Chapter 169
Do-Jin sprinted across the snow, worried sick about Karin and wanting to get back into the fight as fast as possible. However, that worry turned out to be completely pointless. While he was desperately running through the snowfield, the battle in front of the ruined temple had already ended.
“Grrrk... khhh...”
Karin stood over the old woman as she took her final breaths. Her clear, calm eyes met the old woman’s cloudy ones.
“Why... why are you stopping me... stopping us...?”
Karin didn’t answer. Even if she did, the old woman’s body had already turned into blood mist. The moment Do-Jin had gone uphill and out of sight, Karin had released her full power. The old woman’s newly restored flesh was now nothing but chunks floating inside a massive pool of blood.
“Even without seeing it... I can feel it! You carry the power of the Red Star Laves at the very end of its path. So why are you—!”
The woman’s body began collapsing. With her energy supply cut off, she could no longer regenerate. Her thoughts fell apart with her flesh.
She lost her mind and began rambling like a broken machine. “You... you were supposed to have the same dream as us... wait, no. I understand. You want to keep all of Laves’ blessing for yourself. You envy me. You hated that I was chosen for the greatest blessing, so you came here, sent by those traitors who abandoned me and ran away.”
Karin watched the increasingly deranged woman with quiet, steady eyes. Maybe the old woman feared Karin because she refused to react, or maybe she feared the death that was crawling up her spine.
“Please... spare me. I spent so much time here, trapped, researching everything. I know things. You know I almost reached the truth.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about...” Karin said.
“Don’t lie! Do you really think you will stay sane to the end? Look at me. Look at these things stuck to me. They weren’t monsters when this began. You know how it ends. You’re going to turn into this as well.”
“Were you the one who kept talking to me earlier?”
Karin had spent the entire climb suffering from that whispering voice. It was a voice that poked at a hunger she had never felt in her entire life, a hunger that pressed insistently against her mind. It tempted her to drain the human walking beside her, to bite into his flesh, to crack his bones open and drink the marrow as if that hunger belonged to her.
“Ordinary humans will never understand us. They will never understand the Star’s blessing.”
“It seems that wasn’t the case after all.” Karin watched the old woman ramble on and lose herself in her own nonsense, and her interest drained away. She started thinking about how she should end this properly.
“Creatures like you and me look like monsters to everyone else anyway. The one who went up there will think the same thing.”
Karin froze when she heard the word ‘monster.’ Every book humans ever wrote described vampires as nothing but monsters. The other vampires of the Shadow Principality were no different. They only looked calm because they suppressed their instincts until they moved like dolls. If that control slipped even a little, they couldn’t fight the surge of hunger and they turned into monsters without fail.
It is not that I behave like a monster. I really am one.
From the moment she understood the difference between humans and vampires, Karin had never once denied what she was. Yet unlike before, that truth no longer hurt her.
“I am a monster. And that’s fine.”
The old woman didn’t hear her. She just kept ranting on her own, spewing whatever came to her mind. Still, Karin wanted to say her piece after being called a monster who was doomed to fall eventually.
“At least I have a heart...”
She had no idea where that whispering voice had come from, whether it was Bella, or Laves, a thought that had soaked into this place or the monster sleeping inside herself. None of it mattered.
“Even if someone insists I am a monster, I have already been acknowledged by someone far more trustworthy than you.”
Karin had been learning many new things lately. She learned the weight of longing that filled her days, the small ache of wanting something, and the quiet joy that bloomed when she expected something. Those feelings had always been there. They simply remained asleep because nothing had ever woken them. Every day, those colorful emotions gently tickled the heart that refused to beat inside her chest.
“I do appreciate the concern, but you can stop worrying. I already know exactly what to do if I ever truly become a monster.”
She feared death now, which felt strange, because she never used to. Still, she knew she would rather die than let anyone see her as a monster. The thought made her throat tighten and her chest ache. She was on the verge of slipping into sadness when she heard a familiar breath approaching from above the shattered cliff.
She was surprised by how quickly her mood shifted. A moment ago she’d been weighed down by gloom, and now she felt lighter again. Karin smiled softly as she looked down at the old woman, who kept spouting nonsense that wasn’t worth listening to.
“You lived as a human, but you turned into a monster in the end. I may die as a monster, but I will hold on to a human heart until the moment I stop breathing. So goodbye.”
A deafening roar exploded across the ravine. The cliff that had already collapsed earlier crumbled once more.
***
Do-Jin rushed back in a panic and sent Anemone away with a tired, hollow look.
What the hell happened here? Did a plane come out of the sky and bomb this place to dust?
The battlefield looked completely wrecked. The beam-scorched path was one thing, but the craters bursting open across the ground and the shredded pieces of what used to be a temple made the whole place look like a disaster zone.
Even for an Elder, this is ridiculous.
But Karin wasn’t just any Elder. She was a direct descendant of the Grand Duke, from a bloodline that made her the second most dangerous vampire in the entire Principality. She hadn’t even fought seriously, so no one could tell where the ceiling of her power was.
“I sprinted all the way back here to help, and it turns out you didn’t need me at all.”
Karin beamed as soon as she heard his voice. “You already helped me. That light I saw earlier was yours, right? It became much easier to move after that happened.”
“That barely counts as helping,” Do-Jin muttered while taking in the absolute wreckage around them.
“Ahhhh, this feels so embarrassing.”
Karin shuffled in place like a kid caught doing something dumb. She must have felt shy about letting him see the chaos she caused. She regretted putting that much strength into it and wished she had controlled the power more carefully.
I should have learned proper spellwork from Father.
Do-Jin raised his eyes toward the upper platform and spoke. “I need to head back for a bit, so stay here and wait.”
“I want to go with you.”
“No. I’m not taking any chances...” Do-Jin replied.
“It might be dangerous!”
“I’ll be safe, but you might not be. So you’re staying here.”
Karin’s face crumpled immediately, and she looked like she might cry. However, no amount of pouting changed the situation, and no meant no.
“All right. I will wait quietly.”
“Good.” Do-Jin turned and jogged toward the place where he had left the relic, hoping she would actually stay put this time.
***
The starlight waiting for Do-Jin looked much weaker than before, although it had stayed there for him.
“I worried there wasn’t much time left, but I’m relieved to see you return.”
So I really would have lost the reward if I hadn’t finished that boss fast enough. This goddamn quest would have been impossible without Karin.
Do-Jin finally accepted that the difficulty had been brutal for a reason. “I have things I want to ask, although it looks like you’re about to disappear.”
“Unfortunately, yes. Still, I wanted to tell you this. I am grateful to all of you who answered my call. Always.”
“Are you Bella?”
“For the moment, the best answer I can give is ‘yes’.”
The answer felt vague enough to slip right through a person’s fingers. However, Do-Jin chose not to push further. He already knew he wouldn’t get a real answer out of something like this.
“You said you’re running out of time, so I’ll get straight to the point.”
“That is for the best. Tell me what you desire. Your help allowed me to exert a small amount of power, so I will use that power to give you what you seek.”
A blank check from a literal star felt insane enough to make him laugh. The quest had been absolute bullshit, but at least it was proportionately rewarding. He felt tempted to admit that the difficulty deserved some respect. However, Do-Jin refused to let excitement get ahead of him. Rewards like this required careful thought.
“When you say you’ll give me what I want, do you really mean anything?”
“The amount of power available is limited to what was left in this place. The restriction is clear. However, I won’t place many limits on how that power is shaped. You may choose a precious artifact, a stronger force, or an opportunity for a small miracle.”
So the choice was basically an item, trait, or some special-use reward.
That feels incredibly basic for a quest that nearly killed me.
Do-Jin considered alternatives, wanting something that would actually matter. Then, Karin came to mind. She had been waiting for him the whole time, and none of this would have been possible without her. She deserved a reward too.
“Can you suppress the vampires’ bloodlust?”
Karin once ran away from home because she wanted to find a way to calm ordinary vampires’ thirst for blood. She did it for other reasons as well, but that part was the official story she admitted. It showed how much the issue weighed on her. Her father had reasons to worry about the future as well, so resolving that lingering spark would help everyone.
The Grand Duke can handle the compensation later.
He had several calculations in mind when he made the request.
“I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t grant what you wish in that direction. You don’t seek their annihilation, after all.” The starlight that might’ve been Bella struggled to answer. “The power I’m able to wield in this moment stands bound by clear limits. The curse laid upon them was born from a force that stands in direct opposition to me. Undoing such a curse through gentle means lies beyond what I can accomplish right now.”
“That’s disappointing.”
Do-Jin muttered, since that wish could’ve solved several problems at once. Even so, he didn’t walk away empty-handed.
This is a curse rooted in a force that runs completely opposite to Bella.
That meant the Grand Duke had definitely used that opposite source when he created the vampire race. Do-Jin had already assumed that, and it felt obvious to someone who knew the future, although hearing it confirmed straight from the star still hit differently.
So then...
He wondered if he needed to settle for some basic, boring reward. Maybe he should ask for a universal cure that’d heal any illness. He thought about linking it to that one quest, but he already had another way to handle that. Then he considered asking for something tied directly to that quest, but that also felt pointless. He could solve that part himself, so why waste a chance like this?
Knowing too damn much really makes life a pain in the ass.
He wished something rare, irreplaceable, and completely out of reach would jump into his mind. He wanted something he’d never get through any other path, a reward that existed only here, and only now.
Something I’d never obtain in any other way.
Then, a thought hit him hard enough to make him freeze. The future pressed down on his mind like a cold, heavy fist. He remembered how Bella kept losing her strength day after day, and he remembered how her light kept bleeding away until nothing was left. He remembered how Lostania ended up getting completely overwhelmed under the ever-brightening radiance of Laves.
He understood that there was something he would never get through any normal method, no matter how strong he became or how many bullshit quests he cleared along the way. He also understood that the thing he wanted carried a value so absurd that no item, no trait, and no so-called miracle could even come close.
If there’s anything I seriously need, it’s gotta be that. Do-Jin made up his mind and chose the wish he’d throw at the star.
“I want the lifespan of Lostania and the lifespan of the Star of Creation that shines over it.”