Chapter 84: Cleanup and Investigation

"Medics! Raven, Krieg! Get over here!" As the dust settled, the soldiers and magicians quickly gathered. They called for the two dedicated medics accompanying the team to provide immediate care for the most severely injured: Wang Yu and Edward.

Both had sustained equally serious injuries. Wang Yu shared Edward's impalement wound compounded by severe blood loss, but his constitution was superior, and the strengthening potion he had taken earlier was still in effect. As a result, their conditions were more or less comparable.

Wang Yu firmly gripped the blood-flesh spike embedded in his chest and pulled it out. Thanks to Blood Tempest, he didn't have to worry about excessive bleeding.

In fact, he could even recover a portion of his lost blood from the spike, though the blood he had detonated inside the vampire's body to form blood spears was lost to him entirely.

As he absorbed what remained of his blood from the spike, Wang Yu walked toward Raven and Krieg. The two healers were casting spells on Edward, who lay on the ground.

When they saw Wang Yu approach, the two frowned at him in alarm, their faces pale. Naturally, they wanted him to remain still. He waved at them dismissively to indicate he was fine. He had suffered worse injuries before, after all; being impaled and losing a fair amount of blood wasn't so bad in comparison.

He sat down beside the sprawled-out Edward, observing the blonde-haired young man. He looked disheveled and worse for wear. There was a huge puncture in his chestplate, and the wound beneath was a ghastly mix of acid corrosion and blunt-force damage. The two medics were slowly knitting the flesh back together with healing spells, but it was clearly a painful and slow process.

Edward's golden hair, usually glossy and neat, was now dirty and matted. Despite his sorry state, however, Edward seemed somehow cheerful. Who knew what was going through his mind? Why had the son of the Grand Duke of Lionheart chosen to join the Nightblades as part of a special ops team rather than live a comfortable life befitting his status?

Edward raised his fist when he saw Wang Yu sitting beside him. Wang Yu noticed the gesture and bumped his fist against Edward's. Both men exchanged knowing smiles.

Why Edward chose this path didn't matter. What mattered was that their first official collaboration had gone well. They could trust each other with their lives.

Not wanting to disrupt Edward's healing process, Wang Yu left the two medics to their work. They focused on treating Edward's injuries while Wang Yu turned his attention inward to observe the changes in his body.

While he reclaimed his blood, Wang Yu had discovered traces of the vampire's blood mingling with his own. His initial instinct was to expel it from his body—he didn't want anything dangerous resurrecting inside him.

But before he could act, the foreign blood disappeared. "Huh, my blood absorbed it?" Wang Yu shrugged. This wasn't entirely new to him. His body had "learned" things on its own before—like when he finally figured out how to produce fighting spirit.

What new abilities might this grant him? Wang Yu planned to experiment later but was interrupted when a pair of hands pressed down on his shoulders—though not too forcefully. He assumed it was one of the medics and waved them off, signaling he was fine. A healing spell was all he needed.

"Lie down," came a soft but firm command. Wang Yu had no choice but to comply. It was rare to see Avia being assertive.

The glow of healing magic radiated from her hands as she gently ran her fingers over the wound on Wang Yu's chest. Her touch cleaned the wound and removed foreign debris from it, stimulating his recovery.

At first, the pain was intense, but his body quickly adapted. His unusually resilient constitution even seemed to welcome the healing pain—it was almost invigorating.

At the same time, Wang Yu focused on the changes in his blood. After absorbing the vampire's blood, it had developed a mild regenerative quality. As it flowed through his body, it consumed his energy to heal what wounds lay along the way.

It was hardly as potent as the vampire's rapid regeneration—perhaps just a few percents' worth—but it did exist.

Looking at the horrifying wound on Wang Yu's chest, Avia sighed and increased her mana output.

The basic healing spell she was employing was amplified by her exceptional talent and immense mana reserves. Combined with Wang Yu's enhanced regeneration, the wound closed quickly, leaving little evidence of the trauma.

Avia had long wanted to learn healing magic. Although her latent ability provided incredible, near-miraculous healing, it was too energy-intensive and unsuitable for public use.

Healing magic was all but a necessity considering that her companion was Wang Yu, who constantly got himself hurt. If she couldn't stop him from getting injured, the least she could do was ensure his rapid recovery.

That said, Wang Yu's body was remarkable. Despite enduring life-threatening injuries multiple times, he always recovered fully. "Not bad—keep it up," she thought, her spirits inexplicably lifted as she patted his sturdy chest.

Wang Yu was confused but smiled when he saw her in a good mood. If she was happy, so was he.

The medics, meanwhile, demonstrated their expertise. Within fifteen minutes, Edward was out of immediate danger.

When they turned their attention back to Wang Yu, intending to heal him, they found he had already moved on to the next task: investigating the abnormal activity in the sewers, their original mission. Killing a vampire had hardly been on the agenda.

Bewildered, the medics exchanged glances. They turned to see a frustrated Charles pulling a few equally exasperated magicians aside to start on the paperwork for the mission.

The cramped sewers weren't a suitable environment for magicians, so only Avia and a few particularly experienced ones braved the chlorine-filled tunnels.

Charles and the others were left outside to complete the paperwork, much to Charles' dismay.

Writing reports was pure torture for someone as restless as him. Yet when he finally sat down to do it, he realized he wasn't too bad at it—he just disliked it.

Inside the sewers, the air remained saturated with chlorine gas. The confined, humid environment sustained the gas and left corrosive liquid suspended in the air. It was a hostile environment for any living being.

For mages, however, dealing with such conditions were trivial. The Abyssal Gate operatives had been out of luck. They had foregone bringing any mages in their infiltration of Aleisterre, relying solely on Adit, an advanced knight, to handle unforeseen circumstances. Wang Yu's unexpected chlorine attack had wiped them out entirely.

Had they had even a single magician proficient in wind magic, they might have avoided such a humiliating defeat.

A mobile curtain of water formed a barrier that filled the circular sewers, methodically clearing the chlorine gas and corrosive particles from the air. This simple yet ingenious solution allowed Wang Yu's team to proceed unhindered.

"Numerous carcasses of unusual creatures—many dried-out remains, their uniforms completely corroded. They won't be easy to identify at the moment," Avia noted as she walked behind Wang Yu and the squad leader. She was helping to document the findings in the sewers.

Their first discoveries were large numbers of gray, worm-like creatures intertwined with their hosts—the bodies of the animated corpses.

These parasitized remains were severely eroded, but metal insignias on their tattered uniforms confirmed their identities as the missing city guards. It appeared that the vampire bloodbornes had attempted to separate from their deceased hosts but perished quickly after encountering the chlorine-filled environment.

"Good thing these things are dead," Wang Yu remarked. "They even managed to lure the city guards into the sewers, which means they actually have convincing disguises. If they had infiltrated the capital, they could have caused massive chaos."

He sighed, then shifted his attention to the shattered mass of flesh and the pile of corpses nearby—likely where the vampire had emerged.

The vampire had clearly been born prematurely, but its ability to withstand sunlight made it extraordinary. Sunlight had been the bane of vampires for millennia.

Wang Yu was convinced that the sun of this world had to have some mysterious or arcane quality that made it different from Earth's sun. After all, vampires didn't fear moonlight, even though moonlight was just reflected sunlight. There had to be something deeper at play. The ancient vampires, who were supposedly capable of rivaling even lesser dragons in legend, were now significantly weaker due to the severe restrictions imposed by sunlight.

That a vampire could overcome such a fundamental vulnerability suggested divine intervention—but this one retained a glaring flaw, its lack of intelligence.

Clearly, this vampire was a premature specimen whose growth had been forcibly accelerated with the corpses of the Selwyn infiltrators.

In that case, who had orchestrated the mass killing to hasten the vampire's premature birth? Wang Yu recalled what Charles had told him about his tarot cards. He tossed the upright Wheel of Fortune that Charles had given him onto the ground.

Just like when Charles used it, the card transformed into glowing light that spread across the grimy sewer floor. A trail of footprints appeared, leading deeper into the sewers.

Frowning, Wang Yu and the squad leader took point, staying alert to any potential dangers as they cautiously ventured inward. With Wang Yu's ripples, they were able to scout 15 meters ahead, ensuring that the team would be forewarned of approaching threats.

The trail of footprints grew increasingly erratic as it progressed. The footprints grew unsteady and scattered, suggesting that the individual's mental state was rapidly deteriorating. Judging by the footprints, the culprit had to be stumbling and swaying while continuing further into the sewer's depths.

Suddenly, Wang Yu halted. The footprints had ceased to resemble those of a human. They became grotesque and misshapen, utterly unrecognizable. They seemed to be the imprints of some formless, chaotic entity.

Nearby, a pair of discarded boots lay on the ground, with bits of flesh still clinging to their interior. Whoever had left these footprints behind had likely undergone some kind of transformation that had destroyed their humanity.

After briefly analyzing the situation, the team pressed on until they reached a wall marking the sewer's drainage hub. Dozens of basketball-sized holes in the wall released wastewater from various parts of the capital. The accumulated sewage then flowed down the passage Wang Yu's team had traversed earlier.

At this point, the footprints ceased entirely, replaced by a disturbing smear resembling the trail of a slug-like creature. This path led up the wall to a grated drainage outlet. Near the outlet, they found fragments of strange, sticky organic matter, marking the creature's final traces before it disappeared through the opening.

The only remaining clue was a relatively intact hooded robe and mask lying on the ground. Wang Yu picked up the mask and saw a door insignia on its surface.

One of the older magicians standing nearby immediately identified it. "Selwyn," the magician said, his voice grim. "The Abyssal Gate."