I jumped and hastily turned around.
There, I saw a mercurial silhouette.
"You are..."
Claudia, too, turned around and looked at him in surprise. I could relate to her completely. Even I wasn't used to this man.
I couldn't see him properly. His being just didn't make any sense — it was like his outline was made of quicksilver. I could tell he was right before me, but not a moment later, his form grew to be impossible to perceive.
It was as if he was far too great for the vulgar masses to comprehend.
He was very much the dying monster looking down on an ant.
The Vice-Commander of the Longinus Dreizehn Orden — Karl Kraft, Mercurius.
"The fuck are you doing here?"
"That is quite the salutation. There is a room for argument whether it is fitting welcome for someone bearing news that could alleviate your ennui."
"What...?"
Basically we were being called for another gathering. His sudden entry surprised me, but there wasn't anything special about that.
Sure, it wasn't that common, but he was a walking enigma. It was standard for him to just appear out of nowhere, say some annoying shit, and fuck off.
As if understanding what I was thinking, he chuckled — or at least, I felt he did — and nodded.
"Indeed. Tonight is the night. I have already summoned the others. Oh, and you, young lady. You should accompany him. I would be most entralled to have you with us."
"Huh? But I..."
"Hold it, shit for brains. The fuck's that supposed to mean?"
I found his words ominous. I couldn't explain the feeling or even liken it to anything, but it was enough for me to almost reflexively jump to cover Claudia.
"I'm not taking her to the castle. Fuck, she has nothing to do with this!"
"Oh? 'Nothing'? 'Nothing to do with this,' you say? You are not the one to decide that. Neither is she, nor I, in fact. The Gold beckons, Bey. All agreement or thereof holds no power before this reality."
"..."
Was he telling the truth? I took a moment to think, but couldn't find an answer.
Still, if it'd come to this, I knew I couldn't refuse.
"Most excellent.. I am gratified to see you turn so perceptive. With that settled, may we meet at the gathering. We shall await you, Kaziklu Bey and his princess."
And so, with a bizarre, swaying shadow trailing behind him, Mercurius took his leave.
I was left rooted to my spot, grinding my teeth in frustration.
"Fucking piece of shit. This is gonna be a pain in the ass."
Besides the thing about Claudia, I was pissed off about something else.
"Kaziklu Bey?"
That was my (Demon) arcane title, given to me by none other than Mercurius.
I actually liked it. It was basically the name of the Lord of Vampires, and it suited me better than any other.
Even so, I just couldn't stomach hearing him call me that. It made me feel inexpressible refusal and disgust.
I couldn't help but recall what he'd told me during the christening. The words spun around in my head, making a huge fucking mess.
"No. Nothing's been stolen from me. It's the other way around. I'm the thief...!"
"Wilhelm..."
My grumbling probably didn't make any sense to her, but I didn't want her to get it, either.
It was the type of curse I could neither accept nor stomach.
***
The castle was called "Wewelsburg."
It had been brought by Himmler, commander of the SS, and from what I heard, it'd been used as the watering hole of some shitty little occult club for the elites.
Obviously, most of us weren't part of it. Lord Heydrich and Mercurius were the exceptions — they'd been there since it was active.
And now, the place belonged only to them. They touched true arcane and worked on real sorcery, letting them rise above the fashion-occultists, make the supernatural manifest, and create the Obsidian Round Table.
You know what that means, don't you? Basically, the castle was no longer normal by that point. It didn't even belong to reality anymore.
Sure, I was at Paderborn 'cause it was close to Wewelsburg, but it actually didn't matter at all.
Spaces that escaped the laws of the world destroyed the concept of distance and coordinates. It meant that the unworthy couldn't enter even if they spent a eternity trying, while those invited could come even if they were on the other side of the world.
Well, no one had actually tried it, but I was certain I was right. The castle was just that big of a deal.
Remember what I said about creating an another world in this reality and the implications of that?
Yeah, exactly. The castle was Lord Heydrich's Briah. And just like I explained. They can't remain active for long.
Even Gudōu, which doesn't influence much of the outside world, can be kept up for a few hours at most, while for Hadōu, the amount is only a few dozen minutes, if not less.
Though, I did say my Briah was cheap to uphold, it didn't stray far from those limits.
Basically, maintaining a Briah is hard as shit. Hell, it's a single person's craving versus the world. Of course it ain't a walk in the park.
That was exactly why Lord Heydrich's castle was on a whole other level. Despite being a prime example of Hadōu, by this point, it had been active for almost two months. And it didn't even show any signs of fading away to boot.
Back then, I didn't really know what that meant, but it works to explain why He was such an immense entity to us.
The man was charisma given human form. A single interaction with Him was enough to change a person beyond recognition. No one could escape His influence.
I always believe that. Fervently so. And that was exactly why...
"Huh...? That... That can't be true."
That was exactly why the thing we'd been told once we arrived at the castle surprised me so much. I am completely taken aback.
Lord Heydrich, sitting atop his Throne, was as extraordinary as always, and basking in His glorious presence made His words even harder to believe.
The others probably felt the exact same way.
"Christof disappeared...?"
"Indeed. Though unfortunate, that is naught but the truth. Valerian Trifa has absconded."
"..."
"What an idiot. What's eating him?"
It goes without saying that we weren't the types to be hurt by betrayal, so we were just bewildered by the impossible turn of events. Imagine seeing the sun rise from the west. That's how we felt.
Turning one's back on Lord Heydrich was bad enough already, but there was an extra factor that made it even more unbelievable.
"The way you are putting it makes it sound like you're unaware of his whereabouts. Is that true?"
"Again, indeed. Oh, how low of me."
"What...?"
Though only barely, I could actually accept that he'd just run away, but the fact that he'd actually escaped Lord Heydrich left me for lost. I felt like the world had turned upside-down.
Not only that, but the Gold Himself was smiling in a self-deriding manner, as if He actually believed that He'd been outwitted. A wave of unrest overwhelmed us all. We felt like we were in a nightmarish fever dream.
"My dear Knights, what exactly do you believe me to be? I am far from Omnipotent or Omniscient. There are things that escape my vision, and failure is certainly not below me. You must never allow your loyalty to become blindness. The priest once resonated with my flesh, making him worthy of being the Divine Vessel. In other words, he is capable of assuming my form. At the very least, he has a record of doing so. Thus, he slipped from my sight. They say that nothing is harder to understand than oneself. It appears there is some truth to those words."
"Then..."
The one to speak up first was Samiel. Though the news probably affected her more than anyone else, I couldn't feel a hint of emotion in her tone.
"Do you believe he knew that and used it to his advantage?"
"No, I would say she is wholly unaware. After all, he, too, does not know himself."
"In that case, finding Christof's location should be..."
"Indeed. It would not prove difficult. If I was so inclined, I could find her by her scent alone."
That could only refer to one thing.
Back when Lord Heydrich faked his assassination, Christof resonated with His body. So, regardless of whether he was conscious of it or not, he had the same scent as the Gold.
It wasn't a smell I could pick up, but if the man Himself said so, I could just assume that was how it worked.
It made sense, too. Hunters often covered themselves in the scent of their prey to keep them unaware.
Christof could only escape Lord Heydrich because he'd done something equivalent, and I could honestly praise the bastard for that. But if he did it while unaware, it had the exact opposite effect.
The man didn't even know he was running while spreading Lord Heydrich's scent everywhere he went. He might as well have been signaling for us to find him.
Because of that, I expected the problem to be solved like it didn't even exist.
"That said, we shall not pursue him. I will allow him to spend a while doing as he pleases, and I ask you to do the same."
"Huh, what...?"
"We will ignore him?"
"Yes. For a brief while."
We'd all expected to be given an order to find him, so Lord Heydrich's left us dumbfounded. Though most of us were already out of the army register, we still knew what kind of punishment was given to deserters.
Christof had to die. We have to give him the ultimate lesson in discipline. There was no room for compassion among our ranks, and Lord Heydrich wasn't the kind of person to give any.
"As I said, the priest does not know what he is. He merely needs time to discover himself. Worry not. He shall not take long. It will happen before you know it. We shall confront him then. For the time being refrain from taking any unnecessary action. We will wait for his craving to ripen and fall. Understood?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!"
I didn't really get it, but we weren't in a position to argue. We all nodded and agreed to not pursue Christof.
Though I didn't know Lord Heydrich's true motives, I assumed that the point of this gathering was to make sure we didn't interfere with the growth of the priest's craving.
But...
"This might be beyond many of you. What you should take from this is the fact that His Excellency The Gold did not use the name 'Christof' even once. Do reflect on that. That is all for the preamble. The true reason why you were summoned here is entirely different."
Mercurius, grinning as always, suddenly stopped standing around like a fucking prop and moved next to Lord Heydrich. We all simultaneously raised our heads.
We were wary. Everyone of us knew full well that nothing this bastard ever said was good news.
If the Christof thing wasn't the main deal here, then what was?
"Do you know of Katyn Forest?"
"Katyn...?"
"That is the name, yes. I believe you might have heard of the rumors regarding it while braving your battlefields."
Sadly, I couldn't recall anything like that. The others were nodding, though. And a few were making some pretty damn sour faces.
"The massacre. They say that thousands of Polish captives were executed while returning to their country."
"And now Katyn Forest is now a land of corpses. They're saying it's our side that did it, aren't they? I don't really care about the massacre itself, but I don't like people blaming us for things we didn't do. Though, it's not like I'm sure it wasn't our side."
"The circumstances point to it being an act by the Soviets."
"Indeed. Although, do not expect them to admit it. Ridiculous to consider it during wartime, but we have the concept of appearances on the front of humanity. Everyone desires the moral high ground. That is why our own Lord Goebbels produces his propaganda. However, these past few years, the lines have blurred so much that telling who did or did not do something is but a fool's errand. Admittedly, I am rather curious about the truth of the matter, but it is of no consequence to us. The problem lies elsewhere."
And we were the ones who'd do something about it. We all understood where he was getting at, so he made it brief.
"An anomaly is influencing Katyn Forest. Expel it. I need not tell you why, I assume?"
None of us said a word in response. This wasn't the first time we would be taking on such a mission.
"They are the death throes of the fading arcane. Karl called it a most excellent close to the opening performance. Bring us closer to our ambition. Remove what must not be."
"Jawohl."
We all nodded. This was a necessary mission for two primary reasons — training and prevention.
Since we'd also entered the realm of the arcane, fighting others of our kind helped us understand and evolve our powers.
It was also useful for removing anything that could mess up the main act that was about to begin. After all, if anything could stop us, it was other beings of the arcane.
Crushing anything that could get in our way was important, and I had no intention of speaking out against the idea.
Now, it was time to decide who actually went...
"Babylon, you are most apt for this. Go. I expect good results."
"Understood. I will not fail you."
An obvious choice. I didn't know the nature of the anomaly, but the place was a forest full of damn corpses. There was no better person for the job.
Even so, I didn't feel too good about it. This was a "closure to the opening performance," and just waiting around sounded hella boring.
Like, c'mon, considering they called us all here, I hoped they would've sent out more than just one.
"Heheh, hehehehehe..."
I looked up and saw Mercurius smiling at me. As always, her vast and vague appearance made my skin crawl.
"Is your ennui too much to bear, Bey.? Very well. You may partake in the journey to Katyn. However, since Babylon was the one assigned this task, you must go under her command. The rest of you may volunteer, as well. We shall allow it as long as Babylon permits. If you take pride in your status as the supreme arcane and wish to assert it to Gold, we shall not stop you. Do you agree, my dear friend?"
"Very much so. This is the final test of your skills. Feel free to bear your souls. Especially you, Bey. I am certain you will find this experience worth your while."
"Yes, sir."
I felt a surge of excitement rush through my body. To be frank, by this point, I'd completely forgotten the fact that I'd brought Claudia with me.
Wielding my fangs according to Lord Heydrich's will had always been my greatest honor and purpose in life.