With Dracula's now enhanced power, the entire castle seemed to shift according to his wishes as its roof seemed to melt away to show the now dark sky covered with lightning clouds.
"I have now even conquered the sun. From today on, an eternal night begins. Hahahahhahaha." Dracula laughed maniacally like he had already won or something.
Rudeus wondered if he would have to help the three against this stronger and improved version of Dracula. But he still didn't do anything and wasn't going to unless they either asked for his help or their lives were in serious danger.
Although Rudeus could still resurrect people even after they died, he is still going to do his best to make sure that his subordinates don't die even a single time.
However even though Dracula currently looked like a frightening monster with his bulging veins and feral looks as well as his terrifying power, none of the three challengers there were actually scared of him.
In fact, they began to attack him again with even more rigor & determination as Lilith released a few psychokinetic blasts towards him and Blade attacked him with his silver sword in one hand and a stake in another. Vanessa on the other hand continued her approach for a physical fight.
However the raging lightning storm began to be a problem for them as lightning strikes began to descend on the three of them under Dracula's control.
Rudeus however took care of that as he made a protective dome, the size of a pyramid, made of his red divine energy around the ongoing battle thus protecting them from the lightning.
He had also caged Dracula in a way too since whenever the vampire count tried to get out of it, he would burn himself instead by coming in contact with the divine energy of the dome.
But Dracula still had a few cards in his pocket. He began to control portions of the ground to turn into large spears that began to attack the three hunters as well as defend him from their attacks as well.
"Okay, this really getting hard. He seems to be just getting stronger with time no matter what we do. Is defeating him even possible. Even Blade's silver blade isn't doing much damage. The few cuts we did managed to make on his body healed almost instantaneously." Vanessa said worriedly to her teammates.
Her main worry right now was not to kill Dracula successfully but to show Rudeus that she had grown and could take care of powerful enemies on her own. Although she was really unlucky that her enemy this time was an amped up Count Dracula.
"Something is wrong. I know Dracula. He shouldn't be this powerful. Even his healing speed is too much. Also his weather powers aren't meant to be this potent but that lightning storm looks like its surrounding the entire country of Romania." Lilith exclaimed.
*Ahem* Rudeus coughed to get their attention as he stood outside the barrier in the middle of the storm like some holy saint.
"What?" Blade asked seriously after noticing a small smile tugging on Rudeus' lips.
"Maybe look at his left hand." Rudeus gave him a clue. Blade did what he was adviced and growled as he finally realized that Dracula probably had some item of power which he was drawing power from but the thing that annoyed him most was that Rudeus despite knowing the fact didn't tell them and only gave them a clue when they were desperate and on the verge of defeat.
"Target his left hand first. The source of his increased power is in there." Blade informed the two girls.
Lilith released one of her psychokinetic force blasts on Dracula while Blade threw a silver dust grenade towards him. The ensuing blast not only temporarily blinded the vampire lord but also burned a major portion of his pale skin too, which began to heal at a rapid rate.
Vanessa didn't waste any time as she transformed her body into a lean form with big sharp claws and grabbed the count from the behind digging her sharp claws on his shoulders, severely limiting his movements.
Blade delivered the final blow as he used his blade to cut apart the vampire lord's left arm while avoiding a high speed earth spear launched towards him from the ground.
As Dracula's hand separated, his red aura disappeared and even the lightning storm began to somewhat lose its severity. His claws and fangs went back to their previous size as he went back to his base count form from his beast form.
Blade lodged his silver sword in the middle of Dracula's chest pinning his form to the ground. Rudeus had to admit that the half vampire wasn't careless.
'But he is still not me.' Rudeus smugly thought as he manifested a red divine energy blade and threw it towards Dracula's left hand which had come back to life and was slowly trying to crawl back to the main body.
As the hand burned away because of Rudeus' divine energy, in its place was left a weird rainbow coloured small oval shaped stone.
'The Philosopher's stone, of course. So that was why Dracula was able to constantly increase his powers. The philosopher's stone is said to possess infinite life force and is hailed as the pinnacle of alchemy.
However it is said that to make a single stone like this hundreds of thousands of souls have to sacrificed. Even the process of making it is supposed to be lost to time. I guess I am pretty lucky. It will be a good research item for those guys back at the laboratory.' Rudeus shamelessly thought as he silently pocketed the stone as fees for his help, even if he barely did anything.
He looked at Blade and Lilith from the corner of his eyes and saw that neither had noticed him 'claiming' the stone and both were now arguing on who should deliver the final bow, the stake to the chest.
Marvel and DC superheroes are truly selfless. They always let others take the powerful and valuable artifacts instead of using them to increase their own powers. They really have such big hearts.
"Hey both of you, stop bickering uselessly. I still have a few questions to ask our vampire lord here before you decide whom should do the final stabbing with a wooden stake thing." Rudeus said as he went towards now the frail looking vampire lord to ask his questions and satiate his curiosity.
"Hehe, if you think you can threaten me to give you information, you are wrong. I won't tell you anything you ask even if you kill me you little piece of Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..." Dracula screamed his throat out as Rudeus touched him with his index finger.
"Who says I am gonna kill you. Killing is way too easy and way too painless. Oh no, I am going to give you so much pain that you will beg me to actually kill you." Rudeus said with an evil smile as he activated the torturous ability of his Touch of Nirvana perk.
Although Rudeus himself was having fun, Blade and Vanessa just gulped seeing the young god's newly found sadistic side. Lilith however had a look of admiration on her face like she was looking at a piece of art.
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