Chapter 43: Chapter 40: Crime and Punishment
"L, what have you done!?"
The Baron sensed something was wrong with the Demon Hunter. Now that he was beginning to wield his Authority again, he could perceive the change in the young man.
’Blood...’ He could feel all the blood-tinged energy in the grand hall spontaneously converging on the Demon Hunter!
The red vapor swirled around the young man, hazy like a visible wall of crimson wind, before transforming into fine red threads that all drilled into the Demon Hunter’s body.
The Demon Hunter breathed in and out. His breaths sometimes carried sparks of fire, other times a bloody aura, reminiscent of a dying giant dragon.
Struggling, yet roaring.
"What have I done...? Just something I’ve always wanted to do but never dared..."
Baron’s crimson-stained eyes flashed back to a brilliant gold in an instant.
He clutched his face with both hands and fell to his knees, looking up at the ceiling. A sound like an old bellows wheezed from his throat, like the laughter of a demon.
’My head hurts so much... It feels like it’s about to split open... It’s as if two little people are fighting inside my nerves...’
’One is saying the Knight Law must not be blasphemed, while the other says the Demon Hunter Law will punish all blasphemy and all who are blasphemed...’
The essences of the two Professional Laws were warring in his mind. It gave Baron the feeling of working overtime late at night on a script until his head was about to split, only to have the director criticize it, saying any script that didn’t understand current market demands was complete trash.
’But that useless director... what the hell does he know about scripts!’
The two noisy little people stopped and watched him in silence.
One was brilliant gold, the other fiery crimson.
They said, "Why do you want to live?"
"Heh..." the young man said to himself. "That’s as abstract as asking why people have to die."
"You’re insane! You’re truly insane! To sign two Professional Laws at the same time... I’ve never seen such a thing..." the Baron snarled. "There has never been an Old Race like this on the entire Prole Continent!!!"
"Insane... Yeah... I think being a madman is pretty good... At least this way, no one will call me a fucking idiot anymore."
The Baron and Teresa fell silent. It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the words—known formally as Chinese—that came from the Demon Hunter’s mouth, but that they saw the expression on his face as he said them.
An expression of anger, sorrow, indignation—a look as heartbroken as a child’s.
The Baron practically roared, though even he didn’t know why:
"Knight and Demon Hunter cannot coexist! No one can master two professions! A single person’s soul and spirit are only enough to form a contract with one Third Law profession! Your soul will be annihilated, and you will die!"
The little people said, "He’s right. You will die."
Blood streamed from Baron’s nose and mouth, but he started laughing, a hysterical madness ringing in his voice. "Isn’t that exactly what you want?"
Lost in a madness the Baron and the Nun couldn’t comprehend, he muttered to himself, "Come on! Keep fighting!"
He pointed to his temple. "Hit me right here."
"Hit me!" He struck his own forehead with the frame of his revolver, splattering blood wantonly on the ground.
"As expected. The two Professional Laws have driven him mad..." the Baron said coldly.
Though he said that, the Baron inwardly sighed in relief.
As much as he hated to admit it, the Demon Hunter’s insanity had truly startled him.
For a moment, he even suspected Baron wasn’t a Demon Hunter at all, but one of those lunatics from the Mad Blood Faction who’d fried their brains on drugs!
’Was it really worth all this? It’s just a fight he can’t win...’
The Baron looked at the young man kneeling on the ground—singing and laughing, raving and weeping—and waved a hand, ordering Teresa, "Put him out of his misery. A madman is no longer needed as a Blood Servant."
He then looked at his own hands, which were growing pale and delicate, and felt his body becoming young and vigorous again. He whispered, "I’ve finally reached this step."
Sister Teresa’s hand transformed into Sharp Claws. She looked with pity at the young man kneeling on the ground, who seemed to be asleep, yet also looked as if he were already dead.
"Mr. L, to think that in the end, I would be the one to send you to Hell."
"So noisy... What’s all this about Hell? Didn’t you hear me? As someone from China, I’m biased against Hell..."
The young man, who they thought was on the verge of death, suddenly snapped his head up. His Golden Eye was gradually overcome by a crimson red.
Then, his eyes instantly turning blood-red, Baron dodged Sister Teresa, who had seen things were going south and launched a sneak attack. Without a second word, he jumped into the Blood Pool!
"Stop him! Stop him!"
A sudden terror rose in the Baron’s heart. He frantically ordered Teresa, but it was already too late.
In the time it took to speak a single sentence, it was as if a massive pump had been dropped into the Blood Pool. It dried up in an instant, revealing the bones at the bottom.
The young man stood in the center of the pool. Moonlight shone down, his black clothes fluttering, a bloody red light flowing in his eyes.
He tilted his head back, revealing two sharp fangs, and whispered to the Baron below the altar, "Hey, your time is running out."
"You... you monster," the Baron said, trembling.
Unprecedented! A Law Enforcer who mastered two professions had actually appeared right here before him!
A sense of absurd unreality made both of them gasp. Teresa prayed piously, "It is a miracle of the Blood God."
"What does my hard work have to do with any God!"
Like a screaming arrow shot from a fully drawn bow, the young man shot forward! He descended from the heavens! Like blood, like fire! Unstoppable!
Teresa, who tried to block him, was sent flying with a single punch!
This time, with nothing in his way, Constantine successfully passed through the blood barrier. Like a hunting falcon, he appeared at the Baron’s side in an instant!
The Baron didn’t hesitate, speeding up his absorption of the Blood Race corpse. Fists hammered again and again against the blood barrier that had reappeared around him, sending out strange, bloody ripples.
Still, he couldn’t break through!
The Baron sneered from within the barrier. "It’s too late! Once I become a Viscount... even if you’re an unprecedented dual-classer, it will all be for nothing!"
Constantine, however, did not waver. As if remembering something, he looked at the remains of the Blood Race member on the Cross. The Dragon Eye and Blood Eye intertwined in his vision, forming a cross of their own.
’The Entry Tier ritual for a Blood Demon Hunter isn’t complete yet. It said another Blood Race corpse is needed... but the problem is, it didn’t say how the corpse was supposed to be used...’
Baron looked at the Baron, who was enveloped in bloody light, and understood that he couldn’t stop the ritual once it had begun... The little people proposed a crazy idea...
The Baron saw the Demon Hunter smile.
He was suddenly terrified. An unprecedented fear washed over him like a tidal wave.
"L! What are you doing!"
"What else can I do!"
Demon Hunter L, or perhaps Dragon Knight Constantine, looked at the corpse hanging on the Cross and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"It’s time to snatch your meal, of course!"
The moment he spoke, flames compressed and exploded under his feet like a firestorm, launching him toward the Cross!
The Demon Hunter’s entire body was wreathed in fire. He instantly ignited the Blood Race remains, and the smell of roasting meat filled the grand hall.
Driven by the shocked and horrified gazes of Teresa and the Baron, by the words ’Eat it!’ from the little people flooding his mind, and by an uncontrollable hunger rising from the pit of his stomach!
Baron Constantin grabbed the Blood Race remains and began to devour them!!!
"Madman! You’re a madman!!"
The Baron discovered in horror that as the Demon Hunter ate, not only were the Blood Race remains disappearing, but the burgeoning power within his own body was also rapidly fading away!
He wanted to call for Teresa, but the Nun hadn’t yet recovered from the Demon Hunter’s previous violent blow.
He wanted to stop Baron, but because the ritual, once started, could not be interrupted, he was trapped in place by the very barrier that was supposed to protect him.
He could only watch helplessly as Baron, like a starving beast, ravenously devoured the Blood Race remains, leaving nothing behind!!!
The barrier vanished. The Baron collapsed to the floor. As the source of his power faded, he reverted to the bloated, fat man he once was, squirming on the ground like a seal struggling to get ashore.
Having eaten his fill, Baron dropped down from the Cross. He walked up to the Baron, who had lost his divine glow, and calmly yanked the bloodstained cravat from his chest to wipe his mouth.
After a moment of silence, he said lightly, "A little tough."
Those words were the last straw.
"You lunatic!!!"
The Baron shrieked and thrust out the Cross, but like Teresa’s dagger before it, the weapon was caught by one of Constantine’s gun barrels.
This time, it was not fire. Instead, blood coalesced around the barrel of his other gun, forming a Blood Blade.
Constantine raised his guns. His two blades plunged downward and inward, one piercing the top of the Baron’s head, the other his left shoulder.
Fire and Blood intertwined, a magnificent and cruel cross.
A pity it was not Christ nailed to it, but the Baron.
"Why...? Why go this far for a bunch of people who have nothing to do with you...? I know... you’re not a good person at your core..."
Listening to the sound of his own bones shattering, feeling the Blood Race power within him begin to dissipate, the Baron used the last of his strength to speak.
"But I’m not a bad person, either,"
the Demon Hunter said lightly, his eyes alternating between dripping blood and burning like fire.
"But if you must have a reason... the only reason I’ve gone this far..."
He leaned close to the Baron’s ear and whispered, "is for the anger and frustration in my heart... and for a girl’s innocence."
He pulled the trigger. A fiery blast erupted from the blade. He withdrew the Spear Sword, and the corpse collapsed with a heavy thud, the sound echoing in the empty hall.
Then he turned to face Teresa and the other Nuns emerging from all corners of the hall. They were all familiar faces he had seen at the Blood Church—unbeknownst to him, Mundra Town had already been infiltrated by the Nuns of the Blue Blood Faction.
He held his twin guns like swords, fire and blood swirling over them to form sharp blades.
Like a god nodding and whispering, "Come. I shall grant you the sin and punishment you deserve."
—
