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"I think… it\'s the vampire."

Erika\'s words silenced the group. 

She took a look before shaking her head. "I mean, I don\'t know. I know this can happen, but we saw the vampire\'s zombie. It shouldn\'t be like this!"

"There\'s another then?" Claude posed. That seemed like the most plausible explanation to him. "It couldn\'t have powered up all of a sudden now, could it?"

Speculations were afloat, but they were just that. 

"Then, how do we solve this?" Jamie asked this time. "Do we take them all down? How?"

Elric saw that Kone had already been introduced to Erika, but didn\'t say anything. 

"I am not sure… We\'ll need to talk to a priest."

"Then let\'s go to the church!" Elric suggested.

A frown spread on Claude\'s face at those words. He wanted to avoid any interactions with these gods whatsoever. It was then that the amulet hanging from his neck started to shake, like a small trapped bird trying to struggle free.

"OH!" In a voice that only he could hear, the lord of shadows called out yet again. "Is that a vampire I smell?!"

Claude\'s brows popped up. 

"You know about vampires?"

"I do, it seems like you want to know, little Claude."

"Yeah. Spit it."

"Don\'t wanna."

"Hm?" Erika thought it was her he talked to, but was stopped by Elric before she could intervene. Elric had a bright smile on his face as he closed in toward Claude.

"Claude, Claude, is it him?" Elric asked.

"Ah! AAH! This boy is still around?" The Lord of Shadows screamed. "Claude! Do not, I repeat, do not hand me over to that man!"

Claude started removing the amulet.

"Claude! Claude! Child, stop! I command you to halt right now."

"Here you go Elric, he wants to have a chat."

The others could only stare at the two, who might as well be performing a circus routine or exhibiting what delusions were like. Someone else, though, was suffering deeply.

"CLAUDE! Stop! Stop!! I\'ll tell you! I\'ll tell you everything, so not that boy, please!"

Claude brought the purple stone to his eyes and muttered. 

"I\'ll hold you up to that."

"Yes… yes… phew…"

***

Claude brought his gang to a different spot, away from the eyes of the guests in the lobby, and crossed his arms.

"Now, speak."

"Who are you talking with, seriously."

"I told you, Jamie, he\'s not normal. How can a normal person be with a crazy like Elric for so long?"

"You\'re right, they\'re both gone in the head. Completely."

The red-haired boy ignored the mutters like he would the barks of dogs. 

"Ahem," the lord of shadows faked a cough. "It is a tale, from the time those wretched beings\' paws weren\'t enough to reach mine. When both, the demons and the humans feared me as the greatest evil—ACK! STOP! SPINNING! ME!"

Claude obliged and instead smacked the amulet against the wall. It wouldn\'t break, so he could go all out.

Tears seemed to be streaming out of the stone at the center as the Lord of Shadows cried in fear.

"To the point. What are those zombies, how do we defeat them? Now."

"Yes. Alright. Just wait till I get my hands on your body." The Lord of Shadows heaved a sigh while Erika and the rest continued staring, bewildered. 

To think that an item was cursed with a soul was already an absurd thought to even enter their minds. Erika held faint suspicion that Claude held Ego Equipment, but those were so rare that even Devon, the leader of the heroes, couldn\'t get one.

"I don\'t think there\'s a new vampire, for one. You see, there\'s a common thought that vampires get strong when they drink blood, but that\'s not true. There are two ways to change a person into a vampire\'s pawn, by extreme exposure to their mist, or biting their neck."

Claude felt the need to confirm this.

"Hey, Erika. Do vampires make zombies through their mist?"

Erika nodded meekly. 

"That, and bites," she said. "They also grow stronger with blood."

So Elric had almost turned into a zombie back there. Probably not.

"Alright, continue."

"Yes, so, it\'s not the vampire that grows strong, but it\'s pawn. A pawn made from a bite will not just lose all control, but it would also start rapidly consuming flesh and turning more into the same type."

"Zombies…"

"Strange name," the Lord of Shadows remarked. "Your best bet is to kill the vampire, they\'ll stop moving soon too. In control or not, they\'re still pawns."

A sigh left Claude.

Fighting the zombies would be useless now. As they thought, killing the vampire is the best method.

"The vampire dying will leave us free of these zombies." Claude announced. "If I knew this was going to happen I wouldn\'t have stayed here."

Puzo leaned forward at those words.

"Mr. Claude, the entire city is at risk."

"There\'s more at stake here," Erika intervened. "If we don\'t hand over that thing now, who knows when we\'ll get another chance. Even if not hand it over, we can\'t let things be ruined at this place. Even if it means I have to die."

This was getting more and more complicated. Claude didn\'t really want to be involved in all this.

He turned to look at Elric, and found Elric staring back at him.

Whenever things mattered, whenever times when both of their lives were at stake came around, Elric only trusted Claude\'s words and decisions.

Things were beyond just them. A whole city\'s worth of people was dying, and from Erika\'s words, it seemed to be even worse than just that.

But…

But he didn\'t have any responsibility to look after them. He only had to look after himself and Elric.

Just himself… and Elric.

No one else.

"We\'ll help." Quinton and Jamie said. "We don\'t know what you\'re upto, miss, but we can\'t just turn a blind to this city."

"Thank you," Erika said. "I am ready to lay my life down here too. But I\'d prefer not to die."

The group then turned toward Claude, but that boy looked at no one but Elric.

"Haah…" Claude sighed. "Let\'s go and get that vampire. But the moment I think we\'re in danger, we\'re getting the fuck out of there."

Smiles spilled from the rest as Claude grabbed his head.

"So, how do we move? There\'s way too many of these zombies around." 

Quinton\'s words brought a sombre air again.

"How about the windows?" Elric said. 

"Good idea, there should be any back there."

Just wait, rude old man.