"What?　......, you're still here. ......

　That was Lord's voice. He was so stubborn that I would have laughed if I'd had the body and the time.
　A vision of Holos Kamen stood before me, a frown on his face.

You've come for the body?　I'm sorry, but all I have left is my head!

I don't know. I don't have that kind of power now. You're the one who ate it!　I am but a residue of residue.

"Is there any residue, any residue, any residue?

"End, you die. If you had surrendered your body to me, none of this would have happened.

　But that would have been like being dead. No different than now.
　The Lord didn't seem to do anything to me, as if he really had no power. It would have been nice to get some help, but a mere illusion wouldn't have helped.

　But he could be a conversation partner. Even if the figure is a hallucination, even if the voice is an auditory hallucination, it's enough.

"Why haven't I died yet?　I don't even have a heart.

　A vampire's weakness is its heart. Without it, it's unnatural that you can survive like this for so long.
　Of course, I'm very grateful. .......

　The Lord frowns and looks at me as if I'm a bad student.

"It's a curse that vampires die from having their hearts pierced by a wooden stake. If you don't get poked, you don't die instantly.

"...... What's that? What a strange creature!　It's against the laws of the world!

　It's too absurd to think that you can lose your head and not die. If that were true, then cutting out its heart would eliminate one of its weaknesses.
　The Lord sniffs at my words.

But there's no doubt that the heart is the source of a vampire's power. If you lose your heart, you lose most of your abilities. It is the same for you, the Lesser.

I never had ...... power to begin with.

　I never had it. Even after I was reborn, I was still overwhelmingly weak.
　The only people I've been involved with who were weaker than me were Luu and the non-combatant Huck. But I was much weaker than Luu and Huck in my sickbed.

　The Lord did not answer my voice, but continued without hesitation.

The Lesser is a chrysalis, a preparatory stage before becoming a vampire. You have few of the abilities of a vampire, but you also have few weaknesses. So even if you are exposed to sunlight, you will not immediately turn to ash.

Oh, yeah, ...... that's ...... good.

But it means that your suffering will be extended. Your powers are depleted, you cannot regenerate. The sun will consume your soul and you will slowly die. Your abyss is deep, perhaps much deeper than they think, but it is impossible for you to survive much longer. It's been at least an hour since dawn.

How do I get to ......?

　I can't move my head. The only thing I can move is my mouth, and there's a chance I might not be able to move that either.
　I can't even move my head. He gives me an answer in an instant.

"There's nothing I can do. There's nothing a depleted lesser vampire can do.

　So, ...... is the end.
　The Lord's vision disappears. I'm not sure what to do.

　Then it's a battle of endurance from here on out. Resist the pain. Stay sane. Resist death. That's what I was doing on my sickbed before I died.
　The only difference is now all I have is my neck.

　And so my final battle has begun.


§§


　The dark sky turned white, and a pale light illuminated the area.

　The first thing I felt was a pain like a sunburn. The pain spread to the top of my head and then spread to my entire face, turning into a fiery heat.

　Immediately after the sentence, I thought I could afford it. I thought it was better than dying.
　But I soon realized that I was mistaken. The righteous power was slowly burning my remaining body, burning my thoughts. I couldn't even writhe with just my neck.

　It was as if I had been exposed to direct sunlight for dozens of hours straight. The pain is trying to kill me, little by little. It's trying to turn me back into a corpse.



　I opened my eyes fully and desperately endured the pain. Little by little, as if the hands of a clock were ticking, a sense of urgency rose up in me, and I felt a strong fear and despair that I had never felt before, not even in the face of the Knights of the End.

　My instincts are alerting me to the arrival of my natural enemy, the sun. The sun has only just come out, and yet here it is.

　It's a wonder it hasn't disappeared yet. The abyss fills. Back to zero. Back to nothing.
　Inside me, darkness and light are fighting.

　I just have to endure the pain. Little by little, the light on the tomb grows stronger.

　Suddenly a question arises in my mind.

　The Lord said an hour. But an hour had passed long ago.
　So how long can you last?　How many hours can I endure?　How many hours would ...... endure?

　And--what's the point of that?

　Now I understand why Nevilla, the Knights of the End, made this the most painful way for the undead to die.
　It wasn't carelessness that left me here. This is torture.

　The oncoming pain and the sun's never-ending punishment. I can even feel the footsteps of death. The farther undead you are from death, the less likely you are to endure this punishment. Because your enemy is not in front of you, you cannot give up your last hope.

　Before the body, the mind dies.
　Your throat will dry up incessantly. Tears flow from the burning pain. Desperately breathe in and stay conscious.

　Accepting death is the end. I know this because I survived for years with a strange disease.

　Before I died, the doctors called my weakness and pain, my clinging to life, a miracle. What started out as pity eventually turned into dismay.
　The doctors, my family, and the sorcerer all thought I would die soon. But I survived. Eventually I died, but I didn't give up trying to live until the end.

　I scolded my faltering heart and regained my strength.
　So I won't give up this time either. I've died once. I died and miraculously came back to life with my memories intact.

　I'm not going to give up because of something like this, because of pain and despair.

　I move my eyes and look up, desperately staring at the sun I hate.
　I am dead. I'm the vessel of the King of the Dead, the one that Horus Karmen promised. I will not perish like this.

　I won't scream. My voice will mask the pain, but it will sap my strength. That was a technique I developed before I died.
　Just shut up, burn your thoughts, resist the pain that tries to bring down the dark book on your consciousness.

　No chance. No plan.


　All I want is a second miracle.


　I wonder how much time has passed.
　The sun is slowly rising, and the light that shines on me is slowly getting stronger. I burn it into my eyes.

　It's so bright. Painful. Terrifying. And--and beautiful.
　I can't, I can't win. The morning I once loved, the sunlight, is driving me out of this world.

　Perish. My soul is gone. It hurts. What's happening to my face in the sun?
　The light is too strong, I can't see anymore. But everything is hot, as if I'm surrounded by the fires of hell.



　--I don't want to die.


　I let out an inarticulate scream.
　At the moment my consciousness collapses, my head is suddenly lifted.

　At first, I thought my soul had ascended to heaven. But I soon found out differently.
　A soul tainted by a necromancer can never go to heaven.

　The light that filled my vision was suppressed and my silvery white hair came into view first.
　Stunned, familiar deep purple eyes come into view.

　I open my lips. All that came out was a few broken words.

"...... s-e-n-e-r--

"--!　--No!　--No!



"I can't hear you. Oh, ......

　My tongue is burning. I'm lucky my eyes are okay.
　I'm at my wits end. I'm ...... dying. My negative energy is almost buried. I can't even stand a little sunlight.

　In a daze of consciousness, I just clawed at the threads of survival.

　What should I do?　How can I save her?　How can I move Senri, this weak girl who is not fit to be a Knight of the End, the most?
　I have no power. There's very little I can do. I have little time to speak.

　And in a split second, I let loose my carefully chosen last words.




"Ah .................. Ah ......... ...and ......... is ...... and ......... ...




　Senri's hand, which was carefully lifting my neck, trembled for a moment.

　I was relieved to see her reaction, confident that I had succeeded.


　Senri is emotionally fragile and smart. He is a man of great strength and stubbornness who, according to Nevira, would be shocked by the death of me, a random undead.

　They, Nevira and the others, should have destroyed me. They shouldn't have punished me in anger, they shouldn't have given me time to repent, they should have destroyed me once and for all.


　That's why they're losing. The things that really matter.


　The hesitation was fleeting. I felt a floating sensation, a little cool, light hair on my cheek.
　I can't see anymore. I can't see forward. But the smooth softness of your lips is not an illusion.

　The sweet smell of skin erases pain and despair. The tongue that should have been motionless reaches out and tastes the skin.
　A strong sensation of pleasure rushes through my consciousness as a shock. The power that should have been depleted returns, just a little.

　My blacked-out vision returns.

"There you are, .......

　I greeted Senri's trembling ears properly in front of me, and plunged my fangs into his proffered neck.