Chapter 1302 - Broken Jim When Jim heard that name his whole body froze. The battle that was just about to start between the Dalki and Richard had also suddenly halted all because of one name that had been mentioned. "Vincent?" Jim uttered, rubbing his eyes and taking another look at the person in front of him. Once he realised that the image in his head and the name that was mentioned didn't match up at all he started to chuckle. "Hahaha. Should I say I feel honored that you investigated me to this point, Richard? To use my dead nephew's name against me, was that really your big plan? But then shouldn't you at least have made him look similar to him? Do you honestly think after all these years I never found out what happened to him? He's dead, Richard! He died here on this very planet!" There was a lot of aggression in Jim's voice. While he had still taken the fight against Richard nonchalantly up to this point, he now seemed furious that his ancestor had dared to employ such a god awful ploy against him. "Although this is indeed not my body I can assure you that I am the very person I claim to be. Maybe this will convince you that I am the one who lifted you from the ground. The very day you were sentenced for trial, I came to see you. At the time, when the guard turned around you grabbed me by the shoulders whispering 'I can't go like this… Please, Vincent, I still have a lot left to show the world. You have to save me. I swear that I was set up by them!' " Hearing this, Jim's eyes lit up. For the first time he placed his shield down to the side, taking the one in front of him seriously. 'I had learned of what happened between Jim and Vincent through Dwight. He told me the crimes Jim committed and how he was loyal to Vincent during his time as leader.' Quinn thought. 'But I didn't realise that the connection between the two of them was this close.' The Cursed faction leader was also interested in something else he noticed that was being held in Jim's hand. At the moment Vincent was the one in control, so he couldn't use the Inspect skill on the shield, or the crystals that showed from the top. Quinn wasn't too sure, but it looked like the crystal from the Demon tier crab they had faced. In the end, Arthur had ended up taking the Demon tier crystal, but since the two of them seemed to be working together, the crystal seemed to have somehow ended up in Jim's hand. "Vincent… but how is this possible? I looked at your files, heck I even secretly attended your funeral and saw your body!" Jim shouted. These were facts that even Vincent was unaware of. Since he had ended up transferring his whole soul into the book, he did not know what happened during the time he was in the book himself. "Ìt's hard to explain and I'm not too sure about the exact details either. It seems to have come as an extension of our ability. I came here because the two of us shared a bond. I had hoped we could speak." "I know you went looking for me. Edward told me that you left searching for me. I'm sorry that I was gone when you needed me, but I am here now. This whole thing doesn't seem like you. What happened for you to choose this course of action?" Vincent asked, making sure to tread carefully with his words. He could tell just through the limited interaction that the Jim before him was far from the Vampire Knight who used to work for him. "So all it took for me to see you again was to start a war with the entire human race, huh? Sure why don't we talk about that. Let's talk about how no matter what I do, I end up as the one shafted in this cursed world. As you know, my biggest desire was always to aid vampire society as a whole. To help and get recognised for my accomplishments… but as you know that never came to be." Jim then lifted his hand and pointed to Richard who was standing behind Vincent. "Let's first start with him, shall we? I was merely a brat when our 'venerated ancestor' was the Vampire King. I will never forget the day he approached me. He asked me to help him, and as the paragon of his time who all of us strived to become, how could I deny him? Keeping my end of the promise, some time after he entered his eternal slumber, I was the one who woke him up in secret." "Growing up, I had kept this hidden from everyone, only later learning what kind of sin I had actually committed. At the time I had believed that I had done a good thing. Eventually I became the leader of the tenth family, only for another King to approach me. He asked me to search for a way that we could become like them. The Originals." "I fell for his sweet words that should I succeed, it would allow all vampires to become like the Originals, ushering in a new golden age for our kind. I gladly spent most of my time in pursuit of that task, but to have a chance I naturally needed some samples. but when I was found out, the king turned against me claiming that it was my own doing, and where was Richard? Where was he to help me? In the end, the only one that ever did help me was you Vincent." "Did you ever find it strange how quickly they overturned the decision to not force me into eternal slumber? Was there ever a precedent of anyone else having committed a crime as grave as mine who had been pardoned? Do you think I was pardoned because you as the tenth leader vouched for me? No, it was because the King knew he had done wrong. Still, I saw a light, because you turned out to be a person who had helped me, without wanting anything in return." Quinn had thought it was strange how Richard could have possibly tricked all the others into believing he went into eternal slumber. Was Jim saying he was the one that had woken Richard up, and if so, what reason did Richard have for wanting to wake up? Why go into eternal slumber in the first place? "Do you understand? I was relied upon, people came to me when they needed something, only to ditch me when it was time, making me a fool for ever trusting them." "The same thing happened when they asked me to create a blood substitute. I accepted the task, granted I had not too much of a choice on that one, but I succeeded and created the Dalki. However, they were unhappy with the result, so they chose to chuck me and the Dalki to the side to work on their own solution. I was lost Vincent, so I went looking for you, but by that time it was already too late." "I tried to figure out where it had gone wrong, yet I couldn't come up with an answer. However, I refuse to fail again. This time I decided to force them to accept my solution. The Dalki aren't a failure, they're merely incomplete, something I could have eventually rectified if only the vampires had let me." "As long as I get rid of every single human in existence with the Dalki, the vampires will have no other choice but to accept them as their solution! If I can fix this mistake, I will be able to fix all the other mistakes of my past. One of them includes waking you up, Richard!" The reason why Vincent hadn't said anything to intercept Jim was because he had been hoping there would be a way to reason with him without the need for fighting. Unfortunately, the more he spoke the more it became apparent that Jim was already too far gone. His feelings of rejection had apparently always been there and without Vincent as his anchor they had boiled over, leading the other on a destructive path. 'Jim…does really no part of you see that you're just making another mistake right now?' Vincent wanted to ask, but he knew it would be useless. "And as for you Vincent. I saw your body… whatever you are, you're not my nephew. Your existence is also something that needs to be fixed." Jim proclaimed, as he glanced towards the six spiked Dalki by his side. "Vincent, switch!" Quinn shouted, and quickly the two of them changed bodies. The six and five spiked had moved around Quinn aiming for Richard, while the other six spike had gone directly at Quinn. It was too fast for him to activate his soul weapon, but luckily Vincent had activated the shadow in the middle of Jim's tirade, aware that the other might choose to attack them at any point. 'A six spiked Dalki punch is going to be strong, but I managed to gather all of those MC cells. I'll block this attack, and attack back!' Quinn thought. Raising the shadow in front of the fist, and as it collided, in an instant, Quinn could see the system message. [0/2643 MC cells]