Malphegor
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MCIM Ch. 11
🕑 Added 2025-09-14 15:28:36 +0000 UTCMario scooped up the loot from the floor, a bottle of Vampire Blood and a Vampire Fang, and shoved them into his inventory.
His mood was through the roof. With enough Vampire Blood, he could level up his Hunter class, and that would make him a lot stronger. Every drop counted toward his next skill unlock.
Blade was already in full slaughter mode. He couldn't see the golden outlines around vampires like Mario could, but years of hunting bloodsuckers had given him a nose for their scent.
Normally, he would spare vampire thralls. Mario had no such qualms. Anyone bearing the vampire's mark got a bullet to the head.
Nothing worse than a traitor.
Mario picked up the items that dropped from the dead thralls: Human Heart and Pure Salt. In the Vampirism mod, these materials usually only dropped from killing wild Hunter NPCs. Getting them from thralls was unexpected luck.
A Human Heart drop was one thing, but Pure Salt too? That's jackpot material.
Pure Salt could be refined into Blessed Salt, then crafted into Blessed Salt Water at an alchemic cauldron. Use that on an Altar of Cleansing, and it would transform into Holy Water, one of the most effective weapons against vampires. He was already planning his next crafting session.
The bar echoed with vampire screams and the stench of burning flesh. Blade and Mario moved like reapers, cutting down over a dozen vampires on the first floor before the bloodsuckers could even fight back. Seven vampire lieutenants went down along with their foot soldiers.
When the vampires upstairs heard the chaos below, they came rushing down like idiots. Blade pulled a custom-modified pistol from his coat and aimed at the staircase.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Silver bullets tore through the horde, turning them into target practice. Mario watched with mixed feelings.
Those are all materials going up in smoke.
He flicked his cigarette butt to the floor and crushed it under his boot, then turned his attention to the bar counter. His vampire sense showed him one more bloodsucker hiding behind it.
He approached with his weapon ready. The vampire heard his footsteps and suddenly popped up from behind the counter, shotgun in hand, firing without hesitation.
Mario was ready for it. He quickly dodged the blast, then raised his gun and fired. One bullet to the skull, and the vampire dropped.
Dodging bullets was simple if you had the balls for it. Just watch the barrel and move before they pulled the trigger. It required nothing more than steady nerves and zero fear of death. He had both in spades.
He vaulted onto the bar counter, raised his iron axe, and brought it crashing down on the vampire that looked like some kind of bartender or waiter. Then he switched to a wooden stake and drove it straight into the creature's throat.
The vampire's mouth opened in a silent scream as flames consumed its body. Within moments, it was nothing but ash scattered across the floor.
No more vampires came down from upstairs. The bar fell silent except for the crackle of dying flames.
Blade glanced around but didn't see the corrupt cop anywhere. "Looks like there's a secret passage somewhere around here."
Mario was busy looting the liquor cabinet, stuffing bottles of expensive-looking alcohol into his inventory. Without looking up, he said, "The secret passage is behind the kitchen fridge."
Blade gave him a look that clearly said, You've got to be kidding me. Who the hell puts a secret passage inside a fridge?
That's what he was thinking, but his feet were already moving toward the kitchen. At the doorway, Mario called out, "The upstairs isn't cleared yet, some of them are still hiding up there."
"I'll check it out first. Can you wait a minute?"
Blade paused at the kitchen entrance. "I'll check the back first."
Mario shrugged, put away his torch, and headed for the stairs to the second floor. Since the bar's walls were completely sealed, there wasn't a single window upstairs. Fortunately, the hallway was lit by a few lamps, so it wasn't pitch black.
The long corridor was lined with guest rooms on both sides. The walls were covered with "artistic" photographs that made his mouth go dry.
Figures. Since this is a Japanese-owned bar, their idea of art is definitely... specialized.
He kicked open one of the room doors. His eyes immediately fell on a huge round bed where three young women and a vampire were huddled together, all completely naked, clutching a sheet.
"Quite the party you've got going here."
The vampire saw Mario enter and leaped from the bed, diving at him.
Mario quickly holstered his gun and pulled out the silver-studded baseball bat that Garcia had left behind. With a heavy swing, he smashed it into the vampire's bare stomach.
The silver acted like acid, corroding the creature's flesh into charred black wounds. He then tore the silver chain from the bat, wrapped it around his fist.
Left hook. Right hook. Jab.
The vampire's body emitted a foul stench as the silver corroded his flesh.
Meanwhile, Blade had found the passage leading underground, but worried about Mario's safety, he came upstairs with Karen. Following the sounds of violence, they found Mario standing over a naked man.
The vampire's corroded body made it obvious what the creature was.
After checking the vampire's health bar, Mario unwrapped the silver chain from his hand and pulled out a wooden stake. He drove it into the creature's chest, and it burst into flames.
Looking up at the three trembling women on the bed, he said, "You three can go. Get out of here and don't come back."
The women didn't need to be told twice. They grabbed whatever clothes they could find and fled the room.
---
Mario smoothly cleared out all the vampires on the second floor. Although there were still some thralls hiding around, he couldn't track them down without more time.
Wearing a regretful expression, he walked toward the bar's back kitchen.
Karen noticed his look and asked softly, "What's wrong? Are there still vampires that haven't been taken care of?"
Mario shook his head. "I just wish I had more time to interrogate some of these thralls. Get information about other nests, you know? But we're on a clock here."
Karen nodded, understanding. Time was always the enemy in operations like this.
At the front, Blade open a refrigerator door, revealing a hidden passageway leading underground.
Following a stone staircase, the group soon arrived in front of a sleek, futuristic-looking elevator. The metallic doors gave off an icy feeling that made Mario think of horror movies.
If this place has laser security like Resident Evil, not even ten Blades would be enough.
The elevator descended smoothly, opening into a vast hall that resembled an underground bunker. Inside, rows of equipment that looked like high-tech servers stood in neat arrangements, with red lights blinking on the metal cabinets.
His eyes lit up at the sight of all that hardware.
If I could take all these servers back home, hook them up with power and internet...
Blade said calmly, "This is the vampires' archives. Where they store important intelligence."
Mario's dreams came crashing down. "Archives? Not servers? You're telling me all this high-tech looking equipment is just... filing cabinets?"
Blade nodded. Refusing to believe it, Mario walked up to the nearest cabinet, pulled out his pickaxe, and tapped it experimentally.
[Fireproof Archive Cabinet Filled With Documents]
He looked around at the hall packed with identical cabinets, completely crushed. His visions of a supercomputer setup evaporated like smoke.
Karen gazed at the equipment around her. "This is incredibly high-tech for... filing cabinets."
"They have followers in every field," Blade explained. "Politics, finance, real estate. They need secure storage for blackmail material."
Pfffft... pfffft... PFFFFT.
A series of disgusting sounds echoed through the spacious underground chamber. Mario instinctively covered his nose, then remembered that ever since activating his enhanced senses, he could detect vampire scent but not other odors. He lowered his hand.
"What the hell is that sound?" Karen frowned, clearly already suffering from the biochemical attack.
After turning a corner, they found Krieger, who'd escaped earlier. Beside him sat a small cooler filled with blood bags, and next to that...
Mario had seen some shit in his time, but this made him do a double-take.
The thing Krieger was feeding could barely be called a vampire anymore. It was more like a blob of flesh that happened to have fangs. The creature had to weigh at least 600 pounds, its rolls of fat so massive that Mario couldn't tell if it was sitting on the floor or on some kind of reinforced furniture.
Apart from its head and tiny hands, which could still move slightly, the rest of its body had lost all mobility.
"Mamma mia," Mario said, staring at the grotesque sight. "How the fuck does something like this become a vampire? Which sick bastard turned this thing? Could you even get blood out of one bite?"
Krieger, completely absorbed in his feeding duties, was startled by the voice behind him. He spun around quickly, seeing the three of them standing there.
"How... how did you find this place?!"
Blade stepped forward. In panic, Krieger dropped the blood bag he was holding. It fell onto the obese vampire, who completely ignored the intruders, stretching out his small hands in an attempt to grab the spilled blood.
"Krieger... my food... give me my food, quickly..." the massive vampire wheezed.
His mouth opened, revealing two sharp fangs. Mario actually found this vampire kind of... cute, in a horrifying way.
"No rush. You can eat in a minute."
Mario was already considering taking this creature back with him. He could be useful for vampire transformation experiments, and there was no need to worry about him escaping. In this condition, moving even a few inches would be a struggle.
Blade stepped past the collapsed Krieger and looked directly at the bloated vampire. "I assume you must be Pearl, the Archivist of the House of Erebus."
At that moment, Pearl finally snapped out of his trance, his eyes filling with panic.
"Blade! How did you find this place? Damn it, Krieger, you led him here!"
Agitated, he let out another series of sputtering fart-like noises. Blade had no choice but to retreat a couple steps, even a half-vampire's sense of smell had limits.
"Tell me, where is Frost?"
As he questioned, he reached into his coat and pulled out a black UV lamp.
Pearl asked nervously, "W-what is that?"
"Ultraviolet light. We're going to play a little game: I ask the questions, you give the answers. If I don't like what I hear… trust me, you don't want to know what I'll do to you."
Mario, seeing Blade pull out his signature weapon, quickly intervened. He still wanted Pearl alive for his own purposes.
"Hold up! Don't torch him yet. I need this guy."
Blade looked at him questioningly. Mario continued, "Krieger definitely knows where his master is hiding. And besides, as long as we're here, Frost will come looking for you anyway. It's inevitable."
Blade nodded. He wasn't just hunting Frost, that vampire was hunting him too. Still, he was curious about Mario's interest in the grotesquely obese vampire.
Mario smiled warmly at Pearl.
"I think you're a rare talent. Why don't you come work for me? If you're worried about commitment, you can stay here for now. Once we've dealt with Frost, you can make your choice. I believe you're a smart... entity."
Feeling Mario's sincerity, Pearl wavered. He didn't know what this stranger wanted from him, but it was certainly better than dying at Blade's hands right now. He also understood his position in vampire society, "archivist" sounded impressive, but it was really just a job for someone left to rot in the basement.
After only brief hesitation, he said, "Alright... I'll do it."
