An overwhelming killing intent suddenly shrouded the room, the young girl and the duke were both horrified as they stared at Lyle whose body was slowly changing.
His hair turned the darkest of black while wisps or red could be seen on it. His red eyes started shining as a red hue covered him. The armor he was wearing suddenly started deforming before it fell from his body.
A black suit of what seemed to look like leather armor appeared on him. The armor looked like ordinary leather armor, if not for the red metal that was visible in some places like the shoulders, the back of his hands, knees, and so on.
His black hair rose up as he stared at the duke while his two daggers became dark red and looked exactly like normal metal daggers.
[ Blood Knight, Ignition ], it was a skill that Lyle spent a lot of time creating. The skill was only possible thanks to his origin.
Lyle was not human, well, at least not entirely. His mother was human, he was certain of that as he still had memories of her back when he was a small kid. Before he was sent to the orphanage, he lived in a small shack with his mother.
The shack was one of many in the city and his mother was nobody special, a member of the lowest ranks of society that did any job she could in order not to starve to death.
He still remembered her face, her smile, and the tears that she would sometimes have when sitting alone at night when she thought he wasn't awake.
Lyle didn't know why she would cry, he also didn't know why he remembered all of these things.
His father was a mystery, one that Lyle tried to uncover ever since he had joined the upper echelons of the organization.
He was a vampire, that much he knew.
As for Lyle, he was a hybrid, half human and half vampire.
Hybrids usually stood at the bottom of the hierarchy of any race, humans hated most of them, and so did the other races, except for rare ones such as elves and the like.
The reason for hybrids being hated wasn't because they were part of both races, but because of their physical appearance. Most were ugly and disfigured and a glance would be enough to see that they are hybrids.
Hybrids of beastmen were easy to identify as they had a human body but fur over it, their feet, hands, or head were usually of the race they belonged to. Their bodies were however not normal, they were usually weaker compared to normal beastmen and even compared to humans.
Their ugly appearance and weak strength were what made hybrids despised by society.
As for Lyle, he was one of the lucky ones.
A rare percentage of hybrids would be what was called the perfect hybrid. They gained the best of both races and identifying them was difficult since their outward appearance would be of one of the two races.
They could, however, explode with power after using the ability they gained and transforming, just like Lyle was doing right now.
He was a hybrid but could become a true vampire after using the skill. Not only would he become a true vampire, but he would even be stronger compared to them.
Lyle could use this skill during the day as well, but the full power of it was only accessible to him at night.
Compared to what most would believe, vampires could freely walk during the day, those that had a weaker bloodline would just become weaker when standing under the sun, but those of noble vampire bloodlines and perfect hybrids would face no such penalties.
But during the night, they would become stronger, and every single aspect of their being would rise, except for those with weak bloodlines that would barely get a bonus at night.
Lyle's father, whoever he might be, wasn't a normal vampire, however. That was clear after Lyle was checked by the organization.
There were already those belonging to different races and even hybrids amongst the ranks of the organization, so Lyle wasn't afraid that they might do something to him. He was also going to use the organization's power and influence in order to try and track down his father, so he felt it was natural that they knew about his origins.
But the organization found nothing, not only about his father but his mother as well. It was like the woman never existed.
Lyle still remembered the sight of his mother laying down on the ground as a puddle of blood had formed under her head.
He didn't know what exactly happened, but she had started bleeding from the mouth and coughing. It only took a short couple of minutes before she died, drowning in her own blood.
The conclusion that the organization gave made Lyle surprised, however.
The pendant he had taken from the shack, the only heirloom he had, was not a normal one. It was masterfully crafted and impossible to have come from the empire as they simply didn't have the technology and craftsmen that could create such a thing.
It would be a treasure no matter where it went, and it was simply impossible for a woman of low birth to possess such a thing.
As for his father, the organization concluded that he wasn't a normal vampire, he was most likely a vampire that belonged to one of the noble houses of the vampires. The noble houses were incredibly powerful and each one was not a force to be messed with, even the empire would not lightly go against one.
The ability to control blood was the reason why they concluded that. Ordinary vampires were unable to do something like that, and neither could a perfect hybrid that came from such a vampire.
Only the noble ones, those that belonged to the top of the hierarchy amongst vampires could do something like that. Lyle's [ Blood Knight, Ignition ] was a skill that transformed him not into a true vampire, but a noble of vampires.
Not only was he stronger in all aspects when using the skill, but his ability to control blood also gained a boost and was much more deadly.
Suddenly.
Ssszzzzz
A whistling sound was heard as a small blue dot appeared in the room. The dot slowly became larger and larger.
"Irin!" The young duke shouted, overjoyed by the sight.
"A teleportation?!" Lyle shouted in shock as he stared at the sight.
Teleportation was not something that any archmage could do, it was a high-level spell that only a small percentage of them could perform as it was an incredibly difficult spell with a high mana requirement.
'To think the archmage that was ridiculed by everyone was a high-level one, this isn't good!' Lyle thought as he suddenly performed a weird gesture with his hands.
A small symbol on the back of his hand suddenly glowed before a parchment appeared in front of Lyle who simply tore it in half.
The parchment was suddenly engulfed in black flames that rose in the air and sped to the teleportation spell that the archmage was casting.
They covered the spell up and it slowly started becoming smaller.
'To think I would be forced to use such a valuable item during this mission, damn it!' Lyle cursed as he stared at the young duke.
The parchment he used had a spell infused into it. The spell was a high-ranking one and its power was a simple one, it would disturb and destroy any spell that was being cast in the area.
It was an incredibly useful and powerful spell that was of the same rank as the teleportation one that the archmage Irin tried to perform right now.
Its value was incredibly high and Lyle spent a lot of money, and effort in order to get one of these.
'If this guy is at this level, then I have to move quickly, otherwise, my death is certain." Lyle told himself as focused on the young duke whose expression had changed once again.
He was elated to see that the archmage was coming to save him, but upon the teleportation being disrupted by Lyle, his spirit was down as he now understood that the enemy in front of him was even more dangerous than expected.
His heart started beating much faster than before as his right hand started moving backward, before he knew it, the knife had cut deep inside the neck of the poor girl that stared at him in bewilderment.
She couldn't speak, but her body started shaking as tears fell down her face.
Lyle stared at the young duke before looking at his daggers and suddenly fusing them. The blood from the girl suddenly floated over to him as the duke screamed in terror.
He didn't even realize he had cut the girl and that she was near death, but for Lyle, it was something that would help him since he now had a lot of blood that he could control.
In a matter of seconds, most of the blood had left the girl's body and flown over the Lyle before a red spear was created from it. He looked at the spear and nodded before pointing it at the duke.
"Sorry, but it seems I don't have a lot of time, so I'll be ending this quickly."