“It was pretty much so. I thought it would be weaker than expected, but that wasn’t the case at all.”
But the gap cannot be crossed.
“The Celestial Race is incredibly ignorant. They just swing their immense power around without a second thought.”
“……”
“In contrast, the Demon Race strategizes. They can amplify their power thousands, even tens of thousands of times, creating phenomena that cannot be achieved by sheer strength.”
“……”
“This future is merely a possibility, yet it’s practically foreseen… Are you listening?”
“Yes.”
When Verd’s long-winded speech came to a halt, I briefly lifted my head.
I was willing to listen to everything, but he cut himself off.
“I’m listening. Please continue.”
“…You seem completely unfazed.”
It feels as though the will of the world is pressing down on me, imbued with magic.
Even so, I showed no signs of action.
As if my only duty was to listen.
“Strangely enough, you seem more at ease than before… Have you gone mad?”
“About half?”
It’s not entirely incorrect.
But it’s not entirely right either.
Ta-gak.
As I stepped into a world filled with magic, the oppressive magic began to recede.
Pure white holy power spreads around me, obliterating the magic completely.
The magic is perfectly purified, unable to regenerate, and it vanishes.
Wings of Light unfurl behind me, and the holy power, which Verd has completely seized, bursts forth with a powerful light, demonstrating its presence.
Even though I merely ‘entered’, the potential space seems to be dangerously letting out roars.
Verd’s face, eyes stretched wide open, twisted grotesquely.
“I had a bit of a dilemma. I was thinking of what to do with you.”
Verd, Sword Saint, Merini.
Verd is on a path of annihilation.
There’s not even a fraction of a chance for revival, and if he hadn’t pulled me into the Spiritual World, I would have locked him away where he could never be touched, but he’s dug his own grave.
‘The thought of reviving a Demon is laughable in itself.’
The Sword Saint, having lost his sword and gone through purification, will likely find a resolution on his own.
I wonder how much of the system’s protection progressed during the process of merging with the Demon Race, but I doubt he can maintain his number one rank any longer.
Lastly, Merini…
“What should I do?”
The world shifts.
Verd’s army, filled with arrogance, stirs.
Puppets with their respective weapons are aiming at me, while far off, the endless Black Roots, billowing like a storm, scatter low-class demon-level magic and charge forward.
Even the vast magic swirling around Verd coalesces into thousands of swords aimed directly at me.
You’re quite perceptive.
“You can come out.”
But that awareness came far too late.
From the moment he invited me into this space, defeat was already assured.
Sre…
Blood flows through the twisted dimensional gap.
Blood red as if deeper than dark magic.
The massive amount of blood, revealing its presence, seeps into the earth’s cracks.
Verd frowned, moving part of his sword to bind it, but the culprit behind the bloodshed eagerly grasped with a pale hand.
Swoosh!!!
The lifeforce of all creatures approaching vanished in an instant.
Verd tried desperately to protect his puppet amidst the sudden shift in blood flow, but it was futile.
“Ah, ah.”
All control over the blood was already in her hands.
Tap.
A pretty girl, looking about 16 years old.
Her silver hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall, and her blood-soaked red eyes shone elegantly in the darkness.
Yet, it was not a sparkling light but a crimson glow rising from the shadows.
Though she had pale skin, her doll-like appearance and neat clothing didn’t look too out of place.
“Haah…”
An ancient race that spent thousands of years in the space of despair.
Master of Blood, Progenitor Lasty looked at her ‘other half’ with blood-filled eyes.
“Weak.”
“…What?”
“Pharaoh would be better.”
She clenched her thin, white hand once more.
Fwaaaack!!!
A massive amount of blood burst forth from Verd’s body.
Not just blood, but ‘magic’ mixed with blood spilled out as well.
“Kuhh?!”
Verd, momentarily flustered, counterattacked, but it was already too late.
The blood flow, no, the sea of blood engulfed the continent, and the roots approaching this way were all submerged in the waves of blood.
Thousands of blackened, red blood were lost to their master.
“Cough… Cough… Wh-what…”
Tap. Tap.
The sound of pretty shoes echoed over the blood-soaked ground.
She looked down at Verd, rolling on the ground like a bug, with a cold gaze.
Even the bodies of demons have blood.
And vampires possess the power to manipulate blood freely.
Of course, a demon like Verd would have full control over blood, but his opponent was Lasty.
The Progenitor of a vampire, an experiment of the top-class demon with an alias, with ‘half’ of her body being a demon.
The experiment she underwent was about instilling a fanatical power over ‘blood’ and the ‘half’ of a demon.
Everyone predicted it would be impossible, but after thousands of years, the experiment succeeded, and Lasty emerged as the first vampire to appear in the world.
‘Though the demon itself ended up dead.’
Even a top-class demon with an alias can die.
No matter how strong, if the eight seats apply their strength, one can die.
That is the law of the world, and that’s why I was horrified.
“How am I supposed to stop those crazy bastards?”
With a single swing, the Eight Seats and Six Demon Kings can tear apart the continent and shred dimensions to bits.
I still can’t believe they made up.
Lasty manipulated the magic of the entire continent using blood flow.
The magic offered a brief resistance, but soon became obedient, all moving according to her will.
Now, even the Black Root will be soaked in red blood, and her blood flow will run through every corner of the world.
From now on, this land belongs to Lasty.
“Lasty.”
“…Is this from my sister?”
Lasty brought me, a haphazard copy made by Verd.
This is the future of possibilities.
There can be no future where I am captured and become a puppet, so it must be some clumsily made imitation.
Verd must have been quite flustered as well.
Though this future turned out the way he wanted, the reality is that Lily Elbrite is a total mess.
“Grrk. Grarrk….”
In the end, it was Verd who got caught.
Lasty alternated her gaze between me and the fake before eventually opening her arms toward me.
Tap, tap.
At her gentle touch upon her neat clothes, I silently bowed my head to hug her.
Her pale hand, wanting to feel warmth, entwined around me.
“Warm.”
“The warmth partly comes from the Pharaoh too.”
“That statue isn’t warm; it’s hot. All it knows how to do is play in the sand.”
She pouted and reluctantly pulled away.
Since becoming a vampire, her body, which no longer radiated warmth, has always been cold.
No matter how much blood flows through her body or how much hot magic she absorbs, that fact remains unchanged.
‘As long as she doesn’t stop being a vampire, forever.’
“But that doesn’t mean I can hug the hatchling. It’s filled with chill.”
“That’s true.”
“…I said to speak casually. Is it uncomfortable for me?”
“Of course not.”
Lasty is the progenitor of vampires.
Once a lord who commanded over countless vampires, she was also an ancient beast known as the Blood Plague.
The reason she was referred to as an ‘ancient beast’ is, of course, the countless humans she slaughtered.
‘…Can you kill me? Me? The one who doesn’t die?’
But the Lasty I know is just a young princess.
A tragic girl who gained the power to manipulate blood flow and immortality through experimentation after being kidnapped at the age of 16.
There are many tragic stories in this world, but hers is especially harsh.
She was kidnapped at the same time her family was annihilated and experienced experiments in a space where time flowed differently for thousands of years, where her soul was separated.
After thousands of years of experimentation, upon finally stepping outside, the first thing she did was stain her hometown with blood.
The first thing I did after coming out of the world was to stain my hometown with my blood.
My descendants, my hometown, and even the kingdom with its little remnants…
Having been mentally altered by magic, she was like a different person, and only after the demon who experimented on her died did she regain her senses.
By the time she came to her senses, everything was already finished.
What was left for her was everything.
“After thousands of years, I wondered if I should be treated differently now.”
“…Are you making fun of me for being old?”
Lasty widened her eyes.
Despite spending thousands of years in the Space of Despair since that day, she hadn’t aged a bit.
As a half-demon and the progenitor of vampires, she lived eternally.
Especially since she spent most of her time in the spiritual world sleeping, it made sense she didn’t age.
“Sister.”
“…Sorry, but I’m still not there yet.”
Right now, I am weak.
While Lasty became much stronger over the thousands of years, I lost my power.
Even if I were to regain my strength, the Pharaoh would be the first to come out into the world.
Lasty, who was merely at the intermediate level, was now emitting magic at the level of a complete upper-ranked demon.
For Lasty to show herself to Deoen, I should at least be around my peak, I think.
Lasty shook her head.
“Take your time. I can keep waiting.”
“I guess you’ve made some friends.”
The monsters that were inside disappeared as I lost my weapon, but the Pharaoh and Lasty, sealed within the Space of Despair, remained even as time passed.
The Space of Despair was made for the monsters to alleviate their boredom by talking to each other, so it must have been terribly boring for just the two of them.
“One’s a statue. The other’s a progenitor who sleeps 90% of the day.”
…Thinking about it, the Pharaoh might have been more bored.
But with new friends being added, it should be a little less boring now.
I’m also planning to add Karabus soon.
Lasty had a strange smile.
…Whenever she makes that face, something suspicious is usually going on.
“What’s up?”
“I haven’t been sleeping much lately. So, I’m a little less bored, so no worries.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Especially.”
She gazed at me with a distant look.
“I’m happy because Lily is here.”
“…? Yeah.”
I nodded my head.
Her red eyes roundly smiled.
Looking at ‘someone’ on the other side she had crossed over.
‘My name? I’m Lily. Lily Elbrite.’
She resembled Lily.
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