!
The black hand snapped shut, pulverizing the rock between its fingers with terrifying ease.
And under the horrified gazes of the group, a figure slowly emerged from the ruins.
The damage was total. From the crown of his head to his feet, not a single centimeter of intact skin remained; his body was a statue of living coal, a burnt mass that, by all logic, should have dropped dead.
But there, death was only a passing visitor.
The wounds began to heal before their eyes with unnatural speed. The charred crust cracked with a dry sound and began to flake off in large plates like the dry skin of a snake.
Beneath the dead surface, new tissue emerged, immaculate and pale.
In a matter of seconds, the regeneration was complete.
Dracula recovered his original form, exhibiting that inhuman and aristocratic beauty. Even his suit, previously destroyed, seemed to weave itself from the shadows until it looked immaculate, as if the combat had never occurred.
The group's survival instinct fired in unison. Van Helsing tightly grasped the lycanthrope's fang, Anna loaded her silver bolt into the crossbow, and Adam interposed his massive body between the vampire and them.
From the height of the throne, Lief arched an eyebrow.
The sacred light had purified the sin, but in doing so it had awakened something more dangerous... a corrupt divinity sleeping beneath the evil.
Dracula drew himself up to his full height and, completely ignoring the weapons pointed at him, fixed his gaze exclusively on Lief.
With deliberate slowness, he placed a hand on his chest and bent at the waist, bowing in a theatrical reverence worthy of a ballroom.
"I thank you... Thanks to you I have recovered my true self and my mind has cleared."
He straightened slowly, regaining his bearing, and showed a subtle smile charged with a strange nostalgia that softened his features for an instant.
"It has been a long time... a long time since this... so much that I almost forgot who I really was before losing myself and becoming this cursed form."
He gently closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the intoxicating memory.
The next second, the stillness was shattered violently when the atmospheric pressure collapsed behind his back.
"Snap...!"
The sound was dry and powerful, similar to the crack of a giant whip breaking the sound barrier.
The skin of his back and the remains of his clothing tore open suddenly to give way to a pair of immense wings that unfurled suddenly from his shoulder blades with a wingspan that covered the horizon.
But they were not the wings of a bat.
They were a pair of angelic wings, majestic and feathery. Composed of countless immaculate white feathers that emitted a warm glow, bathing the hall with a light of impossible purity.
For a fleeting instant, the image before them seemed divine, sowing doubt in their hearts.
An angel?
But the illusion of holiness shattered with the same brutal speed with which it had arrived.
A stain of liquid darkness sprouted, pulsing from the root of the wings on his back.
The corruption acted like a heart and pumped its darkness outward, spreading violently through the pristine plumage like a poison.
The whiteness was devoured instantly and remained suffocated by an absolute and voracious darkness that left nothing in its path.
In a terrifying blink, the celestial wings completed their metamorphosis and transformed into gigantic raven wings.
Now they were black as the deepest jet and were surrounded by an ominous and cold mist that seemed to absorb the light, plunging the immediate surroundings into a heavy gloom.
Dracula slowly raised his eyelids and revealed his new gaze to the world.
His pupils now shone with an intense scarlet tone; there was no longer a trace of the beast's uncontrolled frenzy nor the thirst for animal blood that had governed him minutes before.
In its place, those eyes projected an eternal and icy indifference, an arrogant calm befitting a fallen god.
"As a reward..."
Accompanying his words, he spread his arms in a gesture of welcome. His wings responded to the movement and unfurled to their full terrifying wingspan until grazing the ends of the hall.
"I will personally grant you eternal peace."
"Cut the nonsense!"
Van Helsing's scream broke the paralysis of fear. The suffocating pressure emanating from Dracula saturated his mind and allowed a suicidal instinct to take absolute control of his actions.
He shot out with the power of a spring, closing the distance at full speed.
Keeping the fang clenched in his fist, he aimed the tip directly at Dracula's heart.
"NO!"
Anna screamed behind him and reached out her hand toward him in a desperate effort to reach him.
Van Helsing ignored the warning, for he had already devoured the distance separating them.
He bet his entire life on the execution of that single definitive blow and closed the gap.
His body collided violently against Dracula's figure and, accompanying the impact with a roar of fury, he threw all his weight forward to drive the fang in.
Splatsch
The fang tore the fabric and sank deep into the flesh. The ivory tip advanced with extreme ease and passed through tissue and muscle with the same smoothness with which soft clay is penetrated.
A flash of triumph crossed his gaze.
Had he succeeded?
However, that hope died prematurely at the very instant of its birth.
"..."
Dracula lowered his head with exasperating slowness and calmly observed the sharp object that remained embedded in his sternum.
There was no trace of pain in his features, nor did a single grimace of physical discomfort appear.
The only thing his perfect face reflected was deep pity.
"Brave," he whispered, freezing Van Helsing's blood. "But ignorance is the original sin."
Dracula raised his right hand calmly.
At that precise moment, Van Helsing felt a crushing force anchor him to the ground, turning his limbs into lead and blocking his airways to prevent him from retreating.
His body stopped responding and became trapped.
He could only watch helplessly as the vampire's pale hand closed into a claw and advanced inexorably toward his own chest.
"NOOOO!"
Anna's heart-wrenching scream broke in the air upon seeing the outcome.
Dracula's fingers made contact with the hardened leather of the hunter's armor and the protection proved useless. His hand passed through the leather, the skin, the layers of muscle and bone with the same insulting ease with which simple sheets of paper are pierced.
Van Helsing's body arched and convulsed with uncontrollable violence at the intrusion. He opened his mouth to release a howl of agony, but the air escaped him in a mute gurgle.
"Be my first offering."
Dracula whispered with macabre devotion while a cold and ruthless smile curved his lips.
He tensed his muscles and pulled his arm back with a sharp movement, claiming his offering.
Riiip…!
In his hand, trapped in a grip that allowed no escape, lay exposed Van Helsing's heart.
The organ had been torn out by the roots with arteries hanging, but it continued fulfilling its function and beat rhythmically between the fingers with the last spasms of life.
A torrent of warm blood burst from the open wound and splashed Dracula's face.
But far from showing repulsion, he received it like a blessing.
He extended his long tongue to gently lick the scarlet drops that had fallen at the corner of his lips and savored the essence.
He closed his eyes and his expression relaxed into a grimace of deep pleasure at the pure taste of death.
The strength left Van Helsing's body.
His glassy eyes, already losing focus, sought Anna for the last time in a farewell.
Then, with a last effort, they drifted toward the figure sitting on the throne, charged with a silent question, before going out forever.
Dracula made a gesture of disdain and threw the corpse aside as if it were trash.
"Van Helsing!"
Reality hit Carl and forgetting fear, he ran toward the body and hugged it, crying and shouting his name.
Anna stood petrified in her place.
An uncontrollable tremor ran through her body from head to toe, a toxic mix of heart-wrenching pain and absolute terror that threatened to make her collapse. The crossbow felt heavy in her hands.
Slowly, she turned her head.
Her gaze, flooded with tears and fury, locked onto the throne.
"Lief!"
Her scream carried a desperate accusation.
Why...?
Why was he still sitting there, observing everything calmly? Was this perhaps part of his entertainment?
"WHY DON'T YOU DO SOMETHING?!"
Ignoring the screams of the mortals, Dracula advanced holding the beating heart, and began to ascend slowly, separating himself from the bloodstained floor.
His scarlet gaze locked onto the only real threat present in the room.
"Now only we remain... What do you think of my new form? Is it better than the 'trash' from a moment ago?"
"...sigh."
Lief's sigh finally broke his immobility, drawing all eyes toward him.
He rose from the throne slowly, ignoring the tension, and took his time to stretch his neck and shoulder muscles, cracking his joints.
"Mmm."
He tilted his head slightly and his eyes scanned Dracula's new form with critical eyes.
"I admit that you are a bit more peculiar than the previous punching bag."
Holding his gaze, he took a step forward.
"And in response to your interest..."
The corner of his mouth curved upward slowly until drawing a bright smile that promised violence.
"Hum...!"
The air around him reacted to his will and began to vibrate with a low and powerful tone.
His body ceased to be merely human and transformed again into a beacon of light.
A column of golden light burst from inside him with violence and rose toward the ceiling, shining more intensely and purely than any sunrise ever seen by man.
The light was so dense and suffocating that it acquired physical weight and pushed the castle's atmosphere outward, creating a palpable pressure wave.
Under the scorching touch of that radiance, the black and ominous mist surrounding Dracula reacted with panic, beginning to hiss violently as it was burned and dissolved.
Dracula frowned.
That light again...
But Lief's transformation was just beginning.
Behind his back, the golden energy condensed and exploded outward, forming a pair of resplendent white wings that rivaled those of the vampire.
Simultaneously, a dark and viscous energy crept up his right forearm, solidifying into a black gauntlet traversed by veins of pulsating crimson lava.
His left hand closed into the void and claimed his weapon; particles of light fused, materializing a longsword that vibrated with an unstable golden radiance.
The arsenal was complete.
"Come."
Raising the blade of the Master Sword, Lief pointed directly at the vampire's chest.
"Let's see if four hundred years of existence have done you any good."
"INSOLENT!"
Exploding in anger, Dracula closed his fist with violence, crushing Van Helsing's heart.
The organ was reduced to a bloody and pulpy mass that dissipated between his fingers.
With a roar that made the castle tremble, he wrapped himself in a mantle of darkness and propelled himself toward Lief with the speed and unstoppable force of a cataclysm.
Lief watched death approaching at supersonic speed but maintained his smile.
Wrapped in gold and shadows, he flexed his legs and shot out like a comet to meet him.
The next instant reality seemed to freeze and time stopped dramatically just a fraction of a second before contact.
Light and Darkness.
________
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