The Ghoul Nest
Thud!
The corpses of animals and humans that had been fed to the vampire reeked with a thick, rancid stench. Vampire bloodstink layered over it all.
"What a goddamn mess."
Even Se-gun had no desire to stick a blood extractor into this one. When he looked at a vampire dying mad without even knowing what it was, something colder than hunger came first. Not that he was handing himself a free pass on morality for it.
"Hn. You're cheap goods anyway. Not even worth the draw."
Kill the vampire. Take the blood. That was the iron rule he had drilled into himself to persuade vampire hunters who would never accept him. Breaking it meant he had to invent this ridiculous excuse. Se-gun frowned down at the headless corpse. He knew perfectly well how flimsy the excuse was. In the world of the Mad Moon, surviving as a hunter of the night's residents meant discarding mercy and conscience. Hunters were the weak. Start making allowances for the strong — for vampires — and it never ended. Worse, you turned into humanity's enemy yourself.
Se-gun lashed himself with that thought and looked up the well shaft. Reporter Seong was peering down at him with open worry, clearly fretting over how Se-gun meant to climb three meters of wall with no ladder.
"Hmph. Ha!"
Se-gun kicked off one wall of the well and rebounded from the opposite face. With agility no ordinary human should possess, he triangle-jumped three times and landed lightly above. Reporter Seong, still hovering in confusion, was more obstacle than help.
"Incredible!"
"Shut up. I'm in a foul mood. Wipe that stupid look off your face. You're a reporter — supposed to be elite, aren't you?"
As if being elite meant a damn thing in a place like this. Se-gun was just irritated. Korea was a society that ate people alive with age, and watching a reporter who looked older than him flounder was almost pitiful. But when you were this pissed off, other people's problems didn't get a second glance.
"Still… someone brought this vampire in. Or made it."
Muttering, Se-gun lifted the Bloodstone Pendulum again. It was still vibrating, faintly but clearly.
"A vampire?"
"This week's classic film."
He tossed the flippant answer at Reporter Seong, who latched onto every word, and took a step. The signal was definitely coming from the prayer house main building. The compound had a caretaker's annex, the main building that served as lodging for the faithful, and the chapel itself. The chapel was still packed with people; the reaction was coming from the main building. The problem was getting there without being spotted from the chapel or caught on CCTV.
"Tch… this is going to be a pain."
Se-gun checked the angles, then drew the Tokarev from his coat instead of the Glock and leveled it at a camera. Smashing it would announce his entry to whoever was watching — but there was no choice. If they were raising a vampire inside, the security lead already knew exactly what was being kept here.
"That Producer Kang."
"Yes?"
The moment Se-gun spoke, Reporter Seong lit up, trailing close, hoping for the story he wanted.
"He's probably dead."
"…"
If Kang were dead, a religious faction had murdered a current-affairs producer. That was a firestorm. Ratings would skyrocket. The network would love it, and the assistants and underlings under Kang would scramble for the empty seats. But Kang had been too decent a man to write off so easily. Why did someone that good have to be handed a death sentence in a place like this?
"Khh… do you have any proof?"
"There won't be any. They'll have eaten him."
"…"
Se-gun calmly squeezed the Tokarev's trigger, shattered the CCTV, and sprinted forward in the same breath.
"W-wait!"
"Follow if you're following. Otherwise get lost!"
He snapped the words and dove through the main building's entrance. Vending machines lined the hall; four hulking young men in white tracksuits stood guard — clearly the self-appointed security detail, posted to watch the building during the service. They hadn't noticed the dead cameras yet, and the sudden intruder left them scrambling. The Japanese sword on Se-gun's back only made them more rattled.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Who do you think?"
Se-gun answered with a question of his own, then lunged at the lead man and drove an open-hand strike up under his jaw. The man beside him flinched — and in that instant Se-gun spun like a dancer and buried an elbow in his gut. The giant flew into a Coca-Cola machine with a crash of shattering plastic.
"Ghk!"
He swept the next man's knees out from under him, then leapt, catching a hanging fluorescent shade for leverage, and side-kicked the last one across the back of the neck as the man tried to run. Four big men went down in under six seconds of lightning-chain violence. When Reporter Seong stumbled in behind him, all he saw was the young man's back — and the bodies.
"A-amazing."
"It's nothing special against humans."
Se-gun sighed at anyone who could gape over something so minor. The reaction was definitely here. If the pendulum was answering inside the building the faithful used as lodging, the layout was probably the same as the annex. And if there was a vampire here too…
"Son of a bitch. Bastards!"
Who he was cursing barely mattered. Se-gun found these people nauseatingly vile — because Sarhyuk's smirking face rose in his mind.
"Be careful!"
"I know without you telling me!"
Se-gun shouted back and charged. Ahead, people with something wrong in their eyes shambled slowly out into the corridor.
Ghouls?
In that same heartbeat Se-gun ripped the sword free from his back and smashed the lead one's skull with a descending blow. Bone cracked; the ghoul pitched forward.
"Haaah!"
He vaulted the corpse, kicked another into the wall, spun, and swept the blade low along the floor. It wasn't a true katana, so cutting clean through bone was hard — but snapping it was easy enough. Ghouls with shattered legs sprawled across the floor. Se-gun sprang up like a coil, mounted one, and drove the sword straight down.
Shunk!
Black blood sprayed as the ghoul thrashed. Reporter Seong saw it and screamed.
"P-people—!"
From where he stood, a madman had just charged a group of humans and started butchering them with a blade. Se-gun offered no explanation. Ghouls didn't die from this much damage.
"A vampire with ghoul-creation. Perfect."
Ghoul-making showed up across bloodlines, but only vampires with at least 500 VT could pull it off. Se-gun had been living through VT inflation fighting Jinma lately, but he hadn't forgotten that 500 VT was still enough for a vampire to throw its weight around. Which meant D Church wasn't dabbling with vampires — it was in deep.
"Haaaah!"
He wrenched the sword free and faced the ghouls lurching up behind him. Ghouls meant durability; half-hearted hits never put them down. But they were slower and weaker than vampires.
"Hmph…"
Se-gun stomped a charging ghoul's knee, vaulted, and put his full weight into the blade as he drove it into the creature's shoulder.
Crack!
The edge bit wrong and the ghoul came apart anyway. He spun into the next one with an elbow, ripped the sword free of the split body, and swung up in a rising cut.
Snap!
The blade had already been abused; even the hilt loosened with a nasty sound. Se-gun finished the rest of them regardless.
"Aaaaaah…"
Reporter Seong stood with his mouth hanging open at the slaughter unfolding in front of him. This young man had charged in without hesitation and carved human beings to pieces. The way they rose again after taking the blade made him think of horror-movie zombies — but they still looked human. There was no way they were real zombies, and yet Se-gun had cut them down without a flicker of doubt.
It reminded him of seniors in college who'd practiced kendo. One of them had gone to the countryside on the dog days and, full of bravado, tried to cut a dog's throat — then quit the art entirely after the sheer horror of it. Striking living flesh with a blade was not something ordinary nerves could handle.
"Mm. Edge is shot. It was only a 420 stainless blade anyway."
And yet the young man was calmly inspecting the ruined edge while the bodies piled around him. That went past guts into something inhuman. How could anyone be that cold? Seong regretted, bitterly, that his digital camcorder was broken. He should have filmed this.
"From here on it's going to get worse. You shouldn't follow."
Se-gun flicked the black blood from the blade as he spoke. That tar-dark fluid — nothing like human blood — told him the parent vampire was close. Then the ceiling exploded and a hand punched down through it.
"Kh—!"
Se-gun flattened to the floor and drew the Glock, firing upward.
Phut-phut-phut!
Three suppressed rounds. Se-gun's reaction was fast — but whatever was up there was no slower. The plasterboard ceiling blew apart and a black shape dropped through.
"Tch!"
He poured fire into it again. The Glock 18 with its thirty-round magazine was a submachine gun wearing a pistol's skin. In a corridor this tight, even a Jinma shouldn't be able to dodge that much lead.
"Krrraaagh!"
The thing curled, arms crossed over its face, and simply tanked the barrage. That was when Se-gun saw the Kevlar suit wrapping its arms, legs, entire body.
"Kevlar?!"
The vampire rose.
"Uwaaaaaaah!"
It launched itself at Se-gun. Trusting the armor and eating the bullets had been for this exact lunge. Se-gun only sneered.
Phut!
Having a thirty-round mag and full-auto didn't mean you had to empty the gun. He left one round and put it between the vampire's eyes. Even mid-leap the creature twisted its head; the bullet punched its face but missed the brain.
"Kraaagh!"
Se-gun was already throwing himself backward as he fired. He slid across the floor on his back and whipped the Japanese sword one-handed with his left arm.
Clang!