Death Knight Erams (1)
I eased up the cloth covering the window and peered outside. Darkness and silence were taking their leisure on the night streets. Only the occasional chirp of insects drifted through — a hush so complete it seemed to soften the ears. This was the atmosphere Wifilud had personally orchestrated.
The vampires, who grew more active by night than by day, held their breath and made not a sound. Thanks to that, laying our plans had been easy work.
"They'll be here soon."
Eluke, watching the street beside me, leaned her face in close and whispered.
"Yeah."
I whispered back just as softly.
"Any minute now, the thick smell of blood will start rolling in."
Once a month, the pureblood vampires paid a visit to the Crimson Bandits' stronghold. Each time they came, they picked out a few people to take along. The pretext was that those chosen would be given a better place to live. In truth, it was nothing more than grocery shopping. Anyone who went with them would have their blood drained without end — and thanks to their regeneration, they wouldn't even be allowed to die. What a wretched breed.
The only reason vampires weren't classified as monsters was that their average intelligence ran far higher. That very intellect made them more dangerous than any monster — dangerous enough that the persecution they'd endured for so long almost looked justified. So I intended to use this chance to clean house for good. Wifilud had given his blessing, which meant I could let my fists run wild without a second thought.
That didn't apply to the turned vampires, of course. Unlike the purebloods, they could suppress their instincts. The lower ranks tended to lose the fight against their bloodlust, true — but Wifilud had advised that if a mid-rank or higher kept them in line, they'd listen reasonably well.
"Get ready to use holy spells."
"Leave it to me."
What we had to do to the purebloods coming into the village was extremely simple. Ambush them as they passed through the streets on their way to see Dwain, the boss, and take them down. Leave one alive and squeeze every last fact out of him. The most important piece of intel was the location of the purebloods' regular gathering — a place that changed every time. The so-called Blood Banquet. I planned to pay it a personal visit and make sure blood really did spray and scatter.
"You tie them up and stay back. I'll handle the rest."
Having said that, I turned my eyes back to the street.
"Thank you."
Eluke suddenly bowed her head to me.
"What's there to thank me for?"
"You're working this hard to lift my curse, are you not?"
What was she even talking about. I gave her too-close face a gentle shove.
"There's another me turning into the Demon King. Of course I'm going to help."
It wasn't because I was some especially good person. Wouldn't anyone make the same choice?
"Wouldn't it be weirder not to help?"
"It's precisely because you think that way that I'm grateful."
"What kind of—"
"Hush. Please be quiet now."
It wasn't important enough to argue over, so I shut my mouth. Once again, only the low drone of insects carried on the night air.
"Do your best."
A young voice whispered from the corner of the room. Ode, the vampire boy who'd ridden a mole back to the village with us. He was the only resident who'd let us into his house to lie in wait.
"I'll be cheering for you, big sis."
"We'll do our utmost. Please stay hidden."
Naturally, he didn't so much as glance my way. He just grinned ear to ear, his face locked firmly in Eluke's direction. A textbook case of how much first impressions matter, I supposed. It also confirmed that when two people look the same, personality does the heavier lifting.
"You said they usually come in twos or threes."
When I asked, he at least met my eyes — though his whole body was shaking.
"It's always different, but they've never come with more than three."
"That so."
"Even if they teamed up, the ones who come are always weaker than the boss."
Honestly, the number didn't make much difference. I just had to knock them all flat. And if they were the type who'd lose to Dwain even fighting together, that told me plenty about how weak they were. Low-ranking vampires running errands, most likely. It was so straightforward I couldn't even work up any tension.
"You go to another house."
Still, you always had to prepare for the worst. If they spotted us first and attacked, I wouldn't be able to protect him. Night was a vampire's stage, after all. They might not beat me, but they could certainly make themselves a nuisance.
"I'd rather just stay here."
"You gonna get moving or what?"
I showed him my fist by way of a gentle suggestion, and Ode finally slipped out through the gaping hole in the wall.
"I have something to say."
Not long after, his face poked back through.
"Please be careful."
A soft, earnest warning. Directed at Eluke, of course.
"We will not fall so easily. Please rest at ease."
If anything, it was the vampires who ought to be worried about what we'd do to them. I planned to put Holy Power and Aura to very active use in getting them to talk.
"I'm uneasy."
Why did he keep this up. Now that I looked, his eyes were darting all over the place.
"It's different from usual."
"Different in what way?"
"I don't know. Just... please be careful."
Ode rambled for a bit, then finally went next door — leaving his unease piled neatly at our feet.
"It seems something is bothering him."
"We'll have to stay sharp, then."
I quietly watched the street again. A village where silence crawled. The cries of insects came without end — eerie, unnatural, a rich and varied chorus that didn't belong in this barren land.
"...Did insects even live in the Devastation Zone?"
A sudden, ominous hunch rapped at my skull. Because when I thought of insects, one particular existence came to mind.
"I was under the impression that most species struggle to survive here."
"That's weird."
I surged to my feet and headed straight for the house next door, hoping — please — that my guess was wrong. But as always, bad news was a nasty piece of work that loved to shatter expectations.
I slipped in through a broken window, and several pairs of eyes locked onto me. Pupils with no focus. Movements like dolls worked by a puppeteer. A sight I'd seen more than enough of in the west.
"Sun-bask."
I checked, just in case.
"Lady Clitia."
"Well?"
"I can feel His miasma from afar. There's will in it, too."
My head spun.
"He's saying, 'I missed you.'"
Why now, of all times. What had he been doing all this while. Questions boiled up, but this was a moment for moving, not standing still.
A lower-rank came at me. I smashed him down with a fist, no hesitation. The other vampires got the same treatment. Ode lunged too, and I put him down just the same.
"What on earth is happening?"
Eluke, who'd followed me in, asked carefully.
"A Corpse Locust variant has parasitized them."
"What? Then..."
"Liam's here."
Her composed face went pale in an instant.
"He's probably been in the Devastation Zone this whole time."
A region almost no one traveled through. The perfect place to hide.
"We have to stop him."
Last time, he'd spouted some nonsense about revealing the Goddess's true nature to the hero's party. Which meant his target would be Wifilud, the Guardian. I had to shut him down before he could even get close.
"You protect Wifilud. He might already have been hit by a variant, so be careful."
I was about to bolt outside when Eluke caught my wrist.
"If it's a Death Knight, it would be better if I faced him."
Her expression had gone rigid. Just picturing Liam as an undead seemed to sicken her. And yet she still insisted on confronting him herself. A question that had been nagging me for days lifted its head again.
"You've been out of combat for too long."
"You yourself only won last time by borrowing Sun-bask's power, did you not?"
We didn't have time to argue, but she showed no sign of backing down.
"Why have you been keeping me out of every fight since last time? Do you not trust me?"
"Just stay put."
I shook off her grip.
"Think about the people waiting for you to come back."
A gracious Goddess, and a Liam who'd become a true hero. Cherished companions — Erin, Ivar, Logan. Countless faithful who adored a Pope who'd once been a Saintess and slain the Demon King. All of it so different from me, whose people were dead or had turned their hearts away. Didn't that make her life so much heavier?
"Just go and watch over our Guardian."
I didn't wait for an answer. Following Sun-bask's guidance, I cut across the village and out, beating down vampires that came flinging themselves at me along the way.
Then a wide-open plain filled my vision. Unlike yesterday, when there'd been nothing, it now teemed with countless living things. A swarm of Corpse Locusts. The same monsters I'd fought to exhaustion in the west, boiling over the grassland. How many of them were there? A deafening buzz rolled across everything.
"Turn your head a little to the left. He's walking this way, slowly."
I did as I was told, and a knight in black armor — visible even from a distance — was approaching. Leisurely, as if he'd come out for a stroll. A dense miasma trailed behind him like a shadow.
"How do you keep being a pain in the ass even after you're dead."
I wrapped Aura around my whole body like armor. From here on, nothing was going to be easy.
"Please be genuinely careful!"
He came close enough that a voice would carry.
"Don't come any closer."
Liam obediently stopped walking. He drove the greatsword in his hand into the ground.
"Just quietly get lost."
I said it coldly, but it was useless. The pitch-black helm dissolved into miasma and vanished, revealing his face.
"Have you been well?"
The same horrific visage as last time. It had only gotten worse — the half that had still preserved his living appearance had rotted completely to pulp.
"I've been busy."
Liam stretched one arm forward.
"You wrecked the body I was using before, so all my subordinates died. I've been generating them again."
Miasma gathered in his outstretched hand and mutated into a Corpse Locust. A variant — thick-bodied, with a deep, glowing gaze.
"The offer I made last time still stands."
A strange laugh seeped into my ears. Lingering and rich, the way a stench soaks into cloth.
"Come with me."
Liam held the variant out and dropped to one knee.
I'd have thrown a punch even if he'd said that with a normal face. I ignored him and started compressing mana into both hands.
"Clitia, I don't want to fight you anymore."
"I just want to leave you as a memory."
"Let's talk. You've been deceived by the Goddess."
"That line again?"
The garbage about how the Goddess was sitting back and enjoying the hero's party dying to the Demon King. A delusion born of rage.
"This time I have proof. You think I just left the subordinates I worked so hard to make sitting around?"
The writhing swarm of Corpse Locusts. Individually they were tiny monsters, which made them perfect for reconnaissance.
"One that infiltrated the Sun Court picked up some very interesting information."
His cracked face was trembling.
"You're talking about the revelation where the Goddess told them to keep their distance from me, right? I already know."
Good thing I'd heard it from Damon in advance. Otherwise, would I have been shaken?
"And you still believe in the Goddess after that?"
His rotting eyes went wide, as if he couldn't believe it.
"She must have other intentions."
"That's so like you. You haven't changed a bit."
Liam's face hardened, and he shook his head.
"Please face reality. That revelation was nothing more than an order to bury a discarded toy in the ground."
"Not long ago, She answered my prayer for a wandering dead."
"Did it never occur to you that She did it for the dead person — not for you?"
I couldn't afford to waste energy answering. I fused Aura into my right hand.
"Can't have that."
A greatsword came crashing in — he'd closed the distance before I knew it. I rolled hard, putting space between us.
"This is different from last time. I brought a body as close to the original as I could get."
A pressure that crushed the mind. I knew it instinctively. I'd have to stake my life on this.
"I'll knock some sense into you, even if I have to use force."
"You're the one who needs to wake up!"
I thrust my right hand into the air — a strike that could punch a hole through the sky. A dark-crimson explosion erupted, surging upward and blooming wide. My right arm blew apart again today. The roar left my ears ringing, and the teeming swarm of Corpse Locusts vanished in a single stroke.
"Impressive."
In the instant I hesitated from the blast's aftershock, the greatsword swept for my neck. I twisted, offering my left arm to dodge — and in that split second.
"Get away from her."
A white sphere flew in and flung Liam backward. Warm Holy Power came with it, wrapping around my body.
"I told you to stay and guard Wifilud."
Instead of thanks, I grumbled for no good reason.
"I cannot do that."
Eluke shed her robe, revealing the black nun's habit she hadn't worn in some time.
"I will not leave you to die."
As expected, "my" stubbornness was hard to stop. I decided we'd just fight together and looked at Liam, who'd been sitting quietly through all this.
"...Two of you?"
A bewildered gaze. Liam looked back and forth between us, then generated two variants in his hands.
A remark that snuffed out even the last handful of pity still lingering in my heart.