After resting a little to regain his strength, Vone took his leave and set out within the castle to find Red.
The reason why a search order was warranted for all the vampires was due to how the castle operates. The castle was first built and constructed originally by the Progenitor of All Vampires, using his advanced knowledge in spells and magic construction. He was then able to create spatial distortion within the castle, which caused the inside of the castle to be larger compared to how it looked from the outside.
While the exterior of the castle remains unchanged, the interior, on the other hand, works differently. The rooms and halls of the castle would be rearranged randomly at any moment, causing the layout of the castle to be completely anonymous.
For example, if the library and ballroom were previously located on the first floor, the castle would randomly rearrange the rooms and floors, causing the library to be shifted to 3rd floor while the ballroom to the basement. It didn't matter what room it was, it would all be shifted when the time came.
The only room that was unaffected would be the Queen's chamber, which was where the Progenitor of Vampires previously resided.
With the castle's layout constantly changing at any given moment, the structure of the castle itself was ultimately incomprehensible even when given to the greatest architecture in the world.
With the only one with the knowledge of where the intruder had gone, Vone bee-lined straight to where the library was, which was just around the corner ahead.
As he hasten his steps forward, turning right around the corner.
Thump!
The hallways changed again this time, shifting the entrance of the library somewhere else.
'Shit. I was so close.'
Cursing his bad luck deep in his mind, Vone proceeds ahead through another hallway, hoping to find the library entrance again.
'...S-shit. He can't have gone too far ahead. Unless he is extremely unlucky, he shouldn't be able to find the library for a long time.'
Vone had thought of every possible scenario, on where Red would survive when stumbling in the different parts of the castle.
Given his fighting prowess, it would be safe to assume that he can survive in the majority part of the castle. But there are exceptions, one of them being the library since there lies a monster guarding the secrets of the library, another one being encountering the queen directly.
'Hahaha, he shouldn't be that unlucky, right?'
Vone thought to himself jokingly before hastening his pace. He realised that there was nothing but bad luck the moment he met up with Red, so the chances of him meeting any of the monsters seemed incredibly high.
If Red happens to die, he will also be dead due to being bound by a spell. His face frowned at the mere thought of dying because of a human's reckless behaviour.
'I must find him no matter what!'
**
Unbeknownst to Vone, Red had already encountered the monster and even tamed him successfully, having his familiar play with the small boy while he went around searching for the information he needed.
As he left the kids playing among themselves, Red passed through the endless rows of bookshelves that were all lined up neatly.
Still, it was a beautiful sight to behold, seeing how many books that are dedicated to genre romance, all placed in this one level of room. The books were all placed neatly and arranged alphabetically. Many different books came from other parts of the world. From what he has seen so far, the other languages he recognises are: Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Tamil, Bahasa, Russian, Swedish, and many more that he couldn't recognise.
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But this is not what he needed. The only way he would be able to advance is through the other genre of books located in the other parts of the library.
After what seemed to feel like hours of walking through book after book, he finally found a staircase that led to the other part of the library.
'Looks like this is the only way I can proceed for now.'
[Proceed with caution.]
Heeding Ryong's warning, Red took extra caution when heading the staircase. As he successfully descended, just as he predicted, the stairs led to another section of the library. However, upon looking up at the sign of the library, the word "romance" was once again displayed on the signs.
'Again? Did the father of all vampires happen to be a young teenage girl who enjoyed reading romance books?'
[This is rather peculiar... Never had I seen a library that acted in this manner.]
'Didn't you lose your memory? How would YOU of all people know how a vampire's library works?'
[T...thou have a point... BUT, I can't ignore the disrespect thou hath just shown me.]
Ryong immediately used his power to squeeze the mask that Red was wearing, causing a great amount of pain and discomfort around his face as a way to get back at Red calling him dumb.
'H... Hey, cut... it... outTT!!'
Red screamed at the top of his lungs in his mind as his hand turned into a fist and began knocking the mask with his knuckle, in hopes that this was enough to stop Ryong from torturing him any further.
However, while amid their bantering, Red suddenly went into a guarding position as
His intuition tells him something isn't right.
Red wasn't the only one who noticed something was wrong since Ryong himself was looking around his surroundings using the mask.
From the corner of the library was a spot that was covered in pitch-black darkness. A voice could emerge from the dark as a figure slowly walks out the moonlight shines brightly through the window as the identity of the mysterious is slowly unveiled.
"Given that you came here far from home. How is it that what you seek is amounted to... this?"
A lady reveals herself under the moonlight as she flips through pages of a book she grabbed randomly from one of the bookshelves.
It was the Queen.
Red continued holding his weapon tightly given that the queen was said to be the strongest vampire after Vasilius, so a single mistake would mean the end of his life.
The queen continued walking around the library nonchalantly while Red held his sword in a defensive hanging stance, ready to deflect anything that came after him.
"You know... This library here is a lot more special than you think. It has a copy of every book written by humanity stored here, yet you are not able to read them the way you wanted."
The queen then shuts the book she was reading roughly as she toss the book she was reading previously on Red.
Red keeping stance still guarded, remained still. The queen, on the other hand, continued speaking.
"The library only provides you the book you are actively seeking or genres of books that reflect the current emotion in your heart."
Red took a glance at the book that was thrown at him, revealing the book's title:
Wrath.
Goosebumps start to form around his back as the queen starts speaking again. This time, her voice was lower and colder compared to before.
"Can you guess how I am feeling now?"
The moment she completes her sentence, the queen leaps across the room in a split second as she slashes her claws vertically, sending shockwaves directly at Red.
Jumping to his left side to avoid attack within a split second was an impressive feat, yet even with enhanced eyesight, he was not able to dodge the attack cleanly, with part of the shockwave grazing him on his arms.
While still in mid-air, Red immediately tried looking for the queen, only for her to be nowhere in sight.
"Where do you think you are looking at?"
"?!"
Emerging from the shadow once again, the queen raised her fist and slammed it against her opponent, only for him to barely block it with the blade of his sword. The impact was powerful enough to send him flying across the room and crashing into one of the bookshelves.
[Her strength is even greater than the other vampire we faced earlier on!]
Ignoring Ryong's warning, Red emerged from the demolished bookshelves, holding on to Fang for support as he tried to catch his breath desperately.
"Don't tell me that's all you have after you thrash my ballroom? The debt wouldn't be complete with just your death, you know."
[Red, wake up, she's coming. Wake up!!]
However, the impact from the previous blow was harder than he expected as his head continued spinning, while his vision was blurry.
[Thou need to snap out of it. She's coming!]
'I... Cant. Everything's... blurry."
As the queen slowly approaches Red.
A text box appeared in front of him.
[I shall lend you a hand]
**
[Fang]:
Type: Ego Growth Weapon (Sword)
Attack Power: Increase Strength by 4 Lv.
Growth-rate Synchronisation: 5 --> 10%
Unlocked skill: Cleansing Flames
[Cleansing Flames]
Buff/Debuff
The user and the sword he wields are blessed by flames of the highest purity that can smite down unholy creatures. The flames can also be used to heal and recover those he desires.
Requirement: Fang
**
Balls of flame close to white colour ignited from seemingly nowhere and started surrounding Red in a circle as he recovered from the concussion he just received. Still wobbly but recovering, Rsd mustered enough strength to pull himself up as he checked his surroundings, looking for the queen.
The queen a few feet away from him, stops dead in her tracks as she stands still, and observes a ball of flames blocking her way.
"What... are those flames?"