Chapter 203: Ill Fated (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 203: Ill Fated (9)
A white radiance swirled around Cloud.
Kelidon and the other Lords felt their skin prickle from the divine power emanating from the light.
If it affected them, the pinnacles of vampire-kind, one could only imagine its effect on the others.
The lower-ranked vampires writhed in agony from the divine power Cloud exuded.
Pathetic fools.
Just as the Lords, unable to watch any longer, were about to step in, Cloud suddenly withdrew his divine power. The Lords froze, puzzled by his action.
What is he thinking?
Even if the vampires were under the protection of the Black Sun, the divine power he had just unleashed was not something they could ignore. If he fought while cloaked in that power, even the Lords would have struggled.
Yet Cloud had withdrawn it.
…Could it be that he can't use it for long?
It didn't take long for the vampires to reach that conclusion. But with no concrete evidence, none of them dared to make a move.
In that moment, Cloud activated the power of the patterns etched onto his skin.
<Pattern of the Behemoth>
(Berserk)
-50% Accuracy
+100% to all stats.
As he went berserk, his vision blurred, but vitality began to surge through his body.
<Pattern of the Ogre>
[Active]
-Temporarily doubles Strength
-50% Armor Penetration
His muscle fibers, refined by the berserk state, swelled. He could feel a strength that was incomparable to before. He felt a sense of omnipotence, as if he could crush anything in his grasp. But Cloud did not become intoxicated by this feeling.
Cloud was not so weak a man as to be drunk on such a meager boost in power.
“Ophelia, put up a barrier.”
“Yes!”
Thankfully, Ophelia was lucid this time. She immediately brought her hands together and recited a prayer.
The holy light emanating from her hands transformed into a barrier that repelled all that was wicked.
Cloud examined the barrier and nodded.
This should hold for a while.
“You two, don't leave the barrier.”
“What? Are you saying you’re going to fight all these vampires by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“That’s insane!”
It was Katarina who protested.
She was terrified of the vampire horde filling the plaza, but she didn't want to leave Cloud to fight those dangerous fiends alone.
“If we're fighting, we fight together!”
Katarina drew her two curved swords and tried to step out of the barrier. Cloud glanced at Ophelia.
“Stop her.”
“Yes!”
Ophelia, who had been kneeling, shot to her feet, hooked her arms under Katarina’s armpits, and held her back.
“Ophelia?! What are you doing!”
“The Hero's orders are absolute!”
“What the—?! Let me go!”
“Just give up. You don't have the strength to break free from me, Katarina!”
“You little—!”
Katarina struggled to get away, but she was no match for Ophelia, who had been rigorously trained by Cloud.
Watching Katarina flail in Ophelia’s grasp, Cloud smirked, then turned his body and shielded his face with the flat of his blade.
Scraaaape—
Kelidon’s claws scraped across the surface of the holy sword.
“I meant to take your head, but you're quite nimble.”
A knife-hand strike immediately followed the thrust.
It was on a completely different level from the vampire at the castle gate. Knowing it would be bad to get hit, Cloud leaped back, dodging the strike and creating distance at the same time.
The moment he landed on the ground…
Snatch—!
A pair of skeletal hands shot out from the ground and grabbed Cloud's ankles. And it wasn't just one pair. Soon, more than ten pairs of hands were wrapped around his legs.
These were no ordinary skeletons; the resistance he felt from his legs was considerable.
Still, it wasn't enough to hold him. Just as he tensed his legs to break free, a swarm of bats flew toward him, bursting and scattering blood everywhere.
The blood vaporized in mid-air, transforming into a red mist that swallowed Cloud whole.
-I wonder what a Hero's blood tastes like. I do hope it's not too coppery.
Inside the blood mist.
Hearing a woman's cackling laughter from all directions, Cloud quietly murmured.
“Lux sancta (O, holy light).”
For a brief moment, the holy sword glowed white.
-Ghk?! Gyaaaaaah!!!
The blood mist shrieked horribly and spat Cloud out. The skeletal hands that had been holding him had long since melted away from the divine power, so as he was ejected from the mist, he was literally flung away.
“Huh? Whoa?!”
“He’s coming this way!”
He was sent flying toward the lower-ranked vampires who had been watching from the sidelines.
The vampires tried to attack Cloud in their own ways, but his reaction was faster.
As he flew through the air, Cloud spun and cut down all the vampires that approached him.
He landed on their corpses and immediately kicked off. Thud, thud, thud! Five vampires landed where he had just been, plunging their swords into the bodies.
When their attack failed, they immediately drew and threw hidden weapons. Watching the projectiles fly toward him, Cloud moved his sword.
[Rapid Sword Dance]
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sword, moving too fast for the eye to follow, deflected all the hidden weapons.
Among the vampires who had thrown them was one with a scar over his right eye.
The Lord, Sigrid, was impressed.
“Fast. I thought even Gis would have had trouble reacting to that surprise attack.”
Stroking his chin for a moment, he pulled his sword from the vampire's corpse and stood up.
“What a waste. It would have been wonderful if someone like you were the Hero of the Kalita Kingdom. Well… I suppose that's just a fleeting fantasy.”
Sigrid whistled, unable to hide his disappointment. At his signal, assassins hidden among the buildings, pillars, and corpses rushed toward Cloud in unison.
Cloud narrowed his eyes at the assassins swarming him from all sides.
Werewolves.
The nimble assassins all had the appearance of demi-humans, with wolf ears, tails, and fur covering parts of their bodies.
It was a different manifestation from Shedia, who maintained a completely human form.
Perhaps if he hadn't met Shedia that day, or if he had failed to win her over, she might have been among his enemies here now.
Fighting Shedia to the death…
Cloud pictured Shedia tilting her head with a blank expression and let out a small chuckle.
But the reverie was brief.
Cloud's eyes turned cold. He leaped forward and tore through the dozen or so assassins blocking his path. In an instant, he was before Sigrid, murmuring.
“da virtutem (give strength).”
The holy sword began to glow pure white, and it was now so obscured by light that the shape of the blade itself was no longer visible.
Sigrid’s eyes widened at the dense divine power contained within the sword.
Dangerous.
That was something that must never touch his body.
But it was too late to dodge.
Sigrid had no choice but to draw out his blood magic to its fullest and envelop his body in a blood barrier.
Cloud swung the sword of light downward.
Slice—
The blood barrier, capable of blocking even high-level magic at least once, was utterly useless before Cloud's holy sword. Along with the barrier, Sigrid's body was split in two, from the crown of his head to his groin.
Before his bisected body could even fall to the ground, it turned to ash and scattered in the wind.
The vampires froze at the shocking sight.
How much divine power had to be condensed into that holy sword for a Lord to be reduced to ash, leaving not even a corpse behind?
It was only then that the Lords and the other vampires realized…
that they were by no means in a position of superiority!
Sensing the crisis, Kelidon shouted.
“All units, attack the Hero at once! Use any means necessary. It doesn't matter if allies get caught in the crossfire. As long as the Hero dies, all sins will be forgiven!”
As he yelled, he manipulated his blood magic. The blood flowing on the ground gathered and solidified, taking the shape of a massive sword.
Delta, the vampire who commanded the undead, used all his magic power. The magic extended from him and raised the corpses of the knights scattered about.
The werewolf assassins, now masterless, also lowered their stances, aiming their thin blades.
Only the vampires who specialized solely in blood magic did not prepare to attack.
They were the retainers of Hailey, the master of blood magic.
Rather than questioning Hailey, Kelidon and Delta chose to attack immediately.
With every word Cloud muttered, the divine power surrounding him grew stronger. They instinctively knew that any further delay would lead to an irreversible situation.
“Kill him!”
The knights, awakened from death, charged toward Cloud, their torn flesh flapping. The assassins hid in the undeads' shadows, waiting for an opportunity, while Kelidon and his retainers descended upon Cloud from the sky.
The scent of death filled the air from all directions.
It was a familiar scent, so there was no fear, no anxiety.
Cloud plunged his holy sword into the ground and chanted the final spell.
“potestas vincere diaboli (the power to conquer the devil).”
The white radiance that erupted from the holy sword bleached the entire city in light.