The atmosphere in the subterranean bar had been chaotic, fueled by synthetic ecstasy. Now, it was transformed into a landscape of visceral, primal dread. A sickly, ferrous odor—metallic, sweet, and overpoweringly wrong—began to permeate the air. It was the scent of freshly spilled blood.
Then, the ceiling cracked.
A cascade of crimson drops erupted from the fissures, not drizzling, but gushing like a grotesque, subterranean fountain. The blood rained down, drenching the gyrating crowd. A few, like Sharice and her friends, screamed—a sharp, human sound of terror. But the majority simply lifted their faces, their eyes wide with a horrifying, unholy anticipation.
The change was instantaneous and sickening. The passionate kissing suddenly morphed into violent biting. Teeth, elongated and razor-sharp, snapped into view. The revelers were no longer dancing with abandon; they were feasting with ferocity.
They embraced their "lost lambs"—the few unfortunate ordinary humans present—not with lust, but with ravenous, surgical precision, drinking deeply from their exposed necks. For these monstrous entities, the bar was a sanctuary; for the innocents, it was a sudden, violent slaughterhouse.
Sharice shoved her two terrified companions, Kitty and Vivian, behind her, using the thick, curved bar counter as their only potential shelter. They huddled weakly, the blood spattering against the mahogany a few feet away.
Nisha was beside them in a blink, her breath—or lack thereof—a chilling puff of cold air on Sharice's cheek. "I gave you fair warning, little one," she whispered, her voice laced with a strange mixture of accusation and genuine relief that they were still within her reach. "Never stray outside the confines of the protective shadow I cast."
The three girls were now pinned between the predatory chaos and the enigmatic woman who seemed to command it. The horror was complete.
Precisely 300 meters above the Earth's surface, an invisible distortion in space coalesced. Zhou Yi hung suspended in the black vacuum, untouched by the punishing altitude or the cold. He was silent, motionless, bathed in the sharp, unfiltered light of the sun.
The intense radiation poured over him, making every cell in his body hum with energy, breathing and growing under the eternal influx of solar power.
This was his vantage point. This altitude, just below the orbital traffic, was where he shed the limitations of his human form. His eyes, the windows to his core power, glowed with an absolute, molten gold. Within them, the entire surface of the Earth, millions of individual lives, and the smallest fluctuations of energy became a visible landscape.
His super-vision allowed him to penetrate layers of obstruction, density, and psychic interference. From this distance, the city of New York was a blueprint, and buried beneath that blueprint was a distinct biotic energy signature—familiar, precious, and wildly unstable. Sharice.
In this realm, the concept of time became irrelevant. Zhou Yi felt like a star—a being of pure, sustained energy. He was self-sufficient, requiring no food, no air, no water, sustained only by the scattered, endless radiations of the universe.
It was an existence of infinite capacity, but one that tasted profoundly empty. He preferred the flawed, complicated mess of human life to this cold, majestic divinity.
He locked onto his sister's signature. He located the deep, insulated bunker, the concentration of the unknown life forms, and the panic radiating from the three teenagers. The time for contemplation was over.
Zhou Yi moved.
His earlier speed was merely a test. Now, he engaged his power fully. The gravimetric field around his body intensified exponentially, compressing the space in front of him and creating a near-perfect vacuum pocket, allowing him to bypass the limitations of friction and air resistance. He did not accelerate through the atmosphere; he was forcing the atmosphere out of his way.
He dropped from the sky, accelerating to a previously impossible velocity.
On the command ship, the air crackled with escalating tension. The lead technician stared at the newly updated telemetry data, his jaw slack.
"Commander Petrova! The target has reappeared! Velocity now confirmed at Mach 25—twenty-five times the speed of sound. We are registering zero thermal signature! It's a clean kinetic profile only! The laws of thermodynamics are being violated!"
Commander Petrova, her face a rigid mask of tactical focus, snapped the order. "Activate all available tracking satellites! I want continuous telemetry, ground trajectory projection, and an immediate visual feed. Do not lose this object again!"
The image on the giant stereoscopic display was a moment of impossible physics frozen in time. The blurry object was now resolving into a defined, humanoid shape—a man, engulfed in a massive, chaotic corona of white and gold plasma generated by the sheer violence of his entry.
"Visual achieved! Commander, the object is… it's a human form! But the kinetic energy readout is equivalent to a tactical cruise missile! Altitude dropping below 10,000 feet! Target trajectory… Brooklyn, New York!"
Petrova watched the 3D projection, her mind struggling to reconcile the data. A human being, traveling fast enough to become a self-generated nuclear furnace, yet somehow leaving behind no heat trail.
"Report this immediately to the Director," she commanded, her voice level despite the internal shock. "And archive today's events under Access Level 7—absolute top-level clearance. This target is designated Zeus Prime until further analysis can be conducted."
As her subordinates executed her commands with mechanical precision, the image on the screen, a figure creating sparks from sheer atmospheric friction, vanished in a final, terrifying descent toward the heart of the city.
A profound, sickening BOOM struck the bar. It wasn't just an auditory event; it was a physical shockwave that caused the entire underground bunker to tremble violently. The air pressure shifted so abruptly that dozens of vampires, mid-feast, involuntarily staggered.
Then, the roof shattered.
A blazing, gold-and-white fireball tore through the thick, reinforced concrete and cement layers, impacting the floor of the bar in a blinding explosion of smoke, pulverized debris, and displaced blood. The explosive energy was concentrated, surgically contained by Zhou Yi's power, but the residual heat was terrifying.
The few unlucky creatures caught directly in the initial thermal flash—vampires whose skin was sensitive to heat—were instantly reduced to swirling piles of ash and vapor.
One vampire, standing a safe distance away and still processing the shock, began to turn to flee, only to freeze when a hand, appearing from the smoke, shot out and seized his neck. The grip was immovable, like steel clamped in stone.
Zhou Yi stepped out of the dissipating smoke and dust. He wore the suit from his date, miraculously unsinged and intact, but his eyes were pure, terrifying gold—burning, absolute, and utterly unforgiving.
He held the vampire dangling in the air like a discarded toy. His voice was calm, cutting through the silence created by the explosion and the stunned halt of the music.
"Sharice. Kitty. Vivian. You three, come to me. Now."
Sharice, already trembling from the blood feast, watched her brother appear not as a human, but as a mythical, vengeful deity. Her mind failed to process the sight.
"Yi? Brother, why are you… a human cannonball?" she stammered, the absurdity of the question escaping her in the face of the overwhelming spectacle. Kitty and Vivian simply stared, their fear now replaced by bewildered awe at the sight of their stern, rich brother as a god of war.
The creatures who had been indulging in the feast, recognizing the raw power of the intruder, began to growl, their bestial nature pushing them to impatience. They bared their teeth at the man, ready to challenge the interloper.
Zhou Yi ignored the rising tide of hostility. He held the struggling vampire closer, his golden gaze inspecting its sharp canines and pale skin with detached curiosity.
"So, actual vampires? Fascinating. Truly, the clichés hold up," he remarked, his tone that of a scientist observing a tedious specimen. Without changing his expression, he casually applied a fraction of his strength.
The sound was a dull crack. The vampire's neck twisted at a geometrically impossible angle. Before the creature could even manage a final scream, its body burst into a sudden, contained plume of bright, purifying flame, instantly reducing it to ash.
This execution, delivered with such cold ease, was a spark to the powder keg. The collected masses of vampires could no longer contain their ferocity. They roared, their faces contorted into predatory masks, and rushed Zhou Yi in a dense, clawing wave.
The ensuing conflict was impossibly brief.
Zhou Yi did not move from his spot. He simply met the charge with a single, brutal, kinetic punch. The force was not just applied to the first vampire; it was transferred through it. The vampire hit was obliterated—but the residual wave of kinetic energy continued.
It slammed into the next ten creatures, tearing them apart and sending their forms flying backward with the velocity of a speeding train. The impact was so severe that the subsequent vampires were caught in a terrifying storm of their own comrades' blood and dissolving flesh.
The attack line shattered. For a moment, the only sound was the crackle of residual flames consuming the scattered remains. The entire bar fell silent again, the tension thicker than the dust.
The mysterious female vampire, Nisha, rose slowly from her chair. Her eyes, which had been fixed on Zhou Yi since his arrival, were filled with a profound, terrifying recognition.
"Mortal! You have trespassed into our domain and drawn blood. Gather your human children and leave this place now. We will honor the debt of your power and pretend this never occurred."
Following Nisha's sharp command, every vampire present took two sharp steps backward, opening a wide, clear path to the shattered ceiling. It was an unmistakable acknowledgment of her authority, and more importantly, a testament to the primal fear Zhou Yi had instilled in them.
Zhou Yi slowly turned his head toward the ancient creature, his golden eyes radiating absolute dominion. He took a single, deliberate step toward her. With his movement, the air itself seemed to crackle; small pebbles of concrete on the floor lifted and dissolved into dust, and the entire structure of the bunker seemed to groan under an invisible pressure. He was majestic and untouchable—the embodiment of a wrathful god.
"Where did you acquire the sheer, unadulterated audacity to make a demand of me?" he asked, his voice low, resonating with a power that shook the vampire to her core.
As he advanced, Nisha felt a fear that had been dormant for centuries—a visceral, instinctive terror that resided in her very bloodline, reserved only for the presence of true, unconquerable light. She could only watch helplessly, paralyzed by the sudden proximity of her natural nemesis.
Then, a vibrant, purple crystal curtain shimmered into existence, appearing directly between Zhou Yi and the terrified vampire.
"Brother! Stop! What are you doing?!"
Sharice's voice, sharp with panic and sheer protectiveness, sliced through the gravimetric tension, instantly shattering Zhou Yi's divine veneer. He transformed instantly from the Golden God into the Frustrated Older Brother.
He glared at his sister, who stood firmly in front of the female vampire, her arms spread wide, defending the creature. Kitty and Vivian huddled behind her, terrified of both the monster and the power of their apparent savior.
"Sharice, get out of the way," Zhou Yi commanded, his voice now merely stern, the golden light in his eyes receding slightly, fighting against his fraternal frustration.
"No! You can't hurt her!" Sharice insisted, her own fear momentarily forgotten in her need to protect the only person who had offered her shelter. "She warned us! She tried to protect us from them! She's not like the others, Yi! She's a good person!"
Zhou Yi stared down at his sister—his single, fragile weakness. He could crush the floor with a thought, but he could not violate the shield of her defiance. He saw the fierce, beautiful conviction in her eyes—the misplaced empathy that was both her greatest flaw and her most precious attribute.
Seeing Zhou Yi raise his hand, his expression still severe, Sharice instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, lowering her head, ready for the physical blow she knew she deserved for her monumental mistake. Zhou Yi wasn't just a brother; he was the primary authoritarian figure in her life, and she knew she had pushed him past all breaking points.
But the blow never came. Instead, a large hand settled gently on the crown of her head.
Sharice blinked, slowly opening her eyes to see Zhou Yi staring at her with an expression that was both weary and laced with complicated humor.
"Seriously? You thought I was going to strike you?"
"I thought… I thought I made you very angry, and you needed to vent your frustration," Sharice admitted in a small voice, all the swagger gone, replaced by the profound shame of her actions.
"I am furious, Sharice. I am beyond furious," Zhou Yi sighed, running his fingers through her hair.
"But I don't take my rage out on my own family. We will have a long conversation about consequences and control, but only after I clean up this mess. Now, grab your two friends and go home. Immediately. Wait for me there."
"Understood!" Sharice bowed her head, immediately opening a shimmering, stable portal—a testament to her focus when scared. She pulled Kitty and Vivian through, then stopped, poking her head back out through the crystal screen.
"Yi," she whispered, her eyes pleading. "Promise me you won't hurt her. She deserves to live, please."
Zhou Yi glanced at the mysterious vampire, who remained frozen, watching the strange sibling exchange with wide-eyed terror.
"I promise," Zhou Yi said, waving his hand dismissively. "Now go."
Sharice vanished.
Zhou Yi let out a genuine, heavy sigh as the portal shimmered and winked out of existence. He turned his attention back to the mysterious female vampire, his golden eyes hardening slightly.
"Having a perpetually rebellious, highly destructive younger sister is a heavy burden, Miss Maginos," Zhou Yi remarked, his voice returning to the low, resonant baritone of a man accustomed to being obeyed. "Perhaps you can enlighten me about this unique 'clan.' I'm dying of thirst, by the way. Bartender, you still there? Get me that iced drink. Now."
The terrified bartender, Joe, his face slick with sweat, scrambled to mix the drink. Meanwhile, the female vampire, Nissa Maginos, slowly, deliberately, regained her composure, though the instinctual fear of his presence never truly left her.
"As you can plainly see, we are vampires," Nissa began, her voice now steady, her ancient breeding reasserting control. "We hail from a powerful, old clan rooted in Romania. Our ancestors established this operation in the New World centuries ago. They were pioneers, carving out a territory in this… modern wilderness."
Zhou Yi took the iced drink from the trembling bartender, took a slow, deep sip, and set the glass down. He looked contemptuously at the still-frozen, terrified crowd of creatures who were supposed to be the "monsters" of the night.
"A vampire entrepreneur story is, I must admit, incredibly tedious," Zhou Yi declared, his expression a mix of disgust and pure boredom.
"I came here expecting something ancient, something challenging. Instead, I find a poorly guarded slaughterhouse run by glorified thugs who can't even control their feeding etiquette."
He leaned against the bar, his golden eyes sweeping the remaining survivors—human and vampire alike. "Let's move past the origin story, Nissa. The territory has changed. And I need to know why you chose to shield my little sister from your colleagues."
Nisha, feeling the heat and power of his gaze, knew the simple truth: this man wasn't just a mutant; he was an elemental force, a physical paradox, capable of erasing them all without effort. She knew she had to navigate this conversation with the utmost precision if her clan was to survive the night.
Zhou Yi has established his dominance and secured Sharice's release, but now he must understand why an ancient vampire protected his sister. What is Nisha's true motive, and what will she reveal about her clan's vulnerability?