The Deep Sea’s Embrace

Drip, drop.

It wasn’t the sound of rain, but of blood hitting the ground.

Inside the lightless dungeon, Bishop Carlos expressionlessly watched Macaven, who lay collapsed at the young man’s feet.

He wasn’t dead yet; his body still twitched, a futile struggle in the throes of death.

Facing the demise of an old colleague, Bishop Carlos felt no ripple of emotion.

He gazed at the young man with an unnervingly calm expression, speaking faintly, “If you’re full, then let’s have a proper chat.”

The young man wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his crimson eyes glowing with an eerie, sanguine light.

He remarked, “Just as that terrifying woman said.”

Bishop Carlos furrowed his brows. “What did she tell you?”

The young man stamped his foot impatiently, muttering curses.

He grumbled, “That woman told me to stay here obediently, and said you’d know what to do. She’s beautiful; her blood must be wonderfully sweet.”

A greedy expression slowly spread across his face.

Bishop Carlos’s heart sank, realizing that the mental state of this generation’s Blood Demon Host had clearly deteriorated to its extreme, relying solely on copious amounts of blood to maintain sanity.

This city-state was no longer a place to linger; it was time to depart.

Suddenly, the young man clenched his fist and slammed it against his forehead, a grotesque smile slowly spreading across his face.

“I remember now!” he exclaimed. “She also said not to even think about leaving this place. You know what the right choice is, don’t you?”

Bishop Carlos’s eyes abruptly lost all emotional color.

He looked at the young man with an indifferent expression, stating calmly, “Ignorant heretic, you fundamentally misunderstand the might of God.”

The young man sneered. “It seems you intend to choose what you call the Divine Kingdom in Heaven?”

Bishop Carlos regarded the young man with pity. “A pathetic soul, you too were once worthy of God’s love.”

The young man tugged at the corner of his mouth, his voice chilling. “When I was at my most desperate, it wasn’t your God who reached out to me.”

Bishop Carlos shook his head, knowing heretics were often deaf to reason.

He no longer intended to waste his breath.

Just as he turned to leave, the young man suddenly spoke again. “You know it yourself, don’t you? Otherwise, why would your first thought be to escape this place?”

He watched silently as Bishop Carlos departed without a moment’s hesitation, his blood-colored eyes slowly shifting to the right.

“Is that enough to say?”

A burst of fire ignited, and Anna, clad in a black robe, materialized from within it.

Her sapphire eyes fixed upon the young man. “As per our agreement, we will prepare a ship for you to leave this place.”

The young man frowned, his voice low. “And sufficient blood provisions! Otherwise, I won’t be able to last until the destination!”

Anna responded coldly, “That is not permitted by the Young Master.”

The young man’s face gradually contorted into a ferocious mask. “Is that so? Then I can’t leave.”

He watched the expression on Anna’s face grow cold, yet felt no fear in his heart, instead laughing wantonly.

“What then? Are you going to kill me? But what happens after you kill me? How will you deal with the Being within me? You know, don’t you? Heretics cannot be killed, only sealed. And the means to seal a heretic belong solely to the Holy Church.”

Anna suddenly sighed softly, her gaze fixed indifferently on the young man.

The flames coiling around her reopened a spatial rift.

The young man instinctively sensed danger, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Where do you intend to send me?”

Anna said nothing, merely reaching out and grabbing the young man.

The blood-red glow in the young man’s eyes intensified, filled with unease at the unknown.

An A-rank heretic, a Blood Demon, possessed the ability to control others’ blood, yet its immense power had no effect on Anna.

The young man’s expression changed drastically.

He stared at Anna in disbelief, letting out a sharp shriek. “How is this possible! You are the Being? But how do you maintain your humanity?”

He sensed not a trace of blood within Anna; she was entirely fused with the flames that could incinerate space.

That is to say, the flames were her, and she was the flames. Her current human appearance was merely a false shell.

Anna seized the young man by the throat, and searing flames began to incinerate his body, before she hurled him into the opened spatial rift.

The young man rolled several times on the deck in agony, his flesh already charred black.

However, his extraordinary self-healing ability rapidly regrew new flesh, which only intensified his thirst for blood.

Blood. He needed blood!

Without time to ascertain his location, the young man instinctively began to search for a blood source.

His gaze decisively locked onto the green-haired girl nearby, but just as he moved to charge towards her, an eerie azure flame suddenly ignited on his body.

This azure flame wasn’t hot, yet it filled the young man with even greater dread.

Under the burning of the azure flame, his body began to lose control, and the Blood Demon residing within him, as the current occupant, began its counterattack, entering a stalemate with the azure flame.

The young man stared intently at the fox mask worn by the green-haired girl before him, lowering his voice. “You are the Greedy Witch of the Witch’s Assembly!”

The Greedy Witch looked at the young man, whom she had suppressed, with an amused gaze, then thoughtfully glanced at the spatial rift that had yet to disappear.

The next moment, the young man shrieked again, “How is this possible! You’ve also fused with the Being! This is impossible! How do you maintain your humanity?”

The Greedy Witch’s gaze returned to the young man, and she chuckled softly. “Humanity? We don’t possess such a thing. Perhaps we once did.”

The young man’s expression twisted, his mind verging on madness. “Impossible! If that were the case, you wouldn’t be able to communicate like normal people right now! You would transform into a natural disaster! And then destroy this world!”

“If the Young Master wished it so, we would do it.”

The young man stared blankly at the Greedy Witch, utterly bewildered.

Even though he couldn’t see her true face, he could imagine the expression of reverence hidden beneath that fox mask.

Unable to comprehend, he stared at her dumbfounded. “Young Master? You have already become the Being, yet you still obey the commands of others? How can you debase yourself so?”

The Greedy Witch’s emerald eyes suddenly lost all emotional color.

She looked at the young man with an indifferent gaze, then abruptly shifted her sight, looking out at the calm sea. “Do you know? Originally, the continent was one whole landmass.

Later, the Being descended from beyond the heavens, splitting the continent, and thus the current Empire was formed. And its true form still slumbers beneath this deep sea, within its own exclusive kingdom.

Humans fear the deep sea, just as they fear its mighty power. Tell me, what would happen if a heretic were cast into the deep sea?”

The young man’s body trembled violently, and at that moment, the Greedy Witch’s gaze returned to him.

The corners of her mouth beneath the fox mask began to curl upwards, letting out a mocking chuckle. “Are you afraid? Or rather, is the Being within you also afraid?”

Without waiting for the young man’s reply, she continued, speaking to herself. “I know, it wouldn’t be afraid. Even if it was the first heretic to descend upon this world, that doesn’t signify much.

To be defeated by humans without the aid of holy light, forced to retreat into the deep sea to slumber, it’s not that formidable. So, why wouldn’t it want to be thrown down there? Is it because—”

She suddenly looked at the young man with an amused gaze, enunciating each word. “The deep sea might lead beyond this world, that is—to the Hyperspace?”