Westminster Bank

Chapter 42: Chapter 39: Red Pupils

It all happened so fast, Baron didn’t even have time to react.

By the time he had put three more shots into the Baron’s chest and one in his head, and turned back to try and save her...

Miss Eliza had already been lifted high by the Blood Demon and thrown into the Blood Pool.

Baron’s eyes widened. He saw the water in the Blood Pool erupt from the falling body, like a reverse waterfall, and beneath it lay the bones of children. freewebnovёl.ƈom

The Blood Demon... or rather, Sister Teresa, licked the splattered blood from her fingertips and looked tenderly at Baron. "Mr. L, I’ve come from Hell to find you."

Baron’s answer was the crack of a gunshot.

The Blood Demon, caught off guard, had hole after hole punched into her body by the Alchemy Bullets.

She had been about to mock him, to say that ordinary bullets were useless against a Blood Demon. But then, intense pain erupted from all over her body as the bullets embedded in her flesh exploded.

She was shocked to find that the Magic Power circulating through her body had slowed.

These custom-made Magnum Bullets from Bagins didn’t just explode. Their Gunpowder was also mixed with compressed mercury, which would obstruct the flow of Magic Power once inside a target’s body.

Even a Faith Knight—what Bagins would call a monster of flesh and bone—would be rendered powerless once their Spiritual Power was cut off.

However, Bagins had also said that the hardest part of the fight was actually getting the Alchemy Bullets into their bodies.

Therefore, Baron had opted for a dishonorable sneak attack.

The half-assed Demon Hunter kicked the Baron’s corpse toward the Blood Pool, emptied both of his revolvers’ Alchemy Bullets in an instant, and then reached for his Broken Blade... only to grasp at empty air.

Baron snapped back to his senses. The Broken Blade had fallen into the Blood Pool with the Baron...

No, wait!

Looking at Teresa, her body riddled with wounds from the exploding Alchemy Bullets, Baron suddenly realized that he had never heard the splash of the Baron falling into the Blood Pool behind him!

He whipped his head around.

Sure enough, the Baron, like a beached seal, had finally struggled his way ashore.

He crawled slowly but surely toward the altar beneath the Bloodline Viscount’s corpse, a trail of his blood dragging behind him like a red carpet.

An inexplicable rage and panic seized Baron’s heart, pushing aside all thoughts of Mercy, sorrow, and pity.

He knew, no matter what, that he had to stop the Baron from reaching that altar!

The moment the thought formed, he acted without the slightest hesitation.

Teresa hadn’t even launched her attack yet. Baron had already pulled out the Iron Thorn he’d snatched from Savina, saying, "Sister Teresa, I believe you’re a good person. Why are you helping a tyrant?"

As he spoke, he lit the Iron Thorn’s Arrowhead with his Dragon Flame and hurled it at Sister Teresa. The Arrowhead sank into the Blood Demon’s wound with a sizzling, burning sound.

But the Blood Demon pulled out the Arrowhead, unafraid of the flames. She drew a sharp blade. Her black wings had been burned away, leaving only bone, but her expression held none of the malice of an Evil Ghost.

It was as gentle as ever as she said, "Mr. L... I like you... Let’s go to Hell together..."

After uttering what might be the bloodiest declaration of love in history, she ripped the bony wings from her back and charged.

"Sorry, I’m from China! And if a Chinese person is going down, we go to the Underworld!"

The two remaining Iron Thorns slid from Baron’s sleeves, and he used them to block the Blood Demon’s incoming blade!

At the same time, Dragon Flame erupted from his body. The Snow Pattern Steel of the Arrowheads began to melt under the intense heat, releasing thick clouds of steam.

The remnants of the Alchemy Bullets in the Blood Demon’s body were detonated by the flames. A smell of Gunpowder and burning flesh filled the air as the explosions threw her entire body backward.

Enough Alchemy Bullets to kill a Bronze Tier Dragon Crocodile on the spot had just gone off.

Yet she seemed oblivious, as if she’d forgotten the pain. She walked toward Baron step by step, her body a mangled human shape, robes torn, her face a mask of agonizing struggle.

Like a child who had just been scolded.

"It hurts... Mr. L... It hurts so much... Do you hate me that much? Just because I’m not pure anymore?"

In the moment Baron was stunned, the Nun lunged. She threw her head back and thrust with a dagger. The blade drove into the barrel of his revolver, and then snapped.

Baron held the Nun, who was beginning to transform back into the Blood Demon. A Fire Blade erupted from his revolver as he spoke in a hoarse voice:

"You’re stalling for time, aren’t you?"

Teresa whispered, "Camberra will become the new Bloodline Viscount under the light of the twin moons, just as planned. You’re too late..."

She pursed her lips. "You should go. I’ll get the Baron to promise he’ll spare Olivia’s life..."

"Why?" Baron said. "Why are you helping me?"

"Probably... because you once gave me half of your black bread," the Nun said.

"Yeah... but you killed the person who made the bread."

The Demon Hunter kicked the Nun away, launched himself off the edge of the Blood Pool, and dove toward the Cross like a Black Eagle striking its prey. Baron Camberra had just reached the foot of the altar.

He used the altar to pull himself up, turned to watch the approaching Demon Hunter with the Golden Eye, and instead of dodging, he spread his arms wide and let out two powerful cries:

"Blood! My Lord!"

Light shot down from the Cross—the light of the twin moons. It enveloped the altars on both sides, forming a transparent barrier that sealed off Sessi, the Baron, and the Blood Race corpse.

The Fire Blade struck the barrier without leaving a mark. Instead, the rebound force sent the Demon Hunter tumbling into the Blood Pool like a black butterfly in a rainstorm.

The Demon Hunter leaped out of the Blood Pool, without hesitation or discouragement.

He swung the Fire Blade on his gun, striking the barrier again and again in a rapid flurry of blows.

With each impact of the Fire Blade, ripples of fiery patterns spread across the transparent barrier, making it look like vermilion-colored glass.

"It’s useless. The ritual began a while ago. This is a ritual governed by blood; the Blood Law has already enveloped this place... Unless you possess another First Law, you will not be able to break this blood barrier..."

"Not even with the legendary ’Promise’ of a Dragon Knight."

From behind the barrier, Baron Camberra watched Baron. Through the Golden Eye and the raging flames, he too had identified Baron’s profession.

Or rather, it was precisely because of the Golden Eye that Baron’s profession was so easy to guess.

"Such a pure Golden Dragon Eye. You must be contracted to a pure-blooded member of the Dragon Race... I never thought that after the War of Laws, a human could still earn the approval of the Dragon Race. How rare."

As he spoke, the wounds on Baron Camberra’s body began to slowly heal.

It seemed he wasn’t... or rather, had never been an ordinary person.

The Demon Hunter remained silent, single-mindedly attacking the barrier with his Fire Blade. When the fire didn’t work, he used the blade’s edge. When the blade didn’t work, he fired his gun. When the gun ran out of bullets, he used an Iron Thorn. But the Iron Thorn just snapped against the barrier...

Baron confirmed that it was hopeless, but he still took the remaining Iron Thorn and repeatedly stabbed and scraped at the barrier. Even a futile effort was better than giving up.

"But why!?" Camberra suddenly roared. "Why are you doing this!? Aren’t you a Bounty Hunter? A Dragon Knight? What could possibly make you choose to fight me to the bitter end!"

Baron kept chipping away as he spoke. "Whatever the reason, it’s not for justice."

Camberra was stunned. He looked at the Nun in the distance, who had entered the Blood Pool and was absorbing blood to heal her injuries. Then he began to speak slowly.

"Sessi is my child. She has my blood. That’s why the ritual requires her."

Baron’s body shuddered. He watched as Camberra turned toward the altar, his words becoming disjointed.

"Eliza made a deal with me. In exchange for turning herself into a Blood Demon and poisoning Sessi’s throat to make her mute, I let Sessi go."

"But it was all just a delaying tactic. All I did was grant a brief moment of salvation during the long wait for the ritual."

He said forlornly, "I love Eliza. I love my wife. I love my daughter, Sessi. The reason I posted a bounty for the Divine Punishment Fire was because those villagers were trying to kill my daughter."

"I’m devastated that Eliza is dead, but what’s the use in being sad? L, half of your theory was right, but the other half was wrong. Completely and utterly wrong."

He looked at the Bloodline Count on the Cross, then rolled up his right pant leg, revealing a withered calf that seemed as if it didn’t belong to him.

"You’re a real great husband and father, then."

Baron’s tone was dripping with sarcasm. His gaze flickered between the mutilated body of the Bloodline Viscount on the Cross and the Baron’s own body.

He saw it all. The so-called ’lame’ Baron was just another disguise. That leg was the missing part of the Bloodline Viscount’s corpse.

And somehow, the Baron had grafted it onto himself!

Baron Camberra murmured to himself. Bathed in the moonlight, the Blood Race corpse on the Cross began to slowly dissolve, like snow melting in the sun.

At the same time, his own bloated, stout body began to stretch and transform.

In the distance, on the other Cross, Sessi’s brow furrowed, and she began to moan in pain. She probably thought she was having a nightmare... No, what nightmare could be crueler than a father trying to kill his own daughter!

The Baron’s eyes began to turn the rose-red of the Blood Race. He opened his mouth, revealing two growing fangs.

"I didn’t make a deal with the Sisterhood of the Blood of the Lamb, nor did I convert to the faith of the Blood Sect. The reason I cooperated with the Sisterhood of the Blood of the Lamb wasn’t because they saw potential in this ugly body, but because they saw potential in my soul."

Baron stood frozen, as if he understood something.

The Baron turned, picked up a blood-red Cross from the table, and pressed it to his forehead. Faint, cross-shaped marks of blood simultaneously appeared on the foreheads of the Viscount on the Cross and Sessi.

He said, "From the very beginning, I was never Baron Camberra. I am the Bloodline Viscount Camberra! Brother of the Bloodline Count Moriarty!"

Under the moonlight, as the Blood Race corpse on the Cross vanished, the Baron’s body grew taller and expanded.

"L, I admire you. So I promise you this: when the ritual is over, when I have become a Viscount once more, I will sign a Blood Servant contract with you that will make you Immortal."

"Immortal..." The young man looked at the light filtering through the shattered glass roof, his expression bleak. "Nothing is immortal."

He looked up at the twin moons in the sky and slowly raised one finger. "Three questions."

The Baron, confident in his victory, gave a polite, aristocratic smile. "Ask away."

Baron turned to look at the Nun bathing in the Blood Pool and asked faintly, "Is all of this real blood?"

"It is the blood of pitiful children. But rest assured, I will make sure their blood flows to where it is meant to go."

"And where is that?"

"To God," the Baron’s tone grew more serious.

’God...? Oh, God... God...’

The young man didn’t reply. He simply held up two fingers. "Second question. Was what you said about Hira true or false?"

"She’s a dead woman. Are you really still so concerned with her innocence...?"

The Baron, his features now changed, twisted his neck, his joints cracking out of place.

But when he saw the molten-hot glare in Demon Hunter L’s pitch-black eyes, he relented. "I must admit, those were just angry words spoken in the heat of the moment."

Teresa, from the Blood Pool, saw Baron nod, take out a notebook-like object, and flip to a page before asking again:

"Third question. Is the Blood Race corpse on the Cross behind you authentic?"

But before the Baron could answer, Baron Constantin tore out the page—the one with the drop of Blood Race blood on it—and stuffed it into his mouth right in front of the Baron and Teresa.

"Doesn’t matter if it’s real or not..." freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

He chewed the paper, then pulled out a sheet of parchment—it was the Demon Hunter’s Lawbook.

"Either way, now we’ll see which of us that old bastard, the Blood God, favors more."

He bit his thumb, hard, and pressed the bloody print onto the parchment.

In a single instant, Dragon Knight Constantine possessed the red eyes unique to the Blood Race.