The Vampire’s Templar

Camilla knelt down next to the elemental. Although they didn’t like her, she wasn’t petty enough to just watch as a fellow hunter suffer. “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts… but… I’ll be fine soon. I may be just tired…” the elemental muttered. He remained still, acting the exact opposite as what a person of flesh and blood would. A person would probably be breathing hard, not still like the elemental, yet the things they were doing remained the same.

Sure enough, after a moment, the elemental got back up and resumed his examination of the relief with his hands alone, his eyes closed.

Right as Camilla was about to go back to doing what she was doing, another elemental not too far away collapsed and immediately Camilla knew that something was wrong. But before she could even move or speak, another elemental dropped.

“Are you already?” Camilla rushed over. She reached down to help the elemental up, but her outstretched hands bumped into someone who had the same idea. She looked up to see Cadaelia, who smiled at her.

“Thank you, but I got it.”

Camlla nodded and backed up. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?” She pointed as yet another elemental fell. “No matter how you look at it, that’s not normal.”

People around her were starting to notice, especially the people who remained sitting at the center of the huge room, resting as they waited for their comrades to finish up their touring. A few of them ran over to help their fallen friends. Camilla’s ears were quite sharp, and she could still catch snippets of their conversation. It was a near mirror image as the one she had with the elemental from before.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…”

But it couldn’t be nothing and any bystander could tell. The only people who seemed convinced that what was happening was normal were the elementals themselves, despite the obvious situation.

A few of the Trista hunters tried to drag the elemental in question away from the wall, only to be shoved aside. The elemental quickly placed his hand on the wall again, once again becoming absorbed in the craftsmanship of the walls.

Only one word could describe their behavior: obsession. Was it really the craftsmanship that they were so obsessed with?

Cadaelia looked at the stony arm that she was about to pull on and decided that she didn’t want to be elbowed in the stomach. Instead, she turned toward the boss of their team for help. Not only was Beitra the captain of the First Division, but he was also the leader of all the stone elementals. They’d surely listen to him.

However, she forgot one thing.

“Beitra, Beitra, something’s wrong!” Cadaelia said, shaking Beitra’s shoulder, only to be pushed away. As she fell hard on the floor, her eyes widened. Beitra was a stone elemental too. “Oh no.”

The vice-captain of the First Division could only watch as, although Beitra lasted much longer than the other elementals, he eventually clutched his head. Instead of staying still, he gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the pain.

Compared to before when he was so absorbed in the reliefs that his eyes were blank, there was a glimmer of consciousness. Cadaelia saw a chance and took it, rushing back to his side and shook him. “Captain! Wake up! Clear your head!”

The urgency in her voice washed away the last of the cloudiness in Beitra’s eyes, but he immediately doubled over again, curling into a ball as he began to scream. “Ahhhh! It hurts! It hurts! My head!”

The eyes of the idling hunters opened wide in alarm as their leader began to roll on the ground. “I need to see it. I need to see it! I need to see it or else… or else!”

Camilla, who had been watching the whole time, slowly returned to Kagriss’s side where she felt safest. Everything that has happened was too strange. Out of nowhere, the stone elementals start collapsing, and then refusing to stop looking at the relief.

Then came an exception, but instead of trying to look at the relief, Beitra was screaming in pain and holding his head.

Headaches were a commonality between them, and…

“Kagriss, what do you think is happening?” Camilla asked. She didn’t look at Kagriss but instead stared at the sandstone sculptures next to her out of the corner of the eye, her gaze full of suspicion.

“It definitely has something to do with the walls or the relief. Well, I’m not completely sure but I’m almost certain.” Kagriss answered without hesitation, and to Camilla's delight, the answer mostly matched her own thoughts.

She quickly nodded, but before the truth was revealed, she had to keep an open mind. “It could be because of some kind of earth magic, though, right? This room is full of earth mana after all, and they’re all stone elementals…”

“While that’s right, I don’t think it’s likely.” Kagriss pointed at some of the hunters that weren’t elementals yet still took some time to look at the relief. Every single one of them, be they elf or vampire or anything else, are still staring at the relief. Their own leader is screaming in pain, yet they didn’t even bother to turn to see what was going on.

And what Kagriss could see, Cadaelia could also see. Giving up on Beitra, the elf stood up. Her air changed, going from a motherly gentleness that was full of concern to an authoritative leader.

“We have an emergency. Assume battle readiness!” she shouted. “For now, get your comrades away from the walls. There’s something wrong with them.”

Suddenly, before Cadaelia could finish, one of the elves who had been staring at the wall began to scream. Her voice was just as loud as Beitra’s, only much shriller and more ear-piercing, collapsing on the floor. She was joined by several more. The room was suddenly filled with screams, drowning out the rest of Cadaelia’s command. But the hunters didn’t need to hear any more.

As expected of an A-rank core team, the hunters jumped to their feet and sent separate ways. Seventy total hunters, and only a third of them including the stone elementals fell into the mysterious trap.

That left two thirds of them free to act. With Cadaelia’s command, they quickly split into groups of twos and went to retrieve their fellow mates. Thanks to prior experience with these tranced elementals, the active hunters immediately subdued and locked the joints of their friends before dragging them away from the reliefs.

Camilla looked at the elemental that was next to her. “Should we help?”

“I don’t mind either way.”

Since Kagriss didn’t care, Camilla decided to be a good hunter and help her temporary team. Together with Kagriss’s suppression magic, Camilla managed to stop the struggling stone elemental’s movement and forced him to look away from the wall.

The others dared not look at the wall while they retrieved their teammates, yet Camilla and Kagriss were unconcerned. For some reason, they investigated the walls, yet they were unaffected, and that gave them confidence.

That strange exception brought on another question. “Why aren’t we affected?” Camilla asked. “Could it be that it's not the wall at all?”

“I have a feeling that I’m right,” Kagriss said, pouting a little. “I don’t know why we’re not affected either.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you! I think so too.” Camilla tried to calm her down. “Maybe something about us is different. What about us is unique compared to them?”

Kagriss didn’t even need to think to answer. “We’re both undead.”

“That’s probably it. Whatever’s on the wall only affects the living, I guess. As for whether or not these elementals are considered life, I have no idea, but I’d imagine so…” Once again, Camilla thanked Victoria in her heart for causing her to become an undead. There were some drawbacks, but in Camilla’s opinion, the benefits outweighed the cost.

They talked while they dragged the stone elemental they subdued toward the center of the room where a bunch of other Trista hunters were dumped by their comrades to keep them in a central location away from the walls. They formed a perimeter to stop the addled hunters from escaping.

With twenty different voices screaming gibberish aloud, it made things hard to communicate, so Camilla immediately led Kagriss back to a quiet spot along the walls.

“By the way, what did you think Beitra was going to say?” Camilla asked.

Beitra’s words before totally going bonkers stayed in her mind, going nowhere: “I need to see it! I need to see it or else… or else.”

Or else what? There were no clues that might identify what Beitra’s threat consisted of, but Camilla really wanted to know.

Unfortunately, Kagriss didn’t know either.  They could only listen out for Beitra’s voice again if Beitra ever becomes sane again. He likely would since the screaming was getting quieter. Still loud, yet it was much more bearable.

Quieter didn’t mean he became more well-behaved, as he kept making a break for the reliefs as if it were his only hope of curing the headache that he suffered from, and every single time, Cadaelia ordered for him to be brought back.

The great captain of the Regalius Litha’s First Division was reduced to such a pitiful mess, being treated like a misbehaving pet. But Camilla knew that it was necessary.

What Beitra experienced was probably much like what an addict felt when forced away from his drug. Even if continuing to take the drug harmed him in the long run and undid all of his hard work in trying to quit, the addict continued to try and get to the drug.

Camilla did not know what was causing the headache, but it was logical to think that it was something back.

The vice-captain’s face was dark and stormy as she watched the writhing hunters in the center of the circle. Then she turned her steely eyes on the walls, glaring at them as if to blame them for the cause of this. But considering that staring too hard might make her end up like the hunters on the ground, she quickly looked away.

“What is she going to do?”

“Who knows?” Kagriss answered.

Since Kagriss didn’t want to guess, Camilla decided to guess in her place. “I don’t think she’ll wait too long. In her eyes, these walls are a threat. Threats should be neutralized. I’d think the same in her place,” she said. ” But on the other hand, she won’t act too fast. Not with those hunters struggling like that. If she does something and the bound hunters manage to escape, then that’s all that work up to now for nothing.”

Camilla and Kagriss watched from the side as Cadaelia and the hunters under her command began to play a game of herding sheep. Now and then, one of the captives would break free and lunge toward the wall, only to be dogpiled by the guards, restrained, and delivered back to the center of the circle.

The amount of time between escapes increased bit by bit. One minute… two minutes… three minutes.

Finally, when five minutes passed and the restrained hunters had become docile, Cadaelia turned her attention back to the walls. There was no doubt about it after this long; being near the walls caused headaches, being away made the headaches go away.

Although she didn’t know what it was with Kagriss and Camilla that made them immune, it wasn’t relevant.

She pointed toward the walls, at the artful sculptures, sweeping to include the entire room.

“Tear them down. We can’t risk leaving such dangerous things up.”