NOVEL NEXT Chapter 155: Hello… Bloodbeggar
Thuck!
A wet splattering sound echoed through the tunnel.
The noise froze them all.
From the darkness behind, Nergal stepped into view. His eyes burned with deathly fire, his mouth dripping crimson as he spat out a severed human hand. The bloody fingers slapped against the ground with a sickening splat.
He stared at them... unblinking.
Fear and dread slammed into their hearts. Raphael's friend scrambled to the ladder, but before she could climb, the shopkeeper shoved past her.
"Fucker!!" she hissed, clicking her tongue, but she had no time to fight him.
She grabbed the rungs and hauled herself up right after him.
"Come on, bitch, open it!!" the man roared at the woman above, as she still struggled with the plate.
"It's stuck!!" she cried, muscles straining as she pushed against the rusted iron.
"These fucking useless women—"
The man's curses broke as his head tilted down. Below, Nergal advanced, each step slow, deliberate, like the inevitability of death itself.
"Fuck… fuck!!" Raphael's friend groaned. They were so close—so close! If they failed now, it was over.
Dead meat!!
Her frantic eyes shot to the manhole plate above. It was rusted, edges corroded, fused in place by sticky fluids hardened over time.
The woman's palms slipped on the damp iron, her arms shaking.
It looked like no one had ever opened this hatch.
This was not going to work… so…
Just then—
"Oi… little to the side!" Raphael's friend barked. Everyone glanced down at her in confusion until they noticed the gun in her trembling hand, aimed directly upward.
They scrambled out of the way without hesitation as she pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The deafening blast echoed through the tunnel, rattling the iron walls.
The bullet struck the thick manhole plate above, and for the first time, it jolted, flipping slightly loose.
"Now push it!!" she shouted.
The woman at the top threw her body against the heavy cover, shoving with all her strength. Slowly, painfully, the plate gave way, and a shaft of streetlight pierced through the darkness.
"Oh? This is the first group that ever opened it…"
The mocking voice echoed, making them shiver down their spine.
Dracula appeared, his lips stretched into a wide, hungry grin.
Beside him, Nergal.
The two looked as if nothing could stop them—nothing could ever let prey escape.
"Faster!" the man shrieked as the woman finally shoved the plate aside. With a desperate cry of relief, she scrambled out and vanished into the street above.
Raphael glanced back at her friend.
"Just go already, I'm coming behind you!"
Raphael's friend shouted.
Raphael climbed quickly, reaching for the light.
Next came the shopkeeper. He clawed at the ladder. He clambered up and reached the surface—then froze. He glanced down at Raphael's friend still below him, hanging on.
His lips twisted into a sneer. "Fuck you!!"
He lashed out with his boot, kicking her square in the face and hands.
Her grip slipped, and her body plummeted.
Thud!
"Arhh!!" Her cry ripped through the air as her back slammed against the stone floor.
Dracula chuckled, "They're just like before… betraying their own kind without hesitation, just to save their own skin. Haha…"
Meanwhile, Raphael reached the surface.
She grasped the shopkeeper's hand and yanked him free.
The woman who escaped first was already gone, sprinting into the night without a backwards glance.
As the man scrambled up beside her, Raphael's heart froze. She looked down through the open manhole, eyes searching frantically.
"Where is she?"
Then she saw her... her friend sprawled on the ground, her body curled in pain.
"Close it, bitch!!" the man barked, already shoving at the cover.
"M-My friend is down there! I need to help her!" Raphael cried, reaching desperately.
"The fuck you want, bitch—" He rammed his shoulder into her, shoving her aside, and slammed the manhole shut with a harsh clang.
"NO!!!" Raphael screamed, but it was too late.
The iron lid sealed, leaving her friend in the darkness below.
Meanwhile, her friend lay on the cold ground, the gun trembling in her hand. She raised it weakly, her breath ragged, her voice breaking.
"D-Don't you dare…" she whispered.
Both Dracula and Nergal grinned, stepping closer.
"Did she really think she could kill us with that toy?" Dracula smirked.
He tapped his temple mockingly with one finger, once, twice, three times. His eyes rolled upward—
Tang!
The bullet she had fired earlier slipped out, clattering to the ground.
Her face twisted with horror, but still... she told herself it was fine.
After all, she had saved her friend.
Even if she didn't make it out alive, at least Raphael had escaped. That was all she ever wanted. She saved her… and that thought alone gave her a shred of peace.
She.... she...
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but her expression no longer showed fear.
Dracula grinned, his lips curling into a smirk as he studied her.
"Do you really think you saved your friend? … Haven't you noticed?"
His crimson eyes glowed as he leaned closer. "Someone is missing from our side."
Her face drained of colour instantly. A chill ran through her chest, the fleeting peace shattering like glass.
Meanwhile, above ground—
A monstrous bat loomed over Raphael and the man. In its clawed hands, it dangled the woman who had escaped first, holding her like a fragile doll.
Camazotz's blood-smeared mouth stretched into a cruel grin as he fixed his gaze on the survivors.
"Tsk, tsk… so pitiful," he muttered, his tone deadly yet laced with mocking delight. "But I like it."
The woman thrashed weakly, her eyes wild with terror. "P-Please don't! Please… please!" she begged, her words spilling in desperate sobs.
Camazotz's jaws unhinged wider. With one swift motion, he bit deep into her neck.
CRUNCH!
Blood sprayed violently, splattering the street, the walls, and the manhole cover.
Raphael's stomach twisted as her face turned grim... The man beside her staggered back.
Camazotz grinned wider, licking the crimson off his jagged fangs.
Meanwhile, back underground—
Raphael's friend stared blankly at Dracula. His satisfied smirk deepened, savouring the sight of her face twisting into horror as realisation set in.
Her trembling hand raised the gun. Her voice cracked with rage, her grief spilling into fury.
"FUCK YOU!!"
BANG!
"DIE!!"
BANG!
"DIE!!"
BANG!
"DIE!!"
"JUST DIE ALREADY!!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
She pulled the trigger again and again, each blast echoing like thunder in the sewage tunnel. Her expression was frantic, lost, her tears flowing freely as the bullets tore through Dracula's body.
She hadn't even saved the woman.
Then—
PUFF!!
Flames erupted suddenly from her gun, the air flickering bright as a shockwave burst outward. The blast shoved her backwards with brutal force, sending her stumbling into the wall.
Dracula chuckled, tilting his head, "Idiot… do you even know where you are?"
His body healed as he spoke, the wounds closing, the holes in his flesh knitting shut slowly but surely.
His grin never wavered.
She panted heavily, tears blurring her sight. Of course, she knew.
She was in the sewers.
The stench of methane clung to every breath, the air thick with flammable gases... One strong, big flame was enough to turn the entire place into fire and ash.
That was the only reason it hadn't exploded before—the concentration was too low. But when she fired again and again, her reckless desperation had triggered the small chain reaction.
Still… what else could she have done?
If she was going to die anyway, then at least she would die fighting.
Her blurred gaze lifted to Dracula. His face warped, twisted, his mouth stretching unnaturally wide until it consumed half his face.
"I… I am sorry, Raphael," she muttered, her voice trembling as her hand lifted the gun toward her own head.
She would rather die on her own terms than be torn apart alive.
"I-If there is another life, please be my friend again..."
With a final tear sliding down her cheek, she pressed the trigger… or so she thought, when—
Flick~
A strange playing card... an ace? whipped past her face and Dracula's wide mouth, slicing the air with a sharp whistle.
Thud!
In that instant, Dracula shout back violently, his body jerking back as if struck by some unseen force.
He stumbled away, literally flung aside, his face twisting—not in pain, but in something far rarer for him... Fear?
"Hah… the bat got traumatised by a simple card."
The voice that followed was low, cold, and dripping with murderous indifference.
Its echo rolled down the tunnel like the tolling of a death bell.
Everyone froze. Their heads turned toward the sound, but none more sharply than Dracula himself.
His crimson eyes narrowed, glowing with fury as he whipped around to face the source.
From the abyss of shadow, two glowing eyes emerged—red, rimmed in black, gleaming, dangerously.
Step by step, a man with reddish black hair walked forward out of the darkness.
His expression was blank, carved from stone, unreadable yet brimming with something colder than rage.
"Hello… Bloodbeggar~"