Chapter 304

Chapter 304
## Chapter 304

Doctor (2)

[“Ooh ho ho! Masquerade? What a fantastic title! It fits you flawlessly!”]

Doctor, a middle-aged gentleman, struck his palms together with great fervor, a sincere grin across his face.

However, Heinz the Second, who had finally arrived at his ultimate destination after conquering the dungeon, offered no reply. He silently scanned the area, a crease forming between his eyebrows as he interpreted the data collected by his newly unlocked perceptions.

‘He is employing deceptions.’

It appeared as though he had reached his goal after prevailing over countless hurdles… yet this location was merely another fabrication, an imitation of the genuine environment, comparable to a reflection in glass.

Naturally, the chattering Doctor standing before him was nothing more than a phantom projection.

‘A final defensive measure, is it?’

But such a fragile defiance was laughable at this point.

A deep red radiance shimmered within Heinz’s gaze, and the deceptive environment enclosing him commenced to crack and warp.

Crackle—

He paid no attention to Doctor’s endless talk and remained focused on his objective.

A tiny, confined reality, engineered by artificially overlapping and shifting the layers of a hidden pocket space.

Such was his deduction regarding Doctor’s sorcery.

‘Hans or Horus would have possessed the expertise to dissect this more meticulously.’

The various enchantments woven throughout this zone were far too intricate and advanced for him to fully decipher via simple observation.

After all, refined senses were an absolute necessity for processing and translating information.

‘And I am still growing accustomed to my newly unlocked perceptions.’

Nevertheless, it sufficed for what he needed to accomplish right now.

He was, after all, a level 10 Divine Blood vampire, the singular entity of his kind in this world.

[“This is… quite problematic! Hahaha! I suppose this is what one refers to as a checkmate!”]

“…You are tedious.”

And Doctor, being the one directly responsible, was perfectly aware of that reality.

He was unable to conceal his apprehension, recognizing that the final shield safeguarding him from that terrifying creature was on the verge of shattering.

[“Hahaha—!”]

Yet despite his glaringly close destruction, he merely bellowed with laughter, a bizarre, hysterical sound.

Heinz scowled, unable to comprehend the man’s behavior.

‘Has he surrendered? Or… Wait?’

His train of thought was severed.

Wooong—

The local ambient energy fluctuated violently, the currents of causality tightening.

His amplified perceptions instantly calculated the impending outcome.

His mouth twitched against his will.

This turned out to be…

“…Are you serious? Self-detonation?”

[“Oh? You catch on quite rapidly!”]

An abnormal event, consuming all the magical energy within the estate, began to take form.

It expanded at a rapid pace, isolating the immediate zone from the rest of reality.

‘A spell that demands the offering of his own existence. This was not part of the primary architecture… Did he construct this in such a brief window of time?’

Heinz, secretly quite impressed, directed his gaze back toward Doctor.

A sacrificial rite designed to detach the pocket space from the dungeon and reduce every single thing within it to absolute void.

Should it succeed, the entire estate, along with every object inside, would vanish from reality, leaving nothing but an immense hollow in the ground.

‘Assuming it succeeds, of course.’

He let out a scoff.

‘…There is no chance.’

He was not lurking in the darkness. He was positioned directly in front of him.

There was absolutely no scenario where he would simply watch and permit him to act as he pleased.

Regardless of how rapidly Doctor’s magic mobilized, certain boundaries still applied.

Zing—

Heinz’s cognitive speed accelerated, causing time to decelerate all around him.

The chaotic torrent of causality turned transparent and distinct, as though he could physically reach out and grasp the strands.

‘Let us begin.’

He extended his arm,

And with a solitary concentration of will, he gripped a thread of causality.

Wooong—

Following that.

…It concluded.

The estate, which had been filled with clamor and turmoil, descended into absolute stillness.

The solitary transformation occurred within Doctor, as crimson fluid dripped from his seven facial orifices and his physical form began crumbling into ash, starting from his outer extremities, as though he alone had endured the full impact of the magical rebound.

“Cough! Incredible… I did not foresee it being accomplished this effortlessly… Khehehe… To think you possessed the capability to perform even this… You are far more gifted than I anticipated!”

Even so, his rambling did not cease.

He chuckled, and then, as if captivated by the sight, inspected his dissolving limbs, nodding with deep thought.

“What a tragedy that I cannot analyze this! This would have made for an incredibly fascinating research endeavor.”

He muttered, his tone dripping with an odd sort of thrill.

Even when staring down his immediate expiration, his intellect remained tethered to his scientific pursuits. A authentic mad scientist.

However, his frantic speech did not endure much longer.

The violent backlash from the disrupted spell rapidly surged through his physical frame, invading his chest and skull.

“…I shall encounter you once more down the road! And I look forward to meeting your companions as well! Mwahahaha!”

Whoosh—

With those concluding words, a blend of a parting declaration and a curse, Doctor’s physical form entirely dissolved, dispersing into fine powder.

It felt like a somewhat abrupt conclusion, but there was no alternative path available.

‘…Securing him alive would have been the superior outcome, but he was entirely bent on dying.’

Ultimately, Doctor held the upper hand regarding complex magic and mysticism.

Yet because of his self-destruction, Heinz had halted any additional spatial warping and had even secured priceless data and assets from Doctor’s personal laboratory.

‘This entire zone is a vault of valuables. I am certain I can discover something of worth. Furthermore, there are rather fascinating objects present… Oh? This will prove highly beneficial for Howard’s research.’

Heinz, having finally stepped into Doctor’s personal workspace, scanned the messy chambers with a blend of admiration and revulsion.

Scientific logs bound together in files, peculiar mechanisms whose intents he could not even begin to guess… it closely resembled a scrapyard.

Yet these were invaluable treasures, each filled with the intellect and expertise of Doctor, the planet’s premier supernatural engineer.

“Hmm? This object is…”

Subsequently, as he glanced through the various research pitches, a recognizable heading struck his vision.

‘…The Complete Evolution Project?’

It was the identical venture he had utilized to engineer Harley.

He swiftly analyzed the documents, and it appeared to have been revised and enhanced since that time.

“Ridiculous.”

Yet Heinz simply snorted in derision and cast the paperwork away.

After all, he had already engineered the definitive masterwork, a creation that had gone beyond mere perfection, while they were still faltering at the conceptual phase.

Regardless of how much they had refined their hypotheses, it remained entirely trivial to him.

‘I still have numerous tasks ahead. I must locate an individual to command the surviving Dracul members, and I need to grant “Refined Blood Essence” to my followers to secure their absolute fidelity… ’

His mind was already shifting toward his subsequent objectives. The Masquerade was a distant thought.

Consequently, on the day when the Duke and Doctor, the commanders of Heaven’s Turn Society’s European branch, met their demise,

Their authority over the European continent collapsed entirely.

And the echoes of those developments rippled outward to foreign lands.

—

In spite of the international turmoil, contemporary civilization maintained one tremendous benefit: the rapid distribution of data.

A high-speed infrastructure capable of broadcasting intelligence across the planet instantaneously.

And that element played a massive role in swiftly carrying the updates of the recent European developments over to East Asia, and more precisely, to Korea.

The data, despite traveling from the opposite side of the globe, arrived with virtually zero degradation or alteration.

It was a narrative that naturally gripped the collective focus of the public.

After all, a solitary vampire originating from Korea, a country viewed as a relative footnote within the mystical underworld, had autonomously dismantled several of Europe’s most formidable vampire clans and claimed their authority!

Inevitably, the public expressed doubt at the start.

However, the proof was undeniable.

Phantom was already a reasonably recognized icon, with countless snapshots and video recordings circulating across the internet, making it simple to evaluate and cross-reference the details.

Heterosis central headquarters in Seoul.

Jin So-ran, the temporary director of Heterosis, remained seated within her office space, evaluating a dossier.

“…I possessed a distinct premonition when the Lord announced his departure for Europe…”

She stared at the photographs of Heinz pinned to the dossier, an uneasy look visible on her features.

It strained belief.

He had been gone for only a brief period, and he had already dominated multiple formidable factions?

And these were not ordinary factions, but syndicates established within Europe, a territory where vampires maintained massive influence.

Heterosis, regarding both magnitude and raw capability, simply could not measure up.

Europe was not labeled a vampire bastion without good reason.

‘Hmm, given the Lord’s talents, it is entirely feasible to dominate an entire faction simply by overpowering its commander… ’

Nevertheless, the magnitude of his feats was still… breathtaking.

She exhaled a breath, monitoring the prominent phrases trending across Korean web platforms.

Up to this point, the public sentiment had been overwhelmingly favorable.

It served as a point of domestic prestige, when all was said and done.

The true dilemma lay on the reverse side.

The international press, primarily out of Japan and China.

“The Heaven’s Turn Society is definitely orchestrating this…”

Phantom had been unreservedly combative toward them, so they were currently exerting coercion through alternative avenues.

China remained their primary stronghold, and they had not fully recovered from the devastation wreaked by Hahoe Mask.

‘And they will not overlook this chance to pressure the Korean administration.’

The trouble was that their tactics were proving remarkably potent.

Looking at things neutrally, Phantom and his vampire cohorts were outlaws, functioning completely outside established statutes.

If they failed to transform their public reputation, it would transform into a massive hurdle down the line.

“What course of action should we adopt?”

Jin So-ran let out a groan, holding her forehead in her hands.

In order to wage war against the Heaven’s Turn Society, which had already woven itself into the fabric of ordinary civilization, they required the maximum amount of public backing and alliances possible.

That implied they needed to find favor with ordinary citizens…

But how could vampires, creatures dependent on human lifeblood, present themselves as amicable and harmless?

“Ha… Winning over the masses… Ought we to launch promotional campaigns? ‘We refrain from biting’? We are hardly public entertainers…”

Her words faded as a sudden concept entered her thoughts.

Was it truly a dead end?

Evaluating Phantom’s current level of fame, it did not appear altogether ridiculous.

Furthermore, vampires were universally blessed with striking looks.

They were virtually tailor-made for the entertainment sector.

‘And we are presently cultivating an advantageous partnership with the administration via the Returnee Association. If we navigate this strategy correctly… ’

Her eyes gleamed brightly, a calculating smirk emerging across her face.

Jin So-ran, the temporary director of Heterosis and the public relations executive for the Blood Alliance.

A poorly concealed detail: she was a former idol candidate and an active online broadcaster.