The Greatest Sinner

Evan led Nessa away from the battlefield. Now the vampires had lost their strongest fighter, but now Evan could not take part in the battle either. Considering the power of his blows, he was no weaker than Nessa, even though she had two flames on her platform.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

A few blows sounded in the distance, and only after a while made the noise dies down. But, by then, no one was paying attention to Evan and Nessa's battle. Bas thought it was a good moment to attack. The vampire leader was gone, and even though the vampires outnumbered them, the mages had to cope.

"Kill them all and save Miss Laila. Use your strongest spells!" Bas said loudly and swung his staff and sent a wave of ice toward the vampires..

The vampires under attack were frozen to the ground. They weren't dead, but they needed time to get out of the trap, but no one was going to give them that opportunity. A tall man walked over and chopped the two vampires to pieces with his fire axe. He was one of the men who had decided to help Viscount Pol during the banquet.

In just a minute, the unsuccessful and very short negotiations turned into a full-blown battle. But, two men were busy doing something else at that moment.

...

Bam. Bam. Bam.

Evan unleashed another blow on Nessa. The girl flew aside and crashed her back into the wall. She quickly got up and was about to strike, but Evan ducked quickly and, hitting Nessa in the stomach, said, "No need to attack. You have a chance to convince me not to kill you. I have a proposition for you."

Nessa spat a clot of blood and said stiffly, "What?! What are you talking about, you fucking psycho! I'm going to tear you to pieces right now!"

She wasn't going to listen to Evan. He humiliated her and broke a few bones with a few punches. For the last minute, she felt like a punching bag. As a strong vampire, Nessa wasn't used to putting up with something like that.

Evan didn't say anything back. His spatial ring glowed, and a simple, wooden chair appeared beside him. Evan sat down on it as if nothing had happened, and with his hands folded together, he stared intently at Nessa.

He pulled another chair out of the ring and said, "Sit down."

Nessa didn't understand what was going on. To her, it all seemed like some kind of joke or insanity. Evan decided to hurry Nessa up and coldly said, "If you don't sit down now, I'm going to chop your legs off. I think they'll grow back pretty quickly."

<What's going on here? It's very strange, but he seems to be serious... If he wanted to kill me, he wouldn't have offered any negotiations. Moreover, he purposely took me away from the battle. I don't understand...">.

Doubts tormented Nessa, but in the end, she decided to sit in her chair. Evan could safely continue to attack her with crushing blows. She could only fight back with bloody stakes.

Evan nodded and calmly said, "Let's cut to the chase. I think you noticed that some of the blows looked very strange. I didn't mean to kill you, I still need you alive, and you do have a chance to save not only your life, but the lives of your comrades."

"What? Do you really think you could kill me?" Nessa said with a sneer. She didn't want to believe that a mage who was two flames weaker than her could kill her.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Suddenly Evan's aura significantly increased, and Nessa felt incredible pressure. Evan's left eye turned to gold, and he looked at her coldly. It was a silent, final warning. Evan gave Nessa one last chance to make things right.

Nessa gulped and said, "What do you mean? Why are you even doing this?"

She realized that Evan really could have killed her, and so she decided to move to negotiate. Nessa instinctively felt that if Evan needed it, he would kill her, even if he had to pay a high price for it.

"As I said, you have a chance to survive and save your comrades. In order to do that, you must convince me of it. Otherwise, I will rip your head off and kill your comrades. I will ask simple questions, and you answer yes or no."

Nessa nodded silently, and Evan said, "Those bloody spikes you called for in the banquet hall. Was that a skill?"

"No," Nessa answered quickly.

Evan smiled and asked, "Was that a blood magic spell?"

"Yes," Nessa answered quickly.

That was the answer Evan wanted to hear. He had brought Nessa here to question her about a few things, but it was the blood stakes that interested him most. Evan wanted to study blood magic spells, about which there was no information in the mage academy or in the informant's memories.

"Good, now you can answer freely. First of all, why are you the only one who can use spells?"

Evan didn't understand why the other vampires didn't cast spells. They fought like monsters, relying on the strength of their bodies and the sharpness of their claws and fangs.

"Not all vampires can use spells. Only a select few are capable of it, such vampires are known as nobles. It's something like how ordinary people are different from mages." Nessa said calmly. 

She decided to answer Evan's questions quickly and honestly. She noticed that when she mentioned the blood magic spell, his eyes sparkled.

"Vampires are like both humans and monsters. Can you have skills?"

"Yes, but there are very few vampires who have evolved. There are far fewer of them than nobles. Such vampires gain a very powerful ability and become much stronger themselves." Nessa replied.

"Okay, then I have a proposition for you. I will help you kill people and protect your comrades and this girl. But, I have a condition. You must provide me with as many blood magic spells as you can."

At the exact moment, Nessa saw a ray of hope. She believed that Evan was deadly serious. If that wasn't true, then his previous actions made no sense.

"I only know one spell of blood magic, I only recently became a nobleman...but there is another spell of blood magic in my spatial ring."

"That's not enough," Evan said quickly.

Just two spells weren't enough. Evan decided to take that risk because he was interested in learning blood magic spells. He was surprised by the power of that spell Nessa had cast in the banquet hall, but that wasn't the main reason why he wanted to learn more blood magic spells.

One of Evan's goals was to create his own spell, namely the Blood Brush. Because of recent events, Evan put his experiments on hold. But, he understood that it was impossible to create a blood magic spell if he didn't have any examples. Otherwise, he would have to spend several thousand years. Evan didn't want to wait that long.

The more blood magic spells he had, the more information he would have. This way, he would greatly speed up the creation of his own spell.

The two spells Nessa spoke of were not enough, but it was better than nothing. However, Evan didn't need to fight on the side of the vampires to get those spells. He could simply get this information out of Nessa's head. She had to offer Evan something more to get his help.

"I really don't have any more spells, but my brother does. He surely knows at least ten spells of blood magic. Moreover, he is the one we are waiting for. We kidnapped this girl at his behest. For the same reason, I decided to gather all the vampires in one place. We're waiting for him, we have about fifteen more minutes to hold out."

"How strong is your brother? Can he alone save you all?" Evan asked.

"He's a nobleman like me, but he's different. Unlike my older brother, I don't have any title yet. I have to reach the stage - Two-Pointed Star - to get the Baron title." Said Nessa.

"I take it your brother is the Baron?" Asked Evan.

"Yes, and not only that, he's also one of the few evolved vampires."