Bloodline (4)
Right now, the reason Jain was moving alone with Ren to subjugate the Succubus Queen was simple. If they entered through the regular party route, the Succubus Queen had a high chance of escaping once. During standard raids, there was always a confirmed event where she would be spared. After defeating her, a ridiculous forced event would trigger where the hero would suddenly hesitate, thinking, Should I really kill such a beautiful girl? and let her go.
After that, the Succubus Queen would disguise herself as a pure silver-haired nun and ask to join the party. The ending would change depending on how the player treated her. Of course, Jain had zero interest in seeing such a childish event. The Succubus Queen was a non-virgin lovebird who had drained and killed over ten thousand men. It was only natural to bankrupt this walking gene bank. Teaming up with her was completely out of the question, so even when playing the game, Jain had always immediately pierced her throat and tossed her aside.
This time, there was also the urgent need to cure Ren's illness. Even waiting for her to join after sparing her once felt like a waste of time. That's why he had planned to exclude the hero and take her down through a non-standard route.
Fortunately, the Succubus Queen wasn't immortal, so there was no need for the holy sword.
"But are you really sure about this? Just the two of us pushing all the way into the inner sanctum..."
"It's fine because I have you."
At Jain's decisive words, Ren's face flushed slightly. She knew exactly what that meant. For some reason, every heavily guarded secret door in the citadel opened completely at Ren's touch. Still, her cheeks burned a little.
The two of them broke through the outer castle thanks to Ren's power. They occasionally ran into patrol guards.
"Who the hell are you! Intru—"
But their fate was always the same. The patrol guards couldn't even finish speaking before a round magic circle sealed their mouths, leaving them struggling with muffled grunts. Then a blazing flame spear would pierce their chests, killing them instantly.
Jain could cast the fairly high-level Silence spell with a single gesture. Silence them, summon a spear of fire, and run it through their bodies. With those two moves, the patrol guards couldn't even sound an alarm before they dropped dead like logs. Ren was genuinely impressed by how cleanly he handled everything.
After repeating the same process seven times, the pair finally reached the last door of the outer castle. Not a single alarm had gone off. It was overwhelming speed and perfection.
The outer walls of this decaying ancient fortress weren't supposed to be this easy to breach. Normally, you'd have to go through an insanely complicated process: incite the citizens who were furious about their husbands being stolen by the Succubus Queen, spark a rebellion, get help from a dragon who held a grudge against her, drive off the wyverns, and wage a full-scale siege.
But now, Ren and Jain had skipped all of that and broken through the supposedly impregnable outer castle in just over thirty minutes.
Ren looked up at the towering final gate and carefully reached out her hand, just as she had before. The last door swung wide open as if welcoming its master. As she followed Jain, who strode confidently inside, Ren let out a sigh of relief.
"By the way, why do all these doors open like that? It's not like I'm actually dismantling the locks or anything..."
"It's because of your bloodline."
"My bloodline?"
"You'll find out everything later, so don't ask right now. We need to stay focused."
Jain's voice was firm. After examining the various parts of the inner sanctum with its dazzling arched ceilings, he led Ren to what looked like an ordinary door.
"Open it."
"What is this?"
"A secret passage leading to the Succubus Queen's bedroom. It's the route she uses to secretly kidnap men."
Ren made a disgusted face and placed her hand on the door. It creaked open on its own. A wide corridor with an arched ceiling appeared. Torches hung on every wall, casting an eerie glow over the carpets and decorative armor.
Jain held out his hand to Ren and strode inside.
"Hold my hand tight. It might get dangerous."
"Huh? O-okay..."
It was necessary to maintain physical contact in order to share the protective magic. Ren hesitated for a moment before grabbing Jain's hand. The effect of that action showed itself the moment they stepped into the corridor.
"─────────!!!"
⟨ Bloodsucker Ambush ⟩
A grotesque gray monster dropped from the ceiling, aiming for Ren. But its fangs shattered against the round barrier that sprang up right before touching her body, then rolled across the floor. Jain clicked his tongue in annoyance and formed a seal with his other hand. An ice ring formed around the creature's neck, and when Jain clenched his fist, it exploded. The severed head rolled grotesquely down the corridor.
"What was that?"
"A bloodsucker. The Succubus Queen turns men she's finished draining into monsters and uses them as guards."
"That's really horrible... that Succubus Queen."
Ren stared at the bloodsucker with clear disgust.
"There are hundreds of those things waiting as guards in this corridor. So keep holding my hand tight. The barrier will protect you just like before."
"...Okay."
At those words, Ren practically clung to Jain's right arm. The two of them walked down the long corridor like that. Every few steps, bloodsuckers attacked. From the chandelier on the ceiling, from under the carpet, from inside the decorative armor—they came from everywhere, trying to bite into their necks.
But every attempt was thwarted. Whenever Jain waved his hand and formed a seal, the creatures' stomachs were pierced by flame spears, their blood boiled until their organs exploded, they were cursed into blindness, or fell into confusion and started fighting each other.
When five of them charged at once, Jain formed two seals for the first time. A wolf made of shadow burst from thin air, swallowed all five heads in one bite, and vanished.
Wherever the two passed, piles of bloodsucker corpses stacked up, and the red carpet grew a deeper crimson, soaked in thick blood. In a word, it was a massacre. Jain alone was slaughtering hundreds of bloodsuckers.
The entire scene was so terrifying that Ren simply closed her eyes, clung tightly to Jain, and kept walking. Listening to the screams, explosions, and howls echoing around her, she moved forward on trembling legs until they finally reached the end.
"Alright, you can open your eyes now."
At Jain's words, Ren opened her eyes. Then she glanced back and froze in shock. The corridor was completely flooded with blood. The metallic stench was so strong it felt like her nose would fall off. And not a single drop of that blood belonged to her or Jain.
The crimson mage beside her had annihilated hundreds of bloodsuckers in just twenty minutes.
"Y-you... you took out all of them by yourself?"
"Who else would have done it?"
Jain answered curtly and simply pointed at the door at the end of the corridor.
"Now open this door too."
It feels like my only role is being a key. I've been training so hard too...
Feeling a bit dejected, Ren reached for the door handle. As always, the firmly locked door opened smoothly the moment she touched it. She was about to push it open and step inside when—
"Wait."
Jain grabbed the back of Ren's neck as she tried to enter. Ren's eyes widened as she asked,
"Why?"
"The presence here is off. Stay here and wait for a bit. I'll go in alone first."
"P-presence? I didn't sense anything..."
"They're hiding it. It looks like the commotion reached them, and the defense force has set up an ambush."
It seemed the crimson mage had detected a presence that even Ren, a thief, couldn't sense. Ren nodded and took her hand off the door handle. Jain pushed her back and walked through the door alone.
"You idiot, you're completely surrounded now! Hands up!"
Jain let out a sigh, confirming that his hunch had been right. Heavily armored patrol guards were aiming crossbows at him and shouting. Dozens of similar crossbowmen, dozens of orcs and wolfmen, and hundreds of sword-wielding bloodsuckers had formed a circle, completely trapping him.
"I don't know how the hell you managed to set foot in this castle where our noble Queen resides, but if you surrender, we'll at least spare your life!"
"Since when did a filthy adamantium cum-rag become a noble queen?"
"W-what?"
"You'd have to fuck at least three hundred times to make one bloodsucker, right? So just counting the ones I've killed, that'd be over a hundred thousand fucks? Even steel would break if you hammered it that much. So isn't it only natural to assume it's adamantium?"
"You bastard! How dare you insult our noble one with that filthy tongue! Stop your blasphemy at once!"
The patrol guard's face turned beet red. These guys were pitiful beings completely enchanted by the Succubus Queen. So they seemed to take any insult toward her as an insult toward themselves.
"You stupid bastards! We clearly gave you a chance! Surrender now!"
"Is that so? Thanks. Though I won't be giving you any chances."
Jain said this and turned around. What the hell is this guy doing? The patrol guard's eyes widened. Then he heard a click and snapped back to his senses. The bastard was locking the bolt. It was an arrogant move meant to block any escape route so not a single one of them could run away.
"You... you..."
Unable to hold back any longer at that action, their leader gave the order to fire.
"Shoot! Turn that bastard into a pincushion and show him exactly who's the cum-rag!"
A rain of arrows poured down toward Jain. Hundreds of arrows drawing parabolas or straight lines flew at him, but they never reached their target. They stopped dead in midair. Jain had caught every single projectile with gravity magic.
The patrol guards stared at this near-miraculous spell with their mouths hanging open.
"Wh-what the..."
With his right hand holding the arrow storm in place, his left hand formed another seal. It was the seal of flame. Instantly, fire ignited on every one of the hundreds of arrows. But that wasn't the end. When Jain waved his right hand, every bladed weapon they held—swords, spears, axes, it didn't matter—began floating into the air. Then all of them burst into roaring flames as well.
Once everything was ready, Jain swung his left arm like a conductor. The thousands of flaming projectiles floating in the air all turned at once to aim at their original owners.
"What kind of insane mana capacity is this! Th-this is impossible!"
"It is possible."
Watching the patrol guard's shock, Jain brought both hands down. The thousands of projectiles rained down like a meteor shower.
Xerxes, the 4th Commander of the Myulcheon Army, the Succubus Queen's lover, and her top executive, was watching the scene through a crystal orb with interest. The orb was calmly reflecting the carnage happening on the floor directly below the inner sanctum where he currently stood.
"A battle mage, huh? Pretty high level."
He muttered to himself as he watched Jain single-handedly crushing hundreds of defenders. After dropping thousands of flaming arrows, the mage was now wielding all sorts of elemental spells, slaughtering the defense force like a wolf among sheep. It looked like they wouldn't last much longer.
A patrol guard whose arms had been burned off by lightning dropped by Jain screamed in agony.
"Lord Fist Demon! Please save us!"
But Xerxes remained cold. Rather than rushing out to save them, he believed it was better to sacrifice them to gather information and fight on the battlefield of his choosing. If he hadn't been that kind of cold-hearted person, he never would have become a human traitor and joined the Demon King's army to seize a commander position in the first place.
"Something that could be a weakness... Yeah, that woman."
Once the battlefield was completely cleaned up, the mage opened the door and called a woman inside. Even from a distance, she was quite beautiful.
"I should prioritize taking her hostage or using her for threats."
Xerxes. Also known as Xerxes the Mage Slayer. On the surface he looked like a bold martial artist, but in reality he had a very cruel and cunning personality. He was carefully reviewing every possible method, plotting how to defeat the crimson mage who had invaded the inner sanctum.
"Well, if he just comes into that corridor and enters my arena, I can catch him without any special strategy."
That was the development Xerxes was hoping for the most. He rested his chin on his hand and stared into the crystal orb. The conversation between the mage and the woman could be heard.
Xerxes smiled. That circular arena was his personal battlefield, built specifically to kill mages.
"That bitch is spouting useless nonsense..."
Xerxes bit his lip. The skill the crimson mage had just displayed was incredible. Unless it was on his home ground in the arena, winning anywhere else seemed uncertain. But contrary to his worries, the crimson mage was stubborn.
"Kuhahaha! Mages are always like this—arrogant and always choosing the wrong answer at the critical moment!"
Xerxes jumped up from his seat and ran toward the arena.
You stupid bastard. That arena was built with magic-sealing stones.
In that place, he was confident he could capture and kill any mage. The title of Xerxes the Mage Slayer was practically earned thanks to that arena. He looked pretty strong. If I catch him and devour his experience, I can finally complete the True Martial Wind-Dragon Fist and reach the realm of Fist Saint.
It was his hunting ground. Standing at the top of the circular arena built from black magic-sealing stones, he waited for his prey.
Confirming that the foolishly walking prey—Jain and Ren—had entered his hunting ground, Xerxes opened the fight with a surprise attack, without any warning. He leaped down from the ceiling and drove his fist straight toward the defenseless Jain.
Right before his fist landed, he was certain.
Got him. Instant kill.
But a moment later, his eyes widened. Jain had somehow dodged like a ghost, even though there had been no sign of him moving to evade.
He dodged?
It could have been a coincidence. But Xerxes was cautious. Most crimson mages were also skilled swordsmen. Seeing the sword hanging at his waist, this guy was probably the same. It was possible he had some mastery with the blade and had used footwork to dodge the attack.
It's in my nature to prepare for every possibility.
He suddenly changed his stance, pounding his fists together and laughing heartily.
"You've passed the test! Very well, this Fist Demon shall fight you! As a martial artist!"
"What kind of bullshit test is that?"
Jain answered curtly. Xerxes continued speaking with a smile. From his appearance alone, he looked like a martial artist who had devoted his entire body to the pursuit of martial perfection.
"I am Xerxes, the Fist Demon who has transcended worldly ethics to become a Fist Saint! How about it? Will you not face me in a battle of fists? If I exchange fists with you, I feel I will gain the enlightenment needed to reach the realm of Fist Saint!"
"Why should I do that for you?"
"Then I shall promise not to touch your woman."
Xerxes pointed at Ren with his knuckle as he spoke. It looked like a show of goodwill, but it was a threat. If Jain refused, he would immediately rush at Ren and take her hostage.
Understanding the implication, Ren narrowed her eyes sharply and spoke to Jain.
"You don't have to do that. We're comrades, so let's fight together."
Hah, if he listens to that, he's not a mage.
Xerxes snorted. And just as he expected, the crimson mage before him moved exactly as predicted. He threw the sword hanging at his waist far away.
"It's fine. Good. Keep your promise."
"Then come into this arena. Ah, I didn't mention it. You are the thousandth mage I will fight."
"What about the previous 999?"
"They all died. In this arena built with magic-sealing stones."
Looking at the thousandth mage who had completely walked into the slaughterhouse, Xerxes revealed the truth with a sinister smile. But soon his face twisted into a frown. The mage before him showed no sign of agitation at all. Instead, he wore an expression that said he had been waiting for this.