My Horny Stepmom Turns Me into Her Vampire Slave

Chapter 181: Zayn’s ace in the hole

"Ren! Hang on! I’m coming!" Zaira cries as she dives after him, racing to catch Ren’s falling body before it smashes into the ground.

Meanwhile, Iris and Yuzu move to intercept Raelor, positioning themselves directly in his path.

Their eyes, blurred by tears of rage and despair, remain locked on him.

"What do you two hope to accomplish? Move aside. I’m not here to hurt you," Raelor says in a flat, emotionless voice.

"S-Shut up..." Iris hisses through clenched teeth as a violent vortex of violet energy erupts around her.

"My brother... my little sister... You can’t even begin to imagine what they’ve been through because of you! I don’t give a fuck if you’re the strongest Incubus alive. No one gets to hurt my family! Raelor... now I’m going to make you feel every bit of the pain you’ve inflicted on them!"

Iris’s aura continues to grow, expanding into a gigantic violet hurricane, with her and her sister sheltered safely within its eye.

For the first time, Raelor’s usual impassive expression gives way to a flicker of genuine surprise.

"Iris Toya... so this is the strength born from your hatred and your grief...? It’s truly remarkable."

A faint smile tugs at the corner of his lips.

"Tell me... does Ren know you’re stronger than he is?"

Iris doesn’t answer.

She simply keeps glaring at him in fury as she gathers more and more energy into her hands, condensing it into two increasingly dense, crackling spheres of violet energy.

"Yeah... that’s what I thought. You kept it from him so you wouldn’t wound his pride, didn’t you? I suppose it would be quite humiliating for him to learn that the little sister he’s so desperate to protect is actually stronger than he is."

"I-I told you to shut your fucking mouth!" Iris snarls. "I don’t want to hear your voice ever again... You destroyed Ren’s life... you destroyed Yuzu’s life... and now I’m going to destroy yours!"

Iris brings her hands together, merging the two spheres of energy into a single one that combines all of their destructive power.

She hurls the devastating spell at Raelor — a blast powerful enough to wipe the tallest hill in the Tama region off the map.

An instant before Iris’s attack reaches him, a sphere of crackling electricity closes around Raelor.

The explosion is catastrophic.

An intense violet flash lights up the sky, and even the ground several kilometers below trembles beneath the sheer force of the blast.

And yet... Raelor’s barrier remains completely unscathed.

"S-Sis... h-how is this possible...?" Yuzu whispers, frozen between disbelief and terror.

Iris, on the other hand, isn’t surprised in the slightest.

She knows all too well just how overwhelmingly powerful Raelor is.

She’d known from the very beginning that the attack she’d poured every last drop of her mana into wouldn’t be enough to trouble him in the slightest.

But the alternative would’ve been surrendering without even trying.

"At this point... I believe I’ve seen everything I needed to see," Raelor says.

Then he extends one arm toward them.

At that gesture, the sphere of electricity surrounding him suddenly expands, engulfing Iris and Yuzu before either of them even has time to realize what’s happening.

The violet aura surrounding them vanishes. Their wings retract. Their mana is sealed by Paralysis Magic.

Unlike Ren, who needs his sword to channel that power, Raelor is capable of infusing it into long-range spells as well.

Knocked unconscious by the violent electrical shockwave, the two girls plummet toward the earth, disappearing through the black storm clouds blanketing the skies above Tokyo.

◇◇◇

"It’s time to resume our fight, Platinum Death! Come at me!" Zayn roars, a sadistic, exhilarated grin spreading across his face.

Without wasting a single second, he launches himself at Isabelle with renewed ferocity.

At that very moment, seizing the opportunity, Lazarus, Dorian, and Evelyne charge at Chris, Mia, and Leon.

Blake, meanwhile, remains on the sidelines.

"Stay sharp. Watch out for the power of the Tear of Azkarith — and above all, the Destruction Dragon Eyes. I’ve taught you how to counter that ability, but if you lose focus for even a second, you’ll be burned to ashes before you even realize what’s happening," Constantine warns.

He remains on the sidelines as well, his eyes fixed on the battle between Isabelle and Zayn.

"Who the hell do you take us for, old man? Need I remind you we’re the elite of the Kingdom of Mildlar?" Evelyne snaps as she conjures dagger after dagger and hurls them at Mia.

Mia manages to dodge some and deflect the rest with her scythe.

A heartbeat later, Dorian and Lazarus launch a direct assault against her as well.

But Chris and Leon intercept them before they can reach her.

"Wow... an Innatus. Now that’s interesting..." Lazarus remarks as his blood spear clashes against Chris’s bone spear. Chris is now clad in his orange bone armor.

"...Hey, you guys. This one’s got an Innatus, see? He’s got to be worth at least thirty points!" Lazarus calls out to Dorian and Evelyne.

"Yeah, lucky you. You got someone worth fighting. I got stuck with this loser instead. He can’t be worth more than ten points," Dorian grumbles as he bombards Leon with a relentless barrage of slashes from his twin blades.

Leon barely manages to fend them off with his rapier.

For a brief moment, a violent violet flash erupts high in the sky, followed by a tremor that shakes the earth below.

But the battles continue as if nothing had happened.

Chris, thanks to his Innatus, somehow manages to hold his own against Lazarus.

Mia is clearly struggling against Evelyne, her strength drained by the grueling training session she’d just gone through with Isabelle.

As for Leon, he’s being completely overwhelmed by his opponent.

The duel between Zayn and Isabelle continues without pause, with the balance of the fight clearly tilted in Isabelle’s favor.

She lands a lightning-fast slash that tears across Zayn’s abdomen, follows it with a crushing stomp to his chest, and then drives a punch up into his chin.

Thrown completely off balance and left wide open by the relentless assault, Zayn has no way of avoiding Isabelle’s next thrust, aimed straight at his head.

A killing blow... had Constantine not intervened at the last instant, knocking her blade aside with a swift, powerful swing of his war hammer.

The two exchange a brief glance.

Isabelle’s eyes radiate absolute confidence.

Constantine’s remain calm, serious, and unwavering.

Zayn pushes himself back to his feet and leaps backward, clearly in pain, yet still wearing the same sadistic grin across his face.

His severe wounds heal in an instant. So do the cuts Isabelle sustained on her right thigh and left forearm during their exchange of blows.

"So the saying really is true... the enemy of your enemy is your friend," Isabelle says, the blade of her massive sword hissing as it grinds against Constantine’s war hammer.

"Nothing personal, Isabelle. The two of us stand a better chance of defeating you. That’s all."

"Oh, you’re sorely mistaken if you think I need your help," Zayn hisses, letting his cracked, unusable blood saber slip from his hand and clatter to the ground.

"Though you are right about one thing. This will be a two-on-one...just not in the way you think."

And then, all of a sudden...

The crimson aura surrounding Zayn darkens into a black deeper than the night itself.

Even his irises turn the same pitch-black color.

A new saber materializes in his hand, forged from black blood.

The very same black blood now courses through his body, tracing every vein beneath his skin in a web of darkness.

Isabelle instinctively leaps backward, her massive sword leveled at Zayn, genuine concern written across her face.

Constantine does the same, moving to stand beside her.

Both of them can clearly sense the staggering surge in Zayn’s power.

Yet neither can comprehend how such a thing is possible or what that terrifying dark power engulfing his body truly is.

Constantine’s expression twists into one of anger and bitter disappointment.

Zayn Thzraneel... what have you become...? What kind of monster have you become in your desperate pursuit of power?

"Platinum Death. Constantine. Now the real fight begins!"