Blood Awakening: The Strongest Hybrid and His Vampire Bride - Chapter 385

Chapter 385: The Nest Beneath the Streets
The mutant’s body slumped in a heap, flesh torn, black ichor hissing where it hit the cracked pavement. Nikolai stood over it, chest rising, steam swerving from his skin. The creature hadn’t screamed when it died. It just gurgled, spasmed, then collapsed like a sack of rotten meat.

But the street didn’t fall silent.

Something moved beneath him.

He glanced down.

A pulse.

“These damn monsters…”

Nikolai didn’t hate himself for being one anymore, but the meaning behind the word when he used it was more like these mutants. Deformed and twisted creatures that held little to no humanity and emotions, and just acted like beasts.

‘How will the SSS deal with this outbreak? Hundreds of humans saw the truth…’

He wondered if they would remove them all, or maybe they could remove memories.

The asphalt shifted, a little at first, a ripple across the ground. Then the cracked concrete groaned, caved in with a low, bone-deep growl, and part of the street collapsed into itself. Dust choked the air as black ooze bubbled from the edges.

A crater.

And at the centre… an opening.

Dark. Breathing. Alive.

‘A cave. Or worse.’

Nikolai looked back at the destroyed bar, with Alexei sitting on the counter, panting with wounds down his face. ‘They hinder regeneration?’ He saw Brian close to Alexei, resting against his mace, but neither could help him.

“Do I enter this shithole alone?”

Nikolai stepped closer, heel skidding on the broken edge. The hole went down far, too far. But he could hear them. Crawling. Clicking. Dozens, maybe hundreds.

He could smell freshly turned earth, blood, and decay… a familiar stench. This was no accident and was likely a trap for him… but maybe that was too confident and it wasn’t related to him at all.

And it was growing.

Nikolai crouched by the jagged edge, one hand pressing to the cracked asphalt for balance. The air rising from below was warm and wet. Thick with rot, fetid breath, the scent of monster shit and old blood baking together in some hellish stew. It clung to his nose, coated his tongue like mildew.

The hole didn’t move, but Nikolai sensed it pulsing. But Nikolai felt it. A wrongness in the stone itself, like the city’s bones had been hollowed out and filled with things that should not crawl.

He reached out, fingers brushing a thread of the black slime clinging to the edge.

“Hm?”

Nikolai’s aura pulsed, his hands coated in black flames, but the corruption just bubbled and didn’t seem to be affected… instead, it became thicker and vibrant.

‘!?’

Was this corruption related to the evil gods?

This thought came to mind.

It clung, resisting. Alive. The stuff pulsed when Nikolai touched it.

It didn’t burn.

But felt like it knew him.

Unlike the humans who screamed in pain, their skin bubbling and melting when touching this, he felt comfortable and… it seeped into his flesh.

The sticky tar flowed through his veins and finally slipped into his black heart… the small bead in the centre of his chest, growing slightly.

“Ngh!”

Ba-Dump!

Ba-Dump!

Pain.

A severe pain shot through Nikolai’s chest and face… his eyes were tight as if someone gripped them and squeezed them. While a pounding ache spread through his chest like a hammer smashing his ribs every other second, causing Nikolai’s breathing to get heavier.

The pain came and went like a tide, leaving him half kneeling and covered in sweat… but his strength and body felt more powerful.

A twitch of tension rippled down his spine.

It was as if something deep in that pit recognised his blood and hated him for it.

Or maybe it worshipped him.

He stood and looked back toward the ruins of the bar. Brian hadn’t moved. Neither had Alexei. Both men were wounded. Be it a slash, bleeding, bruised, but alive at least.

‘If I go in now, alone, there’s a chance this ends tonight… Or I don’t come back.’

The crater seemed to expand beneath him, the soft sucking sounds of movement growing louder. The mutants weren’t gone.

They were waiting.

His teeth clenched.

Every instinct screamed at him to descend. End it before it spreads.

Before the entire district vanished into this corruption.

But even Nikolai wasn’t suicidal.

Then… a sound. Different. Clean.

A low hum of tires. Rubber on the road. The engine purring smoothly, too smooth for city wreckage. A vehicle.

Headlights cut through the dust like twin lances. A black jeep screeched to a stop just outside the rubble. Another followed close behind it. The doors slammed open.

Click-click-click.

He heard it before he saw them.

Boots on pavement. Rifles checked. Safety catches flipped.

“My Lord!” a voice called out.

He turned.

Leona stepped forward, orange hair tied back tight, her face still pale but focused, eyes sharp and glowing faintly. She wore the traditional maid uniform, reinforced with black tactical armour layered underneath. Her rifle hung across her chest, loaded with silver-lined magazines.

Ten maids followed her—armed, alert, moving like soldiers—no wasted motion. No fear.

She stepped from the lead vehicle, flanked by a unit in black-and-white maid uniforms, reinforced with plated vests and tactical pouches. Each held an assault rifle, silver-striped magazines locked in place. Their eyes were calm, cold, and professional.

The woman in front had wild orange hair tied up in a high ponytail. She wore the same uniform, though hers was tailored tighter to a lithe, curved body. Her eyes, like fire, remained sharp, flicking to the crater, then to him.

“You should have waited,” Leona said flatly. Her boots clicked as she walked toward him, the others forming a perimeter with practised ease. “We tracked your signal after the breach warning came in.”

Nikolai stared at her. She wasn’t limping anymore. Her aura burned steadily.

“You called in a full unit?”

“I told you I’m in charge of logistics for a reason,” she said, brushing past him. “I decide who gets support and when. And you looked like hell on the last camera feed.”

Nikolai blinked, almost smiling.

Leona turned toward the crater. Her eyes narrowed.

“…This is where they came from?”

“Yeah.”

She slung the rifle from her back and chambered a round. “Then give the order.”

The maids were already moving, forming positions along the broken street. Rifles aimed downward. Shadows danced in the pit, claws clicking against stone.

Nikolai cracked his knuckles.

“Shall we light it up?”

The first shot snapped through the air—sharp, clean, Leona’s rifle spitting silver into the dark.

A second followed, then a third, as the other maids joined in, unleashing a steady stream of disciplined fire into the black pit. Bullets tore into the twitching movement below, each impact met with a wet screech. Every one of them fired without hesitation.

They didn’t scream or panic, but focused on trying to survive.

Muzzles flashed with bright light as brass clattered with bone and flesh.

The shadows writhed.

Nikolai stood at the edge, watching the chaos brew. The silver worked. It burned and slowed the beasts, though it didn’t kill them instantly.. He saw limbs melt, flesh recoil, creatures buckling beneath the onslaught.

But not dying fast enough.

The damage didn’t reach far enough.

“Hold fire!” he called.

The shooting stopped in less than a second. A thick smoke curled out from the crater, mixing with the stench of cooked meat and piss. However, something below growled. A sound loud enough to make one’s ribs vibrate.

“You think that’s all of them?” Leona asked beside him, checking her clip with steady hands.

He shook his head.

“They’re nesting, although we got the ones heading to the surface… we’d need to enter to clear it.”

More movement.

A new wave began pushing upward—smaller mutants crawling over the corpses of the first wave, using their dead kin as a ramp. Their bodies shimmered wetly in the light. Faster than the first batch. Some with wings. Others with chitin-plated backs like natural armour.

Leona clicked her tongue. “Second wave.”

“Cover me,” Nikolai said.

She blinked. “Wait, you’re going in?”

He was already halfway over the lip of the crater before she finished the question, sliding down broken asphalt into the steaming hollow below. His boots landed hard, ichor splashing up his shins. The monsters saw him.

He grinned.

“Come on then.”

One lunged. Nikolai slammed his knee into its face, grabbed it by the spine and hurled it into the wall. A second snapped at his flank, only to catch his elbow across its skull, bursting with a crunch.

The cave was bigger than it looked—more like an artery running deep under the city, pulsing with a rhythm too slow and steady to be human.

Behind him, the squad resumed fire, silver rounds hissing overhead to cover his path. Mutants fell, shrieking, their blood sizzling on the crater walls.

Nikolai shoved forward down into the belly of the beast, driven by duty and whatever awaited at the bottom. He wondered what the source of this feeling was.

He could feel it.

Watching.

Waiting.

Something older than the tower.

Older than the mutants.

And it knew him.

“Hey, Leona! Are you and your girls coming inside?”

His shout echoed, causing a light blush on the maid’s cheeks. Most of them weren’t girls anymore. But they still enjoyed the compliment from the young Patriarch.

A compliment like that from their handsome and powerful Patriarch.

“Stop making noise!” Leona snarled at the women before heading into the cave. “Follow me!”