Chapter 8
'So the wolf was right. He’s no ordinary bat bastard.'
Swish—
Banua, king of the southern snakes and a gigantic white serpent, watched wolves and snakes topple in droves every time the white-haired vampire swung his sword, and came to the same conclusion.
He had already heard from Penrix, the Wolf King, that the two bats were coming, and he also knew that one of them was unusually strong.
So Banua had spread a formation across the entire cave, one designed to interfere with the vampires’ primary power—blood—and waited for Penrix and the bats to arrive.
In the Netherworld, the strongest individual creatures, without question, were vampires.
But the reason they were so powerful was their blood, a unique ability that made them infuriatingly difficult to deal with.
If you simply kept them from using blood, vampires were no different from humans who happened to be strong and fast.
That was because those bastards, burdened by blood-related powers passed down from ancient times, couldn’t even use mana-based magic.
“Is the preparation complete?”
“It is. Even if he’s a Vampire Lord, he’s nothing special if he can’t use blood.”
Grrr...
At Banua’s answer, Penrix rumbled low in satisfaction.
It was impressive enough that, relying only on physical strength and swordsmanship, he had already cut down dozens of wolves and snakes, but that was as far as it went.
The crimson vampire who had been making such a name for himself had already been driven all the way back to the deepest part of the cave.
“With this, the heart of the Netherworld...”
“...Yes. You can have the rest. Just hand over the vampire manor to us.”
“Agreed.”
Hiss—
Banua flicked his tongue, pleased with the deal.
At the same time, his eyes flashed, and his gaze fixed on the Vampire Lord who was still swinging his sword as if dancing.
It was the beginning of Banua’s sorcery, the power of the king of snakes.
A sorcery that, once eye contact was made, would freeze the body where it stood.
It was an ancient spell that only Banua among all the snakes could use.
A sorcery said to have been wielded by the snakes’ ancestor, Basilisk, a relic of the ancient age.
It required a long preparation time to use, but in a situation like this, that was hardly a difficult condition.
The power grows several times stronger in a snake’s lair, where the formation has been drawn.
Such was the vow bound to Banua’s sorcery.
“Kyaaaak—!”
Full of confidence, Banua let out a great howl and stared at the Vampire Lord with his silver hair streaming and his sword raised.
The roar of Banua’s voice was so massive it seemed the cave itself might split, and everyone inside turned toward him without thinking.
As animals, they couldn’t help it; when a loud sound rang out, their eyes naturally went to it.
Flash—
Got him.
Meeting the Vampire Lord’s eyes—those were ordinary white eyes, not the red ones the rumors had described—Banua thought so.
It was over.
Awooo—!
Seeing the Vampire Lord stop moving as if frozen in place the instant he met Banua’s eyes, Penrix trembled with excitement and howled from the side.
Then he charged first at the Vampire Lord, who had come to a dead stop in the middle of a sword swing.
As if showing everyone that he alone would take that bastard’s life.
Every muscle in Penrix’s forepaw tightened, and he leapt high enough that his back nearly brushed the cave ceiling.
The Wolf King’s sharp claws aimed precisely for the Vampire Lord’s throat.
*
My body feels unbelievably light.
Swish— swish—
Keeeeeeen!
Once, in a swordsmanship manual I had read long ago, I had come across a line like this:
At the true edge of the sword, no strength is needed.
As long as you have the strength to hold the blade, nothing else matters.
Swishhh—
When I swung my sword, three or four snake heads flew into the air and blood sprayed outward.
Swish—
Then, with a follow-through as fluid as flowing water, a wolf’s body was split in half and blood burst skyward.
Was it because of the omnipotence that had been wrapping itself around my body since a little while ago?
Even to my own eyes, my swordsmanship was different from usual.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure it could even be called swordsmanship anymore; my stance was broken, and my cuts had no rhythm or pattern to them.
There was no trace of the Bernice-style swordsmanship that had become ingrained in my body by habit.
Ignoring things like form or stance, I simply searched for the optimal path to cut down the enemy and swung my sword freely and irregularly.
Ahh.
Swish— swish—
Even to me, there was nothing wasteful in my movements.
Every step, every movement of muscle in my arm, even the way my gaze shifted—everything was an action with a clear purpose.
One purpose only: to cut down the enemies rushing toward me.
Thump— thump—
So this is the end of the sword.
Blue sword energy didn’t burst from the tip of my blade the way it had when I was the captain of the knights, but whether it existed or not didn’t matter in the slightest now.
Even without sword energy to make the cut absurdly sharper, wolves and snakes were being sliced apart in a single stroke.
Thump— thump—
My heart pounded uncontrollably fast.
The knight’s instinct that had told me I had to take up the sword from a little while ago—it had all been because of this.
This newly awakened body of the Vampire Lord.
Was it because this body had risen so far beyond human limits?
Or was it because I had experienced death and come back from it?
I could instinctively feel that I had reached a realm that could rightly be called the end of the sword.
I was, in a word, omnipotent.
“Kyaaaak—!”
Just as I was drunken on the sword, an annoying sound that broke my concentration came from somewhere.
It was the hateful cry of a snake.
The moment I reflexively turned toward the sound, what I saw was the white snake Banua’s glittering eyes.
Eyes as bright and yellow as Penrix’s.
Hmm?
And the next instant, I felt something was wrong.
My body, which had only moments ago moved as smoothly as water flowing downhill, was now rigid and stiff, as if some invisible force had blocked it.
It was a little different from the time I had lost myself to the bloodlust and gone on a rampage.
My mind was perfectly clear, and I still had control of my body—but it wouldn’t move.
Some cheap trick, huh.
Awooo—!
The moment I realized my body wasn’t moving properly, another figure appeared in Banua’s eyes.
Penrix, the white-furred wolf, was leaping toward me, exhilarated as if he’d seized his chance.
With a fierce howl, he flew at me with his forepaw outstretched.
Thump— thump—
This was undoubtedly a crisis, a life-or-death moment, and yet for some reason I didn’t feel any sense of danger.
My body couldn’t move, but the omnipotence filling it hadn’t disappeared.
The feeling I’d had when I first stepped into the cave—that I couldn’t possibly lose to anyone—was still there, too.
Thump— thump—
I wasn’t sure if it was what I wanted or not.
But one image rose in my mind.
My heart beating slowly, and blood spreading from it to every corner of my body.
Thick, writhing true blood.
Thump.
That’s it.
It was the same feeling I had caught at the manor earlier, when I fought Penrix.
The sensation that something was stirring inside my body, something I could control however I pleased.
This was how it was done.
Thud-thud-thud—
Hot true blood wrapped around my entire body and ultimately gathered in my right hand.
The body that had been stiff as if pinned down by something started moving again as though nothing had happened at all.
And then I swung my sword.
Toward Penrix, who was flying at me through the air.
Swish—!
“Kyaaaang!”
Thud-thud-thud—
A simple overhead strike that anyone could make the instant they took a sword into their hand.
With one plain, easy motion, a long wound was carved into the belly of the Wolf King, Penrix.
Though the distance between us was as great as the height of a fully grown fir tree, Penrix had definitely been cut.
Another wolf might have been split cleanly in two, but Penrix was, as expected of the Wolf King, made of much tougher stuff around the belly.
Struck red across the stomach, he crashed straight down to the floor.
“Ah.”
I looked away from Penrix as he fell helplessly to the ground with a fatal wound, then lowered my gaze to the sword in my right hand.
Thump— thump—
Just moments ago, what I’d held in my hand had been a sharp, gray blade.
But what I was holding now was no gray sword.
From the hilt to the blade and all the way to the tip, it had been dyed red with blood.
No—it wasn’t merely dyed red.
The sword in my hand was wrapped in blood.
It was, in every sense, a Blood Sword.
“Haaah... haaaah...”
Was it because I was holding the sword?
Even with the sweet scent of blood coming from Penrix’s body, and the smell of blood hanging throughout the cave, I could still hold onto my reason to a degree.
Thump— thump—
But once I caught the sweet fragrance of blood, I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding with excitement.
I probably wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
“H-how...!”
In the cave, where silence had fallen after Penrix went down, someone’s horrified voice rang out.
It was Banua’s voice—the same Banua who had been staring at me with those flashing eyes.
Banua looked at me in disbelief, his tongue flicking rapidly.
Not the leisurely tongue-flicking from before, as if he were sizing up prey.
No, this was the tongue flicking of someone so shaken he couldn’t even control himself.
“Cheap tricks won’t work.”
“S-stop him!”
Along with Banua’s shout, dozens of snakes bared their fangs and flew at me.
The panic and desperation in Banua’s movements were unmistakable.
Shhhhk—
And all dozens of those snakes were cut in half with a single swing of my sword.
This time, no blood even sprayed like before.
The snakes sliced by my Blood Sword had their blood stolen the instant they brushed against the blade.
At the same time, my expression twisted of its own accord.
This taste is awful.
The fishy taste of the snakes’ blood seemed to linger right on my tongue.
It was definitely unpleasant.
“I wonder how your blood tastes.”
“H-hiiik! Someone protect me!”
Hiss—!
“You wolves! Hurry up too! Protect meee!”
With Penrix, their king, fallen, Banua also shouted at the wolves, who were flustered and at a loss.
The wolves, still unable to find their bearings, snapped back to attention at Banua’s voice and one by one moved to block my way.
Grrr... hiss—
Even after all I had cut down, dozens of wolves and snakes still remained.
“It’s all pointless.”
I swung my sword at the beasts blocking my path, telling them to get out of the way.
This time, I put a little more force into it.
BOOM—
With a sound like the cave floor itself was being gouged open, a path was carved out before me.
A path lined with the skins of wolves and snakes, every last drop of blood stripped from them.
“H-hiiiiiik!”
Slither—
I saw a snake with snow-white scales, bright enough to illuminate the cave, desperately crawling toward the exit.
Thump— thump—
Damn it.
Catching one fleeing snake that had lost its will to fight would be no great matter, but the real problem lay elsewhere.
Just as when I had fought Penrix earlier, I now had to fight myself.
So this isn’t a power I can use for long.
Maybe it was because I’d learned to wield blood, or maybe because I was holding a sword, but the blind compulsion toward blood was definitely much weaker than before.
And then a new problem had appeared.
Earlier, the issue had been the craving for blood I sensed outside me, the temptation that tried to lure me in. But now the problem was inside.
The true blood spreading out from my heart felt as though it might devour me whole.
The more I used the power, the more I could feel the thick, red blood flowing through my body consuming me in real time.
“Finish this. Quickly.”
I sprang toward Banua’s tail as he fled in haste.