#77
The Brokoslak Clan (4)
Knock, knock—
“Lord, it’s Freesia. I have something to tell you. May I come in?”
“Enter.”
With the permission that came from inside, the door opened, revealing an interior swallowed in pitch-black darkness.
Within that darkness, only a pair of crimson eyes revealed their presence.
“Really, Lord. You could at least light a candle or a luminous orb. Is there any need to live in such darkness?”
“I am no human. I simply feel no particular need for it.”
Perhaps because they were both true-bloods, the atmosphere was more informal than expected.
While they spoke, Heinz, who had quietly followed Freesia into the room, carefully looked around the interior.
‘Amazing. I heard the Lord was the mage type, but a blood magic barrier of this level? This is practically a fortress.’
Blood-red patterns were drawn densely across the walls, floor, and ceiling of the spacious room.
Even the ornaments inside were, without exception, items meant to assist magic.
‘It feels unpleasant, as if I’ve carelessly stepped into a mage’s domain…’
As 「Mystery of Blood」 analyzed the countless barriers, tension surged within him once again.
But there was no other choice.
Mulo Brokoslak, a vampire who had lived for hundreds of years, had not taken a single step outside this room in the past several decades.
He had built a fortress in the safest place and shut himself inside, handling all manner of affairs by moving only his subordinates.
Because of that obsessive pursuit of safety, there was no easy way to lure him outside.
‘Still, if I can get just a little closer and launch a surprise attack, before he can activate the barriers…’
“But Freesia. Who is that?”
At that moment, Mulo looked at Heinz standing behind her and asked in a low voice.
It was an opportunity to get closer.
“Ah, Lord. I was just hoping to introduce him to you. Heinz, come over here.”
Before Heinz could step forward at her smiling words, Mulo slowly opened his mouth again.
“Ah, wait. Before that… Freesia, there is one thing I wish to ask you.”
“Yes? Please, ask anything.”
He picked up a glass bottle and a wineglass from the table beside him and continued in an indifferent tone, as though it were nothing.
“Have you, by any chance, changed your perfume?”
Glug, glug—
A red liquid filled the wineglass.
The faint, fishy scent of blood spread through the room.
“I have spent over a hundred years with you, yet I smell a wholly unfamiliar scent I have never once encountered before.”
Mulo calmly swirled the glass and savored the aroma.
But his gaze never left the two of them for even an instant.
“I simply cannot determine its source.”
In the stiffening atmosphere, Freesia forced a smile and brought out the excuse she had prepared in advance.
“Ah, Lord. That is…”
“More importantly.”
But although Mulo had been the one to ask, he did not seem inclined to hear her answer.
“Today, I feel a sense of distance from you.”
He was already certain.
He did not know what method had been used, but Freesia had escaped Brokoslak’s shadow.
‘This is done for.’
The moment he made that judgment, Heinz used 「Acceleration」 and shot toward him like a bolt of lightning.
At the same time, Freesia, who was a little closer, thrust her parasol toward Mulo as well, but before it could reach him, it was blocked by something and could advance no farther.
Fwoosh—
The blood patterns drawn across the entire room glowed red, twisting space itself.
The space, which had only been a somewhat large room, expanded again and again, and the distance between them and Mulo widened in an instant.
‘Ah, this is why I needed to get as close as possible.’
Even if he was a being specialized in spellcraft, he was still a true-blood vampire.
His reaction speed was also on a completely different level from that of an ordinary mage, so Heinz had wanted to approach carefully before making his move. To think they would be found out before that.
‘It seems I underestimated the Lord too much.’
Still, just as Heinz thought that, with both himself and Freesia, they should be able to defeat Mulo without much difficulty—
“Children of Brokoslak. Come to me.”
Pools of blood appeared throughout the vast space, and from them, vampires began to reveal themselves one by one.
“Huh? What’s this? The Lord called us!”
“Prepare for battle first!”
As Heinz frowned at the enemy forces that had increased in an instant and readied himself for combat…
“…What is this? Only this many remain in the capital?”
Mulo, the very one who had summoned his subordinates, was just as flustered.
Only about half the usual number had responded to the “Call of Blood,” which summoned nearby bloodkin.
“Freesia… what exactly have you done?”
At his low growl as he glared at her, Freesia sighed and stepped forward.
“Well, you see…”
And she began to explain at length the grand plan she had with Heinz.
This time, Mulo did not interrupt her and listened to her excuse to the very end.
“So what you’re saying is, you believed such absurd talk and intend to hand the entire clan over to that unknown bastard?”
Of course, his reaction was not very favorable.
“No, but it has already been proven…”
“What has? Yes, I admit it is impressive that he subordinated our bloodkin without killing them, but is there any proof that it will work on other clans?”
As for that, there was only Heinz’s word. Nothing had been separately proven.
“And does he have the ability to subdue every clan and take them under his command? You know as well, don’t you? That Bisk Yufersh has inherited the Sacred Blood.”
Was that not why he had been frightened in advance, unable to engage in external activity, and had holed himself up here for decades?
“That… That is…”
“…It seems you have been bewitched by something. Though now that ‘Blood Subordination’ has been passed on, I suppose it cannot be helped.”
If he left their conversation alone any longer, Freesia’s spirit would only be dampened.
In truth, since he had used 「Mystery of Blood」 to mix in a slight suggestion, Heinz felt a prick of guilt inside and stepped in front of her, facing Mulo head-on.
“You have a long tongue. In other words, you’re saying you don’t believe I have that much ability, aren’t you?”
“You bastard…”
“I never expected this to be resolved through words from the start. I’ll simply beat it directly into that body of yours and engrave it there.”
And for the first time since the fight against the hardliners of the Blood Alliance, Heinz released his full force and approached him.
Step— Step—
With every step he took, a dense blood-red aura began to stretch out from Heinz’s body in every direction.
“Hrk!”
“T-this is…”
It was the presence of a predator who had hunted vampires from countless dimensions, collected their vampiric factors, and continued to evolve.
The vampires of Brokoslak instinctively shrank back under the pressure and retreated without realizing it.
And Mulo, too, was affected by that presence.
Toward his rigidly stiffened face, Heinz smiled coldly, then became a streak of wind and launched himself at him.
***
“Stop him!”
“He’s too strong— Keuk!”
Mulo frowned as he watched the scene before him.
This place was his domain, strengthened over and over again across long years.
The summoned bloodkin became far stronger than they were outside, while enemies grew weaker under all manner of debuffs.
On top of that, his blood magic was more than enough to tear opponents apart.
And yet…
‘What is this? How?’
His subordinates were falling like leaves in a gale, and his magic, strangely enough, was not having much effect on Heinz.
Although his subordinates, supported by the barrier, continued regenerating even as their heads were severed and their hearts burst apart, if things continued like this, it would only lead to meaningless consumption.
In particular, the greatest problem was that they could not keep up with Heinz’s speed.
‘This won’t do. I need a piece that can match his speed.’
There was a limit to how much firepower he could support them with.
If the front line was broken through, the situation would worsen further, so he needed to prepare a countermeasure right now.
“…Come to me. Obor—!”
After letting out a deep sigh and reciting the spell, another pool of blood formed before Mulo.
And from within it, a white-haired boy slowly revealed himself.
“…What is this? Why did you suddenly call me, Lord? No, what’s going on here!”
“Obor Brokoslak,” who had been summoned by the sudden call, looked around in confusion, but at Mulo’s ensuing command, he immediately moved to tie down Heinz’s feet.
Only after a true-blood capable of keeping up with Heinz’s speed was deployed did the balance of the battlefield barely begin to hold.
‘To think Freesia had become that strong…’
With Obor joining the fight, all the other vampires except him rushed in to deal with her, yet all they could do was keep Freesia in place.
Despite the barrier’s weakening effect clearly applying to her, she was fighting on equal footing against a group of vampires who had become far stronger than before.
“It seems you do at least have the qualifications to speak so arrogantly.”
It looked as though he would have to overextend himself a little more.
Mulo muttered lowly with a stiff expression and slowly drew in a deep breath.
***
Kwaaang—!
Heinz crushed the blood-red thorns surging up from the floor beneath his foot while, at the same time, blocking the hand blade of the boy who had approached swiftly.
“Damn it! Why is this bastard’s body so tough!”
The white-haired boy, Obor Brokoslak, vented his anger and clung to Heinz once more.
His pride was wounded by the fact that even with the Lord’s reinforcement, simply holding his opponent back was difficult, but now was not the time to worry about such things.
Monstrous strength and a sturdy body were a given. On top of that, there was his bizarre blood magic of unknown origin, the speed and ability to conceal his presence that even Obor, a true-blood of the assassin type, could not help but admire.
Whenever Heinz used those abilities to shake him off for an instant and rush toward the Lord, it chilled him to the bone.
‘And he keeps giving off this strange aura! What is this? A mental attack?’
Obor’s brow furrowed at the effect of the predator’s pressure directed at vampires.
It did not have a major effect on him as a true-blood, but the subtle irritation he felt in the midst of extreme combat continued to disrupt his focus.
However, facing them was by no means easy for Heinz either.
‘So this is what it’s like to fight a spellcaster who has properly established his domain. As expected, dealing with two true-bloods inside a barrier is troublesome.’
In the midst of fighting Obor, he once again linked 「Concealment」 with 「Invisibility」 to hide his presence and used 「Acceleration」 to approach Mulo, but…
Shwaaak—
At that moment, blood mist blooming from all directions clung to Heinz and stopped him for the briefest instant.
And that fleeting moment was more than enough time for Obor to react.
Kwaang!
“It’s useless! Where do you think you’re going!”
Thus, Obor, whom he had shaken off for a moment, caught him by the ankle again, and the battle resumed.
He had tried various methods so far, but as expected, ambushing only Mulo within the barrier was simply impossible.
‘In the end, I have no choice but to break through from the front. A mage holed up in his own domain truly is a troublesome existence.’
If he had not evolved by devouring the vampires of Earth and gained the ability to “partially ignore the hostile abilities of other vampires,” he would likely have been in considerable trouble.
Thanks to this ability, which was the ultimate counter to spellcraft including blood magic—not to mention the barrier’s weakening effect—he was able to continue the battle more easily.
Then.
Through his keen senses, 「Insight」, and 「Mystery of Blood」, an abnormality was detected all at once.
The faint weakening effect that had been binding him vanished, and Freesia, who had been pinned down on one side by the vampires, instantly began overwhelming them.
Conversely, the strength drained from Obor, who was charging at him, for a moment, exposing an opening.
Reflexively, Heinz drove his fist, wrapped in bloodflowers, into that opening as he analyzed the situation.
‘The barrier’s effect disappeared? Why, all of a sudden?’
The moment Obor, struck by his blow, was swept up in blood-red petals and sent flying, the answer to that question became clear.
Immediately after his attack succeeded, in the brief instant when he was left defenseless.
Without the slightest presence— Mulo appeared beside him.
At that ghostlike appearance, without thinking any further, Heinz used 「Acceleration」 to retreat, but…
Shwack!
Spurt—!
A spray of blood scattered through the air.
“…You are quick.”
Mulo, who had launched the attack, sneered as bloody tears flowed from his eyes.
“This is troublesome.”
Heinz frowned and muttered lowly.
He had reacted to the attack and moved far back, but he was by no means unharmed.
Despite reacting instantly… his right arm below the elbow had been torn away.
And that arm—
Was being held in one of Mulo’s hands, from which long, sharp nails had grown.