Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Operation Report: Rat Hunt
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*
-Gwoooaaargh!!!
Like candy melting in the midsummer heat, like ashes scattering in the wind. The vampires and corpses rampaging through the night sea, the harbor, and the port alleys faded away.
The vampires that had come like a nightmare on a summer night were vanishing like a dream awakened by the dawn.
The light from the era when the gods of heaven descended directly into the material world and ancient demons opposed them. The light from when the continent was still the land of elves and dwarves had now returned to the material world.
“This can’t happen. It can’t end like this!!!”
Richter screamed toward Gaimeorn’s flagship while trying to gather his melting skin. A vampire who had lived a thousand years. The depth of his sins sustained him.
Blood was the fire of life. The power of vampires was directly proportional to the amount of blood they had consumed. Richter, one of the oldest vampires born after the War in Heaven, was a being who could walk under the sun.
But his fleet could not. Franzrit’s naval forces were scattering across the sea in an instant. The moment the blood clan’s bond broke, Richter felt that all his plans had gone awry.
“Zigismund! Felix! Hayden!! Anyone! Come back! No! No, you worthless scum!!”
Blood flowed from Richter’s eyes. His snow-white curly hair surged in rage. He gripped his gauntlet as if to crush it, staring at his vanishing sons.
Even his legions lurking beneath the sea were shattering under the light reaching the ocean floor. The immense sense of loss returned as the chains of the blood clan snapped one by one.
[No one can escape death.]
Richter bit his cracked lips and repeated the words. Even for vampires, death came equally.
-Kiiiiieeeek...
-Kwaaajik...
The fleet heading to Infermer twisted and sank, swept away by the light. Like sinking cheap coffins, his fleet plunged toward the deep sea.
They would never rise again. Richter thought as he touched his own flagship beginning to sink. Never again, never rise again. All of Franzrit’s forces, in this moment, so ridiculously...
He could not accept this ending!
Richter’s cloak billowed. All plans had been perfect. Gaimeorn could never have noticed his scheme. If only Yoland’s secret letter hadn’t arrived!
‘The secret letter... The hounds failed.’
Contact with the RuneRaven bastards had been cut off right after. The regular reports up to then had always painted a positive picture.
There had been a sudden revival of the dragon. A bit earlier than planned. But it was just a manageable variable. What he hadn’t anticipated... If there was something he couldn’t have foreseen...
‘...Humans.’
The human behind the dragon, destroying Gaimeorn’s flagship! Richter’s suspicion turned to certainty at that moment. From Yoland’s secret letter to the current situation.
He couldn’t accept absurd fairy tales like the revival of a god or the fleet’s annihilation because of it. He hadn’t worked to create ridiculous legends like [Once upon a time, naughty vampires vanished from a port due to divine punishment].
The light faded. Slowly, like drawing back a curtain. Richter felt the seawater rising to his feet and realized he alone had survived.
His eyes reached Gaimeorn’s flagship in the distance. The massive dragon and the human leaning asleep in its embrace were visible. Even the beastkin woman running toward him.
The presence of the god gradually vanished, and the suffocating divine aura faded faintly. Only then could Richter open his mouth.
“No one can escape death.”
Even the heavenly proxies were torn apart and killed by our hands in the end. The destruction of Gaimeorn’s flagship meant the Eternal King Gaimeorn was dead too. Even that arrogant dragon couldn’t escape death.
How much less a human! As he sank into the sea, Richter glared at the human on the deck until the end.
“You can’t escape me.”
*
In the darkness, red glowing eyes floated in the air, glaring at Fernandez. This dream again.
As always, under the horrific pressure, he stiffened and barely met the gaze. Averting his eyes was not permitted this time either.
“Fernandez. You’ve finally stepped into hell.”
“Yes. I have.”
The difference from before was that Fernandez now admitted he had stepped into hell. Yes, he had trodden upon it.
“Now I am an inquisitor of the Holy Pantheon. Walking hell has become my duty.”
Fernandez found it amusing that he was saying such things. It was a kind of joke. The being emitting red glow knew it too.
Kuh, it laughed. Along with Fernandez. Its eyes flashed in the darkness after a long bout of roaring laughter.
“You used hell’s mana. You tasted that omnipotence in that moment. Part of your soul was already trembling with nostalgia from those days.”
“It was enjoyable.”
Fernandez nodded.
“I’m glad I once possessed such power. I’m glad it was me.”
If he had been an ordinary Demonica? He never could have achieved this. Even with coincidences and miracles overlapping, he wouldn’t have reached this conclusion.
His own salvation was still distant and faint. But at least he could grasp others’ hands. For now, that was enough. His plans never ended in one move.
“Sentimental. Fernandez. You’ve grown weak.”
The darkness lifted, revealing a burning world. A clichéd hallucination. Fernandez gazed at the scene with even a sense of familiar comfort.
-Uwaaaah!!
-Kill!
-God!!!
The century-long war between the Levineiter Empire and the Kirazat Sultanate was the signal flare for the fall of civilized society. The Eastern Kingdom Alliance withered away, unable to bear the troops and resources poured into the war.
In this chaotic era, beastkin great tiger tribes fought on different sides, sea elves hunted gods, and vampires devoured human civilization. Evil spirits devoured cities, and monsters hunted humans on remote mountain paths and rugged terrains.
Far across the world, beyond the North Sea, raiders appeared. Erik the pitch-black. The great warlord who unified the northern barbarians. They plundered and destroyed without discrimination from the north to the east and west. The civilized society depleted by the century war couldn’t stop their advance.
Meanwhile, what of the flames starting from beyond the western great plains? The world map unfolding before Fernandez’s eyes was burning from the flames sweeping in from the plains.
Demon Horse King Karadskal. Khan of five thousand great gers, leader of Rwiwengar. From the tribal nations of the western great plains to the Kirazat Sultanate. Even reaching the Asias High Council. All cities and kingdoms in their path burned and vanished.
Tearing through the center of the map, five hands appeared.
Empress Sadarkelia, Mumto of Nightmares, Insect King Urkasia, Yekaset of the Seven Crowns. And up to Grand Duke Tyban. The five great demons and the hundreds of thousands of heretical sects following them lurked behind all these events.
Until humanity exhausted its power to rise by its own strength. They simply waited quietly. The mighty human civilization crumbled by its own hand.
The age of the Great War. Humanity’s downfall began and ended with the blade turned upon itself. [Crimson Spire]. From Feizashi’s fortress built in his final years, the last ‘pure human’ died.
“Your ruin is already fated. It’s not something one like you can stop. Even if you were given ten times the time you have now. The outcome won’t change.”
“Thank you.”
Fernandez nodded readily. He gripped and crumpled the map scattering ashes in the flames. The heat pulsed in his grasp.
“Thank you for summarizing my plan. Feizashi.”
No more being swayed by nightmares. In the world engulfed in flames, the red glowing eyes looked at him and smiled back.
*
Leia sat on the deck, anxiously watching the ropes dangling into the sea below. Now that the vampires’ annihilation was certain, there were no beings in at least the waters around Infermer that could threaten the elves.
-Splash!
Soon, the sea parted, and an elf in a diving suit climbed onto the deck, vomiting water. He shook his head laboriously and cleared his ears.
“How did it go? Did you find it? Anything?”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The elf coughed repeatedly and pulled a small wooden piece from the pouch at his waist. It was a wooden model with a black sheen. Leia took the model mimicking King Gaimeorn’s flagship and prayed.
‘Goddess, your people will follow.’
She heard the goddess smiling. Leia trembled for a moment in that fullness.
-Splash!
Soon, the calm sea surface split, and elf divers began climbing up one by one. They skillfully hooked grapples and boarded the deck.
-Splash!
Fish and mud scattered from the nets they dragged, falling back into the sea. Then, what was inside the nets caught her eye. A massive wooden plank. Not an ordinary board. It was something only Great King Gaimeorn possessed in this material world.
‘Gaimeorn’s sea chart.’
A chart made with astonishing precision, recognizable only by elves. To non-elf humans, it would look like a massive abstract painting. Leia rested her chin and fell into thought.
Our goddess could no longer convey her divine voice. Since that day, Melisildur had expressed no will beyond fragmentary emotions.
[My children. Rescue my sisters whom your king dares to bind. Thus shall you finally gain history.]
Thus, it was the goddess’s sole wish toward the elves, her last command to Leia. The first elves to possess a god since the War in Heaven, Leia’s people would never give up. They would never disappoint their goddess.
The goddess had said the southern Malayern dynasty and the western Jerolen dynasty—those two Serpent Kings dared to imprison and exploit her. Gaimeorn too had received heavenly punishment for the same sinful karma.
Unforgivable. Leia gripped the armrest until it creaked. The pain and sorrow of their entire race, wandering eternally for two thousand years, throbbed in her chest as if to burst.
“Your Majesty, the inquisitor has awakened.”
“Oh, yes. I shall visit him shortly.”
The human who unraveled all these events and led their goddess back to their embrace. Leia smiled thinking of him. Yes, an appropriate reward was needed.
*
As always, before opening his eyes, Fernandez checked his physical condition. No armor, comfortable clothes, the feel against his back... Like a bed... Condition wasn’t bad.
-Rustle.
Someone placed a hand on his forehead. Cool, slender, delicate fingers stroked his forehead and brows. Fernandez slowly opened his eyes.
“You’re awake?”
Golden hair like saffron swayed softly. What captured Fernandez’s gaze wasn’t her beautiful jawline or snow-white smile. It was her blue eyes, holding both compassion and mischief.
“Avelesas...”
“Hehe, you were quite fussy in your sleep.”
“Was it you?”
At Fernandez’s words, Avelesas laughed playfully.
“What do you mean?”
“The one who held my hand.”
The last moment Fernandez remembered from his consciousness was someone supporting his halted hand seal in his blurred vision. Avelesas flicked his forehead with her index finger.
“Who else did you think it was?”
“...Thank you.”
“Thanking me for letting you save me? Quite the amusing self-praise, Fernandez.”
Fernandez sat up. He tried to meet her eyes. Lying down, her blue dress was too stimulating.
Noticing his gaze, Avelesas’s smile deepened. She raised her snow-white neck, showing the black necklace around it.
“Do you know what this is?”
“Please tell me you don’t.”
He didn’t have such bad taste... At Fernandez’s words, Avelesas let out a soft laugh.
“I won’t say no. Trying to flirt with a lady?”
“...A lady?”
“Don’t say things that hurt. You naughty one.”
Her hand touched his forearm. The spell on his forearm flashed, and chains woven of mana connected to her. [Rite of Dominion]. The control permitted by staking her true name activated, and mana began flowing through Fernandez’s body again.
“Not hell mana.”
“...That’s all you have to say?”
Avelesas looked at him with a sulky expression for a moment, then smiled again. Yes, there was still plenty of time. She was a dragon, and he was effectively immortal.
“Do you remember this too? ‘You shall lead, and I shall follow.’”
“...Yes.”
“Then from now on, call me Avel...”
-Bang!!!
Before Avelesas could finish, the door burst open as if to shatter. Black hair rippled as she leaped into his arms.
“Huh!”
“Benefactor!!!”
Kirhas buried her face in his chest and sobbed. Her ears tickled his jaw. Instead of scratching his jaw, Fernandez flattened her ears and stroked her head. Her bushy tail fluttered behind her.
“Benefactor! Benefactor! Benefactor!!”
“Rude, child. He’s a patient.”
“He? Benefactor! Who’s this woman!!!”
Kirhas’s turquoise eyes glared sharply at Avelesas. She bared her teeth threateningly and growled.
“Do you know why this woman’s acting like she knows Benefactor? I don’t! It’s weird, right? So weird! Benefactor’s been with me the whole time!”
“Not the whole time.”
“Except for half a day! ‘Almost’ the whole time! All along!”
Fernandez stroked the back of the noisy Kirhas’s head and thought. He could understand the feelings of those who raised pets. Unilateral affection felt good anyway.
War, battlefields, demons, heretics, vampires, elves. These problems receded for a moment. Stability and diversion were important. Of course.
-Aren’t you ashamed in front of your son?
‘Emotional bonding is a key factor. Consider how strengthened dominion through affinity can advantage our plans...’
-Stop. You look pathetic making excuses. Do your work.
‘Work?’
-Report.
‘...Ah.’
How to even organize this. Fernandez slowly withdrew his hand from Kirhas’s head. Could he just write the facts as they were?
It was too big to hide. Everyone in Infermer port had already encountered dragons, vampires, magic, and gods. You couldn’t cover the sky with a palm.
“Haa...”
The refreshed condition after a deep sleep felt like a lie. Fernandez pressed his brow with fatigue-heavy eyes.
*
[Operation Report: Rat Hunt]
Operation Area: Dane Kingdom, Barbes Barony 2nd Checkpoint. Port City Infermer.
Operation Summary: Emergency investigation team dispatched due to unexpected Walker incident.
Operation Progress:
1) The disturbance at the checkpoint was confirmed not as Walkers, but a ghoul outbreak due to Franzrit vampires’ Red Hunger.
2) During ghoul and Franzrit vampire extermination, heretical cultists active in Infermer confirmed. (Attachment 1: Franzrit secret letter.)
3) Contact with Elfin Serpent King, King Gaimeorn.
4) Franzrit blood clan and cult [RuneRaven School] behind Infermer identified.
5) Captured and attempted to prevent situation of reviving dragon underground in Infermer.
6) Witnessed dragon’s revival. Dragon identical to King Gaimeorn.
7) Captured and attempted to prevent Franzrit blood clan’s Infermer invasion.
8) Detected god revival situation. Presumed [Ancient Elven Goddess Melisildur].
9) Franzrit blood clan presumed annihilated by elven god.
10) Pursuit of elven god failed. Presumed dissipated.
11) Gaimeorn clan elves lost control of Infermer, forces weakened.
12) Request support for Infermer port reorganization and purification. (Attachment 2: Support request.)
Operation Task Force Team.
1) Demonica, Fernandez Cerned – Return
2) Torchman, Kirhas Hearttaker – Return
3) Local Auxiliary, Avel – Recruited and accompanying
We shall burn demons, heretics, witches.
Operation Leader: Demonica Fernandez Cerned.
*
-Tap tap.
“Tch...”
Beorn drummed the desk while reading the thirteenth report brought by a messenger from Fernandez. What the hell was all this? Gods? Elves? Vampires? Dragons? What the hell had this ‘saintly’ Demonica done?
If this report was true, even by a slim chance. If all this was really true. It meant subjugating the Northeast disaster zone to human civilization. Franzrit blood clan of Serpentsisle had lost their wings like bats, and the elven fleet had returned to their home port.
The stabilized sea routes would open trade paths including Merlinport and the eastern triangle. He could already envision food and supplies flowing.
Clearly a boon to civilized society. Clearly... Beorn tried to think positively. He wasn’t Heretica anymore. He was now abbot. He had to act with conviction, not suspicion.
Yet he couldn’t shake off the rising doubt in his heart. Was this even possible?
“Lord, show me the answer...”
Beorn pulled out his rosary, stroked it, and prayed. As always, the god gave no reply.