightening her throat as she tried to rise, but her body betrayed her. The mont she attempted to stand, a wave of overwhelming weakness crushed her efforts. Blood loss had ravaged her strength, leaving her limbs hollow and heavy.
Agony pulsed through her like fire. The wounds where her arms once were remained fresh and raw. Even though she was undead, her nerves, still very much alive in their own twisted, supernatural way, scread with unrelenting pain.
THUUUUUD!!
It wasn’t long before her legs gave out completely.
As Clara collapsed, her body hit the stone floor hard. Any resistance she had mustered before was gone. Her body no longer answered her will. Blood gushed violently from the stumps where her arms had been, spraying the ground with a sickening rhythm. The sound alone was nauseating.
Her vision blurred, the world darkening at the edges. It was slow, cruelly so. She had only just been reborn, only just stood again, only to be reduced to this. A broken ss. Put down like a wild dog.
’Am I going to die here? But I barely even live, I...I don’t want to die.’
The words ca in a flat, hollow voice inside her own mind. Her emotions may have dulled long ago... but that flicker of will, the raw instinct to survive, still burned sowhere deep inside her.
The noble vampire stood over Clara’s broken body, calm and expressionless. His gaze dropped to her crumpled form, trembling on the ground, soaked in a pool of her own blood.
He raised one hand casually, lightning crackling to life at his palm. A deep violet current began to swirl, gathering, pulsing, until the energy hissed and sparked through the air with a violent intensity.
The cavern filled with the high-pitched whine of energy compressing into one final, obliterating strike. The light from his palm grew brighter with every second, casting long shadows and bathing the stone walls in flickering purple.
Clara didn’t move. She just stared back at him through half-lidded, fading eyes.
And when he spoke, his voice was filled with casual contempt.
"What a disappointnt. Ending you like this isn’t even an execution; it’s just rcy at this point... How disgusting. Now die."
Her eyes fluttered shut at his words
She was too weak to offer up any more resistance.
RUMBLE!! BOOM!!
Right after that... lightning struck her in an instant.
The cavern lit up in a brilliant flash, purple light searing through every crevice. It was fast. Too fast for pain. Too strong to survive. Her body, what little was left of it, was completely vaporized in the blink of an eye.
No flesh.
No bone.
Not even ashes remained.
In that instant... Clara de Moreau died.
For the second ti.
As her soul was put to rest again.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Or at least... that’s what was supposed to happen.
But the final blow never landed.
"...What?"
The noble vampire blinked in confusion, lowering his hand. His lightning, once uncontrollable and wild, had fizzled out. The glow at his palm faltered, sputtering uselessly. Then, he noticed sothing strange.
The magic circle that he cast over his glove to combine magic with lee combat was starting to change.
Bright violet at first... but then it began to lose its color. Fading. Draining. Becoming transparent.
"Wait... this color... no. It can’t be...
But before he could finish the thought, a voice echoed from behind him.
"Attributeless Magic: Overwrite."
A chill crept up his spine in that mont.
"Feels familiar, doesn’t it?"
He spun around, eyes wide behind the mask.
Standing there alive, sohow, was the boy he had killed earlier. The sa brat whose head he had exploded minutes ago. His skull wasn’t fully healed, but it was getting there...his nose reshaping, lips curling into a grin far too confident for soone who should be dead.
And at this mont, his right arm was no longer flesh, rather, it was skeletal, lich-like, pulsing with life force. Golden energy coiled around him in invisible threads, flowing through him as it healed his wounds.
The noble vampire stumbled a step back.
"How the hell are you alive?"
He asked in utter shock.
Adam tilted his head, eyes glowing faintly with malicious joy.
"Hehehehe....
As he laughed to himself, anwhile, the vampire noble comnted with.
"No... how the hell did you copy that spell? That technique... it took three hundred years to master the basics of it. How did you, so random brat, copy it like it was child’s play?!"
Adam smirked as his cracked skull continued healing.
"Maybe I just learn fast."
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