Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: The Boundary Between Siege and Defense (1)
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*
Under the window where the evening sun was setting, Fernandez gazed down at the bronze throne, lost in thought. The bronze throne's magic had a limit of three times a day. If pushed to overload, maybe five.
But it couldn't handle grand spells of that magnitude either. It was as if his strongest card was tied up. In his previous life, he had been a grand sorcerer who combined dozens of great spells to turn the tide of battle.
However, a craftsman's skill differs from the ordinary even in the smallest, most trivial things, through delicate workmanship. Fernandez slowly rose from his seat, gazing at the fading sun.
He took a glass vial filled with green powder from a sea chest hanging in one corner of the cabin. Powder ground from mana stones. Hard to obtain, but when else would he use it if not now?
‘This was meant for destroying Malern's flagship...’
Gambling always yields bigger rewards the larger the stake. Fernandez unsparingly poured the mana stone powder onto the floor.
-Swish.
Like an hourglass being turned, the fine green sand scattered across the floor. Fernandez's fingers traced the air. [Inscribe].
Swish. Like a snake coiling, the sand swirled across the cabin floor in a set direction. Growing larger, tracing ever more complex patterns. At its center, Fernandez swiftly formed hand seals. [Construct], [Soul Spirit].
-Splash.
A translucent arm extended from behind his back. A pair of spirit arms formed entirely different seals simultaneously, and Fernandez slowly sat cross-legged in the middle.
-Swish swish.
The sand crawled across the floor in grotesque patterns. Pulsing like a heartbeat, rippling and swirling. Amid it all, Fernandez's form slowly sank down.
‘Three hours... Today or tomorrow, Richter's trap will appear. The odds?’
Richter's raids and the elves' sailing distance were decreasing exponentially. By his calculations, today or tomorrow. Any further north, and it would be the Northerners' waters. Unless Richter wanted to provoke them, he would strike while the fleet was in the open ocean.
-Over eighty percent. If Malern's greed is even half of Gaimeirn's.
Malern's fleet was positioned a bit further east from here. About a day's sail away. Far, but close enough for Malern to take interest and approach under ‘certain conditions.’
‘What if he's even greedier?’
-One hundred percent.
Feizashi cackled. Fernandez smiled along. Greed and selfishness simplify people. Especially if what they desperately desire is about to vanish before their eyes.
The same applied to monsters like thousand-year-old elves and vampires.
*
No sooner had the sun set than their assault began. A simple tactic of boarding the ships. Dull eyes, rotting faces, and bloated bodies pickled in saltwater—they were just swarming, clambering up by stepping on each other's shoulders.
“Push them back! Don't let those filthy feet touch the deck!”
Leia swung her sword and shouted. Each time her blade left its sheath, ghouls split in half and plummeted into the sea. But there was no end. Countless corpses battered the ship's hull below.
“How did they make so many? How much blood did you swallow, Richter!”
-Skeng!
A ghoul's neck split, its body collapsing powerless to the deck. Too easy. No more death knights or high vampires appeared.
‘The high vampire bloodlines were annihilated at Infermur!’
From the heart of Infermur, Melrisildur's dawn had erupted, wiping out their forces and sinking them into the abyss. No matter how skilled a vampire Richter was, this was all he could muster in a mere year.
‘He's no fool. What does he plan with these rabble?’
*
Far below in the abyss, red eyes blazed. White curly hair undulated through the seawater, and pristine fangs gleamed occasionally in the falling moonlight. Richter laughed, listening to the heavy thuds descending from the surface.
“Archduke.”
From the darkness, red eyes glowed as a woman slowly emerged. She prostrated herself at Richter's feet under the moonlight.
Her lower body was a serpent's tail. Mottled scales covered it thickly, writhing over shattered wooden planks.
“They're approaching.”
“You've timed it perfectly. Perfectly.”
Richter laughed, gazing at the distant sea. Delay and lure. The enemy was like a bear caught in a snare—ferociously thrashing its limbs, but ultimately trapped prey.
He had drawn them in enough. Over five days of tedious pursuit, they were exhausted and far out in open waters with no escape.
Countless ghouls swam endlessly upward toward the sea surface. Richter snapped his fingers slowly.
-Whoosh.
Circling him, women with the lower bodies of sea serpents formed seals. Simultaneously, red light ignited beneath their tails. Richter bit his thumb, drawing blood.
Countless ghouls, once human. How many droplets of blood had Richter consumed to turn a thousand human corpses into ghouls? And over his entire long life?
Blood was the currency of life. Richter was a tycoon hoarding that currency, one of the rare vampire lords who could walk under the sun.
His blood was poison. A single drop could extinguish countless lives—a lethal venom. And excessive power, regardless of direction, always bore ‘power’ within. Be it mana or divinity.
-Sizzle.
Richter's blood began corrupting the deep sea. Spreading like red mist, it gradually seeped into the wooden planks beneath his feet. Soon, the sea witches' seals grew frantic.
-Whoosh!
Red light connected into a massive ritual. The planks blazed red as if aflame, Richter's blood bridging the ritual—
-Kudududuk!
Light raced through the deep sea. Illuminating the vast seafloor like a torch burning away darkness. From the planks where Richter stood, downward, further down. Gradually outlining his position—
Soon, a colossal ship flickered red. Wooden outlines of trees and suns, fortress-like round form, jagged towers and columns, charts and villages sprawling below. A city woven of wood emerged—
-Whoosh.
Red flames raced through it. Deep-sea fish scattered in fright. The city slumbering at the seafloor's center ignited and began to vibrate.
‘Just rags. No protective spells or rituals implemented, not even basic magic. A crude mock-up pieced from barely scavenged planks...’
Yet Richter grinned deeply. His ghouls, his hunters—piercing the suspicions of heroes, the vigilance of elves—gathered one by one. Eternal workers that neither rotted, died, nor stopped in water.
The puppets dying on the surface now were not his true forces. His real army, the scant elite salvaged from Infermur, had never faced the elves.
All for this moment. For them to lower their guard, believing his forces depleted, his power spent. To draw near this position. His soldiers had waited solely for this.
‘True revenge means striking the enemy's throat with their own blade and licking the blood.’
Like an orchestra conductor, his arms moved exaggeratedly. The planks beneath him shuddered. Soldiers responding to his blood surged with power, stomping, wielding levers, pushing gears.
-Kiiiik.
He stood at the highest spire of this sunken fortress. Once, the Eternal King had overlooked his people from there. Now, atop the barely intact stone pillar.
“Gaimeirn, your castle is finally mine.”
The Eternal King's fortress began rising toward the sea surface once more.
*
-Kururung!
“What? What is it?”
Leia barely kept her balance on the suddenly shaking ship. Ghouls climbing the hull plummeted into the sea from the shock.
An old man staggered to her side and shouted.
“Massive mana surges from the surface! Your Majesty!”
“I feel it too. Send the familiars! Find out what they're plotting!”
“They're all dead. In an instant!”
“They knew we were tracking them. They knew we were watching. But why now, why?”
-Kururung!
The surface shook again. Vibrations from the seafloor rocked the sea.
“Only Richter could slay the familiars in an instant. He's coming.”
“They're cornered, Your Majesty.”
The captain approached, bowing low.
“Their forces are just low-grade ghouls now. This is Richter's last gasp. Don't worry. We've lost almost no troops. He can't face the entire Gaimeirn clan alone.”
*
-Kururung.
Meditating in his cabin, Fernandez sensed the vibration and opened his eyes. The night sky was now thick clouds without even moonlight. Bat clouds. A phenomenon when Franzrit vampires entered battle.
-Richter.
‘So, it's today.’
He felt mana rampaging. Something rose from the seafloor.
‘He wants to recreate Infermur.’
At Infermur, Richter had awakened a dragon to destroy Gaimeirn's flagship. Here, he aimed to use Malern's power against Leia. His strategy was consistent: overwhelm with a stronger external force.
‘What has he prepared? Duke of Waves, Kian?’
-No. If Kian had fallen to Richter, we would've noticed in our previous life.
‘Not Kian then. What other weapon lies beneath the sea that he could wield so boldly?’
Fernandez frowned at the rising mana from below. Revealing his scheme outright meant the old cunning vampire was confident against the entire race.
Not Malern's method. Purely Richter's scheme. Fernandez continued seals without pause, deep in thought.
‘The Gaimeirn clan is still the strongest in the North Sea. Unless ambushed, how could he challenge all these elves on open water?’
-Whatever the method, chaos benefits us.
‘True, but not ideal.’
The dark green sand swirling around him writhed. One hour. The battle needed to stalemate for at least an hour.
-Even if the entire elven force were scarecrows, even if the vampire summons another dragon.
‘We can hold for an hour.’
No matter the uproar outside, his plan remained unchanged. Fernandez closed his eyes again, focusing on the seals. Thick mana from the stones coiled up his arms, flowing to his fingertips to form the spell.
*
The shaking ship steadied. The boiling sea grew calm. Ghouls flung into the depths vanished without resurfacing.
“It's coming.”
Leia gripped a rigging line, hand on her sword hilt, glaring at the sea's center. It's coming. They’re coming.
Whatever they prepared, it was their final struggle. Leia stared at the mana-churning sea center, thinking so. Ships arrayed around it, cannons ready.
The moment the enemy appeared, the golden fleet would unleash a barrage. Leia's hand trembled slightly with tension and thrill.
-Dooooong...
A heavy vibration rose from the seafloor. Leia readied her horn trumpet to shout. Again...
-Dooooong...
Small waves rose, mana surges quieted. The silent night sea, heavy as the abyss without star or moonlight, lit only by mana lamps on the ships.
-Doooong...
Even the pulses faded faintly, everything growing still. As Leia's grip on the horn loosened slightly—
-Kwaaaaa!!!
-Shoooaaa!
Before them, where the golden fleet's cannons aimed, water erupted like a waterfall—
-Shoooaaa!!
The surging seawater cascaded back, creating waves that helplessly swept the ships backward. Grab the sails! Drop anchor! Helm, steady! Countless orders swirled in Leia's mind. The commands she should issue amid the tumult. But.
-Shoooaaa...
Leia—and the golden fleet's elves—simply stared blankly at the shattered city rising from the sea. Massive outer walls, ruined reliefs, half-collapsed pillars and towers beyond...
The city where Leia had spent half her life. The ancient ruin she thought lost forever.
“...The King's flagship!!”
Leia stared dazedly at the fortress rising mid-sea, seawater pouring down upon her. It had sunk near Infermur...
Salvage impossible. No plan to raise and rebuild it could even be proposed. No matter the effort or resources. Literally impossible.
Yet...
‘Vampires and ghouls can operate underwater.’
‘Franzrit had been inactive for the past year.’
‘Infurmur's vicinity fell to Dane Kingdom's control. Monitoring those waters wasn't our duty.’
Facts hammered her mind. Then, monstrous roars echoed from her flagship's center. Dull thuds against the hull... Ghouls.
“Full army...”
What to do? Leia raised the horn to her lips to order retreat, then stopped. If Gaimeirn's flagship was restored, the Gaimeirn elves couldn't abandon it. The King's ship was their cradle, home, territory. With endless wandering uncertain, it was essential.
Elven wildprinces swung weapons at ghouls climbing the hull. Battle noises erupted anew from all sides.
“Your Majesty! Your orders!”
“Full army...”
Leia gazed blankly at Gaimeirn's flagship. Ghouls, vampires, death knights poured from its walls.
Vampire-elf naval battles resembled sieges. Vampires hammered the hulls like storming walls. Now, roles reversed—
‘We’re the besiegers now.’
Now elves battered the massive fortress-body. Block the pouring foes and advance on the stronghold? Could Leia demand that of her kin? How many elite troops would be lost?
Instead, Leia bit her lip. Even salmon ascending a waterfall faced kinder odds. Waterfalls held no malice. But these cascading vampires slaughtered elves outright.
-Sring.
Then, blonde hair fluttered beside her. It was Abel. She drew her sword and took the horn from Leia's hand.
“Child, your god is the ‘Goddess of Dawn.’ Dawn breaks right after the darkest night. As her people and their leader, you must be the first morning star to pierce that darkness.”
“Abelthas...”
“Kirhas. Where lies victory?”
At Abel's words, cold-faced Kirhas appeared. She bisected a flying vampire, scanning the battlefield with blade-sharp eyes. One hand dipped into her bosom, emerging with a pipe.
She haughtily nodded at a dazed elven knight, who reflexively lit it. Immense pressure and presence.
Puff. Exhaling short smoke. Kirhas removed her glossy black cloak and handed it to the knight.
“Just endure.”
“Until when?”
“Their numbers aren't infinite, and the exchange ratio favors our elven forces overwhelmingly. For now, weather their assault—it's too soon to counterattack.”
Kirhas finished her smoke and unceremoniously dropped the pipe to the deck. She ground out the embers with her foot, glancing at the cabin door.
“Until the Benefactor emerges. He foresaw this.”