Chapter 153: Lance Said Let There Be Light

As the hour neared midnight, the curtain of the night sky had long since reigned above the area. Lichten's Castle and the surrounding mountains were shrouded in a veil of thick mist and the shadows under the moonlight.

The chill of late autumn tried to penetrate the castle's thick stone walls, but was repelled by the warmth of the fireplace in the main hall. The guests were enveloped in an atmosphere that was both cozy and lively.

Far from the banquet table and near the entrance to the sanctuary, Count Palokas stood tall. His solitary, stern figure exuded an imposing aura that made the very air around him feel heavy.

That man clearly knew he was here, yet he maintained an air of utter indifference, as if Palokas were beneath his notice. A sense of bewilderment, the letdown of expectations gone awry, and the feeling of being made a fool, like a boxer punching at empty air, elicited a self-deprecating smile from the vampire.

He had never encountered such an arrogant lower lifeform, but it was amusing. Clearly, not everyone at the banquet table possessed the same elegance and composure as the black-haired, green-eyed man seated at the head of the table.

The only ones displaying decent acting skills were the cold, sharp-featured young man with gray hair and sunglasses, and the female demon with gray hair, a red dress, and a bewitching smile. Neither of them appeared the least bit afraid.

As for the others, subtle movements betrayed varying degrees of nervousness. Their uneven attempts at composure laid bare the fact that this group of humans was merely bluffing.

Lance raised his glass and smiled as he addressed the uninvited guest, "Little Palo, why do you look so serious?"

He had no intention of reprimanding the vampire for barging in and disrupting their dinner party without permission.

Palokas was in no rush to tear off Lance's head. Instead, he interrogated him as if he were a mere subject, "A precious retainer of mine died here. Do you know anything about it?"

He had plenty of time tonight to toy with this little bug, who was the most interesting one of the lot, before finally finishing him off.

"She couldn't see a way out, and chose to take her own life. I find that deeply regrettable." Lance's brows dipped slightly, as if he were fondly recalling the memory of the Saintess of Destruction. He had failed to save that student who had gone astray.

He knew that others might criticize his personality as being "too saintly," but he didn't mind. Mercy was a path paved with thorns, where both malice and even good intentions could inflict harm.

Hyperion stole a glance at Lance, not daring to speak. She was certain that he was thinking about something truly outrageous. He really had absolutely no fear of divine retribution.

Palokas smiled and asked Lance, half-jokingly, "Is that so? Then, might I ask all of you to commit suicide as well?"

The vampire was already silently keeping count. For every additional remark like that from this green-eyed man, he would make this human scream for mercy even louder tonight.

Lance fell into a brief silence, as if confronted with a very serious question. A moment later, he responded, "Inciting, coercing, or tricking others into suicide is a criminal act, constituting either intentional homicide or intentional injury. Wouldn't you agree, Count Palokas?"

He remained seated in the same languid posture, yet his demeanor was vastly different from before.

"Don't you realize? In the Honing Empire today, vampires are the law. The human laws you speak of are merely rules of the game for worms like you to follow." Palokas found this human amusing. His arrogance was pitched just right. It was as childish and laughable as a kid threatening to tattle to the grown-ups.

"Is that so..." Lance lowered his gaze and murmured half to himself, his emerald-green eyes clear and bright, shimmering like gems with an eerie, inner light. "To say something like that means that every single one of you vampires is an outlaw who holds the law in contempt."

Although Lance's tone and expression remained unchanged as he drew this conclusion, Hyperion, seated at the side of the long table, knew the truth. Palokas had just made a catastrophic mistake. From this moment on, whenever Lance faced a vampire, he would automatically occupy the moral and legal high ground!

Having said that, Lance seemed to have grown bored and lost interest in Palokas. He looked down at the vampire with the air of someone seated upon a throne. "Come then. I, the headmaster, shall grant you a chance to challenge me."

"Challenge you?" Palokas maintained his smile, yet a vein began to throb visibly on his forehead. He hadn't even given the word for these humans to start struggling yet, and here was this guy, acting as if he held the upper hand and was issuing orders left and right.

He certainly hadn't forgotten that this human had previously called him Little Palo. Palokas finally realized that Lance's arrogance wasn't an act. The human truly hadn't taken him seriously from the very beginning!

"Little vampire, there's still time to run, you know?" The Poet of Boundless Love tilted her head back with a beaming smile from her seat. Her goading demeanor, mocking Palokas as useless, showed she had absolutely no fear of being captured by him.

Palokas froze instantly. He stared blankly at the little succubus as the blood rushed to his head. A terrifying pressure surged forth, seemingly powerful enough to shatter the very ground. The surrounding air instantly congealed, turning heavy, cold, and rigid. A biting chill gripped the space like icy shackles, making it difficult for the challengers to breathe.

The vampire began to tremble, not from fear or cold, but from the flames of rage burning within, forging a ferocious beast on the verge of eruption. The Poet's provocative, bewitching voice finally caused the anger Palokas had been suppressing since entering the sanctuary to explode uncontrollably!

In the next instant, the vampire left a long afterimage in the air as he charged violently toward the banquet table, moving with the speed of the Grim Reaper's claws in the dead of night. The crimson in Palokas's menacing eyes deepened, darkening until it seemed ready to swallow all light.

He was well aware that his opponent might be holding a trump card, but under the influence of his activated Blood Frenzy authority, any human trickery would prove utterly feeble!

***

A heavy veil of night enveloped the entirety of Ikerite University. In the dead of night, Gela Memorial Plaza stood as the only source of light on campus. At the center of the plaza, the massive, transparent outdoor screen continued to project a live feed with a soft, white glow. The second hand on the clock tower swept upward toward the hour mark, its rhythmic movement sliced through the silent night air to herald the start of a new day.

However, the atmosphere in the plaza was stifling, stretched to a breaking point. Gone were the students' laughter and cheering. In their place hung a somber mood that was tinged with sorrow and despair.

They knew that the scene about to unfold on the giant screen would be gruesome, and it was a catastrophe of the highest order for the university.

One person lamented, "What a fool Lance is! Even if he had a plan, it's useless now."

Another sighed. "There's no predicting the powers of a vampire count. It's just rotten luck. They happened to run into someone who hard-counters all those flashy tricks!"

Many students turned their gazes away or lowered their heads. Some squeezed their eyes shut or bit their lips, while others offered up silent prayers. Despite their mixed feelings about the Three Thugs of the Capital, Lance, Frey, and Hyperion were still the public faces of the school's freshman class.

The vampire count was closing in with murderous intent, yet the group by the banquet table remained motionless. They were like puppets bound by fate, powerless to resist the unfolding tragedy. At that moment, as the spectre of death loomed, a solitary figure stood apart on a path in the distance. Unlike the students who looked away with heads bowed, this man gazed at the giant screen with an expression of growing satisfaction.

Seeing that the vampire was now thoroughly enraged, while the challengers remained utterly helpless, Mordan could no longer suppress his smile. It was not an ordinary smile, but one of triumph and pity. It was filled with a sadistic delight at the suffering others were about to endure.

Just as everyone believed the Shadow Realm challenge was about to reach its end, the hands of the clock tower struck midnight. At the far end of the banquet table, Lance rested his chin on one hand while the other lay casually on the table. His expression remained calm, as if he were the eternal master of lightning itself.

His fingers tapped lightly against the tabletop, and resting upon the napkin was a very special Epic grade enchanted card. It was now crackling within a cocoon of orange electricity.

In an instant, a dazzling radiance, akin to the sun itself, flooded the entire sanctuary. The space was transformed into a world of pure white light. It looked poised to shatter the stained-glass windows and burst through the rose window, bathing even the entire castle that was perched high upon the cliff in an iridescent, shimmering haze.

A sphere of light, resembling a brilliant sun, rose within the sanctuary. Under its benevolent glow, the very earth began to warm. Like ripples spreading through a heavenly realm, the tolling of the bell at the stroke of midnight rang out, accompanied by ceremonial music.

Amid the twelve sacred tolls echoing through the sanctuary, Palokas felt as though the sound was shattering his brain. It was as if he had been thrust into the blazing heat of high noon, like day and night had been inverted!

In mid-dive, he clutched his eyes in agony, feeling as though thousands of needles were piercing them. He collapsed on the spot, losing his balance.

"No... it's impossible... Aaaargh!!!"

At that moment, Palokas desperately wanted to believe the light searing his eyes was merely an illusion. Unfortunately, reality was undeniable: his strength had plummeted to a mere tenth of its former power! The solar energy seemed to refract and amplify endlessly within the sanctuary, subjecting him to a torment far worse than being scorched by the sun at high noon!

"Aaaargh! My power! Why, why can you summon the sun in the dead of night? What... what are you?!"

As Palokas let out a heart-wrenching scream, the executioner and the male bodyguard calmly donned their sunglasses.

"Praise the Goddess!"

"Hehehe!"

The clergy members, whose eyes were still clouded with a lingering daze, picked up their weapons and advanced toward the vampire like ruthless butchers.

At the far end of the banquet table, Lance sat motionlessly in the seat of honor, smiling with his eyes closed. "A day's plan is best made in the morning. Young people ought to go to bed early and rise early, maintaining a healthy routine. Otherwise, constantly flipping day and night, sleeping at home all day and running wild at night, makes it all too easy for one's inner self to turn dark."

He then sighed as he listened to Palokas screaming in agony under the radiance of Glorious Virtue. He had always believed that the vampires suffered from one major flaw: their terrible sleep schedule. Not only was this detrimental to both body and mind, but it also set a poor example and exerted a negative influence on the youth.

In truth, Lance was quite fond of vampires. As a headmaster, he had always believed in educating everyone without discrimination. Therefore, his goal was to first help all the vampires get their sleep schedules back on track.