Gerard smiled even wider.
"As you wish."
He took a step forward, and the entire thousand vampires surrounding them began to slowly tighten the ring.
Anna stepped forward.
She looked straight at Gerard, as if she wanted to tell him something important, the last thing she could still say. Her hands trembled slightly, but she didn't stop.
"Gerard…" she began quietly.
And at that exact moment, a horrible, crunching sound rang out.
Susie screamed.
Her left hand, the one she had used to seal the magical contract, exploded. The five fingers, already mutilated by the ritual, burst simultaneously like overripe fruit. Blood sprayed everywhere. Bones cracked, flesh tore apart. Susie collapsed to her knees, clutching the stump of her hand, and screamed so loudly that everyone's insides clenched.
"A-A-A-A-A!" Her cry was filled with inhuman pain.
The magical rune with which she had sealed the stake couldn't hold. The blue glow cracked like thin glass and shattered into thousands of pieces.
And then Ethan's stake came alive.
It screamed on the floor and then exploded.
Billions or perhaps even more, of dark souls burst out in a single instant. A mad hurricane of black smoke, screams, faces, and hatred.
They erupted from the stake like a predatory swarm, filling the entire warehouse. The souls swirled, howled, shrieked, and reached out with incorporeal hands toward the living.
"UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
They were looking for new vessels, any body, any soul they could tear apart and devour.
"God…" Gideon whispered, pressing himself against the wall.
Bruno instinctively covered Susie with his body. Flash raised his pistol, but even he understood that it was pointless against this.
Gerard stood in the middle of the chaos.
His eyes flashed with insane hunger.
"This… is all mine…" he whispered, then louder, with triumphant fury:
"This is ALL MINE!"
He spread his arms. The darkness around him exploded. Gerard began to absorb the souls. He inhaled the entire black smoke. A dark vortex sucked them into his body like a massive funnel. Faces, screams, memories of thousands of beings killed long ago,everything poured into him.
"Now I will finally be able to destroy everyone in my path!" he roared. His voice became multi-layered and monstrous.
"Everyone! And you first!"
The souls swirled around him, sinking into his body, making him stronger with every second. Gerard grew before their eyes. The darkness enveloped him, making him larger, more terrifying.
Susie, lying on the floor and clutching her mangled arm, watched with terrible despair.
"No…" she whispered with trembling lips.
"I… I couldn't hold them… I failed…"
Anna stood motionless. The expression on her face showed she was experiencing very unpleasant emotions. She understood exactly what had just happened.
Flash slowly raised his revolver, though he knew it was almost useless.
"Everyone stay together…" he said hoarsely.
"This isn't over yet."
But even he saw that the situation had become catastrophic.
Gerard, surrounded by a raging hurricane of souls, took a step forward. He was no longer just a vampire.
"All mine…" he growled. His voice echoed with hundreds of foreign screams.
"Finally, I will become what I was meant to be!"
But suddenly his body jerked. Once. Then again and again.
The souls he had just absorbed suddenly stopped obeying him. They began to rebel.
Gerard doubled over, clutching his chest. From his mouth came not a scream, but a chorus of thousands of voices speaking at once, interrupting each other.
"ARGH!!"
"You are not our master!" the chorus thundered, echoing throughout the warehouse.
"We have already chosen him! You are not worthy!"
Gerard coughed up black blood. His eyes widened in shock and rage.
"What… are you doing?!" he roared, but the voice no longer belonged only to him.
"I gave you power! I…"
"You are not our master!" the souls roared again, now louder and more furious.
Flash instantly understood what was happening.
"Everyone back!" he shouted.
With one sharp motion, he raised his hand. A wave of power burst from it, invisible but tangible. Gideon, Bruno, Susie, and Anna were thrown backward as if by a powerful gust of wind. They flew to the far wall and stayed there, pressed against an invisible barrier.
"Flash!" Anna cried, trying to break free.
"Don't move!" he barked without turning around. His voice was hard.
"Susie!"
Susie lay on the floor, clutching her mangled arm. She lifted her head, her face wet with tears and blood.
"I… I can't…" she whispered.
"You can!" Flash stared at her without blinking. "Prepare the spell to protect against sunlight. Right now. Maximum power. Everything you have left."
Susie nodded without asking questions. She weakly raised her right hand, the only one still intact and began whispering the words of the spell.
A faint blue glow barely ignited around the group, weak and flickering, but it slowly began to grow.
Meanwhile, Gerard writhed in the center of the hall.
"You… traitors!" he screamed, but his voice drowned in the chorus of souls.
"I gave you a chance! I…"
"You are not our master!" the souls roared again. Now they spoke in unison, clear and furious.
Gerard fell to his knees. Thick black smoke began pouring from his mouth, eyes, and ears. The souls were tearing his essence apart from within. His body began to crack, as if he were rapidly aging.
Flash stood motionless, keeping his hand raised and not allowing anyone to approach.
"Hold on," he said quietly to the group behind him. Then he placed a hand on Susie's shoulder and, while no one was looking, pressed down slightly, transferring his energy to her.