"The seventh pupil ring has reached saturation again. Its level can be increased."The voice of the Ultimate Pupil echoed within Kurogai 's mind, informing him of his current state.
It seemed that the quantity had finally reached a point of transformation.
Kurogai frowned slightly. He wasn't as excited as one might expect. Most of the vampires had already been hunted down by him, yet the Ultimate Pupil still hadn't reached its complete form. That likely meant that even if he hunted more, the seventh pupil ring wouldn't progress any further.
Would he need to keep exterminating vampires and slowly raise the pupil ring like before—when he absorbed the power of mutants?
Kurogai leaned back in thought, unwilling to waste time with a drawn-out process.
"No… there's one last way," he muttered. "Dracula—the ancestor of all vampires."
Dracula. The first and mightiest of his kind. Possessing superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and reflexes, with a near-immortal lifespan and immunity to every disease known to man. Unlike the rest of his descendants, Dracula was free from the usual vampiric weaknesses—sunlight, silver, even holy relics. None of these could harm him.
As the purest of his kind, Dracula had mastered transformations into bats, wolves, and hybrid monstrosities. He was also a formidable warrior, trained in fifteenth-century warfare and strategy.
That was the one Kurogai sought—the pinnacle of the vampire race.
According to what he recalled from the timeline, Dracula should be lying dormant beneath a vast desert. Eventually, a vampire leader named Danica Talos would awaken him, setting off the events seen in Blade: Trinity.
And now, Kurogai's gaze turned toward Danica Talos.
"So that's it. I need to find her… and she'll lead me to Dracula," he said quietly.
He had already caught a glimpse of her existence earlier, while extracting the memories of a vampire Grand Duke. Danica Talos led one of the few vampire families he hadn't yet annihilated—making her his next target.
Before confronting her, though, Kurogai wanted to strengthen the seventh pupil ring. The blood he had collected from the Grand Duke and his kin could still be used to enhance his power.
"Seventh pupil ring, ascend."
At his command, the Ultimate Pupil shimmered within his eyes. Moments later, as the transformation settled, Kurogai slowly opened them again—his pupils swirling with strange, shifting light.
"Spatial distortion before… now temporal distortion," he murmured, a satisfied smile forming. "Then I'm close to perfection."
He could already warp space. Now, with time beginning to bend at his will, the day of full mastery was near. The thought thrilled him.
"If Dracula's blood isn't enough to complete it, then I'll use him as a living source. He'll create more of his kind—and I'll harvest them all."
Determined, Kurogai set out to locate Danica Talos.
It didn't take long. Having already extracted her location from the Grand Duke's memories, he easily tracked her down. With a wave of his hand, he used his abilities to seize control of her mind.
Inside a luxurious mansion, Kurogai sat calmly on a sofa as Danica stood before him, eyes lifeless under his influence.
"You've been researching Dracula, haven't you?" he asked evenly.
"Yes," she replied in a dull tone. "Dracula is the original vampire, the purest of us all. I've been studying ways to remove our weaknesses through him. I even found his resting place. I can awaken him anytime—but I haven't, since I'm not yet ready."
"In that case," Kurogai said coolly, "wake him."
"Yes, master."
Danica bowed respectfully and left to make preparations.
Waking Dracula wasn't complicated. It only required a few rituals and sacrifices to restore his strength. Danica's followers began the process while Kurogai gathered the remaining vampires under her command.
No resource was too small to waste. Every drop of blood mattered.
He absorbed their essence, but the seventh pupil ring still refused to rise further. So, he waited—patiently, silently—for the true ancestor's awakening.
Days passed.
Then finally, deep beneath the earth, Dracula stirred.
The ancestor of vampires had awoken.