Chapter 45

Wild Hunt 3

-:-

1 Day Later

Theo’s Hideout

The first person Theo saw upon his awakening was the creepy man that led the intruders into his hideout.

Bad way to start the day.

“Before I introduce myself, I would like to apologize for that mechanical marvel of yours. That last attack of mine may have broken it” said the creepy guy

Theo mentally accessed the cameras in his hideout and spotted his Terminator Armor.

Its entire chest area was gone.

Not punctured, not destroyed, not damaged.

Just gone.

“What the hell?” said Theo in disbelief

“That would be one of my many tricks gained throughout my long life. Originally, it was called ‘Phase Shift’. It’s an advance magic of our kind that allows us to walk through walls. However, with a lot of trial and error and a lot of life threatening injuries, it was possible to damage the internal structure of extremely solid objects. I call this skill, ‘Phantom Strike’.” Replied the creepy man

“That thing you did to my armor is more than just ‘damage’ you know?”

“Indeed. That certain trick was something I learned just 10 years ago. It also doesn’t work against all things. I used it against the invincible Omegaman about 2 years ago, and as you can see, he is still very much alive and kicking.”

This statement made Theo sit up in a hurry.

“You fought Omegaman?!” said Theo in shock

“Yes and we were head to head if the other superheroes didn’t interfere.”

“… just who are you?”

“Ah. Where are my manners? I am Count Korlo Nosferatu, the progenitor of the Nosferatu bloodline. Please call me Nosferatu. A pleasure to meet you.”

Theo couldn’t help but sigh in relief and defeat.

He thought the reason why his Terminator wasn’t doing any damage was because the artificial muscle broke in mid combat.

As a technomancer, such a structural flaw was a blow to the pride.

Now that he knew that he was against a progenitor, then losing was the ONLY result.

What is a Progenitor, you ask?

In Vampire society, a Progenitor was an existence akin to an emperor and a nuclear bomb combined.

Quite simply, they were the origins of vampire bloodlines. They possessed all the powers of their descendants and were capable of controlling his entire bloodline without them knowing it.

While unconfirmed, there have been theories that the Progenitors were also Antediluvians AKA beings that lived before the mythical flood in the bible.

Regardless of what they were, the Progenitors were vampires of extreme power in both physical and monetary sense.

In the HAA anti-magic training, it was clearly stated that when forced into combat against a Progenitor, one must beg for his life no matter how degrading it was.

Escape was impossible since they have many magical abilities to chase you down.

Unless you have overwhelming levels of fire power such as Rank S superheroes or weapons of mass destruction, fighting was literally unwinnable.

While dragging them into the sunlight would kill them in seconds, the Progenitors were too smart to walk into their greatest weakness.

All in all, Progenitors were monstrous in every sense of the word and should be treated with the fear and caution of such beasts.

“So, any reason that one of the most powerful beings on the planet decided to trespass on my hideout?” asked Theo

“Technically speaking, this land is not yours, thus we trespassed on someone else’s land which you have no say in. As to why am I here, I would like to offer you, ‘The Boss’ an extremely high paying job.” Said Nosferatu as he smiled at Theo.

All expression disappeared from Theo’s face as his mind kicked into overdrive.

They knew who he was. That much was obvious.

The more pressing matter was HOW they found out?

There must have been some sort of method they used to track him down.

If he knew this, he might be able to get some insights as to how Juno possessed so much info on him.

He wasn’t sure if Nosferatu would answer, but he had no choice but to risk it.

“Before we negotiate, I need to know something. How in gods name did you track me down? I was fairly sure I left no traces.” Said Theo.

“Are you familiar with the ‘Brown Theory’ ?“ asked Nosferatu

“Yeah. It’s a relatively new idea by a scientist named Dewey Brown that states that all supernatural power is a combination of ESP, Magic and Chi/Chakra. What does it have anything to do about tracking me?”

“The idea of this trinity has been around as early as 500 AD and it revolves around the idea that every supernatural person has his own unique combination of the 3. If you can get the exact numbers, then you can tell what type of power was used.”

“That’s pretty much the Brown Theory. The main problem is that this is that it cant pinpoint the specific person that used the power.”

“True, but let’s say that your bullets were found inside a dead individual. And let us say that there was a Progenitor that has some knowledge in necromancery. The saying ‘dead men tell no tales’ effectively becomes invalid.”

Theo thought for a moment and soon realized his error.

During the gang war one month ago, he and Juno have used their real names a few times around many dead bodies.

He wasn’t particularly familiar with the workings of Necromancery, but he did recall a part when they can call upon the souls of the dead for guidance.

The fact that Nosferatu was in front of him right this moment was enough evidence to confirm this

And given the friendly banter between them, Theo had some confidence that Nosferatu came in peace.

One thing did bother Theo though…

“I’m surprised how friendly you are. I did kill a lot of your people after all.” Said Theo.

“Ah, that one. No worries. As long as they belong to my bloodline and as long as they died within an hour, I can resurrect them without any problems.” Replied Nosferatu as he pointed to the 9 people standing silently a few meters away from them. “They may look like they want to rip you limb from limb, but they mean well. Their youthful pride simply took a minor hit.”

“I-I see…” said the unconvinced Theo. “Well then, let’s get down to business. What’s this job of yours?”

Nosferatu silently made a difficult face for a few seconds before answering.

“The task is an inglorious one where we may have to murder 2 innocent people to save millions.”

“You know that your sentence just made me less likely to accept the job right?” replied Theo

“Yes, but telling you this up front will increase the chance of you saying Yes once it’s all done.”

“….Please continue….” Said the skeptical Theo.

“Bloodlines are the shared traits and special abilities passed down from one generation to the next. The Nosferatu bloodline’s unique ability is the War Form which mutates the vampire into a grotesque beast of pure brutality. The massive increase in physical prowess comes in the price of annoying mental handicaps.”

“You didn’t look like you were mentally handicapped when we fought”

“I am a Progenitor after all. Those mental handicaps don’t apply to me anymore”

“Touche…. But what does it have to do with the job?”

Once again, Nosferatu made a difficult face

“There have been many instances where a vampire bloodline could return to being normal humans via mating with normal humans. This union creates Dvampirs AKA Half Breeds. If succeeding generations of Dvampirs mate only with humans, there is a very big chance of the vampire gene would be completely suppressed after a few generations. However…. *sigh*…”

“Let me guess…. There’s some complications with the recessive genes?”

“*sigh*…. Correct. People with Nosferatu recessive genes have the ‘Mad Progenitor Curse’. When they receive the vampire curse for some reason, it turns a poor soul into a mindless continuously mutating monster that indiscriminately infects others with the vampire curse. And to make matters worse, they do not die when under direct contact with sunlight for some unknown reason. Modern fast moving zombie movies make an accurate visualization of these events.”

Theo was about to dismiss Nosferatu’s story as bad zombie fiction until he remembered a few things from history class.

“Hold on… wasn’t there a fair number of Hollywood-like zombie outbreaks throughout history?” asked Theo.

“Yes… and some of those were because of the Nosferatu recessive genes.” Replied Nosferatu in a guilty manner. “Now you understand why I said that we may have to kill an innocent life?”

“I see…. Hmm… you make a very convincing presentation. But why approach me? There are tons of Superheroes out there that more than willing to stop a crap like that?”

“2 main reasons. First: What makes you think that we haven’t approached the Superheroes?”

“They turned you down?!”

“It pains me to admit but the Nosferatu Bloodline is viewed in a negative light by the Hero Alliance due to the many conflicts we had in the past. While we have been in a tense peace for the last 30 years, they have every reason to distrust us.”

“Well… shit…”

“Indeed…. Let’s move on to Reason #2: Given your past exploits, we can gain your cooperation if the job is for the greater good and if you achieve considerable monetary gain in the process.”

“You guys really did your research on me…”

“I take that as a compliment.”

Theo mussed for a bit.

Truth be told, he didn’t have any reason to refuse.

And it’s not like he’ll take whatever they say at face value.

He’ll do his own research regardless of what they say.

As such, Theo decided to see where this leads.

“Let’s say that I agree…. What’s in it for me?” asked Theo

“We will iron out the details of your employment at a later date. However, a brief summary of your benefits are as follows: At least 1 million Rooks in cash which may increase depending on performance, those items you were searching for. The Khlyst whips and the Purple White Ginseng are things we can easily secure. And most importantly, I offer you a shot at immortality”

“Immortality? Consider me interested”