The instant those words fell, the entire ground began to violently shake.

  The tremors instantly struck terror into everyone present, including the foreign ministers who had just regained their composure.

  "Hadn't they promised not to attack our diplomatic mission?"

  "Why the hell did they break their word!?"

  But they knew all too well.

  At this moment, Augustus was ready to sacrifice everything.

  In the chaos, countless explosives ignited beneath the ground, their powerful impact shaking the entire area.

  White light suddenly burst from the soil, rushing skyward like a reversed waterfall.

  The intensity of this explosion was certainly no weaker than fourth-tier magic.

  And due to the volatile nature of the explosives, the resulting shockwave was perhaps even more devastating!

  In the blink of an eye, the vast courtyard was completely engulfed in white light.

  Even the towering castle-like mansion was swallowed within it.

  The violent explosion overturned the entire ground. Under the surging impact, even sound itself was torn asunder.

  Only the sharp explosive roar continued to echo.

  BOOM!

  Like a tsunami, the white shockwave instantly shot hundreds of feet into the dark sky, continuously expanding across the ground, its vast radiance completely submerging everything.

  As the white light gradually dissipated, only lingering gunpowder smoke remained.

  The surrounding ground lay completely shattered, with towering rocks randomly embedded within, and debris from various buildings scattered across the surface.

  Augustus stood up, his body covered in burns from the explosives.

  His maniacal laughter echoed throughout the ruins:

  "Hahahahaha!"

  "Only I remain as the final victor."

  But suddenly, his laughter came to an abrupt halt.

  "Is that all?"

  In the silent air, a cold voice cut through.

  Augustus quickly turned to look.

  Through the thick gunpowder smoke, a man in a black coat emerged.

  He was completely unscathed, without even a speck of dust on his body.

  Augustus's eyes widened as he froze in place.

  Could Viktor be a vampire too?

  Otherwise, how could this scene before him be explained?

  This quantity of explosives was enough to level a royal city - how could he emerge completely unharmed?

  Suddenly, Augustus's expression changed drastically, as if struck by realization.

  The explosives were planted to blow everyone present to pieces.

  That way, he could freely absorb the broken flesh and blood, becoming a true vampire.

  And under his influence, those people would all become vampires who only obeyed his will.

  However...

  He had desperately detonated all the explosives, yet he couldn't sense anyone's death.

  The blood moon in the sky remained just as crimson, with no life force dissipating here.

  He turned to look around and saw two tiger-men emerge from the smoke.

  But unlike before, their bodies were now wrapped in ethereal green flames.

  The flames were as hollow as undead spirits, illuminating the surrounding space.

  Even their fur was completely ignited, especially bright below their heads.

  In their eyes flickered cold flames.

  In the surrounding smoke, they appeared like demons in the mist.

  Suddenly, the female tiger-man opened her massive paw.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  In that enormous tiger paw lay a pile of crushed black stones.

  At this moment, Augustus's heart began to race wildly.

  He recognized them.

  Those were anti-magic stones.

  Whoosh!

  A mighty wind swept through, completely driving away the smoke.

  At that moment, Augustus was utterly stunned.

  A green flame suddenly rose from the ground, continuously expanding, covering the entire area, passing over everyone's feet.

  The flames, like climbing vines, wrapped around everyone's bodies.

  Countless beastmen and knights, even the noble lords.

  Their bodies were all ignited with ethereal green flames, two torch fires burning in their pupils, their lower bodies shrouded in deep black mist.

  White bones gleamed, ghost fires burned.

  The twelve diplomatic envoys also revealed stark white bones, with intense flames burning in their deep eye sockets.

  They were quite surprised by their new appearance, looking around curiously.

  Gwen, now transformed into an undead knight, rode atop a skeletal warhorse, following behind Aurelianne as they approached Augustus.

  At this moment, the undead fire reignited on Aurelianne's body.

  The ethereal green color covered her entire form, with a green three-marked crown atop her head, and a layer of black garments draped over her body.

  Behind her floated several green ghost fires.

  She appeared both like a witch and the sole ruler of this undead army.

  Viktor looked at Augustus, his tone flat:

  "Attacking the imperial delegation, attacking the imperial princess."

  "Augustus, now, you've added two more crimes to your list."

  As soon as the words fell, the undead lords wrapped in ethereal green flames drew their sharp blades in unison.

  Like a torrent, they surged forward, instantly surrounding Augustus.

  Looking at the approaching undead army, Augustus's mind went completely blank.

  He had lost on the most crucial point.

  For vampires to transform humans into vampires, they needed corpses as vessels.

  The blood stored in human bodies would be drained by vampires, then special blood would be reinjected by the vampire.

  Thus, the corpse would transform into a vampire.

  Even if the body was damaged, as long as it received the vampire's transformation, those broken body parts would reassemble, reforming into a complete vampire.

  But when the explosion's shockwave tore through the air with earth-shattering echoes, not a single person became a corpse.

  Because the moment the white light rose up, they had all transformed into undead wrapped in ghost fire.

  This was the power of ghost fire wielded by necromancers, letting the living embrace death.

  In this state, they would no longer fear death, no longer fear any attack.

  Because they themselves were already undead.

  Augustus understood this perfectly well, as the kingdom's Grand Duke was the strongest necromancer.

  So when Aurelianne revealed her power as a necromancer, he immediately used anti-magic stones to guard against her.

  But in the end, despite calculating everything, he had failed to account for the destruction of the anti-magic stones.

  No, what truly caught him off guard was the appearance of those beastmen.

  Why would they follow Viktor's commands?

  This was a terrifying question.

  Even without these beastmen's appearance, Augustus wouldn't have lost so easily.

  But now, how could he turn the situation around?

  Right, Count Laurien, where was Count Laurien!?

  Augustus suddenly thought of something and raised his head, shouting a name towards the courtyard that had been reduced to ruins:

  "Count Laurien, Count Laurien!!!"

  His shouts seemed to pierce the sky, causing many noble lords who had transformed into undead to look at each other in confusion.

  Yes, where had Count Laurien suddenly disappeared to?

  This was Count Laurien's territory!

  They had long harbored questions, because this was Count Laurien's territory.

  Yet even under such battle conditions, Count Laurien's guards had never appeared.

  Clearly, something was wrong with Count Laurien.

  Additionally, Count Laurien's daughter had somehow been resurrected as a vampire...

  At this moment, the nobles had their suspicions.

  Suddenly, crisp footsteps accompanied by the muffled sound of a cane came slowly from afar.

  Everyone was drawn to the footsteps, their gazes turning toward the source of the sound.

  Count Laurien appeared in the distance, leaning on his cane, elegantly walking towards everyone with measured steps.

  Under the blood-red light reflected from the night sky, the crimson glow illuminated his white hair.

  His eyes were like crimson jewels, full of depth and mystery.

  Everyone looked at Count Laurien in silence.

  Previously, they had never noticed anything strange about Count Laurien's red eyes.

  But now, after seeing so many vampires and blood clan members, the suspicions in their hearts finally had an answer.

  The moment he saw Count Laurien, Augustus desperately called out to him:

  "Count Laurien, save me!"

  However, Count Laurien just stood in place, calmly watching Augustus.

  The smile at the corner of his eye was like cold moonlight, as he said softly:

  "Your Majesty, you have already failed."

  Augustus was slightly stunned, before he could react, suddenly, the blood-colored moon brightened, its deep red light pouring down.

  Like the dawn before daybreak, except this light carried a piercing coldness.

  Under the illumination of this blood light, Augustus's body began to change.

  Like a dying spark, signs of decay and death gradually appeared.

  His once proud wings began to wither, crumbling and scattering like dead leaves, and the red light in his eyes began to fade.

  In this instant, his once immensely powerful body became so mortal.

  He widened his eyes, feeling that immortality he had long pursued leaving his body.

  Augustus stared at the blood-colored moon, his eyes widening in despair:

  "No, why, no..."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty."

  Having absorbed all the blood energy brought by Augustus, the blood moon in the sky became even more crimson.

  Even the halo around the moon grew larger, like a satiated demon announcing its satisfaction.

  Count Laurien bowed deeply to Augustus, saying sincerely:

  "Thank you for everything you've done for me."

  In that instant, Count Laurien's bowing back suddenly bulged.

  His robes tore as an extremely large pair of crimson wings suddenly extended.

  These wings were incredibly massive; with just a slight curve, they could encompass everyone present.

  And more terrifyingly,

  These sky-covering massive wings came in three pairs.

  The crimson wings trembled under the sky, emanating an incredibly terrifying bloody aura in all directions.

  The ethereal moonlight passing through the three pairs of wings illuminated their blood vessel patterns with stark clarity.

  Count Laurien raised his head again, and at this moment, his face had changed significantly.

  Red blood markings gradually climbed up his face, his eyes crimson, even his pupils had become hollow red.

  He raised his head and glanced at Pricis in mid-air.

  In his complex gaze seemed to hide traces of tenderness.

  Then, he took flight.

  Like a thick crimson crescent moon hanging behind his back in the night sky.

  Count Laurien's raised head slowly lowered, looking down at everyone from above.

  But in his gaze, only Viktor was firmly locked onto.

  The crimson hollows in his eyes became completely manic, like a beast whose deep-seated cruelty had been fully awakened:

  "Now, it's time for our final work."

  "Councilor Kravina."

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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