When Lynn walked out of the elevator, Blade's razor-sharp edge was striking Deacon ferociously. The blessed weapon effectively penetrated the black magic shield and hit Deacon's body.
However, the effect wasn't particularly obvious. Deacon's body now revealed an extremely unnatural pale color. At the same time, all the hair on his body had disappeared, and his ears had been stretched extremely long and thin. At first glance, he looked more like the kind of vampire from folk legends—full of bestial nature, violence, and bloodthirsty desire.
But the bestial nature and fury hadn't contaminated Deacon's mind. On the contrary, his consciousness was quite clear, and his movements hadn't degenerated into those of a wild beast because of his power transformation. Instead, with the enhancement of power, he was steadily suppressing Blade.
Lynn didn't immediately join the fight. He sensed a life energy from Deacon that was completely different in level from before, not in the same league as the vampire he had killed with one strike earlier.
"He calls himself the Blood God in this form, but he looks more like some kind of atavistic vampire. His form is more primitive, filled with more violence and wildness, and he's more skilled in the use of dark magic. But strangely, his speed and strength don't seem to suppress Blade's. If anything, Blade's speed and strength are in a position of absolute advantage even among vampires. Half-breed advantage?" Lynn stood curiously at a distance, observing. He didn't intend to intervene in the battle for the time being, after all, when Blade called him over, he didn't say he needed help killing the Blood God. Lynn was also happy to watch.
Both Deacon and Blade naturally noticed Lynn. Blade was quite grateful that Lynn didn't interfere in his battle without permission, but Deacon couldn't ignore Lynn at all. Like Maria, he sensed a dangerous feeling from Lynn, though his feeling was more obvious than Maria's, since his power was stronger. This also meant he couldn't focus entirely on fighting Blade.
The silver blade in Blade's hand struck from all sorts of inconceivable angles. In the hands of the half-vampire warrior, this weapon almost exerted two hundred percent of its power, leaving wounds on Deacon's body.
However, Deacon's wounds would soon heal under the effect of the black magic in his body. His energy seemed endless.
But Blade seemed fearless, striking again with his blade.
Deacon clearly didn't consider Blade a formidable opponent. Perhaps he was still enjoying the fight like a cat playing with a mouse, so much that he wasn't even holding any weapon in his hand.
The bright silver blade cut into Deacon's arm again, making a sizzling sound as it pushed against the black magic shield.
Deacon swung his other claw as if mocking, but this time, Blade used his long blade as a pivot and jumped up. With an almost ghostly movement, he flipped behind Deacon, and several of Lynn's serums appeared instantly in his hand.
This serum was more effective than the anti-blood agent Whistler had made for him. It was Blade's tried and true method—garlic and silver could counter vampires, while Lynn's special serum was even more potent.
Blade instantly stabbed those serums into Deacon's body.
After these substances, which were lethal poison to ordinary vampires, were injected into Deacon's arm, one of his arms visibly shriveled up. But he didn't lose his mobility because of Lynn's serum.
However, this moment was enough for Blade to cut off one of Deacon's arms.
With the flashing of his blade, Deacon let out a violent roar in his true form—that of a crimson gargoyle. His crimson arm was sliced off by Blade's weapon as easily as cutting through butter.
This time, the dark magic within his body didn't protect Deacon. He clutched his arm and howled.
At the same time, the withering didn't stop infecting Deacon's body just because his arm was severed. The enhancement from the ritual in the Darkhold didn't seem to have improved his immunity.
Lynn's specially formulated serum seemed to work much better than Whistler's crude methods.
"Impossible, what kind of evil method is this!" Deacon exclaimed.
Blade, clearly a half-vampire who was fierce but not talkative, didn't miss this opportunity while Deacon was shocked that his immortal flesh was beginning to collapse because of a few inconspicuous mortal poisons.
He kept swinging his long blade. The dark magic that had originally acted as a shield seemed to be interfered with by the enhanced anti-vampire agent. The dark power that had previously blocked Blade's weapon attacks now only emitted puffs of black smoke on Deacon's body, unable to coalesce.
Lynn watched from the side. Blade was indeed different from ordinary vampires; his athletic ability and reaction speed far exceeded those of his kin.
"He really can kill his way in here alone—it wasn't just wishful thinking." Lynn's assessment of Blade increased by several levels, although Blade clearly lacked something in special operations. After all, a vampire hunter isn't a professional special forces soldier.
Lynn thought that if it were Captain America leading an organized team, clearing the entire building shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps only these two shape-shifting vampires would cause some trouble.
As Lynn's thoughts continued to wander, Blade's battle finally came to an end. Deacon's body was now covered with all sorts of wounds. Large amounts of blood continuously seeped from these wounds. His once-proud healing ability seemed to have been severely damaged and couldn't function at all.
This ritual seemed far less powerful than he had imagined.
After a final roar of anger, Deacon's head was sliced off by Blade. His entire body crashed to the ground.
Lynn walked out from the shadow behind a pillar, applauding. "I guess your revenge is over? Is there anything else I can help with?"
Blade sheathed his blade, adjusted his breathing rhythm for a moment to alleviate the fatigue from the intense battle, then said, "We're even now. What happens in this building is no longer my concern."
"I see. Well, until we meet again."
"Better if we never meet again..." After saying this, Blade walked away without looking back. Lynn could guess what he was going to do, since Lynn had sensed several other living people when he came in. They should have completed their tasks by now.
He shook his head and looked at Deacon's corpse, which hadn't yet disappeared. "By all accounts, these bodies should turn to dust and disappear after losing their vitality. Why haven't you?"
"Should we preserve this body, Doctor?"
"Have some people come to handle it. Also, arrange personnel to clean up the traces of the battle as much as possible."
"Maria is handling that. You don't need to worry about these simple matters. I'll arrange for her to recover this body."
"Hmm, come with me. There should be other things inside."
Blade had killed Deacon and should have destroyed some of Deacon's collected evil artifacts. His companions certainly hadn't come just to freeload, but Lynn wasn't very interested in those magical trinkets.
He arrived at the underground space that Deacon had spent a fortune to build.
Circling around those tawny marble pillars and stone tablets carved with different cuneiform scripts, Lynn observed the structure of the entire basement.
"If I'm not mistaken, the energy source for this ritual should be in this position..." Lynn placed both hands on a highly polished semicircular stone pillar, then applied a little force, removing the obsidian cover. It revealed a sheet of parchment placed inside.
"Doctor, what is this?"
"A page from the Darkhold."
Perhaps this was the biggest gain—the most noteworthy black magic knowledge in this world's magic system, contained in this one remnant page of the Darkhold.
But even a single remnant page was enough for Lynn to get quite a lot of useful information.
"This is Chthon's key to connect this world with his dimension. Even with just one page, it's enough to unlock knowledge from another world."
This world had magic, Lynn knew clearly. However, these powers were all in the hands of gods and other dimensional lords. It wasn't easy for ordinary people to acquire such knowledge unless they were chosen by these beings, or had extraordinary wisdom and wealth. Otherwise, it wasn't easy for someone with no connection to find the path of magic.
But now, one page of the Darkhold was like a key.
Although Lynn didn't want to use this key for now, it was still necessary to keep it safe for the time being.
Lynn reached out and took the remnant page of the Darkhold. Soon he heard a series of faint murmurs. But Lynn didn't mind, and quickly neutralized the influence of the Darkhold with his ability. After all, this was just a single remnant page, and judging by the knowledge Deacon had gained from it, the power within this remnant wasn't that strong—not enough to attract more of Chthon's attention.
Setting aside this extra page, Lynn still needed to find a way to control this building and some of Deacon's assets.
Following Kara directly to the upper level via elevator, Lynn saw the blonde vampire directing her subordinates to do a lot of miscellaneous tasks, while those vampire guards had been dispersed to various floors to supervise.
After the battle was declared over, Maria had summoned the cleaners who specialized in handling the aftermath for vampire nightclubs and illegal bars.
"So this building is rented to other companies except for the top floor?"
"Yes, it's rented to some food companies and insurance companies for their offices. I can give you a list of the specifics."
Even as a high-level vampire, Maria couldn't resist Kara's control. Her body was also connected by Kara's flesh buds. If Lynn wanted, he could take control of her body at any time.
"Hmm, what are the purposes of the basement Deacon kept for himself and the top floor area?"
"No particular purpose, just meeting halls and entertainment venues for the elders' amusement..."
This was good—it would be more convenient to renovate. Lynn said directly to Kara: "You stay here for the next couple of days, handle the matters of this building, learn its structure, and understand the composition of Deacon's subordinate enterprises. I'll think about the renovation plans for this place."
"Understood, Doctor."
"No need to rush. Transforming and absorbing Deacon's legacy assets is quite time-consuming. Also, arrange people to move my laboratory here. You can speed up this process."
Ignoring Maria's expression, Lynn assigned tasks to Kara one by one. He didn't intend to do these things personally—Lynn had other things to do.
Besides, Lynn didn't think it was appropriate to suddenly move from the fried chicken shop to this building. Doing these things through Kara was safer.
Lynn wanted to take over this building when the time was more mature.
"If there's anything, I'll contact you through our connection. Complete my current arrangements, and we'll discuss the rest later." After saying this, Lynn left the top floor of the building. Jekyll was downstairs putting on clothes. Although he was seriously injured, he recovered quickly.
As for Tom, Lynn left him in the building. He was more seriously damaged, and once Kara set up the laboratory, Lynn would need to make some readjustments to him.
After arranging everything, Jekyll selected a car from the basement and drove Lynn away.
Meanwhile, Blade was watching Lynn leave the Frost Building from a nearby building, thinking about something. But in the end, he didn't do anything extra and turned to blend into the night. There was more than just Deacon as a vampire leader in New York—he had more things to do.
However, if Lynn were here, he would find that Blade had undergone some kind of change—a kind of indescribable change.
At the same time, in one of Osborn Industries' offices, Dr. Connors was cursing at some clerk, pointing at his nose. But after a few casual arrangements from the other person, he finally sat down dejectedly in his chair, staring slightly dazed at the entire laboratory.
In the end, looking at the not-yet-completed reagent, he picked up a syringe and walked over, seeming to have made some kind of decision.
Lynn made all sorts of arrangements for Kara, including removing unnecessary facilities from the building, gradually canceling those venue lease contracts, concentrating funds, shrinking operations, shutting down hunting grounds, and ceding them to other clans. Lynn wasn't worried that Kara couldn't handle these things.
After all, she had a struggling blonde beauty beside her, busily recording Lynn's various arrangements, with almost no time to rest.
This process continued until the sky began to lighten.
During this process, Lynn found that Deacon had quite a few assets. His entire wealth was roughly estimated to be nearly five billion dollars. There was also an interesting thing.
"Deacon was a poor man? All the assets under his name could safely be placed in your hands?"
"He was my lord. I couldn't disobey him, and he never managed the business side of things..."
Being a hands-off boss is indeed a bad thing. For instance, after Deacon's death, Lynn didn't even need Maria to handle the inheritance issues after his sudden death. In fact, the official statistics in New York might not even have a person like Deacon.
"Kara, handle the matters I've arranged properly."
"Rest assured, Doctor."
Only after Lynn had completely left did Maria speak up: "Who are you people? Why didn't we have any related information before this?"
"Didn't you hear Dr. Sidis's arrangements?" Kara turned around and questioned Maria. Obviously, she wasn't as talkative as Lynn. Maria felt the foreign object in her body begin to squirm, and her thinking became slow. An invisible force began to erode her spirit and flesh.
Finally, she moved her lips for a moment, her whole face twitching unnaturally. After a slight struggle, she couldn't even manifest her true form.
"...I'll go handle it right away." She bent over, revealing a rather sycophantic face, and said in the gentlest voice she could think of—even more respectful than when she spoke to Deacon.