'Damn, Whoever owns this footprint is probably already dead.' Eric thought as he stepped over a small puddle of blood for the umpteenth time. After following the footprints for a while, Eric had been able to fully calm himself down from his initial panic mode, and that had caused him to notice even more things he had missed before.
The footprints were scattered and heavy, showing that the owner was probably drunk or heavily injured. Eric chose the latter because of the droplets and puddles of blood that appeared occasionally beside the footprints and also because, so far, he had yet to see an alcohol-selling shop in Dreamscape.
The footprints also sank more deeply into the ground than normal ones, showing that the owner was carrying something heavy. How Eric deduced this, he didn't know.
"I guess three years in this place taught me something."
-----------------
Soon Eric reached a clearing in the cut-down forest, though it would be more accurate to say the trees in this part were blown away by something. The blown-away trees gathered around the clearing, forming a circle. And in the middle of this circle was...
'A woman?' Eric thought to himself. She lay face down in the middle of the clearing, her hair sprawled across the floor. Her body was slowly twitching.
Eric cautiously inched closer to get a better look.
"Hoi, don't go near her." A masculine voice jolted him.
Eric swiftly turned around. A few steps away from him was the white-haired priest. He sat on the ground resting against a tree stump.
'The exact person I wanted to see.' A smile appeared on Eric's face. He started walking towards the priest but suddenly stopped in his tracks. Eric's face visibly paled as a look of horror replaced his beaming smile.
The priest with pristine white hair and clothing was now covered in blood. His clothes were torn in different places, and blood flowed continually from his eyes; he had been blinded. Sticking out of his body were numerous tree branches. Embedded in his chest was a large branch covered in blood. He wasn't resting against the tree stump; he had been impaled. Eric had seen much monster brutality in his three years in dreamscape, yet none of it horrified him more than the scene in front of him. No one was supposed to be alive after all this, yet somehow this priest was still breathing.
Eric subconsciously took a step backwards.
"Monster..." He involuntarily muttered.
"Ah... If you call me that... it makes me sad." The priest said quietly and chuckled weakly.
"You, you're that kid from before, right?" He asked.
"What happened to you?" Eric finally asked.
"Nothing much. Just trying to behead a progenitor vampire."
"Vampire—"
"Ah~" Eric was interrupted by a soft voice. He turned around and saw that the woman on the floor was slowly moving. Upon closer look, he noticed her neck had been severed halfway. He slowly moved away from her towards the priest.
"That's a vampire?" He asked fearfully.
"Is she moving?" The priest asked.
"Yes."
"Ah... this is bad. She's already healing."
Something about the way the priest spoke gave Eric an unsettling feeling. He spoke in a way that suggested that the situation was not good, yet there was no sense of urgency in his voice.
"What do we do?"
"I can't do anything; there's a stick in my chest."
"Well... but what is going to happen if she heals completely?"
"Hm? She'll probably not kill us. The last time we tried to kill her, she only locked us up. So she probably won't kill us this time either... probably."
"Probably?! Look! I don't understand what is going on, and I don't really care, but I really need to go back home!"
"Huh? What are you talking about? You already did?"
"Yet somehow I'm back here and apparently about to get caught in the crossfirebetween you and a vampire. Look I need you to tell me how you got me home—"
"Ah~ Hermes? Who is that? You didn't tell me you had friends?"
Eric shivered at the voice. He faced the vampire, who was on her knees. Her body injuries were healing at a visible rate. She stared at Eric with a smile.
"A human? In dreamscape?" She turned to the impaled priest.
"Hermes, Did you and your brother bring him here?"
Eric noticed as her smile deepened when she faced the priest. If she wasn't a bloodthirsty vampire, it would have looked like she was really happy to see him.
"Hey kid?" Eric took a step backwards.
"How did you get here?"
"I-I don't know," Eric replied.
"Don't answer her. She'll get in your head."
Eric instantly covered his mouth with his hands. The vampire's grin grew before turning into a look of disgust as she touched her own neck. Although most of her body had healed, her neck seemed like it was refusing to. It would heal to a certain extent and then split open by itself again. The same with the lower part of her legs, making her unable to stand.
"Why would you say that, Hermes? You're making me sound like a bad person." She smiled again, looking at Hermes.
"Seeing as you can now yap, I guess you've healed to a certain point. I almost thought you'd never be able to speak again, seeing as your neck isn't really connected."
'Is this guy crazy? Why the hell are you provoking her? What if she loses it and lunges at us? Her hands are already healed."
Contrary to Eric's thought, though. Her smile only grew. She was enjoying it.
"How do you know my neck hasn't healed? You can't see."
"If you had healed. There'll be no reason for you to talk to me from so far away."
The vampire wrapped her hands around herself with a smile filled with obsession. "Yeees!!! I'll have you in my arms now. Ah~ You look so beautiful with so much blood on you."
"Filthy demon." Hermes said with disgust.
"Hoi kid, you need to get this branch out of my chest." He said.
"What? How? Besides, even if I could, what can you do? You're blind."
"You moron, We don't have much time. The residual divine energy stopping her neck from regenerating will soon wear off. She'll imprison me and kill you. If you think your ability to outrun her would suffice, be my guest, but I can assure you it wouldn't. Your only hope here is me. I thought you wanted to return home?"
Eric stared at the priest. "Tch, fine. I'll trust you, white."
"White? Did you just name us in your mind according to the colors of our hair?"
"Is that really important? There's a vampire in front of us. What should I do?"
"My name is Hermes, and what do you mean, what should you do? Break the branch and pull me out of it."
"Huh?" Eric said, dumbfounded.
"What?"
"Don't what me! I'm a human kid. How am I supposed to break this huge branch?!"
Silence
The priest was blind, but Eric could tell if the priest had eyes; he was probably looking at him with the most disapproving gaze.
"Really? You spent three years in this place, and you don't have the bare minimum strength to break a tree branch?"
"Don't say it so disappointedly like that."
"You moron!"
"You sure like saying 'moron' a lot."
"Do you think you survived this place for three years just by your normal human strength?" Hermes asked.
"No, of course not. I know my body changed. I don't get tired easily, and I can regenerate. Even I know that much." Eric replied
"Exactly, and why do you think that is?"
"I don't know, probably because I came here."
"Wrong! Your body didn't change because you came here. You came here because your body changed. There's no time to explain. We're too late; the residual divine power has worn off. Listen up, kid, your whole world is about to change—well, it has already changed. I'll explain later, but for now, this is going to hurt."
Stab!!
A small blade went through Eric's chest, stabbing his heart.
Insta-Killed
Eric's face blurred slowly. He saw a chain connected to the end of the dagger; holding the other end of the chain was Hermes.
'He killed me?'
"Did you just kill your friend? I was going to kill him anyway. Hermes, my neck is healing." The vampire said with a smile.
Eric's standing body slowly began to fall forward. Suddenly his leg shot out and stabilized his body, preventing his fall. A reddish dark fog started oozing out of his skin. Eric's body was moving on its own.
Eric's mouth suddenly opened as a voice deeper than his normal one came out.
"I smell vampires."
The vampire matriarch, already on her feet, noticed the changes on Eric's body. Her brows furrowed as she muttered. "Reaper?"
She looked at Hermes. On his face was a large smile as he mouthed something to her.
"Guard your neck."
The reddish dark fog soon covered Eric's body and disappeared, changing his appearance.
He seemingly grew a little bit taller; his face became more mature. It was as though he became a little older. His hair turned blond. His clothes became a neat black suit covered by a black cloak inlaid with gold; behind it was a large gold cross. Cross-shaped brooches hung from his cloak. He looked exactly like the priests when he first met them. Around his neck was a blood-red scarf blowing in the wind.
He held a gold-plated pistol larger than normal in his right hand. The pistol emitted gold energy rays. In his left hand was a rectangular gold case glittering under the light of the colorful dreamscape sky.
The new Eric stood emitting the aura of a powerful person. He slowly corked his gun, his golden pupils moved as he glanced at the vampire.
Immediately, the matriach subconciously held her neck.