As the pouch closed, the reassuring weight of his newly acquired prize finally offset his lingering heartache over spending a curse bullet.
Elias raised his hand to disperse the lingering 【Hexfire】.
Without his spirituality to sustain it, the ice covering the wooden floorboards began to slowly melt. The 【Moonlight Barrier】 collapsed back into him, and quiet finally returned to the basement.
Elias bent down to pick up one of the silver nails, then used The Roaring Cane to pry another one out from the gaps in the floorboards.
These things weren't cheap.
He might as well salvage what he could.
As for the wooden stakes pinning Livia's hands, he left them untouched for now.
He had to be joking.
Who in their right mind would pull the safety pin off a hostage?
Just as he was about to retrieve the third silver nail, which had been whipped against the wall by the blood whip, footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the basement.
They were very light.
There was no deliberate attempt to hide them, nor was there any hesitation.
The footsteps approached steadily down the stone steps, finally stopping right outside the door.
Elias gripped his gun handle, but before he could redeploy his barrier, the wooden door was pushed open.
A girl who looked no older than seventeen or eighteen appeared in the doorway.
She wore a worn, wine-red coat. The fabric had faded from washing, and there was slight fraying around the cuffs.
Yet, her two brass cufflinks were polished to a brilliant shine.
It was as if, no matter how harsh life became, she refused to compromise on this tiny bit of dignity.
The girl took half a step forward, only to stop right at the threshold.
The tips of her shoes stopped less than an inch away from the pure silver wire hidden in the dust.
She glanced down at it.
Then, her gaze swept past Elias and landed on the woman pinned in a crucifix position by the two wooden stakes.
There was neither surprise nor anger on her face.
She simply spoke a name, her voice entirely calm.
“Livia.”
The woman on the floor did not respond.
The girl raised her right hand.
A drop of fresh blood welled from the tip of her index finger, which she then flicked forward with a burst of spirituality.
The droplet sailed over the silver wire, drawing a dark-red line in the air before landing precisely between Livia's eyebrows.
Livia's body convulsed violently.
Her dark-red spirituality, which had completely withdrawn, began to flow once more, and a faint crimson glow flickered in her eyes.
She still couldn't move her hands, but she began to breathe again.
“Lady Severin...”
Livia struggled to open her eyes.
The moment she saw the girl at the door, shame flashed across her face, quickly followed by a resentful glare at Elias as she gnashed her teeth.
“This man took the notebook!”
“I heard you.”
The girl's tone was flat.
Only then did her gaze truly settle on Elias.
“I am Severin Welzen.”
“Her progenitor.”
Elias didn't speak immediately.
He looked at Livia, who was immobilized on the floor, then back to the young girl at the door, who was a full head shorter than him.
The death sentence that old man Elliot had left behind was really proving to be rather underwhelming.
Elias had to use a tolling bell, a curse bullet, and even drive in two wooden stakes just to get Livia to behave.
Yet this girl had woken her up with a single drop of blood.
If someone told him right now that the death sentence bullet could have pinned down a progenitor the same way, he would probably lose his mind on the spot.
Fortunately, no one was telling him that.
“How is it that after beating the small one, we get...” Elias stopped mid-sentence and took a closer look at Severin.
A wine-red coat, a youthful face, and she wasn't even as tall as Livia.
“...an even smaller one?”
Severin ignored his scrutiny.
But Elias turned back to Livia.
“She's your master?”
“How... dare you!”
Livia lay flat on the half-melted ice, her voice weak, though her fury was entirely undiminished.
Elias stood between them, perfectly blocking Severin's direct line of sight to Livia.
The wooden door was wide open.
The moonlight from outside spilled down the stone steps and into the basement, shining right onto his back and around his feet.
Cool spirituality began to seep back into his limbs.
Under the effects of his 【Moonlight Blessing】, the spirituality he had expended during the fight was slowly recovering.
Naturally, Elias wasn't going to point this out.
He deliberately looked back and forth between them, acting as if he still couldn't wrap his head around the age hierarchy of this master and servant.
“Hello, Progenitor.”
“Though you don't really look like anyone's ancestor.”
Livia's chest heaved violently. She was nearly driven back into suspended animation from sheer anger.
Severin, however, remained restrained.
She glanced at the stakes pinning Livia down and said:
“Release her.”
“Hand over the notebook.”
“Let's get one thing straight first.”
Elias crouched down and placed his hand on the wooden stake through Livia's right hand.
This action caused the Kindred on the floor to instantly tense up, and for the first time, Severin's gaze turned cold.
“Your kid tried to steal my things, steal my gun, and then murder me.”
“I was merely protecting my property.”
“You dare harm her?”
“If I pull it out, it's called saving her.”
Elias slowly wrapped his hand around the top of the stake.
“Pushing it further down is what I'd call harming her.”
“So, don't force me to make a choice.”
The temperature in the basement seemed to plummet by several degrees.
A crimson light flared in Severin's eyes.
“Step aside.”
As those two words left her mouth, Elias's soul barrier violently shuddered.
This was entirely different from Livia's previous attempt, which had felt like someone knocking through a wooden door.
This time, it felt as if someone had swung a massive sledgehammer and smashed it squarely against the front of his barrier.
His consciousness refused to yield.
Yet his body reacted first.
A chilling terror surged from the depths of his spiritual body, creeping up his spine and freezing his limbs.
His chest felt as if it were being squeezed in a tight vice, and his legs began to tremble uncontrollably.
It was the most primal instinct of a creature facing its natural predator.
It instantly reminded Elias of the pathetic state he had been in when he first met Guss, barely able to keep his footing.
Severin's command didn't shatter his soul barrier.
But the high-level pressure that followed bypassed his intellect entirely, taking direct hold of his physical body.
Elias's knees buckled.
He immediately activated 【Frostbite】.
Bone-chilling frost spread down his legs, instantly freezing the soles of his boots to the remaining layer of ice on the floor.
The white frost even crept up his calves, forcibly locking his trembling muscles in place.
A biting pain from frostbite immediately followed.
It hurt, but at least he hadn't actually fallen to his knees.
Severin clearly hadn't expected him to use such a method to stay standing.
A flash of surprise crossed her eyes.
In the next instant, her body suddenly dissolved.
Her wine-red coat and pale skin transformed into dozens of dark-red bats. They swept over the silver wire along both sides of the doorframe, hurtling straight toward Livia.
“Does... your family...” Elias's teeth chattered violently, fracturing his words. Yet, he forced his head up anyway. “...never... use the word... 'please' when you speak?”
The swarm of bats had already crossed the threshold.
Severin naturally did not answer.
Elias hadn't expected her to, either.
With a great effort, he raised his right hand and crushed the silver charm he had been hiding in his palm.
A 【repulsion charm】.
Boom!
A violent shockwave erupted outward from his chest.
The leading bats were instantly blown to pieces, and the blood mist behind them was torn apart by the repulsive force, losing its tight cohesion.
At the same time, the pure silver wire on the threshold flared with a blinding light.
The scattered blood mist could no longer bypass the silver wire, and a large volume of the dark-red vapor began to sizzle with white smoke as soon as it drew near.
Severin was forced to retreat.
The bats gathered back on the stone steps, and amidst a churning swell of mist, the wine-red coat and the girl's form materialized once more.
A faint red burn mark now lined her right cheek.
The spiritual pressure she had been exerting on Elias was forcefully broken by the blast.
The terror weighing down on Elias suddenly lifted.
His jaw finally stopped its frantic chattering, and his chest drew in its first full breath of air.
“Phew...”
He didn't rush to deactivate 【Frostbite】, using his frozen legs to keep himself steady while seizing the opportunity to activate 【Moon Vision】.
Severin's spiritual circulation instantly unfolded before his eyes.
She was incredibly strong.
At least Scale Three or higher.
However, her spirituality was far from full.
There were large gaps within her dark-red circuits. Every time she reconstituted her body, she had to drain a portion of her remaining strength.
She must be suffering from prolonged blood deprivation.
And her actual condition is much worse than she lets on.
Elias quickly reached a conclusion.
As long as he dragged this out, he wouldn't necessarily be the one to break first.
The moonlight from outside the open door was still shining at his feet.
Now that Severin's attack had been interrupted, his depleted spirituality was beginning to replenish once more.
If there was one thing Elias didn't fear, it was a battle of attrition.
With that thought, he forced a stiff smile.
“Little progenitor.”
“How about we take our time and see who lasts longer?”
Severin didn't resume her attack.
She first looked at the moonlight pooled around Elias's feet, then at his steadily stabilizing breathing.
Her gaze lingered for a moment, as if confirming something.
“I see.”
“An ascetic.”
Elias's heart sank slightly.
Severin raised her hand and made a light grasping motion backward.
Bang!
The wooden basement door slammed shut.
The final sliver of moonlight from the crack of the door was instantly swallowed by the darkness creeping down the stone steps.
The recovery provided by his 【Moonlight Blessing】 stopped instantly.
Elias's smile froze.
Severin retreated back into the shadows.
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on her pale face.
“You want to wear me out?”
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