The blood slowly settled. A historic Elder who had once been compared to the Progenitor through sheer power alone, Countess Erzsébet, was leisurely approaching us. Facing the Elder, I said with a troubled expression,
“Madam Erzsébet. Since fate has brought us together here, how about we simply exchange greetings, smile, and part ways?”
“Impossible. The Progenitor appears to regard you as truly special.”
Snap. Erzsébet folded her fan and draped her overflowing bloodlust over herself like clothing. To her, the colossal power that would have crushed an ordinary human with no more than a twitch of her finger felt light.
Perhaps even possessing such strength, she still felt it insufficient to deal with Tir, because she was now targeting me. Well, this was sending a chill down my spine.
“Yet I hear that you, the Progenitor’s concubine, do not regard him as special at all. Heehee. To beguile the Progenitor while coveting power… You truly are a concubine of devastating beauty. Even so, the Progenitor must still have lingering feelings for you. You would make an excellent shield against his attacks.”
She intended to take me hostage as well.
Well, I was an open-minded person, so I did not have any great objection to becoming a hostage in itself. If someone powerless could survive by becoming one, then all the better.
But this case was a little different. Tir had obtained his wish because of my intervention, and that was how he had ended up in this situation. If I became a hostage and lost his chance to fulfill that wish?
Out of the question. If things went that way, I could never go around claiming that I granted wishes. I immediately talked back.
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“Not special? Who says that? Just how much have I given Tir, and how much have I received from him?”
“Let us end the deception there, King of Humans. Do not assume that we know nothing. The Progenitor may know nothing, but we are not so innocent.”
“And what exactly do you know about me? Does pretending to know everything based on hearsay make you any more special?”
They thought they were mind readers. As if pretending to know things was something only I could do.
“Anyone who heard you would think there were no differences in worth among humans. Tirkanjaka, the Progenitor who returned from death through her own ability, created the existence known as vampires, slew tens of thousands of humans and drank their blood, then led the vampires in founding a country. And Tir, who possessed a beautiful, pure, and intense wish—does she really seem less important than you?”
She would be equal in the eyes of the King of Humans. But I was only a half-fledged King of Humans. In other words, I was somewhat removed from the King of Beasts, an abstract entity.
I could read only the thoughts of the humans around me. The other Kings of Beasts encompassed their species and possessed the corresponding concepts, but I was ordinary and weak. The only ones I could represent were the few people around me. The limits of my ability had created priorities unbefitting a King of Humans.
So it was only natural that I felt more affection for those close to me.
“King of Humans or not, I’m not going to become a hostage for your sake. I might do it if it were for Tir, but I have no desire to help an old, ugly woman like you who does nothing but envy Tir.”
“…Envy? I, envy the Progenitor?”
“That’s right, isn’t it? Surely you won’t deny it. Everything you’ve done is written in detail in the history books.”
Hilde was silently begging me with her eyes to shut up already. But, well, it did not look like the other side intended to let us go anyway.
Wasn’t I curious? What would come spilling out if I provoked a vampire who supposedly had no emotions?
“Even when you were human, you killed people, poured their blood into a goblet, and drank it, didn’t you? Because you wanted to become like vampires, since they drank blood. And that wasn’t enough, so you filled a bathtub with blood and bathed in it. Because you envied their smooth, flawless skin.”
“…That is mere conjecture.”
“When historians spend hundreds of years making conjectures, it becomes a field of study. An old fossil like you was so rigidly set in your ways that you’ve been thoroughly dissected.”
Erzsébet threateningly opened her fan and covered her mouth. It was a sign that she was desperately suppressing the emotions just before an explosion. She looked as though she would burst at any moment.
So I decided to light the fuse.
“You envied Tir, didn’t you? You wanted to become like the beautiful, powerful, terrifying Progenitor, didn’t you? You led the betrayal and tried to drink Tir’s blood because it was your chance to take the place left behind by the vanished Progenitor. Honestly, your dark heart is so transparent. Immortality and a lust for power—you’re a completely ‘by-the-book’ character.”
“Heeheehee. Do you think I would be shaken by such a low-class provocation?”
“I already have Tir. Why would I be shaken by the prospect of getting anything from an old hag like you? Dandruff?”
My words had achieved their intended purpose. Erzsébet followed my intentions exactly.
“I’ll kill you.”
They claimed vampires had no emotions, but I wondered about that. In the first place, emotions were nothing more than excuses attached to the desire to do something. The reason vampires had been believed to lack emotions until now was because the Progenitor, Tirkanjaka, had dominated and suppressed their blood. If Tir still possessed her power, then no matter how much I mocked Erzsébet, she would not even react. Tir would not be offended simply because I insulted Erzsébet.
But now?
“I intended to take you alive to the Progenitor, but I have changed my mind. I shall kill you here and present her with your head. Even if you are no longer alive, it should be enough to disturb the Progenitor’s heart.”
Erzsébet had intended to capture me from the start. Whether she killed me or kept me alive was merely a matter of preference. Each choice had its own advantages and disadvantages.
And my remarks just now had changed Erzsébet’s “preference” slightly. Toward killing me.
That was an emotional choice. What else could emotion be?
The blood spread. It coiled like vines over the ground, the walls, and every object around us. The way the writhing blood continued to extend sent chills down my spine, as though new veins were sprouting.
She forced the bloodlust outward and used it to dominate everything. The embodiment of a lust for power, Erzsébet wielded her bloodlust in a manner that reflected her nature, exerting her dominion over all things. Red-stained bricks, pale streetlamps, tables, and chairs came marching toward us.
A one-woman army. Wielding alone a power that nothing but the sun could oppose, Erzsébet extended her fan.
“Try running, King of Humans. In a world of blood vines.”
And the city tilted toward me.
This was no joke. Every piece of furniture in the market street, not to mention the walls of the buildings themselves, moved to crush me. A torrent of pure force, devoid of even a trace of human technique, came rushing in. I turned to flee, but at that moment the wall folded in on itself and blocked my escape route.
Races that possessed mysteries, like vampires, were difficult to deal with. Psychological warfare? That was something you did only when both sides had roughly equivalent cards. And immortal vampires were playing with an entirely different stake. Even if I struggled and scraped together points, they were nothing more than loose change to my opponent.
Fortunately, this was not a one-on-one fight.
“Damn it! That useless old man! I should’ve put him on a carrying frame and run away from the start!”
Hilde seized my hand and kicked the wall hard, channeling her qi into the blow. Explosive Force, a qi technique bearing the nature of an explosion, blasted the bricks outward from within. Through the gap that appeared for an instant, Hilde and I threw ourselves through.
People fleeing, people screaming, people tilting their heads in confusion, unaware of anything. The street was still teeming with countless people. Escaping that crowd would be difficult even with mind reading.
“Should we hide in the crowd?”
“Erzsébet will kill them all and use their blood, too! We need somewhere without people!”
Hilde and I placed our hands against the wall and spun around it. We dashed around the corner, and something brushed past us like it was trying to bite my heel. I glanced back and saw bright-red blood surging toward us like a raging current.
[This is vampire territory. Even the King of Humans is no more than livestock once he enters this place.]
As Erzsébet’s cold voice rang out, blood flowed along both walls. Erzsébet herself might be one thing, but her power was plainly faster than us. And its medium of domination was blood. If it had been something else, we might have blocked or cut it, but blood seeping between the bricks was something we had no proper means of opposing.
“Holy Sword, ready.”
Of course, I was talking about Hilde.
‘Our opponent is a vampire. In that case, the action “I” should take is~.’
Hilde drew light from between her breasts. The flickering radiance looked more like lightning than a sword. The Holy Sword, which had been wavering without any fixed shape, gradually compressed as Hilde formed a single image in her mind.
‘“I” am a holy knight. The sword of God that cuts away wicked light. Let divine punishment fall upon the accursed vampire.’
The shape forged from her faith was a great two-handed sword. Hilde raised the massive Holy Sword above her head and swung it with all her might. Whoosh—the enormous slash cleaved through the air and cut into the wall along which the blood flowed.
The wall remained intact. The blood flowing along it did not. The bloodlust scorched by the light turned pitch-black, leaving a mark behind. The flow of blood could no longer advance and was blocked.
[…A holy knight?]
“Steadfast faith cuts only evil. It is time to be scorched beneath the light, vampire.”
Hilde’s spirit had changed. Standing firm with the two-handed sword raised, she truly looked like a knight chosen by God.
It felt somewhat incongruous because she was wearing a nurse’s uniform, but still.
[You brought a holy knight into this land…. No, a holy knight was hiding her faith in this land?]
Hilde, who became a holy knight only when she wanted to, seemed capable of surprising even a vampire who had lived for a thousand years. Erzsébet gauged her opponent for a moment in this unexpected situation, then soon resumed her attack.
[It merely means there is one more thing to kill. I shall teach you that faith and holy knights alike are nothing more than livestock in this land.]
The current of blood changed direction. Rather than pursuing us, it began to whirl around us, swallowing everything in its surroundings. She intended to crush us beneath its power and weight.
Facing the gradually approaching bloodlust, Hilde made the light blaze brighter and shouted,
“A wicked vampire dares speak of faith. I shall burn you with light! Heavenly God, watch over ‘me’ from the lofty heavens!”
‘Still, I suppose it was worthwhile serving in the Holy Sword Order once. Sigh. That doesn’t make the situation any better, though.’
It was fortunate there was no god. If one had actually existed, it would have been no different from a senile old man who scattered lavish rewards after being taken in by sweet words.
Soon, the surging vortex of blood came flying toward us, carrying all manner of objects within it. Bricks, chairs, furnishings, plates, and even daggers and blades from who knew where flew in stealthily, all targeting Hilde and me. Hilde fought back against the storm with even greater light. Whenever the light scorched the blood, dark-red trails split apart with sharp cracks and fell away.
But while the bloodlust could be blocked, the physical force contained within it could not be completely nullified. Hilde had to take several incoming bricks with her body. Her qi kept her from being injured, but the impact gradually forced her backward. Each time that happened, the space in which we could move grew narrower. Firmly holding her ground, Hilde gripped the sword tightly and offered up one last prayer.
“Heavenly God…. Is this all you can do? Damn it. Forget it! Father, this is the limit of what I can wring out of God! Is there nothing else we can do?!”
“Just a moment. I’m improving it.”
“Improving what?”
“The breed.”
Druidism was difficult to handle. That was why I had barely been able to use it. But now, the conditions had been met to some extent.
What we stood upon was earth. What we drank was blood. Instead of the faint sunlight, we would draw sustenance from the magical power within the bloodlust.
In a land somewhere to the south, there grew a plant that fed on beasts. It seized animals with leaves shaped like teeth, then put down roots upon them and sucked out their bodily fluids. From the grass that drank blood even before vampires existed, it extended its branches.
A luxuriant vine had learned to grow by leaning on other plants instead of standing on its own. It covered their surfaces, stole their sunlight, and used it as nourishment to grow. From the vine, it extended its branches.
Two fruits extending from separate branches of Grand Druid Nebida’s Tree of Origin. I grafted the two together.
The cards overlapping one another were the Ten of Spades and the Nine of Spades. I pushed the Nine of Spades away with my fingertip.
At the same time, red vines brimming with blood shot upward.