My Alter Ego's Path to Greatness

As many dimensions as there were, the names used to refer to those who had reached the realm of transcendence also varied from place to place.

Transcendent Realm, Grand Master, Awakened, Overlord, Grand Magia, Immortal, and so on.

As such, while there were some differences in the finer details, they all shared the commonality of being beings who had surpassed certain limits and re-established their own standing.

Whether through long training to pioneer a new realm, by wielding a special power imbued with that level of stature, or by inheriting the accumulated karma of their bloodline over long centuries.

Those who had reached transcendence in their own ways reigned supreme in any world, and Earth, the intersection of countless dimensions, was no exception.

'As the saying goes, overwhelming power is no different from authority.'

But naturally, even among those who had overcome such walls, differences in level existed.

Just like the top student in high school becomes the bottom in a prestigious university, aren't rankings inherent everywhere?

'And the Awakened on Earth are generally inferior to the powerhouses of other worlds in several respects.'

Perhaps it was unavoidable that they would be slightly lacking in proficiency and other areas, given that their power was obtained relatively easily with the help of the system.

To put it a bit bluntly, you could call them mass-produced.

'Of course, my avatars also received help from the system, though.'

However, Hali, who had surpassed the limits of a living being by continuously evolving and even harboring 'madness,' and Harris, who had become one with nature thanks to the World Tree's assistance and grown further by learning the martial arts of the Strong Return Realm...

They were too powerful internally to be lumped together in that way.

Those two alone could wipe out all the remaining guys in this place.

Furthermore, Heinz II, who was also in the upper echelons even within the realm of transcendence,

was currently undergoing another transformation.

"Hoo— Hoo—."

His breathing grew ragged.

The thick blood mist mixed in his exhales scattered in the air.

He took deep breaths in front of the remains of the one who had been 'Peacock,' now turning to ash and crumbling, struggling to control the surging power within him.

Naturally, Peacock, a powerhouse who could rival him, couldn't be brought under his command.

The best Heinz could do was to drain all of his blood.

Since he hadn't expected anything more from the start, he didn't hesitate to proceed.

'This is… I had a feeling, but…'

And immediately after.

He was unable to move carelessly due to the recoil that was stronger than expected, focusing on recovering his energy in place.

If Hali and Harris weren't smoothly controlling the situation, it might have become a rather difficult situation.

'If that had really happened, I might have had no choice but to dispel them… Ugh!'

The blood flowing within his body writhed as if it had become a separate living entity.

His very foundation, 「Lord of Blood」, activated violently, affecting all skills related to it.

「Hybrid Evolution」, 「Mysteries of Blood」, 「Refined Blood Essence」, and more…

All his skills branched out towards each other, becoming more organically connected, compensating for their respective shortcomings and growing even stronger.

At that point, it was only natural that physical changes would follow.

Creak— Snap! Crunch!

Quite some time passed.

Finally, as the battles happening elsewhere were also nearing their end.

"A new vampiric factor is being collected. Due to the influence of the special skill 「Hybrid Evolution」, the individual's existence becomes even more distinct."

"The karma (業) possessed by the individual has reached its critical point."

The messages he had been waiting for appeared before his eyes.

No, the notification window didn't end there.

Soon, several more lines started appearing below the first message.

"All of the individual's abilities are explosively increasing."

"The individual has met the conditions for growth. The special skill 「Desire of the Bloodline」 has evolved into 「Primordial Regression」."

And following that.

Something dwelling within Heinz swelled as if about to burst—.

"The individual has awakened, and their race value has changed to 'Vampire (Divine Blood)'."

He had finally achieved what he desired.

"Kkeueueu…"

"Seriously, trying to run away. If there wasn't a barrier, we might have missed him?"

The dying groan of someone and a gruff man's voice flowed out from the gaps between the densely packed trees.

Clatter!

Soon after the chilling sound of something being crushed, a massive barbarian figure, now returned to his original form, emerged from the undergrowth, holding something in his hand.

And that man, Hali, still wearing the beast mask pressed down deep on his head, carefully collected the corpses of the victims, including the one in his hand, and looked around again.

'Still, thanks to this, I was able to secure a lot of materials for Hans. All top-quality, too.'

Moreover, being able to significantly weaken the Beoncheon Society's forces this time was a major gain.

Who would have thought they would be trapped by their own barrier, unable to go anywhere and hunted?

Isn't this exactly what they mean by "what goes around comes around"?

"Let's see, what's next…"

Hali scratched his chin roughly, still with the beast mask pulled down low.

In the past, as soon as a fight ended, he would have been shoving meat down his throat non-stop to replenish his energy, but now that he could consume madness instead, the immediate hunger wasn't that great.

Meaning, if he wanted to, he could continue fighting right now.

"…Guess I should take care of the cleanup."

But Hali, whose specialty was all-out warfare with destruction, wasn't of much help with anything else.

The one with useful abilities in the current situation wasn't him, but the other one.

In the outer area, a little distance from the central area where he was.

'Hmm.'

Leaning lazily against a tall tree, Harris scanned the area again with 「Observer of the Galaxy」 before slowly nodding.

'It's over.'

He gently stroked the vibrant spirits manifested around him before turning his attention to the barrier still enveloping the entire forest.

'This is something else too. To still be maintained even after a battle of this scale inside…'

Although it was now tattered and on the verge of breaking down due to accumulated fatigue, the fact that it was still functioning amidst such aftermath was truly remarkable.

What's more, wasn't that a special product with an incredibly short activation time?

'…Could be Doctor's work. Then, the fact that they're observing the inside through that now…'

Harris tilted his head slightly with a languid expression.

The moment the barrier wavered due to the aftershocks of the ongoing battle, he sensed someone unknown was looking inside through it.

It didn't really matter if their identity was revealed since he was planning to step forward soon anyway, but the feeling of being unilaterally observed by someone was rather unsettling.

'…Hold on, looking at the barrier's current state, I could probably sneak one spirit out.'

Since it was prepared with transcendents in mind, even that would have been difficult if the barrier was functioning normally.

But the situation was different now.

Spirits were also incorporeal entities without substance, so it was even easier.

'Perfect. And if I use that well…'

Whoosh—

A gentle whirlwind swirled.

Harris carefully manipulated his energy to send the wind spirit Pascal outside the barrier.

There was a moment when the barrier tried to react, but he even applied the harmonization principles of 「Formless Eight Trigram Flying Technique (Modified)」 and succeeded in secretly getting all the spirits out.

'Alright— Please, Pascal. Search the city thoroughly for any suspicious places. There's bound to be a place connected to this barrier among them.'

The reason they deliberately came all the way to Europe was entirely for Heinz's growth.

And that goal had just been completely achieved.

But coincidentally, a being called Doctor had entered the target…

'If it's Pascal, a top-tier spirit, scanning an entire city shouldn't take too long.'

Soon, a cool gust of wind blew towards Bucharest, the capital of Romania, where Heinz had originally intended to go.

A hologram video continuously played on one wall.

From the start to the end of the battle in the forest, Doctor, standing in place using 「Eye of Truth」, didn't even blink, staring intently at it.

Of course, he wasn't an ordinary person either, so it didn't severely damage his eyes just by doing that, but his bloodshot, crimson eyes were enough to evoke a scene from a horror movie.

"...To control that bulk freely? What's the muscle density? The basic weight seems considerable too… Are they controlling it by manipulating the surrounding energy? Considering the amount of flowing energy and the depth of the ground being dug, it easily surpasses 1 ton. Then what exactly is the internal structure…"

Hoo— Hoo—

Furthermore, the sight of him muttering like crazy while breathing roughly only accentuated his bizarre nature.

The way he persistently and intensely analyzed a single person with eyes gleaming like a maniac made him look like a dangerous criminal.

Of course, he was actually a criminal.

"...Huh? What, is it already over? The others too… Tsk, how pathetic can they be!"

For him, the outcome of the battle, which ended in the Beoncheon Society's defeat, was nothing more than a source of dissatisfaction.

The safety of the European branch was already of no concern to him.

He was simply upset that he couldn't continue observing the test subjects.

"I severely misjudged Peacock! I thought he was at least a somewhat useful fellow! To be taken down so easily… Huh? What's that? Oh ho…"

While watching the video, he had been completely engrossed in Hali's physique. When he looked at the situation elsewhere, the first thing he saw was.

Heinz, facing a significant change immediately after devouring Peacock.

"That is…"

The figure of Phantom enveloped in a massive amount of dense, crimson blood magic.

The eyes of the Doctor, who had been bursting with frustration, flashed again.

A vampire right after engaging in cannibalism of its own kind!

Moreover, both the devourer and the devoured were monsters considered to be at the very peak of level 9!

This was truly a rare spectacle that one wouldn't see twice.

"Ooh… Ooooh?!"

It was indeed extraordinary.

An unprecedented purity of tremendous blood magic surged and flowed violently around one vampire.

However, the truly unfortunate part was…

"Aaaah—! No! Not enough! It's not enoughoooo—! I should have been there! If only I could have seen that firsthand!!"

The energy was so dense that he couldn't observe the changes happening within the body.

Naturally, no matter how excellent the effects of this video magic tool were, it was bound to have its limits.

And how could one observe a level of mystery that might only be pierced through even when facing it directly, using such a method?

"Aaaagh! To miss such an opportunity like this!"

He pounded his chest in frustration, yelling loudly.

Of course, even while doing so, his gaze remained fixed on the screen.

"To have two such tempting test subjects…! And not be able to get my hands on them? That stupid Peacock ruined everything! Useless scum! I should have just drained all his blood aaaaaagh—!"

After ranting for a while, his thoughts suddenly turned elsewhere.

Both of the ones he had observed earlier were extremely interesting beings.

What about the remaining one?

With a hopeful thought, he immediately checked another location inside the barrier and…

"Oh? Oooooh!"

He discovered a being harmonized with nature as if becoming one, thanks to 「Eye of Truth」, and exclaimed in admiration once more.

"That's… It's real! I can't believe it, it's real! A being from another world on Earth!"

His eyes, piercing through the truth, were telling him.

This wasn't some kind of transformation ability; the very core of that being originated purely from another dimension.

He couldn't grasp the details due to the opponent's high level, but that was enough for now.

"A fairy! I've only heard tales of them! I was so disappointed that they didn't exist in my world, and now one appears like this! What a gift from the heavens!"

Doctor exclaimed, overcome with emotion.

But the highly agitated Doctor soon realized that he couldn't obtain them now, and like a child who had their precious gift taken away, he stared blankly at the screen again.

To have three treasures he desperately wanted appear all at once, and yet be unable to possess them, was a tragedy of tragedies for him.

His emotions swung wildly up and down, eventually culminating in a feeling of bitterness and injustice as he clawed at his chest.

"Kkeueueueu!"

A trickle of blood ran down from his lip and dropped onto the floor.

His obsession and possessiveness surged intensely in his eyes as he gnawed on his lip.

While Doctor was completely engrossed in the screen, lost in his own world, the corner of one being on that screen, Harris, lifted slightly, almost imperceptibly.

'Found it.'

Finding the target wasn't as easy as he had thought.

Bucharest, the headquarters of the Beoncheon Society's European branch, had too many suspicious places, including the one with the barrier.

But Harris, concentrating his efforts on only Pascal, had finally found a place faintly connected to the barrier here.

If he wasn't receiving real-time signals indicating that they were still being watched from this location, he probably wouldn't have found it this quickly.

'Alright, then…'

From now on, speed was crucial.

It was the turn of the newly awakened Divine Blood Vampire.

Earth's one and only level 10 vampire.