Buried Among the Living
Zein chose the surest way he knew to protect himself from the Jinma Juyda. He would bury himself among people. Judging by Juyda's every known pattern of behavior, the rumor that he never attacked humans was almost certainly true.
"Still… to have to run this hard. What a disgrace."
In the dead of night, there was only one place left where a man could lose himself in a crowd. A nightclub. Nothing else. And even that was uncertain — the hour was already sliding toward dawn.
"Welcome, sir. Alone tonight?"
A waiter with the drained look of a man nearly finished with his shift greeted him. Zein pulled out several ten-thousand-won bills, pressed them into the waiter's hand, and said,
"Yeah. If you've got a private room left, I'll take one. At this hour there should be plenty, right?"
"Yes. Ah — is this your first time with us? I'm King Kong, your waiter."
"…"
Whether you're King Kong or Godzilla, why the hell would I care? Zein thought it, but he was in no mood to banter with the likes of this man.
"A bottle of Wild Turkey."
"Since you're alone, shall I arrange some company?"
"No."
Zein dismissed the waiter and sank into the sofa in the private room. He had no idea how strong the Jinma-hunter Silvester truly was, but it would never be enough to stop Juyda. Still — the sun would be rising soon. Surely he would be safe until then?
No. That one can move in daylight too.
When he had swept up Hecate's children, it had been… broad daylight. A Jinma's absolute binding force was strong enough to keep even VT from being destroyed by sunlight.
"Damn it!"
Zein cracked the whiskey bottle and drank it straight, gulping hard. Of course a vampire — a Jinma, no less — could drink whiskey by the barrel and never get drunk. The binding force over their blood and the absolute control over their flesh minimized every harm alcohol could do; the ordinary human phenomenon of intoxication simply did not exist for them. But if he didn't at least pretend to drink, he was going to lose his mind.
No matter that his opponent was Juyda — the moment he fled, his standing would only grow weaker. He already ranked lower in dignity than the other Jinma. Now he was about to be despised on top of it.
"Goddamn it. What the hell have I become!"
Midnight had long since passed and the hours were tilting toward dawn; even the nightclub's energy was nearly spent. He could not keep dodging Juyda in a place like this forever. Leaving the country as fast as possible was the shortest road to keeping his life.
"Damn it all!"
Zein seized the empty bottle and hurled it against the wall. Glass exploded with a crash, and a startled waiter shoved the door open.
"Is something wrong?"
The words were polite. The attitude was not. Closing time, exhausted waiters with frayed nerves had no patience left for drunks throwing tantrums. This one was already scowling at the shattered glass against the wall.
Zein could read the waiter's feelings as clearly as if he held them in his fist. That brazen look that said he was dealing with a lunatic. Well… he probably did look like one.
"Ah, nothing. Just got thirsty all of a sudden!"
Suddenly craving blood, Zein rose from his seat. And in that same instant the corridor erupted into noise.
"Hey — who the hell are you?!"
"S-sir! That room is already—!"
Ignoring the waiters' near-screams, someone was coming closer. For a humiliating second Zein froze solid. It's him. He's found me. Already? How did he track me this far? Ah — right. I'm a vampire.
He stood there, frozen and stupid, staring at the door. Then a blond man in a pure white coat pushed past the waiters and stepped inside.
"My, my… even if a Jinma has already forfeited his dignity tonight, this is a bit much."
He smiled faintly and handed the waiters a thick fold of bills.
"Sorry. My friend seems to have had a little too much. I'd appreciate your understanding."
"B-but—"
"Ah, and that's for the cleaning. Is it not enough?"
Phantom lifted a whole bundle of million-won notes and pressed it into the waiter's hands.
"There, there… good children should be in bed by now. Looking forward to Christmas this year, of course. Though Santa doesn't bring gifts to non-Christians, I'm afraid."
Without another word the waiter took the money and left, eyes glazed and vacant. He had clearly been under suggestion for those few seconds. Zein stared at Phantom, dumbfounded.
"What do you want? Here to eat me? Hm?"
"Hardly. Swallowing someone as underhanded as you would give me nightmares. More importantly…"
He drew Beast Double and set it on the table. The massive revolver sat there and began to vibrate violently, rattling like a phone left on silent, filling the room with a harsh metallic noise.
"I'll handle this one. You run while you can."
"Why? I don't see what you'd gain from this. Don't tell me it's an order from Tetra Anax?"
Zein stared at him, unable to make sense of it. Phantom must have raced through the entire night, every sense stretched to the limit, just to be standing here. He would have burned through a great deal of power — and fighting the Jinma Juyda was something no one attempted without staking their life.
They weren't even close. So why was this man risking everything?
"Who knows. Don't I seem like the one actually worrying about the future of vampirekind? Unlike our rulers in Tetra Anax?"
"…I see. You mean to protect Juyda."
In a single instant Zein understood. The gun Juyda used had clearly been made by Phantom. Which meant Juyda's movements served Phantom's purposes as well. But here in Korea, where Jinma had gathered in force, Juyda's life was in real danger. If he wasn't checked at a carefully chosen point, it would be like losing a queen in the opening moves of a chess game.
"Unbelievable."
Zein clicked his tongue at Phantom, who was far more underhanded than he was himself. For something born of resentment toward Tetra Anax's rule, it was excessively cunning. And yet… not truly cunning either. This man never once showed the bottom of his hand. What did he live for? What was he truly after?
"What is?"
The man himself asked it with perfect, shameless innocence.
"You, damn it. What the hell are you planning?"
"Who knows. Ah — looks like your loyal underlings have arrived at the entrance. I'll be somewhere with fewer people. Get out of here quickly. Drink a little blood and put yourself back together."
With that, Phantom swept out of the room, white coat flaring. Watching his back, Zein trembled with a defeat deeper than the one Juyda had dealt him. He hated this man more than the one who had destroyed him.
"Just you wait!"
Tetra Anax's response had to be faster than anyone else's. As the strongest clan that controlled information itself, their pride would never allow a slow reaction. And yet, in the matter of the Jinma Juyda, their response had — against their will — grown sluggish.
The reason was simple. The subordinate clans — whatever they liked to think of themselves — were refusing to obey Tetra Anax's control. Clans that had brought their own Jinma to Korea to serve as command towers were never going to listen to orders from Tetra Anax's mid-level officers.
But the moment Zein was shattered, control snapped back into place, and every vampire began cooperating with their directives. Everyone finally understood that if Juyda were left free to rampage, the vampires would take a fatal wound. The absurd part was this: they all chafed under Tetra Anax's dominion, and yet they all admitted that Tetra Anax was the single most effective instrument for controlling every vampire alive.
They only slipped the leash for emotional reasons, then returned to it when necessity demanded.
Looking at them, one could understand perfectly why, since ancient times, war with foreign powers had always been a useful tool for putting chaos back in order.
"Humans or vampires — why do they keep repeating the same mistakes? Honestly, the thought of having to lead these pathetic creatures and still come up with a plan for Juyda makes me feel pathetic myself."
Elliot clicked his tongue as he reviewed the data streaming in from the vampire operational units, each of them marked on GPS. He had already cut off the information at every necessary point. At the scenes of fires they manufactured convenient arsonists; through mental manipulation they diverted people's awareness elsewhere. Even if someone opened fire with guns or artillery right beside them, human minds would unconsciously turn away and ignore it. This was not a delicate psychic technique with complex conditions, so even humans of unusually sharp intuition would not easily notice.
"But this means we're pouring nearly the entire strength of Tetra Anax's Korean branch into this. The rest we'll have to leave to the vampire clans that specialize in raw force."
Elliot grumbled as he glanced at Sein in the driver's seat. The van was outfitted like a broadcast relay vehicle — they actually used a great deal of similar equipment — and in the driver's seat a vampire sat with his feet up on the wheel, blowing bubblegum.
"Plenty of them were gloating when Zein got wrecked. Let's offer our condolences to the poverty of their imaginations, now that they're finally realizing how serious this is."
"You realize we're the ones closer to death right now, right?"
Sein muttered, nursing a headache. These clans had only cooperated after resisting control for as long as they could. If the damage spread from here, every scrap of blame would fall on them. They would ignore orders until the last second, then after a little last-minute obedience mutter that cooperating with Tetra Anax had never once done them any good. Honestly, at this point he almost wanted to cheer for Juyda.
"Hyung. What's the plan?"
"For now… we select personnel from each clan, cut off Juyda's path of advance, and deploy units to eliminate him. The Oracles' mental domination should help, but the police have been grinding their teeth lately, so we'll need to fabricate a culprit even if it's fake… The real problem is Juyda. Ideally the Jinma themselves would step in and fight him, but that's probably impossible."
Jinma were creatures made entirely of pride. There was no chance they would listen to a subordinate of Tetra Anax rather than Tetra Anax itself. No — the Jinma would not move at all.
"What about the Jinma Phantom? He seems to have had quite a bit of contact with Juyda."
"We have no standing to charge a Jinma with a crime. And since our lord himself has chosen not to, it's probably nothing we need to worry about."
"You think so? From our lord's point of view our lives are trash. He'd probably be fine tossing us to Phantom as a snack."
"Don't say things like that so carelessly."
Elliot looked at his younger brother, but he felt no real desire to argue. Most vampires did not treasure their subordinates. There were cases of overprotectiveness like Phantom's, but Phantom was a special case.
For now, all they could do was carry out the mission they had been given.
"We'll just have to pray the execution units aren't wiped out."
Elliot put the radio headset back on. It was common knowledge that vampires who inherited Tetra Anax's blood were weak in direct combat. That was precisely why Tetra Anax had always wanted to create units equipped with modern weapons, modeled after human military forces.
And then — a grotesque message suddenly cut through the static.
"Master?"
To their shock, the voice was Tetra Anax's own.
"This is incredible!"
Sarhyuk analyzed the streams of information pouring through his headset and grinned from ear to ear. Today was truly the best day of his life. The night was going insane, vampires were swarming everywhere — and best of all, the most expensive vampires of all, the Jinma, had started fighting each other.
"Come on, let's move. Tetra Anax's execution units are on the move — this is going to be worth watching."
He took command of his men over the radio. Massive four-wheel-drive vehicles tore through the fog like cars in a rally race.
Juyda ran, driving his own two feet into the ground. Zein's blood had a scent so fierce that even from more than ten kilometers away he could still pick it out. Even if Zein used his binding force to suppress every trace of himself, the smell alone could not be erased.
"…"
But Zein was not the only thing gathering. It was always the same. Vampires. Those things that sowed a false immortality — their numbers never decreased, only grew. Like the plague, the pestilence simply continued to spread.
The plague had been eradicated. This disease called the vampire had never known eradication. Instead it killed antibodies and, from within its hosts, issued commands. Of course. If the price of the disease was immortality, there would always be many who wanted it. Whether that immortality was real or not, anyone who could push death a little further away would welcome it.
Not every vampire was monstrous, of course. Malignant vampires had no choice but to attack humans, but the others could scrape by on donated medical blood or the blood of lesser animals.
But the blood obtained through transfusion was already insufficient even for human medical use, and if they began killing people, that path led only to ruin. In the end, vampires lived as parasites on human society. Even under the most generous assumptions, the upper limit of what could be sustained was roughly one vampire per hundred thousand humans. And that was pure number-play at the absolute maximum; once regional and national conditions were applied, the allowable figure shrank further still.
Tetra Anax was no fool, and as the leader of the vampire clans they restricted the growth of vampire numbers. But vampires who did not age or die almost never decreased, while humans grew old and died and replaced themselves generation after generation with ease.
If control ever vanished, the disease called the vampire would fall upon people the way the plague once had.
Fwoooosh!
A long tongue of fire lashed out at Juyda while he was lost in thought. He snapped back to himself at once and swept darkness across it, smothering the flames. It was a flamethrower mixture — engine oil blended with kerosene and gasoline. But Juyda's darkness turned every bit of the attack aside.
When the darkness scattered… he could finally see what stood before him. An entire company of troops had sealed off the roadside, and a single Apache helicopter hung in the air above. The whole scene looked ready for urban warfare.
"My, my. To think a Jinma would wander the streets looking like a drowned rat. How irritating."
A sharp woman's voice cut through the roar of the helicopter. Almost certainly a female vampire. The moment her words ended, searchlights flared to life and pinned Juyda in their glare.
"…"
The darkness coiled around his body weakened for an instant. Unlike other vampires, Juyda carried the image of darkness itself, and powerful light stole a fraction of his strength.
Kakakakang!
Most of the bullets ricocheted off the heavy chains wrapped around his body. Rounds from 5.56mm rifles could not sever those thick links.