Chapter 1565 - The Red Sky (1/2)

Having to undergo the evolution process right now was akin to torture, in more ways than one. First of all, the level of physical pain Quinn was experiencing was immense. As it drained the Nest Crystal's energy, the vampire felt that his body was on the verge of exploding, only a single tiny step away from his demise.

Nevertheless, Quinn instinctively knew that it was doing so to push his body towards the next stage. Every part of his body, his cells, muscle fibre, bone structure and so on was getting pulled apart and rearranged into a more optimal way. All of it got broken down and rebuilt from the ground up… only to be broken down again for the process to start all over again.

And yet this wasn't the worst part of it. No, while the vampire had to endure this near-death experience, he was forced to watch the Dalki leader wreak havoc on the people on his side. Quinn felt helpless as he felt Graham go on a killing spree.

Then while 'watching' everything going on… Quinn could see that Nate had been killed.

Quinn was steeling his resolve, barely able to reach out his hand in the direction that his friend had just lost his life. He wanted to reach him, even if he had to crawl on the ground, hoping to somehow rescue him.

Alas, his system was unusable at this moment, fully focused on having him evolve, so he wasn't even able to summon anyone by his side. Quinn didn't have a plan whatsoever, his instincts just screamed at him that he had to kill that lizard bastard, no matter what!!!

'You damn shitty familiar, come the f*ck out and make yourself useful!!! You never listen when I really need you! If you're not going to help me now, then leave my freaking body!' Quinn cursed at Bone Claw. The familiar would often come out when he was angry, but now that his negative feelings had reached a peak, it stayed silent. The evolving vampire didn't think it could actually do something against the Dalki, but he might buy them some time, even if only for a second.

”ARGHHHH!” Quinn grunted through the pain. Even in the state he was in, he somehow managed to shed tears. If he could see himself, he would have noticed those were tears of blood, which quickly dissipated as his evolution continued.

At the same time, Sam who had stayed by Quinn's side and had been watching over him this whole time fell to his knees. As the one who had turned him, the young man felt it more than any other when his life had been extinguished.

”He…Nate…Quinn …did Nate ... just ... no…no ... ” Sam couldn't even speak properly, unable to accept what had just happened to his dear friend.

Despite being a talented high level user, he had stuck around Sam and had helped him no matter what troubles the latter had found himself in. The two should have never been a match in normal circumstances, but that was just who Nate had been. Someone who hadn't had a bad bone in his body.

”I should have told him to come back… I should have told him to come back with us!” Sam clenched his fists in anger and despair.

For Quinn, it was a hard loss as well. Nate had been there close to the start of Quinn's journey. Someone who he had coincidentally met during the VR game. A special person who had just wanted to improve himself for fun.

And yet, in time they had become good friends, someone that Quinn could rely on, and who had never let him down. Without asking anything in return, he had taught a lot of people in the Cursed faction, earning him their respect. Worst of all, Quinn felt that if Nate had never met him… then perhaps he wouldn't have died today…

The only reason he had joined the Cursed faction was because of Quinn.

Alas, the Cursed faction leader didn't even get much time to grieve over one person, when the Dalki leader had claimed another victim. Mona was the next one to fall. Although not one of the original members of the Cursed faction, the former Big Four leader had helped out humanity more than once.

In a way, she felt like the most selfless person Quinn had ever met. For this reason, he had given her the Demon tier Amulet. It seemed a perfect fit given her own ability. The vampire hadn't even asked for it back, yet Mona had promised him of her own volition to take good care of it and return it.

Now, she wouldn't get the chance to. Off in the distance, as her body fell to the ground, so did the Amulet…he never expected to get it back this way.

Quinn had always known that in this war, it would be impossible to not suffer any casualties. Nevertheless, nothing could prepare one for the loss of life of those close to oneself and if something didn't happen he would lose them all. None of them were a match for Graham who was even stronger now than when Quinn had faced him.

Seeing how things were going, Quinn managed to grab the ground somewhat, and pulled his upper body up off.

”Quinn, what are you doing? Just focus on getting through this!” Sam managed to say as he wiped his face with his sleeve.

”S… A… M!” Quinn blurted out and straight out of his mouth a pile of blood started to fall. It continued to gush out pools of blood. Such a thing to come out, even for a vampire lord, was clearly dangerous. If it was a regular human they perhaps would have been dead.

”B…loo…d.” Quinn managed to say. ”Blood!”

It was the only word that came out, while the red liquid he seemed to crave still dripped out of his mouth. It was clear that Quinn couldn't speak and get everything out. Touching his side, Sam started to pour blood out from the flask trying to get it to go into the leader's mouth, but something strange happened.

When he tried to pour it, it started to float in the air around the Vampire King. It just stayed there in place, not going down or falling to the ground. Sam then noticed that the same thing was happening to the blood that was on the floor as well.

”Mo….more ... ” Quinn managed to grunt out under duress.