CHAPTER 95: THEN YOU BORE ME

It was a bloodbath. Literally.

Athenodora no longer cast a defensive spell. She didn’t need one. She never did. Instead, both her hands held spell circles, and out of those spell circles spread multiple tendrils all tipped with Blood Scythes which she controlled deftly and accurately to spin about, slicing at as many of Anton Orlock’s Vampire Spawns as she could.

At some point, she stopped controlling the blood that spilled from her kills. It became too much, and she had enough Blood scythes already, so she just let it pool on the ground, increasing inch by inch with every couple of bodies she dropped.

And, even as she slaughtered so many, by God, Athenodora was beautiful.

Not even the Vampires she slaughtered could deny that.

She seemed to dance across the puddle of blood she had created on the ground. Her feet never sank into it and not a single drop clung to any part of her body. It was like watching someone walk on water, if the water were blood.

She twisted, she gyrated, she undulated to a music that it seemed only she could hear, and whenever her arms moved, heads rolled and blood spilled to add to the ever-increasing supply on the ground.

The Vampires had been ordered to fight, so they did. They had no actual sense of self-preservation because if they did, they would have turned tail and run. To be fair though, they wouldn’t have actually gotten away. Athenodora was serious about the Sealing formation she had erected around the Black Castle and would have enough time to hunt down any deserter.

Athenodora never looked tired. The more blood she spilled, the more screams of pain she heard, the happier she looked. The brighter her Vampire red eyes became.

At some point, she threw up her legs like a ballet dancer but beyond being an eye-catching dance move, it kicked up the blood on the ground, turning it into spikes that stabbed at the Vampires hat had just managed to shield themselves from her Scythes. The blood sank into their bodies and exploded them into gory bits.

Already horrified eyes became even more horrified in realization that the entire ground was her weapon now.

That was the true might of a Blood Mage. She would only get significantly more powerful the more enemies she killed and the more blood she spilled.

Which is funny because she didn’t even need to get more powerful.

The energy that powered her Blood Scythes consistently fluctuated between the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circles. Not out of necessity but rather out of a pure desire to have fun. Regardless of which energy she chose, she was killing an average of Ten Vampires every thirty seconds.

There were hundreds of Vampires in the Black Castle but in a few short minutes, more than half of them were dead.

Every attempt to counterattack failed. Every attempt at defense was pointless. The strongest of them had been enhanced by Anton’s Blood experiments and veins bulged as they used their tainted Blood to surpass their normal level of strength to try and pose a challenge. Alas, it was all for naught.

"We give up!" The rest suddenly yelled then and fell to their knees in the river of blood. With the sliced-up and exploded bodies of their fallen brethren littered all over.

It had taken a lot to surrender. Their orders were to fight to the death but faced with Athenodora’s overwhelming might, they might as well be dead.

To them, she looked so much like the Devil and they were all more terrified than they had ever thought they’d be in their centuries of living.

Anton frowned and ground his teeth so hard, they seemed close to turning to powder.

"Fight, you worthless pieces of shit!" He yelled.

The Vampires shook with fear at his command but remained right where they were.

Athenodora clicked her tongue.

"You really won’t fight?" She asked and the Vampires all shook their heads.

She let out a breath and rolled her eyes,

"Then you bore me."

She kicked the blood at her feet then. Creating a multitude of Blood spikes. Enough to stab every single one of the surrendering Vampires, sinking into their bodies so they all exploded simultaneously.

That display showed Athenodora could have killed every single one of the Vampires all at once from the very start. She had simply chosen not to. As far as she was concerned, the weakness of her opponent(s) relative to her didn’t matter so long as they could dance around each other a bit.

Rushing to the finish is hardly ever fun. You need to savor the moment.

She sighed.

"Disappointing," she said.

"Get her!" Anton said still on his throne.

The Seven consorts unfurled their robes so they became batwings. Their breasts jiggled with their movement and their jagged teeth were especially sharp with viciousness and a desire to fight for their survival as well as that of their husband and Lord.

Four of them took flight to attack from above while the remaining three melted into shadows meaning to sneak close and attack from below.

"Oh?" Athenodora said with a raised brow when the Vampire Women opened their wide grotesque mouths to let out shrieks while unleashing an Aura that dwarfed even the strongest of the Vampires she just slaughtered.

She thrust her hands forward to control her Blood Scythes to cut down the flying women but they maneuvered out of the way incredibly quickly before swinging their arms to unleash Dark Magic that cut right through the Scythes.

"Yes!" Athenodora yelled in excitement at what looked like an attempt to put up a better challenge than the multitude she had slain thus far,

"I like this!"

When almost all her Blood Scythes had been sliced and destroyed, she canceled the spell circles and prepared to cast something else.

The Consorts saw that as an opening and dived in just to be in the right distance for one of them to swing out her hand and cast a spell circle. However, before her spell could really take shape, Athenodora was already pointing fingers at her. Faster than any of them could even process.

Blood rose from the river on the ground and came together to form a spell circle that unleashed strings that stabbed into the Vampire woman’s body.

She tried to resist but could already feel herself losing control of her body, just in time for her spell to take shape and she was forced to aim it at her fellow consort.

*BLAM!!!*

Dark energy congealed into an overbearing pillar that struck that Consort in the back and sent her slamming face-first into the wall.

*BANG!*

"No!" The controlled Consort yelled in horror at what she had done.

Athenodora chuckled. With barely any struggle, she controlled the consort like one would control a puppet and made her fly and dive into another one of the four Consorts that had originally taken flight to attack from above.

*BAM!*

There was a collision and the two Consorts went tumbling into the river of Blood which formed into a Spell circle by Athenodora’s manipulations and control ready to fill them with spikes.

But just then, one of the three who had melted into shadow chose that moment to make a move. She rose behind Athenodora’s back with her hand coated in Mana that transformed it into a Dark gigantic clawed hand that would infect the target and eat away at its mana once it made contact.

’A sneak attack? Really?’ Athenodora asked with a smirk and just a bit of incredulity at such a foolish tactic. Was she so underestimated? Despite how much carnage she had wrought before their very eyes?

"Kneel." She said calmly without even looking back.

An Authority gripped the Vampire woman. She had felt her husband’s Noble Authority but this was many, many levels higher. Her knees hit the blood-covered ground immediately as she let out grunts of struggle and her batwings twitched like they wanted to lift her to safety but couldn’t.

Without looking back, Athenodora swung one hand back. It didn’t look like it had been coated with mana. Or with any elemental augmentation. But it sliced clean through the Vampire woman’s head. Dropping half of it to the ground and adding her blood to the river below.

The first Consort was slain.