The sky was dark, and snow was falling heavily.
The Church was once again bathed in a long-awaited white sanctity, with the entire area covered in snow.
No candles were lit inside the monastery, but more than a hundred Church members had already gathered in the courtyard.
These Church members were all converted into second- or Third-Generation Vampire. It's not that the Church only converted this many people, but rather that a significant number of severely brainwashed Church members still refused to acknowledge themselves as unclean after conversion, forcing them to be eliminated.
This significantly reduced the number of Church members who were supposed to be converted into Vampire.
Norton, dressed in a white missionary robe and wearing a hood, stood in front of the Church hall, seemingly blending into the pure white snow.
Ten years have passed, and this is only the second time in ten years that he has worn such a neat and clean white robe, which finally makes him look like a real person.
However, the skin beneath the hood was dry, wrinkled, stiff, and pale; just one look at it sent shivers down one's spine.
Abraham, still dressed in his white priest's robes, stood beside Norton with his head slightly bowed, looking extremely respectful.
Looking at the ten-meter-deep water pit dug in front of the main hall.
"Ancestor, humanity is ready."
Norton nodded in satisfaction. "Very good, lure the Holy Knight out."
"Yes!" Abraham replied respectfully, then waved his hand, and two of the Church knights standing behind him immediately stepped forward and entered the Church hall.
All of the more than one hundred Church members present had been transformed into Vampire. The missionaries were Third-Generation Vampire, so their work was conducted at night, since the sun could cause them real harm.
The Church Knights are Second-Generation Vampire. Although they are still far inferior to Abraham, the first generation, their increased strength and faster regeneration are far superior to their predecessors.
And they will be Norton's most loyal henchmen.
This is the most convenient thing for him after Norton took power; he didn't have to do anything himself.
Snowflakes drifted down, but the cold air did not cause any discomfort to the Vampire in the courtyard.
Not long after.
"Boom!!!" A loud noise came from the Church hall, and then a Holy Knight holding a greatsword stabbed into the body of Church knight, smashing the hall door down with his bare hands, and then they fell into a large pit filled with water.
The Vampire knight, whose body had been pierced by the greatsword, did not recover from the wound as quickly as usual. Instead, it seemed to be under some kind of strong suppression, and the wound on his body could not heal.
But at least they dragged the Holy Knight into the water along with them.
"Glug glug..." A few bubbles rose to the surface of the water. The wounded Vampire knight seemed to be seriously injured, struggling with extreme difficulty to keep his body away from the Holy Knight had fallen into the water.
Another scene of children playing in the water appeared. This Low-Rank Holy Knight was exactly the same as the two that Norton had drowned. He was still frantically swinging his sword in the water, trying to kill the unclean Vampire in front of him, but he could only keep turning over and over, unable to make any progress.
Father Abraham stared in shock at the Holy Knight struggling helplessly in the water.
'To use such a clever method to kill the Holy Knight? It seems this so-called Blood Clan Progenitor is also a meticulous person! I must be even more respectful to him, lest I detect anything amiss!'
The Holy Knight in the water were like lambs to the slaughter, but then a sound came from within the temple.
"Pfft!!!" A heavy, jet-like exhaust sound echoed in the hall, followed by a series of heavy, rapid footsteps.
"Defilement... purification... sanctity!!!"
Under Father Abraham's slightly frightened gaze, a figure clad in golden armor and wielding a golden greatsword burst forth from the hall, a hoarse, even somewhat mechanical voice emanating from his helmet.
It seemed there were too many Vampire outside, which caused him to experience a slight malfunction.
But in an instant, an even more violent aura emanated from him, his shouts grew louder, and Norton could even feel his body heat rising rapidly.
"Heretical! Heretical! Heretical!!!"
The Holy Knight raised his golden greatsword high, his shouts deafening, and thick steam even visibly emanated from his armor.
Norton was astonished by its terrifying expressiveness; its physique was truly that of a human steam engine!
With a roar, the Holy Knight, who could be described as solemn and holy, raised his greatsword and charged toward the nearest Vampire.
The Church knights who had been transformed into Vampire around them didn't need to be told; they spontaneously rushed forward.
A dozen or so Church knights walked towards the Holy Knight.
Although they had been transformed into Vampire, these Church knights were not mentally impaired; their combat skills were still at their peak.
Before they could even get close, the three Church knights fired their crossbows with grappling hooks, but instead of hitting the Holy Knight in his steel armor, they shot at his legs.
"Bang!" The hard steel armor withstood the grappling hook's penetration, causing it to glide across the Holy Knight's leg and shoot backward.
The three Church knights, now surrounded, immediately reached out and pulled up the grappling hooks that had been shot at them. They then entangled the hooks together and pulled them apart.
The taut ropes bound the Holy Knight's legs, becoming taut and straight as the six Church knights, now Vampire, yanked them down.
The Holy Knight's power wasn't actually that abnormal. Although he could smash through earthen walls and stalactites, the quality of earthen walls in that era was truly poor; even a bull could smash through them with a little effort.
Moreover, their physical defenses primarily rely on their steel armor, rather than their superhuman physical strength; otherwise, they wouldn't have been used by the Church solely as a special forces unit for decapitation strikes.
Furthermore, Norton had read in his books about Vampire that Second Stage Old Age Vampire could withstand Holy Knight, which is enough to show that Holy Knight were not overly abnormal or exaggerated. (No hidden nerfs.)
So, with the six Church knights who had turned into Vampire pulling at him from the front and back, the charging Holy Knight was actually brought to a stop.
After all, it only absorbed the divine blood of the divine corpse in the back mountain of the Holy See, which can only be said to have greatly enhanced its individual strength, but it did not have an advancement in Existence Level. Such a performance is already considered excellent.
"Puff!!!"
A sound like a steam engine emanated from the golden helmet, from which a thick steam billowed out. The intervals between breaths were shorter than usual, and under the effect of this rapid breathing, the heat emanating from the Holy Knight was actually increasing rapidly!
As the heat emanating from his body increased, the Holy Knight's legs, which were tightly bound by ropes, actually withstood the power of the six Vampire knights and slowly rose again!
He then defied the pulling force on his legs and frantically swung his sword, trying to kill the Vampire who was closest to him.
"You can't even cut the ropes binding your own legs? You piece of trash!"
Before Norton could finish his thought, the ropes binding the Holy Knight snapped with a loud "bang."
Then, the thing completely lost its restraints and charged madly toward the nearest Church knight.
"Heretical! Heretical!!!"
Before he could finish speaking, Norton, who had been waiting for so long, could no longer contain himself.
He drew the greatsword from the waist of a nearby Church knight, then, with perfect coordination between his waist and stance, he hurled the sword from his long, thin, withered arm.
The greatsword hurtled swiftly toward the Holy Knight standing beside the puddle.
Thump!
With a tremendous thud, the Holy Knight, who was difficult for even six Second-Generation Vampire knights to control, was actually smashed into the water by Norton's flying sword.
"Waste!"