Chapter 2307: Arad’s Hibernation XIX

As the paladins and nuns wiped everything else, the one paladin who got possessed by Arad had to sit down and catch her breath. Her entire body was in pain, a huge part of that thanks to the medusa crushing and petrifying her, but a chunk of the blame fell right back on Arad himself.

Usually, what he just did shouldn’t be possible. A vampire can send a request for help to the blood lord, and the blood lord should be able to teleport to that vampire through their blood, not take direct control of their body.

Of course, there were instances of a higher-ranked vampire taking control over the weaker vampires they command, but that was always done either at relatively close distances or through a huge network of blood that connects the higher-ranked vampire to the lower-ranked ones.

Arad skipped all of that: her will, her link to Eris, and her own sense of self. In that second, she could feel that the two of them didn’t become one, and she wasn’t enslaved, but instead subjugated by the sheer presence of his blood.

Her entire body twitched, and she could still smell Arad’s blood in her hoarse breath. When the medusa’s magic was about to petrify her, he had somehow managed to revert that just by the sheer power of blood, and she couldn’t even start to understand how he did that.

Arad didn’t summon power. He didn’t conjure anything; He just took control of her body and achieved that much. Only she could understand that much, and knowing it only made her even more confused. He only used her own power, yet achieved all of that... This was the difference between her and him.

First, it started in her mind. When Arad’s presence spawned in her mind, she was flooded with both pleasure and pain, a drive and a deterrent. When Arad took over, the pleasure helped stunt her pain, and the pain itself kept her moving.

Arad then fought the curse of petrifaction with his own. Doma’s mother was a medusa as well, and from Doma herself, Arad had learned the curse of petrifaction long ago, so he simply dismantled the magic in less than a fraction of a second.

Then, her brain sent a message to her heart, ordering it to beat fast enough to explode, because if death was inevitable, why not go all out? With that, all of the natural limiters on her body were unlocked, and her muscles contracted with harrowing force.

But since that power alone wasn’t enough to rip the medusa’s flesh apart, he used blood control to harden the veins in his arms and move them. So he wasn’t swinging just with his body, but with blood magic control as well.

The shockwave he unleashed was just a compressed burst of divine magic which she already had... enough for a single divine smite, but instead of concentrating it on one spot, Arad made it explode outward.

Even now, she could still feel it sparking on her skin like static electricity. "Are you okay?" Capsella knelt in front of her, and she removed her helmet. "Still exhausted... that was probably more than I could handle." The paladin’s face looked so much paler than it should, and her lips were far too red.

"You’re exhausted and flush with blood. You need to rest." Capsella reached and placed her hand on the paladin’s face, sucking her into her blood.

At that moment, Capsella was the one to feel it, and since she was a Vampire Lord who had only recently been turned by Arad, she couldn’t mistake the smell and taste. The paladin’s entire blood now reeked of Arad’s blood.

"Are you okay?" Ginger approached, and Capsella looked back at her. "It was indeed Arad who did that. I can taste his blood in her... but it’s strange, slightly off."

Ginger tilted her head. "Tastes off? How?"

Capsella scratched the back of her head. "I can’t really tell... it’s not diluted, or its a full power blood. It’s more like... another type of his blood. Weaker, but still..." Her eyes then opened wide. "I get it!"

"Got what?" Ginger approached, and Capsella grabbed her by the shoulder. "Arad didn’t send his blood to her; he didn’t control her. He had her bones produce his blood and used that as a medium to control her."

****

Back in the private quarter, Neptune stared at Arad’s black hole. They had just received Capsella’s message, so they were watching for any abnormalities, but they could see none. Merlin, who stood beside her, didn’t look worried at all as she set up several sets of spells to monitor the black hole.

"What did you find?" Neptune asked, and Merlin smiled. "His evolution is still in the early stages. From what I can see, his body has reverted to a fetus and is being rebuilt from scratch." She then looked at the black hole. "For how he could’ve controlled that paladin, even I don’t know. So I called an expert."

In the back of the temple, past the praying nuns, Akasha walked in. Her eyes immediately darted toward the black hole, and then back at Merlin and Neptune. "What did you think of Capsella’s message?"

"I read it, and I have to admit... Arad is a bigger problem than anyone had expected." She looked at the black hole. "Basically, what he did was divine intervention... but in the same way my mother do it, Akame the goddess of Undeath."

She shook her head. "That paladin worshiped Eris, and so she was reaching out to request an intervention from her. But Arad overwrote that and took Eris’s place. That is a problem since I’m sure Eris won’t mind even if he were to piss down her throat... but the way he did it is the problem."

"He..." Merlin frowned. "He interfered with a vampire using the channels of the divine and poured blood magic through those channels. Meaning only a Vampire God could do it..."

"If Akame tries to hurt him..." Neptune growled. "I’m certain Amaterasu won’t stay quiet..."

Neptune was right, but that alone won’t guarantee Arad’s safety. "Lock the private quarter and screen every single vampire coming in and out. My mother is known for her temper and sneaky means. If she slips in here, we’re all dead."

Merlin nodded as she set several barriers.

****

In the divine blood heaven of Akame, the divine goddess herself rose from her throne, and her entire castle of black and red stones shook. She could feel Arad’s presence interfering with her domain of the vampires and undead, so she wasn’t going to sit quietly.

But at that moment, a hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back to the throne. When she landed, she could feel the softness beneath her butt and behind her back. As she looked, she found Amaterasu sitting there.

"What are you doing here?" Akame growled, and Amaterasu giggled as she grabbed her by the chest. "I bet you know why. I can’t let you mess with Arad."

Akame growled. "You know we gods can’t just let someone else trespass on our domain."

Amaterasu’s hands started playing with her chest, and one of them then slipped down between her legs. "How about this? You pretend Arad doesn’t exist, and I’ll enjoy myself using your body. What do you say?"

Akame stared back at her, blushing. "Are you crazy? Let me go!"

Amaterasu opened her arms with a smile. "Here you go then."

But instead of leaving, Akame remained sitting in Amaterasu’s lab.

"Aren’t you leaving?" Amaterasu asked and Akame froze. "Well... did you want to do again?" She looked back, and Amaterasu kissed her. "Last time we did it, Cain was with us. I’ll make sure to enjoy myself..."

Hearing Amaterasu’s reply, Akame shivered. "Yes..."

****

"Neptune is right." After thinking about it for a while, Akasha shook her head. "That reminds me, I heard from my mother’s servants that Mother is quite submissive when Amaterasu is around. That’s the whole reason the sun can burn vampires with ease."

"Would you mind telling me the whole story?" Merlin approached her with a smile. "For archival purposes."

Akasha crossed her arms and frowned. "Listen, the maids did tell me a lot, but most of what they told me should remain private."

Merlin leaned on her, "How about I only keep the information for my private archive, but I’ll even talk Arad to let you have a lot more of his blood?"

Akasha’s face immediately shifted. "Where should we start?"

****

Back in the temple, Ginger and Capsella had finished storing all of the Serpent guards’ corpses and even the medusa’s whole body. Right now, they moved to the room after and looked inside.

The room was massive and completely dark. No matter how good Ginger and Capsella’s eyes were, or how their vampire eyes worked, they couldn’t see a single thing inside.

"Shit..." Ginger growled. "This is the last room I wanted to cross."

Capsella looked at her with a surprised face. "I thought you knew the place!"

"I know it... but the rooms shift places at random, and this one is probably the hardest of them all." She pushed her finger into the darkness, and it was immediately torn apart into bloody mist.