Frenzy (2)
01.
The Message Orb.
That great sphere of a device ranked among the most magnificent inventions in human history, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Teleportation Hub itself. One could fairly say that the entire history of human magical engineering was divided into the ages before and after the Message Orb's creation.
…By channeling one's own mana into a Message Orb, the device used that power to forge a connection with another Message Orb somewhere far away. Through that link, people could speak with one another in vivid, real-time conversation across any distance.
Of course, each use consumed no small amount of mana, so conversations could never last long — but the mere fact that something had finally replaced letters and the carrier pigeons that delivered them was nothing short of revolutionary.
"Why the hell hasn't anyone made contact…."
…And Karseron, the young lord of Elmaile, could do nothing but sit in his chambers and stare at that Message Orb in restless agitation. Cold sweat beaded on his brow, and a mounting dread kept clawing at his chest.
"Surely nothing has gone wrong…?"
The people he was waiting to hear from were none other than Barbas and his subjugation force — the party that had set out to destroy the Progenitor Vampire. More than twelve hours had already passed since their last contact, and the Message Orb had not stirred once. Even when he tried reaching out first, nothing came back in reply.
"Barbas… you said you would contact me the moment you claimed victory…."
Barbas, the veteran mercenary leading the subjugation force, had spoken with absolute confidence — he would crush the vampire and then report back. But through all those long hours the Message Orb had remained silent, and with every passing moment Karseron grew more and more unnerved.
"The fighting's probably just intense. Relax."
It was Derin who tried to soothe him — his childhood friend, and a former member of the now-annihilated dungeon-clearing party known as Red Moon.
"Depending on a monster's rank, a subjugation can take as long as three days. Let's just wait a little longer."
Depending on the grade of the target, a hunt could stretch out for three full days. And this time the enemy was a legendary vampire out of myth — even if it took twice that long, it wouldn't be strange at all.
"…All right."
Karseron reluctantly accepted her words. It wasn't so much that her reasoning had convinced him as that his faith in the subjugation force he had assembled — at the cost of twenty gold coins per head — still outweighed his fear.
…Ninety top-tier adventurers, including priests, and a hundred veteran mercenaries. An unprecedented force of the absolute strongest. And leading them was Barbas himself, a veteran among veterans who had once served as an imperial knight. Surely they would finish the work their ancestors had left incomplete.
"M-My lord! It's an emergency!"
"Hm?"
…But as if determined to shatter that very faith, a frantic voice came shouting from outside his door.
"Urgent report! Please open the door at once!"
Bang, bang, bang.
Whoever it was must have been in a truly desperate hurry — shouting alone wasn't enough; they were hammering on the door of the lord's private chambers without the slightest restraint.
"…Open it."
Karseron nodded to his secretary, who unlatched the door. A soldier in full plate armor came bursting inside.
"M-My lord, it's an emergency…."
The soldier was soaked through with sweat. Whether he had run the entire way or not, his chest heaved violently with every ragged breath.
"W-What is it?"
Sensing something was terribly wrong, Karseron shifted in his seat and questioned the man. Beside him, Derin's expression tightened with the same tension.
…And the news that followed was the worst imaginable.
"…A m-monster believed to be the Progenitor Vampire has invaded the territory."
"WHAAAAAAT?!"
Karseron shot to his feet with a shriek that could have belonged to some ancient wyvern. Veins standing out rigid along his neck, he seized the soldier by the collar.
"What do you mean?! Why on earth would the Progenitor Vampire come to our territory?! Are you absolutely certain of what you saw?!"
"I-I don't know for sure, but…."
The soldier turned his head, desperately trying to avoid the furious gaze of Elmaile's highest authority. Terror poured from every word he spoke.
"…A young girl vampire with ash-gray hair. She matched the description of the Progenitor Vampire you gave us earlier — perfectly."
"Ash-gray hair…."
"M-Moreover, dozens of adventurers and soldiers have already died by her hand. Looking at that overwhelming power… there's nothing else she could be but the Progenitor Vampire."
"M-My head…."
A sudden wave of dizziness dropped Karseron back into his seat. Beside him, Derin had gone completely rigid, frozen solid. She murmured like a child babbling nonsense.
"I-It's her. It has to be. The Progenitor Vampire…."
Derin knew it by pure instinct. An ash-haired vampire. A legendary monster who killed people with ancient magic that required no chant. A being so powerful that even a soldier had reached for the words "overwhelming power." The vampire who had entered the city could only be the Progenitor Vampire.
"Th-Then what about Barbas…? What happened to Barbas…?"
…Karseron muttered into empty air.
If the vampire who should have been quietly slain in the dungeon had come here instead… did that mean Barbas had failed? That force of a hundred and ninety brave fighters? A company strong enough to rival a nation's army?
Was that why the Message Orb had gone silent?
"Ha… haha…."
A hollow laugh escaped him. He couldn't believe what he was being told. Just how powerful was this vampire, that she had torn through Barbas's subjugation force right after annihilating Red Moon?
"…So what are they doing right now? Enjoying a bloodbath?"
Karseron asked the soldier in a bleak voice. In his mind, the territory was already burning — trampled by undead, mountains of corpses piling high.
But the soldier shook his head.
"N-No, my lord. Rather than slaughtering people indiscriminately out of spite… they seemed to have a specific purpose."
"A specific purpose?"
"Yes. The Progenitor Vampire and two undead attendants — three of them in total — entered the territory. They're currently operating as two separate groups."
"They're splitting up?"
Karseron's eyes went wide. If they had simply gone on a rampage, at least he would have known what the vampire wanted. But splitting their numbers and acting independently… he couldn't even begin to guess what they were after in his territory, or what scheme they were hatching.
…The soldier continued his report.
"However, their destinations at least were perfectly clear."
"Destinations?"
"Yes. The Progenitor Vampire and an undead who appears to be a maid are heading for the library. The undead who looks like a butler has seized the Teleportation Hub."
"The Hub?!"
Karseron's face drained of all color. The moment he heard that the vampire had taken the Hub, he understood exactly what the monster intended.
She's going for the capital!
…She wasn't going to make Elmaile the stage for her vengeful massacre. She was going to take it to the capital — the most densely populated city in the kingdom. Traveling on foot would take far too long, so she had seized the Hub in his territory to use it for herself.
Even if her destination wasn't necessarily the capital, the Progenitor Vampire occupying a Teleportation Hub was a full-blown emergency. It meant that worst of all calamities could appear anywhere in the kingdom at any moment.
"…We have to stop them. Immediately."
Karseron rose from his seat with resolve burning in his eyes. He had no idea whether he could even stand against her — but if it came to it, he would smash the Hub to pieces before he let her use it.
…And according to the soldier's report, mercifully, the Progenitor Vampire herself was currently heading for the library rather than the Hub. That meant the Hub was being held by the undead butler alone — a force that could be overwhelmed and reclaimed with relatively few troops.
Karseron issued his orders to the soldier.
"Split the forces in two. I will take Elmaile's regular army to the library and buy as much time as possible against the vampire. Meanwhile, send the city's adventurers to the Hub — have them subdue the butler and destroy it."
He didn't know what she was searching for in the library, but if the Progenitor Vampire returned mid-battle while they were trying to retake the Hub from the butler, everything would fall apart.
So Karseron himself would stake his life on stalling her, while the city's adventurers dealt with the butler.
And those adventurers would need a commander of their own.
"Right."
…After a moment's thought, Karseron stretched out a finger and pointed straight at Derin beside him.
"Derin."
"Y-Yeah?"
"You're in charge. Lead the adventurers, defeat the butler, and retake the Hub."
"…What?"
At her childhood friend's sudden appointment of her as commander, Derin's face went stiff.
What the hell is this bastard even saying…?
Derin had already tasted the vampire's strength firsthand. She wanted nothing more to do with the vampire — or anything connected to her. She had been waiting for the right moment to talk Karseron out of charging off to face the vampire himself. And now he was naming her the leader of the adventurers? To Derin, it sounded like nothing less than an order to command a suicide squad.
She waved her hands frantically, refusing the request.
"I-I-I can't. I'm not cut out for that, and my body still hasn't recovered from the exhaustion…."
"Doesn't matter."
"What?"
But Karseron cut her refusal short with ruthless efficiency. He was already preparing to leave the room with the soldier, and he left her with a single parting line.
"I'm entrusting this to you because it's you. The choice is yours."
"Then I'll just handle it some other wa—"
"But if you refuse this offer, then when the Hub falls and the vampire reaches the kingdom… that will all be on your head."
"Excuse me? Why would that be my fau—"
"Because as an S-class adventurer of Elmaile, you would have shirked a duty assigned by your lord. Understand that you are the only person I can trust with this. Please, my friend. I'm begging you."
"…."
Karseron roughly threw on his armor, left her with a plea so desperate she couldn't easily refuse it, and bolted from the room. Now, in that vast lord's chamber, Derin was alone.
"…Shit."
She let out a long sigh.
02.
"— Over there! It's the Progenitor Vampire!"
"— Stop her somehow!"
"…Out of my way."
Like moths diving into flame, soldiers charged me with every step I took. And with every step, I swept my hand and severed their necks in a single stroke.
"— Ghk!"
"— Urgh!"
Dozens of soldiers and adventurers threw themselves at us along the road to the library. Every last one of them left nothing but a dying gasp before crumpling to the ground. I looked down at their corpses with contemptuous eyes.
"Why…?"
Even after watching their comrades die so pointlessly right in front of them, why did they keep coming? If they had simply stepped aside, they would have lived. I couldn't understand the convictions they clung to — their so-called justice.
Or was this city so precious to them that they would throw their lives away without a second thought?
"Master! The library!"
"Right."
Cutting down enemy after enemy as we walked and walked, we finally arrived at the library in the heart of the city. All that remained was to thoroughly search the place for the information we needed, then take the Teleportation Hub that Alfred would have secured and head for the capital.
"Let's go in. There's a lot to look for."
"Yes! I'll help as much as I can!"
Tina and I started toward the library entrance. But the four shadows already cast across that doorway had no intention of letting us pass cleanly.
"— Whoa, a real vampire?"
"— Ash-gray hair? Is she actually the Progenitor Vampire?"
"…."
At the unfamiliar voices, I looked up. Four men and women had taken up a solid blockade across the library entrance. Every one of them was armed to the teeth — nothing about them looked friendly.
"— We came here for missionary work and look what we found. If we bring her in, Great Saintess Marina will be thrilled."
"— I thought they seemed to be heading for the library. Turns out I was right."
"Those people…."
I studied them carefully. Their armor was nothing like what the adventurers or ordinary soldiers wore. All four were clad head to toe in pure white plate, and on each breastplate was engraved the emblem of the Earth-and-Heaven Goddess Astira — a rose wreathed in sunlight. Every one of them also wore a necklace or earring bearing the same design.
"How can the design still be identical after a thousand years…?"
That armor was far too familiar. These were holy knights of the theocratic nation of Serion.
…They leveled their weapons at me and shouted.
"— You there, vampire. That's far enough."
"— We are holy knights of Serion's Bless Knights. Your rampage ends here."
Having announced their affiliation, the holy knights looked down at me with confident smiles. A few of them openly sneered.
"— We are S-class holy knights personally blessed by Lady Astira herself."
"— No matter that you're the thousand-year-old Progenitor Vampire, at your core you're still just a monster. You will never defeat the greatest holy knights alive."
"— Surrender quietly now and we'll take you prisoner without a fuss."
"…You talk too much."
I sighed at the endless parade of ignorant fools. Then I barked at them, short and sharp.
"Get lost."
"— …Hey, monster. If you don't want a one-way ticket to hell, you'd better not curse at the priests of Lady Astira."
"— Vampire bitch. Just because you look almost human doesn't mean we'll go easy on you."
I didn't know exactly what this "goddess's blessing" of theirs was supposed to be, but given how overflowing with confidence they were, it seemed to be some special privilege that not just anyone received in this era a thousand years later. Under different circumstances I might have wanted to test what it actually did — but right now, I didn't have that kind of leisure.
"— Surrender and submit to binding this instan— …GAAAAAH!!"
"For the love of everything, shut up and get lost."
I thrust my hand forward and clenched my fist. The head of one of the holy knights mid-rant exploded. Brain matter and blood sprayed from the ruin of his skull, painting his comrades' pure white armor a vivid red.
"— B-Benjamin…?"
"— His head… just vanished…?"
The remaining holy knights stared down in shock at the corpse of their comrade, whose head had burst without the slightest warning. Then their gazes shifted from the body to me.
"— D-Did you just…?"
"— Instant-death magic at range? Without a chant?"
"…."
NPC magic required chanting. Player skills did not. What kind of idiotic game company would design a system where you had to type out an entire chant on a keyboard just to use a skill?
There was one minor drawback — you still had to speak the skill's name, even if only under your breath — but even so, it was an enormous advantage over the NPCs of this world.
"— Y-You damn monster bitch… how dare you do that to Benjamin!!"
And then one of the holy knights, unable to contain his rage, raised his sword high and charged me.
"— PREPARE YOURSEEEEEELF!!"
His silver-plated blade caught the moonlight and flashed. The force behind it was everything they had boasted — enough to cleave any monster clean in two.
"……Human. Know your place."
"— Ghk…!!"
…But his neck was cleanly severed by Tina's greatsword before it ever reached me. The orange-haired man's head, eyes still wide open, rolled across the ground.
"— Wh…?"
"— Donovan…?"
The faces of the remaining holy knights went rigid.