Chapter 8

EP.8 A Monster Lives in the Basement

Fuck it.

This is the conclusion I came to after much deliberation.

It seems I’ve fucked up.

The moment I took a step into the underground armory, regret washed over me. I would probably be more at ease inside a whale’s mouth. At least a whale doesn’t feed on human blood.

This is the nocturnal domain of the vampire, the monster that has resided here for decades. The moment I stepped in, the blood coursing through my veins was no longer mine. The blood that should be giving life to my body is faltering, trying to deviate.

This isn’t something that can be solved with mind reading. If the vampire decides to kill me, the moment it harbors such murderous intent... I would become a withered mummy before I could even resist.

Is the Reincarnator okay? With their heightened senses, they must be feeling even more pressure.

‘It’s an overwhelming aura. A power not much different from the previous cycle... but this is before [that incident] happened. Will it be more violent, or more restrained? Will Tirkanjaka lend me strength before [that problem] is resolved?’

‘Don’t worry. I haven’t regained the power to match Tirkanjaka yet. If I die, so be it.’

Alright, that’s it. It’s clear that it’s best not to get involved with the Reincarnator. To them, it’s just one of many lives they can return to, but to me, it’s my only life.

If I die, I die, right? If I were to team up with someone with that mindset, even ten lives wouldn’t be enough.

I turned my body and headed for the door.

“Alright, Cadet Shay. I only have business with Cadet Shay, so I’ll take my leave...”

Bang.

The iron door slammed shut in front of me. A strange red brand flashed in front of my eyes, as if to say there was no way out.

The Reincarnator snorted at my stunned expression.

“Yeah, go ahead. If you can, that is.”

The escape route was blocked. Pitch-black darkness enveloped me, making my body invisible. I sighed and followed the Reincarnator.

“Why? You were talking as if you were going to leave.”

“Upon reflection, I need to understand why Cadet Shay visited the underground armory. Shall we proceed together for a moment?”

“Sure.”

Since we’ve come this far, we’re a community of fate. The Reincarnator nodded readily. I felt my way along the wall in the pitch-black darkness, needing considerable concentration for each step due to the lack of visibility and the subtle slipperiness.

Damn. There’s a staircase coming up. I hope I don’t slip all the way down. If a military instructor slips in the armory, I’ll be ridiculed and even suspected.

More importantly, how will the Reincarnator handle this darkness?

‘Seven-colored Eye activation, Blue Eye.’

Then, the Reincarnator poked her finger into her eye. Sparkling tears formed in her eyes and began to burn blue. The blue flames chased the contours of objects in the darkness that devoured light.

‘The Blue Eye of the Seven-colored Eye sees depth. It can pierce through the darkness gathered by the vampire.’

They have all sorts of skills. A person with only mind reading as a power would be miserable.

The Blue Eye sees the world in lines and planes. It can’t detect fast-moving objects or blurry round shapes well, but it can grasp the overall structure in the darkness. The Reincarnator cast her blue gaze around. The tightly sealed ceiling and walls blocked the view. The only passage led downward. In the Reincarnator’s vision, a trapezoidal line narrowing like a ladder faintly appeared. It was the staircase leading down.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Reincarnator stepped toward the stairs. After a couple of steps, she glanced back at me.

‘Let’s see if you can navigate this darkness.’

Thanks for looking back at me.

I hadn’t noticed, but the stairs started right in front of me. One of the steps was even broken and worn down. If I had stepped there carelessly, I would have rolled all the way down.

Phew, lucky. I carefully avoided the broken step. Then, a sound of tongue-clicking came from ahead.

‘Piercing through the darkness gathered by the vampire? You’re a man whose depths can’t be fathomed. A dazed-looking kid who can see through my Heavenly Anchor and the vampire’s darkness...’

This is why one needs to experience the lower ranks. Meeting only great people like Sword Saints and Holy Maidens in each cycle, I can’t gauge ordinary people. That’s why we need the experience of common life.

In any case, the Reincarnator and I headed downward together.

‘Why are you walking so close? It’s annoying.’

The Reincarnator seems uncomfortable with my proximity, but I stubbornly stuck to her. I need to stay close to borrow her vision, or I might lose sight of my footing. I followed the Reincarnator down the stairs, feeling like I was being half-carried.

Upon arriving at the underground armory, the Reincarnator surveyed the bunker with her blue eyes.

The armory, which could be used as a bunker in emergencies, had a long corridor and spacious rooms on both sides. In case of an emergency, people were supposed to hide in these small rooms and wait for rescue. There was already a visitor inside.

The Reincarnator glared at the faint shadows peering from inside with her blue eyes. A large horse, almost touching the ceiling, was staring at us.

‘Is that her familiar? I heard she lost most of them in the great battle... but it seems the blood demon Ralion is still alive.’

How is the underground armory being used? Why is a large horse using the entire bunker? And as a familiar, it has a better room than me. Human rights should be guaranteed.

After a brief glance at the blood demon, the Reincarnator turned and started walking again. I hurriedly followed.

At the end of the long corridor, there was an out-of-place door.

The military, which values efficiency and rationality, doesn’t mix art with doors or walls. The purpose of a door is to open and close spaces, and the purpose of a wall is to divide them. Anything more is considered a luxury. They would rather hang decorations on doors or pictures on walls than carve sculptures into iron doors or paint murals on walls, which they see as inefficient and unproductive.

However, even the military seemed to want to pray to a deity in the presence of the progenitor.

The door, cast from solid steel, had a relief that could fit in an illustrated Bible. On the wall, a beautiful angel with large wings was depicted blowing a trumpet. The direction of the trumpet seemed to point at the door inside, as if ready to punish any ominous figure that might open it.

The sculptures and murals, which you’d normally see in a church, were clearly visible even in the dark underground armory.

In this darkness, the grand sculptures and sacred paintings were...

Bathed in blood, glowing red as if celebrating a blood festival.

I turned my head, creaking.

“...Hey, Cadet Shay.”

“What?”

“Shall we turn back?”

“Scared?”

“Yes.”

My honest answer made the Reincarnator look puzzled.

No, it’s too scary. I would have been better off not seeing this.

If the Holy Inquisition saw this scene, they would send an inquisitor for heresy. But if they heard it was the progenitor Tirkanjaka, they would quickly cancel the dispatch and pretend they didn’t see it. It would be like offering the inquisitor’s blood as a gift.

The progenitor of vampires is such an existence. Whether I’m strong or weak, it’s not strange to feel fear.

The Reincarnator glanced at me and said,

“You’re more scared than I thought.”

“It’s thanks to that fear that I’m still alive. Fear of danger is an essential element for survival.”

“Is that so?”

‘Maybe that’s why I died thirteen times.’

Ah, now that I think about it, that makes sense. You don’t care if you die. Suddenly, I felt a sense of injustice.

“You, who are scared, call her ‘sir’?”

“She is a sir, right?”

“Sigh. Let’s not talk about it.”

‘Let’s not talk about it’ means ‘I’ll do as I please.’ The Reincarnator walked up to the door and placed her hand on it. The door opened on its own, as if it were a beast’s mouth waiting for prey.

“Damn. Great Earth Goddess.”

There’s no choice. If we’re going to be eaten, it doesn’t matter whether it’s inside the mouth or beyond the throat. Before the door closed, I followed the Reincarnator into the final room.

A torch, somewhat anachronistic in the modern era of lighting and lamps, hung on the wall. It was a sophisticated torch holder made by carving a nest-like structure from stone with nails and chisels, then flipping it upside down. The nest-shaped decoration, carved with meticulous detail, seemed to be ready to have a phoenix rise from it at any moment.

Blood-red flames shot up, reaching for the sky. However, the flames’ ascent was short-lived. This was the lowest place in the world, a basement of some prison in the abyss. It was too cruel for the flames to fly to the sky. The flames that touched the ceiling shattered, scattering the remains of light in all directions.

Light has meaning in its fading. The last room, dimly lit, had scattered light creating red shadows.

Thanks to this, I could see the room.

The redness in all directions wasn’t just because the flames were red. Blood. The walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in what seemed to be thousands of liters of blood. The room itself seemed to be a giant heart, with so much blood swirling and flowing.

However, despite the vast amount of blood, there was no scent of it. The smell of blood is also part of the blood, under the progenitor’s power.

Without Tirkanjaka’s permission, the Reincarnator and I wouldn’t be able to smell the blood.

In the center of the room was a pitch-black coffin. A masterpiece made from precious sacrificial wood, carefully lacquered, and engraved with a winged red cross. A voice came from inside.

The blood surged. The blood that should be dedicating itself to my life, under the skin, was eager to welcome a familiar presence.

Overwhelming power. The Reincarnator, facing it,

“Tirkanjaka. I’ve come to propose a deal.”

Facing the vampire, she said boldly,

“Teach me the Blood Creation Technique.”

Suddenly asking to be taught a technique. It could be absurd, but the vampire wasn’t surprised. It was familiar. Over a thousand years, more than a thousand people had come to her seeking something.

The power to control blood. Hearing that name after a long time, the vampire quietly asked,

Becoming a vampire, accepting the progenitor’s blood, naturally grants the power to control blood. There have been countless people who sought the progenitor’s blood for immortality. The vampire, feeling a bit of mundanity, asked the Reincarnator if she was one of those people.

However, the Reincarnator had no intention of becoming a vampire. Instead, she asked for something deeper and more fundamental.

“No, I don’t want to get it that way. Teach me the technique you learned before becoming a vampire.”

For a brief moment, emotions stirred. Intense confusion and turmoil arose from within the coffin. For a moment, all the blood in the room seemed to converge.

But the opponent was a vampire who had lived for over a thousand years. A mere surge of blood wouldn’t excite her. The vampire calmed her excitement and replied.

The Reincarnator faced the vampire, thinking thoughts only she could.

‘You told me in the previous cycle.’

The Reincarnator smiled and, for a moment, was lost in thought.

Before becoming a vampire, when she was just a human. As a young girl, she could handle blood, helping her father, a doctor, run a clinic. Many people benefited from her efforts. As a human, her ability was limited to stopping the flow of blood, but it was enough to earn people’s smiles.

In the previous cycle, the vampire mentioned this fact, advised her to learn from her, and then quietly passed away, unmourned.

The reminiscence ended. I felt a sensation like being pushed out of the depths, and I rubbed my aching head.

This is a memory. It was a short and fragmented memory, but it had its own significance.

I had read a bit of the Reincarnator’s memory and learned a bit about the ‘Catastrophe.’

It seems the Catastrophe is coming. A powerful enough event to claim the life of the progenitor Tirkanjaka.

“Teach me, and I might tell you.”

A brief silence. Slow thoughts. Thousands of thoughts flashed and disappeared. At some point, the vampire’s attention turned to me.

What? Suddenly? I was just standing quietly. Why did she single me out? I answered reluctantly.

“As you wish, sir.”

Huh? The blood just stirred. Did it get angry? I quickly said,

“My duty comes before my age, so I’ll address you as Cadet. However, since Cadet Tirkanjaka is, well, a bit older, the military doesn’t give specific instructions or orders to older cadets. I won’t either. As long as you don’t leave the training grounds, you can act freely, so feel free to stay here.”

Pfft. Something dark brushed against my cheek, creating a thin crack. The blood, freed from the crack, slowly flew toward the vampire, fluttering like a butterfly.

I didn’t see it. There was no malice, so I didn’t dodge, but even if I had, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Feeling a chill, I took a deep breath and stopped talking.

A faintly angry voice came from inside.

“No, it’s not that. Just continue as you have been.”

The black coffin lid opened. Inside, it was as dark as the outside. A pale, slender hand emerged from the darkness.

The blood flying through the air landed on her hand and seeped in like rain on dry earth.

A faint sense of disgust came from the vampire who had harvested my blood.

But, because of that.

Then, the coffin rose. The swirling darkness pushed it up, and it faced the Reincarnator and me.

The inside of the coffin was still dark. Only a lifeless white hand emerged from the gap. Another blood sample flew toward it, the Reincarnator’s blood used to open the door.

The vampire moistened her hand with the blood and said,

Well, she’s a woman... The vampire, in her male disguise, hadn’t even considered the possibility that the Reincarnator was a woman. The Reincarnator clenched her fist at the positive signal.

The vampire said leisurely,

“Thank you.”

The vampire closed the coffin lid after saying that. The Reincarnator, hearing a positive response, tried to contain her excitement and control her expression.

‘Yes! It worked! I didn’t expect it to be this easy!’

Suppressing her excitement, the Reincarnator asked carefully,

“When will we start? I’d like to start as soon as possible.”

It meant about a month later. For the Reincarnator, who was in a hurry, it was unacceptable.

“What? That’s too late. Let’s start tomorrow.”

“There’s a difference! A world of difference!”

They were arguing again. Should I step in to resolve the conflict?

“Hey! Cadet Shay!”

I pretended to scold the Reincarnator.

“A month might seem long to you, but to Cadet Tirkanjaka, who has lived for over 1200 years, it’s a fleeting moment! Show a bit more consideration! Time seems fair to everyone, but it’s actually relative. To her...”

“...How about you show some consideration?”

Huh? What? I’m already showing plenty of consideration. How considerate do I have to be to cater to her like this?

While we were bickering, a slow voice came from the coffin.

“No, it’s not that. I just want to show this brat the difference in experience.”

While the Reincarnator was celebrating her success, the vampire added, looking at me.

“Huh?”

Why me, all of a sudden?

Just as I was about to protest,

The world seemed to move away. I can only describe it that way. My body and the Reincarnator’s body moved on their own. No, it wasn’t us moving.

The walls, the floor, the door.

The corridor, the ceiling, the room, the stairs—everything moved forward. The world passed by from behind to in front. It was like watching a fast-flowing river from a docked boat, with dark, viscous liquid flowing past us, retracing our steps—.

Before we knew it, we were standing at the entrance of the underground armory, without taking a single step. The sound of the steel door closing brought me back to reality.

“Crazy.”

I had the feeling from the moment we entered that we were entering the mouth of a beast.

Literally, the inside was... like the inside of the vampire’s body. We had just been spat out by the vampire.

The Reincarnator, as if used to it, shook off the experience and said,

“Haha. What a pathetic sight. Scared?”

“...Not really.”

I just realized that a terrifying monster had become even more terrifying. The Reincarnator, covering her mouth and laughing, mocked me.

“I’ll give you some advice. Don’t mention your age in front of Tirkanjaka. It’s a woman’s heart.”

The Reincarnator, acting superior, turned and