The vines that grew swallowing blood rise against the flow of blood. Nourished by blood energy, the vines extended their branches and multiplied their leaves, blanketing the river of blood.
"Druidism? No, this is the Tree of Immorality's..."
Hilde, formerly of the Holy Sword Order and the very person who had stolen a single seed from the Tree of Immorality, immediately discerned my power.
"As expected, Father. You can wield all of the Demon God's power."
"Not all of it. Only what I know."
"Well, you are the King of Humans. That means you can do anything a human can do, right? Hehe. I think I understand why the Holy Imperial Court was wary of you~."
"I wonder about that. Was there really such a need to be so wary?"
Just because you have the knowledge doesn't mean you can use it well, right? I'm the same. The power of the Demon God inscribed in this world can be used by anyone who has been taught, but the effects vary wildly depending on individual capabilities. I merely use it in a more convenient and practical way; it's a bit lacking to call it powerful.
"The vines will try to take root in Erzebut. Let's escape while she's struggling with them."
"Wouldn't it be better to finish this right here?"
"Ah, well. The Tree of Origin has poor compatibility with Blood Manipulation."
Fortunately, there was no need to explain. The vines that had been extending while engorged with blood suddenly stopped, then turned their heads toward us like snakes.
[A vine that drinks blood... How fascinating, but that is all. If blood energy reaches it, then it falls under this concubine's authority.]
Erzebut's dominance spread throughout the vines following the blood. Having gained blood energy, the vines flicked their tongues like red snakes and began to crawl back toward me.
Seeing dozens of vines flying at them, Hilde freaked out.
"What! They've just become Erzebut's troops instead!"
"I told you. The compatibility is bad."
"It's not just a matter of bad compatibility, it's like pouring oil on fire! What are you going to do about this!"
Dozens of vines rushed in. It was difficult to cleave through all of them with a two-handed sword. Hilde grasped the holy sword with both hands and split it in two. The briefly flashing light transformed into two slender swords held in Hilde's hands. Hilde swung her dual swords, slicing through the vines with a rustle. The blood held within the vines splattered like fruit juice.
"Thank you for cleaning up the mess I made. I've been letting things slide until now, but I think it's really okay to accept you as my daughter now."
"Shut up! I'm going to jump over that roof, so follow me!"
Kicking off the ground in a single bound, Hilde sliced through the vines clinging to the wall and landed safely. After that, she reached out her hand so I could climb up after her.
"Huh? You climbed up by yourself?"
"Ah, yes. I made the ground rise a little, and used the rebound."
"...If you had a trick like that, you should have used it sooner!"
"It's a minor skill. These little parlor tricks can't change the tide of battle."
Dozens of vines chased after us as we crossed the wide roof in a single breath. By now, they were no longer vines but practically snakes wearing the skins of plants. Instead of fangs, they thrust dense roots at us, trying to snatch Hilde and me.
I grumbled as I fled from the very vines I had created.
"Do you like the handling of the vines? You keep attacking with them. If you do that, it just makes me, the one who made them, look bad."
"Father needs to look even worse! And on top of that, you should feel even more sorry for 'me'!"
"Is it enough to just be sorry?"
"With just words! Of course there must be compensation... Jump!"
Shaking off the pursuing vines, we leaped down from the roof. Hilde landed lightly using Qi, while I used my meager Qi to execute a breakfall, simultaneously using Earth Manipulation to soften the ground a bit before rolling once. It felt unfair that my shoulder was still sore despite all this struggling.
While Hilde sliced through the vines chasing behind us, I ran ahead. Since I'm slower than Hilde, it was my duty to put some distance between us while she handled other things. It was the best judgment from my position as the one being carried.
As I strode along, mixing in Earth Manipulation, a red carpet was laid out before me. As if welcoming me.
Ah, wait a minute.
"One born a noble from birth cannot chase a beast's tail without dignity. Driving them to fall into a trap of their own accord is the best strategy."
I thought there were a lot of vines for some reason, so this was a scheme to lure me in.
Looking around, it was vines, vines, and more vines. If it were flowing blood, it would inevitably have to clump together to form a current, but vines had no such need. Erzebut folded her fan while surrounded by the vines I had modified.
"The vines are quite to my liking. They are not beautiful, but they look good as wall decorations. I will make good use of your relic."
"Uh, well. There's one more gift."
"If it's your neck, I will take it soon, so wait."
"No, not that. I slipped a card between the vines."
Vampires cannot be dealt with using mere human techniques. What's the point of practicing stabbing with a sword a hundred times? If they don't die even when stabbed in the stomach, it's all for nothing.
So historically, there were two ways to fight vampires. Wait for the sunlight to shine, or borrow the power of magic.
Clover 3. The beginning of the human who gifted light and heat. The magic power of flame sucked in the surrounding firewood and finished preparing to burn.
What I modified was a vine that holds blood. But that wasn't the end. Since it was obvious it would be dominated if it merely held blood, I grafted one more thing from the Tree of Origin.
Plants burn easily in fire. As long as they aren't holding water, all of a plant can be used as firewood. Grass that has used up all its moisture to grow rapidly burns even better as its volume increases.
In short, Erzebut was inside a bomb. And I lit the fuse.
"Set. Celsius."
The card responded to my magic power and released the magic it contained.
The flames were red like blood, yet bright. The soaring fire, erupting like an explosion, swallowed everything around it. The primordial gluttony, a fire demon that devoured what it took and reduced it to ashes, raged along the vines. Tremendous heat rushed over my entire body. If Hilde hadn't pulled me in time, I would have been rolling on the ground far away.
Hilde, who had shielded me, covered her mouth with her hand and grumbled.
"Ugh. If you're going to do something like this, at least give me a heads-up!"
"You roughly guessed it when the vines were taken over, didn't you?"
"I thought it was poisoned! I didn't know you'd burn them!"
It would be different if poison worked. What poison works on a dead body? Be that as it may, a head-on approach is the best. Fire was also the most commonly used method against vampires.
...Well. It would have been nice if that had killed her.
"Wait!"
Hilde swung her holy sword. Light traced a trajectory in the air, and she severed the blade of blood that flew out through the smoke. Shattered blood splattered in all directions.
"...Tsk. I was too carried away and wasted too much time. At this rate."
Crackle, crackle. After the initial explosion, Erzebut emerged from the slightly subsided flames, pushing through the smoke.
The clothes that couldn't withstand the explosion were all torn up and burned away. Even so, Erzebut's skin was only slightly smudged with soot or reddened by the scorching. It remained flawlessly smooth.
An explosion of this mere scale couldn't blow away Erzebut's blood energy. Blood is a liquid. In a clash of pure power between water and fire, Erzebut won an overwhelming victory.
Still, it should at least hurt a little or leave her disoriented. How can she be this fine?
"I didn't want to use my body directly, but..."
Erzebut swung her folding fan. Just as a popping sound rang out from the blood-engorged fan, a storm erupted from its tip, blowing the flames and smoke far away.
Her monstrous strength aside, her skill in manipulating the wind with the fan was also outstanding. Erzebut aimed the fan at Hilde and whispered coldly.
"My body has already shown an unsightly form. I will kill you without holding back anymore."
Countess Erzebut. Even before she became a vampire, she drank blood and filled her bathtub. How could a frail noblewoman do that? Power? Political prowess?
No, martial prowess. Even before becoming a vampire, Erzebut was a Qi Master who had mastered outstanding Qi techniques. She just hadn't felt the need until now, but her inherent skills were also considerable.
Tsk. It would have been easier if she just kept fighting with the vines. Still, this means she held out for quite a while.
"Father. Do you have any other plans?"
She asks at the right time. I answered Hilde's question with a confident smile.
"I sent a signal, so reinforcements will come."
"...I'm actually starting to feel admiration. How many moves ahead are you looking, Father?"
"I didn't particularly foresee this. I'm just the type to scatter bait in all directions. You never know when you might reap the rewards."
If they saw an explosion of this scale, those with business to attend to will come right away. Now, we just have to hold out until then...
"Madam Erzebut."
Are they here? Huh. Wait. Ein? Erzebut's kin?
That's not my reinforcement?
"You've come, Catalina. What is the battle situation?"
"The tide of battle is turning against us. I came upon being summoned, but you must make haste to the castle."
"I will finish up here and go. Lend me your aid."
"I will obey."
Five Eins led by Natalia surrounded Hilde and me. We couldn't even beat one Elder, and now five Eins. Honestly, even if Hilde and I were in perfect condition, dealing with more than three Eins would be difficult.
When the hell are my reinforcements coming?
Death was visiting the streets swept by the Elder. Humans bleeding everywhere were on the verge of death. The surviving humans were breathing sighs of pity and relief, grateful for their lucky survival.
She arrived along with death. A nurse uniform with a single apron and a triangular headscarf. Pale skin and red eyes. People who belatedly recognized the Elder, Lir Nightingale, screamed and retreated.
"Vampire..."
"Eek! Run!"
"The Elder is trying to kill us all!"
"We have to fight back..."
Even amidst the chaos and terror, Lir quietly counted the numbers.
There were thirty-two people on the verge of dying right this moment. Eighty-three dying from anemia. Including various minor injuries, the number approached two hundred.
And for this number, Lir alone was enough.
Lir took off her headscarf and pulled out her hairpin. Her hair, like ebony that had been peacefully sleeping under the headscarf, flowed down. Lir cut off a handful of her hair with the hairpin knife.
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The fluttering hair squirmed like an earthworm at some point. Lir manipulated the hair by delicately using Blood Manipulation. The pitch-black hair smelled the scent of blood and moved toward the humans' wounds.
"Argh! Get away, you monster!"
Terrified humans tried kicking at it, but the minutely fluttering hair avoided all their resistance and dug into the wounds. Just as the terrified humans screamed—
Stab, stab, stab, stab. It seemed to move in a zigzag across the wound. Then the hair tied a knot on its own and stopped. As if suturing the wound.
If Erzebut's dominance was to take blood, Lir's dominance was to return the shed blood. She forcibly grabbed and controlled the weakened blood flow of the dying. She pushed back the blood that was trying to flow out of the body, and accelerated the blood flow in place of their slowed heartbeats.
However, because Erzebut had taken their blood, there was an absolute lack of blood. Lir put out the immediate fire with the blood she had saved up, then shouted to the crowd.
"By the authority of an Elder, I will collect a blood tax immediately. Please understand."
"Wh-what... Argh!"
The hair pierced the bodies of the relatively healthy humans and sucked their blood. Engorged with blood like mosquitoes, the hair busily moved to those who needed it.
The amount wasn't much, but a few taxpayers who had their blood drained wore displeased expressions. However, Lir's actions were to save people. The taxpayers, who had neither justification nor power, swallowed their words.
External wounds are easy to deal with. You just need to fill it with blood and close the wounded part. It wasn't as simple as it sounded, but Lir's power was trained for exactly that.
The treatment proceeded in an instant. When the treatment was somewhat finished, one of them—a giant man with a large frame—approached.
"Miss Lir. Erzebut attacked us indiscriminately. She didn't even give a reason. She was just blinded by the desire to collect blood."
The humans of the duchy who had lived as livestock for hundreds of years felt no rebelliousness against vampires. However, if they were refugees from other regions, they often brought the outside common sense with them. And usually, the outside of the duchy was hostile to vampires.
"The Progenitor's concubine and the Holy Knight are fighting her. I will join them, so lend me your strength. If there is an Elder, we can win."
If he was also a knight from a fallen kingdom, he might try to fight against a vampire. The giant made such a proposal to Lir.
No matter how much difference in power there was, an Elder was an Elder. If their Blood Manipulations canceled each other out, only a frail body would remain for Erzebut. If Lir joined the fight, there was a sufficient chance of winning.
However.
"I'm not interested."
Lir flatly refused and stood up. Turning her body as if she had no interest in the treated patient or the Elder, she moved to find another patient, following the scent of blood.
The giant, momentarily dumbfounded, shouted at Lir's back.
"Aren't you working to save humans? Stopping Erzebut is the fastest and surest way!"
"I'm not interested. In how they live. Whether Erzebut makes a few people her food, or whether a few become food."
Lir paused her steps for a moment.
Her stopped heart revealed no emotion even when seeing the dying. Neither compassion, pity, nor anger. Lir could no longer feel them.
Lir's parents gave her life and took away everything else.
The daughter of an Elder. A made child. Wielded like a tool, she became a vampire before she even reached adulthood. And her Elder father ordered her to rebel. Since that day, Lir's life had been a life to rebel.
She had never decided a single thing on her own. To Lir, emotions and will were no different from a coloring story a blind person hears about.
Vampires also have emotions. But what if they are humans who have never learned or felt them while living? How can they learn what they haven't experienced?
So after Lir became an Elder. When she first gained freedom, she decided what she would do.
Treating humans.
The reason was simple. Lir was good at it, and she wouldn't be disturbed by anyone.
Just like now.
"The treatment is over. Farewell."
There were no patients now. If so, there was no need for Lir to be here.
Lir turned her eyes away from those who wouldn't die now and set out to find another patient.