43. The Struggle (2)
Heila fell silent the moment she finished speaking.
Her gaze was unfathomable.
Eyes coldly sunken, yet swirling with heat. Apathy and longing churned together, making her true intent impossible to read.
Gulp. The sound rang in my ears like a war drum. I had swallowed dryly without even realizing it.
...Right. Of course I was tense. I'd been thrown into a situation I never saw coming.
In Phoinix's memories, Heila was nothing like this.
She had been beautiful and brilliant, but somehow absent — like a lifeless doll, a woman from whom no will of her own could ever be felt.
That was why, even when Heila succumbed to some nameless illness and entered the sacred sanctuary of the Twin Ducal Houses, Phoinix had shown no particular concern. Even though she was his own fiancée.
Had that indifference poisoned things between them?
Even having absorbed Phoinix's soul and memories, I never imagined Heila would go so far as to stage this abduction.
Meanwhile, digging through my memories as Kim Seung-soo, Build 15 had never been a particularly powerful character.
...Was it Build 15, or 14? No, 16? It's all blurred together. Whatever — that's not what matters right now.
About eight or nine years ago, I'd once researched a Blood Knight build. It was one that pumped magic power above all else to maximize the potency of Blood Craft — the so-called Blood Mage build.
Long story short, the Blood Mage build was a failure.
The potential was actually pretty decent, but no matter how I refined the build, small flaws kept surfacing. The offense-defense balance collapsed, leveling it was brutally grindy, the item setup was a nightmare — flaws like that.
After a dozen or so attempts I finally abandoned the Blood Mage build, and the leftover remnant of that experimentation was a female Blood Knight character — Build IX.
Had that history made me underestimate her? I had never once expected Build IX — Heila — to be this strong.
"......Whew."
I was rattled by the unexpected situation, but I forced my breathing steady and quieted my heart. Then, gripping Hrunting and the round shield, I glared up at Heila.
She loomed over me, clad in Iron Blood Armor all the way up to just beneath her jawline, staring down. Her crimson lips parted slowly.
"You won't accept the trade? Everyone will die."
"...Ha."
That tone of hers — she talked exactly like a terrorist.
I spat out the feeling rising up from my chest, word for word.
"I'm not the one threatening to kill people. You are. Don't talk like it's my fault they'll die, you psycho bitch."
Heila's eyes blinked rapidly, twice. She held her silence for a moment, then spoke again.
"Regardless, their lives come down to your choice, Phoi."
"Bullshit."
"Think rationally. If you want Ellen and Atalante to live."
The curtain of blood blanketing the region — the Realm of the Blood King — rippled threateningly. Magic so overt and so powerful that even an ordinary villager would have sensed the menace pressed down on everything from every direction.
Atalante hung limp inside that crimson curtain, hair undone and unconscious, alongside Ellen, who was gasping for each breath with visible difficulty.
In that instant, my eyes met Ellen's.
Even as her face flushed red from suffocation, she was burning her blue eyes with something I couldn't tell was fury or sheer willpower...
"......Whew." I tore my gaze away and took a deep breath, deliberately pressing down the rage and hostility hammering at my chest.
After a moment of steadying myself,
I shifted my eyes with Kim Seung-soo's cunning — and opened my mouth with Phoinix's voice.
"...You people are just like ants."
"Ants?"
"Yeah. Ants — the emotionless kind who'll do absolutely anything for the prosperity of the colony."
Just like facing any other caster, the key to fighting a blood mage was closing the distance. I had to endure or evade her attacks and shorten the gap as fast as I possibly could.
I stepped up onto the rubble of the gate and kept talking.
"No — wait. You're not even as good as ants."
"Why?"
"Because at least they have no inferiority complexes, no lust for vengeance, no filthy desires."
The unique dagger Bloodlet caught my eye. The rare-grade Gloves of the Milky Way I'd seen before, and her cloak was probably the magic-grade Cloak of Protection.
I licked my lower lip and climbed another step.
"Phoi, stop right th—"
"If you had."
I quickly cut off Heila's words.
"If you'd said you loved me and asked me to come back to Ailant with you — maybe, just maybe, I'd have wavered a little."
Her ink-black eyes blinked slowly.
"Yeah, I know. Those who carry the blood of Jahakar and Valuin never say things like that."
She would cast Cloud of Blood and Swamp of Blood with her own abilities, and with the dagger Bloodlet's power she'd command Crimson Thorns and Blood Wind too. Ah — and from what I'd seen before she donned the Iron Blood Armor, she had about five rounds of Star Bullets left.
I gripped the round shield once more and took another step.
"Right — you can't. You people hate lying."
"Phoi."
"And that justifies pulling this kind of stunt? You'll slaughter every soul in Longville and then drag me off?"
"If you dislike that, accept the trade."
"Did you actually think I'd tamely become your kept husband once you dragged me to Ailant?"
"Not a kept husband — an Incarnator. Glorious, as the heir of the Blood King—"
Heila broke off mid-sentence and whipped her head around. Somewhere to the right, magic had come surging up.
Vmmm.
The one raising her magic was none other than Ellen. Bound hand and foot, choked to the throat — she had cast a spell!
Heila neither flinched nor panicked. She simply tightened the Realm of the Blood King around Ellen's body, harder and harder.
"Khh—"
The moment Ellen doubled over coughing, I took two running steps and leapt high into the air.
"Ha!"
Thud—
Bracing one hand against a massive boulder, I hauled myself up and thrust Hrunting out in the same motion. An ambush that erased considerable distance and height in a single instant.
Even so, Heila answered with perfect composure. She twisted her shoulder as the Iron Blood Armor sealed over her face to the very last scale.
Kraaak—
The milky-white blade carved a fresh scar into the dark-crimson scales.
The armor didn't shatter, but the impact clearly reached her. Heila staggered backward.
Rather than pressing after her, I raised the blood-coated round shield over my head.
At that very moment, the assault began raining down from the sky — from the Realm of the Blood King itself. Blood shards scattered like bursting grenades, and thorns thicker than my own thigh hammered down hard enough to split the shield in two.
"Ughk—"
I blunted the barrage with my shield and my shoulders. My armor tore and my skin split open, but I gritted my teeth and pushed toward Heila.
Then, an explosion.
KWAANG—! I glanced toward the source of the surging heat and saw Ellen wreathed in flame. Even bound by Heila's restraints, she had somehow completed a fireball and detonated it right where she hung.
A great hole tore through Heila's curtain of blood — yet not a single strand of Ellen's hair had singed. Her robe had granted her immunity to flame.
Falling nearly ten meters, Ellen summoned the Dancing Spirit just before she would have slammed into the ground.
Whumm!
The spirit caught her in its arms.
The belated wind slowed her descent considerably, but she still hit the ground hard, rolled violently, and blacked out.
"Ellen..."
I let out a breath of relief — and at the same time clenched my jaw. Then, in the instant Heila's Cloud of Blood and Crimson Thorns paused between volleys, I hurled myself at her.
The crimson rain beat against the shield, my shoulders, my entire body. I smeared the blood welling from my wounds over Hrunting and drew my blood energy up higher.
"Huu, hoo—"
...Ah, this is such a dog move. My head's been flickering in and out — I'd sworn to seal this skill away for a while precisely because of that.
My hesitation was brief. The blood energy I'd drawn up surged all the way to the crown of my skull. My vision flooded red, and my lips went parched.
"—"
Pop.
A sound as though something had snapped — or connected.
At the same moment, Blood Thirst jolted my senses razor-sharp.
Shuuuu—
The crimson shards and thorns raining down from above slowed, falling gentler than snowflakes.
"—?"
I tilted the shield slightly and swung Hrunting over my head.
Within the slowed world, the blade, steeped in brilliant red, left afterimages as it swept through. The crimson thorns burst apart with a dull tududung.
Most of the blood shards were caught on the shield after that; the ones I failed to block buried themselves in my shoulder and forearms.
Heila's Blood Craft and magic were, indeed, monstrously powerful.
The shards she scattered sheared through enchanted fur pelts and chainmail in a single stroke, and they shredded even the hardened skin and muscle I'd tempered through my moltings as though they were nothing.
"Hhaa..."
And yet, strangely, I felt no pain. Only a numb tongue and a heat pooling low in my gut.
I crossed three steps in what felt like a single leap and stood before Heila. She reached her hand out toward me.
I stared at that hand — then twisted my shoulder aside.
THWANG—!
A Star Bullet. Exactly the attack I'd anticipated.
As Heila retreated and extended her opposite arm, I threw myself at her and swung Hrunting wildly.
"Aagh—"
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG— the sound of metal stretched long and unbroken. Blood-drunk, Hrunting flicked its tongue and struck the Iron Blood Armor three, four, five times, all over. The dark-crimson scales that had looked so unbreakable cracked and sprayed in every direction.
Even staggering, Heila bent her upper body low and thrust out her right hand, dagger clenched.
Ah. Short, slow, sloppy.
Her pathetic attack irritated me so much I flung away the ruined shield, then reached out with my left hand.
My grip closed around her wrist in an instant — and just then, Heila's hand glowed faintly.
THWANG—! Another Star Bullet.
I wrenched her hand up toward the sky and crushed, then twisted, her wrist.
Krrrkk.
A scream — KYAAAAAH— — rang out. Of everything she had voiced, it was the most beautiful and the most pure.
Just as that scream died away, I broke her other hand too.
I wanted to sever both her wrists then and there, but the Iron Blood Armor, sealed seamlessly over her, stood in my way.
Then — a long skewer drove diagonally into my back.
FWOOSH.
"Ughk—"
Heila was swallowing her screams with both wrists broken, but the Realm of the Blood King she had cast still stood firm. From it, a crimson thorn had lanced into my back.
The thorn, burrowing in a full hand-span deep, pulped my intestines on its way through and poked out through my lower belly. Euphoria or whatever else — the pain was so monstrous it flipped my eyes white.
"Uuuuh—"
So, eyes rolled back, I threw myself onto Heila anyway. The left hand that had crushed her wrists snatched up her right ankle this time — and squeezed.
Crakk.
Another scream.
I pulled with my grip and toppled her over. Then I brought Hrunting down with everything I had.
KRAANG!
With every swing, the armor across her belly heaved and buckled. The crimson thorn was driving deeper and deeper into me.
Fortunately, the pain didn't last.
The Iron Blood Armor, endlessly self-repairing on a supply of blood fed down from the Realm of the Blood King, failed to withstand the concentrated shock and finally exposed the flesh beneath.
The gap was tiny. Barely the size of a fist, at most.
For me, of course, it was more than enough.
"Heh, heh."
Hrunting's tip sank into Heila's belly. Someone's breath — no telling whose — came hot and ragged.
With the blade buried in her stomach, I pinned her pelvis and shoulder down with my knees. With my left hand I seized her face and drove it into the ground.
FWOOSH.
Another skewer bored through my shoulder into my chest. It didn't matter.
The Iron Blood Armor, restored to full form in moments, tried to push out the blade its master had been impaled on — but it couldn't overcome my brute strength. Thanks to that, Hrunting stayed buried in Heila's stomach.
The blade's tip flicked its tongue. The rich blood I had Plundered from her coursed through my entire body.
Wounds carved across me closed up in the space of a breath. A vitality I could never have wrung from slaughtering dozens of grown men washed over me. Riding that ferocious regeneration, I pushed the crimson thorns out of my back and shoulder.
"Haaah, ugh—"
The indescribable sensation made me feel as if I might shoot up into the sky at any second. I couldn't contain the euphoria — I opened my mouth. And somewhere, a strange voice was screaming.
'...More. Deeper, MORE! MORE—!'
I'd heard that voice a number of times before, but this time it wasn't so much egging me on as raging like a madman... Using that violent revulsion as fuel, my consciousness snapped awake in an instant.
"—HUP!"
I jerked upright, gasping hard.
Damn it all — that voice, again—
"Uuuuh—"
The sound coming from beneath me snapped me fully back. I realized the fight wasn't over yet.
I toppled Heila as she tried to rise, pinned her down, and roared straight into her ear.
"STOP IT! IT'S OVER!"
"—"
"STOP IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE—!"
Heila thrashed desperately, both wrists and her right ankle bent at angles they shouldn't bend, Hrunting still planted in her belly.
But with her miserable strength, she could never overpower me. Far less in her gravely wounded state.
"We are — my destiny—"
"Damn it, what the hell are you muttering about?"
But I wasn't in a position to breathe easy either.
The Realm of the Blood King was still standing, after all. Give Heila even a moment to raise her magic again, and she'd unleash another storm of attacks.
"...Fine. Let's try it, then."
My whole body seethed with blood energy from guzzling Heila's blood with my eyes rolled back. Call it charged to about three hundred percent.
I gathered that seething energy into my left hand and seized Heila's face.
Then my blood energy — my magic — reached out and began stripping away her control over the Iron Blood Armor.
Tsstssts—
My magic was a paltry 23. Heila's had to be higher than Ellen's, so call it around 40. Her proficiency in Blood Craft would be beyond comparison to mine, too.
So me stealing command of her blood? A pipe dream — I couldn't even dream of it.
But right now, the story was a little different. Heila was wounded all over and, above all, had Hrunting buried in her gut.
At this point it was, well — exactly like starting negotiations with a gun pressed to your forehead.
"Nnngh, ugh—"
Every time Heila strained to raise her magic, I drank her blood down through Hrunting. Then I poured the blood energy I'd siphoned right back toward her face, stealing away the armor's control.
"—"
Like a heated knife sinking into a block of butter, the dark-crimson scales bubbled and melted away. Heila's white face emerged.
"Let go of—!"
"Nnngh — let's see here."
Pressing down her struggling body, I rummaged through my inner pocket and pulled out the copper vial.
Dented here and there, but nothing seemed to have leaked. Thank God it hadn't been glass.
I uncorked the copper vial and pressed it to Heila's crimson lips.
"Come on. Drink, unless you want to die."
"Nnnh — no."
"NOW!"
"N-nno—!"
Was it because that emotionless face had flooded with pain? Her beautiful face twisted in refusal, warped into something strange.
"If you don't drink this, I'll have no choice but to kill you! Drink!"
"N-no."
"You doggone—"
Only after a long, grinding struggle could I finally get the vial's contents down Heila's throat.
"Ngh, Phoi, *hhah* — you..."
What I had fed her was the Mana-Suppression Potion Ellen had brewed.
A knockoff of the Potion of Unraveling that, for reasons unknown, had come out with only the mana-scattering side effect amplified — that exact potion.
I'd been holding onto it thinking I might have a use for it against those Destroyer bastards. Never imagined I'd spend it on Heila...
She must have felt her magic unraveling, because she panted out a broken murmur.
"My destiny, *hhah* — my, our, *hhnn* — our destiny, surely..."
Murmuring on like that, Heila cut off with a soft pop — as if someone had switched off her power entirely.
At the same moment, the Realm of the Blood King rippling across the sky tore apart, piece by piece. I sat there blankly, then jolted up in shock at the sight.
"Ah— aah—!"
Quick as a flash, I lunged and snatched up the woman who was about to crash into the gate's rubble.
Tumbling over wood, shattered rock, and brick, I nearly broke my back — but the woman bound to the Realm of the Blood King, Atalante, was saved. Her arm and shoulder were badly hurt, but it didn't look life-threatening.
After laying Atalante out on flat ground, I dropped flat beside her.
"...Haah. Fuck. I'm dead."
The instant those words left my mouth — SHAAAAAH — rain began pouring from the sky. No — drops of blood. The Realm of the Blood King had fully collapsed.
I stood in that crimson rain and quietly closed my eyes.