Outside the hospital, under the dim glow of dawn, two groups advance across the empty parking lot.
They stop a few meters apart, staring at each other with open contempt.
One group wears black priestly robes adorned with silver crucifixes hanging over their chests.
The other wears torn robes, stained with dark marks like dried blood, and chains with inverted crosses hang around their necks.
The hunters of the Inquisition and the Cultists gathered in the same place.
A hunter frowns when he sees them so close.
"And to think I'd end up working with those blasphemous bastards..." he spits out the phrase without hiding his disgust.
A woman beside him, dressed in a nun's habit adapted for combat, sighs in annoyance.
"Don't worry. This is temporary. Believe me, I can't stand breathing the same air as them either," she murmurs, without taking her eyes off them.
One of the cultists smiles, baring his teeth, but his voice betrays his apparent distrust.
"Leader... are you sure we should team up with them?" he asks. "Any one of those dogs could stab us in the back at any moment."
The cultists' leader, a tall man with a scarred face and a Codex Gigas chained to his waist, responds with unsettling calm.
"Don't worry," he says, with a mischievous smile. "When the confrontation begins, I will cast a spell that will slowly weaken them. They won't be able to betray us... not before I decide."
The cultists exchange tense glances.
Clearly, their unity is held together by fragile threads.
The reason for this momentary alliance is simple:
Hunting a vampire inside the hospital.
But the question hangs in the air like a heavy shadow:
Why collaborate with their sworn enemies when they have hated each other for centuries?
The answer is obvious, even to them.
Vampires are complex creatures to kill.
Too difficult.
Something that made both the Inquisition and the Cultists cooperate
The leader looks at the building, clenching his jaw.
"Don't let your guard down. We're dealing with a vampire," he warns.
Around him, both hunters and cultists nod, each clutching their weapons, crosses, ritual daggers, or sacred scrolls.
Dawn is just beginning.
Soon, the hunt will begin as well.
Suddenly, a bloody pressure enveloped them; the air became heavy as if someone had activated "final boss mode."
Everyone stood still.
Lucien, bathed in the morning sun, watched them with eyes that glowed bright red.
"...An anomaly, it seems."
"Quick, put up a barrier!"
Then two prayers sounded different at the same time.
"Heavenly Father, I cover myself with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask you to protect my companions and me."
"Lord of Hell, I immerse myself in the shadow of your unholy blood. May your darkness corrupt the light that surrounds us and weaken all those who invoke Heaven. Guide us with your cursed power."
Suddenly, the pages of the Bibles and the Codex Gigas tremble... they shake and begin to fly on their own like an army.
...
Lucien sees the swarm of pages, black and white, stuck to the walls and nearby posts.
"The hunters and cultists working together...," he murmurs, incredulous; I don't expect those two organizations to work together.
Suddenly, a tall hunter appears beside him, grabs his face, and throws him against the wall.
Boooom!
He feels dizzy, his face burns as if hot water had been thrown on it, and he feels pieces of cement in his hair. He tries to get up... but hears a scream:
"Die in the name of the incarnation of evil!" A black-haired cultist stabs him with a spear charged with corrupt energy, leaving a small crater beneath him.
"Ugh..." Lucien coughs up blood and feels his face regenerate, but with a new pain in his chest; he looks at the hunter and the cultist with a neutral expression.
"Oh, great Heavenly Father, bless my hand with your holy fire to purify this lost soul." A second hunter approached at high speed with his fists covered in white and gold fire.
Lucien grits his teeth and rolls across the floor, dodging the fists that slam into the ground; he knows that one of those attacks would be fatal.
He pushes himself up with his hands, using them for leverage, and stands up while kicking the hunter in the chin.
However, he has no time to prepare; a cultist appears in front of him with a fist covered in filth and punches him hard in the stomach, sending him flying.
He clenches his jaw tightly, resisting the pain in his stomach that feels like it's melting, but thanks to his vampiric regeneration, he heals quickly, though the pain persists.
Throwing one on the ground, Lucien thinks about asking for help, but can't; Mayla can't walk in the sun as he can.
With no other choice, his eyes begin to shine more intensely, while a pair of bat wings unfold on his back, and a bloody, savage aura begins to emanate from his body.
The cultists and Inquisition hunters feel a sense of foreboding because the entire aura surrounding the vampire changed in an instant.
"Attack!" shouted the leaders, the culitas, and the hunters.
But it was too late.
Lucien rose as if gravity did not affect him.
The tall hunter tried to attack, but Lucien disappeared in a red flash and appeared in front of him in an instant. He grabbed him by the face, dragged him across the hospital wall, and threw him hard.
Boooom!
He looks at the black-haired cultist and disappears, leaving behind blood that begins to take the shape of spears; then he reappears behind the cultist. His nails grow and, with supernatural speed, he pierces his chest and rips out his heart.
He opened his mouth and squeezed his heart; all the blood fell into his mouth, spreading across his lips and arms; the taste made his expression euphoric as his eyes began to shine more intensely.
"...Huh?" The black-haired cultist put his hand to his chest, feeling the emptiness... Little by little, his body lost strength and collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
"DAMN VAMPIRE!" The tall hunter shouts, filled with rage, and disappears in a golden light.
Lucien looked to the side and saw the tall hunter approaching at full speed. He took a step back to dodge the attack imbued with holy energy.
"Damn!" The tall hunter curses as his attack hits the air.
Lucien's smile widens, revealing his fangs. His hands are covered in blood, and suddenly, the tall hunter's head begins to swell as if he were inflating it.
"AHHH!!!" The hunter screams in pain before his head explodes like a watermelon.
Lucien's face is smeared with blood, brain juice, and bits of brain as the headless hunter's body falls heavily to the ground.
Faced with this display of cruelty, the hunters and cultists recoil in fear as they watch the vampire bathe in the blood of their companions.
This was a vampire!
This is a supernatural being, known as an immortal!
This type of being is confronting us!
Lucien, excited by the smell of blood filling his nose, lets out a euphoric laugh:
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"