BRD 52

The priest alternated his gaze between Meloni and Cain. His eyes rolling around made her deeply uncomfortable.

“I cannot permit a filthy hunter to meet a holy being.”

“Holy?”

As if she could no longer hold it in, Meloni burst out laughing. The priest’s face twisted.

“Holy, my ass. You’re filthy to the core.”

“You bitch…! How dare you speak of a noble one in such a manner!”

Bang—

The priest slammed his palm against the wall. For a moment, the ground seemed to tremble like an earthquake before going still again.

Meloni quickly scanned her surroundings, never letting her guard down.

“Noble? Who, exactly?”

Even so, she couldn’t stop her mockery.

Anyone could see it—the current saint was a vampire. And yet she was shamelessly pretending to be a saint.

“I will never allow a filthy hunter to meet that person!”

As the priest shouted, a creaking sound came from the ceiling.

“Kill the hunter!”

With a heavy clatter, the ceiling opened. Replicas poured down from above, scrambling over one another as they fell.

Meloni’s eyes widened as she immediately opened her umbrella.

“You hid this many replicas in the temple ceiling?”

Fwoosh—

Pure white flames flared around her and vanished, taking a number of the replicas with them.

The moment she closed the umbrella, she sprang backward.

“Cain, deal with them!”

“Huh? Already?”

“How many replicas did you even hide in this temple?”

Gritting her teeth, she fired her gun at the replicas. No matter how many she killed, more continued to spill endlessly from the open ceiling.

She twisted and dodged, avoiding the replicas as she moved.

Even so, she struggled desperately to kill them near the staircase, making sure none of them went down to the first floor.

“Ha… damn it.”

The curse slipped out on its own.

Creating this many replicas must have taken a considerable amount of time.

Just how long had this been going on?

‘If the central temple—the most important one—has become like this, that’s a problem.’

The other temples might already have been corrupted the same way.

Coldly smiling, Meloni kicked away a replica that had come right up to her and shot it full of bullets.

“Cain.”

“Hm?”

“Close the ceiling.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

She had allowed Cain to drink her blood whenever he wanted in exchange for his help.

And yet, he still wasn’t properly listening to her.

Since the replicas’ target was Meloni, they rushed only at her. Dolls that obeyed only their master didn’t bother anyone else besides their target.

Still, she had to stop them from going down to the first floor. They couldn’t afford to increase the number of replicas.

“You can do it. Hurry!”

“Mel, why aren’t you using your holy power?”

“Is that really what matters right now?”

“It looked like you were using it earlier.”

Lightly darting through the replicas, Cain kicked off the wall beside the ceiling and leapt upward.

Thud—bang—

He landed after kicking the open ceiling shut. He’d only used his foot, yet the ceiling closed neatly.

“So you knew how to do it, and you still pretended not to?”

Bang—bang-bang—

No new replicas appeared, but there were still far too many left.

As Cain said, she could just use her holy power. But that had to remain her last resort.

‘Because I still don’t know how to use it properly.’

She had been in the temple for five years.

But the time she had actually spent learning was less than half a year. For the rest of it, she had been out of her mind after watching her parents die right in front of her.

She was terrible at controlling the output of her holy power. She didn’t even know how strong she truly was.

That was why using it recklessly often left her unconscious.

“Mel, they’re coming up from below too.”

“…What?”

Thud—

She had just blown a replica’s head off with her umbrella.

Seeing a swarm of replicas climbing from the first floor to the second made a sigh escape her.

“You’ve got to be kidding…”

Handling endless enemies alone was starting to wear her down.

Like the last time she wiped out a horde of replicas, it seemed she’d have to use her holy power again. Dealing with them one by one was pointless.

‘Just who the hell is targeting me?’

Both last time and now, they were chasing her like they wanted her dead. She was clearly the target.

“Which bastard is it…?”

Her brow slowly furrowed.

It felt like they were deliberately trying to drain her strength.

“Mel.”

Cain pointed somewhere.

Just as Meloni opened her umbrella and was about to use her power, she froze.

“Look over there.”

“Where?”

Turning her head, she spotted a woman running across the heads of the replicas flooding in from the first floor.

She had short, purple hair. Riding the replicas as if they were stepping stones, the woman shouted,

“Bring the Immortal! Don’t kill her!”

Immortal.

By now, Meloni easily understood that the word referred to her.

“So basically…”

Why the hell were they doing this to her?

At the absurdity of it all, Meloni’s frown deepened.

“Cain, why are those things so obsessed with me?”

“Because your blood stimulates vampires.”

“What does that have to—tch!”

Bang—bang-bang—bang—

Meloni fired her gun repeatedly, cutting the conversation short. Dealing with the replicas came first.

She glared at Invidia, who was leading the rushing replicas.

‘So that’s the master of the replicas.’

If she killed that woman, the countless replicas would lose their power and die, meaning she wouldn’t have to waste her strength.

Meloni’s eyes gleamed.

“Cain, grab her.”

“Why?”

“No questions—now!”

Cain didn’t move at first, but when Meloni glared at him, he finally sprang into action.

For a brief moment, Meloni even considered shooting Cain.

She abandoned the thought when she saw him reach Invidia in an instant and seize her by the shoulder. The sight was oddly reassuring.

“Ugh! What is wrong with you?! Let go! Let go of me!”

“No.”

Cain tightened his grip on Invidia’s shoulder and curled his lips upward.

He looked down coldly at her as she struggled wildly in his grasp.

“Go on. Struggle more.”

“You crazy bastard! You—you’re a vampire, aren’t you?! Why are you siding with a hunter?!”

“Me? On Mel’s side?”

As if he were hearing a foreign language, Cain tilted his head.

Just then, Meloni walked up to them.

“Hold her.”

“Ah—let go of me!”

Thud—

A dagger flew in and pierced straight through Cain’s wrist. Meloni’s movements stopped instantly.

Cain hadn’t expected this either, and his grip loosened. Invidia tried to escape in that moment.

“Where do you think you’re running off to like a rat?”

Snapping back to her senses, Meloni grabbed Invidia by the hair. She pressed the tip of her umbrella to her shoulder and fired shot after shot.

“Aaaah!”

“You’re persistent.”

“It hurts! It hurts!”

Wailing like a child, Invidia rolled across the floor, thrashing from side to side.

Meloni didn’t miss the opening and climbed on top of her. She pressed the umbrella tip against Invidia’s throat.

“That’s when it happened.”

“You think I’ll die like this?”

Invidia’s eyes sharpened.

Meloni shouldn’t have let her guard down, but Invidia was faster. Using both feet, she kicked Meloni with all her strength.

Because Meloni had pulled back before injuring her arms further, Invidia managed to escape.

“You’re not getting away!”

Jumping to her feet, Meloni fired relentlessly at Invidia’s back. Even as she was shot, the woman didn’t stop running.

“I won’t die like this. I’m not going to die!”

Grinding her teeth, Meloni chased after her—then halted. Cain, wounded by the dagger, flashed through her mind.

‘There’s no point chasing her anyway.’

Invidia had taken at least five silver bullets and still escaped. As expected of a fragment of the Vampire King.

No matter how fast Meloni was, it would be difficult to catch her now.

“Mel, you’re only thinking of me now?”

Seeing Meloni return, Cain smirked as he pulled the dagger from his arm and tossed it to the floor.

His pure white shirt was soaked crimson, blood dripping steadily onto the ground. Meloni’s brow creased.

“You…”

She slowly approached and grabbed his arm—

Then the sound of replicas rushing in snapped her back to reality. She shoved Cain behind her.

“Vampires heal quickly anyway.”

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt, you know?”

“If it keeps hurting, I’ll heal you. So we’ll talk later.”

The replicas that had hesitated began charging again at terrifying speed.

This wasn’t going to work.

She had tried to kill their master, but she’d escaped. Now there was only one thing Meloni could do.

“You’re going to use your holy power?”

She could keep making silver bullets, but there were simply too many enemies.

At this rate, she’d collapse from exhaustion first.

“So what? If not now, then when?”