The moment Beatrice drew near, Flandre suddenly appeared beside her. Holding a greatsword condensed from raging flames, she swung it down at the ill-tempered Gravedigger.
In the next second, before Beatrice could even react, the Gravedigger suddenly exploded, and his foul-smelling blood transformed into a barrage of arrows that shot toward them. Then, she was grabbed by the waist by a Flandre and pulled back abruptly.
Simultaneously, a Flandre appeared to her left, right, and above, each opening their hands toward the blood arrows. Ripples exploded in front of them, blocking all the blood arrows and pushing the blood away.
"Enemy attack!"
Ch'en Huijie was the first to react; she grabbed her longsword and leaped out of the car. Immediately after, Hoshiguma jumped out of the driver's seat, her large shield named Hannya already in hand. Swire, the last to react, twitched her ears and looked around alertly.
"There are others around!"
As she spoke, over a dozen figures emerged from the pitch-black woods surrounding them. Upon seeing the appearance of those figures, the girls all showed expressions of disgust. These could hardly be called human anymore; their outer skin had been stripped away, revealing the flesh and bone beneath. One could even see live maggots crawling on their bodies! It was utterly revolting.
However, before the Blood Corpses could get close, the Flandres brandished their flaming greatswords and slashed at them. The Blood Corpses were easily ignited by the flames, falling before everyone as piles of wailing charcoal.
"Was all of this done by a Blood Demon?" After confirming the surroundings were safe, Beatrice swallowed hard and asked.
"Yes, including that Gravedigger; it was all his doing!"
"What? That Gravedigger wasn't even human?" Ch'en looked toward the spot where the Gravedigger had been blown apart by Flandre. There was no sign of a person there now, not even a trace of a corpse left behind.
Thinking back to how the target had exploded into that overwhelming rain of blood arrows, if Flandre hadn't pulled Beatrice back, she might have... Thinking of those skinless Blood Corpses, the girls couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea and lingering fear.
"Luckily you reacted fast, Flandre... By the way, how did you notice something was wrong with him?" Beatrice asked curiously.
"Flandre couldn't hear his heartbeat. But Sister said that living people have heartbeats," Flandre replied, looking toward the cemetery. The others felt that Flandre's method was impossible to learn or even attempt, because a normal person cannot hear someone else's heartbeat from such a distance.
"Is that Blood Demon still inside?" Ch'en Huijie looked into the cemetery. There wasn't a single ray of light inside, and with the sky covered in thick clouds today, an unknown enemy was hidden within.
"Mm-hmm, it's a very stinky smell. Not like a Blood Kin at all, but more like those brainless Blood Slaves Sister mentioned. Sister said if I meet these guys, I should stay as far away as possible because they're too dirty and might stain Flandre's clothes," Flandre looked toward the cemetery with a face full of distaste.
"The opponent looks troublesome. Should we call for backup?" It was Hoshiguma who spoke.
"No, this cemetery is huge and has many exits. By the time backup arrives, the enemy will likely have fled. He's staying here now partly because of Flandre, and partly because there are so few of us," Ch'en Huijie tightened her grip on her longsword.
"But it's too dangerous for us to just go in like this!" Hoshiguma felt it was too reckless, as this was clearly the opponent's home turf.
"Flandre will protect us, right?" Ch'en Huijie looked at Flandre with a smile. Flandre responded with an identical smile. "Of course, but I don't think those uncles want us to go in like that." Flandre pointed behind them.
The girls looked over to see eight people dressed in black with hoods obscuring their faces standing there.
"Black Cloak Shadow Guards... Wei Yenwu... Has the Governor come too?" Upon seeing them, Ch'en Huijie spoke up in questioning.
"Senior Ch'en, Governor Wei is still in Lungmen. However, he was worried about you facing a powerful enemy alone, so he specifically ordered us to come and guard you," the leader said in a calm tone.
"So, you're only here to protect, not to stop us?" Ch'en Huijie looked at them warily.
"Of course. The Governor did not mandate that we stop your actions, nor did he say anything about hindering you."
Ch'en Huijie nodded. She then looked at Flandre. "The problem is solved. We can go in!"
Flandre nodded, and then four Flandres flew around the group—front, back, left, and right—leading the three women slowly into the cemetery.
"I've been wanting to ask, why are there four Flandres? Is this your Originium Arts?" As they walked, Beatrice couldn't help but ask.
"Because no one used to play with Flandre, so Flandre could only make more Flandres to play with herself."
"That's right, that's right! Speaking of which, I saw that there's an activity called Mahjong here in Yan. Since there are exactly four of us, we can play together!" one Flandre suggested.
"Or cards! Playing cards is fun!" another Flandre offered her opinion.
"Cards? What kind of cards? I want to pick a Priest! May the Holy Light deceive you!"
Then, the several Flandres began to argue happily over what to play. The three women under their protection fell into a silence upon hearing the Flandres' words... What kind of family would cause such a cute little girl to play with herself out of sheer boredom?
Of course, they didn't argue for long before the Flandres all stopped at once and looked in one direction. Noticing Flandre's strange behavior, the other three also looked over cautiously. It was a neat area of the graveyard that looked clean and spotless. But after the Flandres stopped their bickering, the three women heard a rustling sound coming from behind there.
"Are these three women your Blood Slaves?" A somewhat raspy voice came from behind the graves after a brief silence.
Before the three women could feel fear, a raging fire erupted in Flandre's hand, manifesting into a long spear. Mimicking her sister Remilia's posture, she threw it directly at the source of the voice. "Don't run now that you're here!"
BOOM! Accompanied by a massive explosion, the flaming spear instantly ignited everything within a ten-meter radius. The Blood Demon scrambled out from the side in a pathetic state, then turned into a streak of blood and dashed outward.
He didn't expect this brat to have no sense of etiquette at all, unleashing an ultimate move right in his face from the start. However, he did gain one very good piece of news. The Sanguine Court was looking for a Blood Demon: blonde, about ten years old, with strange pendants on her wings, and capable of splitting into four. The little girl in front of him was a one-hundred-percent match. As long as he brought this news back to the Sanguine Court, he would receive considerable rewards from the Grand Duke.
But Flandre wasn't about to let him escape.
"Hee hee hee, why are you running so fast? Didn't you come to play with Flandre?"
"Yeah, yeah! Ahahaha, let's play together!"
"Wait, why did your leg just snap... No fun, no fun!"
"How about we play a game then? This game is called 'Four Flandres Splitting Shang Yang.' You can play the part of Shang Yang!"
The Blood Demon hadn't flown even ten meters before he dropped and slammed heavily onto the ground. His leg had snapped in a very abnormal way, bent into a crooked shape.
He turned his head toward Flandre. "We are both Sarkaz, why must you be so cruel to me!"
"Ah, what a strange thing to say. Even the siblings Theresis and Theresa can lead the Sarkaz to slaughter each other until the rivers run red with blood. You and I aren't even the same kind, so what if I kill you?"
Flandre thought this Blood Demon was very odd. First he caused her trouble, then he made disgusting things at the entrance, and now he was pleading for Sarkaz solidarity. Had he sucked so much blood that he'd lost his mind? Flandre decided she didn't want to play the Shang Yang game with such a brainless guy; she was afraid being brain-dead was contagious.
Seeing Flandre sink into thought, the Blood Demon thought he had a chance. He tried to transform his essence blood into a loach to sneak away, but suddenly, voices rang out.
"Eww, this guy turned into an earthworm. How gross!"
"Can an earthworm still be torn apart by five horses?"
"What should we do then?"
"Let's just burn him. Sister Beatrice is calling us over there!"
Before the words could leave his mouth, fire descended upon his head once more. This time, the scorching fire ignited him and his split-off corpse.
"The magic Patchy taught me called St. Elmo's Pillar is really useful!" Flandre nodded with great satisfaction as she watched the flames rise from the earth, covering the entire area and burning it clean.