Chapter 214
Chapter 214
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 214
Chapter Title: A Bond Sealed in Blood
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“Why are they taking so damn long…….”
Prince Rokarop muttered impatiently, his brow deeply furrowed.
“It’ll be fine. That Kingoden… whatever spirit made a pact with the Duke, right? And it even evolved. They’ll be here soon.”
Vizak whispered softly in imperial tongue, but the prince’s furrowed brow refused to smooth out.
“Hm? Mysterious energy detected.”
At that moment, Princess Lilisein, who had been staring intently in the direction Mirian had flown off, jolted and whipped her head around.
“……???”
Everyone’s gazes followed.
Something strange was definitely happening amid the party’s luggage, neatly stacked in one of the guard barracks. The piles suddenly began to shake violently, as if struck by an earthquake.
“What is that?”
“Magic?”
As the escort knights drew their swords, the luggage collapsed in all directions with a deafening crash.
And with it, something pitch-black revealed itself.
“Gasp!?”
“Th-that’s…….”
Not only the prince’s group but even Princess Lilisein widened her eyes.
Rising into the air, piercing through the luggage, were Eugene’s armor and spear.
Moreover, it wasn’t the plate mail he usually wore—it was the heirloom of the Battla Ducal Family, kept boxed away since Brantia.
“What in the world!?”
“The enchanted armor…….”
While the knights exclaimed in shock, Princess Lilisein murmured in disbelief.
Unlike Prince Rokarop and the knights, she knew what that armor was. The Elrand royals had gifted it to Eugene, after all.
Wooong… Wooooong……
The armor and spear, hovering in the air and emitting a low hum, shot out the window at tremendous speed.
The prince’s group could only stare dumbfounded as the armor flew into the sky.
“Kieet! Brought the knight sirs with me! We’ll be entering the castle gates soon!”
At that moment, Mirian flew back in through the same window the armor and spear had vanished from.
“Oh! Well done!”
Everyone brightened up.
He felt a slight twinge of guilt over the dishonorable scheme, but what was done was done.
Prince Rokarop cautioned the knights once more.
“We must never let Maren’s knights know that Sir Eugene has turned into a monster.”
“Understood, Your Highness.”
They all nodded readily, well aware why Eugene had only brought those familiar with his vampire nature.
“Once the knights enter, let’s pursue that monster—no, Sir Eugene—straight to the royal castle, Princess.”
“Yes, that is my mission, after all.”
Thinking he’d never get used to this peculiar elf princess’s manner of speech no matter what, Prince Rokarop drew his sword.
* * *
I want to kill.
I want to slice open that thick neck and guzzle the blood gushing out.
Ah, but it’s undead, so no blood, huh.
Fine then, just tear it to shreds. Then find living things and kill them, kill and kill again.
Overwhelmed by the intense bloodlust filling his mind, Eugene grinned wickedly.
His eyes had long since turned pitch-red, and his muscles had swollen to twice their usual size.
Feeling an indescribable vitality, Eugene charged at the undead twin-head ogre like a beast.
The ogre couldn’t track, much less keep up with, his movements, now several times faster than before.
Kwaduk! Kwak!
Every time the blood-red Cro drew a crimson line, the creature’s muscles tore and burst. Yet, true to its undead revival by magic, demonic energy immediately repaired the flesh.
This would never end. To fully kill it, he needed to find its mage master.
But as a berserker with only bloodlust remaining and reason clouded, Eugene couldn’t think of that. He just wanted to destroy the irritating undead monster before him.
Hrooooar!!!
Leaping behind the roaring ogre, Eugene wrapped one of its heads in his arm.
Wooduk!
His arm, now twice as thick as usual, crushed the ogre’s neck bone.
But it had two heads, and in that instant, the other swiveled toward Eugene, seizing his leg with a tree-trunk arm.
Kwaang!
The ogre slammed him into the ground, unleashing a thunderous boom.
But Eugene, a vampire already numb to pain and now a berserker incapable of feeling it, simply stood up, shaking off the dirt.
His limbs twisted grotesquely, bones protruding through torn muscles in a horrific sight.
Wooduk! Wuduk!
The scarlet blood mist seeped into his wounds like bloody water, swiftly restoring his body to normal.
Kyaaa……
With veins bulging like a demon’s, Eugene swung Cro and charged the ogre again.
Rip, smash, slash.
The vampire berserker, no longer human but a fiend, ravaged the ogre’s limbs endlessly, but the ceaseless demonic energy restored the monster’s body without fail.
Yet, swept in primal madness, Eugene couldn’t make rational judgments and repeated the same actions.
More! More! More!
Kill! Kill! Kill!
It was no different from another self dominating his body.
It didn’t care if Eugene’s body broke. It drove him to his limits toward the simple imperative of slaughter and destruction.
As if it desired not the undead twin-head ogre’s end, but Eugene’s ruin.
And unbeknownst to him, a berserker’s end was indeed the death of the one who gained that power.
The wielder was merely a vessel and sacrifice for the madness. It just spewed bloodlust and frenzy until the vessel’s life expired.
Attack! Only attack!
As Eugene unleashed reckless, body-neglecting assaults, the undead twin-head ogre’s axe came down.
Kwaaaang!
Struck by force that could split boulders, Eugene’s body flew, smashing trees before crashing into the dirt.
Yet he rose again, as if strings pulled his limbs.
There was no chance of victory like this, but he couldn’t calculate that.
The madness demanded he rise, repair his fading body with blood mist, and charge the enemy once more.
That alone dominated his mind.
But then.
Kiaaaaaaaa!
A chilling wail erupted from deep in the forest.
In that instant, both Eugene’s madness and the undead’s demonic energy were briefly suppressed.
Shweeeeek!
A mass of flying armor sliced through the air, disassembling mid-flight to cling to Eugene’s body. No, not cling—fuse.
Kwaduduk!
In the blink of an eye, root-like protrusions burst from the armor’s interior.
The spikes pierced straight through the black scale mail into his skin. Eugene’s body and the armor became one.
Kraaaaa!
A scream-like cry burst from Eugene’s mouth.
With it, his pitch-red eyes gleaming within the helm rapidly shifted to pure red.
His reason, swallowed by madness, returned.
Kyaaaaaaa!
At that moment, Madarajika, swirling around him, let out a celebratory screech as it settled into his hand.
Fwoosh!
The blood mist raging over his body coiled around the spear, turning into red flames.
Eugene hurled Madarajika. In that instant, the flames merged into an elongated triangle.
Kwarrarara!
The spear, winged with vivid crimson blood, pierced the twin-head ogre’s chest, scattering red sparks before vanishing into its body as if absorbed.
And then.
Hrooooooooar!!!
The twin-head ogre’s entire body erupted in flames.
* * *
Crang!
The staff swirling with pitch-red demonic energy shattered like glass.
“Krweeeek!”
Blood gushed from the wide-open mage’s mouth like a waterfall.
As if expelling every drop of blood in his body, the reversed crimson torrent formed a small pool atop the spire where he stood.
“Kuhuk! Keuh…….”
His glowing red eyes faded, turning pale yellow.
Exhausted, the mage collapsed in place, then began crawling desperately.
Reaching the spire stairs at last, he pounded on the firmly locked door.
“D-door… Open the door.”
“Lord Dolgwen!”
Two guards flung open the door and supported the mage.
For a split second, a faint red glint flickered in the mage’s hooded eyes.
Shuk!
“Keak!”
“Guh!”
A blood-red dagger slit the soldiers’ throats, spraying blood that soaked the mage’s robe and hood interior.
“Huuu!”
The mage pounced on the dying soldiers like a beast, pressing his mouth to their wounded necks and sucking greedily.
After a moment of feeding, he lifted his face. His yellowed eyes had returned to their original red.
Casting a reluctant glance at the soldiers’ bleeding corpses, the mage descended the spire.
“Grahni…… To think it was him…….”
Muttering hoarsely as he hurried down the stairs, he continued.
“And he’s regained nearly all his power? How? Did he break the pact?”
Mumbling anxiously, the mage fled the spire entirely and dashed toward one direction.
It was toward the capital’s grand cathedral.
* * *
“Follow meeeee!”
Woooooo!!!
Led by Madrica, the knights roared as they crested the hill, with the capital’s guards scrambling after them.
“……!”
Madrica’s eyes widened at the hellscape of the hunting grounds.
The green earth was blanketed in dark gray ash, littered only with scattered clothes and jewelry—no people in sight.
At the center stood a black-skinned, two-headed monster on its knees, with someone collapsed beside it, a long spear planted in the ground.
“Th-that’s!?”
Everyone recognized the distinctive spear.
“M-masterrrrr!”
“Your Graceeee!”
Mirian and Princess Lilisein bolted forward madly.
“Your Grace! Duke Battla!”
Princess Lilisein leaped from her saddle, scooping up the motionless Eugene.
“Masteeeer! Waaah! Masteeeeer!”
“Your Grace! Pull yourself together! Zzenha!”
Tears and snot streaming, Princess Lilisein tried to remove Eugene’s helm.
But it wouldn’t budge, so she grunted and lifted his visor instead.
“Ah!”
Eugene’s usually pale face now shimmered blue.
“Hueeeeng! Princess! What about our master? Eeehiiing! Kiihing!”
Glancing at Mirian, who wasn’t crying but pouring tears, Princess Lilisein bit her lip.
Without hesitation, she drew her dagger, removed her glove, and slashed her palm.
“Princess!”
The elf knights, finally grasping the situation, cried out in horror, but she dripped the flowing blood onto Eugene’s pallid lips without pause.
The pureblood elf blood of the Elrand royals stained his lips red.
Incredibly, it seeped into his mouth as if absorbed.
“Kuh.”
Clenching her fist with a low groan, Princess Lilisein pressed her hand directly to his mouth.
Her blood continued vanishing into him.
“Krwoooooor!”
Moments later, Eugene’s eyes snapped open with a mighty roar.
“Masteeer!”
“Ah! Your Grace!”
Mirian and Princess Lilisein’s faces came into focus in his previously unfocused eyes.
“The monster? What of the undead ogre?”
“It’s immobilized! Completely dead.”
“I see.”
Staring briefly at Princess Lilisein’s tear-streaked face, Eugene clenched and unclenched his fist.
“But why do I feel such overflowing power?”
He recalled the Battla heirloom flying to him and auto-equipping.
He remembered instinctively hurling the arriving Madarajika, but everything before and after was blank, like deleted.
“Th-that’s…….”
As the blushing, stammering princess faltered, one elf knight spoke with a sigh.
“Your Grace absorbed the blood of the purest Elrand royals.”
“……?”
Eugene’s look screamed ‘So what?’, prompting Princess Lilisein to murmur crawlingly.
“A bond forged in blood. Now, my blood and mana are all yours, Your Grace.”
“…Huh?”
“Th-that means, I can no longer marry in, to…”
“…….”
“Kieeeek!?”
(To be continued)