Earth’s Vampires (2)
‘Oh, now this is getting interesting.’
A betrayal I hadn’t seen coming.
I wondered if that guy was under Gamma’s mind control too, but I couldn’t sense any sign of that in particular.
“...Kgh, Minyeong! Why would you...? Why!”
Jin Soran rolled across the floor, her spine shattered.
If she had enough time, she could recover with a vampire’s regenerative power, but for now, that was impossible.
In the meantime, Gamma’s subordinates rushed at her with long skewers in hand.
“Kgh, [Get away from me!]”
Kwaaaang—!
A shockwave burst out along with her shout.
The vampires charging in were sent flying.
But her resistance did not last long.
“Krrrr— You, you bastards...”
Her entire body was pierced through with skewers, her wounds frozen over, and pitch-black chains sealed her abilities.
No matter how strong she was, it was impossible for her to take on everyone here after being ambushed.
“Hoo, that’s why I call you a brat.”
Gamma sneered as he stepped in front of her.
Minyeong, who had launched the first surprise attack, simply stood with her arms crossed and watched, while another companion shut his eyes on the spot and turned away from her.
She looked at her companions with trembling eyes, then glared at Gamma as he approached her.
“Peace? Sure, that’s nice. But you need power to protect even that.”
He looked down at her as she lay subdued on the floor and spoke as if delivering a sermon.
“We are strong. Far stronger than those humans, those livestock crawling all over the place. And yet we have to hide and live while watching the moods of those inferior creatures. All because of those disgusting hypocrites.”
“You’re completely insane. Are you denying the time when you yourself were human? Just because you’re a vampire now?”
“Well... I suppose there was a time like that.”
Gamma smiled thinly.
He looked as though he did not care what protest she made.
“But we were chosen. We survived battlefields where our lives were on the line and countless hellish bloodbaths to stand here now. Isn’t that true for all of us?”
He shouted as though giving a speech and looked around.
Not only his own comrades, but even those who had come with Jin Soran nodded in agreement.
“Why should people like us be treated this way? Until when? We can’t step forward proudly, and we can’t make a name for ourselves. A life where we do nothing but hide and eke out an existence—is there any meaning in that?”
“Bullshit! Things only got this bad because the hardliners kept causing trouble in the first place! If everyone had compromised and talked from the beginning, we could have coexisted just fine!”
“Well, that’s only what you think. Perhaps it might have been so.”
Unexpectedly, Gamma remained calm even in the face of her objection.
“Then what do those who have worked with the moderates until now think?”
Following his gaze, Jin Soran turned her head toward those who had once been her companions.
One still had his eyes closed, refusing to face the situation, while Minyeong watched her with her arms crossed.
Minyeong, who had been quietly meeting her eyes, opened her mouth.
“We tried in all sorts of ways according to the moderates’ policies, but nothing changed. So I started to feel skeptical. How long are we supposed to live like this? For our entire lives? After we barely made it back alive from that hell?”
“What’s past can’t be undone. For now, this is the best choice.”
The companion who had kept his eyes closed until then quietly added a word as well.
At their responses, Jin Soran squeezed her eyes shut and lowered her head.
After savoring her reaction for a moment, Gamma stepped forward again.
“We are predators to begin with. So why should we bow our heads? Yes, the biggest problem for now is our lack of numbers. After all, headcount is the measure of influence.”
Jin Soran with her head bowed, and Gamma intoxicated with himself as he prattled on.
I leisurely sorted through the information while watching this little farce.
After all, a criminal motive was also excellent information.
“To overcome that, we need power. Overwhelming power, far beyond what we have now!”
But this was not another world.
In another world, they had received growth corrections and become stronger quickly, but upon returning to Earth, they had no choice but to give that up.
“Now we can no longer accumulate karma, nor can we grow stronger as quickly as before! Like the vampires of our original worlds, we have no choice but to steadily suck blood and increase our power. And yet they want to restrict even that? Ha! Blood packs?”
The act of directly sucking blood had a ritual meaning in itself.
It was not simply that drinking blood increased power; rather, it was closer to a rite in which one accumulated karma and gained power by plundering the victim’s life force.
Blood packs containing no intent could ease hunger, but they could not increase one’s power.
‘So it’s like a diet menu?’
They could live on blood packs alone.
But that was closer to merely clinging to life, and if they consumed them for too long, even the power they already possessed would slowly diminish.
“And so we searched for a way to become stronger quickly, and at long last, we found it.”
Anyone with a bit of sense would already have realized what he was about to say.
The same was true of Jin Soran.
“You... Don’t tell me, you bastard. Did you touch the taboo?”
Where could all the vampires who had supposedly been kidnapped until now have gone?
Devouring one’s own kind.
The fastest and most certain way for a vampire to become stronger.
However, the side effects were even more severe than the effects were powerful.
That was the same even in Auterica, but on Earth, its infamy was on an entirely different level.
“A taboo isn’t called a taboo for nothing! Are you planning to repeat that tragedy all over again?!”
The early days of the returnee incident.
There had been great chaos all over the world, and among it were many incidents caused by vampires.
In any dimension, devouring one’s own kind was an unwritten taboo, but among them, there were vampires who had overcome it, grown stronger, and returned to Earth.
Already somewhat unhinged, they attacked other vampires even after returning to Earth in order to become stronger, and as a result...
“Are you going to create Madbloods (狂血鬼) again?!”
When one accepted the blood of vampires from another dimension, different vampiric factors combined and evolved.
Recessive factors were weeded out, and only dominant factors manifested, making one overwhelmingly stronger.
‘The problem is that mental contamination occurs even more severely than that.’
Since it induced evolution on a genetic level, perhaps it was only natural that there would be a price...
As a result, blood-crazed Madbloods ran rampant, and the danger posed by vampires was raised worldwide.
In truth, the incidents from back then had likely played a major role in the extent to which vampires were now persecuted.
“The higher-ups won’t let this slide! No matter what connections you have, everything will be blown away at once!”
Afterward, devouring one’s own kind became a taboo on Earth, and Madbloods became targets for extermination even among vampires themselves.
To willingly accept that kind of risk...
“Hear me out to the end. Of course, it’s true that we used devouring our own kind.”
Then Gamma gave a snort of laughter and wore a confident expression.
“But after countless studies and cooperation, we found a way to remove as much of the lingering thoughts in the blood as possible and safely become stronger. The effect was reduced accordingly, but that much is tolerable.”
It was an achievement brought about by gathering knowledge from each dimension, including blood magic and black magic, as well as shamanic arts, curses, and alchemy.
They had received considerable outside help in the process, but if this was possible, nothing else mattered.
‘...I was wondering why that bastard was running his mouth like some exposition machine. He was pulling another cheap trick.’
Watching from a step away, I could see at a glance how the crowd was being affected by his words and actions.
The weak became more blindly loyal to him, and even the strong were affected to some extent; the faint guilt that had remained in those who had betrayed Jin Soran disappeared as well.
“That should answer all your questions, right? And the rest of you don’t need to worry too much. I don’t particularly want to fight those of the same blood alliance either.”
As if intending to end it now, Gamma approached her, crouched down, and grabbed her by the hair.
“Since those two agreed to cooperate, don’t worry about the alibi. We’ll just say you were killed by a Guardian on your way back.”
“Keep your promise. When she said she was coming here, we took the risk of being discovered and followed her.”
“Of course. Thanks to you, I’ve even obtained such fine material, so I’ll make sure to supply the medicine to you first.”
After answering smoothly, he looked down at the wretched Jin Soran.
She was a woman he had clashed with over every little thing since their time in Nocturnia because their values did not align.
Thinking this was the end, he felt both relieved and somewhat regretful.
“Well, since this is your final journey, I’ll send you off comfortably. If you sleep for a little while, it’ll all be over soon.”
“You...!”
She tried to shout something, but soon lost consciousness and collapsed under the blood mana Gamma poured into her.
He rose from his seat and ordered them to move her to the inner room.
“I made you wait a long time because of an unexpected matter. Well, I’m sure you roughly understand the circumstances after hearing all that, right? Sorry about this.”
Gamma turned his head toward me with a sly grin.
So he was finally looking this way.
“No, it was fairly entertaining. There’s no need for you to worry about it.”
As I pulled down the mask I had been wearing and answered leisurely, his face stiffened for an instant.
Then he glanced at the subordinate beside him.
“...Level 5. His regenerative power is on the stronger side, but it’s not enough to call him an irregularity.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Gamma’s face returned to composure as he moved toward me.
It seemed the subordinate beside him had some ability to measure levels...
Apparently, a pureblood of Auterica was roughly around Level 5 or 6.
“Is that bravado? I don’t know how you broke free from my suppression, but do you really think a mere Level 5, all alone, can get out of this situation?”
He was certainly right.
I did not know their exact levels, but there were four pureblood-class vampires here, and the rest were at least above residual blood.
If I had intended to escape, it would have been better to move while Jin Soran was still putting up a fight.
‘But now, there’s no particular need for that.’
I had never intended to do so in the first place.
Since I had obtained such good information this time, shouldn’t I try using it myself?
“Let’s see... Nine, is it? If it’s that effective, I’m looking forward to seeing how strong I’ll become after eating nine people’s worth.”
“...What bullshit are you spouting?”
At the sight of me still remaining calm, Gamma looked displeased.
“Didn’t you enthusiastically explain it just a moment ago? To think the Madblood incident happened for that reason. I even learned such hidden history; today seems to have been useful in many ways.”
“So you were just a lunatic...”
As if he no longer wanted to exchange words with me, he jerked his chin at his subordinates.
At Gamma’s signal, they slowly approached me.
But their steps did not last long.
Saaaaaa—
A sudden chill spread.
The air sank heavily.
Those gathered there unconsciously held their breath, and silence fell over the room for an instant.
The ones who belatedly came to their senses looked around warily, but...
At some point, darkness had covered the entire interior wall of the building.
[Your concealment ability was fairly good, but your security is terribly shoddy.]
Hans slowly emerged from within the darkness.
When identifying the barrier, he had received a little help from Heinz inside, but at this point, that likely did not matter.
“...Hahoe Mask? How did you get here?!”
Gamma cried out in shock.
He had been more confident in his concealment ability than anyone else, yet the barrier he had painstakingly set up had been discovered.
As his gaze swept over the situation in confusion, it landed on Heinz, who had been strangely calm since earlier.
“You, you...! You’re the one who lured him here...!”
He did not know what method he had used, but that bastard must have done something.
Otherwise, that attitude could not be explained.
Just as Gamma was grinding his teeth in that conviction, someone else was just as flustered as he was...
“G-Ga... Gamma, sir...!”
It was the clairvoyant who had told him Heinz’s level.
When Hahoe Mask showed no sign of moving immediately, Gamma only flicked his eyes toward him.
“I-I’ve never seen an aura like this before either, so I’m not certain...!”
“What are you doing, stammering like that! If you have something to say, say it already!”
At Gamma’s shout, the man who had been babbling incoherently squeezed his eyes shut and cried out.
“Level 8...! He’s at least Level 8!”
Once again, the room froze over.
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