Chapter 586: An Encounter Beneath the Red Moon, the Vampire Girl

As the sky gradually darkened, the nineteen-year-old Himeko sat on a park bench, gently rubbing her overstuffed stomach, still feeling somewhat dazed by how strange and surreal everything had been.

A series of questions ran through Himeko’s mind.

(Who am I? What am I doing? What am I supposed to be doing?)

Today’s investigation/date had been so enjoyable that it felt like a sweet dream. Himeko almost felt as though she had returned to the days before she became a Valkyrie, back when she was merely an ordinary genius student at Caltech.

Only after coming back to her senses did the red-haired girl realize that she had gotten so absorbed in the date that she had completely lost track of time.

Himeko turned her gaze toward the white-haired young man beside her.

Even though they had run all over the place today, Elias remained completely spotless, as though nothing in the world was capable of staining him.

Then Himeko subconsciously touched her neck, as though checking whether the marks from the young man’s teeth were still there.

Today, she had been closer to Elias than anyone else. So close that even now, she could still smell the pleasant scent coming from him, along with... the fragrance of the bouquet of roses he was still holding.

"Hm?"

Elias noticed her gaze and smiled faintly, immediately causing Himeko’s heart to skip a beat.

The red-haired girl hurriedly turned her head away to calm herself. The white-haired young man before her seemed to possess some kind of magic that made people happy.

But Himeko’s intuition told her that if she became too deeply involved with Elias, she might accidentally reach a point from which there was no turning back.

"It’s about time for the real hunt to begin."

Just then, Elias suddenly spoke.

"Huh?"

Himeko froze, unable to understand what he meant.

"What are you thinking about? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what our objective is, Himeko. Vam~pire~"

Elias raised a hand and flicked her forehead.

"...And whose fault do you think that is?"

Black lines appeared over Himeko’s head. Fine, she really had almost forgotten about the actual mission, but that was entirely because Elias had led her astray first. And now he had the nerve to ask her?

"Ahem! Looking for a vampire in broad daylight sounds like something only an idiot would do. We might as well have enjoyed ourselves instead. After all, everyone knows vampires come out at night."

"Uh, you do have a point. Fine, I suppose now really is the proper hunting time."

Himeko closed her eyes, then opened them again.

At that moment, she had already adjusted her state of mind.

She went from being an ordinary young woman to a professional Valkyrie. Although she carried only lightweight weapons for self-defense, the courage residing within her heart was enough for her to charge fearlessly at any enemy.

"But what exactly do you plan to do? I don’t think you’re the kind of person who goes in without a plan and just blindly wanders around hoping to get lucky."

"Of course not~ If the two incredibly lucky little kittens I keep were here, then sure, relying on luck would actually work. But right now, we’ll have to use bait instead."

Elias’ heterochromatic eyes stared directly at her.

"...So I’m the bait."

Himeko’s expression became complicated. So far, all the victims had been tall young women walking alone at night. Obviously, she herself was practically perfect bait.

"Mhm. So from here on, we’ll split up. Just wander around nearby for a while. If the vampire shows up, call my name immediately... or honestly, just make any sound at all."

"You can get here in time?"

"Of course. I guarantee I’ll appear within one second. Surely you can hold out for at least one second, Himeko."

"Hmph! Who are you looking down on? Leave it to me!"

Himeko raised her brows and thumped her chest.

The enormous pair of fair slimes on her chest immediately bounced violently, creating something of a turbulent-wave effect. It was a realm a certain eternally flat Immortal could never hope to reach, even after fifty thousand years.

The corners of Elias’ lips curled upward. Then, without Himeko noticing, he slipped an Ether Singularity into the pouch at her waist. With that, nothing could possibly go wrong.

...

Afterward, Himeko and Elias split up.

The district they were currently in was an ideal hunting ground for an attacker. It was dim and narrow, making it easy to hide or escape, while even an ordinary victim’s cries for help would likely be drowned out by the surrounding noise.

This was the hunting ground the two of them had identified as most favorable to the culprit through their daytime date—ahem—investigation. If there really was a vampire, there was a very high probability she would appear somewhere around here.

"I’ll wander around too."

Elias stretched lazily and muttered to himself. By now, he was already using the authority of the Herrscher of Azure Wind.

Even though countless currents of air could tell him everything currently happening throughout the city, Elias had absolutely no idea what the vampire looked like. So even if information about his target reached him through the wind, he still wouldn’t know which person was the vampire.

However, if Himeko cried out for help, he would know instantly.

"Until I hear Himeko scream, I’ll just wander around nearby and try my luck. After all, I’ve got half of Kiana’s luck and half of Pardo’s. Maybe I’ll actually stumble across her."

Despite saying that, Elias had absolutely no confidence in his own luck. After all, he had been pretty unlucky lately.

So rather than calling this a vampire hunt, it was really more like a simple nighttime stroll... Besides, he’d eaten a little too much at dinner, so this was a convenient way to digest his food.

"Oh, right. Stories always say that when vampires appear, a blood moon appears in the sky too... Guess that isn’t actually true."

Elias looked up at the bright moon hanging in the night sky.

According to the information Himeko had given him, no blood moon had appeared over Sapphire City recently. Otherwise, the claim that vampires were merely an urban legend probably wouldn’t have remained convincing to ordinary people.

"This is a rare opportunity, so I might as well add some atmosphere~ You can see a white moon all the time. It’s gotten a little boring."

Elias took out his terminal and searched for "blood moon."

This was a specially made terminal created by Vill-V. It could connect to the internet even from Imaginary Space or the Sea of Quanta.

Blood Moon: Also known as a red moon. It generally occurs during a lunar eclipse. During an eclipse, Earth’s atmosphere filters out violet, blue, green, and yellow light from sunlight, leaving only red light to be refracted toward the Moon, thus creating a blood moon.

Elias: "I see, got it. So all I need to do is manipulate the atmosphere. Easy, easy~"

The next second, the authority of the Herrscher of Azure Wind surged toward the sky. With Elias’ current abilities, every authority he possessed could easily destroy the proper world, let alone merely affect a single bubble world.

If he wanted to, he could directly destroy the atmosphere of this bubble world, and the entire world would be finished in an instant.

But right now, Elias merely manipulated the atmosphere, causing it to absorb every wavelength of sunlight except red.

And so~~

"Phew~ Done! As expected of me!"

A brilliant crimson moon appeared in the night sky.

It radiated an enchanting yet ominous glow.

It was as though the curtain had risen on some myth or legend, or perhaps... as though it were an omen heralding the arrival of some inevitable fate.

Elias admired his handiwork and nodded in satisfaction. The beautiful red light fell across his body, dyeing even his immaculate pure-white hair a vivid blood-red.

"Haha~ Himeko’s probably going to be startled."

Elias chuckled and continued his patrol.

He wandered wherever his whims took him, and before he knew it, Elias had entered a narrow alley.

The glow of the streetlamps intertwined with the radiance of the red moon, casting scattered patches of light and shadow. Distorted, enlarged silhouettes stretched at strange angles like terrifying creatures lurking in the darkness, and combined with the red moon overhead, they created a subtly horrifying atmosphere.

Tonight, the entire world seemed to have transformed into one enormous haunted house.

Suddenly, Elias stopped walking. His heart inexplicably gave a powerful thump, as though he had sensed some summons from fate. Then, just around the next corner...

He saw the girl fate had sent to him.

"Haa... haa..."

A white-haired girl lay collapsed on the ground in pain. Her beauty seemed terribly out of place in the dark alley, while ragged breaths escaped her lips, revealing just how terrible her current condition was.

"Hey! Are you all right?"

Elias hadn’t expected such a sudden development. Instinctively, he immediately stepped forward and lifted the pitiful girl into his arms, attempting to use his authority to heal whatever injury or illness was causing her suffering.

"...Run... haa... hurry... get away..."

"What?"

As though warning Elias that there was danger here, the girl spoke weakly in broken fragments.

Elias immediately looked around, assuming whatever danger had harmed the girl was still nearby. But no matter who it was, the moment he found them, the culprit would immediately be pierced through by a Subspace Lance.

And yet, no matter how he searched, he couldn’t find anyone.

The next second, the situation abruptly changed. The girl in front of Elias suddenly opened her eyes. Her blood-red pupils were unmistakably inhuman, as beautiful and ominous as the red moon hanging in the night sky.

"Give me... blood!"

"What?!"

Only then did Elias realize that there was no mysterious third person hidden somewhere in this cramped space. The dangerous individual the girl had been warning him about... was the girl herself.

Driven by some kind of instinct, the girl lunged at Elias. Those tiny hands moved at a speed no ordinary person could possibly evade.

But even under such sudden circumstances, Elias calmly dodged her attack. After all, if he couldn’t avoid something at this level, he would have no face calling himself a Flame-Chaser.

Although the girl failed to hit Elias...

She did strike the bouquet of roses.

Under her unexpectedly tremendous strength, the poor bouquet was instantly destroyed. Red petals scattered from their stems, transforming into a fleeting shower of flowers that drifted down over Elias and the girl.

Unfortunately, the breathtakingly beautiful scene lasted only an instant.

That attack seemed to have exhausted the final trace of strength in the girl’s body. Her eyes went unfocused for a moment, then, like a marionette whose strings had been severed, she collapsed directly onto the cold ground.

"...So you’re the vampire."

Elias murmured, staring at the girl’s face with a complicated expression. She looked exactly like someone from his memories.

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