On the way back to the inn, two emotions warred within Zack. One was a sense of responsibility for Sophia, whom he himself had bound and shackled; the other was fear left over from Sophia's recent threats. The mixture of these feelings churned inside him, but since Sophia had finally chosen to be honest with him—admitting she'd only used him for amusement—he summoned the courage to ask the gagged Sophia something that had just occurred to him: "Do you hate your own kind?"
"Mm?" Sophia was surprised that Zack would ask such a serious question.
"Well, there are a lot of people who hate humanity too, and think cats and dogs are cuter than people."
"Mm?"
"You must get lonely sometimes."
"Mm?"
"Never mind, just pretend I'm talking nonsense." With that, Zack and Sophia, draped in her bloodwings, arrived at the inn.
Neither of them noticed a monocular telescope trained on them from a distance.
—————————————————————————————————
Back at the inn, Zack hung Sophia's bloodwings on the coat rack and set her shackles to "Good Slave" mode, releasing the chains.
Sophia flopped onto the bed. Zack tried to remove her gag, but Sophia "Mmm-mmm!" refused.
"Still angry?"
"Mmm!" Sophia shook her head—she wanted Zack to know that, since she was playing the role of a captive, she intended to play it convincingly.
"Then why—"
Before Zack could finish, several silver crossbow bolts shot in through the window, plunging straight into Sophia's body, now unprotected by the bloodwings, and piercing through her completely.
"MM! MM! MM!" Where the bolts struck, black smoke hissed and blood gushed out. Sophia rolled painfully off the bed. More bolts whistled in; this time, Zack didn't panic but rushed to the coat rack, grabbed the bloodwings, and dashed over to drape them over Sophia. By now he understood that the bloodwings were useless unless they touched their mistress.
The bloodwings swiftly wrapped around their master, shielding her, but the silver bolts still drove deep into the magical cloak, burning the flesh beneath even without going all the way through.
"MM! MM!" These bolts had completely evaded her ear's warning—moving at near-supersonic speed. The sound arrived only a split second before the arrows themselves; by the time she heard them, it was too late. There was only one crossbow in the world that could fire such a barrage at this speed—it had to be that weapon.
Sophia writhed on the floor in agony; Zack hurried to lift her up. "MM! MM!" she signaled for him to ungag her. In his panic, Zack fumbled for the master key; his left hand was pierced by a bolt, the bone snapping instantly. But thinking of how Sophia was no longer invincible, and truly needed his protection now, he grit his teeth and used the key to unlock her gag and, with a burst of adrenaline, her shackles as well.
"Zack, run!" Sophia managed to gasp out.
She herself could probably deal with the rain of arrows—but Zack could not.
The two dashed out of the room, arrows in pursuit. These near-supersonic bolts were only slightly slower than bullets—no wooden or even stone wall could stop them.
Their attackers seemed intent not to harm bystanders, refraining from filling the inn with arrows to slay both man and vampire inside.
"Hah… hah…" Out on the street, Zack saw blood pooling under Sophia's cloak.
"Help me—pull them out." The bloodwings opened for him. Zack saw the silver bolts, no longer piercing all the way through, now embedded in her flesh, the wounds burning ceaselessly. He grabbed one and pulled. "Aah! Aaaaah!" Sophia howled in pain.
"You… are you alright?"
"Don't stop—keep going!"
Zack pulled out several more.
"Aaaah! Aaah!" Some were lodged in especially sensitive places. This time, Zack didn't let his mind wander; instead, it was Sophia who let out an overtly sensual moan: "Aaah—ahh! Ahh! Zack… good job! Ahh!"
Zack saw the gaping holes in her body—pierced before she could put on her bloodwings—and his heart ached for her.
"Blood—I need blood."
"Drink mine," Zack offered his neck, unaware of the danger—vampires in this state could easily drain a person dry, unable to control themselves.
Sophia, aware of this, held back. Her mental state was far too poor to risk it.
"Careful!" Sophia turned and let loose a barrage of ultrasonic shrieks: "Mmmmwaaaahhh!" The air was filled with the sound of arrows being shattered by her sonic attacks. With vampire vision far surpassing an eagle's, she could spot threats kilometers away; she could see the distant archer, and suddenly, the sound of more arrows ceased—a sure sign her attack had landed somewhere in the darkness.
"Got you, you little bitch!" Sophia's eyes glowed red as she spat the words, but Zack, noticing that Sophia had taken three more bolts during the exchange, hurried to help, yanking them out and watching the blood gush.
"Zack, if this keeps up, I'll be shot to death." She realized that with her magic and powers sealed, unable to use her enchanted gun Evelynn, she could only retaliate at range with sonic attacks—not exactly the goblin-mowing death ray. She had to change tactics; for Zack's safety, too, since arrows didn't care who they struck.
Sophia dragged Zack into an open area with no tall buildings nearby, making it impossible for their attacker to snipe from afar.
Soon, out of the darkness, emerged a woman in a broad-brimmed hat—dark wine-red hair, a black leather cuirass over a white duelist's shirt, and wielding a massive silver repeating crossbow with a huge drum magazine.
"Tututututututu!" The crossbow spat more bolts. Sophia kicked Zack aside and dodged most with her own footwork, though a couple hit her through the bloodwings' protection.
At last, the crossbow ran dry—these huge drums needed to be swapped at a base or packhorse, not on the fly.
Sophia noted the woman's red hair was disheveled and blood ran from her lips; clearly, that last sonic barrage had landed.
The woman slung the crossbow on her back and charged, drawing one of four flintlock pistols and firing at Sophia as she closed.
Sophia, as long as it wasn't a sneak attack or at a distance, could use her senses to dodge easily.
Quickly, the woman emptied the gun and tossed it aside, drew two more, and fired again. Sophia dodged each shot. The woman didn't bother with the last, realizing it was useless, and instead drew a hunter's whip—holy magic coursed through it, deadly to creatures of darkness. She snapped the whip at Sophia, who dodged, but the woman's arm redirected it like a tracking serpent. Sophia kept dodging, but the woman drew her final pistol and fired at the path Sophia was about to take. Sophia smirked—instead of dodging, she flared the bloodwings out before her. The bullet hit the wings—she felt as if a fist had slammed into her through the cloak, but it didn't penetrate.
However, the blow's force stopped Sophia's next dodge; the whip followed—
BOOM! Holy orange energy exploded at the point of contact. The Belmont family's hunter's whip had hundreds of times the force of lesser monster slayers. Sophia was blasted aside, her bloodwings ripped away.
The woman drew her hand-and-a-half cruciform sword, whip in the other hand, and stalked toward Sophia, now collapsed on the ground. "You're a Dominax."
"Ha… ah… ha… ah…" Sophia gasped. "This… isn't… Sylvania…"
"But you are a Dominax."
"I… am… Sophi… Safi… Sannis…" Sophia was barely conscious.
"Don't lie. I'm not some amateur like Gass who got killed by you. You debauched vampire, chained up by a human, perfect—let me give you a hand." Anna assumed Sophia was just another hedonistic, wanton bloodsucker.
"You're… the one… who had her glory stolen… by Gass… Belmont…" Sophia, having once read Gass's mind, knew all the high vampire kills credited to him were really Anna's.
"So what? You killed Gass; I kill you; balance is restored between hunter and vampire." Anna Belmont kept advancing.
"One… Dominax… for one… glory-stealing… little hunter? Ha… butcher girl… you're—aaah!"
Anna drove her silver-heeled boot into Sophia's gut, right where a bolt had gone through, the silver burning.
"AAAH! AAAAH! AAAAH!" Sophia screamed.
Anna bent low, her blood-spattered face almost demonic: "You monsters are a thousand times more contemptible than the vilest human."
Sophia saw her chance—at this range, she mustered her last ounce of strength and blasted a sonic cannon at Anna's face.
KRAK! Anna was thrown four or five meters, her hunter's hat flying.
Sophia staggered upright. "Bitch… ha… got you… ha…"
But as Anna lay bleeding, she whipped out her crossbow—one bolt left, she fired at Sophia's head. Sophia dodged, but the hunter's whip lashed after her, and the bolt struck her throat just above her collar, burning out her voicebox.
"You… little bitch… you've… checkmated… me…" Sophia could only speak in a guttural rasp.
Anna again drew her sword, then a holy water-soaked stake: "Dominax, in the name of my ancestor Leon Belmont, I hereby—"
"AAAAAAH!" Zack charged out of the shadows, Moonlight in his right hand, the broken left holding the bloodheart, eyes bloodshot with rage, like a wild beast.
CLANG! The half-sword parried, the whip entangled the dagger. Moonlight could store attacks, but it wasn't AI—couldn't react, parry, or riposte on its own. Anna deflected Moonlight, stabbing Zack through the right lung.
He gritted his teeth, refusing to fall, glaring red-eyed at Anna. Anna kicked him hard in the gut, finally sending him down.
Anna, blood-splattered, looked more demon than hunter. She picked up her fallen hat, donned it, and pointed her sword at Zack. "Ha, I heard from the inquest on the failed vampire expedition that the vampire ropes were all missing, the vampire woman gone too—maybe she was really caught by some brave hero? You? The one who can't even take a single blow from me? You know who used that sword? You think you're worthy?"
From behind Anna came a rasping voice: "That's right, a cowardly, lecherous Zack can really be the one to shackle the Princess Dominax of Valhatz?"
Anna turned, too slow. With a surge of inhuman strength, Sophia kicked the hunter girl square in the face. Anna slumped unconscious.
"Aah… ahh… it hurts… am I dying?" Zack choked blood, his right lung torn up. "Master key… is in my right pocket… Domin—"
Sophia didn't let him finish. Still bloody and wounded herself, she bared her fangs and pressed her lips to Zack's, pouring restorative blood into his mouth, healing his lung.
What Zack didn't know was that Sophia's reluctance to save Georgina with her blood stemmed from the fact that producing even a milliliter of such restorative elixir required several times as much of her own blood.
When Zack's wounds were fully healed, Sophia had lost so much blood that she passed out.
Zack, now perfectly whole, looked at the two blood-drenched beauties on the ground and sighed.
————————————————————————
One day later…
Anna woke up.
Her wounds had been healed by Sophia's restorative blood. She felt strong—she remembered being kicked unconscious by the vampire woman—wait, vampire! She found herself unable to move.
Damn it?
"MM! MM!" She found herself bound and gagged. A filthy rag wrapped around her mouth, the stench seeping in; inside, she was sure, was a pair of women's panties.
She struggled, but every movement brought jolts of pleasure from below. Only then did she realize she'd been hogtied and suspended, wrapped in a mesh of ropes—her chest and crotch especially constricted, a rope jammed into her cleavage. Her legs were lashed tightly together, folded up, and a wicked rope pressed cruelly into her groin—her own hunter's whip was threaded through her thighs and connected to the ropes, so every struggle made the whip saw at her most sensitive bud.
Anna realized she'd been stripped of all outer clothing, left only in the leather corset and brown trousers she'd worn under her gear. The corset, barely big enough for her chest—much smaller than Sophia's, but still ample—now left her upper half totally exposed, the rope between her breasts barely keeping the cups from popping off.
"MMM! MMM!" Anna cried out, only to find a rope collar tight at her throat—every sound or movement threatened to choke her.
"You'd best not struggle, Anna Belmont—or should I say, butcher?" came the vampire's voice. Sophia appeared, draped in bloodwings, her body still wrapped in bandages and gauze, her magnificent nakedness on display. Despite all the anti-regenerative weapons, as long as she drank blood, Sophia could heal. That she was still bandaged meant she hadn't fed—had she not healed herself on purpose? Wait—her blood—
"Don't be afraid, Miss Belmont, little bitch. Without that loser hero's permission, I won't drink your blood," Sophia's face drew close, her pale blue eyes staring into Anna's green ones.
"MMM! MMM!" Anna struggled, but each move only brought more stimulation, and she felt herself growing wetter.
"So shameful?" Sophia mocked. "To make you enjoy this, I even brewed you a special endurance elixir—so you can hang there for a week, no problem."
"MMM!" Anna wanted to curse her as despicable and shameless, but each struggle only made her crotch wetter, soaking through her tight trousers.
"And I slipped some aphrodisiac in there, too," Sophia added.
"MMM! MMM!" Anna realized now why she was so wet, her breasts aching under the ropes.
"You gave me a good fight—almost killed me. You're the second best hunter I've met."
"MMM! MMM!"
"Came so close to killing me…" Sophia winked at her. "My skull would make a lovely trophy in your manor, wouldn't it?"
"MMM!"
"Maybe I'll sell you off to the Hayreddin clan in Etta? They'd cherish you."
"MMM! MMM!" Etta women were veiled and secluded. If the vampire nobles of Hayreddin—against whom Anna had killed two high vampires—knew she was a Belmont, who knew what horrors awaited her…
Despite having slain countless vampires, Anna was still just a 21-year-old girl. The threat of being sold made her panic; struggling only made her spring-drugged body spasm, her chest leaking milk.
"Haha, just kidding! You're too easy, Anna!" Sophia laughed at Anna's humiliated struggles.
"MMM! MMM!"
"Little bitch, you really gave me a beating. I need to rest—you just hang there and 'rest' too. By the way, that pair of panties in your mouth? They were brand new—I bought them for myself, but since I'm all tied up, they're yours."
With her bandaged, blood-streaked body, Sophia used her bloodwings like hands to blindfold Anna with a rag.
"MMM!"
"Oh, and that rag in your mouth? Want to know where it came from?"
"MMM?"
"When I was knocked out, that loser tried to clean my holy body… with that very cloth."
"MMM?! MMM!!!"
"Just enjoy it, Miss Butcher. All treasures from my body—wasn't that what you wanted, the flesh and blood of Dominax?"
"MMM!"
Sophia's voice faded, leaving Anna alone, bound, gagged with Sophia's bodily scents, aphrodisiacs coursing through her, and tears streaming down her face in despair.