Vampires.

  Today the bishop who came to preach was Bishop Althidos Cadric of the St. Sophia district. He was a vigorous elder in his fifties with a broad forehead and a luxuriant white beard. He wore an exquisitely elegant orthodox robe and held a silver cross in his hand. When he heard the word "report" his sharp eyes immediately turned toward the speaker.

  "Child, who are you reporting?" Bishop Althidos asked in a commanding tone.

  "I am reporting my cohabitant who is also the lady of my household, along with my steward, my personal male servant, my head maid, and 24 other servants. They are all evil vampires," Marvin declared with righteous fervor. "They murdered my parents and kept me in the dark. Now that I have discovered their true identities I have come straight to inform you."

  "Vampires?" Bishop Althidos furrowed his brows. "In the Eastern Pendragon Empire the bloodline supernaturals are not legally subject to be hunted as long as they have been officially registered with the church and reside in designated places. If what you say is true then there is no doubt that these unregistered filthy vampires are foreign pests that must be purged."

  Marvin stood motionless when he suddenly felt a subtle light. The faint radiance swirled about him as if passing through every inch of his hair and skin, carrying a meticulous inspecting quality. There was no doubt that this bishop was not an ordinary man but a powerful individual of at least rank seven who commanded the force of the laws and could secretly activate diagnostic spiritual light.

  Considering that the magical tide of the Sixth Epoch had only just begun to rise it indicated that this bishop was at least born in the Fifth Epoch and must be an ancient man of no less than 200 years.

  "Since that is the case," Bishop Althidos said after confirming that the man before him was pure-blood human, nodding solemnly, "I will dispatch a team of church-affiliated armored holy knights. You will lead them to your mansion to complete the purification task. May the Lord bless you, child."

  "May the Lord bless you," Marvin replied immediately with reverence.

  Stepping briskly out of the church doors, Marvin soon saw a team of knights approaching from the left. They were clad in pure white power armor decorated with various sacred rune formations, and each carried either a high frequency oscillation sword or an engine boosted war hammer.

  "I am Solvin Brelins," announced the captain of the armored holy knights, hefting his war hammer with both hands and speaking in an air of superiority. "You are the citizen who reported that your household had vampires?"

  "It is I," Marvin answered.

  "Very well," the captain said. "We are not as obliging as the bishop in the church. If you are merely playing a mercenary game and falsely reporting the case, the cost of a single deployment of our armored holy knights will leave you without even enough money to buy a coffin in this lifetime."

  "That is acceptable," Marvin said. "In fact, once you reach my home, you will know whether what I say is true."

  "Let's hope that's the case," the captain replied. "I am not sure whether the crowd near the church has any eyes planted by your household vampires. Let us hurry to the destination."

  The knight soldiers, barely out of the church, immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding crowd. There was no avoiding it; these full-cover power armors were simply too eye catching and exuded an unparalleled deterrent merely by their appearance. Marvin understood their meaning and quickly led the knights to the ancestral mansion, pointing inside as he said, "It's right here."

  Inside a hotel room, Aurora stood in the washroom staring at her pale self in the mirror.

  The reflection remained youthful and beautiful but had lost some of its natural flush and instead appeared paler. Her lips, once a full tender red, had dulled as if she were stricken by a grave illness.

  She knew this was because she had not consumed blood. The knowledge gleaned from her supernatural traits taught her that an owner of the Sanguine's Thirst I trait must ingest at least 2 milliliters of fresh blood every day to maintain a youthful appearance; otherwise the face would age rapidly and eventually resemble that of a living corpse.

  Of course not drinking blood only affected her appearance; it did not diminish the strength of the vampire itself.

  She retrieved a razor blade from the medicine cabinet and, after a brief moment of silence, forcefully slashed her wrist.

  Fresh blood immediately flowed profusely, causing her already pale face to lose even more color. Yet after a short while the flesh at the wound began to curl and bond together, healing as if uninjured.

  I am already... no longer human.

  Disconsolate she moved to the window and, drawing her slender legs close in a hug, stared blankly outside. The house in the distance, once her home, had now been burned to ruins. Her parents were gone.

  If they were still alive what reaction would they have had upon seeing their beloved daughter transformed into a monster?

  Suddenly she saw a team of church armored knights running straight down the opposite street and coming to a stop in front of the ruins beside her former home.

  Was that Marvin? Had he reported the vampires to the church? Aurora suddenly understood. It was all so simple. Because she had become a vampire and feared the church, she had subconsciously not considered this possibility. In truth even if she could not act herself she could, under an anonymous identity, incite others to report on her behalf and use the churchs power to kill those vampires.

  She held her breath as she watched the street below where the onlookers huddled with their heads down. As citizens of the empire they had grown accustomed to various supernatural incidents and cooperated fully with official directives.

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  The church knights had already unfurled their scrolls, and a great deal of diagnostic spiritual light shone, enveloping the entire vicinity of the house.

  Among the huddled crowd an unusual red glow suddenly appeared on someone’s body. Aurora squinted and recognized that it was the steward from Marvin's household!

  Before the steward could react, the nearest armored knight swung his sword downward. The high frequency oscillation sword sliced through his upper body as smoothly as a hot knife through butter. The steward was cut into two parts and although his severed corpse writhed desperately in an attempt to reunite, it soon ceased its struggle.

  Marvin stared at the steward s corpse as a sanguine glow gradually emanated from it and condensed on the surface into a sticky red droplet. This was the tangible remnant of the Sanguine's Thirst I supernatural trait formed upon the steward s death. With a gentle pinch the knight could easily absorb this ownerless supernatural power. Were proper ingredients added and a Sanguine's Thirst I potion made from it, one could be transformed into a level one vampire.

  Of course he had no intention of doing that.

  The church knight who had acted reached into his pack and produced a small box made of magical copper. Inside lay a pair of gleaming yellow tweezers. Using them he carefully plucked the droplet and solemnly placed it into the box. As soon as he closed the lid the surface of the magical copper box shone with light as if some sealing rune formation had been activated.

  Raising his head he nodded toward Marvin who had been watching intently. "The energy that seeps from a vampire after death is a dangerous substance. If it is not properly handled it could kill all the residents of this block."

  "I understand, sir," Marvin replied.

  Two church knights rushed to the door carrying engine boosted war hammers and began battering it. The end of each war hammer was equipped with a jet device that expelled a tail flame as it swung, accelerating the weapon until the door shattered into pieces. Soon the church knights surged inside, and the entire house was filled instantly with the sounds of chaos, screams, roars, and the clashing of steel with flesh.

  In less than five minutes the captain reappeared at the door. His power armor engraved with sacred runes still shone brightly though now it was adorned with clumps of red flesh, white bone marrow, and long strands resembling intestines. He tapped one of the runes on his body, which caused a divine light to cleanse his armor, then descended the steps and said to Marvin.

  "All have been purified. Including the corpse outside the door there are 23 vampires. Moreover your cohabitant was not found inside the house. She has become a loose fish. I suggest you spend tonight in the church to avoid the retaliatory harm of the counterattacking enemy. Women are known for their vengeful hearts. Yesterday morning I left the house and forgot to take out the trash and my wife did not even prepare dinner."

  "Thank you for your suggestion, sir," Marvin bowed. "However I believe that my cohabitant is no fool. Unless I hide in the church for so many days until she loses her patience, she can wait for me to emerge a few days later to take her revenge. Accepting the church's protection is not free, is it?"

  "As a reward for a valid report," the knight captain said after a pause, "the first week of church protection is free for you and thereafter you will be charged one pound per day."

  "In that case, never mind," Marvin replied lightly. "I believe that even if I do not hide in the church you will have placed surveillance nearby. Perhaps this very vampire will expose herself even more quickly in order to take revenge on me."

  "Of course," the captain said. "In that case Mr. Marvin you are not allowed to leave this district within this month unless the target vampire exposes herself prematurely."

  "That is acceptable," Marvin agreed.

  Aurora stood at the window watching everything from afar. Half an hour later Marvin returned to the hotel room.

  "All the vampires are dead except the ringleader," Marvin said.

  "That does not count as complete revenge," Aurora reminded him subtly in reference to their soul contract.

  "I know where she is," Marvin said. "Let us go."

  "Currently the church knights are monitoring this district, correct?" Aurora asked warily. "If I join you will I be discovered?"

  "The diagnostic spiritual light scroll is very expensive. The church knights would not cast it on someone every time they see a person. As long as you do not wear a mask to avoid unnecessary suspicion, five days later when your chainmail arrives, we will go hunting."

  "Very well," Aurora replied coolly.

  "Now let us go train," Marvin said.

  In the basement of the hotel there was a training ground open to the public. It included steel cast dummies for melee warriors, mobile targets for marksmen, and meditation rooms for spellcasters. Why did the hotel have a training ground below? This inevitably led to a discussion of the history of the Eastern Pendragon Empire.

  Since the early days of the Sixth Epoch, with the rapid development of commerce and industry in the Pendragon Empire the quality of the empire's soldiers had been rapidly declining. On one hand complacency is inherent in human nature and on the other hand the number of supernatural beings within the empire had been dwindling.

  On the Britanica Plateau of the Anatolian Peninsula the empire designated vast tracts of jungle as Primitive Conservation Zones for Supernaturals in an attempt to contain them and periodically harvest their supernatural power. However, the results were not very satisfactory. After all supernatural beings require vast territories to breed. Low level goblins might only need a small hill to support a family while high level cyclops required broad wastelands and an extensive ecosystem to survive.

  This conflicted with the development needs of the empire itself. Agriculture demanded vast tracts of land, industry required plentiful minerals, and transportation needed a well developed road network. As long as human society continued to develop the territories of supernatural beings would inevitably be encroached upon. Since only supernatural beings could draw on the magical tide for supernatural power, their reduction inevitably led to a decline in the quality of the empire's soldiers.

  Now the entire world had fallen into this vicious cycle. The more powerful the civilized nation, the fewer supernatural beings within its territory, and thus the less supernatural power could be harnessed. Then the civilized nation would be defeated by a barbaric nation and after harvesting immense wealth the barbaric nation would begin to develop. The barbaric nation would become a civilized nation and once again set upon the path of decline. From the ancient Hekrises City State League to the ancient Pendragon Republic, from the Pendragon Empire to the Harkosh Kingdom, and even now in this era of divided nations, the cycle remained unchanged.

  To solve this problem the Western Pendragon Empire once chose to hire foreign mercenaries. The result was that the mercenaries turned the tables, leading to the emperor's death and the collapse of the state. The Eastern Pendragon Empire learned from that lesson. The former emperor Leonidus II had proposed that the national army should serve as the main force while foreign mercenaries were responsible for the assault. This dual approach to national defense influenced the entire Macedonian dynasty and in recent years led many Western mercenaries to come to Zephandrel in search of fortune. For example the empire's premier Royal Shield Guard is composed of northern Fulgian mercenaries known as the Narantia Guard.

  In Zephandrel if you see someone clad in armor and carrying weapons as they walk about do not be surprised if they are armed mercenaries. Precisely because of this, taverns and training grounds are particularly numerous in Zephandrel. Lower level mercenaries could vent their excess energy on any open space, and the training ground in the basement of this hotel was already considered to be of medium quality, open to those mercenaries who required specialized training equipment.