Vampire (3)
“Grrgh…”
A suppressed groan leaked out from the basement in the pitch-black darkness.
Slaaash!
“Guhah!”
Then, with the sound of something lashing through the air, a short death cry rang out, and silence soon followed.
“Damn it, he died again? And I was trying to use him sparingly, too. Weak human wretches.”
The pureblood vampire Tiafol flung aside the whip he had been holding.
The whip tumbled across the floor, scattering the blood clinging to it in all directions.
“I thought this life would be over soon. What in the world was Wirak doing for things to get this bad? Useless fool. When I return, I will make certain to report this state of affairs to the Clan Lord.”
He fumed for a moment, then clapped his hands.
“You called, sir?”
A Servant who had approached at some point bowed his head and prostrated himself.
“Clean that up however you like, and bring in a new one tonight. Something a bit sturdier this time.”
“Yes, understood.”
The Servant gathered up the corpse and disappeared deeper inside.
That would be devoured on its own by the Servants and Slaves stationed at this hideout to attend to them.
Tiafol moved toward the deeper underground.
“Would it have been better if I’d gone outside the city instead of Pirita?”
He grumbled for no reason, but he knew full well that it was impossible.
Because he was needed to maintain the blood magic enveloping this hideout.
If it had been like usual, with the two of them taking turns guarding it and leaving their post briefly, that would have been one thing. But when one of them was going outside for a long period like this, he had to remain here.
“Damn it! What kind of state is this, not even able to go outside for days, living like a rat?”
As he walked on, Tiafol opened the door to the basement at the very deepest point and stepped inside.
“Huuup~ Haa…”
The moment he opened the door, he breathed in deeply the dense scent of blood that filled the room.
The stone chamber’s floor, walls, and even ceiling were packed with magic circles drawn in blood and glowing red.
Those blood-formed patterns pulsed like veins connected to a heart.
And at their center, in the very heart of the magic circle, a black box was enshrined.
“…No abnormalities. No need to replenish the blood. I suppose I’ll get a bit of sleep now.”
After checking the condition of the sealed fragment, he headed back upstairs.
It was a routine he had repeated every day since coming to this city.
‘Truly sickening. I wish I could leave this city already.’
Tiafol entered his bedroom, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.
At the level of a pureblood, it did not matter if he went several days without sleep, but he still rested for a few hours a day to maintain his condition.
What was there to do while awake in this hideout where there was nothing at all to do?
‘The toy I used to kill time just broke, too.’
Just as he was falling asleep, hoping that the next toy would last longer, his eyes snapped open and he sprang up from his seat.
“Dark mana?! Where did that suddenly come from!”
Craaaack—!
At the same moment he sensed the appearance of dark mana, the blood magic surrounding the hideout shattered.
Realizing an intruder had entered, Tiafol immediately headed underground.
[Kieeeek—!]
Clatter, click!
Along with dark magic, he could feel the aura of the undead, and they began storming into the mansion.
‘A necromancer? How did they find this place? No, with vampires spread throughout the entire city, how did they even get this far?’
For no one to have noticed an enemy entering the middle of the city and approaching the hideout—there were limits to incompetence.
Booom—!
In response to the sudden undead assault, the Servants and Slaves guarding the hideout began to fight.
“You filthy corpses dare come here!”
Servants, degraded versions of vampires.
With bloodshot eyes, their fangs and nails sharpened, they aimed for their enemies in the darkness.
“Kyaaaak—!”
Slaves, who had lost their reason and accepted every weakness in exchange for raising only their combat power.
The monsters, their bodies grotesquely swollen as they shrieked, charged in and tore the undead apart.
As the forces on both sides clashed and battles began breaking out everywhere, Tiafol had no attention to spare for them.
Whoooosh— Boom!
Because he was far too busy blocking the black ray of light flying toward him.
“Grrgh, who are you?! Do you know where this is!”
Boom-boom-boom!
Black thorns surged toward him as though to pierce him through, and the black flames flying in at the same time cut off his retreat.
“Kh!”
Slaaash—
Streams of blood spurted from Tiafol’s fingertips, transforming into a red aura that wrapped around his body.
In that state, he moved and evaded the attacks that continued one after another.
“Reveal your identity at once!”
Shing—!
Blood blades formed from the streams of blood bursting from his swept fingertips.
They flew toward the place where the attacks had begun, cut down a group of undead, and vanished.
Boom—!
“You bastard! To the bitter end!”
Black flames flew in once more.
As his silent opponent’s attacks continued, Tiafol barely managed to respond while trying to discern their identity.
And after several exchanges, when he finally found the one attacking him, he could not help but be shocked.
“A demilich?! How did that thing get all the way here!”
If it had at least been a human dark mage skilled at hiding their aura, he could have understood it with difficulty.
Of course, even then, there would have been no avoiding the accusation of incompetence.
But for a demilich, something that could be called a monster, to have entered the center of the city without being discovered was not a problem that could be dismissed as simple incompetence.
How could they not know, when the energy of death was vibrating this strongly?
‘Were all the vampires in this city nothing but imbeciles? Wirak, you bastard, what the hell were you doing!’
It was already difficult enough just to barely respond to the opponent’s dark magic and hold out.
The level of the magic was one thing, but the way he was being pressed down by the overwhelming quantity of dark mana was simply absurd.
Thorns made of shadow surged in as though to cover every direction.
Hands of darkness snatched at his ankles without warning.
Black flashes burst out just when he had nearly forgotten about them.
All kinds of dark magic poured out without the slightest pause.
Kwaaaang—!
‘What is with this dark mana! But there is no way they won’t notice a disturbance of this scale. I’ll hold out as long as I can until reinforcements arrive!’
The demilich had spread a concealment barrier the moment it entered, but there was no way it could hide an anomaly in the middle of the city for that long.
‘No, seeing how they’ve acted until now does make me uneasy, but for the moment, I have no choice but to trust them and endure.’
Specialized in blood magic that used blood, he was poorly matched against undead.
In truth, even if he had had plenty of blood, he would not have dared think he could defeat that demilich, but the situation would have been far better than it was now.
If there was one fortunate point, it was that due to the cramped space, his minions were holding out well against the undead, and he himself did not seem likely to fall immediately.
It was while he was desperately holding on with that earnest hope.
“Lord Tiafol!”
Boom!
A vampire broke through a group of undead and approached.
A residual-blood vampire who had not been inside the hideout.
In other words, a helper from outside.
“Ohh! Have you come as support? You relayed the news outside, didn’t you?”
“Yes! Of course. The anomaly was detected from outside, and after immediately spreading word of the situation, I entered to assist Lord Tiafol!”
“Well done! Then we need only hold out a little longer!”
It felt as though quite a long time had passed since the situation had begun, but in reality, not much time had gone by.
Facing a situation that pleased him for the first time in recent days, Tiafol relaxed slightly as he looked at the demilich before him.
Perhaps flustered by the sudden intrusion of reinforcements, it had stopped attacking and was observing them.
“That demilich is a monster. The amount of dark mana it has is abnormal. Don’t think about winning. Assist me with the intention of stalling for time until reinforcements arrive!”
“Yes, understood!”
The situation had improved greatly.
The undead were blocked by his minions and could not enter, and with the residual-blood vampire’s help, he would be able to hold out more comfortably.
‘Once support arrives, you’re finished!’
Boom-boom-boom!
As Tiafol used the blood of the minions scattered everywhere to block the bone spears fired by his opponent, he realized that the residual-blood vampire who had been nearby had disappeared at some point.
‘Is he trying to ambush that thing? It won’t work, but if he can give me even a moment’s breathing room, that will be enough…’
Puuuk—!
At the sudden impact, his thoughts stopped.
When he lowered his gaze toward the place where he felt pain, a blood-soaked hand blade tipped with sharp nails had pierced through his heart and emerged from his chest.
“Guh… Hah! Kuhah.”
‘An attack? The residual-blood attacked me? Why? How…? He was definitely from the same clan… He ignored the geas?’
Before he could fully grasp the situation, a rough hand seized him by the hair and tilted his head to the side.
Then he felt something sink into the exposed nape of his neck.
‘Kin-devouring…! This madman, in a situation like this… Is he trying to get us both killed!’
There was an enemy right in front of them, was there not?
The bewildered Tiafol was trying to gather his own blood, which was gushing out, and use blood magic to escape the situation for now.
Pupupupuk! Puhwak—!
The demilich did not miss the opening and used dark magic to pierce his entire body with bone spears.
He was enduring with the life force of a pureblood vampire, but the situation was already as good as over.
‘Guh… Because of one madman, I’m going to die a dog’s death along with him…’
As his consciousness blurred and he cursed the residual-blood vampire who would die together with him—
Sluuurp— Slurp!
He felt his blood still being sucked out through the fangs buried in the nape of his neck.
‘This bastard, even in this situation, to the very end…? No, wait. Something is strange.’
Using every sense he had, he soon discovered the source of that incongruity.
‘The attacks missed only him…? Coincidence? Or did that bastard avoid them?’
The one clinging to his back was joyfully sucking his blood with a perfectly intact body, without a single wound.
And yet the demilich was no longer attacking and was merely watching them.
As though it had no interest at all in the residual-blood vampire clinging to his back and drinking his blood.
‘No, it’s the opposite. It’s giving me to that bastard as food!’
Now that he realized it, even the bone spears restraining him felt as though they had been fixed in place so that the bastard could drink more easily.
No, that was certainly the case.
Even now, was it not only sending dark mana through the pierced points to interfere with him so he could not use blood magic?
‘Why? What relationship does that residual-blood have with the demilich…? Don’t tell me he was the one who brought it all the way here…’
As his thoughts slowly scattered, Tiafol reached no conclusion, and soon his head drooped.
Even after his death, the residual-blood vampire clinging to his back simply continued diligently sucking his blood.
***
《The individual has inherited blood and attained enlightenment. Acquiring the skill “Blood Magic.”》
Heinz slowly pulled away from Tiafol’s neck.
His emaciated corpse gradually began to crumble, then soon turned to powder and scattered.
‘I don’t have to worry about mental contamination from kin-devouring, so this is convenient. Efficient, too.’
The thirst for bloodsucking that he had restrained as much as possible all this time had vanished cleanly, and the degree to which his power had increased was beyond reproach.
The greatest problem with kin-devouring was that the more blood one drank, the more one’s mind became contaminated.
Because the source of a vampire’s power was blood, the lingering thoughts of its original owner remaining within were also terribly potent.
If one drank that carelessly, it would not end with something as mild as mental collapse.
Even if the other party was of a lower rank than oneself, it was dangerous enough to abstain from it. If it were the blood of a higher rank, whose accumulated power and years far surpassed one’s own, one would certainly go mad.
‘Phew… The situation was excellent, too.’
Immediately after being summoned right in front of their hideout, Hans overlaid a concealment barrier at once and infiltrated the interior.
Tiafol, a pureblood vampire, was weaker than expected.
After all, it seemed as though at least two of them would be needed to face the dark mage Malcolm.
But from my perspective, pressed for every second, he was enough of an obstacle.
There were already more Servants and Slaves inside than expected, preventing the undead from entering, and he could have kept clinging to us until reinforcements arrived.
The moment the fight showed signs of dragging on, I sent in Heinz, who had been waiting nearby.
He approached Tiafol, pretended he had roughly fought his way through the undead to enter, drew close, and launched a surprise attack.
It was a simple plan, but its effect was even better than expected.
‘They let their guard down properly because he was a vampire from the same clan. And they must have felt reassured when they were told reinforcements would arrive soon.’
Of course, it had been a lie.
Until Heinz charged in, the vampires showed no sign of having noticed.
‘But it’s only a matter of time before we’re found out. We need to hurry as much as possible.’
Hans had already begun helping the undead deal with all the vampires’ minions the moment Tiafol breathed his last, then headed deeper into the basement.
Heinz hurried after him toward the room where the fragment was.
“Wow… Impressive.”
There, a barrier made with blood magic was spread throughout the entire room.
If he took the time, it seemed he could dispel it with the knowledge of 「Blood Magic」 he had just acquired, but…
‘There’s no time, so I’ll have to handle it the rough way.’
Using Heinz’s knowledge, he identified the barrier’s weak point.
Then Hans immediately attacked that spot with his overwhelming dark mana.
Ruuuumble…
The moment the barrier shook from the impact, Heinz used blood magic at once to seize partial control and bored a small hole through it.
‘Simple enough.’
Hans leisurely stepped inside the barrier and unhesitatingly threw open the black box at the center.
Within it, a black gem like the one he had seen before was sealed.
‘Ahh… I think I understand why they were after the black magicians’ fragments.’
If the problem with the fragments held by the black magicians, the “Oath of Reversal,” had been the deficiency caused by their weak cohesion, then this fragment was excessively condensed and hardened solid.
‘If a fully matured fragment were combined with this, it would become more complete.’
I didn’t have a matured fragment, but I myself was practically a body integrated with one.
Without hesitation, Hans grasped the fragment inside the box and began synchronization.
‘It’s so densely clumped that it’ll take longer than I thought… Damn, have we been discovered?’
He sensed a group of vampires entering the barrier that covered the area around the hideout.
At their head was Wirak, a pureblood.
But before the vampires could enter the building, Malcolm and the other undead burst out and began fighting them under the sun.
‘With Malcolm and the high-ranking undead there, they should be able to hold out against Wirak well enough.’
Malcolm had grown weaker than he had been in life, but under the sun, he likely wouldn’t be pushed back much even against Wirak.
‘I’ closed my eyes and focused all my mind on synchronizing with the fragment.
Hans, who was in direct contact with it, Heinz II beside him, and even the main body on Earth—all of them.
Scraping together every resource allocated to each individual, I poured all my mental strength into Hans.
It was the first time I had tried applying the 「Avatar」 skill in this way, but the result was extremely satisfying.
《The individual has fulfilled the conditions and grows. Special Skill 「Forbidden Knowledge」 acquired.》
《Regenerative power becomes meaningless for the individual. Skill 「Super Regeneration」 evolves into Special Skill 「Immortality」.》
Because Hans had succeeded in absorbing the Immortal King’s fragment and evolving into an “Arch-Lich.”
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