Danmachi Familia from Hell

24

Hades and Belakher stared in stunned silence at the vampire weeping crimson tears. Landgrave did not know what to think. He was unsure whether he should pity the man or despise him. The crimes he had committed went beyond any punishment prescribed by the legal code of the forest of Rasa Sill-or, indeed, of any country he had visited during nearly four hundred years of his life. Mass murder, wife-slaying, daughter-slaying. Each of these acts was unforgivable. Each of them was abhorrent. But... was the fact that he had done it unintentionally, in a frenzy that had clouded his senses, not a mitigating circumstance? In Landgrave's homeland, mental illness was taken into account in court, for those suffering from disorders of the mind were often unaware of their actions or reasoned in ways vastly different from healthy individuals. Being under the influence of alcohol or narcotic herbs, however, was treated as an additional burden-unless the accused could prove the substances had been administered against their will. Vlood had drunk the blood willingly and had been warned of its negative effects, though not of the ones that drove him to those terrible deeds. How, then, should Belakher judge this? As yet another reason to scorn the white-haired man, or as an argument to reconsider his opinion of him?

- What happened next? - Hades said, his tone as measured and his face as emotionless as ever, as though the vampire's confession had not affected him in the slightest.

- Huh?

In response, Teepashtee sluggishly lifted his head, revealing to the god a face stained with blood flowing from his eyes, smeared by his hands as he tried to wipe away the tears.

- What happened next? - the golden-eyed one asked again.

- What do you...

- What happened next? - he repeated once more, making it perfectly clear that only a direct answer would satisfy him.

- Next? - the blood-drinker hissed quietly and indistinctly. - Next? - he said again, this time much louder. - Next?! - he finally shouted, feeling as though he were boiling from within.

His veins bulged once more, spreading across his entire body.

- You want to know what happened next, god?! Fine! - he screamed, consumed by fury. - After I killed all my servants, friends, and relatives, I wanted to commit suicide-but I couldn't! I tried stabbing my heart and slitting my veins, but my wounds sealed themselves the moment I inflicted them! I even tried hanging myself with a rope, only to discover I didn't need air to live! After hours of madness and countless attempts, I finally discovered what could kill me and what I myself could not use to end my life.

- And what might that be? - Hades asked calmly. - This thing that can end a mortal fate yet requires another person's intervention?

Meanwhile, another inner conflict raged within Landgrave. One half of his mind admired his god's composure, while the other was terrified by the coldness of the King of the Underworld-a chill that nothing could pierce, not even in a moment like this.

- For you or that elf it is harmless - Vlood replied, still seething with rage. - But for me, sunlight is a death sentence - he declared. - While wandering the castle, searching for something that could finally destroy me, I stepped into the light streaming through a corridor window. The entire right side of my body literally burst into flames, and I leapt back in response to the unbearable pain. My burned skin smoked like wood thrown into a blazing fireplace and regenerated far more slowly than after any of my previous attempts to end my cursed existence - he said, staring at his hand and recalling how it had been as wounded as after enduring many of Belakher's spells. - I stretched my hand forward to make sure it was truly the light that had injured me so severely and I was not mistaken. From my fingernails to my wrist, hidden beneath my sleeve, flames appeared again, and I recoiled once more.