The foundation of Damian — magic.
It was something that had almost completely faded away, passed down only among a select few of the mixed races.
But even that had nearly vanished, leaving only fragments of what once was.
So, no one noticed the nature of the energy emanating from Damian.
Only Ludvik and Priest Vigrind, sensitive to non-divine energy, looked around as if something were awry.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!”
Ludvik, true to form, quickly caught onto the anomaly.
A man approaching the Saint.
Despite Ludvik’s warning to stop, the man kept coming.
A tall figure exuding a palpable aura of gloom.
The moment he saw the man, Ludvik instinctively felt it.
Danger.
Danger.
That man is not human—
Without realizing, he gripped his spear, divine energy bubbling up like a pot on the boil.
With the spear aimed at the man, Ludvik shouted,
“I said stop!”
Tension twisted through the air.
Faced with a feeling he’d never experienced before, Ludvik found himself growling instinctively.
“Y-You, Hero?”
Priest Vigrind, sensing something was off along with the strange ambiance spreading, moved behind the hero.
Her voice, stiff with tension, revealed just how on edge she was.
“It’s not magic, but I can’t discern what this energy is. We must not let it get any closer.”
Vigrind scrutinized the man.
She recognized him.
He was unforgettable, marked by an impressive presence that lingered in memory.
A hollow, gloomy, and melancholic man.
His attire bore the signs of nobility, yet it was a mystery why he was here.
“I told you to stop—!”
As Ludvik shouted once more, the man finally halted.
His half-closed eyes opened wide, locking onto Ludvik; the red pupils made Ludvik’s heart plummet.
He is not human.
That cannot be human.
The man’s gaze shifted from Ludvik to Vigrind.
As their eyes met, the man slowly murmured, inscribing her image into his mind once more.
“Flow, flow here, and eventually unfold.”
The man—Damian—let a dark energy spill from his cuffs.
The ominous energy surged forward, threatening to drench the ground, starting to spread at a terrifying speed.
The dark energy seeping from Damian billowed like fog, wavering and spreading all around.
“Saint!”
“Yes!”
At Ludvik’s call, a brilliant golden light erupted from Priest Vigrind.
The golden glow collided with the black haze rising from Damian, and upon impact, a sizzling sound rang out, thick smoke billowing upwards.
‘Gotcha.’
Watching from a distance, Ceres smirked in triumph.
And as Ceres smiled, Sister Aege silently observed her.
Sister Aege quietly watched as Ceres was busy crafting.
Thick, smoky tendrils billowed up, the black haze seemingly fading away in the golden glow.
Taking advantage of the moment, Ludvik swung his spear and lunged at Damian.
“Are you part of the Dark Order?!”
Just when it seemed that the spear would pierce him, the sight of Damian appeared to vanish, leaving only a white parchment skewered on the spear.
Instead, Damian revealed himself behind Ludvik.
“What Dark Order? I know nothing of that.”
Damian raised his hand and struck Ludvik from behind.
As the dark energy swirled and thickened around his hand, just before it hit Ludvik, he ducked low and thrust his spear high.
“Reveal your true identity!”
Ludvik’s spear pierced Damian.
It accurately punctured his throat, but Damian’s expression remained disturbingly calm.
With no sign of pain, Damian slowly grasped the spear and withdrew it from his neck.
Black smoke rose from the spot where his fingers touched, filling the air with a burnt odor, but Damian seemed utterly unconcerned.
“Identity, identity… I don’t even know what my identity is. Should I call myself the king of a fallen nation or the butcher of a kingdom? I have no idea, but maybe you can tell me.”
Damian’s voice was dark and foreboding.
Hearing the nonsensical ramblings, Ludvik shouted again.
“You’re just spouting nonsense; you must be a demon!”
“A demon, you say? Then I suppose I am a demon, indeed.”
Damian released the spear and smoothly retreated.
The black aura rising from his feet moved freely as if it were part of him.
“The priest said I could fulfill my wish, so I should give it a try. Don’t interfere.”
No sooner had Damian finished his sentence than a deafening explosion erupted from the Community Center.
Though the Community Center had undergone some hasty repairs after the battle with the Dark Order, it exploded into pieces once more.
The black energy that surged from it shot up into the sky like a fountain.
“Knights, priests, what are you doing?! Get ready, quick!”
Ludvik yelled.
Despite the bizarre chaos in the Community Center, only Vigrind, who was busy fending off Damian and the black energy, seemed active; the Holy Knight Brigade and the priests just stood there, staring.
With faces drained of color, the onlookers snapped to attention at Ludvik’s shout, quickly donning their gear and rushing toward the Community Center.
“I’ll handle it! But first, we need to evacuate the poor and stabilize the situation!”
“Stabilize? You think you can stop me?”
A grim voice.
A voice so devoid of emotion it was chilling.
Damian stood there, fully absorbing Ludvik’s attacks.
Most of the assaults were blocked by his defense, but a few incredibly sharp strikes managed to break through, claiming a life here and there.
But in the grand scheme of things, that was just a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of lives he held.
“Just about one or so.”
“It’s nothing more than that.”
“Now rise and move. The time has come for you to move for my rest.”
A faint whisper slipped from Damian’s lips once again. Each time he muttered softly, dark energy continued to pour forth, and he often flinched when Priest Vigrind’s divine hammer struck above his head, but aside from that, his momentum didn’t waver.
“Saint, I’ve heard you’re called a saint. Truly, it must be so. You might be the woman who can grant me rest.”
“Stop spouting nonsense—!”
Ludvik let out a battle cry. The bright aura from the spear he held buzzed ominously as it stretched forth.
Strength filled his legs planted on the ground. Ludvik tightened his grip on the spear.
“I can no longer burden the saint alone.”
The events surrounding the apostate Yona must not be repeated. He didn’t want to see the pained and tormented face of Vigrind again.
“Your king has returned, so rise. Rise and offer your life to me.”
Every time Damian muttered, the black energy covering the sky and the fog rising from the ground danced as if moving in rhythm.
The golden radiance emitted by Vigrind continued to burn those energies, but for now, it was a hopeless situation.
“How do I stop this…”
Momentarily, the priests and cathedral knights froze in shock at the bizarre phenomenon they had never seen before.
“Many speak of you, saying you will not be saved.”
– Ggrgrgrgr…
The ground began to tremble starting from the Community Center. It shook as if an earthquake hit, and the impoverished screamed, scurrying away like soaked ants.
“I am your salvation, your master, and the one who takes your lives.”
“Can’t you just shut up—!”
Ludvik’s spear sliced through Damian’s entire form. Stabbing, piercing, dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, yet Damian’s wounds healed immediately.
“Rise and take the life of your enemy. Offer that life to your king.”
Seemingly unwilling to care about his own body, Damian muttered. Despite not offering any resistance, Ludvik found he could not topple Damian.
Damian stood firm as if he had no wounds at all. The black energy erupting from his body mixed with the energy bursting from the Community Center, creating a strange hue.
“Now, rise.”
The moment Damian opened his eyes wide, his red irises mixed ominously with black light. Gradually, Damian raised his arm.
The black energy gushing from him intensified and began to race across the ground. The entire ground was turning black, black, black.
“As I call your name with my voice.”
The black ground began to sway. Meanwhile, the energy pouring from Damian showed no signs of stopping. Instead, it surged even more fiercely, spreading the black earth further.
“At last, you shall rise from that place.”
Finally, the energy covering the ground resonated and mixed with the energy bursting from the Community Center. Its area was vast, too immense to encompass in a single glance.
“Too vast to comprehend.”
“Uh, what should we do! Hero! Saint!”
The priests and the Holy Knight Brigade, flustered in front of the Community Center, called out to Ludvik and Priest Vigrind one after another.
And then it happened.
The energy that had been covering the sky exploded, expanding its range and pulling in the priests and the Holy Knights gathered in front of the Community Center.
“What is this—!”
“We have to get out!”
“N-no! We can’t escape!”
“Priests, hurry and purify!”
That dome-like thing had turned into a barrier, enclosing the priests and the Holy Knight Brigade all at once.
Trapped inside, they desperately unleashed their powers and poured out their holiness against the barrier, but it didn’t budge an inch.
“I-I’m moving!”
The barrier started to shrink in on itself.
What had been a rather wide barrier was rapidly closing in, capturing the Holy Knights and priests within.
As Priest Vigrind watched the scene unfold, he set aside the purification of the dark energy and began directly invoking holiness against Damian.
“Please let them go—!”
Damian did not respond to Vigrind’s cry.
Instead, he savored the golden purity that showered on him, relishing the lives being consumed bit by bit as he did so—
“Finally met you. The one who will grant my wish, the one who will give me rest—at last…!”
Damian turned towards Vigrind.
His red eyes were far from normal.
His grim face was now graced with a subtle joy and ecstasy, even hinting at an unknown madness.
Slowly, Damian raised his arm.
“At last, salvation is coming to me. After a long life, at long last—!”
Meanwhile, the barrier continued to shrink.
It was a spacious area, but the ever-tightening barrier kept pressing down on the priests and Holy Knights.
“S-save us! Hero—! Saint—!”
“Please release them, let them go—!!”
Vigrind screamed as if he were being torn apart.
Hearing that scream, Damian approached Vigrind, and then Ludvik stepped forward, pointing his spear at him.
“You cannot approach the Saint, Demon.”
“Is that so.”
Damian raised his hand and lightly flicked his fingers.
With a snap— in an instant, the barrier became a solid wall.
The Holy Knights and priests caught in between could not let out even a single scream before turning to a pool of blood.
Then, the blood squeezed from their bodies rose up as a single mass into the sky.
“Salvation is within me, and I require no permission to enact my will.”
Damian’s monologue sounded like the conclusion of a prayer.
The blood mass floating in the sky flew towards him and seeped into the chest of his formal attire.
“—Thus, my life will be extended once again. Despite your efforts to annihilate me, here I stand, so you cannot grant my wish.”
At Damian’s words, Ludvik finally realized the identity of the man before him—Damian.
“…You are a vampire. I should have figured it out from the title ‘King of the Fallen Kingdom, Slayer of the Nation’…!”
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