Emlin's body was stiff with terror, and he stood frozen in place, unable to move.
What he faced was the very room that had once belonged to Algos. Because of the mutation, the door and windows of the room had been burst open by grass blades and vines, shards of glass littering the corridor outside.
The door's hinges had snapped, leaving it hanging crookedly to one side and exposing the scene within.
Crimson moonlight poured into the room, illuminating half the floor, and along with it, the lower half of someone's body.
Algos's room held not just the two artificial vampires from before, but a third person as well!
Under the moonlight, grass and foliage crept quietly up the lower half of that person's body.
Compared to the two artificial vampires whose growth had run wild, the plants covering this figure were far more restrained. And yet Emlin felt an overwhelming pressure radiating from this person.
The grass blades were vivid green, the flowers a deep crimson, growing only to wither halfway and become nourishment for new growth in turn.
Vibrant life and desolation existed side by side, swirling together beneath the crimson moonlight as though veiled in a hazy mist of blood.
As for the upper half of the figure, bathed in shadow, only a pair of eyes could be seen, glinting with a red glow.
Spirituality was blaring warnings in his mind, and Emlin found it hard to breathe. He had felt something similar once before, from Lord Nibbs, the ancestor of the Odora family.
A Sequence 4 demigod, or perhaps something even beyond that!
This was absolutely not an opponent he could resist!
he thought, filled with despair, and for a moment he did not even feel the urge to flee. After all, against an enemy like this, running would be utterly meaningless.
He never would have imagined it: he had only just won the Ancestor's favor, joined the Tarot Club, and made a name for himself within the vampire clan, and now he was about to face death... Emlin stood dumbly in place, waiting for his fate.
One second passed.
Two seconds.
...Hm?
Something felt off.
Emlin cautiously opened his eyes, and found that the figure was still standing in the same spot, not attacking him at all.
What was going on?
Steeling his nerve, he took a careful look at the figure across from him.
Using his vampire night vision, he finally made out that the grass covering this powerful Beyonder had not spread over the entire body, but had only crept up past the waist, and was still slowly writhing.
The figure's expression was hazy and distant, murmuring something under its breath that seemed to resonate with the grass and foliage.
Was this... resisting the encroachment, or merging with the plants?
Whichever it was, this dangerous being's attention was fixed entirely on itself, not on Emlin at all!
Emlin felt a sudden wave of relief.
If that was the case, then couldn't he simply slip quietly away and escape?
His will to survive flared up again, and Emlin didn't hesitate, springing into action at once.
The apartment's other residents had already fled, so there was no need to worry about anyone else being caught up in this. Keeping his eyes fixed tightly on the figure, he began moving with great caution.
He first picked up the two severed heads lying on the ground, then started stepping backward, retreating little by little.
There was no time left to wait for those two characteristics to be extracted, but at the very least he could carry away the proof of his kills.
One step, two steps.
Emlin's movements were slow and silent. It took him dozens of seconds, but gradually he put distance between himself and that dangerous room, and that dangerous person.
Good... just a few more meters back, and he could spread his wings and fly straight away.
Joy at the thought of surviving welled up in his heart. The corner of his mouth twitched, but before a smile could fully form, he heard it: thud thud thud thud!
A series of hurried footsteps suddenly rang out, coming up from the stairwell outside the apartment.
Quiet, quiet down!
Emlin whipped around in fright and saw a group of people in black formal wear running up the stairs.
They froze for a moment upon seeing him, then without hesitation raised the revolvers in their hands.
"Click click click!"
In an instant, at least six or seven pistols were leveled at him. The gleam of metal and the red gloves gripping the pistol handles caught his eye all at once.
"Drop what you're holding and surrender immediately!"
someone shouted sternly at him.
Me?
Emlin instinctively glanced down at himself.
In the chaos of the apartment, he was standing there holding two bloody, twisted severed heads, his vampire wings spread wide behind him. However he looked at it, he did not look like a good person.
And these people, dressed like that... red gloves of the Church of the Evernight?!
His expression immediately twisted into a knot of conflict.
Ahead of him was a whole group of official Nightwatchers, and behind him was a terrifying demigod on the verge of losing control. Could his luck possibly get any worse?
"Surrender! Or we open fire!"
the Nightwatchers warned him again.
"Don't shout, keep your voice down!"
Emlin snapped back to his senses and quickly lowered his voice. "Don't wake that thing up!"
To make his point more convincing, he instinctively tried to wave his arm, only to send the two severed heads flopping up and down along with the motion.
But the Nightwatchers were unmoved.
"Whatever you have to say, you can say it after you come back with us."
the man leading the group said flatly.
"Crack!"
The next instant, the sound of shattering glass rang out. Emlin opened his eyes to find that he had already been subdued, a pair of sealed iron cuffs now clamped around his wrists.
Had he just fallen asleep?
Yes, it was the Nightwatchers' ability to pull people into dreams!
Realizing this, Emlin lifted his head and saw a familiar face: black hair, green eyes, handsome and a touch flippant.
Leonard Mitchell!
The World knew him. He had once even asked Emlin to buy Beyonder goods together with Leonard.
"It's you..."
Emlin said reflexively.
But Leonard gave a slight shake of his head, likely not wanting his own affairs exposed in front of everyone.
"Watch out!"
It took Emlin a second to understand the situation, and then panic surged through him again.
Because he saw several of the red gloves walking toward the open room. "There's a Sequence 4 about to lose control in there!"
"What did you say?"
Leonard could hardly believe his own ears.
"Come back!"
Their captain, Soest, immediately called out to the teammates who had already gone ahead.
But it was already too late.
"Aaaaah!"
Just as they cried out, the teammates who had looked into the room were suddenly gripped by overwhelming panic, and heedless of anything else, they raised the revolvers in their hands.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The ear-splitting gunfire rang out.
It's over...
Emlin thought in despair.
The next instant, disaster struck without warning!
"Roooarrr..."
Everyone present heard a furious roar erupt without warning, a sound that seemed to reverberate directly within the depths of every heart, shaking their very souls!
"Shhk!"
Two crimson blades of blood shot forth, and the red gloves who had gone in were effortlessly cut in half at the waist.
"Fall back..."
Soest's eyes went wide as he hissed out the command.
Because at that very moment, a profusion of plants surged out from within the room, clustering around a twisted silhouette that emerged into the moonlight!