Bleap
patreon
Chapter 74
🕑 Added 2025-09-20 08:10:29 +0000 UTCOf course, even knowing that she was leading us into a trap, neither of us really made any effort towards caution. Luviagelita was from a long line of adventurers, the sort of folks Lara Croft would be impressed by. I was... well, I was me. That was all I had to say about that.
We passed by the town's citizens, shambling about like zombies. I even saw one guy walk straight into a wall, hit his head, then somehow keep trying to walk in that same direction until someone bumped into them which made them BOTH start running into each other.
It was amusing if nothing else.
Said amusement was stabbed in the gut the moment we arrived at the Church that the crazy Executor was leading us to. Its corpse was also desecrated. There was nothing out of place about the Church itself, it was the sort of quaint structure I expected a town like this to have. Fine stone blocks laid grandly, a tiled roof with a slant, and long windows of stained glass. There was a bell tower rising on the other end, and a chest-high mortared wall closed it off from the rest of the world.
Ancient, but well-kept. Honestly, it was built better than most modern churches considering how great the influence of the Church had been in medieval times.
Another Executor watched us like a hawk from the Bell Tower, and I caught the distinct shimmer of a scope as we stepped closer. Priests with guns was... a metal concept. I wanted to shake his hand, but he seemed to think he was hiding well enough that we missed him.
Oh well, I was more interested in the 'spectacle' erected out front.
Someone had, in terribly ironic fashion, crucified a man right outside their door. The body was terribly deformed, like someone had pulled a mummy from some history exhibit and pulled a sick joke with it. The man, or woman, quite literally had all the blood removed from their body, their wrists carved and their throat violently ripped... Then, the killer had gone a step further, carving a cross onto the chest of the victim.
...Huh.
Where the hell had the Professor sent me?
The bald pries-... The Executor that had 'greeted' us was standing near the corpse, eyes narrowed, hands behind his back. He spoke without facing us, "Greetings, magus of the Clock Tower. You came easier than I assumed."
Luviagelita tossed her hair, "And you should be glad of my magnanimity. That idiotic child you sent to fetch us wasn't inviting... but I suppose I should expect such of peasants so weak of mind they would leave their fate with another."
"Hey! Hey, I wasn't that bad! The apostate is lying, Father! Surely you can't trust-" She held her mouth shut with both hands when the bald executor glanced at her. "Yes, I'm sorry. I was wrong."
Snorting, I stepped up to the older man, a hand on my chin. "Man, I knew you guys were creative with your punishments but this is just straight up disgusting. How'd you even drain the blood? Vesp... Vespa? Isn’t that a bike?"
I curiously poked the corpse... instead of falling away like a mummy, the texture was undoubtedly soft. I'd been right in my suspicions. The corpse was indeed fresh. That was an alarming fact, and thus far, the only party capable of this were... well, the priests.
"Vespaio." He corrected calmly before shaking his head, "This is not our work. He was one of mine. Instead, I'd thought this was meant to be some sick declaration of defiance from you."
"Hell no, wait, nah, can't blame you. A lot of magi definitely would." I shrugged.
There was probably a magus out there that carved people up for looking at him wrong. People tended to be weird with their egos, magi were weirder, especially those from older lineages, who often thought each and every one of them were the pinnacle of their line.
"Then, if not you, it must be the vile spawn of Satan we hunt."
I tilted my head, "You believe me?"
"I do. Your heretic mind fails to grasp that this was a formality. Now, I must ask, have you noticed something?"
"Nope. I guess your target's the reason for this barrier then."
He gave a stern nod, "It was necessary for the concealment of heresy. In this age, we can not take any risks. I pray we were able to trap the creature."
Admittedly, 'Vespaio' was being a lot more cordial than I expected him to be from my experience with his kind. The bald executor even gave a slight bow as he turned to face... nothing? No wait, the second he turned, a quartet of executors appeared in front of him.
The crazy bitch with the fluffy hair I recognised. The other three I did not. There was a dark-haired youth with a huge sniper rifle resting on his shoulder. The sniper from the tower, I presumed. And two more masked men. All of them wore the same cassocks I'd seen all Holy Church members in so far.
I whistled, "They look like an interesting bunch."
"I'll say. I can't find a child among them, however. Quite unusual." Luviagelita smiled gently.
Every magus hated the Church. The Church hated every magus.
"Shut up, you overgrown whore, flaunting your body like that. Have you no shame?" One of the masked men barked out. "Drawing men to sin, godless heretic."
"Yeah maybe not look?" I offered politely. "Insane way to cope with your own lack of self-control."
Particularly because what she was wearing wasn't even that revealing.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. That someone was me. When he turned, I socked him so hard his face ended up making out with the concrete wall surrounding the Church compound. The next second, I found myself staring down the barrel of a rifle... a massive barrel.
A blade rested on my shoulder and a pair of knives pressed into my ribs.
"Aha~! I love this! An apostate that wants to die is the greatest reward! O-Oh thank you, Lord!"
Luviagelita's crest roared to life as she raised her hand to hold it beside her lips. A sort of childish glee flashed through her amber eyes.
"Wait a moment."
Just when it looked like we were finally going to throw down, Father Vespaio became the voice of reason. For a man that looked like nothing would make him happier than to repeatedly bash my head into the concrete road, it was a rather surprising turn of events. Hell, even now, his fists were clenched so hard I thought they'd start bleeding.
"There is no point in wasting time and effort against each other. No, perhaps it is He that guided you here. We have a common enemy here. Let us have terms. This is surely a test from our Lord."
"I doubt anything will make us see eye-to-eye, but I will admit my curiosity." Luvia did not lower her hand, and her crest seemed ready to roar. "That is what you want, right Hal?"
Aw, she knew me so well.
"We hunt one of the living dead. A dead apostle of some renown. An old one. We tracked him through multiple countries. He has fed wantonly, and left a trail of mindless ghouls. Fortunately, we were more than capable of putting them down once news reached us. I suspect that is reason enough for us to work together, for a time, no matter how greatly it pains me to collude with the heretic."
Admittedly, my information when it came to that particular department was sorely lacking compared to most. What I knew of these so-called Dead Apostles, I knew from introductory lessons at Mystile, most of which I'd slept through.
They were vampires. That was it. Vampires.
But with none of the weaknesses, not even the Sun if they were old enough.
Other than that, I remembered one important fact.
The Church hated every magus. Every magus hated the Church. Both loathed the Dead Apostles.
The conflict was eternal, and a direct consequence of the latter declaring themselves an enemy of all magus, engaging in wanton slaughter. According to my professor, a good number of the Christian Crusades were lost solely because the greatest of these vampires made the wars into a feeding ground, causing unbound chaos.
All in all, if this one was old enough, it was a legendary creature.
That was the sort of revelation that got my blood pumping and made me fail miserably at even trying to hide the excitement I derived from it. The Executors that had 'cornered' me even backed away.
One clicked his tongue, "Mad bastards."
"Shove it, monkey." I dusted my shoulder, specifically where he'd rested his sword, before locking eyes with Vespaio. "How are you gonna find him?"
At those words, the bald Executor grinned back, an uncharacteristic and unsettling look for such a rigid person.
"With holy fire. We shall cleanse this tainted town as well."
"...What about the citizens?"
"It matters little."
Luviagelita raised a brow.
"Yeah no, that's not happening. Find another way, or I'm running a fade."
"Running a... what? I apologise, the unrefined language of heretics often confuses me."
"I'm saying I'm gonna humble you."
"...?"
The Executor looked even more confused. Finally, Luviagelita let out a sigh and snapped her fingers. "He's saying he'll fight you for them."
"But... why? You are magus, are you not? You should care even less. They will be sacrificed in the name of the Lord. A great honour for these lost lambs who will amount to nothing more." He was... genuinely baffled. I could see it in his eyes. He was trying to reason with my grievance, and failing.
"I'm about to honour your ass with my foot up it."
"You know, Hal... That is a downright outlandish stance for a magus, of all people, to take." Luvia walked up to my side, wrapping her hands around my arm. "But, yes, this sort of thing is exactly why I... why I adore you s-so."
Well, I had my girl's approval. What else was there to wait for?
"Alright babe, time to aura farm again."
She trembled... Yeah, there was something there.
I raised a finger.
Amongst flashes of crimson and great gusts of wind, Red formed atop it.
"What's it gonna be, baldie? Are we fighting for the people, or are we fighting a vampire together?"
"This is absurd." He said calmly.
And, it really was. It was so absurd it was downright hilarious.
Here I was, a magus, trying to save people where a priest, a man of the cloth, wanted to sacrifice them... Funnier still was the fact that both our intentions were meaningless and wholly unnecessary.
-
Hope you enjoyed.
Please, do comment.
Comments
Bleap
I am, thanks gng
BigBot
Every time Henry aura farms Luvia gets a bit “excited”
William Kirk
Thanks for the chapter. Hope your feeling better.
