“It was stuck in Verrick’s hand,” I said. Vlad tensed up, a sharp inhale betraying his shock. The item seemed to have rung a bell.
I could only guess, but my assumption was that Verrick must have realized as his consciousness was fading that the badge could identify Vlad and alert someone to his crime. He must have grabbed it as he was collapsing and closed his hand tight to avoid losing it, explaining why its point had been stabbed into his palm.
“This is just conjecture, but...when you’re brainwashed, you can’t do anything outside of the orders given to you, right?” I said. That a brainwashed subject did only what they were told—acting with total disregard for their own life—was evidenced by Verrick’s suicidal recklessness while under the dome shield. It also explained why Verrick would attack me without so much as bothering to remove the pin from his hand.
“Brainwashing? Idiotic drivel! Magic like that doesn’t even exist.”
“I didn’t say anything about magic. How do you know I wasn’t talking about some kind of brainwashing drug?”
“Magic, drug, whatever! It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. None of that changes that I am an A rank adventurer whether or not I’m wearing some sodded badge on my chest!” yelled Vlad.
Favel merely shook his head at the man, who was now anxiously ranting and raving. “I don’t see anything here that proves your rank. Now pipe down and show us the damn ring. If it really is just a regular ring, then we’ll leave you be. If, on the other hand, it’s like Kaito here says? Then we’ll bring you down to the station and get to the bottom of all this, the function of that ring included,” he said.
“Oh, shut up. Even if I did have a ring with a needle on it, that still wouldn’t implicate me in any brainwashing!”
“It wouldn’t constitute material evidence, but it sure would constitute circumstantial evidence.”
“C-Circumstantial evidence?”
“I already snapped everyone out of it,” I said. “All of them lost their memories. All of them also reported that just before that point, they were visiting you. So, all the evidence points to you, no?”
Favel nodded.
“Just do as you’re told and come along. If you try to resist, I’ll consider it a breach of the peace and arrest you right here and now,” Favel said.
Vlad’s entire body trembled as he glared at me with bloodshot eyes. Grinding his teeth, he spoke in a low, strained growl. “I’ll make you regret...ruining my plan.”
“Ruining my plan,” he says...
“Is that a confession?”
“Yes, I suppose it is. I manipulated them like puppets on strings. I did it to bury you. Just like this!” Vlad’s gaze shifted to someone behind me.
Realizing something was amiss, I turned around just in time to see a man on the verge of firing an icicle blast.
“Watch out!”
Almost reflexively, I summoned a shield dome. In the same moment, the projectiles came flying at us and shattered on the shield’s surface with a cacophonous smattering of crackles.
“You’re with Vlad?!” I shouted.
“He’s been brainwashed by Vlad, there’s no doubt!”
Before the second volley could come, I dropped the shield and immediately fired Cure Beam at the assailant. A bluish-white mist showered over him and halted him mid assault.
“Wh-Where am I?” he asked, looking as though he had just woken from a dream. He scanned his surroundings with confused, vacant eyes. It was certainly a perplexing thing to awaken to, but I had absolutely no time to explain.
Vlad had disappeared. To make matters even worse—
“Huh?! What’s going on?!” yelled someone.
“What’s that noise?!” came another voice.
The unmistakable boom of an explosion rang out nearby. In the direction of the castle, thick black smoke rose into the sky. A tumult of shrieks and cries could be heard from farther away. I realized what Vlad was trying to do.
“Is he making his minions go berserk?”
“That bastard—he’s gonna blast away the whole damn city!”
I didn’t know whether this was an attempt at destruction of evidence or just an act of desperation, but either way, if it continued, the whole city would be up in flames. If the violence reached Hybrid Town, where the inhabitants could not use magic to defend themselves, they’d be helpless to resist the slaughter.
“He’s certainly trying! We have to snap everyone who’s brainwashed out of it, but—”
Crassshhh!
Suddenly, the roof crumbled and collapsed, sending rubble flying. As I materialized Shield Beam, I looked up and saw the silhouette of a man flying overheard.
Vlad.
He wasn’t running away at all but hovering in stillness above the city as if to witness its destruction.
“I’ll handle Vlad! Verrick, you take this,” I said, tossing him a leather bag. Inside were the numerous magic items I had recovered from the scene of the battle yesterday. “Use those to keep the rioters under control! As long as they are kept alive, I can fix them up afterward!”
“Got it, kid!” he said. Verrick and Favel immediately began flying toward the disturbance.
“You two wait here, okay? I won’t take long to finish this.”
“O-Okay! Do your best, Kaito! You’ve got this!” shouted Oltea.
“I know we can’t help you fight, but we’ll support you with all our might!” said Frieze.
“Thank you! It helps more than you know,” I said. It truly did: when it came to protecting the friends I held dear, I felt as though my power was infinite.
I encased Oltea and Frieze in a shield dome and took off on Jet Beam to confront Vlad.
When I reached his altitude, I was around three hundred meters off the ground. From that height, the people far below were completely indistinct. Only the numerous columns of thick, black smoke rising into the sky stood out against the expanse of the city. Down on the streets, brainwashed adventurers were casting fireballs. Others were raining them down from the skies.
Defeating them would be easy, but they were under Vlad’s control. It wouldn’t be right to hurt them. Even Stun Beam would cause the ones who were flying to plummet to their deaths. Cure Beam, on the other hand, required closer range. It wouldn’t do much good with Vlad keeping them all dashing around as they were.
Healing the afflicted adventurers would have to wait. Doing something about Vlad came first.
But before that...
Thinking I could at least guard the town from the aerial attacks, I created a massive Shield Beam. Starting from the castle, it spread like an opening umbrella until it had covered the entire city. One after another, the falling clusters of fire broke against the thin, bluish-white surface of the dome.
“Wh-What is this magic?” Vlad, floating some fifteen meters to my fore, shouted in astonishment. In his hand, he clutched the trademark cane—an azure gem set in its end—that he hadn’t had been holding earlier.
“How can one person possess the power necessary to cover the entire city?! Are you even human?!”
“I am! But you...acting so cruel and violent—do you even have a human’s heart?”
“I don’t even claim to! I’m nothing like man, lowly, vulgar species that it is!”
“...What?” Is he really not a human? If that’s true, then...
“I, ever-faithful servant to the great Demon King and one among the chosen commanders of his grand horde, am no mere man! I am known to my kin as Vampire Lord!”
I had heard that there were level A monsters who possessed great intelligence and could conduct themselves like people, but I hadn’t expected the mimicry to be this convincing. I had never imagined that such a powerful demon would be hiding here, in a country so remote from the borders of the Demon King’s territory, let alone in the lands adjacent to it.
“What business has a general of the Demon King’s army here anyways?”
“I aimed to control the king’s mind. To make him my puppet, pull his strings from the shadows, and drive this country to war!” Vlad shouted.
Like stabbing a friend in the back. If war broke out between the two nations, humans would stand no chance against the Demon King. Not just this country but the entire world would be torn asunder!
“Your meddling ruined my first plan, but the next is already prepared. I don’t need to control this country to please the Great One, I just need to wipe it off the map! I’ll destroy the whole damn thing!”
“I won’t let you!” I shouted. Vlad had the appearance of a human but he—no, it—was a monster. Above all, his intentions were terrifyingly violent. I could not afford to hesitate in killing him. Just like every monster I’d felled before now, I would take Vlad down effortlessly with one move.
I assumed the pose of a kendoka brandishing their bamboo sword and, from my hands, drew forth a blade of light.
Sword Beam.
So that the monster wouldn’t have time to dodge my strike, I swung and extended the blade in one motion. The cutting edge met its mark with a heavy, slapping sound and severed Vlad’s neck. The beast’s head fell away like a stone, shaking violently from the impact.
Or so it seemed.
The head dangled beneath his body, suspended in the sky. It was connected to the neck by strings of blood. With a strange squelching noise, the blood was sucked back into the body until the disembodied head, trailing along, returned to its original spot atop Vlad’s neck.
“Useless! That kind of magic can’t kill an immortal!”
“You...can’t be killed?” I muttered.
Of course you can be! I don’t buy that crap! I thought. Decapitation might not have been fatal, but something certainly would be. I just needed to destroy the devil stone. No matter how great Vlad’s regenerative power, destroying a monster’s core caused it to instantly decompose.