**Disclaimer: There is some gore/violence in this chapter.**

Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the forest outside, Vlad was still holding onto Vanora in his arms but now with an alarmed look on his face instead. The moment he saw the bangles, he instantly knew they were bad news so did not bother with keeping up with the farce and teleported themselves out of the house.

"No no no no no. Stay with me, stay with me." Tears sprung forth in Vlad's eyes as he held her face tenderly with one hand.

He still had not acted fast enough.

Vanora's body was now glowing dimly with white sparkles occasionally leaving her body and disappearing into nothing. Each time it did, the edges of her body faded away like she was being eaten up. Vanora gritted her teeth as she tolerated the burning sensation she felt. "Vlad...!"

Vlad could hear her fear and sadness in her strained voice. Hardening his heart and holding back his tears, he hushed her and stroked her head. "Hold on, I'll make you feel better soon. What you're going through now is the obliteration of your soul. The angels must have gained some power up from winning the war or something. But what matters is I won't let them have their way. You'll suffer less if you let me consume you instead. Do you trust me?"

Vanora nodded with difficulty.

Just as he leaned back in towards her neck, he heard her whisper with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry... I couldn't do anything..."

Vlad's heart wrenched and he could no longer stop his tears from falling. "That's nonsense. You've not only done plenty for me, you've also done plenty for the children and your parents. I'm sure they'll be proud even if you die here. You didn't just survive without a care for others, you've lived, like they asked for."

"... Do you really-" She winced in pain as another wave of intense burning sensation consumed her entirety. "Really think so...?"

"Of course. I'm sure my love for you helps me understand their sentiments even better." Vlad smiled kindly among the tears that were now flowing freely out of his eyes.

Vanora smiled from her heart amidst the pain she felt. "Perhaps...!"

Vlad kissed her on her lips before biting into her neck. Vanora grunted a little as she was hit with a wave of ecstasy that she recognised. It felt weird to be feeling both a burning sensation and ecstatic but it really did help by taking her mind off of the burning sensation, giving her something else to focus on. She panted but her breaths were shallow and weak. The light in her eyes slowly became dimmer as Vlad merged her soul with his.

Just as she thought to thank Vlad once more, she felt a completely different pain wreck through her body. It felt like she was being torn, shredded, and churned to bits. Fuck!!

However, to Vlad, Vanora's body simply turned cold in his arms in less than a second. In his grief, he did not realise the slight oddity of her passing. She should have taken longer to die if it was due to being consumed by him. 

He could not hold back his sobs as anger and grief filled his entire being. He hugged Vanora's cold body so tightly  as if he wanted to meld her body into his. 

He could not help but cry out in agony as he recalled their time together.

It had started off as a mysterious but simple infatuation, an obsession. He simply wanted to own and have her. He let his unexplained anxiety and paranoia dictate the way he treated her. However, the more he learnt about her and understood her, the more he grew to respect her and genuinely like her for who she is, the more he learnt to treat her the way she would like to be treated. As time passed, like grew to love. He became aware of his feelings and was sure that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, however long it lasted before the time came for him to fulfill his purpose.

Demons had no need for empathy, much less a powerful demon lord like him. He would never need to care about how another feels. Not only did she teach him all these, she also created routine and order in his life that used to be haphazard and random. He was no longer the same person he was from before. 

I'm only the person I am now because of you... To be with you... Now that you're gone, how am I supposed to live?  It's impossible for me to go back to how I was before you. I don't want to forget you. I don't want to erase your impact in my life.

"Why... Why... Why did you have to go... Why??!!"

At this moment, as if on cue, he recalled the moment when Vanora said something about her fate being entwined with Angela's.

"Fate..? Fuck that." He set her body down on the grass gently and stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers dearly. "Since this world rejects us, this world can end for all I care then. There's nothing left for me to lose. Wait for me for awhile more before we'll hopefully be reborn into a different world, a different dimension, where we can be together."

He kissed her forehead and his heart broke upon feeling the cold temperature of her body on his lips. Another tear trickled down his cheeks before he listlessly walked a distance away from her body. 

He stood there silently among the trees with his eyes closed and clenched fists. I call upon you, our King! Claim your vessel now! I know that the only way for me to end this immortality is to desire death while suffering a fatal wound, and I very much desire death at this moment! If you don't want your perfect vessel gone, you'd better come and get me now! I need that power now!!!

Suddenly, Vlad opened his eyes to reveal that it was completely black to the point that it looked as if he had no eyes in his sockets. The black colour could be seen spreading through his veins across his face then his entire body. Sounds of bones cracking and skin tearing broke the silence of the night. His bones seemed to be warping and changing shape, tearing through his skin in the process. He growled in pain and his teeth grew into fangs. His jaw changed and became more beast like. He dropped down to his knees and his fingers dug into the ground, leaving deep trails behind. His spine grew longer before all his other bones did as well. Black horns grew out of his skull. 

In the midst of his transformation, a dense black circle of decay atmosphere encased him as if forming a barrier around him. It grew in size along with him but as it reached Vanora's body, the transformation halted. 

He was already almost completely transformed into a giant black shadowy beast with horns, when the transformation seemed to reverse itself. He roared out while his bone structure and skin slowly changed back to normal. 

Vlad now stood in the middle of the devastation completely naked. The only things that remained were the black horns that were now protruding from his head and the black veins coursing through his entire body that seemed to originate from his eyes. He broke into a wide toothy grin that revealed razor sharp teeth. "Didn't expect this ending when you chose me as your vessel from so long ago, did you? ... ... Took them long enough to come." 

Vlad disappeared from where he was and appeared in front of the pair of angels that were the bane of his existence. Before they could react, he immediately flew forward and jammed his fingers in their eyes, instantly blinding them. Vlad jumped back again and watched on as blood spurted out from the force and speed that he drew his hands back. 

Screams filled the air.

Their veins slowly turned black like Vlad's. Big red welts slowly formed on their bodies before it became sores and open wounds which then started becoming inflamed. 

"What's happening?!" Michael and Angela asked at the same time.

"You're infected with my blood. Your divine protection isn't going to help you this time." Vlad said with an empty smile. 

They started to scream and shout in fear and agony as they helplessly watched themselves rot away. Their attempts at killing Vlad before they died were completely ineffective. The foul stench of their rotting flesh filled their nostrils and they watched their own meat fall away from their skeleton before their very eyes. No amount of prayer could change the process. Before long, all that was left of them was a pile of bones. 

Vlad looked at the bones without a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. This was only the beginning of what he intended to do. He then set out to carry out the remainder of his plan. He enslaved every human on sight, killed every angel on sight, and brought hell onto earth. 

When a crack of light appeared in the night sky, he knew that that was the pathway towards heaven. He recklessly charged into it to bring the fight there as well, not caring if it was an ambush for him or not. 

When he broke through the clouds to enter a space so bright and sunny with clouds that looked like candy floss around their feet, a kind looking old man with a serene and peaceful expression stood a small distance away from him. The old man has an arm raised as if to signal for the angels to fall back and they did so begrudgingly.

Vlad paid them no attention and quickly advanced towards the old man until an image of Noah and Sophia cowering in the corner of a room appeared between them. Vlad stopped in his tracks, frozen.

"Do you not care about these children any more? There's a reason why you've left only this village alone, isn't it? There's a reason why you could control the demon king's possession over your body. No one is completely invincible. You have a good heart, Vlad. It's still not too late for you." The old man stretched out his arm towards Vlad and smiled sadly. 

Vlad walked forward and through the image slowly without an expression, stopped before the old man's outstretched hand, and stared down at his open inviting palm. In the next instant, he jammed his hand straight through the old man's heart. 

Everyone was stunned into stillness. 

Vlad grinned as he retracted his arm. "Yeah, no one is invincible. This should should have happened a long time ago." As he continued to talk, his grin faded away to become a scowl. "I shouldn't have been so scared about losing myself. Perhaps then she would still be alive. Perhaps then she wouldn't have to be involved in this stupid war." 

Upon the end of his sentence, he began his killing spree in heaven, wiping out the angels, forcing them all to be born again as humans. It would now take a long long time before the number of angels would become substantial again since it took a human who graciously persevered through many tough trials in their life to even qualify as an angel. 

At the end of it all, Vlad returned to the house in time to find a demon about to attack the children. He killed the demon without a second thought. The children saw him and seemed shocked to see his current appearance. 

"Da- Dad...?" They called out with shaky voices and tearful faces. They did not dare to approach him for he suddenly felt even more distant than he had already been with them. 

He stared at them wordlessly for a good long while while the children trembled in silence for the whole time.

Vanora cared for them...

Finally, Vlad opened his mouth to speak in monotone. "Your mum's dead."

The children's eyes widened as the realisation of who their pseudo parents were and what happened hit them. They were no idiots. Recalling everything that had happened between them and Vanora, they finally understood why Vanora always seemed to behave like she owed them something. 

Even more tears spilled out from their wide open eyes and they shook their heads as if in denial. Yet the words that came out of their mouth revealed their guilt and sorrow. "Sorry... Sorry... I'm- I'm- I'm so sorry! We didn't mean to- Mean any harm- We're sorry!" They could not stop apologising, their sobbing making them choke on their words often. 

Their time together may have been short but they could feel Vanora's genuineness and sincerity.

Vlad stared at them impassively. "If you're truly sorry, you'll do as I say. So shut up and listen up."

The children shut their mouths and gritted their teeth to listen to him in tears and on their knees, as if begging for forgiveness. Vlad got down on one knee to speak with them at their eye level. 

"I'll be giving the both of you powers to become very strong so that you can survive on your own."

"On our... Own...?" Noah caught on fast which also made it clear for Sophia. Their red and sore eyes grew wider and wider as Vlad continued to speak as if Noah had not spoken a word.

"It'll be a torture on your bodies at first because your bodies aren't equipped to handle that much power. But just keep practicing whatever your mum has taught you and keep fighting, and you'll be fine overtime. Two of you... Work together and live on for our sake. I have no will to live anymore, I shall be joining  your mum."

Just as the children looked shocked and terrified to be greeted with the news that they'd be orphans again, Vlad knocked them out. He used the knowledge of his newly gained powers of possession to transfer his powers into them, which was equivalent to splitting his existence into two. Now they were like two halves of one whole. As long as they worked together, they would stand undefeated.

He looked and felt drained but stayed there guarding their bodies until they started to stir in their sleep. He then left to return to Vanora's side. His body was already falling apart, looking like a land parched of water. He should have already crumbled into dust by now but was only holding together out of sheer willpower to live until he was by Vanora's side. 

He found her body just as the sun was rising. The first sun rays that lit up earth fell onto Vanora. He smiled gently as he laid down by her side before crumbling into dust.