Vampire Princess Guide in Progress - Volume 1 Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Vampire Princess Tilia

 

***

 

Falling, endlessly falling.

 

It was as if he was placed within the vast sea of stars, with countless stars twinkling sometimes near, sometimes far, in the endless black curtain of sky. His body had lost all strength, just floating and slowly descending in the void.

 

The corners of his black coat curled upward with the wind, wrapping around Nolan’s body as he fell into a deep sleep.

 

It was as if this was the final path leading to either heaven or hell, with the quiet and brilliant starry sky meeting the concept of death, a complete cessation of existence.

 

The last ebbing of life was as peaceful as this night sky, and as an end to a segment of life, it was like a firework ascending into the night sky, brilliant and dazzling beyond compare. Then, as the sparks burned out, it would become a stationary star in the night sky.

 

Am I… dead? Eliminated from that game and lost my life.

 

A feeling that one can only experience once in a lifetime, I didn’t expect it to be so peaceful in the end. The panic and fear felt at the moment of impending death seemed to have been completely smoothed away.

 

But for some reason, aside from this cold stillness, Nolan felt a softness that shouldn’t have been there, as if his body was being embraced by someone’s gentle arms…

 

The speed of his body’s descent gradually slowed, and a strand of red starlight wrapped around his body from afar, suspending him in the starry sky.

 

“The human body… is very fragile, isn’t it?”

 

At his ear, a gentle female voice slowly sounded, causing Nolan to feel confused by this strange yet somehow familiar voice.

 

This is…?

 

But this warm feeling… why?

 

It made his heart gradually begin to stir.

 

“You’ve tried your best.”

 

“Even if no one on earth knows about your struggle until the final moment, I’ve been watching you all along, and I’ve seen you fight with all your might, carrying your mission and honor.”

 

“Your achievements aren’t unknown, and you’re not a nameless person. Your efforts and sacrifices aren’t meaningless.”

 

“Even if you failed, with no one to give you flowers and applause, I’ve still been watching you from above the stars, watching how an unyielding heart fought to the death for everyone with a weak and fragile body… Let me give you the highest praise.”

 

In an instant, Nolan’s heart beat even more strongly.

 

These warm and comforting words suddenly made his eyes feel hot. From the corners of his tightly shut eyes, a teardrop silently floated upward, as if everything he had done up until now had been witnessed and recognized.

 

If given a choice, rather than being a lofty hero who died in battle with no one knowing, he would prefer to live on.

 

The individualistic heroism filled with fantasy was ultimately not that easy to achieve.

 

He had willingly wanted to become the protagonist who took on the mission, but perhaps he was not the protagonist of the story, and no one would praise him. No one would see his failure as an act of courage. He would die lonely and cold.

 

Originally, that was what Nolan had thought.

 

But now this gentle voice seemed to be comforting this final dissatisfaction and disappointment in his heart.

 

“Then, become my daughter,” the gentle voice sounded again.

 

“Become a proud bloodline of the Scarlet royal family. I will grant you new life and a name through a contract. So wake up, my daughter Tilia. Your path is far from over.”

 

“The Floating Island of the Stars is just a tiny part of this world. This prison cannot hold you. You must stand up again, break through the constraints of Star Lord Leta, and find me, find us…”

 

Become her daughter, Tilia…

 

— Tilia Scarlet.

 

The Vampire Princess trapped in rose thorns.

 

Listening to the gentle, fragrant words, Nolan suddenly felt his body becoming lighter. The woman holding him seemed to lower her head, and then a sharp pain pierced the center between his shoulder and neck.

 

He instinctively wanted to cry out from the pain, but found that it wasn’t as excruciating as imagined. Instead, there was a feeling of warmth and numbness.

 

In the game character panel, the white-haired, red-eyed girl who had been sealed away, half of her character frame began to flicker with a dark light, and the two chains crossed over it began to shake violently!

 

Until they cracked and shattered one by one!

 

“Ahhhhhhh!”

 

A point of blood-colored light gathered from his chest, then burst outward into the surrounding starry sky with a bang, forming a blood-colored storm that suddenly contracted into one body. Finally, his form was enveloped in a blood-red light.

 

From this, his form was reshaped, reborn through nirvana—!

 

What’s happening… Am I not dead? Could I have triggered some mechanism in the game!?

 

Nolan wasn’t sure, but at this moment, his body was suddenly filled with power. He felt a continuously flowing bloodline surging and galloping wildly within him, reminding him of when he first logged into the game during the closed beta.

 

Even though he had originally created a character in his own image, it was as if he had encountered a bug, and ultimately became Tilia.

 

He had originally thought it was just an Easter egg character in the game that happened to fall on his head, but now it seemed impossible that it was just that! But at least, he felt like he had regained his strength.

 

Not dead, he was not dead—!!!

 

After all this wild excitement gradually settled down, she began to regain sensory feedback from her surroundings.

 

“Now, open your eyes, Tilia.”

 

“…” No longer in the original body of Nolan, but in the smaller and exquisitely beautiful body of a young girl. Jade-white arms and legs, a delicate and pretty face with tender cherry-pink lips, and that smooth snow-white hair flowing like the Milky Way, now floating and blooming.

 

As her long, slender eyelashes slowly opened, those moist pupils like brilliant rubies cast their gaze toward the starry sky for the first time.

 

And with this, Tilia finally saw the figure that had been embracing her all along.

 

A woman with transcendent beauty, red lips brilliant, and equally bright, noble red eyes. She possessed the graceful and mature feminine quality of a woman, but her face looked no more than that of a woman in her twenties. She had a fragrant, noble aroma like a wealthy lady.

 

And her chest was particularly full and soft, with the luxurious dress barely supporting those half-exposed snow-white globes.

 

If asked why Tilia would notice this, it was because this beautiful woman with large breasts was holding her in her arms, almost burying her entire small face in them, causing her to feel ashamed and want to retreat.

 

Or perhaps… never having received such intimate contact and temptation before, she had momentarily harbored some not-so-wholesome thoughts.

 

In any case, while she had previously only been playing as a female character, and now her body was indeed that of a young girl, her inner consciousness was still the same as before. This kind of female contact was a test for her.

 

“Pfft. My daughter, having already transformed into such a cute appearance, could it be that you still have some designs on your mother?”

 

“Eh? Can my thoughts be heard!?” Tilia was startled, but more than that, the soft girlish voice she emitted made her pause. It was a familiar feeling, just like during the closed beta…

 

In any case, Tilia first apologized in her heart for that momentary improper thought.

 

But… the beautiful mature woman before her, who was looking at her with tender eyes full of affection, seemed to truly warm her like a mother.

 

…So beautiful.

 

This was the first time she had seen her, or rather, the first time she had known her.

 

She didn’t know if this contract that granted her new life was part of the game’s inherent setting, but she began to think that this game was becoming increasingly, extraordinarily real. Regardless, she had truly been reborn.

 

This was her original character from the closed beta.

 

There was no significant discomfort in her body functions, her limbs felt full of compatibility and coordination.

 

The beautiful woman slowly raised her hands, with black lace gloves covering up to her elbows, and cupped Tilia’s delicate, cute face. Seeing her suddenly panicked little expression, the woman smiled even more gently, and finally, in a congratulatory tone, said to her:

 

“Welcome to the Kingdom of Eternal Night, Tilia.”

 

“Now, go defeat Minorius once more, and continue to shine brilliantly.”

 

“— I look forward to our next meeting.”

 

As the voice gradually faded, Tilia felt the starry sky around her begin to tremble. The figure of the beautiful woman also gradually departed, still with that gentle smile full of maternal care, dissipating into the night sky.

 

Then, the entire starry sky shattered.

 

…

 

The blood moon hung in the sky, and the night wind swept up the tattered flags.

 

In the hall of the BOSS room, where ghostly light swayed, there came the crisp sound of light footsteps from high heels.

 

Those elegant and noble high heels stepped over the crystal shards covering the ground, her slender white arched feet gleaming like cold glaze under the moonlight. Black stockings wound up from her ankles, accentuating her calf muscles like taut bowstrings. The lace patterns on the side of her legs were faintly visible, finally disappearing into the crimson satin skirt.

 

Her waist-length white hair was like silk soaked in frost and snow. When the wind lifted the ends of her hair, it was as if stardust was falling. Her blood-colored pupils were more gorgeous than the finest pigeon-blood rubies. Her eye corners were lightly and delicately outlined, with a touch of heroic and beautiful blood marking at the bottom of her right eye.

 

“Roar…” The ram-horned giant Minorius stared at this scene, once again letting out a low growl.

 

But this time, it felt an unusual sense of pressure from far away, which kept approaching with those crisp footsteps. After the human died, that extraordinarily powerful and strange red lightning immediately struck through the hall.

 

Something terrible had appeared.

 

And it actually made it, as a demon, begin to tremble slightly as it held its long axe. What kind of superior race had appeared…

 

“How is this possible…”

 

In the fearful, trembling eyes of the ram-horned giant, the reflection of that small figure approaching continuously appeared.

 

Tilia’s blood-colored eyes revealed her imposing presence as she tightly gripped the blood moon scythe in her hand. Her dark-patterned black silk gloves tightened around her knuckles, with silver chains adorned with blood amber swaying lightly with each step through the slit in her dress. Each step was like treading on the intervals of a heartbeat, also marking the countdown of the ram-horned giant’s life.

 

“Roarrrrr!”

 

The ram-horned giant’s HP had only recovered to 20%, and now it had to face Tilia, the Vampire Princess in her prime, whose level had already reached Lv.48 due to the experience accumulation from the dual accounts.

 

The ram-horned giant instantly entered its second phase again, suddenly throwing its long axe toward the center of the field, preparing to execute another team mechanism.

 

But this time, the flying axe couldn’t even fall to the ground before it was struck by the blood-colored scythe with a clang, hitting a pillar. In a cloud of swirling smoke, the ram-horned giant transformed into a giant ram beast and charged toward Tilia.

 

“Heh…” Tilia laughed coldly with her gentle voice.

 

With a thunderous roar, the giant ram beast, breathing heavily while charging, desperately pawed at the ground with its four hooves. But after charging a distance, despite gouging out layers of scratches on the ground, it could not advance even a single step further.

 

Tilia raised her slender, black-stockinged leg and directly stepped on the ram beast’s head, with blood spurting from where her heel pierced its body.

 

After forcibly stopping the ram beast’s charge, she tensed her calf muscles and stomped down hard again. The ground immediately shattered into spider web-like cracks, directly flipping the ram beast’s enormous body head over heels!

 

“Roar ugh!” The giant ram beast crashed to the ground with a loud bang.

 

The axe in the center, which had been releasing paralyzing electricity, along with the war trampling mechanism, was immediately suppressed.

 

The ram beast state was quickly beaten back to its original form ahead of schedule. Minorius staggered backward, feeling dizzy, with Tilia’s proudly standing figure appearing as two overlapping images in its vision, almost collapsing to the ground.

 

“You… are not human, you deceived me… what exactly are you…”

 

Minorius retreated unarmed, with its throat continuously pulsating, and it was hard to imagine that a game BOSS would show fear.

 

It’s time to end this, Minorius!

 

Looking at its HP value, which was less than 20% remaining, Tilia rotated the scythe in her hand.

 

“I am a vampire.” Her eyes sank as the scythe in her hand emitted a dazzling red light. With a click, the charging was complete.

 

— 【Irreversible Blood Moon Cycle】!

 

With a crisp sound, the blood moon scythe’s red light flashed like starlight in the sky. A relentless, blood-red, cold crescent moon suddenly sliced through the air with irresistible force, so fast that the ram-horned giant couldn’t even react, not knowing how to respond.

 

“No—!!!”

 

It couldn’t even let out a final cry of resistance.

 

Sweeping with devastating power, Minorius’s enormous body was instantly cut in half along with the obsidian throne behind it. Even the inner walls of the entire hall suddenly burst open with a crash, with cracks rapidly climbing upward, splitting open into a shocking fault line!

 

【Critical Hit! HP-18462!】

 

The ram-horned giant’s eyes widened, its body cut in half, instantly frozen in midair, then fell down lifelessly with a crash.

 

Finally, it shattered into countless crystal fragments with a bang.