Inside the ancient castle's deep hall, roars and screams filled the air, and the smell of blood was overwhelming.
"Bastard!" Deacon was frantically directing his subordinates, completely unprepared for how powerful the people from the Church were.
Suddenly, his vision blurred.
A figure appeared silently before him. The white robe with gold trim was especially striking in the bloody battlefield.
An extreme sense of crisis pierced Deacon's brain like an ice pick!
Adrian's eyes narrowed slightly, and psychokinesis pressed down like a mountain, firmly restraining Deacon in place and slowly lifting him into the air.
"Are the Darkhold pages with you?" Adrian got straight to the point, not wanting to waste words.
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." Deacon's eyes flickered, still trying to bluff.
"Interesting."
"You actually hid it inside your body? You're really not afraid of death."
Adrian sensed for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.
He clearly sensed an abnormally obscure and ancient dark fluctuation within Deacon's body.
"Pfft..."
Accompanied by the soft sound of tearing flesh, an ancient, blood-stained page slowly rose from Deacon's abdomen, floating in mid-air, revealing its mysterious and ominous true form in the dim light.
As the Darkhold fragment emerged, a thick and ominous power spread like a tide, instantly wrapping around the entire ancient castle. Whispers seemed to solidify in the air, and the candlelight on the walls flickered without wind, shifting between light and shadow.
"What... what is that thing?" Blade's face suddenly turned pale the moment he saw the Darkhold fragment, like he was being ruthlessly suppressed by some high-level existence, making even breathing difficult.
"I don't know, but it's definitely nothing good." Clarisse took a deep breath, trying to calm the racing in her heart. A nerve in her brain was flashing a frantic warning, reminding her that she must never touch that Darkhold fragment giving off eerie vibes.
Adrian's power was overwhelming to Deacon—he had absolutely no way to fight back. Even with the page extracted from his body, he couldn't help but wonder if, even after completing the Blood God Sacrifice Ritual, he'd have been able to oppose this unfathomable man before him.
"As expected, it's a Darkhold fragment."
"To find it, you must've paid a heavy price."
Adrian's gaze fell on the floating paper, his tone calm as he looked up at Deacon, who was now pale as a ghost, having given up even his final struggle.
"Crack..."
After getting confirmation, Adrian's expression didn't even change. His psychokinesis suddenly pressed down harder, and Deacon was ground into powder before he could even let out a scream.
"Actually... this strong..." Blade's pupils contracted. This was the first time he'd seen Adrian take action with his own eyes. The guy's biggest movements were just looking at people and speaking, yet he'd so easily crushed the arch-enemy he'd fought bitterly for years.
Only now did Blade get some real understanding of Adrian's power.
"Your Eminence, what exactly is this?" Clarisse couldn't help but ask curiously. Even though the Darkhold fragment gave her an extremely ominous feeling, looking at Adrian's attitude, it seemed this item was crazy valuable.
"This page involves an ancient dimensional demon—it's the crystallization of his knowledge and power."
"To me, it has high reference value."
Adrian explained, his gaze still not leaving the Darkhold fragment.
There's no magic in the traditional sense in the Marvel universe—all magic is basically a borrowing relationship. Practitioners borrow power from dimensional demons, and the demons have the right to dispose of their believers.
Dimensional demons like the Vishanti are relatively chill, at most conscripting a sorcerer to participate in a dimensional war after their death. While beings like Dormammu and Nightmare will demand souls and life force at every turn.
After Adrian completes the change of Earth's order, his next goal is exactly to become a dimensional demon. So the structure and power system of the Darkhold are seriously important for reference.
"Is this dimensional power..." Adrian sensed the decaying and ominous fluctuations on the Darkhold fragment.
"Now's not the time for deep contact." He whispered to himself, and the book in his hand automatically floated into the air. The pages moved without wind, and profound runes flowed out from within—those were divine runes originating from the Saint Seiya world's Athena.
In this world without the blessing of Athena's divine blood, the power of the runes was way weaker, but with the addition of Adrian's Cosmo and elemental power, it was barely enough to seal a Darkhold fragment.
As the runes wrapped around the Darkhold fragment like chains, that unsettling aura was gradually isolated and suppressed. Finally, the fragment slowly sank into the book in Adrian's hand and disappeared.
"Prepare to conduct the Blood God Ritual." Adrian looked away and said to Blade. His main objective had been achieved—helping Blade was just a side action. In the dark dimension, Blade's information channels could make up for the current gaps in the Holy See.
Because of the long-term lack of extraordinary power, the Holy See's understanding of the dark dimension wasn't what it used to be. Clarisse was just a miniature version of the Holy See's supernatural plan.
The reason the Pope didn't reject Adrian's identity as a Mutant was, on one hand, because the Holy See was literally standing on the edge of a cliff, and on the other hand, because the Holy See had been executing a "Mutant Nurturing Project" way early on.
Finding young Mutants and having them raised with the Holy See's support. These kids' faith was firmer than anyone else's, which was also the biggest difference between the Holy See and those labs and capitalists.
The Blood God Sacrifice Ritual went unexpectedly smoothly—after all, Deacon had already prepared everything. According to the ritual recorded in the Darkhold, Blade used his own blood to refine the purest blood power from the bodies of over a dozen pure-blood Elders. That was a source power almost as strong as the second generation vampires.
Blade swallowed it without hesitation. Under the impact of the surging blood power, his human side was gradually covered by animalistic instincts, and his eyes turned blood-red.
"Buzz!"
At the very moment Blade was about to lose control, a massive sense of pressure suddenly came down. He stumbled to his knees, but it was a blessing in disguise as the animal instincts within his body were forcibly suppressed by this external force.
"How do you feel?" Adrian looked at Blade. The guy's aura had instantly surged several times over just now, having already gone through a complete transformation.
"This feeling... is too good."
"It's simply incredible."
Blade looked at his hands in disbelief, feeling the power surging within his body.
"Not bad. With your current strength, you're enough to go up against those old monsters of the second and third generation vampires."
"Right now's the best time for you to take over the vampire race."
Adrian nodded.
"Take over the vampire race?"
"But my life's mission is to destroy the vampires."
Blade was stunned for a moment.
"The birth of the vampires comes from the Darkhold."
"As long as the demon behind the Darkhold isn't destroyed, the Darkhold can't be completely destroyed, and Dracula, who relies on it, won't truly die. In other words, the vampires can't be eliminated at this stage. If you really want to eliminate the vampires, taking them over is actually the best way."
Adrian explained indifferently.
"What do you mean?" Blade didn't doubt Adrian's words—various signs showed that the guy knew a lot of secrets.
"You can use the vampire race's power to find the other parts of the Darkhold."
"The method to completely eliminate the vampires is recorded there."
Adrian looked at him.
Hearing this, Blade's breathing suddenly got heavy. He'd taken the elimination of the vampires as his mission for years but could never see hope—he didn't expect to actually get a clue from Adrian.
"I understand."
"I'll do my best to take over the vampires. You can find me anytime if something comes up."
Blade nodded seriously.
Having said that, his figure slowly merged into the shadows and disappeared.
"Your Eminence, are we going back to the Holy See?" Clarisse ignored the departing Blade and turned to look at Adrian.
"There's one last thing to handle." Adrian shook his head.
Not long after, the culprit who attacked the church was declared brought to justice, and the conflict between the Holy See and the vampires that had caused a sensation in the underground world also came to a close. But after this battle, various forces began to re-examine this ancient Holy See.
The power it had seemed to go way beyond the world's imagination.
"Looks like I'll have to meet with him." Inside Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Professor X Charles looked at the intel in his hand regarding Adrian and slowly frowned.
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