The battle against the monster named Trevor continued. And Alex thought that it was time for him to start attacking as well, instead of just blocking Trevor’s strikes to prevent him from injuring Alucard, Anderson, and Walter. Since the fight began, Trevor had died in every possible way the situation allowed: he was beheaded, quartered, crushed, sliced apart, and even shot to pieces.

But Trevor’s regeneration was almost instantaneous—within mere moments he recovered from any wound inflicted. Yet the most unpleasant thing about Trevor’s abilities wasn’t his regeneration at all; it was that after a couple hundred deaths he began to grasp his Nosferatu powers and even started summoning familiars to aid him.

First came the Baskerville hound, which Alucard killed very quickly, depriving Trevor of his first familiar. Because Alucard destroyed the very structure of the Baskerville hound, Trevor could no longer summon that particular familiar. After all, Alucard understood Nosferatu abilities better than anyone—unlike Trevor, who hadn’t even achieved true self-awareness yet and was merely attacking on instinct and the combat experience he had inherited from the millions of souls inside his body.

And after just ten more deaths, Trevor learned to create weapons from his blood, making him an even more troublesome opponent. Trevor wielded a blood whip, swinging it in all directions and keeping everyone at a distance. He lashed the blood whip with such force that it caused even more destruction around him.

Walter used his iron wires to hurl chunks of ruined buildings at Trevor in an attempt to distract him. But Trevor destroyed the incoming debris quickly enough that it was still hard to get close. Alex dodged the strikes of Trevor’s blood whip while carrying Alucard in his arms—she was clearly enjoying the situation, fighting such a powerful opponent.

Dodging the whip and holding Alucard, who was firing her Jackal pistol, Alex occasionally kicked small stones from the ruined ground straight into Trevor’s head. Every single pebble struck Trevor’s skull with perfect accuracy. Yet even headless, Trevor kept swinging his whip and regenerated instantly.

The only one fighting seriously was Anderson. Thanks to his reflexes, he could close the distance to Trevor and drive his silver bayonets into the monster’s body. When Anderson once again plunged a silver blade straight into Trevor’s chest, blood sprayed in all directions, and Trevor let out a loud scream.

Sensing danger, Anderson immediately leaped back. The moment he did, the blood pouring from Trevor’s body transformed into sharp crimson stakes that pierced everything around them. Seeing this, Alex stopped and gently set Alucard down on the ground, watching Trevor’s furious scream attentively.

“Carmilla, can you do the exact same thing with your own blood? I just never saw you create anything like that from your blood,” Alex said, stroking his chin.

“I can, but I won’t. It feels boring and too straightforward to use something like that,” Alucard replied, reloading her Jackal and Casull pistols.

“Are you two ever going to stop talking?” Anderson shouted after killing Trevor yet again.

“Shut up, priest, and buy some time until your subordinates finish their job,” Alucard said, glancing at Anderson.

Anderson gritted his teeth in anger and began stabbing Trevor’s body with silver blades in a fit of rage. When Anderson raised his silver blade once more to pierce Trevor’s head, Alex flicked his finger again, throwing Anderson backward. The instant Anderson was flung back thanks to Alex’s help, sharp crimson stakes erupted from the countless wounds on Trevor’s body, making him look like a vampire porcupine.

As soon as the crimson stakes appeared, they slowly retracted back into Trevor’s body, healing every wound caused by the silver blades. Fully regenerated once more, Trevor stopped attacking. He simply stood still, staring straight ahead at those who kept killing him. Trevor leaned forward; shadows covered his body, and in the next instant his form dissolved into a swarm of thousands of bats that scattered in every direction.

The swarm shot into the sky, and everyone looked upward. High above, the mass of bats formed a gigantic black cloud filled with the sound of flapping wings. After hovering for a moment, the swarm dove straight down.

Seeing the approaching cloud of bats, the Iscariot members immediately opened fire to kill as many as possible. Walter stretched his iron wires taut. The swarm crashed into the taut wires—but it didn’t stop them. They began swirling, sweeping away everything in their path.

But at that exact moment, a heavy machine-gun burst erupted from the roof of one of the ruined buildings, tearing into the swarm. Alex and Alucard turned their heads and saw Seras standing on the edge of the roof, holding an enormous machine gun from which she fired without pause.

“Now that’s unexpected. I didn’t think he’d be able to do that so soon. Unfortunately, this ability has one tiny flaw,” Alex said, raising an eyebrow in surprise as he watched the swarm.

“Surprise me, my love. I’m curious how you plan to deal with this ability. Usually a swarm like that is enough to devastate an entire city,” Alucard said with a light smile.

“It’s not as hard as you think. Everyone, cover your ears!” Alex shouted so everyone could hear.

Hearing Alex’s shout, everyone instantly reacted and covered their ears—except Alucard, who stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders. Alex extended his hand forward and, with a faint smile, snapped his fingers. A deafening clap rang out, and in the same instant every bat in the swarm exploded.

Blood began raining from the sky. Before even a single drop could touch him, Alex pulled out an umbrella and shielded himself and Alucard from the blood rain. One single snap from Alex was enough to annihilate a colossal swarm of bats—one that could have razed a city the size of London.

Alex stood calmly under the umbrella, smoking a cigarette and protecting himself and Alucard from the falling blood. He knew the simplest way to get rid of so many tiny enemies was sound. When the blood rain finally stopped, Alex casually closed the umbrella, shook off the remaining drops, and stored it away.

“Well, that was easy enough,” Alex said, exhaling cigarette smoke.

“Easy for you. But I didn’t expect this creature to use its abilities in such a clumsy way,” Alucard replied, wrapping her arms around Alex’s neck from behind.

“He’s like a child just learning to control his powers. Though I admit—if something like this were unleashed on the world, things would get a lot more interesting… Oh, for the love of the Creator, why is this world so… just ugh. Dean and Sam accidentally almost destroyed the world how many times? Cursed places everywhere, monsters, ghosts, demons, angels, and on top of that a psychopath who decided to create yet another monster with his own hands,” Alex said, starting to complain about the entire world and everything he had to deal with.

Alucard looked at Alex as he ranted nonstop and a cheerful smile spread across her face when she saw him like this. While Alex complained and Alucard laughed at him, everyone else kept watching Trevor’s blood, waiting for him to regenerate again.

Alex stopped complaining the moment the blood on the ground began to writhe, turning into disgusting insects that crawled in one direction, squirming repulsively. All the insects that emerged from the blood rain gathered in one place, intertwining and merging to form a human silhouette.

In the next instant Trevor’s body was fully restored. Before Trevor could make his next move and attack again, Alex flicked his finger upward. The asphalt beneath Trevor’s feet cracked, and a wooden stake burst from the ground, piercing straight through Trevor and emerging from his mouth.

Alex lazily snapped his fingers again. Wooden roots immediately began sprouting from all of Trevor’s limbs, wrapping around and binding his body. Alex calmly lowered his hand, took another drag from his cigarette, and exhaled.

On one hand, Alex liked enemies who regenerated quickly. On the other hand, such enemies quickly became boring because you had to kill them over and over unless you used an ability that prevented regeneration. So Alex found the simplest way to deal with them without killing them outright—just immobilize them and hold them in place.

“There we go. It was starting to get boring anyway. I thought he’d show something new. Turns out it was just a pathetic knock-off,” Alex said, flicking ash from his cigarette.

When Alex spoke those words, everyone stared at him with expressions ranging from complete bewilderment and surprise to irritation. Alucard burst into loud laughter at how Alex had stopped such an opponent in a single moment. She ran a nail lightly along Alex’s neck to get his attention and hear his explanation of how he did it.

Turning his head, Alex looked at Alucard and explained in two sentences: Trevor couldn’t escape if his blood couldn’t flow, and since a literal tree had grown inside him, he couldn’t even regenerate. Hearing the answer, Alucard grinned widely—she hadn’t expected there was yet another way to defeat an opponent who was her pathetic copy.

Seeing Alucard’s reaction, Alex merely shrugged and began listing ways to defeat an enemy that was basically impossible to kill—the simplest being to restrain it.

While Alex explained the options for handling such an enemy, Integra, Seras, and Alessa arrived. Alex turned his head and saw Seras dragging the beaten Major behind her—his face covered in wounds, lower jaw shattered. Integra walked straight up to Alex and stood extremely close, looking directly into his eyes.

“From what I heard, I understand that you could have dealt with this monster much earlier and there was no need to drag out this pointless battle for so long, husband,” Integra said, staring straight into Alex’s eyes.

“First, Carmilla and I were curious what this monster was capable of. Second, we had to wear him down so a trick like that would even work,” Alex replied, shrugging carelessly.

“Fair enough. And how exactly do you plan to kill this abomination now? Or are you going to seal it?” Integra asked, still looking into his eyes.

“You’ll see in a second. Heinkel, is the bomb ready? Or do I have to wait until the Second Coming?” Alex said with a smile, shouting toward the Iscariot members.

Hearing Alex’s shout, Heinkel and two other Iscariot members finished preparing the explosive that would destroy Trevor’s body. Grabbing the bag of explosives, Heinkel approached Alex with an irritated expression and tossed the bag at him. Alex caught it and opened it to inspect what kind of bomb Iscariot had made.

Seeing the amateurish work, Alex nearly rolled his eyes. He closed the bag, walked over to Trevor—who had been struggling the whole time to break free from the wooden roots piercing his body—humming a light tune, placed the bag around Trevor’s neck, and stepped back.

At that moment, an iron maiden appeared behind Trevor and clamped shut around his body. Alex turned his head and gave a thumbs-up, signaling that they could detonate. Seeing that Alex wasn’t moving away, Heinkel didn’t even bother saying anything—she simply pressed the button and triggered the bomb.

A muffled explosion roared from inside the iron maiden, and smoke poured from its eye slits. Without changing expression, Alex opened the iron maiden and immediately saw the Fragment of Darkness, around which blood was already beginning to reform. Alex grabbed the Fragment of Darkness and literally tore it out of the blood.

The moment the Fragment of Darkness separated from the blood, Trevor could no longer maintain physical form or self-awareness—his body collapsed back into ordinary blood. Alex twirled the Fragment between his fingers for a moment, then pocketed it.

“Well, that’s that. Now we can go home and get some sleep,” Alex said in a lazy tone.

“You’re forgetting something, aren’t you?” Integra asked, lighting a thin cigar and pointing at the Major, who was still chained.

“Ah, right. This bastard is so insignificant I actually forgot about him. What time is it… Hmm… Eight in the morning. Alright, let’s go to the park—I don’t want to stand in the middle of the road,” Alex said, putting his phone back in his pocket.

Integra simply exhaled cigar smoke and followed Alex. Alucard didn’t stay still either—she instantly appeared beside him, took his arm, and shot Integra a lightly provocative smile.

Seras dragged the Major along while holding Alessa’s hand with her other one. The Iscariot members had no idea what Alex was talking about. But Anderson said nothing to them and followed Alex’s group, hands in the pockets of his coat.

“Father Anderson, where are you going? Why are you following our enemies?” Heinkel asked, noticing Anderson leaving.

“Heinkel, dawn has already come… but has the sun risen?” Anderson asked, slightly turning his head back.

When Anderson spoke those words, all the Iscariot members finally looked up at the sky. And all they saw was a black sun and a red moon hanging in a crimson sky. Seeing what they hadn’t noticed from the very beginning, the Iscariot members felt a faint pang of shame and followed Anderson to find out what was happening.

Walter, left alone, stared at the crimson sky and lit a cigarette. Exhaling smoke, he followed the others—even knowing that the one he considered his daughter would never want to see him again. Walter understood that when all this was over, he would have to live with the brand of traitor that Integra had placed on him.

After a short twenty-minute walk through ruined London, Alex and the others reached the nearest park. Entering the park, all they saw were scorched trees uprooted by explosions during the bombing ordered by the Major, smeared blood trails, and scattered body parts of people who had either been caught in blasts or torn apart by those who had turned into ghouls.

Alex paid no attention to the destruction in the park and simply kept walking toward the far end, where he was certain no one would suddenly decide to take a stroll. Anderson walked calmly behind Alex and the rest, once again reflecting on the memories Alex had given him—including thoughts about who the true evil in this world was and whose fault it was that the world had become this way. Reaching the secluded spot, Alex stopped and looked around.

“Yes, this place will do. Alessa, sweetheart, can you wake this idiot up? Otherwise he might miss the most interesting part,” Alex said with a kind smile.

Alessa looked at Alex, gave a small nod, then reached into her little bag. A moment later she pulled out a small black stun gun. Alessa crouched beside the unconscious Major and zapped him in the arm. The Major’s body immediately convulsed, and his eyes snapped open.

The moment he opened his eyes, the Major tried to say something, but all that came out was unintelligible gurgling because of his shattered jaw. Trying to force out at least one word, he looked around and saw everyone staring at him like a wriggling worm.

Seeing that the Major was awake, Alessa calmly put the stun gun back in her bag and walked over to Seras, taking her hand. Alex crouched in front of the Major with a light smile.

“Good morning, Major. You must be surprised to see that we’re all alive and your monster is nowhere to be found. Quite the interesting question: did we escape, or did your monster die? What do you think happened?” Alex said with a faint smile, looking straight into the Major’s eyes.

The Major narrowed his eyes and kept looking around. But he saw no trace of his creation, and that shocked him. He had been certain that a monster with the ability to be everywhere and nowhere, with power that existed since the creation of the Earth, was invincible.

He was absolutely sure that no one had the strength to stop such a monster—not Alucard after losing all the souls in her body, not even Anderson no matter how much effort he put in.

The Major was convinced that even Alex couldn’t destroy such a creature, even if they all united. Alex, meanwhile, watched with amusement as the Major’s expression changed, genuinely enjoying how the Major tried to find an answer to such a simple question.

“You don’t have to bother searching for the answer, filthy pig. Your creation is dead,” Integra said, flicking cigar ash onto the Major’s head.

Hearing Integra’s words, the Major’s eyes widened even further—he refused to believe it. He tried to argue, but once again only incomprehensible sounds came from his mouth, barely resembling words.

Even with a shattered jaw, the Major tried to deliver his dramatic speeches about the grandeur of his plans, but no one could understand him. Tired of listening, Anderson kicked the Major in the head to shut him up. The blow left the Major slightly dizzy; he shook his head to clear it.

“I know, I know. You don’t believe it. But you know what’s the most amazing part? All your plans for a war between humans and monsters—even your plan with the dormant ghoul virus—none of them will ever come true. And now you’re going to find out why…” Alex said with a light smile, raising his hand above his head.

When Alex raised his hand, the Major felt overwhelming dread, as if realizing that everything he had done had been pointless. Seeing the panic in the Major’s eyes, Alex, Integra, and Alucard smiled, savoring his terrified gaze. Alex snapped his fingers, and the sound of shattering glass echoed around them.

In that instant the space around them began to crumble like broken glass. The ruined park and burning London were replaced by a blooming park where a cool morning breeze blew and warm sunlight filtered through the surrounding trees.

The Major’s eyes widened as he began to hear the sounds of cars and the voices of people walking in the park. And in that moment he realized that he hadn’t been the one in control all along—someone had let him play his little game while standing behind the scenes and pushing him to keep going, letting him think he was winning.

The Iscariot members looked around in shock, noticing that everything had returned to normal as if no war had ever happened—even their clothes were whole again, and the wounds on their bodies had simply vanished, erasing the last traces that London had been at war.

They weren’t the only ones surprised. Bernadotte, who thought he had lost his men when vampires attacked the Hellsing manor, froze in shock when he saw his comrades and friends—who were just as stunned as he was, because they knew they should have been dead.

Bernadotte looked at Alex’s group in disbelief, and they answered him only with smirks that said everything was exactly as it should be. Bernadotte simply couldn’t comprehend how it was possible for those who died to come back to life and for the nearly destroyed manor to be whole again, as if nothing had happened.

The exact same thing happened in the underground bunker of the British Self-Defense Forces headquarters, where Shelby Penwood woke up with his head on the desk. When he opened his eyes, he thought he was in Heaven and even pinched himself. Feeling pain, Penwood realized he wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t in Hell or Heaven—he was simply alive. And like everyone else who died that night, he remembered exactly how he died.

After all, he had personally detonated a powerful bomb that destroyed not only the underground bunker but the entire headquarters along with all the invading vampires. All Penwood could do now was try to understand how he and his people were alive when they should have been dead.

Meanwhile, in the park where Alex and the others stood, Alex himself looked at the Major, who had finally realized that everything had been for nothing. Alex had no intention of explaining to the Major how he had pulled it all off—he saw no point in such explanations.

The mere stunned look on the Major’s face brought plenty of satisfaction. Especially to Integra, who hated the Major even more than her own uncle who had tried to kill her at age twelve to seize power in Hellsing. Alucard glanced briefly at the Major’s stunned expression and quickly lost all interest in him.

In the past the Major had caused her some trouble during World War II when she and Walter were wiping out Millennium, but now she saw only a pathetic weakling who hadn’t even noticed he’d been led around by the nose the entire time. Seras, meanwhile, was lost in her own thoughts—thinking about what to do next, including her upcoming date with Alex.

“Yes, I know—it’s overwhelming. When you realize everything around you was fake. And the most interesting part? No one will ever know anything happened in London. Because even the civilians were fake. Everyone who died tonight were Crusaders led by Archbishop Maxwell and the remnants of Millennium. They all died—except you. But death isn’t scary for you, I know that. After all, there’s a power struggle in Hell right now, and the big demonic daddy has been spinning in circles handling all the infernal business. So you’re going to a nice psychiatric sanatorium where they’ll cure your madness. Don’t worry—you’ll be treated like a very important guest in my sanatorium. Right, Hermann?” Alex said, towering over the Major with a wide smile.

“Of course, Director. We treat our patients with understanding. After all, you don’t personally send us patients every day,” a distorted male voice sounded from behind Alex.

When the distorted male voice spoke, everyone turned and saw a man dressed in a blood-soaked white medical coat and bloodied gloves. But the most striking feature of this doctor was his mutilated face, stretched taut across his skull as if held in place by some special device.

Seeing the horrifying doctor, the Major finally realized they weren’t even going to let him die—he would be locked away in a psychiatric ward forever. And he understood that through “treatment” he would even forget who he was, forget his goals. All that awaited him was an empty room, alone with himself—no screams of pain or despair to soothe his ears, only silence, white walls, and electro-myostimulation.

Integra saw the Major’s body trembling and couldn’t hold back a smile—this was exactly what she wanted to see: fear and panic on the Major’s face. Everyone reacted differently to the doctor’s appearance: the Iscariot members instinctively reached for their weapons, but Anderson stopped them with a raised hand.

Seras cautiously stepped behind Alucard, peeking out to examine the terrifying doctor. Alucard watched the doctor with considerable interest, wondering what kind of sanatorium this was and even wanting to see it for herself.

“Meet the Major. This is Hermann Carter, chief physician and head of the psychiatric ward in my sanatorium for patients like you. Despite his appearance, Hermann is an excellent doctor, and none of his patients have ever complained… because they could no longer complain… What do you think, Hermann—can you correct this patient’s behavior?” Alex said with an innocent smile.

“Of course, Director. I’ll immediately begin drafting a treatment plan for the new patient. For now, we should send him for examination to identify all his conditions,” Hermann said in a professional tone, looking down at the Major.

When Hermann spoke, the Major began shaking his head violently, showing he didn’t want to go for treatment—but no one cared what he wanted. Alex smiled slightly at the despair in the Major’s eyes and gave a small nod, signaling that the patient could be taken.

Seeing Alex’s nod, Hermann clapped his hands lightly. Behind him appeared nurses in revealing nurse outfits, their faces wrapped in bloodied bandages. The horrifying nurses calmly approached the Major, grabbed his legs, and began dragging him away.

At that moment a red door appeared from the shadows and slowly creaked open. On the other side was a hospital corridor from which various whispers emanated, as though the voices of madmen had blended into one cacophony. Seeing the hospital corridor, the Major desperately shook his head, but he couldn’t even move his legs—his spine had been broken from the fall, and he felt nothing below the waist.

The Major emitted a cry of despair as they dragged him toward the red door, but no one moved to help him. When the nurses pulled him through the red door, Hermann gave a slight bow and walked through after them. The door immediately closed and vanished into the shadows.

Seeing that everything was finished, Anderson prepared to leave and return to the orphanage he oversaw. Before Anderson could depart with his people, Alex asked him to stay a couple of days to talk. Hearing Alex’s words, Anderson stopped, nodded without turning around, and continued walking.

Walter was also about to leave—now he had no home to return to and didn’t even know what to do next. In his desire to protect Integra, he had consciously betrayed everyone to kill all of Hellsing’s enemies and then die himself.

“Where do you think you’re going, Walter? Sure, Integra kicked you out of Hellsing, but don’t forget—you owe me. After all, I saved your life, and now you have to work it off,” Alex called out before Walter could leave.

“What do you mean, Lord Alexander?” Walter asked in a puzzled tone.

“My daughters need a butler to accompany them on their adventures. And you just happen to be out of a job. What do you think? The pay will be much higher than what Integra gave you,” Alex said with a light smile.

Walter froze in place and instinctively looked at Integra to gauge her reaction. Integra showed no emotion regarding Alex’s words, indirectly indicating she didn’t care what choice Walter made. Seras looked at Walter hopefully, silently urging him to agree. Walter thought for a moment, then nodded, accepting the job.

Seeing Walter’s agreement, Alex smiled—his little gremlins had seen that Integra had a butler and now wanted one of their own too. Walter still had no idea just how much work awaited him, including visits to other worlds and dealing with problems caused by a group of four gremlins.

“Now that all official problems are resolved, we can return to the manor and talk. That’s what you wanted to hear, right, Integra?” Alex said with a relaxed smile.

“I’m glad I don’t have to remind you, husband,” Integra replied, flicking ash from her cigar.

“Then let’s go back. Everyone, come closer—I don’t want to waste any more time,” Alex said, beckoning everyone toward him.

Integra, Alucard, and Seras stepped closer to Alex, including Walter who stood a bit farther back. Seeing everyone was near, Alex snapped his fingers—and in an instant they all appeared in Integra’s private office. Noticing how quickly they had returned, Integra was slightly surprised but didn’t show it on her face and walked over to sit at her desk.

Alucard went to sit on the sofa where Alex usually slept when he was in Integra’s office. Seras was the most surprised of all, but she quickly composed herself, remembering everything Alex had done and deciding that teleportation wasn’t such a big deal. Walter immediately went to prepare tea for the upcoming conversation.

“Alright, let’s start with the simplest things. Call it a warm-up, then we’ll move on to the most important topics. Anyone object?” Alex said, pulling his phone from his pocket.

“Now I’m curious what you consider important and what you consider trivial—especially after what you told me a few days ago about your desire to kill God,” Integra said, folding her hands under her chin.

“Heh, you’ll see. First, this. Do any of you recognize the people in these images?” Alex said, activating a holographic projection on his phone.

Integra, Seras, and Alucard turned their gazes to the holographic projection and reacted in different ways. The images showed Alex’s people—but they looked not like real photographs, but like anime drawings.

Despite her exhaustion after everything that had happened that night—and the fact that she hadn’t slept for nearly two days—Integra noticed important clues. But she wasn’t going to voice them, considering it simply absurd.

“That’s… Lehm and the others. But why do they look like anime characters here?” Seras said, pointing at the image.

“First of all, not a cartoon—an anime. And yes, that’s them. Any guesses why?” Alex asked with a light smile.

“Um… I don’t know,” Seras said, embarrassed.

“Two possibilities: either an absurdly strong coincidence—which is basically impossible. The second option is far crazier,” Integra said, exhaling cigar smoke.

“You’re heading in the right direction. And now for the fun part,” Alex said, showing a page from a manga where he was depicted as the Demon King.

“Things are getting far more interesting than I expected, my love. It seems your secret was much more fascinating,” Alucard said, leaning forward to look Alex in the eyes.

Looking at the manga page, Seras became completely lost and kept glancing between the page and Alex, as if unable to believe what she was seeing. Integra, seeing this, became fully convinced that her suspicions about who Alex was and where he came from had been confirmed.

Seeing Seras’s confusion, Alex decided to start explaining who he really was, where he came from, and what his actual job was. Just as he had said from the beginning, he started with the easier information before moving on to the more important parts—before eventually transferring the full truth directly into the minds of Integra, Seras, and Alucard. Of course Alex understood that this conversation would be long and that he would have to answer a great many questions.

To be continued…

(So, that’s the end of the Hellsing mini-arc. Alex will be staying in England for a while longer; he can’t just up and return to America. I’ve planned a couple of events for Alex’s one more week in London. And I’ll have time to plan what happens to Alex after he returns to America, including the ending. The end of this arc is approaching, after all. After all, there will be one more mini-arc and then the end. So, time to eat. Peace, love, and gummy bears.)

Early access to chapters on my patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep