"It's not exactly our first meeting. When you were little…"
She shook her head and stopped herself.
"Never mind. This isn't the time."
Mrs. Meilin sighed, grabbed Phaga's hand, and pulled him to his feet. "Hurry and save Miyabi! The army has already withdrawn to the Outer Ring. More and more Sacrifice will be coming as reinforcements. She won't be able to hold on much longer!"
"Understood."
Phaga nodded. His wings snapped open, and with a powerful beat, he shot straight into the sky. Looking toward the nine o'clock direction, he saw massive numbers of Sacrifice converging on a distant ruin, almost like pilgrims heading toward a holy site.
Explosions rang out one after another. Shockwaves rolled outward in layers, and thick smoke billowed upward, forming something like a mushroom cloud.
That had to be where Miyabi was.
Phaga didn't hesitate. He beat his wings again with full force. A sharp sonic boom echoed as his speed spiked, his figure reduced to little more than a fading afterimage.
...
[Is she finally running out of strength?]
[Hard to say. She was already like this two hours ago, and she's still standing now.]
[Damn it! Is the Void Hunter really this hard to deal with? We've got over a hundred Sacrifices wearing her down here! With this kind of force, we could wipe out the rebels five times over!]
[Don't be so pessimistic. I think this time, she's truly at her limit.]
High above, amid the churning smoke, more than a hundred Sacrifices circled in the sky.
Yet among them, five were clearly different. They still retained humanoid—more precisely, vampiric—forms, but their bodies were completely encased in armor made of some unknown material, shielding them from even the slightest hint of sunlight.
These five self-aware Sacrifice gathered together, communicating quietly as they fixed their collective gaze on the long-skirted girl below—Miyabi—standing before two buses with blown-out tires.
She knelt on one knee. The calm that usually defined her face was gone, replaced by flushed cheeks and ragged breaths. Sweat had long since seeped into her eyes, stinging as it blurred her vision.
Even so, she struggled to rise.
She nearly collapsed again halfway, but in the end, she forced herself upright.
Her legs were bowed under crushing fatigue. Her hands trembled so badly that even lifting her blade took everything she had. Her bangs, soaked through with sweat, clung to her forehead in heavy layers—yet beneath them, her eyes still burned with a wolf's ferocity.
"Hah!"
Miyabi suddenly shouted. The demon blade in her hand ignited with foxfire, which surged up her arm and spread across her entire body, squeezing out every last drop of strength she had left.
The next instant, she drew her blade and struck.
A massive arc of blade light, wreathed in deep indigo, tore through the pitch-black night. It was so brilliant that both the Sacrifice in the air and the humans inside the buses couldn't look away, their eyes caught by the slash.
Like fire—illusory, yet unstoppable.
That indigo glow carried the unyielding hardness of ice, yet its surface flowed like living flame. Scorching heat and bitter cold, two utterly opposing forces, were fused into a single strike. Instead of canceling each other out, they amplified its power.
[How can she still have this much strength?!]
The optimistic Sacrifice cried out in shock, its voice spiking.
It had truly believed that Miyabi was already at her limit. Instead, the air around them turned searing hot in an instant.
Even worse, beneath that heat lurked a bone-deep chill. Its body felt like an ancient machine long deprived of oil—every movement stiff, sluggish, and unresponsive.
[Stop screeching! We can't dodge it—block it, now!]
Behind it, the leader-like Sacrifice slammed a fist into the optimistic one's head and roared.
The other three Sacrifice immediately steadied themselves, focusing on the imminent disaster.
At that moment— Fire, Ice, Lightning, Physical Anomaly, Ether…
Six different anomalies converged at once, condensing into a single sphere of light.
[Go!]
With a flick of the leader's finger, the orb shot forward. The instant it met the blade light, it unfolded rapidly, transforming into a shimmering, multicolored barrier that slammed into place in front of the slash.
[It blocked it!] the optimistic Sacrifice shouted, eyes lighting up.
But before the words fully left its mouth, a sharp cracking sound rang out.
The next second, countless fractures spread across the surface of the shield, as if it might shatter at any moment.
[No—it's breaking!]
The leader Sacrifice's face twisted as it ground its teeth.
Finally, just before the shield collapsed, it let out a long, heavy breath and said flatly:
[Vampires… die here.]
In an instant, the eyes of the hundreds of mindless Sacrifice behind them lit up. They surged forward, swarming past the five self-aware ones and throwing themselves directly into the blade light.
Boom!
The sky was swept clean in a single stroke, leaving behind a clear, open night.
Miyabi didn't lift her head. She had already spent every ounce of strength she had.
Her body fell like withered roadside grass, knocked down by the thunderous roar from above.
Even so, she stubbornly clung to a sliver of consciousness.
Her unfocused gaze drifted ahead, seeing only a collapsed road sign at the edge of her vision. Behind it lay a house reduced to rubble—so utterly ruined that even the fires raging elsewhere seemed to deem it unworthy, refusing to spread this way.
Until—
Thud.
A Sacrifice crashed down into the ruins.
Miyabi's long ears twitched, and a faint smile curved her lips.
[Did… I win?]
The people inside the buses froze. Then Sacrifice began falling from the sky like rain.
Those once-dominant monsters now lay scattered like torn rags, utterly ignored. Everyone's mind went blank.
"Quick—save Miss Ya!"
Someone shouted at last, snapping them back to reality.
Both buses opened their doors at the same time. People rushed toward the hero who had protected them—only to stop dead in their tracks.
A bolt of lightning slammed into the ground, blasting out a crater in the pavement.
They all looked up, fear flashing across every face.
So… the Sacrifice weren't all dead yet.
[Damn it—I missed!]
The optimistic Sacrifice cursed, clutching its trembling arm.
Even after vastly overestimating the Void Hunter's combat strength, it had never imagined that Miyabi—already like a candle in the wind—could unleash such a devastating strike with her final breath.
Out of 126 mindless Sacrifices, half were wiped out in a single instant.
And these weren't weaklings. They had once been warriors of the vampire clans—true pureblood vampires.
More than fifty killed in just a few seconds.
And that was only from that final strike.
Before this, who knew how many Sacrifices the vampire clans had already thrown away just to exhaust Miyabi?
[Before victory is secured, all necessary sacrifices are justified… Kill her.]
The leader Sacrifice closed its eyes in pain, said no more, and fell silent.
[I'll do it! I will!]
The optimistic Sacrifice couldn't hold back any longer. Thunder crackled in its grasp as it rushed forward.
[I'll handle this myself—no one else touch her!]
But just as it was about to strike, the female Sacrifice who had remained silent until now suddenly spoke.
[Wait. Don't you feel like the temperature around us is rising?]
[Huh?]
The optimistic Sacrifice froze.
Then it saw flames coil around the lightning in its palm—burning brighter and brighter.
The instant the lightning was completely consumed, the dark red flames exploded outward, shattering into countless sparks that rained down indiscriminately on every Sacrifice.
They ignited instantly.
The flames couldn't be extinguished. Worse, any attempt to put them out only made them burn more fiercely.
The optimistic Sacrifice was the first to howl. Engulfed in fire, it fled into the distance, screaming:
[Run! It's Nether Flames!]
The female Sacrifice cursed through clenched teeth:
[Wasn't he supposed to be in the Outer Ring?! How is he here?!]
"Retreat! Now—if we don't leave, it'll be too late! Damn it, whose idea was it to send Phaga to the opposing side?!"
The leader Sacrifice gritted its teeth through the pain and gave the order with a wave.
In the blink of an eye, all the Sacrifice vanished, their eyes flashing as they fled.
Only then did Phaga, standing on the ground, lift his head and stare into the sky for a long moment. With a quiet sigh, he pushed through the crowd and walked toward Miyabi.
Those he brushed aside were annoyed at first—but when they saw the distinctive wings behind him, they sucked in a sharp breath.
"Y-you're Phaga?" Almost immediately, caution crept into the speaker's eyes, their voice trembling. "You're a vampire too. Then why—"
Phaga didn't answer. He didn't explain.
He simply bent down, lifted Miyabi onto his back, secured her legs with his arms, and said softly:
"Come with me. I'll take you to the Outer Ring."
The crowd hesitated, exchanging uncertain looks.
Every one of them wavered.
Was Phaga a vampire?
Yes.
Had Phaga saved them?
He had.
Should they follow him?
That… no one could decide.
At last, someone gritted their teeth and followed.
Then, like dominoes falling one after another, the rest followed suit.
The high ground of human conviction collapsed. Everyone trailed behind a young vampire, fleeing a catastrophe created by vampires themselves.
Somewhere in the haze, Miyabi closed her eyes, surrounded by the sound of hurried footsteps.
A small, peaceful smile touched her lips as she finally drifted into deep sleep.
[I think… I won…]