Chương 56: The Press
--Eira POV--
'It's been three days since the nightclub.' I think to myself.
I fiddle with a fang from one of the Night Demon husks and run through the events since that day. The morning after the nightclub incident, we arrived back as the sun was rising and retreated into the morgue after breaking one of the windows. It was only a few hours later when the military arrived. The Chief of Police talked to them, and they sent teams around the hospital to search for me. One team came to the morgue, but I used my shadow magic to make them extremely paranoid to the extent they reported to their superiors that the morgue was empty. Well, they did actually return to the morgue later, but they simply took the intact dead bodies away. When they discovered the one body, I exploded with a Blood Bomb, they nearly ran away without the other bodies.
As for the morgue's employees, thanks to Aponi and Terry gathering information, I found out that those people were taken to the original Camp B to perform autopsies on dead Crawlers. They apparently died when the Crawlers overran the camp. Anyway, the Blood Bomb apparently damaged the refrigeration rack with the exploded body in it, which has begun to stink, and no one wants to deal with that, so no one's come around since the soldiers left. Per Aponi and Terry's information, bodies are being taken to a different building nearby to both avoid agitating the civilians and circumventing a situation similar to the one that occurred at the original Camp B.
I've thought about collapsing the stairwell eventually but decided against it for now. I've already ripped the button that leads to this floor from the elevator, but everyone above has been so preoccupied with the approaching Crawlers that no one really seemed to care. There's been talk of lifting the lockdown and allowing people to leave, so far excluding some "high priority" people most everyone has just been placed within the camps and are monitored by doctors and soldiers.
The shadow demon I left the phone has yet to get in touch with me. It was only in hindsight I realized that he might not know how a phone works… but I have confidence he'll figure it out. If not, I'll find him myself, somehow.
The humans in the hospital above numbers have increased along with the Crawlers. I'd say there are probably around 10,000 civilians and 1,500 military personnel above. It's funny to me that they expend resources to find me while we hide just under their noses.
Anyhow, the number of humans and military personnel have made the situation more complicated but also presents opportunities. There has been a lot of discontent among the civilians forced to stay in a city that is essentially a death trap for them. Some people have started to try things like stealing helicopters and other such tricks in order to leave. Making the situation ripe for taking advantage of.
The Crawlers have continued expanding toward the "Mary Tudor Medical Center," which is the name of the hospital we currently reside in. The area Eden and me were in the other day is now a hotbed of Crawlers. The military bombings have become more and more frequent along with gunfire, but they haven't done very well in containing the Crawlers. Too many nooks and crannies for them to hide and a lot of the military officers are reluctant to order airstrikes directly over high population areas in fear of killing civilians.
As for my group of soldiers, I've been using my "Baleful Whispers" shadow magic on them as they sleep. I use the magic very sparingly on the vampires as I simply want to sway their subconscious more and more toward the blood race's way of thinking. Their changing biology and the Goddess's blood already have this effect on them to an extent, but I want to speed it along if I can. Eventually, I hope a form of "group think" will take over, and I won't have to do this with the next batches of vampires to such a degree. In regards to Bryan, though, I've been using Baleful Whisper on him a lot. He has become more and more unstable and has alienated himself further and further from the others. He often sits in the corner, whispering to himself nowadays, picking at sores and scabs on his legs. The man is broken, and I'm hesitant to get rid of him as he could be useful in some form in the future. Not to mention, I told Terry to watch him closely, so watching Byran deteriorate like this has only increased his belief in the Goddess's words.
Anyway, right now, I'm more focused on matters other than the Crawlers, humans, or soldiers.
"Hey, Eira, you okay?" Eden asks.
I wave my hand, half-heartedly, "Mhm. I'm fine. Thanks."
"What do you think of the show so far?" Aponi asks.
I glance upwards and see Sylvia and Albert, who are in the middle of their show. They've had to move to more discrete ways of streaming now that Tremble or pretty much any legitimate site won't have them. They basically post to underground, and extremist websites then the videos spread from there through word of mouth or via bots. I basically just monitor them to make sure they don't say anything they shouldn't. From what I've gathered while half-listening is what they told me, they would say. Things like the government response is inadequate, things are worse than the government is reporting, the "masked girl" is going around saving people, and other things to that tune.
"Yeah, the show's fine. They're doing fine." I answer and quickly return to my thoughts.
For the past few days, I've been running through ideas in my head. Thirty and fifty-eight. Thirty hearts and fifty-eight fangs from Night Demons in the nightclub. There were thirty members of the blood race surviving in hiding all that time. One of them was already missing its fangs likely removed before they were cast into the Pit of Hell, and their souls burned away. The system told me that there were fragments of their souls left… no, fragments isn't the right word; echoes would be more accurate, I suppose. Anyone left within the Pit of Hell will have their soul ultimately burned away; there is no way to restore a soul used as fuel for the fire. The souls of the Night Demons had been burnt to such an extent that what little essence that remained within their husks was impossible for the system to absorb.
I frown and gaze at the tiles of the floor for a bit before resuming my train of thought. The system informed me there were still echoes of the souls still left within the hearts, and I want to use these echoes in a way that I feel will venerate them.
"And that's a wrap," Sylvia says with a sigh leaning back in her chair.
I stand and begin leaving the room, but before that, I happen to notice Sylvia's panicked look and arm waving. Normally watching someone tumble back in their chair would give me a good laugh, but I'm not really in the mood, so I yank her chair back down using a shadow hand.
Sylvia's chair comes back down with a thud, and I walk toward the stairwell, "I'll be back in a little while. Follow me, and I can't guarantee you'll ever come back."
I stop and stare at Sylvia, momentarily thinking about reversing my decision, 'Well, no point now.'
I make my way up into the stairwell and stop. I check and make sure no one is around before concentrating. A moment later, I find myself in my god space.
[Is the Host going to begin the forging process?]
"Yes, I'm going to do it, and per our discussion, your help will count as my reward for the last task," I answer.
[This is acceptable, it is close to what this system had planned to reward the Host with regardless. If the Host wishes to pursue the forging of a customized living weapon using the ingredients the Host acquired, this system will assist.]
"Mm, I prefer you not to refer to them like vegetables from the grocery store."
The system ignores my remarks, [Please first take a seat upon the throne.]
I walk up the short flight of stairs toward the throne and stare at the blood moon that illuminates everything in this place.
[Next…]
"You don't have to run me through this part. We've talked about this enough, so I can handle this much. I'd appreciate it if you just helped out only when needed. For now, just give me my status."
Name: Eira Callista
Gender: Female
Race: Vampire {Pseudo True God}
Level: 5 (0/100)
Health: 345/350
Mana: 160/200 {100/100 Max Shielding}
Strength: 20
Endurance: 22
Agility: 24
Intellect: 20
Constitution: 35
Talents: Paranormal
Skills: Intermediate Blood Magic; Novice Scythe; Novice Shadow Magic
Titles: Heir of Blood
Essence: 417
"Should be more than enough essence for everything. Mana should be fine as well. Let's get started then."
As usual, the throne greets me with a few red sparks that run up my arms. I relax in the embrace of the throne and take a deep breath. I concentrate on the storage of essence in the center of my brain, the area I assume the system embedded itself. Feeling the pulse of energy there, I push it into the throne.
[-50 Essence]
The platform begins to emit sparks of red from every corner, and it begins to increase in size. The five altars that once lowered themselves into the floor spring up. The floor and altars take on the appearance of a liquid-like oil, and I begin to concentrate on what I desire. I don't want to mess with the platform itself too much as I don't trust myself to properly redraw the pentagram on the floor, so I just concentrate on the altars and expanding the diameter of the platform.
The altars bend and turn before moving across the oily platform like strange ships in a sea of blackness. In tandem, they meet toward the center of the platform and begin to spin at high speeds.
[-50 Essence]
Suddenly they stop and rush toward one another and crash into each other, causing a spout of black liquid to spurt into the air. The light of the blood moon behind me reflects from the drops as it stops in the air and begins to twist. At this point, the altars look more akin to an hourglass as they trade liquid from one side to the other. Eventually, the two sides become even and the middle portion of the hourglass breaks. The two sides form rectangular shapes, and four lines form in the corners of the rectangles. They connect forming something that looks like a hydraulic cylinder at each corner. Essentially this is going to be something akin to a simple press which I'll use to make some "special items" with the help of the system.
I stand, and my legs wobble lightly. I catch myself on the armrest of the chair and take another breath.
I sigh, "My body and mind really aren't meant to be doing this kind of thing, but it's done now. Now for the more tedious part of the process."
[Will, the Host, now move onto the engraving process?]
I nod, "Yes, let's get started."
I walk toward the press. The floor has resolidified and once again looks like some kind of obsidian surface. I cut my palm and begin the process of engraving complicated runes into the press. The systems guide me and correct me if there is a mistake somewhere in my engravings. This process takes almost a full day to complete in the god space, which wouldn't be nearly that long on the outside world. Being in the god space is both relaxing and tiring. It's like when you go on vacation, and when you return, you feel like you need another vacation. This is something I never noticed until I tried to take a nap in here once a couple of days ago and awoke even more tired. I never tried before, as this place can be eerily quiet.
Once I've completed the drawings, I walk around the edge of the pentagram and place the thirty hearts of the Night Demons around the edge. I take the fangs and place the fifty-eight fangs evenly spaced upon the press.
I remove a coffee from my storage ring and drink it in a few breaths.
"Alright, let's do this."
Just as I'm about to begin, the system interrupts, [Host, you cannot yet begin the forging process due to missing material.]
"Of course, I know that... but can you remind me what that ingredient is?"
[If the Host recalls, each heart will require a certain amount of blood.]
I scratch my head, "Oh, yeah. I needed to steal some blood bags from the hospital. The requirement was that each heart has a different blood donor or something like that."
[...]
I cough, "Anyway, the passage of time here is currently slow, so I should be able to leave everything as is. I'll take care of that right now."
I exit the god space and return to the morgue. I grab Sam to help me track down the hospital's supply of blood bags.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực