Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride

Chapter 388: Voices in the Dark

Not long after Nikolai fell, Leona organised and prepared the other maids.

She blocked off the entrance, wiping out the smaller mutants and creating a makeshift camp inside the chamber. In the centre of the camp, Nikolai rested on a bed of fur, his body wrapped in a sheet from Leonaʼs item ring.

”You are such a handful, Master...”

Ever since she slept with him, the word lord felt too stiff and empty when it left her lips. Thus, when alone, she would secretly use his name or master. Leona was happy this was and continued brushing through his silver hair, curious about his smile.

ʼWho are you smiling so happily for?ʼ

Leona wondered which of his wives could make the cold and brooding Patriarch look so serene and at peace, even in this godforsaken cave filled with a sour stench of rot and death.

”It would be ever so nice, if it were me.” She snorted. ”Yeah right... I should be so lucky.” Her thumb stroked his cheek, squishing his muscle. ”Isnʼt the fact that he accepted me enough? Letʼs take it one step at a time.”

Since she had nothing to do, Leona could only gaze around the dark cavern, using her enhanced night vision to scan the walls and various paths.

Although they initially thought the cavern was simple, the danger became obvious after two hours of searching, as two maids almost became lost. One fell into a trap and damaged her right leg, and many others suffered psychological and mental damage.

”What the hell is this place?”

A question with no one to answer it, or so she thought.

”This place is related to the towers.”

Deep.

Nikolaiʼs voice was almost raspy from overexerting himself to fight the strange beast.

”Eh? Master!?”

”Donʼt be so excited, youʼll blow my eardrums.”

Leonaʼs voice echoed through the caves as she turned to face Nikolai, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.

Nikolaiʼs lips deformed into a bitter smile; the dull throbbing aches from the battle worsened by her sudden forceful movement. ”Well... can you tell me what happened?”

”Ah, of course, my lord.”

Leona explained what happened when Nikolai was unconscious and waited patiently for his response and plans.

Nikolai shifted slightly, muscles twitching under the sheet. His body hadnʼt fully recovered. The regeneration was slow—whatever toxins the Basilisk carried burned hotter than normal, leaving his bones tender, skin tight, and his nerves aching like frostbite.

Still, he sat up.

Leona moved immediately, hand on his back, helping him upright with a soft grunt. Her arm trembled from the strain, but she didnʼt complain. Her furred ears twitched with every movement, alert.

”I hate that cave stench,” Nikolai muttered, rubbing his eyes. ”It smells like that damn Tower… only older.”

Leona didnʼt speak at first. She handed him a waterskin, then sat beside him, their knees nearly touching. Her golden eyes flicked toward the twisted stone arch across the chamber—the one they hadnʼt opened yet.

”The paths branch too much,” she said. ”Iʼve marked six so far. Two of the girls got sick just walking close to the deeper ones. Their noses started bleeding.”

”Strange...”

Nikolai didnʼt know what this symptom might mean, but sitting here all day wouldnʼt fix it, so he gave up trying.

ʼIʼll have to find it myself.ʼ

”Did you find the deepest tunnel?”

Leona nodded slowly, her tone quieter now. ”We did. Itʼs in the far rear, past a collapsed chamber. I only sent one scout in… she came back shaking. Said she heard voices.”

”Voices?” Nikolai frowned, dragging his hand through his hair.

”Not in her ears. In her head.”

He fell quiet.

The aching in his bones and the way the black blood still prickled under his skin all added to something older than any mutant or beast. This place wasnʼt just a nest. It was a wound in the world.

ʼThere should be another door, but last time...ʼ His thoughts returned to when the ghouls and his wives became hysterical and berserk when his connection to them vanished.

He wanted to avoid that happening again.

Leona sat stiff beside him, as if afraid to touch him again.

He notice her strange reaction and glanced at her.

”Are you scared?”

She hesitated for a moment.

”…Yes.”

”Well, donʼt be. I am here, arenʼt I?”

Her shoulders relaxed just enough to show her smile.

Nikolai stood, the sheet falling off his shoulders. Muscles tense, scars new and old crisscrossing his back. ”Get the girls ready. I will lead. If itʼs what I think it is, only I can handle it.”

”Iʼll go with you.”

”No... Youʼre the only one here I trust to protect the rest.”

Leona didnʼt argue because she understood the importance of solving this mystery.

”Iʼll be back,” he added, eyes locked on the far tunnel. ”Or Iʼll make damn sure this whole place comes down on their heads.”

Nikolai waved his hand before leaving towards the tunnel she mentioned.

Leona could only watch his back and felt frustrated and regretful for not keeping her mouth closed and waiting until he had to take her with him.

”Iʼm a foolish dog...”

***

The tunnel narrowed after twenty paces, walls slick with condensation and a thin film of corruption that pulsed faintly beneath his boots. Nikolai moved in silence, the dull ache in his chest growing colder with every step. He didnʼt bother bringing a torch. His night vision was strong enough, and he didnʼt want light drawing attention.

Something about this corridor didnʼt feel right.

He passed claw marks along the walls.

Something significant had tried to claw its way back up.

ʼIs this the wrong direction?ʼ

His fingers brushed the stone as he walked, leaving streaks of blood from reopened wounds and the deeper they moved the thicker and fouler the air became.

Then he heard it.

”Nikolai, you must turn back...”

His motherʼs voice echoed inside his head, different from when she resided in his necklace, but eerie and yet warm at the same time.

He stopped.

The voice was enough to warrant a reaction as it tickled his memory.

”Nikolai, come home. Youʼre tired. Thereʼs nothing down here but pain.”

A few steps later, the next voice came.

”Darling…”

”Kai!”

The next was Selene... and Nikita, their voices almost fused into one, making Nikolai feel angry and a little sick, followed by Kumikoʼs gentle complaint.

”Youʼre pushing too far again. You always do this. Come back to us. Please.”

Nikolai took a deep breath, trying to focus his mind; each time their voices echoed, it felt like someone poked his brain with a needle.

He didnʼt look back or hesitate thanks to this breath and focus.

”Nikolai, my son.”

Ivanʼs voice, a deep and powerful tone that reminded him of the past. The days he looked up to his dad like a superhero. A man able to do anything for Nikolai. He remembered the times his father ran in his sports day, ignoring his damaged heart.

ʼDad was sick for a week straight after that... hahaʼ

Another hundred steps, and the tunnel twisted, voices now more intricate and almost trying to force him to leave and turn away from the opening Nikolai could see in the darkness.

”Son. Turn around. This path leads to death, not glory.”

It echoed through the stone like wind through a broken crypt.

Nikolaiʼs fists clenched.

”Shut up,” he growled, more to himself than the voices.

With the voices gone, he walked silently and waited for the tunnel to open further.

He entered a room the size of a cathedral, though the roof couldnʼt be seen.

The walls dripped with black ooze that became thicker here, alive, squirming in slow pulses. It clung to the stone like a parasitic skin.

And in the centre… a door.

It almost seemed impossible to build a place like this.

The material shimmered like wet bone and steel, etched in looping runes that flickered in and out of vision if stared at too long.

He stepped forward.

The ooze writhed around his boots, bubbling innocently with no harm.

However, what interested Nikolai most might have been the doorway, just like the one in the ghoul nest, which would likely lead into the domain of a powerful demon or monster.

At least thatʼs what the previous door taught him.

He reached for it.

Fingers an inch away.

And stopped.

There was no pull.

No shiver in his spine like before.

Nikolai understood this door might seem imposing and dangerous, at least to those who didnʼt know the feeling of a true door to hell.

The scent, style, pressure and temperature were all wrong. Despite this, he also considered his fatherʼs future and wanted to help those who might need it.. His hand hovered over the door, breathing slowly with a slow pulse.

The voices and warmth vanished and left only silence, but he knew something was observing him.

Waiting.

To see what he would do with the door.

Although he understood this, Nikolai couldnʼt pull back.

If he just touched the door and sealed it, then thatʼs one less monster to defeat later.