"Interesting. Take your share of ice too," I drawled, and another "crystal spear" pierced the soldier, pinning him to the trunk of an old oak like a beetle on a pin. The tree shuddered, and thin icy cracks ran across its bark.
Another soldier stepped forward — too close, too overconfident. A horizontal slash, a spin, a sweep… Understanding flickered in his eyes: he was too late. Flames erupted from his hand, but I'd already dropped low, diving into a low rush, sliding across the ground. One dagger sank into his groin, the other into his neck. Blood spurted in a warm wave, splashing my face; a smile started to form on my lips, which I immediately tried to wipe away, feeling the thrill boiling in my veins. Grabbing the limp body, I hurled it straight into the ranks of his comrades — a living battering ram that shattered their formation.
"Ice mouse," and an icy bat tore from my hand. It slammed into the two soldiers I'd just thrown the corpse at, and the magic exploded with a crunch like the cracking of a frozen lake. The soldiers froze in grotesque poses — ice statues with blood turned to needles of ice inside them. Even their final screams froze in their throats.
In the next instant, the daggers vanished, replaced by the heavy "Maul," which I enveloped in a whirlwind of "storm magic." The air around it crackled with tension. I activated "Blood Veil" and appeared right before the shield wall — as if from nowhere, a fraction of a second before they could close their ranks. The blow struck like a bulldozer hitting a wall.
The formation crumbled like a house of cards. Two men were crushed, torn in half by the force of the impact; those on the edges were pierced by a golden lightning bolt. Their armour flared up and instantly turned black.
I switched weapons again, this time to "Slashing Strike," and simply vanished right before the remaining soldiers' eyes.
Only the fountains of crimson spray that leapt up after each blow betrayed my presence — silent flowers of death blooming in the night.
When the wave of blood drenched me from head to toe, when the metallic taste lingered on my lips and a chilling grin involuntarily stretched across my face — one I found harder and harder to hide — I broke the distance and drew my "longbow."
A shot — and one soldier's hand opened like a flower with its core ripped out. Another shot — and the shield-bearing soldier collapsed, pierced through; the arrow also caught a few of the scarce "casters" the Knight was dealing with. Their spells choked off before they could even take shape.
A group of swordsmen charged at me — fierce, desperate, filled with grim determination. I drew the bowstring, and instead of a single arrow, five blazed to life upon it. I released. The attack fizzled out before it could even begin.
A couple of minutes later, it was all over. The battlefield had turned into a graveyard strewn with bodies, as if someone had carelessly tossed aside broken dolls.
I stood among the corpses, absorbing their blood with "blood magic," feeling their strength flow through my veins, mingling with my rage.
"Interesting. Not a single one of them fled. These were far better than the last group — those scattered after losing four men. What were they called again… 'Infection Capture Squads,' right? But these… these fought to the end. Almost admirable. Out of respect, I didn't just kill them with magic right away — I gave them a chance. It may sound strange, but I value those who don't run."
"Respect?" the Knight tossed out coldly, his voice like a blade drawn across stone.
"You literally tore some of them apart."
I turned to him, raising an eyebrow, and smirked — not in kindness, but as if laughing at the very idea of honour on the battlefield.
"There's no honour in battle. You can cloak your killings in 'humane' methods, but it's still murder. All those pretty words they taught you to mask killing — they're just confetti. They fall, swirl, and disappear while you raise your blade again. Don't think I'm justifying my methods; they're simply effective. They make the enemy hesitate, make them stare a moment too long at their fallen comrade — leaving them open for my next strike," I said with a smirk, finishing the last part of my monologue.
"I won't follow your fighting style, Master," the Knight said after a stretch of silence.
"I'm not forcing you to. In fact, I'm glad you won't fight that way. Otherwise, Serdolika would be the only voice of reason among us. Right, my dear battle companion?" I lifted Serdolika into the air, once again interrupting her from devouring a small piece of originium. She tried to stab me in response, but I dodged nimbly and set her back down.
"Ha‑ha, alright, alright, I won't disturb your feast."
Once I'd finished replenishing my blood reserves, I took out two shovels and handed one to the Knight. He looked at me with a gaze that held far too many questions. Ha‑ha, I could sense it even through his helmet.
"What? It'd be inhumane to leave them for the wild beasts to tear apart. We need to bury them."
"Master, you…" the Knight began, but didn't finish.
"Come on, don't argue, just start digging the holes. Or are you too 'noble' by birth to do such dirty work?" I clearly heard the shovel I'd given him start to creak under his grip, but he began digging the earth in silence.
After a while, I heard the Knight's disgruntled voice.
"Master, try not to gut the enemies you're planning to bury." That remark made me freeze with my shovel in hand for a second — then I burst out laughing.
"Damn, Saber, you're damn right. Ha‑ha‑ha, I didn't even think of that. Alright, I'll keep it in mind next time."
When we'd finished burying the bodies and I'd set up crosses with names on them, the Knight came up to me.
"Master, how do you know their names?"
"From the blood, of course. Before burying them, I took a little from each. It's not enough to see their lives, but enough to learn their names. Blood memory… it's a strange thing."
"Master, when you drink blood, do you see your victims' lives? How haven't you gone mad?"
I shook my head, staring past the graves into the darkness that felt far more familiar to me than any light.
"To inherit someone's life path, you have to drain them to the last drop. And even then, I don't feel their emotions or desires. If I drink blood from vials, I only get skills, instincts, reflexes — not memories. The blood itself decides what to leave in my mind and what to wash away like foam from water. Maybe it's some kind of protective mechanism. Or just the irony of fate."
"What do we do now, Master? We've lost your quarry again."
My gaze turned sharp as a blade. A grin slowly spread across my face — not a cheerful one, but predatory.
"We'll pay a visit to the representative of the 'old nobility' who's standing in our way. And we'll kill him. Publicly. With particular cruelty. Along with anyone who gets in our path. Maybe not just one. Who knows…"
The air seemed to grow heavier, thick like it does before a storm. I raised an eyebrow, looking at the Knight.
"Master, are you planning to declare war on an entire nation?"
"If I have to." Then I crossed my arms over my chest and fixed my gaze on the cloud‑covered sky.
"Hmm, I think you don't fully understand. You see, if something tries to kill me, I kill it. I don't care about the consequences, because I live in the here and now. I don't care who it is — a god, a human, or some unknown monster. I'll kill them all. I also don't care how many enemies I have to kill if they're trying to kill me. A small group, a hundred people, or an entire country. I won't even try to conform to anyone else's opinion. I might consider it, but only if it doesn't contradict my own."
The Knight's grip on the shovel tightened until the long‑suffering metal looked ready to snap at any moment.
"So, pride drives you, Master?"
I snorted, looking away from the clouds, and took up the shovel again, driving it into the ground with a kind of lazy force.
"If pride were the only thing driving me, would I be burying my enemies? This world isn't mine, and I'm not going to play by its rules. Will I die for it, truly and finally? Maybe. Maybe I even deserve it, and let the common folk feast on my bones afterward. But I won't pretend to accept this rotten system."
Then I fell silent for a while. Once I'd finished the last grave, I turned my gaze back to the Knight.
"This world is repulsive. A human life is worth nothing here. People who need healing are treated as nothing but slaves, and little villages aren't even marked on the maps of the big cities. The powerful exploit that to their advantage. Those who try to change things still end up playing by their rules, which makes all their efforts pointless. Some treat people not even as slaves, but as lab rats, running experiments on them. I fucking refuse to play by their rules—even if it means I'll vanish into oblivion. I'll live the way I was taught: head held high. I won't tolerate what I despise; I'll destroy it. I won't conform to the 'this is normal here' or 'we can't do anything' mindset."
"Master, how do you know all this?" the Knight suddenly asked.
"Memory can fail. Blood doesn't. It remembers everything."
"Master, but it's your impulsive behaviour that made them attack in the first place."
"I know. But I refused to accept their 'normal' and spoke out against it. So what will you do, Knight? Will you stop me, or will you walk away? What I'm planning will lead to even more deaths—perhaps even to a full‑scale war with an entire nation. And even if things go smoothly here, I might well do the same in another country."
The Knight stood motionless for a long time, staring into my single eye as if trying to read something unknown within it.
"I am your Lancer‑class servant, Master. I will accompany you in this world until your very last breath."
The vampire looked at the Knight strangely—as if he'd heard something both absurd and strangely precious at the same time.
"You're odd. If I were an ordinary man wielding your power, I'd kill myself to prevent so much death."
With that, the vampire turned and began walking in a direction known only to him. He didn't notice the Knight's final words.
"As long as you understand that, I'll stay by your side."