Chapter 595 I Will Find You
Dickson let out a quiet sigh before hopping down from the overturned military truck.
His boots landed softly against the blood-soaked earth.
The battlefield had finally gone quiet.
The fires Lana had unleashed were dying into glowing embers, Lilith’s frozen landscape was slowly beginning to melt beneath the afternoon sun, and everywhere one looked, broken weapons, shattered armor and the aftermath of a battle that would be remembered for years littered the ground.
The surviving soldiers stood scattered around the battlefield, tending to the wounded while stealing curious glances toward the lone vampire prisoner kneeling several meters away.
The werewolves had already shifted back into their human forms.
Even after transforming, most of them still carried the intimidating physique of the beasts they had been moments ago. Some leaned on broken weapons while others wiped black blood from their hands, but every single pair of eyes remained fixed on the prisoner.
This...
This was the moment they had all been waiting for.
Dickson casually shoved both hands into his pockets as he walked over.
The vampire lifted his head the moment he heard approaching footsteps.
He looked young.
Very young.
His face couldn’t have belonged to someone older than twenty. His silver hair hung messily over frightened crimson eyes, while cuts and bruises covered almost every inch of his body. Even breathing appeared painful now.
But appearances meant absolutely nothing.
Dickson knew that better than anyone.
A vampire could look twenty...
...and have witnessed kingdoms rise and fall centuries before mankind invented electricity.
Their appearance barely changed after reaching maturity.
Age could no longer be judged by the face.
Dickson stopped directly in front of him.
He slowly crouched until they were almost eye level.
Unlike before, there wasn’t the slightest trace of mockery on his face.
His voice became surprisingly calm.
"...What’s your name?"
The vampire swallowed.
His lips trembled.
He looked from Dickson to Lana... then Lilith... then Vanessa...
Finally...
His gaze settled back on the man kneeling before him.
"R-Ren..."
The answer came out weakly.
"So..."
Dickson nodded slowly.
"...Ren."
He rested one arm casually on his knee.
"Tell me something."
"What is it that you’re fighting for?"
Ren blinked.
His lips parted.
"...I..."
Nothing came out.
His mouth moved repeatedly, but it was as though the words simply refused to leave his throat.
Dickson waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Still nothing.
The battlefield remained deathly silent.
Not even the soldiers dared whisper.
Dickson finally let out another sigh.
"You still can’t say it."
Ren lowered his head.
His shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
Dickson glanced around the battlefield before speaking again.
"...Look around you."
Ren hesitated.
"Go on."
"Look."
Slowly...
Ren lifted his head.
His eyes swept across the battlefield.
Broken bodies.
Collapsed buildings.
Burning vehicles.
Everywhere he looked...
Vampires.
Dead.
Some lay frozen beneath broken pillars of crystal.
Others had become little more than scorched silhouettes scattered across blackened earth.
Many had died with weapons still tightly gripped in their hands.
None of them would ever stand again.
Dickson’s voice remained quiet.
"...They’re all gone."
"Every single one of them."
"You understand that, don’t you?"
Ren’s breathing became uneven.
His vision blurred.
Dickson continued.
"They fought."
"They died."
"And now..."
"...you’re the only one left."
Ren’s entire body shivered violently.
Dickson leaned forward ever so slightly.
"Do you want the same ending?"
The question struck harder than any punch ever could.
Ren immediately shook his head.
"N-No..."
"I..."
"I don’t..."
His voice cracked completely.
"I don’t want to die..."
Dickson gently patted him on the head.
The simple gesture somehow frightened Ren even more.
"Good."
"You don’t want to die."
"That’s a wonderful start."
His smile disappeared.
"So now..."
"Answer me."
"What do you fight for?"
"Why are vampires attacking humanity?"
"Why did every vampire clan suddenly lose control?"
"Where did all of these armies come from?"
"How are there so many of you scattered across the entire world?"
His questions came one after another.
Months...
They had spent months trying to understand.
Thousands of innocent people had died.
Entire cities had become battlefields.
Families destroyed.
Children orphaned.
Nobody knew why.
Not even the oldest werewolves.
Not the witches.
Nothing made sense.
Dickson took a slow breath before calming himself.
"...One question at a time."
"You answer."
"We listen."
Ren slowly nodded.
His trembling finally began settling.
For the first time since the battle ended...
It looked as though he had made up his mind.
Around them...
Every single soldier unconsciously stopped moving.
Bandages.
Weapons.
Conversations.
Everything ceased.
Lana folded her arms.
Lilith narrowed her eyes slightly.
Vanessa silently dismissed the remaining spatial barriers around the battlefield before focusing entirely on Ren.
Even Sergei...
Mikhail...
The werewolf elders...
Every single one of them watched without blinking.
This was it.
The answer.
The reason behind three months of endless bloodshed.
Ren slowly inhaled.
"I..."
His lips moved.
"I-It’s..."
Then—
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The horrifying scream shattered the silence like a bomb.
Ren’s body violently arched backward.
Every muscle tightened simultaneously as though something inside him had suddenly awakened.
His eyes rolled upward.
Veins bulged across his neck.
He grabbed desperately at his own chest.
"Aaaaaaahhhh!!"
His screams became even louder.
The ropes binding his body suddenly expanded outward.
Vanessa’s eyes widened.
"...Impossible."
Only she truly understood what those restraints were.
They weren’t ordinary ropes.
Every strand had been woven from compressed spatial layers capable of restraining creatures far stronger than Ren.
Yet now...
CRACK!
One strand snapped.
Then another.
Then another.
Within seconds—
BOOM!
Every restraint exploded apart.
Fragments scattered across the battlefield before dissolving into blue particles.
Vanessa immediately stepped forward.
"No..."
"...that wasn’t him."
She saw it clearly.
Ren hadn’t broken free.
Something else had.
A dark aura suddenly erupted from inside his body.
Not mana.
Not vampire energy.
Something far older.
Far heavier.
Black mist spiraled violently around him, twisting through the air like living smoke. It coiled around his arms, his neck, his chest, moving with a will completely separate from Ren himself.
The ground beneath him cracked.
The temperature dropped.
Even the sunlight seemed dimmer where the darkness spread.
"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!"
Ren collapsed completely from his kneeling position.
His body slammed into the earth before convulsing violently.
He clawed helplessly at his own chest.
Blood seeped between trembling fingers.
His terrified eyes searched frantically until they found Dickson standing directly before him.
They locked onto him with desperate hope.
"H-Help..."
His voice barely existed anymore.
"Please..."
"T-Tell it..."
"...to stop..."
His hand reached weakly toward Dickson.
"...Please..."
"...help me..."
Dickson instinctively took two steps backward.
His relaxed expression vanished completely.
Whatever that swirling darkness was, it wasn’t something he had ever encountered before.
The battlefield had already witnessed fire powerful enough to melt stone, ice capable of freezing entire sections of land, lightning that split armored vehicles apart, and even Vanessa’s manipulation of space itself.
Yet none of those powers had made him feel...
...this.
The ominous presence hanging in the air crawled beneath everyone’s skin.
It wasn’t simply powerful.
It felt wrong.
As though the world itself rejected its existence.
The darkness coiled around Ren’s trembling body like countless living snakes, twisting tighter and tighter until the very air around him became distorted. Soldiers several dozen meters away suddenly found themselves unable to breathe properly, while even the veteran werewolves instinctively lowered their stance.
Every instinct they possessed screamed the same warning.
Danger.
Not ordinary danger.
The kind that existed long before mankind learned fear.
Whoosh!
Without warning...
Ren’s body slowly rose from the ground.
Nobody touched him.
No spell circle appeared.
No visible force carried him.
He simply...
...floated.
His head remained lowered for several seconds before it slowly lifted.
When his eyes opened again...
There was nothing left of the frightened young vampire.
The crimson color had disappeared completely.
His eyes had become endless pools of black.
No pupil.
No iris.
Only darkness.
Then...
He smiled.
It wasn’t Ren’s smile.
Dickson knew immediately.
Whatever had been speaking through the darkness had completely taken over.
The smile widened.
"I..."
The voice echoed strangely.
It came from Ren’s mouth...
Yet at the same time it seemed to come from every direction.
From the ruined buildings.
From beneath the earth.
From the sky itself.
"I will take everything."
The smile stretched even wider.
"City after city."
"Nation after nation."
"Continent after continent."
"This world..."
"...already belongs to me."
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
Many of the younger soldiers visibly trembled.
One dropped his rifle entirely.
Another instinctively stepped backward.
Even several experienced werewolves exchanged uneasy looks.
They had fought creatures beyond human imagination.
None of them had ever heard a voice like this.
It carried something far beyond confidence.
It carried certainty.
As though the speaker wasn’t making a threat...
...but announcing an inevitable future.
Dickson stared straight back.
His expression remained completely unchanged.
He slowly cracked his neck before speaking.
"I don’t know who the fuck you are..."
His voice wasn’t loud.
Yet somehow every person present heard every word.
"...but I’ll find you."
His eyes hardened.
"And when I do..."
"I’ll put an end to you."