Corridor of Sacred Blood (Part 2)
My spatial awareness placed the guards roughly twenty meters away, standing at the far end of the underground dungeon right in front of the stairwell.
There were two of them. One was dozing off while the other leaned against the wall, idly puffing on a cigarette.
Clack. Clack.
Moving as quietly as possible, I slipped off everyone's handcuffs. Standing there stripped of our usual gear felt strangely hollow.
"Our equipment is at the far end of the hallway," Minjae whispered.
"Down the hall? Well, at least it didn't vanish into thin air," Uncle remarked.
Unlike most hunters, we didn't lug around massive rucksacks, so our gear wasn't particularly bulky to begin with—just our standard armor and weapons.
"Honestly, even if it had disappeared, it wouldn't have been a disaster. Just a bit inconvenient," I noted.
"True enough."
Under ordinary circumstances, a hunter party waking up in a dungeon cell stripped down to rough linen tunics would have panicked. Even if they had a rogue, picking locks without tools was an uphill battle. And even if they somehow slipped their bonds and stepped past the cell doors, they would have been utterly defenseless. We were trapped in the deepest recesses of the subterranean prison, meaning any step into the main corridor guaranteed instant detection.
And who knows how many more troops are stationed upstairs.
Fortunately, none of those concerns applied to us. Not when I had my subspace.
Wuuung.
I opened a small rift to my subspace, pulling out our weapons and spare clothing first. After handing Uncle his silver-tipped spear, I passed around fresh garments.
"Let's change quickly. Shinhee-ssi, you go first. We'll face the wall."
I always kept a surplus of hunter wear—reinforced combat clothes tailored specifically for Awakeners—stocked in my dimensional storage. Once we had all changed, I drew the Flowing Wind Sword. Since I hadn't been holding a weapon when we crossed through the gate, my hands had been empty until now.
"Can you get a read on the layout?" Uncle asked, adjusting his armor.
"Roughly. Not the whole thing, though. Being a dungeon, we seem to be on the outer perimeter. It doesn't extend very high upward, either. The holy order's grounds must be massive."
"What's the plan, then?"
"Well... how about I use Leap to take down the guards, grab our original gear, and then we head out?"
Our objective was straightforward: eradicate every vampire infesting the order. Once we stirred up enough chaos, wouldn't the bloodsuckers come flocking to us anyway?
Tap, tap.
Right then, a prisoner in the adjacent cell stood up and tapped lightly against our shared wall. What was this? There was no way he had overheard our escape plan; we had been whispering so softly that even our own party could barely hear. At most, he might have caught faint murmuring.
"Worry not, brothers," the man whispered through the stonework. "We plan to rescue you before the execution commences."
"...?"
What is he talking about? We exchanged bewildered glances at the completely unexpected statement.
Perhaps the prisoner's voice had carried a bit too far, because down the hall, the guard slammed a heavy wooden club against the flagstones.
"Quiet down there!"
Chastened, the man retreated to the shadows of his cell and clamped his mouth shut. Just what kind of situation was this?
Then I recalled the guard mentioning an execution earlier. The others seemed to remember at the same time.
"Stripping all our gear and shackling us seemed overly harsh," Minjae murmured. "Could this gate's scenario be scripted so that we get rescued at the execution ground before the real fight begins?"
Uncle nodded thoughtfully. "Sounds plausible. The intended route might be breaking out during the execution, fighting our way back down here to recover our belongings, and linking up with allies."
It was a reasonable theory. The opening scenario was unusually restrictive. However, looking at it from another angle, it could easily be a trap.
"You never know," I countered. "The dungeon might require us to break out on our own no matter what. Relying on strangers to save us at an execution seems... risky."
"I agree," Lee Shinhee chimed in softly. "If we just sit back and trust that, the gate might simply let us die."
As expected, Shinhee had considered the exact same pitfall. Uncle and Minjae nodded in agreement, murmuring, "Ah, that's true too."
No one knew the definitive answer. The man really could be an allied NPC. But unless we actually faced the scenario, endless theorizing was pointless.
"Let's stick to the original plan," I said. "Even if they really are allies, getting dragged all the way to an execution ground only to fight our way back here for our gear sounds like an unnecessary chore."
"Can't argue with that," Uncle said with a grin. "Let's grab our stuff first."
"Moving out, then."
Following our brief council, I activated Leap, reappearing instantly beside the two guards. The takedown was over in a fraction of a second against an opponent caught completely off guard. Even though they were jailers, they wore vestments belonging to the holy order, which lent the whole scene a bizarrely solemn tone.
After neutralizing both guards in the blink of an eye, I strode briskly down the corridor.
"W-what the...?"
"How did he...?"
Prisoners trapped in the surrounding cells began buzzing with shock. One of them called out in a desperate whisper.
"H-hey! Let me out too!"
I paused for half a beat, but saw no reason to comply. I had no idea why these people were locked up in the first place. If the gate's objective were a prison riot, freeing them to sow chaos would make sense—but our mission was extermination.
"Hold on. Let me free my companions first."
If they started screaming their heads off, we would be forced into a prolonged brawl before even collecting our gear, so I tossed them a placating bone. Walking back to our cell, I unlocked the iron grate.
"All clear?" Uncle asked.
"Of course. Go grab your gear."
"Leave it to you, hyung," Minjae grinned, slipping past me.
Just then, the gaunt man from the neighboring cell pressed his face against his iron bars, his expression slack with disbelief. With his hollow cheeks and austere demeanor, he looked every bit the pious clergyman.
"How on earth did you...?"
Not knowing whether he was friend or foe, I gave a noncommittal shrug and turned to leave. But the man called out urgently.
"Brothers! Please, take me with you! I know where the Saintess is imprisoned!"
The Saintess?
A captive holy maiden inside a cathedral crawling with vampires. Even if this wasn't a hidden quest, it was bound to be the core narrative of the gate. Didn't Chunbae say this gate contained divinity? A Saintess sounded directly tied to that.
"Should we trust him?" I asked my team.
"Well, even if it's a trap, it's not like we can't handle it, right?" Uncle replied cheerfully. Minjae and Shinhee nodded in agreement.
"Step back," I told the man, unlocking his cell. "Come on out."
"Let us out too!"
The remaining prisoners clamored from behind their bars, but we ignored their shouts and headed up the stone stairs. The garrison above wasn't large—just four sentries guarding the entrance to the underground facility.
"What's all that racket down there?"
"Leave it. Megin's probably tormenting them again."
"Tsk. Even if they're heretics, don't you think this is inviting divine retribution?"
"They're heretics receiving their due punishment. It's righteous work."
Ascending the stairs in complete silence, we caught snippets of the guards' conversation drifting down from above.
"I'll strike first," I whispered. "Uncle, come up right behind me."
The ambush was over in seconds. Using Leap, I materialized behind two unsuspecting sentries and dropped them before they even registered a gust of displaced air. As the remaining two scrambled to draw their weapons in sheer panic, Uncle and I each dismantled one.
"As expected of you, brothers," the cleric breathed, watching with awe. It seemed our assigned identity in this gate was someone he knew. "Still, how in heaven's name did you manage to free yourselves? The keys to the dungeon are kept strictly by the Archbishop and handed down only moments before an execution."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. That was why we originally intended to stage the rescue at the execution itself. Our reach extended only as far as the executioner."
"Everyone has their methods. More importantly, what exactly happened here?"
Blending into story-driven gates was rarely complicated. All you had to do was ask questions. Granted, there was no guarantee the NPC would provide the unvarnished truth, but it gave you the narrative framework.
"I know it must have been bewildering to be branded heretics the moment you returned from your campaign," the cleric explained solemnly. "While you brothers were away on your expedition, vampires seized control of the holy order."
"How could that be possible?"
"The Archbishop himself was a vampire. The moment he dispatched the strongest brothers away from the cathedral, he revealed his true fangs. The order's high leadership was either slaughtered or corrupted."
Hearing his account, it seemed our party's role was that of elite templars or sacred knights. We had been lured away so the villain could execute his coup. This man genuinely appeared to be an allied NPC, though I couldn't be entirely certain just yet.
"I see. What was your original plan to help us?"
"Though the Archbishop revealed his true nature, several faithful went into hiding after learning the truth. The plan was for the executioner to feign carrying out the sentence, secretly slip your bonds, and arm you so we could mount a rescue for the Saintess."
"How many of you are there?"
"Seven in total. Five priests, and only two knights of your caliber."
There had been four guards just at this single entrance, yet their grand resistance consisted of five squishy priests and two knights. No matter how charitably I looked at it, they would have been total dead weight. Following the intended storyline would have turned this into a grueling escort mission.
"What will become of them now?"
"Since you brothers will not appear at the execution scaffold, they will hold their ground. We have no means of sending word immediately." The cleric offered a faint, hopeful smile. "Yet our current predicament may be a blessing in disguise. With the execution about to take place, the bulk of the garrison has gathered outside the cathedral grounds. We can infiltrate the inner sanctum and rescue the Saintess covertly."
It seemed my unauthorized prison break had completely derailed the intended quest progression. It felt remarkably like skipping straight to the final boss in a story-driven RPG.
"And this Archbishop... where is he?"
"He should be with the Saintess. He took her away, claiming he required her sacred blood."
Isn't this actually much better?
The sequence was slightly out of order, but our objective was to wipe out every vampire anyway. Rather than fighting our way through hordes of trash mobs from the courtyard inward, taking out the boss first and cleaning up the stragglers later was far more efficient. In gaming terms, this was a sequence-breaking glitch speedrun.
And it might trigger a hidden reward.
If we had stormed the fortress from the front gates, the vampire Archbishop might have had time to pull some grotesque stunt with his hostage. Rescuing the Saintess early had a strong chance of netting an additional clear bonus.
"Let's move," I said. "Where is the Saintess?"
"...?"
The cleric tilted his head, eyeing me with an odd, slightly offended expression. I racked my brain for a second before realizing my breach of etiquette.
"Forgive me. Where is the Lady Saintess being held?"
"Past the colonnade behind the main cathedral, within the old sanctuary," the cleric replied, mollified. "Follow me..."
He led us toward a discreet rear exit.
"The execution draws near, so the grounds should be largely deserted, but the back paths remain the safest route."
"Dusk is settling," Shinhee murmured.
"Makes sense, given that our enemies are vampires," Uncle replied.
Outside, the sky was bruised with the amber and violet tones of twilight. Vampires grew stronger under the veil of night, so the gate's simulated environment was naturally shifting toward evening. Keeping up a brisk pace, I watched the cleric navigating ahead of us.
He really does seem like a genuine ally.
I had harbored a sliver of suspicion when he suggested the back alleys, but he was expertly guiding us through narrow maintenance passages behind the cathedral walls, completely bypassing every guard patrol picked up by my spatial sense.
"Hold on," I whispered.
"What is the matter?" the cleric asked, freezing.
"Sentries ahead."
Even across the sprawling cathedral grounds, our infiltration went smoothly thanks to my spatial perception. Whenever someone crossed our path, the cleric detoured or waited in the shadows. On the rare occasion an unavoidable worker or isolated patrol blocked our advance, I closed the distance instantly with Leap and neutralized them before they could make a sound.
"Everyone seems to be on the move," Minjae whispered.
Through my expanded awareness, I could feel members of the clergy and armed guards marching in orderly ranks toward the outer plaza.
"They are gathering for the execution," the cleric whispered back. "This will make our path far clearer. Look, over there."
Behind the main cathedral stretched an open cloister flanked by manicured gardens on both sides. Elegant white marble pillars formed a covered corridor leading toward an ancient stone structure that appeared far older than the central cathedral. Even under vampire occupation, the place exuded a faint, lingering sanctity.
"No guards?" I asked.
"The Archbishop placed the entire area under strict lockdown after taking the Saintess inside, under the pretense of deep, devout prayer."
"Let's go."
With no one in the immediate vicinity, we chose to advance along the covered walkway. Darting across the open lawns would only expose us unnecessarily.
"Hye-ya," Uncle whispered as we trotted along the marble floor.
"Yeah, Uncle?"
"When we corner a vampire later... there's something I've been wanting to try before we finish it off. Mind if I take a crack at it?"
I shot him a puzzled look. "What is it?"
"Nothing weird, I swear."
He had that sly, boyish grin on his face, like a kid who had just thought of a brilliant prank. Well, Uncle wasn't the type to endanger the team with reckless antics.
"Are you trying to test out classic vampire lore? Did you sneak garlic into the gate or something?"
"Nah, not garlic. But close enough."
"Well, if the opportunity presents itself, go right ahead."
Just as we reached the midpoint of the colonnade, sharing casual banter—
Creeeeak.
The heavy oaken doors of the ancient sanctuary swung open. A tall man with corpse-pale skin and slicked-back golden hair stepped out into the twilight.
"..."
"...?"
Both sides froze in absolute silence.
There was no mistaking his identity.
"T-the Archbishop!" the cleric shrieked in horror.
Well, damn. We had planned on slipping inside quietly to rescue the Saintess while everyone was away, but somehow we had skipped every single intermediary step and bumped face-to-face with the dungeon's final boss.
"Uh..."
The vampire Archbishop stood rooted to the spot for one stunned, bewildered second.
Then, without a single word of villainous monologue, he spun right back around, slammed the heavy sanctuary doors shut, and bolted for his life.
"...Did he just run?" Uncle blurted out.
"Yup," I replied, staring at the closed doors. "He bolted."