Chapter 25

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 25

Chapter Title: The Blood Emperor Awakens

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I will absolutely kill it. Absolutely.

A dragon slicing through the skies descended to the ground.

The enemy, its eyes already half-rolled back, unleashed breath after breath.

Rachel's attacks were effective.

Ice magic.

Combined with its extreme elemental advantage and her own traits, she was holding her own despite a tenfold difference in mana output.

And because it had been caught off guard, the dragon—whose power had already dropped as much as its clones—had no choice but to be pushed back.

Three out of Yuria's five spears had hit their mark.

If the remaining two struck home, the beast would truly become a fine familiar under her command.

'But... I'm the one who's going to die.'

I placed my hand on the gaping hole in my abdomen.

It was hot.

My narrowing field of vision, like a tunnel shrinking with every breath, filled with red blood.

Thanks to Yuria pouring every potion in the mansion—anything and everything—into me, I had somehow clung to life.

But in the end, it was a failure.

With Rachel's ambush, the odds were now eighty percent in our favor.

Yet after telling her to trust me,

I couldn't dodge that final blow properly, and now I was dying. That was my only regret.

Seeing Yuria cry like that... it tore at my heart.

I really felt like I'd done something unforgivable.

My expression said it all: I'm sorry. Forgive me.

Her gaze was filled with sorrow, lamenting her own powerless state.

'In the end, this happened because I'm too weak.'

Well... drawing the dragon's attention with this body was something I could brag about at the tavern.

I knew the feeling of dying all too well.

I'd experienced it once before.

I'd strained my heart once with the 'Lightning' trait,

and now once more with potions.

On top of that, accelerating to prepare blood for Yuria,

and all sorts of mishaps from operating magic tools had damaged my dantian.

No potion could reverse that.

And with this piercing wound from aura... plus the encroaching demonic energy.

No matter what trick I pulled with Lightning,

my body just couldn't hold out anymore.

Then, suddenly, one thought flashed into my mind.

This.

What if I fed it to Yuria?

No time to hesitate.

A flicker of surprise crossed the woman's face.

She said something, but my fading hearing couldn't catch it.

Soon, Yuria raised her hand and slipped the orb into her mouth.

But... why did she put my index and middle fingers in there too...?

A warm, moist tongue wrapped around my fingers.

Surprisingly, despite her small mouth, the inside of Yuria's oral cavity was quite spacious, as I'd felt from her tongue before.

It could easily swallow a thick cucumber down to the root... Wait, what am I even thinking?

As death loomed, these breeding urges were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kicking in... Hold on,

"..."

It stopped.

The pain stopped.

It vanished completely, as if it had never been there.

Not like the gradual healing humans feel.

The wounds that had been there moments ago.

Were gone, like a lie.

When I came to, my vision—once narrowed to a pinhole barely big enough for a few fingers—had returned to normal.

"...Huh?"

There were traces of red blood from my nose and eyes.

Some alarm rang in my mind, but the severed pain felt strangely ambiguous.

My skin felt bruised, something torn somewhere.

Looking down,

I had no idea what it was.

But with the X button grayed out and deleted, what choice did I have?

Now it was my turn to trust Yuria.

Wait a second, did I see some weird text in the middle?

-KROOOOOOAR!!!!!!!!

Regardless. What shook my recovered ears was the dragon's roar echoing through the mansion, proving it was still alive.

Its breath reeked of fury.

You could tell from how it immediately started attacking the barrier outside.

It clearly didn't want to become Yuria's mongrel.

Just two more spears, or a joint assault with Rachel, and victory was ours.

The dragon demon's weakness lay in its greatest strengths: regeneration and breath.

The breath could only ramp up power and output.

It was devastatingly potent, but here we had one of the absolute top ice mages among the rare few.

Rachel, a key figure in the northern grand duke's dragon hunts, was the most knowledgeable and experienced here when it came to dragons.

From the dragon's perspective, frustration and rage were inevitable.

It thought it had squashed an annoying cockroach, only for the mage it dismissed as far weaker to coincidentally wield 'ice'—and be a veteran who'd personally slain dozens of its kin.

Its decade-old clones, painstakingly crafted scales and rituals, even its resurrection—all threatened by this pest.

No, its plans were already half-ruined.

The sacrifices had vanished into Yuria's shadow, and now it had to flee to save its own skin. Must be seething.

I'd be the same.

A bug you desperately wanted dead was right there, but you couldn't finish it off, and now an unfavorable mage was pulling tricks while you had to abandon everything and flee your nest.

Imagine a lifelong politician who always held his head high bowing to a mere commoner.

That alone showed how furious it was.

But consider this.

The clown bastard it thought it killed resurrects,

comes back stronger, and starts blasting mana rivaling its own?

Eyes roll back.

That clown was me.

I raised my hand.

Not as piercing as the earlier spears, but a technique that would definitely hurt the dragon.

Ice magic disrupting from the front, lethal attacks from the side if struck twice more.

Plus the pest resurrecting and spamming paralyzing strikes. It must be dying inside.

Dodge Yuria's attacks? Eat ice magic and mine, crash to the ground, and take a spear.

One more piercing its body ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that way.

The dragon was truly in a desperate spot.

Was that omnidirectional breath its counter?

I barely reacted to block that attack, while Yuria counterattacked and sliced off a wing.

The blazing red fury, like karmic flames, was now beyond even my control.

But its target wasn't us.

The barrier.

Crack. As the blood barrier shattered, the omnipotence I'd felt began to fade.

However.

A smile crept across Ian's lips.

"...Are you an idiot?"

Blood spears.

Each hit increases familiar domination rate.

Wasting energy breaking it now, with just one left?

If it'd used that after eighteen hits, maybe.

Nineteen? That breath was basically begging to be dominated.

The dragon froze like stone, realizing how idiotic it'd been.

I touched the barrier's core, the eye.

Where the 'bloodwater' from all the returned familiars had gathered.

As the dragon blinked, the gushing blood engulfed it.

Not just lowest demons. Mid-tier, high-tier, even some upper ones and succubi.

Pure 'demonic energy' converts to energy...

Triggering chain explosions.

And with that many? In a confined space, it'd be nuclear-level force.

Its hide couldn't withstand it.

Red dragon blood sprayed everywhere.

Red light streaked the sky like meteors.

That strike... Level 8 at least? The thought echoed in my head.

A technique that might not even appear in Chapter 4, near-suicidal, yet usable.

I could only laugh in disbelief.

In the sky, demonic energy and Blood Magic reacted, showering the mansion in ever more brilliant crimson explosions.

Like a red moon.

Dragon blood is the ultimate elixir in the human realm.

That's why the northern grand duke and Rachel once teamed up to hunt dragons, and some of that blood entered the Britna family, granting special powers.

Dillon, Kane, and Ian all received dragon blood, but only the protagonist could fully wield it.

And even that was a tiny amount.

Its true value shines mid-to-late story, but the quantity was too small to be practical.

I'd read articles buzzing from the Magic Tower about how demon-tainted blood could theoretically be an insane elixir.

But the results were gruesome: human dantians shredded, foolish heroes dead, so it was treated as deadly poison thereafter.

Humans can't endure demonic energy.

But Yuria beside me was different.

Vampires, frequent users of Blood Magic akin to demonic energy, can manage even while eroded.

Their mana properties align perfectly, repelling it almost entirely.

Dragon blood strewn everywhere.

All remnants of the beast.

Yuria absorbed every drop into her shadow without missing a one.

As worry flickered in my eyes at this sudden event,

Yuria sensed it and lunged into my arms at blinding speed with an adoring gaze.

"...Master."

Yuria stood by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my side, her mana several times stronger than before.

...Wait, isn't this power creep?