A Monster and a True Monster (2)

A vampire is a kind of evil immortal—a failed immortal.

Rather than becoming an immortal by taking in and sublimating the power of nature, they chose the easy, depraved path of taking in the lives of others.

Among them, those who devour life along with human blood and flesh are the vampires of this world.

I see. If the Holy Pontiff of the Quoram Faith is a vampire, as Win says, then a lot of things make sense.

Immortals wield mysterious arts even to me, a High Elf, and know an extraordinary amount about all sorts of things.

If an evil immortal who had learned from them knew how to make an elixir of rejuvenation, it wouldn't surprise me much.

I had also witnessed them strengthen their bodies to the point that blades could not pierce them, or nullify natural phenomena caused by spirits.

The fact that the Holy Pontiff has continued to lead the Quoram Faith for hundreds of years without ever being replaced would also be easy to explain if the Pontiff were a vampire.

I myself suspected the existence of an evil immortal when I first heard that.

Evil immortals can distribute the life they have stored to others, but once someone has received that boon, if the supply is cut off, they become starving monsters—ghouls...