"Hey, did you really think I was dead?" Alucard asked with a slight smile on his face as he appeared behind Alia.

Alia flinched, slowly turned around, and said in a trembling voice, "What...? How is that possible? When did you have time to recover...? Sir didn't even leave a drop of blood from you...!'

Whooooooooooosh.

Gael swung his sword as a stream of wind with particles of ash headed in their direction, fluttering Alucard's hair and coat.

"Eh... You're still too young to fully understand what it means to be on the Transcendence Stage." Alucard shook his head, pressed Krakos with Alia against him, and turned into a shadow, finding himself in front of Gael.

Alia hurriedly removed Alucard's hand from her shoulder and ran toward Gael with a worried expression. She took his hand and asked, "Sir, are you all right? Your wounds... They were terrible."

Tap.

Gael put his hand on her head, rubbing her hair lightly, and with a good-natured smile on his face said, "Sure, if Alucard really wanted to hurt me, he wouldn't have used such weak techniques, though maybe he just didn't warm up."

"Hah, I, unlike you, am perfectly capable of controlling my power, no matter what state I'm in. If I had fought in earnest, one of my attacks would have wounded Alia for sure, you wouldn't have forgiven me for that." Alucard spoke with a confident smirk as he crossed his arms across his chest, "The last thing I want to see is you angry. That's not something even I'm ready for."

"What...? You didn't fight to the best of your ability...?" Alia muttered while in disbelief.

She had been on God Stage for a long time, but she knew clearly that against Alucard she would not have lasted even a second, now she heard that none of this was serious.

"Sure. Why would friends use their most powerful skills in friendly combat? It just doesn't make sense, moreover, if Alucard would have used more power in that last attack then I wouldn't have been able to recover that forest so easily." Gael looked at the flame trees, which still hadn't returned to their former appearance, but was gradually getting taller.

"Friends...? Sir... are you serious?" Alia asked while in confusion as she frowned.

Usually, Vampires and Ashens feuded or treated each other with suspicion since the hot blood of Ashens was the natural enemy of all Vampires. They could not drink it as it would burn them from within.

"Yeah. I know your teacher more than you can imagine." Alucard said as he approached her.

"But... What about the relationship between the races? I mean... Vampires and Ashens, isn't that weird?" Alia asked with a sincere look as she pressed a hand to her chest.

"Hmmm, your words make sense, but it mattered to us, a long time ago." Alucard muttered in a thoughtful way, "As strange as it may sound, we as Progenitors don't care at all what members of our races do. After the Transcendence Stage, it no longer matters in any way."

"Alucard is right." Gael nodded with a confident look, "In the days when we didn't know there was a Transcendence Stage and thought the God Stage was the limit of power, we were forced to act as rulers of our races. Obviously, in that case, there were conflicts between the Progenitors from time to time. I and Alucard fought a few times, which started our friendship."

"Hah, that was a fun time." Alucard smirked as his gaze drifted to the shining tree far, far away, "However, after the appearance of Nameless King things changed."

"Nameless King...? Why did you mention him? Didn't he die a long time ago?" Alia raised an eyebrow with a confused expression.

"Sure. Even a man as strong as him couldn't escape death. Though... I'm sure if he were a vampire he'd be immortal, just like me." Alucard uttered as he frowned at the strange feeling that was keeping him confused.

"Nameless King was the first to discover the Transcendence Stage. Only after him, the Progenitors, the strongest monsters, and the Arkans realized that the God Stage was not the peak of their abilities, it was only a cage that didn't need to be held as long as we did. Gael said while shaking his head, then his gaze became serious as he stared at Alucard, "Tell me, what happened to the other Progenitors?"

Alucard smiled, closed his eyes, and sighed.

At the same time, millions of bats opened their eyes around the world. They were practically everywhere, on the edge of the world, in a simple tree, or some organization's top-secret base. There were no barriers for the bats as it was useless to get rid of them.

Alucard opened his eyes, they turned completely red with a black swirl inside as if he could hypnotize anyone just with his gaze.historical

"What's going on...?" Alia flinched as she felt uncomfortable with his gaze.

"Well... The most correct explanation would be that Alucard is literally looking at the whole world right now as though it is right in front of him. I don't know how he does it, but he gets information from thousands of bats looking through their eyes at the same time." Gael said in a serious voice. He had only seen Alucard use this skill a few times and it was always impressive.

The bats followed hundreds of battles in Lands of the Gods, but some of them headed for the shining tree, one of the upper floors.

Whoooooooosh.

A few bats flew in through the cracks in the tree inside.

"Hm, what the hell is that?" Wain uttered with a confused look as he tilted his head.

Behind him lay a massive, wounded monster whose dark blood drenched the stone floor. There were no more obstacles on the way to the top as Wain had already passed the last floor. All he had to do was climb to the top.