As soon as Aria pierced a hole in the castle gate and vanished beyond it, ominous sounds erupted, causing cracks to spread on the gate and the nearby castle walls.
Like a dam succumbing to the pressure of water, the iron gate and the sturdy stone walls began to splinter.
In the chaos, a thick, reddish liquid gushed out and flowed down.
Drip—!
The blood stream thickened, and the cracks spread uncontrollably.
In the next moment, the area near the castle wall’s entrance collapsed entirely with a flood of crimson waves.
Boom!!
The noise was akin to the world crumbling, accompanied by a heavy wind blowing from the debris.
Amidst it all, Lavina, focused and tireless, kept firing arrows of wind without flinching, letting out a whistle in admiration.
“Wow, no matter how many times I see it, there’s nothing quite like a living siege weapon.”
Though she’d seen this kind of chaos multiple times before reaching the royal capital, it never ceased to excite her with its consistent ferocity.
Seeing the swirling blood around Aria, it appeared humans had kindly gathered a lot of living fuel near the castle gate.
How unjust it must be for the Bertica Kingdom that the lives of human soldiers were being spent to tear down the castle walls, right?
The weak aren’t even allowed to stand in front, and the more their allies die, the stronger the enemy becomes—what a maddening situation!
It’s baffling, considering you can’t just not deploy troops either.
The best method is engaging with a small, elite force, but if the Bertica Kingdom had such talent, they would have united the continent by now.
‘Still, it seems they’ve found some way to cope.’
Lavina recalled the strong presence of magic emanating from the gate and walls.
Though she couldn’t see it properly during the fight, it likely involved holy grants and physical resistance to counter the darkness magic.
Both sides displayed considerable strength. The Bertica Kingdom surely had confidence in their defenses.
They’d have no doubt believed their shields would triumph in a head-on clash with spears.
“If anything, I can only say they misjudged the spear’s power.”
Or perhaps they only had the option of believing that, but the destructive power of blood magic was overwhelmingly dominant.
According to Aria’s own account, maintaining blood magic of a certain scale came with a staggering sense of exhaustion as if life itself was being drained away in real-time. Still, is there anything more important than the fact that if the conditions are met, it could yield a level of destruction unlike conventional magic?
The situation had spiraled out of control.
With the two Grand Dukes leading, the vampire army crossed the boundary into the royal capital.
The screams of the humans began echoing over the walls just minutes into the battle, as they lost the advantage of being in a defensive position.
“Support is out of the question.”
While vampires rushed into the castle walls, following Aria’s fiery path, Lavina, still intercepting a barrage of attacks from above, waited until she got the signal from Plona confirming it was safe before she stopped and followed them inside.
“Don’t give an inch! We cannot retreat even a single step further!!”
Inside the castle walls, agonizing screams filled the air.
But is it true that the royal capital is something else? Despite the sudden chaos, the kingdom’s forces were putting up a surprising fight.
There were only a handful of knights and priests of the Luminous Church’s Belia branch left, showing resistance, but it was far from enough.
Yet even with a conspicuous gap in holy magic, the sight of humans somewhat staving off the nighttime vampires without any advantages narrowed Lavina’s eyes.
“They’re holding up better than expected…”
Vampires are more suited to offense than defense.
It’s easy to forget the difficulty in reaching the threshold of the royal capital when they breezed through, but even in such compounded circumstances, their ability to resist to that extent made them a warning sign.
“…This is definitely a fight we cannot afford to lose.”
Dodging a fireball that flew out from somewhere, Lavina tightened her grip on her bow.
In that moment, she sincerely thanked the elves of her hometown who had taught her archery and the ways of a ranger when she hadn’t cared about anything but magic.
Thanks to them, she could now be a strength to her friend, who accepted her just as she is.
*
For a knight, discipline is akin to life.
Knowing it’s inefficient, they choose the harder paths, and sometimes they even sacrifice their own lives for the sake of discipline.
Barthel Bekania, the captain of the royal guard knights of the Bertica Kingdom, was a man who seemed to embody that discipline.
For a knight protecting the royal family, discipline equated to obeying the royal command without question.
Barthel Bekania was steadfast in his beliefs, so much so that he would cut off his life if it were a royal command, earning him the honor of standing at the pinnacle of the royal guard knight order.
However, that didn’t mean Barthel was someone who craved death or was indifferent to the sense of crisis.
Lacking the sacred magic exclusive to the Luminous Church, one might coldly judge him to be somewhat outmatched in the grand scale of the vampire wars, but he possessed skills that placed him among the top three knights compared to other races, yet he still felt the emotion of fear.
Still, the reason he could risk his life for royal orders was the belief that it would lead to a meaningful future.
No matter how outstanding a knight might be, one person’s influence on the world is minuscule.
Since time immemorial, humans have been in the position of the weak, and even now, an individual’s power pales in comparison to Ain or the vampires and dragonkin.
Yet despite the terrible human-race wars having ceased for three centuries, they still monopolize the status of a hegemonic nation because they act for the good of the group rather than the individual.
And those chosen leaders guiding that group are the royals of each nation.
Barthel held tremendous pride in being a royal guard knight who protected the royal family closest to him, firmly believing that moving in accordance with commands and rules was the best way to leave a significant mark on history that could not be achieved alone.
Thus, he had never hesitated to follow any order until now.
Inefficient commands, commands pushing the limits of human capabilities, and orders demanding life-and-death struggles.
For a knight, wielding the sword filled with faith and loyalty along the lines of discipline and honor is said to bring no brighter life than that.
This was Barthel Bekania’s belief and way of life. But now, for the first time in his life, the knight had doubt.
“Retreat is not an option! Show the faith of the royal guards!!”
Thump. Thump.
While outwardly appearing calm and steadying his subordinates, Barthel’s heart was overflowing with burgeoning doubts.
“Yeah, it has to be like this.”
A melodious female voice, utterly unsuited to the battlefield filled with the stench of blood and decay.
But to Barthel, it was as if a death sentence had come down upon him, like a reaper emerging from hell.
Boom!!!
Two knight guards and six soldiers of the kingdom fell at a single strike.
The progenitor of vampires, Aria.
The calamity that had revealed itself to the world after three years was now manifested as a silver-haired, red-eyed woman in Belia, single-handedly shattering castle walls and rampaging through numerous humans.
Aria lifted her left foot off the ground.
As Barthel instinctively raised his sword, Aria’s right hand came at him, leaving a shadowy trail as she closed in.
Thud, an overwhelming weight crushed Barthel as though a giant ancient tree had fallen upon him.
“Hah!!!”
Blocking was impossible.
The sword he barely angled aside narrowly avoided her shadow, but the blood swirling around Aria, like a barrier, shot toward Barthel’s heart and head like arrows.
In a precarious balancing act, Barthel evaded death on a tightrope.
But while he focused on dodging, yet another knight guard fell.
Barthel gripped the sword tighter.
Through the armor, he could hear the grinding of his teeth clenching hard.
‘…This is the progenitor of vampires.’
The despair he had wanted to ignore crept back up.
Too powerful. It was overwhelmingly so that he couldn’t even think of opposing her.
The knight guards hadn’t participated in the war against the duchy. Yet Barthel had to realize the warnings from those returning from the battlefield had contained no falsehoods.
‘Even if it costs my life, I must protect the royal capital.’
He received such a royal order. It was precisely because of royal command that the royal guards had, exceptionally, plunged into the frontlines.
Until now, Barthel had acted accordingly.
Believing it would lead to the best outcomes.
Convinced that it would be the most meaningful way to use his life.
But—
“If it’s like this… is it just a futile death?”
As four more knight guards fell, Barthel looked down at his severed left hand, muttering in disbelief.
He couldn’t see the future. Even if he died here fighting, he had no confidence that someone would carry on after.
He felt as though he had become a fool throwing himself against a landslide, proclaiming he would conquer nature without any reason.
Was there really any point in pouring out his life in resistance?
Perhaps humans were only prolonging their suffering while turning away from an unavoidable, despairing end.
If he were to lose his life like this… wasn’t he just throwing it away for nothing?
“That’s right. Foolish knight.”
At Aria’s mockery, Barthel flinched, realizing he had unconsciously spoken aloud.
His expression twisted.
He understood he had just negated the beliefs and convictions he had followed his entire life.
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