My Three Vampire Queens In The Apocalypse-Chapter 37: Rise of The First Apostle [1]

The night arrived soon after.

One moment, the world still carried the faint warmth of evening, and the next, it felt as if something unseen had drawn a curtain over everything.

Even the air had changed. It felt heavier, thicker, as though it carried a warning that only the body could understand.

Juli had improved far more than I expected in just a single day. When I first made her practice, she could barely control a handful of insects without losing focus halfway through.

Now she sat a few steps away from me, her small figure surrounded by a restless, crawling army that moved as if it shared a single mind.

And in a way, it did.

Her mind.

I watched carefully as a group of beetles crawled across the cracked pavement, while a cluster of moths hovered lazily above her head.

A line of ants moved in perfect formation along the edge of a broken wall, turning corners without hesitation, as if they were following a map only Juli could see.

She wasn’t just controlling them anymore. She was connected to them.

She could see through their tiny eyes. She could hear through their fragile bodies. Every twitch, every movement, every change in the air around them was information flowing straight into her mind.

That alone would have been terrifying if it wasn’t so useful.

"There... and there..." Juli murmured softly, her eyes slightly unfocused as she guided a pair of flying insects toward the far end of the parking lot.

Kilometers away, she had said earlier. That was her current limit.

Of course, it came with a cost.

The farther her control stretched, the fewer insects she could manage at once. If she spread herself too thin, the connection would weaken, and she would lose control completely.

It was a flaw, but not a fatal one. It could be managed, worked around, even exploited if used correctly.

For now, this was more than enough.

I leaned back slightly against the cold surface of a car, letting my eyes drift toward my wristwatch. The ticking sound felt louder than usual, each second stretching just a little longer than it should have.

11:59 PM.

The world held its breath.

Even the insects around Juli slowed down, as if they too could feel it coming. The faint buzzing in the air faded, replaced by a silence so deep it felt unnatural.

Then the second hand moved.

12:00 AM.

A sharp, invisible shift passed through the world. The sky changed instantly.

One moment, it was dotted with faint stars, dim but present. The next, everything vanished. No clouds, no stars, no moon. Just a vast, endless darkness that swallowed the sky whole.

It didn’t look natural. It looked... wrong.

Before I could process it further, a sound began to echo through the air.

Soft at first. Almost... melodic.

Dudududu...

The tune floated through the night like a whisper, yet it carried across the entire city with eerie clarity. It didn’t come from any single direction.

It was everywhere at once, wrapping around buildings, slipping through broken windows, crawling into the ears whether you wanted it or not.

It felt like an opera.

A performance meant for an audience that had no choice but to listen.

Dudududu...

The rhythm repeated, slightly louder this time, carrying a strange sense of anticipation, as if something was about to step onto a stage that had been prepared long ago.

I felt a faint chill run down my spine.

Not fear.

Recognition.

"This is it..." I muttered under my breath.

Beside me, Juli came closer, her small hand clutching the edge of my sleeve. I could feel the tension in her grip, even though she was trying not to show it.

"Big brother... what are those?"

I followed her gaze.

At first, I thought it was just a patch of darkness moving across the sky. But as my eyes adjusted, the shape became clearer.

It wasn’t just darkness. It was a swarm.

A massive cluster of bats surged through the air, their wings beating in chaotic unison as they swept across the city. There were too many to count, their silhouettes overlapping until they formed something that looked almost like a living cloud.

They weren’t flying randomly.

They were moving with purpose.

Their movement cut through the air like a blade, shifting direction in perfect synchronization, as if guided by something unseen.

Juli’s insects reacted immediately.

The moths above her scattered in panic. The beetles froze in place. Even the ants broke formation, their neat lines dissolving into disorder.

Through her connection, she could feel it. So could I.

Something about those bats wasn’t normal.

"They’re not just bats," I said quietly, my eyes narrowing as I tracked their movement across the sky.

The tune in the air grew louder.

Dudududu...

For a brief moment, the swarm shifted, and I caught a glimpse of something deeper within it. A shape that didn’t quite match the others.

Then it disappeared again, swallowed by the mass. Juli tightened her grip on my sleeve.

"They feel... wrong," she whispered.

Of course they did.

Everything about this night was wrong.

The sky. The music. The way the world seemed to be holding itself together just barely, like it was waiting for permission to fall apart.

I exhaled slowly, forcing my thoughts into order.

Panic wouldn’t help.

Understanding would.

"Juli," I said, keeping my voice steady, "send your insects higher. Spread them out, but don’t push too far. I want to know where they’re going."

She nodded quickly, closing her eyes as she focused.

The scattered insects responded almost instantly. A few moths regained their composure and rose into the air again, while several flying beetles shot forward, chasing after the distant swarm.

Through her ability, her vision split into dozens of fragments.

Tiny, flickering perspectives. Each one showing a different piece of the night.

And then—

She gasped.

"Big brother... there are more..."

"More?"

"Not just bats..." Her voice trembled slightly now. "Everywhere... the sky... it’s full..."

I looked up again. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

At first, I didn’t see it.

Then my eyes adjusted.

And my expression hardened.

She was right.

The bats were just the beginning.

Far beyond them, barely visible against the pitch-black sky, countless shapes moved in silence. Some were small. Some were massive. Some didn’t even look like anything I could recognize.

But they were all heading in the same direction. Like actors gathering for a performance. And we were standing right in the middle of the stage.

The tune swelled.

Dudududu... DUDUDUDU...