With that, Queen Bella smiled in a sinister manner.
Hearing this, Harlen swung wildly from side to side, trying to get rid of the bats and chains.
However, the small bats summoned by the Scarlet Queen Bella were extremely powerful.
No matter how hard Harlen shook, it didn't budge.
"Get lost! Don't touch me!"
Harlen cursed as he struggled.
But Queen Bella had no intention of stopping because of a few insults.
She extended her right index and middle fingers.
With a quick swipe, she slashed at the wrist of her left hand, directly on where the radial pulse was.
Blood started to flow out.
Queen Bella then began to run her right hand irregularly through the air.
Her gestures seemed to be drawing talismans for blood transmission.
The moment her right hand stopped moving, two blood-colored runes appeared in the air.
A blood rune floated to the bleeding area on Queen Bella's wrist and merged, while the other blood rune floated to where Harlen's neck was bleeding and merged.
The moment the blood symbols completely merged into their bodies…
The blood flowing from the pulse point of Queen Bella's left hand had turned into several tiny blood streams that were only two millimeters wide. They flowed from the Queen's wrist towards Harlen's neck.
Slowly, the several streams of blood flowed into the several small wounds that had been bitten out by the bats from Harlen's neck, assimilating into his body.
"Ahhh!"
"Bastard! Stop!"
"Ahhhh!!! You beast!!! You're not going to die an easy death!!!"
Harlen wildly struggled, even with the chains restraining him.
The transmission of blood could not be too fast. If it was too fast, Harlen's body might not be able to hold on and end up bleeding from all seven orifices.
It wouldn't work if it was too slow as well. The blood of a vampire was not like the blood of a normal person. If the flow was too slow, it might cause secondary damage to his weak body.
Therefore, the transmission speed was really difficult to control, even for the Vampire Queen Bella Elisa.
The whole embrace process lasted for nearly 15 minutes before it ended.
Queen Bella stood in front of her throne, waiting to see if Harlen would have any adverse reactions.
About a minute later, Harlen, who was still gasping for breath, suddenly exerted his strength and broke the layers of chains binding him, falling down the platform he was bound in.
The chains had actually become so brittle…?
No!
It wasn't that the chains were brittle. It was that Harlen had already fused with the vampire's blood and had become incredibly powerful, so powerful that the chains were as brittle as dry twigs.
"Wow~"
Even the powerful Queen Bella could not help but sigh at the sight.
"Not bad, as expected of the heir I have chosen, he has great potential."
As Queen Bella spoke, she walked over to the kneeling Harlen.
Squatting down, she extended a long index finger to Harlen's chin, which was lowered, and effortlessly lifted his head for a closer look.
Harlen, who was still breathing heavily, had yet to rein in his temper. He flipped his hand back, ready to knock aside the fingers of the vampire queen who had touched him.
However, Queen Bella's finger merely moved a little to the side and dodged Harlen's palm.
Harlen, who missed, hit the wall beside him due to inertia.
This palm strike directly created a deep imprint in the wall!
Cracks gradually appeared on the edge of the imprint.
Upon seeing this, Queen Bella was pleasantly surprised.
The walls of this dark room were made of special materials, and Paladins and Vampires, even those heroic Paladins and powerful Vampires, might not be able to cause damage to the walls.
Now, Harlen was able to punch a hole in it with one palm. This meant that the vampire queen's blood had fused perfectly with him.
Moreover, the vampire queen's blood had reached a peak level of chemistry with Harlen's body.
Queen Bella turned back to Harlen, her goodwill towards him further increasing.
"Harlen, I have faith in you."
Bella said excitedly.
But Harlen didn't feel good. He just felt sick.
His body, his blood, his conviction…
At this moment, everything collapsed.
"No! No! No!!!"
"AHHHHHHH!!!"
"I don't want it! I don't want it!"
Harlen howled like a madman.
He grabbed his head and pounded the floor crazily.
Suddenly, he scrabbled to pick up the sharp gravel that had fallen to the ground, trying to cut his own blood vessels in an attempt to commit suicide.
However, just as he was about to pick up the stone, Bella kicked it away.
Queen Bella seemed to have guessed that Harlen wanted to end his own life, so she said in an uninterested voice.
"Don't waste your energy."
"You won't die even if your blood vessels are cut off. You will only waste some blood."
"Vampires heal faster than Paladins."
"Furthermore, your blood belongs to this Queen."
"The power of your automatic healing far exceeds other vampires."
Upon hearing this, Harlen stopped his wailing, and also stopped trying to use the sharp stone to cut his blood vessels.
He slumped against the wall.
He watched as the initial wounds on his wrist were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Harlen's eyes slowly lost their focus, and dimmed.
"Hahahahaha!!"
"Vampire!"
"Hahahaha!!"
"Did I also become a vampire?"
"A vampire who lives forever, a vampire who kills living beings, a vampire who commits all kinds of evil deeds!"
"Hahahahaha!!!"
"Hahahahaha!!!"
Harlen laughed wildly into the air.
He laughed at himself for being too weak. If only he had bitten his tongue and killed himself right from the start, things would not have reached this point.
He laughed at his own carelessness of not dying on the battlefield. Instead, he fell into the enemy's hands and eventually became an enemy race.
He laughed a third time at his hopeless future. Since he had already become an immortal vampire, could he return to his original enemy? Could he return to his former companions and family whom he had fought together with?
The more Harlen laughed, the crazier his laughter became.
Until he stopped laughing after being slapped by Queen Bella.
"What's wrong with vampires? What's so bad about us."
"With an endless life, we can do whatever we want, without fear of time."
Queen Bella turned to Harlen.
"Furthermore, not all vampires aim to cause harm to others."
"Not all vampires are also evil."
"There are also some good vampires who secretly help humans."
"It's just that while those good vampires are helping you humans, your original race's selfish desires are getting stronger."
"They constantly ask the Vampires to help with this and that. In the end, when the good Vampires can't do it anymore, you humans will ask the Paladins to eliminate them."
"If it works, keep it. If it doesn't, eradicate it."
"Compared to the hypocritical humans that you Paladins fought so hard to protect, This Throne thinks that us vampires are much better."
Harlen ignored Queen Bella's words and stared at the ground in a daze.
After a few minutes, Harlen finally spoke his first normal sentence.
"I am no longer a Paladin who protects."
Seeing this, Queen Bella stood up and patted the dust off her dress.
"The future has to continue. I didn't limit your movements."
"You can continue protecting what you want as a vampire, and you can explore this vampire world with your own will."
"This will let you find out if the world of the Blood Race you know is what you think it is."
Harlen cocked his head at Bella, his eyes slowly returning to normal.
Queen Bella leaned down and extended her right hand in front of Harlen.
"Welcome to the world of vampires, my child."
Harlen also gradually extended his hand toward Bella's palm.