Chapter 1899: Welcome, Lord Alucard

“Holy cow…”

Aether muttered as he stood inside his twin domains, staring at the impossible scenery before him with genuine shock.

What had once been two opposing domains now looked as though some unseen force had violently torn them apart, leaving something entirely new in the space between them.

Two humongous transparent hands seemed to push the two domains away from each other, their enormous palms braced against the boundaries of Ethereal and Umbra.

A third humongous transparent hand emerged from the vast emptiness between them, its palm spread open as his Mutated Card hovered above it, glowing with a faint, otherworldly light.

The three hands seemed to originate from the enormous gap between the domains, where a deep valley stretched endlessly, so vast that Aether could not see where it began or where it ended.

“What… happened?” Aether asked, looking toward Grace, who was fluttering her tiny wings while staring at the bizarre phenomenon.

Grace slowly turned toward him and gave him a look that practically said, ‘You’re asking me?’

She shook her head and answered with a serious expression, “I think… it’s another domain. Though, I’m not entirely certain that’s the right word. Domains were never supposed to possess a physical form in the first place.”

Aether fell silent and nodded slowly before turning his attention back toward the new domain.

The cracked walls of black and white had already begun repairing themselves, the shattered fragments gradually returning to their original positions as though time itself were being reversed.

However, the process was painfully slow, almost unnatural. The broken pieces moved backwards through the air at what looked like -20X speed, slowly retracing the destruction that had torn the domain apart.

Yet, despite everything else happening around him, Aether could not stop staring at the enormous hands.

Although they appeared completely transparent, they were not truly invisible. Their surfaces possessed the strange appearance of liquid glass, clear enough to see through yet dense enough to reflect and distort the surrounding light. Every movement of the domains caused faint ripples of reflected light to travel across their enormous fingers.

‘Was it because I accepted both sides? Is that why this happened?’

Aether’s expression gradually became more serious as he considered the possibility.

‘Maybe… a mediator?’

He understood what his position represented now. He was standing directly between salvation and damnation, not belonging completely to either side.

The Ethereal Domain belongs to No. 25.

The Umbra Domain belongs to No. 27.

‘Which means… I created my domain in a way that prevented it from destroying either Ethereal or Umbra. Interesting.’

The thought lingered in Aether’s mind as his eyes suddenly caught sight of something else resting above the palm of the third hand.

He immediately flew toward it and carefully landed on the transparent surface. For a brief moment, he expected his foot to pass straight through it, but the moment his foot touched the surface, it met solid resistance.

He looked down at his feet before slowly raising his head toward the Mutated Card hovering above the palm.

Then he noticed what was standing behind it.

Aether?

No… it resembled Aether’s form, but it was made entirely from the same strange liquid-glass substance. The transparent figure stood motionless like a perfectly sculpted statue, its hand extended toward the Mutated Card.

“And… what are those?” Aether muttered as he stepped closer.

His eyes narrowed when he noticed something within the statue’s palms. A miniature blood sea rested there, its surface crimson and viscous, almost as though countless drops of blood had been condensed into an endless ocean no larger than his hand.

Above it floated the shape of a Crimson Blood Bat.

The other hand contained something similar. Another miniature blood sea rested within its palm, but this one appeared thicker and darker, its crimson-black surface moving with a sluggish, almost living quality.

Above it hovered the shapes of a Blood Dragon and a Blood Phoenix, facing one another as though locked in an eternal confrontation.

Aether immediately understood what the two strange manifestations represented.

They were the bloodlines he had devoured.

‘Was this caused by Perfected Genome?’

He wondered as he slowly looked around, his curiosity deepening as he tried to understand what kind of connection existed between his bloodlines and this newly formed domain.

Grace had been watching him in silence for several moments before she finally asked, “Who are you?”

Aether snapped out of his thoughts and looked toward her with a faintly confused expression. “Who am I? Aether?”

Grace gave him a completely deadpan look. “I know your name. That isn’t what I meant. Why would Fate be involved with someone like you?”

“…”

Aether blinked.

Grace seemed to realise that her wording had been too broad, so she corrected herself.

“Why would the Prophetess involve herself with you? Someone like her does not interfere with a person without having a reason.”

Aether shrugged, though his eyes remained thoughtful. “Honestly, I don’t have an answer. She certainly seemed persistent about something, but she never gave me a clear explanation of what she wanted.”

A faint smirk appeared on his face as he added, “Maybe she loves me?”

Grace’s expression immediately became even more disappointed.

“She loves you? That is the last explanation I would expect from someone like her. She is not someone who feels mundane things”

Aether raised an eyebrow at her response. “Oh? You know her?”

Grace’s expression shifted slightly, as though she had realized she had revealed more than she intended to.

Grace shook her head. “Anyway… I’m telling you, she isn’t someone who gets involved with people she has no interest in. The Prophetess may appear indifferent to everything around her, but when she actually takes notice of someone, there is always a reason behind it.”

Grace’s wings fluttered as she flew closer to Aether and slowly circled around him, studying him with a curious expression. Her eyes moved over him as though she were trying to examine something that should not logically exist.

“I know you have the blood of Ether, and you’ve caught the attention of those two creatures. You also have some weird abilities and weird… well, fucked-up domains. You’re certainly an anomaly, but even that doesn’t fully explain it.”

She narrowed her eyes slightly.

“She never cared about anything other than hiding herself beneath that tree. She could spend centuries sitting there without showing the slightest interest in the world outside it.”

Grace frowned with her cute little face as she muttered, “Hmm… The more I think about it, the stranger you become.”

“Say… does a Divine Contract take away a person’s will?”

Aether suddenly asked with a curious tone as he leaned over his liquid-glass statue.

Grace, who had been scrutinising Aether, glanced toward him before asking, “Was this about your mother in this world?”

Aether raised his eyebrows. “Wait? You remember?”

Surprise flashed across his face. He had turned back time, hadn’t he? Everything that had happened after the Save Point should have been erased from the world’s timeline.

Then how did she…

Before Grace could answer, Aether suddenly connected the dots.

“Oh… since you’re stuck in my domain, you came back with me, right?”

Grace nodded. “Exactly. Whatever happened to the world outside, your domain carried me along with you.”

“Anyway… No. A Divine Contract cannot completely override a person’s will.”

Aether hummed thoughtfully.

‘Then the contract didn’t cause Allen’s sudden weird behaviour…’

His expression gradually became more serious as he remembered what had happened.

The moment Aether’s stepfather ordered Allen to kill his own daughter, Allen had obeyed without the slightest hesitation. There had been no hesitation in his eyes, no visible resistance, not even the smallest sign that he was fighting against the command.

That made no sense considering what Aether had seen of Allen through his mother’s memories.

Aether’s gaze hardened.

Before Aether could jump to a conclusion, he needed to know how far the technology in this world had advanced. If the Divine Contract could not directly control someone’s will, then there had to be another explanation.

‘NLC?’

He suddenly remembered the device RIN had mentioned, a device that could be placed inside a person.

If it could interfere with the brain or nervous system, then perhaps the answer had nothing to do with magic at all.

Aether then asked, “Is it possible to identify whether someone is under the contract or not?”

Grace looked at him. “You mean by looking at them? No, it’s impossible to know whether someone is under a Divine Contract or not. A contract is bound to the soul, so unless you possess a method of directly observing that connection, there is no reliable way to distinguish the contracted from the uncontracted.”

She paused, her expression becoming slightly thoughtful.

“Except for one person.”

Her eyes shifted.

“No… now there are two people.”

Aether frowned. “Who?”

Grace stared at him. “The Current Sovereign and… the Prophetess.”

Aether blinked in surprise. “Dora and the Prophetess…”

He could understand the Prophetess since she was weird, but why Dora?

It wasn’t like he was thinking about her being useless or anything.

Believe him!

But… if Dora was involved, that meant…

“The Connected Fates?” Aether muttered as he finally realised the connection.

After all, Dora was able to see the connected threads of fate, the invisible strands linking people, events, and possibilities together. If Divine Contracts created a connection through fate or the soul, then perhaps she could perceive something others could not.

Aether rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression.

“Then is it possible to see the contract details?”

“No.”

Grace answered so quickly and flatly that Aether almost felt as though she had been waiting for the question.

Aether hummed again with a slight groan.

If it was impossible to see the contract details, then how was he supposed to obtain the information he needed to understand what was happening?

Just as he was wondering what to do, he noticed Grace looking him up and down with a curious gaze, as though he were some kind of strange specimen she was trying to study.

Aether felt slightly uncomfortable under her gaze.

“What?” he asked.

Grace ignored him and continued examining him from head to toe, her eyes lingering on his body as though she were trying to understand how so many contradictions could exist within a single person.

Aether sighed.

Before she could react, he reached out and gently squeezed her cheek with his pinky finger.

“Come on, I’m getting a little shy here.”

Grace blinked.

It took her a moment to register what had just happened.

Her eyes slowly widened.

Then her wings suddenly fluttered violently, and she flew backward, putting several meters of distance between them.

Grace glared at him.

“Don’t touch me!” she sneered.

Aether’s lips twitched.

“That’s… not the reaction I was hoping for.”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“Thank you for the info, my cute Fairy~”

Grace watched him disappear, her lips twitching with annoyance.

“Your cute Fairy? What disgraceful words! I am not yours! And I am not a cute Fairy!

I am death!”

Her tiny fairy body puffed up with an indignant expression, her cheeks swelling as though she were genuinely furious at the insult to her dignity.

Yet there was something almost comical about seeing such a tiny, cute creature declare herself to be the embodiment of death.

If Aether had seen her like that, he would have pinched her cheek again.

She was simply too adorable.

But once Aether was gone, Grace’s angry expression slowly faded.

She stared into the empty space where he had disappeared, her eyes becoming strangely quiet.

Then her fingers gently pressed against the exact spot where Aether had touched her.

She remained still for a moment, quietly feeling the lingering sensation.

“…”

[+700 AP]

Before long, her eyes widened.

“What the fuck is wrong with me!!” she immediately snapped, her cheeks turning red as she kicked the air in frustration.

***

Meanwhile, Lackey sat on the bed with his legs folded as he bit into the skin of his finger, allowing the blood to slowly bleed from the wound.

“Activate… Perfected Genome.”

He mumbled the words as he closed his eyes.

!~Ding~!

[Skill: Perfected Genome Activated]

Instantly, the blood bleeding from his hand flowed toward him and began swirling around his body like a crimson moon. More blood continued pouring from his finger, gathering faster and faster until, within seconds, his entire body was wrapped inside a thick cocoon of blood.

Inside his domain…

“KKKRRRRRRRKKKKKK!!!!”

The Crimson Bat suddenly screeched violently, its cry reverberating through the domain as a powerful pulse wave spread through the surrounding space.

Lackey’s head twitched.

His vision slowly faded into darkness, the blackness swallowing everything around him. Then, within that dim world, a faint crimson glow suddenly flashed.

And…

“Welcome, Lord Alucard.”

Lackey’s eyes shot open.

He found himself sitting on a thorn-covered throne, looking down at the people gathered below him.

For a second, Lackey was completely confused by what he was seeing.

‘Oh… don’t tell me this is Alucard’s memories?’

He had been trying to control his bloodline, not experience someone else’s memories.

But even so, he was shocked by how clearly he could perceive everything.

This was not like watching memories from a third-person perspective.

He was experiencing them directly… First POV!

He could feel Alucard’s body, perceive the surroundings through his eyes, and even sense the emotions buried within the memories, as though he had become Alucard himself.

His gaze moved toward the throne beneath him.

It was similar to the throne Mary had once sat upon before it was destroyed during their battle.

Just then, the enormous doors suddenly parted as lightning flashed furiously outside.

Alucard looked toward the entrance and saw a gorgeous blonde-haired woman walking inside.

Her body was covered in blood, while pain and grief filled her eyes.

Alucard merely scoffed with disinterest.

“Our daughter… dead.”

The blonde-haired woman spoke with a solemn, broken voice as she held a child no more than ten years old in her arms.

The child’s body was curled up and completely lifeless.

‘Lia?’

Lackey’s eyes widened when he recognised the motionless body.

‘That means… Mary?’

His gaze immediately shifted toward the gorgeous woman.

Although her face was filled with grief, something far more dangerous seemed to be leaking from her body.

Bloodlust.

“What did you expect from a week lowborn?” Alucard said coldly. “You should be grateful that she lived this long…”

His lips curled upward.

“Ahaha…”

His wicked laughter echoed throughout the throne room, and the other partners surrounding him soon joined in, their laughter blending together into something cruel and disgusting.

Mary simply stared at the man blankly, holding her daughter’s lifeless body while staring at the person responsible.

Right then, a small hand gently caught the edge of Mary’s sleeve.

Mary lowered her gaze.

A timid blue-haired girl stood beside her, looking up at her with frightened eyes.

Lackey’s eyes widened again.

“Morgana?”

The moment he recognised her, an intense burning sensation suddenly erupted throughout his entire body.

The vision instantly distorted.

The memories folded inward as though someone had violently crushed the entire scene together.

Lackey’s eyes snapped open.

The blood cocoon surrounding him immediately collapsed, the blood flowing backwards toward his finger before disappearing into the wound and completely healing the cut.

But then…

“ARHHH!!”

Lackey screamed.

It was not a scream of pain.

His face distorted violently as the left side of his face transformed, becoming wicked and inhuman. His ear elongated into a sharp point, his teeth stretched into long, razor-sharp fangs, and his eyes transformed into large crimson orbs that glowed with a predatory light.

Crack!

Behind him, the muscles across his back violently spasmed.

His flesh tore apart as one bat wing suddenly erupted from his back, blood coating the newly formed wing as they spread outward with a violent screech.

Lackey clenched his fists tightly and forced himself to contain the transformation.

His breathing became heavier as he fought against the instinct trying to consume him.

After several agonising seconds, the left side of his face gradually returned to normal, while the one bat wing slowly folded inward before sinking back into his flesh.

Thud!

Lackey dropped onto one knee and panted heavily.

The crimson glow in his eyes slowly faded, gradually returning to their normal ice-blue colour.

“Ha… ha…”

His breathing remained ragged as he lowered his head.

“T-This skill is really dangerous…”

It wasn’t the skill itself that was dangerous.

It was the bloodline.

A Primordial Bloodline was not something anyone should casually play around with.

Lackey groaned as he lunged backwards onto the bed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

“Is that why… the Prophetess said it’s only a strong vessel that can contain the Primordial Blood? Even though I already possess a Primordial Bloodline?”

He frowned deeply, his thoughts becoming increasingly complicated.

“Or… is it because I’m carrying too much Primordial Blood within a single vessel?”

He leaned back against the bed, his exhausted expression becoming thoughtful.

Just then, a soft voice echoed from outside the room.

“God? Are you alright? Can I enter?”

Lackey took a slow breath, forcing himself to calm down before answering.

“Yes… Please.”

The door opened.

Genome Beta entered the room.