Chapter 5 Chapter 4 The Illusion

vampire.The word hung in Rufo's mind, a dead weight on the shoulders of the already undead creature.It climbed back onto the stone slab and lay on its back, covering its eyes with its thin, pale hands. "Banna Telemara," Druzil murmured several times, and the minutes passed without incident. "Are you going to let them run out to find you?" Rufo didn't look up. "Those priests are dead," said the imp harshly. "It's a mess. Will the people who come in to look for them not notice?" Rufo moved his arms away from his face and looked at the imp, but didn't seem too concerned.

"You thought you could take them down," Druzil reasoned, mistaking Rufo's composure. "Stupid guy! You think you can knock them all down!" Rufo's reaction was unexpected to the imp, and Druzil learned that the undead man's listlessness stemmed from desperation, not confidence. "I don't even want to try," Rufo said seriously. "You can beat them." The little devil quickly changed his words, changing the emphasis of his tone, so that the sentence suddenly didn't sound so ridiculous. "You can beat them all!" "I'm all dead!" said Rufo bitterly. "It was already defeated."

"Of course, of course!" Druzil croaked happily, clapping his wings and perching on the end of the slab beside Rufo. "You're dead, yes, but that's your advantage, not your disadvantage. Listen to me, you can beat them all, and the library will be yours." Those last words seemed to interest Rufo.It tilted its head to the side to get a better view of the untrustworthy imp. "You have received eternal life," Druzil said solemnly. Rufo continued to stare ahead for a long, restless moment. "At what cost?" it asked. "The price?" Druzil asked back.

"I'm not alive at all!" Rufo yelled at it, and Druzil spread his wings and stood ready for the vampire's sudden movement to escape. "You've never had such power!" Druzil snapped back. "Now you have power. Now you can do your will!" "The purpose?" Rufo both wanted and needed to know. "I am a dead man. My flesh and blood are dead. What happiness is there? What dreams are there?" "Happy?" the little devil asked. "Don't priest's blood taste sweet? Don't you feel power as you approach that pathetic man? You can taste his fear, vampire, and that's as sweet as the blood that follows."

Rufo continued to stare, but made no further complaints.What Druzil said seemed to be true.Rufo did get a taste of the man's fear, and that sense of power, the ability to elicit such extreme fear, was sweet indeed to a man who had been weak in life. Druzil waited a little longer, until he was sure Rufo had at least been persuaded to try his abilities as a vampire. "You have to get out of here." The little devil explained, looking at the two corpses. Rufo glanced at the closed door, nodded and stood up, swinging his legs over the flagstones. "Go to the Catacombs first," it said.

"You can't get through it," Druzil said, as the vampire began to move stiffly toward the door.Rufo turned to look at it suspiciously, as if thinking the imp's words were a threat. "The sun is huge," Druzil explained. "It will burn you like fire." Rufo's expression shifted from curiosity to dourness, and finally to outright horror. "You are a nocturnal creature now," Druzil continued firmly. "The sunlight of day is not your ally." It was a hard truth for Rufo to accept, but in the light of what had happened, the man stoically took the news and forced himself to straighten up again. "So how the hell am I going to get out?" it asked, its tone full of anger and sarcasm.

Druzil directed Rufo's gaze to the deep wall of the mausoleum, where rows of marked stones lined up.These are the catacombs of the dead Patriarchs in the Library, including Avery Scheer and Portelope, and not all of the stones are marked. At first, the thought of crawling into a catacomb made Rufo sick to his stomach, but he let go of his preconceived notions of being a living, breathing being and allowed himself to see the world like an undead creature of the night, and he found, The idea of ​​a cold, dark stone strangely appealed to it. Rufo joined Druzil at a waist-high unmarked stone slab by the wall.Not knowing what the imp expected of him, the vampire reached out with stiff hands and grabbed the edge of the slab.

"It can't be like this!" Druzil scolded, and Rufo stood up straight and looked at the little devil fiercely, obviously tired of Druzil's superior attitude. "If you tear it off, the Priests will find out about you," the imp explained, adding "Banne Thelemara" in a predictable whisper. Rufo didn't answer, but stood there staring at the imp and the wall.How do you get into the catacombs without removing the stone?These are not doors that can be pushed and shut, these are sealed monuments that have been moved to a funeral and then put back in plaster.

"There's a crack at the bottom edge," Druzil said, and Rufo bent down and indeed saw a thin crack running along the bottom of the slab. The vampire shrugged, but before he could ask Druzil what the rift was for, he felt a strange euphoria over him, as if it had ceased to be a substance.Rufo looked at Druzil, who was smiling broadly, and then at the crack, which suddenly seemed to grow much wider.The black-robed vampire melted entirely into a cloud of green vapor that swirled through the cracks in the stone slabs. It reverted to reality inside the closed stone catacombs, surrounded by impenetrable walls.For a moment, a wave of panic, a feeling of being trapped overwhelmed the man.How much air is left?It doubts.Then shut your mouth, afraid you'd be gulping in too much precious air.

After a while, its mouth opened again, and a burst of violent laughter burst out. "Air?" Rufo asked loudly.Rufo didn't need air at all, and certainly wasn't trapped.It can slip out of the crack as easily as it came in, or simply slide down and kick the slab out of its place.It's strong enough to do it, it knows it can. Suddenly, the vampire seemed to see the limitations of a weak, living human body.It thought of the persecution it had suffered before—persecution in its view, they were all unfair treatment—and then thought of the two Oghma priests he had easily killed.

Oghma priests!They're wrestlers, fighters, and he flings them around effortlessly! Rufo felt as if he had broken free from the shackles of the living world, free to grasp its well-deserved power.It will teach those who persecute him a good lesson.it will... The vampire stopped fantasizing and reached for the brand on his forehead.Cadderly was the person who persecuted it the most, and the image of the other party clearly appeared in its mind. Yes, Rufo will teach them all a lesson. But now, in the bed of cold darkness of his choice, the vampire rests.The sun is shining outside, and daylight is the ally of the living, and belongs to the weak. Rufo would wait for the darkness to fall. ※※※ That afternoon, the highest-ranking priests of the Denier sect gathered according to the order of Headmaster Thobicus.They met in a seldom-used room on the top floor of the library's fourth floor, a remote spot that guaranteed them privacy. Thobicus closed the only door in the room and lowered the shades of the two small windows, making it quite clear to the others that the isolation measures seemed to be of great importance to the elderly dean. Thobicus turned gravely and surveyed this extremely important gathering.The room was not formally set up to accommodate a large congregation.Some of the priests were seated in chairs of various sizes, others were either standing against a bare wall or sitting on a rather old rug on the floor.Thobicus walked into the center of the group, approaching the center of the floor, and then turned slowly, looking at each of the thirty assembled priests, so that they could fully appreciate the seriousness of the meeting.Under this glance, all kinds of private conversations in progress disappeared one after another, replaced by curiosity and apprehension. "Fortress Trinity has been eradicated," Thobicus said to them after more than a minute of silence. The priests looked at each other, startled by the suddenness of the announcement.Then there was a cheer, fairly low at first, but growing louder, until all the assembled priests except the Headmaster were slapping each other on the back and pumping their fists in triumph. More than one person called out Cadderly's name, and Thobicus frowned every time he heard it, and knew that he had to be careful in his next actions. When the cheers faded away, Thobicus raised his hand to ask everyone to be quiet.The dean's intense gaze rested on the priests again, quieting them and filling them with curiosity. "This is good news," said Feist Lambeau, the second-highest priest in the Denierian order. "But you don't see joy on your face, Headmaster." "Do you know how I know the enemy is defeated?" Thobicus asked him. "Cadderly?" a voice answered. "Have you spoken to a higher power, emissary of God Denir?" another said. Headmaster Thobicus shook his head at both hypotheses, and kept his eyes on Langbo for a moment. "I can't get the news," he explained to everyone. "I tried to contact the god Denir, but I was blocked. I had to go to Bron Terman of the Cult of Oghma to get the answer. At my request, he asked the messenger of Oghma, and the Know that our enemies are defeated." The news was as startling as the report of the fall of Walled Trinity.Sobiks is the dean of the Mengzhi Library, and can be said to be the father of the sect.How could his connection with the envoy of Denier be blocked?All the priests present had lived through a time of turmoil. It was a terrible time for those of faith, and all of them were afraid that what the head of the school said now meant that that terrible time would be repeated again. Feist Langpo's expression changed from fear to suspicion. "I just prayed this morning," he said, drawing everyone's attention. "Looked for guidance in finding an ancient book—and I got answers." The room was filled with whispers. "That's because..." Thobicus said loudly and sharply, drawing the audience's attention back.He paused to make sure everyone was listening. "That's because Cadderly hasn't targeted you yet!" "Cadderly?" Rumble said in unison with several others.The entire Moezhi Library, especially members of the Denier sect, had strong feelings for the young priest, both positive and negative.Many older clerics thought Cadderly was reckless and disrespectful to his elders, with little enthusiasm for the daily rituals and duties of his rank.There were also many younger priests who saw Cadderly as a formidable competitor.Each of the thirty priests in the room was at least five years older than Cadderly, but Cadderly was already higher than half of the regular priests in the library.Rumors continued, suggesting that in the eyes of God Denir, Cadderly already belonged to one of the most powerful priests in the sect. Dean Thobicus apparently confirmed this theory.If Cadderly could block the communication between the headmaster and the messenger of Denir, and do it all the way across the entire Snowflake Mountains! Conversations poured in from every corner of the room, and the priests were confused as to what these things meant.Fest Rumpeau and Dean Thobicus continued to stare at each other, and Rumpault could not find an answer to the dean's startling statement. "Cadderly has exceeded his rank and authority," Thobix explained. "He thinks the class system of the Mengzhi Library is inappropriate, so he wants to change it." "It's ridiculous!" exclaimed a priest. "I think so too." Dean Thobicus replied calmly.He was well prepared for the meeting, with an answer to every question or statement. "But now I see the truth. After the deaths of Alfred Shere and Pertelope, it seemed that our young Cadderly lost control a little bit. He tricked me so that he could go to the Wall of Trinity." The claim was not entirely true, but Thobex did not want to admit that Cadderly had dominated him, bending his mind like a willow in a strong wind. "Now he blocks my attempts to communicate with our god." As far as Thobicus knew, this latter statement was true.As far as he was concerned, if he didn't tell himself that, it meant that he was already deeply unfavored by God Denier, and this old headmaster couldn't accept this. "What do you want us to do?" Fest Rumpeau asked, his tone more suspicious than loyal. "No need to do anything," Thobix replied quickly, seeing the man's suspicion. "I just want to warn everyone so we won't be caught off guard when our young friend returns." This answer seemed to satisfy Rambo and many others.After that, Thobicus abruptly terminated the meeting and returned to his private quarters.He has sown the seeds of doubt.When Cadderly returned and the Headmaster clashed head-on with the fast-rising young priest, his honesty would be viewed favorably. And this conflict was bound to happen, Thobicus knew full well.He neither forgot nor condoned the young priest's behaviour.He is the dean of the library, he is the leader of his sect, and he will not allow anyone to treat him like a puppet. This is the biggest weakness of Headmaster Thobicus.He still couldn't accept that Cadderly's act of mastery had been sanctioned by the god Denir, the true seat of their faith.But Thobicus had been chained to the library's hierarchy for too long, forgetting the higher mission of the library and the sect itself.Too many programs blur the goal.The headmaster saw the upcoming feud with Cadderly as a political struggle, one that would be determined by alliances made under the table and promises of mutual benefit. Of course, deep down, Thobex knew the truth, knowing that the outcome of his fight with Cadderly would be determined by Denir's true faith.But this truth, like the truth of the sect itself, is deeply buried under false information.Thobicus could not believe otherwise and deluded himself that others would follow his lead. ※※※ Zirkan Rufo's dream was no longer the victim's dream. It saw Cadderly, but this time it wasn't the branded Rufo that flinched, but the young Denierian priest.This time, in this dream, Rufo was the conqueror, and it reached down calmly, ripping out Cadderly's windpipe. The vampire wakes up in total darkness.It could feel the stone walls pressing against it, and it welcomed their shelter, as minutes turned into hours in the darkness. Then another call pressed Rufo, and a great hunger overwhelmed it.It tried to ignore it, consciously just wanting to lie in the cold, dark emptiness. Soon its fingers were clawing at the stone, writhing violently, overwhelmed by a need it couldn't comprehend.A low, ferocious growl, an animal call, escaped from its mouth. Rufo tossed and twisted, turning his whole body over and over in the catacombs.At first, the writhing vampire tried to yank the stone away, tearing the barrier into a million pieces, but he managed to stay sane enough to realize that he might need the sanctuary again.Rufo focused his mind on the tiny cracks in the bottom of the slabs, which melted into a green vapor—it wasn't difficult—and seeped out into the main area of ​​the mausoleum. Perched on the nearest stone slab, Druzil's dog-like jaw rested in clawed fingers, was waiting for it. However, Rufo almost didn't notice the imp.When it returned to its solid state, it felt different, less stiff and clumsy. He smelled the night air around him—air that belonged to him—and felt strong.Faint moonlight filtered in through the dirty windows, but unlike sunlight, it was cool and comforting. Rufo stretched his arms in the air, kicked one foot out, then wrapped it around the other, savoring the night and his own freedom. "They didn't come," Druzil said to it. Rufo was about to ask what the imp was talking about, but when he noticed the two corpses, he understood immediately. "I'm not surprised," the vampire replied. "The library is full of obligations. Always obligations. It may take days before anyone finds out that the dead priests are missing." "Then put them together," Druzil ordered. "Drag them out of here." Rufo's attention was on the imp's tone rather than its actual content. "Do it now," Druzil continued, unaware of the rapidly accumulating danger around him. "If we're careful..." Only then did Druzil look up from the nearest corpse and see Rufo's expression. The back of the little devil. Druzil didn't even finish the sentence, didn't even try to squeeze the words out of the lump in his throat. "Come here," Rufo said quietly and calmly. Druzil had no desire to obey the order.It began to shake its head, clattering its huge ears, and it even tried to make a derogatory comment.Then those thoughts died away, for the imp suddenly found that he was indeed heading towards Rufo, his wings and feet at the command of the vampire.It reached the end of the slab, then jumped up, flapping its bat-like wings to keep it in the air, moving steadily forward. Rufo suddenly stretched out a cold hand and grabbed the imp by the throat, breaking the hypnosis.Druzil let out a shriek, instinctively turned his tail over his head, and swung it viciously into Rufo's face. Rufo laughed out loud and began to squeeze. Druzil's tail flew into Rufo's face, the barbed point poking a small hole. Rufo continued to laugh evilly, tightening his terrifyingly strong hand. "Who's the master?" asked the confident vampire. Druzil thinks his head is going to explode!It can't even move.Besides, there's that look!Druzil had faced some of the most powerful overlords in the Lower Realms, but at that moment, none seemed so overwhelming to the Imp. "Who's the master?" Rufo asked again. Druzil's tail drooped limply, and then it stopped struggling. "Please, Master," it whined breathlessly. "I'm hungry," the vampire announced, throwing Druzil aside casually.Rufo strode toward the mausoleum door with poised, confident strides.As it approached the door, it thrust forward with willpower, and the door slammed open.Once it passed the doorway, it slammed shut again, leaving Druzil alone in the mausoleum, cursing under his breath. ※※※ That night, too, Bachtoren Mosgarden, who had been the library cook since Evan Stoneshoulder left, cursed under his breath.The man, as the priests call him "Bazai," has had enough of his new duties.He had been hired to maintain the grounds--that's what Buzzy does best--but as the winters blanketed the grounds with snow and the dwarves roamed the hills, the priests took the rules to change. "Raw water, rotten water, and more stinking rotten water!" complained the filthy man, dumping a bucket of leftover cabbage on the slope behind the wide but not tall library.He wanted to pinch his nose, but changed his mind when fingers reeking of stale cabbage approached his nostrils. "I'm even starting to smell like that stinky water!" he wailed, thumping the metal bucket so that the last of its contents spilled out onto the slippery, dirty snow, before turning away . Bazai noticed that it suddenly became much colder.And, he discovered later, quieter too.It wasn't the cold that stopped him, but a silence.Even the wind stopped. The hairs on the back of Bazai's neck trembled and stood erect.Something is wrong with this place. "Who is it?" he asked bluntly, because that was his usual style.He doesn't shower very much, and he doesn't shave very much, and he's convinced it's okay to do so, because people should like him for something more than looks. Buzai likes to think he has depth. "Who is it?" he asked again, more clearly.Because no one answered just now, he gained some courage.He almost thought he was just too imaginative, and had already taken the first step back towards the back kitchen door of the Moezhi Library, just twenty yards away, but at that moment, a tall, thin figure came to him Straight ahead, standing completely still and silent. Bazai stammered several times and tried to ask questions, but none of them could be answered in full.Among the many questions, what Bazi wanted to ask the most was where did this guy come from.To the poor, filthy cook, it looked as if the man had stepped straight out of thin air, or else from a shadow that wasn't deep enough to cover him at all! The figure took a step closer.Overhead, the moonlight pierced through a cloud, revealing Rufo's pale face. Bazai swayed, as if he was about to faint.He wanted to yell, but couldn't find the sound.He tried to run away, but his feet were pinned to the ground as he barely held on. Rufo tasted his fear, and his eyes lit up suddenly, and a terrible red light danced where the pupil should have been.The vampire has an evil grin, the mouth gradually widens to reveal long fangs.Bazai mumbled a few sounds that sounded like "Gods in the sky", and then he was already kneeling in the snow, his legs were completely limp. The pleasure of utterly sweet fear, multiplied tenfold, washed over Rufo.It was the purest feeling of ecstasy the hideous creature had ever experienced.At that moment, it both understood and admired its own strength.This pathetic weak thing, this man it didn't even know, couldn't stand against him at all! Rufo moved slowly but firmly, knowing that the victim was no match for the vampire. Then it tasted blood, like the nectar it drank from that foolish Priest of Oghma before Druzil's venom in the mausoleum began to taint it.The blood was not contaminated.Bazai is a dirty guy, but his blood is pure, warm, and sweet. As the minutes passed, Rufo had a hearty meal.Then it realizes it's time to stop.It somehow knew that if it didn't kill the guy, the man would transform into an undead creature that was weaker than it and could serve it.The vampire knew instinctively that this person would be its slave—at least until Buzz was fully transformed into a vampire too. Rufo continued to eat.It wanted to stop, but no rational thought could override the pleasure this vampire felt.After a while, Bazai's skinless body fell down the ramp behind another pile of discarded garbage. By the time the night began to fade, Zirkan Rufo had adapted to this new way of being.It walked around like a wolf patrolling its territory, thinking about the kill, about the smell of that dirty man's blood.Rufo's face and cloak were stained with the dried-up brown remnants of the death feast just now. He stood in front of the side wall of the Moezhi Library, looking up at the gargoyles lining the gutter system. Over the roofs, down on the stars in its domain. A voice in its head (it knew it was Druzil) told it to return to the mausoleum, to the cold, dark catacombs, to escape the hellish heat of the rising sun.Rufo learns, however, that this plan has dangers.It's gone too far now.The revealing sun will put the priests on the defensive, and then they will become formidable opponents. They'll know where to start looking. Death brought new insight and power to Zilkan Rufo, far surpassing all that the Denirian Cult had ever promised to give it.It could feel the Curse of Chaos writhing within it, which inhabited the body like a companion and guide.Rufo could walk away and find a place of safety, but Tuendor Chiro Miangche wanted more than safety. Little did Rufo realize he had changed shape, but the next thing he noticed, his bat-like claws had found a perch on the edge of the library roof.The vampire's skeleton creaked and stretched back into human form, and Rufo sat on the edge of the roof, looking down at a familiar window. It climbed down the wall head to toe, with its strong immortal fingers, it found a firm grip on what would be a smooth stone in the eyes of a living person, passed the third floor, and came to the second floor.To Rufo's surprise, the window had been barred with iron.It reached through the iron bars to push the glass in, and then it wanted to become a vapor and float directly into the room.For some reason, some instinctive, bestial impulse, it suddenly thought that this fence was only there to stop its progress, and it grabbed an iron bar, and then tore the fence off with one hand, swinging it spinning Fly into the night sky. It believed that the entire library was open to it, and that the vampire had no intention of leaving.