Red Moon Rose

Red Moon Rose
Title	Red Moon Rose
v · e

Red Moon Rose (赤い月のロゼ) is a book series that can be collected in Trails of Cold Steel.

Chapter 1 - The Red Moon

Our story begins in Erebonia during the Middle Ages, some two hundred years ago. The War of the Lions had concluded in Western Zemuria, and Emperor Dreichels, a driving force behind its resolution, had been deceased for over a decade.

The Imperial capital, Heimdallr, was a beautiful,  traditional city with rows of cheerful red brick buildings that had earned it the nickname the 'Vermillion Capital.' In one back-alley of the city, however, a solemn mood reigned. Soldiers in military uniforms paced up and down while a crowd of  onlookers gathered to see what was going on. They clung to the edges of the scene, refusing to disperse no matter how many times they were asked.

At the center of the commotion lay a young woman. Her skin was shockingly pale, as if not a drop of blood ran through her veins. On her neck two dark red spots stood out in stark contrast to the pallid flesh.

Seeing this, a middle-aged soldier let out a loud sigh and took out his pocket watch. It was just after six. He gave a curt order to his subordinates to find out who she was, and the woman's body was swiftly carried away from the curious stares of the gawkers. After watching her safely borne away, he noticed a younger soldier following the woman with his eyes, as well. 

'Al. Alphonse.'

He tapped the young man on his shoulder. The soldier started, seeming to realize that he was still on duty.

'...Ah, sorry, Garrard.'

Somewhat flustered, Alphonse adjusted his beret, then hung his head apologetically. Though snapped from his reverie, it was clear that he still had something on his mind. 

'I believe I've told you before to address me as 'sir' while on duty. I am your commanding officer, after all,' Garrard said jokingly.

With a fond pat on the shoulder, Garrard reminded him to stay focused and then left to give orders to the rest of his subordinates. Alphonse quickly returned to his post, silently grateful for Garrard's characteristically thoughtful gesture. Watching this exchange was another young soldier the same age as Alphonse. Scowling unpleasantly, he gave an audible tut.

The girl's untimely demise, though shocking, was but one in a series of grisly murders that were the talk of the town. Most of the victims were young women who had been out at night, and they had all met their ends through loss of blood. Or, put another way, the victims had died after having all of the blood drained from their bodies. 

Furthermore, all of the bodies which had been found had something else in common: each had bite marks on their neck, as if they had been pierced by incredibly sharp fangs.

It didn't take long for word of this to start to spread among the people of Heimdallr, and all who heard the rumors were quick to think of one of the many ancient legends which existed in Erebonia. Specifically, the legend that described immortal, monstrous creatures which roamed the land at night feeding on the blood of humans. It was these very legends that eventually became the inspiration for the mass killings' new moniker: The Vampire Murders. 

That night, after his duties were complete, Alphonse made his way to a small tavern tucked away in a corner of the capital by the name of Alegria to enjoy a late evening meal. As he sat down to his dinner, a pretty girl near his own age with a glossy chestnut ponytail studied him with obvious concern.

'S-So, how is it, Alphie? Is it nice? I hope so. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.'

The girl, Lucca, had been Alphonse's friend since his arrival in Heimdallr about ten years before. A shy, nervous smile tugged at her lips as she continued to watch him. Alphonse felt a hot blush creep up his neck under her intense gaze, but he forced himself to eat. The beef stew she had made had a simple, yet comforting taste to it.   'Yeah,' he assured her. 'It's really good. You've really gotten the hang of this.' 

Lucca relaxed at his words, and with a few quick self-conscious glances at the rest of the tavern customers, she seated herself opposite to him. Her courage seemed spent after this gesture, though, and they sat in awkward silence for some time until she managed a hesitant, 'H-How's work going these days?' 

At the word 'work' Alphonse's hand, which was carrying food to his mouth, instantly came to a halt. Despite the so-called Vampire Murders going on for quite some time, they had been unable to find a single clue to the culprit behind it all. The corpse of the woman from that afternoon flashed across his mind's eye, and the pleasant flavor of the stew died on his tongue.

So young... She must have had family, friends, perhaps even a partner, just like anyone else. She had had her whole life ahead of her, and yet that life had been brought to a sudden end - just like so many others before her. What the criminal had done was unforgivable, but the reprehensible nature of the crimes wasn't the only reason that Alphonse was obsessed with this case. Though, sadly for him, there was very little that he could do to solve it now that he had been removed from the investigation team. 

Lucca's soft voice brought him back from his thoughts.

'Alphie, just...just don't go overdoing it, okay?'

Her kind words made Alphonse realize how tense his expression must have become. Her concern embarrassed him. 

'I'm fine, honestly,' he said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.

Alphonse was a member of a unit of the Imperial Army popularly known as the Garrard Team, which was  responsible for maintaining law and order in Heimdallr. Garrard, the team's commanding officer, had long cared for Alphonse like a father, and it was his recommendation that led Alphonse to join the army and become a member of the team. Since then, he lived in a dormitory near the army's guardhouse.

His meal at the tavern finished, he sketched Lucca a quick goodbye and took his usual route back towards 

The dormitory. An eerie red-colored moon hung full in the sky, bathing the brick buildings in a bewitching carmine glow. Walking along, Alphonse couldn't help but notice that the number of people on the streets at night was much smaller of late. Considering the culprit behind the Vampire Murders still hadn't been found, that was hardly surprising, though. And yet, despite the fact that barely anyone dared to take to the streets, new victims kept appearing one after another, as if to mock the soldiers who patrolled in the dead of night to keep them safe. The sense of fear in the city increased by the day, and was a deep unease shared by all, even the soldiers. Silently, he swore to himself yet again that he would stop at nothing to catch whoever was responsible and bring them to justice.

'...Hmm?'

Suddenly, Alphonse stopped in his tracks, his troubled thoughts interrupted by the sight of an unaccompanied woman walking ahead of him. The deep shadows blanketing the path made it difficult to be certain, but she seemed unsteady on her feet. To his further surprise, she then turned and disappeared down an even darker back-alley. 

Considering the ongoing Vampire Murders, it was hard to believe that anyone could be so careless. With a resolute air, Alphonse set about following the woman, determined to call out to her and try to prevent her from coming to any harm. He entered the back-alley.

Gloom obscured all but the sharpest of angles. He squinted, willing his eyes to adjust. The soft outline of a woman's back took shape in the depths of the alley.

'Excuse me, miss, I'm not sure it's wise to be--'

Alphonse forgot what he was going to say. 

Something was wrong. Slowly, the woman turned to face him. Her head hung limply to the side, long hair masking her face. A hint of eyes could be seen through the wild locks, but they held no focus, no awareness. She opened her mouth and moaned.

Horrified by the disturbing figure before him, Alphonse froze. In an instant she was on him. Arms outstretched, she lunged and seized his neck in a crushing grip. Taken completely by surprise, he fell backwards, the weight of her pinning him down. Slowly, methodically, she began to squeeze.

'Gaaaah...?!' he croaked. 

How could that seemingly lifeless woman be capable of such unnatural strength? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pry her hands from around his windpipe. All his training, his youthful strength... none of it seemed to count for anything against those unyielding claws. Her fingers dug deeper still, and the already painful absence of air became indescribable agony.

From his low vantage point, Alphonse was able to see more of the woman's face now. It swam in and out of view of his oxygen starved brain, but her pale flesh was almost luminous against the darkness of the night. Her lips were chapped and colorless. As she squeezed they began to part in a hungry leer, the edges splitting. 

Dinner.

Although Alphonse could barely understand what was happening, his instincts knew exactly what the woman was about to do. He bucked and writhed desperately in her grip, but her hold was too great. Black began seeping into his vision. Even as he remembered the saber belted to his waist, he was too weak to draw it.

The blank-eyed woman thrust her face eagerly towards his neck, teeth bared and mouth yawning wide. Alphonse began to close his eyes. Death seemed his only choice. ...But just then, the world in his fading view exploded. 

As the world blurred he caught a fleeting glimpse of a geometric shape pass before his eyes. It was the sole of a boot moving at incredible speed.

With a bone-crushing thud, the woman was thrown aside, and Alphonse's field of vision filled with the night sky. Free from the woman's grasping fingers, he coughed furiously, sucking in as much fresh air as his tortured throat could manage.

'Are you all right?' asked a clear voice beside him.

Chapter 2 - Vampire Hunter

The source of it was a second woman, who he was certain had not been there moments ago. She wore a navy blue overcoat paired with a matching navy blue beret. Her ash-blond hair reached as far as her neck, and her features were dignified, though they still retained clear vestiges of childlike innocence. At a guess, she seemed to be roughly the same age as Alphonse himself.

Still busy processing the recent events, Alphonse made no reply to her query. The woman watched him for some time before coolly stating, 'You appear to be mostly uninjured, at least. I'm glad to have arrived in time.'

Seemingly satisfied he would survive, she turned away and studied the crumpled form of the woman who had attacked him. 

'That,' she said with a note of distaste, 'is a ghoul - a thing a person becomes after their blood has been drained by a vampire.'

As she spoke, she kicked her left boot against the ground. The tap-tap-tap seemed to punctuate each word. It appeared to be the boot that she had used to kick the woman - 'ghoul' - away from him.

As he followed the restless drumming of her boot he suddenly thought, ...vampire?

'I have no issue with you idling about, but I would prefer it if you stood aside before doing so. You are in my way.' 

Her words were sharp, but no sooner had she said them than a creaking sound filled the area. The ghoul, which had been motionless on the ground while they were talking, was now slowly rising. Its contorted body lifted from the cobblestones using only the power of its legs. It was a grotesque spectacle and utterly unnatural, and if the ghoul was bothered by the earlier blow, it showed no sign.

Without warning, the ghoul suddenly kicked at the ground like a wild beast and propelled itself towards them. Alphonse jerked to his feet and leaped forward to shield the blond woman... 

The exact moment that the ghoul's nails reached Alphonse, the blond woman behind him calmly put her hand in her overcoat pocket. In one smooth motion she drew something out of it. It was a long, thin rapier. Its surface was a radiant silver polished to a mirror-like shine that reflected the smoldering glow of the red moon. Without a moment's hesitation, she thrust the rapier forward. Its pointed end flew past his neck, piercing the ghoul's throat effortlessly.

With an equally smooth motion she withdrew the blade. The ghoul fell to the ground and didn't move again. The menacing aura it had been radiating dissipated into nothing. 

Alphonse stood fixed to the spot, dumbfounded by what he had just witnessed. A small trickle of blood ran down his neck where the rapier had grazed it.

'I do believe that I told you to stand aside...  I suppose you must not have heard me.'

Sighing, she shook the ghoul's blood from her weapon before returning it to its scabbard.

'After all, if you had heard me and acted that way, regardless, I would be forced to conclude that you are most foolish, indeed.' 

Her blunt words and composed expression finally brought Alphonse back to his senses.

'I-I was just trying to keep you from getting hurt... But never mind that, what's going on here, anyway?! Who are you?! And why was that woman trying to--'

He had intended to finish his sentence with the words 'eat me,' but the possibility that it may have happened was too terrifying to voice. What was clear to him was that the woman before him had saved his life, and stabbed the 'ghoul' to do so. Looking at Alphonse's confused expression as he wrestled with the situation, she gave a resigned sigh. 

'You appear to be a member of the military. I presume, then, that you are familiar with the so- called Vampire Murders?'

'Y-Yeah, of course.'

'Well, then, if I were to tell you that those Vampire Murders really ARE the work of a vampire, would you believe me?'

Alphonse gaped at her. '...What?'

Without answering, she turned away from him and walked over to the ghoul. Gently, she lifted it from the ground so Alphonse could get a good look at the face. What had been a terrifying creature just moments ago was now a woman again. Her expression was completely peaceful - it was hard to believe she was the same woman who had attacked him earlier. 

'Look closely here,' the blond woman instructed.

She pointed at the corpse's neck. Specifically, at two red dots on its surface. They were completely consistent with the marks on all of the other victims of the Vampire Murders.

'It certainly looks like a vampire bite, wouldn't you say?' 

She said this as if it was the most common sense thing in the world. Alphonse still looked puzzled, but she ignored him and continued.

'Humans who die as a result of having their blood sucked by a vampire become ghouls, who then try to feast on other humans. This sword,' she said, tapping the scabbard, 'has been blessed by the church and is capable of putting them to rest.'

Her words brought the bizarre spectacle he had just witnessed back to the front of his mind. While he was interested in the 'church' part of her statement, he had more pressing questions to ask. 

'...You're seriously saying that this was the work of a vampire? You really expect me to believe something so ridiculous?'

'Whether you choose to believe it or not, it is the truth. A very unfortunate truth, but the truth, nonetheless,' she said in the same cool, disinterested tone.

Alphonse struggled with it. The 'truth' as she presented it beggared belief. And yet...everything she said added up and seemed consistent. It was equally hard to believe that everything was a lie. He subconsciously touched his throat. The ache there only bolstered her position. He found himself willing to believe her. 

'There is a vampire in this city. Of that I am certain. And I,' she continued, placing a hand on her chest, 'am here to put an end to it.'

A period of silence followed. Undeterred, the woman began to talk again.

'...Still, this is not ordinarily a matter that laymen should be involved with, so I would recommend that you forget all that you have seen and heard here.'

'And I would prefer,' she added with a meaningful glance, 'if you kept all of this to yourself, as well.' She turned to walk away.

'Wait!' Alphonse called out to her. He swallowed, stood a little straighter. 'Will you... Will you allow me to help you?'

The blond woman came to an abrupt halt. She turned her head to look at him. It was clear that his sudden question had caught her off guard. Slowly, she faced him completely.

'...Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you to propose something quite that ludicrous. What could I possibly stand to gain by allowing you to help me?' 

Her tone was as sharp as ever, but Alphonse was unfazed.

'Around ten years ago, both of my parents were killed. They died the exact same way as the victims of the Vampire Murders.'

'...?!'

Shock showed through the woman's normally blank expression. Alphonse continued.

'I don't remember much about that day, but there's one thing that I can't forget. One thing I'll NEVER be able to forget.'

As he spoke, the memory returned vividly to him. 

Roughly ten years ago, Alphonse and his family had lived in a village in a remote region of the Empire. His father was a member of the army, serving in a unit stationed nearby, but it was an uneventful post, and they lived a quiet life. It was as normal and peaceful an existence as one could have until that fateful day when Alphonse returned from playing outside. It was then that he saw a sight that would be burned into his memories, his dreams, forever. There in his home he found the corpses of his parents laying in a room stained with blood. Their bodies had been drained, and their necks were marked by strange bites.

The incident was so unpleasant and bizarre that even then, there were those who believed that it was the work of a vampire. The army conducted an investigation, but were unable to find any clues that would lead them to a suspect, and eventually the case was deemed unsolvable. Left with no living family, Alphonse was taken in by his father's best friend and fellow soldier in the army, Garrard, and ended up living in Heimdallr.

If what she was saying was true, and vampires really did exist, then maybe one WAS actually responsible for his parents' deaths. From the look on her face, it seemed she too thought that could be the case. 

Alphonse shook his head, though it was more for himself.

'It doesn't really matter if it was the work of a vampire or not. I feel as though by solving this case, I'll finally be able to move on from what happened that day. That's why...'

Another long silence fell between them. The blond woman seemed to be deep in thought, and Alphonse waited patiently for her reply. Eventually, she let out a short sigh. 

'...As part of the army, you have access to restricted information on the murders. Perhaps your assistance might allow me to find the vampire more quickly.'

She put her hand inside her coat and took out a short sword with the same silvery glow as the rapier she had used earlier.

'This will allow you to fight against ghouls and  vampires. If you'll be cooperating with me, I expect you to protect yourself.'

Alphonse glanced at her face. Her expression clearly said that she wouldn't brook any nonsense.  His resolve would need to be firm and unwavering, and he would need to be prepared to encounter more ghouls like the one from before. Furthermore, he would have to be ready to face the vampire that lurked in the city once and for all... 

With a resolute air he accepted the sword from her. 'My name's Alphonse, but everyone just calls me Al.'

The blond woman looked down at her now empty hand, and the corners of her lips quirked up slightly. She raised the edges of the skirt underneath her coat and gave him a respectful curtsey. 

'My name is Rose. I imagine that our time together will be brief, but I look forward to working with you, nonetheless.' 

The next morning, Alphonse found himself in his commanding officer's - Garrard's - office. He had  come to request permission to independently investigate the Vampire Murders.

Garrard scratched his head before giving Alphonse a questioning look, his eyes filled with the kind of  vitality one would expect from a much younger man.

'...You want to pursue that case all on your own?'

Alphonse cleared his throat nervously. He was well aware that what he was asking was completely unreasonable.

Chapter 3 - Foreboding

'Not on my own. A civilian has agreed to help me conduct my investigation. The two of us will be working together.'

It sounded pretty weak to him, but Rose had been adamant that they keep the truth of the matter to themselves.

'It wouldn't be to the benefit of society for the existence of vampires to become widely known,' she had insisted. 'As such, try and arrange for us to be able to investigate the murders by ourselves, without interruption.' Aside from a cool 'Farewell for now,' those had been her last words before disappearing into the night. 

And what she said made sense. There was simply no way that Garrard would believe that vampires existed, even if it was his surrogate son trying to persuade him. After all, despite seeing a ghoul with his very own eyes, part of Alphonse still wanted to believe that it had all been a dream.

To compound the problem further, for reasons that Alphonse wasn't privy to, Rose seemed opposed to anything other than investigating the matter covertly. As such, her joining the team formed to officially investigate the murders was off the table. Alphonse was therefore left with no choice but to propose that the two of them investigate together in secret. 

Alphonse was not surprised, then, to see Garrard's  less-than-willing expression.

'Listen, Al. As your guardian, I've got a responsibility to look after you. That's why I want to raise you to be a fine soldier, and why I don't want you putting your life in danger for no good reason.'

Alphonse flushed. He'd already been removed from the team investigating the murders, as well as taken off night patrol duty. Garrard was well aware of his fixation with the case. That was exactly why he was afraid that Alphonse might end up going too far in his attempts to solve it and get injured - or worse. 

'Garrard...sir, I understand exactly what you're trying to say, and I appreciate your concern, but...'

'Hmm...'

Seeing Alphonse's determination, Garrard hesitated. The boy standing before him was calm with clear eyes. Where previously there had been recklessness, now purpose and resolve seemed to rule. After a lengthy silence, he let out a sigh of resignation. 

'...You really do take after your father.'

He smiled fondly, but quickly switched to his official, commanding officer voice.   'I expect you to give your utmost to successfully  solving the mystery behind these murders. However,  I will approve of this mission only on the condition that you report daily on the results of your investigation.'

'Garr--'

Alphonse almost responded in his usual, casual tone, but caught himself just in time. He coughed, cleared his throat, and stood to attention. Garrard chuckled. 

'Just be sure not to put yourself needlessly in danger, understood? And if anything happens, inform me immediately.'

'Yes, sir!'

Alphonse gave a deep bow, grateful for his guardian's kindness. 

'I see that everything went well. That is good news.'

The two of them were in the corner of the shopping district where the first victim of the Vampire Murders had been found. It was the middle of the day, but the alleyway in which they stood was gloomy and draped in shadows by the looming buildings that surrounded it. The second he had stepped into the narrow passageway, Rose had appeared out of nowhere just like the previous day.

Because the place where Alphonse had been attacked by the ghoul the previous night was currently under investigation by the Garrard Team, they thought it best to steer clear of it for the rest of the day. As such, they had decided to examine the scene of an earlier murder instead. 

Unlike the previous night, Rose had neither her coat nor her sword with her. Instead, she wore a simple dress in the local style. Anyone seeing her for the first time wouldn't be able to tell that she was anything more than a perfectly ordinary girl.

According to Rose, neither vampires nor ghouls were able to operate in daylight and thus battle- ready wear was unnecessary. Everyday clothing also had the benefit of allaying suspicion by blending in, she said. It was fine logic in theory, but with Alphonse still garbed in his military uniform they made for an unusual pairing. As such, Alphonse couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when he realized how few people were in the surrounding area. 

The scene of the first murder still had a solemn air about it. Alphonse set about scouring the area, and as he mused over the case details involving the victim, a question came to mind.

'Thinking about it...I never heard about any of the earlier victims turning into ghouls. Is that because you've been defeating them?' 

Rose shook her head. 'No, in previous cases I was able to purify the bodies with Thaumaturgy before they turned into ghouls. I would rather not harm the bodies of the deceased if I can help it.'

Thaumaturgy, as Rose explained it, was the collective name for special techniques used by a small number of people belonging to the Septian Church. The power of Thaumaturgy was also apparently the reason why Rose's rapier and Alphonse's short sword were capable of defeating ghouls and vampires. Curious, Alphonse asked Rose if she was connected to the church, to which she responded, 'Feel free to think of it that way.' 

He itched to probe her more on the subject, but she began explaining the particulars about ghouls, so he let it drop. Since the murders had started, it seemed that the time it took for a corpse to turn into a ghoul was decreasing with every kill. Alphonse's encounter with the ghoul the previous night was the first occasion that she had been unable to purify the victim in time. As such, she had been left with no choice but to fight.

'Still, that possibility was well within my  expectations. It's not the first time it has happened, after all. That someone like yourself would appear and try to get involved certainly wasn't, however,' Rose said with a giggle, causing Alphonse's ears to turn pink at the tips. 

'A-Anyway...' he said, crouching down to inspect the ground level. 'Have you managed to gather anything about the culprit from your previous investigations?'   Rose nodded. 'Judging by the bite marks left on the victims, I believe that the vampire is likely male. Furthermore, despite victims being found all across the city, the bite marks look the same as one another. That suggests the work of a single vampire.  Beyond that, however...' 

Rose fell silent.

'Is something bothering you?' Alphonse asked without thinking.

'...Yes, actually. It may be possible that the vampire lurking in the city is...'

She stopped mid-sentence. Her gaze was focused on something behind Alphonse. Turning around, he saw a  young man in a military uniform much like himself. It was someone he knew.

'Elroy? What are you doing here...?' 

'I was about to ask you the same thing,' the other man grumbled.

Elroy was a fellow member of the Garrard Team who had joined around the same time as Alphonse did. That combined with the two being roughly the same age, one might expect them to get along well, but in reality they usually ended up arguing about everything. It had been like that for almost as long as Alphonse had known him.

'I'd heard you'd formed a separate team to check up on the murders, but I had no idea that it was just a pretext to be meeting a woman during working hours,' Elroy sneered. 

Alphonse stifled his annoyance. At least it seemed as if the other man hadn't overheard their earlier conversation.

Clearing his throat, Alphonse said evenly, 'She's a civilian who's assisting with my investigation, so knock it off. And you? What are you doing here?'

'Hmph. Nothing in particular, I just happened to be passing by. We've got to patrol a much wider area now thanks to all this 'vampire' nonsense.'

Alphonse stood and gave him a cold look.

'Watch what you're saying. People in this area have lost family and friends because of these murders.' 

Elroy snorted and cast an uncaring glance at the spot where the first victim had been found.

'Hah. I mean, seriously? 'Vampire Murders'? We're supposed to be the Imperial Army, not a bunch of country bracers. Are we seriously considering the possibility that fairy tale creatures like that exist? And besides, what kind of idiot goes out at night when there's a serial killer on the loose? They were asking for it, if you ask me. People need to stay in their damn homes and stop making more work for us.' 

'You son of a...!'

Enraged by the sheer callousness of Elroy's words, Alphonse started towards him...or tried to, rather. Strong, unyielding fingers held him by the arm.

Completely expressionless, and without so much as a glance to Elroy, Rose whispered, 'Arguing with him serves no purpose. That time would be better spent investigating.'

She spoke calmly, but her words were sharp and dismissive. What she said was right, though, and hearing it was enough for Alphonse to cool his temper. As she said, they had more important things to be doing. He had sworn that he would solve these murders and put the past behind him, and that needed to be his foremost priority. He took a deep breath to regain his composure. The reassuring weight of the silver sword hidden in his uniform  further reminded him of what he needed to do. 

Watching them, Elroy gave a bored, derisive laugh.

'Oh, and 'civilian helper' or whatever you are, don't you go wandering around at night, either. The last thing the army needs is more dead bodies to clear up.' And with a mocking wave, he left them. 

After their inspection of the first crime scene, Alphonse and Rose spent the remainder of the day scrutinizing the scenes of the second and third  murders, but in the end their search yielded no fruit. After reporting their progress to Garrard, he made his way to the Alegria where he had promised to meet Rose to discuss how they would proceed with their investigation.

The city around him was bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun when Alphonse finally stepped into the sparsely populated tavern. He found Rose sitting at a table near one of the windows. Once again she was wearing the navy coat from their first meeting. It seemed safe to assume that the rapier she used that night was inside it, too. 

'Evening,' she called out to him. 'I was expecting you to be here sooner.'

Alphonse didn't reply. He was too busy staring at the girl sitting opposite her.

'What's wrong, Lucca?'

Lucca turned at the sound of her name, eyes so wide and moist that tears threatened to fall at any moment. 

'A-Alphie! Just what is this woman to you?!'

'Wh-What?'

Perplexed, he looked over in Rose's direction as if seeking an explanation. Rose favored him with a bland expression.

'All I did was walk into this tavern and state, 'I would like an out of the way table to discuss the future with Al,' and she has been pressing me with endless questions ever since.'

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders as if she understood the situation no better than Alphonse did. 

Seeing this, he let out an even greater sigh.

Before Lucca could launch into another interrogation, Alphonse set about explaining Rose's role as a civilian helper aiding an army investigation, and after several reassurances, he was eventually able to clear up the misunderstanding. Lucca's relief seemed to fill her with renewed energy. Cheerfully, she bounded up from their table and made her way into the back of the tavern again. With her departure, so too left the gazes of the other curious and amused patrons. Rose and Alphonse bent to discussing their investigation. 

Vampires, Rose elaborated, were only able to use their powers at night. During the day, they were no different from ordinary humans. Unfortunately, this meant that even if they were to encounter one, neither of them would be able to tell. If they hoped to end the murders, they would first need to find some kind of clue as to the vampire's true identity.

At one point during the conversation, Alphonse went pale at the thought that they might have to exhume the corpses of previous victims in order to reinvestigate them, but Rose assured him that would not be necessary. To his great relief, she had already checked them thoroughly for clues. Even that gruesome task had yielded little more information than the similarities between the bite marks, though. 

Their vampire foe was a cunning one. The number of bodies and lack of clues all pointed towards a careful killer who more than likely was living right there among them as an ordinary human.

After working their way through the simple meal that Lucca brought them, Rose casually glanced over to the back of the tavern.

'You seemed rather close to that girl,' she murmured. 

It took a few moments for Alphonse to realize who Rose was referring to.

'Yeah...I suppose you could say that. I've known her for ten years now, after all.'

He had first met Lucca when he was brought to Heimdallr by Garrard. Initially, he had stayed in a house near the tavern, and being brought by it often, the two of them quickly became friends. As an orphan, Lucca's support over the years meant more to him than words could express.

Telling Rose all of this, Alphonse could feel his cheeks heating. He began fidgeting awkwardly. 

'...I'm a little envious,' Rose said.

As she spoke, Alphonse noticed a change in her expression and tone. Usually, she said things sharply or with an air of cool detachment. Her face also rarely betrayed her inner thoughts. Now, though, he thought he caught a hint of loneliness. Unable to let this pass unnoticed, Alphonse opened his mouth to comment.

Suddenly, Rose jumped up out of her seat. Her chair fell to the ground with a crash. Once again the two of them became the subject of a room full of gazes, but she paid that fact no mind and stared out of the window, her eyes open wide. 

'Wh-What is it? What's wrong?' Alphonse whispered loudly.

'It's nearby. I can sense it.'

'It? What do you mean?!'

'The vampire!' she hissed.

No sooner had she said it, she raced over to the tavern's owner, who was busy at the back of the building. Alphonse chased after her. He had never seen her in such a panicked state before.

'Where is the young lady who was here earlier?!' Rose asked the puzzled tavern owner, who didn't appear to have any idea who she was referring to. It was then that Alphonse realized that he didn't see Lucca anywhere - and hadn't seen her since she brought them their food a half hour before. After telling this to the owner, he finally seemed to realize what he was being asked. 

'Now that you mention it, I would have expected her to be back by now. I asked her to run an errand  over at the grocery store opposite here.'

Alphonse and Rose exchanged a glance and instantly understood what the other was thinking. Overcome with a sense of great foreboding, the two of them rushed out of the shop without saying a word. 

Two people ran through the streets of Heimdallr down cobblestones dewed with moonlight. In the lead was Rose, her navy blue coat flapping in the wind like the wings of a hawk as she pursued their foe. Just behind her (and shocked by her speed) was Alphonse, head whipping left and right as he searched for Lucca. There had been no sign of her on the short path between the tavern and the grocery store where she had apparently been sent.

Chapter 4 - The Black Vampire

When Rose had sensed the ominous presence of the vampire outside the tavern she immediately set about following it. Alphonse didn't know what kind of trail she had picked up, but she flew down streets and narrow paths without hesitation, as if following a  puppet's strings back to its master. To find his friend they now followed the vampire, spurred by that terrible certainty that the two were connected.

'Eeeeeeeeeek!'

The sound of a piercing shriek filled the air, sending a chill up Alphonse's spine and freezing him to the spot. There was no mistaking its owner - it was Lucca's voice.

'Lucca?!' Alphonse cried. 'Where are you?!'

'The scent is coming from this way!' Rose called before rushing down a narrow alleyway. 

Alphonse followed, stumbling over his own feet in his desperate attempt to keep up with her. He could barely breathe from running so much, but he ignored the tightness in his chest and sped on. Kicking aside boxes and garbage piled here and there on the path, he eventually reached the other side of the alleyway and emerged into a neighboring street.

In it stood someone - or something. It was draped in a black overcoat, the upper half of its head wrapped in a large cloth. Not even its eyes were visible. The only part of the body that remained uncovered was the bottom half of its face, a deathly pale expanse of flesh with a twisted smile at its center. At first glance, it almost seemed human.  Alphonse was not fooled. 

This is it, he thought. This is the vampire.

It was then that he realized the black-clad  figure was holding something in its arms.

Lucca.

Just as that realization hit, the vampire's rictus of a grin yawned wide as it opened its jaws. Alphonse caught a fleeting glimpse of beast-like fangs, too long, too sharp to be human. Seeing them, Alphonse instantly recalled the bite marks on the murder victims' necks. As he watched, horrified, those needle-like teeth descended towards Lucca's throat. 

Rose was the first to act. In a movement so fast he could barely track it, she withdrew several thin objects from the inside of her cloak and threw them at the vampire. Alphonse remembered her showing him them as a part of her 'vampire hunting' kit. The knives flashed in the moonlight as they sped towards the creature.

As it was about to sink its fangs into Lucca, the vampire turned towards them, dodging the knives just in time. Lucca fell to the ground, and the vampire jumped high into the air, descending just behind Alphonse. 

It happened so fast that Alphonse was still staring at the spot the vampire had been when it landed silently behind him. The creature that was terrorizing Heimdallr, the murderer of countless women, the thing that had attacked Lucca...it was so close.

Anger overrode fear. Alphonse clasped the hilt of his military saber and drew it. He spun around, slashing horizontally across the vampire's chest. The blade made contact. 

The vampire laughed. Alphonse watched transfixed as the wound on the creature's chest healed. The next instant, the vampire punched its right fist out towards the pit of Alphonse's stomach at incredible speed.

'Gah...!'

The impact was so great that it forced him back, expelling all of the air from his lungs. And while he was able to protect his vital organs, he had still suffered the full brunt of the blow. He doubled over in agony. 

'Get down!' Rose cried out from behind him.

With no choice but to obey her as best he could, he let himself fall limply to the ground. As he did, the stir of air from Rose's lightning fast rapier thrust ruffled his hair as it passed.

The vampire didn't laugh this time. Perhaps sensing danger from the rapier's silver radiance it threw up its left arm in defense.

The blade pierced flesh, and Rose followed through with her strike, skewering the limb right through to the other side. The tip stopped just before reaching the creature's chest. 

White smoke poured from the wound. Unlike Alphonse's earlier attack, it seemed Rose's had actually been able to damage it. Rose tried to move the sword, but it was stuck fast.

The vampire smiled again. '...Heh. So you must be the vampire hunter responsible for sealing those ghouls.'

She ignored him and tried the sword again.

'I had heard that many of my brethren had fallen at the hands of a vampire hunter...' he continued in a low, sibilant voice. 'But I certainly did not expect the hunter in question to be a mere girl.' 

Rose gave a derisive laugh. 'Brethren? I think you will find that word is meant for humans, not beasts like your kind.'

The vampire hissed and she bared her teeth at it as they both fought for control of the sword. Rose tried pushing forward, urging the blade on while the vampire kept the muscles in its forearm as rigid as steel to thwart her movement. Still lying on the ground, Alphonse gathered just enough strength to begin crawling his way to Lucca's side. When he reached her, a quick check lessened the mad pounding of his heart. She was unconscious but otherwise unharmed. Relief washed over him. 

Rose's voice brought Alphonse back to the situation at hand. She and the vampire were still locked together, each refusing to yield.

'If we were to stay here like this until morning, your power would be sure to weaken significantly. I would be happy to spend the night with you until then, if you wish,' she suggested to it.

It made an unsettling sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh. '...I'm afraid I will have to refuse your kind proposal, my beautiful lady. Not least because thanks to you and your pitiful human friend, my evening meal has been rather spoiled.' 

As it uttered those words, the vampire's outline began to blur. Alphonse blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision, but it was no trick of the shadows. The creature's form was dissipating into a fine, black mist.

Though its mouth was disappearing like the rest of it, its voice somehow carried on.

'Should either of you ever seek to disturb my dinner again, I hope you are prepared for the consequences...' 

And then it was gone. Silence fell.

Gradually, Alphonse got used to the pain in his chest from the vampire's blow. He counted it good fortune that he'd only lost his breath and not broken any bones. With a final steadying wheeze he hoisted the unconscious Lucca on his back and rose slowly to his feet.

'I...guess that's not the end of our vampire, then,' he said unhappily.

Rose was inspecting her sword for damage. Finding none, she returned it to its sheath.

'Turning their body to mist is one of the many abilities vampires have. It escaped from us this time, but I expect that it will take some days for its left arm to heal. At the very least, I think it's safe to assume that no one else will be attacked tonight.' 

'It sounds like vampires are unbelievable foes to be up against... That's a relief, though, at least. Still,' he added. 'You're pretty unbelievable yourself.'

Rose shook her head. Their loss obviously rankled her.

'Next time,' she said with steel in her voice, 'it WON'T get away. I'm going to find some stronger equipment...and I will finish it for good.' 

Alphonse nodded. Next time they would have it. They might not have been able to defeat the vampire, but at the very least, they had earned a short respite from danger having saved Lucca and prevented another murder from occurring. And without Rose's assistance, none of it would have been possible.

'Thank you, Rose. If you hadn't been here--'

She cut him off with a dismissive wave of the hand. 'There is no reason to thank me. I was simply doing my duty.' 

Dejected, Alphonse fell silent.

'But these murders are not over yet. We will need to discover the true identity of the vampire for that to happen.'

'Yeah,' he said at length. 'You're right. Either way, should we go and investigate another crime scene tomorrow like we discussed earlier?'

'Indeed. Farewell for now.'

And with that, she left. She didn't even wait for Alphonse's response - a fact that left him feeling even more downhearted, considering all that they had been through that night. 

Afterwards, Alphonse took Lucca to her home. As he walked, she finally woke up. Finding herself on his back, she flushed and stammered her way through his questions. She remembered nothing of what had happened to her, it seemed. Unable to tell her the truth, Alphonse simply said that he had found her collapsed outside. It was probably just fatigue from work, he told her. Thankfully, she seemed convinced.

All the while, as he tried to feign cheerfulness to put her at ease, his mind was still focused on the battle earlier. He hadn't stood a chance against the vampire. He had even forgotten the silver short sword that Rose had given him. In the heat of battle he had simply fallen back on his military training and used his saber...for all the good that had done. While he had at least been able to avoid getting in Rose's way, he felt ashamed as an Imperial soldier. Next time, he swore to himself, he would not let her down. He would help bring an end to the murders once and for all. 

As Alphonse hardened his resolve that night, Rose navigated the dark streets alone, her mind fixated on the past. The sight of Alphonse on the ground after being struck by the vampire, the image of his friend who had almost lost her life and been turned into a ghoul, the vision of that one cursed memory she  desperately sought to forget... 

'Am I on the verge of making the same mistake a second time..?' she wondered aloud.

She stopped in her tracks, brow furrowed and  expression meek, and looked up to where the crimson moon hung like a great malevolent eye in the sky.  

'So this is the culprit behind the Vampire Murders, you say?' 

Chapter 5 - Farewell

Garrard peered at the sketch, brows drawn down. The morning after Alphonse and Rose had fought the  vampire, he had made sure to report that fact to  Garrard. The sketch Garrard was studying had been outlined based on Alphonse's testimony. It depicted a figure dressed all in black with the upper face obscured. The portrait showed everything Alphonse could recall of the vampire's distinguishing features, and he hoped that it would be helpful to the army's investigations. Naturally, he had left out how the suspect was actually a vampire and capable turning itself into black smoke on a whim. Having his commanding officer think him crazy would help no one. The purpose of the sketch was simply to help people watch out for the culprit, not to try and convince them of its true nature, after all.

He did wish he could tell them the complete truth, if only to better prepare them for a potential encounter against the monster and help them more effectively hunt it, but he knew better than anyone that no ordinary human would be able to stand up to it. He had learned that much firsthand the previous night. Trying to fight the vampire would only lead to unnecessary fatalities, and organizing large teams to try and exterminate it could even lead to it hiding itself away - or worse, fleeing the capital and going elsewhere. As such, the best chance to defeat it once and for all seemed to lie with Rose. 

Garrard straightened and fixed Alphonse with a concerned eye.  I'm just glad that you and Lucca are both all right.' Then he let out a relieved sigh, as if that genuinely was the most important thing to him.   The description and portrait of the black-clad man would be used to encourage people to be more vigilant and watch out for the culprit. If the number of people going out at night were to decrease, the number of murders would likely decrease, too. Garrard tried to convince Alphonse to rest for the day, not least because he had been injured the previous night, but Alphonse had no intention of listening. He and Rose had already decided to meet up and investigate further, he insisted. 

Garrard's brows descended once again at that. His parting words as Alphonse left his office were simply, 'Just don't do anything to put yourself in unnecessary danger, all right?' 

While he was usually strict as a superior, it was  obvious that he genuinely cared for him like a real son; a fact that Alphonse couldn't possibly be any more grateful for. Feeling newly motivated, he quietly muttered to himself, 'I WILL stop these murders,' as he walked towards the exit of the guardhouse.

Just before he could set off for his meeting with Rose, however, he encountered his fellow soldier, Elroy. The other man looked as glum as ever. Judging by his appearance, he had just finished the morning's training. Beads of sweat ran down his face, and his hair was matted to his forehead. Despite this, he didn't seem the slightest out of breath. Elroy had always been that way. Though he never seemed to train more than Alphonse and the other team members, he always seemed significantly stronger and more capable than any of them. He was well aware of this fact, too, and seemed to have developed a sense of superiority because of it. Looking down his nose at the others was Elroy's signature move. 

Today seemed no different. He turned to Alphonse with a mocking smile on his face. 

'...So you ran into the culprit behind those so- called 'Vampire Murders',' did you?'

'Yeah, I did.'

Elroy gave a contemptuous snort. 'Well, you're useless then, aren't you? Why didn't you catch him? This would have all been over if you had.'

As usual, Elroy wasted no time in trying to pick a  fight with Alphonse, but this time he had no comeback. Elroy was right. If he hadn't been so weak, he would have been able to defeat the vampire and stop the murders the previous night. Seeing Alphonse's reaction to his provocation, Elroy folded his arms triumphantly. 

'The commander might favor you, but I think it's about time you stopped letting that get to your head and learned your place.'

Alphonse was about to retort when he noticed something. Elroy's left arm was wrapped tightly in several layers of bandages.

'What happened to your arm?'

Alphonse pointed to the bandages with his finger, and for a brief moment Elroy seemed unsure how to respond.

'Th-That? It's nothing, really. I just hurt it in training earlier.' 

Spots of blood peeked through the bandages, making it clear that it was a recent injury, at the very least. Alphonse looked at the damage with concern.

'Hmph. This is why I can't stand you.'

Apparently thrown off by his teammate's worry, Elroy gave an audible tut before walking away, leaving a slightly embarrassed Alphonse behind.

While they were hardly on the best terms, Alphonse didn't bear any particular grudge against Elroy. It was clear that the same couldn't be said for the other man, but Alphonse had no idea what he had against him. 

Letting out a sigh, he returned his thoughts to the investigation at hand. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about Elroy. He had to focus. With a shake of the head, he opened the guardhouse door and set out to meet Rose. 

They had decided to continue their search where they left off, so it was at the scene of the fourth murder that Alphonse met Rose. Despite scouring the area as thoroughly as they could, however, they found nothing that would help them identify the criminal. Eventually, Rose stopped to think for a while, before proposing that they make their way to the street where they had encountered the vampire the previous night and search the scene there. Alphonse agreed.

It seemed like a completely different place during the day. The still quiet that had marked the night had been replaced with cheerful chatter and the bustling of people examining the wares at the street stalls. Since the murders were known to happen at night, people seemed happy to go about their ordinary lives during the day without a worry in the world. 

Taking care to avoid standing out too much, they walked side by side around the street looking for potential leads.

'It's hard to believe that we fought a vampire here last night...'

Rose's lips curled up slightly. 'Most would find it difficult enough to believe that vampires exist to begin with. I suppose that makes the existence of people like me, who live to hunt those vampires, more unbelievable still.'

...Was that meant as a joke? Alphonse wondered. 

Unsure how to respond, he elected to remain silent. Unfazed, Rose set about analyzing the previous night's events.

'The scent given off by that vampire was the same as the one I sensed from all of the victims. At the very least, it seems beyond a doubt that that vampire is the killer we've been searching for.'

'His scent...?' Alphonse asked, before recalling that Rose had mentioned something similar earlier when they were trying to pursue the vampire the previous night.

'So, if we follow that scent, we can find out who the vampire is?' 

Rose shook her head. 'I'm afraid not. As I said before, vampires are only capable of using their powers at night. During the day, they're no different than ordinary humans, and accordingly, the scent that gives them away as being a vampire vanishes, as well.'

They both knew that, ideally, the best way to defeat the vampire would be to strike during the day while it was unable to activate its powers, but without any clues as to the vampire's identity, they didn't have any chance of doing so. Realizing anew just how difficult the work of a vampire hunter must be, Alphonse admired Rose all the more for being able to cope with it. 

'Nonetheless, we made contact with the vampire yesterday, and I believe that's a big step forward for this investigation. After all, the more fierce the battle, the greater the chance that one of the participants may leave behind some incriminating evidence. There's always the possibility that she may have seen something, too.'

Alphonse assumed that 'she' was referring to Lucca. He made to reply, but Rose was no longer alongside him. Turning around, he realized that she had stopped in her tracks some distance behind. Her face was as expressionless as ever, but her eyes were cast downwards, almost as if she was regretting something. 

'What's wrong?'

'It's nothing,' she said briskly and moved on. 'We should continue our search.'

They set about combing the street for any remnants of their battle. At one point, Rose suggested that they split up to cover a wider area, but even after doing so and reconvening to discuss their findings (or lack thereof), they found themselves no closer to pinpointing the vampire's true identity than they were the previous day. 

The hour had grown late and the sun was beginning its slow descent in the sky. The warm glow of its fading rays deepened the red hue of the bricks even as the shadows cast by their sturdy walls lengthened.

Alphonse ground his teeth in frustration. 'All this searching and not a single result... Dammit.'

Rose had said that the vampire's power had been  increasing over time. The previous night's battle had shown that she was capable of competing with it for now, and it was that fact that had allowed them to save Lucca, but there was no guarantee that would always be the case if it continued to claim more victims and grow stronger. Seeing Alphonse's vexation over their lack of progress, Rose spoke. 

'Nothing will come from being too hasty. We each have our tasks. All we need to do is complete them.'

He nodded, knowing full well that she was right, but it was hard not to feel bitter about their lack of headway all the same. As he needed to go and report the results of the day's investigation to Garrard, they agreed to part ways for the time being. Alphonse proposed that they meet again at the tavern like they had the previous day, but Rose refused his offer. 

'I'm afraid I have business I must attend to with the church.'

'Oh, okay... I was really hoping we'd be able to patrol and keep an eye out for the vampire again, though, since you're the only one who can sense its presence...'

Considering what had happened the previous night, and the increasing occurrence of the murders, remaining vigilant for the vampire was of the utmost priority. Or at least, that was Alphonse's thought on the matter. 

Rose didn't react to the disappointment in his trailing words. Instead, she merely replied that she'd watch out for it alone before excusing herself with a solemn 'farewell.' There was a pause in which it seemed as if she wanted to say something else, but  then she curtseyed deeply and disappeared from his sight.

Alphonse watched her go with an uneasy feeling in his gut. Something seemed off about her behavior. Unable to work out what it was, however, he was left with no choice but to watch her walking away into the distance. 

That night, Alphonse made his way to the tavern after giving his report to Garrard. Rose may have refused his offer to meet there, but he still wanted to look in on Lucca after what had happened to her the previous day.

'Oh, hello, Alphie!'

Lucca was quick to spot him, and she showed him to a seat at the empty counter. After squaring his earlier bill from the dinner with Rose with the tavern owner, Lucca excitedly came over to take his order. Seeing her smile and chatter as energetically as ever, Alphonse felt relieved. He had been expecting, and fearing, a more subdued demeanor from her. 

Watching her, he couldn't help but think how close she had come to losing her life, and for a pathetic reason like feeding a vampire. Just the thought made his blood boil.

'U-Umm... Alphie? A-Are you okay?'

Her nervous question made him realize that his anger must be showing in his expression. He quickly put on an awkward smile and set about eating to avoid having to explain anything. After a few bites he felt himself calming down, and gave her a more genuine smile. 

'I'm fine, honestly. But never mind me...you haven't managed to recall anything about what happened last night, have you?'

She shook her head.

'Sorry... I wish I could, but I can't remember a thing.'

He hadn't really expected her to, but he was still slightly disappointed to not be able to gather any new information. 

Rose had speculated that the shock of seeing the vampire had caused her to subconsciously block out any memory of what had happened. As such, it didn't seem particularly likely that she would be able to help them find out the identity of the vampire, either. He sighed.

Lucca, meanwhile, was desperately trying to remember something, anything, that would allow her to be of service to him. After mulling over it for a time, she suddenly let out an 'Ah!' sound. 

'Umm... It doesn't directly relate to what happened yesterday...but that person you know was here earlier. On her own, too.'

Alphonse was momentarily puzzled. 'Who do you mean?'

'You know,' Lucca prompted with a swish of her hair. 'The girl you were with yesterday.'

It suddenly dawned on him who Lucca was referring to. But Rose had specifically told him that she wouldn't be coming to the tavern today because she had business with the church. A troubled feeling began to build in the pit of his stomach. 

'Anyway, umm...she just came and asked me a few things about yesterday. I couldn't remember anything when she asked, either, but eventually she seemed satisfied, then just said 'farewell' and left.'

'Farewell.'

The moment Alphonse heard those words, it dawned on him. Every time he parted ways with Rose, she always left with a 'farewell for now.' But not today. When they separated earlier, she had instead simply said 'farewell.' He had thought something seemed off about her at the time, and it was then that he realized that was the reason. 

After that, she must have come to the tavern where she was able to discover something from Lucca. But if that was the case, what would she try to do next?

Alphonse fairly jumped out of his seat, half of the food still left on his plate, and dumped enough mira to pay for the meal hurriedly onto the table.

'A-Al?!' Lucca goggled at him.

'Just keep the change!'

It was his second feeling of great foreboding in two days, and the first had been downright deadly.

He rushed out of the tavern as fast as his legs would carry him onto the streets of Heimdallr. The sun had long since set, and the deeply shadowed streets welcomed him into their murky depths. 

The city of Heimdallr was deathly silent. During the day, word had been spread throughout the populace from the Garrard Team regarding the culprit behind the Vampire Murders. Knowing specific details about the perpetrator instilled an even greater sense of fear into the people of the city, making them even more wary of stepping out of their homes at night. That the streets would be empty was an inevitability. And yet, on one dark avenue in the city, a petite woman walked alone, as if to defy all of that.

Chapter 6 - Bloodstained Rose

She wore a plain, undecorated dress, and from all appearances belonged to the middle classes. She walked quite quickly, the sound of her shoes against the ground echoing loudly in the empty streets. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her chest, almost as if embracing herself, and she was hunched forward,  clearly afraid of something. Of course, it was perfectly natural for her to be afraid considering that the majority of the victims of the city's serial murderer were young women like herself.

She looked around restlessly, carefully surveying her surroundings for signs of danger before disappearing down a dark alleyway. The faint moonlight illuminated her profile as she turned the corner and cast a long shadow behind her...which slowly and silently began to enlarge. 

Gradually, the silhouette extended upwards, the inky depths taking the shape of a man. It loomed behind her.

The figure was swathed all in black, with the top half of its face covered. The bottom half remained exposed, revealing a wicked grin and sharp, pointed fangs. It was a vampire, a creature of legend. It stood silently behind the woman, very much real despite its supposed mythological standing. From the sable folds of the cloak swaddling its body, it slowly extended a pale hand. 

The fingers stretched forward. Sharp, pointed nails gently swept aside the woman's shoulder- length blond hair. The tips brushed the back of her neck almost caressingly. The second they did, though, it seemed to sense that something was wrong.

Its prey was behaving oddly. It hadn't expected the frail creature before it to put up the slightest resistance. She should have frozen at its touch, or given in to despair, having no choice but to succumb to the inevitable and have her blood drained. What it felt from her instead, however, was defiance and danger - this woman was no prey. Hunter had met hunter. The creature tensed, ready to leap backwards. Too late, it realized another threat radiated from directly beside it. 

There was no avoiding it. The sound of paving stones cracking resounded in the still night, and its outstretched right arm was suddenly shredded by numerous sharp objects.

The vampire let out an involuntary hiss of pain as a wave of silver blades arced through air and flesh, one after another, but the attack wasn't over. The vampire sensed danger from below, too, and the blades which impaled into the ground suddenly arced upwards with alarming speed, as if retracing their path through the air. Just as the blades were about to sever its right arm from its body once and for all, it was able to jump out of their way. 

Clutching its mangled limb, the vampire edged further back to put distance between itself and the woman. It watched balefully with narrowed eyes as the razor-sharp segments that had pierced it soared back over to the bladeless handle in the woman's hand - when she had drawn it, it didn't know.

Connected by sturdy steel wires, the segments interlocked one by one, eventually forming a complete blade known as a templar sword. She swung it, shaking the blood from its surface. Every last trace of the weakness she had shown earlier when hurrying through the night was gone. 

She turned around finally, revealing the dignified, expressionless face that had lain on the other side of the sleek blond curtain of hair.

It was the vampire hunter, Rose.

'So you were trying to lure me out, were you?' the vampire sneered. 'Heh. Such cunning.' Its words were sharp, but the delivery fell somewhat tremulously on the rough cobblestones of the empty alley. 

'You flatter me,' Rose said.

Her templar sword still raised in her right hand, she put her left hand into her pocket and pulled out an unbelievably large caliber pistol, greater in size than those used in the army. She aimed it at the vampire's forehead and pulled the trigger without a moment's hesitation. The gunpowder flash illuminated the alleyway briefly, and a single blessed silver bullet flew from the muzzle with merciless intent. Such was the force of the discharge that an ordinary person's shoulder would have been dislocated, but Rose didn't so much as twitch. 

The vampire moved with liquid speed, dodging the projectile just in time and slipping behind Rose. Not the slightest perturbed by its change in direction, Rose moved as well and kept the pistol focused on the creature, tracking the vampire's every movement.

'You're quite adept at fleeing, if nothing else,' she said coolly.

'Would you prefer I did something like this, then?' the vampire asked. As it spoke, it fluttered the black garments it was draped in, and they began to expand, the folds stretching to impossible size before her eyes. Pitiful moans echoed in the dark depths. Rose watched with narrowed eyes as a number of ghouls crawled out from within as if emerging from thin air. 

...5...6...7...

Eventually, she counted ten in all.

It hadn't even been 24 hours since their previous  battle. The vampire couldn't possibly have attacked that many people in that time...

Rose's mouth tightened. 'I see. And here we believed the reported murders to be the only victims, but that wasn't the case at all. You were abducting others who had no living relatives to notice that they were gone and keeping them locked up somewhere, weren't you?' 

'Precisely. With a vampire hunter on the loose, I had to make sure I had some food in reserve. I'd rather not run the risk of going hungry, you see.'

'The very thought makes me feel physically ill,' Rose replied quietly.

With a vicious yank she tore the dress she had worn as a disguise from her body. Underneath it, sturdy leather clothes designed with mobility in mind were revealed. Attached to them were numerous belts holding large guns, knives, and other anti- vampire weaponry in place. It was clear at a glance that she was well prepared for battle. 

The sight of Rose's arsenal coaxed a sickly smile from the vampire.

'Go forth, my minions.'

And with a wave of its pallid hand, the ghouls leaped forward. 

'Where are you, Rose?!' Alphonse shouted between pants as he ran back and forth across the city, desperately searching for her. Try as he might, though, he could find no sign of the blond woman. Even his fellow soldiers patrolling the streets had seen nothing.

Alphonse had a very specific reason for pursuing this case, and he didn't intend to lose this opportunity to put the past behind him. That was what led him to propose that he and Rose work together, a proposal which she had accepted. And yet despite all of that, she was trying to fight the vampire all on her own. It was too risky, even for her. His mind was full of worry for her, and that fear conjured forth the image of his parents' dead bodies. 

Never again. He never wanted to see a sight like that again. Wishing over and over again that Rose was still all right, he raced on, and it was then that he heard a sound that caught his attention: the clash of battle. As soon as the noise reached his ears, he quickly surveyed his surroundings. The source seemed to be an alleyway nearby. Without a thought spared for his own safety, he charged into the alleyway. There, an unbelievable sight met his eyes. 

Two ghouls lunged at her. Sheathing her templar sword into its scabbard, Rose drew a second large  pistol in its place. The ghouls swung their fists and ragged nails towards her with inhuman power, but she dodged them gracefully. As she spun out of their range, she aimed one pistol at each ghoul's forehead and pulled the triggers simultaneously. Flesh and bone were obliterated instantly. The sheer force  of the blast sent the mangled remains somersaulting  backwards through the air.

The move left Rose slightly unbalanced and, as if seeking to take advantage of that, three more ghouls flew at her from outside her field of vision. The mere sound of their movement was enough to alert her, however, and without even turning to face them she sent two more bullets through the heads of the two ghouls charging her from the sides. The third ghoul's mouth distended, seeking to crush Rose's skull with its teeth, but she danced out of reach, holstering the pistols. Fluidly, she then flipped back through the air, drawing her templar sword at the same time and slicing the lower half of the ghoul's body from the upper half in one swift stroke.

She landed gracefully and kicked the ghoul she had just cut in half out of the way without even waiting for its body to hit the ground. Two more ghouls approached from the fringes, but without waiting for them to draw closer this time, she swung her blade horizontally through the air. It split into pieces, and the countless segmented parts pierced the ghouls' necks. Their heads dropped to the ground like fruit falling from a tree.

Seven of the ghouls incapacitated in what seemed like an instant, Rose turned her attention to the defiantly grinning vampire and the remaining three ghouls with him. She drew the two pistols from around her waist a second time and sprinted towards them, showering them with the remaining loaded bullets. 

The vampire evaded the projectiles by using the remaining ghouls as shields. Out of bullets, Rose drew her templar sword and swung it in the direction of the vampire's neck in one fluid motion, seeking to decapitate it. The next instant, the high-pitched screech of metal against metal filled the air.

The vampire had drawn its own weapon from inside the black garments. It met Rose's blade in midair. The two swords locked against one another, filling the air with sparks and leaving them in a stalemate reminiscent of the previous night's battle. 

'I'm impressed at how unfazed you seemed fighting against those ghouls,' the vampire said, teeth bared but with a slight curl to its lips. 'I would have expected a human to at least hesitate when being forced to fight their own kind.'

'They ceased to be my 'kind' the moment you drank their blood. They are nothing but soulless puppets now - why should I hesitate against them?' 

The creature inclined its head almost respectfully at that. 'Heh. You certainly think like a vampire hunter.'

The sound of metal against metal continued to  reverberate throughout the area. Drinking the blood of the ghouls had allowed the vampire to become even  stronger than the previous night. Its once crippled right arm had already healed and regained its original form. Even so, Rose met it without any sign of strain, her strength matching that of the fell creature before her.

'Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!' 

The loud war cry split the air, startling both combatants, and a third figure suddenly burst onto the scene. The charging figure was dressed in an army uniform and brandished a silver sword. It was Alphonse. Catching the vampire off guard, he slashed at its side. Having no experience with the weapon itself, it was a shallow attack and the damage it dealt far from lethal, but it was enough to break the stalemate.

Seizing the opening, Rose forcefully knocked the vampire's sword out of the way and in one flowing motion slashed horizontally from its exposed chest to its left arm. A crimson gout of blood arced from the wound, splashing the cobblestones. Something also sheared off from within the vampire's garments and flew into the air. 

The vampire clutched its chest in pain, but it was clear that her attack had only grazed it. It seemed that, once again, the creature's preternatural speed had saved it from mortal injury. Eyes darting from one to the other, it backed away with an audible 'tsk'.

'...It looks like the odds are stacked against me.  I will retreat for today,' it said, its outline growing dim, before it turned to mist and vanished into nothingness. 

After a moment of heavy silence, Alphonse sheathed his sword, staring at the spot where the vampire had previously been.

'It got away again...'

Finally looking at him, Rose let out a sigh of disbelief.

'...Why did you come?'

Hearing the coldness in her voice, Alphonse lost his composure. He seized her shoulders in his hands.

'Of course I came!' he yelled. 'What were you thinking trying to fight him on your own?! It's too dangerous to take him on without help!' 

Her cool blue eyes locked with his. 'Dangerous? For me? Do you honestly believe that?' she asked. Her face was as mask-like as ever, but her tone had dropped from chilly to downright glacial.

It had a cooling effect on Alphonse's anger. He took a half-step back and looked at her from top to bottom. Illuminated by the light of the moon, he could see that she was covered in gore. He released her shoulders and stared down at his own hands. They, too, were now wet with blood from touching her. And yet, there was not so much as a scratch on her whole body. The filth covering her entirely belonged to the ghouls she had defeated. 

'I am a vampire hunter, and this is not the first vampire I have hunted. I have killed more of th'Iem than you could possibly imagine.'

Alphonse couldn't deny what she was saying. He had seen for himself the skill and grace she had shown when mercilessly slaying all of those ghouls, unmoved by the fact that they were once humans. She had been an artist in battle and the sword her paintbrush. What he had witnessed was beyond his comprehension, a struggle between monsters rather than human beings. That was why he could do nothing but stand and watch at first, unable to intervene. He was lost for words. Rose broke the silence with a short, frosty laugh. 

'Al. I have no further need of your assistance. I suggest you forget about all of this and return to  your ordinary life.' She then gave a respectful curtsey much like the one she had when they first met. 

Chapter 7 - Parting of the Ways

As if reading his mind, she said, 'I discovered the identity of the vampire this afternoon. As such, there is no longer anything you can do to help me.'

His initial reaction was doubt. How could she have possibly been the only one to discover the vampire's identity when they had conducted their investigation together? But then it hit him - they hadn't always been together. They had split up to investigate a wider area today, too...and if she had discovered a vital clue during a period where they were acting separately, it made perfect sense that only she would have worked out the truth.

He tried again. 'B-But still! I have my reasons for wanting to see this through to the end too! I can't just go back to living as if none of this ever happened!' 

Rose knew this already, of course. He had told her about his parents' murder once already, and made her realize that the two cases might be connected.

She sighed, her reaction making it perfectly clear that pointing that out would do nothing to change her mind. She met his eyes again, unwavering in the slightest as she said, 'Then allow me to put my position to you more bluntly. You are not a help, you are a hindrance.'

It was as if a sharp blade had pierced his chest. 

Her words left him shocked and speechless.

She continued. 'I would have thought that anyone who looked around would be able to realize that this is not a matter that ordinary people can, or should, involve themselves in.'

As she spoke, she gestured in the directions of the ghouls - or rather, human corpses that were once ghouls - littering the surrounding area. Some were riddled with bullet holes. Some had smashed skulls. Some had no heads at all.

Her words caused Alphonse's memory to return once again to the battle he had witnessed. Even if he had tried to intervene earlier than he did, would he have been able to do anything? No. On the contrary, it was easy to imagine him getting into Rose's way, becoming a liability and interfering with her ability to fight. 

Alphonse looked down at the ground dejectedly. It was galling to hear, and realize, that he might be useless in this.

Rose opened her mouth to continue, her gaze somewhat distant. 'A long time ago, I tried to pursue another vampire with the help of a civilian just like you. I was hesitant at first, but after he insisted so vehemently, I eventually accepted.' 

Alphonse looked up, stunned at what he was hearing. He had assumed that he was the first person to offer to assist her.

'He was killed by the vampire we were pursuing. After that, the vampire disappeared, never to be seen again.'

It was clear by the pain in her voice that for someone whose life revolved around killing vampires, there could have been no worse outcome.

'Of all the jobs I have undertaken, that was my worst failure, and the most terrible stain on my record. I will not allow something like that to happen again. As such, I have always tried to keep you at arms' length. All I wanted from you was for you to make it easier for me to conduct my investigation and find out what I wanted to know. I was just using you all along.' 

She continued on, telling him that everything had gone the way she hoped it would, perhaps even better. Thanks to his contribution, she had been able to discover the identity of the vampire, and the army was able to find out what it looked like, helping them to keep people off the streets and allowing her to successfully lure the vampire out. For that, at the very least, she was grateful. 

Alphonse could only stand and listen as her cold words washed over him, the meaning of what she was actually saying not truly sinking in.

She fell silent for a moment and took a deep breath before starting again.

'The worlds we live in are just too different. We should never have even met - and yet, by coincidence, we did. But that's all. Now you need to forget that it ever happened and go back to the life you should always have lived. Besides, as a vampire hunter, the only life for me is one of solitude.' 

She gave a small self-deprecating smile before turning to walk away from him. Seeing that smile, and hearing what she said, something struck Alphonse as off. And yet, he could not call out to her. It was as if there was an impenetrable wall between them now, stopping him from interacting any further with her.

'I can take care of everything by myself now. All I ask of you is to stay away and let me do it. Farewell.'

She said her final words as she walked, without so much as turning to face him, and then disappeared into the dark night. Left behind, Alphonse stood alone, frozen to the spot in a sea of blood. 

The next day, ten unidentified bodies were discovered in Heimdallr, and the surrounding area filled with disorder the likes of which had never been seen before. Numerous soldiers moved to and fro, surveying the area under Garrard's direction, while crowds of curious onlookers tried to get a closer look at the gruesome display. Even Alphonse, who had been removed from the main investigation team, had been called in to assist this time.

Alphonse had expected the bodies to be heavily disfigured from Rose's attacks, but when he reached the scene, he could see no evidence whatsoever that the previous night's battle had even taken place. The only damage to the bodies were the bite marks left by the vampire.

At first, that fact confused him, but then he remembered that Rose was somehow connected to the church. It seemed quite possible, then, that she would have worked alongside others, one or more of who may have arrived later to disguise any evidence of their involvement. After all, the church had the ability to purify weapons to allow them to contend with vampires. The possibility that they might also be able to put corpses back together was hardly a stretch after all the things he had already witnessed. Realizing how ludicrous that would sound to the average person, he could only laugh to himself under his breath. 

There was no sign of Rose at the scene, although Alphonse hadn't really expected that she would appear to begin with. She had made it clear the previous night that their original arrangement was over. Most likely, Rose would go on to bring an end to the Vampire Murders herself in secret, with the culprit never apprehended, and the fact that vampires actually existed never being revealed to the world.  But could he live with everything ending that way? There was still one burning doubt in Alphonse's heart, a lingering unease that refused to go away: the expression on her face as she had turned to walk away. 

'...as a vampire hunter, the only life for me is one of solitude.' 

That may have been what she said, but the sad smile on her lips when she did so told a different story. Coolness underlined with resignation. Her words had been blunt, but to Alphonse they also seemed tinged with loneliness.

Alphonse found himself reflecting on what loneliness meant to him. It was a feeling he was all too familiar with after losing his parents. In the blink of an eye he had been left with no one who cared for him, no one who would be kind to him, no one who would look out for him... It was easy to imagine how being placed in a situation like that would gradually eat away at a person. 

Fortunately for Alphonse, his father's friend Garrard had held out a hand of salvation to him, and he had later met others like Lucca who cared for him, and he for them. It was thanks to them that he was able to free himself of the loneliness that may have otherwise consumed him. Nonetheless, the experience had taught him exactly how painful living like that could be, and that humans could not completely live alone. Rose, however, had said that living in solitude was the 'only life' for her. But did she honestly mean that? Or did she really long to break free from it, yet something was stopping her from doing so? With the memory of his own experience still painful even after all those years, Alphonse couldn't stop wondering. 

That was when he made up his mind. He couldn't, wouldn't, just leave things as they were. Rose may have cast him aside, but he had long ago decided what he needed to do to put the past behind him. And no matter how much danger he risked doing it, or how much she tried to stop him, he was determined to see it through to the end. If that meant he might be a hindrance to her, so be it. This was his fight as much as hers. 

Alphonse shook his head furiously from side to side, as if to divest himself of the doubts and hesitations that had been filling his mind since the previous night. Focusing on the task at hand, he set about frantically investigating the area. That, he felt, was the only way for him to be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with  her.

Time dragged on as the search continued, and the receding rays of the setting sun began to blanket the scene in warm apricot hues. The ten corpses had been carried away, and the vast majority of onlookers had dispersed. The large numbers of soldiers who formed the investigation team had also reached a stopping point in their investigation and were ready to return for the day, but Alphonse waved them off, still silently combing the area for clues. 

'Come on, Al. It's time to go back to the guardhouse for the day.'

The concern in Garrard's voice was obvious, but Alphonse only spared him a tired smile.

'...Sorry, sir. Just let me look around a bit longer.'

Considering the intense battle fought between Rose and the vampire the previous night, there was every chance that something may have been left behind that might help guide him to the vampire's identity. The investigation team had found no such thing despite spending the entire day looking, but that did nothing to dampen Alphonse's spirits. There was something here, he knew it. Seeing Alphonse's determination, Garrard couldn't help but smile in return. 

'All right, then, have it your way. Just make sure you stop and come back if you get too tired.' And with a backwards wave, he walked off to join the other soldiers as they returned to the guardhouse. Silently thanking Garrard for his kindness, Alphonse went back to scouring the alley. 

Another half hour passed while Alphonse methodically swept his eyes over every nook and cranny. As the light from the dipping sun retreated from the sky, he began to fear his time was up, but just then his eyes were drawn to a point between two of the buildings. It was a narrow gap, overlooked in the investigation, where something might have fallen. Indeed, he spied the barest of shapes on the ground.

Upon spotting it, Alphonse remembered seeing something fly from the vampire when Rose had landed her glancing slash on its chest. He crouched down to inspect the space. The gap between the buildings was so narrow that his arm could barely fit inside. He stretched out his fingers, desperately trying to reach the fallen object, and eventually managed to catch it between his index and middle fingers. 

It was a narrow, rectangular piece of cloth. Alphonse stared at it, analyzing every last detail of its surface. It was filthy gray in color, most likely meaning that it had been white originally. It was also clear that it had been separated from something by Rose's sword, but other than that, it looked like an ordinary piece of cloth. It would have been nothing of interest at all to anyone just passing by. Anyone other than Alphonse, that is. Looking at it, he finally understood everything. The reason Rose had suddenly chosen to part ways with him. And the true identity of the vampire who was terrorizing the city. 

The stillness of night came once again to the streets of Heimdallr. A bewitching yet eerie red moon hung full in the sky, its carmine glow staining the red bricks of the surrounding buildings an even deeper crimson. 

Chapter 8 - The Truth

After the gruesome discovery of the bodies that day, the Garrard Team had strengthened its night time patrols. Most of the soldiers in the team were on the streets, determined to prevent any further violence, and repair the damage to the Imperial Army's honor. Their patrol routes had them making tight circuits of the city roads, vigilantly searching for anything out of order. On one particularly dark street corner, a block away from the Alegria tavern, stood a young man in military uniform. Much like the others, he was making the rounds in his thoroughly deserted patrol area. A figure turning onto the street just ahead of him made him pause mid-step. Warily, he put his hand on the sword at his waist. As the figure drew closer, the features gradually became more visible - it was another soldier like himself. It was Alphonse.

Alphonse stepped forward and stood silently before the other young man. He fixed him with an unwavering gaze. 

'Oh, it's you,' the young man said, sounding annoyed. 'What are you doing here? This is my patrol area, not yours.'

He glared at Alphonse with intense dislike, but Alphonse did not look away.

'I came to ask you something,' Alphonse replied simply. He put his hand into his pocket and took something out of it. It was a dirty piece of cloth.

The other man looked puzzled. 'What's that supposed to be?'

'It was something I found in the area where the vampire appeared last night. It's also yours. Isn't it, Elroy?' 

Elroy stared back at Alphonse, then rolled his eyes. His voice dripped with contempt.

'What are you talking about? Did you really abandon your post over who some rag might belong to? ...And 'vampire'? You're supposed to be a soldier, not some kind of superstitious lunatic,' he scoffed.

'This is part of the bandage you were wearing around your left arm when you said you were injured in training,' Alphonse said calmly.

The cloth, Alphonse continued, must have been cut from his bandage during the previous day's battle and ended up between the two buildings in an area they neglected to check. He didn't, however, mention who had done the cutting - there was no need to tell Elroy information that he already knew, after all. Hearing this, Elroy clutched his left arm, hidden under the sleeve of his army uniform, almost as if trying to hide it from Alphonse. 

'Besides, the idea that you were injured badly enough to need a bandage like that in standard training makes no sense to begin with. You're the most skilled swordsman on the Garrard Team, after all. That's not to say you weren't actually injured, especially considering there really was fresh blood on the bandage itself. But you didn't injure yourself during training - you were stabbed by a rapier, and that was what the bandage was intended to disguise.' 

Elroy said nothing. Under any other circumstances, he would have been quick to argue back. But not this time. His brow furrowed, and he glared angrily at Alphonse.

'I'm sure that you must have replaced the bandage with a new one last night. But then, what was this doing at the scene of the crime? You weren't involved in this morning's investigation.' 

Alphonse was aware that what he was saying wouldn't be enough to prove to the world that Elroy was a vampire. They were, after all, creatures of legend. People would never believe him. What it did prove, however, was that Elroy had been where Rose and the vampire's battle took place. And considering that Alphonse already knew that vampires were no mere myth, that was all the proof he needed.

'I don't want to believe it myself. I can't bear to think that someone who I served alongside as a soldier, someone more skilled than any of us, is actually a monster who's been indiscriminately murdering people.' 

'...'

Elroy made no reply. He just stared down at the ground, silent and tense.

'But I am a member of the Garrard Team,' Alphonse continued resolutely. 'And we are entrusted with the task of protecting this city. I have a duty to do what I can to prevent any more lives from being lost. Unless you can prove that what I am saying isn't  true, I'm going to have to arrest you as a suspect--'

'...Heh.' 

Hands at his sides, Elroy let out a short, quiet laugh. The second he did, something changed, and the atmosphere became oppressive.

'Hahahahahaha!'

Elroy threw back his head and let out a loud, maniacal laugh. It was an inhuman sound, that outburst. The skin-crawling utterance was entirely unlike the usual quiet Elroy, and as his mouth yawned wide, Alphonse saw what he knew he would. Beast-like fangs. The fangs of a vampire.

Alphonse placed his hand on the saber at his waist and drew it as fast as he could. The sound of blade scraping against scabbard cut short the awful laugh, but he wasn't fast enough - before he knew it, Elroy was right in front of him, swinging his own sword with incredible force. Alphonse barely had the time to block its arc with his own. 

The sound of metal against metal filled the air, and the monstrous strength of the blow pushed Alphonse backwards. It was obvious to him that Elroy's power was vastly greater than it had been when he took the punch to the stomach several days before. If Elroy had been this strong that day, Alphonse knew that he would already be dead. 

Barely managing to hold his position, he clung to his saber with his now somewhat numb hand, but the vampire was already drawing back for another strike. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, Alphonse was just able to parry the blow...but it was all he could manage. If he strayed even a hair from focusing on defense, he would soon be overwhelmed. Elroy, meanwhile, maintained his onslaught seemingly without effort. Blow after blow rained down relentlessly.

'You should've waited, Alphonse! Surely you know that vampires can only use their powers at night!'

Alphonse grunted as he narrowly deflected another attack. Naturally, he did know. He was fully aware that waiting until morning might have actually given him a chance to defeat Elroy. But he just couldn't bring himself to wait. Not when there was a possibility that he might have claimed another victim  that very night. His conscience wouldn't allow him to sleep peacefully in his bed knowing that he could have done something to stop that murder from happening. 

As if to punctuate his point, Elroy knocked the saber from Alphonse's hands with a vicious swipe that drove him to his knees. The blade clattered down on the paving stones far from the fighting pair. 

'You're finished!' Elroy crowed, turning his sword on Alphonse. The blade flashed up, then descended.

Alphonse watched the fall of the sword as if in slow motion. He knew there was nothing he could do to stop it. It would bite through his flesh and send his head soaring through the air, much like his saber had just done.

Suddenly, a high-pitched whistling sound of something moving very fast cut through the night. And then another, and another followed. The next moment, Elroy's right arm was gone. 

Blood speckled Alphonse's cheeks like a fine rain. And just as he had imagined, something soared through the air and hit the ground - but instead of it being his head, it was Elroy's right arm, sword still  clutched in its rigid fingers.

'Graaaaah!'

Elroy instinctively jumped back, clutching at his wounded limb while Alphonse stared wide-eyed at the many parts of a templar sword stretched before him like the flexing of a metal snake. The wires connecting the razor sharp blade segments gleamed in the moonlight. A line of tension then ran through the wires, and they all retracted just as fast as they had appeared. Soon after, a lone figure approached to take their place. It was a woman in a navy blue coat that was thrown wide, exposing countless weapons  attached to the battle gear she was wearing underneath. She had sleek, shoulder-length blond hair, capped by a navy blue beret. The look she gave Alphonse when she saw him was somewhere between exasperation and disbelief. 

Alphonse smiled weakly. 'What took you so long, Rose?' 

'So you showed up after all, did you, Vampire Hunter?!'

Chapter 9 - A Fool

Elroy glared at Rose, teeth clenched in anger and pain. Red smoke was rising from his now amputated right arm. It gave off a faint hissing sound. Rose turned her attentions from Alphonse to him. She raised her templar sword and stared without expression at her target. Elroy glowered back. They both maintained a distance from one another, each trying to work out what the other would do next.  Without taking her eyes off Elroy, Rose addressed Alphonse.

'I told you not to get involved in this any further. And yet despite that, you tried to fight a vampire alone. I cannot BELIEVE you would do something so foolish.'

Her words were tinged with anger. Alphonse rose unsteadily to his feet.

'You were the one who tried fighting him alone first. And besides, I never had any intention of seriously trying to defeat him by myself.'

'...What?'

He faced her and spread his hands. 'I was pinning all of my hopes on you coming for me. And you did. Just like when we first met.' 

Alphonse's response seemed to catch Rose completely off guard. He could tell as much even from his position behind her. She quickly regained her composure, though, and the wavering sword steadied.

'I...don't know what you're trying to say.'

'You told me that you didn't want to work with me anymore because I was getting in your way, because there was nothing more that I could help you with. But that's not the real reason. The real reason is that you didn't want to put me in any more danger. 

You didn't want me to lose my life helping you like the last person who worked with you did.'

'...That is just idle speculation,' she replied coolly.

But Alphonse knew he was right.

'Then why did you lie about discovering the vampire's true identity?'

Rose gasped. 'So you noticed...'

It hadn't taken much effort to see through her lie. Rose herself had said that vampires were only capable of unleashing their powers at night, meaning that the best way to defeat one was to discover their true identity and kill them during the day. And yet despite that, Rose had gone to the effort of trying to lure the vampire out, taking the great risk of using herself as bait. Logically, her actions made no sense whatsoever if she had known the true identity of the creature. Deliberately lowering her chances of success wasn't like Rose at all. 

'I imagine you noticed something else during our investigation,' Alphonse continued. 'I don't know what, but whatever it was, it made you think that letting me cooperate with you any longer would put my life in danger. And that was why you lied, in order to try and keep me away from that danger.' 

Rose didn't react, but also she didn't deny his words. To Alphonse, that was the same as an admission.

'Hmph. Enough of this!' The vampire before them opened its eyes wide and began to concentrate its power. The moment it did, the red smoke that been rising from the stump where its arm had been was replaced with a jet of liquescent black ichor. It bubbled and frothed from the open wound. On the cobblestones some distance away, the arm itself also began to expel the same noxious-looking secretion. 

Suddenly, the black liquid from both stump and severed limb stretched and pulled, seeking out the other.

'No...!'

Knowing what was about to happen, Rose quickly  swung her templar sword in the direction of the liquid. The sword's countless parts sliced through it, but the dark matter just reformed around the damage. Moments later, the liquid had done its work, and the severed right arm was back where it belonged, as good as new.

'How could he recover so quickly? I knew it, he really is a...' 

'Haaaaaaaaaah!'

Elroy swung the sword with his newly attached arm at Rose. Calm as ever, she pointed her templar sword at him and fired the bladed segments that formed it. They flew from the handle and wrapped around him, binding and tearing simultaneously. Before they could completely ensnare him, however, Elroy transmuted into mist. The blades of the templar sword fell from the spot he had been as the mist dispersed. It reconverged a moment later at a point just behind the vampire hunter. No sooner had the mist solidified than Elroy swung the sword. His attack caught her completely off guard, decapitating her. ...Or so he expected, but Alphonse blocked it, his saber back in hand. 

'Gah...!'

Alphonse gritted his teeth, desperately trying to hold his ground. Elroy had the clear advantage in terms of strength, but try as he might, he could not break Alphonse's guard.

'How many times do you have to get in my way before you're satisfied?!' cried Elroy.

'Al!' 

Seeing a chance, Rose drew one of her giant pistols and, holding it in a backhand grip, pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped through Elroy's shoulder, propelling him backwards. Alphonse steadied himself and readied his saber again.

'I won't die on you, Rose! I'm not going to let some vampire kill me! So--'

'Can this not wait?!'

Rose aimed her pistol, resting it on Alphonse's shoulder, and fired it repeatedly at Elroy. His wound already fully healed, Elroy dodged all of her bullets with snake-like grace, and flew at them with great speed. 

Rose's pistol was now empty of bullets, and the vampire's charge gave her no time to draw the other. Elroy swung his sword at them as if trying to cut them both down in a single stroke. Alphonse brought his own saber to bear and braced with all his might to block the path of the falling sword. The two blades collided with such force that Alphonse's saber was sheared in two.

The collision repelled Elroy as well, but if he were to swing his sword downwards a second time with the same level of force, Alphonse and Rose would have no chance of surviving. The vampire's lips curled up in a smile, sensing impending victory. That smile was replaced almost immediately by shock when he saw what Alphonse had drawn from the depths of his uniform. 

Alphonse had expected that his saber would not survive Elroy's attack and had immediately reached for the silver short sword given to him by Rose.

'So I'm never going to allow you to be alone again!' he cried out as he swung the silver sword downwards across Elroy's body, a trail of glittering argent light following in its wake.

'...!' 

'Aaaaaaaaaah!'

Elroy recoiled backwards, clawing at his chest. Alphonse's attack had missed his heart, but the damage it had done was the greatest he had received yet.

'How could I be wounded by the likes of HIM?! Damn you, damn you, damn you, damn you!'

Elroy's expression was one of pure hatred mixed with intense agony. There wasn't a trace of humanity left on his face. Alphonse, meanwhile, had exhausted the last of his strength with that attack, and was on his knees, out of breath. Rose stared down at him, a peculiar look on her face. 

Alphonse was desperately trying to accept and understand her solitude. He recognized the intense loneliness she had been burdened with when she let her companion die all those years ago and was trying to save her from it. The words 'I'm never going to allow you to be alone again!' resounded in her head over and over. She knew that what he had said was purely based on emotion, but it was enough to fill her heart with warmth - a heart that she had thought long gone cold.

'You really are a complete fool,' she laughed. 

The sound of her laughing so naturally was enough to make Alphonse snap around to stare at her.

'But perhaps that isn't such a bad thing after all,' she said with a small smile.

He goggled at her. It was Rose, and yet, he felt he had never seen this woman before in his life. The warmth, the gentle smile...

'Wh-What's that supposed to mean...?' he stammered.

Feeling as though he had seen something he should not have, Alphonse turned around again, flustered. Elroy was now back in his direct view. The vampire was still in the same spot, watching, motionless. 

Alphonse had almost forgotten about him. Now was hardly the time to be talking with Rose. He needed to finish off the vampire - Elroy - for good. He looked back at Rose, and they nodded to one another.

Rose began to walk towards Elroy, leaving the exhausted Alphonse behind. Elroy remained still, his head bowed, mumbling something absentmindedly to himself. Rose pointed her remaining pistol at his head. All that she needed to do was pull the trigger and it would all be over. But she didn't. She stopped, confused. Something wasn't right. 

'The scent is...gone?'

Suddenly, Elroy looked up and faced Rose. His eyes were wild and unfocused.

'Wait. I haven't lost, of course I haven't. I could never lose to the likes of him. I just need to drink more blood, then the likes of Alphonse will never...'

His eyes suddenly darted back to Rose's face with terrible intensity. The monstrous grin stretched wide. The next moment, the wound that had been left by Alphonse's slash began to erupt red mist with incredible force. 

'I-It's...'

The mist filled the surrounding area at an alarming rate, and their field of vision was completely obscured by the crimson haze. All that could be heard was Alphonse's voice crying out.

'Rose, what's happening?!'

'Stay calm,' she ordered. 'It isn't harmful!'

The red mist was yet another special ability of vampires, employed only in moments of desperation. The creature would use its own wounds as a kind of smoke screen. Knowing this full well from experience, Rose tried to track Elroy by his scent. It should have been easy. She didn't need to see the vampire to find it, and yet...there was nothing. Despite having every reason to believe that he was right in front of her, not a trace of the vampire's trail was to be found. 

'Why?' she wondered, desperately trying to make sense of the situation.

Slowly but surely, the red mist began to dispel. When it cleared, only two figures remained - Rose and Alphonse. The vampire was nowhere to be seen.

'...Damn it!' she cried.

Elroy had managed to escape from them. But where? 

With a wince, Alphonse rose to his feet. 'Rose, we can't lose him!'

All things considered, it seemed safe to assume that Elroy was searching for more victims to drain in order to replenish his own power. Meaning that if they didn't catch him before then, there would be more fatalities. Not to mention the possibility that he might grow too strong for them to handle.

Rose waved Alphonse to silence. 'Hold on, I'm trying to follow his scent!'

Though she meant to reassure Alphonse, in her own mind, Rose felt deeply uneasy. 

How could the trail have just disappeared all of a sudden? She'd never known anything like it.

Is my power growing weaker? she wondered to herself.

Just as she was pondering potential causes, though, the scent suddenly returned. That fact did nothing to allay her confusion, but as long as there was a trail to follow, pursuing it needed to be their top priority. She focused her mind on the odor, trying to ascertain its location. Eventually, she was able to find the answer she sought. The source was startling. 

'It's coming from the direction of that tavern!'

The Alegria was only one street away from where they stood. Alphonse didn't even spare Rose a glance. He just dashed off towards the restaurant, his face a mask of fear. 

Ordinarily, the late hour was the peak of business for the Alegria tavern. On any other day the chairs would all be filled with familiar faces, chattering away and enjoying food and drink. But tonight, not a single seat was taken, for so great was the terror of the Vampire Murders that none dared leave their homes.

Left with nothing else to do, Lucca had set about  cleaning the tavern, but the task was quickly finished. She slouched at the spotless counter, thoroughly bored.

Chapter 10 - Into the Darkness

There hadn't been any sign of her friend Alphonse that day. Still, considering the rumors she had heard of the Garrard Team's night time patrols, it wasn't all that surprising.

'He must be really busy,' she thought to herself.

Still, she couldn't pretend that she wasn't disappointed by the fact. Thoughts of Alphonse weighing on her mind, she let out a gloomy sigh.

The tavern's owner stopped washing cutlery on the other side of the counter and gave her a warm smile.

'Go along home for today. It's dangerous around these parts lately, so you're best getting back,' he called. 

Just as she went to do so, however, the bell over the door chimed. A customer had entered the tavern. Lucca jumped out of her chair in a panic. What she saw made her gasp. Standing in the doorway of the tavern was a young man in a bloodstained soldier's uniform. Letting out a short shriek of horror, she rushed over to the man. The uniform he had on was the same as the one worn by Alphonse, leading her to immediately think it might be him. As she drew closer, though, she realized it wasn't. Relief washed over her.

Getting a closer look at his face, Lucca was startled to find that she actually recognized him. A long time ago, when Alphonse had first joined the army, he had brought the man before her with him to visit the tavern. She remembered hearing that the two of them weren't on very good terms anymore, however. 

His name was...Elroy?

The tavern's owner hurried over with a first aid kit, clearly concerned, but Elroy showed no interest in him. His eyes were focused unwaveringly on Lucca.

'Hello, friend of Alphonse. I'm going to have to ask you to come with me,' he muttered. His following smile was anything but inviting. 

By the time Alphonse and Rose arrived, the tavern was in a terrible state. Chairs were strewn everywhere. Tables lay in pieces all about the space, and the floor was covered in smashed glass and broken crockery. On the other side of the counter they found the owner, blood trickling from his temple.

Calmly, Rose used the church's Thaumaturgy to heal him. Its mysterious power closed his wound, and soon after, he regained consciousness. The second he did, Alphonse began to bombard him with questions. 

'What happened here? Where's Lucca?!'

He couldn't see any sign of her, and that worried him intensely.

'...A boy in a military uniform came...no, that was no human. It was a monster... I tried to fight him off but he...he took Lucca...'

The moment he uttered Lucca's name, he fell unconscious once again. Not long after, the soldiers who had been patrolling the surrounding area heard what had happened and hurried to the scene. The area soon filled with the sounds of people's voices and soldiers running up and down the streets. Even a number of the local residents had woken up and begun to gather to see what was going on. Eventually, Garrard himself arrived, and set about questioning the tavern's owner and investigating the scene with a number of his subordinates. Alphonse and Rose, meanwhile, stood in the shadow of a building not far away. 

'Damn you, Elroy...!' Alphonse cried as he punched one of the brick walls with all his might. Nearby, Rose stood with her arms folded, deep in thought.

'...Stay calm. We have every reason to believe that Lucca is still alive.' 

Elroy had fled to search for new blood to heal his injuries and increase his power. If he was intending to use Lucca for that purpose, there was no reason to take her away - it would have been far quicker and easier to just drink her blood in the tavern. Thus, it was safe to assume that he had a different purpose in mind for her, and the most likely reason seemed to be to use her to lure them somewhere.

'I suspect that I know where he has headed,' said Rose. She pointed down at the ground below their feet.

During the previous day's encounter with Elroy, he had summoned a large number of ghouls out of seemingly nowhere, each of them victims without families or friends to note their absence. Elroy had been abducting them in secret and storing them somewhere for when he wanted them, and there was every reason to believe there were more. To stash them, he would need quite a sizable area, but it also had to be one where the chance of them being found would be quite low - in other words, a place that no one really went. A perfect match for both of those conditions was the network of underground passages beneath the city. The tunnels had been built during the Dark Ages several hundred years prior, and were not normally used by people. Somewhere in there, Rose theorized, Elroy was probably waiting for them. 

Alphonse proposed that they depart immediately. After all, every second they waited increased the danger that Lucca was in. Rose, however, stood silently, her eyes cast downwards.

'...Is something bothering you?' Alphonse asked.

Her mouth tightened. 'Two things, in fact. Firstly, I suspect that Elroy is what is known as an Elder Vampire.' 

There were, Rose explained, several kinds of vampires. Those who were legitimate descendants of the race were known as True Ancestors. The True Ancestors were said to have all perished, but those who were closely related to them were known as Elder Vampires, and unlike True Ancestors, some Elder Vampires still remained. Elder Vampires were filled with a lust for blood every ten or so years, and in surrendering themselves to that lust, they had been responsible for countless deaths throughout history. As a vampire hunter, therefore, they were Rose's most important targets.

Furthermore, they were apparently among the most powerful of all vampires, with exceptional growth potential. As an example of this, Rose explained that when Lucca was first attacked, she had been guided to a deserted area by a high-level ability called Charm, which allowed the user to control the thoughts of their victim to a certain degree. It was finding out that Lucca had lost her memories of what happened when she was attacked that had first alerted Rose to the possibility that Elroy might be an Elder Vampire, and that was what had first led her to try to distance Alphonse from her investigation.

The fact that they might be dealing with an Elder Vampire was only one of her concerns, however, though the other was closely related to it.

'The astonishing power Elder Vampires possess is amplified even further at night. Because of that, it should be impossible for them to be able to disguise their presence completely.'

And yet, in the battle against Elroy earlier, he had been able to do just that, allowing him to make his escape. It had so surprised Rose that she had missed her chance to finish him off.

'It's possible that he's no ordinary Elder Vampire. Or perhaps he is something even more terrifying...' she mused aloud. 

They had no way of telling what Elroy was truly capable of, or even what he truly was. As such, it was impossible to gauge how much danger they would be putting themselves in by following him, especially knowing that they would be walking right into a trap. While she had no choice but to follow, she found herself questioning whether bringing Alphonse along would really be a good idea. The reservation must have been plain on her face, because Alphonse cut off her thoughts with a determined shake of the head. 

'Rose, I've told you already that I'm not going to die. I won't let you be alone ever again. I don't care how strong our opponent is, I'm not going to go back on my word.' 

The resolve was clear and unwavering in his eyes. With or without her blessing he would see it through to the end. He could not, would not, abandon someone living a life of solitude like he once did.

The pure innocence of that emotion and empathy was enough to recall her own bleak loneliness. The dark feelings passed over her features like a cloud obscuring the stars. There was, after all, one other secret she had yet to part with. And that, more than anything, was the cause of her solitude. The warmth of his words almost coaxed it from her lips, so moved was she, but now wasn't the time. For the moment, his heartfelt declaration was enough for her. Their priority needed to be saving his friend. Everything else could wait. 

'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I thought I had overcome my hesitations, but it seems that wasn't the case.'

With a mental shake of the head, she pushed her doubts deep within and slowly moved her hand downwards towards her waist. Her fingers sought out her spare blade, an elegant longsword. Unclipping it from her belt, she handed it to Alphonse. 

'This should serve as a replacement for that broken saber. I imagine you'll be able to fight more comfortably with this.'

Alphonse hefted it in his hand, admiring the balance. He slipped it a hand's width out of the scabbard for a closer look. Like Rose's other purified weapons, it had a silvery glow that seemed to suck in the light of the red moon. A blow from a blade like this would surely stop a vampire in its tracks. 

Rose had always known that the short sword she had given Alphonse was hardly the ideal weapon for him. She had done this deliberately, hoping that having an unsuitable weapon would dissuade him from trying to get actively involved in battle. And yet, not once had he balked at entering the fray. With whatever resources he had at his disposal, Alphonse was always ready to jump right in. Giving him the longsword, therefore, was a sign that she now regarded him as someone worthy of trust, and an apology for underestimating him previously.

Alphonse acknowledged the gift, and perhaps apology, with a nod of the head and attached the blade to his sturdy leather baldric. They regarded one another for a moment then, and swore to do what needed to be done. Their mutual resolve reaffirmed, they took off into the deep darkness where Lucca... and the vampire...waited. 

Next to Heimdallr, there flowed a great river known as the Anor. Facing out onto it was Heimdallr Port, and in one corner of that port was a door that led down into an underground passage. The entrance was usually locked for safety reasons, but they forced it open without much trouble and stepped inside.

The air within was a mixture of mold, rusting metal, and a pervasive smell of damp. Cautiously, they moved along the slick stone path, ears and eyes strained for any movement.

The tunnel was connected to the river itself, and the torpid water flowed all the way into the deep darkness further along the passage. It had been constructed during the Dark Ages, and the network of passages under the city was so vast that no one knew just how far it stretched, or exactly what lay within it. The entire area had long been abandoned. No maintenance or modernization had ever been done. To Alphonse's eye, it looked as though they were setting foot in some ancient labyrinth untouched by time or man for hundreds of years. 

They proceeded deeper inside, following Elroy's trail along the waterway with only the faintest of light from the red moon trickling through the periodic grates to illuminate their path. The scent coming from him had returned in full force, filling the air with tension as they drew closer and closer to their quarry. 

They proceeded cautiously, and more slowly now, as even the light from the moon eventually abandoned them during their descent. The pitch darkness did not last for long, however. As they advanced, they soon started to come across torches here and there, attached at intervals along the wall. The glow from the flickering light was both inviting and sinister.

'It looks like he really has been using this place as a hideout for quite a while,' Alphonse commented.

He and 'others', Rose thought with distaste. It seemed very likely that the people Elroy had abducted were somewhere around too. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind then she sensed movement. She sighed. 

'It looks as though we're too late.'

The meaning of Rose's words soon became clear. Slowly but surely, a number of figures drew closer to them from ahead. They shuffled and jerked with unnatural cadence.

Ghouls.

While Elroy had abducted Lucca without drinking her blood, it seemed as though he had used the other people he had been keeping here in her place. Alphonse couldn't help but feel a slight sense of  relief when he realized that Lucca wasn't among them, but that didn't prove for certain that she was still unharmed. After all, all Elroy needed to do to get them to chase after him was have them believe that there was a chance that she was still alive. 

As the creatures approached, it was clear that they had no time to waste. Alphonse quickly drew the longsword, while Rose already had her templar sword and pistol in hand, ready for battle.

'We need to deal with these first!' 

'Right!'

Their course of action decided, they both charged  into the horde of advancing ghouls. It was the first time that Alphonse had been forced to engage in actual combat with ghouls, and he found it emotionally draining. After all, the ghouls were nothing more than victims of the vampire. They hadn't chosen to have their lives taken, or to be compelled to seek to devour their fellows - it had all been forced upon them. As such, he was not fighting to kill them, but to free them. Thinking of it logically didn't do much to reduce the pain of taking up arms against a another human being, though. His heart ached every time he cut one down. Rose, meanwhile, was mowing down ghouls like a scythe through the summer harvest. They were nothing more than obstacles in her way, and their shambling attacks were no match for her peerless work with the blade. No matter the speed and skill with which she dispatched them, though, more ghouls emerged from the darkness to block her path. 

Watching her, Alphonse couldn't help but wonder how long she had been enduring the same pain that he was feeling now. It didn't show on her face, but he remembered the tenderness with which she had handled the ghoul after defeating it on their first meeting. She was as disgusted as he with their plight. He wanted to know what had driven her to continue subjecting herself to that pain over and over again - what had driven her to the depths of solitude. But most of all, he wanted to find some way that he  could be of help to her. Right now, however, all that he could do for her was to continue to fight. 

Shoving down the sorrow he felt with every swing of the sword that met flesh, he kept advancing forward through the mass of bodies before him. 

Using the torches on the walls as their beacons, Alphonse and Rose hurried as best they could through the maze of passages. Tens upon tens of ghouls tried to obstruct their path, but they continued to carve their way forward. They advanced, but slowly, each battle taking a toll on their stamina and energy. Eventually, the path ahead of them opened, and they found themselves in a wide, spacious area. The ground here was gray and soft beneath their feet. It was earth, not stone. A number of crosses were lined up in tidy rows in the sweeping space, probably erected during the Dark Ages. Their bindings looked so weathered that they could have crumbled to the ground at any moment. The area was lit only by a few sputtering torches, but it was enough to see that they must be in a catacomb of some sort.

The atmosphere in the subterranean tomb was even gloomier than it had been in the passages they had passed through to reach it. At its center stood a single, silent man wearing a black coat over his tattered army uniform.

Alphonse had been leaning exhaustedly against Rose after their seemingly endless battles with the ghouls, but when he spied the familiar figure he let out a mighty yell. 

'Elroy!'

His voice boomed throughout the chamber, but the other man didn't flinch in the slightest. Instead, he calmly turned to face them. The air grew heavy with malevolence.

'I've been expecting you,' he said. Smiling, he regarded them with amusement. As his lips crept farther and farther up, his needle-sharp fangs were slowly revealed. They were stained a deep, wet red. 

Watching Elroy turn, Rose knew with a sinking feeling that he had fully recovered from their previous battle. It was also obvious that he was much, much stronger. Considering how much blood he must have drunk to spawn all of the ghouls they had fought on their way to reach him, it was hardly surprising, though. Nonetheless, neither Alphonse nor Rose had any way of telling exactly how powerful the monster before them had become.

'Where's Lucca?!' Alphonse shouted.

Chapter 11 - Battle in the Catacomb

The vampire shrugged as if bored. 'Who knows? Maybe I'll tell you if you beat me.'

He slowly raised his arms, then stretched them towards the heavens. An incredible wave of power erupted from his palms, reverberating throughout the catacomb. Alphonse and Rose tensed, but then the rush of energy suddenly stopped.

'What was that...?' Alphonse asked cautiously.

'No!' cried Rose. Though the discharge of power had no immediate visible effect, she knew what was coming. Her grip on her sword tightened.

A strange 'crumping' sound filled the air, like vast, unseen movement. Alphonse's eyes darted over the area trying to find the source of the noise. 

Near one of the crosses he had noticed earlier, something white caught his eye.

It was a skeletal human hand.

With a start, he realized that similar grasping fingers and limbs were emerging from the other graves surrounding them. The twitching bones were pushing and clawing at the dirt, and not long after, the bodies they belonged to began to heave their way out of the ground, as well. The air was full of the cracking and clicking of bones and musty soil.

These were the cadaverous remains of those who had been buried long ago. It seemed the skill to wake and manipulate the corpses of the dead was yet another ability in an Elder Vampire's repertoire. 

Their new undead foes presented another problem. Unlike the ghouls, the skeletons were equipped with varying weapons and equipment. Some had axes and others swords, while many wore helmets and several had shields. Judging from all the armament on display, it seemed safe to assume that those who were buried in this particular catacomb had all been warriors or those who had fallen in battle.

Alphonse drew his sword, his back against Rose's. They were completely surrounded. 

'Hahahaha! What incredible power!' 

Elroy's shriek of laughter cut like a knife through the shuffling of withered feet and creaking of rotten leather. His expression was suffused with ecstasy as he surveyed his handiwork.

Once free of their earthen graves, the skeletons stood completely still. Unlike the ghouls who operated entirely on the instinctive desire planted within them, the skeletons were soldiers in the truest sense of the word: they awaited the command of the vampire who had woken them from their eternal slumber. 

With a sweeping cut of his hand, Elroy gave the signal to attack. The skeletons surged forward en masse towards Alphonse and Rose like a wave cresting the shoreline.

Each of them held their weapons out at the ready, but there were simply too many of them to block them all. Just before the undead army reached them, Alphonse felt Rose tap on his shoulder from behind. Instantly understanding what she was trying to tell him, he swiftly crouched to the ground.

As Alphonse ducked, Rose jumped high into the air. She twisted the upper half of her body, her right arm stretched over the left side of her torso. With a powerful swipe, she swung that arm back to the right,  her body making almost a full rotation. The motion lent even greater power to her swing as she whipped her templar sword around in a scything arc. 

The heads of the closest skeletons exploded into a fine white powder as the segmented blades made contact. The sheer force behind the blow also blasted back the second row of skeletons, giving the pair precious breathing space. Not letting the opening go to waste, Alphonse leaped up from the ground and charged forward through the sea of bones towards the vampire. Some skeletons tried to oppose his advance, but he simply bashed them aside, slashing, kicking, punching and otherwise doing whatever he had to in order to remove them from his path. It was ugly but effective - Elroy was nearly in his reach. 

Rose, meanwhile, was doing all she could to draw the skeletons' attention, switching rapidly between using her sword and pistols. She also did her best to cover Alphonse from afar, attacking enemies bearing down on him from behind.

'Why, Elroy?! What happened to you?!' Alphonse cried over the clamor of battle. 

As he smashed his way through the legion of skeletons, he couldn't help but wonder how the two of them had come to this point to begin with. They had first met several years before when Alphonse joined the Imperial Army. Elroy had been an orphan who had lived in poverty before being scouted out for the military by Garrard for his exceptional skill with a sword. As such, the two of them shared a lot in common. While Elroy didn't even know who his parents were, they were both orphans, and they were both saved from solitude by Garrard. They soon felt an affinity towards one another, becoming good rivals and aiding each other in improving their skills. Yet at some point after that, their relationship took a turn for the worse. Even so, Alphonse still saw Elroy as a comrade, and respected his strength and skill. No matter how many times Elroy acted unpleasantly or coldly to him, that feeling never changed for him. And that was why even now, after all he had seen and done, he still couldn't bring himself to believe that Elroy was a vampire. That Elroy, someone he had practically grown up with, was someone who could heartlessly take the lives of innocent people, or toy with them as food.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally dispatched the last skeleton standing between him and Elroy. His path was clear.

He raced towards the vampire, silver sword held high and a war cry erupting from his lips. Watching him with undisguised amusement, Elroy smoothly drew his own blade. Once again their swords locked together in opposition.

'I won't let you harm anyone else! As a friend, I can't allow you to!'

'...Don't you give me that!'

Elroy blocked Alphonse's attack with a contemptuous swipe of his own sword, held effortlessly in one hand. He then repelled Alphonse's blade with incredible force. Alphonse's arm was knocked back, but he turned it to his advantage and used the momentum from Elroy's attack to spin around and attack him with a sweeping horizontal slash. Again Elroy rebuffed him - this time employing but a single finger. The digit was burned by the blade, but though it smoked, Elroy didn't show the faintest sign of concern. Instead, he began to focus his strength into it, causing the sword to begin to crack. 

Alphonse looked up with gritted teeth, expecting to see the familiar superior sneer on Elroy's face, but instead of a glimpse of a man assured of his own victory he only saw pure hatred. The look was so intense that he almost faltered.

'Friend?! How DARE you call yourself my friend after you tried to steal what matters most to me!'

Elroy's words caught Alphonse so off guard that he wasn't able to react in time to parry the downward strike from Elroy's sword. The blade made contact, slicing through Alphonse's guard and uniform from shoulder to navel. Blood sprayed in the wake of the slash, and he howled in pain. 

Hearing his cry, Rose called out in concern. The path he had carved to Elroy, however, had long since filled with skeletons that she was diverting, and Alphonse knew he could expect no help from that quarter. Fortunately, the wound was fairly swallow. As if to demonstrate his fitness, he nimbly retreated backwards, and raised his sword again.

'What are you talking about?! I don't remember ever taking anything from you!'

'Silence! Your chance to repent has long since passed!' 

Elroy renewed his attack with relentless force. Alphonse tried valiantly to resist, but his injury impaired him from fighting to his full potential, and Elroy managed to land one slash after another. Blood began to soak through his shirt. Though all superficial, the number of wounds on his body increased steadily and he began to feel lightheaded. Nonetheless, he raised the sword yet again, but only pure willpower kept the blade from wavering.

Elroy watched this display with glee. His mouth quirked up in a smile of anticipated victory. 

'Don't worry, you won't be alone for long. That vampire hunter and the girl from the tavern will be joining you very soon.'

Alphonse trembled at the promise in those words, but they also filled him with renewed determination.

'...Elroy, I don't know what you've got against me, but no matter what it is, I'm not going to let you kill me. I'm not going to go back on my promise.'

'What are you talking about...?' Elroy asked, the smile slipping from his face.

'You think you can kill me? Go right ahead and try because I'm not going to die, and I WILL stop you!' 

'Enough...!' Enraged, Elroy finally clasped his sword in both hands. Fury and monstrous energy radiated from him in waves. Alphonse knew that this would be his strongest attack yet.

'You're finished!' Elroy cried, swinging his sword downwards with all of his might.

Death approached from above and Alphonse saw it coming, but he made no move to block it. His silver sword still raised in front of him, he took Elroy's attack head-on. Once again, the vampire's blade made contact with Alphonse's left shoulder, cleaving through body, muscle, bone, and all. Or, at least, that was what he expected to happen. 

'What?!'

What happened next defied all logic. As the sword carried downward it sheared through Alphonse's left  collarbone...then stopped. Trembling with effort, Alphonse looked Elroy straight in the eye and it was not the look of a man who had been bested.

Alphonse hadn't decided to not defend against Elroy's attack. Instead, he had resolved to receive it, and focused his concentration to its limit. The moment the blade entered his body, he had suddenly stiffened all of his muscles, thus allowing him to halt the sword's advance. 

Elroy was stunned by what had happened. The outcome was just so far removed from the victory he had envisioned that he could only gape at the other man. And it was that shock that Alphonse had been courting. It was the opening he had so desperately created.

'Haaaaaaaaaaaaaah!'

Ignoring the pain surging through his body, Alphonse prepared his strike. Elroy released his own sword's hilt, unable to free the blade embedded in Alphonse's shoulder. He took a half step back, weaponless, defenseless. 

The tip of Alphonse's silver sword flew forwards, piercing the vampire straight through the chest. As it sank deep and true, the catacomb fell silent. With a dry sound almost like a sigh, the skeletons Rose had been fighting crumbled to the ground. Finally free from the need to fight against them any longer, she stopped and turned to Alphonse. She watched in mute astonishment as Alphonse withdrew his sword from the vampire's chest. Elroy dropped to his knees and then collapsed.

His enemy defeated, Alphonse then turned his attention to himself. With clenched teeth, he pulled out the sword that had been embedded in his left shoulder. Blood spurted in a bright arc as he freed it. He tried to stop the bleeding by holding his hand over it, but the wound was just too deep. Blood continued to flow out between his fingers. 

'Maybe I overdid it...a little...' he said a bit unsteadily.

Rose sighed. 'You truly are unbelievable.' She picked her way over to him, carefully sidestepping bones and weapons in her path. Gently, she placed a hand over his and Alphonse felt a warm sensation suffuse his body. She was using her Thaumaturgy to heal his injuries. 

'You only have one life,' she chided him. 'You shouldn't treat it so carelessly. I always knew that you were foolish, but perhaps foolish idiotic imbecile is more appropriate.'

Despite the admonishing tone of her words, Alphonse could tell from her face just how relieved she was that he was all right. Feeling somewhat guilty for worrying her so much, he watched as his wound rapidly began to close. While her Thaumaturgy could only heal physical wounds and not restore his lost stamina, it was still more than sufficient as first aid. 

Suddenly, they heard a soft groaning sound from nearby. It had come from Elroy, who was looking up at the ceiling with a vacant expression. His skin had begun to crack and slowly crumble away. He seemed to be trying to say something, but his voice was so quiet that it was impossible to make out what. Rose slowly drew one of her silver pistols and pointed it at Elroy's head.

Alphonse started. 'Wh-What are you...?'

'His fate is sealed, regardless. But I can't allow him to pass like this.' 

There wasn't a moment to waste. As a vampire hunter, she had a duty to finish off her targets. To Alphonse, her decision seemed heartless, but he also knew that she had no choice. And yet it still frustrated him that it had to end like this. He still had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask Elroy. Had he been a vampire for the whole of the time that they had known each other? What had driven him to start taking the lives of innocents now? And why did he hate him so much? Nonetheless, he knew that vampires were simply too dangerous to be allowed to exist. As such, he stood by silently, allowing her to do what she thought had to be done...but Rose simply stood with her pistol pointed at Elroy's head, never pulling its trigger. 

'...This doesn't make any sense,' she murmured.

Alphonse looked at her. 'What doesn't?'

'I don't understand...'

'But what don't you understand?'

There was puzzlement and not a bit of wariness in Rose's reply. 'There's no scent. None at all.'

'Scent of what?'

'The scent of an Elder Vampire.' 

At that moment, something flew at incredible speed through the darkness. Two long, narrow objects made up of filthy black blood flashed towards them in a blur. Rose, who sensed their approach first, immediately pushed Alphonse out of the way. As he was thrust from the path of the objects, Alphonse watched in horror as the sharply pointed lances of blood mercilessly pierced Rose's chest. He fell to the ground with a whump, and a moment later Rose thudded down beside him. Blood began to pool around her inert body.

Alphonse couldn't process what was happening. Nor was he able to rise to his feet, so weak was he from his earlier battle. 

'Well, well...' said a voice. 'I certainly couldn't have seen that coming. I was hoping to finish you both off at the same time.'

Out of the darkness that the lances had emerged from stepped a figure. A figure whose outline and gait was achingly familiar; a man in a military uniform, who he knew better than anyone else...

'Looks like you managed to cheat death again, huh, Al?'

'...Ga...rrard...?' 

He didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

Chapter 12 - Elder Vampire

Garrard was Alphonse's superior and the commanding officer of a unit of the Imperial Army responsible for maintaining law and order in Heimdallr, widely known as the 'Garrard Team.' More than that, he was like a father to Alphonse, as he was the man who had taken him in and raised him after Alphonse had lost his parents. Alphonse knew how hard Garrard had been working to try and catch the culprit behind the Vampire Murders, and how much anguish he felt at not being able to find any leads as to who the criminal might be, even if he tried not to show it to his subordinates. His desire to help ease that burden on his foster parent was part of the reason that Alphonse was so determined to catch the murderer himself. So what was Garrard doing here in the underground with them? He was supposed to be at the tavern that Elroy had attacked, taking command of the operation. What business could he possibly have here? Alphonse didn't understand. Or rather, he didn't want to understand.

Garrard regarded Alphonse with a strange mix of disappointment and affection, like a father looking at his naughty child. 'Well, I suppose this is a lot to take in for you.' 

He often made the same face when Alphonse addressed him too familiarly while on duty. Everything about Garrard was the same as ever...and he found that very fact deeply disturbing.

It was then that he noticed that Lucca was standing next to Garrard, her eyes vacant. She didn't seem at all bothered by the carnage all around her. In fact, she didn't even seem to be aware of it at all.

'Charm...?' said a weak voice. 'So then that... means you must be...'

Returning to his senses, Alphonse looked over in the direction of the voice. It was Rose. She was still lying on the ground. Blood bubbled on her lips from the effort of speaking. It was immediately obvious just from looking at her that the damage she had sustained was lethal. Garrard, seemingly surprised that she was still alive, responded to her unfinished question. 

'It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vampire Hunter.' My name is Garrard. I am the Elder Vampire that you two have been chasing all this time.'

He seemed to have no interest in hiding the truth any more. 

'...S...Sir...'

It was Elroy. Barely clinging to life, he crawled across the ground to Garrard's feet. His clawed hand grasped weakly at Garrard's pant leg as if trying to cling to him.

'I... I'm sorry, sir...I...'

Garrard kneeled down and took Elroy's hand. Bending over, he lifted him up like a parent might take a child in their arms.

'It's all right, Elroy. You did wonderfully in luring that loathsome 'vampire hunter' to the capital. I was right to believe in you. I couldn't have asked for more.' 

Listening to Garrard praise him, Elroy's expression was one of complete peace.

'...And that's why I have no further use for you. Sleep well.'

The warmth in Garrard's words seemed to drain in an instant. The next moment, a twisted grin emerged on his face, revealing beast-like fangs. No sooner had Alphonse noticed them than they sank into Elroy's neck.

'AaaghhGRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!'

For the first time, Alphonse was forced to witness a vampire drinking blood. Elroy howled out in agony, his screams so piercing that Alphonse wanted to cover his ears to block them out. With agonizing slowness Garrard drank his blood, and by draining him, also absorbed the life energy of tens upon tens of innocent human beings that Elroy had killed. 

All of a sudden, Elroy's formerly youthful body began to shrivel up like a desiccated husk of corn. As his youth evaporated, Garrard's vitality grew exponentially. Black smoke began to pour from the youth's body, hiding it from sight. Elroy's cries grew hoarse, then stopped entirely. Finally, his body turned to dust, which fell onto the damp earth of the catacomb. 

The smoke finally cleared leaving only Garrard. He was now clad in a black coat in place of his army uniform. And instead of the middle-aged man he had been previously, he now appeared to be roughly the same age as Alphonse. A small line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He lapped it up with his tongue, his expression one of pure bliss. He then started to look himself over, taking everything in as if trying to adjust to his new body. The man before him was no longer the Garrard that Alphonse once knew. He was the very image of the vampires that appeared in Erebonian legend. 

'Aaaah... Simply delicious. It's been over a decade since I last had the chance to taste human blood, but it's just as wonderful as I remembered. That was well worth going through all that tedious preparation for.'

He gave a satisfied sigh. Alphonse could only look at him in horrified disbelief.

'So you were the one who turned Elroy into a vampire? You were the one who made him drink blood, just so you could take it all from him?' 

'Now, now...' Garrard tsked. 'That's not quite true. I'll have you know that Elroy willingly chose to become one of us.'

Garrard placed his hand on his chest in mock solemnity and cast his eyes downwards in a thoroughly exaggerated fashion.

'Elroy was an orphan. He had lived a poor, lonely life, more so than anyone else I have ever known. But I saw that he was capable with a sword, and I invited him into the army. And so he came to be dependent on me, just as I thought he would.'

Garrard wiped an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye. 'It was as if he saw me as his real father,' he added with a laugh. 

Alphonse shuddered at the sound, chills running through his whole body.

'Eventually, he started to resent you for the fact that I had always raised you like a real son. He wanted to receive that treatment himself, so he tried to find a way to steal that position from you. One day, I decided to reveal my true identity to him, and invited him to become a vampire as well. He gladly agreed, hoping that by doing so he would be able to be more useful to me than you. Hoping that I would favor him more than I did you.' 

From a short distance away, Rose still lay on the ground, unable to move and frustrated by what she was hearing. In all likelihood, Garrard had given a fraction of his power to Elroy when he had turned him into a vampire. The scent of that was the reason that Rose assumed that he was the Elder Vampire that they were searching for. But she had been wrong. And if not for her mistake, they wouldn't be in this perilous situation to begin with.

For his part, Alphonse was stunned at the revelation that Elroy had held a grudge against him all this time, as well as the reason for it. It wasn't as though Alphonse had done anything wrong himself, or ever tried to hurt Elroy, and yet he was filled with a deep sense of regret. If only he had realized how Elroy felt earlier, perhaps he could have prevented him from becoming a vampire, and avoided all of this happening. Furthermore, he had no choice but to admit to himself that Garrard was the true culprit behind all of this and the man who had manipulated a lonely boy to kill countless people so that he didn't have to dirty his own hands. All of a sudden, the fact that they had been unable to stop the Vampire Murders no matter how much they  strengthened their night time patrols made perfect  sense. After all, what chance did they have when the  mastermind himself was in charge of organizing them? As that truth dawned on him, Alphonse felt a dull, terrible ache in his heart. 

A thoughtful 'hmmm' from Garrard brought Alphonse back to things at hand. The vampire licked his lips. 'Now that my hunger has finally been sated, I suppose all that remains is dessert,' he purred.

He glanced sideways towards the vacant-eyed Lucca, with undisguised desire, then wrenched his eyes away and focused on the still form of Rose. 

'But before that,' he said, suddenly raising his left hand and pointing it at her, 'I think it's about time our dear vampire hunter left the stage for good.'

Before Alphonse could even react, countless lances of blood like the two that had struck before formed and flew from his palm towards the fallen woman. Alphonse cried out but could do nothing to stop their flight.

Rose saw the danger and reacted. Still lying on the ground, she dropped the pistol that she had secretly been aiming at Garrard, and at the last second, used every bit of strength that remained to her to roll out of the way. She avoided instant death, but it would only be a momentary reprieve if the vampire decided to strike again. 

Garrard shook his head in amazement. 'Haha. You really are a tenacious one, aren't you? Then how about--'

'STOP!'

Just as Garrard was about to launch his next attack, Alphonse jumped at him. Sword raised, he slashed with everything he could muster. The sword made contact, but aside from a dull ringing sound, it didn't seem to do any actual damage. 

'Oh my. That's no way to show your appreciation to the man who raised you all these years,' Garrard said, laughing. He flicked his index finger at Alphonse's forehead, causing an unimaginably powerful shockwave which sent him flying backwards through the air. The silver sword Rose had given him was  supposed to be able to kill vampires, and yet it wasn't able to so much as scratch Garrard. It was then that Alphonse realized what he was up against: a true Elder Vampire, filled with the life energy of countless humans that Elroy had collected that he  stood no chance whatsoever against. The weight of that understanding filled him with despair. The vampire, meanwhile, seemed to think of something. 

'Oh, I know. While I'm telling you all of this, there is one other little thing that you might be interested to know. Think of this as a reward for surviving for so long.'

Winded from the blow, Alphonse could only gasp, 'Wh...at...?'

He struggled to rise, but he only got as far as kneeling. Garrard looked down at him, a vulgar smile playing at his lips. 

'The one who killed your parents...was me.'

Just as Alphonse had thought that nothing else could surprise him, he was proved wrong. Garrard's words dragged the sight of his mother and father, all of the blood drained from their bodies, lying dead in their home over ten years ago up from his memories. Garrard continued, seeming to enjoy Alphonse's  reaction.

'There really was a vampire in that village back then. Naturally, I'm referring to me. Your father seemed to realize the first part, and set about trying to find out the vampire's identity in secret.' 

This was the first that Alphonse had heard about this. He had no idea that his father had once tried to do exactly what he and Rose had.

'He was an exceptionally capable soldier, you know.' Garrard continued. 'Far too capable to be stuck in a backwater village like that. But that ended up being his undoing. He very nearly succeeded in discovering that it was I whom he was seeking. And that's why I killed him with my own hands. Him and his wife who was helping him.'

Alphonse stumbled to his feet and broke into a lurching charge at Garrard. With frenzied slashes and thrusts, he attacked the vampire, almost as if to avoid having to listen to what it was saying. 

Garrard laughed as he batted away the weak blows. 'The only problem with my plan was you, Al. I had intended to kill you at the same time. You were still a child at the time, but I couldn't allow anyone who might know my true identity to live. And yet when I came to take care of them, you were away from the house.'

No matter how many times Alphonse hacked at Garrard he could not connect. His silver sword, his fury, his grief...it all seemed meaningless against this foe. Nothing he did could hurt the creature who had taken everything from him. 

Completely ignoring Alphonse, Garrard continued talking. 'I couldn't very well kill you on a separate occasion, either,' he sighed. 'Not with the chance that the vampire hunter I'd heard was skulking about might catch wind of it and come after me. Too many strange murders in such a small town like that would be quite suspicious, after all. And that's why I decided to keep you close to me, instead, so that I could keep an eye on you myself.' 

Effectively, it seemed, Garrard's plan was to make sure that Alphonse never remembered anything that might help him realize the vampire's true identity. If he had, he would have been killed. The man he thought he knew, the man who had cared for him like a father, was a lie. Slowly, as the full, bitter truth began to sink in, he could feel the hot prickle of tears stinging his eyes.

'But that won't be necessary anymore. I have no reason to allow you to live any longer.'

Garrard had previously been disregarding all of Alphonse's futile attempts to hurt him, but suddenly he went on the offensive. Lightning quick, he bypassed Alphonse's guard and his fist made contact with the young man's right side. Bones crumpled under the sharp blow, and once again, Alphonse was sent flying. 

He landed hard but was almost immediately up once again through sheer force of will. The pain was incredible, and something was broken inside him, but it didn't matter - he simply couldn't forgive the man, the creature in front of him, for what he had done. 

'You c  you must know that. Just give up and die.'

This time Garrard came to him. His attacks were relentless, like water gushing from a broken dam. Again and again his tightly clenched fist pounded Alphonse with the force of a wrecking ball. Unable to defend himself from the onslaught, Alphonse was showered with punches, blood spraying through the air with every strike.

'...A...l...'

Faintly, he heard Rose call his name. She barely seemed able to maintain consciousness. If he lost here, Rose would be killed for sure. As would Lucca.  Losing wasn't an option. Being killed wasn't an option. Defeat of any kind wasn't an option considering what was at stake. 

A sharp pain in his side signaled another bone breaking. Blood dribbled down his lips as he bit back a groan. The more time passed, the closer he was drawing to death's door. Nonetheless, he slowly raised his sword again, swinging it downwards with the last of his strength... As he did, Garrard aimed yet another punch at him from directly in front. With a dull metallic sound, the blade snapped in two. The power of the blow sent the top half flying. It flipped end over end and back, clear through Alphonse's right shoulder. It ended impaled into the ground next to where Rose lay. 

The moment it sliced through him, it felt as though his strings had been cut as well. He had no more energy left to fight. He couldn't even maintain his grip on the broken sword in his hand. He crumbled to the ground, too exhausted to go on. As he did, another faint memory of the past resurfaced in his mind. During the short period before his parents' murders, there had been a girl who often came to their home, who had introduced herself as an acquaintance of his father's. She used to take him out to play practically every day, so that he wouldn't disturb his father while he was working. Thinking back, the work he had been doing must have been investigating the vampire. It was on one of those days that the murders took place. If he had been home with his parents at the time, he would no doubt have been killed alongside them. It was thanks to her taking him out that day that he had been able to live in ignorance for so long and avoid being killed by Garrard. 

He had long forgotten her, perhaps because his parents' murders had left such a deep scar inside him that all other memories of the period had been pushed into the depths of his subconscious. He found himself wondering how she was doing now, whether she was all right. He hoped she was. 

These were the idle thoughts that filled him as he lay defeated on the ashen earth, Garrard's mocking laughter filling his ears.

I think it really is time to finish this. Your mother and father are waiting for you up with the Goddess.' 

The vampire held the fingers of his right hand straight and rigid, thumb folded inwards as if performing a karate chop. He then swung it downwards towards Alphonse like the blade of a guillotine, aiming directly for his neck.

White light suddenly filled the area, obscuring all else. At the same time, Alphonse heard the sound of something rending the air. Realizing that he was still alive, he slowly opened his eyes.

The hand that had been about to slice through Alphonse's neck now had a gigantic hole at its center. Garrard had his left hand wrapped around his right wrist and was staring at the hole in horror, unable to process what had just happened. The edges of the wound smoked and sizzled. 

'Im-Impossible...'

Before him stood Rose.

Her injuries had been beyond most humans' ability to even survive, yet there she stood, unwavering, a smoking silver pistol in her hand. Her lips were still bright with blood, but her voice was steady.

'I will not allow you to lay another finger on him.'

Her eyes blazed with a bright crimson fire. 

Chapter 13 - True Ancestor

Rose had been prepared to accept her own death.  Garrard's lances of blood had perforated several of her organs, and she no longer had the strength to use Thaumaturgy to heal herself. Considering that her occupation was hunting vampires, she always knew that this might happen. That one day, one of the vampires she tried to kill might instead end her own life.  Nonetheless, her task was to try and defeat as many of them as she could before that happened. That was her penance, her way that she would try to atone. But that time had finally come. She had done all that she could, and yet she had been powerless to defeat Garrard. If she just closed her eyes, she would never wake up again. Perhaps that would be the easiest and least painful option.

Her consciousness fading, her lids began to droop...but then she saw something in the corner of her field vision. It was Alphonse, desperately struggling against something he could not hope to best. To see him fighting on, he who had battled beside her every step of the way, made her heart ache.

She watched his final last-ditch attack fail, and the silver sword she had given him shatter. The upper half of its broken blade flew towards her. It pierced the damp earth by her head. The silvery sheen of the sword fragment blurred in her vision, then came back into focus. It was wet with Alphonse's blood. 

Thump.

The sound of her heart pounding drowned out all other noises. It was a sensation that she was  determined to never feel again...or  rather, one that she felt, but desperately tried to ignore. But she couldn't surrender herself to death just yet.  Alphonse had sworn to her that he wouldn't allow himself to die, and he was doing everything possible to keep that promise. It was her turn to show the same kind of courage that he was. 

She reached out a hand, ignoring the pain running  through it, and grasped the broken blade. She bent it close to her upturned face and stretched out her tongue towards the blood dripping down its surface. Then she licked it.

The instant blood touched her lips, her vision became awash in a scarlet haze. She knew that she was taking a huge risk and yet her heart was filled with a new, different resolve. It was a risk worth taking. 

'You...can't be... You can't be!'

Garrard glared at her, still clutching at his wound with his left hand. She opened her mouth again to speak, her whole body shrouded in a faint crimson radiance.

'My name is Roselia,' she said. 'I am a descendant of the loathsome race of vampires - and a True Ancestor.' 

As she introduced herself anew, she gave a polite curtsey.

Alphonse watched the exchange from his low vantage point on the ground. It was not the first time he had heard the term 'True Ancestor.' He recalled Rose mentioning it once before. She had said they were the legitimate descendants of the vampire race.

In one hand, Rose held one of her pistols. In the other, the fractured end of the silver longsword she had given Alphonse. By licking the blood that it had been coated in, she had been able to return from the brink of death, just like Garrard had been able to revitalize himself by drinking Elroy's blood before. The connection was clear, and yet unlike Garrard's  gruesome action, Rose's blood drinking seemed more like some kind of holy ritual. 

Perhaps due to his inability to move or do anything other than lie and watch, Alphonse was able to process the situation quite sedately. Rose had been a vampire all along. He found himself somehow unalarmed by that bit of information and didn't question it. Garrard was not so calm.

'A True Ancestor?! Impossible! The True Ancestors are all...' 

Rose spread her hands in acknowledgement. 'Indeed, the True Ancestors are no more. They chose to allow themselves to perish. They realized the truth: that if human blood was required for the race to continue to exist, then the right thing to do was to allow it to die. That a life such as that has no meaning. I am the very last True Ancestor in existence.'

She spoke solemnly, her expression dignified.

'I cannot forgive your kind. You Elder Vampires fled because you were unable to suppress your lust for blood. And then you brought shame on the name 'vampire' by attacking innocent humans, all because of your own inability to resist your obscene desires!' 

'Spare me your lecturing!' Garrard yelled, and then quickly thrust out the right hand which Rose had damaged. From it emerged another barrage of blood lances which shot towards Rose at great speed. But the moment they were about to impale her body, she turned into red mist, generating a blast wave in the air. Instantly, she reappeared behind Garrard, both pistols in her hands, and fired bullet after bullet into his body. The bullets, emitting the same effulgent red aura as Rose, struck him all over. 

'Graaaaaaah!'

Garrard was thrown forward by the impacts, which hit him with the force of shotgun shells. He twitched and groaned on the ground in agony. Satisfied that the vampire would be immobile for a time, Rose crouched down beside Alphonse.

His eyes were open, watching, but he was unable to move. Rose gently caressed his cheek with her hand.

'Thank you, Al. Thanks to you, I now know what I must do. ...I have a lot that I want to say to you, but for now it will have to wait.'

Alphonse turned his head towards her, and for a brief moment, he saw the figure of the girl he had played with when he was a child. He finally realized the truth. 

Too exhausted to even open his mouth, he had to content himself with silently encouraging her in his own mind. Almost as if she could sense him doing so, Rose nodded, and then stood up again. She looked over at Garrard with the same solemn expression as before.

His wounds had begun to close, but the time that it took for them to do so said everything - the power of a True Ancestor was enough to be able to contend with him. 

'Gah... Foolish girl! What's wrong with drinking blood to survive?! Humans take the lives of others so that they can continue to exist too. How is what we do any different?!'

Rose shook her head.

'It is completely different. Vampires have inhuman strength, can manipulate others to do whatever they desire, spawn ghouls as a by-product of what they do... Everything about our existence goes against the natural laws of the world. We are a violation of the will of the Goddess. And that is why we should be confined to the realm of the fairy tales!' 

Rose was a vampire who hunted other vampires because of her own strong beliefs and ideals. A vampire who had resolved to deny her own race, to wipe them out, hoping that they would all be forgotten forever.

Alphonse desperately tried to stay conscious, his eyes fixed on her. He finally understood the ideal that she strived for, and the true nature of the solitude she carried - a solitude that not even those of her own race could possibly understand.

'You little... Have it your way, then!'

Grinding his teeth in anger, Garrard held out a hand before him, and from the palm formed a monstrous sword made up of jet black blood. The black coat that he wore also began to squirm and transform. Giant wings, like those of a bat, emerged from the quivering mass. With a toss of his head, they unfurled, extending to either side of him. They flapped once, twice, and Garrard rose into the air. 

Suddenly, Lucca fell to the ground, unconscious. Garrard had released the Charm he had on her to concentrate all of his energy into his next attack.

'Allow me to bring an end to your bloodline for good, and return the name 'True Ancestors' to ancient history where it belongs!' he roared. 

Rose drew her templar sword. Her navy coat, still bathed in scarlet light, became bat-like wings as well. She held his gaze as she ascended to his level.

'It's time you gave up the name 'Elder Vampire.' You do nothing but soil it.'

Blades drawn, they confronted one another in midair, charged energy crackling throughout the catacombs. Alphonse lay back, unable to do anything but observe. The next moment, their shadows crossed at lightning speed.

In an instant, they had exchanged places in the air. Both had swung their swords. The blade of Rose's  templar sword, however, was nowhere to be seen. All that could be glimpsed here and there in the flickering torchlight was the glinting of wires stretched to their limit. 

'Hahahaha...'

Garrard was the first to make a sound. Lines ran across his body in a crisscross of faint stripes. As he laughed, the lines spread like cracks, slowly multiplying and widening, almost as if his body  hadn't quite realized that it had been cut at all. The countless parts that formed the templar sword's blade had passed through his body over and over in a single instant. Rose turned, and with a snap of the wrist caused the wires connecting the blade's parts to bend. With the metallic clicks of interlocking metal, the parts flew through the air and came together. The templar sword was once again whole. 

'Farewell,' said Rose. 'I'm sure we will meet again one day in hell.'

'Hahahahahaha!'

As her templar sword returned to its complete form, the body of the Elder Vampire crumpled to the ground, feet first. 

When Alphonse awoke, he found himself in the center of the catacomb. No sounds stirred the musty air.

The first thing he saw as his eyes opened was the gentle smile of Rose as she looked down at him. She was no longer surrounded by the crimson glow that he had witnessed earlier. She seemed to have healed him, as well. He could hardly pretend to be back at full strength, but he was at the very least now capable of moving.

Chapter 14 - A New Dawn

Next to him lay Lucca, fast asleep. She had no visible wounds, but she was clearly exhausted from all of the night's events. She had been through quite an ordeal, after all.

'...What happened to Garrard?'

Alphonse had lost consciousness around when he and Rose had clashed in the air, so he hadn't witnessed any of the aftermath. Rising shakily to his feet, he saw Rose indicate a point a short distance away by turning her head in that direction. There, he saw the body of Garrard, or at least part of it; everything below his chest had vanished.

'Al...'

His voice was weak, but somehow he was still alive. Looking at him, Alphonse couldn't help but feel pity. How anything could survive in such a state, he didn't know, but it was a testament to the incredible powers of the vampire race that he still drew breath. It was not a state that would last, however. 

'He is beyond saving,' Rose said with certainty.

She slowly loaded a bullet into her pistol and pointed it at Garrard's temple. It seemed as though she had deliberately waited until Alphonse awoke before finishing him off.

'But I thought it best to wait so that you could witness this yourself.' 

Alphonse looked from the gun to Garrard. 'Oh... Right...'

She gently began to squeeze her finger against the trigger. Garrard cast his eyes downward, a look of acceptance on his face. But before she could pull it completely, Alphonse stopped her.

Looking at her bewildered expression, he pulled out from his uniform the silver short sword that she had originally given to him.

'Let me do it.'

'...So you want to carry out your revenge yourself, do you?' sneered Garrard in response. 'What a fool you are. You have no reason to dirty your own hands. Why do you humans have to make such a big deal out of such trivial things? That's what makes you so easy to manipulate.' 

'Silence,' Rose said, raising her gun a second time.

Alphonse shook his head at her and turned to Garrard.

'I've always thought of you as a father. Maybe it was all a lie, maybe you had ulterior motives for everything you did, but I still think of you like a parent, even now. And I'm grateful for all that you did for me.' 

A look of shock flashed across Garrard's face. Rose appeared stunned as well.

Alphonse continued. 'So I'm not doing this for revenge. I'm doing this so that I can move on, and put all of this in the past, and start a new life.'

'Heheh...hahahahahaha!'

Alphonse looked down at the man...creature, who had cared for him, raised him, and who he had thought loved him. With an ache in his heart, he swung the sword. Rose watched on in silence. 

The only sound that broke the still quiet of the underground was the steady tread of their boots against the slimy cobblestones. Together, Rose and Alphonse trekked back through the gloomy passage towards the surface with Rose leading the way. On Alphonse's back was Lucca, still oblivious to the world. Whenever they came across the corpse of one of the innocents who had been turned into a ghoul, he stopped, closed their eyes and prayed for them. Rose had told him that the church would be sending people to collect their bodies and give them a full burial later. As the existence of vampires and ghouls was not to be made public, all of what happened there would be buried. The world would never know the truth behind the Vampire Murders.

They made their way through the torch-lit channel, and eventually reached the area near the entrance where natural light now shone through. Rose stopped so suddenly that Alphonse almost walked into her.

'Whoa... What's wrong?' he asked, readjusting Lucca's position on his back. 

Rose hesitated. 'There's...actually one more thing that I ought to tell you.'

She turned to him, looking heavily apologetic. Her words were followed by another period of silence, as if she was having trouble mustering the courage to tell him the truth.

Realizing this, Alphonse decided to say it for her. 'Is this about how the person who died trying to help you was my father?'

'...So you realized...'

Rose herself hadn't made the connection until she discovered Garrard's true identity. But the two cases were so closely connected that she had eventually understood. 

It had been over a decade ago that Alphonse's father had coincidentally come to meet the vampire hunter, Rose. He found out that she was pursuing vampires, and they had agreed to work together to the same end. Eventually, he had been but one step away from discovering the identity of the nearby vampire - in other words, his friend Garrard - but that was when Garrard had realized that he was in danger of being found out, and killed him before he had the chance to share his findings with her. 

'...But how did you know that was me? You have no way of knowing how many other vampire hunters may be out there, after all.' 

Alphonse gave her a sheepish smile. 'During the fight earlier, I finally remembered meeting you back then.'

Alphonse's father had always been worried about the possibility that his family might be harmed because of his research. That was why he had come to ask Rose to watch over his child whenever he was investigating. It had taken him a long time to recall the girl who had played with him all those summers ago, but Alphonse had finally placed that familiar, gentle smile. 

She nodded, admitting the truth to him. '...I was the one responsible for getting your father involved in this to begin with. I should have searched for and fought the vampire by myself. And yet, I wasn't able to refuse his offer...and despite that weakness  resulting in the death of him and his wife, I wasn't  able to refuse your offer this time, either...'

Rose had been fighting a solitary battle against her own race for decades. It wasn't difficult to imagine her eventually hoping unconsciously that someone, anyone, would hold out a hand and help her. That was why when Alphonse and his father had done just that, she couldn't bring herself to turn them down. 

'I never intended to drink blood again, either... I didn't want to admit that I was a monster just like him, and just like the other vampires. I grew weaker by the year as a result, but still, I was determined not to do it.'

A look of disgust crossed her face.

'...And again, I ended up breaking my own vow and drinking it, regardless. Perhaps I'm no different from the rest of them, after all.' 

Alphonse knew the solitude she had endured better than anyone else, so he replied with a smile.

'Don't worry about it,' he said. 'You did it to save me, didn't you? That alone makes you different from other vampires. I'm sure my parents would be grateful for all that you've done. If not for you, I would've been killed. And if not for you, we wouldn't have been able to solve the murders here, either.'

'...'

'So, thank you.'

Unable to reply in the face of his warm words, Rose turned away from him. For the first time, she felt as though she could accept herself. The thorns which had been constricting her heart receded as if melting away. 

Alphonse began walking again, his eyes pointed straight ahead, tactfully avoiding looking at Rose's face while she stood still, her shoulders quivering. 

After that, neither of them said another word to the other as they made their way to the exit. The natural light peeking into the tunnel here and there gradually grew brighter, and eventually the gate came into view. 

Emerging entirely from the underground, they could see that the eerie red moon no longer hung in the sky. In its place was the sun, burning the morning haze away and bathing the city in dazzlingly bright sunlight.

'Well, this is where I must take my leave,' Rose  said, giving Alphonse a slight bow. The vampire's presence gone from the city, Rose's mission was now over, and she had no reason to remain. Much as Alphonse wished she could stay longer, he nodded, responding with a simple 'All right.' 

'Where will you go next?' he asked.

Rose shook her head. 'I don't know,' she replied.

Wherever she went, she would no doubt be pursuing yet another vampire. And there would also be no doubt that she would find herself fighting against it in a battle to the death, too. That was her duty as a vampire hunter and as a True Ancestor.

'When you've done everything that you need to do, come back here.'

'...What?' 

Rose had already walked a short distance ahead of him, but she turned around again at his words.

'I'll always be waiting here for you,' he said.

Alphonse had no idea how long it would take for her to fulfill the duty that she had sworn to see to the end. But it didn't matter. He wanted her to know that there would always be a place for her to return to. And as long as that was the case, she would never be alone again.

'Thank you!'

Rose smiled, unable to conceal the happiness welling up within her. Alphonse returned the smile, and once more she turned, striding away into the brilliant sunlight. She didn't turn around again. 

On Alphonse's back, Lucca had awoken, and had been awake for some time. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous at their exchange, but she had decided to feign being asleep so as to not interrupt their farewells.

Thus, the Vampire Murders that had terrorized the people of Heimdallr silently came to an end, no one the wiser as to the culprit or conclusion of the whole affair. The criminal dead, the murders would  simply stop and the case itself would be doomed to be left unsolved for all eternity. No doubt the people of the city would one day forget that they had ever happened at all, or they would live on as a kind of urban legend, no one believing such stories could possibly be true. 

But Alphonse would always remember what had happened. He would never forget the case where he had lost several people who were deeply important to him. He would also never forget that he had found someone else important to him during it all. And he prayed that one day in the future, she would be able to find peace, freed from the deep solitude and arduous duty that burdened her. 

'Every dark night is followed by a bright new dawn,' he murmured. 'So I'm sure that one day a new dawn will come to you, too.'

Alphonse stood still, watching silently as Rose walked off into the distance and vanished into the morning sun.