Depraved Noble: Forced To Live The Debaucherous Life Of An Evil Noble!-Chapter 502: You’re Not From This World!

The trio didn’t know what to say.

Just moments ago, they had been sure Cassius was about to die. His neck had been ripped open, his blood spilling out like a fountain, and Carmela—no, the thing she had become—had been latched onto him like a rabid wolf.

They had already braced themselves for the moment he’d drop lifeless to the ground, a drained husk in her arms.

But now...

Now, Cassius was standing there perfectly fine, casually patting Carmela’s back as she slumped against his chest.

The whole scene had gone from a horror story to something out of a nursery, and the absurdity of it made all three of them question reality.

"...Is he patting her?" Julie’s mouth twitched as she tried to form words.

"He’s burping her." Aisha blinked.

"Master looks like he’s taking care of a baby that drank too much milk." Skadi tilted her head, her tail flicking in confusion.

Indeed, Cassius was patting Carmela’s back while she unconsciously leaned against him, a faint content sigh escaping her lips. It would’ve looked tender, sweet even, if not for the blood still dripping from her mouth and staining his coat.

Finally, Cassius let out a small sigh and adjusted his grip on Carmela before glancing toward them.

"Skadi." He called casually. "Come over here for a second, will you? Take Carmela from me. She’s out cold, and I’ve got something else to take care of."

Still dazed, Skadi obediently bounded over.

"Y-Yes, Master." She stammered, though her nose wrinkled as she took the unconscious vampire into her arms.

Carmela’s lips were still slick with blood, and she muttered softly in her sleep, making Skadi grimace.

"Eugh, she’s still drooling! Master, she’s drooling blood on me! She’s not gonna, like, wake up and bite me, right?"

"She’s out cold." Cassius patted her head reassuringly. "Think of her like a cat after a big meal. Just don’t poke her, and you’ll be fine."

Then, wiping off the blood in his hands, he turned and started walking toward Xerath.

The cult leader was a mess. He was lying among rubble and ash, coughing blood—but the moment he saw Cassius approaching, his eye trembled with terror.

"D-Don’t!" He rasped, dragging himself backward with his one good hand. "Don’t come closer! Don’t you dare, you bastard! You—you can’t do anything to me—!"

Cassius ignored him completely and when he finally reached him, he crouched down so their faces were level.

A faint, almost friendly smile tugged at his lips.

"Relax." He said softly. "This isn’t what you think."

Xerath froze, breathing hard.

"I’m not here to punish you." Cassius went on, tilting his head slightly. "Actually, I’m here to show you something. You’ve been so obsessed with purity—bloodlines, ancestry, your precious vampires, the progenitor this, the holy blood so..."

His tone took on an almost amused note.

"...I thought I’d give you a treat. A little demonstration."

"D-Demonstration?" Xerath repeated weakly.

"Yep." Cassius smiled wider. "I’m going to show you a bloodline so pure, so ancient, that it’ll make your precious progenitors look like newborns."

Xerath frowned in confusion, his trembling hands clutching at the ground. "W-What are you—"

Before he could finish, Cassius raised his hand, pressed two fingers against his own neck, where the wound had already healed to a faint scar and then dipped his fingers into it, letting fresh blood coat his skin.

The blood gleamed faintly, darker than crimson—almost black in the moonlight.

And before Xerath could react, Cassius flicked his wrist.

A few droplets of that blood splattered across Xerath’s face, his mouth accidentally open in mid-breath.

The effect was instantaneous.

The moment the blood hit his tongue, Xerath’s body convulsed violently. His eyes went wide and blank. His spine arched. His fingers curled, twitching uncontrollably.

"W-What...What did you...do to me—"

His words were cut short as his eyes rolled back, the veins in his temples bulging. It was as though his entire being was being rewritten from the inside out.

Visions flashed through his mind—too fast to understand, too vivid to ignore.

A cascade of memories that weren’t his own. He saw stars being born and dying. Planets crumbling into dust. The rise and fall of civilizations that had never existed in this world.

A heartbeat, a pulse that wasn’t his, yet resonated with the rhythm of the world itself.

And then...he saw it.

A vast, burning presence—cosmic, incomprehensible, and suffocating loomed over his mind.

Not divine. Not demonic. Something beyond both.

A consciousness so immense it could only belong to something that stood between creation and destruction.

He tried to scream, but the sound wouldn’t leave his throat.

When the visions finally stopped, Xerath collapsed forward, gasping like a drowning man breaking the surface. Sweat poured down his face as he stared at Cassius in utter horror.

"You...You...Just what are you?"

Xerath shook his head frantically, his voice growing higher, more desperate.

"You don’t belong here. You don’t even belong to this world! You’re not human—you’re not anything!"

He pointed at Cassius with a trembling hand, eyes wild.

"You’re supposed to be a Guardian! A protector appointed by the consciousness of another world! You’re a keeper of balance—of existence! Why are you here?! Why did something like you come to this realm?!"

Cassius smiled faintly, as though amused by the outburst.

"Well." He said lightly. "I suppose you could say I’m on a very, very long vacation."

Before Xerath could even process that, Cassius straightened slightly and added.

"And speaking of vacations...it’s about time you took one too."

Xerath blinked in confusion. "Wha—"

Before he could finish the word, Cassius moved with terrifying speed.

He snatched a discarded dagger lying near the rubble and grabbed the cult leader’s remaining hair and violently stabbed the dagger into his open mouth repeatedly, twisting the blade with maniacal, purposeful fury.

Thrust! Twist! Thrust! Twist!

Xerath couldn’t even scream. His mouth instantly filled with blood, torn and ripped by the dagger. The excruciating pain, combined with the gushing blood and pulverized internal tissue, choked him.

Just like he had drained his countless victims, Xerath slowly died, gagging and choking on his own blood, his final moments a brutal, mirror image of the terror he had inflicted.

Cassius simply watched the last embers of life fade away before he got up slowly, brushing bits of bone off his coat as if he’d just finished a minor chore.

He turned and right on cue, the others were hurrying toward him, the shock of the last few minutes still plain on their faces.

A bright grin spread across his face as he gestured toward the still-smoking wreckage of the mountain.

"Well, ladies, I’d say the mission is officially over. The cult’s dead, the ritual’s stopped, the kids are safe, and we even managed to prevent a very hungry vampire from turning the countryside into a buffet."

He gave an exaggerated stretch.

"I’d call that a happy ending!"

Julie blinked at him, still too dazed to process the casual tone. Aisha, however, was having none of it.

"Cassius, your neck." She said sharply, rushing to his side. "Is it alright? You—there was a hole there! You were bleeding out a few minutes ago!"

Cassius chuckled and tilted his head slightly toward her.

"See for yourself."

Aisha hesitated, then leaned in and her eyes widened in disbelief.

The gaping wound she had seen before was almost entirely gone—now just a faint pink mark remained, and even that was fading before her eyes.

The blood had stopped, the skin was knitting back together, and his heartbeat sounded perfectly steady.

"How is that possible..." She whispered, touching her lips in awe. "You—you’ve already regenerated. That fast?"

"Fast metabolism, I guess." Cassius smiled in a teasing way.

Aisha shook her head, more to herself than to him.

’This man isn’t human.’ She thought.

Not only was his power ridiculous, but even his body seemed to defy every known law of magic or biology.

Before she could comment further, Skadi came bounding over, still holding the unconscious Carmela in her arms.

"Master! Look! She’s still asleep, but her mouth’s all bloody! She looks so messy!"

Cassius looked up at her, but before he could say anything, Skadi tip-toed up to him down and tilted her head, inspecting the faint trace of blood still on his neck.

"Hmm..."

Before Cassius could ask what she was doing, she leaned forward and began licking the blood from his neck.

Lick! Lick! Lick!

The sensation made Cassius freeze for a heartbeat, then chuckle lowly.

"What are you doing, Skadi? Don’t tell me you’re hungry for my blood too?"

Skadi shook her head quickly, though she didn’t stop. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"No, Master! It’s just—Lick!—I saw how happy the vampire lady looked when she drank it, so I wanted to see what was so good about it!"

Julie groaned. "Oh for the love of—Skadi, that’s not—"

But Skadi already pulled back, scrunching up her nose in disgust and sticking out her tongue.

"Ugh! It doesn’t taste good at all! It’s just salty!" She exclaimed, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "The vampire lady really has bad taste!"

Cassius laughed, a deep sound that almost made the others relax.

"Well, there’s no accounting for preferences." He said. "Guess my blood’s more of an acquired taste."

Julie, however, was staring at him intently with suspicion about what she had just heard. Her arms crossed over her chest, her expression sharp.

"Cassius." She said finally. "While we were running over here, we heard what Xerath said before you killed him. He said something about you not being from this world. Something about you being some kind of guardian or protector of another one."

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"What exactly was that about?"