By the time everyone else woke up, Alucard had already erased most of the evidence.
Not because he wanted to gatekeep sacrificial sorcery.
But because — in his completely unbiased opinion — carving glowing sigils into stone while covered in blood looked… bad.
Very bad.
Satanic ritual bad.
Now, to be fair, Alucard's understanding of ancient religions came mostly from old television shows and questionable documentaries. He wasn't entirely sure what a Satan actually was.
But he assumed writing crazed sigils in blood while muttering to yourself under the moonlight probably fell under "concerning behavior" in most cultures.
So he cleaned it up.
Mostly.
On the bright side, the cohort had decided to take the entire day off to rest and recover.
Naturally, he chose to do neither resting nor recovering.
---
He sat hunched in the shadow of the massive stone arch, shoulders curved forward, carving into his own palm with a thin blade formed from hardened blood.
He was thinking.
The current methods he had for gathering blood were inefficient.
Method one: cut himself.
It worked.
It was fast.
It was convenient for small amounts.
But it required actual injury. It took anywhere from a few seconds to nearly a minute to gather enough blood for a weapon. And if he misjudged the amount…
He would die embarrassingly fast from blood loss.
Method two: ask Gluttony to summon blood.
That option was safer in some ways — but slower. Even slower than summoning a memory. And although Gluttony could provide larger quantities without increasing the time too much, there was still delay.
Delay meant vulnerability.
Vulnerability meant death.
So he needed something else.
Something that could supply a medium amount of blood instantly.
Not a flood.
Not a trickle.
Just enough.
He had been searching for that solution ever since he acquired Gluttony.
And now—
He had it.
In theory.
---
Using the modified sigil from the previous night, he could summon blood.
The issue?
It appeared in a random amount.
At a random distance.
In a random shape.
Which was… less than ideal.
The original sigil had been designed to summon a blood arrow in front of the user at a controlled distance. But Alucard had failed to replicate the control over location and structure.
However—
He could remove variables.
And that was progress.
By stripping the "distance" component entirely from the sigil, he forced the blood to manifest directly on top of the rune itself.
Location problem solved.
Now it only appeared exactly where the sigil was carved.
That left size and shape.
To solve that, he combined part of a barrier sigil he had learned previously — specifically, the compression element. By merging the containment principle with the summoning core, the blood was forced to condense.
Tighter.
Denser.
Smaller.
Until—
A dark red marble hovered above his palm.
It was the size of a small bead.
Smooth.
Compact.
Stable.
For three full seconds.
Alucard stared at it with quiet awe.
His first self-made sigil.
Not copied.
Not inherited.
Created.
Truly, this was—
Fantastic.
Miraculous.
Glorious.
—
Then it exploded.
Violently.
The blast launched him backward like a projectile.
Unfortunately, his trajectory ended directly in Sunny and Kai, who had been walking past at precisely the wrong moment.
All three of them collapsed in a tangled pile of limbs.
Alucard lay there for a second, staring at the sky blankly.
You could probably imagine how awkward that conversation was.
Three half-naked men stacked on top of each other, blinking in silence.
"…What," Sunny asked flatly, "are you doing?"
So much for secrecy.
Not that secrecy had ever truly been an option.
Kai was present.
Lying in front of Kai was about as effective as whispering in a cathedral.
---
After a long explanation — and a demonstration of the blood marble — they became interested.
Very interested.
Which was unfortunate.
Because that meant ideas.
Lots of ideas.
Sunny suggested throwing it like a bomb.
Alucard tried.
It exploded the moment he applied force.
In his hand.
Kai suggested manipulating the explosion into a single direction.
Unfortunately, the detonation happened too fast to control.
Caster arrived midway through the chaos and suggested, very helpfully, "Why don't you just hit someone with it?"
With nobody volunteering as a test subject, Alucard struck the ground.
The marble detonated on impact.
The shockwave snapped his arm.
He had to waste even more blood healing it.
He was not pleased.
Then everyone started offering suggestions.
"Try eating it."
"Summon it inside someone."
"Kick it."
"Swallow it and spit it."
"Throw it and run."
At some point, Nephis spoke — calm as ever.
"Stabilize your stance. Lower your center of gravity."
That advice actually worked.
He no longer flew backward when it exploded.
Unfortunately, it still didn't help him attack anything.
He stood there, thinking.
Frustrated.
Irritated.
Hungry.
Then Kai tilted his head slightly.
"Why don't you make it ranged?"
That… was obvious.
Painfully obvious.
The problem?
Alucard had no idea how.
---
Then Effie, who had been watching with a smirk, spoke up.
"Do you remember that attack your echo used? When it was still a Nightmare Creature. That blood beam?"
Alucard froze.
He did remember.
The beam of compressed blood.
High-pressure.
Devastating.
He had stopped using it because the cost of blood was absurd.
But now…
He didn't need a beam.
He needed a bullet.
An arrowhead.
Something small enough to pierce.
He reworked the principle.
Instead of sustained flow, he compressed the blood marble further.
Instead of channeling through one arm, he created a second artificial one — formed from hardened blood — to stabilize the pressure.
At this point, crafting a near-perfect imitation of his own hand was trivial.
He positioned both arms forward.
Compressed.
Focused.
Directed.
The blood trembled between his palms.
Then—
It shot forward.
A sharp, concentrated projectile.
It struck the stone arch.
And chipped it.
Everyone went silent.
That arch had endured attacks from corrupted abominations.
And he had just damaged it.
Alucard blinked.
"…Huh."
It had drawbacks, of course.
And his aim was questionable at best.
But it worked.
His new technique.
Piercing Blood.
(Yes. I shamelessly stole the name.
And no. I do not regret it.)
---
After multiple attempts, he was pale, slightly dizzy, and extremely hungry.
Which meant one thing.
Food.
Nephis was cooking.
And the smell was unfairly good.
So Piercing Blood could wait.
As he walked toward the fire, something subtle happened.
Something he didn't notice.
The dried blood on his palm — the blood used to carve the sigil — began to darken.
Its color shifted from bright crimson to deep, heavy red.
Not drying.
Reacting.
It pulsed faintly.
As if stirred by something.
By the fire.
More specifically—
By the flame that belonged to the domain of the Sun God.
And for the briefest moment—
The blood felt fear.