While this was going on, the other vampire, the one dressed as a priest, was witnessing the titanic battle from afar. Upon the destruction of Vukodlak, he said: "Poor man. Held on too much to his own superstitions."
At that moment, the Polongs had returned to the hide-out. The first thing they did upon arrival, was to bring Vlad's body into a bath-tub, after which they left it alone with their master. The latter looked upon the body, as a smile krept upon his face.
"You, who once sided with the pope himself..." he raised his voice with every word he spoke, "... you shall bring the people to believe again."
Back at SGS's HQ, Masumi had been brought into the infirmary, while Natsuki couldn't bring herself to leave his side.
Meanwhile, Mr. Voice had his own things to say to the rest of the team: "Well, it's a good thing you at least got rid of that one vampire. Still..."
"What's so special about Shrek anyway?" Souta asked Verne, "How could Dracula not be real, but some cartoon character can be?"
Verne sighed: "I wasn't talking about a cartoon character. I was talking about a man named Schrek."
"And that man would be...?" Eiji asked.
"Remember what I said earlier?" Verne replied with a question, "About the notion of a vampire dying by sunlight being introduced in a expressionistic movie?"
Both of the other guys nodded, after which Verne continued: "The man who played the vampire in that movie was called Schrek."
"But Expressionism is from the early twentieth century." Souta reminded him, "He can't be alive today. Can he?"
"Rumour had it that Schrek was an actual vampire." Verne replied, "Upon confirmation that those rumours were true, people have tried to hunt him down and kill him."
"Which obviously didn't work." Mr. Voice interrupted.
Somewhat indignant on the interruption, Verne replied: "I wasn't with SGS at the time, therefor I wasn't there when it happened. It's possible that whoever tried to kill him thought they succeeded, but..."
"Schrek has somehow survived." Eiji completed for him, "But why would he participate in a movie that gived people the wrong image of vampires?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Souta had it figured out, "Everyone who saw the movie, began to use that same idea for their own stories. I dare you to name one movie, or even book which got released that doesn't let vampires die by sunlight."
"Those that got released after the release of that one movie, that is." Verne corrected him.
"Exactly." Souta continued, "Now everyone, including myself for a time, believe sunlight to be a vampire's weakness."
"Which gives vampires a sort of advantage over humans." Verne added, "As they all now believe to be safe during daytime."
"Which they're not." Eiji finally understood, "Maybe that's why he even wants to bring Vlad back!"
"How do you figure?" Mr. Voice asked.
"If he's been able to decieve people into believing one thing, he could do that again." Eiji reasoned, "With Vlad, a devoted Christian, back alive, he could make sure that people believe in the strength of Christ again."
"Which will ultimately lead humans to grow weak and more vulnerable to vampires." Verne thought out loud, "One's strength can, in this case, will be one's true weakness."
This is when Souta had a marvelous idea: "Mr. Voice, can we watch that movie?"
"Why would you wanna see the movie, Blue?" Mr. Voice replied.
"Just so we'd know what that Schrek looks like." Souta replied.
"A great idea, except..." Verne hesitated to answer.
"What?" Souta could not understand.
"Well, expressionistic movies are very well known for exaggerated use of make-up." Verne replied, "Even more than what people use in today's movies."
"Indeed." Mr. Voice replied, as he made an image of that movie's vampire appear on one of his screens, "And this here is the only image we have of Schrek."
Both Souta and Eiji looked at the picture. It showed a man, dressed into what appeared to be some kind of monk's suit. The man in question had very long fingers, the same of which applied for his nails. His head had both a very sharp nose and chin, no hair, and very pointy ears, almost bat-like.
"It is possible that this is what Schrek really looks like, but..." Verne explained.
"You don't know that for sure?" Eiji asked.
Verne merely nodded, after which Natsuki, who spoke through another one of Mr. Voice's screens, asked: "But Natsuki doesn't understand this. Why are vampires so bend on trying to take over the people? And why now?"
"We have but very little information on what vampires really are, since legends make it so difficult to separate fact from fiction." Verne started his reply, "But based on what we have found out so far, we can theorize this much."
Once he had everyone's full attention, Verne started: "The legends state that vampires are possessed beings. Possessed by some demonic force. They are right, in that they are possessed by the vampire who turned them."
"But how was that vampire turned?" Eiji wondered.
"We don't know for sure." Verne replied, "According to Bram Stoker, who too merely speculated, the first one was an expert alchemist and necromancer. Somehow, when practising those arts, he had somehow managed to turn himself into a vampire. An undead being that needs to feed on the living in order for him to stay alive, for all eternity."
"So if Natsuki were to be a vampire, Natsuki would live forever?" Natsuki asked.
"Yes." Verne replied, "Except that if you were turned by the first one, in this case Schrek, you'd live forever to be his slave."
Natsuki became silent after that, so Eiji replied: "Tough choice. Either die as a mere mortal, or live forever as a slave."
"That it is." Verne replied, "But that's not why vampires were hunted to begin with. Because there was something that mortals can do, which vampires couldn't, it made them envious, so they somehow convinced themselves that their god wants them to slay vampires."
"How can people be envious over something that someone can't do?" Souta asked.
"Because that something I'm referring to, is dying." Verne replied, flatly.
"I can see why that would envy some people." Eiji replied.
Verne continued: "Then of course, to this day, people have been hunting vampires, although only because they were lead to blindly believe it to be the right to do, but they don't exactly remember why that is."
"It's because today's media say that killing vampires is the right thing to do." Souta replied.
"Exactly." Verne answered, "Another guess of ours, is that vampires had somehow managed to survive by feeding upon each other."
This sounded quite as a surprise to everyone, causing them to drop their jaws and open their eyes widely.
Verne tried to ignore this weird reaction, as he continued: "They could feed themselves on the living for as long as they like, but if vampires would feed themselves on something that's half-dead, they could sustain their lives much longer."
"But since they're being hunted down, there's no way for them to feed themselves on each other." Mr. Voice added.
"So our friend Schrek is trying to start all over again." Verne continued, "If he were to turn the whole world into vampires, he would have nothing to worry about."
"But then he'd have the whole world under his control!" Eiji sounded angry and disgusted.
"It's the perfect religion." Verne replied, flatly, "Whether it be Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Scientology,... one problem they all have is that some of their followers would soon turn into heretics. But with Vampirisme, they are all being drained of their own thought, in every sense of the word rather than just one sense. Plus of course, the promise of eternal life is not just a faint promise with this one, as there is direct proof of it. The perfection that every religion seeks will be found in Vampirisme."
"But how can it be perfect if nobody has a free will?" Souta asked.
"I don't understand the logics behind religions either." Verne answered.
"I don't think that's the point either." Eiji reasoned, "It's obvious that Schrek is trying to turn everyone into his slaves, and thereby control the world."
"And we just gave them something that would ensure that to happen." Verne sighed, "Both willingly and unwillingly, ironically."
"I don't know about Verne-tachi..." Natsuki said, "... but... this is the first time that... Natsuki is really scared."
THE END
... or not?