Year 6218, 10th Epoch;
In a hidden pocket dimension, Elizabeth Bathory has developed her own hidden village over the past few thousand years.
The original residents of this village were the Arcana Masters infected by her and turned into vampires. It served as the base of their operations.
And this was the time when the village's strength was at its peak.
Bathory summoned her seven prime servants, who all reached the 8-star realm.
She called them to say that they should start preparations for the war against the Death Clan in order to fulfill her revenge.
Everyone was also extremely loyal to her and intended to follow her orders.
As a past resident of the Death Clan, she knows that they can only enter the clan through the specific entry card that will only work in the hands of the user.
Hence, she ordered her servants to secretly roam in the Freyles nation and abduct someone weak as soon as they saw a chance.
Luckily for them, they even found a teenager who flaunted his surname in the streets of Graena City and roused the suspicions of the vampires. As they surrounded him, he admitted his relation to the Death Clan and also about the entry card in a bit of fear.
They knocked him out and brought him to their village. He was imprisoned there but wasn't infected as they had the orders that their matriarch would be the one who would infect him.
After the meeting is concluded, Bathory ordered the kid to be brought to the meeting hall.
An elder vampire of the 7-star realm dragged him with his hands tied by scarlet energy thread. The teenager looked quite calmer, contrary to his earlier behavior during the time of his abduction.
As he was brought to the center of the hall, Bathory looked at the teenager and asked, "What's your name, kid?"
"Aelius Night Crescent," replied the kid.
"A descendant of the Night clan, eh? No wonder you are quite calm. The clan of assassins specializes in erasing their emotions," commented the devilish beauty as she stepped down from the throne.
Aelius then looked at the woman walking toward him and asked, "I heard about the Blood countess in my clan. Are you Elizabeth Blood?"
"Bathory!" The woman's mood turned worse all of a sudden as she halted her footsteps. She looked quite angry as she added, "Kid, my surname is Bathory, not Blood. And address me as the vampire queen."
"Well, you are about to die anyways. Bathory or Blood. Blood countess or the vampire queen, nothing matters," replied Aelius in a calm tone as if he was stating the fact.
"And who is going to kill me? You? A 4-star Arcana Master?" As Bathory mocked the kid, the latter smiled for the first time and mumbled, "Unseal."
All of a sudden, his soul realm was raised from peak-4-star to low-8-star and he forcefully broke the chains, taking everyone by surprise.
"8-star realm?" Bathory was taken aback but didn't fear him as she felt she was naturally stronger and wiser.
But, in the next second, the situation completely turned around as Aelius summoned a sphere of black lightning energy and started the massacre.
During the next 15 minutes, Bathory's prime servants were killed and even an 8000-year-old Bathory herself was soundly defeated by Aelius, who was only 58 years old at that time.
But, before she gets killed, she managed to create a Blood clone of hers and then transferred her soul into the clone before escaping the place.
When the clone disappeared, Aelius misunderstood that it happened as she lost her life, not knowing about her special technique.
He then set his sights on the remaining vampires. Due to the influence of the Protos energy, he didn't care whether there might be innocents living in this group of vampires too.
He massacred every single vampire who couldn't escape in time and then handed over the corpse of Bathory to WAMO's president at that time.
Meanwhile, Bathory, in her blood clone, lost her ability to infect others, lost her chance to make any breakthrough to the demigod realm, and even had to hibernate for atleast 20 hours a day to keep her body alive.
Neither Aaron nor Arc Company's experts have any idea about her state and she managed to fool the world.
Back to the present;
Bathory never planned on making her presence as she thought it isn't necessary when two 8-star realm experts are personally going out there. Hence, she sent a colleague who had the ability to copy one's appearance and physical strength instead of her.
She planned on just hibernating to prolong her life but her impostor was defeated and Aaron sent her a message to come quick.
It's not just Aaron or the Arc Company. This mission was even more critical for her, due to her personal reasons.
Hence, she was forced to come, only to witness the ghost of her past. Azzy, for some reason, bore a striking resemblance to even Aelius Crescent, atleast in her eyes.
That's it.
She lost her reasoning and her purpose of not straining herself. The real Bathory, after screaming his name, charged forward to kill him.
Azzy was taken aback at first but he knew that he couldn't afford to lose his focus. Hence, he put forth the shield and blocked her attack.
Bathory's fist struck the shield of Amerys and a strong ripple was generated by the collision. The sound wave hit back at Bathory and she crashed into the lake while Azzy was also pushed back a few meters.
Bathory got out of the waters with a clear look of hatred in her eyes. As she conjured a pair of blood scimitars, the Reaper's voice echoed in Azzy's head. "You shouldn't prolong a fight. The more you do, the more of your secrets will be out. Give a decisive strike."
Azzy tightened his grip over the Shield of Amerys as he poured his natural energy over it to increase its defense. In the meantime, a crescent moon amulet appeared over his neck.
"Graaaa…" Letting out a battle cry, Bathory used her every bit of strength as she flew at him.
Her speed touched mach 7 by the time the scimitar collided with the shield.
The translucent barrier couldn't block but it surely did absorb half of its power. The remaining power behind Bathory's strike wasn't enough to blast away Azzy.
He showed resistance while getting pushed back. Azzy slightly changed his direction slightly in mid-air and was pushed back into the lake. They dived down until the lake bed and Azzy's back was hit.
Bathory increased her force to push him deep into the soil but then, as she saw a familiar smile on Azzy's face, her heartbeat rose for a second. She remembered her meeting with Aelius.
She raised her free hand and conjured an energy ball.
It was at that moment, a crescent-shaped amulet with yellow crystal embedded in it appeared over Azzy's neck.
In the next fraction of a second, a tremendous amount of lightning energy spread all over the lake, killing every creature living there. On the other hand, Bathory received something that can only be classified as a legendary fourth-degree burn.
The electric shock was so high that it destroyed almost all layers of skin, several of her bones were turned into powder, and her tendons were damaged. Her soul energy was trying its best to heal her body.
Meanwhile, on the outside, everyone just stared at the lake which gave a bright flash. Of course, all of them also sensed how powerful the energy dispersed by the lightning was.
Since Bathory controls the blood, Aaron and the other experts from Arc became worried, feeling that their enemy is far stronger than they expected.
And their worries became true when a scorching figure flew into the air, followed by Azzy, whose soul orb was unlocked.
"Supreme realm," mumbled Aaron in a daze as his entire body was shivering in fear.
"Soul skill: Spear of the Death"
Azzy then unleashed the soul skill, conjuring a dark spear before piercing the flying Bathory without giving her any chance to defend or heal herself.
The spear of death struck her back and turned her body into a black statue, followed by breaking down into a black powder and falling onto the surface of the water.
Elizabeth Bathory, the expert who was said to be the hidden backing of Arc Company was killed within just 15 seconds of her entry.
"Run…" Someone from the enemy gang shouted and tried to escape, knowing well that they don't have a chance against Azzy.
However, will Azzy let them go?
The moment he killed Bathory, he already anticipated their escape. Hence, he didn't waste any time in throwing an activated skill card, which unleashed a translucent barrier over a wide scale.
The first guy who acted decisively by using a random teleportation card had managed to escape before the natural-energy barrier cuts off their path.
Meanwhile, realization dawned upon Aaron as his suspicion is cleared now. "It's the same mysterious expert from that time." In an instant, he made his decision and acted against the enemies.
One after another, the 7-star realm experts started collapsing one by one after letting out a groan of pain as if something stung them on the neck.
The deputy leader named Ronan instantly realizes what's going and he growls at Aaron who was standing in front of him, "You traitorous bastard. I will…"
As Ronan tried to attack him, Aaron's eyes then glowed brightly and Ronan's attack passed through him.
Aaron then charged forward, passing through his opponent like a ghost, before materializing behind him and decisively attacking his neck with an energy blade.
The blade pierced Ronan's neck. As Ronan let out a painful scream as he lost his balance slightly, Aaron took out a skill card from his pocket and placed it on Ronan's back.
The skill card dissolved into his body and in the next second, Ronan's organs were attacked by countless wind needles at the same time.
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