South Tivian, Bishop Square.
In the darkness of the night, the crowd in the square was still celebrating the arrival of the new year. Brilliant fireworks continuously bloomed in the sky, their various colored lights illuminating the people below.
On the rooftop of a building somewhere on the edge of the square, Berlit, holding his sword, stood rooted to the spot. His eyes were wide with astonishment as he stared at the large patch of festering flesh on his shoulder. His previous wound had indeed healed, but he hadn't expected it to heal into this disgusting appearance he had never seen before. The pain and itching were coexistent, and the severely uncomfortable rotten flesh made him feel nauseous just looking at it.
"What... what's going on?!"
Gritting his teeth, Berlit's eyes widened in stunned Murmured, he couldn't understand how he had clearly injected himself with a blood serum to heal his injuries, but it had healed into this monstrous state!
Suddenly, Berlit recalled that when he was first attacked from behind and slashed by a sword, as he rolled away to dodge, the gaping wound seemed to feel a strange warmth. It was clear that something had gone wrong with the wound at that time, and this problem was caused by that white-robed swordsman.
"This kind of vile 'Cup' power... You're from the Tayi Sect! What did you do to me?!"
Pointing his sword at the white-robed swordsman in front of him, Berlit roared loudly, saying that the biological self-healing sword and the ability to create rotten flesh, combined with that immense strength, made Berlit instantly conclude that the other party was an Extraordinary from the Tayi lineage. The white-robed swordsman on the other side did not directly respond to his words but silently tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and continued to rush towards Berlit with quick steps.
Facing the white-robed swordsman's renewed attack, Berlit had no choice but to meet him with his sword. Once again, the two high-speed figures engaged in close-quarters combat.
Enduring the severe discomfort in his shoulder, Berlit once again engaged the white-robed swordsman in close combat. Amidst the continuous clanging of weapons, he finally found an opportunity to make eye contact with the other party, preparing to use the Vampire's hypnotic ability for in-battle hypnosis.
Although the light behind the swordsman's mask was very dim, making it difficult for Berlit to see his eyes, Berlit judged that since the other party was fighting him, his gaze must be on him. Therefore, he still used the momentary eye contact opportunity to launch hypnosis on the other party, issuing the command to immediately stop attacking the opponent in front of him. However, he found that it had no effect at all. Not only did the white-robed swordsman's attack on him not stop, but it became even more fierce!
'Hypnosis... doesn't work either? What kind of ability does this guy have for self-defense...'
Looking at the scene in front of him, Berlit thought in astonishment. At this moment, he realized that his situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable.
Hypnosis was ineffective, erosion countered, and in a state of being dragged down by injuries, he couldn't gain the upper hand in the clash for a while. The effects of the rotten flesh on his shoulder were still deteriorating. Facing this situation, Berlit also knew that he couldn't possibly defeat the opponent in front of him.
'Jeffrey was taken away... and those natives haven't moved yet... It's obvious the plan has been exposed. There's no way to deal with this guy in front of me anytime soon... This is bad...'
In the midst of the fierce battle, Berlit thought grimly to himself. He had originally intended to quickly deal with the white-robed swordsman and continue the assassination, but given the current situation, an opponent of this level could not be easily dealt with.
Now that his side's plan had been exposed, the possibility of completing the assassination alone was negligible. Since the main objective could not be achieved, continuing to entangle with the enemy here was definitely not a good choice.
After realizing that dragging this on would only make the situation worse, Berlit chose to retreat. Using his speed advantage, after finding an opportunity to distance himself from the white-robed swordsman, he transformed into countless tiny black bats and quickly scattered in all directions. Seeing this, the white-robed swordsman immediately ran forward and swung his sword mid-air, cutting down several bats, but more bats had already vanished into the dark night with chirping sounds.
Seeing the bats scatter, the white-robed swordsman stood in the cold wind for a moment, holding his sword. Behind the lifeless white mask, Vanya's face slightly exhaled.
'Great Aka, Recorder of All Things, please convey to Miss Dorothea that the threat on the rooftop opposite the Royal Family balcony has been eliminated.'
Not rushing to open her eyes, which were closed from using her spiritual vision, Vanya prayed devoutly in her heart. The sniper threatening the Royal Family balcony had been driven away, and she had now completed the task given by Dorothy.
Meanwhile, on a deserted and cold street near the square, Dorothy, who was shivering from the cold due to being far from the crowd, blew a breath of warm air onto her hands. With a flushed face and a trembling voice, she muttered.
"It... it seems Vanya is finished too. This... this way, all the threats should be eliminated... As expected of Vanya, always so reliable... Achoo!!"
By the roadside where the cold wind blew, Dorothy, who had been left here to freeze by Grego, wiped her nose with a handkerchief while calculating the current situation in her heart. At this moment, she was very grateful that Vanya was performing emergency medical duties here.
After Vanya reported her New Year's work situation to Dorothy, Dorothy had known that Vanya was on medical standby near the square. Therefore, after realizing the problem in the square, she had always considered Vanya as an important available force, and sure enough, the other party quickly played a crucial role.
After being arranged by Dorothy to do makeup for Grego, Vanya then rushed to stop the sniper disguised as a guard on the building. Since the other party was an assassin sent to assassinate the Duke, Dorothy did not dare to be negligent in dealing with him and directly brought out the Rose Cross's strongest force, Sister White Prayer.
To be on the safe side, Dorothy gave the Heart-Eating Sword to Vanya to use. After experiencing many extraordinary events, Dorothy valued this extraordinary item obtained from Luer even more. After dealing with countless Black Earth and even Chalk-level Extraordinaries, Dorothy also understood that this sword was not a treasure that an Extraordinary of Luer's level could possess.
After knowing the extraordinary nature of this sword, Dorothy asked Beverly to appraise it. The initial results of the appraisal surprised Dorothy greatly.
This sword from the Fetal Garment Cult was a living thing, a creation of the living forging secret technique passed down by the Tayi Sect. According to Beverly, this secret technique was very mysterious; it could use living creatures as materials to create living weapons with biological characteristics. And this sword, which could absorb others' "Cup" and then convert it into life-saving healing effects, was a product created by this living forging secret technique.
In Beverly's examination, the Heart-Eating Sword's sword body, which was as hard as iron and had a texture similar to iron, was in fact a keratinous substance like a creature's claws and teeth. The inside of the sword body actually had flesh and blood tissue, and the iron-hard outer shell of the sword body grew from the tissue inside the sword body.
The Heart-Eating Sword was essentially a biological weapon. This discovery surprised Dorothy. She immediately thought of the Human Head Staff made by Adele's teacher, Dalena, and immediately suspected that the sword in her hand was made by some Extraordinary or extraordinary creature from the Fetal Garment Cult.
The essence of the Heart-Eating Sword surprised Dorothy, and at the same time, it gave rise to her idea of using the Heart-Eating Sword to counter the corrosive effect of the "Shadow" enchantment. Because the Heart-Eating Sword was essentially a living creature, its own healing effect could also be used on itself. Therefore, when fighting against the "Shadow" enchantment, it could self-repair the damage caused. Of course, this action also required consuming the "Cup" stored within itself.
With the fully charged Heart-Eating Sword, Vanya would be able to more effectively counter the "Shadow" corrosion. Afterward, Dorothy also gave Vanya the last remaining Mad Banquet Sigil, allowing her to activate it by consuming Spirituality, giving Vanya power beyond the second-order "Cup".
Afterward, Dorothy added a Whisper Sigil to Vanya and covered her with the effect of the ring of concealment, allowing her to silently and successfully approach Berlit from behind and perform a backstab. Although this backstab did not directly kill Berlit, it successfully injured him, and Vanya also took the opportunity to inflict a malignant healing on the other party.
The malicious treatment healed Berlit's wound in a twisted manner, the result of which was that when Berlit later treated his own wound, the treatment was not only ineffective, but was also misled in its direction, causing the wound to worsen even further.
If it weren't for that severely worsened malicious injury constantly hindering Berlit's movements, Sister Vanya wouldn't have been able to contend with Berlit so easily. After all, Vampires are one of the strongest Chalk stage Extraordinary in close combat.
Of course, being able to contend with and suppress him doesn't mean being able to kill him. A Vampire who can transform into a bat is very easy to escape. The reason Dorothy was able to kill Claudius back then was due to the terrain. The battle took place in an underground ruin, and Claudius's bat swarm could only escape upwards along the only exit passage, so setting up an ambush at the passage entrance could wipe them all out.
The current environment is outdoors. After Berlit transforms into bats, he can scatter and escape. Dorothy also has no way to deal with a large group of bats flying in all directions, so he didn't plan to stay and kill Berlit from the beginning. Anyway, as long as he prevented him from carrying out the assassination, his goal was achieved.
What's more, Berlit also left something behind.
'Great Aka, please convey to Sister Vanya that her work is well done, the current threats have all been eliminated, the people and the Royal Family are temporarily safe, pack up the spoils and leave...'
Under the New Year's night sky, Dorothy, who was squatting on the street shivering in the cold wind, closed his eyes and prayed inwardly, saying. To others who didn't know, he looked like an abandoned orphan girl, fitting the era like a little match girl.
...
On the other side, on the rooftop at the edge of the square, Vanya, who had received Dorothy's words in his heart, nodded knowingly. Then, he looked at the cheering crowd below and the Royal Family on the distant balcony and breathed a sigh of relief.
'I didn't expect there to be cultists causing trouble during such a New Year's celebration. Fortunately, Miss Dorothea guided me here to stop all of this, otherwise, who knows what it would have turned into?'
Vanya thought thankfully in his heart. Although he still occasionally felt a slight worry about the overly close connection between him and Aka and Dorothy, whenever this connection allowed him to save others, he could still feel genuine joy. He also looked forward to saving more people under Aka's guidance.
After thinking, Vanya began to follow Dorothy's instructions and clean up the battlefield. He walked to the edge of the rooftop and picked up a rifle constructed of brass and white wood from there. This was what Berlit had prepared to snipe the Royal Family. He had discarded it here after Vanya slashed him with a sword, and didn't have time to take it with him after transforming into a bat and escaping.
Being able to snipe the Royal Family, and with such a magnificent appearance, this was clearly no ordinary item.
'This is the spoils of war, take it and leave quickly...'
Holding the rifle, Vanya thought. Afterwards, he cast his gaze towards the Royal Family's balcony. At this moment, he saw the Princess and the Duke standing up from their positions, talking with several bodyguards nearby. Among these bodyguards, there was no one disguised as an Eight-Pointed Nest member.
...
"What? Someone wanted to assassinate us?"
On the Royal Family's balcony, Duke Barret, who had just finished listening to the bodyguard's serious words, said in surprise. A tall bodyguard in front of him nodded seriously and said.
"Yes, Duke, the current situation is very complicated and dangerous. According to the intelligence we have received, Kamino, who has been protecting the two of you from behind, has a problem. So we just invited him out on the pretext of discussing matters, hoping to secretly control him, which resulted in resistance. We can now confirm that it is not the real Kamino."
The bodyguard spoke seriously to the Duke and Princess in front of him, while the Princess shook his head in disbelief and replied.
"Not the real Kamino... This, how is this possible? Kamino has always been my bodyguard, I couldn't be mistaken..."
"Princess, this matter involves a secret. The Kamino you have been in contact with before should be an Extraordinary of the Vampire stage disguised as him. This type of Extraordinary has the ability to perfectly transform into others, and it is very difficult for ordinary people to recognize."
The bodyguard continued to answer seriously. Listening to his words, Duke Barret on the side frowned, then spoke with a grim expression.
"Vampire... Hmph... It seems this matter is very deep. They might be coming for me... By the way, how did you discover that Kamino had a problem? What is the situation with that Vampire now?"
Barret continued to ask seriously, and the bodyguard answered without daring to delay.
"Replying to Duke, the reason we knew Kamino had a problem was because the real Kamino is not dead yet. After he was seriously injured and discovered by people at the Church medical point, they notified us, which is how we discovered the problem.
"As for that Vampire, when we were just planning to secretly probe him, he realized he was exposed, so he tried to forcefully break through our blockade to attack the two of you, but fortunately, we were all prepared beforehand and successfully stopped him. When he saw the situation was not good, he escaped using his ability to transform into a bat. We are very sorry that we were unable to capture him."
The bodyguard replied apologetically, and Duke Barret nodded silently before speaking.
"Hmm... This is not your fault. Vampires are one of the most difficult professions to deal with among Chalk stage Extraordinary. Not only are their infiltration and combat abilities extremely strong, but they also have excellent escape abilities. Without prior preparation, it is very difficult to keep them."
"That's right... So, given the current situation, we cannot be sure if there are other hidden dangers. This balcony is very exposed and unsafe, so please, Duke and Princess, leave and come indoors to be protected by us closely. After we have investigated the danger, we will escort you back safely."
The bodyguard said this to Isabel and Barret. Listening to his words, Isabel nodded with a worried expression and said.
"Then I'll trouble you. Since it's not safe now, then notify the party to end as soon as possible and let everyone go back. Let's forget about the subsequent activities."
"Yes, we will notify the people below."
After receiving the bodyguard's response, Isabel and Barret walked from the balcony into the building together.
...
On the other side, not far from Bishop Square, within a dark and deserted alleyway, countless flying bats flew down from the sky, gathered here, and coalesced into the figure of a man.
"Hmph... Hmph... Damn it!!"
Berlit, who had dispelled his bat transformation, leaned against the wall, gasping for air. His face was ashen. He completely tore open the clothing on his left shoulder, exposing the unsightly rotten flesh underneath.
"Ugh... What's going on... Where did the plan get exposed... And that Tayi Sect swordsman, where did he come from!?"
While gasping for breath, Berlit grabbed the rotten flesh on his shoulder with his hand, then gritted his teeth, and with a fierce pull, he tore off the entire piece of rotten flesh. Along with the spurting blood, he couldn't help but let out a painful groan.
After tearing off all the rotten flesh, Berlit quickly pulled out another blood injection and injected it into himself. After this injection, Berlit's injury finally began to heal normally. After a while, the bleeding successfully stopped.
After ruthlessly completing this series of actions, the physically and mentally exhausted Berlit couldn't help but slump to the ground. He took a few long breaths to alleviate the pain, then shook his sleeve. Subsequently, a human-faced spider crawled out from his sleeve.
Facing the human-faced spider in his hand, Berlit directly spoke slowly in a weak voice.
"Priest... It is regrettable that because of a sudden intervention by someone who seems to be from the Placenta faction, our mission failed. Barret is still alive, but given the current situation, we cannot kill him.
"That guy must die... Priest, while the opportunity is still present, activate the 'Nightmare'."