Vampires were undeniably an oppressively powerful race. Not only were they physically comparable to knights in some respects, even without aura and its benefits, but they also possessed an inherent ability to use magic. Against opponents of their level—or even slightly above—their natural attributes, combined with immortality and regenerative abilities, made them far more than just monsters.
It was no wonder they were so prideful, looking down on humans as if by nature.
However, in this one scenario, against someone like Magnus, their very nature worked against them. Both consciously and unconsciously, Magnus usually held himself back to avoid killing his opponents. But now, he was up against immortal beings—creatures that could return to life even after death. There was no need for restraint anymore.
"Umbral Rend!" The vampiric man made the first move, casting magic for the first time since their battle began. Darkness seemed to seep from beneath his skin as he waved his hand, the shadowy substance flowing out from his arm. With a swift motion, the darkness arced into the world, a three-dimensional shadow that flew toward Magnus at a speed even faster than even the vampires themselves. If not for his premonition through the BGM Glitch, dodging it would have been impossible.
Magnus sidestepped the blade, his eyes tracking its path as it cut through the forest behind him. Strangely, it didn't seem to cut the ground, nor did it slice through the grass, shrubbery, or trees. But it did affect them. Almost instantly, the grass withered, its green hue fading into a dull, lifeless gray. The trees, too, shriveled and lost their color where the blade had passed. And it didn't stop there—though the blade quickly vanished into the forest's shadows, Magnus could have sworn it seemed to grow larger for a brief moment.
An attack spell that can drain life from living things and use it to boost its own power? Is it some form of transmutation? Is that even possible? Turning things like water and nutrients into mana? Hmm, regardless of how it works, an attack like that would be perfect for crowd control. I wonder if I could copy it when all of this is wrapped up.
The advantage of [Combat Assistant] was that Magnus could think freely without worrying about his actions, even in a situation like this. Despite missing his initial strike, the vampiric man used the opportunity to close in. Within the same instant Magnus dodged, the vampire lunged, fingers extended like daggers, sharpened nails aiming straight for Magnus's head. There was hardly any conscious thought on Magnus's part, even when those nails were mere centimeters from his eyes.
Yet, [Combat Assistant] kept up even at these speeds. His hand formed a blade-like shape, fingers tight together, as mana rapidly condensed around them.
Mana shifted, forming almost instantly into a meter-long water blade extending from his hand. His arm moved with blinding speed. Though the vampire's attack was dangerously close, it didn't cover even a centimeter more before Magnus's blade struck. The force of the swing and the water's sharp condensation sliced clean through the vampire's tough body, separating his upper and lower halves, leaving a crisp, water-laced trail that distilled even the falling rain.
The top half of the vampiric man's body flew over Magnus, carried by the momentum of his charge, while his lower half crumpled at Magnus's feet. But Magnus's focus wasn't on the corpse. The moment he cut through the vampiric man, the woman—who had been hiding behind him, using his bulk to obscure Magnus's view—lunged forward. His body moved again under the [Combat Assistant]'s control.
He hadn't used magic while sparring with Gerald, so naturally, the [Combat Assistant] lacked an optimized approach for the water blade. Magnus was still far from crafting efficient fighting styles on the fly, but it was enough to deflect the vampiric woman's initial jab at his throat.
They always go for the vitals when they're serious about killing their target. That makes them predictable.
That observation was instantly archived and fed into the [Combat Assistant], making her next two strikes—aimed at his heart and ribs—even easier to counter.
"Blackout!"
A voice echoed from behind. Darkness erupted from thin air, swallowing the water blade around Magnus's hand. In an instant, the blade dissolved, dispersing into the natural flow of mana. Magnus glanced down—his feet were still planted near the vampiric man's decomposing lower half, which rapidly turned into that eerie dark fog. Behind him, the vampiric man had already regenerated a new lower body and was charging forward, having nullified Magnus's water elementrix magic.
[Combat Assistant] immediately identified the best ways to dodge. Each strike from the two vampires came like a spear, slicing through the air. While their nails alone might not have pierced Magnus's body, the force behind each blow made them dangerous. His body moved with precise minimalism, shifting just enough to avoid each attack as they targeted vital points. He twisted, turned, and adjusted his footing with mechanical precision. In mere seconds, nearly a hundred strikes were launched in rapid succession, yet none found their mark.
How is a human capable of moving like that?
The thought seemed to echo between the vampires.
We haven't hit him once! His muscle contractions don't even match his actions. We can't predict his moves.
Realizing they needed to immobilize him, the vampiric woman abandoned her strikes and lunged with open arms, aiming to grab hold of him. For a brief moment, [Combat Assistant] paused. With limited data on avoiding grapples, it shifted to offense. Magnus's palm strike seemed to come from nowhere—no wind-up, no stance, just raw, unbridled force.
His palm collided with her face, not just crushing it inward but tearing at her neck. The impact rang out, echoing over the rain as a miniature shockwave rippled through Magnus's clothes and the woman's cloak. Her head flew into the air, and her body went limp. Without hesitation, Magnus seized one of her arms, yanking it off with such force that the limb tore free before the rest of her body could even react.
He spun on his heel, swinging the severed limb toward the space behind him.
The vampiric man, closing in, barely ducked under the swing, bending back just out of reach. But [Combat Assistant] didn't let up. Magnus darted forward, releasing the rapidly decomposing arm. The vampire had no time to react as Magnus's hand clamped onto his head. This time, there was no slam to the ground. Instead, Magnus's fingers tightened, empowered by the absolute force of the Command Console's [Self Body Puppetry].
A sickening pop followed. The vampiric man's skull cracked and caved in, one eye bulging and bursting as Magnus's fingers sank into the unsettling mix of bone and brain. Yet there was no disgust, no hesitation. [Combat Assistant] remained in control, keeping Magnus's expression perfectly neutral as he used his grip to hurl the vampire's body toward the woman.
Her headless body hadn't hit the ground. Just like before, it stood upright, dark fog outlining where her head should have been.
The two bodies slammed into each other as Magnus took back control of his body and extended his hand toward them. What happened next shifted the wind itself—an incomprehensibly massive amount of mana materialized from thin air and condensed rapidly. Right in front of Magnus, mana transformed into vast swaths of ice. Raindrops froze mid-air, encapsulated within the growing, sharp, and jagged icicles that pierced into everything before them. Layer upon layer, the ice expanded, each sheet larger than the last, building into a towering wall of frost.
The vampires' bodies were shredded by the jagged ice, only to be frozen solid a heartbeat later. When it was over, Magnus stood before a monumental structure of ice, its sheer size dwarfing the surrounding trees. The frozen wall soared over thirty meters into the sky, engulfing more than fifty meters of the path he had been walking on. If not for the rapid breakdown of elementrix magic, who knew how long it would take for all this ice to melt?
Magnus let out a calm hum, his chest vibrating softly as he stared into the crystalline wall. Within the ice, he could see the dismembered remains of the two vampires, their bodies fragmented and frozen in place. Yet, the dark fog surrounding them still moved, swirling slowly within its icy prison causing Magnus to narrow his eyes in observation.
A moment later, their bodies began to melt. Solid forms faded into a murky black, textures and colors dissolving into a formless shadow. Finally, the remnants vanished entirely. Magnus turned casually, his gaze settling on the ground behind him. A shadow slithered across the earth, shifting and growing until it solidified once more into the figures of the two vampires. The black fog continued to swirl around them, reassembling their shattered forms until they stood whole again.
Watching the entire process, Magnus tapped his chin thoughtfully, his expression pensive. Then, a realization struck him.
"Ah, I see. So that's how it is," he muttered under his breath.
"We told you there was no point. You can't defeat us," the vampiric woman said, her voice smooth and unhurried. Despite the battle, not a hint of fatigue showed. A vampire's stamina was truly limitless.
"If you simply surrender to your fate, your death will at least be quick." Magnus shook his head.
"So that's why you two keep trying to get me to surrender above all else. I suppose I would do the same—convince your opponent you can fight forever, so they don't realize they aren't even battling your real bodies." The moment the words left his mouth, the vampires' faces froze.
Magnus's eyes narrowed, his gaze sweeping the empty space around them.
"I didn't notice it at first, but that dark fog—and even the strange substance you use for your magic—fades in and out. It's visible when you cast a spell or heal your wounds, but gone the next moment. I wouldn't have thought much of it if I hadn't noticed how the parts of your body that get separated from you decompose back into that fog. And not only that, but the fog has been thinning. Even though you're still regenerating at the same rate as when we first started fighting, the fog healing your wounds isn't as pitch-black as before. If my guess is correct, it's because you're transmuting it into the materials that make up your bodies, right?"
The vampires stayed silent. They didn't move, but their lack of response was all the confirmation Magnus needed.
"It's common knowledge that when certain things are condensed, they become easier to see, even if they're normally transparent. I don't know exactly what that dark fog is, but it seems like some kind of energy to me. Normally, it stays within your body, surrounding them like an aura, which is why you don't bleed when you're injured. There's not a drop of blood in your veins. Instead, there's just that dark fog. The reason you look so much like lifeless corpses, and why you can seemingly die and come back to life, is because that's exactly what you are. Corpses, controlled by your actual bodies."
Matter and energy, in many ways, could be equated to one another, and, likewise, they could be converted into one another as well.
The dark fog was like a massive entity made of energy, typically invisible until it condensed into a tight space. However, operating in the physical world as pure energy was difficult. Some of that energy had to be transformed into matter to build a body. Without the fog, the body would be nothing more than an empty shell. But with it, the body functioned like a sock puppet, allowing the sentient energy to interact with the world.
That was the true nature of vampires.
Why could they seemingly come back to life and appear immortal? Because the bodies people saw were nothing more than avatars of what they truly were—disposable, rebuildable, temporary vessels. But creating those bodies required energy, and the more they were forced to heal themselves, the more of their true form's energy was consumed.
That meant the only way to truly kill a vampire, then, was either to target their true bodies—masses of sentient energy—or force them to exhaust their reserves. The former was difficult since energy couldn't be created or destroyed, only converted. But if they used up all their energy, then that would be their end.
"Which means," Magnus continued, "as long as I drain your reserves quickly enough and destroy your physical bodies completely, you'll lose the ability to recreate yourselves. That's why you keep decomposing the parts of you that get destroyed or ripped off, isn't it? If you could really regenerate without limits, there'd be no reason to do that."
They were beings of energy. If they could convert energy into matter, they could likely do the opposite as well. To conserve resources, reclaiming the energy used from destroyed body parts made perfect sense. But no conversion was perfect. The act of conversion itself, along with the destruction of the body, naturally led to a loss of energy.
Something minuscule at first—but repeated enough times, it would snowball into a massive deficit.
Entropy.
Their magic made more sense to Magnus now. It wasn't magic in the typical sense, but rather them using their true forms to interfere with mana. After all, mana was another form of energy. While they couldn't seem to absorb it to sustain themselves, they could disrupt it to negate spells.
"Now then. I suppose we should put an end to this, don't you agree?" Magnus held out his hand, and in an instant, layers of mana barriers began to form around the two vampires. Dozens, then hundreds, materialized—so tightly packed and layered that their varying luminescence made it difficult to see through.
The two vampires, previously silent to Magnus's deductions about their true nature, immediately went on guard.
With a snap of his fingers, the mana barriers surrounding them were suddenly filled to the brim with tightly condensed spheres—not just of flames but of crackling electricity as well. There had to be dozens of them, each element compressed to the point of instability, sparking and pulsing as if ready to explode.
The vampires reacted quickly, both speaking in unison.
"Blackout!"
In an instant, darkness swallowed the spheres. Magnus watched as their familiar shadowy aura coated the elementrix magic. He suspected it wasn't just a high-density form of the dark fog but rather their incorporeal bodies interfering directly with the mana formations.
"Using magic against us is pointless," the vampiric man declared, his eyes darting around the barriers as if searching for a weakness.
"Oh, really?" Magnus snapped his fingers again. Once more, condensed spheres of fire and electricity appeared within the barriers—this time not in the dozens, but in the hundreds.
"Wha- how much mana does he have?" The vampiric woman muttered, both vampires again attempting to snuff out the magic with their anti-magic ability. But before the spheres could fully disappear, Magnus snapped his fingers yet again. The number of elementrix spheres doubled, filling the barriers with a near-blinding array of volatile energy.
So, you can nullify my magic? So what?
Magnus's thoughts were calm and methodical.
Against that other vampire woman, I struggled with her physical abilities combined with her vampiric powers. But with these two? All I need to do is show them what it means to wield the equivalent of infinite mana.
The vampires trapped within the barriers began to panic. They frantically nullified the elementrix magic, but they were too slow, far slower in comparison to the woman Magnus had fought, their lady, who had sent them. For every hundred spheres they extinguished, Magnus conjured two hundred more. When they managed to handle those, he doubled, even tripled the count again.
It was a losing battle, and they knew it. Their desperation showed as their bodies began to melt, just as they had before when encased in ice.
"As if I'd let you," Magnus muttered.
"Since I know now that you're just turning your bodies into a different state of energy when you do that, I'll make sure you can't escape through the ground." He clenched his fist, and instantly, the hundreds of mana barriers contracted. The barriers pressed in tight, blocking every route to the ground. At the same moment, the countless condensed spheres of elementrix magic ignited.
An intense, blinding light exploded from within the barriers. Mana barrier layers shattered under the force of the blast as a chaotic mix of fire and lightning burst outward. The sound was deafening, a cataclysmic roar that blended with the thunderstorm overhead. Beams of light shot out in every direction, splitting the rain-soaked night with elemental fury.
Magnus narrowed his eyes, turning his head slightly while maintaining the remaining stable mana barriers. The entire area around him, even the shadowy forest, was lit up as if a miniature sun had been born.
It took about three minutes for the explosion within the barriers to finally subside. Since it was a contained magical blast, there was no lingering smoke to obscure his view as he approached the barriers. All the while, he continued to shrink them until they were about the size of a human head.
Peering into the small sphere of layered mana barriers, he saw two writhing masses of dark fog inside. They thrashed against the barriers, but their efforts amounted to nothing.
Capture complete. I thought they might have something else up their sleeves, but I guess I overestimated them. Seems they can't communicate while they're in this state either. Well, whatever—as long as they can't get out. Mana barriers and constructs block energy-based attacks all the time, but I wasn't sure if they'd work as containment.
Of course, using brute force or anti-magic could work as an option to get through the barriers. Mana constructs and barriers weren't invincible, especially against vampires. But right now, these two were too drained to even think about it, let alone recreate their bodies. Unless they found a way to recover energy, they would remain trapped like this.
With a quick motion, Magnus created additional layers of mana construct spheres around the mana barriers, then dismissed the original barriers. While mana constructs lacked the sheer durability of his barriers, they had the advantage of mobility. Unlike barriers, his constructs could be moved around, which was precisely what he needed.
The constructs floated up to hover beside him, the improvised cage holding the dark fog securely. Magnus glanced around, his expression thoughtful.
Hmm, I don't see anything. Then again, considering how elusive these vampires are, who knows if more are watching me? But the BGM has stopped, so I guess I'm not at risk of being attacked, at least for now. I should focus on getting these two back to Arlcliff City.
With the mana construct umbrella still hovering above him, Magnus resumed his walk toward Arlcliff City. The rain washed away the remnants of the battle as any lingering elementrix magic decomposed around him.
As he walked, the music that had been playing in the back of his mind with Basker's assistance started up again, the melody shifting smoothly into a new song. Magnus began to bob his head to the beat, a quiet smile crossing his lips as he started singing under his breath.
"Sometimes, all I think about is you~♩"