Her heart throbbed, hard, and a surge of mana ran through her body, jolting her awake.
This was one of the Vampire Queen’s abilities—Auto Resurrection. As Riselia lay atop the rubble, her fingers twitched.
…lia… Selia… Lady Selia…!
“Mm…” Riselia opened her eyes to a crack, seeing her maid’s face looking down at her. “Regina…?”
“Oh, you’re awake, Lady Selia…!” Regina hugged her, her jade eyes full of tears. “You heart wasn’t beating, so I was worried you might have…”
“…Yeah, it’s fine. My heart isn’t beating most of the time anyway.”
“I-it isn’t?”
Riselia tried to live like a normal person, and so she ended up forgetting, but as an undead, her heart didn’t usually beat and her blood was cold. The only reason her heart ever beat was because of the mana circulating through her body, and when she lacked sufficient mana, her body entered a temporary dormant state.
A normal vampire would need to slumber for a few hours in their coffin to recover, but since Riselia’s mana recovered unusually fast, she was capable of resurrecting rapidly so long as a stake wasn’t driven through her heart.
“Are you all right, then, Lady Selia…?”
“Y-yes…” Riselia grabbed onto Regina’s arm, letting her pull her into a sitting position.
She could hear an alarm blaring, and the half-collapsed floor was illuminated by flickering emergency lamps. There were still clouds of dust hanging in the air all around her.
…It looks like I wasn’t out for long.
Realizing this, she looked around in a hurry. “Where’s Miss Finé?”
“Miss Finé…vanished,” Regina said, pursing her lips.
“Vanished?”
“Yes. She went into a Void tear with the other Voids…”
“Huh…?”
Indeed, the insect-like Voids that emerged earlier weren’t here, either. But more important still was the fact Elfiné had entered a Void tear. If that was true, it would mean she was already…
Miss Finé, why…? Riselia touched her neck, still bruised where Elfiné’s fingers had gripped it, and bit her lip.
Elfiné didn’t know Riselia was an undead minion, which meant she seriously tried to take her life. But then—
“Could you explain what happened here?” a voice suddenly spoke.
“…?!” The two girls turned around with a start.
“Wait. It’s me.”
The space in front of them suddenly distorted, and a woman in a white lab coat appeared.
“…Miss Clauvia.”
Clauvia Phillet, a high-ranking research officer and Elfiné’s older sister, who had come to Riselia asking for help with her rescue.
“You ran into Finé, didn’t you?”
Riselia hung her head and nodded. “Yes, but Miss Finé was…”
She trailed off, unsure of how to explain the change in Elfiné, but then—
“…Something’s coming!” Regina called out in alarm.
The sound of heavy footsteps, like the sound of metallic clanging, filled the room.
“A mechanical security guardian. Not good,” Clauvia whispered, glancing at the corridor lit up by the emergency lights. “We can talk later. If Finé isn’t here, we should get out of here posthaste.”
“…Yes.” Riselia nodded.
Clauvia was definitely right about that. If they got into a fight with the Phillet company’s combat machines, it would risk exposing their infiltration and destruction of the facility to the administrative bureau.
“Sakuya, do you read?” Regina turned on her communication terminal.
“Mm…hear you…” Sakuya’s voice crackled out of the terminal, unclear and garbled.
The communication lines were being jammed due to the Stampede.
“Are you all right?” Regina sighed with relief.
Sakuya ran into Phillet private soldiers on the way to the central control room.
“Sakuya, we’re getting out of here. Link up with us in the first floor at the battle vehicle.”
“Mm, rog…that—”
“Let’s go, Lady Selia.”
“Yes…” Riselia took Regina hand and got to her feet.
But then—
“Master.” The clear voice of a girl called out from within the mountain of rubble. “Please dig me out.”
“L-Leite?! W-wait…!”
Riselia hurriedly manifested the Bloody Sword and used it to blow away the rubble.