Watching the girl work, you can't help but wonder just what it is she intends to do with that magic circle on the floor, occasionally, she leans down and makes a correction or a new addition to it by hand, other times she simply makes a gesture with her hand. It's clear that she's somehow measuring something as she makes the gestures, as she continues her work on the circle.

Taking a closer look at the circle reminds you somewhat of the circle you saw a few days ago, back at the hotel, you aren't certain if the script is the same, but the basic layout seems very similar, eventually your curiosity gets the better of you, and you can't hold back any longer from asking about the circle. "So, Sophia, just what is it that you're doing, exactly. What's the point of this magic circle on the floor? I'm quite interested in learning more about magic." It's very likely to do with summoning, but you don't want to blurt it out in an attempt to look more informed than you truly are. The basic visual similarity could just be a trait instrumental in all magic circles, no matter what purpose they might be intended to serve.

Sophia stops her work on her current task and turns to regard you "It's just a basic summoning circle that I've been modifying to suit my purposes, the worst part about being bound like I was for all those years means I could only focus on the theoreticals, and as such, putting what I spent that time thinking of into practice can range from anywhere between effortless to nigh-impossible." Interesting, so despite Sophia's clearly vast knowledge of magic, the majority is untested theoretical knowledge, with no real basis in reality? Though you suppose 'basis in reality' is a strange word to use when referring to magic, and regardless of how much she's tested the results of her isolation, you can't really argue with the results. The existence of this pocket dimension you're currently standing within is simply mind-boggling. You feel slightly pleased with yourself that you correctly surmised the purpose of the circle, even if it was a guess made entirely with coincidence and luck.

"So, what exactly are you attempting to summon then?" You can't hide your interest in the idea of summoning beings to do your bidding, it simply feels appealing, but you can't really place the feeling. A feeling of emptiness quickly wells up inside of you the longer you think about just why you're so interested in the idea. Perhaps it's best not to pursue that particular train of thought, you've already gotten a minor headache from just that few seconds spent thinking about the cause of the empty feeling.

"Seeing as you've decided to watch me, I'll leave it as a surprise for a moment. The one problem with summoning demons is that if you make the opening too wide, hundreds of the blasted things attempt to swarm through at once. It's really quite the inconvenience, having to deal with such a number." She coughs into her hand. "Though of course such a thing will never occur again. I've just had to work on a way to reduce the number that can crawl through at once. They are such an unruly people, these demons. While they were no match for me, they did still cause quite some damage to my room I had to take the time to repair before I erased the last one of them." So Sophia is trying to tell you her spell was too effective? So she's basically been attempting to reduce the power of her magic? You can't help but be impressed by the vampire's magical skills. "Ah, well I also decided to make a few more alterations to the spell in order to properly pinpoint desired targets."

"Then, I hate to be a pain, but when exactly do you believe that your preparations for activating the circle will be complete?" It's not like you can wait around for days just to look at Sophia summoning some demon from the pits of hell. Odds are it will simply attack and give you no choice but to obliterate it. Hopefully Sophia has taken countermeasures against such things from occurring.

"Oh? Preparations?" Sophia makes a long contemplative sound as she looks at you and then back to the magical circle on the floor, occasionally pulsing with a strange energy. "Well~ There is one thing that you can do to help out with this, if you truly wish to..." The way the previously so easily shocked by romance girl is smirking at you makes you want to tease her again, but you decide against it, for now, at least.

"Very well, Sophia, what is it you need from me then?" There's no harm asking, even if you end up having to deny the request later on.

Her smug smirk falters for a second, as you make your reply "Just something small, really. All I need is a single drop of your blood to ensure the summoning ritual runs at peak efficiency..."

>"My blood? Does it have to be my blood?"
>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
>Write-in...

>>4133694
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly

She just said she has problems controlling her summoning power, so she probably wants to drink it and gain a temporary Dracula aura.

>>4133694
>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
She just said she has problems controlling her summoning power, so she probably wants to drink it and gain a temporary Dracula aura.

>>4133752
>letting Arthur become a consumable power-up
have you no self-respect? she should learn how to summon all on her own.

>>4133758
Think of it like a baptism of the Dark Lord. By the act of granting her a boon, a piece of ourself that empowers her, we're taking another step toward our supremacy over the people of Chaos.

>>4133767
>having trouble summoning? come on down to Arthurs'!
>one drop of his blood and you wont have summoning troubles guaranteed or you get your sacrificed virgin back free!
Supremacy is just that, being better at it than others. Becoming a focus aid is pretty low tier on the totem pole.

>>4133694
>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
Blood of a Dark Lord Canditate? Nah. Not today, Hilde.

>>4133778
Sure, and priests see god as a powerless miracle-vendor. It's all in the presentation, anon.
Besides, building dependency would be a great way to cement our influence over her.

>>4133786
or if it ends up too effective she may just imprison us and drain us to summon infinite armies from hell.
God a shit anyway, all theists should spontaneously combust for being heretical.

>>4133694
>>Allow her to go through with extracting a single drop of blood.
Let's help her out, sure.

>>4133694
>>Reject her request. No matter what her innocent maiden-like appearance might tell you, giving a vampire access to your blood could only end poorly
I mean if she's trying to fine tune her magic and she doesn't have a vial of human blood nearby she probably doesn't need it for the summoning. So why introduce a new element to your spell? Just try to get it to work normally first. I don't get it. I don't want to accidentally summon fucking Beelzebub or something.

As Sophia looks at you expectantly waiting for you to agree with her, your will almost falters before you harden your resolve. Be it by some form of magic inherent to vampires or just some natural aptitude towards convincing others to do her bidding. It will take more than just that in order to convince you that handing this girl some of your blood would be a good idea. Maybe if you knew what she actually needed it for specifically, but as things are right now, handing over even a single droplet of your blood to her would be tantamount to signing a contract without reading the small print. You've had quite enough of contracts of which you don't know the terms of with Mistral as it is.

"I'm afraid not, Sophia. I would much prefer if all my blood remained firmly within the confines of my body. I don't see any reason for you to need it." Besides, becoming a bloodbag is in no way something that anybody in an equal partnership or alliance should consider allowing themselves to be tricked into. While you don't particularly find Sophia untrustworthy, that doesn't mean you should simply blindly agree to all of her requests.

Sophia pouts in response to your refusal. "Please? I promise it won't hurt a bit, you won't feel a thing!" Her insistence on getting a drop of your blood and not giving you a proper excuse as to why she needs it leaves you thinking that there's some sort of reason behind her asking for it. Unrelated to summoning whatever demon she's attempting to call forth. The strangeness of so casually being involved in the summoning of a demon does however feel like something of a joke to you, something considered both taboo as well as impossible by almost every sane person on the planet, and here Sophia is, practicing the art in her bedroom during her spare time.

Though even with your rising suspicion, the second request feels like it has more weight to it somehow, but once again, you suppress the rising desire to simply go along with the girl's wishes. Seems it really is the nature of the vampire to bewitch others. A man of a lesser will would not being able to resist the charm of the girl in her plea for blood, this has to be her nature of a vampire at play, this girl is acting more persuasive than you even thought possible. You're beginning to understand just why they are considered so dangerous even among those with magical abilities. If all powerful vampires are somewhat similar to Sophia with their own skills, you can't help but imagine the scenario of a vampire hunter training his entire life in order to defeat the creatures of the night, only to have his will falter and be made to lay down his weapons, or perhaps even be turned into that which they set out to slay. But not you, you've made your decision not to hand over you blood, and nobody will manipulate you into doing their bidding.

"I said no, Sophia. That's my final decision. Perhaps were we to know each other better, or if I had a better idea as to what you needed it for, I would be more inclined to part with it, but I can't do so at this point." There's no telling just what damage could be done if Sophia had a sample of your blood, you don't even want to think about what somebody like her could do with even a single drop of blood. From your compass, you know that blood clearly has many uses when it comes to magic. Handing over a drop willingly to Sophia seems a recipe for future misfortune. You aren't confident enough in your current relationship with her to do something that could end up with her getting a powerful weapon to use against you. Though you aren't ignoring the other possibility that she is simply thirsty, and wishes for a drop of your blood. You have very mixed feelings on that possibility however, it seems unlikely that she would only want a single drop of blood if she actually intended on quenching some vampiric thirst though.

Sophia looks somewhat stunned by your second refusal of her request, almost as if she was expecting you to simply immediately comply with her upon her repeating her request. She looks almost bewildered, you're just about to ask what's got her so confused till the confusion is wiped off her face. "Seems that you were born with an unnaturally strong will. To be able to resist me so easily. To be expected of the future Dark Lord, I suppose. But very well, I'll respect your decision, it's not exactly crucial to my success here anyway. But I can't help but wonder..." She trails off with an unsaid question. You consider it something of a relief that the unnatural charisma of the vampire before you failed to persuade you into giving her what she wanted. Seems that if Sophia wants something from you, she'll be unable to rely on that particular ability granted to her to help her better prey upon humans. "Let us not dwell on this matter then. The summoning circle is about ready, you may want to stand back a few steps just in case I summon something that is... less than cooperative with me." After your experience with that demon in the hotel, you don't exactly need to be told twice that being near whatever is about to come through the portal might be a bad idea.

You watch silently as you take a few steps away from the circle. Sophia slashes across the palm of her hand with the sharp nails on her other, blood seeps from the open wound on her palm as she leans down and presses it into the center of the circle, and begins speaking slowly as the circle begins glowing a bright red. "Beings that dwell in the world beneath, I invite you to this world to allow it's inhabitants to witness you in all of your dark glory and to know true despair! Now come forth, Demons! Come and serve your new master!" The incantation is certainly quite dramatic, but before you really get to think of it too much, the red light grows brighter and fills the entire room, forcing you to cover you eyes.

As you recover from the flash of light, you see that the room is coated in a heavy layer of smoke, obscuring the center of the circle. You can see Sophia standing next to the Circle, she looks quite pleased with herself. though you couldn't say why. At least until a female voice rings forth from the plume of smoke. "So was the one who summoned me you then, vampire? Who's the boy? A sacrifice?" The demon within the smoke seems to regard you with a callous lack of interest.

"Absolutely not." Sophia's voice is harsh as she flicks a wrist towards the plume of smoke, causing it to immediately disperse and revealing the one hiding within it. The demon is not a humanoid abomination like you had assumed it would appear as, but rather that of a beautiful maiden, with strange turquoise hair and red eyes, as well as pointed ears. Were you not certain of her being a demon, having just witnessed her summoning, you would much sooner assume her to be some variety of vampire. "You have quite a lot of pride, for a lowly maid of hell, don't you? I'll let you know now that I summoned you here to serve me. You aren't even close to powerful enough to bother with giving a sacrifice, and don't pretend otherwise." Sophia's voice is condescending and smug, almost as if she's dealing with some petulant child that she dislikes.

"Serve you? Now why would I serve you, vampire? I have no obligations to serve one such as yourself." The demon maid attempts to put up a resistance to the overwhelming Sophia's demands. But it's quite obvious as to who has the upper hand in this negotiation, and the demon knows it.

File: Demon Maid.jpg (22 KB, 400x533)

22 KB JPG

Sophia giggles before she responds with a smile. "Because, demon, if you refuse, I'll tear that soul of yours right from your body and cast it into the abyss for all eternity." It feels like the temperature in the room was just cut in half at Sophia's frankly chilling threat, you can feel that it's not said with an ounce of exaggeration either, she means exactly what she says. Though the demonic maid seems to still have some measure of defiance in her, even with that level of threat levied against her.

>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.
>Join Sophia in threatening her. She had the gall to consider you a sacrifice, after all, and that just can't stand.
>Write-in...

I guess this is the problem of updating at a different time than usual.

>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

>>4134281
I was asleep, myself.

>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

We should've gotten a demon butler.

>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
Sophia needs to calm the hell down.

>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.
Oh.
Persephone.

>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.

>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.

>>4134198
>Demand she tell you who she is, and more importantly what she is. Sophia seems to be somewhat informed, but you have no idea about her.

>>4134393
>Sophia giggles before she responds with a smile
Sounds plenty calm to me. It's a demon. You don't play nice with them unless you want to get fucked over. Sure you're not just looking for any detail to grind your axe on?

>>4134403
>smiling and laughter mean calmness.
never seen anyone get so mad they laugh?

>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
>Be the Good Cop to Sophia's Bad Cop and extract information that way.
Just because we're playing nice doesn't mean we're a dumbass.

Seems we've hit a tie, hopefully a tiebreaker can come sooner rather than later.

>>4134661
Your quest has the most ties I've ever seen.

>>4134665
As a writer, it's quite nice having been able to have made something that causes disagreements between the readers.
As a QM, ties get tiresome quite quickly.

>>4134198
>Attempt to convince her peacefully instead of simply having Sophia threaten her into submission.
Good cop, bad cop.

Writing now.
Though for the other people who voted to convince her peacefully, would you prefer a Good Cop, Bad Cop routine or to just try to convince the maid by yourself?

>>4135070
Convince alone.

For as effective as Sophia's threats towards the being she summoned seem to have been, you are unsure as to how much longer they will continue to be so. Regardless, while Sophia may intend to break the demon's spirit before forcing it into her employ, there's no doubt that a working relationship built on fear and distrust between an employer and an employee is one that will never end in anything other than sorrow and misfortune for both parties.

So, you take a step forward in order to assist Sophia in convincing this rebellious demonic maid that has been called forth from whatever underworld is linked to that magic circle. "Now, now, I don't think there's going to be any need for you to have to go that far, Sophia. I believe that introductions are in order first. I am Arthur Bernhard, a Dark Lord Candidate. The girl who summoned you is a new ally of mine, Lady Sophia Hildebrandt." You lock eyes with the demon, who is still standing in the center of the summoning circle. "I think you would find things far easier on yourself if you cooperated with me here." If this summoned demon isn't blinded by rage or pride, they'll do well to accept your offer.

"A Dark Lord Candidate? What, you mean a Dark Lord like that vampire Dracula was? How ambitious of you! It explains the darkness I can feel surrounding you, if anything. But yes, now it would be quite impolite for me not to give you my name, wouldn't it? Very well then mortal, I am Adrianne, I have served loyally under the Princes of Hell for over a millenia. I have killed countless scores of my fellow demons simply to gain a position of relative comfort." It seems that she's regaining some sort of confidence as you speak with her. She turns to Sophia, who is glaring at the maid with an irritated look on her " So, as much as I appreciate your summon, whelp, I'm going to use this as my opportunity to wander this realm instead. So if you could be so kind as to show me the do-aiee!" She doesn't get to finish the sentence before cutting off into an earsplitting scream as her left leg suddenly bends out of shape violently, her long dress only enables you to see the effects on the very bottom of her leg as her skin and muscle seems to twist like dough, blood ruptures forth from the leg as the twisting causes tremendous wounds.

You look to see the cause of Adrianne's pain, Sophia has her left arm outstretched reaching towards the maid, specifically towards her leg. "A whelp, am I? You might be older than I am, demon, but you let that pride of yours cloud your judgement again, and I'll make good on my promise to grant you an eternal death. You won't have much luck 'wandering this realm' with only a single good leg. Will you?" The smile she gives as she finishes speaking is of somebody who is clearly enjoying themselves. Sophia's relentless intimidation of the demon continues unimpeded by your attempt to give her a chance, now that she's crossed into delivering physical pain onto her target though, it's clear that Adrianne's resolve can't last much longer. Whatever she was expecting from the vampire, she clearly wasn't expecting her defiance to be met with mutilation. "But, I've not summoned you here to simply torture you. Agree to serve me and to a contract of my terms, and I will heal the injury I've dealt you. You've lived a long time, Miss Adrianne, do you really want to throw it all away for a moment's stubbornness?"

Seems that Sophia has begun to try to be diplomatic now that she's suitably threatened the demon she summoned in addition to mutilating one of her legs. It quickly dawns on you just how easily she could have done that to you, and you find yourself glad that you didn't attempt to pick a fight with Sophia. Even with the Power of Destruction, after seeing the abilities she's presented and what she's accomplished while apparently being completely unburdened by any sort of strain from doing so, you don't have much confidence in defeating her. You'll need to get many times stronger if you are ever to match up to her, you can tell that much. Sophia's abilities aside, you decide it would be best if you were the one to offer Adrianne the choice. Servitude or death, Sophia is really quite ruthless. You hope she wasn't this bad with Holly, if she was, it's no wonder the girl is so eager to leave her service.

"Well then Adrianne, what will you do? I don't want for Sophia to kill you, you know, and I'm sure that you value your life more than just allowing yourself to be killed over this. I don't know just how long Sophia intends for you to serve her, but you mentioned it yourself, didn't you? You're over a thousand years old, what difference does this make to you?" You give it your best shot at sealing the deal with the now scared looking woman half standing in the circle.

Adrianne grits her teeth before finally responding "...Fine. I'll accept this contract then, what... terms will I be serving you under? Vam-" Again she's cut off from speaking, but she doesn't scream this time. It's more like some sort of jolt of electricity that was behind her pain, and not the mutilation of her body.

"Wonderful! All I needed was you to assent to the my proposal, and now the contract is complete! There's really no need for me to inform you of the terms, Oh, other than that you'll refer to me only as Lady Hildebrandt and Arthur her as Lord Bernhard, otherwise you'll suffer for failing to do so, as you just found out." Sophia seems quite happy that she's managed to successfully get the demon to enter her service. "And seeing as how you're already dressed for the job, you'll be responsible for cleaning my mansion, and your first task is to tidy up the circle I used to summon you with." Adrianne glares in Sophia's direction before turning around and working on tidying away the books and tools used to create the circle on the floor. As Sophia's new maid busies herself with her work, the vampire who just took control of her turns to you. "Thank you for the assistance, Arthur. To tell the truth, I've managed to get to the stage of having to convince them to agree to a contract before, and they always refused no matter how I threatened them! A lot of them ended up killing themselves in order to escape back to their native realm before I could punish them for it too! I was hoping to use your blood as an additional component in the circle in order help make it more difficult to resist for them." She seems both genuinely thankful that you helped her out, as well as confused at how the demons she's summoned here in the past could have not wanted to serve her. Though her mentioning how she was planning to use your blood is quite interesting.

Sophia stretches as she watches her newly recruited maid tidy away the mess created by her summoning. "Well Arthur, I suppose you want to return back to the cruise ship and to your other allies by now, don't you? Perhaps when we get to Germany, I can show you the true Hildebrandt estate, and not just this magical copy of it. I can only hope that one of my sisters decided not to abandon it. It would be a terrible shame for it to have undergone such a fate." You may have been intending to head into Europe, but not Germany specifically. You suppose it gives you some sort of goal to reach instead of just wandering aimlessly around the continent, waiting for Shirley and her colleagues to capture you for who knows what purpose.

>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
>"Why don't I bring them all here so they can meet you in this little world of your own you've set up? Knowing you're so powerful is sure to make them think an alliance is acceptable."
>Write-in...

>>4135291
Apologies, anon, by the time you posted this, I was already mostly done with writing the update.

>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."

>>4135364
>>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
We've wasted too much time already, let's see what is waiting for us behind the corner. Didn't Grigori say something about a monster smuggler? Who also got turned into mincemeat by Holly?

>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."

>>4135367
Oh well. Letting Hilda tie nooses around her neck by angering demons is entertaining in it's own way.

>>4135413
No, his target was going to meet the dead monster smuggler.

>>4135418
It's not the target what I'm worried about, anon.

>>4135428
Yeah, I misread what you posted. rip. Looks like we might got wild monsters running round the ship, but at the least some monsters who aren't getting fed.

>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."

>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
Time to cause everyone to feel horribly uncomfortable.
>>4135418
>implying demons are more dangerous than vampires in the Castlevania setting.
Vampires are bar none the strongest monsters in the setting.
Older ones are ridiculous.

>>4135720
>implying demons wouldn't try to get back at her while she can still be put down
Good thing this one is just young enough to get herself killed.

>>4135721
>implying
Brauner was Death tier at like 70 years old.
Nothing has implied to have challenged Sophia in any way so far.
She literally just toyed with the demon she summoned.
I highly doubt that treating demon subordinates as you should (showing off your superiority) is going to cause resentment.

>>4135364
>"Yes, it's probably about time I get back to them, I wouldn't want them to worry."
They don't trust Sophia enough to be introduced properly just yet, there is a time and place for it.

>>4135723
>Hilda's safe because she's a bitch
all the demons killing themselves immediately instead of working for her kinda makes me doubt that.

Besides, if she mistreats her servants enough, they may create a loophole to exploit just to spite her, if not anything more harmful.

>>4135364
>>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."

>>4135726
>all the demons killing themselves immediately instead of working for her kinda makes me doubt that.
I'm guessing that by killing themselves the demons just get to return to the underworld.

>>4135731
Yeah, but they didn't even want to take the opportunity. Seems to me that Hilda's terms are shit even for fucking Demons, who are pretty lax as long as you don't try to scam them.

>>4135733
Probably doesn't help that she's threatening to permanently kill them for refusing to serve her.
She's clearly not very good at convincing shit her magic vampire juju doesn't work on.
Demons are the last thing you want running around unrestricted.

>>4135738
yeah but look, that shouldn't even be happening in the first place since supposedly vampires rank high on the power scale, and any demon should immediately jump at the chance for experience. they shouldn't even get to the permanent death part, cause she's powerful enough to summon them without sacrifices, or looking exhausted, in the first place.

>>4135740
I guess she's just been unlucky on the Demon Gacha.

>>4135743
luck can only account for so much my man.
Hilda is heading straight into her own destruction, and she's too bratty to realize it.

Very entertaining to watch the trainwreck in motion.

>>4135743
>>4135744
If you want to know the specific results of her previous summon attempts, you can always ask her about them.
Just a thought.

>>4135760
Nah. Tell us more about how you're doing, OP. How's life treating you?

>>4135798
I'm doing Ok, anon.

>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."

Oh, did we just get tied?
Ok then.

>>4135940
You need to start calling votes before such niggerdry occurs.

Could we summon our own butler though

>>4136009
I too want to start summoning demons to see what could possibly go wrong.
I think we should have Grigori on hand in case one of them wants a sacrifice.
He's hardly useful for anything else.

I miss Shirley.

>>4135364
>"Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to them? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to be allies."
LET'S GO, EVIL DARK LORD CANDIDATE FRIENDSHIP!

>>4135743
>in a den of summoners
>"YO HOLY SHIT I JUST GOT AN USR FOIL BEACH EDITION SUCCUBUS!"

>>4136115
Is Brauner a whale?

>>4136278
What?

Anyway, writing now.

>>4136765
People who spend enormous amounts of money on gacha games are called whales.

>>4135760
We'd just get her version of what happened, so it'd be useless anyway.

While it's true that you've been with Sophia for quite some time, and you've accomplished your goals here, you can't help but feel like things won't be resolved until you've had Sophia actually introduced to your other allies. Simply putting things to the side and hoping you'll be able to resolve it later would just be cowardly. You might have managed to have put your negative feelings toward Sophia aside in order to secure both an Alliance with her and for the sake of Holly's safety, but you can't help but feel like you're going to have a harder time convincing your allies of Sophia's value as an ally if you return with only Holly with you. It would be easier if you had her properly introduce herself rather than rely on your ability to convince your allies.

You aren't altogether that worried about Grigori, Anna and by extension of Anna, Coller. But you know deep down that Alura and Sophia are almost guaranteed to clash, so it's probably better to get that out of the way while you're still in a controlled environment. If you intend to work together with Sophia, then you simply cannot allow your two most powerful allies to consider themselves adversaries. If the people coming after you are as powerful as you fear, the two of them squabbling during a battle against your mysterious pursuers could easily prove fatal.

So, weighing the options you have, you suppose you have no choice but to have her come with you to be introduced to the others with you personally. "Actually, Sophia. Why don't you come with me so I can introduce you to the rest of my allies? They'll have to get to know you eventually, if we are all to get along." Or if the two can't get along, at least not have Sophia and Alura actively trying to cause harm or death to each other. Though you refrain from saying that part, though you have no illusions as to how well that Sophia's introduction is going to go down with the slightly erratic plant woman in particular. Hopefully with you there to properly intervene, you can prevent either party from resorting to violence.

"Oh? You want to introduce me to those minions of yours? Very well. I suppose I should familiarize myself with your underlings properly. They seem to be quite loyal. Well, expect that assassin type you made join you, but that's just how people like him conduct themselves. They'll remain loyal to somebody as long as they are certain it will end in their favor. It's a rather typical attitude, and one very easy to manipulate, honestly. All you need to do is ensure that they either believe that serving you will end with them receiving a reward of some kind, or by simply having them fear you too much to even consider going against you!" Sophia's advice in regards to your newest ally is well intentioned, if a little dark. You don't really have many expectations for Grigori, honestly, you'd be surprised if he hadn't taken this chance you were absent to flee the ship. "Let us be off then, Arthur." Sophia begins to walk towards the door, you notice Adrianne's shoulders slump in relief slightly as she exits Sophia's peripheral vision.

You match Sophia's pace fairly easily, while she walks fairly quickly despite being quite a bit shorter than you, it's not as if you have to strain yourself in order to match her pace. The corridors and halls seem to move past in a blur as you think of just how you're going to get your allies to cooperate with one another. You can already imagine Sophia referring to Alura as an underling and a fight immediately breaking out from just that alone. That isn't even taking into account Alura's other grievances towards Sophia. You can't come up with any particularly effective sounding ideas in the brief walk through the mansion until you find yourself in the first room of the Sophia's mansion. The entrance hall. Holly has taken the opportunity of your delay in order to change out of her quite uncomfortable looking maid uniform into an outfit more in line with the one you saw her wearing when you caught her red handed in the middle of feeding on some hapless passengers.

She immediately straightens herself out as she spots the two of you approaching, readjusting her posture to appear more willing to serve, despite her now lack of a uniform. "O-oh. Lord Bernhard, Lady Sophia! Have you finished your business together now?" Her voice has an element of hope to it that was missing from it when you spoke with her bother. It seems that she really does appreciate no longer being stuck as Sophia's servant.

Though before you can answer, Sophia does for you. "As a matter of fact, I will be accompanying the two of you for a little while longer. Arthur has offered to introduce me his other followers, after all, and without personally meeting them, I won't be able to get a proper judge of their character, even if it feels like I can read some of them like they were books made for children.

"Oh... I see." Holly sounds somewhat disappointed by the revelation of Sophia coming with the two of you in order to introduce herself properly. Hopefully, Sophia and Holly will one day be able to have a better relationship with each other too. According to Sophia herself, the two of them are now permanently linked to the other until their bond to the other is severed by death. Though that means that their bond is potentially eternal, if neither of them are ever slain by an enemy vampire hunter.

Having informed Holly of the situation, you take the lead and walk confidently towards the doorway, there's no longer any point in dwelling here any longer. A brief glance behind you confirms that both Sophia and Holly are following you, Sophia is walking fairly close to Holly, who appears somewhat uncomfortable by her proximity. You push open the door, disguising the awe you still feel at the whole idea of Sophia's pocket dimension as the door opens out into the comparatively cramped ship corridor.

Stepping out of the mansion and onto the carpeted floor of the hallway, you hear a squelching noise as you step in something odd. Focusing on the floor, your can see that most of the hall is covered in some strange translucent mucus trails. Dozens of them coat the floor and walls. You find the strange slime to be quite sticky as well, as you have to put quite some effort into pulling your foot free of the adhesive slime coating the floor. What on Earth happened here? What is this stuff? Sophia looks somewhat intrigued by the slime all over the floor, deftly avoiding stepping in it at all, while Holly's disgust is far more evident as she tears her foot free of the sticky goo.

As much as you just want to be done with things and reunite with your allies, you feel like this should probably be investigated, leaving a loose end like this just wouldn't sit right with you.

>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them.
>Ignore the strange mucus and return to your cabin to introduce Sophia to your allies.
>Ask Sophia if she knows what exactly the substance coating the floor is.
>Write-in...

>>4137286
>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them.
Oh, disgusting.

>>4137286
>Follow the trails of slime and try to find what left them. While walking, ask Sophia if she knows what exactly the substance coating the floor is.

I see no reason we can't walk and talk.

>>4137286
This >>4137305. We need to keep our wits about us, because this shit got gothic horror on us YET FUCKING AGAIN

>>4137349
>gothic horror
I'm going to be honest and say that this situation would have been a lot more dangerous had you not left Sophia's mansion with two vampires following you.

>>4137831
Heh, Arthur always walks into situations with the best way to de-rail your insidious QM plans, every time.

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>>4137831
>anon's dick deftly avoided or trivialized another hook
DAMNIT
>"But it was to solidify--"
No it wasn't, everybody knows it wasn't.

Not many votes on this choice I see. I might be able to start writing sooner than usual too today.
Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
I understand that some anons are a little upset about the lack of combat recently.

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>>4138053
>Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
hmmmm this is pretty familiar it reminds me of something...... something.... second season

>>4138053
>Maybe you'll even get to kill something in the next few updates!
Oh yay, we salted the slugs that shit the slime on the ship. Splendid.

>>4137305
Supporting this.
So what we got?
Slugs?
Slimes?
Slimegirls?

I kind of feel bad for the monsters.
I hope Sophia won't just dominate the entire encounter at least.
I would prefer she provide us the chance to fight.

>>4138319
Personally I'm hoping she does a burikko "Oh no, how frightening, protect me Arthur" routine.
No matter how powerful she is, it's in the nature of an elegant girl to be weak to disgust, you know?
We probably won't get that though.

>>4138333
she was looking at the slime with interest, instead of disgust.
think you can remove that routine from Hilda's repertoire.

>>4138337
>implying she won't pull that shit anyway so she can pretend Arthur is dashing and have him hold her dramatically

>>4138344
Nah she's too self-involved.
Oh, and she thinks a kiss is embarrassment worthy, so imagine what full-body contact would do.

>>4138337
Do you really think that the girl who just summoned a demon and has been summoning demons the entire week is going to suddenly be terrified about some mucus on the floor that hasn't even touched?
Whatever left it might be a different story, but this is just some random goo on the floor.
I'd imagine curiosity outweighs disgust at this stage.
Up until some touches her at least.
>>4138333
God I hope so. I want more opportunities for us to bond with best girl.
>>4138344
Also this.
>pretend Arthur is dashing.
There's no need to pretend for Arthur.

>>4138357
By the same dint, do you think the girl who eats people to live and summons demons in her spare time is going to feel disgust or horror at whatever creature is responsible for this mess?
She might feel disgust for some slime ruining her clothes, or not, given she can just make them again with magic.
>best girl
When did we summon chaos?

>>4138357
>best girl.
Alura isn't even on the same deck as us right now. And the runner up is AWOL since we haven't seen her in days. Wonder where she's hiding her shiny metal ass.

>>4138364
Because for as far as Blood Drinking and Demon Summoning go into moral depravity, there's still a level of elegance possible with both.

It's not like she sacrificed a virgin maiden and used her entrails to create the circle.
I can't see her acting like Holly when it comes to feeding either.
She almost certainly prefers the Dracula style wineglass approach.

>chaos
Chaos can be joint best girl.

>>4138373
Why can't making slime trails be elegant? All the Queen Slimes that exist would dissolve you for the insult.
>joint best girl
that's not how that position works and you know it.

>>4138373
>>4138378
Personally I see it as Chaos in first place, Sophia in second place, Anna in third, and then a vast, unbridgeable gulf between them and the rest of the female cast.

>>4138378
>slime trail
>elegant.
Nothing more elegant than leaving parts of your body behind as you move around, your majesty.
Now stop staining the carpets you fucking living vore fetish.

>that's not how that position works
Do you think Chaos cares for your rules?

>>4138379
Aw, where's Shirley? Surely shitty yandere vampire hunter would be higher on this list.
And Theresia is cute enough to be fourth or fifth c'mon.

>>4138381
>summon demons that always kill themselves
>pour a persons insides into a wine glass because you dislike the taste of skin
>elegant
It only looks refined, when you actually acknowledge what's happening it's a farce.
>rules
oh you're right, lemme just stop being effected by gravity real quick.

>>4138386
>And Theresia is cute enough to be fourth or fifth c'mon.
Theresia will be back in the running once she reveals she's a bible verse in human form.

>>4138393
It read to me like she was human, then became a vessel for a crimson stone knock-off, which would've given head asshole alchemist something close to eternal life. He wanted us since we had relation to Dracula and probably wanted to try to put our soul inside it as the sacrifice.
We kinda ruined his plan for immortality simply by existing, funnily enough.

>>4138410
I will not accept anything short of shining bright holy light dressed in white Theresia. Anything else is simply a ruse.

>>4138426
Well since she's probably with the Dorin organization now, she might've had the knock-off removed, and had some holy artifact replace it.
Even though I think it's one of the most unlikely scenarios.
Personally I think it would be best for Theresia if she just vanished after the Mansion incident and lived a quiet life. But she'll probably try to save us so she'll end up getting dragged into our messes.

>>4138433
Bro I just want an angel waifu so we can have a fallen angel waifu because fallen angels are primo.

>>4138445
>fallen angels
>ever occurring in castelvania's god's heaven
him making humans was his second error, I doubt he'd let himself make an error like that so close to home.
even in cotm she was more like a succubus than a proper angel.
too bad cotm isn't canon.

>>4138445
>I want to reintroduce Neph--
"No."

>>4138451
You're allowed to have your lame waifu I can at least want mine.

>>4138455
Who doesn't want children with six-fingered hands and destructive dispositions?

>>4138468
Oh I'm just saying it's basically impossible.
Want all you want.
Good luck if you intend to pursue it though.

>>4138473
Pft I don't need luck. I have the power of autism and anime on my side. But thank you I appreciate it.

The mystery of the strange trail of slime is just something that is too concerning to let pass you by. There's no animal on Earth that you know of that should have been capable of leaving behind such a large trail of mucus, in fact, measuring each individual track of slime, whatever left these must be at least 2 feet across. There are two slime trails that are obviously far larger than the others though, twice as wide, in fact. While you can't tell how long the creatures that left these were, you imagine they weren't exactly the smallest of things, going by their width.

You have to admit though, that these trails are reminiscent of those left behind by slugs and snails, though obviously no sort of mollusk can possibly grow to this size. Could it be some sort of magical beast then? Or rather a collection of them, given the sheer number of tracks coating the walls. You begin to follow the tracks while avoiding stepping in the slime as much as you possibly can, though sometimes you have no choice but to do so, much to your chagrin. Simply ignoring this would be foolish, if these do truly belong to some strange variety of magical creature there's no telling what might happen if you just allowed them to go unchecked.

However, you do have somebody currently with you who should be an expert on the matter of all sorts of magical beasts. Sophia with her many years of experience must have some suggestions as to what might have caused these trails of horrible goo. The intrigue on her face has fast turned to one of annoyance as she constantly has to watch her step in order to avoid stepping in any of the disgusting semi solid fluid coating the floor of the hallway. "Sophia, do you have any idea what might have been behind these tracks? I wouldn't mind knowing just what I'm getting into here." Though you're concerned when Sophia doesn't respond.

You turn around just in time to see Sophia gracefully leaping across the floor across a patch of the corridor where there is no possible place to avoid having to step in the mucus, before soaring past Holly, who seems to have accepted having to trudge through the horrid stuff, and landing directly next to you. "I'm afraid that when it comes to monsters, my experience is quite limited. At least those outside of the ones I've summoned forth, anyway. I would never be caught dead summoning something that leaves behind a product so absolutely repulsive. But unfortunately, all I have to go on is speculation, and my conclusions are likely the same as yours." Unfortunate, looks like you'll have to just hope for the best then.

"U-um, actually, I think I might know what made these." Unexpectedly, Holly joins in on the conversation. "When I was helping Arth- I mean, Lord Bernhard, out while I was still... human. I tried to read through as many of the entries on monsters stored on their computers as I could. These look like they could belong to the..." Holly sighs. "...Giant Mollusks. Honestly, I was disappointed by the name too. But t-that's not important. The entry said they were created by infusing dark powers into a group of ordinary slugs in order to create powerful monsters. The experiment was... a little too successful. They broke out of captivity and escaped into the wild. Apparently, they couldn't find anything left of the mage responsible except for his clothing, soaked in slime." Quite the unnerving tale, though it has given you an idea of just what you're up against. Personally, you can't see the danger in giant slugs. After all, their species is quite literally the origin of the term sluggish. You fail to see how such creatures could be considered dangerous to anything.

"Is that all? I was really expecting more. Is there reason we should take these giant slugs seriously at all, Holly? They sound like disgusting jokes. Of course such repugnant creatures were the product of some imbecile human meddling with magic he could neither understand nor control." Sophia is the one to ask Holly for further information on the creatures before you even get the chance to. It's faint, but you can tell slightly from Sophia's face that the creatures are ones she clearly doesn't relish the chance to encounter. Holly on the other hand seems to have quickly gotten over her first disgusted reaction towards the slug mucus.

"W-well, the entry also said they can inject their prey with an incredible potent toxin. But they didn't say how or even what it did, only that it's incredibly deadly and only the most resilient of people have a hope of surviving even long enough for an anti-venom to be applied before it's too late for them." Now that's the sort of horrible trick you should begin to expect from these sorts of creatures at any time. Seems you'll have to take extra care not to let this toxin be injected into you, you don't fancy your chances with being poisoned much, especially by one apparently so deadly that even anti-venom tends to be useless.

"Thank you Holly. I'm sure that knowing this will make dealing with these creatures less of a danger, I'll just have to avoid touching them at all, I suppose." You thank Holly while the look on Sophia's face seems to get more complicated by the minute. Eventually though, after following the tracks for quite some time, you see them all turning a corner. Though just as you go to turn the corner, a running man collides with you before toppling to the ground as the force of the collision makes you stumble and take a step back.

Looking down at the man, he's clearly terrified, his suit in a state of total disarray as he apparently sprinted from something for his life. As his eyes dart from side to side as if looking for invisible enemies. "W-what the hell are you three so calm for?! Don't you know they killed everyone?!" The man chokes out his confused exclamations.

>"Calm down. Who killed everyone? What's going on?"
>"Tell me what happened. Now."
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
>Ignore the man entirely and simply continue onwards towards the destination of the Giant Mollusks.
>Write-in...

Ah, Sophia's reaction is lovely. Truly perfect ojou behavior here.

>>4138885
>Holly on the other hand seems to have quickly gotten over her first disgusted reaction towards the slug mucus.
No femininity. I'd be disappointed, but it's Holly.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Presumably the mollusks killed everyone. I'm more worried about the news getting out.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.

>>4138887
>>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Kinda important.

>>4138924
>No femininity. I'd be disappointed, but it's Holly.
>would rather have a dainty snob instead of a girl who can get down and dirty and deal with it
Jokes aside though being able to cope with stuff you don't like is a good quality to have. Holly's pretty adaptable and that's cool. I don't know why she gets the hate she does. Is it like a personal thing or or what?

>>4138997
Hilda just keeps ticking higher and higher on the negative scale.

>>4139018
She isn't bad per se but she isn't anywhere near the top in the girl run. Honestly I'd put her in the middling area. She's probably trying to seem diplomatic and likeable to Arthur and not showing who she honestly and truly is at heart. We got a glimpse when she was flying around harassing people but it wasn't the whole picture.

There's still digging to be done until she gets a complete entry in the waifu bestiary.

>>4139131
>this is hilda trying to look presentable
oh boi, she's gonna ratchet up the negative points like a geyser when that facade falls.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
I say we kill him.
Fuck this guy.
>>4139143
>facade
It's not a facade Hollyfag.
Sophia is a best.

Seems like half of my players just vanished.
Where did you all go, folks?

>>4138887
>Ignore the man entirely and simply continue onwards towards the destination of the Giant Mollusks.
We gotta killem ded.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
Ok a lot is going on.

>>4138887
Ah shit the Monster Merchant went berserk.
>"Is there anything other then Giant Slugs to worry about?"
>>4139736
People were probably disappointed we weren't stuck under Hilde's boot, others are just annoyed by Hildefags in general. But really that's on them for not realizing what sort of quest this is.
Also it's probably just Boat Arc fatigue, we'll probably get them back soon.

>>4139724
It not being a facade means she's that shallow. I can see that being the case, but either way Hilda a shit.
Chaos reigns!

>>4139977
How is it you can't see that Sophia now has a different opinion of us than she did before and is therefore acting differently around us?
When she met us before she basically just toyed with us to see what we were capable of.
Now that she's confirmed an alliance we're probably seeing her true face.

>>4138887
>Ignore the panicked passenger and instead ask Sophia why the man seems to have managed to avoid the effect of the enchantment on the ship.
>>4139736
I had no internet man, and I can't post from the phone for whatever reason. In other news, looks like I fucking called it. >>4135413

>>4140190
Not sure why you're replying to me with that when I implied earlier that even if it isn't a facade she's still trash? Actually, it's even worse since I called her shallow if this is her "true face" which I still doubt. If she was fucking around before, what's to say she isn't now? Because she allied with a human who doesn't know anything and she could crush with a stray thought? Puh-lease.
And honestly, I'm not sure I would call leaving threats behind and playing the shittiest version of hide-and-seek ever toying with us, and if she thinks it is then she's very easy to please, going back to being shallow again.

>>4140190
>we're probably seeing her true face.
People tend to be more honest when they oppose something than when they ally with it. It's the equivalent of telling little white lies on a resume or pretending to be a little bit wealthier when dating.

I don't think this is Sophia as she truly is. Partly but not totally. Sophia is way more sadistic than she's been letting on ever since she sliced up our leg. She's clearly not some absolutely unhinged psychopath but she's not nearly as nice as she's been acting. I'd pin her as being just slightly above Johannes on the grandeur scale but well below Shirley on the mental gymnastics scale.

Obviously she's right to believe she's physically superior to human life but she kinda lets it go to her head. She was probably super deluded before she got interned in that vault to mellow out for a human lifetime. She's quite clearly still not completely mentally sound just by her general antics and demeanor.

tl;dr She's merely pretending and we should be looking at the whole picture and not just what she's showing.

>>4140213
Meanwhile you've got Holly, and the entire dynamic of that relationship is us saving her.
Very interesting.
*yawn*

At least there's some nuance to Sophia.
You can call her shallow, but from her perspective, A potential future Dark Lord has just landed directly in her lap.
Imagine being a vampire and being unable to actually fall in love with anyone because they will either die of old age or spend eternity as your subordinate.
That can hardly be called love. Just an exploitative relationship.

But the dynamic between a vampire falling for a human and a vampire falling for the future Dark Lord is different.
We already ignored her vampiric charm didn't we?
Therefore, it's a sort of relationship between two equals.

Waifu Tier.

S tier: Chaos
A+ tier: Sophia
A tier: Anna, Alura, Shirley, Mistral
B tier: Coller, Theresia, Grigori, Edwin
C tier: Holly, Adrianne

Objectively correct.

>>4140230
Holly is a fish out of water, she hasn't even had a fucking week to establish herself while also absorbing a stupid amount of new information about the world around her. She's just been really unlucky, but when she finds a foothold it'll be interesting to see how she develops.

>Hilda has nuance.
>she never used her magic to at least try to extend the lifespan of any of her lovers
>actually she never used any magic at all until she was captured.
Gigantic hole in your headcanon there, if she really wanted that kind of relationship wouldn't she have been pursuing it before she was interred? By her own admission she didn't use any magic at all until then, and that's the perfect starting point for trying to extend lifespan.
Obviously the answer to this conundrum is that she never really cared about that in the first place.
And you can have a relationship that includes love with your subordinates, so long as you don't abuse your own authority, which Hilda is quite familiar with doing. If she really had problems like that then she'd probably have surrogate lovers that she was never satisfied with that would follow her around like the slaves they are. And we're on a cruise ship so it's not like the selection would be poor, given you need a certain amount of money to get a ticket.
And vampires have eternal boredom as one of their debuffs, so don't try to explain this away by saying she was too busy to try to do any of this, before her capture, or after her escape.
And us being able to resist her charm is actually a negative here, since it shows that she can't just manipulate us by being cute, which would lower our value to her.

>In the future Arthur will be able to wipe Hilda from existence with his pinky.
>Currently Hilda can almost do the same thing to Arthur with her hand.
>sort of relationship between equals.
hmmm...

>>4140230
There's no guarantee Arthur will gain immortality along the way. So the whole "Oh he's a dark lord candidate so he's different" doesn't really change the fact he's still human.

Depending on which canon you take Death is either controlled by one of the stones or just a peon of Chaos. But even if Arthur had dominance over Death his body is still mortal. If Death brought Arthur's soul back to his body and his body was blown in half he'd go back into a body blown in half and immediately die again. Dracula could just regenerate his body all willy nilly being a vampire and all.

And good luck finding the two stones again. If Julius didn't ice those things when he obliterated Dracula they'll be locked away in super hunter jail or something. And if they do still exist the crimson stone might have been depowered and then we'd need to juice it with another powerful vampire's soul. Which as of right now is Sophia. And she's probably not strong enough. Comparatively speaking, anyway. Walter was a fucking beast.

Also her stance on the matter in terms of relationships is quite clear, she would have absolutely turned Arthur if it wouldn't stymie his potential. Thus enslaving him. So she doesn't really care about his free will. She just wants him to get really strong for whatever her reasons are. Probably to kill all the hunters and plunge the world into darkness. Because you know, vampires like that shit.

>>4140254
Interesting arguments
But Holly is still a worst
And Sophia is still a best.

Holly is a vampire with none of their traditional charm.
She's hopeless.
Whereas Sophia is perfect.

>>4140274
>traditional vampire charm
you mean stalking brides and promising them eternal life?
don't see Hilda doing any of that.
>Hilda is perfect.
I'd apologize to your brain cells but your dick is in the way.

>>4140242
Switch Alura for A+, Sophia for B, Holly for A, Mistral for C, Adrianne for B, Coller for C, and you have mine.

>>4140287
I like to think the charm of vampires is that they perfectly foil humanity. They're the worst traits of humanity exemplified and singular entities of immense power that can be overcome by a group of plucky and faithful hunters which together represent the better qualities of mankind. But I'm probably just weird.

>>4140312
Nice opinion there. I see vampires as the traits most people want to believe don't exist, and the hunters as the clean up crew who keeps humanity from ever accepting themselves, left to forever drift in their denial and ignorance because of them.

>>4140312
The classic literary vampire is a cypher for the past. Immense power concentrated in an individual, preying on one's inferiors, elegant refinement, timeless beauty, an inflexible social order, etc. In the original Dracula you can throw in moral corruption, lasciviousness, and disrespect for religion as traits associated with the past, due to the Victorian moral/religious boom. Good and ill, they hold the elements of history and carry them with them.
Contrast that with the group of hunters, who typically represent the union of righteousness and ingenuity, and employ means both modern and holy to destroy the vampire; these represent the idealized future.
Consequently those with a strong sense of and reverence for history tend to sympathize with and be fond of the traditional vampires, while those with a strong sense of modernity, who revile the past as something to be left behind, tend to bear the most repugnance for them.
That's my take on it, anyway.

>>4140326
I should mention that I'm primarily talking about Stoker's book and the works directly patterned on it here. Obviously vampires have been in so much media since that they've been interpreted six ways from sunday.

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>>4140320
>>4140326
These are pretty cool takes.

Holly and Sophia aside.
What exactly are we supposed to do when we reach Europe?
Consolidate power and allies?
Improve our relationships?
Increase our own personal power?
Try to learn magic?
Try to impress Chaos?
Look for Dark Lord Candidates to kill?
Attack our enemies instead of letting them attack us?
Look for the Crimson Stone?
Kill Soma?
Find a base we can operate out of?

We have a lot we can get up to.
But I have no idea what we should prioritize.

>>4140414
Here's my take:
Priority #1: Find a place to live.
Priority #2: Training Montage.
Priority #3: Look for Dark Lord Candidates to kill while also looking for the Crimson Stone.

>>4140414
Finding a base of operations first. In regards to that I'm heavily leaning against shacking up in castle de Hilda since that's probably the first place the hunters will look for her. Maybe just picking an abandoned apartment complex or something, there's plenty of those the farther east in Europe you go.
Then we can focus on improving our personal power, and getting Mistral to give us more blessings while making sure our allies settle in properly so we can actually do business without worrying about them.
Once we're confident enough we can hunt down the other DLCs and decide if we should kill them or not.
I guess we could try to find the Crimson Stone, but why don't we take it a step further and try to make an actual philosophers stone? If Vampires are the top of the totem pole right behind the dark lord himself, can you imagine how ludicrously powerful a real immortal would be?
Trying to hunt down the church would be cool, but it should wait until we're pretty powerful. They're no joke when it comes to smiting.
I'm not sure if we'll kill Soma or not, cause Arthur isn't a complete dick and Soma was a pretty normal kid til he got isekai'd, but it'll come up while hunting down the DLCs anyway so that will come up when it will come up.
Learning magic can take a backseat for now, since it's too time consuming to be a priority until we're not constantly under threat of annihilation, unless it's just little spells here and there that are easy to learn and use.
Impressing Chaos will come with time, and shouldn't be rushed anyway, since the results would be mediocre.

There's really no real need to converse with the passenger, if anything, you're more worried about him being able to be experiencing this panic at all. You haven't really confirmed it with Sophia herself, but she should be the one making it so the passengers aboard the ship don't react to the supernatural goings on as they ought to. So the fact that the effect clearly hasn't worked on the man is an obvious cause for concern. "Sophia, I was under the impression that you were the one behind the people aboard the ship remaining unaware of what was really going on. Is that not the case?" To tell the truth, asking had slipped your mind back inside Sophia's mansion, so this has presented you with a valuable opportunity to actually find out some more about Sophia's magic.

"Oh? The barrier I put up? Yes, I suppose it is concerning that one of it's targets is seemingly unaffected." She looks down at the man in disgust. "The enchantment was a theory I came up with in my isolation, so there's a few problems I've identified with it when I put it into practice here. Firstly, it completely fails to work on a target if they have even the slightest bit of aptitude for magic. It's unfortunate, but this means that there's a minuscule chance of failure if intended target even had an ancestor who practiced magic and the potential was never lost through generations." She gives the man an evil grin that causes him to try backing away from her in confusion and fear, but he just backs into the wall. "Secondly there's a limit to how many people can be affected all at once with it. Of course, I might be able to set it to target the entire population of an area, but the spell can only alter so many people's perceptions at once before it starts to fail to work on them all, leaving them unaffected, it can only concurrently alter the perceptions of roughly one hundred and fifty or so people at once." Sophia turns to you and gives you an innocent smile before continuing, "And of course, finally, there's the problem of extreme physical pain or shock being able to temporarily cause the enchantment to fail, it's quite beautiful that as an unintended side effect, it allows for the humans to witness and feel their own deaths unhindered by any mind altering magic. The first two issues I can remedy with some alterations to the spell, given time. I don't think the third issue is something I'll change about the spell though." She hasn't once taken the smile from her face as she spoke about the enchantment.

The man on the floor is quite clearly confused by Sophia's sudden explanation about perception altering magic, and through his fear, manages to angrily respond to Sophia. "What the fuck are you talking about!? Do you think now is any time to play pretend?! Get help you fucking idiots! I think one of those damn things bit me!" The smile adorning Sophia's face quickly vanishes as she turns to face the man again, contempt resonating from her expression.

She walks up to the man, still avoiding stepping in any of the trails of slime decorating the floor until she's standing directly over him. She looks into the man's eyes, you can't see Sophia's face, but the man's enraged face soon once again becomes terrified. Though now instead of being terrified of the creatures he was fleeing, he's terrified of the girl that at least from this angle lacks any sort of ability to be intimidating at all, but still, the man is trying his absolute hardest to scramble away from what appears to be a teenager. It's almost absurd. The man's attempts to escape from Sophia are rapidly brought to a bloody conclusion as she brings a heeled shoe down on the man's ankle, severing his left foot in a small explosion of gore, interestingly, none of the man's blood seems to even touch her outfit or the shoe responsible for brutally crushing the ankle.

The man screams in agony as he grasps the stump which his foot was attached to moments ago, but when he locks eyes with Sophia again, he stops entirely. His arms go limp and allow the now useless stump of a leg to slam again the ground and his scream is cut off completely. Sophia sighs as she regards the man like one would a particularly revolting piece of garbage. "Worthless insect, would it really kill the mortals in this year to at least show some sort of respect? This era is just so horribly crass. I was going to give you a quick death, but you've shown you don't deserve that mercy. You can at least answer some questions, do you understand?" The man nods, as if caught in some kind of stupor. "See? Even worms like you can be polite! Now, you're going to tell me just what room you came running from like a coward, and just how many people were in that room with you, I may still have some use for you, after all. Oh and tell me if you saw anybody else escape." The vampire is clearly furious at the man for daring to insult her, even if he could have had absolutely no idea of just what he was getting himself into.

The man on the floor seems to pause for a moment as if contemplating something, before opening his mouth to speak in a monotone. "The Concert Hall. There were at least four hundred people attending the conference. Only I managed to escape, that I saw." The man coughs involuntarily.

"Oh, so you don't have magical potential after all and were merely lucky enough to avoid the effects of my magic? A pity, I do need some human magic users to experiment on, but I suppose I can just find some later." Sophia once again turns away from the man. "Or perhaps I can borrow one of your human followers, Arthur? The experiments shouldn't be fatal, after all." Sophia makes a dangerous request, though you don't get to confirm whether she's serious or not before she turns back to the man on the ground, his eyes are starting to glass over completely now, the man is clearly on the verge of death. Though this just seems to make Sophia even more displeased. "A natural born coward, aren't you? Don't think I'm about to let you avoid punishment like that." She rapidly traces a some pattern in the air with a single finger while pointing at the man's chest. Moments after she finishes, blood seeps through his clothing in the pattern of some sort of magic circle. The man's eyes that had begun to take a glassy look have now completely returned to alertness, though as he opens his mouth to speak, only an incomprehensible slurry of words comes out. "Now you won't die until the very last drop of your blood has been spilled from your body, I think that's quite fitting, don't you?"

The man tries to respond to Sophia, but instead he simply gurgles at her, a strange unearthly noise in place of actual words. Then you spot the cause of the man's strange behavior, his crushed ankle, which should be freely spewing forth blood... wasn't. Instead, the lower part of his body has transformed into a strange flesh coloured gel. Sophia doesn't seem to have noticed this as she waits for him to give a proper response, and is quite visibly alarmed when instead, the man's head collapses in on itself and his body decomposes into the strange substance. It clearly wasn't Sophia's doing, as she has actually taken a few steps away from the disgusting remains of the goo that used to be a man in shock.

Sophia looks at the remains of the man with unrestrained disgust as she navigates her way back to your side. "Well, Arthur. That was quite... unexpected, but it seems that we have a location we need, and I got the information I needed, so shall we be off? I don't want to resolve this as quickly as possible. These slug creatures are just too disgusting to be allowed to continue existing. The repulsive things even feed on humans in a nauseating way." Sophia does have something of a point, after watching Alura reduce that poor waitress to a dry dust, you didn't think it was possible for you to witness a human die in a more gruesome manner. But it seems the world exists to surprise you on these things, even Sophia is disgusted, it appears.

In opposition to the disgust of her master, Holly has actually walked over to the goo that used to be a human and started to take a closer look at the slime, even going so far as to prod the gel, which strangely seems to... quiver in response? An impossible thought runs through both yours and Holly's heads at the same time, but Holly is quicker to actualize it into words. "I-I think he's still alive!"

It seems impossible for anybody to remain alive in a condition like that, until a high pitched giggle from next to you rings out as Sophia fails to contain her amusement. She struggles to speak through her laughter. "Oh my, it would seem as if that enchantment I laid upon him has had quite a side effect then! Seeing as how that insect was transformed entirely into an organic gel, including his blood, it seems that blob of goo will remain in a sort of conscious state forever. The spell I cast upon him to ensure his survival until the last drop of his blood drained away now applies to his entire body. In summary, I suppose you could say I just inadvertently created an immortal being!" Sophia seems overjoyed at this unexpected result, even forgetting her disgust for a moment, though Holly looks far less pleased with the situation, and the goo keeps quivering in agony, though you are unsure whether the man can even feel pain anymore.

>Ask Sophia to disable the enchantment she placed upon the man.
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
>Ignore the goo and continue to your destination.
>Write-in...

>>4140844
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
Come on now, Sophia. Taking pleasure in the life of something that vile really is a bit crass, isn't it?

>>4140844
>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.

All you had to do was ask the man nicely goddamn.

>>4140844
>>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
I mean that's kinda cool and all but Jesus Hilde have some compassion. You were trapped in a far less miserable state than this dude is now. Can you imagine how shitty it would be? She better hope vampires are immune to these turboslug's venom.

>>4140844
>>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
Yeah, I draw the line at revelling in I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream level suffering.
Calm your tits, Sophia.
>>4141198
>vampires
>empathy
>boundaries
Sophia is great, but we really need to work on this suffering fetish she seems to have.
There's limits.

Wow, Sophia laughs at one fate worse than death and suddenly she's crossed the line.
That asshole was fucked anyway.

>>4141568
You're missing the point but I don't think you'd care either way. Just know that I'm frowning at you right now.

>>4140844
Backing >>4141337. I love how unanimous this vote has been so far. Arthur definitely has standards for what is acceptable - and Sophia has crossed it here with this.

>>4141661
>Arthur definitely has standards for what is acceptable - and Sophia has crossed it here with this.
That's how I feel, at least. Sophia may be second-best girl, but this is definitely distasteful.

cringe

>>4141666
Even Satan agrees it's kinda distasteful.
Come on though, it's just a mortal, while she could do with being less heartless it's not like she should care about them.
I don't wanna feed her bad habits though.
>>4141672
A high quality post.

>>4141693
>Even Satan
Hey, what did I ever do to you?

>>4141693
With an attitude like this, it's looking more and more feasible to just get rid of her or ditch her, since she wont deal with living on the run in a human ran world in any reasonable fashion.
That was just unreasonable torture. Just get the info and let him be ffs.

>>4141702
"Just get the info" from someone whose first response was to ridicule us, and was obviously in no state to calmly report. Come on.
Honestly I'd be less supportive of Sophia if it weren't for you harping on the "we need to get rid of her NOW!" schtick every other update. It's incredibly grating.

>>4141704
That dude obviously would've told it to us hysterically, but he would've divulged just fine.

And, well, the opposition doesn't even give any coherent reply to those statements besides "dude vampires are the strongest, ur dumb for not wanting this loose cannon around." Or "Sophia is cute fuck you." Or "Fuck Arthur, you're annoying so imma vote the opposite out of spite."
Are people really incapable of taking the important bits out of people's statements and documenting the rest?

>>4141702
She was just going to let him remain concious while he bled out I think as some sort of punishment to being rude.
Then he melted.
I don't think she expected him to melt into undying goo and we were going to have to kill him anyway if he didn't melt to prevent him from spreading information about us.
She was probably just pleasantly surprised by the outcome from an magical standpoint.
Could make some pretty powerful minions using undying human goo as a base.
>>4141697
Your post ended in 666.
Also you have a preference for the evil waifus.
Who else could you be, if not Satan?
>>4141704
She could've just started by putting the man in a trance and getting the information from him that way.
But there's no use crying over spilled melted goo passenger.

>>4141713
That's quite the over the top response to somebody who probably just went through something really traumatic and was wondering what idiots would want to join the others in that festival of death. Crushing his ankle, hexing him to only die when theres no blood left in his body, then laughing when he puddles and can't bleed, just because he was really frantic is very unhinged. If you really have to kill him, just decapitate him or something like that. He probably would've done his best to forget it ever happened.

>>4141726
Wrong place wrong time.
She was clearly already going to kill him before he managed to irritate her, and she's probably already fed up with how things are in the 21st century and has a zero tolerance for the average human of this era.

>>4141737
Yeah, exactly. Which is why she should go. She'll only bring Arthur ruin.

>>4141737
>has a zero tolerance for the average human of this era.
Well that sounds like a personal problem. Also really doesn't make it easy to blend in when you're acting like people are supposed to behave like they did a few centuries ago.

Really I just don't want to hang out with a bonafide sadist. Because people influence those around them. Next she'll be expecting us to be a gleefully murdering dickwad and she'll be upset if we don't find pleasure in tortuously ending life.

>>4141740
For what?
Hating modern society?
We'll put the world back in it's rightful place as the Dark Lord anyway.
Humanity as it is has become far too decadent and corrupt.
>>4141746
I don't think she's just going to slaughter people at all times. This was just a perfect opportunity to give somebody what was coming to them.

>>4141746
>Really I just don't want to hang out with a bonafide sadist.
Hey, come on, sadists are great! Give sadism a chance.

>>4141775
No, Sundowner.

>>4141780
Sophia just wants to return to the Gool Ol' Days right after 1911.

>>4141767
>give somebody what was coming to them.
>a rightfully panicked, concerned, grounded-in-reality dude trying to get people to get the fuck away from scary shit

>deserved to get his foot stomped off and turned into immortal prison gel
No offense bro but I hope you never get into law school. He actually was just trying to help. Sophia is just melodramatic and crazy.

>>4141767
>why should we ditch the super powerful being who hates the main caste of people we'll be dealling with on a daily basis for the foreseeable future?
>especially when she thinks killing someone who had just witnessed something traumatic, that by all accounts should be completely impossible, in an unnecessarily brutal way, is acceptable behaviour.
>when we have an organization hunting both of us down, and they've taken down beings far stronger than her.
Huh, now that you mention it nothing comes to mind.

>he got what was coming to him
oh, so you're one of those pure evil types. That does belong in Castlevania, but Arthur really isn't that type of villain.

>>4141787
In for a penny.
It's not like things will get worse for us now we have a Kokoro-Alucard taskforce on our tail already.
We'll just have to get Sophia to stop killing as easily and to show restraint where appropriate.
She's been locked away for years, so she's probably getting carried away with herself now she's free.

>>4141787
>No character could possibly change over time or be reformed by the protagonist's influence, we should just ditch everyone inconvenient!
Weren't you the same person arguing we should try to train Holly? Apply some of that same spirit here. A person's personality isn't something 100% static and set in stone.

>>4141799
>how to train your vampire 2: tricentennial boogaloo

>>4141796
>>4141799
You want to change a 170 year old woman's personality to be more suited for living on the run? Peoples personalities aren't static no, but she has what, 100 years of acting like this to get over? 50 at the least? Compounded by a crucible where she could reflect on all her actions and their righteousness compared to the people who locked her away? Even if we got to that point it wouldn't be fast enough to stop her from attracting attention with her audaciousness. And the far more likely outcome is Hilda outright scorning us for "caring about humanity" or "not displaying our overwhelming power to the plebeians" or somesuch.

Training holly is something different altogether, we just help her get her impulses under control, then go on a bunch of infiltration missions to rack up the stealth skill points.

>Use the Power of Destruction to completely erase the man and end his suffering.
To be quite fair, the enchantment was only for them to not die until all of their blood was gone. It could simply be due to the effects of whatever bite he got.
This situation gives me some Franken-Fran vibes though.

Looking at the pitiful quivering mess the poor man has become, you can't help but feel a sympathy of sorts for him. This man clearly had no idea what was happening at all, and you aren't about to condemn anybody to some sort of twisted eternity of suffering simply because he displeased Sophia. Really, she was already going a little too far just by how she was treating the man. His confused anger towards the three of you was in reality quite justified. He had been one of the only escapees from a scene of absolute carnage and death, and the first people he runs into seem completely calm and nonchalant about the whole situation.

"I'm not going to leave him suffering like this, Sophia. This has gone way too far. This man didn't do enough to deserve this fate." You speak sternly, it's time to see just how much value Sophia has placed upon this alliance you've created with her. So, it's time to see if Sophia has any intention to respect your wishes in this partnership at all.

The vampire standing next to you frowns slightly. "While I wasn't attempting to do such a thing to this insect, this could be a potential breakthrough for the advancement of my magic. Though seeing as he wasn't exactly deserving of this level of punishment, I suppose I can attempt to undo the enchantment, though it's very possible that the magic is inseparable from that goo now and impossible to deactivate, even for somebody like me. It's very likely that when his body was composed into that strange substance that odd venom even broke down the magic I had placed upon this man too." Sophia seems to force herself to walk closer to the goo and inspect it more closely. "As disgusting as the source of this poison undoubtedly is. Such a quality makes it an excellent weapon. If it's a poison that can even break down the conceptual elements of magic into a single mass along with the physical body of it's target, then a single bite from these creatures could theoretically kill anything if the effects were given time to come to fruition." She carries on speaking

Sophia's observations on the poison may be of more interest to you in any other scenario, but as things currently stand, you're far more focused on the remains of the man. Holly looks fairly upset at what happened to the man as she crouches next to the quivering gel, seems that her empathy is still at least partially intact despite her current status as a vampire. "Step aside Holly." You keep your words short as you mentally call out for the Power of Destruction to come to you.

Holly seems to realize what it is you're doing and quickly retreats from the gel, standing next to Sophia, who looks on with great interest at your display. "I'm looking forward to seeing your ability in action, Arthur. The power that marks you as a possible candidate to take the throne of the Dark Lord, I've only seen glimpses of it in action so far while I was observing you. So the opportunity to watch it in use is one I've been looking forward to." Sophia seems cheerful now, despite the filth she's still carefully avoiding standing in.

The power comes to you quite easily this time, quickly calling forth enough of the strange energy granted to you by Chaos to coat your hand with it entirely, you take a look down at the gooey mess that used to be a man and think of just what the best way to use the power to end his suffering would be. Of course, the other methods you've used in the past aren't feasible. You briefly consider trying to replicate that space deleting effect you used back at the mansion, though somehow you can tell that it won't be possible for you to reattain a state where you could use it without a greater understanding of the power that you hold.

So, as strange as it might look, you'll simply have to use the Power of Destruction to destroy the gelatinous remains one line at a time. You hope that the fact that you can't immediately put him out of his misery doesn't cause him further suffering, but it's not like you intend to hang around as you use the Power of Destruction to get rid of the body in 8 swipes. There are some areas of the ground where you accidentally scraped the floor while you were working on disposing of the man, gouging out smooth indents in the floor.

As you stand up once again, you realize that at some point, Sophia had gotten close to you, she must have snuck up behind you while you were busy with getting the man out of that miserable state through the Power of Destruction. "What a truly fascinating ability." Sophia seems to muse to herself. "I only met Lord Dracula a few times in life when I was a very young vampire. My master was something of a close adviser to Dracula, actually, and one of his most trusted generals too." The girl seems to sigh as she recalls something. "Or at least he was, until he vanished one day entirely." She seems lost for a moment as she continues reminiscing about the distant past. "That power you hold is quite incredible. If I'm correct in my belief that the conceptual effect of the magic had left that man unable to be killed, then this power of yours, this 'Power of Destruction' of yours is possibly capable of even granting an immortal a permanent death." Sophia looks at the patch of ground where the man's body used to lay and then to the corner you need to turn in order to reach your destination. "We have no need to continue to loiter around here though, let us be off, I don't want to be forced to sleep anywhere even close to those awful creatures!" You refrain from bringing up the fact that she's actually been residing in that mansion of hers in that apparent pocket dimension she's responsible for creating. As well as the fact that you're pretty certain vampires don't actually need to sleep at all.

Though for as flimsy as Sophia's reasons for wanting to deal with the remaining population of slugs, you quickly get back to walking towards your destination, and after a few delays from Sophia as she continually kept making complex maneuvers in order to avoid stepping in any slime, you arrived. Though it would be a lie if you said the thought of just picking Sophia up and carrying her didn't cross your mind, you don't end up entertaining the idea. There's no telling how she might react to something like that considering how shy she was about a simple kiss on the cheek.

Sophia's strange obsession over avoiding stepping in the slug mucus may have delayed you ever so slightly, but you soon arrive at the concert hall, a sofa has been hastily pushed in front of the door in some hopeless effort to barricade the door shut.

>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
>Have Holly break into the room using that superior strength of hers.
>Use the Power of Destruction in order to cut directly through both the door and the couch blocking your path.
>Write-in...

>>4142291
>>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
If the slugs are rather bitey it makes sense not to bust into the room in case there is one right next to the door.

>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
I don't think there's anything wrong with being cautious here.

>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.
I hope vampires are immune to this poison.
We should totally get a few vials of it though.

>>4142291
>Move the sofa out of the way and carefully open the door after drawing your revolver.

Why are there even megaslugs aboard anyway?
How did they escape whatever was confining them?
Were megaslugs the only monsters aboard?
I guess that Monster Dealer was pretty shitty if all he had were these fucking slugs.
Though he did get snacked on by a totally inexperienced vampire so maybe he was just a retard.

>>4143022
>be monster dealer
>be on random cruise for a special order of a buncha fuckin slugs
>ez money basically just a courier job
>suddenly a vampire kicks down the door and drags me off to get nibbled
It's not like he was expecting a creature of the night to show up. Probably because vampires and water don't really mesh.

>>4143100
Imagine being so incompetent that even Holly beats you in a fight.
We slapped her shit without even using our deletion bullshit.
We need to figure out a use for her before she gets herself killed.
I don't like our odds if Alucard shows up.
We should make a plan of action for if he shows himself.

>>4143151
Arthur isn't even aware of his existence.

The cautious approach is most likely to serve you the best here. There's no real telling what's behind that door other than some quantity of these huge magical slugs, and after seeing what you can only imagine to be the result of being bitten turn that man into a pile of goo, there's no way you're going to let any of these freakishly large gastropods get anywhere near you!

Moving the sofa blocking the door is an almost effortless task, for a job that should take at least some effort to move the couch, you can easily push it aside without much strain on yourself at all, another thought occurs in that moment. Were you always this strong? Could this newfound strength have come with the discovery of your nature as a Dark Lord Candidate? Though thinking back, you don't really have many events in your past to compare it to. You never really had much incentive to perform what appeared to be backbreaking labour throughout the entirety of your youth, given the wealth of your family, you had basically been encouraged not to bring yourself to that level. You had never gotten into fights in your youth either, though this was likely more Shirley's doing than anything else. With your easy life when growing up, never being challenged physically, it should be impossible for you to have anywhere close to this level of strength. You hadn't given the matter much thought until now, but it really does strike you as strange the more you think about it. You aren't out of shape though, not by any stretch of the imagination, you may not have been obsessed with fitness, but you did enough to ensure. More questions for you to ask either Chaos or Dracula himself, you suppose.

With the door now unblocked, you attempt to pull it open after quickly drawing your revolver with your free hand, only to quickly realize that the door was a push door all along. Whoever spent the time to move that sofa in an attempt to block that door, most likely the man you put out of his misery, was clearly not thinking clearly when they did that. Unless he had intended on slightly inconveniencing the monsters in the concert, that is. Letting go of the handle of the door, you instead push it, only for the doors to unexpectedly be far heavier than you expected. Unlike the sofa which was a nearly effortless task to open, these doors feel like they weigh a ton! You manage to budge them a little inwards, so you know at least that the door is not simply locked.

"What's the problem, Arthur?" Surprisingly, it's Holly who asks you what seems to be wrong, Sophia seems to be hanging back from the door for now. Seems that she really loathes the idea of these disgusting creatures, or it might just be the thick layer of slime covering every surface near the door to the concert hall preventing her from coming closer without soiling her footwear. For somebody as apparently old and experienced and her, she sure doesn't act her age, you find yourself just what sort of life the vampire girl led since she was turned. You can't imagine she had much of a human life, considering she only looks to be a teenager herself. It might be something to ask her for later, if she even bothered to remember that much of her life. "Do you need some help with the door?" Holly's offer to help snaps you out of your musings over the girl who turned her.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Holly. They are just heavier than I anticipated, after all." While the doors are heavier than you thought they would be, they aren't impossible to open, you'll just have to apply a little more force to opening them. Slowly, you increase the force you're applying to the doors until you feel like you're giving it your all, the wood creaks and groans as you up the power you're exterting on the door. For a moment, it seems the doors are stuck, until a sudden burst of power and a gust of wind blasts the door wide open as the blessing granted to you by Mistral finally activates.

Though the door is blasted open at incredible speed from the full force of your pushing strength scaled up by five, there's no smashing noise as it crashes against the wall, instead, there's a horribly loud squelching noise, not unlike that of an over-ripened fruit being squeezed into mush with great force. The noise is quite sickening, but it doesn't even begin to prepare you for the the nightmarish scene laid out before you. In front of you is an immense amount of slime that seems to have been sprayed outwards with incredible force, there's random articles of clothing scattered among the slime too. If you had to guess, it would seem as if the creatures here blocked the door themselves with the corpses of their victims, the possibility that the beasts hold some strange inhuman intellect increases with that thought, and you'd much rather just write it off as a coincidence.

If it were possible, you're pretty sure that Holly's face would look even more pale than it already is as she stands by your side, looking into the room. There are scattered articles of clothing all over the concert hall, each weighed down by the sludge that used to be the human occupants of this room. There are a few corpses that are only half melted into that strange gel too, their bodies still having maintained some sort of human shape. One that particularly sticks out is a woman who seems to have been clambering over the seats in an attempt to escape the concert hall, half of her face and head is still in tact, the other half long since melted away. The terror is etched on her face, which seems to have been frozen entirely as her remaining eye is locked looking at a small puddle of the goo on the chair just below her head.

There must be hundreds of bodies scattered among the hall, with the vast majority concentrated in the center of the room along with the monsters that seem to be engaged in a strange act somewhere between eating and drinking their liquefied victims, the horrible green slug like creatures are all the size of large dogs with the exception of one in the very center of the hall. Actually, considering it's shell, is more a sort of snail. Regardless of whether the huge red skinned mollusk is more a snail than a slug, it's still over three times the size of it's smaller cousins. It's a creature that can be truly called a giant.

Regardless of it's size, there's no way in hell that you're going to let a disgusting monster like this just roam free, there's no telling just what senseless carnage it might yet cause as it just goes about existing. It's two antennae seem to have turned directly towards you, obviously, you can't discern any emotions from such an inhuman beast, but there's no doubt that it's now aware of your existence.

>Unload a few shots of the revolver into the huge beast's soft looking skull. It's clearly the biggest danger here.
>Use the revolver in order to take out as many of the smaller mollusks as you can before they can reach you, slugs are slow, right?
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
>Write-in...

>>4143793
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
Bullets are probably not gonna cut it, unless we fire them from our right index finger.

>>4143793
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
She takes one side, we take the other, catch them from both sides.

>>4143793
Yeah it was definitely the slug toxin that kept the guy alive, it's pretty hard to lose every bit of your blood if it coagulates into some sort of slime goop.
>Set up a chokepoint at the door with Holly, when the slugs get close enough, you'll deal with them instead.
>Prepare the Holy Burst Dagger for the big boy if necessary
They got their power from Dark Magic, logically a large burst of holy power should disrupt basically everything about them for at least a short while.

>>4144273
Supporting this.
I think that the curse sort of got mixed up.
Like, if you can't die until your body loses all it's blood, and then your body and your blood become an inseparable mass of the same substance, then you can no longer lose all your blood
I think?

>>4143793
backing >>4144273 especially that Holy Burst Dagger use. We have to take advantage of whatever we can.

>>4144273
+1

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Update schedule may or may not get a little sporadic over the next few days/weeks/months due to the Coronavirus and the related panic making everything far more difficult and time-consuming to deal with.

I'll still try to keep to my one update a day schedule, but it might not work out.
Just a forewarning.

>>4143812
Easy there, Yusuke.

I should give you some time to experiment with your abilities though, so far there's almost always been too much pressure on Arthur for any downtime activities to take place.
Depending on how this part of the story ends you might get that free time.

The danger of walking into that room full of potentially unseen enemies is far too great, and while it would be nice if you could simply eliminate the threat the largest creature poses from a distance, you doubt the effectiveness of simply attempting to kill it with the revolver. Holly mentioned these creatures were created with some sort of dark magic, didn't she? Then it stands to reason that the holy dagger you've been reunited will soon find itself being of great use to you once again. It ought to be incredibly effective against a creature born of some dark spell, after all.

Brushing your fingers along the handle of the dagger, just to ensure yourself that it is still there, you turn to Holly, who has assumed a sort of combat position, though her stance is quite clumsy and if not for her incredible strength from her nature as a vampire, she would likely be more a hindrance than a help, by all rights, you shouldn't be able to comment on her own skill in combat at all, considering how limited your own experience is. Somehow though, in dangerous situations, you always seem to know just what to do, is it simply luck? Or is something else at play here? Disregarding the myriad flaws in Holly's fighting style though you're just thankful she's committed to helping, you aren't sure when it happened, but at some point, the tips of her fingers seem to have sharpened into dangerous looking claws.

Sophia meanwhile is still hanging back, her face is a strangely cute mix between apprehension and eagerness, she just doesn't seem to be able to make up her mind about the situation right now, you hardly have the time to worry about her feelings though, as the slugs are far faster than you imagine they could have possibly been given their appearance as... well, slugs. "Holly! We'll stay here! You handle any of them coming through the left side of the doors and I'll handle any coming from the right! Understood?" You quickly shout a few commands at Holly, there's a part of you deep down that longs for this, the danger and the thrill of battle. It's just such a shame your enemies are so disgusting.

"Understood!" Just as she finishes uttering the single word, one of the slug creatures seems to scrunch itself up before leaping towards her at great speed! Holly looks surprised for a single moment before she simply swipes upwards with one of her hands, cleanly bisecting the slug creature and spraying herself with it's foul looking orange blood as the cleaved in half pieces of the slug land somewhere behind her with a squelch.

You don't allow yourself to be distracted by Holly's fighting for very long, as you have your own task to be getting on with, and a moment's distraction in the middle of combat could prove fatal! A giant slug leaping towards you would've likely been your undoing had you allowed yourself to be entranced in Holly's fighting for a moment more, as it is, you barely have time to aim at the creature before it reaches you. Upon pulling the trigger, there's a satisfying spray of that orange blood as the monster's head is utterly obliterated and it splatters to the ground.

You don't want to allow yourself to be blindsided like that again though, so from that point on, you make sure that you don't even allow any slugs on your chosen half of the passageway get within the distance they need to make that deadly leap towards you, soon enough there's enough piled up bodies that the slugs attempting to reach you must first climb over a pile of their fallen in order to reach you, looking at the grotesque pile of slimy corpses, you reload the revolver for the fifth time. Is there no end to these creatures? An incredibly brief glance at Holly allows you to see she's surrounded by even more corpses than you are, even if you discount the fact that a lot of the slugs that approached her where sliced into multiple pieces.

Holly is covered in the orange viscera of the slugs from head to toe, here eyes seem to glow with excitement as she spots another approaching. She seems quite a bit faster now than she did when you fought with her when she lost control of herself too, which is allowing her to easily crush any slug that approaches her. Though now you think about it, her losing control here is a very real possibility the longer the fight goes on. What happens if she can no longer discern friend from foe? It's almost as much of a concern as the fact that you can feel the energy use of multiple reloads of the revolver over a short period of time taking their toll on your reserves. There's only a chance that Holly will lose control of herself, and Sophia is still here to rein her in should she do so, but if your energy reserves run dry, you'll be easy prey for these carnivorous slug monsters.

Though now that you think about it, if Sophia is here, why isn't she helping out more? You turn to look at the immensely powerful vampire after blowing away two more of the slugs sliding towards you. The disgust on her face at the monsters speeding towards the three of you is obvious, though you can also sense that there is a rage within her building up with every moment.

You can't dwell on Sophia for long, as you are forced to turn around in order to protect your side of the chokepoint once again. It seems that no matter how many of these creatures either you or Holly dispatch, there's always another to take it's place, is the giant red snail creature perhaps the source of these creatures then? Or were there just hundreds of them hiding out of your sight when you first examined the room? Regardless, Holly might be able to keep fighting indefinitely, but you can't ceaselessly keep firing upon the creatures as they approach you. It's almost a certainty that you're going to need to deal with the giant in the middle of the room if you truly wish to resolve this situation.

>Continue allowing the slugs to come to you in order to use your surroundings to your advantage. There has to be a limit to them.
>Try to convince Sophia to get involved, there's only so long you can keep holding off this onslaught and she has no reason to simply stand by anyway.
>Have Holly cover you from the approaching slugs while you attempt to get a fatal shot off aimed at the huge snail monster.
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
>Write-in...

>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
Respawning enemies suck.

>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.

>>4145351
>Try to convince Sophia to get involved, there's only so long you can keep holding off this onslaught and she has no reason to simply stand by anyway.
Fucking help god damn it.
Why don't we just Power of Destruction the whole room.
Fucking slugs
At least Holly seems to be competent now.
I suppose if Sophia got involved this wouldn't be much of an encounter but hey, if she's so powerful I kinda want to see her in action.
Disgusting opponents or not, this is a kinda lame weakness

I figured there would be more votes or discussion now that you've finally gotten yourself into a dangerous fight.

>>4145793
This is vastly underwhelming when compared to the alchemist who couldn't stop fucking with us.

>>4145793
It's a little difficult to take giant slugs seriously, to be honest.

>>4145796
I suppose that this part of the combat isn't as exciting as that, no.
But there are some things I need to get out of the way as set-up.
It's not wise to assume these slugs are the only monsters aboard, he would've been a very boring Monster Dealer if all he dealt in were slugs.
Especially as I'm getting bored of having to type 'slug' or a term synonymous with it.
>>4145799
I guess they are kind of goofy aren't they?
I was kind of going for a deceptively dangerous enemy.

At least they aren't fleamen.

>>4145811
>he would've been a very boring Monster Dealer if all he dealt in were slugs
>I'm getting bored of having to type 'slug' or a term synonymous with it.
James Herwick, Breeder and Dealer in premium, purebred giant molluscs, slugs, snails, invertebrates, gastropods, and assorted pulmonata.

>>4145814
Imagine going through all the effort to get into contact with an illicit monster seller and all he deals in are slugs.

>>4145351
>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
>>4145689
Sophia is examining our combat competency and leadership. Which is why we should finish this ASAP.
>>4145811
>Fleamen
God those are going to be annoying to encounter.

>>4145351
>>Enter the room with Holly in order to get close to the red snail creature. You'll use the holy dagger in order to score a conclusive blow against it.
Still got no internet, sorry.. But I am glad we are fighting.

>>4145976
Surely there's better ways of testing that.
Are you sure she doesn't just consider the slugs too disgusting to get close to?
Is Sophia's weakness monsters from hentai doujinshi?

>computer just bluescreened midway through writing an update.
You have no idea how happy I am that I switched to Notepad++

You can't keep this up, something drastic needs to be done otherwise you're just going to get worn down and Holly might not be in the correct state of mind to properly aid you, having become a victim of that vampiric bloodlust she can now barely conceal. "Holly! I'm going to go after the huge one in the middle of the room! We'll go together as soon as we get the opportunity, Ok?!" You suddenly barking a command at her seems to somewhat snap her back to reality, causing her eyes to refocus on you.

"Ok! Don't worry Arthur, I'll keep you safe!" She seems quite confident now, perhaps this battle against these really quite weak foes has made her feel better about her newfound powers? Up until this point, the only time she's ever engaged in serious combat with the aim to kill her opponent would have been against the people she tried to feed on. Well, one of those people happened to have been you, and you managed to handle her quite easily back then, so you can't imagine being beaten down so easily was good for her self-confidence. This rather one sided massacre of these slug monsters however seems to have bolstered her confidence. She's even talking about protecting you now, it's not really like these creatures have proven themselves threatening enough for you to need protection against them though, despite having a dangerous venom, it's completely worthless if they can't actually poison you with it.

You rapidly reload the revolver and shoot the six nearest slugs in quick succession, watching for a moment as their orange blood and shredded organs spew forth from the large wounds the magical projectiles tear through them before you holster the weapon. This probably won't end until you kill the hideous snail creature, it's very likely the cause of these damn slugs being so numerous, though if it actually is producing them as you fight, you don't want to imagine the actual process at all.

Drawing the dagger in your left hand, you charge into the room, Holly easily matching your pace and covering your left side, you've only got a single shot with the dagger at killing the giant snail, and if it fails, you'll have no use but to draw upon the Power of Destruction while already being somewhat low on energy from reloading the revolver so many times in quick succession, while it's drain on your reserves isn't excessive, it's quite noticeable after being forced to reload so much. It did it's job at dealing with the immediate enemies though, while there are slugs still making their way towards you and Holly, you've got a little bit of breathing distance as you leap over the large pile of slug corpses that built up during your defense.

To your side, Holly seems to have managed to come to her senses entirely now, she gives you a happy smile when she notices you looking at her face for a moment as you run, before she quickly turns and leans backwards, the leaping slug that attempted to attack her during her moment of distraction is immediately bisected when it is directly in front of her as she brings an arm up with impossible speed to cut through the soft flesh of the gastropod with ease, coating her with yet more of the orange blood of the creatures.

Unperturbed by the efforts of the monsters to stop you from reaching the center of the room, you keep moving. Two larger slugs slither forth from the rows of seats to your sides. Though whether these slugs were special in any way, you'll never know, as both you and Holly deliver swift kicks to the craniums of the slug creatures that cause both of their heads to immediately explode in a shower of bloody orange gore. You frown as the orange blood gets on the suit Alura gave you, you hope it won't stain, you don't want to have to ask Alura to make you a new suit so quickly after she gave you this one.

Actually, didn't Alura laud the suit's durability against attacks when she gave it to you? It's fairly likely that these slugs wouldn't be able to pierce through it and deliver their deadly poison even if you weren't fast enough to prevent them from reaching you. Though you aren't foolish enough to put the durability of your armored suit to the test when a failure on it's part would reduce you to a pile of goo on the floor.

You notice that you're over half of the way to the giant snail positioned in the center of the room now, just as you're forced to slam your fist into the soft belly of a snail attempting to leap on you, the wind blessing once again coming in incredibly useful at dealing with these monsters at it is launched across the hall to collide with a wall with a thud. The creatures are very predictable, all they ever do to attempt to halt your progress towards the center of the room is either launch themselves at you or attempt to block you with their bodies, only to immediately get dealt with with very little effort on either you or Holly's part.

Honestly, this kind of feels too easy! Between the ease of which you can deal with the slugs through their complete inability to take a single hit and their predictability, neither you nor Holly are struggling at all! It's kind of strange to think that creatures you can deal with easily caused such a horrible massacre in this hall. If the place was anywhere near full capacity, then hundreds of people must've lost their lives here, and judging by the piles of clothing and gel, the dead at least number in the hundreds.

Once again, a slug tries to block both you and Holly from approaching, this one is far bigger than all the others save the snail, too. Twice the size of it's smaller brothers, it gives a gurgling roar as it blocks your path and you're almost worried that it might cause you some problems and allow for the other slugs to pile up on you. That is at least until Holly deals with the creature almost immediately as in a burst of speed she's suddenly right in front of the creature, her right hand grasping the head of the creature as it twitches in response to the unexpected move. Then all she does is simply squeeze her hand shut, the head of the snail easily molded under the strength of her grip, deforming like wet clay as yet more of that sickly orange blood sprays forth. Strangely, after crushing the head of the hideous creature, you hear what could only have been Holly attempting to stifle a laugh. You find yourself worried about just what state she's in mentally as you leap over the corpse of the larger slug and finally approach the monster sitting in the middle of the hall. You suddenly realize that Holly has turned around now, eviscerating any of the slugs foolish enough to approach her with ease.

The giant snail doesn't move to attack you though, it seems to be waiting for you to make the first move. It's actions contradict it's monstrous appearance, it's almost as if it's waiting for you to make the first move for whatever reason, instead of attempting to use it's huge bulk to just crush you. The creature is terrificly large. With it's head raised upwards, it's far taller than you are, eight foot tall, you'd estimate, not even including it's antennae, or the truly gargantuan shell sitting atop it's back.

Regardless of the size of the opponent, there's no doubt in your mind that you've got to think of a way to kill it. Something tells you things won't be as simple as they were with the other mollusks. You grip the holy dagger in your left hand tightly. All you need to do is pierce it once, and the holy energy held within the dagger should do the rest!

Just as you step forward to enact your plan to deal with the monster, it finally makes a move of it's own, as it spits a large green glob of fluid directly at you!

>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.
>Charge through the liquid projectile, using the suit in order to cover up all the exposed parts of your body. Catch the monster by surprise!
>Write-in...

>>4146689
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.
>do destroy the monster
Lol.
Nice one, QM.

>>4146689
>Use the Power of Destruction as both your defense and then your offense. Simply protect yourself from the projectile with a shield of the energy before using it do destroy the monster.

>>4146689
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
We've already observed we're low on energy. Probably better not to try to spread the PoD out into a shield big enough to cover our body.

>>4146689
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
>Don't be afraid to use the PoD to make the opening if necessary though.
Overusing the PoD has been proven to have genuine consequences, but saying that doesn't mean we can't use it for the original strategy.

>>4147007
We'll be fine.
The drawbacks aren't that bad anyway.
WhatIs basically confirmed these aren't the only monsters aboard though, so we'll just rest up and maybe talk with Chaos until we've recovered enough if we suffer consequences.

Unless it was a red herring and the monster dealer really was a slug salesman.

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>>4147078
>Let's do stuff that'll probably force us to rest and recover while monsters are on the loose within a cruise ship just to meet Chaos

>>4146689
Changing: >>4146973 To:
>Dodge out of the way of the fluid and then use the Holy Dagger to put an end to the giant snail's life.
Cuz yeah, lets not faint just yet.

Would dodging put Holly in the path of the fluid?

>>4147241
It would not.
It's aimed downwards at you.

>>4147078
>tfw all he sells are slugs but he has a rare jet-engine-powered, albino, ocean-floor-dwelling, laser slug

>>4147209
I want to see Chaos damn it!
We've only met Best Girl once!
Though I guess we're gonna need to kill some Dark Lord Candidates before she gives us any more cool shit.
Still, we can ask her questions.

>>4147401
Dracula has more pertinent information atm, and do you really want another time-displacement episode right when we've gotten things close to settled?

>>4147404
Are you implying that Dracula would know something that Chaos wouldn't?

>>4147410
Should I link the post where Chaos asked us where Dracula's castle is?

>>4147411
We really need to find out just what happened with Chaos.
Didn't she get torn apart or something?
I can't remember.
She's obviously still got a lot of power, but she should totally know about the Solar Eclipse.

>>4147422
Yeah, that's why she had no clue where it was.
She also didn't know why we had the same (or was it similar?) aura as Dracula.
That's two things that Chaos didn't know that Dracula would've.
And even if we go we don't have any new information to report, and we'd get rip van winkled.
It's just a losing prospect until we get stability to Visit Chaos instead of Dracula.

>>4147422
Ah, as for what happened to Chaos, my theory is that when the big D got himself erased, he was rocking a chaotic possession as a hail mary.
It failed.
As a consequence Chaos got split along with Dracula's power among the DLCs.

>>4147426
I guess going to meet Dracula does have some advantages.
But Chaos must feel so lonely right now.

>>4147431
>Chaos got split among the DLCs
Doesn't that mean she's technically also working against us?
I wonder what happens when we kill a DLC.

>>4147442
Well, it would be more like the avatar of chaos that descended into Dracula got split.
And I'd think the power without a vessel would go into the nearest and most compatible vessel, i.e. us.
Chaos' remnant should follow the power since that's what it's been tried to in the first place.
Unless Dracula'a power just vanishes, which I dont think would happen given how strongly Dracula resists death even after dying.

But, like I said, it's just my theory.

>>4147456
>And I'd think the power without a vessel would go into the nearest and most compatible vessel, i.e. us.
THE QUICKENING!

>>4147456
I wonder if the other DLCs have different versions of Chaos within them...
How will that affect best Chaos loli Chaos?
Will they fuse?
Will she absorb them?

>>4147486
Given that during our conversation she referred to them separately from herself, I'd think it would be like re-uniting with your family after an earthquake.
They'd probably fuse with each other, but stay distinct, if that makes any sense to you.
Like a hydra but you can't see where the heads are connected to.

>>4147491
Aww man, our head is crowded enough with just two people.
Can't Chaos just eat them?
I don't want her to be ruined by her other selves hanging about.

>>4147508
I'm sure she would be able to choose the manifestations of herself she would want to communicate to us with.
And it probably took her a long time to develop her other selves, given she was pretty lonely in god's prison plane.
She might tone it down if we ingratiate ourselves to her, or generally enjoys our presence.

Honestly don't know how close I am to what Whatis is planning, but so far it seems reasonable enough to me.

>>4147521
I think trusting Chaos is a risk. Then again so is trusting Dracula. Or Hildebrant. Or Alura, or Anna, Holly. Basically trusting anyone is a risk. Except Coller. Because robots follow orders. I mean until she starts to develop agency and self-determining. Then can't trust her. It's too bad we're the bad guys.

>>4147521
I guess that makes some sense.
But I do like Chaos' current form, so here's hoping she doesn't decide to go all abstract concept on us. I'm looking forward to meeting the other parts of Chaos though, even if we need to kill the other DLCs, we know three of them are assholes at least. There might be more than just those three though.
>>4148015
I think that we can at least sort of trust Holly and Alura.
Chaos is much too powerful to need to deceive us.
I don't trust Drac.
Anna is unproven right now.
I feel like we need to cement some of our allies as truly loyal by doing more for them. I think Holly and Alura wouldn't betray us at least considering how we helped the two of them.
Sophia and Anna are unproven.

>>4148025
>Chaos is much too powerful to need to deceive us.
No one is ever too powerful to lie. And even supposing something is, that doesn't mean it won't choose to anyway. Because like, it's in the name you know? Chaos.

>>4148030
Yeah but why would she lie to us?
Our cooperation is important for her goals.
Whatever those goals might be, anyway.
Chaos at it's full power is probably so powerful that her lies become truth anyway.
She's basically the Daughter of God when you think about it.

>>4148038
>why would she lie to us
Because she's Chaos.

>>4148038
>Yeah but why would she lie to us?
Because she wanted to? You think I can imagine what a being older than time and based on whimsy is thinking? You might as well ask me what an amoeba is thinking. Cause I couldn't tell you that either. In the same vein you can't in good faith argue that you know she wouldn't lie to us. We're just ants in this cosmic game man.

>inb4 rhetorical question

>She's basically the Daughter of God when you think about it.
Now THAT is a hot take. Personally though that just sounds silly.

>>4148015
I think everyone on that list is trustworthy, with Hilda just barely easing over the untrustworthiness bar into trustworthyness by an inch.
Dracula and Chaos are almost completely trustworthy, because they don't have much reason to lie to us.
The worst thing I can think of for Dracula to lie about is for him to say that "I'm dead so absorb as much of my power as you can to take my place!" then he possesses us.
But even if he wants to take over our body, or plans to have us get killed by Soma so he can resurrect, he'll want the situation he's in to be favorable to him, and if we do the hard work instead it's all the same to him.
So even if he's a liar I don't think following his advice in general is a bad idea.

>>4148030
>>4148042
>>4148047
Chaotic doesn't mean retarded. She might be mischievous, but I don't think Chaos would outright sabotage us, it would serve no greater benefit than her amusement, and this personality doesn't seem to be bent on self-destruction so it should be stable enough.
Besides that though, Chaos doesn't have the motivation to lie since we're one of the few people in the world who can even contact her in the first place, and people like that were sparse up until 19 years ago, and even then they're sparse.
Chaos has always been rendered a background character due to God's machinations, so any outlet that can make her more than one is a precious opportunity for her, and after the defeat of Dracula she would be wanting someone to take his place so she can continue to influence the world.
Her lying to us does pretty much nothing good for anyone, and she still can't act independently so she'd need to be somewhat transparent in her desires to get anything done at all.

>>4148042
Just because she's Chaos that doesn't mean she's incapable of rationality.
Lying to your future Dark Lord for no reason would be fucking stupid.
>>4148047
>ants in the cosmic game
Might be valid if Arthur was a normal human and an actual ant to her, but he clearly has value to Chaos.
She even gave us Mistral to help us, and Mistral was some kind of Goddess herself. She probably wouldn't have lied because she knows how we'd react to discovering her lies.
I can't imagine her relationship with Dracula was very good.
>that just sounds silly
She's God's first creation. I suppose at a stretch you could call Chaos the independent will of the Universe. Didn't she say she couldn't be killed without destroying the universe or something?
And she came into existence when God decided to make reality?

The spit of the giant snail is travelling towards you at a rapid pace, the green glob of what can't be anything other than that exceptionally deadly venom. If it's half as dangerous as you imagine, just being splashed by a single drop of it might end up with it taking full effect on you and causing you to end up just like that poor man who attempted to flee this disaster. The snail monster isn't as stupid as it looks, by waiting for you to start running towards it, it's made dodging the deadly projectile that much harder!

Harder, but not impossible. You immediately cease your charge towards the huge creature and put all your strength into one of your legs, forcing your body somewhat awkwardly to the side faster than you thought you were able to do so in order to avoid the deadly attack by the monster. You manage to move just in time to avoid the horrible liquid. You feel the displaced air against your face as the liquid narrowly passes you by and splashes on the ground, harmlessly splashing onto the wooden floor of the stage.

This minor success isn't enough to satisfy you, as the monster you face already looks to be readying itself to spit it's venom at you once more. As if you'd give it a chance to! You put all your strength into a bound as you race towards the gigantic snail, dagger in hand, all you need is a single strike with the Holy Dagger and the energy stored within should incinerate the creature from the point of contact.

Once again, your movements feel somewhat awkward as you soar towards the monster at a far greater speed than you though you would be able to reach, could this be an effect of the blessing granted to you by Mistral? Your body doesn't seem to be able to adapt to the bursts of speed very well, though unfortunately, Mistral has either fallen asleep again or is simply too afraid of Sophia to come out of your pocket and provide the aid she should be giving you in this fight. If not for the powerful blessings she is able to bestow upon you, you would have no problem with calling the tiny girl completely useless.

Refocusing on the fight, you realized that due to the burst of speed, you accidentally overshot your target by a little, ending up by the side of the giant snail's head instead of directly in front of it! Thankfully, for as surprised as you were by the burst of speed, your enemy was even less prepared for it. It's neck is perfectly exposed for you to end the life of this pitiful disgusting monster once and for all!

Plunging the dagger deep into the neck of the creature, you allow yourself a smirk. For as much trouble as this monster could have caused you were you caught alone and unaware, instead you've dealt with it as if it were just a slightly more dangerous pest. The slaying of this giant snail doesn't exactly bring to mind the sort of tale of a legendary hero hunting down a monster of similar reputation and engaging in a fearsome fight to the death with it. The monster in this case was really outclassed utterly, both by you and the two monstrous girls accompanying you.

You take a step backwards and cover your eyes as it begins to shine brightly and the monster begins wildly thrashing about in pain. You are forced to stop covering your eyes and instead focus on protecting your ears as the giant mollusk wails incredibly loudly, like nails scraping across a blackboard directly next to your eardrum, it's almost torturous. The reverberations of the terrible screech reach all the way across the concert hall, the other remaining slugs also seem to have started screeching in symphony with the inhuman scream too.

The noise simply gets louder and louder, Holly looks around, apparently bewildered as to what's happening while apparently being totally unaffected by the terrible noise turning the entire hall into a pandemonium. Then, all of a sudden, the bright light shining from the knife burns so brightly that you have no choice but to turn away from it, and a moment later, both the noise and the light has vanished.

There's a loud, hollow clatter as the shell of the snail smashes into the ground, now no longer supported by the snail's fleshy body. You're surprised that the shell managed to survive the burning holy energy that the knife sent coursing through the beast, just how durable is that shell? You don't get to think for long before you feel something tackle you from behind, nearly throwing you to the floor with the strength behind the tackle. Jolting your head to the side you see... Holly?

"We did it, Arthur!" She's happily chirps. True enough, when you tear you gaze from the girl with you in an awkward hug tackle, you realize that the remaining slugs seemed to have perished when you dispatched what could only have been their leader. Or perhaps queen? You don't really care to learn the specifics of giant mollusk behavior, so it really doesn't matter to you. You're just happy that the short ordeal against those disgusting creatures is over.

"Congratulations, Arthur." She coughs a single time, causing Holly to freeze entirely, the arms thrown around you freezing up at a single note of annoyance from Sophia. Before they untangle from you and Holly stands next to you. Her attitude implies she has done something wrong, but you can't really understand why Sophia would be so displeased at Holly's expression of joy. You take a moment to look at Sophia, who finally seems to have overcome her fear of having to wade through the slime, only to see that her lower half is wreathed in red and black flame, the floor being scorched as she stands on it, and the slime bubbling away to nothing before her foot reaches the ground on every step. "I'm happy to see that you can handle yourself quite well, even against overwhelming numbers. I was prepared to step in at any time in case things took a turn, but it seems that wasn't needed at all!" She's also clearly happy with the outcome. "Though it would be quite foolish of us if we didn't investigate the source of these vile beasts." It's something you can agree on. There's no point in having killed these slugs if there might be more lurking aboard the ship, there may even be foes far more perilous than these ultimately easily dealt with mollusks too.

"Well, we shouldn't wait around then, but first, we should probably inform the othe-" A terrible pain in your right forearm cuts off your speech, you look to your side to see a blue transparent javelin having gouged through the arm, it's freezing to the touch, and you soon come to realize the attacker. Standing atop a balcony, there stands Grigori. Frustration on his face evident at his miss, before being replaced by a smirk when he notices he's caught your attention. Damn it! So he's betraying you after all?! Even his arms have both perfectly recovered too! Then he simply turns away and disappears through a door leading out of the balcony.

"Arthur!" both Holly and Sophia cry out in unison, seems that Grigori managed to hide his presence from the two of them just as he did so with you. A rage burns inside you for a moment before you quell it, there's no sense being angered by this betrayal. It's one that you probably should've seen coming, after all.

The spear of ice embedded in your forearm suddenly dissipates into the air as if it were never there, causing you to start bleeding profusely from the wound. You quickly realize that Holly has frozen up entirely, shaking slightly as she seems to focus on the blood freely dripping from the painful wound. No way, could he have been planning to cause Holly to lose control? You don't know how well you'll be able defend yourself from Holly in your injured state, but you have no choice!

Then a row of seats crashes into Holly at truly ridiculous speed, smashing into pieces as the girl is slammed into a wall by the force of the projectile. "Now Holly, what did I tell you would happen if you lost control again?" She raises a hand to her head as she sighs. "But I suppose I can show you some lenience, given the circumstances." Sophia then turns to you and quickly moves towards you, the flames wrapping her disappearing as she reaches you. She takes a hold of one of your arms and with a sharp claw, carves some sort of circle into it, you attempt to recoil as she does so, but her grip is like iron. It's not long before she completes her work though, and as she releases your arm, you can feel the hole in your arm begin to knit itself back together. It's a strange sensation, watching and feeling your body mending itself in a matter of moments. At some point, Holly returned from being smashed away by Sophia, head down and full of remorse for her actions.

"Damn that Grigori! I can't believe I was beginning to trust him!" You finally vocalize your anger at the man who very well may have just killed you had Sophia had less control over her own urges, or if she hadn't been with you at all.

"It seems we have something that might be a little more pressing to see to than just merely dealing with this monster threat, Arthur." Sophia is calm as she speaks, though there is an underlying anger to her words too.

>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
>"As infuriating as this betrayal may be, we still have to ensure that more monsters aren't going to pop up and cause even more problems first. We'll go inform my allies first though."
>Write-in...

>>4148574
>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
Time to chop a man up one inch at a time.

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>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."

Fucking Grigori. Why you gotta make me do this.

>"Let's bring the supposedly hostile vampire along with us. What could possibly go wrong?"

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."

>>4148574
>"You're right. I won't rest until Grigori pays for this, we'll go after him now, we might still be able to catch up to him."
There are some lines you don't cross and live. Fuck this asshole.

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."

>>4148574
>>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
I told you we shouldn't trust anyone. Fucking mercs man. I thought he was supposed to be smart. Unless he has some IQ 10,000 play up his sleeve he just signed his own death warrant.

But hey good news now we can get the gang together and bond over a nice cold one.

>>4148735
He's probably the one who released the monsters too, given he knew where the dude was.
also,
>not: an ice cold one.
pathetic

>>4148739
I will not say he is ice cold. He is at best unsticking snow levels of cold. Maybe his family who aren't so shit are ice cold. But either way it doesn't matter, he's going to be room temperature by the end of this cruise.

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
I get it, you have your target back in the fray.
But you DON'T fucking stab someone out of fucking nowhere, we know your specialty, and we can certainly fucking counterplay against it.
The only reasonable explanation on why he thinks he can take us on is that he has some secrets he hadn't shared, or that he has a new Ally in the fray.
He better have a extremely good fucking excuse if he doesn't want to be erased.

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
WHY THE FUCK DID THE RUSSIAN ICE ASSASSIN FUCKING BETRAY? LITERALLY WHY? Welp, that's an erasin'!

>>4148574
>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
Now I'm sure hearing his excuses will be fun.
What was his plan?
Kill us then get hunted down by vampires?
Was he planning on Holly losing control?
For what purpose?
You were cool, Grigori!
And now we're obligated to let Alura have him as plant food.
for fucks sake.
Why the fuck?

>>4149218
You phrased it retardedly, but you have a point. This doesn't get him anything, especially since he knows about Hilde and Alura.

>>4148574
>>"You might be right, but we should still inform the others of what's going on. I'm sure Alura will be pleased about this development, at least."
Don't kill him, just grab him.

>>4149218
>>4149254
Y'know, he had a free shot at our head or heart but he aimed for our arm.
His preferred method of assassination is by freezing people's hearts.
Did he really mean to kill us? Or is this just bait to make us walk into a trap.

Maybe he thought we got thralled by Hilda?

>>4149260
He might be trying to warn us about something too. He can't tell us out loud, so he stabbed us in a non-fatal, non-vital spot to try and alert us.
Because like you said, he had a free shot at his preferred method of assassination if he really wanted to kill us.

>>4149264
Or he could be testing his new employer? Maybe?
Probably not.
What if it's an elaborate revenge scheme, he's had his assassins' pride trampled on when he couldn't finish his job, asshole cultists are gonna be on his ass due to this, and we prevented him from regenerating his arm, which I feel is the important piece of evidence supporting this line of thought: He hit our arm instead of literally anywhere else.

>>4149270
>and we prevented him from regenerating his arm
Wait, we did? Then why are both of his arms fine?

>>4148571
>Damn it! So he's betraying you after all?! Even his arms have both perfectly recovered too!

>>4149273
He had recovery potions laying out when we went with him to his cabin. I believe it was 3.

>>4149274
Did he ever have time to use them though?
I don't know, it still feels less like him trying to kill us and more like he's trying to get our attention.
Too bad most of the players are "BLARGH! I'M RETARDED! KILL!"

>>4149281
Arthur hasn't seen a potion work its magic, but potions in Castlevania have instantaneous effects so time wouldn't matter, and if it did take a long time then there's no way his arm would be fully recovered, that's why it was referenced in the narration in the first place. Last we saw of him his arm was useless, but he did have the means to recover.

What I'm not sure about is this: If it's actually a revenge plan, how does he plan to win when Alura beat him to a stand-still, and now we have 2 vampires following us? And our other allies?

If he wanted to send us a message without being able to say anything to either vampire, then why not just send an icicle into the floor near us? It would get our attention just fine.

>>4149284
>>4149284
>If it's actually a revenge plan, how does he plan to win when Alura beat him to a stand-still, and now we have 2 vampires following us? And our other allies?
Yeah, that's why it's weird. If he was going to attack us and then let himself get killed, why not kill us.

>then why not just send an icicle into the floor near us? It would get our attention just fine.
Arthur doesn't seem to pay attention to things unless it's directly causing him ouchies or involves waifus.

>>4149292
>Arthur doesn't seem to pay attention to things unless it's directly causing him ouchies or involves waifus.
>555-come-on-now

>>4149294
He is easily distracted by women.
In fact, I'd say Grigori's odds of survival would shoot up by 80 percent if he was revealed to be a reverse trap.

>>4149493
When we fought the head alchemist, we didn't really care what shirley or theresia were doing when she and the mechanic dude were confronting him, we just walked up and stabbed him then decapitated him gruesomely.