Chapter 2312: Arad’s Hibernation XXIV

When Capsella absorbed all of the darkness, she fell to her knees shaking, and the room around them was revealed to be a massive and empty hall that was almost a hundred meters wide.

Ginger and the paladins rushed to check on her, and they found her still gasping for air as Arad’s blood had just healed her lungs and integrated the darkness into her own blood. She didn’t just absorb the darkness, but all of Slender Man’s blood as well, since his body had turned into a dried husk and was lying on the floor.

"That wasn’t just any darkness..." Capsella growled, "It was similar to Lord Arad’s void, but man-made. Someone in the past must’ve tried to replicate the void. It could’ve been this bastard himself, or Vlad... I don’t know."

She then looked at her own hands and could sense the darkness flowing through her veins, tamed and rewritten by Arad’s blood. "I might... be able to do it."

She tried to command the darkness, but the darkness didn’t respond. Not because it didn’t let Capsella command it, but because Capsella was drained to the bone with not much energy left. But she could clearly feel its presence. At will, she could expand an Elemental expansion of devouring darkness similar to Arad’s devouring void, but at a much smaller scale.

Arad’s presence had already faded from her veins, but now that she experienced it herself, she could finally understand what the paladin from earlier went through. "As vampires belonging to our Blood Lord Arad, we aren’t separate beings, but extensions of his blood. His will lives through us, and even while asleep and hibernating, that vampiric function is still there and is growing stronger the more vampires pledge themselves to him."

The paladins looked at her. "So that means?"

"He is similar to Vlad, but on a much larger scale. He doesn’t have spare bodies that he specifically planted. At this point, we are all his spare bodies that belong to him as much as his fingers do. If by any chance he were to be killed, he could respawn using one of us." She smiled, "But that also means he can help us. Like he did here."

Ginger looked at her. "Is this a power that he already had?"

Capsella shook her head. "No, I doubt it. It’s probably something that is just growing while he is hibernating. While the evolution itself only touches his draconic body, that body is that of a pricolici, so that power is growing as well."

One of the nuns spoke in a calm voice. "So... all of our Lord’s powers would grow with him. As a Mature Void Dragon he’ll come out as an existence far beyond what we can comprehend." She reached down and help Capsella stand.

When Capsella stood, she stumbled forward, felt a sharp headache, and growled. She will also need to sleep soon to assimilate all of this new power into her blood stream. "We better move."

One of the paladins looked at her, and then punched her in the guts, dropping her down. "You can’t move, can you?"

As Capsella hit the ground, she coughed violently and glared at the paladin. "Why did you do that?"

The paladin looked at her with a smile and waved her hand, summoning a large black coffin tied with chains. "Take a quick nap. I’ll drag you with us." While vampires didn’t need to sleep in coffins, some liked the aesthetic and kept one on them all the time. Sadly, Capsella wasn’t one of them, and she was used to staying awake for weeks at a time, so she almost never carried a sleeping bag with her.

Capsella looked at the coffin, and then smelled it. It was clean, had soft bedding, and a lock of Zia’s hair inside. "How did you get that?" She pointed at the lock of hair.

"She gave it to me. Lady Zia always cut her hair short, so I just asked for the lock to keep it as a charm." The paladin smiled, and then pointed inside the coffin. "Get inside. We need to move."

As Capsella lay in the coffin, the paladin closed it, wrapped it in chains, and then looked back at Ginger and the nuns who were just starting to burn Slender Man’s corpse. "What about the bastard? Is he dead for sure?"

One of the nuns looked back at her. "As dead as they can be. I can’t believe that Our Lord violated him like that while hibernating and not even being around."

The Paladin nodded. "True, that’s why he is our Blood Lord. His power is far above anything we can even comprehend or dream about. That pale bastard was a powerful Vampire Lord. If we were still in Vlad’s era, he would’ve been an undefeated champion that all vampires fear."

The nun smiled. "But today, compared to our Blood Lord, he was nothing but a small fry." She pulled a black book, bit her finger, and started writing with her nails like a quill. "I’ll add a footnote about him in the report."

As the paladin looked over at what the nuns were writing, many more came to read, and soon, they were discussing the report’s revisions as they walked toward the next room.

In the end, they ended up with five whole pages describing Arad’s blood silhouette that appeared, a page describing how the fight went, and four lines for Slender Man, which mainly described how Arad punched his face into his brain.

So while they moved, Capsella was in the coffin, locked in darkness with her eyes closed, trying to fall asleep. But her whole body hurt like hell. It felt like burning, as if she had eaten spicy food, but her entire body was a mouth.

But as she was about to fall asleep, Eris’s voice whispered in her head. ^I just got a report back. I’m glad you managed to win that fight.^

Capsella smiled. ^Don’t you know? It was Arad who won the fight, not me.^

Eris giggled. ^I know, but that is only a part of it. Arad only used the power already stored within your body, your untapped potential. When taking over your body, Arad can’t spawn blood or power from nothing. He used what your body already had to the best possible outcome.^

^Then if it was my power, do I get a reward from you? A word of praise, a hug, maybe even a kiss on the neck?^

Eris laughed. ^If you want me to drink your blood that much, then fine. We’ll do it when Arad’s wake up.^

^I’m looking forward to it. But since we’re already talking, can I ask something?^

Eris nodded. ^Yeah, if it’s about what I heard from your prayer, I didn’t get anything. It probably got filtered out at the archon stage. I got a workaround, but I’m not sure if you’d like it.^

^What is it? I’ll take anything to make sure we don’t get locked away like that again.^

^It’ll hurt like hell, and you’re already in pain. I’ll probably have to paralyze you so you won’t scream. The plan is to directly engrave my divine magic on your blood and body; that way, I can directly access you. This will give me direct access to your body and mind at all times, meaning that I will be able to control your body at will, listen to all of your thoughts, and even cause you pain if I wanted to. But on the opposite side, you’ll be marked by my divine magic.^

Capsella smiled. ^You know I love it when you torture me. So go ahead.^