Born in Blood

Chapter 416 Love

The joke was so sudden, the two Emperors instantly stopped their bickering and gave Alucard a hard glare.

"And what does a leech know about love?" the Empress said, tilting her head curiously.

The Emperor of Courage threw his head back and laughed unpleasantly.

His voice was too deep.

Alucard smiled. There was no visible shift in his mood, but his deep-red eyes weren't smiling. "Enough to know when to end things. Clearly you two don't."

"Enough talk," Usan said loudly, at the end of his patience.

Shadows shrieked around his form, producing 8 different clones of himself, each wielding a different weapon.

A sword, mace, spear, glaive, lance, and several variations of the blade.

Each of them had their own consciousness, it seemed, spreading around Usan's sides.

The Empress clicked her tongue. An ethereal black substance swirled over her hand, producing a shriek-like noise.

Smiling with a set of perfect teeth, the Emperor cracked his knuckles and stretched his shoulders.

With each pop of his ligaments, an audible shockwave echoed out.

Truly a monster among men.

On the other hand, Alucard didn't move an inch from his place, but a sinister and stomach-turning aura grew stronger.

"Wait!" the Emperor said suddenly.

Silence.

Even the Empress looked at him with annoyance in her eyes.

"Is this a brawl or a duel?" the Emperor asked genuinely. "Who am I fighting?"

Silence.

A strange question to ask in the heat of battle.

The Empress clicked her tongue.

"I'll take this one." She gestured to Usan. "You can take the leech."

A moment later, the Empress flew to the side. Looking over her shoulder, she sent the Emperor a glance. "Don't die."

The Emperor of Courage chuckled under his breath.

Right after, Usan followed after her, the eight Shadow Clones trailing behind him.

After a while, they simply disappeared over the horizon.

A Rank 6 battle was much, much more devastating than one might imagine.

The least they could do was fight over the ocean, since it would minimize the damage done to the lands.

Alucard heaved a long sigh.

But when he looked back at the Emperor, he was no longer there.

BOOOOOOOM!

A silver gauntlet made a wide, diagonal swing through the air, followed by a sonic boom.

With a wide smile on his face, the Emperor had attacked without warning.

His arm swung across Alucard's hip, torso and shoulder.

And as it made contact…

Time slowed.

In slow motion, Alucard exploded like a popped zit!

So much blood!

Pure ichor spread in all directions.

Like a balloon filled with water had suddenly burst from within.

Alucard's upper body was just… gone.

His legs were still hovering in the air, but above the hip, there was nothing!

The Emperor felt like he had to laugh.

Alucard!

The Pashah of vampires!

The so-called Immortal!

Boom!

One shot!

Just then, the Emperor realized the blood had stopped mid-air.

Like time had abruptly frozen it in place.

SHRR!

The Emperor's eyes widened in disbelief.

All the blood was reverting to its original position!

Like time was being rewinded!

As it all poured back to its original position, blood and bone was reforming at an unreal rate. Even the clothes.

In just a few moments, Alucard was back in one piece, as though he hadn't burst apart a nanosecond prior.

Alucard had an uncharacteristically pissed off look on his face.

Wordlessly, Alucard grabbed onto the Emperor's gauntlet with one hand.

Then, he clenched.

KRSH!

Cracks spread across the Rank 6 gauntlets like it was made out of wood!

WHOOOSH!

Shocked, the Emperor swung again, even faster this time, on Alucard's face.

BANG!

A long streak of blood sprayed to the side.

Alucard's face had been wiped off.

Above the lower jaw, there was nothing but ripped off flesh.

But once again, the blood that spurted off just… reeled itself back in, reforming a brand new head without so much as a scratch on it.

This time, though, the Emperor flew backwards and created space between him and the vampire.

"That's one disgusting ability if I've seen one," the Emperor said dejectedly, grabbing his broken gauntlet. A ripple of silver light passed through it, repairing its cracks. It was back to peak condition. "Can you even die?"

Alucard's face suffered an abrupt change.

He no longer smiled.

No longer had the same sarcastic, playful demeanor.

No…

Now, his face was sinisterly dark.

It was like watching a soft-spoken, gentle, kind person suddenly get angry.

It was terrifying.

The Emperor wasn't too afraid, though.

There was a reason 'courage' was in his name!

"I've seen scarier. Have you seen my type?" the Emperor joked.

There was no response from Alucard.

Instead, the Emperor's arms released sparks of yellow light.

Fire.

At once, the awesome gauntlets surged with an outburst of crimson flames, burning with an unreal amount of heat and ferocity.

Next, the twin flames expanded with a fierce gust of wind, slowly growing into two titanic arms of fire mid-air.

Each arm was roughly 9 meters in length and width, and they hovered to the Emperor's sides like an extra pair of limbs.

With how bright they were, those watching from thousands of meters away thought two suns had abruptly spawned.

It seemed like the Emperor was a Dual Elemental of wind and fire.

Instead of producing anything new, they simply empowered each other to a devastating level.

"If I can't kill you the good ol' fashion way," the Emperor said with a bright, toothy smirk, "I'll burn you to ash."

Alucard said nothing.

BOOM!

An explosion echoed throughout the world as the Emperor kicked his feet, propelling him forward.

Alucard clasped his hands, then unclasped them.

Forming in between his fingers, was a thin layer of bright blood that expanded outward, transforming into a great wall.

CKRSH!

Two pairs of fists, two from the gauntlets, two from the flame-made arms, collided with the wall.

However, instead of the wall breaking apart, its consistency was elastic instead of solid.

Still, the strikes poked through it like needles through rubber, while the fiery arms caused them to slowly burn away.

SHHIG!

But just as the Emperor emerged from the other side, the wall turned into thousands of little dots of blood, which then turned into spikes, which then shot at the Emperor, impaling him in a thousand different spots.