Alucard's gaze was glued on the woman, who almost seemed lifeless, as if she didn't care about the wild flame beneath her. Her eyes were dull, and her body appeared sluggish, but if one looked closer, they'd be able to see her clenched fist.
Surrounding the woman in some sort of wide circle were citizens who all had hatred and disgust in their eyes as they glared at the vampire. If looks could kill, the woman would have died a million times.
However, despite their looks, the woman didn't even spare them a glance. For her, this peasant wasn't worth her time one bit!
Far behind the circle, Alucard stared at the woman who looked like his mother, whom he had seen in the numerous portraits back at the magical manor.
Seeing the woman's state, his fist tightened, and his jaw began to grind back and forth as sizzling sparks of lightning danced on his fingers.
At Lucifer's domain, Alucard had selected three magical elements, and although he had not properly practiced how to use them, wrong, he had almost forgotten about them; subconsciously, one of the elements activated itself.
Lilith, who was staring at the woman in the distance, had a neutral gaze, but that was because it wasn't the first time she had seen this scene play out.
However, peeping at her partner, she knew the same couldn't be said for him.
"Alucard, I know what you're feeling now, but we're just in a memory. So whatever you do here won't change anything. Instead, it'll only make it hard for you to live in this place.
"I know you'll do the right thing, and I know you wouldn't want to be stuck here."
"So all this isn't real?" Alucard stared at Lilith, who nodded slightly. "And all this was in the past?"
"Exactly, so anything you do here would only make it hard for you to escape to the real world."
For reasons unknown to Lilith, a grin broke on Alucard's face, but it wasn't just any grin. That grin was clearly that of someone who had gone crazy, or more specifically, someone who was about to do something crazy!
'That look reminds me of Dracula.' Lilith thought. In this situation, however, there wasn't any time to think. She had to keep the little monster tamed before it was too late.
Soon, Alucard stopped grinning as he shot daggers at the priest, who had mounted a relatively small podium that was just some meters away from the burning flames.
So far, his robe was the most pristine Alucard had seen. What's more, he could feel that the towering priest, who appeared to be bald, had a mind-boggling quantity of that irritating holy energy fluctuating around him.
Alucard didn't need to be a genius to figure out that if he gets even an inch close to that man, he'll be disintegrated to dust. And the worst thing, he might not even know how it happened.
"Lilith, who is that man?"
"you noticed. That guy is said to be one of the strongest humans to have ever walked the soil of Freya. He is a being who converses with Zion, all fath—"
"Can you just give me his name?" Alucard had no interest in the man's feats or title; for him, this man was an enemy.
"His name is Father Anderson, the righteous one."
"Father Anderson?" The name rang a bell in Alucard's mind, but he couldn't pinpoint who said it or where he had heard it. A second later, he concluded that it was one of the maids.
Lilith was about to say something but stopped as she proceeded to listen to the bulshiht father Anderson would soon spew.
Father Anderson didn't address the rowdy crowds, who were all gazing at him with admiration and worship; only God knew what else was on their minds, especially the women. Instead, he went straight to the pending matter.
"Thousands of years ago, our ancestors were slaughtered like cows by those filthy vampire race. Those damned had not the slightest of remorse as they massacred our kids.
"The holy church fought with the goal of wiping out these vile creatures. But fate...fate was a thot and they all ended up being killed by those damm! A thousand years later, Zion finally answered our prayers."
Father Anderson spoke with such vigor, successfully winning all the hearts of the people present. Whether small or old, their hatred for the vampires only heightened to new levels.
Alucard couldn't help but frown when he heard the holy pope's speech. The man made it seem as if the vampire started to hunt the humans, while in reality, it was just their insecurity.
They were terrified to become cattle for the Vampires, who were known for feeding on blood.
After the first attack, 1000 years ago, which resulted in the death of over 900 vampire children and over 2000 adults, the vampires retaliated.
And what was their retaliation?
The human's worst nightmare became reality as the vampires started viewing them as cattle.
Alucard was aware of all this since there were countless books back at the manor that had all this history in detail.
In a way, he believed that it was the humans who pushed the vampires to become villains.
Right now, however, he could see that as time passed on, the humans started twisting the story to make themselves look like the victims.
"Lies," Alucard muttered under his breath, his fingers twitching as he glared at the pope, who at one point glanced at him due to his absurd killing intent.
"That one seems to really hate the vampires." Father Anderson thought, seemingly mistaking the hatred for the vampires instead of him.
Soon, Father Anderson exclaimed at the top of his voice:
"We have successfully destroyed the devil's offspring off the face of Freya, but there are some flies that refuse to die.
"And one such fly is Evie Tepes, wife of Vlad Dracula!" A visible smug grin could be seen on Anderson's wrinkled cheeks.
He approached the woman with calm steps, which echoed throughout the vicinity as all the citizens watched with thumping hearts in anticipation of what was about to happen.
Reaching the woman, Father Anderson raised his hands to the sky, and a holy sword created with golden energy, shimmering brightly, appeared.
The holy sword glowed so brightly that the humans were forced to glance away, but the pope stood unfazed as he brought it close to the vampire queen and whispered in her ears.
"I warned you to take me to your son, and I might let you wake up one more day, but what did you do? You tried to kill me, something my brother couldn't achieve." Anderson smiled:
"And for your son and all those filthy vampires still out there, I'll not rest until all of them turn to ashes."
*Spat*
Evie summoned all her strength as she spat on Anderson's face, but the pope only smiled in return.
He wanted to see her lose that confident expression. He wanted to break her and make her cry! Make her plead for mercy.
"You can never find him, and even if you do, I'm very sure that he'll drive a sword into your heart, you scumbag!"
Spat!
"Seems like I have allowed you enough time for you to reunite with that useless brother of mine!"
With those words, Father Anderson thrust the sword into Evie's heart.
"No!!!!" Alucard's roar drew everyone's attention to him as the sky rumbled.
But before he could do anything, Lilith yanked him into the portal.
Lilith took one more glance at Evie, who was being lowered into the wild flames below.
As the rope holding her was snapped and she was just a few meters from the pit of flames, Evie turned into a myriad bloodshot bat and flew into the night sky.
The pope was beyond enraged, and so were the citizens as they watched the bats vanish from their views.
"Don't worry, Evie, I'll watch over him like a guardian demon till we meet again." Lilith flashed a cold smile.
*****
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