Nun Route? #5
With my shooting skills, hitting her should have been easy. That was what I thought as I pulled the trigger, but Secrem’s reaction speed was beyond anything I could have imagined. The instant the gun fired she shifted diagonally at near-supersonic speed, almost like blinking, dodging the bullet after she’d already seen it coming.
In that razor-thin moment I revised my plan. The second I aimed and fired, I predicted her escape route, swung the muzzle, and pulled the trigger again immediately.
BANG!
It landed! My bullet had punched straight through Secrem’s shoulder!
“An amusing little trick…?”
I’d expected a bigger reaction from the silver bullet buried in her flesh, but she simply sneered at me.
“But it ends now.”
Crimson waves exploded from Secrem’s eyes.
“Sisteeeeer!”
If I got hypnotized I was fucked. The moment that thought flashed through my mind I hurled myself forward. The red energy flying toward me collided and burst into a pure-white explosion on impact.
“Huh?”
A brilliant radiance filled the air.
“Do not worry about the hypnosis.”
The instant I heard the nun’s voice I understood. The buff she’d given me earlier must have included resistance to mental domination. But where the hell was her voice coming from?
Swish!
The voice had come from directly behind Secrem. At some point a nun had appeared, wielding a cross-shaped longsword whose blade glowed pure white, and was swinging it in a slash aimed at Secrem’s waist.
“Kuh!”
Secrem transformed her body into a swarm of bats to dodge. A terrible choice.
The nun’s eyes detonated with holy light as she thrust her open palm forward.
“Repent in hell!”
Fwoooosh!
Sacred flames erupted from her hand. The bats caught in the blaze burned white-hot and crumbled into ash.
“Kyaaaaaaaack!”
The few bats that survived streaked sideways and reformed into Secrem’s human shape.
I didn’t miss the opening. I snapped the trigger twice in quick succession.
Bang! Bang!
The silver bullets tore through her massive chest. In an instant she was a ruined mess, howling in agony.
“How dare you…! How dare these pathetic insects do this to me!”
“Shut your mouth, you giant mosquito! You’ll pay for every drop of blood you’ve stolen from innocent people!”
“You don’t even deserve a coffin! Hell itself will be your eternal tomb!”
The nun charged, holy sword raised. I reloaded at lightning speed while yanking a garlic pack from my coat. I’d already peeled half of it open for instant deployment.
Scatter!
I whipped the bag, flinging peeled cloves everywhere, then tore open the minced-garlic packet and hurled it like a grenade.
“This—this disgusting farce! I’ll kill you!”
The mangled Secrem extended her razor claws, frantically batting away the nun’s sword with one arm. The flying garlic must have irritated her, because she shot me a murderous glare.
“Nice! Keep her busy exactly like that!”
Up until today I had devised every inhumane method imaginable to take Secrem down. What I was about to unleash was my ultimate trump card.
I pulled out my canteen. The moment I unscrewed the cap, an overwhelming garlic stench rolled out. That’s right—this was concentrated garlic extract in liquid form. And inside it I had packed dozens of marble-sized miniature crosses.
Garlic plus crosses? For a vampire, it was literal hell.
“True Ancestor…! You die here!”
I kicked off the ground with a shout.
Clang!
Secrem and the nun were locked in savage combat. A gun was useless at this range, but the garlic extract didn’t care about friendly fire. It wouldn’t hurt us!
“Die!!! True Ancestor!!!!”
I swung the canteen with everything I had.
Splaaaaash!
The garlic extract sprayed out like magic. Countless tiny particles glittered inside the liquid—miniature crosses suspended in holy hell-juice.
“N-no!”
The instant Secrem let out that pitiful scream—
Sizzleeeee!
Both Secrem and the nun were drenched head to toe.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaack!”
“Ugh…!”
Smoke billowed as though acid had been poured on them. My sacred liquid was purifying the vampire where she stood.
“Yaaaaah!”
The nun screamed like a zealot and swung her holy blade. It carved through Secrem’s torso, then took a chunk out of her arm. It didn’t sever the limb completely, but dark-red blood gushed from the wounds.
Secrem’s face twisted into something demonic.
“All of you—dieeeee!”
She radiated crimson eye-light and bared her fangs. A bloody aura wrapped around her body, but—
“How’s this taste…!”
I had already drawn my Tokarev. Full-auto.
RATATATATATATA!
I emptied the magazine in a silver storm, then immediately started hurling fistfuls of peeled garlic like a madman.
“Die! Die, you bloodsucking bitch!”
“Kuh…!”
The shredded Secrem staggered backward. Her flesh was being sliced away in real time; she no longer looked remotely human.
I had exhausted every weapon I carried. Still, one final option remained.
The silver cross dagger the nun had given me. While sheathed it was simply a cross. Just showing it to a vampire should inflict critical damage.
I thrust the cross forward and chanted.
“Begone!”
I wasn’t actually spraying anything. This was my last resort. I simply shouted the exorcism chant while brandishing the cross like a lunatic.
“Begone!”
“Glurk…!”
The nun’s relentless holy barrage.
“Begone!”
Our combined assault finally drove Secrem to her knees.
“Yes!”
“We did it! At this rate we can finish the Red Woman—wait!”
The moment I thought victory was ours, a massive torrent of blood exploded out of Secrem!
KWAAAAAANG!
“Dear Lord! Is that true blood?!”
“True blood?!”
“Run! That’s no ordinary clone! That is essentially the True Ancestor herself! Not a blood puppet—a successor she personally gave birth to!”
Gave birth to what? I didn’t fully understand, but that towering pillar of blood looked overwhelmingly powerful!
“After everything I went through to reach this point…! You sword-obsessed half-wit! And you disgusting garlic bastard! I will kill every last one of you!”
The Secrem who stepped out of the blood was monstrous. Her clothes had been shredded away long ago. Her naked legs were now encased in carapace-like armor formed of blood. The same armor covered her arms—vicious gauntlets that looked like five scythes welded together. The crimson construct reached all the way to her shoulders. Behind her back stretched membranous wings. The sight instantly reminded me of the vampire angel I had seen before. The resemblance was uncanny…!
“Has she released her true power?!”
“Looks like it!”
“Then why didn’t she do it sooner?!”
“There must have been restrictions! She probably couldn’t reveal it unless she was on the verge of death! Either way, this is extremely dangerous…!”
I sprinted alongside the nun for dear life.
“What now?!”
“There’s a church nearby! If we can just retreat there—hup!”
At that exact moment the nun slammed into me with a shoulder tackle!
CRASH!
I went flying and rolled across the ground.
“Urk?! Hey!”
Was I being betrayed…? No.
Splat!
A blood spike had erupted from the ground and impaled the nun straight through the stomach, hoisting her into the air.
The nun had been hit!
“Sister!”
“Fuck…! Run, you idiot!”
Was I really supposed to abandon my soul partner, the nun, and flee?
“Ahaha. You think I’ll give you time to run?”
Wings spread wide, Secrem descended. She seized the spike-impaled nun in her monstrous grip. The habit tore; blood poured freely. Five scythe-like claws were ripping deep into her flesh.
“Kuh…!”
“What should I do with this half-pint? Kill her? No, that’s boring. Ah, I know. I’ll turn her into my kin. That sounds far more entertaining.”
“You fucking Satan bat whore…!”
“You think I’ll let you kill yourself?”
Clatter!
Blood chains shot out and bound the nun. Then Secrem hurled her with all her strength toward the far side of the battlefield. The nun flew helplessly through the air as chains from every direction slammed into her, wrapping tighter and tighter until she was completely encased in a blood cocoon.
“Now it’s just the two of us, yes?”
Secrem walked slowly toward me.
Running was… impossible.
I raised the cross.
“Ahaha, you really think that pathetic little cross will save you?”
“You won’t know until you test it.”
“What, are you going to try vomiting on me again? It was disgusting, but amusing. The ability to puke at will—how impressive.”
Secrem approached, mocking me the entire way. All I had left was the cross and the holy liquid still inside my stomach.
“Shall I wait a little, then? Until it’s fully digested. In a few minutes your precious weapon will be nothing but stomach acid. Hehe.”
“You bitch… are you trying to hand me despair?”
“Isn’t that more fun? Go on—feel your garlic melting away.”
She was right. The garlic was digesting. Once it passed through my stomach and into the duodenum I would lose the ability to use my true exorcism chant.
The nun was sealed inside that blood cocoon. There was no way the Bureau would send help in the middle of their own war. Chief Lee Do-hyeong might track us, but if he showed up I’d be captured or killed too.
Which left only one option.
Fortunately the nun was already sealed away.
…Time to bring it out.
The Hospital Director’s Grimoire!
Surgical Anomaly Magic
A forbidden tome of spells that twists flesh and reality itself.
The source of true power.
Slide.
I pulled the grimoire from my inventory.
“Hm? Where did that book suddenly—You!”
Secrem, who had been staring in confusion, suddenly sensed something. Her red eyes flared as she tried to hypnotize me.
“What is that book? Show it to me right—huh?”
The moment her hypnosis touched me, a strange sensation washed over my body. I had opened the book myself, obeying her command to show it.
The next instant—
“Eh?”
Secrem froze.
“Hii, hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick?!”
She screamed and scrambled backward in terror.
“What is that?! What is that?! What the hell is this?! Aaaaaaaaagh!”