Chapter 201: Ill-fated Relationship (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 201: Ill-fated Relationship (7)
The tide of battle changed with every passing moment.
Just as Jenkinson had predicted, the soldiers could not overcome the physical disparity with the vampires and fell one by one.
As their numbers dwindled, the shadow of defeat loomed large over the battlefield.
Has His Majesty failed?
Jenkinson and the other nobles had held out against the vampires for a considerable time—more than enough for the Empire's contingency to activate. But it never did.
The meaning was clear.
Either the Emperor had failed to activate his plan, or the plan itself had been a lie.
...Whatever the truth was, it no longer mattered.
This battle was no longer a matter of winning or losing, but of life and death.
In a fight like this, the longer you hesitated, the higher your chances of dying became.
“Alberton!”
Jenkinson shouted for his aide, whose location was unknown. At his lord’s call, the aide, Alberton, barely managed to pry a vampire off himself and answer.
“Your orders, my lord!”
“Rally the soldiers. As soon as they’re gathered, we’re breaking out of the city.”
“Are we heading to the Imperial Palace?”
Jenkinson paused for a moment before answering with difficulty.
“No. We’re leaving immediately.”
“What? But the Duchess and the young lord are at the palace…”
“It’s too late to go back. If we linger for even a moment, we’ll be massacred.”
“But…”
“Stop talking back and gather the men!”
At his lord’s roar, the aide reluctantly obeyed. After confirming that Alberton was rallying the soldiers, Jenkinson turned his head to survey the other nobles.
Like him, they had realized things had gone wrong and were preparing to escape. A few groups of nobles were already making their move.
Jenkinson clicked his tongue.
Quick on the uptake only when their own skin is on the line.
If he was too slow, he could be isolated in an instant. Then he’d die without even being able to put up a fight.
Fortunately, his anxious premonition did not become reality, thanks to his rigid but competent aide, who quickly gathered the soldiers and formed a new line.
“Lord Jenkinson, I have rallied the men as you commanded!”
“Good. Listen up, everyone! With me and the knights at the vanguard, we will break through to the west gate…”
CRASH—!
Something flew through the air at high speed and slammed into a wall. The massive impact naturally drew everyone’s eyes. As the dust settled, the figure of the person embedded in the wall was revealed.
“Sir Ekin?”
It was Ekin, smashed into the wall in a pathetic state.
Cough.
Thankfully, he wasn’t dead, as he coughed up a mouthful of blood. But even so, the sight of an Imperial Duke being so easily defeated sent a shockwave through the Imperial forces. As silence fell, a sweet voice echoed across the battlefield.
“Oh? You survived? I thought I hit you quite hard.”
The tone was one of surprise, as if looking at an insect that had been lucky enough to live.
The gazes of the Imperials turned toward the owner of the voice. There stood a handsome man with long, silver-blue hair fluttering in the wind. He felt the humans’ eyes on him and frowned in displeasure.
“We have not given you leave, yet you dare gaze upon our divine face. I should pluck out both of your eyeballs—”
Grab.
Kelidon precisely caught the two knights who had launched a surprise attack while he was speaking.
As the two knights stared in shock, Kelidon clicked his tongue with a look of pity.
“You wretches have no manners.”
When Kelidon applied pressure, the swords, imbued with sword aura, snapped like thin sticks. In the next moment, his palms seized the faces of the attacking knights.
“For the disrespect you have shown us, you will atone with your worthless lives.”
CRUNCH.
Kelidon’s fingers dug into the two knights’ faces, crushing their skulls. While the Imperials were overwhelmed by this incredible display of power, screams erupted from another corner of the battlefield.
“The red mist! Watch out for the mist! It kills people—aaargh?!”
A soldier who was warning others was himself swallowed by the mist. When it passed, only a skeleton, picked clean of flesh, remained.
It was a shocking situation in many ways, but it would have been better if it had ended there.
At least then, they would have had a sliver of hope that, with a bit of luck, they might survive, however slim the chance.
But what followed drove the final nail into the Imperials’ coffin.
“Undead? Vampires are controlling undead?”
“There are too many of them!”
“A cleric! We need a cleeeeric!!”
A massive horde of undead, commanded by someone, suddenly appeared.
“B-blood arrows are raining from the sky!!”
“What the fuck are the mages doing?!”
The mages couldn’t handle a female vampire’s blood magic, and a shower of blood arrows poured down from above.
“I-I can’t fight anymore… This is hell—gurk?!”
Soldiers who tried to escape the chaos by fleeing into alleyways were swiftly killed by assassins.
It was a scene of pure pandemonium.
Only then did Jenkinson and the other nobles realize one crucial fact.
The vampire leaders, the ones called Lords, had not been participating in the battle until now. They had merely been watching.
And we were still at a disadvantage?
In truth, the outcome of the battle had been decided the moment the black sun rose. The black sun, created by corrupting the contingency left behind by the heroes of the Kalita Kingdom, amplified the vampires’ power, unlike the real sun.
The only reason the Imperials had managed to hold on for so long against such vampires was due to the twisted hobby of one Lord who wanted to watch the ugly spectacle of humans struggling desperately to survive.
If the Lords had fought with their full strength from the beginning, this place would have been filled with nothing but corpses.
In short, they had been toyed with by the Lords.
Those who realized the truth let out hollow laughs, overcome by a sense of futility.
What in the world did we fight so desperately for?
And so, those who didn't know the full story despaired at the hellscape unfolding before their eyes, while those who did know had their spirits broken.
Just as the soulless humans were about to fall into the abyss of despair…
“Stop.”
There was light.
When everything under the black sun was dark and stained red, a single, brilliant golden light shone forth.
As if mesmerized, the humans turned their gazes toward the light, and they saw them.
“We will not tolerate any further slaughter.”
Beautiful women, each with a halo radiating holy light above her head.
Strangely, the women also had wings, but unlike the vampires, their wings shed pure white feathers like those of a swan.
“Angels…?” someone whispered in disbelief.
It was understandable. Angels were the servants of the Goddess Iries. They were beings an ordinary person would never even glimpse in their entire lifetime. For that reason, the man who spoke, as well as the other humans, rationally told themselves that these women couldn't be angels.
But an instinct etched into their very genes acknowledged their existence.
Kelidon spoke to the three angels.
“Angels… I never expected to see you in a place like this. Can you cross from the Celestial Realm to the mortal world so easily?”
“No. Descending from the Celestial Realm to the mortal world is normally impossible without the Goddess’s permission. However, the desperate prayers of the faithful have accomplished the impossible.”
Below the floating angels, the Pope and other clerics lay on the ground, their eyes rolled back in their heads as they foamed at the mouth. Their wretched state made it clear how the angels had managed to descend.
The white-haired angel in the center of the three smiled.
“The fact that the Goddess did not stop us must mean that she, too, was moved by the earnest pleas of her followers.”
“…So, if you won’t tolerate it, what do you plan to do?”
The smiles vanished from the angels’ faces.
“There will be no second warning. Those who defy the will of the heavens shall face divine punishment.”
“…”
The aura emanating from Kelidon and the other Lords grew menacing.
“It seems you have no intention of backing down quietly,” the angel said, a hint of gladness in her voice for some reason.
“Children of the Goddess Iries. She has sent us in response to your desperate call. Therefore, do not turn your backs on your duty.”
She was telling them to fight, not run.
Even for angels, it would be difficult for just the three of them to face so many vampires.
But there was no need for such a warning. Having confirmed that the women were indeed angels from their conversation with Kelidon, the soldiers’ morale soared.
The white-haired angel’s eyes widened slightly in surprise before a satisfied smile spread across her face. She raised her sword high.
“Go! The heavens are with you!”
“Waaaaah!!!”
Their morale boosted, the soldiers clashed with the vampires once more.
*
“So this is an angel…”
“Gah…! Let go…!!”
The angel, her neck caught in Kelidon’s grasp, struggled in agony. But with her wings torn, she couldn’t even struggle properly.
“You spawn of darkness… Do you truly intend to defy the will of the heavens…?!”
“How could the likes of you be the will of the heavens? Stop disgracing the Celestial Realm and die.”
Kelidon’s hand tightened. Realizing the pressure on her neck was no ordinary force, the angel’s expression turned desperate.
“W-Wait!”
CRACK.
The angel’s body went limp. Tossing her corpse aside, Kelidon examined his wounds. She had been far weaker than he expected, but an angel was still an angel. His elegant shirt was torn to shreds, and his body was covered in cuts.
How undignified.
Clicking his tongue, Kelidon grabbed a nearby human male and drank his blood.
The wounds inflicted by the holy power began to heal slowly.
“You killed them all? You could have at least left one alive.”
The voice was mocking.
Kelidon knew who it belonged to.
He turned his head and saw Gis with a smug look on his face.
“When did you get here?”
“A little while ago.”
“Then couldn’t you have lent a hand with those inadequate arms of yours?”
“I’m a Hero, you know. A man chosen by the Goddess can’t go around killing angels, can he?”
“For someone who says that, Hailey is completely unscathed.”
“I can’t let my mother get hurt. Even I wouldn’t stoop to harming my own mother, you know?”
Gis shrugged nonchalantly. Kelidon frowned for a moment before his expression smoothed over.
“Fine. It would be foolish of me to expect anything more from you than what I asked.”
He said as much and held out his hand. Understanding his meaning, Gis tossed him the Emperor’s head, which had been hanging from his belt. Catching it, Kelidon smirked.
“So this ugly human was the man who called himself the master of the continent.”
He then wiped the smile from his face and held the Emperor’s head up for the remaining humans to see.
“Behold, humans. Your king is dead!”
At his words, the humans who had been resisting to the very end froze.
Kelidon continued.
“In the past, we vampires were weak. We were prey to even a single paladin, let alone a Hero. So we prostrated ourselves. We endured all manner of humiliation and disgrace while we built our strength. Time passed, and we grew strong, but you humans remained stagnant… no, you actually regressed.”
His voice was quite elated. It was only natural, as this was the moment he was being compensated for the past several hundred years.
“This is the result. We have won, and you have lost.”
Kelidon smiled. For a man, it was a rather alluring smile.
“Now, it is your turn to grovel on the ground.”
Despair clouded the humans’ faces.
“We will not be foolish enough to give you time as you did. From this day forward, all humans, including you, will be livestock—”
“Wait.”
Hailey interrupted his speech. Just as an annoyed Kelidon was about to get angry, she spoke with a stiff expression.
“I feel an unusual energy from the east gate.”
“An unusual energy? Ah…”
Kelidon saw the blue barrier beginning to envelop the entire city and understood what Hailey meant.
“It seems we have a guest. All of you, hold your positions and do not act rashly—”
“Cloud!!”
Before Kelidon could finish, Gis shot off toward the east gate with a ghastly look on his face.
Hailey sighed.
The black sun, which greatly increased the vampires’ power.
The blood-soaked ground and their vigorous vampire minions everywhere.
Even the broken-spirited humans.
Everything was perfect, yet for some reason, she couldn’t shake a feeling of unease.
She thought of the insurance she had prepared for just such an occasion and calmed her troubled heart.