"Well, that was easy. Two Expansive Spiral Spheres equals a one second victory," Declared Persia triumphantly, giving me a thumbs up.

"Yeah, that was easy, alright...the hardest part for me was resisting entering Vampire Mode and consuming this guy's life force," I replied with a sigh, gulping down the saliva that had built up in my mouth, "Let's put up the Stealth barrier again and head in."

​​

"Right, this was the easy part...the hard part begins now."

She walked towards me and got in close, before I activated the Stealth barrier around us.

"Alright, Cat Girl, you ready?"

"Mhm, let's go in."

We walked in through the gates, entering the slums of Silvland, I activated my Lightning Sensory Field as we did...okay, there's no one around within a radius of three hundred meters, no Vampires anyway. Well, considering that there were two hundred Vampires here and the size of Silvland, it actually wouldn't be too strange if we didn't run into any Vampires at all on the way to the castle.

"Hey, let's hurry along, if we cover more ground in a short time, then we can take longer rests in between. Match my speed at x3.3 Lightning Boost, 'kay?" I suggested, as we walked in.

"Okay, sounds good...I'll have to unleash a quarter of the full extent of my Retractable Anima-...no, wait, you got stronger again, I'll go with half the full extent to be safe."

"I thought I told you, that form is called Feline Fury: H."

"I'm not calling it that," She replied with a huff.

The two of us then raced forward, matching our speeds so that one of us wouldn't slip out of the Stealth barrier, while I kept my Lightning Sensory Field active to keep an eye out for any enemies. I could sense people inside the buildings, but no Vampires. I could also see a few shoeprints, which were probably from the others who went ahead of us...looking at the directions in which each set of footprints were headed and the spacing between them, it looks like each person had taken a different route to the goal, just as planned.

This area was in pretty poor condition, presumably the slums. According to Les and Selesa, the east, west and north gates all opened into the slum areas, the south gate was the only one that you'd be in an upper-class area the moment you enter it. But when entering from the north gate, the only thing in sight that was in even remotely good condition was the paved road that connected the entrance through the gates to the upper-class areas further inside.

I could sense that the run-down buildings here were crammed with people, like sardines in a can. The east and west were probably in similar condition, huh. Naturally, the slums took up a lot less area that the middle-class and upper-class areas did, but the slums were more greatly populated. And with the Vampires running things, they were too afraid to come outside, and had all holed up inside their homes.

I noticed that some of the shabby buildings here in the slums had what looked like religious crosses on the front doors...how sad, they were clinging to hope from the religion that was responsible for their current living predicament in the first place. But I suppose they needed some source of hope, to keep themselves from drowning in despair.

Looks like this area stretched on for quite a ways, we had a long way to go before we'd be out of the slums. I already knew this, but...this was going to take a while...

...

...

Ten hours later, probably a bit past 4 AM in the morning, we were still at it, heading south. We had taken a break about two hours earlier, when we finally got out of the slums and into a better looking area, which was about three hours ago. We had covered a decent amount of ground, and the coast had been totally clear so far.

When we took our break, we snuck into a random house and grabbed some food and water, just as planned. It should go without saying that we only stole from a house that looked like it belonged to someone rich, we didn't steal anything from any of the houses in the slums. So far, things were going pretty smoothly...until now. I finally sensed some Vampires, three of them.

"There's three Vampires straight ahead, let's take them out," I remarked, Persia nodding in agreement as we slowed down our pace and stayed on alert for when they would get in sight.

"Aren't you going to use Vampire Mode? We have to kill them quickly, after all."

"Yeah, you've got a point," I replied after mulling it over, entering Vampire Mode as she unleashed the full extent of her Anima, "You're going with Feline Fury: F, eh?"

"...I'm not calling it that."

We both then went silent as the Vampires came into sight...not that we needed to with the Stealth barrier around us.

"Here, take this," I said to Persia, handing her the other barrier spell, "On my signal, I'll deactivate the Stealth barrier, and you activate this one simultaneously, 'kay?"

"Got it," She responded with a nod.

The Vampires were getting closer and closer, gotta time this right so that we can get this done as silently as possible. I began charging up Mana inside my palms in preparation while biting the inside of my cheek...I had to resist the urge to consume their life forces.

Fortunately, Vampire Minions' life forces were easier to ignore and resist the temptation, I was salivating a bit, but it wasn't all uncontrollable like with the stronger Vampires I faced during the battle in the Rustlands. I just hope I can think straight when I face Lazarus, I can't imagine how succulent his life force must be...

"Almost there...now!" I exclaimed as the Vampires got within five meters of us, before deactivating the Stealth barrier, right as Persia activated the-...what did I call it again...Stealth Fighting Ring Barrier...yeah, I should come up with a better name for it later.

"What is this-!?" One of the Vampires began to exclaim, before I shot towards him and grabbed the top of his head with my right hand and the head of one of the other Vampires with my left.

Before they could react, I unleashed the lightning I'd been charging up in my hands straight into their bodies, killing them in seconds without even giving them the chance to scream out in pain, as they went up in black flames and disappeared.

The remaining Vampire drove his claws towards Persia, who sprang over it with both her palms close together. The moment she was right above him, she drove her palms down, spreading them apart as she did, and in an instant, the entire top half of the Vampire got torn into shreds.

His core was cracked but not destroyed, but before it could regenerate, she grabbed it and crushed it between her claws, shattering it as it went up in red flames. Well...that was easy.

"I was still a bit nervous about this whole thing, but after this...I feel a lot calmer. That was really easy," Said Persia, letting out a sigh of relief.

"I was thinking the same thing. By the way, I didn't know that your Expansive Spiral Sphere could do so much damage, I thought it shredded on a somewhat smaller scale."

"Oh, yeah, I told you that I figured out that the more I compress it, the faster and wider it expands, right? Well, I thought I could really make full use of that if I used both hands to compress the wind sphere...and just call it Spiral Sphere, I have no reason to use the non-expansive version so the 'Expansive' part is kinda redundant."

She had a good point, but more importantly...

"Woah...you really are fine with naming your attacks!"

"N-no, I'm not...but it does make it easier to refer to the attack, so as long as the name isn't stupid, I don't mind using it...though I definitely won't be yelling it out during a fight."

"Hm, you know, just 'Spiral Sphere' is kinda boring for such a powerful attack...ooh, what if you combine expansive and spiral to get 'Exspiral'? It's not a real word, but it sounds cool!"

"No, it doesn't...it kinda sounds like 'expired', let's just stick with-."

"It's settled, we're calling that attack Exspiral Sphere!"

"...whatever, it's not like I care."

Heh, I bet she actually likes it.

"Been a while since I've seen your tsundere side, haven't seen much of it after we became a couple. Well, anyway, let's keep going."

"I'm still not sure exactly what that word means, but I still don't like it. And yeah, fine, let's go."

...

...

About twelve hours later, around early evening time, probably somewhere between 4 and 4:30 PM, we appeared to have reached the ritzier part of Silvland, gone were the normal buildings, houses and stores, and instead, there were large mansions and fancy-looking restaurants and boutiques. Good, this means we're getting close to our destination, we've covered a decent amount of ground in less than a day so far. At this rate, we should get to the rendezvous point with time to spare.

After that first group of three Vampires, we only ran into two others, both seperately. Just five Vampires in over twenty hours, and all five dealt with without a problem, things really had gone smoothly for us. But not for much longer. As we continued making our way south, I suddenly picked up a couple of Vampires ahead of us with my Lightning Sensory Field.

They came into sight before long...they were wearing black and red neckbands, which meant that they were Vampire Generals. Perfect, it's time to use the new spell I had Elina make me. I'd kept it to myself all this time because I didn't want people asking why I needed this spell. It was an upgraded version of Store and Extract...the normal version could only Store one object at a time, and couldn't hold another unless you used Extract to get rid of the first one.

However, this version was a bit different, you could use Store any number of times without using Extract, until the maximum capacity of one ton was reached. And using Extract would release everything that Store was used on in one go. Basically, let's say you have two items, A and B. With the old version of Store and Extract, if you used Store on A, you couldn't use it on B until you used Extract to get rid of A. If you wanted to use Store to hold both of them, you'd have to fasten them together tightly. But with this new version, you could use Store on A, then use it again on B, and it would work. And when you use Extract, both A and B would be released simultaneously.

So, why did I want a spell like this? Because I had no doubt in my mind that I could not defeat Lazarus without significantly boosting my power. But once I consume a Vampire's life force, I only get that boost for ten seconds, and if I stay in that boosted form for too long, it'd take its toll on me. But what if I defeated the Vampires, and without killing them, saved them for later, so to speak?

The Vampires may be able to break out of Store with a little concentration, but you can't concentrate if you don't have a brain...so, what if I destroyed their brains before using Store on them? Using Store on something preserves it in the exact state it's in, so they wouldn't be able to heal while trapped inside the spell.

And once I get within a reasonable distance of Lazarus, I could use Extract and quickly consume all the Stored Vampires' life forces before approaching him. The only person who knew about this plan was Persia, I hadn't told anyone else about it.

"Alright, time to start stocking up on fuel for later. I'll make this quick," I remarked, entering Vampire Mode, and as Persia began to unleash her Anima, I stopped her, "No need to transform, I've got this. On my signal, take down the Stealth barrier, we won't need the other barrier if this goes according to plan, but put it up just in case."

"Okay, got it."

I took out some wire and drew out my short-sword, before heading towards the two Vampire Generals. I waited till they walked past us, so that we were behind them.

"Now!" I exclaimed, and the instant the Stealth barrier went down, I swung my blade across, decapitating both Vampires simultaneously before they knew what was happening, as Persia activated the other barrier around us.

I then swiftly bound them together using my wire, slashing at their necks again as they began to heal, before tightening the wire around them and pressing my new Store spell card onto them...trapping both of them in the spell. Wait, I could've just used the spell on them seperately instead of binding them together...guess I acted out of habit since I was used to the original version of the spell.

"What do we do with their heads?" Inquired Persia, nodding at the dull-eyed decapitated heads by my feet.

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't leave them here. I'll incinerate them," I replied, charging up lightning in my hands, "Let's wait a few minutes, just to make sure that they really can't escape the Store spell in their current states."

Ten minutes later, I had gotten rid of any evidence of a fight, and was satisfied that they were well and truly trapped inside this spell. And so, after I ensured that there were no other Vampires within the range of my Lightning Sensory Field, we continued heading forward. It shouldn't be much longer before we reach the rendezvous point...

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