Chapter 163: Chapter 163: The Vessel of Sinner

Andrew tried to strike Mika again, but the monsters behind them suddenly lurched forward.

One snapped its red strings toward him with a sharp whip-like sound. He knew exactly what those threads could do. If they latched onto him, his body would be a puppet in seconds.

Fortunately, the newly planted Vitalis Core inside him pulsed, activating his Elemental Bloodstyle.

Three small flames hovered around him like impatient spirits. They fired bursts of burning arrows and scorched the strings before they touched his skin.

The creature recoiled in panic as the flames chased along its body, catching its limbs and setting it ablaze.

The second monster lunged with its claws raised. Andrew blocked it with his bone sword and pushed it back.

He cut through its abdomen in one motion, but the creature shrieked loudly enough to make his ears ring. Warm blood dripped from his ear canals as he staggered.

"Enough," he snarled.

He drove his blade into the monster’s chest. Black blood gushed out and the creature went limp, collapsing in its own spreading pool.

Andrew’s breaths came rough and uneven. One monster burned. The other lay twitching on the ground.

It should have felt like victory, yet pain began to pulse through his entire body. He coughed hard and blood splattered on the stone floor.

Mika’s voice drifted toward him, amused and almost gentle. "Ahh, the walking dead. Even as a prophet, I do not understand why you are still alive."

Andrew barely had time to look up before Mika appeared in front of him. He swung his sword, but it cut only empty air. The old man moved like smoke slipping through cracks.

"You really are a strange existence," Mika said.

He appeared to Andrew’s left and watched him swing again at nothing.

"A man who keeps moving for the sake of a family that hates him."

Andrew inhaled deeply. "Stop disappearing and stop playing with me."

Mika shook his head with almost paternal disappointment. "If I stop, you will die. And it is not time for you to die. Which makes it a perfect moment to begin your punishment."

He appeared again, closer than before. Andrew froze as he glimpsed something reflected in Mika’s eyes. It was not the mine. It was not Mika’s face. It was his past.

. . .

"We will hold this side so they cannot reach your wife," his friend said. The young man’s eyes were filled with stubborn bravery.

Andrew had laughed. "Relax. They cannot defeat us. Of all the Seven Great Covenants, this is the weakest."

A sigh echoed behind him. A woman their age shook her head with visible exasperation. "Still underestimating your enemies, I see. You have a wife and a son, Damien, but you never learn."

She was his friend’s fiancée. Their wedding had been planned for the following season.

"Why are you here?" his friend said. "You should be guarding the south. What if something happens to you?"

"We lack manpower. I refuse to sit safely in the rear." She grinned and held her lover’s wrist. "I would rather fight beside you."

Andrew shrugged and turned away. "Good for you two."

"Where are you going?" his friend called.

"To see my wife and my son. Just in case." He waved lazily. "I will return tonight."

. . .

"But you never returned," Mika said. The serene smile on his face held nothing but cruelty.

"You left your friends to die. The survivors still carry the trauma. One left behind a dead fiancée. What is your defense, Damien?"

Andrew faltered. He could not answer. The memory never faded. It clung to him like a permanent stain, the same burden that kept him moving even now.

"What does it matter?" he finally said. "No matter what I say, you will punish me. It is the same as that day. I had two choices. If I stayed, my family would die. I ran. That is what I chose."

"Even when it meant betraying your other family?" Mika chuckled.

"Humans are fascinating. Many abandon their families for power. Yet you tried to protect yours and lost every one of them. But you still stand and dare to challenge me."

He tilted his head slightly. "Why?"

The question hung heavy in the air. Andrew opened his mouth and closed it again. It took a moment before he finally answered.

"Because I am human. We endure."

The fire orbs behind Mika suddenly moved. One shot an arrow that grazed Mika’s arm, earning a flash of irritation across the old man’s face.

Andrew seized the moment and charged. Mika caught the bone sword with one hand and crushed it into powder as if it were chalk.

"Guilty or not, punishment is necessary." Mika lifted his hand.

A force like a solid wall slammed into Andrew and hurled him across the mine. His body crashed against the stone, and he felt something crack. Blood dripped freely down his torso. His arm was pinned by a sharp rock.

Before he could breathe again, Mika was already standing before him.

"Now," Mika murmured, "I wonder what punishment suits a nuisance like you."

***

"So what’s that crest actually? My dad found it in the Oprichin village. The villagers looked like they worshiped it."

Seamus asked X, who sat in front of him casually devouring chips and all the snacks he had prepared for this "meeting."

Unlike Madeline, X never wants to be disturbed. He only agreed to show up because the Corvane had been defeated and the crest was finally found. Even so, he seemed more interested in food than conversation.

He sprawled on the couch with the TV still playing loudly. Seamus sighed and turned the TV off.

"Hey! What’s wrong with you?!"

X snapped upright, frowning, clutching his chips like Seamus had just kicked a puppy.

"Just answer me," Seamus said, already grabbing the chips out of X’s hands.

"They need help. They don’t understand what they’re dealing with. And I won’t give you the ice cream either."

"Do not threaten me like that." X crossed his arms dramatically. "Fine, I’ll talk." He snapped his fingers, and the world shifted.

They stood in his domain, an endless white expanse that felt like silence made physical.

"The crest is called the Vessel of Sinners." X floated lazily in the air even while lecturing.

"It has two purposes: to weigh sins, and to absorb all sins placed into it. That’s why I can’t punish anyone without it. Now tell me everything."

Seamus nodded and explained everything. Isolde had called him after class, saying it was an emergency.

He rushed to meet her at night, where she told him what happened in Oprichin village... and what happened to his father.

X rubbed his chin, his expression finally serious. "Rowena might have done the dumbest thing she has ever done. This will turn into a disaster."

"What do you mean?" Seamus tensed. "Are they in danger? Should we go there? But it’s so far—"

"Calm down." X grabbed his shoulder firmly.

"Rowena split the crest into two. The half your father encountered is the most dangerous and annoying part of the crest. Something made it leak. That is why the land and people are corrupted."

He squeezed Seamus’s shoulder harder. "Think of black ink dropped in water. That part of the crest is full of sins, something dark like an abyss. Now imagine it has consciousness and try to find a new purpose."

That’s what happened to that poor village. The corruption spreads. The crest will keep infecting everything. Which is why we need Madeline. She has the All-Seeing Mirror."

The domain around them cracked and dissolved. Seamus didn’t even wait for it to fade fully. He sprinted for the library while X slipped neatly back into his body.

Inside the library, Madeline was already seated on a sofa near the window. She had sweets, tea, and a book resting open on her lap. She narrowed her eyes the moment Seamus burst in.

"What does that hobo want now?" she muttered and closed her book.

"I need your help. X said you have the All-Seeing Mirror. Can you find my dad?" Seamus rushed forward without pause.

X appeared behind him, waving at Madeline. She frowned at him like he was a stray dog someone brought inside.

"Alright," she said. "Tell me everything slowly. And breathe."

X stepped in. "The crest is leaking. The sins of vampires infected the land and everyone in it. We need to stop it immediately."

Madeline’s eyes widened. She nodded once. She raised her hands and swept them through the air. Three glass flower buds materialized, blooming into elegant mirrors.

"Show me where Andrew Danford is."

One mirror glowed. Andrew appeared inside it, bleeding heavily, cornered, his bone sword shattered.

"What the hell happened..." Seamus whispered. "Can we talk to him through this?"

"We can do more than talk." Madeline stepped closer, her voice sharpening.

"We can intervene immediately. You need to go. And you—" she pointed at X, "I know you understand that crest. You will deal with it."

The air around them thickened with urgency.

The rescue had already begun.