On the fourth day after the negotiation accompanied by physical force, our group, which initially consisted of four members, now set out from the castle with hundreds of vampires led directly by the Grand Duke of Helraig Duchy.
Departing early in the morning, we traveled through underground passages all day, finally reaching the exit closest to the border between the Helraig Duchy and the Bertica Kingdom with about two hours left until sunset.
However, we still had a considerable amount of time before our scheduled departure. The group decided to take one last break before starting the grueling march across the Bertica Kingdom.
“So this is what the underground passage feels like,” I mused.
“Didn’t you see anything over there?” Jeil asked with an expression of mild surprise.
“Over there… you mean Sahelrn Duchy? Now that I think about it, it was above ground both when we entered and when we exited Sahelrn Duchy.”
“I’d seen the underground farm, but this is my first time in a passage. Is it usually like this? It’s like an ant hill.”
It was clear why humans would try to conquer underground passages in an instant instead of dragging vampires above ground to slowly sap their human resources until they were combat ineffective.
The underground passage was no mere excavation; it was an unexpectedly pristine corridor that was essentially a maze.
At this point, it was more like a collection of countless shelters. I felt as if it could withstand a nuclear explosion above ground without a scratch.
However, my pure praise was lightly suppressed by Jeil’s scoffs as if he were looking at a country bumpkin.
“I’m feeling murderous impulses. But since I think of this as emotional labor in exchange for troop support, I’ll hold back for now.”
“Do you understand why I keep saying I’ll overcome the sun no matter what? Today’s vampires have to do this just to protect a tiny piece of land.”
“Hmm… is that so?”
As part of a minor revenge, I ruffled Jeil’s feathers a bit before escaping to where the group was.
While basking in the afterglow of victory, I glimpsed my clothing bag in Eleonora’s hands, which briefly brought me down, but anyway, the end of our short break was approaching quickly.
With about an hour left before sunset, Jeil stood up silently, and tension swept through the hundreds of vampires, who moved without hesitation.
“Progenitor. You remember the coordinates, right?”
“No problem.”
It was still early for the vampires to move.
At this moment, just before they were to reinforce their troops at the border during the night, it was the most vulnerable time for the Bertica Kingdom’s army and also when they were most at ease.
“From now on, it won’t be the same.”
I stood at the entrance leading to the surface and closed my eyes.
I had succeeded once already. Focusing my mind, I retraced that night.
“Eclipse.”
With a clap of my hands, the heat from the blazing sun outside vanished like a mirage.
A brief stir surged among the vampires. However, as expected of the elite, they regained their order at Jeil’s gesture.
“We move.”
Hundreds of vampires simultaneously and silently began to move.
As the front of the group burst outside, the vampires, who excelled in illusion magic, erased our presence as arranged.
The army concealed in the darkness crossed the border in the blink of an eye.
A pair of life forces were sensed from a distance. The Bertica Kingdom’s guards showed no signs of noticing the anomaly.
The humans were unprepared to think the sun had vanished and night had fallen upon them. It was a calm and smooth departure that left one feeling a bit deflated.
The operation’s outline was as follows.
The success condition was to slip through the border undetected and catch the humans off guard with our numbers.
What was needed was my unique magic and the illusion magic used to conceal our bodies in the dark. The latter wasn’t particularly difficult, so it posed no issue.
However, the duchy’s vampires needed me to drop the sun first to use the illusion magic, and if the perfectly fine sun suddenly disappeared, they couldn’t possibly fail to notice.
“Aria, are the opposing coordinates okay?”
I nodded lightly while running at Lavina’s excited whisper.
The territory setup was perfect. The only problem was that I felt my life force draining out of me in real time.
“However, it’s only a matter of time before they notice. Hurry up.”
How did the guards not notice that night had come an hour early?
The answer was surprisingly simple. To their eyes, it still looked like the sun was shining bright, making it impossible for them to detect the nonexistent anomaly.
They weren’t seeing an illusion. They were seeing the truth as it was, so they wouldn’t notice what was wrong.
‘This works.’
The trick itself was simple.
The eclipse was magic that interfered with concepts within a certain area, based on large-scale barrier magic like a Mist Labyrinth. It couldn’t affect the world outside the area.
In other words, if I spread a moving area centered on me, placing allies inside and enemies outside, only the vampires could move in a world where the sun had disappeared, while humans who were far away would see reality as it was.
In the end, what the humans would sense was likely just the fact that a considerable scale of magic had been activated nearby.
Of course, the guards set in place during the day wouldn’t be able to sense an anomaly through the remnants of a spirit. Their role was merely observation, not tracking concealed magic.
Certainly, someone from the royal army preparing for night duty would have noticed, but we would escape down the mountain path before they hurriedly sent out scouts.
As expected, soon after, a pursuit unit was dispatched. However, they were ultimately unable to catch us, and we managed to flee without leaving more information than that someone had crossed the border.
*
A chilling wind swept over the heavy earth. The soil, sucked dry of a countless amount of bright red life, had shown no signs of drying for days now.
Blood and screams. Flames licking and light casting away darkness.
Originally, the night was the time for vampires. However, despite the presence of the crescent moon high above, the vampires of Sahelrn Duchy were losing even their only refuge of night to the hands of humans.
“Kill them!! Not a single one should be left alive!!!”
“Aim for the heart! Don’t let your guard down until it’s pierced!!”
The endless outpouring of the priests’ holy magic and the gleaming silver weaponry. Countless torches, along with trees engulfed by flames that had spread from them, became a bright lantern pushing back the darkness.
The cries of the ashes quickly spread to the vampire kin of the night.
The vampires, whose retaliation time was limited, tried with all their might to stand against it, but the united forces of humans formed from four nations were ready to show they had sharpened their blades unlike three years ago, rooting themselves like giant trees that wouldn’t shake.
Among the battleground, where death ran rampant, there were those who stood out brightly.
Jerref Parvian, the knight of unfaltering bravery, swung his sword without a change in complexion for hours.
Living up to his reputation as the strongest knight, Jerref advanced through the vampires without hesitation.
His steps held no hesitance. Every time his sword shone silver, a path opened, and the trail he walked became the courage of his allies.
But Jerref didn’t let his guard down. Even as he cleaved through vampires without pause, his gaze kept darting toward the hidden darkness beyond.
‘There’s no way she won’t come.’
Despite being the top knight among the paladins, Jerref was not leading the entire Knight Order in this war.
His assigned knights were merely a small detachment of a dozen or so. And naturally, this was not because his command ability fell short compared to his combat strength.
‘Grand Duchess of Sahelrn, Martini Sahelrn.’
The strongest vampire in existence, Grand Duchess of Sahelrn Duchy.
In this war aimed at the complete subjugation of the duchy, troops were arranged at all times to respond to potential enemy appearances, but that vampire was the exception.
Jerref’s official role in this war was solely to rush over to support should Martini Sahelrn appear on the battlefield.
This was all a reflection of the intentions of the nation’s leaders to respond with their maximum strength to the duchy’s greatest power.
‘It should be about time.’
Since the war began, Martini Sahelrn had never once shown herself on the battlefield.
That had been a wise choice; the vampires the allied forces were truly wary of were effectively just two.
As long as they firmly marked the Grand Duchess and the vampire who appeared three years prior, they could push forward, though it might take some time for the rest.
They had gathered an army capable of doing just that. Although the Empire had expressed discomfort at the suggestion of the eastward Suwong Kingdom, they still managed to muster nearly enough troops, making the likelihood of defeat in this war exceedingly low.
Fundamentally, vampires could only mount a campaign for half of the day and would be weak in defensive warfare unless they held overwhelming superiority.
The duchy probably understood this and kept their strongest card hidden. The duchy knew all too well that the Grand Duke’s appearance would mean the knights would swarm to tackle her, allowing for advancements elsewhere.
However, that had to conclude by today. If they surrendered this place, the Grand Duke’s castle was just a stone’s throw away.
From the duchy’s standpoint, they would have nowhere left to retreat.
Unless they intended to surrender without a fight, today was surely the day they would strike back. And if they were throwing their last desperate challenge after saving every ounce of strength, there would be no reason to hold back their greatest power.
The moment Jerref considered this, the air of the battlefield grew heavy.
“Finally coming, are they?”
A chilling sensation gripped his heart, feeling as if it were being squeezed. The aura of death he sensed couldn’t be compared to any formidable foe he had faced while dodging countless deathblows.
Jerref turned his head toward the immense presence he felt.
Not here, but on the western front. The distance was farther than he had thought.
Without hesitation, Jerref led his detachment and left the northern front.
To strike down the greatest evil that would determine the outcome of this war.
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