Loopshard

Since the Relic Chest was still open and no one had grabbed the Shapeshifter’s Claw, Adam took it and gave it to Sofia.

“You’ll make the most use out of this for now,” he said. “But try and let Luo use it so we can figure out if it works with his weapon.”

“How did you do that?” she whispered, a bit terrified of how easily Adam had killed Aeran.

He shook his head. “Aeran died to the bloodfiends, and that is the story we’re going with.”

Kateřina slept next to Aeran’s dead body, which was kind of disturbing, but she had resisted any attempts to move his corpse, though she had allowed Father Mathias to bless him once he had stopped breathing.

Of all the ways Adam had killed someone, this was by far the worst. It felt vile to bleed someone to death slowly, but he had failed in delivering a decisive blow to Aeran’s brain, and any further manipulation of the blood could’ve given Adam away. It reminded him that he didn’t fully understand what he was doing when he tore his magic through someone’s insides.

Hopefully I won’t have to make a choice like that again, but Aeran would’ve been a threat if we let him be, and if I had been obvious about the way I killed him, then I would’ve had to fight Kateřina. She has killed other Players purely to get Points, so she is not without sin, but I’d like to believe she could be someone good if given the chance, now that she’s free of his influence.

While the bloodfiends rampaged outside in the dark, Adam could tell how they kept prodding the church’s defences, trying to find a way to break through.

If a second-generation vampire is similar to me in terms of weakness to holy magic, then I don’t know what’s stopping them from forcing their way in or using ranged attacks to put holes in the building.