Dogo and Erzebut, who came under the orders of the Progenitor. The two Elders walked leisurely. They casually brushed off the suspicious gazes directed at them and headed for the Lightning Tower as if they were out for a stroll. They didn't know Claudia's geography well, but as predatory vampires, they at least knew where blood flowed.
Moreover, with such a thick and abundant scent of blood flowing, they couldn't miss it. Erzebut looked at the tip filled with the stench of blood and spoke.
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"Dogo. Can you feel it now?"
"…."
Dogo did not react. Erzebut answered as if accustomed to his lack of response.
"Your cherry-picking ends there, yes? I won't argue with your precept of not exchanging words with women even in death. It's several times better than the resolution to hit on women even in death."
Dogo, who considered it part of his asceticism even after becoming a vampire, did not touch grain, did not speak with women, and did not sleep on soft floors according to his precepts. Dogo followed the teachings of his lifetime exactly even after death. Since he was a vampire with no appetite, sexual desire, or desire for sleep anyway, no problems occurred.
Of course, the Progenitor was an exception.
Seeing him keeping silent according to his precepts, Erzebut sighed from behind her fan.
"However, if you fail to properly carry out the Progenitor's order due to the stubbornness of your lifetime. I might just 'despise' you as you are."
The female noble Erzebut was a powerful blood mage who had taken the blood of a thousand people. She became even more famous because she achieved that feat before becoming a vampire. Excluding the out-of-standard Progenitor, she could handle the largest amount of blood at once. Since she had expertise in white magic before her death, she was well-versed in domination and destruction through blood magic.
Even Dogo couldn't just ignore her. If the opponent were a man, he could have politely answered or beaten them to a pulp, but since she was a woman, both were difficult.
"…The awe I felt toward the Progenitor, I can no longer feel it. What on earth happened? This humble monk could not find the answer even after reflecting and meditating alone."
Dogo muttered as if talking to himself. It was as obvious as fire that it was a scheme he devised to keep his precepts. Erzebut covered her mouth with her fan and said.
"It's just that the wind blew for the Progenitor as well. Her dominance is still intact."
"What scheme must I devise to find the answer? With this humble monk's shallow wisdom, there is no way to know."
"It's a simple move. Even when I tried my best, I couldn't affect the True Blood even a speck."
The flower hides thorns. A dangerous scent emanated from the mouth covered by the fan. Enough to make even Dogo flinch.
To try to dominate the Progenitor's blood. If she had succeeded, it would have been treason. The moment the Progenitor noticed the attempt, she might have been annihilated on the spot. Dogo was silent. Not because of his precepts, but because he truly lost his words.
Erzebut, who pulled her hat down low as if to hide her expression, smiled from behind her fan and said.
"However, it is certain that the Progenitor has changed a little. Originally… she wouldn't have even been able to harbor the will, let alone dare to make such an attempt."
"…."
"If your curiosity is satisfied, shall we go? I want to carry out the Progenitor's order and see Her as soon as possible. Perhaps… in that process, I might discover something rare."
It was when Erzebut was about to move forward again. She saw Shei falling down and muttered.
"Our escort squire has come out to meet us."
Shei jumped down with the momentum to attack at any moment. Dogo grasped that fighting spirit faster than anyone. Right before Shei fell, Dogo also put his hands together and took a combat stance.
"Dogo. Erzebut. Elders from the Fog Duchy, right?"
A mere blue-faced child, a mere food source, using such insolent words. Sparks flew from Dogo's eyes. He was a human from the distant past, a stubborn human enough to keep his precepts even after death, and as a senior of the older generation, he could not stand watching a junior upstart throwing informal language around. Dogo shouted at the brat in front of him.
"—Ugh!"
No, he tried to shout. If not for the strange sense of rejection that somehow held him back.
Shei looked at Dogo, who let out a strange groan, with a puzzled expression. He added a little provocation, but instead of reacting, he made a weird noise like something got cut off. Puzzled by the unexpected reaction, Shei stepped a little further forward.
"Did Tirkanjaka send you? What are the Elders doing here?"
It's easy to pick a fight with an Elder. They are all old fossils preserved exactly as they were a thousand years ago, and a group of devotees who throw a fit just hearing the Progenitor's name. If you want to fight, just poke the Progenitor.
It definitely should have been… but their reactions were strangely different. Instead of getting angry, Erzebut traced the corner of her mouth with her folded fan. As if savoring a taste.
"Heh. What a delicious-looking cherry."
"T-taste?"
While flustered by the different reaction from before, Erzebut instantly closed the distance to Shei's front. Blood Path. A technique that moves by gliding on a path made of blood with barely moving feet or hands. It was fast, but above all, Shei recoiled in horror at the creepy, ghost-like movement.
Erzebut fondly traced the space where Shei had retreated using the Cheonban-gyeong, and said.
"Pale skin and a youthful appearance. Giving off an androgynous vibe while the mole near the eye serves as a focal point. From body scent to appearance, it perfectly matches my taste. It will be a delight to crush."
Vampires have no appetite. However, they do have preferences for blood. Depending on how delicious the blood is or how excellent the compatibility is, vampires sometimes choose which humans to eat. Since the urge is faint, there isn't a big difference no matter what blood they drink, but among vampires, there are Elders who enjoy the very preference for specific humans. Of the few pleasures given to them, the joy akin to gourmet dining is bloodsucking.
The extreme example of that is the favored pets.
Erzebut fluttered her open fan and continued.
"On top of that, pure and healthy. It's blood even the Progenitor would covet—. Ah, there are still joys left in the world—."
"There are no fools who'd feed full vampires, so shut up and state your purpose."
"Ah—. Right. I had something to do."
Snap. Erzebut, who folded her fan at once, spoke bewitchingly.
"By the will of the great and beautiful, eternally unchanging Progenitor. I came to deliver the order for Lir Nightingale to return."
"Just to deliver an order? You didn't come to take her away?"
"It's the same thing. There is no vampire who would refuse an order personally given by the Progenitor."
There is. Shei knew that Lir had broken free from her shackles. Therefore, if Lir wanted, she would ignore even Tirkanjaka's order. And as long as there were patients remaining, Lir would stay here. At this point, Shei didn't know what choice she would make, but….
"If you think of another woman in front of me, I'll hate you, my sweet cherry."
"Who's your sweet cherry?! I have no intention of giving you even a drop of my blood!"
Shei snapped back and pondered for a moment. However, the important thing was ultimately Lir's intentions. If Lir wanted to go, Shei had no justification to stop her. But, if she wanted to stay…. Shei would help her.
"Alright. I'll pass that on."
"Hmm? Pass it on?"
"Exactly what it means. There's a patient inside, so she's taking care of them. I'll ask Lir's intentions and let you kno—"
"—Ugh!"
Boom. An intense stomping vibration flowed through the ground. Shei took a defensive stance against the unusual momentum erupting from Dogo. Although his expression didn't change, Dogo vented his emotions through his momentum and shouted.
"The Progenitor's order is absolute! Any vampire must come out barefoot and kneel to serve it, so why do you not show your face—!"
It was an ambiguous statement whether he was speaking to someone, but in front of his surging momentum, that was a trivial issue. Shei steadied Jizan and drew it, while secretly compressing Cheonang behind her back.
The weakness of immortal vampires is their innate dullness. Because death is far away, their sense of crisis naturally fades, which leads to dulled senses.
"Don't make a fuss. If you think a little about who you are, you can figure it out. If you don't want to make all of Claudia your enemy…."
"The most necessary thing in walking the path of asceticism is indomitable will. No matter what obstacles block your life, it is the law to endure and push forward!"
Once again, a stomping vibration erupted. Hardship. A footwork meaning a thorny path shook the earth and left bloody footprints. If you put the skinny old monk on a scale, he'd seem lighter than a brick rolling around over there, but strangely, his footsteps contained earth-shattering power.
It shared the same root as Erzebut's Blood Path, but it was a Blood Qi Gong that evolved in a completely different direction. While Erzebut's was grand yet elegant, Dogo's was plain yet fiercely brute. It was hard to believe they were the same vampires.
"This monk is an ascetic, and at the same time, the asceticism that all living beings must face!"
This was how the vampires survived against the Seonghwangcheong. Dogo took an unstoppable step precisely toward the Lightning Tower.
"I will go. Come!"
Against him approaching step by step, Shei also drew Jizan. Cleverly hiding the power she had been preparing in her heart within Jizan's shadow.
'Blood Monk Dogo. He is very powerful, but he has one weakness.'
Not an innate weakness, but his ideological weakness. Shei gave up trying to block or avoid him. Instead, she poured all her strength and Qi Gong into her attack.
Dogo is an ascetic.
Those who whip themselves and inflict pain to attain enlightenment. Dogo's choice of the vampire's life also revealed his ideology. He considered life to be pain, and the vampire's immortality to be endless asceticism.
That is why Dogo only wears a single hemp robe that barely covers his upper body. To expose himself to the sunlight, to feel pain and discomfort from it. To him, pain is not something to avoid, but something to embrace.
Therefore, Dogo does not avoid attacks.
He endures and takes them. Unlike Ruken, who relies on regeneration to contest strength, Dogo's act of being hit is in itself the realm of technique and his goal.
Dogo was prepared to take Shei's strike as well.
—Shei 'experienced' that fact.
It is different from simply knowing. We call a person who immediately puts knowledge into practice a genius. If one learns through experience, they are called a talented student, and if they barely learn after failing countless times, they are evaluated as a dunce.
Shei was a dunce. The only difference was that she had repeated and returned from experiences and failures countless times.
"Haaaaah!"
Shei added even the defensive Qi Gong, Cheonban-gyeong, to her attack. The Cheonban-gyeong, which was always ready to react and defend, loosened its stance and wound around Jizan.
Shei, who lacked talent, was always just a fraction, a single sheet of paper short of distinguishing life and death. Her attacks were dull, and her finishes were sloppy. Purely due to a lack of skill, she missed her enemies time and time again despite possessing that tremendous power.
However, even for someone like Shei, there was once in her lifetime. She had performed a move that would remain as a flashing memory in her life. As is the case with those without talent, the problem was that she couldn't summon that flash when she wanted it.
The Sword Empress took pity on such Shei, dismantled a part of her Qi Gong, and restructured it into an offensive form. So that she could recreate that strike whenever she wanted, completely carving the body's memory into the Qi Gong.
That was the Cheonban-gyeong Offensive Form. It wasn't flexible, but the sheer power was guaranteed—it was the strike of Shei's life. Shei invoked the strike she had once succeeded in.
"Cheonji Geomgon, Taeguk!"
The tip of the thrust Jizan drew a minute curve. The extremely compressed Cheonang was virtually locking in the power of a storm, and that tremendous power vibrated even Jizan. Heaven and earth, Shei, who locked that power at a single point, stretched her whole body and blew a storm into Dogo's body….
And Dogo faced it with the resolve to take that entire strike. His skinny body neither resisted nor yielded to the storm within the tip of the sword. It simply melted into the flow and became one.
Hyeoltu Gwibeop: Pungpa.
Dogo and Shei collided, and blood and chunks of flesh scattered in the storm. A literal rain of blood raged through Claudia.