<388 - Fragments of the End>
The mural of spirits holds secrets about the origin of the vampire race.
The information conveyed through sympathetic magic was shocking.
“I thought sympathetic magic was just a beginner spell used by therapists and caregivers! But it was completely different.”
Oknodie’s magic didn’t share ordinary emotions to heal hearts.
It didn’t harbor the sick hearts of young caregivers retiring from overwhelming darkness like criminal psychologists.
“Ah, so this is how a capable brain works!”
The spirit language penetrated my mind like I had borrowed the thoughts of a genius.
Now I can understand.
Oknodie’s metaphor of putting a key called Mana Puzzle into a lock called Memory Recreation Magic and turning it.
“He’s annoyingly smart.”
So this is what knowledge is.
I get the meaning of cultural literacy.
A child who received elite education from the foundation was indeed clever.
How many things are there in the world to enjoy?
How much is there left to learn?
Amid all those fun and educational pursuits, I’m just accumulating knowledge that’s utterly useless for daily life.
Something a lower-class citizen could never aspire to.
Even as an upper-class citizen, it isn’t something that just anyone can challenge.
Oknodie, delving into archaeological knowledge and spirit language, the realm of boring and narrow-minded scholars.
“It’s not something they chose. That girl must have struggled due to the forced teachings of the foundation.”
But I envy her.
The intelligence and determination to learn and digest what is taught.
A petty jealousy to feel toward an 11-year-old kid.
Could that be the root of my conflict?
Suddenly, Dobi faced a peculiar point his talent permitted.
[Vampire’s Possibility]
Something else appeared beyond the fairy tale that had unfolded in his mind through sympathetic magic.
It was a door.
A large, bright red door.
A luxurious door with elaborate carvings forming an arch all around it.
The door, inscribed with the names of the first vampire, Nosferatu, the noble of the night who made a name for himself among countless vampires.
He grabbed the doorknob.
However, feeling a sticky sensation like blood, he sensed something was off.
Too viscous.
The touch revealed the answer—a hard congealed blood.
It was not a door to open just out of curiosity.
Yet, perhaps he opened it out of sheer will.
“Even if I am just an aspiring member of the Production Department, even if my skills are nothing compared to the shining talents, I’ve still entered the world’s best educational institution.”
One more step forward.
If I gather just a bit more courage, a miracle might come.
Greed pushed him forward.
He opened it.
And he opened it for real.
The sky filled with blood red to the horizon’s end.
A gigantic red moon, larger than the sun.
The brutal moment when countless lives were forcibly extracted, transmuted to the moon above.
Just looking up, he felt all the blood in his body being drained away.
Blurred consciousness.
Death approached slowly.
Before his collapsing awareness, a massive mana surged in, forcibly pulling back his consciousness.
“What… what the hell is happening?”
“Bloody Super Moon.”
Realizing the grave voice behind him was the very one who had empowered him.
“Ancestor Nosferatu. The slayer of his predecessors, Dracula. Following him, the one who engraved their names into the heavens as the last vampire, Vladimir’s creation.”
He had to tilt his head back painfully to glimpse the face of the giant.
He was as large as he was tall.
Yet, the overwhelming magnitude Dobi felt wasn’t about height or size.
“Everything is too late. Everyone thought the bloodline war opened to the blood kin was someone else’s issue.”
“When the beastmen requested help, we dismissed it as unrelated, so when their strength united, no races were left to help humanity.”
“Who are you? How do you know all this? What is all this?!”
Even with Dobi’s questions, the man did not answer.
He only spoke quietly to those following him.
“But for humanity, we remain.”
Hearing that declaration from the man, Dobi finally sensed numerous presences.
“Competent practitioners who can protect their blood against the World Domain that seeks the blood of all beings with their mana.”
“Those who can bring down the bloodline of the last vampire, Vladimir, the master of Blood Magic.”
“Indeed. Unlike the student council who abandoned the mission of safeguarding the world, we are those who did not give up on fighting even at the end of the decaying world. We are the Star Hunters!”
The existence made of all the bones and flesh of the world, turned into pure blood mana by Vladimir.
The amassed essence of blood magic influenced the multitude of Bloody Spawn emerging upon the earth, gathering at the world’s highest mountain to touch the moon.
At 12,500 meters, Shinjung Mountain, known as the garden of the gods.
Its lord, those who had ascended to new divinity became the blood god Vladimir, while humanity’s civilization had already perished under those who could no longer protect themselves with mana.
Still, they climbed toward Shinjung Mountain’s peak for the final battle.
“Let’s go. This is our Graduation Project.”
“!?”
These people—could they be fourth-year students about to graduate!?
There were many questions he wanted to ask.
Was the urban legend that a third-year needed to kill ten classmates to advance to fourth year truly real?
From what I’m seeing, what was the origin of this spectacle?
Is this merely a historical record like some Contract Mark from a fairy tale?
But questions were unnecessary.
Because he spotted familiar faces among the last warriors of humanity, the Star Hunters.
In disbelief, their identities flashed before his eyes like name tags.
[Northern Grand Duke Irene]
[Empire Emperor Yayoi]
[Super Speed Rockbell]
[Celestial Voice Mandela]
[…]
Class 981 Upper Class for First-Year.
Or the competent class of the previous graduating batch.
A group comprising the academy’s named individuals.
Finally, he understood.
This is the memory of sympathy.
Fragments of memories lodged deep within Oknodie.
The secrets she had carelessly exposed.
“Oknodie knew one possibility of the world’s destruction!”
In another world, she holds knowledge of a past that once occurred and a future yet to come.
Either directly experienced or through memory synchronization with someone.
That small girl bore a future too heavy and harsh for her shoulders.
“Is that why? Her smiling face, always eager to enjoy something since we met.”
Because the future of destruction is so horrific.
Because she knows the preciousness of a fleeting peace she can enjoy till then.
Because she remembers the tragic future she cannot prevent unless she grows sufficiently by graduation.
She cannot stop smiling.
She cannot stop growing.
Behind all that enjoyment and strength she believed was evidence of her talent lies a spirit resisting against a future so grim.
But that fight was too overwhelming for him to catch up to.
“BLOODY SPAWN are beings made of blood. You have to destroy the mana field maintaining the form of liquid in monster form and instantly evaporate the blood that regenerates the mana field to take them down. Use all your strength in a single coordinated attack on every foe you meet!”
He couldn’t even unleash that single coordinated attack.
Rather, he raised his strength only to repeat futile attacks, causing the mana field protecting his internal mana from Bloody Moon’s magic to collapse.
“Huh!”
Dobi, with his barrier shattered, met his death in a horrifying experience as blood boiled and vaporized outward from his skin.
*
The sky filled with blood red to the horizon’s end.
A gigantic red moon, larger than the sun.
When Dobi, who had once been a part of that moon, stared blankly at the sky, a deep and grave voice stirred his senses once more.
“What… what the hell is happening?”
“Bloody Super Moon.”
Before, the one who had empowered him lessened his hand on his back to fill him up once again.
Dobi realized that he was a stumbling block incapable of defeating even a single Bloody Spawn and there was no reason for the man to help him.
He was not even worthy to join the last task force of humanity; his precious strength was merely a waste spent clinging to life.
“Ancestor Nosferatu. The slayer of his predecessors, Dracula, following him, the last vampire who has engraved their names into the heavens; is he Vladimir’s creation?”
Once again, the story repeated.
But it did not reach his ears.
How shameful!
I wish he would just leave me behind and go.
“Let’s go. This is our Graduation Project.”
They left.
Having not participated in a futile fight, Dobi preserved his life as they headed toward the peak of Shinjung Mountain, where vividly colored mana erupted, and huge Bloody Spawn exploded like the mountain itself.
But at the same time, he sensed.
Such massive explosions could not be produced while maintaining a mana barrier.
Surely the owners of those explosions must have perished at that moment.
In a world where human lives exploded like fireworks, the most luxurious and cruel spectacle soared toward the peak of Shinjung Mount.
“Brutal. It’s too brutal.”
This is what humanity’s future holds.
That he could only watch and do nothing.
This helplessness.
This feeling of despair.
Every moment felt brutally piercing.
However, when the beams of light shot up from the summit of Shinjung Mountain, becoming a massive pillar connecting the ground and sky, he finally witnessed.
Even at the end of despair, there exists salvation.
The Bloody Moon…
The World Domain…
Melted away like snow, restoring the colors of the sky.
Though the world may have perished, at this end, humanity’s victory was about to arrive.
“I want to witness it. To be closer, even just a little.”
From the peak of that mountain.
At the end of this despair, he wished to know what transpired.
Before his earnest prayers, a door manifested.
The red door he had opened once, like blood.
The sticky sensation gripping his fingertips.
Dobi willingly turned the doorknob.
Time and again.
And then he saw the truth.
“This time, it’s your turn. Self-destruct, Irene.”
“How brutal. Marine, you are always like this.”
The commander, brutal in opening the path by exploding the last heroes of humanity one by one.
The man who saved Dobi.
He ordered their deaths with his own mouth and pushed them forward with his own hand.
