"Don't you want to personally wash away the Caruana family's shame with blood?"
Aslan's voice echoed in Liana's ears.
Liana's eyes turned blood-red as she glared at Balthazar. She looked like a wild beast ready to pounce.
She wanted to! She dreamed of killing Balthazar, slaughtering this arms dealer.
But a dream was just a dream. She still had a mission to revive the Caruana family and protect her younger sister. She couldn't waste her life recklessly fighting Balthazar, especially with four of the Fourth Primogenitor's Matrices standing behind him.
Liana only had one. From any perspective, if she charged forward, she'd only die in vain.
"The dead can't come back to life. You two should think carefully. I'm sure your late father wouldn't want you to die on this tiny island in the Far East, would he?"
"We have an absolute advantage in terms of Matrices."
Balthazar smiled politely, bowing slightly, and spoke to Liana, who was on the verge of losing her composure.
Hearing this, the four Matrices behind Balthazar slightly raised their heads, staring at the ice cream in Matrix No. 5's hand.
"You guys want some?"
The four Matrices nodded almost in unison.
Matrix No. 5 licked her ice cream, glanced at the empty surroundings—only one employee remained in the dessert shop—and after a moment's thought, she grabbed several 10,000-yen notes from the table and handed them to the employee.
"Four servings, same as this." The blonde girl said with an expressionless face.
Then, the five Matrices ran into the dessert shop, sat down, and began licking their ice creams with their small, rosy tongues.
Balthazar was left standing there, slightly stunned.
Seeing this scene, Liana couldn't help but smile. "Now, it seems you no longer have the advantage in terms of Matrices."
Balthazar was momentarily speechless. After all, the Matrices of the Fourth Primogenitor could also control and wield the power of the Fourth Primogenitor's Beast Vassals, and he couldn't control them.
Participants were merely followers of the Fourth Primogenitor, gaining benefits by supporting the Matrix they backed to become the Fourth Primogenitor. They didn't dare interfere too much with the Matrices. That's why Matrices with weak self-awareness didn't care about external matters around them.
"But even so, what can you do?"
"Even your father couldn't defeat me, so how could you, a new-generation vampire?"
Balthazar laughed heartily. The other side genuinely thought he was just an ordinary arms dealer. He was also a Blood Servant of the Fourth Primogenitor, having grafted a rib from Matrix No. 1.
"You…"
Liana's eyes turned blood-red, glaring sharply at Balthazar. If looks could kill, she would've killed him countless times.
"Hahaha, come on, attack! If you want the Caruana family to go completely extinct, go ahead and attack!"
Seeing Liana still holding back, Balthazar couldn't help but sneer.
"How could a weakling like you revive the Caruana family?"
"Kill him! Sköll! Hati!"
Finally, Liana couldn't hold back anymore. She reached out her right hand toward the suited bastard in front of her.
"For the honor of the Caruana family! I will kill you!!!"
At her command, two wolf-shaped Beast Vassals appeared in front of her and charged straight at Balthazar.
"Useless!"
Balthazar didn't even move. He stood in place and raised his hand.
The Nosferatu guards behind him immediately understood his signal. They raised AK-shaped magical weapons, aimed at Liana's two Beast Vassals, and pulled the triggers.
*TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!*
In an instant, countless bullets surged toward Liana's two Beast Vassals like a tidal wave.
Almost instantly, the two Beast Vassals were torn apart, turning into specks of light that vanished.
Then Balthazar lowered his hand, looked at Liana, and said in a low voice, "How's that, you newborn Caruana trash? How do your Beast Vassals fare against my weapons infused with the latest technology?"
Liana didn't respond. She felt something odd. Her body showed no side effects. Although Beast Vassals had no physical form, and being destroyed only meant they turned into magic and dissipated, capable of being summoned again, that didn't mean there were no side effects when a Beast Vassal was destroyed.
For most vampires, if their Beast Vassal was destroyed, even vampires renowned for their recovery abilities would suffer severe side effects. At the very least, they'd be bedridden for days, unable to use magic, and their entire body would be in excruciating pain.
But now, she felt nothing unusual. As long as she expended magic, she could summon her Beast Vassals again.
(Is this the experiment His Excellency performed on me?)
"Sköll, Hati!"
Liana glared at Balthazar in front of her and summoned her Beast Vassals again. This time, however, they weren't summoned in front of her.
Instead, they emerged from the shadows of the Nosferatu guards behind Balthazar.
Accompanied by several screams and the sound of metal hitting the ground.
"Since when?"
Balthazar only then realized that, at some point, he was already surrounded.
But when he saw the two Beast Vassals in front of Veldiana and the two behind him, a surprised smile appeared on his face.
"Even your father, an old-generation vampire, wasn't my match. How could you possibly be?"
As an arms dealer with assets exceeding 35 billion euros, he was like a walking treasure chest. Saying he was like a child carrying gold in a bustling market was an understatement. Without absolute strength, how would Balthazar dare travel alone?
Did he rely solely on the useless Nosferatu behind him?
"Gangloti! Ganglot!"
"Sköll! Hati!"
Liana and Veldiana issued commands to their Beast Vassals.
Fire and ice spewed from the mouths of the four wolf-shaped Beast Vassals.
The fire and ice struck Balthazar.
Yet, it caused no damage to him. Balthazar twisted his neck, producing a cracking sound.
The next second, his body suddenly swelled. Countless jet-black hairs grew across his body. He looked like a giant wolf standing upright.
"This is Divine Bestialization."
Liana's face showed despair. She hadn't expected Balthazar to be a Beastman, and a Beastman who had mastered Divine Bestialization. It was the same despair she felt facing Golan Hazaroff on Gozo Island.
Their Beast Vassals couldn't harm a Beastman in Divine Bestialization, covered in a dense layer of magic. To defeat a Beastman in Divine Bestialization, they could only rely on absolute physical strength or overwhelming firepower suppression.
"You're the second after Count Caruana to see this form of mine." In his massive Beastman form, Balthazar spoke with great satisfaction, seeing the despair on Liana and Veldiana's faces.
Liana stared at Balthazar, especially when she heard the name Count Caruana from his mouth. Her heart filled with rage. Count Caruana was their father!
"Die, you bastard!"
Liana, nearly losing her sanity, had, at some point, recalled her Beast Vassals and fused them with her shadow.
By leveraging the connection between her shadow and her real body, Liana successfully wielded the Beast Vassals' power. But what surprised Aslan was that Liana didn't transform into a Beast Vassal—or rather, only her shadow transformed into a Beast Vassal.
She herself gained the physicality and abilities of a Beast Vassal, performing a transformation similar to a Beastman's Divine Bestialization. She saw Balthazar approaching, waiting for the moment he crouched to crush her head and kill her completely.
Liana pierced Balthazar's heart with a single claw, and her shadow did the same. Or rather, it was precisely because her shadow breached Balthazar's defenses that she could kill him.
"Dead?"
Liana stared at her right hand, still in the form of a blood-stained ghostly claw, and at Balthazar, lying on the ground with a massive hole in his chest. Her face showed confusion.
The great vengeance of her family was avenged just like that?
For a moment, Liana felt an absurd sense of unreality. And it was done by her own hands.
Liana stood there in a daze, unaware of her surroundings for a long time.
"Hmm… is this an Oni-Type Transformation?" Aslan stroked his chin, observing Liana's arm and her current state.
"Somewhat unexpected, but not bad."
Though Little Garden vampires were said to be molecules of humanity's distant future, they were classified as Oni-Type in the System Tree. Even a vampire's Gift could turn others into Oni-Type through bodily fluids.
So, it made sense that fusing a Beast Vassal into a shadow and enhancing physical strength would result in an Oni-Type Transformation.
After the Oni-Type Transformation, she simultaneously possessed a vampire's recovery abilities and the physicality of a Beastman post-Divine Bestialization. Her strength was also decent.
Aslan judged that as Prototype 1, it was sufficient. Her Bloodline was rated as Six-Digit, and upon maturity, she could reach a standard Six-Digit level.
Even in Little Garden, that was quite good. Even Little Garden vampires had similar levels before becoming Little Garden Knights. After maturity, Five-Digit was only Demi-God, and Four-Digit was only the Strongest Races like Natural Gods or Buddhas.
Six-Digit was already very good.
After a while, Liana finally came to her senses. Seeing Aslan jotting something down, she quickly pulled Veldiana to kneel on the ground.
"Thank you, Your Excellency, for granting me the power to take revenge."
Liana spoke with utmost sincerity, quietly handing over the treasures brought by the arms dealer to Aslan.