Volume 4 Chapter 263

Volume 4 + Chapter 263: The Shadow of Gluttony

“Shadow of Gluttony, devour my body.”

Xia Yi heard the voice of the Legendary Beast, and instinctively spoke the words aloud.

At that very moment, she finally understood everything.

So it turned out that the colossal beastly shadow she had once seen in the northern polar region had not been a dream at all, it was Beelzebub, the Beast of Gluttony.

During the Mythic Era, Beelzebub had once descended upon the Dragon Realm through a summoning ritual.

At that time, the Silver Dragon Queen, Cynthia, in order to save her kingdom and her kin, made use of the Dragon God’s divine authority to teleport Beelzebub to the far northern polar lands. Thereafter, she sacrificed her own life to create a subspace, sealing Beelzebub within it.

The gigantic beastly shadow witnessed by the dragons of the extreme north amid the howling snowstorms was precisely Beelzebub’s figure projected from that subspace onto the land when it stirred in the process of awakening.

Even a projection of a Legendary Beast was something no ordinary lifeform could bear. After witnessing its terrifying form, all who saw it fell into madness.

There was only one exception, 

Xia Yi.

Because Xia Yi had already confronted three Legendary Beasts before, even witnessing Beelzebub’s projection did not affect her sanity.

Perhaps for that very reason, Beelzebub cast its gaze upon her, affixing its projection to her body, thus gaining the means to leave the far northern lands.

The objective of Beelzebub, the Beast of Gluttony, was no different from that of the other Legendary Beasts, all of them were creations born to exterminate every form of life upon this land.

As Xia Yi continued to fall into death, on the brink of losing her life, Beelzebub emerged from the endless darkness, drew close, split open its maw, and swallowed the petite silver dragon girl in a single bite.

……

……

“Heh heh, become my thrall, Xia Yi.”

Elizabeth smiled as she looked at the dying Xia Yi.

She reached out, brushed aside the tangled silver hair from Xia Yi’s face, revealed her fangs, and bit down on her slender neck, piercing the skin.

She knew it well, in such circumstances, a life endlessly falling into the abyss of death would grasp at even the faintest glimmer of light without hesitation.

By granting the Embrace, transforming the target’s race and bestowing a new life, this was a temptation no one could resist at the brink of death.

The ritual of the Embrace began.

Yet, what puzzled Elizabeth was this, Xia Yi was clearly on the verge of death, so why did she show no response at all when the Embrace was bestowed?

Just as Elizabeth was about to check Xia Yi’s physical condition, a foreign object appeared in her mouth, and it was moving.

“Cough, cough… what is this?!”

After a bout of coughing, the foreign object finally left her mouth.

When she saw what it was, she froze.

It was… a fly?

Elizabeth could not comprehend it.

The Embrace ritual required extracting the target’s blood and replacing it with vampiric blood, thereby turning the target into a vampire and making them one’s thrall.

What she had just done was precisely the act of drawing Xia Yi’s blood, so why had dragon blood turned into flies?!

Elizabeth loathed flies.

Just as she was about to crush the fly between her fingers, an extremely bizarre scene unfolded.

At some unknown moment, the surrounding space was already filled with flies, so many that it made one’s scalp tingle.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, 

An astonishing number of flies converged toward a single target, completely covering Xia Yi’s body. Like a mass of black shadows, they swallowed her whole.

The “Xia Yi” who should have been utterly incapable of movement suddenly lifted her head and looked toward Elizabeth.

“……”

In that silent gaze, Elizabeth sensed a strange aura, one that awakened memories buried deep within her from the Mythic Era.

A calamity was descending.

“Xia Yi?”

Elizabeth tried to call out to her, attempting to initiate a dialogue.

But what answered her was not coherent speech, only a mindless, irrational roar.

“Graaahhhh!!”

A massive crack split open across “Xia Yi’s” head, as if it were opening a mouth, revealing nothing but bottomless darkness within.

She raised her hand, seized a blood spear, and directly thrust the weapon into her own mouth. The moment the spear touched that darkness, it disintegrated, dissolved, and was annihilated.

The entire process was crystal clear, Elizabeth witnessed every detail.

Then “Xia Yi” pulled out the blood spears embedded in her body one by one, placed them into her mouth, and devoured them all.

Such an utterly anti-common-sense scene left Elizabeth speechless.

By her understanding, the being standing before her was no longer Xia Yi, nor did it resemble any conventional form of life.

“Uraaaah!!”

“Xia Yi” swung her arm toward Elizabeth, like a claw strike, violently slashing upward from below.

Had she been facing the original Xia Yi, Elizabeth might not have cared in the slightest. While using the Body of Burning Blood, she would have chosen to take the hit head-on, mock her opponent, and feel nothing at all.

Yet now, fear arose within her heart.

After awakening in this era, she had first repaired her shattered soul through Miu Miu, then restored her bloodline using the Nine-Vein Imperial Blood. As the Vampire Ancestor, invincible in this world, this was the first time she had ever felt such an emotion.

Driven by fear, Elizabeth did not remain in place. Instead, she actively dodged to the side, choosing to avoid the edge of “Xia Yi’s” assault.

Whoosh!

“Xia Yi’s” arm extended with black shadows like writhing tentacles, slicing across the sea of blood released through Elizabeth’s divine authority of blood, leaving behind a massive, savage claw mark.

The portion of the blood sea that was struck was actually carved away.

It did not evaporate, nor was it transferred elsewhere, it simply vanished into nothingness, as though it had been devoured by the black shadow released by “Xia Yi”!

After devouring it, the black shadow around “Xia Yi” grew ever denser, even beginning to evolve from a loli-like form toward the shape of a fly.

“How is this possible?!”

Elizabeth’s face was filled with disbelief.

This was the divine authority of blood!

On this land, the only thing that could stand above divine authority could only be…

She reexamined the “Xia Yi” before her, her gaze changing as her crimson eyes trembled.

A name she did not wish to utter surfaced in her heart, 

Beelzebub, the Beast of Gluttony.

The “Xia Yi” before her was not the complete Beast of Gluttony, but rather the Shadow of Gluttony.

The Shadow of Gluttony would wield the authority of the Beast of Gluttony, devouring all life and energy to fuel its growth, until it became capable of fully bearing the Legendary Beast itself.

At that moment, Beelzebub, sealed within the subspace, would use the Shadow of Gluttony as its vessel to descend once more upon this land, exterminating all life upon it.

[https://ko-fi.com/golden_dragon]