Shrouded Seascape

Lily had a terrible sleep that night. Every now and then, she'd be jolted awake by noises outside. Moreover, the room was swarming with mosquitoes.

She swept away the dust on the floor and the bed again and again, but no matter how much she swept, she would wake up to see a layer of dust again.

It baffled her how a small inn room could be this filthy.

Having gone on many expeditions with Charles and staying in the inns on each of the countless islands they had been on, she could confidently say this was the worst one yet.

Enraged, Lily stormed to the reception to file a complaint, but she couldn't find a single staff member at the front desk.

With no channel to vent her frustrations, Lily's expression turned gloomier. Of course, she didn't think too much about it. She had rested enough, and it was time to leave.

Before she went, there was one thing she hadn't forgotten—the slave traders she met the night before.

Lily could easily track those people down. Soon enough, she found their ship. A mid-sized cargo vessel with two towering smokestacks was quietly parked at the port and gently rocked with the dark waves.

Without much thought, Lily dashed toward the vessel. Facing the crew armed with guns and relics, a blinding white light burst forth from her body to illuminate every inch of the ship.

She overpowered the crew easily and entered the ship. With her powers, she removed every obstacle in her path until she reached the ship's lowest hold.

With another flash of white light, the heavy rust-covered iron lock rapidly melted away and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

In the suffocating, badly ventilated hold, Lily finally saw the slaves that had been transported to Dark Crystal Island. There was a mix of men and women, and most of them shared the same condition. After months of grueling confinement at sea, they looked like they were barely clinging to life.

A hint of sorrow flickered across Lily's eyes. Golden light spilled from her form and manifested into the shape of a spear. The spear then flew forward and effortlessly tore through the steel bars of the cage.

The deafening sound of metal tearing attracted the attention of the captives. Lily had anticipated that they would rush forward to express their gratitude, but that never happened. Instead, a deep confusion settled in their gazes.

"Who are you? You are not the captain. Why did you tear the door down?" one of the captives asked.

"Obviously, I'm here to rescue you," Lily answered, taken aback by their reactions. "Aren't you all slaves captured and sold here?"

"Of course not!" another answered sharply. "We voluntarily sold ourselves to Utopia. We even agreed to split the money with the traders. We get forty, they get sixty!"

"What?" Lily froze at the answer. For a moment, she wondered if these people were under the mind control of some monster like Anna. How could they even say something like that? Could anyone sane voluntarily sell themselves?

"Don't butt into others' business!" another snapped in frustration. "We've lost over ten lives just to get this far. If you cause any further delay, what if they think we're not worth the trouble and they don't want us in Utopia anymore!"

"Exactly! I sold my house before coming here! Hurry and leave! We don't need your rescue!"

"I've had enough of the outside world! I only want to be in Utopia!"

From their scattered, angry, and fragmented complaints, Lily finally understood what was going on. In the heart of Dark Crystal Island, the Blood Clan had built a town specially for humans and had named it Utopia.

In Utopia, humans didn't need to work. Their safety was assured, and their quality of life was guaranteed as well. The only cost of living in this seemingly perfect haven was the requirement of regular blood donations.

Lily's brows furrowed as realization dawned upon her. "Why would you choose to live like livestock? Life outside should be much better than before, no?"

However, Lily's question only managed to ignite their fury.

"Who do you think you are? I just don't want to work! Now get lost!"

"Exactly! Do you even know how much debt I'm in?"

"The advanced machines from Hope Island stole my job! Where else can I go if not for Utopia?"

"You don't get to judge our choices unless you've been through our pain!"

The captives' voices rose in anger. A few even picked up the broken iron rods on the ground and pointed the sharp, jagged ends at Lily.

A trace of pain flashed past Lily's face, but she quickly masked it. Without speaking another word, she turned around, lowered her head, and climbed the stairs leading out of the hold.

The older Lily grew, the more she realized that the world had changed. Or perhaps the world had always been this way, and she had simply been blind until now. There was no absolute good or evil. The clear, distinctive line between black and white was blurring to blend into gray.

Perhaps the world was always meant to be chaotic, with everyone struggling to fulfill their own goals. In a way, it could be said that a person could become both a hero and a villain, depending on whose perspective it was.

"Forget it," Lily muttered to herself. "I should mind my own business and find Mr. Charles."

With this thought in mind, Lily stepped onto the deck and was ready to take flight and leave Dark Crystal Island.

But before she could soar into the air, she realized she was surrounded. The sky above her was filled with an endless swarm of black bats, stopping her from leaving.

Accompanied by an eerie, rhythmic flutter of membranous wings, the bats swirled together and eventually took the shape of a man with a sinister beauty etched into his features.

"How bold of you, little girl. To think that you dare to step onto our island and attack our guests. You must be quite confident in your abilities," the man remarked.

Feeling rather down from her earlier interactions with the human, Lily had no intention of conversing with the man.

"Get out of the way. I'm leaving," Lily said in a tired voice.

"No, no. That won't do," the man replied with a low chuckle. "Naughty girls need to pay the price. I do hope you're still a pure little girl. Only then would your blood be truly delicious."

The next moment, the countless bats that covered the sky in an endless shroud opened their crimson eyes in collective unison. Together, they surged toward Lily like a massive, oppressive red carpet.

Despite the grand, ominous assault, Lily was hardly fazed. If anything, she only found them annoyingly disturbing.

Lily's gaze remained fixated on the wooden planks of the deck beneath her feet as she raised her right index finger lazily above her head. The next moment, a miniature sun, no larger than a ping-pong ball, ignited at her fingertip.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

A screech tore through the dark sky as the bats disintegrated into ash in a single second.

Under the howling sea breeze, the ashes swirled wildly in the air like a dust storm.

However, what happened next was beyond Lily's expectations. As the brilliant light of her miniature sun illuminated the gothic, shadow-laden expanse of Dark Crystal Island, a series of screeches began to echo.

White steam hissed from the skin of the vampires hidden in the dark corners and recesses of the island. Shrieks of agony and pain filled the air as their hands clawed at their blistering faces.

It was a hellish vision of the apocalypse as their cries seemed never to cease.

Clearly, the power coursing through Lily's body was far too overwhelming for these creatures to handle.

"Enough!" A voice roared from the tallest tower in the distance. An ominous shadow poured outward and eventually swallowed the entire island into darkness once more, effectively cutting off the light from Lily.

A pair of blood-red eyes appeared from within the darkness. Staring at Lily, they were filled with an almost palpable killing intent.

"What have the Blood Clan done to you that you would want to kill us so mercilessly?!"

It was evidently a female voice, and it belonged to none other than Lilith, the Mother of all vampires.

As Lilith spoke, more eyes appeared from within the shadows—dozens upon dozens of them. In the face of an existence that could threaten the existence of the entire island, every Duke and Duchess had crawled out of their graves.

However, Lily remained defiant. She had not an ounce of fear as she lifted her head and shouted, "I did nothing wrong! They attacked me first!"

It was a rather comical sight. On one side was a fuming teenage girl, and on the other, a massive shadow with hundreds of glowing red eyes.

Yet, despite their outward appearance, Lilith was hesitant and didn't dare to make a move easily. In her thousand years of existence, this was the first time she had encountered a being with powers that uniquely countered her kind.

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