The Appian Way stretched out like a vein of history in the moonlight, lined with ancient pines and tombs that had seen empires rise and fall. But nestled among the ruins was Silas's estate.
It is a villa. High walls of pale stone, topped with iron spikes, encircled the property. The air above shimmered with the faint, oily distortion of magical wards, a silent warning to any who dared approach. Inside the perimeter, shadows moved with a grace—hellhounds, prowling the manicured gardens, their eyes glowing like embers in the dark.
Jin stood in the shadow of a cypress tree, observing.
He look for a gap in the patrols. He look for a weakness in the structure.
He vaulted the wall in a single, fluid motion, landing silently on the soft earth of the garden. A guard, a vampire in gear, turned the corner of a hedge maze, his senses alert.
What the guard saw is a pair of eyes. In the deep shadow of the garden, two crimson lights flared—the Sharingan. The spinning tomoe were the last thing the guard ever saw.
Jin didn't use stealth to bypass them; he used it to erase them. He moved through the garden like a phantom. A guard would turn, see the glowing red eyes in the darkness, and then… nothing. A soft snap of a neck, a body turn to pile of ashes with the amount of touki that was lashed in those attack. One by one, he dismantled the perimeter security. The hellhounds were being removed along . They snarled, sensing an intruder, but Jin was faster. A hand on a its neck, a quick twist, and the beast was silenced before it could howl. No alarms were being raised. The silence of the estate remained unbroken, save for the rustling of leaves and the faint, distant hum of the city.
He reached the main house. He could feel the thrum of the magical barrier, a heavy, oppressive weight against his senses. Instead of trying to break it with brute force—which would shatter the silence and alert Silas instantly—Jin let his eyes work and let manna flow in them . His senses expanded,seeing the flow of mana. He found the anchor point: a marble statue of a weeping angel near the terrace.
He approached it. A rune was carved into the base, glowing with a faint, pulsated light. Jin placed his hand on the cold stone.He fed a precise, needle-thin pulse of Touki into the rune. The life-force energy acted like a virus in the magical construct. The rune flared once, then cracked. The barrier ; simply dissolved, falling silent.
The house was open.
Inside the villa, the air was warm and smelled of expensive woodsmoke and iron.
Silas sat in his study, a room that was a testament to his wealth and depravity. He was relaxing by a roaring fireplace, swirling a glass of vintage blood-wine, the crimson liquid coating the crystal. He checked his watch, a frown creasing his pale forehead. The squad should have reported in by now. The waiting was annoying.
The heavy oak doors to the study opened slowly, creaking on their hinges, pushed by a steady, hand.
Silas looked up, expecting his team. Instead, he saw man he want dead.
Jin walked in. He was spotless. Not a drop of blood, not a spec of dust on him.
Jin's gaze swept the room. It landed on Silas, then drifted to the corner. There, bound in a latex suit and gagged, was the young receptionist from the bank. She was suspended in a complex shibari bondage rig, her eyes role by intensity and pleasure.
Jin's expression didn't change, but the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
Silas choked, spitting his wine into the fire where it hissed and steamed. He scrambled to his feet, the glass slipping from his fingers and shattering on the hearth.
"You... how?" Silas stammered, his composure shattering.
"Your delivery boys came to give me your message," Jin said, his voice calm, conversational. The implication hung heavy in the air—they tried to kill me, and they couldn't. "Now, I am here to give you my answer."
Silas's face contorted, fear giving way to a primal, defensive rage. He was a high-ranking vampire, a noble of the night. He would not be cornered in his own home by food.
"You vermin!" Silas shrieked, baring his fangs, his eyes glowing a feral red. "I will kill you myself!"
He dropped into a combat stance, magic crackling around his hands.
Jin get ready his hand in his front . His Sharingan spun and his skin harden .
"I want you to try your best," Jin said.
Silas roared and lunged. He was fast—a blur of motion that would have been invisible to a normal human eye. He was a High-Class vampire, possessing strength and speed that rivaled Jin's own base stats. But raw power was only half the equation.
Silas threw a flurry of claws and blood-magic projectiles. Crimson lances of hardened blood shot across the room, tearing through furniture and smashing into the walls. Jin weaved through the chaos. He didn't block; he dodged. A tilt of the head here, a sidestep there. The Sharingan tracked every twitch of Silas's muscles, every fluctuation in his aura. Jin was reading him.
This wasn't a fight ; it was a study session. Jin needed to understand how an elder vampire fought , no matter how rusty he look at fighting. He needed to decode the patterns, the instincts that came with centuries of life. Silas favored his right side. He overextended on his lunges . He telegraphed his magical attacks with a subtle intake of breath , that he should not be taking.
Silas grew more desperate, his attacks wilder. He summoned a storm of blood needles, filling the air with deadly projectiles. Jin moved like water, flowing through the gaps in the attack. He deflected strikes with his harden skin, parrying Silas's claws with a equal move.
Minutes turned into hours. The study was demolished. Bookshelves were splintered, priceless art shredded. Silas was panting, his regeneration struggling to keep up with the exertion with how much he was gettong hurt, his mana reserves null.He had been drawing his life force for past hour .
And then, through the shattered window, a grey light began to bleed into the sky. Dawn.
Jin stopped dodging.
"Time's up," he said.
He moved. This time, there was no reservation.
He stepped inside Silas's guard. He grabbed the vampire's outstretched arm , silas tried to adjust his body to wiggle away and twisted ,as he couldn't adapt to sudden change in tempo. There was a wet, sickening crack as the bone shattered. Silas screamed, but Jin wasn't done. He swept Silas's legs, bringing him crashing to the floor, then stomped on his knee, pulverizing the joint.
silas try to use his life force to regenrate and attack back but jin claw were already out and his limbs were removed from his body .
He grabbed Silas by the throat and lifted him effortlessly. He didn't kill him. He dragged him, flalling in air and toward the large window facing the east.
The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon, a sliver of burning gold against the grey.
"I am going to ask a question," Jin said, holding Silas in place, forcing him to look at the coming dawn. "You talk."
Silas spat blood at him. "Fuck you!"
"I want the Tepes Bank ledger," Jin stated, his voice flat.
Silas laughed, with hysteria. "You dumb fuck! Nobody is going to give it to you! Only the Tepes Head has authority over it! With his permission, his trusted aide can put an entry inside it. Other than that, no one! No one can touch it! If that is what you are after, you are out of luck!"
The first ray of direct sunlight hit the window sill, creeping toward them. Silas's skin began to smoke.
"I can't believe I got done by a brat like you!" Silas screamed, staring into the sun with hatred. "And just before I could receive my blessing... be free of the curse of this sun! I curse you, Ben Rudolf! I CURSE YOU!"
The sun rose higher. The golden light washed over Silas. He screamed as his flesh began to blister and burn, turning to ash in Jin's grip. Jin held him there, unmoving, until there was nothing left in his hand but dust and a charred suit.
He dropped the remains and turned.
The receptionist was hiding in corner making her very small, sobbing quietly, her eyes squeezed shut.
"Please," she whimpered. "Please let me live."
Jin looked at her for a long moment. He didn't speak. He simply turned and walked out of the ruined study, leaving the house of the dead behind him.
Outside, the leader of the hit squad was waiting in the car, seeing Jin he start the engine. Jin slid into the passenger seat.
"Drive," he said.
The car pulled away, leaving the smoking villa behind as the sun fully claimed the sky.