On an isolated island, vampire Nobility run a mysterious laboratory, continuously pumping out a white mist which compels the inhabitants of a nearby fishing village to become the vampire's slaves! When the village tries to retaliate, their fighters never return. The vampire hunter known only as D has been sighted on the island, but how did he come to be there, and whose side is he on, and will any mortals survive the brewing conflict?
This twenty-fifth volume features seven new illustrations by Final Fantasy designer Yoshitaka Amano.
I was surprised by how little presence D had in this title. Honestly, having an entry that's more focused on expanding world lore and letting us get to know novel-centric characters in greater detail is kind of nice. Wouldn't mind another like this every few books.
I also liked how, like the previous book, this one had a very clear identity with the mist-shrouded island. More so, it's a lot smoother narrated and easy to visualize everything being described. One of the easier ones in the series to get through, overall.
Shares a lot of similarities with Nightmare Village two volumes from now in that the book focuses more on a group of humans than it does D, but unlike Nightmare Village where you can argue the group as a whole is a main character, this time there is firmly a main human protagonist in the form of Meg.
D's initial appearances in this volume are pretty brief, and he doesn't take over the limelight until the lion's share of the book has been finished, so it's obviously rather important that Meg is an interesting character. She's not bad, mind you, it's just that she is kind of stubborn and pigheaded, and even after she falls for the same nonsense over and over again, she's still willing to rush headlong into danger and ignore the obvious signs that she's doing something ill-advised.
The other secondary characters are the usual lot of bounty hunter types with odd abilities that exist to be killed either by the Nobility or D himself (or, in this case, Meg as well). Wesley is probably the standout of the rest of the group, being thrust into the role of leader rather abruptly and unexpectedly near the start of the journey.
Characters aside, as the name of the book implies, we find ourselves following our group of intrepid humans (and eventually D) to an island off the coast of a village where all the inhabitants disappeared a century prior. The story picks up in the modern day, one day after Meg witnesses everyone in the village walking across the water to get to the island. She enlists the local sheriff for help, and here we are.
Of course, surprise, it turns out the island is home to a facility the Nobility used for experiments a century prior. But D has a history with this facility and the Nobles that inhabit it, and their entwined past comes to light as the book heads towards its satisfying, if expected, climax.