C152: Silver Stage of the Vampire path: the Vampire
“Barrier!”
Hazel immediately deployed her barriers, protecting them from the incoming attack. The translucent layers flashed into existence before the blood needles could reach them, and the sharp projectiles struck the defenses with rapid metallic ringing, scattering red droplets across the air.
Gregory’s eyes moved rapidly.
[Tracking!]
Gregory raised his revolver and pointed it in one direction.
Simultaneously, Victor’s form materialized there, immediately flying in a circular path across the church, his body blurring between the broken benches and fractured walls like a shadow.
*BANG! BANG!*
[Precise!]
Victor quickly jerked his head and stopped abruptly, his eyes tracing the silver bullet that flew past him. Cold sweat broke out across his face.
However, while he could see the second bullet, he could not evade it in time.
The second bullet struck his temple. His body instantly exploded into blood, the crimson liquid bursting outward and launching toward Gregory and Hazel like a living trap.
[Blood Substitute!]
As Gregory evaded, he narrowed his eyes and pointed his revolver toward another direction.
*BANG!*
He fired the revolver into empty air.
Victor immediately emerged from that empty space and evaded the bullet, his body twisting aside at an unnatural angle to dodge the incoming bullet.
“SHAAAA!”
Victor shrieked. The high-pitched sound tore through the church and rang violently in the three Inspectors’ ears, leaving them momentarily dazed and disoriented. The world seemed to tilt for an instant, their senses disturbed by the piercing cry.
He waved his hand, sending several blood bullets shooting out before he ran again, his figure blurring through the church.
“Ugh!”
The blood bullets pierced Gregory’s body, injuring him severely. Blood spread across his white attire, and his stance staggered beneath the impact.
“Regenerate!”
A soft voice rang out. A wave of warmth spread through Gregory's body, the wounds on his torso closing and knitting back together.
At that moment, Victor seized the opening. He charged toward Naomi, while simultaneously conjuring two massive blood lances to launch toward Gregory and Hazel to pin them down.
However, before he could reach Naomi, his head erupted in a spray of crimson.
*[Air Bullet!]*
From a distance, Hazel had pointed her arrowhead toward Victor, one hand clutching her stomach. Her face was pale, her lips tight, and a hole had opened on the side of her abdomen.
She had taken a direct hit from the blood lance. Instead of retreating, she had chosen to trade her safety to strike Victor while his focus was diverted.
“Got… you.”
Blood seeped through her fingers, staining her white coat. Yet Hazel forced a dark smile, she released her cursed artifact and collapsed onto the ground.
[Blood Substitute!]
Victor's body exploded into blood, and reformed a short distance away, his gaze bloodshot as he angrily glared at Gregory and Naomi. The whites of his eyes were streaked with violet, and his expression twisted with rage.
“You have made a mista—”
“Let there be light!”
Before Victor could finish, Naomi interrupted him and raised her cane!
Instantly, a sphere of blinding white light bloomed inside the church. The light swallowed the hall in an overwhelming radiance, washing over the broken benches, the bloodstained floor, and the shattered tiles until everything became painfully bright.
“Aggh!”
Victor screamed, his eyes snapping shut against the sudden brilliance. In that moment of blindness, an explosive sound erupted beside his ears.
*Bang!*
[Blood Substitute!]
His body turned into blood, evaded the immediate bullet, and he instantly materialized nearby.
An excruciating pain bloomed in his chest.
“...What?”
He lowered his gaze. Through his blurred vision, he could see something buried in his chest.
A silver knife.
Behind him stood a faceless masked figure. Calmly, emotionlessly, the figure plunged the knife deeper into Victor’s chest.
Before the vampire could even gasp, he drew another knife and drove it into Victor’s head before slashing across his neck.
Before Victor could understand anything, his head fell from his shoulders, rolling across the stone floor with a dull thud.
—
“H—Miss Hazel!”
Naomi frantically ran toward Hazel, who had fallen to the ground. Hazel’s face was pale, her hand clutching the side of her stomach. A hole had opened there, ugly and deep, with blood continuing to gush out and spread beneath her body, staining her torn attire and the broken tiles around her.
“Regenerate!”
She pressed her palms against the wound, a warm golden light appeared. Slowly, the wound on Hazel’s stomach began to regenerate. Torn flesh pulled itself back together, pale bone and ruptured tissue gradually reconnecting. The bleeding slowed, but Hazel’s breathing remained weak and shallow.
“Quickly, please, stay still! Regenerate!”
Naomi urged, her hands trembling. In her haste, she pulled out a small yellow glass vial and brought it to Hazel’s mouth.
She poured part of the liquid between Hazel’s lips, then emptied the other half directly into the wound. The medicine mixed with the blood, releasing a faint scent beneath the heavy blood stench filling the church.
“Ugh…”
Finally, Hazel coughed, and color slowly returned to her body.
Meanwhile, Gregory stood over the headless, unmoving corpse, his expression hardening.
His danger sense had been screaming in the back of his mind for quite some time, and it had not stopped.
‘[Tracking].’
‘[Appraising].’
‘[Scan].’
Gregory's eyes flared golden as he scanned the room. A name, highlighted in yellow, appeared in his vision.
[Victor?]
The question mark meant the man’s name was false, and he had been confirmed to be someone else.
The real Victor had likely died and been replaced by this man.
Yet that raised another question. When had the real Victor been replaced, and how could this fake Victor pretend to be a priest of the White Church for so long without being exposed?
'He must have been replaced around the time the Baroness was brought under their control.'
The Baroness was strong and intelligent. Even if her foresight had been restricted, there was no way she would not have noticed something wrong unless she had also been suffering under someone’s control.
'How could a vampire infiltrate the church and maintain the facade of a holy man?' he wondered.
Gregory had never thought someone could pretend to be one of them. Not to mention, they walked completely different, opposing Paths. Yet a Vampire had pretended to be a White Church priest and walked right beneath their holy sanctuary. How was that possible?
Most priests of the White Church were blessed by the Monarch, a status that allowed them to ascend without the risk of losing control. But at the same time, as Blesses, they were also monitored by the Monarch.
If Victor, a priest who had passed the test of the White Church, died, then the Holy Court should have been the first to notice.
‘There is a loophole? Impossible.’
The realization sent a chill down his spine, making the hair on his arms stand on end.
Even among the four Inspectors here, if one of them died, their candle would be snuffed out, and the others from the outside would know.
‘Did the Holy Court intentionally withhold the information about his death?’ Gregory did not think that was simple. Although sending a team of Low-Stage Farers into a forest marked with an 02 in the code was basically asking them to die, he still did not believe the Holy Court would be that cruel.
‘What if the real Victor is still alive?’
This place was the White Church, a part of His domain.
Yet this fake Victor had stayed here for who knew how long, and still, “He” had not noticed it.
‘Does that mean the real Victor is still somewhere inside the church?’
Gregory retracted his thoughts. This was not the time to be distracted.
He quickly opened the revolver’s cylinder and replaced the bullets. He did not approach the corpse.
Although his eyes told him the body was lifeless, his [Appraising] ability had a different idea.
If Victor were truly dead, then instead of [Victor?], his Appraising ability would have shown [Victor?’s corpse] instead.
‘A Vampire is much harder to kill compared to a Dhampir.’
As he watched, the spilled blood on the floor began to stir, the dark liquid crawling back toward the body like a living thing, slowly reabsorbing into the severed limbs.
Afraid it might be a trap, Gregory did not approach it himself. Instead, he raised his revolver toward the corpse carefully and waited for Hazel to recover.
'It is a misfortune that our ranks lack a Medic of the Silver Sky stage,' he thought grimly.
Despite this fake Victor being momentarily incapacitated, they remained in a precarious position, unable to deliver the finishing blow.
Gregory narrowed his eyes, recalling the information stored in his mind.
Blood Substitute, as the name suggested, was an ability used by Vampire Path Stagefarers to instantly swap their physical body with blood in order to avoid fatal damage. Their real body would then be teleported nearby.
A Silver Sky Stagefarer of the Vampire Path could use four to five Blood Substitutes depending on how much blood they had left and their spiritual reserves.
Because the situation had been urgent earlier, with Hazel fatally wounded and Gregory injured, they had taken a gamble and killed him at his fourth substitute.
A Vampire’s weaknesses were silver to the heart, decapitation, and incineration. But decapitation and incineration could only work after the Vampire had exhausted the limit of their substitutes.
Naomi had used the sphere of light to suppress his power and lessen his spiritual energy. This reduced the chance that he could use his abilities or substitutes, while Troy had waited and plunged the silver knife into his chest and decapitated him.
With the silver knife piercing his heart, the chance of Victor using Blood Substitute to save himself was almost zero. After all, silver could disturb their ability.
Troy’s mask could detect an enemy’s weaknesses, so even if Victor moved his heart to the other side of his chest, Troy would still see it.
‘But it’s not the end.’
Exactly like the situation now, where they still had to remain cautious.
If Gregory was not mistaken, a Vampire had two lives. That was what the records of the White Church taught.
So Victor had not died.
This was merely a trap to make them lower their guard.
They were now placed at a disadvantage. While Gregory knew Victor was preparing to rise with his second life, he could not stop it. His options were limited: either burn the corpse with extreme heat or purify it using Harmony Yan Essence. But both options required a long time to perform properly.
Incineration was not an option here. It would burn along with the White Church. No sane cleric would burn down their own church, that was certain.
It would have been easier if they had a Silver Sky Stage Medic. They could pour a huge amount of Harmony Yan energy into the corpse and purify the Vampire’s second life immediately.
The church had assumed they were only dealing with the Demon of Dispute Order, which mostly contained Violence Faction Paths, so they had not issued a Silver Sky Stage Medic Path team.
They had never expected to deal with a Vampire.
“H-Hazel, please don’t stand up so suddenly!”
“...”
Hazel slowly raised her body. Her face was still pale, but caution and irritation burned in her eyes. She ignored Naomi’s warning and cast a glance toward Troy.
Troy nodded. His figure slowly blurred before disappearing.
“Captain.”
Gregory stood with one hand holding the pipe to inhale, while his other hand gripped his revolver tightly.
“Stay alert. He is returning.”
Hazel picked up her arrowhead. She instantly deployed a shield around herself and barriers around Naomi. Naomi also held her cane tightly, her face tense beneath the lingering glow of the sphere of light.
The sphere of light was still active.
Gregory’s two Restrictions had not ended yet.
As expected, Victor’s corpse slowly liquefied, transforming into blood. The blood flowed upward onto the board, gathering into a thick puddle before reshaping itself again into a human form.
“...”
A young man with pale skin and black hair stood once more. But this time, his eyes were bloodshot, and his sharp fangs were fully revealed.
“How disgraceful.” the man spat, his voice a low, guttural growl of contempt.
He swept his hair back; his attire changed entirely into a coat of blood.