Sharp sword strikes rain down. Even the night sky seems to be split apart as two pairs of silver blades flash and charge like a gale.
But they don’t connect. The fluttering maid outfit appears to taunt the resolve of the warriors, remaining clean and unscathed.
Neither side has landed any real blows. However, as time passes, the anxious ones are Dave and Emmerton, wielding their swords.
Even now, allies are dying at the hands of Vampires surrounding them.
Plona fights fiercely, supporting the priests, but with two of the three strongest forces here tied up with one Vampire, it is impossible for Plona alone to protect the remaining allied forces.
What about the other Knights? They, too, are busy trying to stabilize the battlefield that has turned into chaos.
‘The level is different. They’re not ordinary nobles.’
It may seem obvious, but Vampire nobles are anything but ordinary.
Humans can easily deal with Vagrants without titles, but when it comes to Barons, they struggle, and when facing Viscounts, they have to risk their lives.
When it comes to Counts, the danger increases not just by a level but by leaps and bounds.
Humans may lack precise standards, but both Duchies seem to maintain a consistent standard, as past reports from knightly orders show that no incidents involving Count-level Vampires ended well.
Dave has fought against a Vampire of Marquis rank.
It was a brutal and horrific battle. He could never forget the sight of that creature quickly recovering even after being struck with a sword made of silver.
Dave, who has survived countless battles, would without hesitation point to that Vampire as the strongest foe he’s faced alone. Yet now, that record was about to be shattered.
“Stop being so annoying.”
Boom!!
The ground erupts as if a small meteor had crashed, creating cracks.
As Dave barely manages to dodge to the side, he readies himself to counterattack, but the opponent seems determined to keep the offensive, swinging his left hand without pause.
With every swing, something dark flows down like a whip, constricting around Dave.
The attack is concentrated on Dave. Thanks to that, Emmerton finds an opportunity and quickly closes the distance.
Thud!
Just before Emmerton crosses into striking distance, the maid lightly stomps, shaking the ground.
From her center, black thorns shoot up from the ground, extending in all directions.
Emmerton is forced to pull back, and the fight returns to square one.
Dave clicks his tongue. Even Count and Marquis-level Vampires, which can hardly be deemed ordinary, look ordinary when compared to the maid before him.
It’s not just a matter of difference in rank; it feels like something has skipped intermediate stages entirely.
Though it’s generally advised to avoid full-on battles with high-ranking Vampires at night, considering this situation, it is strange that two of the strongest forces from the Luminous Kingdom and the Empire cannot gain an advantage even while receiving all kinds of magical support.
No, even excluding the support spells, it’s not even a 2-to-1 fight.
The opponent is constantly protecting the allied Vampires from sacred magic while distracting the battlefield with shadows, causing more casualties among soldiers and priests.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the entire battlefield is being manipulated by this one Vampire. The single maid before him poses a far greater threat than all the other Vampires combined.
But it must be stopped.
As the hands rising from the ground are purged with sacred magic, the Vampires rush forth as if they were waiting for this moment. If that maid gets another chance to act freely, an uncontrollable situation may arise.
Shadows writhe from the ground. The sacred magic barrier cast by the support priests flickers, its light dimming.
Whatever it is, it must not be left unchecked. Sensing the danger instinctively, Dave shouts at the priests.
“Prioritize maintaining the barrier! Plona, protect the priests!”
While brute strength is essential, that dark magic is hazardous.
Normally, a Knight supported by priests should have little trouble against dark magic.
Most dark magic, being focused on illusions, hardly works against opponents with the same level of mental resistance, and even those lower can usually fend it off effectively with sacred magic.
Thus, in battles between Knights and Vampires, dark magic is typically a means to avoid direct contact with silver. It should only serve to enhance melee attacks.
“This is quite impressive.”
But this Vampire is different. The unusual dark magic, unlike anything Dave has ever seen, is so unpredictable and dangerous that he can’t assess the possible outcomes.
Probably, the initial suicides among the soldiers were her doing.
Although it only affected those with low mental resistance before the barrier was cast, what kind of wizard is capable of implanting a suggestion that drives soldiers to take their own lives in an instant? Dave doesn’t have a clue.
If it had been a melee-based scenario, he might have found a way to gain the upper hand, but sadly, the situation has unfolded differently.
For now, the best he can do is to try to keep her from doing any more mischief.
“I went through all the trouble of giving you the night, and you didn’t like it?”
The light-dimming barrier brightens again, and the shadows retreat under the dazzling radiance, yet she sneers mockingly.
Dave dismisses it as common provocation and moves, but Emmerton gasps as if he has realized something.
“…The sun! You clueless wench, the sun?!”
“Oh, for a damn dog, you have good perception. Yes, I did make it a bit confusing with positioning.”
With that dull acknowledgment, Emmerton finally understands why the sun had suddenly set.
He thought it would take at least another thirty minutes for the sun to dip below the horizon; that was purely his mistake. The sun had already been below the horizon.
What happened is that the illusion magic projected an image above the actual position of the sun, causing Emmerton to misjudge sunset time based on the assumed location of the sun.
When the actual sun set, the illusion magic was dispelled, creating the illusion that the sun had vanished.
“I can’t believe I fell for that trick.”
Emmerton gritted his teeth in frustration.
Who would have guessed a Vampire would dare to cast magic outside during the day, let alone within a castle?
He knew that Vampires could use magic during the day if they were indoors, but he never anticipated the existence of a wizard capable of tampering so cleverly with the sky from such a distance.
“Enough of that ‘wench’ business; you’re way out of your league.”
Just as he was about to carry on the conversation, an unpleasant voice came from behind instead of in front, sending chills down Emmerton’s spine.
He couldn’t tell if she had moved quickly or had been there all along.
Despite exerting all his strength to move, there was no way for even Emmerton to escape unscathed from a surprise attack conjured so forcefully.
“Guh!!”
Like being slashed by a bear, a long wound stretches from his left shoulder to his chest.
If he had hesitated even slightly, his scapula would have been shattered, and his heart nearly crushed as cold sweat broke out on Emmerton’s brow.
Stella Banteker. The second-in-command of the Sahelrn Duchy and the only Duke aside from the Grand Duke.
In terms of mastery over dark magic, the strongest wizard in Vampire history, possessing overwhelming skill that even the Grand Duke and other Vampires cannot match.
Though she’s a Duke, being below Martini Sahelrn means she’s just a Duke, but when excluding Martini, who demonstrates overwhelming strength, Stella is considered at least on par with the Grand Duke of Helraig.
Among long-living races like Elves, just hearing Stella’s name sends some into a frothing rage.
Having a natural disaster of Grand Duke caliber appear unexpectedly is worthy of calling an achievement simply by holding it down, but those involved had no choice but to feel otherwise.
Rather, the only truth for them is that amidst the dark magic and divine magic barrier they are desperately trying to maintain, fighting at all against a weakened magician is absurd.
‘Should I use it?’
Dave’s last resort. A killing move for high-ranking Vampires that only a few Knights can wield.
If receiving the blessing of the light spirit, specializing in support and recovery, grants the ability to enhance their body, then condensing that enhancement to a brief moment is a secret that only a few Knights can handle.
If he pushes himself to burn through all his remaining strength now, although he can’t negate all of his opponent’s offense, he could temporarily gain meaningful combat power.
However, he can only maintain it for about 15 minutes. With a Vampire like this, without piercing their heart, the chance of finishing it in 15 minutes is nil.
Can he do it? If he could, then when facing the Grand Duke afterward…?
As he worries over these matters, he suffers more minor wounds.
Though Dave and Emmerton’s swords have grazed Stella a few times, it’s clear, even without saying, who ends up losing in an exhausting battle against a Vampire, regardless of the use of silver weapons.
“Commander! The scouts have returned!!”
In that moment, a single shout interrupts Dave’s deliberation. Given the delay, they must have faced some obstacles, but at least the fact they returned is a point of solace.
‘In this case, since it has come to this, I must make some sacrifices to complete the mission—’
“There’s nothing there! No reactions from the castle!!!”
“What?!”
The message was incomplete, but both Emmerton and Dave understood exactly what the messenger meant.
‘The Progenitor isn’t at the Grand Duke’s castle.’
The meaning of this entire operation, and even the war itself, begins to waver.
In the Duchy, there is no safer place than the Grand Duke’s castle. Therefore, if the Progenitor is under the protection of the Sahelrn Duchy, they should naturally be present there.
However, the Progenitor is not here. There was certainly no sign of them on the way to the castle either.
Since the war began, measures had been taken to ensure thorough border surveillance with the cooperation of not just the Empire and the Luminous Kingdom, but also the Armes Kingdom to the southwest, so it shouldn’t be possible for them to escape the Duchy during the war.
It doesn’t make sense. Whether equipment malfunctioned or not, the Progenitor should absolutely be here.
Unless they had been secreted away before the war even began—
‘…Could it be?’
Emmerton’s face turned pale as the impossible possibility dawned on him. If so, they had been completely played.
But every indicator pointed to one conclusion.
The Progenitor is not in the Grand Duke’s castle.
Not even found within the neighboring Sahelrn Duchy.
The likelihood of the Progenitor escaping the Duchy since the war began is virtually zero.
Thus, there remains only one possibility.
“You guys have already whisked the Progenitor away.”
The final possibility.
Before the war started, before the borders were sealed, the Progenitor had already left the Duchy.
Assuming Sahelrn would never let go of the Progenitor, Emmerton had failed to consider this possibility.
“They caught on. In fact, I’ve already devoured the Progenitor.”
“…Stop with the nonsense. Surely, the Sahelrn wouldn’t dare.”
Stella’s taunting was practically a confirmation to Emmerton. Given Martini Sahelrn’s nature, if they left the Progenitor alone, they’d surely never do anything to harm them.
But why? Why the hell?
From the Duchy’s perspective, it’s far too dangerous and requires significant sacrifices to take such a gamble.
Many Vampires have already died, and amid such fierce fighting, the allied forces have not even begun to suspect that the Duchy is protecting the Progenitor.
That’s precisely why the war has dragged on. Aware they couldn’t completely burn the Duchy into ashes, they have deceived everything into believing they were conducting total war in order to assassinate the Progenitor.
So, did the Duchy foresee this and secretly whisk the Progenitor away, all while putting on a charade of protecting some nonexistent Progenitor to buy time against the allied forces?
‘Completely missed it. Damn it, I lost from the very beginning of this chess match.’
Now that the objective had vanished, the reason to endure had also dissipated. It was a war that had only left wounds on both sides, but as a commander, he had to pull back his troops.
“Retreat! Retreat and report this to the main force!”
While the final decision to retreat should be made by the main commander, Emmerton is already convinced that this war is over.
Rumors of the Suwong Kingdom causing trouble recently have only amplified the hints within the Empire that factions want to withdraw from the Duchy, making it unnecessary to continue a war without any objectives.
“Don’t let them get away. We will settle this before His Highness returns.”
But to do that, they must first survive against the Vampires that are now keenly hunting for them and reach the location where the main force is stationed.
Thus begins the end of a war where the tide has completely turned.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.
