Way of the Knights

---

"...yep, this is no ordinary Vampirism. There's more to this." 

Vendrick came up with this conclusion after inspecting some more subjects that he encountered so far. Although he already guessed that this was the case, he still wanted to confirm it, and now he could. 

Vampirism is an art that is centered around blood consumption. Typically, the host will have to consume blood in order to sustain itself and become stronger. Those who are afflicted with Vampirism typically experiences extreme hunger that can't be satiated with any kind of food, only by drinking blood would they be able to satiate their hunger, however repeated consumption of blood can be addicting to those who are affected. 

There are ways to spread this affliction, the most common way is preying onto someone without draining all the blood in their body.. Leaving them alive will cause them to be infected by Vampirism and they'll become fledgling vampires too. 

But see, what's happening around Vendrick isn't simple Vampirism. If anything, it's more like a plague really. 

Vampirism will only drive its host insane if their hunger for blood isn't satiated after some time. If they have a stable source of blood, they will maintain their sanity as well as possess the enhanced strength of vampires and their acute sense for blood. It absolutely can't reanimate the dead, which is what's going around him. 

In addition, these deranged demonic beasts aren't doing this out of need to satiate their hunger, no. Once they got infected, they will lose all sense of reason and will proceed to destroy every living thing around them, nothing can stop this unless they were killed. But to be honest, leaving an intact corpse behind would just delay this process. 

After all, whatever this 'illness' is, it can re-animate the dead. It will only take a single bite from a carrier to re-animate a dead corpse and it would start its rampage again. 

Vendrick had been searching around for quite some time now. Trying to track where this 'illness' is coming from. Unfortunately, his senses can't pick up anything useful. Its like they were appearing from out of nowhere. 

"Should I just kill every single one of them? That might just solve my problem right away." 

Vendrick was really tempted to do this, but alas he can't justify it...for now at least. Well he does have the ability to kill every single demonic beast in sight but even with his current strength, it will take time before he could eradicate them. What if he runs our of energy and all of a sudden the Vampiric Serpent appeared to ambush him? Wouldn't that spell death for him? 

Additionally, what if the problem doesn't lie on the demonic beasts themselves? Wouldn't the act killing every single one, be not worth it if that ends up being the case? Vendrick didn't want to waste time for something not worth it, so he turned this idea down. 

"...maybe I should go deeper into the wilderness. The answer I'm looking for might just be there." 

---

"Uh...what the hell is this?" 

Vendrick was dumbfounded, 

He had thought that going deeper into the wilderness of the Western Continent would at least give him answers. Well, it somehow did, but it also lead him to more questions. 

There is something in the depths. It was big and freaky. 

It pulsated as if it was alive. Looking closely at it, it looks like a beating heart only it's a hundred times bigger than the normal one and more gross looking. It's covered in black slimy goo, it glows with a crimson color whenever it pulsates. Its also wrapped in vines that are pulsating rhythmically in accordance to the large organ. 

Vendrick inspected this thing from a far, at first he thought it was a hill but it pulsated and looked weird so he went closer. 

The large organ was surrounded by Demonic Beasts who stared at the pulsating organ like they were entranced. Every single on of these demonic beasts are infected, Vendrick knew it from the first glance. All of them were covered in warts and had crimson colored eyes that pulsates in sync with the pulse of the heart. 

The only sound that could be heard from the area was the sound of a beating heart. Vendrick made sure to suppress his presence in order to not alarm the demonic beasts around him. 

He hid amidst a thick bush. His eyes glowed with rainbow colored light, a sign that his ocular technique is active. He inspected the 'Heart' and was surprised with what he saw. 

The heart was anchored to the ground by the vines. Each time it pulsates, its actually releasing an invisible steam that blends into the air. Give it enough time and not even Vendrick's ocular technique would be able to see it. 

This invisible steam was then inhaled by the demonic beasts around and causes them to mutate.

Vendrick witnessed the infection with his eyes. He saw as an unsuspecting demonic beast which looked like a deer, accidentally inhaled the steam. Its gaze became dull, it stared at the beating heart and suddenly grew warts all over its body, its eyes also turned crimson.

These warts contained more of that invisible steam. Each time the infected or carriers attacked another Demonic Beasts, they steam inside the warts will move in accordance to their attack and will convert the victim. 

'How long has this been going on?'

There's probably nobody that could answer Vendrick's question since he's the only human here. Thankfully, this invisible mist doesn't have any effect on him or else it'll be troublesome to deal with this. 

Vendrick has no idea how the hell that heart came to be or how long its been since it started infecting demonic beasts around. If there's anything good about his current situation, it'll be the fact that he discovered this before it spread to other continents. 

The southern and western continent are divided by a large body of water. It'll only take a single sea demonic beast to be infected and this whole plague would've consumed the entire sea and quite possibly land on the southern continent or other continent for that matter. 

"Hmm? Wait! Is that..." Vendrick just noticed something. 

He took a closer look by inching a bit closer to the heart, of course he was being careful to not alert the other demonic beast in the process. 

Vendrick squinted because he felt like he was seeing things, which shouldn't be possible since he's immune to all kinds of illusions, especially with his ocular technique active. It's also impossible for his eyesight to be bad. 

What made him curious is the appearance of the vines surrounding the heart. Well, it did look like vines at first but the more he looked at it, the more he was convinced that these vines aren't ordinary. Well, that's already to he expected, after all no normal vines would grow to be this thick and long but that's not the point. 

He saw a glare on the surface of the vines, it only lasted for a second before dissipating but it definitely happened. Vendrick caught it and thought to himself: 'Vines don't sparkle. Especially if they are dried ones.' 

At first he thought that the glare might just be because of the reflection of light from touching a moisture or something but when he looked closely at that same spot, he couldn't find any traces of wetness in there. 

Just as when he was doing that, another sparkle occurred from the corner of his eyes and once again, nothing. This is when he began suspecting what he was seeing. 

He then sharpened his senses, and when he did the results surprised him. At first it was quite difficult to spot because it blend in at its surroundings so perfectly that it even managed to fool him. But then again, it couldn't really hide the sparkling scales beneath it. 

These vines aren't normal. It's not just simply connected to the heart, it is a creature that's wrapped around the heart. 

It's movement was so natural that it made Vendrick admire its cunningness. The heart releases an invisible steam whenever it pulsates, this is what he thought was happening but in truth, the reason why the heart is even pulsating in the first place is because the creature wrapped around it, was squeezing it. 

Again, it's not like its casting an illusion, it's just camouflaged in the subtlest way that Vendrick actually fell for it. 

This creature is long since it could wrap around the huge heart without even giving signs were it starts or ends. It's body also just happen to be the same color as the heart, in fact it could even mimic the way how the heart glows with crimson colored light whenever it releases that invisible steam. 

Vendrick already has an idea of what this creature is, but just to make sure, he searched for where its head was. 

He carefully moved around the dazed demonic beast and then he found it. 

It was indeed the Vampiric Serpent, it wrapped itself around the heart and also doing something quite questionable. 

"...is it trying to swallow the heart?"