To become a king and a magician

"Vampires' immortality comes from their blood, which is the source of their power. To maintain their immortality, they need to consume a lot of blood. If they don't have enough blood, their immortality will be greatly weakened until they can no longer regenerate."

"In other words, we just need to keep beating him until he can't regenerate anymore."

Arcueid's explanation reassured Natsukawa Tora slightly—this was something he excelled at.

But just then, his phone, which he had just put in his pocket, suddenly rang. Natsukawa Tora took it out and answered, "Hello—"

"Junior! Is Arcueid with you?!"

It was Aozaki Aoko's voice. She sounded like she was running, with obvious panting and whistling wind.

"Yeah, you're with me, so what?"

"I'm heading to the North Exit Station now! There's another fire there! You should head there too!"

North Exit Station?

Wasn't that area burned down just two days ago? How come Frohan went there again?

"I understand—Arquette!"

"Is that guy really [Ancestor]?"

The moment Natsukawa Tora turned around, he saw Arcueid staring in a distant direction, muttering something to herself. Following her gaze, Natsukawa Tora fell silent as well.

The sky—the night sky—seemed to be ablaze, releasing crimson flames in the darkness.

Fire.

“Let’s go, Arcueid.”

"Ok!"

--------------------------------

Underground—it should be underground.

Ryougi Shiki wasn't sure where she was either. Because she had been hit hard on the head, her memory was a bit confused. She only remembered falling from a height, so she figured she was probably underground.

The sound of damp water came from all around her, and she could feel her body coming into contact with the water. The cool sensation made Ryougi Shiki's mind a little clearer.

"I... um..."

The stinging pains emanating from various parts of her body made Ryougi Shiki frown slightly. Thanks to her good night vision, Ryougi Shiki was able to clearly see her condition.

Although the wounds themselves had mostly healed thanks to Avalon inside her, there was no mistake; she still had extensive burns on her body.

"Burns... Oh right, I remember I was in that convenience store with Orange..."

My memories gradually became clearer.

Ryougi Shiki remembers being attacked by a giant black panther and a burning corpse in a convenience store with Aozaki Touko. Although it was easily dealt with, she encountered a strange guy underground during the follow-up investigation.

The moment they met, the creature attacked them both, unleashing flames of terrifyingly high temperature, enough to melt everything around them.

Completely unprepared, the two were overwhelmed and unable to fight back, forced to flee in disarray through the underground waterway. And judging from the current situation—

"Where am I... under the bridge? Was I swept here by the underground waterway? Come to think of it, I was knocked into the water by the flames that came from behind—wait, where's Orange?"

Ryougi Shiki quickly stood up from the water and hurriedly looked around. She remembered that Aozaki Touko had run away with her, but now she couldn't see anyone around her...

No.

Although it didn't look like a human figure, something with a human-like outline was lying on the shore not far from her.

Ryougi Shiki knew what it was, and after getting closer and taking a look, she immediately understood.

It was a charred corpse.

Aozaki Touko's.

38. Curse of Flame

North Exit Station.

The area with the highest pedestrian traffic in Misaki City in recent years is a super-large commercial street centered around a newly built underground station and a surface intersection, encompassing four surrounding building complexes. While fulfilling its function as a transportation hub, it has also become the brightest pedestrian street in Misaki City at night.

It can be said to be a symbol of Misaki City being at the forefront of the times. Even though it is already past 8 p.m., this area is still crowded with people. Pedestrians surrounded by neon lights seem completely unaware that night has fallen, and are fully immersed in the glitz and glamour of modern society.

This was the situation about three minutes ago.

Now, the North Exit Station has become a living hell.

The literal meaning of "purgatory".

Flames, seemingly ignited from nowhere, swept across the entire commercial street without warning. A river of flames flowed through the city, forcibly imbuing everything in its path with a crimson curse. The ocean of curses, like a sudden tsunami, abruptly descended upon people while they were still celebrating modern entertainment.

It started with one person starting a fire, then two, then four... It may seem like just a simple doubling of numbers, but in reality, it was a small spark that ignited the entire grassland in an instant!

The fire spread like a tidal wave, forcibly burning down the peaceful world. Death and despair formed a barrier, replacing the already shattered peace.

"Don't eat me! Don't eat me! Someone save me!"

"Eek! What is this?! A monster! A monster!"

Don't leave me alone!

"Let go! Don't drag me to my death!"

......

Just like the apocalyptic scenario depicted by authors, humans, whose hearts have been devoured by fear, vent meaningless cries and wails in order to survive, letting their instincts drive their bodies to flee to unknown places, and in the process of fleeing, they exclude, discard, and kick aside everything except themselves.

A simple fire wouldn't cause such panic, but there are also monsters spreading along with this cursed river of flames.

Is that a corpse?

It seemed so; the bodies were completely charred, as if they had been thrown into an incinerator and taken out before being completely burned—dozens, no, hundreds of such corpses roamed the streets like a procession of ghosts.

However, to say it's wandering...

Every time it sees a human, it pounces on them at speeds beyond human limits and devours them—this behavior cannot be described with a gentle word like "wandering," "sweeping" is undoubtedly a more appropriate term.

This is an army of the dead marching from the deepest hell.

At the very end of this march of the dead, a person, completely different from the burning ghouls, was slowly moving forward, hanging slowly at the very back of the column, as if barely keeping up with the group, taking one slow step at a time.

He was a young man with a sickly beauty. His hair was silver-white, and his skin looked like that of a corpse that had been dead for a long time in a morgue. There was not a trace of blood in his skin. Even under the light of the firelight around him, he was still extremely pale. His black clothes only highlighted his sickly pallor.

Incredibly, being in such a raging fire, one should logically feel intense heat, but for some reason, looking at it gives one a cool impression.

"It's so cold..."

The man's lips trembled as he spoke in broken Japanese.

"So cold...this world...is so cold..."

Cold?

I doubt anyone in this environment would have such a thought.

Why does he feel cold?

Nobody knows, and he won't answer.

His consciousness was about to be frozen, and because it was frozen too much, his behavior began to go out of control. After sensing that it was getting dark, he came to the ground in a daze and began to thirst for blood in order to dispel the cold.

Blood, yes, only blood will do. Only blood can dispel the cold he feels and warm his body.

The man grabbed a pedestrian who had already lost consciousness and bit his neck.

"Pfft!"

The crude method tore his blood vessels, and a large amount of blood gushed out. The man greedily sucked the blood until there wasn't a single drop left in the blood bag in his hand.

No.

Can not be done.

"This blood...this blood...is completely insufficient..."

Having been a Dead Apostle for a thousand years, he has consumed the blood of ordinary humans countless times, and it no longer works on him. It can't even provide mental comfort. If he wants to dispel the cold, he still has to rely on her!

Princess Arcueid of the True Ancestor!

Frohan Arhanger had already sensed that she was in this country, in this city, otherwise he would not have abandoned his lover and traveled across the ocean to this small country in the Far East.

Only by devouring Arcueid's heart, only by seizing her existence, can this curse imposed upon me be lifted!

Where are you! Where are you, Princess!

This simple idea and obsession overwhelmed Frehan's reason, leading him to the brink of madness.

"Bang----------!"

As if in response to Frohan's cry, or as if to interrupt his delusional ramblings, a moon star suddenly fell from the bright moon surrounded by flames!

The moment they touched the ground, an overwhelming gale suddenly ravaged the entire area, and most of the curse of fire was immediately dispelled. The march of the dead was like a paper wall, turning into dust and scattering with the wind along with the ground that collapsed in the loud noise.

Something's coming.

Frohan could sense an immense scale of existence within the still-lingering gale and dust.

"call--------"

As the strong wind swept away the dust, three figures came into Frohan's view.

One was a young woman with bright red hair.

One was a blond boy who exuded a similar aura to him.

The last one—

There's no mistake, those hairs bathed in moonlight, that figure every ancestor knows well, that aura that no vampire would ever mistake!

"Aier...Quite——————————!"

Squeezing out his last shred of reason, Frohan let out a deafening roar of rage!

————————————————————————————————————

The top of a tall building, one kilometer away from the North Exit Station.

Watching everything unfold in the sea of ​​fire through the teleportation magic, Hiel, now dressed in church uniform, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, they arrived in time, and the police quickly set up a cordon, so we shouldn't have to worry about the affected area expanding further."