Jin Soran (1)
As he drank blood, Gamma’s resentment, rage, frustration, and other lingering thoughts surged in, but….
Well, it didn’t matter anymore at this point.
‘More importantly, so Concealment was a bloodline ability. Then is Mind Manipulation a unique skill?’
The reason he hadn’t been able to detect Gamma’s presence, the reason the barrier’s concealment had been so outstanding—it was all thanks to this “Concealment.”
‘This is good. In the current situation, it’s the best.’
For now, he had become able to hide his energy much better.
Now that he could conceal his identity as a vampire more thoroughly, even those stronger than him wouldn’t easily see through his true nature.
It would also help with stealth, so it would prove useful in an assassin position as well.
‘Above all, being able to hide the traces of kin consumption is huge.’
Vampires were sensitive to blood.
Hadn’t Gamma approached just now after catching the scent of Heinz’s blood?
But what if traces of multiple vampires remained due to kin consumption? He’d be attacked before even exchanging a word.
\- Name: Heinz II
\- Race: Vampire (Pureblood)
\- Common Traits: 「Mind Hub」, 「Persona」, 「Clear Mirror, Still Water」
\- Individual Traits: 「Blood Clan (Pureblood)」, 「Mixed Blood Evolution」, 「Acceleration」, 「Regeneration」, 「Blood Magic」, 「Insight」, 「Concealment」
\- Notable Details: Through the blood of a vampire from another dimension, the vampiric factor in his body has evolved repeatedly. All physical abilities and magical power manipulation techniques have grown significantly. Thanks to the influence of 「Mind Hub」, mental contamination did not occur.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t become a True Blood immediately.
Perhaps although he had grown greatly in quality, the absolute quantity of vampiric factor had been insufficient.
Even so, his immediate combat prowess likely wouldn’t fall significantly behind even if he fought a True Blood.
While Heinz was organizing what he had gained, Hans was attempting necromancy where the vampires had died.
Black magic that called forth the souls of the dead.
He was resorting to this to obtain information, settling for whatever he could get.
[Hngh… what kind of… nonsense… Kin consumption… My power, my heart’s deepest desire…]
[I don’t… want to die… like this… How much longer… must I live in hiding… Power.]
This was why Hans hadn’t favored using necromancy.
Specters could only manage fragmented thoughts such as intense memories or final grudges.
The greater the negative emotions in these remaining thoughts, the more the soul’s obsession would inflate, turning it into an evil spirit.
Therefore, extracting information from specters was no easy task.
Rummaging through a brain directly to read its memories was an easier and more certain method.
[Gurk, kek! H… To gain power. Research, research!]
Of course, it was difficult, not impossible.
Hans used dark magic to inflict appropriate pain on Gamma’s specter, guiding its thoughts so that the desired information would come out.
[Kihek… Research, cooperation. Support… Byuncheonhoe’s techniques! Promise… Beta…]
He interrogated all the summoned specters, but it seemed Gamma had led this affair; the rest didn’t know much.
They had simply followed his will, lured by the promise of power.
There was likely also the influence of mental manipulation subtly used on them.
[More importantly, it’s Byuncheonhoe again. What are they scheming to gain by supporting the Blood Alliance’s hardliners?]
He interrogated Gamma further, but nothing more came out about that.
They had merely promised cooperation in exchange for support; detailed discussions didn’t seem to have taken place yet.
[So ‘Beta’ is… his superior? The lines reach that far, it seems. Well, for someone of this level, the scale was too large to be acting alone.]
He must be one of the leaders of the Blood Alliance’s hardliner faction.
If one reasonably inferred that there was an ‘Alpha,’ that one might also be involved.
‘We can look into that from now on.’
Heinz entered the corner room where the unconscious Jin Soran had been moved.
Having fallen victim to Gamma, she was still collapsed, unable to regain consciousness.
“But this room…”
Heinz looked around with a displeased expression.
It was a room where various occult elements were chaotically mixed together.
Blood-drawn magic circles covered the entire room, skulls engraved with gold-leaf patterns, and all sorts of colorful ornaments.
For Heinz, his limit was recognizing that some blood magic was mixed in among them.
[Oho, this is another new discovery.]
Though this didn’t apply to Hans, of course.
Hans entered the room and looked around in admiration.
The remnants of dark magic used everywhere were dissected one by one through 「Malevolent Wisdom」 and analyzed with 「Forbidden Knowledge」.
However, there were more than just one or two other magical arts related to dark magic here.
[Sorcery and curses, is this Kabbalah’s ‘Ein Sof Ohr’? And they even used Qimen Zhen. There are quite a few systems I don’t know as well. To weave so many magical arts into one like this…]
Though Hans specialized in dark magic, having reached the extreme of a single field meant his eye for magic itself was different.
Through his vigilante activities, Hans had encountered the magical arts of many worlds, and he possessed sufficient insight to tell where and how they had been used.
‘I never imagined something like this would be possible.’
Nowadays, Earth was full of those who had returned after acquiring all sorts of techniques and mysteries from countless worlds.
Some had learned technology from more developed civilizations; some had delved deeply into magical engineering.
About twenty years had passed since such Returnees appeared.
Yet magical tools were still rare, and technological development hadn’t been achieved dramatically either.
How could that be?
‘It’s because the laws applied to each dimension are different.’
From the elements that make up the world, to the physical laws governing the microscopic world.
Everything operates according to its own laws.
‘And the most extreme case among them is supernatural abilities.’
Physical laws at least had some superficial similarities, but the laws of supernatural abilities were truly arbitrary.
Moreover, since it was energy from another world to begin with, it was impossible to teach it to others or research it scientifically.
It was a power that neither existed on Earth nor could be used there.
‘Except for magical tools where the otherworld’s laws have been fixed in a stable state, there is only one exception: when a Returnee uses supernatural abilities directly.’
Because the Returnee themselves were the very medium separated from the world’s laws.
That was the reason Hans could use dark magic on Earth.
‘When activating the installed barrier, a Returnee was absolutely needed at the center to serve as the medium. So it’s impossible for magical engineering to develop.’
Even if one had been an artisan in another world, creating a magical tool that operated independently required materials belonging to the laws of their home world.
Since most items currently on Earth were things Returnees had personally brought from other worlds, magical tools were inevitably rare.
The scenery of this room right now was no different from programs operating under different laws being torn down and modified from the root, one by one, to fit a single system.
And that too, adjusted to Earth’s environment.
[At this level, one would certainly have confidence.]
Hans looked around in admiration.
There remained the limitation that, perhaps because it was still incomplete, a Returnee was needed to activate it just like with barriers.
But even accomplishing this much was incredible.
Because even Hans could only barely achieve this with the help of 「Malevolent Wisdom」 and 「Forbidden Knowledge」.
And that too, only within the category of ‘dark magic.’
[Hmm… but something looks lacking. Could this possibly be everything?]
It was certainly amazing, but something was lacking.
Though it looked meticulously constructed, the spell formula was still unstable; in such a shoddy state, it was impossible to safely remove the lingering thoughts within the vampiric factor.
[Even if additional processes were applied from here… Taking that into account, the spell formula itself is too unstable.]
He could tell without even trying it himself.
Because to Hans’s 「Malevolent Wisdom」, which had reached the pinnacle of dark magic, that weakness was plainly visible.
Though it seemed effective for the moment, this was a time bomb that could explode at any moment.
‘At this level, I feel like it could be driven berserk with just a slight trigger… Could it be?’
They had said Byuncheonhoe supported this research.
They must have contributed considerably to gathering and combining dimensional magical arts into one.
In other words, the detonation button for the time bomb was in their hands.
[Hah! Those guys, they’re being a nuisance in quite a few places.]
And their capabilities seemed beyond imagination as well.
Because gathering, improving, and mixing the necessary magical arts into one wasn’t something just anyone could do.
‘I wish we had a bit more information…’
Hoping to perhaps discover other clues, he immediately employed undead to search the entire building.
And while he was at it, he scooped up some of their research achievements.
It was a world where they lived together; good things were meant to be shared, weren’t they?
While Hans was examining the building’s interior, gathering useful things, and focusing on information collection…
Heinz approached Jin Soran, who was sprawled in the middle of the room.
The wounds covering her body from the fierce battle with the vampires had already healed, and no bloodstains were visible.
‘Did she recover her blood and enter self-repair even while unconscious?’
He hadn’t been able to see her fight properly since she’d been ambushed by allies, but she seemed to be a vampire stronger than expected.
Heinz immediately used his newly acquired 「Insight」 on her.
“Hmm, this is… It seems I’ll need some time to get used to it.”
He had expected information organized as clearly as a status window.
What he felt was closer to an abstract distribution of energy.
The blood-red energy actively moving within her body and….
‘But it’s strangely blurry. As if something is covered by an opaque veil… Ah! Isn’t this “Concealment”?’
Though it had weakened, perhaps because she was unconscious, it was the energy of 「Concealment」 that he had stolen from Gamma.
The opaque energy covering her entire body concealed not only itself but also the blood-red energy, making everything appear blurry.
‘Does this woman also have the same bloodline ability as Gamma? Is she from the same dimension?’
No wonder she had seemed strangely lacking in deference.
Of course, most of that feeling had been closer to hostility.
Anyway, this woman was an essential figure for approaching the Blood Alliance.
She also seemed to have considerable standing; if she could only be made to move according to his will, nothing could be better.
Crash!
Clatter— clatter.
Outside the room, the undead following Hans’s orders could be heard noisily ransacking the place.
‘Hmm, it would be difficult to wake her here, wouldn’t it?’
Heinz looked down at her with his arms crossed.
Long black hair tied in a ponytail and spread across the floor, red lips and long eyelashes contrasting with her pale, translucent skin, and harmonious features.
Every element combined with the inhuman charm of a vampire to display overwhelming beauty.
‘Right, let’s go with the knight-rescuing-a-sleeping-princess concept.’
Heinz scooped her up in a flash.
He had never lifted an adult woman before, so he couldn’t tell if she was light or heavy, but to his overwhelming strength, she felt nothing but infinitely light.
“But where would make for a good stage…”
Of course, for now, putting together the scenario first was the most urgent matter.
***
“…Hnyak!”
With a strange cry, Jin Soran’s eyes shot open.
Having known through 「Insight」 that she would soon wake, Heinz, wearing a mask, casually looked to the side.
“So you’ve finally come to your senses.”
Vroom—
A sports car smoothly tearing down the road.
It was Heinz’s new beloved car, graciously gifted by Gamma.
“Uh… uh? Um, what is going on…”
Jin Soran looked around with a confused expression at Heinz driving in the driver’s seat and at the car’s interior, then began examining her own body.
Other than the holes punctured here and there in her clothes from the battle and her stamina being slightly drained, she was intact.
“I thought I was done for… Um, you’re the person who was there earlier, right? Could you tell me what happened?”
Quite a polite attitude, unlike how she had treated Gamma.
Well, this was probably how a sensible, cultured person conversed.
“I was lucky. An opportunity arose, so I got out quickly. Seeing the situation, you seemed to be a victim too, so I brought you out with me.”
“Luck…? In that situation? …Could I hear a bit more detail?”
Jin Soran asked cautiously, slightly furrowing her brow.
Indeed, since she was the one who had experienced that situation directly, such an explanation wouldn’t be enough to convince her.
“Do you know what a Hahoe mask is?”
“A Hahoe mask... I’ve heard of it. They say it’s someone who attacks criminals and even their organizations. Don’t tell me...?”
“Yeah. The Hahoe Mask appeared there.”
Heinz calmly continued laying out the fabricated facts.
Their headquarters, thrown into chaos by the Hahoe Mask’s sudden assault.
He had watched for an opportunity amid their fierce clash, secured the unconscious Jin Soran, and escaped with her.
In the process, he had luckily snatched Gamma’s car keys and was now in the middle of a highly successful getaway.
“Th-that’s... really incredible luck, isn’t it?”
She muttered in a dubious voice.
Despite her reaction, Heinz nodded confidently in affirmation.
“Um, by the way, who exactly are you...? No! That’s not what I should be saying. Thank you for saving me! It must have been hard enough to get out alone in all that chaos, but you even went out of your way to save me.”
Perhaps the confusion she had felt immediately after waking had settled somewhat, because she bowed her head and expressed her gratitude.
“I’m sorry. I was so out of it that I haven’t even introduced myself yet. My name is Jin Soran, and I belong to the Blood Alliance. I’m a level 6 from Nocturnia, and I was there because we’d found signs that Do Hansu’s group had kidnapped one of our crew members...”
She, who had been explaining so earnestly, suddenly paused.
Then, after hesitating for a moment, she continued haltingly.
“...So, some colleagues I was close to said they’d help, and we went together to confront them... We were in different crews, but we all belonged to the same moderate faction. Then, well... yes. That’s what happened.”
Jin Soran finished her explanation in a trembling voice and lowered her head deeply.
It seemed that being betrayed by those she had trusted as comrades had come as a tremendous shock.
Not knowing what to say to console her, I simply kept my eyes quietly fixed ahead and remained silent.
“That’s what happened! Still, I’m glad we got out safely! The traitor’s been exposed, and we found out what that bastard was up to, so this is what they call a blessing in disguise, right?”
She spoke in a bright voice, as if forcing herself to lift the mood.
Then she went on, full of hope, saying that once she reported it to the higher-ups, that guy and everyone connected to him would be finished, and that she would finally be able to live in peace now.
‘Well... will it really be resolved that easily?’
Judging by the scale of the matter, it seemed even the upper ranks of the hardliners were already in on it.
Even if the issue were raised, all that would come of it was civil war, not peace.
‘Of course, I won’t leave it that way.’
It was an organization I was going to take over anyway; the more intact it remained, the better.
‘Wipe out the hardliners’ leadership and seize the Blood Alliance led by the moderates.’
The first step toward that happy ending was Jin Soran.
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