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【Skill: Holy Blood: Blood Mist】
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The Blood Mist was originally a wide-ranging skill that scattered dark red blood in the air, inducing hallucinations in an unspecified number of targets.
However, from the moment the word “Guardian” appeared in my status window, the Blood Mist transformed into a completely different skill.
“No… that’s not what I am…!!”
“I was just following orders… I did nothing wrong…!!”
It was the same in that dark red blood was being scattered in the air, but then it began to emit an uncanny light and soon started to create a dreamlike space in an instant.
“Stop it… please stop!!”
As if stepping into a sacred domain, it inflicted painful hallucinations and strong psychological pressure on the wicked, while bestowing healing and solace upon the good, amplifying the differences in an instant.
“Le, Levi…?”
“Wah…!”
“Wow….”
I could hear the trembling voices of the children quietly behind me.
The children were not scared at all by my appearance. In fact, they looked at me in wonder and could not contain their admiration.
“Uh, huh…? Why is there a divine aura of the World Tree coming from Levynia…?”
Rune, too, looked at me with the same curiosity as the children. However, at the same time, she began to tilt her head to the side, feeling the divine aura of the World Tree emanating from me.
But I didn’t give any response to Rune.
I maintained a calm demeanor as if everything was natural, wearing a stoic expression, but I was the one feeling the most flustered among us, not the children.
“……”
I had no intention of using the Blood Mist.
I was thinking of creating a weapon using blood as usual. For some reason, the Blood Mist activated on its own, transforming the entire surroundings into something bizarre.
Moreover, it appeared completely different from how it had looked the first time I used it.
“Could it be…!! Did you receive divine power from the World Tree?!!”
Even faced with Rune’s question again, I remained silent. I absentmindedly gazed at the incomprehensible situation unfolding before me, only managing a faint, incredulous smile.
“What?! Does that mean Levi has been chosen by the World Tree now?!”
“I think so… If not, this situation is impossible to explain….”
“As expected of Levi─!! To actually receive the choice of the World Tree!! It’s entirely understandable for Levi!!”
If Rune’s words were true, it would be a cause for immense joy, enough to jump in place and run around the entire forest multiple times.
However, I couldn’t feel unadulterated joy at being chosen by the World Tree.
I could hardly understand why a vampire like me was chosen by the World Tree; if I were an ordinary person, perhaps I wouldn’t feel this ongoing contradiction about my existence.
The thought became more pronounced as I watched the Elder writhing in pain.
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【Skill: Holy Blood: Bell of the End】
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– Chwaak─!!
Amidst all this, a sudden notification window popped up in front of me, and the blood streaming from my palm began to gather rapidly above my head.
It soon formed the shape of a giant bell, inducing both a strange unease and awe-inspiring grandeur at the same time.
“…?”
What on earth is this skill?
Not only was it a skill I had never seen before, but I also had no idea why it appeared and started to siphon my blood in large amounts without my use.
For the first time, I experienced a severe dizziness that I had never felt before, all from this single skill.
“What is this…? Could this also be created by Levi…?”
“Does it look like blood…?”
“I, I’m scared….”
The situation grew increasingly dizzying. Even I, the caster of the skill, had no idea what was happening.
“What is this…?”
Although I pretended to be a devout nun in the name of the goddess Paelia, I had never believed in the existence of a goddess, and during worship times, I always daydreamed while pretending to pray.
I hadn’t done anything worthy of being chosen by the World Tree. In fact, I thought it was only fitting for Rune to receive this power instead.
So why was it me? With this, my carefully established position became extremely ambiguous.
– Dang─!!
In this space where cries of pain and shouts of praise coexisted oddly, at the moment I was wracking my brain to solve the escalating situation, a profoundly unsettling tolling of the bell echoed loudly from the now considerably enlarged bell.
“Status window─!! Status window─!!”
For reasons unknown, this unsettling toll felt to me as if it heralded the end of everything. I had no intention of taking things this far, so I urgently called out for the status window, hoping to escape the predicament.
However, nothing came to mind, not even the status window, only the increasingly loud tolling reverberated.
– Dang, dang, dang.
Finally, a large amount of blood drained helplessly from the bodies of the elves writhing in pain. That blood began to slowly converge over my head, forming the grand bell that had been towering above me.
“Ahh…!! Everyone, quickly cover your eyes─!! Hurry─!!”
The bell started gathering blood out of my control. Unable to bear showing such a horrific scene to the children, I quickly turned around and pulled the dazed children close to me.
But regrettably, I couldn’t cover all of their eyes by myself.
“Wah….”
“What is happening, Ellie…!! Don’t look at that!!”
“Why? It’s so pretty….”
“…?”
In that moment, Ellie’s perplexing remark made me doubt my own ears. My forehead furrowed in confusion without my conscious intention.
“Pretty, you say…?”
“Yes…. The particles of light are gradually gathering into the bell….”
Even though I heard Ellie’s words right in front of me, I continued to doubt my ears. There was no scene that could be beautifully described as particles of light.
When I turned back to take another look just in case, the particles of light Ellie spoke of were nowhere to be found. In my eyes, there was only the horrifying scene of blood being grotesquely drawn from the bodies of the elves.
“The bell is also huge and beautiful…. At first, I thought it was blood… but it wasn’t….”
Ellie’s quiet words piqued the curiosity of the children in my arms. One by one, they slipped out of my embrace and began to look at the same scene that Ellie was observing.
Soon, they followed suit with similar exclamations and began to neatly bring their hands together.
“Lev, what you called purification… this is it….”
“It’s, it’s amazing….”
Aizen and Iris, who couldn’t quite shut their mouths, seemed to be seeing a different sight from the one I was witnessing for some unknown reason.
“What on earth do you see to make such admiration…?”
“How faithfully have you lived, Levi….”
“I, I want to be like the nun too….”
“It warms my heart….”
The children’s reactions certainly caught my attention, but especially Rune’s reaction captivated me.
Her eyes and lips trembled for some unknown reason. It was incredibly impressive, almost bewildering, to see her standing silently as if witnessing a new world.
“Ru, Rune…?”
“Even without being an elf, one can be chosen by the World Tree….”
Since Rune knew my true identity, she showed a slightly different reaction from the others. After that single statement, she did not speak again, and I couldn’t exactly tell what she was thinking. Yet, contrary to my worries, I could vaguely sense that she held a fairly positive mindset, which let out a momentary sigh of relief.
“Ah, it has disappeared.”
“I wanted to see more….”
“But it was incredibly beautiful.”
Soon came the children’s voices laced with disappointment. The massive shadow of the great bell that had loomed overhead had also vanished neatly.
“……”
As the situation calmed down, the dizziness I had forgotten came rushing back. My head went blank, my vision became increasingly blurry, and my body felt heavy once more.
Everything I had focused on vanished in an instant, and my footing began to feel unstable, as if I were floating in the air.
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【Levynia Fallen Grace】 – [Guardian]
[Race] Vampire
[Level] 87
[Active Skills] Blood Donation, Blood Mist
[Passive Skills] Rapid Regeneration
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Gripping my dazed mind, I struggled to check my status window. A moment ago, nothing had come to mind, but now, as if it had always been there, the information popped back up, which was truly infuriating.
“I’m back now….”
Everything, except for the Guardian next to my name, returned to its original state. The skill names became ordinary again, and the strange aura I had felt throughout my body faded away.
My anxious heart began to calm down little by little; however, I couldn’t shake off the uneasy feeling in the back of my mind about the last skill I used.
I thought I had gained a new skill, but the “Bell of the End” was nowhere to be found in my status window.
“This is the method of purification using the divine power of the World Tree! Now I understand!!”
“That was truly incredible, Sister…!!”
“You only targeted the evil elves accurately and wiped them out.”
According to the children, it seemed that unaffected elves who were not involved in the incident suffered no harm. Only the elves harboring wicked hearts lay cold and lifeless on the ground.
“Ah, ahaha…. I don’t remember doing anything particularly…but it seems to have worked out well….”
As I awkwardly scratched my head with a sheepish expression, Rune, who had remained silently standing behind the children, slowly approached me, gently grasping my clothing and cautiously spoke.
“Levynia, what exactly is your true identity…?”
In response to Rune’s bewildered question, I maintained my awkward smile and answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’m a nun.”
Rune, completely unconvinced by my answer, asked me repeatedly about my identity. Nevertheless, I kept repeating that I was a nun like a parrot.
How could I possibly convey to Rune what I didn’t even understand myself….
“I… want to return to the church quickly.”
