Just as Atlas was about to step out of the broken building, he stopped and jumped back, sending someone coming.

Fortunately, the figure that landed inside the hall wasn’t a threat. Seeing that person, Atlas’s eyes slightly widened. “Lancaster? What are you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to run?!”

“I came here to help you,” Lancaster responded. “By the way, it’s good to see you too.”

“You’re here to help me? Have you gone insane? We’re surrounded by two Clan Leaders and hundreds of Vampires! Let alone helping me, you’ll end up dying yourself instead. I can’t focus on fighting while trying to keep you safe!” Atlas couldn’t help but scold the young man who came here to die.

He was lucky he was still alive. Atlas didn’t realize that Lancaster had awakened. He still thought that Lancaster was the same old who couldn’t fight. He didn’t want Lancaster to end up dying because of him.

He stepped closer to Lancaster and placed his hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll go out and fight them. You will get out of this place and run as fast as you can. If something happens to me, I need you out there to finish what I started. But it’s not the time for you! I can fight my own battles for now!”

“Atlas, can you please stop talking for a minute and listen to me?!” Lancaster smiled wryly. He was also somewhat amazed Atlas still hadn’t realized that he had awakened his Bloodline.

He further continued, “I’m not stupid to come back! I had left, but on the way, I woke up my Bloodline! Last time I finished my First Transformation, and that’s why I came back! I told you I’m not here to die! I’m here to help you, and now I’m capable of that!”

“You awakened your Bloodline? Really?” Atlas asked in slight surprise. In his initial shock, he hadn’t noticed it, but Lancaster’s physique did seem somewhat better.

“He isn’t lying. I can sense it too. He awakened the Bloodline, but he’s still not strong,” Lilith chimed in. “He isn’t on the same level as Vor. He isn’t even close. I don’t think he can come out alive from a battle with Carlisle or Severis.”

“He’s like you in some aspects, he has something special, but he doesn’t know how to utilize it,” she added.

“Who is this lady?” Lancaster inquired. “Whatever she’s saying does seem to be correct. I’ve tested my strength against Carlisle. He is in a different league altogether. I can’t fight him, but I can certainly didn’t his minions. But still, winning this battle against them would be hard. It would be better to retreat and strategize.”

Atlas refused the suggestion. “We can’t retreat. If we leave now, we might never have this opportunity again. Carlisle will strengthen the defenses of this city even more. He might even take the help of Vampire Warding Formations to stop me from entering the next time. If he does that, I won’t be able to enter without the permission of Carlisle.”

“Now that he knows we are his enemy, he can easily counter us. That’s why I sent him in a different direction last time with a letter pretending to be a witch, so he didn’t know which enemies he was facing. Things didn’t work out as planned, but still, we can’t… Not we; I mean, I can’t retreat. You can still go back.”

Atlas knew he had no way back. He couldn’t retreat. This place was his battlefield, possibly his last battlefield. He might not even come out of this alive. He had prepared to embrace the consequences of this battle, no matter what these consequences were.

“Wait! Why didn’t I think of this before!” He was just about to step out to battle when his eyes lit up suddenly. “Did you say you can’t fight Carlisle, but you can fight the Vampires under him? Can you defeat them?”

“Yeah, I don’t think that should be a problem for me. What about it?” Lancaster gazed at the young man in confusion.

“Then you must do me a favor! It’s of great importance!” The dim eyes of Atlas appeared to be filled with slight hope as he talked.

Seeing that hope in the eyes of Atlas, Lancaster was so happy. He didn’t care what Atlas was going to ask. As long as he could do it, he was going to do it!

“Just say what you want, and I’ll do it if it helps you.”

“I want you to leave this place,” Atlas stated. Hearing the demand, Lancaster was taken aback. Were they back to square one?

“I can’t do that. I won’t leave without you,” Lancaster firmly declared. “I am here to help you, and that’s what I shall do.”

“Of course, I want you to help. I’m not asking you to leave the city. I want you to leave this place and go to Carlisle Castle! There might be some Vampires there, but you said you can take care of them! That means you can infiltrate that place while I distract the rest here,” Atlas explained.

“I want you to enter the castle and locate my sister’s body! It must be inside the castle. Interrogate the guards if that’s what it takes, but at any cost, you must bring her out of there and leave the city! If I survive, I will meet you outside. If I can’t, take my sister’s body and give her a proper burial that she deserves, in a place beautiful as her pure eyes.”

“This is my only request and possibly my last request from you. Will you do it?” Lancaster asked.

Seeing the expressive eyes of Atlas, Lancaster couldn’t say no. Only one word came out of his mouth. “Yes.”

“I will do it, but only if you promise you’ll come back alive!”

“A promise like that? I can’t even make that to myself. This life of mine is a borrowed life, the result of an accident that wasn’t supposed to be. I might be alive now, but even I don’t know when I’ll be gone forever, so I can’t promise you that.”

Atlas moved Lancaster aside as he stepped out of the building. “Please save my sister. And I hope you have a successful life ahead. Thank you for coming back…”

Without looking back, Atlas stepped out of the building, leaving Lancaster behind.

Lilith also followed after Atlas, only to stop right beside Lancaster for a moment. “If you can, please succeed. Because he didn’t lie. His soul is only temporary. It might be gone the next second. He is trusting you with the reason for his living… Don’t fail him.”

Reminding Lancaster, even Lilith followed Atlas outside.

Lancaster stood alone in the silence of the hall. He didn’t know how to feel. For some reason, he felt really sad.

Even though he hadn’t known Atlas for a long time, he had already started considering Atlas as his real brother the moment Atlas showed up to save him before the Vampires at the risk of outing his cover. The thought of losing that brother… The thought of never being able to see him again… It was all very unsettling.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything more. He couldn’t say no to Atlas’s demand. He couldn’t deny his request. It was such an important request to him that Lancaster needed to fulfill it at any cost.

He glanced back at the proud figure of Atlas, who was ready to fight two Clan Leaders with an army of hundreds of Vampires alone.

Lancaster clenched his fist as he decided to make a run for it! He needed to finish this mission while the Clan Leaders were distracted! He needed to recover Misella.

He ran through the back window, jumping out on an empty street that couldn’t be seen by the Vampires.

Gazing in the distance, he started running as fast as he could toward the beautiful Castle.

****

Atlas stepped out of the damaged building to be greeted by two Vampire Leaders and hundreds of Vampires who stood behind the two.

He calmly observed them and didn’t attack right away.

Severis glared at Lilith. “A witch who is siding with a Vampire? You have chosen the wrong side, Young Witch. That man behind you will die, and along with him, you will die too!”

“Try touching even a hair on Lilith’s, and I’ll break that hand of yours,” Atlas declared.

Now that he was back and didn’t have to worry about bloodshed, he could be his arrogant self against these bastards he hated the most in this world. He had already lost his sanity once. He went to hell and came back. He didn’t need to worry anymore about it.

“Hmm? You came back from Bloodlust so fast? And you don’t seem to be affected by the Side Effects of drinking Vampire Blood either? It seems like the specialty of your Lineage. Certainly very fascinating.” Carlisle was amused.

Everything that he saw here went against everything he knew. This guy returned from Bloodlust so fast, and he wasn’t poisoned by the Vampire Blood either. He believed it was because he was of a different Vampire Lineage.

“Let me guess. Because you’re from a different lineage, you can drink blood from our Lineage without being affected. This rule must apply to the same lineage only. That’s why you didn’t suffer. That means I can drink your Blood, and I can be fine as well.”

Carlisle couldn’t help but lick his lips at the thought of being able to drink a Vampire’s blood from another lineage. He wondered if it was going to taste good. In any case, since it wasn’t poisonous, it could only be good.

“Carlisle, you already drank the blood you shouldn’t… I doubt you can take more,” Atlas clenched his fist, remembering the moment that Carlisle had killed his sister.

He still couldn’t forget the sinister gaze on the man’s face when it happened. The amusement he got out of it… The feeling of superiority… It was tormenting.

“We shall see about that.” Carlisle snickered. “Severis, would you do me the honor of taking care of that Witch? I want the man for myself.”

“But I want to kill the man!”

“I know what you want. Don’t worry; I won’t kill him entirely. I’ll leave that for you.”

“Fine!”

Carlisle selected Atlas as a target, while Severis selected Lilith.