NOVEL NEXT Chapter 38: Astonishment!
The trail was cold. The unknown entity had eliminated his entire retinue, one against many, and vanished without a trace. Its power was not to be underestimated.
Blood Magic.
It was the art Drakul had dedicated his four-hundred-year life to perfecting. It was his pride, his masterpiece. And this city of the dead, with its rivers of blood and fields of corpses, was the perfect canvas.
He extended his will, and the blood he had been gathering all this time spread out, seeping into every crack and crevice of the ruined town, becoming his eyes and ears.
But he found nothing. No living soul.
And as his senses were spread thin, searching the town, a figure of violet-blue shimmered into existence in his blind spot.
A flash of cold steel...
CLANG!
The impact sent a shockwave through the air, blasting away the loose rubble at their feet. Drakul had raised his blood-forged shield just in time, blocking the sneak attack.
The force of the blow, transmitted up his arm, astonished him. Such strength... it was even greater than Zera's.
He had sensed the attack through the blood that coated the ground, but he hadn't seen the attacker. He whipped his head around, catching only a glimpse of a violet-blue strand of hair.
!
BOOM!
Another attack, this time from his right. Drakul swiftly brought his massive blood-sword around, catching the second blow on its flat.
The impact drove the sword's tip into the ground, and he was forced back several paces before he could steady himself. The blade of his opponent's greatsword was now mere inches from his neck.
"That was Leslie's concealment magic," Drakul said, his voice calm, almost conversational, despite the blade at his throat. "I don't know how you learned it, but I must admit, you are a talented mage."
"I am the Blood Knight, Drakul," he announced. "Human, state your name."
"..."
CRACK!
My answer was a fist to his helmet.
The angle was perfect, the speed deceptive. Even though he saw it coming, he couldn't react in time.
The sound of my small, delicate-looking fist connecting with his blood-forged helm was like steel striking steel.
The force of the blow staggered him, breaking his stance for a single, crucial second.
I seized the opening. Sandalphon batted his sword aside and swung towards his chest. But he was fast. His shield snapped up, blocking the strike. He used the momentum to create distance between us.
"Impressive strength..." he mused.
But I gave him no time to recover. The moment he steadied himself, I was on him again.
"And impressive speed," he added.
He raised his shield, anticipating the same overhead strike as before. But just as our weapons were about to meet, I vanished.
I reappeared at his right flank, my vertical slash instantly transitioning into a diagonal upswing.
"Your combat sense is remarkable as well."
A wall of blood erupted from the ground between us, solidifying into a thick, curved shield.
Crack—!
The wall of blood failed to stop my attack, but it served its purpose. It slowed me down just long enough for Drakul to get his shield in place.
Sandalphon's blade slammed into the shield, the sheer force of the blow launching us both into the sky.
As we ascended, Drakul summoned a storm of meter-long blood lances from the air around him. The blood he had collected from the town's slaughtered inhabitants was a vast reservoir of power, and he was happy to spend it.
The lances rained down on my position, kicking up a massive cloud of dust. But inside the maelstrom, I was perfectly safe. My Aeterna Defensio held without a scratch.
Drakul, now hovering in the air, ceased the bombardment. But before the dust could settle, a volley of golden energy blades shot out from the cloud, forcing him to dodge and weave through the sky.
Then, a streak of gold burst from the side of the dust cloud. It raced along the ground, leaving a trail of shimmering energy, then curved upwards into the sky. For a brief, silent moment, it hung at its apex, then it fell, a meteor of gold and red aimed directly at Drakul.
It's even faster now?!
At this speed, Drakul knew he couldn't dodge. All he could do was trust his instincts. He raised his shield, summoning every last drop of blood he had collected to form a massive, layered barrier in front of him.
But this time, it wasn't Sandalphon I was wielding.
The greatsword was gone, replaced by a colossal battle-axe of crimson and gold, wreathed in roaring flames.
Pseudo-Camael.
The axe blade, empowered by my kinetic energy, sliced through the blood barrier as if it were water. It shattered his shield and buried itself deep in his chest.
"What...?!"
My replica of Kotori's Angel was a weapon of pure, overwhelming destructive power. Against an opponent like this, finesse was unnecessary. The force of the impact sent us both plummeting back to the earth, right into the center of the town square.
BOOM!
The ground shattered, the shockwave leveling every remaining building in the vicinity. A web of cracks spread out from the impact crater, spiderwebbing across the entire town.
….
What... happened?
Consciousness returned to Drakul in fractured pieces. He was at the bottom of a massive crater. His blood armor, once his greatest defense, was shattered, now just a pool of gore around him.
He had been defeated. By a human girl... no. That was no human. He didn't know what it was, but it was no mere mortal.
The searing pain brought him back to full awareness. A flaming, golden-red battle-axe was embedded in his chest, his heart utterly destroyed. The impact had pulped his insides. That he was still conscious was a testament to his demonic vitality.
Flames, like a divine judgment, began to spread across his body, consuming him from the inside out.
He looked up at me, at my cold, impassive face, at the halo of light above my head.
Is this... what the humans call an apostle of the Goddess?
He would never know. He had been defeated, and his opponent had not even been trying.
So this is why Zera and the others fell, he thought, as the flames consumed him.
This creature... is magnificent.
And with the death of the great demon, the battle was finally over.
….
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