Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 207: Blood and Carnage

Thalion had expected them to hold out longer, especially with all that defensive equipment. He sighed as he poured healing potions over Kaldrek, who lay unconscious at his feet. The sheer power flooding his veins from the Crimson Virethorn, now feasting on the Sanguine Thorn, made it difficult to suppress his aura.

He needed to keep a low profile for now—having every vampire in the city turn on him wouldn’t be ideal. Still, the ambush had gone perfectly. Could he pull off a similar attack against the other vampires who bore Sanguine Thorns? Unlikely. They’d be more prepared. But this was a good start.

Thalion took a moment to survey the carnage around him. The city was overrun with undead, the streets choked with shambling corpses. Only the central district and the watchtowers remained safe zones. The logical solution was to eliminate the puppet masters orchestrating this nightmare.

His sharp gaze followed the veins of red spreading from the breaches, pulsing in the ground like a festering wound. Those veins empowered the undead. That meant—while he dealt with the vampires—Evelyn and her group would need to disrupt the ritual fueling them. His mind worked quickly. The squid form should be ideal for sneaking past the undead in the jungle.

It took a moment, but then he spotted them. Evelyn’s group still held one of the breaches, preventing anything from getting through. Two breaches had floodgates, barely keeping the swarm at bay. The last was reinforced by fire mages and a fist-fighting warrior, holding the line with sheer force.

Now, for the real problem. Thalion reached out with the Crimson Virethorn’s senses. It could detect its prey from afar, allowing him to pinpoint where the Sanguine Thorn vampires lurked. Five were grouped together. The other six were scattered across the battlefield. That was bad. These vampires were far too strong for most fighters to handle. Worse, with every fallen citizen, he was losing out on future credits. The slaughter needed to stop. Immediately.

"Maike, pick up Kaldrek and ensure Evelyn gets support. I need them for a special quest." His voice carried an undeniable edge of bloodlust and killing intent. He hadn’t meant for the message to be so aggressive, but the Crimson Virethorn roared in his mind, demanding carnage.

It was difficult to suppress—especially since Thalion agreed with it. This was no time for restraint. After a quick confirmation from Maike, he let go. Raw power surged through his veins, his heartbeat pounding, each pulse filling him with overwhelming strength. His aura became impossible to suppress—the air itself began to vibrate with bloodlust and pure, unrestrained killing intent. Then, in an instant—he was gone.

A blur of bloodmist, he shot toward Evelyn’s position, where a Sanguine Thorn vampire had ambushed them from behind, leading a group of twenty. Kargul was busy smashing apart giant undead as they pushed through the breach. Evelyn darted around him, maneuvering with practiced agility.

Nearby, Jack and Josh fought valiantly against two vampires. Josh had taken on his insect form, his movements blurring with inhuman speed. Jack remained in his human form, but his telekinetic attacks were brutally effective. The two fought well together—Josh, swift and deadly in close combat, while Jack supported with precise, crushing force. The griffins from before were nowhere to be seen. Probably for the best. They weren’t much good in a fight.

The twenty vampires grinned confidently as they moved in on Jack and Josh. Then—they froze. They felt him approaching. It didn’t matter. Thalion materialized in their midst, holding nothing back. Multiple skills activated at once. Crimson tendrils exploded from his body, latching onto the nearest vampires. At the same time, he ripped at their blood with Blood Harvest, pulling on their life essence with all his might.

In the same motion, he unleashed a red slash at the Sanguine Thorn vampire leading them. Ten vampires died instantly, their blood greedily devoured by the writhing tendrils. The remaining vampires reeled, momentarily stunned as they struggled against Thalion’s will, which was forcefully draining their blood.

Jack seized the opening, flattening eight vampires with a single devastating telekinetic attack. That left just two vampires for Josh and Jack to finish off. Thalion turned his attention to the leader. The Sanguine Thorn vampire had already transformed. Its demonic wings spread wide, black claws gleaming with unnatural sharpness.

Thick, corded muscles lined its broad frame, and its burning crimson eyes locked onto Thalion’s own glowing red gaze. For a moment, there was silence. Then, recognition flickered in the vampire’s eyes. And with it—fear. Thalion didn’t hesitate. He activated Crimson Gaze. His consciousness slammed into the vampire’s mind, crashing through its defenses like a tidal wave.

The vampire’s soul twisted and ripped apart, struggling to recover—but it wouldn’t. Before it could react, a crimson tendril pierced its chest. Its life essence drained away in an instant, its body shriveling—and with it, the Sanguine Thorn. The parasitic plant fought back, tendrils bursting from the vampire’s body, writhing in desperate defiance.

It didn’t matter. The Crimson Virethorn devoured it with glee, feasting on its power. As the vampire’s chest was torn apart by the struggle, Thalion could only think one thing. Man… I really thought they’d hold out longer.

The battle was like a game of cat and mouse, except the Crimson Virethorn was in an entirely different league. The Sanguine Thorn, despite its power, had no chance of resisting.

“Leave this gate and stop the ritual!” Thalion shouted at Kargul and Evelyn before vanishing into a cloud of blood mist, already racing toward his next target—a Sanguine Thorn vampire. After his fight with the elventh daughter, he had feared he wasn’t strong enough for these creatures. But fuck that. He would kill them all. By the time this was over, there would be a pillar stacked high with barely living vampires, writhing in agony.

His next opponent was far stronger. High above one of the towers, where the defensive enchantments had already been shattered, he clashed with a group of vampires. The strongest among them bore a Sanguine Thorn. A male in light armor, wielding a blood-forged rapier. An expert duelist. Thalion quickly realized he couldn’t simply overwhelm this one.

The vampire moved with terrifying precision, his blade infused with multiple abilities that enhanced slashes and thrusts. He wove the Sanguine Thorn’s power into his attacks seamlessly. The other vampires held back, only moving in when it seemed their leader needed assistance.

Thalion wasn’t new to sword fights either. He was faster. Stronger. His armor could absorb the rapier’s strikes as long as they didn’t pierce him directly. But he didn’t have time for drawn-out battles. He unleashed a barrage of crimson slashes, forcing his opponent back in sudden panic.

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“How are you this strong?!” the vampire exclaimed, his voice laced with disbelief.

“He has a Sanguine Thorn!” a female vampire hissed from the sidelines. “Kill him quickly before someone else claims the prize!”

“This… this is not a Sanguine Thorn.” The duelist’s voice wavered, and a second later, he dissolved into red mist, fleeing toward one of the breaches. Thalion could sense it—the overwhelming presence of multiple Sanguine Thorn vampires gathered there. The duelist had run to them for protection.

The remaining vampires hesitated, still trying to process what had just happened. Thalion gave them no time to react. He cut them down swiftly before turning his attention to the battlefield.

The red mist was everywhere. A constant, suffocating fog that made it impossible for the defenders to hold their ground. The undead seemed endless. Worse, the red veins pulsing through the earth were empowering them, making them even harder to kill. But there was still one advantage left—the magic circles on the towers.

Thalion stepped into the nearest one, arms outstretched. He activated Blood Harvest, calling upon the mist itself.

Right now, the blood mist was working against them. It healed the vampires and strengthened the undead while sapping the energy of his allies. But if he could seize control of it—if he could drain it—it would cripple the enemy’s forces. A flood of resistance crashed against his will. Powerful presences fought to hold the mist in place. But they weren’t strong enough. The blood mist twisted, drawn toward him, greedily absorbed by the Crimson Virethorn.

He had barely absorbed half of it when instinct screamed at him. He moved. A heartbeat later, a red thorn sliced through the air where his head had been.

His eyes snapped toward the source.

A group of twelve vampires stood at the far end of the street. Six of them bore Sanguine Thorns. This… this was bad. Even for him, this would be difficult. Alone? Nearly impossible. But looking at the battlefield—at the carnage unfolding below—he had to try. If these vampires remained unchecked, then retreat would be the only option. And that wasn’t an option at all.

"Maike, tell the melee fighters to focus on the other breaches. Send me some archers—I’m engaging the big shots now." He forced his voice to remain calm, despite the power burning through his veins.

The new vines coiling through his body felt eerily similar to what the Elemental had done before with the eclipsari. They accelerated the flow of blood, infused it with raw energy. The Crimson Virethorn had clearly sensed how weak his essence blood had become after its evolution and had worked to purify it. It wasn’t at full strength yet—but it was far stronger than before. After the tutorial, or between battles, he would need to refine it further.

No more waiting. He launched himself from the tower, landing directly in the street before the twelve vampires.

Undead creatures lurking near the breach instinctively moved aside, giving the vampires a wide berth. Which meant—for now—this street was their battleground.

The vampiress in the center tilted her head, crimson eyes locking onto his.

“So… you’re the human who killed my sister.” Her voice was eerily composed. But her aura—thick with killing intent and raw bloodlust—told a different story.

"Killing wouldn’t do it justice," Thalion said, his voice laced with cruel amusement. Beneath his mask, he smiled—a sinister curve of the lips, playing the villain they already believed him to be. "You should have heard her screams, her pleading. But don’t worry—you’ll understand very soon."

He wasn’t just taunting them. Psychological warfare was as much a weapon as his blade. If he could fracture their focus, plant even a sliver of doubt, it might give him the edge he needed when the battle began. For now, stalling was fine. He was keeping six Sanguine Thorn vampires occupied—six monsters that would have otherwise rampaged through the streets, slaughtering civilians and soldiers alike.

The problem was that even if he won this fight, killing one of them was unlikely. They almost certainly carried escape tokens, enchanted artifacts that could teleport them to safety the moment they sensed true danger. And unlike before, he didn’t have the element of surprise. A clean execution would be much harder to pull off.

The Crimson Virethorn understood this just as well, but it didn’t temper its bloodlust. If anything, the hunger intensified. Waves of raw killing intent crashed against Thalion’s mind, urging him to tear, consume, destroy.

"I will avenge her death," the vampiress spat, her crimson eyes glowing with fury. "And I will exterminate every single human in this city. You’ve already lost."

Before Thalion could respond, the vampire with the blood-forged rapier spoke, his voice eerily calm.

"Didn’t you notice?" he murmured. "He has her eyes."

A heartbeat of silence. The realization dawned on them—too late.

That moment of hesitation was all Thalion needed.

He lunged, the Blooded Templar’s blade slicing through the air in a crimson arc. At the same time, the Crimson Virethorn lashed out, its tendrils twisting and writhing like a nest of hungry serpents. Controlling them all himself would demand too much focus, but he didn’t need to—the Virethorn was a predator in its own right. He trusted it to tear them apart.

The vampires reacted instantly, scattering in all directions with supernatural speed. Two of them unfurled dark red wings, their forms shifting into nightmare demons. The vampiress who had spoken first barely dodged his blade, then counterattacked in the same motion. Her claws extended, glowing with a malevolent red light, slashing toward his throat.

Thalion spun, dodging by a hair’s breadth as bloody tendrils erupted from his back, slicing toward her chest.

Her eyes widened in shock.

She had underestimated the Crimson Virethorn.

She had felt its presence, but not its full power. The Sanguine Thorn in her chest—so well-fed, so nurtured over centuries—felt insignificant in comparison. Weak.

The Crimson Virethorn did not hesitate. Thorns shot from its vines, streaking toward the vampires at the rear. One vampire, attempting to retreat, collided with a summoned barrier Thalion had conjured just in time, sending him reeling from the impact.

Another demon-formed vampire streaked toward Thalion, his speed blinding, while the vampiress recovered and attacked again, her claws slashing toward his ribs.

Thalion was already pushing his full speed and strength, but the vampires matched him blow for blow. He wasn’t even sure if he was the faster one here.

This fight… would be brutal.

He could only hope Evelyn and the others were having an easier time stopping the ritual.