"You're just wasting my time, Roxy, fun time's over"
With a flick of his mutated wrist, his old human skill...Vanishing...activated. Spatial ripples distorted the air, and a heavy black spear materialized directly into his grip. I narrowed my eyes and locked onto the weapon, casting my Appraisal skill instantly.
My heart chilled. The spear tip wasn't ordinary steel; it was forged from the exact same dark, violet-sheened metal as the Demon Valkyrie Longsword...the very same alloy as the bayonet mounted beneath my gun. It carried both Lifeline and Mist Blade.
"For a pinch of salt," Edrie purred maliciously.
Without hesitation, he drove the point of the blade directly into his own palm. Fresh, virus-laced black-red blood gushed over the blade tip before his rapid flesh regeneration snapped the wound shut...far stronger than standard healing magic, though still shy of high-tier Divine Regeneration.
"One scratch, One single cut, and my virus enters your bloodstream. You and your little paladin friend will be turned before the moon sets."
Then Plasma goes through my thoughts, as expected, he was been silent ever since we got here.
"It's true Eirene, that bastard is infected."
In the blink of an eyes, he lunged forward, bursting into a terrifying sprint.
"Patricia! Protect Catherine! His spear can phase through solid objects...don't try to block it with your armor or sword!"
"Got it!" Patricia shouted back, instantly lunging back to stand defensively over Catherine's limp body.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Heavy crimson blood-bullets exploded from the barrel of Don't Ask?, ripping into Edrie's chest at point-blank range. But the monster surged right through the barrage, his virus-mutated body knitting together as fast as the rounds tore him open. He thrust the deadly, blood-smeared spear straight for my heart, expecting the phase-through attribute of Mist Blade to pass effortlessly through my gun and pierce my chest.
CLANG!
A violent shower of dark sparks erupted into the night air.
I swung the under-barrel bayonet upward, catching his spear point dead center. Because both of our blades were forged from the exact same Triangulum-class fallen angel alloy, their phase-shifting properties canceled each other out...steel hitting steel with deafening force.
Edrie's eyess widened in brief shock as our weapons locked, our faces inches apart.
"What's the matter, Edrie? Did you forget who originally brought that metal into this continent?"
"Shut up! You're just a human turned into a vampire!" Edrie roared.
Before I could lock my footing, he slammed a heavy, virus-enhanced boot straight into my stomach. The raw kinetic force sent me flying backward through the air, my boots scraping violently across the gravel.
"Eirene!" Patricia barked.
Capitalizing on the sudden opening, Patricia moved like a blur. As expected of a seasoned member of my big brother's elite party, her battle instincts were terrifying. She surged around Edrie's flank and drove her rapier straight through his back with a wet, brutal CRACK.
Edrie shrieked, his mutated body spinning around as he thrust his blood-smeared spear directly at her throat. Knowing better than to try and parry a phasing blade, Patricia didn't attempt to block. Instead, she snapped a heavy front kick straight into the shaft of his spear to alter its trajectory, spun on her heel, and drove a vicious second stab straight into his chest.
She was an absolute monster in close-quarters combat.
Seeing my chance, I instantly dismissed Don't Ask? back into my spatial ring and materialized my heavy Death Chant Shotgun...affectionately dubbed Means of Communication.
Closing the gap in a fraction of a second, I pressed the massive twin barrels directly against the small of Edrie's back.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three point-blank shotgun rounds fed by my own blood tore through his spine and torso, exploding out his chest in a gushing fountain of black-red, infected blood that splashed heavily across the dark stone.
"Patricia, fall back! His blood carries the virus! It's completely bloodborne...don't let a single drop touch your mucous membranes! Cover your mouth, nose, ears, and keep your eyess clear!"
Patricia instantly leapt backward, covering her face with her armored forearm and wiping away any airborne mist before it could hit her eyess.
"Understood!" she called back, her rapier held high and dripping with black gore.
Between the shattered rock and the pool of viral blood, Edrie fell forward onto his knees, his spine half-severed...yet his disfigured, blueish flesh was already writhing, trying desperately to knit itself back together.
"Damn you!" Edrie shrieked, his voice distorted into a guttural roar.
He spun his entire upper body in a sudden, violent arc, snapping his massive black wing around like a razor-sharp whip. The hardened, bone-tipped edges slashed through my abdomen, slicing through my outer armor and deep into my bowel.
Pain flared bright and hot across my midsection, but I gritted my teeth. Thank god his wing wasn't smeared with that viral blood.
Before the wound could drain my strength, the heavy blood-siphon effect built into my Death Chant rounds kicked in. The raw damage from those three point-blank shotgun blasts surged through my body as vampiric lifesteal, stitching my sliced gut back together in a warm, rapid pulse of flesh and blood.
Edrie, however, was far from done.
The brutal damage we had inflicted on him triggered another one of his original Capital Knight abilities...Retribution. The more blood he spilled and the more punishment his body absorbed, the more monstrous his physical attributes skyrocketed. His blueish muscles swelled, veins bulging black against his pale skin, and a wave of pure, crushing aura exploded outward from his body.
With his strength fully restored and amplified beyond human limits, Edrie lunged straight for Patricia like a runaway train.
"Watch out!" I shouted.
Patricia didn't attempt to parry his sheer force. She read his trajectory instantly, dropping into a tight slide beneath his wild spear thrust. But Edrie was faster than before...his boosted momentum nearly caught her off guard. As he surged over her, Patricia ducked lower, used her momentum, and whipped her rapier across his heel in a blinding flash, completely severing his Achilles tendon.
Edrie stumbled with a wet crunch, his leg collapsing under the sudden structural failure.
I didn't give him a second to adapt. Having switched back to my Death Chant Tommy Gun, I closed the gap like a shadow and opened fire directly into his chest.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
The barrage tore his chest cavity open, sending spray after spray of infected blood flying across the stone and splashing against my clothes and boots. Ignoring the viral mist coating my gear, I lunged forward and slammed the dark-violet bayonet mounted beneath Don't Ask? straight through his sternum, pinning his chest to the solid rock beneath us.
The anti-heal properties of the Demon Valkyrie alloy flared to life. The Lifeline attribute instantly locked onto his biological grid, slashing his viral regeneration and monster health recovery down by seventy percent. The writhing, mutating flesh in his chest suddenly froze, unable to knit over the dark blade.
Edrie choked on his own black blood, his red eyess bulging as he stared up at me, trapped under the weight of my weapon.
"Enough, you pests! I am your future Archdemon of Pride!"
Driven to absolute frenzy, his Retribution skill flared to its absolute limit. Reaching into the open wound in his sternum, he scooped a handful of his own thick, virus-laced black blood and hurled it violently toward Patricia's face.
Patricia's paladin instincts saved her. She leaped backward, but a spray of the toxic mist landed squarely across her cheeks and forehead. Keeping her head, she carefully brought up a clean cloth to wipe the liquid away from her skin without rubbing it toward her eyess, nose, or mouth...though the cautious, precise motion cost her precious seconds, temporarily taking her out of the fight.
Taking advantage of my bayonet keeping him pinned, Edrie grabbed a heavy handful of dirt and sharp gravel from the ledge and threw it straight into my face.
The grit slammed into my eyess. Blinded and stinging, my sight failed for a critical second. I blindly swung the bayonet, keeping up a desperate, erratic burst of fire with Don't Ask?, but without his spear in hand, Edrie relied on raw, monstrous physical power.
His mutated hand shot out through the smoke and clamped around my right wrist like a iron vise.
Boosted by maximum Retribution stacks, his strength was terrifying. Before I could pull back, Edrie violently twisted my right arm.
CRACK-SNAP!
A sickening crunch echoed across the plateau as my radius and ulna snapped under the pressure. The jagged white edge of a compact bone fracture burst through the skin of my forearm, exposed to the cold mountain air.
"AAAARGH!"
A sharp, agonizing scream ripped from my throat as white-hot pain flashed behind my eyess. I instantly activated my pain manipulation, dampening the sheer shock racing through my nervous system, but the structural damage was done...my right arm hung mangled, my grip on the Tommy gun faltering.
"EIRENE!" Patricia yelled, wiping the last of the blood from her face and surging forward, her rapier poised to run him through from behind.
Before she could reach us, Edrie's twisted, blueish face lunged forward. Opening his jaw unnaturally wide, he drove his jagged teeth deep into the flesh of my broken right arm, locking his jaw like a rabid beast.
With a sickening, wet tearing sound, Edrie ripped his head back, taking a massive chunk of flesh cleanly out of my broken right forearm. Blood spurted onto the gravel as he swallowed it whole, smacking his lips with a twisted, ecstatic grin.
"Ah... marvellous, so this is the rich, iron taste of a true noble vampire!"
Before he could savor it further, Patricia materialized above him like a vengeful spirit. Her rapier flashed in the moonlight as she drove the blade straight into his heart with everything she had, burying the hilt deep into his chest.
Edrie didn't even flinch.
Amplified by his maxed-out Retribution, he simply swung his lower body around and unleashed a brutal, horse-like mule kick directly into her sternum. The impact sounded like a thunderclap. Patricia was launched backward through the air, crashing hard into a rock formation dozens of feet away with a sickening thud, dropping her weapon as she slid into the dirt.
Meanwhile, a violent, burning chill shot through my veins, radiating outward from my ruined arm.
The virus.
My legs gave out completely. I collapsed onto my side in the dirt, clutching my bleeding, mangled arm as my vision swam with dark, sickly purple veins spreading rapidly across my skin.
"Poor, poor Roxy, In less than thirty seconds, that ancient strain will reach your brain stem. You'll lose your mind and become just another mindless thrall in my horde. I have no intention of killing you outright...you're far more useful to me as a monster."
He threw his head back and laughed, a cruel, echoing sound that filled the dark mountain ravine.
"Fun's over," he declared abruptly, his grin fading into cold calculation.
Activating his Vanishing magic, the heavy black spear in the ground dissolved into spatial ripples before materializing back into his blood-stained palm. His body began to blur at the edges, slowly turning translucent as he prepared to retreat into the shadows.
"You... bastard..." I rasped, forcing my teeth together through the searing fever taking over my mind.
Gritting my teeth against the blinding pain and the dark haze clouding my thoughts, I forced my left arm up.
Raising Means of Communication with one hand, I aimed blindly through my failing vision and slammed my finger onto the trigger.
BOOM! BOOM!
The heavy blood-shotgun blasted twin clouds of lead through the mountain air, shattering rocks and cutting through the darkness...but the rounds struck nothing but empty mist.
He was gone.
The silence of the mountains descended once more, broken only by my heavy, ragged gasps and the countdown ticking in my head as the virus rushed toward my brain.
The second Edrie vanished, the internal clock in my head hit twenty-two seconds.
"Eirene! You got bit!" Patricia gasped, stumbling over from the rocks, her breath ragged and her face pale as she saw my mangled, bleeding forearm.
"Stay... back..." I choked out.
I knew this ancient plague far better than she did. It didn't just corrupt the flesh; it hunted the soul. The symptoms surged through my nervous system like liquid fire, and suddenly, the world lost all color, bathed in a sickening, flashing crimson hue.
The virus fed on pure, unadulterated violence and hate.
Fifteen seconds left.
As the infection clawed its way up my shoulder toward my brain stem, my own mind turned against me. Ghostly, terrifying specters of my childhood...the pain, the abandonment, the crushing isolation, every dark and buried memory I had ever tried to drown...exploded behind my eyeslids all at once. Every ounce of suppressed agony roared back to life, twisting into a dark, suffocating rage that begged me to tear everything around me to shreds.
Thick, unnatural white foam began spilling from the corners of my mouth. My left hand twitched violently, fingers curling like talons against the dirt.
There was only one way to stop it before the twenty-second mark wiped my consciousness forever.
"Patricia... cut it... OFF! CUT OFF THE ARM!"
"What?! No! I can't..."
"DO IT NOW! IF IT REACHES MY BRAIN, I'LL KILL YOU! CUT IT DOWN FROM THE ELBOW! NOW!"
Her breath hitched, her knuckles turning bone-white around the hilt of her rapier. Realizing the horror of the alternative, her paladin hesitation shattered into cold, desperate resolve.
"Forgive me, Eirene!"
Patricia raised her blade high and brought it down with terrifying, full-force momentum.
SLASH!
The razor-sharp edge bit deep into my right arm just below the elbow joint. The blade tore through skin and severed thick, purple-stained muscle fibers with a wet, sickening pop. Blood sprayed violently across Patricia's face and chest as she yanked the sword back and struck again.
CRUNCH-SLASH!
Tendon after tendon snapped under the repeated, desperate hacking. The blade ground hard against the dense ulna bone, sending sharp, agonizing vibrations through my entire nervous system. I shrieked into the dirt, my left hand digging deep into the soil as Patricia swung a third time with all her body weight.
THWACK-CRACK!
The bone finally gave way with a splintering snap. With a sickening, wet tearing of the remaining skin and nerve tendrils, my lower right arm severed completely, dropping onto the cold mountain gravel like a piece of butchered meat.
The infected limb didn't even bleed red anymore...it immediately began twisting and blackening on the ground, swelling with foul, bubbling dark puss as the virus tried to consume the detached flesh.
I collapsed backward onto the stone, my chest heaving, drenched in cold sweat and black-red blood, staring up at the moon through swimming, tear-filled vision as the fever in my brain slowly, agonizingly began to recede.
"Eirene... are you okay?" Patricia gasped, dropping to her knees beside me, her breath coming in ragged hitches as she stared down at the bloody stump of my arm.
"Yes," I rasped out, forcing air back into my burning lungs.
"I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry, Eirene, I didn't want to… If Elias sees you like this... if your brother finds out what happened to you on my watch..."
"Don't, he'd have done the exact same thing. You saved my life, Patricia. Don't waste your tears over a arm that can be replaced."
Closing my eyess for a fraction of a second, I focused inward and dialed up my Pain Manipulation. The excruciating, white-hot agony radiating from my right elbow immediately chilled, dulling down to a distant, manageable throb. I tore a strip of clean cloth from my cloak, wrapping the stump tight to staunch the remaining bleed before pulling myself up with my left hand, standing tall despite the sway in my step.
I picked up my shotgun, storing it back into my ring with a faint shimmer, and turned toward the glowing lights of the valley below.
"Patricia, let's go to Lulu City."