65 Through the Halls

As I rush down from the roof unsure if I'm being followed I grip the scythe and try to channel a message to the people that recently acquired the rings from the Goddess, aka me.

I went through the trouble of making the rings for a few different reasons: their communication feature, their ability to protect the wearer or me, and finally, within each ring is the echoes of one of the Night Demons. The communication feature is mostly self-explanatory. The second feature means if they try to attack me, the ring will activate the Goddess's symbol carved into their chest, or if someone attacks them, it'll send out a quick short-range shock of mana to stop the person attacking them. Like during the service when Annie's father tried to remove the ring he was hit by this short-range shock. As for the echoes, those are a bit more complicated, but they shouldn't have any harmful effects.

Some may wonder why I keep going about things in this roundabout way in order to protect both me and the ring bearers? Why don't I just break them until they are husks unable to say no? To them I'd say, what's the point of that? Why would I go through the trouble of resurrecting my race just for them to be broken, distorted shells of what the blood race once was? I want to bring my people back as they were and not as a group of zombies.

I shake my head, bringing myself back from my thoughts and attempt to contact them. Unfortunately, no one seems to be receiving my message, indicating that everyone's mental state must be elevated to the point that messages can't get through. This is one of the ring's drawbacks, but I wouldn't think it would be a problem for veteran soldiers to keep their cool.

I groan, 'I decided to pick these soldiers up in the first place because they were supposed to be some kind of special forces unit. Yet they can't keep their cool enough for the ring to work. They better have a good excuse.'

I stop at the floor that contains the chapel.

'If I'm right, this is where I think the gunfire originated', I peek around the corner, finding no one. 'Status.'

Name: Eira Callista

Gender: Female

Level: 5 (0/100)

Health: 344/350

Strength: 20

Endurance: 22

Agility: 24

Intellect: 20

Constitution: 35

Talents: Paranormal

Skills: Intermediate Blood Magic; Novice Scythe; Novice Shadow Magic

Titles: Heir of Blood

Essence: 305

So those twelve darts from the pistols only did around three damage apiece to the shield, but only knocked off a few health points since the shield distributed the force a bit. With the shield, it felt less painful than a papercut.'

**Bang!**

Suddenly, pieces of drywall begin exploding from the force of gunshots. To escape the barrage I jump down an entire flight of stairs. I look back to check the Senator's condition and find blood trickling from a hole in his shoe, indicating one of the bullets likely pierced his foot.

I half-heartedly seal the wound by basically turning all the blood in his shoe into a solid form. From the door of the floor I was just at, I can hear people arguing.

"Moron! Keep your shots high! She's dragging the Senator behind her!" A burly voice booms.

"S-sorry, sir! Can anyone confirm the target is down?" I hear someone answer.

"Negative, comms says she jumped down a flight of stairs." a feminine voice replies.

I look up to find a camera lens staring down at me, 'Sam! Terry! You two were supposed to be disabling these cameras!' I sigh, '...Well, maybe, they just haven't been here yet.'

I slice my palm and raise my hand, firing a blood spike at the camera. I miss the lens, but it still strikes the main body of the camera, causing pieces of the camera's components to scatter.

"Comms says they've lost visual! Idiots you were too loud!" the feminine voice yells.

"W-What? How could she hear us from here?" says the burly voice.

'My hearing is much better than yours, and it's not like you were that quiet either. Anyway, let's get on with this.'

For the second time in a day, gray mist flows from my body and begins to gather at the top of the stairs. I can feel my energy quickly draining and my mind growing tired, but unless I want to kill or abandon the Senator, my options are currently limited.

The mist begins to condense, and the first thing that becomes apparent is an ominous whistling. The mist stretches and becomes long, forming the shapes of an extremely lean man with arms so long they could run past its knees. Its torso is severely out of proportion with its long legs and arms. It has a swollen gut despite its ribs being visible just above. Its skin is dyed a greenish-blue and smells of rot. Its face is its most terrifying feature with a dislocated jaw, oversized nose, long matted hair, and eyes that looked to have been in the process of being gouged out. Its clothes look to be made of potato sacks, and it dons a simple straw hat that has a wide oversized brim. Finally, at its back, it carries a large sack that has bones and flesh jutting from the tops and rips along with the base.

'This is one I've been saving for an occasion like this. I have a feeling he'll find who I'm looking for.'

I can't help but giggle to myself silently as the humanoid creature that is known as "El Silbón" pushes open the stairwell doors and steps into the hall where the voices and bullets came from.

"W-what the fuck is that thing! Fire!"

I hear the sound of gunfire begin to echo through the stairwell, so I quickly rush up the stairs to watch the altercation. Looking around the corner I see El Silbón standing there and two men and a woman firing at him.

Bullets rush at El Silbón, piercing his body, blowing off fingers, and causing other such typically devastating wounds. However, El Silbón stands there, continuing to whistle as the bullets rain down upon him. He looks at the men while ignoring the woman, but before doing anything, something else seems to catch his attention. Despite pieces of missing muscle, El Silbón leisurely shambles down the hall toward the group.

**Click. Click**

"Reload quick!"

As the three reload El Silbón comes within range and grabs the man directly in front of him by the head. The remaining two soldiers hasten their reload speed, slamming their new magazines into their rifles while shouting countless profanities at El Silbón. Meanwhile, El Silbón continues casually whistling as he begins slamming the man into the wall over and over again. This continues for so long and to such an extent that I feel a tinge of guilt for this man having to suffer to such a degree.

[8 Essence Acquired]

Finally, he tosses his bag to the ground and stuffs the man's corpse into it before leisurely continuing on ignoring the other two. Seeing this, I hold up my scythe with my free hand and the bone that holds the scythe in a lateral position snaps. The blade collapses downwards, turning the war scythe into what most would imagine a traditional scythe looks like.

I sprint from the stairwell, causing the rubber soles of the Senator's shoes to screech against the tile floor. The remaining two soldiers stand with shell-shocked expressions and unload their fresh magazines into El Silbón. Coming into range of the two I place the scythe at the woman's feet and pull back. She falls, hitting her head against the floor with a thud and doesn't move. As for the man, I swing the Senators limp body around, causing his bloodied feet to slam in his jaw. I quickly snatch one of the radios before looking for El Silbón.

With his disproportionately long legs, I see El Silbón getting farther away, so I rush ahead, leaving the two half-dead soldiers behind. For a few minutes, I keep a distance from El Silbón as he turns a corner.

To my right, there is a door leading to a separate section of the hospital. Behind it, I can hear people yelling.

"They are trapped in one of these rooms. Find them!"

"I know I hit that one; she was bleeding heavily. See if you can find any blood."

I look down to find dots of blood leading in the directions El Silbón is going. With my cut palm, I form a chain and wrap it around the handles of the door to hold the soldiers off for a bit. I remove a damp towel from my ring and toss it over the Senator's face. Following El Silbón, I use blood magic to float the blood from the ground onto the towel over the Senator's face.

There are bodies of soldiers lying throughout the hospital corridors indicating that the group fought back. I realize quickly why no one was receiving my messages.

The blood eventually stops at a door where El Silbón reaches out his long bony fingers and slowly turns the handle. When the door opens, I can hear an audible gasp as El Silbón rushes forward, grasping the person and whistling a glee filled tune.

"Geh! Put me down! You smelly, bony, leg day skipping, bastard!"

I quickly cut my ability, and the person who was about to meet their demise drops to the floor.

"Sam!" I hear Jimmy shout.

"W-What was that thing!"

I pull the Senator into the room and close the door, "It was a monster that likes to hunt womanizers. He found you like a moth finds a flame." I reply in a mocking tone.

Where I'd usually expect Sam to give me a joking or stupid reply, he instead gives me a bitter smile. I glance at the people in the room, finding Jimmy, Sam, Terry, and then in a bloody pool, I find Aponi.

I walk over to Aponi and assess the damage. She is riddled with bullet holes, and if not for her vampiric constitution would surely be dead.

'\u003cAnalyze\u003e'

Name: Aponi Williams

Gender: Female

Race: Vampire

Level: 1

Mana: 30/30

Strength: 9

Endurance: 11

Agility: 11

Intellect: 3

Constitution: 10

Talents: Death's Harvest

Skills: -

Titles: -

I look at her body finding small patches of hardened blood showing that at least someone has been practicing their blood magic. I turn back finding everyone watching me with expressions that seem both hollow and complicated. Having seen the bodies outside and Aponi's state I can assume that their minds are in turmoil. They likely fired back to save themselves and Aponi, but when it comes down to it, they also shot and killed some of their former comrades.

Aponi turns toward me with hazy eyes and tries to speak only for a bit of blood to blow from a hole near her throat. My heart sinks seeing Aponi in such a condition, so I try my best to talk as gently as I can manage.

I hold up my hand telling her to stop, "Just look to the left for yes and the right for no." Aponi looks to the left, "I'm assuming it hurts a lot doesn't it?"

Aponi's eyes look left, but I swear she had to stop herself from rolling them at such an obvious question.

I continue, "Aponi, did you ever finish that task I left you a few days back? The one with the smelly corpse? I noticed the smell faded a bit since last time."

Aponi hesitates and looks to the right.

"You never did it?"

Aponi looks to the right.

"Then what happened to the smell?"

I realize Aponi can't answer me so I'm about to move on when the idiots chime in.

Oddly Terry who is usually cool-headed speaks hesitantly, "Watching Aponi stare at an exploded corpse for hours at a time, it made the rest of us really uncomfortable, so w-we, uh, took the entire rack and tossed it down the elevator shaft."

Dumbfounded I don't even bother looking back, "...Y-you tossed it down the elevator shaft? But it would still smell."

This time Sam speaks, "Well, we doused it in with a box of air freshener and anti-bacterial sprays before wrapping the whole rack in blankets. That wasn't my idea by the way it was Aponi's!"

Aponi's eyes shoot in Sam's direction showing her anger even in such a sorry state.

I think back to Robert's memories as a civil engineer to figure out how they managed such a thing, "S-so you just dumped it next to the elevator pit assembly?"

Sam nods rubbing the back of his head, "If you mean those big spring things that are made to stop freefalling elevators… then yes."

Not knowing what to say to these people I turn back to Aponi with a little less gentleness in my voice, "Well, Aponi, now you either learn how to use your ability or you'll die."

Aponi coughs causing drops of blood to cover my face.

I sigh and wipe the blood from my face, "By the way, do any of you know where Eden and Annie are?"