"I… can confirm you aren't lying. So I'll free you but if you ever betray me... I will make sure to kill you one day. I have died once for revenge, I don't mind dying again for it."

She stopped the urge to tear up and said, "...I can't hope to betray my... saviour."

Leo nodded and tightly gripped the giant sword in his hands.

Her eyes widened as disbelief spread across her doll-like face.

"W-Why?"

She thought he would save her, now even he wants to harm me. Why was everyone so cruel to her?

He tilted his head to the side, puzzled by the sudden change in her mind.

"Should I not free you? It's the only option for me."

"N-No, you can j-just pour your mana in this magic circle. It might free me."

"Okay…"

He bent down and put his hands on the magic circle and poured mana inside the circle, exuding a dull light by his blood red mana.

Yue stared at his mana the same as the color as her eyes. She saw the light she hadn't seen for centuries. The suffering she held for hundreds of years finally came out in form of warm teardrops rushing down her cheeks.

Leo discharged all the mana he could, every ounce of it. It still wasn't enough.

His face turned serious. "Dammit, my mana is not enough to directly break it… Berserk."

With pitch black aura around and blood red mana in his hands, he created a rather cutting figure in the darkness. He bit his tongue and poured every mana inside. Craters formed on the ground from sheer mana pressure.

Cracks started forming on the unknown stone, just from mana. He saw it and continued. Unable to contain such mana, the magic circle broke. Crack by crack the whole stone broke into pieces.

Yue fell to the ground naked. Even Leo couldn't deny her charm when he saw her like this.

He drank a few drops of Ambrosia to replenish his mana and gave her a hand, "You sure look young for a 323-year-old hag?"

She heard his words and a furious expression appeared on her face. "You!"

Golden lightning danced around her body threatening to attack him, only to die down seconds later. She fell again from mana exhaustion.

He gave a hand to her. "Haha, try that again. You don't even have mana to cast a single spell."

She glared at him, her eyes still blank.

Holding his hand tightly, she whispered, "Thank… you."

Leo could sense the heavy sentiment behind those words. How happy would one be to get their freedom after being caged here for…

'Jen, are there other vampires on Tortus?'

(1SP… They went extinct 300 years ago.)

'Then she is here for three hundred years?'

"I'm also sorry," he took out his old shirt from inventory and covered her little body.

"You are strong staying here alone for three centuries… I can somehow relate to that…"

She nodded her head. "What's your name?"

"Leo Evans. Yours?"

She muttered something under her breath and looked at him. "Name, grant me."

"Isn't your name Aletea? Or you forgot it?"

Her mouth opened wide, yet her eyes were still vacant. "... I don't want that name anymore."

"Didn't your parents give you that name? How can you let go of it just like this?" he was a bit angry at her, remembering about his own parents.

"I… my parents…"

And he immediately regretted saying it. 'I truly am an idiot. That might have triggered some bad memories or something.'

He rubbed her head gently. "It's fine. I'm sorry for reminding you of something bad. Let me think of a new name for you."

He closed his eyes.

'Jen, tell me some good names for her. Something that means moon or blood-red like her eyes.'

(20SP)

'Fine, tell me.'

(Ayla, Selene, Yue, Selene, Elara, Artemis. Need more?)

'Yue, Yue is good, I love it.'

He saw her looking at him with hopeful eyes.

"How about Yue? It means 'Moon' where I came from. Your golden hair and red eyes remind me of the fully eclipsed moon."

Her eyes opened wide, clearly not expecting a name with such deep meaning.

"Yue… Yue… Yue… Then from today onwards, I will be Yue."

She stared at him with her stoic expression, but he could see happiness in her eyes. It looked like she forgot to express herself, staying in this abyss for centuries.

Leo stored all the pieces of [Sealing Stone] inside his inventory and noticed something carved there.

Yue also came over when she saw him looking at something attentively but stopped midway. Leo sense presence also detected something above.

Both of them looked up to see a monster sticking on the walls. He picked up Yue and ran toward the doors. He couldn't fight protecting her when she was exhausted.

Creak~

The door closed itself. He looked back to see the monster, a giant scorpion with four razor-sharp arms, eight legs that made a cackling noise when it moved. Two tails that ended with stingers, most likely filled with poison.

It wasn't there when he entered the room.

'It must be the last trap they sat for her. Just how much these bastards want her to suffer. Don't let me find you or I might just kill you accidentally.'

'Analyze'

[??]

Strength: 1400

Vitality: 1800

Defense: 2100

Agility: 800

Magic: 1900

Magic Defense: 1500

Skills: [Diamond Skin] [Needles rain] [Steel Arms]

'It looks troublesome with that defense.'

He stared in her eyes and saw a determination lurking inside there.

He smiled at her and equipped his giant sword and dashed.

Clank~

The sword clashed with the steel-like pincers, he nearly dropped the sword from his numb hands. He blocked the double pincer attack and used supersonic step to escape the pincer attacks.

The monster barraged him with acid and earth needles. While spraying a deadly acid from the stingers. Some needles pierced his stomach making him groan in pain.

He dashed again, gulping some Ambrosia. He forced some in Yue's mouth when she was too lost in thought.

He was being cornered by the constant rain of needles and steel-hard pincers. The needles could explode midair into hundreds of small shards. His clothes were filled with countless holes.

He coughed up some blood and drank the last HP potion and saw Scorpion charging at him.

Putting down Yue, he concentrated mana on his legs and jumped on the Scorpion's back. After evading the tail, he covered himself in lightning and slammed the sword on the diamond hard shell of the scorpion.

Screee~!

The impact or the lightning caused the scorpion to raise a loud screech. He kicked the pincers and rolled to dodge another tail attack.

After being annoyed by the attacks, he jumped in the air and landed near Yue.

"Leo!"

Yue yelled and ran over to him with a worried face.

"I'm fine, just a little scratch here and there. Just wait in the corner, I'll be done in a moment."

"Why…?" was her question.

He tilted his head in response. "What?"

"Why don't you escape?" she asked with a blank expression. She wanted him to run, yet she also wanted him to stay and protect her. Her mind became a mess with these thoughts.

His eyes turned sharp. "You looking down on me? I will run just to save my skin here? Besides the gate is closed…"

"I'm sorry…"

"Besides, I'll have you teach me some magic after it."

She nodded her head and did a sudden jumped and wrapped her small arms around his neck.

Her actions confused him. "This is not the time for this stuff, right?"

She ignored him and kissed his neck. He felt a sudden tickle on his neck.

"Ouch! Don't bite me suddenly, you bloodsucker."

She bit him harder in response, sucking more blood. He also wrapped his hands around her back for support. She hugged him harder, trying to bury herself in him.

"You're using your skill [Blood Conversion]?"

She released him and nodded. Her coarse skin before was now filled with vitality. With her rosy pink cheeks and golden blonde hair, she really looked like a porcelain doll.

Roar~!!!

Their moment was interrupted by an unwanted guest.

She licked the blood on her lips and smiled in an awkward way.

"Thanks for the meal… it was sweet and filled with mana."

She aimed her hand at the scorpion and golden mana swirled around it and brightened the dark room. The golden mana and shining blonde hair made her appearance closer to an angel than a vampire.

"Azure Blaze," she muttered and a massive blue-white fireball around 6 or 7 meters, appeared above scorpion and fall on its body.

The scorpion screeched in pain and ran backward. From the howls, he could tell it was more painful than his sword. Yue didn't allow it to escape, her fingers danced elegantly in the air and the fireball danced to her tunes.

He blinked in admiration at the Overpowered Vampire Princess. After the flames disappeared, Scorpion twitched on the ground in agony. Its shell fused with its skin.

Yue fell in exhaustion, he caught her gently and sat her down.

"Leave the rest to me," he whispered.

He used aerodynamic to reach near the ceiling. With his legs against the ceiling he used steel legs again and aimed his giant sword like a spear at scorpion's back. Kicking his weight against the ceiling, he accelerated at a breakneck speed. He also activated lightning field in its full power.

"Berserk."

'It will be my strongest attack ever.'

His figure was wrapped with a black aura, blood-red lightning flashing about fascinated Yue. There was a look of excitement in her usual blank eyes.

Booom!

The collision formed a deep crater, the Scorpion was flattened to the ground.

He laid on the ground, taking deep breaths to calm down his berserk thoughts.

"I overdid it again. This move will be called [Judgement]"

Yue also came over and stared at him with her stoic expression. He nodded and stored the flattened corpse inside the inventory.

"I'm really exhausted this time."

"...Let's go," Yue said.

He thought about using this as a base for the time. But her stoic eyes showed no signs of rejection.

He licked divinity stone and went back to his cave with a partner, he could talk to any time.

(Don't ignore me!)