My Alter Ego’s Path to Greatness Chapter 499

Nocturna (2)

The forward base is in chaos due to the commotion last night.

“Hurry up, hurry up! The survivors are dying even while we are dawdling!”

“If you touch this carelessly, it looks like it’ll collapse right away. First, we need to install the support beams···.”

“Found it! Medic! Medic! Look this way!”

As dawn began to break, numerous people were moving busily, busy cleaning up the scene of the incident.

Rescue teams clearing the rubble and searching for survivors, medical teams treating the wounded in the chaos, and maintenance teams hastily repairing damaged defense equipment in preparation for an emergency.

“Phew.”

In the midst of such confusion.

Kang Tae-san, who had managed to climb up to the rooftop of a perfectly intact dormitory building, looked down and let out a deep sigh.

‘I don’t know what the hell is going on.’

So much has happened in such a short period of time.

Coming to Nocturnia, I engaged in combat with a Bishop-class vampire and won, but that was just the beginning.

‘I followed the Slayers I met right after that and came to this stronghold not long ago, and then I was attacked by vampires on a large scale again.’

It was a surprise attack led by Rook, who was known to rarely engage in combat unless it was an all-out war.

If it weren’t for Rook, the damage wouldn’t have been this great, and the enemies would have been able to detect it before they even got close.

At this point, he couldn’t help but wonder if he was just bringing bad luck upon himself.

‘No, this can’t all be just a coincidence.’

The one who appeared at the moment of crisis as if he had been waiting for it and helped to save not only him but also all the humans in this stronghold from being annihilated—Phantom.

Kang Tae-san bit his lip as he thought of him taking down a group of people, including the leader of the invasion, the Rook-class vampire Verno, in an instant and disappearing without anyone noticing.

‘I was the only one among all these people who could remember what happened after he appeared.’

No one else remembered the stranger known as the Phantom.

I just think that the vampires had no choice but to retreat due to the great sacrifices of the Slayers and some unexpected problems that arose.

Clearly, Phantom must have done something before he left.

‘Haa, why are there so many secrets, Seonghyeon?’

With a small sigh, he took the black pistol out of its holster and held it up to the sunlight.

A precious gift given to him by a friend, wishing for his safety as he embarks on a dangerous journey.

As the owner of the weapon, he knew better than anyone that this was no ordinary item.

‘The phone dies instantly if a bullet hits anywhere on its body. Knight’s endurance was not much different, except that it lasted a little longer.’

That fact was confirmed several times during the fight last night.

Bishop, I’ve already hunted once before.

Even the monster that was said to regenerate even after being hit with hundreds or thousands of silver bullets all over its body could not last long in front of this gun and became a guest who would never return.

‘Actually, I didn’t really feel it until now···.’

Having learned more detailed information through the manual, and having seen firsthand how others fought in this raid, my thoughts couldn’t help but change a little.

Why did an entire team of SOD’s elite special forces come just to capture one Bishop?

‘And the energy I felt from Phantom… It was definitely a similar power to the one that resided in this Black Star and my body.’

That was the biggest reason why Kang Tae-san was upset right now.

That must be the reason why, unlike others who froze the moment the Phantom appeared, his mind became clearer.

Perhaps that part had something to do with why this gun was so deadly to vampires.

The story of Berno exploding with anger, saying something about bloodlines, is also like that.

‘In the end, this attack was really my fault.’

A shadow fell over Kang Tae-san’s face as he looked down at the destroyed equipment and sacrificed soldiers.

It felt like they were sacrificed because I came here for no reason.

“You were here.”

At that moment, a familiar female voice was heard from behind him.

“Ms. Saira?”

A sniper type slayer who guided him to his lodgings.

She walked towards him with a limp, stood next to him, put her arm on the railing, and looked down.

All the body protection equipment we had seen so far had been taken off, and he was dressed in comfortable clothes with bandages wrapped all over his body.

“Are you feeling better? I heard you were badly injured.”

“Huh? Hehe, this is nothing. His armor was completely destroyed and he suffered burns all over his body, but he’s still alive and not missing a single part of his body.”

Saira just laughs at his worried words as if nothing happened.

That was neither an exaggeration nor a boast, it was just one hundred percent pure fact.

“This is a minor injury. You’ll be fine after resting for a few days. To call it a serious injury, it has to be like Victor’s, where his body is split into upper and lower parts.”

“···How many days does a full body burn last? No, if a person’s body is split in two, isn’t that just death?”

“Ahaha! What are you talking about? There’s no way a Slayer can die that easily. That guy himself is recovering well in the treatment room right now. I think he’ll be fully recovered in about a month. He’s a strong guy, so he might just shake it off and get back up in a few weeks.”

A bald giant using a cannon flashed through Kang Tae-san’s mind.

It’s a miracle that he survived with his body cut in half and his intestines completely destroyed, and it only took about a month to reattach his severed body and fully recover.

‘Come to think of it, I think there was something similar in the manual. But still, I didn’t think it would be that bad.’

Saira, who couldn’t hide her nervous expression on his face, let out a snicker and turned her gaze down to the rooftop again.

“How do you think we humans have survived against those monsters for so long?”

Whether you get stabbed, shot, or dismembered.

Vampires cannot be killed by any means necessary.

In order to deal with those monsters that not only possess abilities that surpass human limitations but also endlessly regenerate no matter how hard you try to kill them, you had no choice but to become a monster yourself.

“That’s all thanks to the stimulant purified from vampire blood. Not only will all abilities increase explosively the moment you take it, but if you use it long-term, your body will begin to change permanently. It also has a lot of aptitude and the side effects are severe when abused, so you can’t use it indiscriminately.”

A vampire that grows in strength by feeding on human blood as a predator in the ecosystem.

A Slayer who hunts vampires and uses their purified blood to gain the power to fight them.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the history of this dimension called Nocturnia is all about the struggle between these two forces.

“···Of course, even if you use vampire blood, you’re helpless against attacks that exceed the regeneration limit. Examples include Raivard whose body was completely destroyed and Elisa whose head was missing.”

“Ah. That···.”

Kang Tae-san was taken aback by her bitter expression as if she was thinking of her sacrificed comrades, and he tried to find words to comfort her.

But the sadness shown in that way did not last long.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do. Someone had to do it anyway. Otherwise, we might all have been wiped out.”

Before he could say anything, she shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly and continued speaking.

As if I had already become accustomed to sending off my colleagues.

“But still. We’ve been on the same team for quite some time now, so it’s only right to get revenge, right?”

But adapting to grief doesn’t mean the accumulated emotions completely disappear.

Kang Tae-san flinched when he met Saira’s eyes, who was looking back at him.

A hot anger that boils and twitches deep inside.

It was a familiar gaze.

Because it was an emotion I always felt whenever I saw a close friend whom I could never leave alone.

“So, I need you to help me out. I think you have some kind of special power. Something that could completely destroy those monsters.”

She came closer without him noticing, her eyes sparkling, and she grabbed his shoulder tightly with her bandaged hand.

Although she was a woman smaller in stature and build than him, her strength was reminiscent of a gorilla.

“I saw you fight. A bullet that kills with one blow that even the consecrated silver bullet cannot compare to. If I could somehow reproduce even a tenth of that… no, even a hundredth of that, then not only revenge, but all of humanity….”

“Ugh, shoulder a little···.”

“Ah! Oh, sorry. I got a little excited.”

Kang Tae-san sighed again at the maddening gaze that was moving away from him.

How many times have I sighed today?

If this continues, even the remaining blessings will all run away.

“Okay, I’ll help you. I don’t know how much help I can give you, though.”

“thank you so much!”

Immediately afterwards, he closed his eyes tightly, as if giving in to the strong pressure that was tightening around his torso.

Is this what a rabbit feels like right before being eaten by a snake?

If I hadn’t trained my body consistently, my bones might have really broken.

He tried to divert his thoughts, grateful for his strong body.

‘This power, you said it was similar to divine power, right? I may not be able to do as much as I did with the contract, but if I could spread it even a little through missionary work or something…’

I could feel it instinctively.

That’s never impossible.

It wasn’t for nothing that he accepted Saira’s request.

‘If we do this well, it could be a win-win for everyone.’

The humans of Nocturnia have new powers to fight against vampires, and he has enormous karma for his influence on the world.

‘You said it was a power similar to divine power, so if more users use it, it might be helpful to Seonghyeon. By the way, didn’t you say that Phantom would come later? I should ask him about it then.’

Then, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The strange sense of kinship felt between Black Star and the ‘divine power’ within himself and Phantom.

Perhaps that means that Phantom is also a being that has made a contract with Han Seong-hyeon.

A contract that grants special powers to those who believe in it.

‘Wait a minute, if there was a contract like that, can’t it be seen as a simple assistant relationship?’

It’s really just a case of if, but what if not only the Phantom but also all of the Masquerade members are in a similar relationship?

That’s more like a leader leading a group···.

“···Hey, no way.”

Kang Tae-san nodded slightly.

That was too far-fetched an assumption.

To begin with, his friend only had some special abilities, and he couldn’t even dare compare them to monsters like Phantom or Hahoe Mask.

“No way? What?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. More importantly, when are you going to let me go? I’m reaching my limit in holding out.”

“Ahahaha! Sorry, sorry!”

Now free, he looked up at the sky while massaging the aching area.

The sky was so clear and sunny that it seemed to ignore the tragedy that occurred last night.

Doo doo doo doo—

From far away, I could hear the sound of a helicopter’s propeller.

“Oh, the helicopter I requested came earlier than expected.”

Leading an other-worlder who was just being swept away by his surroundings into a wider world.

It was the sound that announced the beginning of a more proactive transformation.

***

A luxurious mansion with magnificent decorations.

“Wow, you’re living here much better than I thought.”

“Thank you, Lord!”

At Heinz’s soft exclamation, Berno, who had been quietly following him, bowed deeply.

He was reborn after receiving a transfusion of “purified blood” and became a completely different being than before.

It goes without saying that my actual power has greatly increased, but more than anything, the fact that my mindset itself has changed 180 degrees has had a big impact.

‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! If only I could look good to him, I would be even better than I am now..’

Nocturnia was home to numerous minor clans, but only nine of them are recognized in modern times.

A vampire clan ruled by four kings and five queens who have ascended to the rank of transcendence.

They divided their territory among themselves, each containing a few human nations, and continued hunting without overdoing it.

Naturally, the kings and queens were not very active in fighting humans.

From a human perspective, vampires were nothing more than a nuisance that had to be eliminated, but to predatory vampires, humans were nothing more than food that was essential for their survival.

That was also the reason why Berno initially tried to reject Heinz.

Even if he was a king with unidentified abilities, I thought that if he was to go up against as many as nine transcendent beings, he would be destroyed before long.

‘That was a foolish thought. The Lord is not a mere king. This man… This man…!’

The vampire god who descended to earth.

There was no other way to explain it.

The moment the great god’s essence entered his body and he evolved into a more perfect being, he was able to realize the fact with a shock that shook his soul.

‘Even if the King and Queens come together, the result is already decided. What I have to do now is to make the most of this opportunity to become the first servant of the Lord.’

To do that, it was best to appeal to one’s competence by handling the work that Lord wanted quickly and accurately.

“I have finished organizing all the information as you commanded, Lord! Even if there is no information right now, I will obtain it by any means necessary, so just give me the order at any time!”

“hmm.”

Heinz II nodded absentmindedly at that heartfelt cry.

And then he laid back in his comfortable chair, looking over the documents that Berno had given him.

‘Patience is essential when hunting.’

If you rush things and things go wrong, it becomes more annoying.

Since the matter is what it is, it probably won’t take that long anyway, so I could wait this long.

In the midst of the silence of the other world’s being that came to swallow up the world like that.

Time passed quietly, like the calm before a storm.