The journey up north was always going to be tough. I had wanted a guide, but Oswald had never been to the north before, so he wouldn't be of any help. Neither had Kelvin, and he was back in Bravia helping Silvia man the fortress against an incoming assault from the human armies, so I couldn't ask him for assistance either.
Consequently, Stella and I had to travel north on our own. Apologetic for not being able to help, Oswald at the very least secured us a carriage, along with a ferocious dire wolf.
"This is Wolfe," he introduced the dire wolf to us. "The best and strongest of the dire wolves we have. And very loyal too. He'll be able to take you up north without any problem."
"Thanks," I told Oswald. He smiled.
"Good luck, my friend."
"Yeah, I'll need it."
Thanks to that, Stella and I rode in the carriage while Wolfe pulled it. He was faster and stronger than any horse, his muscles rippling underneath his spiky, gray fur, as he bounded across the road. Fires still burned and we passed by ruined villages and towns where demons struggled to rebuild after the invasion from Havan Kingdom.
All these scenes of devastation disappeared in a blur, with Wolfe tirelessly pulling the carriage at incredible speed.
"At this pace, we should be able to reach Tyranvania in four days," Stella said as she studied the battered map that the orcs had given us. I was glad that she had elected to follow me. I sucked at reading maps and couldn't tell the geographical regions apart from each other on the yellowed parchment.
"Yeah," I agreed, more because I didn't know better than because I had arrived at the same conclusion. However, I did know what Tyranvania was famous for. "We'll have to be careful when stepping into the territory of Tyranvania. I hope we can get a boat without too much trouble."
The island of Ixia, the stronghold of the lich lord, Lindley, was located off the north of Tyranvania, which was a province located at the northernmost tip of the part of the continent belonging to the Demonic Empire. In order to get to Ixia, we would first have to pass through Tyranvania, which was the province of vampires.
Ever since the death of their lord, Vincent Lucard, the vampires had withdrawn totally to their province. Always an isolated species that disliked contact with others, they only left their territory to hunt prey. Their preferred targets were humans, of course, but this far from the Havan Kingdom, it was difficult for them to nab any sort of real prey. Thus they were restricted to hunting wild beasts and other demons for blood.
This caused a lot of friction with the other races, which was also why the human knights rarely fought against them. On the other hand, that was a good thing, because vampires were unnaturally powerful.
I still remembered how the knights of the 12th regiment were almost slaughtered when facing vampires. Even Herman lost to Vincent Lucard. If he hadn't weakened the lord of vampires and forced that monster to expend a massive amount of mana during their fight, I would never have been able to defeat the terrifying bastard.
And now I had somehow inherited his blood…too bad I didn't get his power, though. But we couldn't have everything in life. What? Were you expecting a convenient power up so that I could steamroll all the traitors from the Hero party? As if reality would be so accommodating.
Well, at least I possessed his regenerative abilities, so that was something.
Still, I wasn't sure how to feel about fighting vampires. I never considered them my brethren. To me, I was still a human, despite what my fellow humans might think about me. Certainly, Stella continued to treat me as such, but she hadn't realized that I was a vampire until I met with Silvia's demonic legion, so her first impression of me as a mage remained strongly rooted in her mind.
Over the next four days, we traveled along the crudely paved road that took us past many demonic settlements. We spent the day in the carriage, watching as Wolfe pulled our carriage past desolate and ominous sceneries. Stella would occasionally tug on the reins, adjusting the dire wolf's trajectory, so as to ensure we took the optimal route up north. At night, we would camp out in the woods, build a fire and construct a tent next to the carriage.
Stella didn't mind sharing a tent with me. In fact, she was the one who proposed we pack only a single tent, so as to use the space for other provisions.
"There's no need for such extravagance," she said. "And besides, I trust you not to do anything funny."
Having lived under the same roof for quite a while, Stella had come to trust me to a certain extent. After all, I had plenty of opportunities to assault her if I wanted to, and I didn't. She was aware that there was nothing she could do to defend herself if I chose to, having witnessed my abilities against Bradley during the fight in his estate.
Fortunately, she didn't do anything as crude as offering me her body as thanks for saving her, unlike those cliché heroines I had read in trashy fiction. I wondered what those writers in Royales were thinking, writing such nonsense. Then again, the literati had never been to the battlefield, had never actually participated in war before, so they probably didn't know the reality of it. I also suspected that the scribes in the capital had little interaction with real women, so holed up in their little libraries and studies as they were, so that also explained their unrealistic portrayals of slavish women whose only purpose was to please the male protagonists.
As for food, Stella hunted. I helped her, using my magic to spear whatever beasts we could find in the thick forests on either side of the road, and we would roast them at night over the fire.
"So you can only cast ice and blood magic, but not fire magic?" Stella asked as she turned over a skewered piece of meat above the crackling fire. I nodded. She snorted. "How inconvenient."
"Sorry."
She glanced at me, wondering if I was serious. Her expression softened.
"Hey, but at least your ice magic is useful in preserving all this meat for as long as possible. Thanks to that, we don't have to hunt as often."
"Ha ha, yeah…"
"Aren't you eating?" Stella asked, noticing that I hadn't touched any of the meat. I gave her a stare.
"I'm a vampire, remember? I don't need to eat. I drink blood."
As a matter of fact, I had drained the boar of blood before giving the meat to Stella to roast for her dinner.
"Ah, right." Stella looked apologetic. "Sorry, I forgot. You just…look and behave like a human that it's easy to forget."
"I'll take that as a compliment," I said with a shrug.
The journey continued on for another few days. As the weather got colder and I spotted mountains completely covered in snow, as well as coniferous forests, the mahogany and rubber trees being replaced by cedar, pine and cypress trees. Even so, we continued to move through the snow-covered road, which did little to impede Wolfe's progress.
Indeed, the dire wolf felt at home here, eagerly bounding over the large drifts, his claws sinking into the snow and leaving large furrows.
We finally came to a stop when night fell and set up camp. Stella had come prepared and wrapped herself in a thick leather cloak, shivering a little from the snowy breeze. She looked at me in disbelief.
"Don't you feel cold?"
"Uh, you do realize that I'm an ice mage, right?"
"…right."
The nights were longer during the winter and the days shorter, so our progress slowed a little. Nonetheless, now that we were in Tyranvania, about 90% of our journey had been completed. All that remained was to get to the northern harbor, secure a boat, and then sail to Ixia.
Both Stella and I crawled into the tent and went to sleep for the day. Or tried to. In the middle of the night, I was roused when Stella shook me.
"We're surrounded," she informed me quietly. I nodded and put on my glasses, having detected the presences of demons despite being half-awake. Stella, on the other hand, had already put on her armor and drawn her sword.
Outside, Wolfe howled and I feared for his safety. Hopefully he hadn't been attacked yet.
"Let's go greet them."
Sighing, I crawled out of the tent, followed by Stella. The dying embers of the fire sparked and sizzled, but combined with the moonlight, provided enough illumination for us to see the dark shapes by the edge of our campfire site. Even without the light, my enchanted lenses allowed me to see the details of our visitors in clear detail.
Vampires.
To my relief, Wolfe had backed to the carriage and was unharmed. The vampires hadn't attacked him. Yet.
"To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" I asked. The lead vampire hissed, his eyes glowing red.
"Human woman." He pointed at Stella, but I quickly interposed myself between my companion and the stranger. The vampire remained undaunted. "Give her to us."
"She's mine," I replied firmly. "I'm not handing her over to anybody."
"Sorry, pal, then you'll have to die."
The vampires lunged at me, flashes of red lighting up the night air when they cast their blood magic. I responded by drawing my whip and lashing out at them. Two of them were cut into pieces before the rest swiftly retreated.
A growl from Wolfe told me that he had torn through the midriff of another vampire, and the poor guy was crawling away, desperately trying to put his intestines back into his eviscerated belly. Gross.
"You…!"
"That whip…!"
"What?" I asked, curling Night Fang and lashing out at them, causing them to flinch. "Are you going to rob me of my weapons as well?"
"They will probably back off," Stella whispered, gripping her sword tightly as she eyed the vampires. I saw her glance at the two vampires who were in pieces.
I snorted. "No, they won't."
"Eh? They're not afraid of death?"
"They are vampires," I replied dismissively. "They won't die even if you kill them."
As if to emphasize my point, the pieces of the vampires that I had cut apart began flying back together, thin lines of blood joining them. They began regenerating rapidly, the wounds healing and mending, allowing the two vampires to slowly recover their full form.
Unlike Vincent Lucard, the process would take minutes.
"Then what should we do?" Stella asked, watching the vampires warily. I could hear the fear in her voice.
"Simple," I replied. "You stay close to me. Don't leave my side. I'll just kill them over and over again until they run out of mana to regenerate."
"What arrogance!" the lead vampire snarled. "Do you really think you can take on all of us by yourself?"
"I have her with me," I replied. "Watch my back."
"Understood." Stella shifted and we stood back-to-back, watching the enemies.
One of the vampires lunged forward, only for me to slice him in half with Night Fang. However, his attack was just a diversion. His comrades conjured a hail of blood stakes to rain them down on me.
With my free hand, I erected a glacial barrier to shield me and Stella from the blood stakes. A blood whip also cracked against the frozen surface, to no avail.
Then one of the vampires smashed through the barrier that I had just froze, his hands glowing red as blood claws formed over them. Too near for me to use my whip, I slashed at him with Blood Angel instead. Thanks to having anticipate his movements, I had already drawn the sword after summoning the barrier.
He fell with a gurgle and I kicked him in the head, hurling him away. Several more blood spears lanced toward me, but I stomped onto the ground and kicked a wall of ice up that caught the crimson projectiles before they could reach me.
Wolfe snarled in the distance, swiping at another vampire and forcing him to keep his distance.
While I was distracted, two vampires went for Stella. She was able to keep one at bay with her sword, parrying her claws and deflecting the blood whip that the female vampire lashed at her. But she was too occupied to defend against the second vampire's assault.
Fortunately, I was there. Dropping the whip, I reached out and grabbed the blood claws of the second vampire, and then impaled him with a barrage of icicles from below. He gurgled and then retreated.
Shaking my left hand, I allowed the blood to harden and then my wound healed instantly. The vampires made no comment when they saw my regeneration. They already knew that I was a vampire like them. Even so, their eyes widened slightly when they saw how fast my injury healed.
"He must be a high-level vampire!"
"A noble…? But I've never seen him before."
"Doesn't matter!" the lead vampire growled. "He's alone! As long as we kill him, nobody will know!"
"The same goes for me," I remarked with a grin. The vampires hissed before coming at me again. I leaned back and whispered to Stella. "Do not leave my side."
"Understood," she replied before she cut the arm off the female vampire assailing her. The bitch hissed and withdrew, threads of blood connecting her stump to her dismembered arm and already beginning to merge and heal. Her comrades replaced her, fencing Stella and me in a ring of blood. Stakes, arrows and whips of crimson streaked toward us.
With a snap of my fingers, I cast Absolute Zero.
The entire area turned into ice. Not just snow, but blocks of ice. The vampires found themselves suspended in midair, entombed completely in ice, their expressions frozen in fury and hunger. Even their spells were frozen in stasis, locked inside the ice, never to reach their targets.
I took a step forward and tapped the ice with the blade of my red sword. At the gesture, the ice shattered, and their prisoners with it. Supposedly immortal vampires shattered into countless fragments of frost, their existence wiped from the world.
"Now they are dead for good," I declared.
Stella sighed in relief, but I shook my head and glared at the forest.
"Still too soon to relax. Isn't that right, sir?"
From the forest, a larger group of vampires emerged, led by a noble-looking blond in an expensive, stylish suit. His red eyes glowed and his long fangs gleamed as he greeted me with a smile.