He let go of my wrist.
With my body free, I widened the distance from Michael and scanned the surroundings.
I could see some of the priests surrounding us chasing werewolves in the distance.
The werewolves are in a tattered state from fighting the vampires.
At this rate, they'll be annihilated.
I've never seen anything like this in my life so far.
The blood inside my body feels like it's churning.
It seems to be screaming that I should run away.
"Hoo..."
I took a deep breath.
The priests surrounding me are the church's forces I've dealt with so far. Breaking through them is possible even for me who has used up a lot of blood.
It's just those eyes.
Those mad eyes that don't turn their gaze anywhere else and only look at me prevent me from moving carelessly.
"Arian! Run away!"
I hear Vincent's shout from far away.
I want to run away too...
The werewolves are gradually being pushed back and attacked by the priests.
There was no more time to delay.
Swish!
I quickly retreated backward and leapt towards the priests.
"Block it!"
Someone shouted as I jumped in.
I kneed the jaw of a priest in front of me and grabbed his neck to bite it.
Slash!
And I instantly absorb his gushing blood.
I immediately drew my short sword and swung it towards another priest...
Clang!
"?!"
Michael, who had appeared at some point, grabbed my sword with his hand wrapped in golden flames.
Sizzle
The caught sword melts and breaks in two.
Not stopping there, the flames were traveling down the remaining blade towards the handle.
I quickly threw away the sword and threw a dagger at Michael's head.
It was at a speed that shouldn't even be visible to the eye, but I shuddered at the sight of Michael catching the dagger this time too.
"Isn't the monster you, not me?"
Michael attacked with flames wrapped around both hands without saying anything to my provocation.
Boom boom!
Sizzle
The weight of power in each hit is no joke.
I'm barely avoiding them by a paper-thin margin, but the moment I graze the flames, my flesh starts burning.
"Ugh!"
The pain was no joke.
To think such a monster existed in the church, it's on a completely different level from what I've been dealing with so far.
There wasn't even a chance to extend my hand to attack.
'I need to create an opening.'
Michael's attacks seem to be random swings, but the flow of all attacks was fatal.
When an attack aimed at the head seems to miss, it attacks the legs, and at the same time, a fist flies towards the stomach.
I'm avoiding them, but my attacks don't work, while the opponent's attacks cause damage even if they just graze me.
The only fortunate thing is that the other priests can't participate in the attack. If they had participated too...
I didn't want to think about the latter part.
As the pain intensifies, it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.
Thud!
"Ugh...!"
I took a strong punch to the abdomen.
I thought I had avoided it, but my body didn't follow.
Bang!
I flew and crashed into a wall.
The stomach hit by the fist is burning.
"Argh!"
It feels like my whole body is twisting in pain. I'm barely holding onto consciousness, but now it might really be the end.
Michael slowly approaches me like this.
The expressionless face he had maintained since appearing breaks into a broad smile full of madness and ecstasy.
I tried to get up, but it wasn't easy.
"Damn it..."
"Is the little performance all over now? Hahahahahahaha!!"
Whoosh!
Michael's entire body, who had been laughing for a while, is covered in golden flames.
The strongly shining flames seemed like they would blind me.
Michael put his hands together in a prayer posture.
"Lord, I shall burn evil with holy flames..."
The flames approach me.
* * *
Vincent thought the timing was really exquisite.
It's not that they hadn't thought about the church's intrusion, but they didn't know Michael would appear.
"Damn it! Retreat! I said retreat!"
This kind of meaningless death wasn't what Vincent wanted.
The fight against 100 vampires was by no means easy.
Even dealing with just two mid-level vampires with Vincent's own abilities felt like death had come right up to his nose.
"Where are you running, beasts!"
"These crazy fanatic bastards!"
At least no exorcists above the captain level from the church side had appeared other than Michael, so Vincent was breaking through an escape route in cooperation with the remaining werewolves.
"Vincent! At this rate, we'll be annihilated! I'll open a path, use that chance!"
"Damn it! Lennon! No!"
Before he could stop him, the werewolf called Lennon jumps into the middle of the church's ranks.
In both his hands were two sticks of dynamite from who knows where.
"Go! Brothers!"
Boom!!
Thanks to Lennon, who carried out a suicide attack in the middle of the enemy, a big hole was created in the enemy's ranks.
Vincent roughly shouted to the remaining werewolves.
"Go! Now's the time! Get into the forest!"
Thanks to the visibility blocked by dust, the remaining werewolves quickly fled into the forest. And Vincent turned his body right there and started running back towards the village.
Anyway, the church's personnel are all focused on blocking them.
If not now, he won't be able to bring Arian out.
He knows.
Who Michael is, he thought he would never appear again, but that nightmare-like monster in human form appeared before their eyes in exactly the same appearance as back then.
He has to save Arian.
Because she's their ally? To be precise, it's a contract relationship.
Because affection has built up over time? No way, if it weren't for this contract, they wouldn't even have met.
Because it reminds him of when he was human? He can barely remember how many decades ago that was now.
Then why is Vincent running to save Arian?
Without finding the answer to that, Vincent ran into the village. And he heads towards the central square of the village where Michael had appeared.
From far away, he hears the continuous sound of something breaking.
It means their fight is still continuing.
Thinking that Arian must still be alive then, Vincent's feet moved even faster.
And in Vincent's eyes as he arrived at the square, he sees the sight of Arian writhing in pain buried in one side of a wall.
At the same time, he sees Michael spewing out a laugh of madness while looking at Arian like that.
He sees Michael putting his hands together as if praying.
Vincent knows.
How dangerous that is.
He had no time to hesitate.
He rushes straight to Arian.
And holding Arian in his arms, he fled at full speed in the opposite direction of Michael.
Woong!
Whoosh!
He hears something resonating, and Michael's golden flames instantly grow larger.
And it turns everything around to ash.
Its size grows even larger and its speed is fast too.
It catches up right behind Vincent's back.
Sizzle
"Ku... kueeeuk..."
Vincent's entire back started burning up.
But still, he runs without letting go of Arian.
If they can enter that forest, there's a prepared escape route, so there's a way to escape.
"Vin... cent..."
Arian barely speaks.
But Vincent had no leisure to answer.
"Why... me..."
Vincent himself doesn't know.
Why he's saving Arian.
Why he has to do this.
The forest is just ahead now. He runs. Just runs.
We have to live, we have to survive, it's too sad to die here now.
Thinking like that, Vincent ran endlessly into the forest.
* * *
I woke up to find Vincent unconscious in a forest where I couldn't tell the location at all.
Even though we might be in a situation where pursuit continued, to be unconscious...
When I barely opened my eyes and raised my body, the surroundings were a dense forest, and it was full of tranquility.
"You've come to..."
Vincent spoke with difficulty.
"We're both a mess..."
I answered.
With those words, Vincent and I didn't say anything for a while and were just dazed.
I sat leaning against a tree.
I really almost died.
If it weren't for Vincent, that place would have been my last.
I raised my body with difficulty.
If I'm alive, there are things I need to do again.
"Vincent, can you get up?"
"...I have no choice but to get up. Kuugh..."
Vincent raises his body.
His entire back was full of burn wounds. It's amazing that he can even get up.
"There was no... pursuit."
Vincent struggled as if in pain every time he spoke.
"Still, we have to go. We can't stay here forever."
I too have burn wounds all over my body.
Even though I'm lacking blood right now, the recovery of the wounds is too slow.
Is it even recovering at all?
Anyway, I went to Vincent's side and supported him.
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't mention it."
Vincent gives directions and I support him, we support each other as we walk through the quiet forest.
It seemed like I should think about what to do next after getting out of here and recovering our bodies a little.
So we walk for a long time.
"Thank you. For saving me."
"Don't mention it... Haha... Hahaha! Cough cough."
"Don't laugh, wolf."
"It's my heart, vampire."
That's how we survived.
* * *
[Diary
We returned to that inn from before.
In the middle of escaping the forest, some werewolves who had escaped from that battle found us.
We were carried by them to this place, and there was no pursuit from the church.
Is that fortunate?
No, why didn't they pursue?
First, I needed to recover my body.
The innkeeper cried terribly when she saw us being carried in on stretchers.
To be precise, when she saw Vincent.
It didn't seem like an ordinary relationship.
The innkeeper who brought me to the bed first brought me several blood packs.
I don't know where she got them from, but I felt grateful.
I immediately tore open and drank the blood pack, but it feels like water with coal burned in it.
Ugh... It's the first time blood has tasted bad.
.
.
.
.
.
Recovery is too slow.
I've rested for two straight days and drank several more blood packs, but whether my natural healing ability has decreased or if it's because of the golden flames, healing isn't progressing smoothly.
I casually asked the innkeeper about Vincent's condition, and she said Vincent is also recovering from injuries too slowly, just like me.
Golden flames. Michael.
Damn fanatic crazy bastard.
I make a deep promise to myself that I will definitely grind him up and drink him.
While resting, the innkeeper brought an old book, saying Vincent asked to give it to me.
That book had the church's organization, the scale of the Special Division, and the personal information of exorcists called holy knights written in it.
Michael's personal information was also written there...
This crazy bastard is too much.
I knew he wasn't in his right mind from the first time I saw him, but this is really...
I can't bring myself to write it in my diary.
It's content that's quite bad for mental health.
.
.
.
.
.
Golden flames.
It is the purifying flame possessed by the primordial holy knight.
According to old records, it's said to be a fatal power to vampires, werewolves, and all existing monsters.
It is said to burn all blasphemous beings, and give healing blessings to those with faith in God.
Monsters touched by the flames couldn't even exert their original power and crumbled to ash, they say.
...It's a natural enemy, isn't it?
I remembered Michael's crazy eyes looking at me.
...It seems like I've been targeted wrongly no matter how you look at it.
My head hurts.]