Where the Chain Lightning Had Raged
A heavy silence settled over the ground where the chain lightning had torn through.
Even for Yujun, that linked technique had been no simple matter. Cold sweat stood out on his face.
All but a few of the celestials were dead. Of everything the chain lightning had struck, only one still drew breath, and faintly at that—the Lord of the Forest.
They said it was immortal. Looking at it now, I can believe it.
In truth, the one that had taken the most direct hit, right at the center, was the Lord of the Forest. And it was the only one that had endured.
This goes well beyond simply being tough.
If it had survived even that, then nothing he did in the moment was likely to take its life. His aim had never been to kill it, in any case. It was to put it to sleep. He drew out the glass bottle of white liquid he had received from Kim Yohan.
From the look of things, I'll be using this soon enough.
He watched the Lord of the Forest groan in pain, and then his face hardened.
Wait.
Think it through, and putting the Lord of the Forest to sleep meant nothing. The creature had woken months earlier than it was supposed to. He had been told a margin of error that large was utterly impossible, which meant the celestials of the Moderate Faction had used some method to force it awake. Bending it to their will was the same story.
They had woken it once. Why would a second time be beyond them? They clearly knew the method and had already carried it out. However troublesome that method might be, they would be able to do it again. In that case, using the white liquid to send the Lord of the Forest back to sleep would accomplish very little.
Unless he cut the problem off at the root, there could be no perfect ending.
The moment he understood that, Yujun turned toward Utria.
I'd like to interrogate her. But she might slip away again, the way she did before, so I'm better off not trying. There's no guarantee it would work, either.
Yujun activated Super Concentration.
The instant his feet left the ground, he triggered Rapid Advance (A). Utria reacted exactly as he had expected and moved to meet him. That was when he used Flash, loosed at an impeccable instant. Yujun was already fast. With Flash laid over that speed, he simply vanished, and keeping up with him was beyond Utria.
A sword appeared at her back before she knew it and punched through the rear of her skull. She died without so much as a final cry.
The celestial who had stood as Heaven's vanguard commander—who had clung to life even through a fight with Yujun—was dead. Almost no celestials remained who might have mourned her.
The few still living fled, each reporting the situation by messenger to the celestial who stood above them. And that was the last thing they ever did.
Shlick. Shlick. The blades had been swung so fast that the celestials never even felt their necks come away.
Your infamy spreads far and wide throughout Heaven!
You have caught the eye of the Impartial Demon.
"Huh?"
He had never seen a message like that before.
The Impartial Demon?
The strange name was one thing. Did the system really go out of its way to report that someone was watching him?
When he had played War of the Gods, infamy had certainly existed. Kill enough of a race known to be neutral or good, rather than an evil one, and word of your infamy would spread. On the Continent, killing demons never raised it, no matter how many he cut down. In the Demon Realm, by contrast, killing demons had often brought up a message that his infamy was spreading.
I think this is the first time it's appeared since I came to the Tower of Infinity.
Was it the system's way of telling him to ease off, now that he had killed so many celestials?
If the system is trying to protect the celestials...
There was nothing to be gained by going against that will. He felt a flicker of unease. But was Yujun the sort of man to bend to something like that?
Well, it didn't come out and tell me to stop. Killing more shouldn't be a problem.
What nagged at him was the line about catching the Impartial Demon's eye. He had drawn its gaze—and then what, exactly?
The Impartial Demon is probably something divine.
The circumstances pointed that way. It was only a guess, born of the feeling that the system would not bother telling him he had caught the eye of some ordinary player.
While he waited for the Lord of the Forest to recover, slowly, Yujun sent a message to Atradeon, asking what it meant that he had drawn the Impartial Demon's attention.
That was the end of his exchange with Atradeon.
The Impartial Demon, Petrui. Killing so many celestials seemed to have drawn the being's interest, but was Yujun really the only one who had slaughtered them? He decided not to dwell on it. Besides, there was no proof that everything Atradeon had said was true.
"Yubyoobing. Bubub."
At some point the Lord of the Forest had recovered completely, and it came charging at Yujun. Hideous as the thing was, the longer he looked, the more a strange fondness for it crept in. He still had no desire to lay a bare hand on it.
It ran itself onto his sword in the very posture of its charge. The blade pierced the head, where the brain lay, and the creature's movement stopped.
He had set Chaos into the sword, but this would not kill it. Sure enough, the Lord of the Forest soon began to squirm. Bubbles rose through its skin, and its color shifted in mottled blotches from one moment to the next. From the punctured head seeped not blood but a purple liquid, and with it a staggering stench. Yujun scowled and drew back.
How was he supposed to deal with something that would not die even to Chaos? Killing it would be best, but that, he had been told, was impossible. If the Absolute Sealing Orb had worked on the thing, he would never have had to ponder the question in the first place.
Even so, Yujun took out the Absolute Sealing Orb. He had no intention of imprisoning the Lord of the Forest. He meant to summon someone.
Not Balrog. The Blood Lord.
This would be the first time he released the Blood Lord from the sealing orb.
Light burst outward.
He summoned the Blood Lord without a moment's hesitation.
"Gyaaaaaaah!"
What left the Blood Lord the instant he came into the world was not a savage roar. It was a scream of pain.
"Suffer in moderation, will you?"
The Blood Lord glared at Yujun, eyes burning with indignation.
"You! A worthless speck I could grind up and drink and still find wanting, and you dare—"
"Behind you."
The immortal Lord of the Forest attacked the immortal Blood Lord. It had no weapon at all. It simply crashed into him with its body, and yet the impact was enormous. The Blood Lord was blasted far back through the air.
"Strongest of the vampires, and this is how slow you are..."
But the Blood Lord was immortal in the end. In moments he stood before Yujun again, wholly unharmed.
A thunderous crash.
"Kehuk!"
Once again the Lord of the Forest rammed him from behind. For reasons Yujun could not guess, it seemed to be going after the Blood Lord alone. Whatever the cause, the aggro had locked firmly onto him.
The Blood Lord looked liable to flee. Yujun closed in at once.
"Did you do something to that thing?"
"What in the world is that creature? Tell me why it attacks me."
"How should I know? Seems it just doesn't like you. Oh—maybe it's this. 'One immortal is quite enough for this world, and that immortal is me!' Something like that."
"You are saying that hideous monster is an immortal?"
"So they say. Sealing doesn't even work on it. This is your first time seeing it, right?"
"It is."
The Blood Lord answered readily enough—and then, without warning, lashed out with razor claws.
The swing hissed past. It missed, of course. The gulf between Yujun and the Blood Lord was vaster than one could imagine, and the vampire glared at him as if the failure stung.
"Right. What was your name again? I can't keep calling you Blood Lord."
"Marcus. The name of the great vampire who will kill you. See that you remember it."
"You and Balrog both. Far too much defiance."
"In my place, would you obey the likes of you?"
"No."
Then the Lord of the Forest charged Marcus once more. Its speed was tremendous. Marcus moved to dodge, but he could not slip clear entirely.
"Keuk!"
A blow caught him in the side, and Marcus dropped to his knees.
Seen like this, the Lord of the Forest really is strong...
Of course, the power Marcus held did not come from Marcus himself. It came from his thralls. Those thralls were stronger than the Blood Lord. Gain him, and those powerful thralls would fall into Yujun's grasp as well. That was why Yujun had kept him in the sealing orb and carried him about.
Even after that, the Lord of the Forest came on in a stubborn rush, aiming for the Blood Lord alone. Yujun knit his brow, formed five swords through Sword Unity, and drove them one after another into the creature's body.
"Yubing! Ooboobing! Wak!"
It seemed to feel the pain. It screamed, saliva stringing from its mouth. Just as Yujun had intended, the Lord of the Forest could not move a finger. It was fixed utterly in place.
Blood Lord Marcus had been watching. Relief loosened his voice.
"Why did you draw me out again?"
"I need your ability."
"My ability? That creature looks well within your power to handle."
"Are you an idiot? Use some common sense. Why would I need your muscle?"
"Then say what you mean!"
"Make that thing your thrall."
Yujun pointed at the Lord of the Forest, pinned where it stood and run through by five swords.