Chapter 299: 158. Yet Another King -1 (Part One)
Chapter 299: 158. Yet Another King -1 (Part One)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
**
The holy undead, the monks, orcs and Duran’s clones began a messy melee.
Divinity and demonic energy spread throughout the area. Blood splattered everywhere, along with chaos and destruction.
The Aslan royal audience chamber had long lost its former splendour by this point.
Thud, thud-!
Duran, now looking like a real devil, stomping down hard with his hooved feet. His feet, moving one step at a time, broke into a crazed dance before long.
I enhanced every single one of my physical abilities with divinity, and even activated both my Divine Aura and the Aztal Rune. Next up, I fused both Amon’s Staff and the Grimoire with the bone frame supporting the cannon.
Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion, with the exception of Duran and I. We moved at much faster speed, as if we existed in a different time flow.
Duran swept his greatsword back before swinging it forward powerfully. The powerful strike sent out a tidal wave of flame-like blood containing deadly poison as well as choking heat.
I took aim at the incoming flame wave of blood with my cannon before firing a shot. The blood flame exploded spectacularly.
When I breathed in, I sensed demonic energy seeping into my lungs.
“Ku-oooooooh-!”
This vampire, he even stopped sounding like a person, and began making some weird-ass monster noise.
Duran rushed at me and took another swing with that blood greatsword.
I met him mid-way with my own greatsword, located below the cannon’s muzzle.
The vampire’s blade made out of blood clashed against my steel blade. Divinity and demonic energy collided and scattered in every direction.
For sure, this bastard had become a lot stronger after he shed his human facade for good. I heard my shoulder bones creak, as if they were about to pop out of their intended positions.
‘Man, I should’ve learned that deflecting skill that Charlotte used so freely back then...’
The twelve muskets on my back aimed at the vampire bastard and fired indiscriminately into his body. Holy bullets pierced straight through him, causing Duran to stumble back before falling to one knee.
But just by sucking in a deep breath, all the wounds on his body regenerated. The blood being shed all over our surroundings from the dead orcs was being absorbed into him. At the same time, one of his clones suddenly broke down and was sucked back into him, as well.
Duran fully recovered immediately after that.
I muttered, “Aha, so that’s how it is. The number of your clones represent how many lives you have left.”
Duran flinched in surprise and tried to get up, but I was a beat faster than him, and I managed to stab my greatsword, then the muzzle of the cannon, into his abdomen.
As the blade ripped straight into his flesh, divinity quickly coalesced within the cannon. I planted my feet covered in the bone boots firmly. The floor cracked apart beneath me as I used brute force to shove Duran’s huge body back.
“Ku-oooooh! You monster bastard!”
“Oh hey, so you can still speak human, after all.”
Right after I quipped, I fired the holy shell from the cannon. A portion of Duran’s torso was blown apart.
“Ku-uuuuuuh-!” The vampire swung his greatsword around and tried to shake me loose. I quickly distanced myself from him.
Duran vomited out a ton of blood. “Ku-aaaah-!”
Suddenly, his blood rose up like water from a fountain. The blood droplets floated up in the air, only for them to descend rapidly like bullets.
“Evade-!” I froze up for a millisecond before crying out loudly.
A portion of my bone monster army collapsed and was rebuilt again in a flash. A huge umbrella-like shield was created in an instant to protect the monks.
As for me, I raised the cannon above my head to block the blood bullets.
In the meantime, another one of Duran’s clones disappeared, only for the vampire’s body to completely recover.
“I, I still need more blood,” Duran muttered, urgently scanning his vicinity.
He probably was thirsting after some more Basilisk blood right about now. The only reason why he could win against the undead King Rahamma was due to the help provided by all the blood.
I pressed my hand into the holy water on the floor and swirled it around. The water splashed and scattered in a large arc, landing on the hole in the wall, the ceiling, and the other parts of the floor.
Bones sprouted from the holy water, completely covering up the hole in the wall.
“...!”
Duran hurriedly swung his blood greatsword around to break the wall down, but it was all a waste of time. Which made some sense, because...
“Looks like Tina has reached the World Tree.” I muttered, causing Duran’s jaw to drop.
A large number of plant roots had been steadily encroaching into the royal audience chamber. The vegetation absorbed and purified all the blood coming in contact with them.
My divinity and the Mana from the World Tree merged, making the roots even tougher and stronger. Duran’s clones stumbled back in an ungainly manner, while the orcs were struck by the roots and got blown apart, dying in droves.
When the roots absorbed my holy water, they become even larger than before. A portion of the roots bunched up and became Woodmen, then the newly-summoned creatures pounced on Duran’s clones.
One by one, the clones were killed off.
Witnessing this scene, Duran gasped out in a trembling voice, “No, not yet!”
“Nah, it’s already over for you.” As I said that, I walked up to Duran.
He suddenly began swinging that blood greatsword in a frenzy, as if his instinctive fear had taken over him.
I either dodged or deflected his sword swings before slamming my cannon into his torso, then left numerous slashes all over his flesh with my own greatsword attached below the cannon’s muzzle.
His blood splattered everywhere. A portion of his blood coalesced and tried to return to him, only for the various plant roots spreading out to all corners of the palace to absorb it and get rid of it for good.
“That damn Dark Elf-!!!” Duran cursed loudly.
He gripped the blood greatsword with both hands, then began spinning his entire body around. I used my cannon to block his attack. However, the bone frame supporting it was breaking apart from the pressure. Cracks also developed on the cannon’s muzzle.
But I amplified my divinity even further through Amon’s Staff, the Grimoire, and the Aztal Rune, then instantly repaired all the damaged parts.
This repair ability was powerful enough to restore the headquarters of the Church of Caiolium, so this much was nothing at all.
Duran could only shudder at this sight. “H-how can such a restorative ability belong to a...?!”
In a way, this power to restore and repair was far more powerful than that which the vampires possessed. Even if demonic energy tried to curtail this power, the ‘words’ of the gods should still come across as an absurdly horrifying power from the perspective of the vampires.
“I can sense it now,” I said, glaring at Duke Duran before glancing around at the vampire’s clones.
Every time I ‘killed’ this punk, one clone disappeared, and that in turn made it easier for Rahamma, Kasim, and Nasus to defeat the remaining clones.
“You’re losing your strength.” I grinned from under the mountain goat’s skull.
That’s right, this punk was losing his power gradually.
“How dare a mere livestock...!”
This idiot vampire was still blinded by his ego. He held the rank of a Duke, though, so I should commend him for his unyielding pride, at least.
Too bad for him, it was nothing more than putting on some hot air at this point.
Duran glared murderously at me. “I shall offer you up to His Majesty, the Vampire King!”
He suddenly spread his wings wide, then charged towards me.
I sensed demonic energy violently raging within his heart. At the same time, his whole body began burning with a bluish flame.
Wasn’t that the sign of a vampire about to combust to ashes? Huh, was he trying to blow himself up along with me?
‘Sorry, but that’s not gonna happen.’
Because I knew something he didn’t. I could sense a presence beyond the wall currently blocked off by my bones and the plant roots.
“You will never reach me, vampire.”
That wall suddenly came down, hard. A dragon’s bony skull broke through and opened its maw wide.
Duran looked behind himself and discovered a huge open maw unstoppably tearing into the audience chamber’s interior. He screamed the moment he spotted the sharp fangs of the dragon closing in.
His action of pouncing at me suddenly morphed into him trying to escape in my direction, instead.
Unfortunately for him, it was too late by then. The dragon’s jaws opened even wider, and chomped down on Duran’s fleeing figure.
“Kuu-aaaaaahk!” He screamed as the dragon’s fangs dug into him. His whole body began burning even more. “Release me! No, this can’t... It cannot be-!”
The sharp fangs bit down viciously, and tore Duran’s body in half. His upper torso tumbled down to the ground, while the rest of his lower half was extinguished in blue flames.
“I, I’m dying... But it, it cannot be...!” Duran gasped out and tried to prop himself up on the floor.
His devilish appearance disappeared, to be replaced by his prior human-like facade.
He crawled away as tears of blood trickled down from his eyes. I reached down and grabbed his head, then dragged his sorry ass towards the hole in the wall.
I held him up by the hole and let him enjoy the view of the outside.
The morning sun was already rising in the distance. The bright amber glow of the sun was gradually illuminating the world.
We were greeted by the sights of the Basilisk’s corpse on the ground, ripped apart by the Bone Dragon; the huge World Tree and its verdant leaves dancing in the winds; the vast sprawling city beyond it; and finally, the Theocratic Empire’s army gleaming in white, standing atop the outer walls of the city.
Countless citizens and Necromancers, plus other soldiers from the Theocratic Empire, were visible in the vicinity of the royal palace, and they were all staring at us.
“Hey, do you see it, Duran?”
The sunlight touched Duran’s body. He began screeching even louder.
“This is the Theocratic Empire.”
Even a weak blood-creation of the vampires could withstand the sunlight, yet Duran could not. His face, his whole body, began melting down. His eyes rolled over to stare at me, filled with fear.
Yup, that’s the right kind of look for a vampire.
I took off Amon’s Skull, which prompted the bone armour, the greatsword, and the cannon to disappear from my body.
I settled down on the debris of the wrecked wall. “And this is the final moment of a moron who invaded my territory.” I summoned a musket and pointed its muzzle at the vampire’s melting head. “I should thank you for that. Thanks to you, the Theocratic Empire just gained new territory.”
Duran’s brows shot up high.
I simply smirked back at him. “And with this, the empire’s strength will become even greater. Soon, I shall send the Vampire King on his way, as well. Patiently wait for him in hell, okay?”
“Holy King, you devi...!”
I pulled the trigger.
His head exploded and disappeared completely.
“You bastards can’t win against us,” I muttered coldly.
Duran’s headless torso tumbled down and quickly dissipated into ashes, not leaving behind even a single bit of flesh.
I shifted my gaze back to my front, and stared at the capital of Aslan bathed in the morning sun’s rays.
The air felt fresh and pleasant, while the sunlight on my skin was warm and gentle. For sure, a land with a World Tree had something different about it.
Even if that was the case...
“...What am I supposed to do after taking over this place, though?”
Just thinking about what needed to be done in order to properly manage this place made me groan deeply under my breath.