Chapter 284: Entering Europe (3)

Daylight broke.

As if nothing had happened during the night, Paris, the center of France, was starting another busy day as usual.

Citizens were moving diligently for school, work, and household chores.

However, unlike that usual appearance, the underside of the city, which had stayed awake all night, was by no means peaceful.

Those who had not been able to sleep because of the anomaly that had occurred last night could not help but continue to move about busily even at this moment.

"What's the current situation?"

"We have not received any further information since what had happened in Nanterre about three hours ago. Therefore, it has been confirmed that a total of five Thermidor branches have been annihilated, including Versailles, where the first report had been made."

"Hoo— five, you say? You're saying that five branches were destroyed in just one night?"

The chief of the Power Security Agency, who was in charge of all matters related to the awakened ones in France, let out a hollow laugh at his subordinate's report.

What kind of place was Thermidor, anyway?

It was a powerful organization that was almost practically controlling the milieu, which could be said to be France's underworld.

It was no exaggeration to say that their influence could be felt in all of the criminal organizations of this country, whether directly or indirectly.

A dangerous group that they, who were the public authority, could not easily deal with and made them only worry, due to their enormous power.

And what had brought them up to that position as a mere criminal organization was…

"The tyrant won't stay still."

The owner of Thermidor, the ruler of the milieu, the tyrant.

"If he starts to run wild, this won't end with just being a headache. You're not thinking that this was an operation that we planned, right? We're not ready yet…"

It might seem strange for them, as a national institution, to be worrying instead of doing something about a criminal organization, but if they were to think about it from a different point of view, it wasn't that strange.

'That's because they're not a living thing, but a kind of asymmetric power.'

A very small number of absolute powerhouses who had unimaginable power that made them doubt whether they were the same Earthlings.

It would be better if the other party was the type who could at least hold their own against them, but the real problem was an existence like the vampire 'tyrant,' who was difficult to face head-on.

'If he, who is hiding his body, starts to assassinate only high-ranking officials including the heads of state, the entire country could be paralyzed.'

If he were to avoid fighting head-on and keep up a series of ambushes, there would be a limit in acquiring a transcendent of equal level to deal with him.

If that happened, even if they succeeded in defeating him, it would lead to an unimaginable and enormous amount of damage.

That was the reason why the government could not easily provoke Thermidor and only took action when they crossed an implicit line.

Everyone cares about their own lives, wouldn't they?

Perhaps most of the countries with a large force of villains would have similar circumstances.

"There is still no sign of any particular movements. They probably can't move recklessly until they have grasped the definite circumstances."

"…That's some consolation. Have you identified his identity? If someone has caused such chaos single-handedly, his origins must be extraordinary."

He felt a sense of shame that he was relieved with something like this, as his reason for existence was to protect the country from villains, but it was unavoidable for now.

More important than that right now was the identity of the one who had started all this.

They had to at least figure out who he was to decide on a policy.

"Fluent French, over 180 centimeters tall, aristocratic and imposing atmosphere, a handsome man with black hair and red eyes wearing a white opera half-mask…."

Thanks to the fact that they had been diligently moving around last night and had secured the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, the other party's appearance had already been identified.

Of course, it was not an easy task to deduce the identity of the other party with only such fragmented information—.

"We were able to identify the most likely candidate thanks to our request for cooperation with the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), just in case."

Surprisingly, they were able to choose a candidate that was almost certainly the correct one, more easily than they had expected.

The French intelligence agency, which had already been focusing its efforts on figuring out overseas trends, had sent them a response as soon as they had requested their cooperation.

"Commonly known as Phantom."

"...Phantom? Given the mask, is he also the Phantom of the Opera?"

"Yes. Also, according to our conjecture, he is the leader of the vampire clan that had already taken over the underworld of Korea."

"Huh! He's a vampire as well? Why on earth did such a big shot come all the way here?"

Then, several pictures started to appear on the projector of the conference room.

From the poor quality ones that seemed to be a capture of a CCTV footage to photos that were like a pictorial that had been taken by a professional.

Among them, the biggest one that was displayed in the end was the so-called 'Phantom's legendary photo', which had also become a hot topic on the internet.

"...He certainly has an exceptional appearance. Even though it's covered by the mask, it's easy to see at a glance."

"We have already finished comparing him with the testimonies of the witnesses. We haven't made a final decision yet to prepare for multiple possibilities, but we have already internally concluded that it is the same person."

"You're saying he's really a vampire from Korea? Well, it's embarrassing that the name of a country that is on the other side of the planet has suddenly popped up. It's too far away for him to be aiming to expand his power overseas."

The chief, who had been looking at the pictures, roughly stroked his chin.

To be honest, he didn't have much to say about that country called Korea, since he had only ever dealt with it a few times during his work regarding trade.

'I thought they didn't have any people worthy of caution except for the Lightning Emperor and Hahoe Mask, though.'

Judging by the situation, it seemed that was a thing of the past.

He had been somewhat neglecting overseas news because he had been busy dealing with the accidents that were happening in his jurisdiction, but it seemed that he should pay more attention to that side as well in the future.

And so, while the Power Security Agency was establishing a plan to be ready for the changes while having non-intervention as their default policy.

At the same time.

"...A vampire from Korea. Is that guy the one?"

There was also someone else in a different part of Paris who was expressing strange sentiments while looking at the picture of Phantom.

In a dark room, where the bright sunlight was shining outside, but all of the windows were covered with thick blackout curtains, with only the light of the monitor flickering—.

"He really did come all the way here, just as I heard. Just what kind of guts does he have?"

A being, whose entire body was buried in the shadows and looked completely black, muttered leisurely.

But that was just a question that he had expressed briefly, and the following response that he made was completely different from the lackluster national institution.

'No matter what his purpose is, I can't stay still like this.'

He did not know what his reasons were for coming all the way here, but this was a blatant provocation that the other party had sent.

And it was something that they had made public so that everyone could know about it.

Already several branches had been destroyed and many executives had lost their lives. If they were to not completely crush the one who had launched such a one-sided attack, then the entire prestige of Thermidor, that they had built up, would be shaken.

Before things became more troublesome, he had to get rid of the cause of all this and solidify their position again.

'He seems to be someone who is quite useful, so it might not be so bad to capture him and put him under my command. If I do that, I can easily make up for the damage we have received this time… it's also annoying how I have to move according to what that Romanian guy wants.'

He frowned slightly, recalling the unpleasant neighbor who had been subtly trying to interfere with the area he controlled.

That greedy guy was not satisfied with dominating most of Eastern Europe, and was eager to expand his territory.

In that situation, Thermidor had suffered a considerable amount of damage this time, so it was obvious how they would react after finding that out.

'I'll finish this up as quickly as possible and reorganize our forces.'

The man, who had been buried in the shadows, slowly stood up from his seat.

And, he quietly chanted as if he were whispering with a languid voice.

["Find him."]

A word that was filled with a strange resonance echoed.

Twitch—

As if reacting to those words, the shadows that had been filling the room were writhing.

["And confess it to me."]

Where he was.

Twitch-Twitch— Whirr—!

With just that one low word, the darkness, which had been filling and fluctuating throughout the entire space, scattered and began to seep into the shadows everywhere.

Beyond the gaps in the windows, the front door, and the hallway, and across the outer walls of the building and even out into the entire city.

Those that had been spreading without end crossed through the shadows that were cast throughout Paris and finally reached the satellite cities, completely covering the area like a spider web.

Even though it was a delicate task that scoured the inside, the effective radius was a whopping 20 kilometers.

An ability that was like a divine power, where it was almost impossible to sense it, since he was using the shadows, which were natural phenomenon.

That was his.

The unique skill that the tyrant of Thermidor possessed, "Lord of Shadows."

And his skill, which he had been using as a symbol for himself and had invested most of the karma that he had earned into enhancing, did not disappoint him.

"….Found him."

A forest park near Versailles in southwestern Paris.

Heinz II, who had been standing still in the depths of the forest, opened his mouth quietly.

"You're here."

His words, which had been uttered in a state where there was no sign of anyone nearby, sounded like he was just talking to himself, but—.

"Hoo, I thought something was strange. So you were waiting for me, huh?"

"Well, I guessed that you'd roughly come around here."

"You have a better sense than I thought."

As if answering him, a black humanoid shadow, which had raised its body from the ground without any signs, calmly responded.

Heinz, who had barely been able to identify his presence thanks to the synergy of his senses that had been heightened to the extreme and "Insight", stared at him with a renewed gaze.

'Is he the type who has honed his unique skill to reach the peak? It's certain that he is level 9, but the amount of vampiric factor is ridiculously low. So such a case is also possible.'

When Heinz II had first started his activities in Seoul, he had heard about the level system that was used to classify the level of a modern vampire from Gamma, a hardliner of the Blood Alliance, who was the first vampire from another world that he had met on Earth.

It was something that should not have happened originally, but because of the anomaly called Earth, vampires from various dimensions had gathered in one place.

They were all categorized as the same since they shared the critical commonality of needing 'blood', but if they were to be strictly classified, they had such large differences that they could hardly be called the same race.

Like how chimpanzees and orangutans, who were both primates, were not the same.

'And so, they had come up with a level system, which measured the shared characteristic, vampiric factor, that they all had in common and categorized them in detail.'

It was definitely an efficient method in a state where there was no standard.

It was true that the denser and greater the amount of vampiric factor, the greater the power that a vampire was able to bring out.

But that could only suggest a rough level, and could not be an absolute measure of power.

'It's natural, when you think about it.'

Heinz, who had aggressively used cannibalism to maximize his power as a vampire, was of that type. But in the first place, weren't the power that they could gain not solely reliant on the vampiric factor?

Awakened ones all had their own unique skills, and even if it wasn't that, they could also reach a level through other means.

A mere residual blood vampire could become a great mage after a great amount of effort, and conversely, a sword master could become a low-ranking vampire for some reason.

Heinz could newly feel that while facing the other party, the tyrant before his eyes.

The amount of vampiric factor that he had was barely at the true bloodline level, but the quality of it was radiating a level that was appropriate for the peak, as if he had gone through a metamorphosis.

'Well, if you don't use an abnormal method like I did, it's probably impossible to reach transcendence as a pure vampire.'

One example of that was Alpha, who had gone mad from forcefully increasing the density of his vampiric factor.

And, it seemed that the shadow fiend, too, was feeling the same sentiment as Heinz did.

"What is… you? What kind of outrageous blood magic is that…."

With a voice that was somewhat hesitant, but in a completely opposite manner.

"How is something like that even possible? It would be impossible to refine the vampiric factor to that level with only a few decades…!"

He finally continued, speaking with a reluctant voice, after a few words and quietly exploring each other after the first time they had faced each other.

It seemed that even with that level, "Existence Denial" at such a close distance was not perfect.

"Is there a need for long talks?"

And Heinz, who had also been timing his attack while exploring him, used that opportunity to swing his hand and immediately activate the barrier he had prepared beforehand.

Whoosh—!

A barrier of "Mysteries of Blood" which had been built instantly, skipping the intermediate process according to the causality of his "Super Acceleration".

Perhaps feeling threatened, a violent amount of shadows erupted from the tyrant's body at the same time.

Like a hedgehog raising its quills.

"We have a long way to go, so let's finish this quickly."

"Hah, you've learned a few tricks and now you've become blind to the world."

"Is that so…."

Heinz, who was feeling the yearning of the "Yearning of the Bloodline" burning fiercely, grasped a long blade of blood in one hand and a fierce red storm in his other.

"Is it really just a few tricks?"

He, who had grown using the resentment of the victims from whom he had plundered blood through cannibalism and "Mixed-blood Evolution."

He was not simply just someone who had a large maximum energy amount.