“WHERE did he go?” Sooyoung asked Yerim. The Duke suddenly disappeared at the sea of rebel vampires. They were just fighting with him earlier but he disappeared in thin air.

Yerim frantically looked around but instead of finding the Duke, a vampire came attacking her from above. She thought that she got it good but all thanks to Sooyoung and her fireballs, she managed to survive the attack with the enemy falling on the ground. He started rolling on the grass to extinguish the fire then jumped back to heal himself.

“TCH! If we don’t really kill them they’ll just come back after self-healing!” Sooyoung then pulled out her sword that she struck straight to a vampire’s heart. It was her first kill. She watched how the said enemy engulfed into flames and sprung into a whole new baby.

Thinking about Sophie and Howl, Sooyoung suddenly felt compassion for the said baby. She didn’t know what to do since it’s still technically an enemy but how would a baby even fight for its life? The knight then decided to put the baby somewhere safe but she was aghast when three blood bullets hit the baby from above, killing it in an instant.

The knight looked up and saw the Duke standing in a tree branch. Matthew sneered at her, making her blood boil even more. “You just killed your own man!”

“I know, Miss Obvious.” The Duke laughed. “I could’ve fired at you, you know? This is a battleground, silly knight! There’s no place for pity in this place! There should be a bloodbath!”

The guy then jumped and quickly disappeared once more.

“Unforgivable!” Yerim greeted her teeth. She couldn’t imagine Sophie and Howl experiencing the same kind of faith. What’s more aggravating is the fact that the Duke is using weaker vampires, those who weren’t able to drink blood regularly because they don’t have the fortune to access the blood banks. They are the ones who want to demolish that law passed by King Jaewook.

“Don’t worry about them, petty shamans. They will be reborn in time~ There’s no need to grieve at your enemies!”

Sooyoung’s grip to her swords tightened, her jaws clenched. “This is really annoying.”

“Sooyoung-ah! Yerim-ah!”

The two then turned to Seulgi and much to their surprise, the girl was already bathing with enemy blood. There were already a lot of phoenixes lying around her. “Don’t be deceived by him. He’s obviously trapping us.”

The two looked up to where Seulgi pointed and saw a lot of drones flying around. They are being broadcasted all around the Nephilim world.

“Don’t kill the phoenixes. They are also subjects of my wife’s kingdom. If we kill them completely then even the other vampires will turn their backs on us. Leave the babies somewhere they can be in peace for a while, we will get back to them later.”

“Peace?” The whole forest was then filled with the echoes of the Duke’s laughter. “You still talk about peace even at the point of death? You’re indeed crazy!”

Seulgi’s stare shot upwards. She couldn’t find where the Duke was hiding. If only he was a shaman then she could’ve already detected him using Yujin’s power. A shaman with control of speed could be a great help but there’s still no back up coming from the shaman’s.

“It seems like they’ve really abandoned us.”

“Don’t worry, Seulgi. I won’t abandon you!”

Irene’s cheesy line somehow gave back soul to Seulgi’s eyes. She already felt dead after killing all those vampires. She was surprised when Irene suddenly ran past her and took a giant leap up to the air. Seulgi was more surprised when Irene actually managed to find the location of the Duke and attacked the guy with one powerful swing of her blood sword.

The Duke was blown away. He did manage to make a blood sword just in time to shield himself from Irene’s attack but he was still defeated in that clash. He was thrown away, crashed into several trees before finally regaining balance of himself.

“Oh~” He interjected with his brows up high. “I didn’t expect that you have this kind of strength, my dear niece. That’s spectacular.”

Irene landed next to where Seulgi was. “Don’t underestimate me.” She then worriedly turned to her wife, looking at her like her wife was a hurt puppy. “Good job on holding back on your anger. Don’t worry, Seulgi. I’ll clean you up when we get home, okay?”

“Look at these two.” The Duke shook his head. “I was very sure that you guys wouldn’t cause me problems because you obviously faked your kiss during your wedding. You were just a substitute and I know how Irene admires Euigeon. Who would’ve thought that you guys would end up this way?”

The Duke then snickered making Irene more furious. “You guys should thank me ‘cause I basically played cupid for the two of you.”

“Shut up.” Irene readied her sword.

The Duke disappeared once more yet his laughter continued to echo in the forest. “They said History is just a contraction of the words “His story”. Guess who is being pertained of the word his~”

Irene was growing even more impatient. “We don’t come here to study grammar, Old Bat!”

The Vampire Princess went for another attack and Seulgi took this time to use the powers her father gave her to stop the movements of the hoard surrounding them. She then ordered Sooyoung and Yeri to slay everyone they can because the time is limited.

The two did exactly what they were told, apologising to the vampires before they put an end to their current lives. Seulgi looked up and saw the intense aerial battle between the two vampire royals.

“They are so fast I couldn’t even catch him with my father’s power. Royal vampires are these fast, huh?”

Seulgi tried to scan the surrounding areas again for shamans but she still couldn’t find any. She’s sure that the Duke came with Euigeon but knowing her capabilities, they went on their own fields of attack.

“Just as I expected. He won’t let my brother come anywhere near me so I can’t negate and copy his powers. He even led us to the forest.” She then looked at the direction of the castle. “It’s all up to you now, Prince.”

THE QUEEN safely arrived back at the castle with Yujin and the others. The Queen immediately ordered the other attendants to get a blood pack of the blood type that the King likes since the baby is obviously running out of time. She also ordered for the other knights to be on guard in case of an attack.

Jisoo ran towards them together with Howl. “Mother,” she called out. “Where are Irene and Seulgi-unnie? Are they safe—”

The girl immediately noticed the baby her mother was carrying and was appalled on the spot. “D-Don’t tell me that’s Irene-unnie!?”

“No, dear.” The Queen patiently answered. “It will be a long story but this is Angus’ phoenix. This is your father’s phoenix.”

“My father?” Jisoo turned to the struggling baby and noticed how red his hair is even though he’s malnourished physically. As expected of a royal vampire.

“Your Highness, let’s go.” Tiffany came, directing Taeyeon to go to the secret chamber that no enemy, even the Duke, knows about. If there’s another important figure in this war then it would be the Queen. She’s the only one left who could convince their people that Seulgi and Irene mean no harm. If she gets killed then it would be over for them.

“I’m going to look after this baby for a while. He needs to survive!” Taeyeon told her daughter. “Come with me, Jisoo. I’ll lead you somewhere safe—”

“Everyone dock!”

The palace was suddenly filled with screams and shouts after an explosion. Luckily Yujin managed to give them a quick heads up. The vampires were quick to shield the Queen while Yujin made sure Minjoo was safe. When the smoke cleared out, they saw that a huge hole was made in that historic castle. In the middle of the smoke was a silhouette of a floating man.

“Queen Artemis, quick! You have to hide quickly!” Yujin shouted in haste.

Tiffany was quick to move and made the Queen stand up but Taeyeon was hesitant to go because Jisoo wasn’t responding to her.

“Jisoo-noona!” Howl shook the lady before she finally got back to her feet. Dusting her dress, she looked back at her mother which shocked the Queen, her eyes started welling tears.

The smoke subsided and things looked better. The lady standing in front of her was wearing the eye colour she never thought she would ever see again—the colour of the super moon.

“B-Beathan?” The Queen called as her eyes couldn’t hold up the tears anymore.

Jisoo just smiled at her mother but the longing in her eyes was so evident. She looked down at her father’s phoenix and her heart ached even more. She wanted to hug them but she could feel the huge danger waiting in their back.

“M-Mother…” Jisoo called, her voice cracking. “I am really sorry for what I did during my time in this world. I am sorry for failing you. Please know that I really love you and father, even my sister Irene.”

Jisoo gave a nod to Tiffany, signalling that she should take the Queen away. Tiffany gave an affirmative nod and took Taeyeon away even if the Queen obviously didn’t want to leave Jisoo. The lady just watched the Queen disappear from her eyes with her fists balled.

“Jisoo-noona?” Howl called. The girl just patted his head before she faced the enemy. Jennie, Rosé and Lisa immediately recognised the aura around Jisoo. Jennie recognised it well that she automatically held her shoulder where the mark once was. She froze in her place.

“Howl, right?” Jisoo smiled at the little kid. “Can you go and protect baby Sophie? Can I entrust this mission to you?”

The kid just stared at her for some while but he answered by putting his right hand in front of his chest. Old habits die hard, it gets passed to the phoenix as well. “Leave it to me, Noona.”

Howl immediately went to where Lisa was since she’s the one carrying the said human baby. He then dragged Lisa away and followed Tiffany and the Queen.

Jisoo just smiled after she made sure that everyone on top of her list would be safe. “This time I promise I will make up for all the mistakes I made. I will be the son my mother won’t be ashamed of.”

“Don’t make me laugh, murderer.” Euigeon slowly descended to the ground. “We know well what kind of creature you are, Vampire Prince.”

“Hello, beam-shooting coward. Did you miss me?” The vampire with yellow eyes just smirked at the shaman. “Also, about what you just said… Aren’t we just the same?”

Euigeon’s composure easily crumbled with that one line from Jisoo. His fists balled and his eyes widened in anger. “Don’t ever compare me to you!”

His anger only made Jisoo laugh. “Then to whom shall I compare you with? I admit about me killing your mother, but you killed my father. Not only that, you also killed your own father! And oh, did you forget about the lives of the innocent people that you mercilessly murdered together with your father?”

“SHUT UP!”

A beam was fired but Jisoo was quick to evade the attack but the beam hit the Vampire King’s most treasured portrait of him. She looked back at Euigeon with that sharp stare, the smile she was wearing just a while ago was completely erased.

“Do you really think the same trick will work against me?” Jisoo suddenly disappeared and appeared right behind Euigeon. The Shaman Prince tried to attack her with his enhanced physical strength, making his attacks hit like steel. But Jisoo disappeared once again. The next thing Euigeon remembered was being kicked out of the castle grounds. He did manage to prevent a bad landing by making himself levitate but that attack did him harm.

Jisoo looked down at him from the castle’s verandah. “This is a historic ground for us vampires, the likes of you don’t have any right to step on here.”

The vampire then went for another attack, diving from the said verandah with her sharp claws out. Euigeon immediately defended himself by controlling the wind, creating a huge gust of wind that blew Jisoo before she even landed her attack. The vampire was quick to get her balance back and landed perfectly on her feet.

“This is good.” Jisoo sneered. “The last time we faced each other you didn’t have any powers. This time we will finally settle this once and for all. Let’s see who’s the best prodigal son between the two of us.”

Euigeon was not amazed at all. He then started using telekinesis to make huge stones float behind him. He shot one to Jisoo but the vampire already had her blood bow and arrow ready. She destroyed the rock with it before it even hit her.

“Why are you doing this?” Euigeon asked. “If you were also dreaming for peace then you could’ve just married my sister and not killed my mother.”

Jisoo looked rather confused. “I am the one who should ask you that question, coward. You hate us vampires but you are teaming up with Uncle Matthew. Aren’t you also rooting for peace?”

“You won’t understand, monster.”

“What’s even your criteria to consider someone a monster?” Jisoo shook her head. “You don’t know how dangerous that guy is. You placed your trust in the wrong person.”

Euigeon fired more rocks towards Jisoo but they all ended up with the same fate as the first rock.

“The Duke is different from you all, barbarians. The Duke was the only one who grieved for the death of my mother. He was the only one who comforted me while all the Kings did was protect a non-existent ideal. The Duke was the only one who understood my pain and how vicious the vampires are!” Euigeon starts telling his side while still attacking Jisoo with rocks, they all go bigger and faster.

“They told everyone that my mother died of sickness when y