With a whooshing sound, a man with his whole body covered in blood fell down from somewhere.

「Allow me to introduce you; this is Gubamon’s subordinate, Sercrent Ozba-kun.」(Birkyne)

With a smile, Birkyne raised his hand to introduce this man… The Noble-born Vampire who held connections to Earl Thomas Palpapek, currently letting out a small groan.

His appearance could be summed up in one word: Ghastly. All of the fingers on both of his hands had been pierced through by silver skewers; his legs were covered in burn marks as if he had been roasted in a fire and the flesh on his back was covered in countless protuberances.
One of those protuberances appeared to burst. A mouse with no skin or fur crawled out from within and began to eat into Sercrent’s nearby flesh. And then once it had eaten a quantity of flesh equivalent to the size of its own body, it pushed its head into the hole it had created and returned beneath Sercrent’s skin.

This was one of Hihiryushukaka’s curses.

「For… give… me… This… I will… definitely…」(Sercrent)

As Sercrent mustered his strength and looked up, the Vampires looking at him gasped. He had no face.

His eyes had been gouged out, his nose sliced off, his cheeks dug out and his lips torn to pieces. His head was like a skull that was covered in blood.

The cruelest thing about all this was that none of the things that had been inflicted upon him, including the curse, were fatal. Noble-born Vampires possessed incredible Vitality and regenerative capabilities; they wouldn’t die even after having this done to them.

Even the Noble-born Vampires who had transcended the limits of mortality were nothing but playthings for Birkyne. As they were reminded of this fact, the other Vampires fell silent.

The mice that were made of flesh continued consuming Sercrent’s tissues as they regenerated. Ternecia rose from her seat, approached him and kicked him in the face with all her strength.

「Geuh!」(Sercrent)
「Birkyne, what are you planning on having this half-dead bastard do? He wouldn’t even be able to kill a single caterpillar.」(Ternecia)

Sercrent was in agony after his jaw was crushed by Ternecia’s kick. Indeed, he looked more like a pitiful criminal on death row awaiting execution than an assassin.

「With all due respect, I would say that Ternecia-sama is right. I believe it would be impossible for this person to cross the Boundary Mountain Range, find the target, get through hundreds of Ghouls and dispose of the Dhampir.」(Female Vampire)

This remark was made by a female Vampire who shared Ternecia’s opinion. The other Vampires seemed to be in agreement as well.

Though differences existed between individuals, Vampires were a powerful race. If one were to only look at the Pure-breeds, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they were the strongest among all the races that Vida had created.

They could slaughter Dragons with ease; one Pure-breed Vampire could destroy an entire nation on his own. The only ones capable of opposing them would be a party of adventurers of A-class or higher, equipped with legendary-class Magic Items.

However, Sercrent was a Noble-born Vampire, a being considerably inferior to a Pure-breed. Even so, he would be a great threat to knights or adventurers, but there were plenty of monsters on his level of strength in the Boundary Mountain Range.

Anyone trying to cross the Boundary Mountain Range high in the sky would encounter the monsters inhabiting the Devil’s Nests in the skies… The Devil’s Skies. They would be considered as challengers to the fight for domination over the air and be torn to pieces.

But crawling across the steep mountain surface like a human would take time, and there were still no guarantees that one would make it through that journey safely.

Monsters were overflowing from the unknown Devil’s Nests and unexplored Dungeons; they would attempt to devour any outsiders.

In order to avoid that, hundreds of warriors strong enough to ignore monsters and capable of fighting while climbing the steep cliffs would need to be gathered, and they would have to travel in a large group while intimidating the surrounding monsters to deter them from attacking.

No matter how one thought about it, it was impossible. Unless a god and his followers were to act directly, or some incredible trick was used, this could not be done.

Not only would Sercrent have to cross the mountain range, but he would have to follow the Dhampir’s tracks, slip through the sight of the hundreds of Ghouls that had survived the journey and kill the Dhampir. If Sercrent could at least complete that mission, the Vampires here couldn’t care less whether he lived or died, but it would be problematic if he were to die before completing it.

「There is no problem. Sercrent-kun said that he would even go as far as to risk his life to complete his mission. Isn’t that right, Sercrent-kun?」(Birkyne)

「Y-yaash. Leaf ert… Leaf ert ter meh!」(Sercrent)

Sercrent immediately responded to Birkyne’s question with his shredded tongue and crushed jaw. The other Vampires were secretly amazed that he was still capable of hearing despite having no ears.