“You’re not human, are you? No vampire, either.” said the vampires as they stopped their flanking maneuver and gathered together, side-by-side, understanding that they were in for a serious fight. They stiffened their lips and narrowed their crimson gazes. Their fanged teeth bared in snarls as their broken claws regenerated, filling out into their dagger-length glory oncemore. “This city is vampire territory. You are not welcome here.”

“If you knew what I was, you would be giving me all the welcome that I deserve,” said Li. He rolled up his sleeves. “But in a way, it’s good that I’m wearing my human face for this. Instead of having you blabber in terror at my true form, it’s better to teach you to fear me from the ground up.”

“You kill us, and you invoke the wrath of Alarie,” said the vampiric duo. They did not recklessly attack anymore. Li’s human form prevented much of his power from being detectable, but even so, they understood that they weren’t here to slaughter some helpless flesh and blood man anymore. Their cockiness had faded away and been replaced with a tense wariness.

“Who is that? Your boss?” Li stepped forwards.

“Our Elder. One of Higher kin, one that you will not match.”

Li stopped and looked the vampires up and down. Aside from pale skin and the red eyes, they looked completely human. Also, they maintained a humanoid figure even while rearing to fight, indicating control over their bodies.

These weren’t Lamashu, lesser vampires that were basically just blood-sucking beasts, monstrous in appearance, ruled by base instinct, and terrified of the light. These were Izcacu, a more evolved and higher-level variant of vampire, capable of shapeshifting to a human form to withstand light and think rationally.

Li remembered that Lamashu ranged from levels 10 through 40. Beyond that, they evolved into Izcacu, making these vampires at least in that level range. Rather high for the standards of this world. Each of them could likely slaughter an entire company of knights with ease.

And they had mentioned their boss was of higher kin.

Li nodded. Around level 70 or so then, but not at 80, as higher vampires became hierarchs at that point.

“Your boss is a higher vampire, is he? And he owns Black Vine? I thought vampires thought humans as food. When did they start getting into business?”

The vampires explained, now more willing to talk. They still had a tenseness to them, a coiled energy about their muscles that was ready to explode into combat the moment the situation turned aggressive, but before then, they were intelligent enough to want to de-escalate.

“We vampires enjoy human society. Their blood is fine, purer than beastman filth and with more substance than watered down elven dregs. But to rampage about and draw attention is to court doom, for though we are powerful, we are still few, and the humans are many. That is why we assimilate in their society. You should understand this, for you too walk among the humans in their skin.”

“Unlike you two, I’m not hiding because I’m afraid, but enough with that. You’ll lead me to your boss now.”

The vampires looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Eventually, they nodded and said to Li, “We cannot do that. We can submit to the Elder that you wish audience, and he will send for you when he feels the time is right.”

Li shook his head and smiled. “I wasn’t asking.”

The vampires stiffened. The air in the rune-sealed pharmacy had become incredibly tense to the point that even the slightest movement or sound became amplified a hundred-fold.

“I gave you two the chance before. I had thought about it quite a while, and honestly, I thought I was being generous, letting you two live your immortal lives out in exchange for leading me to your boss, but what did you do? Attack me.”

Li lazily pointed an open palm towards one of the vampires. He cast [Blood Root]. The crimson, stake-shaped root burst from his palm like a missile, piercing through the vampire’s heart. The vampire stared wide-eyed at the root embedded in his chest and his pale hands grasped the root, trying to tear it out.

“Wow, so looks like vampires don’t need hearts to live,” said Li.

The other vampire lunged forwards; his arms crossed in front of him. When he neared Li, he uncrossed his arms in a slashing maneuver, his arms glowing a beating red as he empowered himself with [Blood Rush], a vampiric skill to massively enhance physical stats temporarily.

Li raised his free hand and allowed his passive [Bramble Vest] to activate. A barrier of swirling leaves, roots, and thorns emerged around him. The vampire’s claws struck the barrier and immediately shattered.

The force of the blow rippled through the barrier, and the wall of roots absorbed it hungrily before immediately growing giant thorns that spiked outwards like a hedgehog puffing its spines out. They skewered through the vampire, slashing his arms into ribbons while riddling his torso full of holes.

The vampire cried out in agony before stepping backwards. Mists of blood started steaming from his open wounds, condensing back into flesh and healing the damage. Vampiric regeneration.

“You,” said Li, pointing to the vampire busy regenerating. “Stay put. [Root of Vulthoom].”

The vampire breathed heavily as his vampiric powers struggled to repair the horrific damage wrought upon his body, and so he had no time to move as the floorboards beneath his feet broke apart. A bone-white root emerged with frenzied speed, stabbing through both the vampire’s ankles.

The vampire screamed as roots began growing inside his legs, crawling up his skin, making their way even up to his face, bulging under his skin like countless exposed veins.

Li grimaced as the vampire continued to scream wildly. It seemed that the spell, which in the game was nothing more than an incredibly powerful root, had become much, much more devastating. In Elden World lore, [Root of Vulthoom] was an appendage of an extraterrestrial Elder One whose roots would invade the very fabric of space and time itself.

It was said that to be rooted by Vulthoom was to have one’s entire existence, down to every single cell, invaded with unspeakable pain and agony. Not even teleportation or time manipulation could cleanse the root.

“As for you,” said Li to the other vampire as he tried to talk through the bothersome din of the rooted vampire’s screaming. “You have no use for me.”

The blood root began, rather ironically, draining the vampire of its blood. The vampire, feeling its lifeblood escaping its body, tried clawing at the root, but could barely nick a scratch on the root even with the strength of his death throes.

Vampiric regeneration was nothing compared to the continued DPS of the blood root’s absorption, and quickly enough, the vampire shriveled up into a husk desiccated skin, his eyes shriveling into tiny slivers before popping out their sockets.

Li retracted the blood root, and the vampire’s corpse landed on the floor without much sound, having lost its mass.

Li came up to the rooted vampire and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s such a sad thing to kill an immortal,” he said, knowing that the vampire could hear him even through his involuntary screams. “But find solace in knowing that your death will serve one far higher than you.”

Li took his other hand and raised it under the vampire’s eyes. Li’s hand was slightly curled, as if he was cupping something. The vampire, unable to move his body, only managed to have his red pupils shift down.

“[Spawn of Atlach-Nacha]” said Li. A small rift in space sheared open on Li’s hand. The tear, a small void of starry blackness, deposited one translucent egg into Li’s hand before closing up. The egg looked as beautiful and brilliant as a pearl.

Li squeezed the vampire’s shoulder one last time before he jammed the hand with the egg into the vampire’s stomach. The vampire’s eyes widened, but all he could manage was to scream as he had before. In fact, compared to the pain from the [Root of Vulthoom], this was probably nothing.

Li stepped back, eager to see how this spell would be like in the real world.

Despite feeling a sense of minor light-headedness from casting three A-ranked spells consecutively, he could still feel his eldritch Druidry coursing through his being, nourishing him. He could feel powers that were not meant to be, powers unbound by the laws of nature, of power heralding from existences that roamed the primordial and ever terrible dark of the universe, flowing through his veins.

It was an intoxicating feeling. It wasn’t so much being drunk on power, but rather feeling a sense of belonging.

The vampire’s eyes rolled into his head as the egg hatched in his stomach. Black tendrils erupted from his belly, latching onto the rest of his body and absorbing life force like breathing tubes, directing it all into the precious infant growing in the vampire.

Li snapped his fingers, cancelling the [Root of Vulthoom]. The vampire did not fall, instead standing haphazardly, as if drunk, his legs quivering like mad. Something was moving in his body, eager to get out, and his body contorted every which way, his spine snapping as his back folded in half. His arms splintered, curling like ribbons.

Only his face remained unmarred, merely twisting into an expression of endless, open-mouthed fear.

Eventually, the vampire’s body exploded, revealing a rust-colored arachnid body the size of a bull. Eight segmented legs curled out to balance the body up. The legs were still shaking, still newborn, their hairs still glistening with eldritch amniotic fluid.

The vampire’s face remained intact, stitched haphazardly where the spider’s head should be. The skin was stretched out, distorting the vampire’s expression, but it was still clearly one of abject terror.

Li wiped vampire bits from his face and patted down his stained hands on his trousers.

“Come, little one,” he said. The eldritch spawn crawled towards Li, now more in control of its body. Li felt the same pride in the spawn as a father would at his child’s first steps. “You’re still keeping him alive, aren’t you?”

In response, the spawn cooed. The sound came from the arachnid abdomen, not the vampire’s face. That was where, hopefully, if this spell followed the lore, the vampire’s mind still was, slowly being eaten away by the parasitic spawn.

“Help…me.” The vampire’s mouth, stretched apart as it was, moved.

“My, you’re awfully selfish, aren’t you, asking for help.” Li shook his head, as if admonishing a child. After all, this was a child, an errant immortal that had acted far out of line. This was now his duly deserved punishment. “You’re supposed to be helping me. Now take me to your boss.”

“Yes,” said the vampire weakly, the parasitic spawn hijacking his mind and memories.

Li followed as the spawn scuttled about, leaving the pharmacy in a mess as it broke apart the floorboards, bulldozed through the runic protections sealing off the counter, and went further into the pharmacy, smashing apart several shelves and jars of materials.

Eventually, it stopped at the back of the shop, where a trapdoor lay hidden under a decorative slab of stone carved commemorating the duchess’s rule. Clever. No average human would have the strength to move it, but any vampire could easily do it.

Li grabbed the slab and tossed it behind him. It sailed backwards, splintering wood as it slammed through a table. Beneath, a dark, square-shaped pit opened up. A rank and familiar stench filled the room.

“The sewers?” said Li. “You vampires are living like rats. Quite sad to see, honestly.”

Li patted the spawn’s abdomen. “Come now, child, lead the way while you still have the vampire’s life to nurse you.”

The spawn rumbled in understanding before it gathered its legs together and crammed itself into the pit, squirming as it just barely squeezed through.