This was a world shrouded in twilight—dim and unfamiliar.
Above, the sun and moon hung in the sky at the same time, reflecting one another.
A faint gray mist permeated the heavens, casting a dull shadow over the land.
Terrifying creatures crowded the sky, land, and sea, poised for battle, as if a great war were about to erupt.
Vlad stood on a vast plain.
All around him, countless strange and fearsome creatures gathered, packed so densely that the ground seemed to vanish beneath them.
Looking out, the landscape stretched endlessly.
Dragons roared above, crows flapped their wings, and the skies were filled with winged beasts.
But not just beasts—Vlad clearly saw countless humanoid figures floating in the air.
The ground teemed with other beings: reptiles and tribal monsters, colossal sub-dragons, giant lizards bristling with bony spikes, towering skeletons wreathed in ghostly flames, and mountain giants encased in stone.
And this was only what Vlad could see with his own eyes.
"Where is this? Why am I here?" Vlad muttered, scanning the unfamiliar scenery with a blank, confused expression.
Moments ago, he had been resisting the Hellfire Demon King's control over his body.
"What is that~!?" His head snapped upward as a sudden chill ran down his spine.
A blood moon hung ominously in the sky, casting a strange, unsettling glow.
Its crimson light filtered through the gray mist, making the world feel even more eerie and oppressive.
A realm swallowed by darkness.
"What an overwhelming dark aura…"
Before Vlad could finish processing what he saw, the world around him began to fade. The light dimmed, and the landscape vanished.
In its place appeared a brutal, apocalyptic battlefield.
Rain poured from the sky—not water, but strange, colorful fluids: red, green, blue, black.
When some of it landed on Vlad's palm, he didn't feel the usual cool sensation of rain.
It was blood—blood from countless creatures.
And those locked in combat with them were…
"Angels~!!" Vlad's eyes widened as he watched the carnage unfold in the skies.
"Could this be the battle that happened thousands of years ago?"
Watching the savage war before him, realization struck.
"These are the Hellfire Demon King's memories…"
Only then did Vlad understand—he was experiencing this through the body of the Hellfire Demon King.
But the Demon King hadn't yet assumed his true form. His ten-meter-tall figure seemed small compared to the colossal beings around him.
Towering beside him were giants hundreds of meters tall, exuding terrifying auras:
Headless knights clad in ancient armor and dragging massive chains…
A massive black-scaled dragon bristling with bone spikes…
Frost elementals, glowing blue and freezing the air with every breath…
A dark wizard wreathed in thick, suffocating black mist, wielding a glowing staff, his elemental form revealed…
Before Vlad could observe further, a deafening hymn echoed across the battlefield—grand and divine.
He looked up just in time to see ripples forming in the sky, as though something immense was trying to tear it apart.
A massive surge of divine energy thundered down from above.
Vlad instinctively held his breath, stunned.
Suddenly, slender, white fingers pierced through the sky, their touch leaving behind terrifying black diamond-shaped cracks.
As the fingers pulled apart the heavens, the world trembled violently.
Crack… crack…
It sounded like porcelain shattering, or glass breaking.
The sky groaned, as though in agony, under the strain of those flawless fingers.
And then—like a veil being ripped away—a narrow fissure hundreds of miles long appeared.
Beyond the torn barrier, a colossal, sacred eye leaned close to the crack, gazing down at the world.
Its stare was cold and cruel—like a predator watching an insect.
"Heretic~!!"
"Cleanse this filthy world~!!"
The voice was icy and merciless.
An army of angels, millions strong, descended from the skies in perfect formation. Their wings glowed with divine radiance, and they chanted a thunderous hymn of light.
With fervent faith and burning resolve, they launched their holy crusade, declaring judgment upon the heretics who had defied the light.
Below, Vlad only had time to glance at the celestial eye before agony exploded in his vision.
He screamed.
Back in the skeletal realm, Vlad suddenly shot upright, clutching his face and crying out in pain.
"Huff... I'm okay—I'm okay..." he gasped, wiping cold sweat from his brow.
But the next moment, he froze.
His right hand—was gone.
"My hand... Where's my hand!?" he shouted in disbelief. "No—wait—more importantly…"
"Where's the Hellfire Demon King!?"
Looking around, Vlad saw that the massive crater where the Demon King once stood was now empty. Only a thin layer of gray ash remained.
"He turned to ashes…!" Vlad whispered, stunned.
Surveying the area further, he noticed an enormous circular ridge of bones—one hundred meters tall—surrounding him. He was at the center.
"What happened here?" he murmured, confusion gnawing at his mind.
All he remembered was rushing toward the broken sword. Before he could even swing it—he blacked out.
Whatever occurred in that moment had caused the Hellfire Demon King to vanish, and somehow, he survived.
Yet the presence of the skeletal mountain suggested something extraordinary had happened.
"I have to get out of here. It's far too dangerous to stay," Vlad muttered.
Without hesitation, he spread his bat wings and flew swiftly toward the secret forest.
As he pierced through space, a translucent ripple shimmered around him. When the forest came into view again, he exhaled in relief.
"I don't know how vast that skeletal space is… I was only in there half a day and already ran into something that powerful. The deeper I go, the worse it'll get."
Still shaken, Vlad looked back once—then hurried away without hesitation.
Before long, he returned to Elu's home—only to find it under siege.
A group of ten demon hunters had surrounded the house, crossbows raised, firing repeatedly.
Inside, Elu and the others were trapped. As centaurs, they couldn't properly use their speed and mobility within such tight quarters.
Seeing this, Vlad didn't hesitate.
Though he was far from full strength, these demon hunters weren't a threat to him.
He instantly transformed into a dense swarm of bats and surged toward the attackers with a piercing screech.
At the same time, he activated his blood magic.
Before the hunters could react, their bodies froze—their blood surging wildly within them.
They tried desperately to suppress the violent energy inside, but it was no use.
Vlad, now a cloud of bats, swept over them like a plague.
Within seconds, the demon hunters—unable to summon their powers in time—were torn apart by fangs, their faces drained of life.
"Huff~" A red glow flickered in Vlad's eyes.
As new flesh grew from his right wrist, Vlad let out a long breath, relieved.