Blood Arts (3)
Ah, fuck...
Keeping my poker face intact, I swept my gaze across the vampires surrounding us on every side. The Immovable Barrier had done its job magnificently, stopping every last one of the attacks crashing down on us. This had been a 9-star skill even in the game — an absolute defense. There was no way something of this caliber was getting punched through by the likes of this.
But that was as far as it went. All I could do in this situation was stand still and defend, or run my mouth with the same kind of bluff I'd just pulled. It had landed, at least a little — the vampires had locked up, unable to do a thing.
Now what?
If this turned into a real fight, we were the ones who'd lose. I was too busy protecting my own body to even use Instant Kill, and they had a powerhouse on Ashel's level plus far greater numbers. This was their home turf besides — they could keep replenishing their forces indefinitely. Even if Ashel somehow brought down the War Chief, it was a fight that had no answer from the start.
Damn it. I really should have thought more carefully before deciding to come to this forest.
"...Sir."
A flustered voice came from beside me, and I turned. Ashel had ended up almost nestled in my arms, her eyes darting around with nowhere to look. I started, then let go of her shoulder. I'd been so preoccupied I'd forgotten she was there.
Ashel surveyed the devastated ground around us with a slightly dazed expression. Aside from that brief use against the Orc King, I had never deployed the Immovable Barrier in front of her.
I looked back at the War Chief.
"Want to try again?"
Talking was all I had, so I'd have to talk my way out of this somehow. He couldn't manage an answer — he just glared at me. Unlike a moment ago, there was a tightness of nerves in those eyes now.
"Before we even get to shameless, you people are genuinely fools."
"..."
"You don't even know who I am. You don't even know how vast the gap in power is. And you just attack? You should count yourselves lucky I bear you no hostility. Otherwise, your entire tribe would have been wiped out today."
"...Human. Who the hell are you?"
He asked it with a look of barely contained fury. It was the conversational flow I'd been aiming for, so I opened my mouth to answer at once. And that was the moment.
"...?"
A presence came hurtling in from the distance at a terrifying speed, catching on my senses.
FWOOOOSH!
A blood-red sphere came tearing through the trees, painting a long, stretching trail behind it. The vampires startled, whipping around to stare. The sphere halted a short distance in front of where I stood, then molded itself into human form, and a woman took shape. She pulled on the robe that had been fastened to the sphere and swept her disheveled hair back from her face.
"...Sister!"
The War Chief shouted it as if he'd seen a ghost. That cry told me exactly who she was.
The chieftain?
Aklina, chieftain of the Elrod Forest tribe. What I'd just witnessed was her unique Blood Art — transforming her physical body into blood itself. First the War Chief, and now the chieftain herself had shown up.
"You're too close, Sister! He's a dangerous human — please fall back at once!"
She took one look at the wreckage around us, then her eyes met mine.
"I heard there was a human who came here after rescuing our young kin... Explain this situation, Calderburn."
The War Chief flinched at the chill in her voice.
"You told them not to even report to me, brought this many warriors with you, and attacked these people?"
Neither the War Chief nor the other vampires could say a word. The chieftain let out a small sigh and turned her gaze toward me. Our eyes met.
"I am Aklina, the chieftain."
"..."
"On behalf of the tribe, I sincerely apologize for our people's misconduct. We haven't a single word in our defense."
I allowed myself a measure of relief. Judging by her manner, she had no intention of attacking any further. Unlike the War Chief, whose hostility and wariness toward other races had been especially fierce even in the game, the chieftain had a relatively mild temperament — befitting the head of a peaceful tribe.
That said, I still found it galling that they'd attacked first, so I asked.
"If it had been some ordinary human who'd come to this forest instead of me, they'd already be dead. Were you planning to offer that same apology to a cold corpse?"
The chieftain sighed once more.
"As you well know, the world's opinion of vampires is exceedingly poor. This is the only place we can live in peace, and so we cannot help but be extremely sensitive about other races setting foot in our home. I would ask that you understand our circumstances, at least a little."
I clicked my tongue and left it at that. I'd come this far — I still had to state why I'd sought out this forest. But first...
I hadn't particularly planned on saying it. It would only put them further on guard. But given how things had gone, I figured I ought to take out some insurance — even if it raised their wariness — so that nothing like this collision would happen again. The matter I was about to raise, the Blood Core, was an extraordinarily sensitive issue for them, one that cut straight to the fate of the tribe.
At my words, the vampires flinched as one, the chieftain and the War Chief included. However cut off from the world they were, there was no way they wouldn't know the stature a Lord held in Calderic — or the strength that came with it.
"L-Lord...?"
The composed face the chieftain had maintained until now crumbled in an instant. She asked in a faintly trembling voice,
"...As far as I know, the Seventh Lord is a beastkin, not a human."
She was talking about the previous Seventh Lord. Apparently she didn't even know that he had died, that the Seventh Lord's seat had sat empty, and that I had claimed it only recently. News of the outside world would barely reach this forest at all.
"The previous Seventh Lord is dead. And I became the new Lord."
The chieftain could only let out a low, wordless sound. A Lord had shown up in the forest out of nowhere — she had to be feeling an enormous sense of crisis. I cut straight to the point.
"I have something I'd like to discuss. Will you hear it?"
"...Discuss?"
"I came to this forest in part to bring back the vampire sisters from earlier — but the truth is I have another matter of business. It concerns the Blood Core in your tribe's possession."
The vampires stared at me in even greater shock than before. They never would have expected the word Blood Core to come from the mouth of an outsider who had appeared in the forest out of nowhere.
"You... How exactly do you know about the Blood Core?"
The chieftain, having collected herself, now glared at me with hostility in her eyes.
The Blood Core. It was the single greatest millstone currently hanging around the neck of the Elrod Forest vampire tribe. I couldn't recall every detail of the backstory, but I had the gist of it.
The ancestor, Gaskalid.
In the distant past — before the present tribe had even settled in Elrod Forest — there had been an extraordinarily powerful vampire among their ancestors. Unlike the peaceful descendants of today, he had been a wicked, savage vampire. Like the Sixth Lord, the Tyrant Lord.
He was defeated by some nameless archmage, suffered a mortal wound, and eventually died when his life ran out.
Death is no different for a vampire than for any other living thing. Bone and flesh rot, and the body returns to nature. But even in the moment of dying, he could not let go of his attachment to life, and he tried to preserve his own existence. What that produced was the Blood Core.
A stone in which Gaskalid's soul and Blood Arts lay dormant.
How that was even possible was something an elder vampire had explained at some length in the game, but I couldn't remember it well. It was lore, anyway — not the important part. What mattered was that his descendants had been left holding that wicked stone, a second self of Gaskalid's in all but name.
Along with his dying words — that the day Gaskalid revived would be the day the tribe fell — they had performed a ritual to suppress the Blood Core's power, generation after generation, for a very long time.
The problem was the ritual's aftermath. The chieftain's bloodline, who had inherited Gaskalid's blood, offered their own blood to calm the Core's power. And it was not simply a matter of offering blood — it was a rite that gnawed away at the participant's life force and mind. In short, the chieftains of Elrod Forest were fated to die young, the more they performed the ritual.
Even now they could barely maintain the seal, so they couldn't move it elsewhere — and simply leaving it behind and abandoning the forest would have been the height of irresponsibility. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the tribes of Elrod Forest had been left holding that monstrosity called the Blood Core, wringing the lives from their chieftains, generation after generation.
And solving the problem of that Blood Core was precisely why I had come to Elrod Forest. More precisely, my real objective was the vampire Blood Arts I could obtain in the process of solving it.
"I know your ancestor, Gaskalid."
We were ready to actually talk now, so it was time to spin the story properly. The chieftain, who had been glaring at me, went round-eyed at that.
"What did you just...?"
"That's why I know about the Blood Core — that curse of an object your ancestor left you."
I spun the story I'd prepared in my head without a hitch.
"Halion, who was chieftain at the time, personally sealed Gaskalid's Blood Core. Did you know that?"
"..."
"As chieftain, you'd have the records of previous generations, so of course you know. I had a connection with him, and he entrusted me with a request. That when the time came, I would completely destroy the Blood Core. So that future descendants would not have to suffer any longer."
"H-hold on."
Her expression had been growing more and more confused, and she cut me off.
"So you're saying... you're someone from hundreds of years ago, from when our ancestors were still alive?"
"That's right."
Ashel turned to look at me, a little startled herself. It was a lie, of course — but it wouldn't have been implausible even if it were true. As the Lords themselves made clear, for those in this world who had surpassed mortal limits, a physical lifespan of several centuries was the baseline.
I went on with a somewhat solemn expression.
"I came here to keep that request. So take me to where the Blood Core is."
It would sound completely out of nowhere — but they wouldn't be able to not believe it. How else would an outsider know about the Blood Core and their own ancestor? I waited for the chieftain's answer. A complicated look sat on her face, as if she were wrestling with herself, and then she bowed her head.
"I am sorry, but that will not be necessary."
...Huh?
"This is our tribe's problem. I cannot leave the matter of the Blood Core to an outsider based on a few words. If everything you have said is true, then I apologize — but if you would show us consideration, please leave."
What came back was a refusal as sharp as a blade. I hadn't expected her to shut me down that cleanly, and I was a little thrown.
"S-Sister. We should hear him out a little more..."
Ironically, it was the War Chief — who had harbored even more hostility toward me — who panicked and tried to stop her.
"Then I will take my leave."
Even so, she offered me another bow and turned away, her decision firm. I watched her back a little hollowly, then opened my mouth again. There was no way I was giving up after coming this far.
"Then I'll have to go in by force."
At my words, her footsteps halted. She turned back to look at me, her face gone stiff.
"This has nothing to do with your permission, in fact. This is a pact I made with your ancestor, and it will be kept."
"...Even after I just told you it was all right?"
I said it shamelessly, my voice cold.