Record of a Thousand Lives - Chapter 113

The fog that surrounded the vampires’ city looked like the sinister and eerie smog that had surrounded London in Victorian times. It was also one of the main contributors to giving Sanguineum the sinister and eerie atmosphere it had.

“That’s brilliant. All of the vampires will be infected without a doubt if we’re able to spread the virus through the air,” Deff said while nodding in agreement.

Anyone and anything staying in the city would be bound to naturally inhale the fog, and thus there was nothing better than the fog to act as a medium for spreading the disease.

“Yeah, and we’ll be safe from it too since it can only infect vampires,” Renil added.

There could be no better plan to massacre all the vampires residing in the city.

“We have to go to the ossuary if we’re to spread the disease through the fog,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, explaining why he had decided to come to the ossuary. He had to go to the Fog Dispensing Center, where the fog was being created and expelled throughout the city, to efficiently spread the disease; that was the place Sanguineum drew all its fog from.

“But the Fog Dispensing Center is being guarded by the vampires’ watchdog,” Deff said, showing the others the back of a map, where he had drawn a rough sketch of the insides of the vampires’ ossuary. The Fog Dispensing Center was located on the opposite side from where the vampire lords’ remains had been laid to rest.

Deff bit his thumb and drew a circle on the map with his blood before saying, “This is the Fog Dispensing Center. It’s where the fog of Sanguineum is rid of all impurities and contaminants, and cleaned before being sent back out to the city. The vampires usually don’t go to this place, but there’s a watchdog guarding it.”

“The vampires’ watchdog?” Shaneth asked.

“The Fog Dispensing Center is heavily covered by fog. We haven’t seen the watchdog with our own eyes… But I’m sure it won’t be a cute little puppy,” Deff said as he pointed at the circle he had just drawn on the map. He then added, “One of the Vampire Hunters who went with us was torn to pieces in this place.”

“That’s awful…” Henrick said in response as his face crumpled.

Renil then added, “Don’t forget that reaching the place while avoiding being detected by vampires is the first problem.”

The only things behind the ossuary were the crows and several corpses of creatures that could not be recognized, but the front and interior of the ossuary were crawling with vampires. It was certain that they would end up as prey for vampires if they ventured toward the front of the ossuary.

“Don’t they have a ventilation duct?” Henrick asked. The party had escaped through a ventilation duct when they were caught and locked up by the Black Tiger Clan.

However, Deff shook his head and replied, “There is one, but it’s too small for us to enter.”

“Then how did you enter the ossuary before?” Henrick asked.

“One of the Vampire Hunters we came with knew how to use cloaking magic. Of course, that was the person who died in the Fog Dispensing Center…” Deff replied.

While the others tried to think of a solution, however, Kang Yoon-Soo stood up and walked toward the backdoor of the ossuary. It was a hideous-looking door, located in a secluded place away from any crowds.

“Let’s go through that,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“You can’t enter through that door,” Deff replied. He continued explaining, “It doesn’t have a keyhole, nor does it have a handle. It’s a backdoor that the vampires working in the ossuary enter through with a secret password. I think it was made to let the workers in while avoiding the crowds in front.”

Iris cracked her fists and asked, “We can just break it, right?”

“No. We tried that as well when we first came to this place, but the door is enchanted with a sealing spell, and even a silver greatsword didn’t manage to put a scratch on it,” Deff said.

Kang Yoon-Soo walked toward the backdoor, then whispered to the door, “A blood covenant with the ruler of the night.”

Creak…

The backdoor opened, and the group stared at Kang Yoon-Soo in shock. Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and asked, “What are you standing around for?”

***

The party entered through the backdoor and walked through a corridor. They were on the opposite side from where the vampire lords had been laid to rest, so there were not many vampires in their immediate vicinity. In fact, they only came across four vampires in total while walking quietly through the corridor, and they were able to quietly take care of three of the vampires, who were only lower-ranked. However, the last vampire they came across was a high-ranked one.

The vampire glared at them when she saw them, exclaiming angrily, “How dare you insignificant humans come to this place?! How did you get in here?!” Then, she started to gather magical energy in her sword.

If the group caused a ruckus, the vampires would be all but guaranteed to rush over, which meant certain death. However, even as they felt the imminent threat to their lives, Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly kneeled down and prostrated on the floor, saying, “I greet the great Vampire Anixia; we are your humble slaves.” His eyes wandered around as if they had lost focus, looking quite similar to the eyes of those who had been brainwashed by the vampires’ enslavement magic.

Anixia withdrew the magical energy from her sword and exclaimed, “What the? Were you slaves? Hmm… But why would you call yourselves ‘my’ slaves?”

“Your good friend, Rapelka-nim, has decided to gift us to you as your slaves,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Rapelka? You mean that foolish bitch who went outside Sanguineum because she said she liked red wine?” Anixia replied with a scoff, then rubbed her chin as she observed Kang Yoon-Soo’s party. All of them suddenly began acting dazed.

“Hmm… I don’t know about you, the one in the front, but the others’ eyes seem a bit strange. And for Rapelka of all people to give me a gift? Were we even that close, for her to gift me her slaves?” Anixia mused skeptically.

“Rapelka-nim foresaw that Anixia-nim would be startled by her sudden gesture, which was why she decided to send along with me a token of friendship for you, oh Anixia-nim,” Kang Yoon-Soo said as he moved robotically and took out a cape from his backpack.

Anixia touched the soft cape, then said, “This is definitely that bitch Rapelka’s cape, a strong and resilient one made out of the leather of a thousand-year-old bat.” She then laughed in satisfaction and said, “It seems Rapelka has finally remembered the ruby crystal I gave her a hundred years ago. Still, I never imagined she would send her slaves all the way to the ossuary.”

Anixia stared down at Kang Yoon-Soo, who was still prostrating in front of her, with a seductive gaze. She touched his cheek in a sensual manner, then then bit and licked her lips before saying, “I’ll be having a lot of fun tonight thanks to you.”

“Forgive me for my insolence, but may I put the cape on you, Anixia-nim?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

“You’ll have to do the opposite in my bedroom, but this isn’t the bedroom, so I’ll overlook it this time only. Go ahead,” the vampire said. She then turned around and took off her cape.

Kang Yoon-Soo walked toward her and seemed about to put the cape on her. Suddenly, however, he tied the cape around her mouth.

“Eup! Eup!” Anixia struggled as she tried to rip through the cape with her fangs. However, the cape was too sturdy for her to chew through, and it would not rip at all.

Kang Yoon-Soo looked back and called out, “Deff.”

“Hold on tight so she can’t make a sound,” Deff said. He stabbed his silver greatsword through Anixia’s heart, and the vampire could not let out a scream due to Kang Yoon-Soo gagging her mouth.

It was then that everyone dropped their act; Renil felt that he had seen something unbelievable, asking in a whisper, “That guy… What the hell is he? How can he act so brazenly?”

“Are you surprised by that? You wouldn’t be surprised by the things he does if you traveled with him,” Henrick said, tapping Renil on the shoulder.

They reached the end of the corridor, where they found a steel door that led to the Fog Dispensing Center.

“The door is locked,” Deff said as he pulled on the door handle. Then, Gasen, who had been quiet the whole time, stepped up to the door.

Iris was surprised, asking, “Gasen, do you plan to break the door down?”

“…” Gasen quietly shook his head before sticking a piece of red paper in the center of the door, then drawing a symbol in the air with his finger. The center of the door slowly turned bright red.

“It’ll cause a ruckus if we break the door down. This is the best way to quietly enter through that door,” Renil explained in a whisper.

The steel door started to glow bright red, and its center turned soft and melted. Afterward, the party entered the Fog Dispensing Center.

“I can’t see anything,” Shaneth said.

The Fog Dispensing Center was filled with a dense, and reddish fog; it was so thick that it was difficult to even see the silhouette of the person immediately ahead. The only noise in the room was the sound of gears slowly revolving and grinding against each other.

“Pyrokinesis,” Shaneth muttered, lighting a flame on her finger. However, even the flame started to shrink, due to the moisture from the fog that surrounded them.

Deff warned the others, “Don’t get separated. We don’t know when the vampires’ watchdog will pop out and ambush us.”

The others held their breaths in response, but Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, confidently walked through the thick fog as if he were not bothered by it. He approached the Fog Dispensing Unit across the room, where the sound of moving gears was loudest.

‘I just have to put the disease strain in here, and it will spread throughout the whole city,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he took out the vampire disease strain. It resembled a red mold, and had grown a lot since it was created.

It was at the moment that he was about to put the vampire disease strain into the Fog Dispensing Device that a roar emerged from the fog.

“Grwwwaaaaah!”

The roar of a beast echoed throughout the room, then the large silhouette of a creature charged toward the group from within the dense red fog. Kang Yoon-Soo lowered his body and rolled out of the way as the beast swiped its claws through the air, and it failed to connect with its target.

“W-What the hell?” Henrick exclaimed in surprise.

“The vampires’ watchdog has appeared,” Deff warned the group.

They all readied their weapons as they prepared to enter combat, but they could not see the beast anywhere because of the fog’ they could only hear it growling as it lurked within the fog. It seemed the beast was prowling within the fog, and had recognized them as its prey.

“Grwwaaah!” the beast roared as it lunged.

“Euak!” Renil screamed.

Deff immediately ran toward the place where the scream had come from. Then, he suddenly felt something large breathing hot air down his priestly robe, and immediately swung his greatsword behind him with all his strength.

Pukeok!

He could not see anything, but he definitely felt his greatsword hit something in the fog.

Renil grabbed his neck, which had been covered in scratch marks. He huffed and puffed as he retreated behind Deff, exclaiming, “I almost died!”

“What a tough creature… But it’s a relief that I managed to kill it in one strike,” Deff said, walking deeper into the fog while holding his bloody greatsword at the ready. There, he found a bloody beast on the floor that lay dying. He carefully approached the beast to inspect its identity.

“Nnngh!” Deff gritted his teeth in anger as he exclaimed, “Those damn vampires!” He stabbed his greatsword into the floor as he started to cry; his cry was louder than that of the beast.

Shaneth carefully approached him and asked, “W-What’s wrong… Huh?”

The vampires’ watchdog came into view. What she saw was a silver werewolf drenched in blood, lying dead on the floor—Deff had killed one of his own kind.

“Waaaaah!” Deff continued to wail.

“Deff, calm down!” Renil exclaimed as Deff tried to tear into his own neck with his own hands. He tried to stop Deff, but he was overpowered by the werewolf’s monstrous strength and was flung aside.

“Euk…!”

“…” Gasen grabbed both of Deff’s hands.

The priest who always exuded gentleness and warmth was nowhere to be found, and the only things he displayed were anger and fear. Deff cried out once again, “I-I killed my own kind! Those vampires! I’ll kill them all! Aaaaaaah!”

“…” Gasen quietly dragged Deff away to a corner; it was difficult to see what they were doing because of the fog.

Renil, still holding his scratched neck, sighed and said, “Deff usually becomes like that when he loses control. He’ll calm down in a while.”

“You think so? Will he be alright in a while? He just personally found out that one of his own kind, whom he killed with his own hands, was being used as a plaything for the vampires,” Henrick said. He approached and closely observed the werewolf’s corpse, then asked, “Why is this guy in his wolf form when there’s no moonlight in this place?”

“Maybe he is a mutant like White?” Iris replied.

Henrick looked at Iris, who was right beside him, and asked, “You… Weren’t you afraid of werewolves?”

“This werewolf is already dead. Also, this werewolf is a pitiful thing…” Iris said sadly as she patted the dead werewolf.

A long chain was attached to the neck of the dead werewolf. The chain had been keeping it in place for the vampires to use as their watchdog for the Fog Dispensing Center.

“Something is glowing on that pillar,” Henrick said as he pointed across the fog—it was the pillar that the werewolf had been chained to. A large, glowing yellow jewel was embedded in the center of the pillar.

“…This is a moonstone,” Shaneth said as she pulled out the jewel from the pillar. The jewel resembled a full moon, radiating a warm light.

“I saw Kang Yoon-Soo use one of these back at the Yultika Ruin. Werewolves usually go mad for these,” Shaneth explained.

“I suppose he turned into a werewolf after seeing the light emitted by the jewel,” Iris said while looking dejected.

They had finally experienced firsthand the horror and cruelty of Sanguineum after seeing how the captured slaves were being treated.

Henrick grumbled, “Vampires… Those damned bastards…”

“That’s right,” Kang Yoon-Soo said after pouring the vampire disease strain into the Fog Dispensing Unit.

The red fog started to waver slightly as the disease strain slowly started to spread all over Sanguineum.