The cohort kept walking forward.
Well… most of them did.
Alucard and Cassie were sitting comfortably atop Beast.
However, due to the constant complaints from every plebeian forced to walk on the ground, Alucard was eventually pressured into surrendering Beast so everyone could take turns riding him.
Well—everyone except Cassie.
That lucky blind bastard didn't have to walk at all.
So they began forming a plan to make sure everyone stayed equally rested.
And for some reason…
They agreed on taking shifts.
Now, Alucard was a reasonable person.
But the fact that these morons thought it was a brilliant idea to rotate riders every single hour, when they only had a few hours left before reaching their destination, was insanity.
Utter insanity.
Alucard totally wasn't just upset that he had somehow been swindled out of riding his own Echo.
No.
This was clearly proof that he was simply the kindest member of the cohort.
No—
He was the kindest in the world.
Two worlds, even.
Though kindness didn't exactly benefit him.
He still had to walk like some damned normal person.
Even worse, he was assigned web-clearing duty.
He and Cassie's sword had to cut through all the thick spider webs blocking their path.
The problem?
He had to use blood to slice through them.
Which meant the scent attracted nearby Nightmare Creatures.
Which meant they would crowd around.
Which meant he had to detonate the blood constructs to scatter them.
Which meant he was wasting a ridiculous amount of blood.
Another issue: he had stopped actively sensing blood earlier, so now he had to physically see what he was cutting.
That slowed him down.
Which caused him to use more blood.
Which made him even more irritated.
So yes—he was genuinely happy when spider Nightmare Creatures finally attacked the cohort.
Not because he was excited to slaughter them.
No.
As previously established, he was the kindest person alive and would never harm a single soul unless absolutely necessary.
And they did attack first.
Sooooo…
He decided to genocide them.
He wrapped blood around a spider's neck and snap.
…And snap.
"…Why aren't their necks snapping? Gods damnit, why isn't this working?"
Right.
Exoskeleton.
Plan B.
He decided to go with absolute overkill.
"Gluttony, summon as much blood as we can afford to lose."
A loud, exaggerated sigh echoed through his mind.
"How are you giving me a migraine? I have no mindddd. Why must you sacrifice so much blood for no reason? Why was I cursed to be your Arch Sin?"
Gluttony complained the entire time—but still summoned the blood.
Alucard shaped it into seven massive spears and launched them toward the spiders.
…Wait.
Why were the spiders already dead?
Alucard slowly turned around, rage burning in his eyes.
Effie was laughing.
Meanwhile, Caster was subtly backing away, clearly convinced Alucard was about to massacre everyone present.
But surprisingly—
Alucard's face was calm.
Serene.
Almost enlightened.
He approached Effie with complete and utter zen.
"Ah. It appears I took too long and you already killed them. Hehe… it was kinda funny how I wasted blood Attacking a corpse...Hehe."
He spoke with perfect tranquility.
"Huh. You're taking this way better than I expected," Effie said with a chuckle.
"Yes. I am far calmer than you would assume."
Alucard gave her a kind smile.
The next instant, a blood spear silently formed above Effie's head and began descending.
Kai immediately grabbed Al's shoulder.
"Hey. Stop it."
Al turned toward Kai like a wounded puppy.
"But she laughed at me, Kai. She stole my thunder."
The handsome archer had absolutely no idea how to respond.
So he just patted Al's back and offered a sympathetic nod.
Soon after, they began stripping useful meat from the spider corpses.
It would've gone much faster if Alucard helped—but he was still sulking.
Eventually, after enough nagging from Effie, he joined in.
Then, after even more nagging, he was somehow convinced to coat the meat in blood and use the Sin of Pride to cook it evenly.
Why was he now a chef?
And of course, Gluttony begged for even a small piece.
Effie ate everything.
Then asked for seconds.
During all this chaos, the only responsible members of the group—Nephis, Sunny, Kai, and Caster—organized and stored the harvested meat inside Effie's and Alucard's storage Memories.
(Clarification on Alucards storage memories:
Alucard has three storage Memories.
• One coffin.
• One for storing soul shards.
• And one dedicated to supplies.
Not hundreds even tho I did make it seem like that before.
Just three.
Ik 3 is still an insane number but you have to also remember he killed more then 2k creatures so I think 3 isn't an insane amount plus we know he was incredibly unlucky with memories
God damnit why did you make him so strong past me why did you have to make me deal with balancing storage memories of all things
Damnation.
Anyways you will get back to your regularly scheduled fanfic in 3,2,1.)
After that, they resumed moving.
Effie and Saint took point.
Nephis covered the right flank.
Sunny guarded the left.
Cassie and Beast stayed in the middle.
Kai scouted from the air.
Meanwhile, Al walked at the back next to Caster, still sulking.
Caster had somehow ended up on emotional-support duty because Alucard couldn't emotionally process having his thunder stolen.
Unfortunately, Alucard was too valuable to leave alone.
So Caster also had to repeatedly ask him to cut through webs whenever necessary.
Then another wave of spiders attacked.
Alucard refused to participate.
He huffed dramatically and turned away, pretending to be deeply offended.
It was honestly comical how much of a fuss he made just because he couldn't aura-farm.
But it didn't matter.
The cohort's firepower was absurd.
They had two extremely powerful Echos—one of them an Awakened Devil.
Though, if Alucard were honest, Beast was noticeably weaker compared to the last time they fought.
Currently, Beast was roughly on par with Sunny's Echo—maybe slightly weaker alone, but far stronger with Alucard's direct support.
Alucard hoped Beast would regain that lost strength—and more—once he ascended.
Beast only needed to kill ten more Blood Beasts before ascending.
That shouldn't be too difficult.
As Alucard drifted deep into thought, they finally reached their destination.
He looked up.
A massive arch towered above them, carved from the same stone used in the walls of the Dark City.
He briefly wondered why something this enormous had been left so far from the city walls.
Then he remembered he could just ask Feltan.
Though knowing Feltan, the answer would probably be something like:
"Oh, that? Yeah, I threw it at an Unholy Titan and killed it instantly when I was two years old."
Or something equally absurd.
Probably best not to overthink it.
Especially since he had to climb that thing before nightfall—or risk becoming fish food.
Speaking of food—
Both Effie and Gluttony were begging again like impatient children.
Alucard reluctantly allowed Gluttony to consume extra blood and handed Effie some rations from storage.
Of course, it came from his portion.
Not because he liked starving of course.
More because he disliked eating anything that didn't involve flesh or blood.
'…I guess I can consider myself a cannibal?'
Gluttony burst into laughter.
"Carnivore. That's the word you're looking for. Cannibal is when you eat your own kind."
With that, Alucard decided to stop thinking.
He approached the massive arch and began climbing, ready to rest his tired body—and his even more tired mind.