The customers filled the club.
An eerie ghostly aura poured from their bodies.
Their eyes were empty and hollow. Only now did the mangled hands and skin, previously concealed by the club's dazzling lights, come into view.
‘It's a trap.’
Smithers realized too late why there had been such a strange lack of smell despite the crowd, and what was about to unfold.
“Fall back!”
His cry was urgent.
But….
SLAM—!
As though snapping shut on the back of a mouse lured by cheese, the club doors closed….
《Play… with meeee!》
The ghosts charged the vampires.
“Nnngh!”
The vampires moved their feet swiftly and swung their arms and legs to counterattack.
They were all elite fighters in their own right, so the spirit-medium dolls could not immediately overwhelm them.
But….
The problem was that the members of Alice burst from the shadows of the club amid the confusion.
“Hnnngh!”
Cheshire Cat's dagger shone blue as it pierced a vampire's chest as easily as a sheet of paper. The blow carried a weight incomparable to anything he had managed before.
With a calm gaze, the Queen of Hearts fired a rapid volley of silver bullets soaked in holy water.
Holes appeared squarely between the eyes of the vampires floundering in fear.
Wall-Breaking Flight. Clear Mirror, Still Water.
It was all the result of the power they had gained from Kang Do-jun's training and talismans.
‘What the hell… are these bastards?’
Smithers frowned.
He could scarcely believe that vampires of Tier 3 or Tier 4, at minimum, were being cut down helplessly by mere underworld exorcists.
And then….
SHHHHHHH!
The sprinklers overhead poured down water.
“Aaaagh! H-holy water!”
“Shit!”
Holy water burst from the ceiling sprinklers and drenched the vampires.
Traps set throughout the club sprang, taking arms and legs with them.
‘These bastards… are no ordinary foes.’
A chill ran down his spine.
His opponents knew far more about them than he had expected and had prepared accordingly.
He had never encountered such meticulous planning from any exorcist he had faced.
What particularly bothered Smithers was….
‘Is that Asian bastard commanding them?’
One fighter darted through blind spots, repeatedly striking the vampires' vital points.
He was overwhelmingly faster and more precise than the other exorcists.
Smithers knew by instinct.
That bastard… had to be the one who had slaughtered more than a hundred vampires in the abandoned factory.
Yet Smithers was not afraid.
Petty tricks like these could never bring down an Apostle like him.
‘Interesting.’
Grinding his teeth, he sent a thought to the vampires who shared his blood.
《All of you, take the new serum.》
The moment the command came, the vampires took the latest version of the V-Rise Serum from their clothes and injected themselves.
“Stop them!”
The members of Alice rushed to prevent it.
But they managed to stop only four or five. The rest drove the serum into their bodies.
“SKREEEE!”
“Grrrr!”
The vampires' bodies swelled, rapidly mutating into the shapes of enormous anomalies.
Their power had grown several times greater than before.
But the real monster among them… was Smithers.
“Get out of my waaay!”
Blood energy surged from his entire body. Every swing of his arms raised a storm of blood that smashed the spirit-medium dolls filling the hall.
At the same time, the holy water sprayed by the sprinklers evaporated in an instant, forming a mist.
‘I-I can't see!’
With their sight completely blocked, the members of Alice were the ones thrown into confusion.
And a place where vision was so severely limited was the perfect stage for vampires.
“Gaaagh!”
“Squad Leader Mad Hatter!”
All around them, vampires landed blows, leaving the exorcists with injuries both large and small.
Then it happened.
“Hnnngh!”
Clock Rabbit, the master of the club, was caught in a storm of blood Smithers sent flying at random and fell backward.
That was when….
“I'll tear you apart.”
Smithers appeared right before him and opened his huge mouth wide.
He looked like a massive great white shark with its jaws agape.
A chill ran down Clock Rabbit's spine.
“Who says you can?”
A familiar voice came from behind him.
At the same moment, Do-jun sprang in front of Clock Rabbit. Dozens of talismans fluttered into the air, and he held out the Annabelle doll with one hand as he shouted,
“Spirit Realm Separation!”
RUSTLE—!
The dozens of talismans scattered at once and flew toward the vampires in the club.
At that moment, Smithers caught a scent coming from them.
‘There's… our blood on that paper!’
He realized why that bastard had moved so cautiously without dealing the vampires fatal blows.
He had been trying to stain those papers with their blood.
“Avoid the yellow paper!”
“Wh-what is that?!”
Smithers shouted desperately, but it was too late.
The talismans reached all the vampires.
Even Smithers himself….
“I went to the trouble of preparing this. You can't do that.”
Do-jun came to him in person and stuck a talisman directly onto his body.
At that instant—
HMMMMM!
“Daaamn iiiit!”
The talismans emitted a brilliant golden flash. Then Do-jun and every vampire bearing one vanished without a trace.
The club stood empty, as though the uproar of moments ago had been a lie.
The members of Alice stared blankly and asked Clock Rabbit,
“…Th-they really disappeared, Master.”
“Yes…. I can hardly believe it even after seeing it myself.”
They wiped the blood from their bodies and bandaged their wounds.
Then… they calmed their trembling bodies.
They had not truly grasped it when they had only heard about the vampires. Now that they had fought them, they had felt it firsthand.
‘Brooklyn's vampires… are far stronger than we imagined.’
They were stronger than any anomaly the members had ever faced.
Had that mysterious Asian exorcist not helped them, they would plainly have been slaughtered without a chance to fight back.
What they had to do now was….
“Prepare for the next step. We just have to follow our instructions.”
“Yes, sir!”
All they could do was trust in the overwhelming force that was Kang Do-jun and act accordingly.
***
WHOOOOSH!
A cold wind howled hard enough to tear at their eardrums.
The pounding beat and dense smoke that had filled the club moments earlier were nowhere to be found.
When Smithers and the vampires opened their eyes, they found themselves on the roof of an old orphanage, amid rusted steel beams, a concrete floor with peeling paint, and a bottomless abyss all around them.
“…Where are we?”
“Weren't we in the club just now? Is this an illusion?”
The bewildered vampires looked around.
It was an alien space that even the senses of high-ranking vampires could not make sense of.
But Smithers, the only Apostle among them, understood instinctively.
“This is… a mindscape.”
“A mindscape?”
A place where the very spiritual order was warped: a space with a kind of absolute authority, manifested by a powerful evil spirit or spirit medium.
The vampires grew restless.
“How is that possible? A mere back-alley exorcist… created a mindscape?”
“Only a high-ranking exorcist could do that. Why would someone like that be here…?”
A cold shiver ran down their spines.
They began to suspect that the Asian they were facing was no ordinary exorcist, but a monster beyond anything they could imagine.
Then—
“Hi, gentlemen!”
“Wh-what is that?!”
A small shadow fluttered at the center of the rooftop.
Two vampires instinctively went on guard at the voice, which carried an uncanny distortion.
She was… Annabelle, the master of this space.
“Nnngh!”
SWISH—!
The vampires immediately unleashed attacks to tear the girl apart, but their blows merely cut through empty air.
Every attack passed through her body and dispersed.
“Hee-hee, it's no use. I don't even intend to fight you.”
“You don't intend to fight?”
“Nope! I'm just… lending this space to that man.”
Annabelle smiled, then turned her gaze toward the iron door leading onto the roof.
CREEEAK!
The door opened with a chilling metallic sound, and heavy footsteps echoed.
Do-jun walked slowly out of the darkness, exhaling vapor from his electronic cigarette with an indifferent expression.
“Phew. Welcome, everyone. What do you think? Great atmosphere in this mindscape, isn't it?”
“…You bastard!”
Smithers ground his teeth and crouched as though ready to spring at him.
From this close, an ominous energy dozens of times greater than before swirled inside Do-jun's body.
“That bastard… how dare he….”
“Does he even know who we are?!”
Before Smithers could give an order, three vampires kicked off the ground and charged, swept up in a surge of emotion that might have been fear or anger.
With the serum's power added to their own, each attack could have pulverized a concrete wall with a single punch.
But Do-jun gazed languidly into the air, as though he had no intention of dodging.
“Spirit. The meal is ready.”
No sooner had he spoken than the air above the rooftop twisted as though screaming.
Do-jun's shadow expanded unnaturally. From within it rose the form of a gigantic beast, its golden eyes blazing.
《Yes, good…. Vampires are not particularly to my taste, but with the table set so neatly, I shall gladly eat.》
Wakan Tanka.
The instant the enormous beast with silver-white fur took physical form, the charging vampires froze. It was no mere spirit body.
Its overwhelming presence even carried a sense of divinity.
When the beast opened its jaws, a force arose as though it would draw in the entire space.
Smithers's pupils shrank at once.
“S-stop!”
But it was already too late.
CRUNCH—!
“Aaaagh!”
With a single snap of the beast's teeth, the vampires' bodies scattered into pools of blood.
Even their souls, which should have returned to Smithers, the master who had bestowed their power, were dragged into the beast.
A chill ran through every vampire.
Smithers in particular trembled at the sight.
‘Impossible.’
That unknown beast…. The energy it gave off was far stronger than his own, even though he was an Apostle.
No, the fear that it might even rival his source and master, ‘that person,’ sank into his bones.
‘There's no way a human, especially an Asian, could harbor a being like that…!’
Having slaughtered his subordinates in an instant, Wakan Tanka fixed Smithers with a menacing gaze. Just as the beast licked its lips and took a step, Do-jun raised a hand to stop him.
“That is enough. Did we not agree that I would handle him?”
《Tch. Such a small taste.》
The beast snorted in displeasure, then dispersed like mist and vanished back into Do-jun's body.
Silence fell over the rooftop. Left alone, Smithers asked in a trembling voice,
“What in the world… are you? Why did you bring us here?”
“Why? You've got a big shot above you, haven't you? That Blood of Origin or whatever.”
Do-jun let out another long plume of vapor from his electronic cigarette and added,
“If I killed you in the club, information would flow straight to that bastard… and cleaning up afterward would be a nuisance. But using a mindscape makes it simple.”
“How far back does your plan go?”
“From beginning to end. All of it.”
Do-jun smiled.
His voice was full of certainty, as though there was no chance he could ever lose to the likes of them.
Smithers shook as he spoke.
“What the hell are you?”
“What good would knowing do a dead man?”
Smithers gritted his teeth and stretched his arm forward.
Then… he chanted an unintelligible incantation.
“Omnia pro me, mors vobis est vita mihi. Sanguis vester, potentia mea!(All is for me, your deaths are my life. Let your blood become my power!)”
As he muttered in Latin….
“Gaaagh! Gack!”
“B-boss!”
The vampires beside him shuddered, vomited blood, and shriveled like mummies in an instant.
Countless drops of blood rose into the air and were absorbed into Smithers's body.
His body glowed red and radiated a fierce energy.
“I don't know how you came to harbor that beast god, but you'll regret it.”
“Sure, well…. That would suit me just fine. I was planning to get serious from here on, too.”
“Serious?”
Do-jun slowly formed a hand seal.
At that moment, Smithers saw a strange vision. The form of a huge beast was superimposed over Do-jun's body again, but it was not the Native American spirit from before.
Snow-white fur with black stripes. The aura of a solitary king whose murderous gaze alone could freeze a heart.
“A white… tiger?”
Inside Do-jun's spirit jar, the White Tiger Spirit… Seol-hwi, who had slept for years, opened his eyes.