Chapter 237
Chapter 237
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 237
Chapter Title: Contamination
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Right after the siren blared throughout the entire base, they could tell from the vibrations alone that an enormous horde of enemies was swarming toward them.
-Rumble rumble rumble
"Looks like a massive number are coming. At least it's not the sound of organized squads of ten."
"We should probably have at least one person block the entrance. What do you think?"
"Step back for a moment."
-Fwoosh
As she ignited flames and revealed her rarely seen ears and tail, the Sword Empress retreated far from the door.
And then...
-Roarrrrr!!!
"This should be enough to hold off the small fry."
"..."
The Sword Empress swallowed hard as she gazed at the wall of scarlet flames that filled not just the door but their entire approach tunnel.
She had heard that sorcery existed, but seeing shamanistic power of this magnitude up close for the first time left her stunned.
It was something utterly different from martial arts.
Even the most intensely Yang-based arts could manifest flames through internal energy, but erecting a pillar of fire like that was in a completely different realm from martial prowess.
"This can hold for about an hour like this, but let's try to wrap it up as quickly as possible if we can. Our original plan was for a swift strike anyway."
"Y-Yes... understood."
"Hmm... So how do we subdue him? Are there any conditions for using that spell of yours?"
"...Borrow a body?"
"Hmm..."
"In that case, it'll be fine."
-Fwoosh
She quietly ignited flames in her hand as she watched the Sword Empress join the fray to support Ye So-cheon, where all three were now entangled in combat.
By rights, she should have completed a millennium of cultivation and shed her yokai form long ago, but because of that wretched disciple, her tail was still split into nine, and her cultivation hadn't advanced much.
Of course, reaching that realm might mean she couldn't remain on earth anyway, so she had no intention of ascending immediately.
Still, there was a world of difference between being able to ascend but choosing not to, and not being ready yet.
And in any case, this level of power was more than enough.
Teaming up with those two, capturing the weirdo in strange clothes would be a breeze.
'Damn... damn it...!!'
Barshutain was at his wit's end.
He had been on guard for Erdel's arrival ever since learning she was connected to this world, but he never imagined the natives of this world would boldly storm in instead.
Even after arriving here, he had continued to view the Central Plains as a barbaric backwater.
Those who practiced the mysteries of martial arts displayed might comparable to aura users from his homeland, but since magic didn't exist here, he felt a profound sense of superiority.
Aura users were always at a disadvantage against mages in war anyway.
And in this world, no such mages even existed, so they had no countermeasures against magic at all.
That was how it should have been...
-Fwoosh!
'Why the hell does a shaman exist here?!'
That woman.
The blonde with fox ears and tail was the biggest variable.
Of course, his investigations had revealed that shamanism existed in this world too.
But the records suggested it was on a very low level, with 99% of mysteries dominated by martial arts and formations, so he had dismissed it as practically nonexistent...
-Crackle crackle crackle!
-Scrabble!
"Kugh!"
In terms of mage realms, she wasn't inferior to him at all.
And the form of her shamanism differed greatly from what he knew.
If anything, it resembled the nature-dwelling druids, but the destructive power of the fireballs occasionally flying his way was no joke,
and facing off against two sword wielders was taxing enough without having to guard against her spells whenever an opening appeared. It was driving him mad.
'...Chances of victory are slim.'
He quickly finished his calculations.
For all his pride, when his life was on the line, his mind worked far faster than usual, so he decided swiftly.
He had fragmented his soul in advance, so losing this body wouldn't kill him outright, but losing his main vessel would cause a massive loss of power.
With His resurrection ritual already underway, his death would throw a massive wrench into it.
If it failed outright, he could survive and prepare for years to try again, but the problem was that a transcendent's resurrection ritual didn't work that way.
Once their existence was etched into a world, the failure rate skyrocketed on retries.
He had to see this ritual through somehow.
-Crunch
If he could complete it by sacrificing his life, he'd gladly do so, but at this progress, even that was impossible.
Those damned three wouldn't let him pull any tricks anyway.
So only one option remained.
'Wait for an opening, grab the ritual's core, and run...'
"Think you can escape?!"
-Gasp!
"You crawl into our world and don't just quietly die—you cause all sorts of trouble, so stop hiding and just drop dead!!!"
-Crackle crackle crackle!!!!
Had she seen through his plan?
The blue saintess of this world charged an attack so infused with pent-up rage that sparks warped the space around her.
-Chill!
'I have to dodge this.'
This strike would overwhelm even if he gathered all his barriers.
His instincts screamed it, and he moved to evade,
but
-Shing
'...When did she...?'
Every escape route was already filled with swords brimming with internal energy.
Even relying on a vampire's regenerative power and contorting his body, dodging was impossible amid the densely packed blades dominating the space.
As a last resort, he hastily cast a short-range teleport,
but
-Fwoosh
'That damned bitch...!'
This world's beastkin shaman, ignorant of even the letter M in magic, burned the ambient mana to disrupt him.
The moment he realized every escape was sealed, the blue sword strike was already upon him,
and
'...Shit.'
"Dieeeee!!!"
-Boom!!!!!!
In an instant, his vision drowned in azure light.
-Crackle... crackle...
"Kuhk... cough..."
After leaving a massive gash across Barshutain's chest, the three sprang into action.
Ye So-cheon's strike had nearly killed him, which would have ruined the plan, but she barely managed to calibrate her power, driving him to the brink of death.
Give him time like this, and he'd recover or pull some trick to escape—it was obvious.
-Crunch! Crunch!
"Grk!"
"I'll pin him down. Hurry."
The Sword Empress fixed the vampire lord's body with her sword, while Ye So-cheon stood ready to decapitate him at any moment to prevent further schemes.
"What now?"
"Mm..."
"Yes. That's it."
In an instant, control of the ritual shifted.
A normal person might fear their body moving by another's will or worry about never regaining control, but she simply observed the situation with curious eyes.
Part of it was her naturally curious nature,
but mostly because her disciple had already been through it—what could go wrong?
Thanks to that, she didn't panic at the alien energy in her body and calmly watched the wondrous phenomenon unfolding before her eyes through her own flesh.
"Now it's time to end this, Barshutain. I'd love to watch you writhe in maximum agony before dying, but time's short, so this'll have to do."
"Kugh... y-you... you...!! Erdel!!!!!!"
"Shut up. Every time you say my name, it feels like maggots crawling over my skin."
"Erdel Bright!!!! How long will you keep interfering before you're satisfied?! You hounded me relentlessly in that world, and now you follow me to another just to sabotage me!!!!!"
-Hummm
A white magic circle bloomed over Erdel's hand, now in control of the body.
"...Wait. That spell."
"Not worth explaining to you."
"Haha! So you've finally completed that damned spell? How many people did you grind up just to kill me? That spell's useless to anyone but me, and to make it, you sacrificed hundreds of your already scarce allies, failed to finish in time, and hunted down my soul fragments one by one."
"..."
-Crunch
A crack began forming in Erdel's nearly expressionless face midway through the spell's casting.
She still seemed to maintain her composure, but...
"Right, you only cared about that one hero— the rest of humanity could rot for all you cared. On the battlefield, you dumped holy power to save one hero and let thousands of allies die in his place, didn't you?"
"..."
"You think you know that hero best, but I investigated him plenty too. You know he tried to kill himself dozens of times?"
"...Shut up."
"Of course you'd know! How could you not know everything about your precious hero? You just turned a blind eye! 'Hero must live!'"
"...I said shut up."
-Hummm
The magic circle that had been steadily rising from Erdel's hand, methodically burning Barshutain's soul, began to waver slightly.
"How many died because of your lofty saintess title? Haha! The hero probably hated you deep down! How many years did your selfishness force on him—a life where he wanted to die but couldn't..."
"Shut up!!!!!!!!!!"
-Clang!
Her hand, poised over his heart, rose to his throat and began throttling him,
and
"What do you know about the hero?! What do you know?! A scrap born of death like you thinks you know him better than me?! Do you have any idea how much you hurt him!!!!"
"Gurk... That's why he wanted to die. My goal was to kill him; yours was to save him. Steel hardens with hammering and quenching, but humans aren't steel, are they?"
"Shut up!! Shut up!! Because of you... because of you, the hero... If not for you!!!"
"Oh dear. Your tantrum tells me your precious hero ended up dying after all? What a shame. I should have at least attended the funeral out of spite."
"Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
-Thud! Thud!
She finally lost half her reason, grabbing Barshutain's head and repeatedly smashing it into the floor.
There seemed to be bad blood, so she'd stayed quiet, but something felt off about how this was going.
She was supposed to annihilate his soul, but the energy manipulation had stopped,
and now it just looked like pure rage venting.
She'd struck a raw nerve properly.
"C-Calm down. I get you're angry, but annihilating him comes first..."
Ye So-cheon tried to soothe the saintess, but in that instant, he caught a faint, unmistakable sneer on the vampire lord's face.
-Chill!
-Crackle!
Feeling ominous, Ye So-cheon swung his sword down, but the anomaly struck even faster.
-Boom!
"?!"
The red orb in the room exploded.
The deathly and blood-red energies swirling around it began engulfing them,
and
"Th-This is—!"
-Screee!
Only then did Erdel snap out of it and erect a barrier around them.
.
.
.
"E-Everyone okay?"
"I-I'm fine..."
After the wave of death swept the room,
amid fog so thick even their cultivation couldn't pierce it easily, they called out to locate each other.
"Me too... seems okay..."
"Wh-Where are you? I'll come to you."
"...If you would."
Ye So-cheon and the Sword Empress converged on her voice, only to freeze upon seeing her.
"W-Wait. Why do you look like th—"
"Are you alright?!"
Her once-golden hair and fur were now streaked with black and red in places.
It was obvious at a glance that she wasn't fine.
"It's not dangerous... just... a bit of energy contamination..."
She waved it off casually, lifting a hand,
then
-Thud
went limp and collapsed to the floor.
"H-Hey, snap out of it! If you collapse here..."
"The flames are gone! They're breaching—"
"Ye So-cheon!"
"Damn it...! I'll carry her—you clear the path!"
Obviously, the vampire lord had vanished without a trace.
Ye So-cheon's final swing had felt like it hit something, but the explosion had swept over them, leaving it uncertain.
"Damn that witch...!"
Ye So-cheon ground his teeth at the white witch who had turned a winnable situation into a drag with her sudden outburst, hurriedly hoisting the fallen woman,
and
"Let's go!"
-Clang clang clang!
They carved through the vampires before them and began their escape from the underground base.