Chapter 148: The Hero and the Demon King’s Army – 1

Chapter 148: The Hero and the Demon King’s Army – 1

A crimson palace rises.

The sky is dyed red, and the earth is soaked in blood.

There, the vampires bare their fangs and laugh.

It is a sanctuary of blood, a place where all vampires feast. How could they not laugh standing there?

Watching those vampires, the Hero pulls out a small glass bottle.

And, with her usual motion, she throws it.

Clang!

With the clear sound, a chilling air rises all around.

The cool chill fills the crimson palace, the sanctuary, obscuring vision and cooling and solidifying the flowing blood.

Naturally, the attacks of the vampires, who were preparing to strike with flowing blood, were delayed, albeit briefly.

“Ugh?!”

“W-what is it! Suddenly from where…?”

And, in the midst of that chilling cold, flames ignite once more.

This time, enveloped by the Holy Sword, with its alien divine power, the flames and the Holy Sword pierce through the vampires’ bodies.

Even in the ice, the flames burning on the Holy Sword moved gracefully, like a dance.

When the mist of cold reaches a corner of the crimson palace, the Holy Sword and the inferno burning along with it surge forward.

“Don’t retreat, you fools. Here, whether slow or fast, you will constantly regenerate… Eek?!”

Thud.

With a rather dull sound, a shrill scream escaped the Vampire Lord’s mouth.

Even as his subordinate vampires were burning from the Holy Sword, something directly struck the head of the Vampire Lord, who was trying to maintain his composure and dignity.

It wasn’t the Holy Sword, nor any special weapon.

It was just… a glass bottle. Only, this time, it contained nothing. Of course, the sound that came from it was by no means a sound that would come from a glass bottle… but it was definitely a glass bottle.

What kind of power it was, that a mere thrown glass bottle had as much impact as the magic currently spread around, was beyond comprehension, but it was, in any case, a trivial, trivial glass bottle.

“This isn’t the time to act so composed, is it?”

“……Tsk, how undignified.”

“I think it’s better than someone who got hit in the head with a glass bottle and screamed while trying to maintain their dignity, wouldn’t you say?”

“……”

The fact that he had been hit by a trivial glass bottle, and the Hero’s expert taunting before his eyes, finally made the Vampire Lord draw his weapon.

A sword made of blood.

It was indeed a classic weapon… but it was an armament imbued with the sincerity of someone who was, after all, the Vampire Lord, so it could never be underestimated.

At the same time, the vampires, scattered by the chilling mist, regrouped and surrounded the Hero.

At such a sight, the Hero looked on without emotion… then lightly leaped.

The attacks thrown by some impatient vampires only struck the ground where the Hero had been.

No, more precisely…… they struck a bottle, burning with a very ominous red color, that the Hero had dropped so quickly it was impossible to tell when.

Clang!

Unlike before, a threatening sound, beyond clear, rang out.

And, once again, the sky was dyed red.

…More than just being dyed red because the crimson palace had unfolded, the sky became even redder.

Looking up at the sky at that strange phenomenon, the vampires witnessed it.

“T-that’s……”

“L-Lord! What should we do! A method!”

The Hero, who had leaped leisurely and was still floating in the sky, and……

Behind her, a gigantic meteor falling from the sky.

Even though it was an illusion created by magic, the impact of that meteor was not insignificant, so if it collided with the crimson palace, there would inevitably be great damage.

Therefore, the Vampire Lord moved his hand again. This time, gathering much more power than when he first summoned the palace.

From the crimson palace, the sanctuary, a brilliant red light of fresh blood rose.

Enveloping all the vampires to lightly block even the falling meteor.

The Hero seized that opportunity and charged again, swinging the Holy Sword, so some unlucky vampires couldn’t receive that protection… but most vampires managed to take shelter within that protection.

And, the meteor, finally striking the crimson sanctuary, made the entire area tremble.

In the wake of the meteor, a scorching trail of infernal flames remained.

And… following that trail, the Hero’s Holy Sword began to surge forward, burning even hotter with divine power.

Before the Vampire Lord could counterattack, and before other vampires could even perceive it, the Holy Sword was drawn again like a flash of light.

As the Holy Sword was drawn, strokes imbued with divine power danced wildly.

It wasn’t a clean, single stroke like before.

It wasn’t a single stroke that crushed all defenses and attacks with overwhelming force, turning the opponent to ash.

It was like a storm.

A storm that relentlessly raged, embroidering the battlefield with chaotic strokes of divine power.

And so, the Holy Sword’s surge ended, and finally, the Holy Sword was drawn once more.

…Before their eyes, a blinding radiance, enough to make them go blind, passed by.

At the same time they realized it was actually the Holy Sword, the vampires’ bodies were also shattered.

Being within the crimson sanctuary, they would regenerate again with time… but it seemed it would take quite a long time for that to happen.

“Alright, now it’s just you, isn’t it?”

“……Don’t you get tired?”

“Me? Well… unlike you, I’ve been doping a bit in between.”

Saying that, the Hero, as if teasing, showed a few empty glass bottles from her waist.

The glass bottles, with a very faint amount of pure white liquid remaining, looked perfectly identical to the glass bottle that had accurately struck the Vampire Lord’s head earlier.

At the Hero’s calm demeanor, the Vampire Lord smirked.

“Do you think you’ve seized victory? Just because all my subordinates are gone?”

“Then, is it not?”

“As long as this sanctuary exists, they will never die. And neither will I. If you cannot completely destroy this palace, this sanctuary, we will regenerate infinitely and take your blood.”

“……That’s quite an annoying ability, isn’t it? Even if I beat you, you’ll just regenerate as long as this palace exists.”

She said that, but a smile was actually playing on the Hero’s lips.

No…… that wasn’t even a smile.

It was… a sneer.

A sneer that asked if this trivial thing was all he had to rely on.

Feeling an ominous premonition from that sneer, the Vampire Lord gathered all his remaining strength.

Although more than half of his power had been exhausted from summoning this crimson sanctuary and even blocking the meteor the Hero had summoned, that didn’t mean he was weak.

No, even with half his power, he possessed strength as formidable as all the other vampires combined.

Normally, he would have conserved his strength to regenerate even a little faster… but he felt an intensely ominous premonition from the Hero’s sneer that he couldn’t ignore.

And, the moment the Vampire Lord drew out his power and created a sword, the Hero’s figure vanished.

The Vampire Lord, barely tracking the Hero who had once again disappeared from the battlefield like a flash, quickly raised his sword.

Clang!

One clash. The Holy Sword and the rapier made of blood collided.

The Vampire Lord, who had hastily raised his sword, had no choice but to take a step back.

However, that didn’t mean the Vampire Lord would fall powerlessly.

With the red mist rising all around, the Vampire Lord’s figure briefly disappeared.

And… from within the mist, he suddenly burst out. At a speed so fast that an ordinary human wouldn’t even perceive it.

This repeated dozens of times. In less than 3 seconds.

At that sudden attack, the Hero retracted her attack and gripped the Holy Sword in reverse, blocking the torrent of sword strikes with the blade of the Holy Sword.

However, even for the Hero, blocking every attack was impossible… so a wound was etched on the Hero’s fair face, and blood flowed.

And, in that flowing blood, the mist where the Vampire Lord was hiding grew even thicker, and the Lord’s sword strikes began to accelerate.

And so… at the moment it felt as if the tide of battle had completely turned, the Hero suddenly vanished.

Judging by the faint clear sound, it was clear she had used that peculiar magic again… but this time, no lightning fell from the sky, nor did any meteor.

It was only natural that using such massive magic twice in a row would be impossible by common sense.

But, she hadn’t hidden herself with the magic she had shown before, nor had she accelerated herself like a flash… she had literally disappeared.

As if the Lord himself had hidden in this blood mist.

And so, amidst doubt and an unknown unease, the Vampire Lord cautiously searched for the Hero’s location within the blood mist.

However, the Hero’s figure was nowhere to be seen in this crimson sanctuary.

Therefore… just as the Lord began to think that the Hero had hastily fled somewhere……

“…Found you.”

From behind, a voice so chilling and terrifying, perhaps even more so than the Demon King who possessed absolute power, rang out.

At that voice, the Lord froze in place and slowly turned around.

And the sight he saw was…… the Hero’s eyes, glowing dully with a mixture of annoyance and anger, and the Hero’s Holy Sword, gleaming brown with mixed crimson blood.

At that sight, which evoked primal fear, the Lord was about to let out a truly terrified scream, but…… no scream came out.

The next moment. The Hero’s Holy Sword had already pierced the Lord’s heart.

…It was then that he realized the Hero, too, had melted into the blood mist.

It was impossible. Melting into the blood mist was a technique that only vampires, proficient in handling blood, could use.

It was a skill that the Hero, who was clearly human, could never imitate. It would have been more convincing to say that she had cleared away all the blood mist.

However…… even with such doubts, nothing changed.

The Lord gazed at the Hero with his crumbling body.

Perhaps, if it was the Hero, who was closer to a monster, closer to violence and cruelty than to divinity and nobility.

With the unease that she might truly be able to destroy his sanctuary.

“Now… let’s see if this works too.”

Regardless, the Hero merely held up the empty glass bottle and gazed at the Lord’s sanctuary.

…And, a moment later, the empty glass bottle began to fill with a liquid that felt very similar in power to the Lord’s sanctuary.

The Hero, without hesitation, threw that glass bottle to the ground.

Without fail, a clear sound rang out and echoed.

And… with that sound, which was now becoming terrifying, a new sanctuary rose.

That sanctuary, filled with alien divine power, profane if one were to call it so.

Beneath that sanctuary… the crimson palace was crumbling.

If his body had been intact, he would have righted the crumbling palace again… but the Lord’s body was already collapsing, in a state where it had to wait for regeneration.

“…You monster…… My power… how could you…… just like that……”

Red blood flows.

The crimson palace, the sanctuary, crumbles, and all the regenerating vampires shatter.

Watching that, the Vampire Lord uttered his last words, and at the same time, he was certain.

That the being before his eyes was absolutely not ‘The Hero’, that such an absurd monster…… was rather a being closer to profanity, heresy, and apostasy.