"Woah!"
Lydia gasped as I wrapped my arms around her and twisted us over, forcing her down beneath .
My body pressed her into the ground, my aura flaring just enough to pin her in place.
She only grinned, sly and wicked, crimson still glistening on her lips.
She licked the crimson off of her lips with a seductive glint in her eyes and tried to lunge up at my neck again.
"Enough, Commander Lydia," I said, holding her shoulders firm.
But she pouted like so spoiled child denied candy, her strength surging as she kept pushing, desperate to sink her teeth in again.
That’s when I heard it.
The low, rumbling growl of the mammoth.
"Oh, shit," I muttered, freezing. "We should be moving."
I turned back to Lydia, only to find her glaring at like I’d just stolen her favorite toy. Her crimson eyes burned with hunger.
"It’s my blood, you piece of...vampire!"
She flared up her strength as her soft lips got closer to my neck again.
Crimson aura sparked out of my hands, dancing in the air as I pinned her back to the ground.
"Commander Lydia!" I shouted. And that earned a reaction.
Her pupils, sharp and vertical a mont ago, softened, rounding back toward sothing human.
["Now’s the chance! Do sothing!"]
"Yeah, what’s that sothing?!" I snapped, my mind racing.
Lydia kept thrashing, her lips still parting, teeth flashing as she tried to snap at my neck.
"That’s it!" I growled and drove my forehead straight into hers.
Thud!
The impact rattled my skull. The world spun in dizzy circles as my head smacked into hers.
Her head hit mine and then bounced off the stone floor.
I staggered, my hands flailing for sothing to hold onto.
Blubub...
A very... soft squeeze t my palm.
I blinked down. My hand was full of her breasts. Again.
"..."
I stood frozen, world still tilting, while Lydia let out a low "Aaahhh..." like the headbutt had half-knocked her into dreamland.
["So.."] ["Are you going to move your hands and run for your life? Or... do you have plans for an unguaranteed fourth life?"]
"O-of course..." I scratched the back of my head, ungripping those soft lons.
Damn, I already miss them.
Wait. Did I just...?
Am I turning into a pervert?
I looked down at Lydia, who lay beneath , half-conscious and "Aaahh-ing" at the ceiling.
Her eyes, thankfully, had gone back to their normal brown, no longer that hungry crimson glow.
"Phew," I muttered, exhaling in relief.
I shook her by the shoulder. "Commander Lydia!"
She jolted awake, blinking rapidly.
"We should run. Quick." I gave her no chance to argue.
"O-okay," she said, catching the urgency in my tone.
She didn’t even ask the million questions she probably had, starting from ’why am I still alive?’
We sprinted down the corridor together.
Lydia was still off balance, her steps uneven, her body lagging behind mine.
The blood purifier clearly hadn’t finished its work yet.
Even so... I couldn’t help but stare at her for a second.
Why have I not t a single vampire in my past life, despite my multiple visits to beast kingdom?
My instincts scread the mont we neared the mouth of another corridor.
I skidded, boots grinding against stone, then dashed sideways, straight into Lydia.
I slamd my body against hers, forcing us both against the wall.
"Ahhh!" she gasped as we hit.
A split second later, a massive black sphere studded with spikes crashed down from above.
Boom!
It shattered the underground floor into pieces, sending shockwaves through the air.
Dust, stone, and debris exploded around us, swallowing us in a choking gray screen.
"Ackk! Ahhhk!" we coughed together.
I pushed myself off Lydia, ignoring the shaless urge to just stay there a bit longer.
Oh shit. I really am turning into a pervert.
"You okay?" I asked, offering her a hand.
Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath, shaky and uneven.
She grabbed my hand and pulled herself up.
"Much better than before," she forced out with a faint smile.
And she wasn’t lying. Her skin wasn’t pale like death anymore.
There was color returning to her cheeks, her eyes sharper. She looked less like she was half an hour away from a coffin.
I gave a quick nod, then turned toward the massive black spiked wall that had dropped between us and the path forward.
Raising my sword, I brought it down hard on the surface.
Clang!
Crimson sparks burst from the blade, snaking through the air like tiny streams of fire.
"Tch... tough," I muttered, eyeing the shallow groove I’d managed to carve into the thing.
I swung again. And again. Five more tis, until the groove widened enough that Lydia might be able to do sothing.
"Commander Lydia," I said, looking back.
She was already ready, fingers curling around sothing hidden in her skirt.
I stepped aside. A dagger left her hand like a bolt of lightning, purple aura trailing it in a dazzling streak. Sparks snaked wildly around it as it pierced the groove.
BOOM!
The sound thundered through the chamber, and the groove split wide open, tearing into a clean path.
I whistled low. "Damn. A single dagger..."
"We should move," she said simply, striding forward with a kind of pride that made her look untouchable.
As she passed , she flicked her long black hair into my face, on purpose.
"...Did she just emote at ?" I muttered, frowning as I followed her into the chamber.
The chamber was dimly lit, the only glow coming from a massive monitor fixed to the wall. Lydia stood in front of it, her eyes wide, face tense in the pale light.
I walked past a long table cluttered with papers, their edges curling from overuse, and stopped beside her.
The screen showed the sa colosseum we had just escaped from. T
he mantis lay there, half-dead and twitching. The jaguar’s body was scattered in chunks across the floor. But the mammoth... and the sli... Not a trace of them.
They’re probably in the corridor leading here.
"They were watching us..." Lydia’s voice was low, but sharp. She bit her lip hard enough that I worried she’d draw blood.
"Did they escape? We must capture Drane. He’s the only one who knows the dealings he had with the SBV... and hopefully the whereabouts of the Earth Mother’s insignia."
Her fist slamd onto the table beside us. Papers scattered into the air like startled birds. I reached out instinctively, catching one that floated toward .
Sothing on it snagged my attention. A neat diagram of so strange pod, with dense paragraphs of cramped writing scribbled along the side.
"Did they run a research facility here?" I asked, holding the sheet up to the glow of the monitor.
Lydia stepped closer, peeking at the page in my hand.
She didn’t care about the lack of distance between us.
But I did.
Her shoulder brushed against mine, and it took everything not to stare down at the pair of giant distractions pressing against my arm.
I coughed into my fist and forced my eyes back onto the paper.
"Ahem. It seems like they ran a research center here... but sothing doesn’t fit. It would take years to set up sothing this elaborate underground."
"Hmm..." Lydia humd, eyes narrowing as she processed.
The paper rustled softly in my hand.
[The info ntioned in this page is about a biogenesis pod.]
"I see... but what do they do with it?" I asked him silently.
[I need more papers related to this. I’m getting a bad feeling.]
And if Nexar was unsettled, then that ant one thing: this was bad. Really bad.
Lydia, still watching the diagrams, spoke again. "It seems true then. Drane really is just a puppet. Soone bigger is pulling the strings." She turned, eyes burning with determination.
"We should catch the orchestrator. Only he knows what’s being plotted here."
With that, she started toward the exit that led deeper into the chambers.
Glowing words shimred beside again.
[Rune, we might be dealing with a system user! Not every system is omniscient like , but so capable systems can still access ways to push their users closer to a favorable outco.]
I exhaled slowly, the weight of that sinking in.
"Lydia, don’t you get it?" I asked aloud, my voice harder than usual. The honorific I always used for her na slipped away.
She stopped, startled by my tone. "What...?"
I t her eyes. "The one who lured us here... chances are they know you’re a vampire."
Her brown eyes widened. I could see the new storm of thoughts flashing across her face as she rembered the silver dust.
"B-but... silver dust is a common ingredient in low-grade poison gases..." she stamred.
I nodded slowly. "That’s why I said chances are."
I sighed, lowering the paper in my hand. "Here’s my guess," I added, stealing credit from Nexar without sha.
"The target doesn’t actually know you’re a vampire. But he has so kind of... skill... sothing that allows him to act in ways that tilt the probability of events in his favor. Even without full knowledge, he knows which move to make."
Lydia fell silent, her lips pressing together. Then she nodded once, firm and decisive.
"What do we think we should do?" she asked, locking her gaze with mine.
I swallowed, holding her stare.
Who do you think I am? Nexar?
[I can’t tell you what I don’t know, even if you butter up.]
"Shit..."
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