The bells had stopped ringing long before you found him.

They lay half melted into the cobblestones, warped by fire and time, their prayers unanswered. Smoke still clung to the narrow streets, bitter with incense and blood. Somewhere a body shifted in the dark as the last of the night creatures fled, but you did not follow. You already knew where he would be.

König never ran.

You found him in the remains of a chapel that no longer remembered God. The roof had collapsed inward, moonlight pouring through the broken stone like a wound that refused to close. He stood at the center of it, towering and unmoving, long coat soaked dark at the hem. Not all of it was his.

Your boots crunched glass and bone as you stepped inside.

His head tilted slightly, predatory, amused. “I wondered when they would send you, Jäger.” he said, voice low and rough like something dragged across gravel.

“Not the others. You. Your reputation exceeds you, Jäger.”

Your grip tightened around the blade blessed in three different tongues. It hummed faintly, eager to turn another one of those wretched Vampires into Ash. So were you.

“You’re slaughtering whole districts now,” you said. “That makes you sloppy.”

A slow smile pulled at his mouth, not kind, not human. “No,” König replied. “It makes me bored.”

He had set this up for you. Craved the Challenge of being caught. Or at least see you trying.

You moved first.

Steel met flesh with a sound like tearing cloth. You carved across his side and felt resistance give way, hot crimson spraying your wrist. Any lesser vampire would have screamed. König only grunted, hand snapping out to catch your throat mid-lunge.

The impact slammed you into a pillar hard enough to crack stone. The air left your lungs in a sharp, humiliating gasp. His hand tightened, lifting you off the ground with terrifying ease.

Up close he smelled like iron, smoke and old rain, like a battlefield long abandoned. His eyes burned brighter now, gold flaring under the everlasting hood.

“You always hesitate, Jäger.” he murmured.

His thumb brushed just under your jaw, right where your pulse betrayed you. Not gentle. Never gentle.

You brought your knee up into his ribs and felt something give. He released you with a sharp exhale, more surprised than hurt, and you hit the ground rolling.

You were both bleeding now.

The chapel felt smaller. Closer. Like it was holding its breath.

You circled each other, weapons raised, shadows clinging to his frame like they belonged to him. König watched you with something between hunger and reverence, like you were a sin he had chosen again and again.

“They taught you well,” he said.

“Yet it'll take more than just a blade to finish me, kleiner Jäger."