Chapter 32 — Judgment

Nick breathed heavily when he saw a mother who meant a lot to him, like a body without a soul. All day, his mother curled up in bed, tears dripping from her beautiful eyes. This has happened since Niki's funeral yesterday. Rose still can't accept the death of her beloved daughter, and her husband's departure makes her even worse. She didn't do anything except lock herself in her room, making Nick, who saw her, feel heartless and start to get frustrated with his mother's attitude.

"Mom, come on, don't always be like this. Drink this blood. I know Mother must be starving, right?" Nick said, starting to get impatient with his mother's stubbornness. He brought a glass filled with gore to his mother, but his mother seemed not to care. Her eyes were still empty with tears that kept flowing without stopping.

"Mom, what else should I do so you want to eat?"

"Bring your dad here and persuade him to come back to life in this castle, and then mom wants to eat," Rose said, making Nick's eyes widen and feel a massive pain in his heart.

"Never mind, Mother, forget about him. He doesn't care about us anymore. Can you ever forget the man who always hurt you? Look at me, Mom, just once. I'm always here with Mom. I will never leave you, unlike him, who never cared about you." Rose rose to her feet from a lying position. She stared angrily at her son. More precisely, she couldn't accept everything her son had said just now. What did he say, forgetting about her husband? It was something she could never do. Rose would do anything to get Rowan back to live with her.

"Here, Mom, drink this blood." Nick brought the glass full of blood closer to his mother again, but Rose roughly brushed it aside so that the glass was thrown and shattered. The thick, rancid-smelling blood splattered on the floor.

"Get out, Nick! Leave mother alone!" Those were her last words before she fell back on the bed.

Nick again exhaled roughly. Finally, he gave up and chose to obey his mother's request. He walked away, leaving his mother's private room.

Arriving outside the room, Nick was surprised by two familiar vampire figures: his two best friends and cousins, Alvaro and Ardo.

"Oh, you guys, how are you? Have you finished burying Alex? Sorry, I can not attend the funeral. I didn't dare leave my mother alone in the castle," he said regretfully.

"Does not matter. How is Mrs. Rose?" he asked.

"Chaotic and pathetic. This is all because of that bastard."

"Don't be like that, Nick. After all, Mr. Rowan is still your father," warned Alvaro. However, it succeeded in making Nick emotional. If only Alvaro weren't his best friend, maybe Nick would have severely punished him for having the courage to defend the man he hates. Nick no longer has any relationship with Rowan. He denied that without Rowan, there was no way he could have been born into this world.

"Actually, what are you guys doing here?" Nick asked, changing the subject.

"Ardo wanted to come here. He said he wanted to talk to both of us about something." Nick stared intensely at Ardo, who had not made a sound since earlier. Nick also frowned when he saw Ardo's face. He looked scared and pale.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ardo ignored Nick's question, instantly making Nick look at Alvaro. Alvaro shrugged his shoulders indifferently, a sign that he didn't even know his brother's attitude, which he thought strange.

"Come on, let's talk in another room." Nick stepped toward the room he meant, followed by Alvaro and Ardo behind him.

"Sit down and enjoy your food," Nick offered when they reached the dining room. On the table, there is a reasonably large container filled with human blood. Nick and Alvaro casually started drinking the blood, but unlike Ardo, he remained silent with a face of fear.

"Ardo, what exactly are you doing? How strange you are acting today!" Nick snapped a little this time. He couldn't bear to see Ardo's attitude, which was too strange.

"A-Are you guys not scared? The vampire who calls himself the Black Shadow might be watching us now. He must be targeting us too." Nick and Alvaro both frowned at the same time. Soon they were laughing as if they were mocking the meaningless fear Ardo was feeling.

"Why are you guys laughing? Do you think this problem is funny? You're mistaken. This matter is grave. We are in danger." Ardo rose from his seat, clearly offended by the responses Nick and Alvaro gave.

"Listen, whoever the vampire calls himself, Black Shadow, Black Doggy, or whatever. We shouldn't be afraid of him. He's the one who should be afraid of us. We are pure-blood vampires. We are the highest caste in the world of vampires. We are noble vampires, while he is just a lowly vampire who likes to scare. He is a coward because he does not dare to appear before us or confront us openly. He is just a loser. We are much stronger than him. Therefore, there was no reason to be afraid of him. You're exaggerating, Ardo." Nick laughed again after speaking at length. He couldn't help but feel amused at Ardo's ridiculous attitude.

"Don't underestimate him. He must be solid. The proof is that overnight. He could kill all the vampire hunters. Then he slaughtered all the vampires from our clan the next night."

"You're wrong, he didn't intervene when he massacred all of our clan's vampires, but he used level C vampires," Alvaro emphasized.

"That means that apart from being strong, he is also brilliant because he can take advantage of level C vampires that no one has ever been able to control. Besides that, he also easily killed Niki, and last night he killed Alex." Ardo again explained the reason for his fear.

"Niki is too gentle and kind. She must not have the heart to hurt that damn vampire. Don't equate us with Niki."

"But Nick, have you forgotten last night he killed Alex? You must know Alex very well. He is a strong vampire, and his natural abilities are also unique. He is not someone who can be trounced, but the fact is that he was defeated and even killed sadistically.

This is absolute proof that Black Shadow is mighty." Nick took a deep breath. The cowardly attitude of his best friend was starting to tire him.

"But speaking of Niki, you said she couldn't bear to hurt Black Shadow. This is very strange. No matter how good she is, surely she will fight tooth and nail when someone attacks her. If you see Niki's body, where there are no signs of putting up any resistance, it means that maybe she already knows Black Shadow very well."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, trying to understand what Alvaro meant.

"Look, Nick, maybe the figure of Black Shadow is someone Niki knows very well. I suspect someone."

"Who do you suspect?" Ardo replied enthusiastically. He felt their conversation was getting severe and was happy that Nick and Alvaro were no longer ignoring his fear earlier.

"You also must know. Niki used to be very close to Cliff. I suspect that Black Shadow is Cliff."

"Hahaha, your thinking is ridiculous, Alvaro. The illegitimate child is dead. You're the one who suggested throwing him into the border river because there's no way he'd be safe once he reached the Kirrin Clan's territory. The Vampire from the Kirrin Clan would kill him. After all, back then, his injuries were severe. Even though he was a vampire whose wounds could heal without needing treatment, but received that much damage, let alone a stab wound by an Oak dagger. He couldn't survive unless he was treated. And it seemed impossible for the Kirrin Clan vampires, who hated our clan so much, to save Cliff. So your thinking is very improbable. Come on, let's stop this ridiculous talk. I'm tired. I want to rest." Nick got up and walked away without waiting for a response from his two best friends. Seeing Nick's departure, Alvaro and Ardo finally chose to leave. They will return to their homes.

***

Alvaro couldn't close his eyes that night, no matter how hard he tried to sleep. His conversation with Nick and Ardo this afternoon kept bothering him. He still thought that maybe his suspicions were right about Cliff, although he couldn't deny that everything Nick said had some truth.

After chuckling a few times, Alvaro closed his eyes again. He wants to avoid bothering with a problem whose truth is uncertain. However, he felt a chill suddenly enter the room. More precisely, he felt like something was moving fast in the room, causing the wind to hit his skin. Alvaro immediately opened his eyes again, and he was shocked when he saw the tip of the sword right in front of his eyes, almost stabbing him.

He rushed to dodge when the tip of the blade barely missed him. He rolled over and fell to the floor.

"Good move. If you're a little late in dodging, the tip of my sword will stab you in the eye," said a man dressed in all black crouching right above Alvaro's bed. The figure was wearing a hood and mask, but Alvaro couldn't have recognized that figure from the voice.

"Y-You... Cliff, right? I knew you were the true figure of Black Shadow." The figure took off his head cover and mask, clearly exposing the face that was grinning at Alvaro. He was glad Alvaro recognized him right away.

"You're right. It's me. I admit you are smarter than your stupid brother," Cliff said mockingly at Alex, whom he killed yesterday.

"I didn't think you were still alive."

"Thanks to you guys who threw me into the border river. The vampires of the Kirrin Clan saved me, and then they gave me the power to take revenge on you guys."

"Hm, so this is due to my stupidity. Tsk, I shouldn't have suggested throwing you into the border river. I should have suggested burning or burying you alive. I'm so sorry, "explained Alvaro, showing a look of regret.

"It's a shame because regretting now is useless to you. Get ready. I'll send you to the same place soon as your brother."

"It won't be that easy. I'm much stronger than you, mixed blood!!" shouted Alvaro angrily. He didn't accept being belittled by Cliff, who he thought was much lower and weaker than him.

Alvaro immediately used his natural abilities. He moved the blanket and turned it into a weapon to attack Cliff. Yes, this is his natural ability. He can make anything around him a weapon to attack. Even a thin sheet of paper he can turn into razor-sharp.

The blanket, which he moved with his natural ability, swiftly wrapped around Cliff's body. Cliff was perfectly wrapped, leaving only his head uncovered.

ARGH!

Cliff shouted, grimacing in pain as the blanket around his body tightened even more as if it wanted to crush his bones.

"Hahaha ... you said you wanted to kill me? Now look at you. You can't even escape my natural abilities. Everything in this room I can use as a weapon to kill you. Look at this!" Again using his natural abilities, Alvaro flew some thin paper that was scattered on the table in his room. The papers spun around momentarily before sliding quickly toward Cliff, still wrapped in a blanket. The papers seemed to turn into sharp blades that scratched Cliff's skin gradually. There were quite a few wounds on Cliff's face from the scratches of the papers, wounds dripping with a lot of blood. Instantly Cliff's handsome face was filled with blood.

"How about it, huh? You can't move against me, can you? We ended the warm-up, and now I will start the core game. I'll make your body break into pieces!!" shouted Alvaro as he returned to using his natural abilities. He was about to crush Cliff's body into small pieces using the blanket wrapped around his body. Alvaro was so confident that he would quickly kill Cliff, but what happened was beyond his expectations.

Suddenly a sword slid without him noticing and stuck right in his right eye. Instantly winced in pain, he tried to pull the sword, but unlucky, instead of being released, the sword stabbed deeper into him until it penetrated the back of his head. He also felt the sword moving and rotating to form a large hole inside his head. In essence, the sword was moving by itself.

"I retract my previous words. You are not smart at all. But as stupid as your brother. You don't seem to notice the bite wound on your brother's dead hand." With his left eye still intact, Alvaro stared in disbelief at Cliff's figure, who had been freed from the blanket. His right eye, which had been crushed, suddenly stopped his natural abilities, and Cliff freed himself from the blanket.

"Y-You, could you…"

"Yes, I drank Alex's blood and managed to steal his natural abilities. So, don't be surprised; I can move my sword with my eyes. Things are turning around now. You can't use your natural abilities with just one eye, right? Too bad your right eye has been destroyed. You're the loser, said Cliff with a happy laugh.

"I'm interested in your natural ability. It seems I want it too." Alvaro was shaking violently, especially when he saw Cliff getting closer and closer.

"Do not come close! Go away, Damn it!!" he shouted as he tried to crawl away. Cliff's sword was still stuck in his head and kept spinning, throwing a gaping hole that was getting bigger and bigger in his head and almost hitting his left eye. As for Cliff, how satisfied he was to see the enemy tremble in fear before him.

Then with one pounce, Cliff landed his fangs on Alvaro's neck. He drank enough of his blood that Cliff knew he had stolen Alvaro's natural abilities.

"Okay, friends, it's time to say goodbye," said Cliff, then without mercy, he stuck his sharp claws right in Alvaro's left chest. He clutched Alvaro's still throbbing heart and hung inside his left chest. Then with one pull, he pulled out Alvaro's heart, making Alvaro that second breathed his last. Alvaro's heart in Cliff's hand stopped beating. Cliff grinned. Once again, an enemy had fallen. And tomorrow night, he will return to take the life of another enemy.