"Count Yulster? So it was he who had been calling for me?"
"Wait... With his appearance, could he be under house arrest?"
"Hiss... such ugly symbols. No wonder the call was so faint and elusive. These don’t look anything like thorny roses at all! Uglier than my handwriting; it’s a miracle that I could sense them at all..."
In the void, Charlotte’s will "looked down" upon Count Yulster, who was praying in front of the blood-red symbols, and she finally understood who had been disturbing her sleep these past few days.
It seemed that the Blood Count had encountered some trouble and had chosen to call out to her, a "mysterious deity"!
Charlotte’s heart stirred slightly as her consciousness, aided by Blood Divine Power, stealthily spread out from Count Yulster’s position.
And then, she "saw" the scene outside the room.
Guards yawning repeatedly, a labyrinth of corridors, the enclosed and solemn stone walls...
This was an imposing and solemn castle.
Within the castle, there were no shortage of Bloodline descendants and Blood Servants; in some rooms, Charlotte could even see the familiar symbols of the Demon’s eye.
"The Blood Demon Church? Did they capture Count Yulster?"
Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat.
Capturing a Blood Count alive was far more difficult than defeating or even killing one.
She instantly became more vigilant, spreading her consciousness more carefully to the west. Thankfully, she did not sense any overwhelmingly powerful auras, at least for the moment.
The guards in the castle didn’t even seem as strong as Count Yulster; it was merely that the Blood Count’s power appeared to be sealed, making him seem so downcast.
Of course, the absence of any extraordinarily strong auras was only temporary.
If someone was able to seal a Blood Count’s power and imprison him, there certainly had to be a stronger... perhaps even a Legendary presence behind it!
After thinking it over, Charlotte’s gaze once again settled upon Count Yulster.
She was really curious.
As a Bloodline descendant of Nais, even if captured by the Blood Demon Church, one would think he should have prayed to the princes of Nais themselves.
So why was this Blood Count reaching out to her?
After pondering for a moment, Charlotte decided to respond to the other party’s call and ask him personally.
After all, it was the first time she had been summoned by one of the Bloodline.
With this thought, Charlotte increased the output of Blood Divine Power and began to conduct the Blood Summon through the star in the Crimson Star Sea that symbolized Count Yulster...
Count Yulster regretted deeply.
He regretted not having memorized the symbol of the mysterious deity, knowing only that the imagery was that of a thorny rose.
He had thought that this common pattern, so often seen in life, had been etched into his memory. But when it came time to actually draw it, he realized that "recognizing it" and "being able to draw it" were two entirely different things.
The direct result was that, despite his repeated attempts, not once did he receive any response.
Yulster didn’t know if it was because the symbols he drew were too far off, or if it was because a resonating Sacrificial Array or altar was lacking. It was likely a combination of both reasons.
After all... even mortals who wish to pray to a strange deity must use the correct Holy Emblem of divine power and go through a series of complicated ritual preparations.
"Indeed... just relying on a sloppy symbol, without even a ritual or altar, can’t communicate the voice to the deity..."
Yulster felt disheartened.
Glancing at the floor covered with symbols, he didn’t need to think to guess that the time left for him was dwindling.
Guard and Elder Maxim could appear at any time, and his hope was fading fast.
However, just as Yulster was becoming distraught and increasingly desperate, a breeze suddenly began to flutter through the room...
And gradually, the symbols on the floor that resembled ghost talismans began to flicker to life, wriggling like earthworms, as if they had their own vitality.
Yulster, his power sealed, didn’t notice this light breeze, nor the changes occurring among those floor-bound "ghost talismans."
It wasn’t until the crimson light grew brighter that it finally caught his attention.
Yulster’s heart leaped.
His spirit revitalized, he hurriedly got up to look at the floor, and saw the last symbol he had drawn emitting a misty red light, while the other symbols around it started to swarm towards this one like fish swimming from all directions!
As the symbols continued to converge, the central one grew clearer, its crooked contours gradually becoming graceful and smooth, eventually transforming into a symbol identical to the decorative patterns commonly found on his family’s furniture—the real thorny rose!
"This... this is... the true thorny rose!"
Seeing the finally familiar symbol, Count Yulster’s face showed excitement.
The next moment, a splendid radiance bloomed from the thorny rose.
He felt as if he was enveloped in an ocean of crimson brilliance, a mysterious suction pulling at him, and his consciousness was directly "sucked" in...
It was as if he crossed through countless voids, Yulster felt a dizzying sense of weightlessness.
The crimson mist flooded everything, like a tidal wave, quickly obscuring his vision.
Yulster was momentarily disoriented.
When his consciousness gradually came to, he found himself standing in a fog-shrouded world.