Chapter 23: 23 – A Hunch

"Alright, I got it. This way, Cole!" Orto said to Cole who was standing right beside him.

"How do you know how to use that, Orto?" Cole asked as they start running through the hallways.

"Celes got this from an acquaintance, so I know how it works. I didn't believe it until now though, such childishness of mine…" Orto said uncomfortably. The atmosphere between the two was disturbed because of this and it was awkward to talk.

Dozens of minutes passed and they arrived at where Celes had instructed them to go and stopped in front of a two-way path to the left and right. Orto tried to contact Celes again but wasn't able to. He tried multiple times but there was no response.

"I can't contact Celes, something must've happened," Orto said to Cole.

"If that's so, then what do we do? I've never seen these passageways, its existence never even came into mind. It's too big to be just some underground tunnels, it's also too small to be the underground sewage channels. Where is this?" Cole asked.

"I don't know either. I've never heard of these tunnels." Orto said in reply. (The king also never told me anything about these. I can't remember any hints from him either…) His thoughts followed.

"… I guess no point in thinking about it. About Celes, what should we do?" Cole asked.

"Right, our objective right now is to save the girls not to waste time thinking about unnecessary things. About Celes, I'll go back, not to brag but the level of my shadow step is higher than yours so I reckon that I'll be able to go back faster," Orto said in reply.

"Yeah, I understand. I'll try to figure out something while you check on Celes. I might be able to trace leftover mana that overflowed from her." Cole replied, stood there, and deepened his senses.

While Orto started to run within his shadows. He checked on Cole before turning into the hallways and he too started moving.

As Orto was getting closer and closer back to where they came from. He felt heavy and with a thick amount of miasma. He guessed that it was the monster that Celes was so worried about and hurried.

He arrived at the source of the miasma only to find a dry bird-like corpse with a huge gaping hollow hole starting from its chest down to its waist, he looked around a little as it was hard to see due to the low light level. He wished he didn't, because what he saw was disgusting. He didn't even want to identify them on his head and went on to investigate.

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He guessed that Celes had defeated this thing that is now dead but was confused as to why she didn't contact them. He had an idea as to what happened but threw the thought away as it is a scary thought.

Within his shadows, he followed the trail of mana that was the same as the mana flowing through the hairpin that he felt when he was investigating that place. The door they came out of soon came into view. The door was ajar and he felt faint mana leaking from within.

He quickly dove into his shadow and went in. His guts didn't betray him, but he sure wished it did. There, sitting right beside a mountain of corpses with a woman in her arms was Celes, he realized it was Olivia's corpse after a second but thought of it as irrelevant. Her clothes were torn, and her hair tattered. She was also covered in blood to the point that you won't recognize her beautiful long silver hair.

But the first thing Orto realized was far worse than her appearance or the corpses, it was far more concerning. Her mana was barely recognizable from all the miasma that was overflowing out of her body. Orto went to a shadow in front of Celes but still refused to believe what he saw. Her amethyst-like eyes were now glowing red and black. Her formerly 1-centimeter long fang that was just sucking on Olivia's nape extended another inch. She was growling like a wild beast protecting its meal. That was the Vampire race's Blood Hunt.

It was a state that will occur when a Vampire lacks the blood to maintain its body's functions. It was regarded as a shameful yet honorable act by the Vampires, reason is said to be because it was a show that the vampire that reached this state did their best but was also shamed because of their weakness that let such an unsightly appearance take over. It's a state where the vampire loses all rationality and becomes a killing machine that will hunt for prey to satiate their bloodthirst and will not stop until satisfied. They will also gain temporary unimaginable strength while in this state, none of them lived after exposing this state though. Most of them killed themselves right after because of shame. And this isn't a guaranteed state for the Vampires, it is simply their natural instincts taking over their bodies when the blood within their bodies reaches dangerously low levels. There was no knowledge known to mankind yet on how this self-defense mechanism works, except for the Celestial Vampires that stood atop of all Vampires.

Orto could only watch within the shadows as Celes dried soldiers one after another. That was until Celes looked his way as if she knew there is someone there.

(Hey hey, you're kidding me, right?) Orto couldn't help but smile and think so.

(I-it's fine, she doesn't have the shadow step skills, she won't be able to get me as long as I stay in here… right?) Otos' wishful thinking was betrayed when a small hand with sharp and long nails suddenly tried to grab him by the face.

"Close! That was way too close for comfort!" Had he not noticed that thick bloodlust coming from Celes, he would've had his face torn for him right there and then.

"Also, what the heck is this speed?! It's unfair!" Orto thought as he tried his best to read her simple monster-like movements to dodge the hands.

(It looks like she can't entirely get in… it would be great if she just gives up on me and satisfies herself until she wakes up!) Orto again had a wishful thought.

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