The Fallen Vampire

Chapter 102: Life Underground

Ayame fixed her mouth to tell the two of them no immediately without even considering it.

Primeval techniques are way too potent to try to teach them to every Tom, Dick, or Harry who asked.

They are profound, delicate, and unshakable methods of utilizing qi through different methods than simple body or breathing arts.

In terms of sheer difficulty, they are comparable to highest level pill making or array formation in terms of precision required to make them work properly.

Even after she'd had hers for years, upon years, she still was nowhere close to even 50% understanding.

She figured that she should spare them the unnecessary headache and false hope that would come with giving up her most prized technique, since it would clearly go far beyond their understanding.

But as she looked at the fluffy ears on top of Taira's head and stared at the happy go lucky human girl beside him, she realized that maybe they would not be quite so inept as her.

After all, she was a human chosen by the gods and he was the union of two of the most powerful fallen races to ever exist.

So maybe if it was these two... they could ascend to more unseen heights than even her.

"Well if it's what you two want... Just don't rush to understand it, alright..? Take as much time as you need, and break it down piece by piece."

Ayame touched Taira and Vermeil in the middle of their foreheads and a small golden light passed from her to them.

'Jesus..'

'What the fuck is this..?'

While the two of them were trying to wrap their minds around this new technique, a small spark of blue fire came to life on Taira's forehead and passed over to the body of the werewolf queen before she knew what was happening.

A deeply sensual and loud moan escaped her lips as she felt cool and holy relief run through her like a river.

She had been living with boiling pain in her body for over two hundred years.

It had become her new normal after day in and day out, and by now she hardly noticed it anymore.

But as she felt the sensation of true bliss spreading to every corner of her being, she couldn't even begin to understand just how she had ever managed to survive in such a miserable state for all of these years.

'T-That fire... if course it's... Wait..'

When Ayame finally realized exactly what kind of sound she had just made, she quickly covered her mouth in embarrassment as her cheeks turned bright red.

Without exception, every one of her daughter's family were now staring at her strangely.

"I... B-Bye.!"

Ayame disappeared from the bridge so quickly that no one even saw her running away.

Taira felt several small gazes boring into his back and immediately knew just what he'd gotten himself into.

"...I swear I didn't do anything to her."

"Manwhore..."

"I'll kill you and her..."

"Cheating on me right after we had our first kiss... Men are the same in every world."

"You've never had relationship before, so how would you know?"

"Hey! We're supposed to be focusing on him, not me!"

- 3 Days Later

With the ones closest to him down temporarily, he put a short but necessary distance between himself and the rest of them by rolling away at the last moment.

With his back against the wall, Yasuke switched into a shorter sickle and golden chain.

Now came the hard part.

Taira had to unanimously use the two separate halves of his brain and lungs to keep cultivating while in combat, and to properly use his new art.

It would be difficult, but hey, 228th times the charm, right?

"Unseen Asura Art : Chains of Misfortune."

Suddenly the length of Yasuke's chains seemed to double, and the dagger at the other end of it's body became a scythe of the same size as the main blade.

Taking both weapons into his hands, he hurled them at the approaching dummies and watched as they started to fly.

The sickles flew in two different directions, each moving with the singular purpose of tying up all of the dummies and leaving them immobile.

As the chains wrapped around the bodies of the dummies, the blades were drawn closer and closer in with every rotation.

When they got close enough, the sickles shredded all eight dummies with such ease and precision that it was like watching a surgeon cut butter on an operating table.

At that moment, Taira felt a smaller feeling than a usual breakthrough and he knew that he had successfully ascended to the seventh level of the beast realm.

With the achievement of everything that he was hoping for coming to fruition, Taira let out an exhausted sigh as he dropped to the ground and let his body rest against it.

Even now he could feel his chest cavity filling up with blood from his popped lungs, and he was slowly waiting for them to heal so that he could start things up again.

Even with this monumental success, he still couldn't help but be dissatisfied.

An annoying feeling of lacking had begun to take root within his spirit, and weighing heavy on his mind.

The battle with Velreth was only the start of it.

The second part had kicked in when he received that technique from Ayame, and he realized just how high the world could truly get.

He couldn't understand any of it.

He felt like he was an infant staring the worlds largest rubix cube while being expected to unlock it.

While colorblind.

And blindfolded.

With his hands tied behind his back.

And his feet bound.

The only bit he could understand, was something that he needed to acquire in order to start on the path to unraveling this puzzle, but he had no idea how to gain it.

'Just what is a primordial spirit anyway...?' He wondered exhaustedly.

"Alright, Yasuke... Set them back up again and have them ready to go in thirty seconds."

"Actually, I think you can hold off on that for now."

Taira opened his eyes and rolled over to glance at the door.

There, he found Lucia waiting with her arms folded and the first scowl on her face that he had ever seen.

Yasuke : *Metallic humming* "Ooooh... Master is in trouble..."