Chapter 1012: Otsuki Hana.
Meanwhile, within the false reality, things were completely different.
Ophis continued to embrace her mother, Hana, who was feeling very protective now, considering that she had never seen her daughter react so intensely to her presence.
Ophis was a quiet and kind girl, and her heart burned with the fury of hellfire when she imagined that someone had hurt or intimidated her.
Her thoughts turned even more murderous when she imagined her 'sisters' she thought the word with intense disgust. To Hana, Vlad's wives were nothing more than vipers; they were not her sisters. Her only sister was now safe in her Clan in Japan.
She came to this place at Vlad's request but completely regretted that decision; this nest of vipers was no place to raise her beautiful daughter.
While murderous thoughts passed through the once gentle Hana, Ophis continued to embrace her mother, who took her somewhere she didn't care about.
Ophis herself was surprised by how intensely she reacted now that she stopped to think when she was calmer.
Even though she was like a child now, that doesn't mean her thoughts regressed to the point where she actually became a child. She still retained her adult mental faculties, and she remembered everything that happened with her Father and instinctively knew it was not a lie.
Even in this false reality, she would never forget the Father who practically taught her everything, from training to thinking and how to behave. Lessons that were not only taught to her by her Father but also by her other 'mothers'.
Hana took her daughter to her personal room and held her protectively in her lap, her nine black tails swaying behind her almost hypnotically.
These tails soon stiffened when she felt someone approaching as the door opened, and Vlad soon appeared.
Tall, wearing full armor, with long black hair, blood-red eyes, and a beard to match, he looked more like an old general than a King. This was his form when he would fight against the 'invaders' of his nation.
"What happened, Hana?" Vlad's heavy, thick voice was heard.
Hana's gaze became even more intense when she heard Vlad's words. She didn't fall for his nonsense; knowing how the other women worked, she knew Vlad must already know what had happened.
"What do you think happened, Vlad?" Hana spat.
Hana was a gentle woman who rarely got angry at people but was not a coward. She did not bow her head to anyone, she had her pride, and she had her boiling point, usually being the people close to her.
Vlad knew this, considering that it was because of this personality that he liked her.
His intense gaze softened a bit when he saw Ophis's state. He sighed a bit, and a black mass covered his body. Soon, a man with blond hair, an elegant suit, and red eyes was present.
"I talked to my other wives, and they claimed they didn't do anything to Ophis."
"They were lying."
"Believe me, they weren't." Vlad's eyes glinted slightly. "I made sure of that."
Seeing the certainty in Vlad's eyes, Hana's eyes softened a bit, but no apology was present on her face. "Then why did she react so intensely?"
"I don't know... Yet." Vlad sighed. "But we know Ophis is quite special."
Hana nodded. She knew her little daughter had 50% of Vlad's progenitor blood inside her, and knowing Vlad's abilities, it wouldn't be surprising if his daughter could awaken similar powers.
Ophis, who had been listening to the conversation between the two while enjoying her mother's caresses, briefly looked at Vlad.
'Different... This Father isn't the reformed Father... But he's still a good father because Mother hasn't died yet.' Ophis immediately understood her Father's personality with just a glance.
He was far from what her other Father was outside of this false world. 'Father hasn't had his character development yet, but he's still okay, hmm.'
Vlad looked strangely at his daughter. For some reason, he felt his daughter was judging him a lot. She no longer had that innocent look like a newborn child.
Intelligence could be seen in her eyes, an abnormal intelligence that couldn't be seen in a child who was only a few years old.
And this perception made him dangerously narrowed his eyes.
lightsΝοvεl ƈοm "Who are you? What have you done with my daughter?"
As a good mother, Hana automatically stepped in to defend her daughter. "What are you doing, Vlad?" She growled dangerously.
Diminishing the intensity of his expression and power, Vlad didn't want to get on his wife's bad side, he backed off, but still kept guard ready to intervene at any moment. "Intelligence shines in this child's eyes. She's not the Ophis we know, someone or something is possessing her."
The idea of something or someone possessing his little girl disgusted him deeply.
Seeing Hana's immovable stance, Vlad sighed.lightsnovel
"Hana, you know I would never harm my children, even if they deserved it sometimes."
These words made Hana stop her movements, even though sometimes Vlad wasn't very reliable when it came to interpersonal relationships, one thing that never changed about him was that he wouldn't actively harm his own flesh and blood. He wasn't that bad of a father because if he were, she wouldn't even associate with him in the first place.
Looking at her daughter, Ophis's red eyes met Hana's black eyes, and it was at that moment that she saw Vlad was right.
Very unnatural intelligence was present in her daughter's eyes, but still, she felt that her daughter was her daughter.
Call it maternal instinct if you want, but she didn't feel unnatural when embracing her daughter like this.
"... Who are you?" Hana asked gently but with a hard tone. Despite this, she didn't push her away and kept her close; Hana trusted her instinct.
Ophis's heart trembled when she heard her mother's tone. She didn't care much about her Father's suspicion, but hearing it from her mother hurt... Her little heart couldn't take it.
Ophis stepped back a bit from Hana with a very unnatural, refined gesture for a child."Bad Father is correct, I am not Ophis..."
For some reason, Vlad felt an arrow hit his heart when he heard what Ophis said, but he ignored it and continued to pay attention to her even more now.
"At least, not the present Ophis..." Ophis smiled lightly as she held the sides of her black dress and introduced herself with a curtsy.
"My name is Ophis Tepes Elderblood, the daughter of Victor Elderblood, The God Emperor leader of various pantheons, Progenitor of blood dragons, and considered a Chaos God to all other beings."
For a moment, Hana and Vlad saw the image of an adult Ophis replacing the small Ophis. The appearance was the same, with the only difference being that the adult Ophis had dragon horns and eyes.
"... Just as I am also the Daughter of Vlad Dracul Tepes, the Progenitor of noble vampires, and daughter of Otsuki Hana, the heiress of the Otsuki Clan."
Ophis's words left the entire room in silence as the two were too shocked by what they had just heard to speak.
Unbeknownst to them, changes occurred in Ophis outside when she spoke these words, changes that caused her to awaken her divinity.
By unloading her feelings, which she didn't know were bottled up, she made improvements to her own soul. Ophis had no idea how much she missed her mother.
It was great to have several 'mothers' who were kind and cared for her like a true daughter, but nothing beats her true mother. This was a blood bond she longed for. Ophis could now admit to herself that she felt envy towards her younger sisters. After all, they had their biological mothers around, as well as several other mothers.
Something she didn't have... Yet.
'I will do everything to bring my mother back, even if she doesn't want to, I know Father can do it, after all, he is Father, he can do anything.' Ophis's confidence in Victor was off the charts as she looked at her mother with slightly disturbing eyes.
Eyes that honestly frightened Hana and Vlad a bit.
...
A few minutes passed, as Hana and Vlad needed time to absorb what they had just heard. In the meantime, Vlad didn't stand still; with a mental command, he spoke to his loyal subordinate, who was proficient in matters of time and space.
[Alexios?]
[I don't know, Master. I can't identify anything. Whoever this man called the God-Emperor is, he is someone far beyond my level.] Alexios, who was on the other side of the castle looking at Ophis with his unique eyes open, spoke.
[The act of sending someone to the past is something that breaks countless rules of the Primordials, time should not be tampered with, that is the domain of the Primordials, and yet... This girl's 'father' sent her soul to the past.]
Even though Alexios could use his powers to 'distort' the timeline between Earth and Nightingale, he could not send someone to the past. This act required an extremely high level of mastery over time and space, as well as the soul.
Even if a god could do that, they would have to pass through the obstacle known as the Primordials, who guarded existence like watchdogs.
Vlad visibly grimaced when he heard his future daughter calling another man 'Father', his only thought on this matter was.
'How much did I do wrong for my most beloved daughter to drift away from me and call another man Father?' He couldn't imagine such a future.
Ophis remained silent as she waited for her parents to recover from her words, and during that time, she felt small changes in her body.
'Hmm, I don't feel as weak as before.' Ophis felt her senses slightly heightened, as well as her strength. Even though she hadn't changed in height and was still a little girl, she didn't feel as incapable as before.
Ophis narrowed her eyes slightly when she felt someone's gaze on her small body, and she looked around, searching for that gaze. She fixed her gaze in one direction when she felt something stronger. Her gaze pierced through walls and focused on an older blond man.
'Oh, Alexios... Make sense.' Vlad, her Father, was a cautious man, so it made sense that he would call his most capable subordinate.
Ophis nodded to herself, making an 'Umu'.