"I am…" the creature spoke, voice smooth yet hollow, like silk dragged across a coffin lid, "Vel'taroth… Apostle of the Blood God."

Derek's blue eyes narrowed.This was, without question, the most powerful enemy he had ever encountered.

He activated Appraisal.

Name: Vel'tarothRank: S-Skills:

Blood Seeds (A-rank)

Blood Claws (B-rank)

Blood Bat Avatar (A-rank)

Blood Domain (A-Rank)

Blood God's Blessing (S-rank)

Class Type: Mage / Warrior hybrid

Derek's jaw tightened.

Vel'taroth stepped forward.

The blood-veins recoiled from his feet, squirming away as if even they feared to touch their master.

His robes didn't sway—they shifted.

The fabric pulsed as if alive, fed by a steady flow of blood channelled through bone-threaded seams. Derek realised it wasn't cloth at all, but stitched layers of flesh and skin, lacquered with dried gore and woven with rune-ink.

An abomination sewn from reverence and massacre.

Then Vel'taroth raised a hand—long fingers spreading like roots—and spoke:

"The mercy of the Blood God has fallen on this world. Your extinction... is a gift."

Derek didn't flinch. "Mercy?"

Vel'taroth's smile stretched just a little too far.

"Yes. Mercy. For your kind has suffered too long in ignorance, too long in weakness. Blood liberates. Blood purifies. Blood remembers. Blood embraces "

Behind Derek, Yvalna drew her blade. The wind glyph on her arm spun faster, reacting to the surging mana.

Derek reached for his twin blades slowly, never taking his eyes off the Apostle.

"Funny way of saying genocide," he said coldly. "You're not here to cleanse. You're here to feed."

Vel'taroth's eye glowed brighter, the socket of the void oozing black ichor.

"Cleansing... feeding... devotion. Call it what you will. The Blood Domain has awakened, and you—"He raised his arms slowly,"—are the first offering...So mortals...Are you prepared to enter the embrace of the Lord?"

Derek lowered his head, seemingly as if in thought.

" This apostle is strong, no doubt, but..." He raised his head, instead of the look of gloom in his eyes, there was a look of pure joy on his face.

Veltharoth's brow raised in surprise. This was not the expression he had expected on this guy's face.

" Are you feeling overconfident because of those ants some distance?... Quite foolish, mortal. All I need is just a single claw to wipe all of you out," Veltharoth said with a smirk.

Derek shook his head.

" I know, and don't intend for them to join...an S-rank beast.." Derek left his statement mid sentence, and continued in his head.

" Wonder how much credits and EXP I can get "

The twin lightning blades appeared in his hand, ad the visor of his armour closed down on his face, as he entered a battle face.

" Now let me taste the power of the false god " Derek's teasing voice rang out.

A low hum spread across the battlefield as Derek's twin blades snapped to full charge, arcs of lightning dancing across the ground beneath him. The ground shivered, reacting to the tension building between the two forces.

Vel'taroth's smirk didn't fade. "Ah… you are not the first in your unbelief, but do not worry, the mercy of the Blood God is for all."

He raised a single, clawed hand.

In that instant, the blood-veins surrounding the chamber began thrashing violently, like eels electrified beneath flesh.

The blood-veins surrounding the chamber began thrashing violently, like eels electrified beneath flesh. A pulse beat from Vel'taroth's chest—deep and reverberating. The blood didn't drip; it throbbed, syncing with an unseen rhythm. A prelude to slaughter.

But Derek moved first. A spark cracked—Flash Steps activated—and the ground erupted as he disappeared in a blur.

Air folded in behind him. Lightning-streaked wind sheared past Yvalna's cheek as Derek emerged at Vel'taroth's flank, twin blades already in motion.

The Apostle caught the first slash with a clawed hand, muscles coiled like wrought iron. The second strike nicked his robe, sending a sizzle along the stitched flesh layers. Derek's eyes narrowed behind his visor—this creature wasn't just powerful, he was layered in some sort of eldritch armour.

Vel'taroth's counter came swiftly and brutally, claws sweeping out in crimson arcs of semi-liquid death, slicing the air.

Derek ducked beneath them, skimming backwards just in time to release a delayed pulse of mana from his last strike. It cracked across Vel'taroth's arm, staggering him briefly.

Derek had the edge in timing and mobility, but the Apostle had a terrain advantage and sheer magical density.

"Hold perimeter!" Derek snapped, not breaking line of sight. Yvalna responded with layered support magic, glyphs spiralling outward from her open palm. Windweave coiled around Derek's ankles, reducing drag. Frost Halo formed a reactive shield of condensed mana. Healing pulses synchronised with his exertion. The battlefield didn't hum—it bristled, as if the very air was daring someone to exhale too deeply.

Vel'taroth then raised both hands. The blood-veins laced across the floor rose like roots seeking prey.

"Blood Domain," Derek muttered under his breath as the drag on his boots increased. It was as if the very earth wanted to slow him, to drag him into a slaughter pit.

Vel'taroth hurled a spear of coagulated blood, the projectile spinning like a drill of dying screams. Derek stepped forward into its path, twin blades crossing.

It was too late to dodge it; he had no choice but to block.

Vel'taroth hurled a spear of coagulated blood, the projectile spinning like a drill of dying screams. Derek stepped forward into its path, twin blades crossing.

"Tempest Fury: Convergence."

Lightning detonated outward as the blades met the spear mid-flight, a forked explosion of light and force rippling in all directions. Derek stood his ground—but only for a moment. The impact was cataclysmic.

He was flung backwards like a comet, skidding along the chamber floor with a trail of sparks in his wake. His boots tore into stone, steam hissing from his armour joints. The twin blades buzzed with feedback, overcharged.

His back slammed against a jagged wall. The visor cracked open at the mouthpiece, and a line of blood dripped from his lips.

Yvalna's eyes widened, her wind glyph glowing brighter as she surged more mana into the support net. "Derek—!"

But he was already upright again.

Smoke curled from his gauntlets. His fingers flexed around the hilt of his swords, trembling slightly from the force of the block. Tempest Fury's backlash had torn through the blood spear, but not without cost.

"Guess that answers that," Derek muttered, blood dribbling down his chin, "he doesn't bluff."

Vel'taroth raised an arm again, blood swirling into fresh weapons, but Derek was already moving—Flash Steps ignited again.

Crackling arcs of electricity traced behind him as he blurred around the battlefield, blades glowing brighter, movements more jagged, feral.

He wasn't dodging—he was weaving an offensive circuit, a whirling pattern of strikes designed to overload and confuse.

Mana Echo activated. Each strike left a delay-pulse: tiny bursts of disruptive force that cracked the air like suppressed thunderclaps.

Derek reappeared behind Vel'taroth mid-air, blades swirling. "Tempest Fury: Crescent Divide!"

A sweeping slash carved a crescent-shaped trail of condensed lightning toward Vel'taroth, who pivoted to block with a wall of blood. The two forces collided, splashing crimson and violet into the chamber walls.

The Apostle staggered this time. He hadn't expected the speed of the attack to increase. But Derek wasn't done.

From above, the wind gusted violently. Yvalna's wind glyph extended into a spinning gale that sharpened into a bladed tunnel. Within that funnel, shards of ice shimmered like glass daggers, all targeted at Vel'taroth.

She raised her hand. "Cryo Vortex: Spiral Fang!"

Vel'taroth raised a ward of blood to defend, but Derek Flash-Stepped directly through the outer edges of the attack, weaving between frozen shrapnel.

Tempest Fury once more—this time, both blades converged into a single spiralling thrust.

"Tempest Fury: Heartpiercer!"

A streak of blue-white light. The air split.

The Apostle raised both claws, but Derek had already embedded the strike.

Crack.

Lightning exploded outward in a pulse dome. Veins of electricity spidered across Vel'taroth's chest, rupturing several of the runes laced into his flesh-cloak.

Vel'taroth roared—not in pain, but in rage. The sound was cavernous.

He retaliated with a shockwave of blood magic, hurling Derek away again, but this time, the Apostle bled from one shoulder. Thick, syrupy black blood.

Derek skidded to a halt mid-air, using wind glyph assist from Yvalna to steady himself. He coughed, eyes burning.

"Now we're talking…" he whispered. "Let's see what that blessing of yours really does."

Vel'taroth's single eye narrowed, the ichor around it vibrating.

"You have chosen agony over peace, mortal," he hissed.

Derek twirled his blades, lightning pulsing across the edge like serpents. His cracked visor reflected the Apostle's monstrous form.

"And you've chosen a fight."

He darted forward again, light trailing him like a storm given flesh.

Derek's Resolve ( A Hundred Apologies):

I am sorry for not updating for so long, I was rushing things and compromising quantity over quality, if you know what I mean, so I took some days to cool of, and now I am back with more exciting chapters.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.