Chapter 831 Nightmare
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As Ruby slept, the voice of someone resonated within her dreams. She was quickly interrupted from her innocent dreams about spending time with her friends and enjoying a nice evening, about how she wished she could spend more time with her mother and her father… wishing to be a normal girl. The one that caused such an interruption was an arrogant and dark presence, engulfing her happy and colorful dreams into endless darkness, the abyss of deep despair quickly took over her little soul, as she found herself trapped within a hell made of black and red.
"Huh? W-What's happening? Where am I?"
Ruby began to run away from this black and red abyss, the darkness continued to chase her over, as she ended tripping with something, falling into an endless hole. As she fell she cried, feeling desperate, weak, and small. The entire darkness engulfed her within its endless maws, as countless red eyes opened wide, glaring her down with their menacing pupils.
"W-Wha… help… HELP!" She cried, but nobody answered.
The eyes arrogantly glared her down… as if she were a mere little ant, an insect that couldn't escape from them, a prey they wanted to devour. Ruby felt hopeless and lost, without anybody that could come to help her. She had already fallen into something, a Nightmare deeper and more monstrous than any other she had ever experienced before.
"Child…"
Suddenly, it spoke. The monstrous entity, the presence watching over her spoke. It spoke with a strange and monstrous voice, directing itself to her, to Ruby. It was so familiar yet incredibly threatening. Ruby felt fearful, she swallowed saliva in fear, she trembled, she felt stiff, she was paralyzed.
"You're wasting too much time. [Fate] will soon break and destabilize. Come to my other fragments, return to your mother. Become my Vessel."
"V-Vessel…? Ah…! No… Y-You're…?!"
"It is I, nobody else than me, of course. Your greatest ancestor. Without me, you wouldn't exist, Pure Vampiress Ruby, youngest descendant."
"A-Ancestor… Venerable of Blood?!"
"Precisely. You're one of my greatest creations, the finest one. Your body is tuned with great power and potential, you're brimming with youth, my body has long ago dried out and turned to ashes, I need a young and energetic body! You were made, designed by me to become my vessel!"
"B-But I don't want to…! Leave me alone… My mother let me go because she didn't wanted me to become the vessel… A-And there's that one woman… she was also oppressing us, why haven't you done anything against them?!"
"Insolent child! You dare direct your voice back to your ancestor in such a manner?! Do you have a death wish?!"
"I-I don't… But if I die, you will be left… with no vessel, don't you?"
"Tch! You think you can blackmail me? And even more, if you want to free your family, go back there, grab my fragments, unify them! You're already ripe! How long are you planning to leave me waiting?!"
"I don't want to… Y-You're a bad person, you're evil! I don't want to let you revive…"
"You… Do you realize I am only asking you because I hold you into consideration?"
"Eh?"
"I can merely take over your body at any given moment if I want, massacre all your loved ones and then leave forcefully anyways! You've lived enough with this weird Ice Dragon… Return to me or all those you love will die."
"T-There's no way you can do that… D-Drake is now a God, he's strong!"
"And the pendant you carry has a fragment of my soul, a Venerable. Do you think he stands a chance? Gods were wiped out with a wave of my hand! All the world was beneath my feet, I crushed them all with my power! I bathed the world with blood and destruction… There was no way anyone could ever oppose me! And you're saying that dragon stands a chance?!"
"H-He's strong… he's a nice person… He loves everyone here… Drake is… a kind man."
"Even if he could somehow kill you, you would had already rampaged enough! And who's sleeping next to you in another bed?"
"Ah…!"
"Yes, the children… Do you want them all to become your dinner? You've wished it, don't you? You're getting tired of dragon blood, the tasty blood of children, sweet and young, ready to be tasted… Ahhh~! It has been truly a long time since I've drank it! It wouldn't be a bad thing to possess you and drink it all!"
"N-No…! Nooo!"
"If you don't want me to do it, then obey me."
"T-This is… I…"
"Its their lives or… yours, you choose."
"…"
Ruby fell into silence, as her eyes quickly lost their light, she felt completely hopeless and lost… She didn't know what to do.
"B-But how can I get back there? I am inside of Drake's Divine Realm… And how are we going to deal with her?"
"Luckily for you, I've already negotiated a temporary treaty and alliance with Oberon! All of his colors are now my allies, so that one annoying Vampiress is now your ally as well, your mother is probably alright too, Ruby. And it is an easy task for this pendant to teleport you back to your kin through the {Bloodline Seeker} Ability it possesses, I shall use Divine Power to activate it… But I need your approval, touch the pendant!"
"But you… promise to not hurt Drake and everyone else… right?"
"I promise it! I don't care about that stupid lizard anyways."
"…"
Ruby fell into silence, as she suddenly woke up, she opened her eyes, looking around in silence. She started to cry for a bit, as if everything she had built here, everything was crumbling apart. Her friends, her uncle that was like her second father, and Drake and his family…
"I'm sorry…" She sighed, touching her pendant, as a flash of red light illuminated the room for a few seconds before she disappeared without leaving a single trace behind that morning. Fuyu, however, quickly realized Ruby suddenly teleported away, and immediately told Drake.
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