Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: We Can See the Color of Lies
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- Rumble...
The wasteland night was deep, long, and dark. Especially on a day shrouded in heavy clouds like this. The locals around here called such days "bat clouds," a starkly accurate and dry expression.
A bonfire crackled away. A stranger wrapped in a thick cloak warmed their hands by the flames while gazing at the horizon. They thought vampires were rampant tonight, more than usual. But it wasn't their concern.
Their mission wasn't reconnaissance or recording. Not yet.
- Rumble!!
That held true until a massive light exploded in the distance. A brilliant flash lit up the horizon, bright enough to cause white night for an instant. The thick black clouds and the village beneath them lingered as afterimages on the retina.
"Melisildur's... Dawn...?"
Before she knew it, she had leaped to her feet, staring at the horizon. The three longswords coiled on her sword belt clinked against each other with her movement. Her soft silver hair, shimmering like gold dust, brushed her ears and scattered.
Pointed white ears, sharp jawline framing keen eyes. Her topaz-like eyes, reminiscent of a blue sea, trembled. She bit her lip slightly and hurriedly smothered the bonfire with dirt.
Whirling her cloak around her body, she swiftly mounted her horse. The steed startled and snorted in protest. She patted its back and spurred it forward.
- Neigh!
"Let's go, Imelda. Time to check it out."
Her mission—Leia Finn Gaimern's—was to secure the rendezvous area, make contact with the principal, and provide escort. After camping in the rendezvous zone for five straight days, she desperately wanted to head home.
However, if that was truly Melisildur's Dawn, she had a duty to investigate the incident in the area. It was the duty of all sea elves. Even for a half-elf.
*
"Arrrgh! I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you bastard!!!"
Amelia clutched her half-melted face, gasping for breath. Having taken the World Tree's light head-on, her body and mind were slowly disintegrating. The high vampire's regenerative power was barely clinging her sanity together by a thread.
"Will you repent, vampire?"
"Eeee!!! You filthy priest! I'll kill you!!"
Fernandez slowly raised his sword toward Amelia, who drooled spit and blood. For Fernandez, who had completely exhausted his mental and magical energy, even swinging the blade took effort he lacked.
'Damn it... As expected... Berailde school magic is too much.'
-I didn't think you'd actually pull it off.
'I knew the mechanisms and formulas... Hah, it was a stretch.'
Among the ancient magic schools dismissed as lost arts, there had been a secret tome obtained from a sage he had captured and tortured in his previous life.
Fernandez had once researched the [Berailde School], an ancient magic from the era of the five elven kingdoms, out of hobby.
It was powerful but deviated from black magic's path... and the side effects were horrific for a warlock to bear.
Back then, he couldn't handle it, and now, before tapping into hellforce, he could mimic it to some degree.
This was the result. Fernandez staggered from overwhelming fatigue.
But if the vampire recovered even a bit more stamina, there'd be no chance of victory. Fighting a high vampire like this was a tremendous gamble to begin with. Now it was time to end the bet.
- Clang!
"Urk?!"
Amelia's sword deflected Fernandez's blade. Even clutching her face and writhing, she had sensed the attack on her.
Letting this vampire live any longer was dangerous! Fernandez grew anxious.
Nothing was as terrifying as a grudge-bearing vampire—save perhaps a grudge-bearing lich or dragon. In other words, that dangerous. He hurriedly checked Kirhas's status.
- Boom! Bang!
"Grk!!"
Kirhas pressed her assault, but distance played a factor. Or perhaps because she was a mage with evasion options.
Everett easily blocked Kirhas's attacks. Time was not on their side.
Fernandez forced his numb arm to parry and aimed for Amelia's neck. Then, Amelia's remaining eye flashed.
- Crunch!
"Urk!"
"Got you, you worm..."
Amelia gripped Fernandez's sword with a hand that was starting to regain form.
Flesh seared against the blade, blackening and burning. The full saint-metal longsword countered evil beings... but...
"Grraaah... It tickles!"
- Crackle...
As her hand crumbled horrifically, Amelia steadily reformed it while clutching and pulling the longsword. Like a city gate's pulley, immense strength yanked at the blade.
"I won't kill you right away, Inquisitor! I'll strip your bones, drain every drop of blood and drink it, tear your soul to shreds. Just watch—through it all, you won't die as you wish!"
Amelia's sharp fangs now gleamed just under Fernandez's jaw. All he could do was resist being dragged.
"Benefactor!! Benefactor!!!"
Kirhas cried out at Fernandez's peril. It looked like he'd be bitten any second. She gnashed her teeth and swung her sword.
- Boom!
"I'll kill you too, wench!"
Everett roughly swung his staff to deflect Kirhas's sword while gathering power. He couldn't cast spells now due to interference, but losing to this young catfolk girl was unthinkable.
"Die now!!"
- Whoosh.
Before Kirhas could steady her stance, Everett's staff descended toward her head.
Kirhas's eyes gleamed. This was the moment she'd waited for. Her body dissolved and vanished in an instant.
"?!'
As Everett recoiled in surprise, a sword was already piercing his heart. Kirhas had circled behind him in a flash, stabbing straight through.
"Grk... You... filthy... catfolk!!"
"L-let go!"
Everett vomited blood and seized Kirhas's arm. With his heart impaled by a blessed longsword, he had no hope left. Then...
"Watch your master die, wench!"
He had to buy time. For his sister! If he could just take down that Inquisitor, victory was possible! Amid the thrill of imminent death and slaughter-lust, a strange thought crossed Everett's fevered mind.
'That guy... wasn't he Demonica?'
"Benefactor!!!! No!!!!"
Kirhas screamed, yanking her arm free. Amelia's jaw gaped wide just below Fernandez's throat.
A massive shock hit Everett's mind. Demonica Inquisitor blood flows with divinity!
"S-sis!!! Don't!!!"
His desperate cry didn't reach Amelia, lost in thirst and madness. Fernandez stared at the approaching fangs as if time crawled.
If he had just a bit more stamina, such a sloppy attack... But overtaxed mana had wrecked his body.
-In the end, dying once. Pretty amateurish.
'Plan B's finale was me getting drained. Can't beat a high vampire without that sacrifice at full power.'
- Crunch!
"Guh."
Amelia's jaws crunched into Fernandez's throat. Blood gushed out. Her eyes curved like crescent moons in delight.
Sweet, fresh blood. Pure priest blood... Amelia felt strength surging through her body.
Her crumbling form regenerated rapidly. Gulp, gulp. Hot blood from Fernandez's throat soaked her.
Vampires felt warmth only in this moment—sipping the living's hot vital fluids.
'So warm. No, hot.'
Amelia lost herself in the trance of feeding. She felt Fernandez's body cooling.
'Hot. My body is hot...?'
- Whoosh!
"Grhk?!"
Blue flames erupted from Amelia's body! From her regenerating half, the fire spread, growing fiercer.
"Eeeek!!!! What, what is this!!!"
Blood is life's currency. The divinity laced in Demonica blood—even with stigmata—scorched the vampire's body and soul!
- Thunk!
"Eh...?"
Amelia thrashed amid the blaze, then froze at a sudden cold sensation. A gleaming silver stake pierced her chest.
"You... bastard...?"
"Hu... Dying once helped."
"Im... mortal...?"
Fernandez cracked his neck with a grin. Mana, mental strength, stamina—all somewhat restored. He twisted the stake embedded in her chest center.
"Guh... Hk...!"
"I think, Feizashi... Immortality's blessing messes with the timeline."
-Seems so to me. The stamina and wounds weren't healing—they were restoring.
Amelia gazed at Fernandez with eyes full of confusion. Not the look for a person, or any living being. Fernandez's eyes were emotionless as glass beads.
"Fascinating. Worth dying once. Wonder if retrieval has limits?"
-If this was the last, won't you die in the next test?
"With stigmata, assume effects persist?"
-Sound logic.
"Right now... ngh... what nonsense... are you... muttering... What are you...?"
Bloody tears streamed from Amelia's eyes. Blood and life drained rapidly. Fernandez shoved her limp body down.
"Inquisitor Angelo."
In that instant, Amelia seemed to realize something. Her gaze lingered on Fernandez's back, then her pupils dilated.
"Benefactor! Benefactor!!!"
"Won't ask how you survived?"
"No! No! No! I'm just so, so glad you're alive!"
Kirhas, freed from Everett's grasp, rushed into Fernandez's arms. He stroked her head and said,
"If we killed the subjugation force, an investigation team will come. We leave before nightfall tomorrow."
"Where to?"
"Obviously..."
A clear voice sang out like a melody.
"Infermergi."
Kirhas's ears perked straight up in alarm. Fernandez patted her and said without turning,
"Will you guide us?"
"Of course. Quite intriguing, Inquisitor."
Silver hair shimmered like gold dust in the wind. Under the cloudless moonlight, her skin glowed like white sand. Three longswords clinked on her sword belt, hand resting atop it.
Leia stepped forward. Fernandez chuckled and turned to her.
"An honor to meet a remnant of the continent's old lords. If not rude, may I have your name?"
"Leia Finn Gaimern. And you?"
"Angelo. No family name."
"You know we can see the color of lies?"
Leia smiled, blue eyes gleaming. Fernandez bowed his head slightly.
"My apologies. I've heard the legend. Forgive us. Our kind can't live without air, law, sun, and lies."
"I understand. You've always been that way. Natural enough... Fine, if you want to be called that. Angelo?"
"Grateful for your kindness."
"No matter. Fewer bats means more friends for us. For now. Now, the lion left a letter for us, didn't he?"
Fernandez drew a sealed envelope from his bosom. Written in rooster blood, stamped with Franzrit's seal. Likely why the subjugation force came—to seize this.
"Somehow I acquired it, but the lion's dying wish was to deliver it to the Serpent King personally."
"I'm the Serpent King's daughter."
"Should I believe that?"
"Our kind doesn't lie."
"Then you'd see the color of my lie now?"
At Fernandez's words, Leia frowned slightly and gripped her sword hilt threateningly.
"Are you mocking me, human?"
"We've each lied once, so let's call it even. I request an audience with the Serpent King."
"Hm... Bold. I like it."
Leia smirked and shrugged. An amusing human. Wonder if he'll keep that poise before His Majesty. Leia took a slight liking to Fernandez.