SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God Chapter 808: Who are you?

The god watched him approach with a smile, making no attempt to avoid the tendrils reaching for his throat. A faint golden sheen appeared over his skin, and the first strands of blood burst against it, splattering across an invisible surface. More followed, wrapping around his arms and torso until Damon could barely see the white robes beneath them.

“Is this how you killed him?” the god asked, glancing down at the blood tightening around his waist. “How disappointing.”

Damon reached him a moment later and drove his fist into his chest. The impact sent a shock through his arm, cracking two of his knuckles, while the god remained exactly where he was. Damon snarled and struck again with his other hand, allowing the tendrils to pull him closer as though he were too hungry to realize that his attacks weren’t working.

The man laughed. “You could keep doing this for a thousand years.”

That sounded exhausting. Fortunately, Damon had something considerably less time-consuming in mind. He pressed his damaged hand against the golden barrier and dragged his fingers across it, pretending to search for a way through while gathering a thin strand of Origin Energy in his other arm.

He had no intention of announcing the attack. The bastard was already standing still and letting him hit him; saying something clever now would be a particularly stupid way to ruin it. Damon kept his expression twisted with hunger as he drew his fist back for another apparently useless punch.

The god lifted a hand toward his face, golden light gathering around his fingers. “Enough. Open your mouth if you’re so eager to—”

Damon struck before he could finish.

The Origin Energy reached his knuckles at the moment of contact. Golden light buckled around his fist, and the god’s expression changed as the barrier that had stopped every previous attack suddenly broke. Damon felt his knuckles meet flesh, followed by the hard resistance of bone, and drove forward with everything he had.

The god folded around his arm. His feet left the dragon’s scales, but the blood tendrils tightened before he could fly backward, holding him close while Damon forced his hand deeper into the wound. Hot blood washed over his wrist, and his bloodline reacted so violently that he nearly lost track of what he was doing.

Holy fucking shit.

He had thought the dragon’s blood was rich. This made him want to bury his face in the wound and stay there. Among everything he had consumed so far, Origin Energy was by far the most intoxicating.

The faint traces carried within the god’s blood made his entire body shudder, and his bloodline seized them with a hunger that bordered on desperation. For a dangerous moment, Damon forgot about the hand reaching for his head and focused entirely on pulling more into himself.

The god’s fingers closed around his skull.

Agony tore through his temples as golden light burned into his flesh. Damon’s vision flashed white, and the pressure kept increasing, threatening to crush his head between the man’s fingers. He jerked sideways, but the god held on, his face twisted with rage.

“Filthy creature!”

Damon drove his wounded hand against the man’s elbow, forcing it upward just enough to loosen the grip. Skin tore from his temple as he wrenched his head free, but he kept his other arm buried in the god’s abdomen.

Blood tendrils spread from his fingertips, burrowing deeper while he dragged another mouthful through the wound. He no longer held back. He let loose all of the origin energy he could manage. This time, he tried immersing his blood tendrils in the origin energy.

The wormlike blood tendrils instantly roared like powerful dragons.

Until now, they had been struggling to burrow through the god’s flesh, repeatedly breaking against the power gathered inside his body. Now they pierced straight through it, branching around his ribs and winding through his abdomen before he could force them out.

“Origin energy… who are you?” The god’s grip on Damon’s head faltered. He hastily tried to retaliate, but it was already too late. Tendrils were drilling him from all directions.

Golden light gathered around his fingers, only to scatter as the tendrils pierced through the channels feeding it. Damon could feel every attempt to summon power, and he followed each one back toward its source, burrowing deeper before the god could find another way to retaliate.

The man’s expression changed as he realized what was happening. He abandoned the attack and tried to pull away, but Damon’s blood had already spread throughout his torso. The movement merely dragged Damon along with him, his arm still buried in the wound.

“Get out!” the god roared, seizing Damon’s wrist.

Damon answered by activating his devouring ability with everything he had. The tendrils pulsed, and divine blood rushed through them in thick streams, carrying traces of Origin Energy that made his own bloodline shudder with pleasure.

The god’s fingers dug into his wrist, but their strength was fading. More importantly, every moment spent trying to tear Damon free was another moment for the tendrils to spread. They wound around his spine and climbed toward his neck, while the strands inside his chest gathered around a fiercely protected concentration of power.

Damon grinned as he felt the resistance. There was the good stuff.

The pale ring behind the god’s head flared, and an enormous pressure struck Damon from above. His back bent beneath it, his bones creaking as the force threatened to drive him away. He held on through sheer stubbornness, then sent the tendrils around the man’s spine surging upward.

The pressure faltered. The god’s mouth opened, but whatever he intended to say came out as a strangled gasp as blood spilled over his lips. Damon straightened just enough to bring his face close to the man’s.

“What happened?” he asked. “I thought I could keep doing this for a thousand years.”

The god stared at him, and Damon watched the realization settle behind his eyes. His gaze flicked toward the dragon’s corpse, then back to Damon’s face, finally understanding the hunched shoulders, the growling, and the conveniently reckless attack. Damon’s grin widened as the man tried to speak.

“You were—”

Damon only chuckled. Deep inside the man’s chest, the strands finally forced their way through the defenses. Damon felt the first thread of concentrated Origin Energy enter them, and his grin disappeared beneath a sharp intake of breath. The power traveled up his arm slowly, resisting every inch, but his bloodline clung to it and refused to let it retreat.

The god convulsed. His hands abandoned Damon’s wrist and pressed against his own chest, as though he could somehow hold the energy inside. Damon immediately restrained them, unwilling to discover what desperate trick the bastard might attempt now.

“Wait,” the man said, his voice suddenly strained. “You don’t understand. If you kill me—”

Damon pulled again, and the rest of the sentence dissolved into a cry. A second strand slipped free, then a third, each one entering Damon’s body with enough force to make his muscles lock. He slowed the flow just enough to contain it, breathing hard through his teeth as he drew the stolen energy deeper inside.

He could already feel how much he had spent reinforcing the tendrils. None of that was returning on its own, but the power he was taking from the god was real, and there was considerably more waiting behind it. He just needed to hold on long enough to finish.

The ring behind the man’s head began to dim. The god tried to speak again, but Damon tightened the tendrils around the power gathered in his chest and pulled. Whatever defense remained finally gave way, releasing a torrent of Origin Energy into the waiting strands. Damon’s arm swelled under the pressure, thin cracks opening along his skin, but he gritted his teeth and kept absorbing.

The man’s back arched, his hands clawing weakly at Damon’s shoulders. His golden markings flickered and went dark wherever the tendrils passed, while the flesh beneath his robes began to shrink. Damon could feel the strength leaving him, flowing through their connection with every desperate beat of his heart.

That heartbeat slowed. The god’s fingers slipped from Damon’s shoulders, and the pale ring behind his head fractured, shedding fragments of light into the void. His mouth remained open, but he no longer had the strength to force out a word.

Damon didn’t stop. He had already seen how much damage a god could survive, and he wasn’t interested in learning whether the bastard could recover from this too. He sent the tendrils deeper, draining the last pockets of power while keeping a firm hold on the frail body suspended in front of him.

Something stirred behind the man’s dimming eyes. A pale shape rose from his forehead, carrying the unmistakable presence of the same being Damon had been devouring. It barely cleared the skin before a cluster of crimson strands wrapped around it.

“Oh, no. You’re included.”

The soul struggled far more violently than the body had, sending a sharp pain through Damon’s consciousness. He clenched his jaw and dragged it into the mass of tendrils, pouring more power into them until its shape began to come apart. The pressure rose for several unbearable seconds, then abruptly vanished as his bloodline swallowed what remained.

The ring shattered completely. Its fading pieces drifted past the god’s empty eyes while Damon held still, searching for another pulse, another movement, anything that suggested the man was still alive. This time, nothing answered his senses.

Only then did he withdraw his hand. The shriveled corpse sagged inside its ruined robes, held upright by a few lingering strands of blood.

Damon stared at it while the stolen power churned inside him. A laugh escaped him, breathless at first, then growing as he looked from the dead god to his own blood-covered fingers.

He had actually fucking done it. He had killed another God!