Chapter 265: Corruption Within Gram

Anette sighed as she looked at the enormous wall in front of her.

The entrance to Vlad’s Vault was located in the deepest levels of the Royal Palace, in an area where Victor hadn’t encountered a single person since he began descending the stairs. The passage ended before a wall of black stone covered in ancient symbols that stretched from floor to ceiling.

At its center, a large red magic circle rotated slowly. Several layers of runes moved in different directions, fitting together like the pieces of an enormous lock.

Victor watched it for a few seconds.

"Is that witch magic?"

"No." Anette approached the wall. "Blood magic."

Victor raised an eyebrow.

"Blood magic?"

"Yes. Although blood magic is less effective than magic that uses mana, it can still be extremely powerful when an Ancestral Vampire uses it." Anette pointed at the circle. "My father created this lock using his own blood. Even if someone manages to get this far, they won’t be able to open the entrance without his authorization."

Victor watched the rotating runes.

"Interesting."

"Yeah. Especially because if you try to force it open, the lock will consider you an intruder."

"And what happens?"

Anette looked at him.

"You don’t want to find out."

Victor smiled.

"Fair enough."

She took a small black metal plate from inside her clothing. As soon as she brought it close to the wall, some of the runes changed direction, while the central circle began to emit a brighter red light.

"Anyway, you have ten minutes."

Victor looked at her.

"Only ten?"

"That’s how much time my father authorized." Anette put the plate away after one of the lock’s layers opened. "He said you can choose whatever you want, but I recommend you avoid taking too many things. He won’t be very happy if he finds out he let you in and lost half his collection."

Victor shrugged.

"I’m not interested in gold or anything like that."

Anette looked a little relieved.

"Good."

"I only want Gram."

She slowly turned her head.

"...What?"

"Gram. The sword."

Anette stared at him as though she’d just heard the stupidest thing anyone had said all day.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Victor arched an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because that isn’t a sword you can just pick up and walk away with!"

"A sword is a sword."

"Victor!"

He chuckled.

Anette ran a hand over her face.

"That thing kills practically everything it touches. My father won’t even let the guards approach it without protection. Do you know how many people have tried to wield Gram?"

"No."

"And how many succeeded?"

Victor waited.

"None!"

"Then it’s about time someone did."

Anette closed her eyes for a moment.

"You really don’t understand."

"I understand perfectly." Victor put his hands in his pockets. "I’m going to try to pick it up. If it doesn’t want to cooperate, I’ll deal with it another way."

"Another way?"

"One way or another."

Anette opened her mouth but gave up on answering when she realized he was serious.

Victor pointed at the wall.

"Anyway, you’d better wait here."

She remained silent for a few seconds.

Then she sighed again.

"Fine. You’ll see what that thing is like."

"I will."

Anette placed both hands on the magic circle.

The runes began spinning faster. A deep sound ran through the wall as the symbols aligned, one after another, until they formed a single red design at the center of the stone.

The lock finally dissolved.

The wall split vertically, opening a dark passage that led to a descending staircase.

Anette lowered her hands.

"You have ten minutes."

Victor walked past her.

"I’ll be right back."

"Victor."

He looked over his shoulder.

"Don’t die in there."

Victor smiled.

"I’ll try."

And he entered.

The passage was wide enough for three people to walk side by side. Small luminous stones were embedded in the walls, casting a faint light over the steps, while a constant current of cold air rose from the depths.

Victor was descending calmly, his hands in his pockets, when a familiar presence appeared beside him.

Rowena emerged from the ring he wore, taking on her spiritual form. She looked around before matching his pace.

"Hmm..."

Victor turned his head.

"Found something?"

"I can sense several things belonging to werewolves farther ahead."

"I figured there would be."

Rowena looked at him.

"Why?"

"Spoils of war." Victor shrugged. "Vlad’s been alive long enough to have taken part in an absurd number of conflicts. I doubt everything he keeps here was acquired on friendly terms."

Rowena sighed softly.

"Yeah. Probably."

She ran one hand along the wall as she walked, examining the small symbols carved between the luminous stones.

"But there are all kinds of things here. Some are very old."

"Even better."

"Did you really come here just to steal a sword?"

"Technically, I received authorization."

"To enter."

"Details."

Rowena shook her head but ended up smiling.

A little later, they reached the bottom of the staircase.

Victor passed through a second entrance and stopped.

"Damn..."

The place looked much more like a museum than a vault.

It was an enormous hall, with a ceiling so high that the lights attached to the walls could barely illuminate its upper reaches. Several passages extended into other sections, but the main hall already contained an absurd number of objects.

Weapons of different sizes hung on the walls. Some were made of metals Victor didn’t recognize, while others had broken blades or hilts so old they looked incapable of withstanding any impact.

There were complete suits of armor on stone platforms, necklaces kept inside transparent cases, small statues, crowns, masks, scrolls, and even the skeletons of creatures Victor had never seen.

Each object had a small plaque beside it, although many of the inscriptions were written in ancient languages.

Victor walked over to a curved sword hanging on the wall.

"This must have belonged to some important warrior."

Rowena approached, examined the weapon for a few seconds, and shrugged.

"Maybe. But now it’s practically just a piece of metal."

Victor raised an eyebrow.

"It has no power?"

"Almost none."

She continued walking through the hall.

"There’s a lot of good stuff here, but most of it is useless to you."

Victor looked around.

"Are you serious?"

"I am. A lot of these objects have lost their power over time. Some were probably stored without proper care, while others depended on specific users or energy sources that no longer exist."

Rowena pointed at a dark suit of armor on a platform.

"That was probably quite powerful armor at some point. Now its magical structure is practically dead."

Victor examined it.

"So Vlad even keeps things that don’t work anymore?"

"Looks like it."

"What a strange old man."

Rowena chuckled.

"You’d be surprised how many people keep objects simply because they were important at some point."

Victor continued walking until he found a large bookshelf filled with books and scrolls.

He pulled out one of the volumes.

The cover was worn, but the pages remained intact thanks to a small preservation barrier.

Victor began flipping through it.

"Hmm..."

The book described an energy circulation method for strengthening muscles during combat. There were diagrams showing different body positions, along with instructions on how to distribute energy through the joints.

Victor read a few pages.

Then he closed the book.

"Too basic."

He picked up another.

This time, he found a bone-strengthening technique.

He read a little.

Then closed it again.

"Not this one either."

Rowena approached.

"What are you looking for?"

"An interesting technique."

She looked at the pile of books.

"You were trained by two demonic martial artists of the highest level. Of course most of these techniques are going to seem ridiculous to you."

Victor laughed.

"Yeah, probably."

He put another manual back on the shelf.

Divine Blood Body Refinement had already brought his body to a level most of those methods couldn’t even reach. Besides, many of the combat techniques described in the books seemed far more limited than what Rakshasa had taught him.

Victor began to walk away.

"Let’s look for something else."

Rowena, however, continued examining the shelf.

She pulled out a small manual with a brown cover, studied the symbol engraved on its front, and opened it to a few pages.

Her eyes sharpened.

"Hey, look at this."

Victor came back.

"What?"

Rowena showed him the book.

The title on the cover read:

Hound’s Fang

Victor looked at the title.

"Is that some kind of biting technique?"

"Not exactly."

Rowena opened the manual on one of the nearby tables.

"It’s a werewolf technique."

Victor leaned forward to look.

The first diagrams showed a human body with several circulation points highlighted around the spine, arms, and legs. The following pages described rapid movements designed to bring the user close to an enemy and strike vulnerable areas before they could react.

Rowena pointed to one of the diagrams.

"Look at this part."

Victor followed her indication.

"The energy concentrates in the extremities?"

"Yes. But it isn’t just to increase strength. The technique uses circulation to improve muscular response during short movements."

She turned to the next page.

"And here. The goal is to turn a sequence of attacks into a single continuous movement without losing speed when changing direction."

Victor began paying closer attention.

"That sounds useful."

"Very."

Rowena closed the manual.

"It was developed for werewolves, but from the way it works, it seems to suit a vampire very well."

Victor took the book.

"Because of the circulation?"

"And regeneration. Some movements put a lot of strain on muscles and tendons. That would be a problem for an ordinary human, but you could probably perform all of them without difficulty."

Victor flipped through a few more pages.

He already knew superior techniques in terms of strength and destruction, but this one seemed to have a very specific application. It didn’t need to replace anything he had learned. Perhaps he could incorporate some of its movements into his own style.

Rowena pointed at the manual.

"Take that for later."

Victor nodded.

"Okay."

He closed the book and tucked it inside his clothing.

Rowena resumed walking between the shelves, looking for other objects that still retained some useful energy.

Victor was about to follow her when he noticed something different.

A faint pressure came from the back of the hall.

He raised his head.

And finally found what he had come looking for.

Gram.

The sword floated vertically in an area isolated from the rest of the collection, held suspended in front of a stone structure that extended to the ceiling. The lighting behind it made its silhouette stand out, although the metal itself seemed to absorb much of the light around it.

Victor watched it.

The weapon was enormous.

The broad blade was a deep red, with a brighter glow running along its center. Near the guard, the metal widened into dark, irregular structures resembling claws or plates from an ancient suit of armor.

The guard was especially impressive. Two large black projections extended to the sides, surrounding a core of red and silver metal covered in intricate details. At its center was a geometric symbol that seemed to have been carved directly into the weapon’s structure.

The hilt was long, dark, and covered in an interwoven pattern. At its upper end, a small red crystal remained set in a pointed metal fitting.

Around the blade, fragments of red energy moved slowly, accompanied by small marks that formed and disappeared in the air.

Victor smiled.

"So that’s Gram."

The sword didn’t react.

He began walking toward it.

He had taken only a few steps when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Victor."

He stopped.

Rowena was beside him.

"Wait."

Victor turned his head.

"What is it?"

She didn’t answer immediately.

Her eyes were fixed on the weapon, and her expression had changed completely since she’d spotted it.

"There’s something wrong with that sword."

Victor looked at Gram again.

"Besides having a dragon soul that hates everyone?"

"Besides that."

Rowena tightened her grip on his arm slightly.

"It’s emanating an absurd amount of corrupted magic."

Victor frowned.

"Corrupted magic?"

"Yes. And you’re walking straight toward it as though you haven’t noticed."

Victor opened his mouth to answer.

But stopped.

He looked at the sword again.

Then at Rowena.

"...Wait."

His gaze grew more focused.

"Why was I walking?"

Rowena slowly released his arm.

"That’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out."

Victor stood motionless for a few seconds.

He remembered seeing Gram.

He remembered finding the weapon interesting.

But he couldn’t identify the exact moment he’d decided to approach it.

It was a strange feeling. As though looking at the sword had been enough to make him forget, for a few moments, that he intended to examine it before putting his hands on it.

Victor ran a hand over his face.

"Fuck."

Rowena turned her attention back to the blade.

"There are draconic runes scattered throughout its structure."

Victor narrowed his eyes and sharpened his senses.

At first, he saw only the details of the sword and the red energy circulating around it. But when he focused his magical perception, he began to distinguish small symbols hidden beneath the metal’s surface.

There were inscriptions along the center of the blade.

Others ran across the black projections of the guard.

Some seemed to be moving, appearing and disappearing as energy passed through the metal.

Victor tried to follow one of the sequences.

He couldn’t understand a single thing.

"I don’t recognize these symbols."

"They’re draconic."

"Can you read them?"

"Some of them."

Rowena moved a little closer but kept a safe distance.

"I can’t understand the entire sequence. Some of the inscriptions seem to have been altered, and the corrupted energy is interfering with the original structure."

Victor examined the sword again.

Now that he was paying attention, he could feel the pressure coming from it. It wasn’t just draconic energy. Something else was mixed into that presence, a persistent influence that seemed to draw his attention back to the blade whenever he looked away.

Victor grew thoughtful.

"So that’s what made me start walking."

"Probably."

"And I didn’t even notice."

"That’s why I told you to stop."

Victor sighed softly.

"All right. I won’t touch it yet."

Rowena seemed a little more at ease.

She looked toward the passage through which they had entered.

"Two minutes have passed."

Victor raised an eyebrow.

"Only?"

"You have eight minutes."

He looked back at Gram.

Rowena continued:

"Before you try to pick it up, you’d better get used to the energy it’s emanating. Your body might withstand contact, but that doesn’t mean your mind will react the same way."

Victor nodded slowly.

This time, instead of continuing forward, he remained where he was and began analyzing the sword’s pressure more carefully.

"All right."

He took his hands out of his pockets.

"Let’s see what you’re trying to do to me."