"Sacrifice? Something the TOPS Alliance developed in secret. I remember the costs were astronomical—how could there be so many…?"
On the cliff's edge, Lycaon panted as he stared at the two Sacrifices that had appeared without warning. His heart tightened, his pupils trembling slightly.
The two ethereals were completely different in form.
The one standing behind Kovei was tiny—no larger than a Bangboo. It had burrowed up through a hole in the ground, but the moment it noticed how many people were around, it hastily dove back underground.
By contrast, Bern's Sacrifice was massive. Its upper body was bare, its physique towering nearly two meters tall with an arm span close to three meters.
Its lower half trailed off into something like a spectral tail. By some unknown principle, it hovered effortlessly in midair.
Bern even leaned back casually, letting himself sink comfortably into the ethereal's open palm.
"High costs? That was a long time ago."
Bern waved his hand, then clasped both hands behind his head, still wearing the air of someone who held absolute control.
And indeed, the moment the Sacrifice entered the battlefield, Bern and Kovei were already in an unassailable position.
That was why Bern now had the leisure to chat.
"Kovei, you head out first. Find Perlman's landing point—we'll still need him for the next phase."
"As for Mr. Lycaon and Ms. Rina… if you don't want to keep wasting time, how about listening to a burned-out worker vent for a bit?"
Lycaon and Rina's expressions hardened. They watched Kovei turn and leave, instinctively stepping forward to stop him—but the ethereal beneath Bern suddenly flashed its eyes.
With a thunderous crack, it clenched its fist. Bones popped and snapped audibly, its expression turning hostile.
Feeling the pressure and ether density radiating from the ethereal, Lycaon's breathing grew heavier. He understood immediately.
Even if he and Rina went all out, they could at best defeat the combination of Bern and the ethereal—but killing them was out of the question.
And afterward, both he and Rina would be completely drained. Whether they could even make it out of the Hollow safely would be uncertain.
Taking such a massive risk just to fight wasn't worth it.
Better to hear Bern out—and see if he could extract some useful information.
Lycaon's gaze darkened as he spoke in a low voice.
"What exactly do you want to say?"
"First of all, with Phaga around, the vampire clan will never be an enemy of Victoria Housekeeping. I really don't think you need to interfere with our actions."
Bern spoke earnestly, sincerity practically dripping from his tone.
Though with his face covered, Lycaon couldn't see any expression regardless.
Lycaon remained unfazed. He glanced at the ethereal beneath Bern and replied bluntly,
"This goes beyond Victoria Housekeeping. The fact that the vampire clan managed to quietly acquire Sacrifice's manufacturing technology alone is enough to make you a target."
The implication was heavy—just short of outright accusing the vampire clan of anti-human tendencies.
Granted… for the vampire clan, being anti-human was probably the norm.
Bern immediately bristled.
"Hey, what are you implying? Sacrifice technology was originally proposed by TOPS. It wasn't until I became Chief Scientist that the vampire clan was even allowed to participate. And only recently did we finally surpass them technologically!"
"If anyone should be under scrutiny, shouldn't it be the TOPS—the ones who proposed it in the first place?"
"TOPS Alliance?" Rina frowned. "If they're so obsessed with profit, why would they waste time researching something like this?"
Bern's words had clearly caught her off guard.
Sacrifice technology had nothing to do with profit—it was a bottomless money sink. For those gluttons, greedy beyond measure, it was like carving their own flesh with a dull knife.
This kind of biological weapon should have been a military project.
Unless… there was a bigger benefit involved.
Rina's heart skipped a beat as realization struck her. Her face drained of color.
Make money—open new revenue streams and cut expenses.
If Sacrifice couldn't increase revenue, couldn't they be used to "politely persuade" the city's upper echelons to reduce—or even waive—taxes?
"Oh? Looks like you've figured it out."
Seeing the change in Rina's expression, Bern knew she'd connected the dots. He nodded slightly.
"Correct. One of TOPS's main motivations for researching Sacrifice was to build a sufficiently powerful armed force—strong enough to negotiate with the city's leadership. Fewer taxes, no taxes… or even flipping the table entirely."
"Unfortunately, their combat power was mediocre. And their minds were small."
"After years of mutual deception, they couldn't trust real power. So they wanted Sacrifice that would obey them absolutely, thinking that meant no betrayal."
"They were wrong!"
Bern suddenly shouted. The man who had been lounging lazily in the ethereal's palm shot upright, his movements bordering on madness.
"Excessive intelligence inevitably leads to emotions—and emotions are an uncontrollable variable! No one can guarantee one hundred percent loyalty from a creation that can feel!"
"Once TOPS realized this, Sacrifice research stalled completely."
"But our vampire clan is different!"
Bern roared, pride swelling in his voice.
"We are the strong!"
"All we need is a single sharp blade! One that can carve out the future the vampire clan desires!"
"That's why our progress has been so rapid!"
"Especially after Phaga devoured Kunmutu—who had fused with Sacrifice No. 2—we were left just one step from final success."
"All that remains is to test the combat capability of a high-quality Sacrifice in an ownerless state."
"And then—completion."
"We've taken yet another step toward victory."
Bern's lips curled into a smile, hidden beneath his raised collar.
"An ownerless Sacrifice… You mean the one beneath you?"
Lycaon's brows knit tightly as he shifted into a combat stance.
To be honest, he didn't find the ethereal beneath Bern particularly threatening.
This was a high-quality Sacrifice?
He hesitated. It didn't seem that impressive.
Earlier, his combat estimates were based on the boost Sacrifice No. 2 provided to Phaga.
If Sacrifice No. 2 were on its own…
Well. Fifty-fifty.
Give him five minutes, and Lycaon was confident he could shatter Sacrifice No. 2 five times over.
"Of course not."
Bern rejected the idea without hesitation.
The next moment, he tugged his collar down slightly, the curve of a smile visible at the corner of his mouth.
"The most powerful Sacrifice our vampire clan has ever created was modeled after Black Phaga's data."
Black Phaga!
Lycaon's heart jolted violently, his pupils contracting.
Boom!
A deafening thunderclap split the sky.
Lycaon and Rina turned sharply toward the horizon. In the distance, beneath a sky filled with burning clouds, dark crimson flames churned violently.
From beneath the earth, magma erupted like a geyser, blasting skyward before raining back down, kicking up rolling clouds of smoke—like the heavens themselves crying out in anguish.
This… this…
Lycaon lowered his head slightly and closed his eyes in silence.
After several seconds, he snapped them open and shouted,
"Rina, I'll hold Bern here! Go find Executive Officer Khors!"
...
"Wow, it's lava! We're driving through a rain of fire! How cool is that!"
A torrent of fiery debris fell from the sky, reducing the ground to a scarred wasteland in moments and filling the air with rolling clouds of smoke.
Burnice sat in the SUV's passenger seat, practically vibrating with excitement, making an incredible racket.
"Quiet it down, Burnice! If you've got that much energy, climb onto the roof and help Ellen smash meteors!"
"And Piper, don't drive so recklessly. Pompey's covered in ether crystals—don't let him get impaled by them before the ether corruption even turns him into ethereal matter!"
In the back seat, Lucy, Corin, and Pompey sat shoulder to shoulder.
Pompey's entire body was studded with Phaga's ether crystals, used to suppress the violently boiling ether substance inside him. But as the SUV jolted violently, his body rocked back and forth with every bump.
Each jolt drove the embedded ether crystals deeper. Blood began seeping from multiple points across Pompey's body.
"Cough—cough, cough!"
At last, Pompey couldn't hold it in anymore. He began coughing violently, suddenly hacking up a mouthful of purplish-red blood.
Lucy was startled and immediately called out,
"Hey, Pompey! The power transfer isn't done yet! Hang in there… Piper!"
"Don't rush me, Lucy. I'm already trying my hardest."
Navigating a path through the choking smoke demanded Piper's full concentration—she couldn't afford even a moment of distraction. Yet the relentless rain of fire from above steadily wore her down.
Ellen couldn't possibly shatter every meteor. In the end, the sharp evasive maneuvers still fell to Piper.
"Hey, relax, Piper! You've got me!"
Suddenly feeling someone pat her shoulder, Piper stole a glance amid the chaos. It was Burnice.
She asked, confused,
"What can you do?"
"Help smash meteors! With the new Overlord's orders, I can finally get on the roof and help out. Haha… Baby-Shark, here I come!"
With that, Burnice excitedly stuck both hands out the window, grabbed the roof, and hauled herself upward with all her strength.
"Wait, Burnice! Stop! I order you to stop in the name of the Overlord!"
Lucy never imagined Burnice wouldn't understand a warning.
No—Burnice understood perfectly.
And it was precisely because she understood that she got even more excited.
Ignoring Lucy's follow-up commands entirely, Burnice scrambled up onto the roof.
Lying flat on top, she took a deep breath—and immediately choked on volcanic ash. After coughing for a long while, she finally shouted cheerfully,
"Baby-Shark, I'm here to help you!"
Huh?
Ellen turned back in confusion, staring blankly at Burnice.
"Who are you calling Baby-Shark?"
...
Boom!
Deep within the Hollow, the Cinder Lake—whose existence had sustained the entire Outer Ring Old Oil Field for decades—could never have imagined it would be awakened in such a bizarre way.
High above, two vampires with nearly identical appearances were locked in a life-and-death battle.
Yet there were clear differences between them.
One had most of his body encased in ether crystals, which served as a superb shield in defense and a razor-sharp edge in offense—half-Ethereal, Phaga.
The other was merely a copy wearing the shape of a vampire. No—more accurately, a copy of a copy. It possessed Black Phaga's appearance and combat logic, yet lacked even the slightest trace of its own combat intelligence: a Sacrifice.
Two beings that looked like vampires, yet weren't entirely vampires, soared above the Cinder Lake.
Ether and Nether Flames were woven into every strike and every movement. Explosions roared without pause. Glassified sand covered the ground, ether crystals erupted from the earth, and the ether concentration around the lake surged to more than three times its previous level over the course of the battle.
Even within the lake itself, the ether crystals Lucy had only just blown apart with sparkstones surged back again—like flies drawn to rotten eggs, like vultures to a field of corpses.
They swarmed relentlessly, determined to seal the Cinder Lake completely and extinguish all life.
But the lake was not pleased.
The two vampires in the sky weren't bringing only ultra-high-density ether—they were also bringing an unending barrage of explosions.
This earth-shaking upheaval fully awakened the Cinder Lake's fury. It howled and roared.
Frenzied flames and dark-red magma smashed through every ether crystal in their path, surging skyward. Scorching heat licked the fire-lit clouds, and molten rock was hurled hundreds of meters into the air.
After slumbering for countless years, the enraged Cinder Lake finally bared its fangs of destruction—its first target being the two flying intruders who had shattered its peaceful dream.
Yet Phaga didn't even spare it a glance.
His left hand curled into a claw, snapping backward toward the source of the heat. As he moved, countless ether crystals spread across his arm, forcibly anchoring the massive chunk of lava hurtling toward him.
Phaga's eyes flashed. Grabbing hold of the lava, he beat his wings with all his might. His comparatively slender body flickered in midair as he closed the distance to the Black Sacrifice in an instant.
"Eat this—something big!"
Phaga roared, flinging the massive lava chunk straight at the Black Sacrifice's face.
[Heh heh!]
The Black Sacrifice split its mouth into a grotesque grin, crimson eyes narrowing slyly as it suddenly opened its jaws wide.
Awoo!
Phaga's eyes shrank. Staring in disbelief, he watched as the Black Sacrifice bit straight through the lava, embers still dancing around its mouth.
With a powerful flap of its wings, the Black Sacrifice lunged at Phaga, snapping its jaws.
Phaga kicked out, planting his foot on the Sacrifice's shoulder and using the recoil to rocket upward, forcibly opening distance between them.
"This thing… it's just like a dog, completely—"
Time had not washed away Phaga's memories of Black Phaga. If anything, he would likely never forget him.
At first glance, the Black Sacrifice had nearly triggered a hallucination.
But once they exchanged blows, Phaga realized it had inherited only the darkest, most sinister parts of Black's nature.
It used the dirtiest methods. Survival came first. Whatever worked, it used.
Pride?
Wasn't staying alive more important than pride?
"Can't afford to waste time with this thing. Better to leave as soon as possible."
Phaga narrowed his eyes, already formulating an escape plan.
Then suddenly, something felt wrong.
Wait—where did that Sacrifice go?
The next instant, a wave of warmth washed over Phaga's back. A searing heat flared violently, as if the sun itself had fallen from the sky.