Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Underground Exploration (4)
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Clang!!
Sharp claws clashed against the treasured sword several times.
They looked soft and pale at a glance.
But from the perspective of the one parrying with his sword, they were as hard as mithril—truly the mark of a non-human being.
However, her expression had been grave throughout the fight.
Even though she was pressing him now, it seemed the reckless battle was weighing on her.
'Then how about I drag this out a bit.'
Her body had shrunk subtly after taking that wound earlier.
If he kept drawing it out into a war of attrition, he could inflict more damage without overcommitting.
"What purity? A woman who lets a stranger put his hand on her waist—give me a break."
"……."
The relentless claws hesitated for a moment.
As if no man had ever dared say something like that to her before.
"And come on, how does someone live for 200 years without even one romance? Oh, right—not human."
He pondered with a perfectly serious expression.
Her jade-green hair, beautifully cascading down, quivered faintly beneath her eyes.
"Hey!!"
The deep, mature voice from their first encounter rose slightly in pitch.
"Letting you put your hand on my waist was just to check if you were properly enchanted!!"
"What kind of excuse is that? You can usually tell just from looking into their eyes."
He replied indifferently, and she shook her wings in agitation as she shouted back.
"Because I can't make eye contact when I'm sucking blood!"
Ah, so that's how it was.
Still, after over 200 years, she had her own techniques.
"And how do you judge purity from something like that? You're the one making a fuss over a hand on the waist—sounds like you've never even dated."
"I'm only 21; that's normal. You're over 200."
"Ughhh... That's because I've never gone outside!"
"Go outside and get some sunlight. Sheesh."
Was it because he stayed completely deadpan compared to her growing frustration?
The self-proclaimed progenitor's pink eyes boiled over, turning red.
"Your tongue is shockingly crude for how you look."
The vampire queen's face darkened.
Her red eyes glowed in the darkness as she began moving with such speed that only afterimages lingered.
Whoooosh—.
She folded her massive wings around her body.
Transforming like a drill, she spun rapidly in a helical motion.
'What technique is that?'
Against an unknown enemy with no intel, he stayed cautious.
But even at first glance, one fact was clear.
That damned drill-like technique was about to pierce right through him.
Screeech!!
Franca charged at him like a massive bullet.
He barely managed to raise Anje's sword in defense, but bruises bloomed instantly on both arms.
"……!!"
And her directional changes were incredibly fluid.
She kept lunging, drilling into his guard relentlessly.
"What's wrong? No more chatter? Not so leisurely now, are you?"
She toyed with him leisurely while pressing the assault without mercy.
'Feels like colliding with a rhino.'
He'd consumed his family's elixir and even the imperial potion, boosting his magic power.
Yet the overwhelming difference in raw strength made his arms throb madly.
'If she'd actually drained my blood, she'd have squeezed me dry nonstop.'
"Heh... Finally quieting down. Getting it now? A puny human body can never—"
"Shut it, old hag."
He countered her cheap psychological ploy with cold facts.
The being who looked mid-20s spoke in a voice stripped of amusement.
"Don't think you'll have it easy even as my familiar."
Intense red magic swirled, piercing even the darkness.
It spun wildly, forming a crimson vortex that bore down on him.
Of course, aimed straight at him.
Its speed had long surpassed anything he could cut.
No half-baked block or dodge would work now.
'Time to choose.'
He sheathed Anje's treasured sword at his waist for the moment.
Instead, he deftly spun two daggers into his grip.
'No choice—use her speed against her.'
He pulled all his protective magic into one spot.
Focusing every nerve on his arms and eyes alone.
"Mana running dry? Humans really have such small vessels."
The spinning Franca looked down on him mockingly.
Like an owner gazing fondly at a pet.
"Don't worry. Become my slave, and I'll personally nurture that tiny, worthless frame of yours."
His silver hair whipped wildly.
The sound of her slicing through the air sent shivers down his spine.
But eyes honed over countless lifetimes fixed on one thing alone.
The massive wings hurtling toward him in spin.
Screeeeech—!!
The moment the progenitor's sharpened wings pierced his body.
He swung both daggers fluidly as well.
"Ngh...!!"
He staggered, flank impaled.
Franca, passing clean through him, smirked unscathed.
"Impressive. I'll give you credit for your mental fortitude."
Franca lightly covered her mouth, chuckling.
She landed gracefully, stood casually, and brushed off her dress.
"Previous wardens turned into dogs at a mere graze from me. You're definitely different."
His face grim, he rummaged in his uniform's inner pocket.
Against Hammus, he'd sipped the freezing potion, barely staunching the blood.
"Not a horny mutt, but a proud wild wolf, maybe?"
The vampire queen appraised him like a rare breed of human.
Hands behind her back, she approached leisurely.
"Well, that's even better. Wolves are cooler, right? More fun to tame."
Bleeding stopped, but the freezing potion dulled his movements.
Spotting it, Franca slipped behind and embraced him lightly.
He expected a bloody stench, but instead, a sweet, intoxicating scent wafted from her.
Befitting a being born to enchant humans.
"The fruit won through hardship is always sweetest."
She elegantly swept back her jade-green straight hair.
Her eyes half-lidded seductively.
"Accept my power."
Her sharp fangs emerged.
And she gently moved to sink them into his slowed nape.
Moist red lips brushed his skin.
The instant her teeth began to pierce—
"Huh...?"
She froze at the instinctive terror she felt.
Not from him—from her own nape, goosebumps rising.
"What? Me, flinching?"
The progenitor shuddered at the alien aura behind him.
As if faint silhouettes of massive beasts loomed transparently.
"Already some familiar? No... doesn't feel like it."
Her red eyes confronted something extraordinary he couldn't see.
She muttered to herself, baffled.
"Lions? Foxes, white snake, and an absurdly huge black cat...?"
Curious at her solo mumbling, he glanced back.
The vampire queen's flustered expression came into full view.
"What the hell are you, carrying marks that creepy around?"
He seized the opening.
The moment she pulled away, the freezing potion's effect had mostly worn off.
He twisted with his gripped daggers.
Slicing Franca's pale throat clean.
"……!!"
The vampire queen clutched her neck and retreated.
"Playing injured...?"
She raised her wings for a counter.
But soon, Franca realized.
Her two wings bore massive gashes, blood pouring freely.
"What...? When did you wound my wings?"
"You charged straight into my daggers. So fast they just tore right through."
Even the toughest being shreds when slamming into blades at light speed.
He sacrificed his flank to claim both wings.
"Planned this from the start...?"
"Yeah, I'm not as brave as the wolf you called me."
"You sly bastard. Not a wolf—a venomous snake pup."
"Heard that plenty."
He patted his stiff waist, shaking off the freeze.
Flank pain throbbed, but he ignored it.
He'd endured far worse in his past life countless times.
"Ah, no... My power..."
Meanwhile, the progenitor who'd lived over 200 years panicked wildly.
Blood gushed endlessly from wings and throat.
"Gotta somehow gather blood again..."
She staggered toward the fountain.
The basin brimmed with blood, oxygenated and pristine.
Drink that, and she'd recover instantly, reverting to her late-20s form.
Wings would harden anew, throat wound heal in seconds.
But.
"……!!"
A blue glass vial soon entered her sight.
A azure liquid flying toward the fountain.
"Wh-what? My blood...!!"
The blue potion mixed into the blood.
The once-clear red liquid solidified like sludge immediately.
"What did you do?"
"What does it look like."
He staggered but drew Anje's sword again.
Casually brushing past Franca clutching her throat.
He raised the longsword toward the air.
Franca, grasping his intent, desperately reached out.
Forgetting even the blood from her neck.
"Stop!! That's a full 100 portions of blood...!"
Ignoring her, he smashed the sword down on the frozen fountain with all his might.
Boom!!
"Nooo!!"
The fountain shattered.
The frozen blood chunks exploded into fragments.
And then.
The gothic dress, barely containing her voluptuous form, began loosening.
The lewd attire now fit her shrunken figure perfectly.
Her ecstatic, earth-goddess curves turned pitifully flat and rigid.
The being dreaming of descending upon the world lost all power.
"……."
Her height dwindled adorably to about 150cm.
Her dazed expression looked cute and innocent, like a bewildered girl.
He stared blankly at her rapid regression in real time.
Meeting his eyes, shame and emptiness bloomed on the progenitor's face.
"D-don't look!! Who do you think you're staring at!!"
Franca collapsed, covering her face with both hands.
She began sniffling pitifully, like a girl who'd lost everything.
The sight left him more than a little flustered.
The one lording over him as a slave moments ago, reduced to this.
'Are otherworldly beings always this extreme?'
"Get lost! You made me lose everything!"
Her wistful gaze made him seem the villain.
More lethally so than her mature beauty.
'Crying like that makes me look like the bad guy.'
He forced himself to ignore her and move on.
Powerless now, she'd quiet down again.
"You bastard. Just kill me and go! Better than living centuries like this—I'll wait for rebirth!"
"Rebirth by waiting? Killing you isn't the end?"
The progenitor glared up rigidly, shame-faced.
Her tiny finger jabbed at him accusingly.
"Obviously. Accumulate power in the otherworld again. A worm like you can't stop my revival."
He halted abruptly.
So, leave her here to starve, and she'd return home to revive?
Even stronger.
'Then keep her here forever, and she can't build power.'
He turned back toward her.
Approaching steadily.
"Yes, kill me!! Avenge the previous wardens, vent your rage!"
Franca smirked inwardly, as expected.
She harangued the much taller man, brother-like in age, endlessly.
But.
She soon went mute as a clam at his actions.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
He didn't kill the progenitor.
Instead, he scooped her up like a doll.
"Gonna drop me off a cliff? Fine choice—clean and quick!"
Franca rallied, shouting.
But he cradled her preciously, heading for the surface.
"Huh...?"
Perplexed by the gentle handling.
Her wings folded neatly, obediently.
"What now? Where are we going?"
"To the surface. To put you in a cell."
"What? I'm not like you—why the surface...?"
"You killed the previous wardens. So we'll punish you by our laws."
He flashed a serpentine grin.
"With a prison sentence."
"Prison? You're locking me up...?"
Finally grasping his intent.
Her tiny body trembled faintly.
"Yeah. Who said you get to die and revive on your terms?"
He grinned vilely, like a massive snake pup.
Her plump thighs quivered at the subtle madness, despite her small frame.
"From now on, you'll be strictly confined under my watch."
He plopped General Hammus's helmet onto Franca's soft belly.
Silently climbed the stairs, finally emerging on the surface.
Clea waited at the entrance, opening the door herself.
Myoran and Anje waited too.
They hid it well, but seemed relieved at his safe return.
But.
Their faces chilled at the sight of the woman he carried princess-style.
"Warden, what's this?"
The progenitor who'd mocked humans was now treated like luggage.
Franca soon realized.
The beings that made her flinch were these massive predators before her.
She shrank like a tiny vampire bat.
He answered flatly on her behalf.
"A new weaponized prisoner."