SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God-Chapter 713: It was you?

Damon glanced at the still-fading system panel one last time before dismissing it. No achievements. No world announcement. No cascade of rewards. A half win, he thought. Barely. Enough to matter and maybe even enough to tip the scales against those assholes if he played it right.

Meanwhile, the father and daughter pair were hugging each other and sobbing furiously. "When will I ever see you again, my dear little plum. Every time you walk away, it feels like I’m gambling with fate. This old man’s heart can’t handle it anymore. Why couldn’t you select some idiot who is content with just staying in our palace?"

Alzara buried her face into his chest, tears soaking into his robes. "I am sorry, father. I couldn’t control my heart. I don’t want to leave you too. I promise I will come back often. I always will. I will miss you a lot too."

"You’d better. If you disappear for too long, I’ll march this old body to wherever you are and drag you back by the ear myself."

Alzara sniffed and nodded hard, still clinging to him. "You wouldn’t last a day outside the palace," she said through her tears. "You’d complain about everything."

"That’s because the world outside is terribly uncivilized," he grumbled, tightening his arms around her. "Especially now that my daughter has decided to run off with the most dangerous man alive."

Damon’s face twitched. He wanted to move a few steps away from the cringe... ahem... to give the father and daughter some privacy, but was trapped and forced to listen to the whole exchange.

After a few long minutes, the emperor pulled back. "Take care, my sweet baby. If you need anything, please let this old man know. I will somehow, somewhere get it for you. You have the crystal with you. Talk to me every day without fail. You know I cannot sleep without seeing your face."

Alzara smiled through her tears. "Yes, father, I know."

The emperor straightened, shoulders squaring as he glanced toward Damon. His eyes were still wet, but his voice was steady. "Blood God," he said quietly, "if you let anything happen to her..."

Damon met his gaze without hesitation. "Then there will be no corner of this world I can hide in," he said simply. "I understand. I will protect her with everything I have."

The emperor nodded once. "Good."

Alzara slipped her hand into Damon’s, squeezing it gently. She had a big, idiotic smile on her face, which made Damon chuckle. He silently listened to the father-daughter pair continuing to chat as he mulled over what to do next. Weirdly, the Great Western Desert Emperor wasn’t all that much different from his own parents.

Different power. Different world. Same fear. The fear of watching your child walk away into danger, knowing you no longer had the strength or the right to stop them. Perhaps if he had a daughter of his own in the future, he would react in the same way.

A cute little daughter with any of his wives would be simply... terrifying to think about. Damon shook the thought away before it could dig in any deeper. Yup, he was not ready to be a family man just yet. Best to enjoy the honeymoon phase for some time.

But then again... a little Kate would have the same delicious cheeks and pouty lips. A little Lirae would be Dad’s little princess. A little Aurora... would be a tornado for sure!

Yup, he was definitely not ready to be a family man.

Damon cleared his throat softly and pushed the thought firmly into the abyss where all dangerous future considerations belonged. He was absolutely, categorically not prepared for a cute and cuddly little monster.

Power was manageable. Enemies were manageable. A child? That was a different beast altogether.

Snapping out of it, Damon was about to interrupt the father-daughter pair and ask them if they had a time dilution training room when suddenly Damon’s primordial senses flared up.

"We have company." He stood up, his bloody aura flaring out. The warmth in the hall shattered instantly. The emperor’s expression also changed at once. All traces of softness vanished as he followed Damon’s gaze toward the far end of the hall. "Company?" he asked grimly.

Alzara felt it too. Her smile disappeared, fingers tightening around Damon’s hand. "Blood God... There are so many of them."

Damon pulled her closer and kissed her on the cheek. "We already knew this was going to happen. Don’t worry."

From multiple corridors, presences emerged. First, there were dozens of them, and then there were hundreds of them. Damon’s primordial senses swept over them in an instant. All of them were C-rank and not the sloppy kind. Each and every single one of them was a peak C-rank expert. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The massive doors creaked open, and figures began filing in, spreading out with practiced precision, cutting off exits, forming a loose encirclement around the trio. Their movements were calm, disciplined, as if they were already certain of the outcome.

The emperor let out a low, humorless chuckle. "Looks like the snakes didn’t even wait for nightfall."

A familiar presence stepped forward from the center of the group.

The crown prince.

He wore immaculate robes, his posture relaxed, his expression composed to the point of arrogance. He inclined his head politely toward the emperor. "Father."

The emperor’s eyes burned. "So it was you."

Alzara went pale. "Brother?" She couldn’t believe it. Her brother was someone who doted on her more than anyone else in the palace. From a young age, the two of them had been close. After her father, Alzara had cared about him the most. Then why?

The Crown Prince barely spared her a glance and only looked at the Emperor. "Old man, I thought you would change, but until the very end, you are nothing but a disappointment."

The emperor’s jaw tightened. "You poisoned your sister."

"Yes," the crown prince said flatly. "Slowly. Carefully. A toxin that left no obvious traces. No violent backlash. She would weaken day by day, little by little, until her death looked natural."

His eyes flicked briefly to Alzara. "I even made sure it didn’t hurt too much. If you had just left things as they were, everything would have been fine. No one would have suffered. But now, you have forced my hand. Now I have to hurt you."

Alzara’s eyes widened. "...Why?" she whispered.

This time, he looked at her. There was no warmth there. Only calculation. "Because you were never meant to survive long enough to stand in my way. The empire revolved around you. Father revolved around you. Every decision, every delay, every compromise was justified with your name."

The emperor took a step forward. "You dare-"

"You chose her over the empire," the crown prince snapped. "Again and again. And now you hand everything to a fucking bloodsucker?" He laughed sharply.

"You’ve finally proven my point. You are just a weak and pathetic old man. The empire would never survive if you continued to live. You have no ambition, no foresight, and heh... no balls, father. Always covering and hiding from the hidden orders."

"Have you ever thought what would and could happen if you joined hands with them instead of resisting them?"