What did that mean? A name?
The Count felt a flicker of bewilderment.
Then...
“Click... Click.”
The dull, mechanical sound of clockwork gears turning suddenly echoed across the wasteland.
Screech—Screech—
Eerie friction sounds followed immediately after.
It was the sound of countless resilient substances being violently pulled and tightened in the air.
Thousands of invisible threads were strangling something massive.
The “click-clack” of the gears slowed down as the rusted machinery reached its limit, finally jamming and falling silent.
A second ago, the Tenth Generation Count's sky of blood was still churning, and the withered grass on the wasteland was rustling in the autumn wind.
But in this moment, everything stopped.
The swirled-up grass clippings, the flying dust, and even the blood-colored mist seeping from the Count were all abruptly frozen in mid-air, like a bizarre still-life oil painting.
There was no sound of wind, no chirping of insects; every whisper of nature was completely cut off at this moment.
Movement was impossible; only consciousness continued to flow.
Sophie, who had swapped places with a bat to reach a distance, felt this authority firsthand once again and couldn't help but marvel at it.
What a powerful mechanic.
Hundreds of threads radiating a ghastly white luster dropped straight down from the void of the night sky. They had no source, and their ends plunged directly into the parched soil, cutting this wasteland into a bizarre cage.
A petite figure slowly descended from mid-air, following those hanging threads.
It was a young girl dressed in a blue-black gown. A small dress hat adorned with blue ribbons was perched jauntily on her head, and her sky-blue hair was pinned up with an exquisite hairpin. On that face, as delicate as a porcelain doll, no trace of emotion could be found.
Destined Crown, the Puppet Witch, the Puppet King of Ming City—Chengzhong Dino.
“You...”
Dino's feet lightly touched the tips of the frozen grass.
She locked onto the Count with a direct gaze.
To be precise, she was locked onto the aura emanating from the Count.
Then, she slowly raised her right hand.
“Rip—”
The ghastly white threads hanging in mid-air seemed to come alive. Like living vipers, they instantly coiled around the Count's limbs, torso, and neck.
The once-proud Tenth Generation Vampire didn't even have time to make a defensive move before his magnificent dark-night Count's formal wear was squeezed with deep indentations. The threads tightened, and a massive force directly dragged the tall man into the air, hanging him upside down in a spread-eagle position.
The ghostly green flames in the Count's eyes flickered violently.
The effect of the time freeze had only partially lifted for him—his vocal cords and thoughts had returned to operation, but his body was still completely stripped of control.
“W-What is this?!”
The Count's voice was filled with ill-concealed terror.
He tried to mobilize the vast power within his body to snap these seemingly thin threads, only to find that his mana vanished without a trace the moment it touched them, like mud entering the sea.
Dino ignored his struggling.
Her fingers twitched slightly in the void.
A thread precisely probed into the inner pocket of the Count's formal wear.
Then.
A black, cracked, and decaying metal fragment was pulled out by the thread and slowly floated in front of Dino.
It was a Dilapidated Dark Gold Greave Fragment.
The moment this fragment appeared, Dino's empty, hollow purple eyes suddenly erupted with a light of longing, obsession, and deep pain.
She reached out with trembling hands, almost greedily cupping the rough metal fragment in her palms.
“Brother's... scent.”
Dino pressed the fragment tightly against her cheek, as if feeling a warmth that had long since vanished.
In the next second, she snapped her head up.
“How do you know that name?”
Dino's voice was like a cold wind from the lowest depths of hell.
She stared fixedly at the Count suspended in mid-air.
“Where did you get this thing?”
The Tenth Generation Ancestor's mind went blank.
What name?
What thing?
Where did this scrap of iron come from? Why was it in my pocket?
—He naturally didn't know, because I just used Pickpocketing to plant it there.
Sophie, frozen in the distance, silently watched the scene unfold.
“I... I don't know what you're talking about!” the Count roared. This superior vampire who had lived for hundreds of years felt an unprecedented sense of absurdity and fear. “I don't know anything about that damn scrap of armor! I don't know who you're looking for either! This is a mistake, this is absolutely a mistake!”
He explained desperately, but it felt as if he were falling into an endless abyss.
It wasn't just a feeling.
“Ha... Hahaha... Hahahaha.” Chengzhong Dino let out a laugh.
What was so funny about this?
The Count didn't understand.
But the girl's face only showed a broken expression.
“I hate it most when people say they don't know...”
Dino carefully tucked the fragment into her bosom. When she looked at the Count again, her gaze was like she was looking at a pile of dead meat.
“I hate it most when people reject me directly...”
“Even if... even if you just told some lies to appease me? Why, why are you unwilling to even humor me??”
“Am I... so unworthy of being deceived?”
The girl's slender fingers slowly spread open.
“I will make you speak from your heart.”
“W-Wait! You lunatic!” The Count finally realized something.
You're screwed.
Sophie expressed her sympathy for the Count.
You should have pretended it was candy.
This is a landmine that even the real Hiso wouldn't dare step on.
Rate on N.U.
