Blood Blockade Battlefront: Echoes of Hellsalem's Lot
Three months ago, Leonardo Watch used the Gods' Eyes to help Klaus defeat Count Möbius—and the price was his little sister's sight. Now, every coin he earns disappears into an envelope bound for Michela, a silent penance he pays with a smile. But the Eyes are aching more often lately. The blur at the edge of his vision is getting harder to ignore.
In Hellsalem's Lot, a city stitched together from two worlds, Libra keeps the fragile peace. Zapp runs his mouth, Chain worries between insults, and
Blood Blockade Battlefront: Echoes of Hellsalem's Lot - Witness to Sin — The Girl Who Knows the Name, and the Hazy Vision
Library headquarters, medical bay.
The medical bay occupied a corner of the fifth-floor residential wing in the old city hall building, and it always smelled of disinfectant mingled with old bandages. Fluorescent light cast a pale blue-white glow across the white walls. Outside the window, the fog was as thick as ever.
Leonardo Watch sat on a folding chair, gazing at the girl in the bed.
Lily. Her long, silver-white hair spread across the white sheets, its tips faintly stained red — as if dipped in blood. Beneath her closed lids hid crimson eyes. The proof of her bloodline — a hybrid of a Blood Breed and a human, a Bloodline Being — showed in her pupils, which were split vertically like a cat's.
When she'd been rescued from the abandoned church on the outskirts of the city the night before, her entire body had been covered in densely carved runes of the otherworld. Bloodline arts — a system of monstrous power that used blood as its medium. They had risen on her white skin like veins.
Now the arts had subsided. But they hadn't vanished entirely. On her left wrist were old scars — countless thin lines, as though the blade had been drawn across her skin again and again.
Leo touched his left eye gently.
The Eyes of the Gods — an ocular transplant from a divine being of the otherworld, granting supernatural sight. Compatibility rate: a mere fifteen percent. The incompatible went mad. Even the compatible had to pay a price. Either "progressive loss of vision" — or "the theft of a loved one's sight."
Leo had chosen the latter. No — he'd had it forced upon him.
Three months ago, during the campaign to subjugate Count Möbius. In the final battle against one of the Thirteen Elders, Leo's divine eye had been released beyond its limits. The price: the eyes of his little sister, Michela, far away, had been burned away.
She had said nothing.
"It's okay, big brother. I'm fine."
Her voice over the phone had been almost cheerful. It had torn Leo's heart in two.
(What did I even get this eye for?)
With the power he'd gained at the cost of his sister's sight, he was now trying to save another girl. He knew the contradiction. He knew it, and he looked away from it.
The wall clock in the medical bay ticked steadily.
How long had it been since dawn broke? The fog outside the window hadn't cleared with morning. Hellsalem's Lot was a city shrouded in fog year-round. Ten years since the Great Collapse. This city — once called New York — had become the most dangerous place on Earth, a place where the otherworld and the human world had been stitched together.
Population: roughly eight hundred thousand. The fog that blanketed the city never lifted, and monstrous beings blended into everyday life. From the rifts into the otherworld known as Gates, Blood Breeds spilled forth every day.
The secret society Libra, to which Leo belonged, was the organization that preserved the balance of this city. Its membership numbered about two hundred. To counter the threats of the otherworld, it gathered those with supernatural powers. Founded by Klaus V. Reinherz, it was registered publicly as a "special security firm," but in truth it was a combat unit tasked with hunting monsters and monitoring the Gates.
The door of the medical bay opened quietly.
"...Still asleep?"
Chain Sumeragi entered, her black bob swaying. Her narrow black eyes flicked between Leo and Lily in the bed. Twenty-one years old. A member of the Werewolf Bureau's Special Intelligence Division, and a member of Libra as well. Her ability was "dilution of existence" — thinning her own presence so she could move unnoticed and gather information.
" Yes. She still... hasn't regained consciousness."
Leo answered quietly.
Chain stood beside the bed and peered into Lily's face.
"So this is Argyula's daughter."
" Yes. Her name is Lily."
"Hmm. ...A Bloodline Being, then. Her pupils are split vertically."
Chain's voice was calm. But her eyes lingered on the scars on Lily's left wrist.
" ...Has this girl cut her own wrists before?"
"Huh?"
Leo looked at Lily's left wrist. Countless thin scars. They looked like the marks of self-harm.
" ...I don't know. But maybe she's been... crying out for someone to help her, all this time."
A dull ache spread through Leo's chest.
That was when it happened.
Lily's fingers moved, just barely.
"...nn."
A small sound escaped her. Leo and Chain both leaned forward at once.
Lily's eyelids slowly opened.
Her crimson eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Then, slowly, they focused on Leo's face.
"...Ah."
Lily's lips trembled.
"...A, ah..."
Tears welled up in her eyes, visibly, rapidly.
" ...Help me."
Her voice was a rasp.
" Help me... Leonardo."
Leo's breath caught.
They were supposed to be strangers.
They had met for the first time last night, at the abandoned church. He had no memory of giving his name. And yet this girl had clearly called him "Leonardo."
" ...How do you know my name?"
Leo's voice was shaking.
Lily didn't answer. No — she couldn't. Her body had begun to tremble in small, violent shudders. Fear and confusion tangled her breathing.
" No... no... don't come near me..."
Lily covered her face with both hands.
" It's okay. It's okay. This is a safe place."
Leo sat at the edge of the bed, careful not to touch her hands.
" You're in the medical bay at Libra headquarters. You were rescued from the abandoned church last night. No one is going to hurt you anymore."
Lily's trembling gradually subsided.
She peered at Leo warily through the gaps between her fingers.
"...Libra."
" That's right. The secret society Libra. We're the organization that keeps the balance of this city. I'm a member. My name is Leonardo Watch."
" ...Leonardo."
Lily murmured the name, as if testing it.
" ...I... I know you."
"What?"
" ...I know. ...I know. ...Your eye. ...That left eye of yours."
Lily's gaze fixed on Leo's left eye.
In that instant, his divine eye grew hot.
The edges of his vision bled red.
(Again...)
The eye was reacting to the bloodline arts carved into Lily's body.
" ...Chain, please step back a little."
Leo said to her.
"...What are you going to do?"
" I'm going to use the divine eye to look into her memories. I need to see why she knows my name."
Chain hesitated for a moment, then nodded and stepped back.
Leo looked straight into Lily's eyes.
" Lily. Look at my eyes."
Lily gave a small nod.
Leo focused his will on the divine eye.
The Eyes of the Gods. The power to see through to the truth.
His vision warped, twisting like melted wax.
The white walls of the medical bay dissolved.
What appeared in their place was a dim stone chamber. The basement of the abandoned church, most likely. Cold air clung to his skin.
(This is... Lily's memory.)
Lily lay upon an altar. Bloodline runes were carved across her entire body. Several Blood Breeds surrounded her, chanting incantations.
Lily's eyes were vacant.
But beyond her gaze, something was visible.
(That's...)
Another image overlaid itself onto Lily's memory.
Soft sunlight. A green meadow. And a single girl standing there.
A girl with black hair, full of cowlicks.
Her face was the one Leo knew best in all the world.
"...Michela?"
Leo's voice trembled.
The girl in the memory turned slowly.
And she smiled.
" Big brother."
It was, without a doubt, the smile of Leo's little sister, Michela.
Leo's chest constricted.
(Why... why is Michela in Lily's memories?)
In that moment of shock, his control over the divine eye slipped.
It burned.
His left eye burned like fire.
"...gh!"
Leo clutched his left eye and doubled over.
"Leonardo!"
Chain rushed to his side.
" ...I'm fine... I'm all right..."
Leo managed to answer between ragged breaths.
His vision clouded white.
The divine eye was spiraling out of control.
(Just like with Michela...)
That day, the eye had run wild and stolen Michela's sight. The same thing was about to happen now — to Lily.
" Stop... please..."
Leo fought desperately to hold the eye back.
At the edge of his vision, a red light flickered.
Then a cool hand touched his right hand.
"...It's okay."
It was Lily's voice.
" ...It's okay. ...You're not to blame."
Her hand was astonishingly cold. Bloodline Beings had low body temperatures.
That coldness slowly soothed the heat of Leo's divine eye.
"...Lily."
Leo lifted his head.
Lily was crying.
Tears traced down her white cheeks and fell onto the sheets.
" ...I am... a witness to your sins."
Lily whispered it.
" ...What you did. ...What you lost. ...I have seen it all."
Leo was speechless.
Lily's hand tightened around his.
" ...So please. ...Don't abandon me."
Her voice was so small, so desperately earnest.
Outside the medical bay, the corridor was heavy with tension.
"If there's a traitor, I'll kill the bastard myself."
Zapp Renfro leaned against the wall, blowing cigarette smoke. His spiky silver hair was sticking up in its usual bedhead. His sharp blue eyes glared down the length of the corridor. Twenty-four years old. A practitioner of the Fighting Blood Art of Kagutsuchi. He fought by turning his blood into blades — one of Libra's foremost combatants.
" The fact that information leaked means there's some bastard in here connected to the Blood Breeds. So I'll string him up and bleed him dry."
" My, how violent. But you're the one who looks most like a traitor. You're greedy for money and you can't keep it in your pants around women."
Chain emerged from the medical bay and delivered the words coldly.
" Hah!? You think I look like the kind of man who'd sell out his comrades!?"
" You do. Just the other day you were taking a salary advance to blow on some woman."
" That was—! Damn it, that's none of your business!"
Zed O'Brien watched their squabble with anxious eyes.
Thirteen years old. A merman. He had gills along the sides of his neck and breathed on land through an air-gill system. A practitioner of the Fighting Blood Art of Shinatobe, and Zapp's junior disciple.
" ...Um, both of you, please stop fighting."
Zed's voice was trembling.
" ...We're comrades, aren't we? ...Comrades suspecting each other... I hate that."
Zapp glanced at Zed.
" ...Zed. You're still just a kid."
"Huh...?"
" It's because we're comrades that it hurts so damn much when you get betrayed. So I'm gonna find the traitor first and kill him myself. ...You don't need to think about it."
With that, Zapp ground his cigarette into the floor and walked off.
Zed watched his retreating back with uneasy eyes.
" ...Zed, don't worry about it. That's just how he is — he's worried about you, in his own way."
Chain said quietly.
" ...But Zapp really means it. He's going to kill the traitor."
" Yes. I'm sure he does. That's why I'm going to investigate first. If I leave it to a thug like him, there won't be a shred of evidence left."
Chain swept her hair back.
" I'm starting an internal investigation now. Where the information leaked from. Who made contact with the remnants of the Blood Breeds. ...I will find them."
Chain's form thinned, dissolving into the air. Dilution of existence.
" ...Zed. Stay by Leonardo's side. He's pushing himself too hard."
Leaving only those words, Chain vanished completely.
Zed was left alone in the corridor.
" ...Leonardo-senpai."
Zed stared at the door of the medical bay.
Meanwhile, in the conference room on the twelfth floor of Libra headquarters, Steven A. Starphase sat alone, documents spread out before him.
A handsome man in a suit, with a scar across his brow. Thirty-two years old. Libra's de facto vice-commander, Klaus's right hand. His mind was razor-sharp, and sifting intelligence and assigning missions was his work.
"...There's no doubt the ritual was carried out by the remnants of the Blood Breeds. But how did they pinpoint Lily's location?"
Steven murmured to himself.
"After Argyula's death, Lily was hiding in the fog-dep
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