The Scarlett Family’s Final Stand

“Iqiyah!?”

Godia’s eyes widened in profound surprise as he recognized the newcomer.

“What? Was one slap not enough for you? Want a refill?”

With another sharp crack, Iqiyah delivered a stinging slap directly to Godia’s face.

His face, already somewhat aged and lacking elasticity, visibly distorted under Iqiyah’s repeated blows, resembling a grotesque clown mask from Beijing Opera.

“You’re old enough to know better. Is it really necessary to pick a fight with a mere teenager?”

“You… you don’t understand.”

Both of Godia’s faces—his main head and the one on his chest—moved almost in sync, covering their reddened, aching cheeks as they stared at Iqiyah.

“I did it all for you… to ensure your survival…”

“What nonsense about ‘survival’?” Iqiyah’s brow furrowed. “Since when was I dying!?”

“From where I stand, you just want to devour Seraphina, just like you devoured Cardo before, don’t you!?”

‘Actually… it’s probably not that your dad wants to devour me, but that he wants me to devour him…’

Though Seraphina knew the truth, her rational mind advised her against revealing it to Iqiyah. It would be far better to let Iqiyah beat Godia (the True Ancestor) into submission first, if she wished to survive.

And what of Godia?

Upon hearing his daughter’s words, his eyes widened abruptly. A torrent of emotions—grievance, fury, indignation, and various other sorrows—filled them, stirring an undeniable pang of pity in anyone who witnessed it.

Yet this chaotic medley of sorrow lasted only a fleeting moment. The very next second, Godia’s gaze hardened, as if he had come to a profound decision.

“Yes… I intend to devour Seraphina.”

The limbs and head on Godia’s chest thrashed wildly, like a frenzied whip, lashing incessantly against his torso.

“Iqiyah… if you wish to prevent this story from repeating, then try to stop me!”

“The vanquished can only stand by helplessly… this is a truth you must learn!”

“I don’t need you to teach me; I understand perfectly well.”

Iqiyah raised her hand, and a crimson light flashed in her palm. In an instant, countless ice crystals and blood-red tentacles coalesced behind her, twisting and coiling, forming limbs and scales, ultimately shaping themselves into a colossal red dragon—

The Crimson Blood Dragon!

“Great Dragon!” Iqiyah gestured towards Godia. “Devour your foe!”

The ground trembled violently as the colossal dragon charged with its immense body, hurtling towards the comparatively tiny Godia.

Judging by its unrestrained ferocity, it was clearly aiming to utterly obliterate Godia!

Yet, Godia was, after all, a Vampire Prince, and simultaneously the host for the True Ancestor’s parasitism. Could he truly have no countermeasure?

“My Master, I shall wield the power you have bestowed upon me!”

Even if it was the counterfeit [Blood of the True Ancestor], it was still [Blood of the True Ancestor]. In a flash, a towering pillar of crimson light erupted from behind Godia, striking directly against the high ceiling and forming a hanging river of blood.

Immediately, in his hands, there appeared a black-and-red dragon head, even larger, more ancient, and more terrifying than the Crimson Blood Dragon.

“Bear witness!”

Godia roared skyward, raising the dragon head towards Iqiyah. The dragon’s mouth instantly gaped open, and countless streams of vivid crimson liquid poured forth, rushing like a colossal flood towards Iqiyah’s summoned creature.

“A beam struggle, is it? Excellent!”

Upon seeing her father’s crimson light, Iqiyah inexplicably grew even more excited. “Great Dragon! Extinguish the flames of your enemy’s defiance!”

Another dazzling crimson light erupted. The Crimson Blood Dragon’s maw glowed intensely, and a surging beam of blood-red energy, accompanied by frothing crimson spray like ocean waves, blasted towards Godia’s sanguine torrent.

Boom!

A heaven-shattering roar echoed as the two immense powers collided, unleashing a crimson, annular shockwave.

“Whoa!”

Poor Seraphina, who had been watching from the sidelines, was instantly flung backward by the shockwave, involuntarily performing a magnificent aerial maneuver.

In stark contrast to Seraphina’s panic, the vampires who had retreated earlier, sensing the cataclysmic impact, inexplicably crept back. They peered in through the doorway, heads tilted, their faces alight with excited curiosity as they gossiped.

“Wow, I knew there’d be a second round~”

“Holy hell, it’s a Scarlett family civil war! This is a must-see.”

“Hmm, Iqiyah and Godia must be dueling over that poor thrall. The victor will abduct her to be their…”

“Damn you, you disgusting worm, why do you have such a vivid imagination…!”

Unlike the leisurely gossipers, Iqiyah, engaged in the beam struggle, felt no such ease.

At this moment, she was channeling all her strength, striving with every fiber of her being to maintain the flow of her crimson beam. Her body was already drenched in sweat.

‘Damn this old man… he’s so ancient, yet his power is still so immense!? Is he some kind of Aesir god?’

Though inwardly stunned by her father’s formidable power, Iqiyah never doubted the ultimate outcome of their beam struggle.

After all, as the saying goes, in beam struggles, the left side always loses… and she was currently on the right. Victory was hers!

Just kidding, just kidding. In reality, she could feel that while her father’s power was fierce, it was subtly diminishing.

Moreover… judging by the old man’s face, scrunched up as if he’d just dined at an overpriced members-only restaurant… he probably couldn’t hold out much longer.

“Hmph! Father!” Iqiyah let out a cheerful laugh. “If you surrender now, I won’t make things too difficult for you!”

Though it sounded like a pointless verbal trick from an anime, Iqiyah knew that given the old man’s shrewd nature… he truly might back down.

But this time, she had miscalculated.

“…Surrender?”

Godia gritted his teeth.

“Iqiyah… do you not know that the Scarlett tradition has always been to fight until death?”

Indeed… whether it was family members who perished in conflicts, or Cardo who faced the True Ancestor directly, they all shared the same trait—

A complete disregard for death.

Besides…

‘Iqiyah… if you were to die… I wouldn’t be able to use your hand to end this destiny.’

‘I suppose… from the moment the contract was signed, this fate was already sealed.’

Godia gazed at Iqiyah for a long moment, watching her increasingly surging beam.

He couldn’t utter the words; his consciousness no longer belonged solely to him.

He had initially believed he had no other path, that he could only sacrifice a pitiful offering and make another sordid deal to secure his daughter’s life.

But when Iqiyah bared her fangs at him… he perceived another possibility.

Since he couldn’t speak the truth… and although he could no longer escape his destiny… he could still choose death, burying his life and its filth together.

There was no need to deliberately weaken the power in his hands; as he was, he simply could not defeat Iqiyah, especially with Seraphina’s blessing.

Unbeknownst to him, the intense heat from the Crimson Blood Dragon’s beam had already singed his temples.

It was time.

Godia closed his eyes.

‘The Scarlett family is yours, Iqiyah.’

However… just as the beam was about to completely engulf Godia, sending him towards annihilation—

“You cannot deceive my eyes… Godia.”

Suddenly, the face on Godia’s chest opened its mouth.

“You wish to drag me into death with you? Impossible!”

Roar!!!

In that instant, the dragon head in Godia’s hands let out a soul-shattering roar.

Immediately, a black beam burst forth from the dragon’s mouth, tearing through the crimson torrent. Infused with thunder and lightning, the beam unleashed a potent surge of energy, forcefully pushing Iqiyah’s beam back!

“This is bad!”

Seeing her beam forced back, Iqiyah hastily poured more power into it.

‘This black beam… it’s ominous… something is terribly wrong!’

While it bore no visible destructive force, this blackness seemed capable of devouring one’s very soul, instilling an unstoppable dread!

‘I absolutely cannot let it touch me!’

Yet, even with Iqiyah exerting her utmost, her crimson power was like a flickering candlelight before the terrifying blackness. It, along with her beam, was swiftly obliterated by the black ray.

But it wasn’t over. Like a freight train at 160 miles per hour, the black beam pierced through the Crimson Blood Dragon as if encountering no resistance, instantly dissolving the colossal creature into nothingness!

“Iqiyah! You always belonged to me! You should have been mine long ago!”

The True Ancestor shrieked, its voice bone-chilling.

“Embrace my consciousness!”

“Tsk!”

With the blackness about to consume her, Iqiyah found herself utterly helpless.

She had expended all her strength; she had been defeated.

‘Could it be… that this is how it ends…!?’

Just as Iqiyah braced herself to accept her fate—

“What are you staring at? Get out of the way!”

A warm embrace instantly enveloped her body.

“Se… Seraphina!?”

Iqiyah’s pupils trembled as she stared at Seraphina, who had thrown herself in front of her.

The next second, the black beam engulfed her—and just like that, Seraphina Scarlett vanished.