Kai was soaked in blood, most of which wasn't his own.

His shirt clung to his skin, dyed a deep crimson, and thick lines of gore traced along his arms and chest like war paint. His breath was ragged, the cold air scraping against his lungs as he took a shaky step forward. A shallow gash on his side had already knitted itself closed, a testament to the regenerative capabilities of his blood manipulation, but the ache lingered. Dull. Throbbing. Persistent.

"Ugh… screw that last beast," he muttered under his breath, flexing his fingers and flicking off droplets of drying blood.

Beside him, Takeshi moved with a strange, slowed elegance. His blade was clean-sheened to perfection as if he'd spent more time polishing it than swinging it, and not a single thread of his flowing robes was out of place. But even with that usual effortless grace, Kai could see it.

The way Takeshi's steps had grown just a touch heavier. The subtle pause when he stopped to adjust his footing on uneven ground. The sweat beading on his neck, despite the chilly air.

'He's not at full strength.' Kai glanced sideways. 'But even half-spent, the guy's a walking guillotine.'

Meanwhile, a few paces behind, Isaac strolled along like he was on a nature hike.

Not a scratch on him. Not a single drop of blood. The only thing he'd expended in the last few hours was his voice, cheering and tossing sarcastic commentary from behind the safety of his phased state.

"You guys were awesome," he said cheerfully, folding his hands behind his head. "Truly inspiring. I especially liked the part where that bear-thing almost chewed Kai's face off."

"And you were such a big help, weren't you?" Kai snapped.

They had finally reached the end of the mountain path, and what loomed before them was no longer the distant speck they'd seen from the city. The castle was massive. It rose like a giant's monument, carved into the very bones of the peak, its jagged towers stabbing into the sky like obsidian knives. Gargoyle statues clung to the edges of its battlements, and massive iron spikes jutted from the stone walls - many of them bent or broken, as if something had tried to escape from within.

But it wasn't the size that stopped them cold.

It was the feeling.

A pressure, subtle but heavy, hung in the air. The sort of presence that tightened your chest, slowed your breath, and whispered to your instincts that you were being watched.

But none of them turned back.

Curiosity was a dangerous thing, and right now, it had all three of them by the throat.

They circled the outer wall, their boots crunching against gravel and fallen leaves. Moss crept up the stone like veins, and roots from the surrounding forest clawed at the foundations. They didn't bother searching for an opening or breaking in.

"Let's just go through," Isaac said, already placing a hand on Kai's shoulder.

Kai glanced at the hand, then gave a smirk. "You could've held both of us at once if you still had your other arm, you know."

"Wow. You've been waiting to make that joke.."

"Damn right I have."

"Still not funny."

Kai chuckled as he reached out and placed his blood-slicked hand on Takeshi's shoulder.

Then, without a sound, all three phased through the thick stone wall like ghosts.

They emerged on the other side into darkness.

It wasn't pitch black, but the interior was cloaked in shadow. Shafts of pale light bled through cracks in the ceiling, casting long, slanted beams across a ruined marble floor. Dust motes drifted through the air, and their footsteps echoed faintly in the cavernous silence.

The space within the wall was much larger than it should have been.

"This… isn't right," Kai muttered, eyes scanning the massive hall that stretched before them. The architecture was twisted-Gothic, yet warped. Stairs led nowhere. Doors floated a few centimetres off the floor. Some parts of the castle looked brand new, while others were crumbling ruins held together by roots and rot.

"It's like someone stitched different centuries together," Isaac whispered.

"Something's here," Kai said, voice low. "Stay alert."

And as he did, somewhere deeper within the shadows… something moved!

-

They stood at the heart of what seemed to be the grand entrance of an ancient manor - vast, hollow, and choked with silence.

Cracked marble tiles stretched from wall to wall, faded tapestries clung to rotting wooden beams above, and twin staircases curved upward like coiled serpents into shadowed hallways. Dust clung to the air in thick clouds, disturbed only by their cautious steps.

Something was here.

Kai felt it before he saw it. A pressure in the air that set his skin crawling.

Takeshi was the first to react. He said nothing, as always, but his hand drifted toward the hilt of his katana, posture unchanged, as if he'd merely shifted weight. But Kai had seen that stance before. It meant death was a breath away.

Isaac, standing just behind him, furrowed his brow.

"Alright, something's definitely off," he muttered, eyes flickering. A faint shimmer washed over his form as he partially phased out of sync with reality. His Phased Vision activated, allowing him to see the world differently, as if layers peeled away to reveal hidden truths.

But this place… it didn't want to be seen.

"Nothing," he hissed, squinting into the gloom. "Too dark. Too damn twisted. It's like the shadows are alive."

Kai didn't bother speaking. His sclera vanished, his eyes swallowed in a sea of pure crimson as he triggered Blood Vision.

The world shifted.

He could see the pulsing rhythm of blood-trails of it, faint as mist, lingering in the air like ghostly fingerprints. But it wasn't just old blood.

There was something moving.

Deeper in the manor. Two figures.

One was humanoid. Tall, lean, slow in movement. It dragged something behind it. The second… the second was wrong.

Kai's fingers twitched, and a thread of blood escaped the pores in his palm. It snaked around his wrist like a waiting serpent.

"We've got company," he said coldly.

All three of them turned as the distant figure stepped into the dim light.

First came the faint clink of a chain, scraping against the stone.

Then the figure emerged.

It was a man, or at least, it looked like one. Pale as moonlight. Slender frame wrapped in an old-fashioned coat with a high collar, embroidered with faded silver thread. His long black hair fell around a sharp, androgynous face, lips curled into an unsettling smile.

In his hand, he held a thick chain leash.

And on the other end of that leash… was the beast.

It stood on four legs, hunched low, with shoulders like knotted steel. Its fur was coarse and patchy, revealing veins that pulsed unnaturally beneath the skin. The eyes were what got Kai - two pale blue orbs, glassy and glowing, locked onto them with a predator's stillness. Its jaw was long, canine in shape, but with far too many teeth, and a long black tongue flicked out between them like a serpent testing the air.

Bigger than a dog, but not as big as other beasts they had come across. Yet something about it made even the previous B-ranked creatures feel tame in comparison.

It was unnatural.

Isaac took one look at the pale man and his bizarre pet, blinked… and muttered, "It can't be..."

Kai didn't even blink. "Yeah. That's gotta be Dracula."

As if on cue, the man stopped in his tracks and blinked slowly at them. When he finally spoke, his voice was surprisingly… high. Almost feminine in tone.

"Dracula? Dracula?!" he gasped, sounding more offended than anything. "I knew I was dramatic, but really?"

He tossed his long hair back with a sigh, releasing the chain so it fell slack. "I was just coming to greet my guests! I sensed intruders and thought, 'how lovely! New faces in this dusty manor!' But now I'm accused of being a vampire."

He turned his eyes on Kai, and they lingered there. "Though… you do look like one. The blood. The eyes. The aura… How ironic."

Kai didn't answer. He didn't need to.

The pale man glanced at Takeshi, visibly intrigued. "You're a quiet one. Blindfolded. Mysterious. And a swordsman at that. Interesting..."

Takeshi said nothing.

Then the man's eyes shifted to Isaac. His gaze softened.

"And you... honestly, I have no idea what you are. Missing an arm. Dressed like you just got out of bed. Are you perhaps their tour guide?"

The man spoke in an unusual, almost old-fashioned manner and was clearly an eccentric - another odd character out of the many Kai seemed to keep coming across.

Meanwhile, Isaac wasn't sure whether to laugh or feel offended, but he didn't have the chance to...

Everything suddenly happened at once.

The next thing they knew, chaos erupted. Isaac was fighting for his life, while Kai was engaged in a tough battle against the man he assumed to be Dracula...

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