Half an hour later.
When the clock struck one in the morning, a bedroom inside Lichtenstein Castle radiated warmth.
The brown hardwood floors, vintage carpet, and luxurious fabrics all carried a faint, homely fragrance under the lamplight. On this frigid late-autumn mountaintop, their very presence lent a subtle but undeniable comfort to anyone inside.
In that room, the tense, confrontational atmosphere between Lan Qi Huperion and the priestess Stisela had long faded. Now, it was more like the relaxed late-night chatter between classmates on a trip.
Once someone truly regarded Lan Qi as an ally, his reassuring aura became unmistakable.
After their conversation, Stisela felt as though her future had suddenly become radiant.
As if she had been reborn.
Perhaps this was the blessing she had unknowingly gained when she swore to the Goddess of Fate earlier that afternoon.
And perhaps Lan Qi was the angel sent by the goddess to save her.
“Alright, it’s getting late. Let’s call it a day here.”Lan Qi closed his notebook, slid the pen into the cover, and held it like a teacher wrapping up class.
There were still plenty of details about the Resurrection Church to ask Stisela in the coming days.
Huperion, acting like a diligent assistant, was also ready to leave at any moment.
She noticed Stisela’s face betray a faint reluctance when she realized the talk was ending.
When brainwashing is carried out with genuine sincerity and kindness, it becomes indistinguishable from winning hearts with virtue. Yet if winning hearts with virtue is driven by deliberate purpose, isn’t that just brainwashing?
Call it doing good, and it looks like a crime. Call it a crime, yet no law has been broken.
Forget it—he’ll never change in this lifetime.
Huperion, as always, stayed silent.
“By the way, Stisela,” Lan Qi asked while rising and pushing in his chair, “as a bloodline traitor in this Shadow World, what are your powers and objectives?”
This was the last question that mattered to him.
“Look at me.”
Stisela didn’t answer immediately. Instead, her body began to shift—she grew slightly taller, and before their eyes, she transformed into Princess Alexia.
Huperion’s eyes widened in disbelief. She looked exactly like the real princess!
“My blood master, Count Saibernar’s ability—【Blood Disguise】—allows me to completely mimic any person I’ve touched. The disguise lasts indefinitely until I end it myself.”
Stisela explained. Even her voice had become identical to the princess’s.
And because she already knew Princess Alexia well, even her tone and mannerisms were flawlessly accurate.
Had they not watched the transformation, even Lan Qi wouldn’t have been able to tell this was a fake princess.
“…”
Lan Qi was silent for a while.
This seemingly non-combat power might actually be the strongest vampire ability he had seen so far.
Outside of direct battle, its potential was limitless.
With this, vampires could devour the Kreythian Empire from within at an unimaginable pace. Count Saibernar was probably replacing imperial officials one after another.
For all they knew, even the Emperor might already have been swapped.
Huperion felt a chill after grasping the implications.
In this Shadow World, had things followed the “normal” course—or the real history—then once the first night’s 【Blood Frenzy】 wielder began their killing spree, 【Blood Disguise】 could replace the victims. By the second day, deductions would become impossibly hard. The following days would devolve into paranoia, lies, and ruthless mind games.
Thankfully, Lan Qi and Frey—the dragon and phoenix duo—ended the game in half a day.
They had fundamentally rewritten the Shadow World.
“The traitor’s mission goal one: identify the werewolf and the witch.
Mission goal two: obtain their fresh blood within three hours, then go to the hidden chamber beneath the wine cellar and break the seal imprisoning the long-lost vampire Viscount Augustine. Subdue him as a thrall for experiments, and use his power to cleanse the blood servant brand, freeing oneself from their master’s control. Once completed, however, the traitor loses access to their blood powers.”
Stisela confessed everything without hesitation.
At the same time—
The challengers’ task panel began updating.
But the Shadow World seemed to stutter.
After all, mission goal two was supposed to be deduced step by step, not just handed to them because the traitor was “persuaded.”
Finally, the panel changed:
-. Mission Goal 2: Uncover the hidden dangers within the castle — Intel unlocked.
- Phase One: Protect the werewolf and witch, stop the traitor from releasing Viscount Augustine.
- Phase Two: If the seal is broken, reseal Augustine to return to Phase One.
- Phase Three: If the time limit ends while Augustine is under the traitor’s control, the mission fails.
At last—
The challengers fully understood the Shadow World’s true backdrop.
Years before the Holy Banquet, Viscount Augustine had been sealed here by the witch and the werewolf.
Years later, on this late-autumn night, Archbishop Caligula brought twelve members of the anti-vampire cult to gather at the cliffside castle.
But among the twelve were two vampire thralls who knew of the hidden chamber below and of the witch and werewolf in their midst.
They wanted neither to obey the vampires nor oppose them. Instead, they plotted to seize Augustine for themselves, free themselves from their master’s brand, and study vampiric secrets further.
Thus, the budding rebellion was crushed before it began.
“…So this Shadow World was originally a tragedy.”
Lan Qi closed the translucent interface with a sigh. In that era—without magic cards, before human sorcery had matured—the Holy Banquet of Villains should have been a forgotten bloodbath. Whether any survived, who won between church and traitors, no one knew. But it surely wasn’t so easy.
“Who’d have thought mankind’s greatest obstacle in resisting vampires… was mankind itself.”
Huperion’s face darkened.
Absurd laws, suffocating captivity, foes so powerful even demons feared them—humans had no chance against full-strength vampires. And yet, on this path of no return, they still tore themselves apart.
“No idea how humanity won in the end… Guess that’s for the next two Shadow Worlds in the Blood Moon Cataclysm arc. As long as we score SSS here, we’ll get access to them.”
But Lan Qi wasn’t overly sentimental.
He wasn’t a historian, but an ecologist. His role was to observe and improve the problems vampires caused.
A man of practice.
He reread mission goal two carefully.
Then, with a thoughtful look, asked Hubelion:
“So, as long as the traitor doesn’t control Augustine, we win, right?”
“…That’s correct.”
She confirmed, though puzzled at why he’d ask.
A creeping unease stirred inside her.
She realized Lan Qi’s “episode” tonight might not have ended—
It was only beginning.
Because the next words she heard from him were—
“So that means… if we challengers take control of Augustine, that’s fine too, right?”
Lan Qi adjusted his suit, sunny as ever, brimming with confidence in his airtight logic.