"Jefferson, run for it!"
Jessica, realizing that the thing in the sarcophagus probably wasn't done with them yet, shouted at Jefferson. Then, brandishing her twin pistols, she charged into the horde of vampires ahead. These vampires, she surmised, must have been summoned by the creature in that sarcophagus to block our way!
Meanwhile, Jefferson, who had been rather carried away with the smashing, finally snapped back to reality upon hearing Jessica's shout, the ferocity in his eyes gradually subsiding.
"Boss, wait for me!"
Seeing Jessica's figure advancing toward the dilapidated church door amidst numerous ashes, Jefferson didn't dare delay.
With a sudden sweep, he cleared the vampires surging towards him and, with a heavy stomp, dashed straight for the church's main entrance.
All the way, his iron rod swung ceaselessly, scattering a trail of ashes as the vampires uttered their last howls.
By the time the duo burst out of the old church, the stone slabs from the altar to the main door were covered with a thick layer of ash.
"Notify everyone, evacuate the town immediately!"
Jefferson, who had just charged out of the church, hadn't even had a chance to catch his breath when he heard Jessica's icy order.
"Uh..." Jefferson touched his waist awkwardly and pulled out a piece of a broken communicator. "Boss, do you have a spare?"
Jessica's mouth twitched slightly at the sight of the fragments in Jefferson's hand.
She slapped her waist, and a brand-new communicator appeared in her hand.
"Catch!" Throwing the spare communicator to Jefferson, Jessica hurled her pistols backward, skewering two vampires at once.
"Keep it safe; I don't have another spare!" Without glancing at the two vampires wailing as they turned to ash behind her, Jessica's pace remained unbroken as she rapidly headed towards the outskirts of town.
"Don't worry! I'll love it like a girlfriend!" Jefferson, sprinting alongside Jessica, teased as he pressed the communicator's switch.
"Brothers, emergency! Full retreat..."
Jessica threw her newly appeared pistols backward again, spearing several vampires at once. What kind of woman, she wondered, would actually fall for a guy like Jefferson?
Just as the two of them saw their teammates also urgently retreating ahead, a rumbling sound of something collapsing suddenly came from behind them.
"Boss, the church is gone!"
At Jefferson's surprised voice, Jessica couldn't help but turn around.
The vampires, who had been relentlessly pursuing them, had somehow stopped. They were now kneeling on the ground, facing the direction of the church in devout worship.
Where the church once stood, all that remained was a cloud of slowly dissipating dust and a pile of architectural ruins.
Jessica and Jefferson's footsteps gradually halted, their gazes drawn to the anomaly in the distance.
In just a moment, the bricks and stones of the church ruins began to bulge as though something was about to burst out from beneath.
They exchanged glances. Could it be that sarcophagus? They slowly backed away, legs tensed and ready to sprint at any moment.
The entity within the sarcophagus was clearly beyond their ability to handle. If it hadn't been suppressed inside, they probably wouldn't have even had the chance to escape.
As the bulging bricks and stones of the ruins slowly slid aside, a corner of an exquisite sarcophagus gradually revealed itself.
The fine cracks seemed to have deepened slightly since Jefferson first noticed them, and the frequency of the Holy Power emanating from the sarcophagus appeared to be slowly decreasing.
"Fuck, it's that damn ghost thing! Boss, let's get the hell out of here..."
Below the stone coffin, countless vampires converged from all corners of the small town, basking in its red glow as though they were believers witnessing the glory of their lord.
With expressions of utter devotion, they knelt, their heads lowered until they pressed against the cold ground.
This scene, akin to a pilgrimage, made the skin of those frantically retreating in the distance crawl.
「...」
"That stone coffin... I feel there's at least a Vampire Marquis inside!"
Listening to Jessica's certain voice on the phone, Chu Feng, dressed in pajamas, rubbed his brow.
He looked up at the wall clock and shook his head helplessly.
He got out of his cozy bed and sat down at the desk by the window.
"Have you found anything else? Have you checked out the inside of the new church?"
"According to the information we have so far, that old church existed before America was founded. It's easily hundreds of years old. However, there are no records of the Underground Space beneath its wine cellar."
Jessica's voice was hesitant. "It's as if that space just appeared out of thin air..."
"As for the new church site, we've thoroughly investigated it too. Aside from a few vampires, there was nothing else out of the ordinary."
After listening to Jessica's report, Chu Feng sat in his chair and pondered for a moment.
A Vampire Marquis? That's equivalent to an Evil Spirit in the Bizarre category... Chu Feng mulled over the vampire's strength, his brow suddenly furrowing. Would America even have vampires of that level?
Based on past experience, vampires originated in Europe; that was their stronghold.
Just like his first trip to Europe, Chu Feng still vividly remembered the vampires he had annihilated there.
Under normal circumstances, Siegley Town shouldn't have a sarcophagus like that, let alone one containing a powerful Vampire Marquis.
A doubt inevitably arose in Chu Feng's heart. Perhaps, just as Jessica said, that Underground Space and the sarcophagus really did just appear out of nowhere?