Chapter 355: 186. Naglfar -2 (Part Two)
Chapter 355: 186. Naglfar -2 (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
The entirety of the fortress shook at the impact.
Lycans who had managed to board the Naglfar to fight a bitter melee turned and raised their heads in shock. Even the mummies fighting them turned to look at the unfolding situation.
Demonic energy of considerable scale began spreading all around the fortress, followed by a period of eerie silence.
The ground suddenly began rumbling, causing a violent earthquake next. The waves of holy water outside were disturbed by all that shaking, eventually becoming a massive tsunami.
The water rose up tens of metres in the air and rushed towards the ship of the dead!
“W-wait a second! What about us?!” Lycans aboard the ship of the dead screamed desperately and stumbled back.
Mikael slammed the bottom of its grim reaper scythe on the ship’s deck, his eyes narrowing to slits.
-Your struggles are all in vain!-
The tsunami crashed into the ship of the dead. A massive spray of water exploded as the ship was forced back.
All the lycans on the ship’s deck instantly melted to death, while the mummies clung to the railings.
Agares stared at that wave of holy water even taller than the fortress walls and grinned insidiously. With this, that accursed ship would either sink beneath the waves, or get pushed far back until it collided with the city’s outer wall in the distance.
Unfortunately for him, though...
-Neeeiiiiiighhhhh!-
The neighing of many horses suddenly rocked the sky. Agares clamped his mouth shut at that instant.
The vampires standing on top of the walls looked on in horror, their eyebrows shooting up high. The battleship broke through the huge spray of holy water; hundreds of charging skeletal horses were leashed to the front of the vessel and they were dragging it forward.
Those skeletal horses dashed across the surface of the holy water ocean. They pulled the massive ship of the dead behind them and slammed straight into the fortress walls.
CRUNCH–!
The skeleton horses were crushed. The inertia sent the Naglfar slamming straight into the walls as well.
Vampires screamed at the top of their lungs, and...
-The gods’ blessing shall be granted unto you all, ahahaha!-
The moment Mikael spread his arms wide and guffawed loudly...
The battleship collided head-on against the fortress wall.
KA-BOOM-!
The wall instantly exploded and crumbled down. The ship of the dead forced itself through the once-sturdy wall and shoved the debris aside.
Zombies, vampires, and lycans were ruthlessly crushed under the hull of the bone ship. Despite the insistent rain, thick dust clouds still rose up to block everyone’s view.
The surviving vampires and lycans rose unsteadily to their feet, shaking their heads to get rid of the cobwebs, but then...
They witnessed the Naglfar pressed up against the fortress, unmoving. However, the cannons sticking out from the sides of the vessel promptly began spitting out flames.
In no time at all, the surrounding area of the fortress became a sea of fire and death.
Muskets wielded by the mummies peeked out from the deck and began shooting at their targets, while other groups of mummies disembarked by sliding down the ropes hanging from the ship’s sides. They raised their scimitars and began hunting for vampires and lycans.
-Go and rob them of their souls!-
Mikael flew up in the air, his glare locking on Duke Agares, currently fighting off a bunch of mummies on the ground below.
-I shall present your severed head to His Majesty the Holy Emperor!-
Agares had also discovered Mikael by then. “How dare a measly undead...?!”
The Vampire Duke gritted his teeth. So, that’s how it was. That grim reaper had to be the captain of that ship of the dead!
In that case, destroying the bastard would deal a sizable blow to the Holy Emperor!
Agares strengthened all four of his crocodile legs. “Even at the cost of my soul being erased from existence, I...!” Demonic energy gushed out from all over his body. “I shall strike the Holy Emperor at least once!...!”
Now was the time to repay the debt of humiliation he had suffered up until now. Even if he couldn’t beat the Holy Emperor, he’d still drag that grim reaper along with him to the abyss of hell!
Veins bulged visibly on his crocodile hide. Muscles rippled and ballooned all over his body, until the veins actually began bursting open and unleashing fountains of blood.
“For the glory of His Majesty the Vampire King!!!”
Mikael’s glowing eyeballs arched up into a pair of new moons as he took in this scene. He inwardly praised the vampire while grinning with his eyes. ‘How commendable. I shall acknowledge your deep devotion towards the Vampire King. However...’
The grinning eyes suddenly began burning even more fiercely than before. Mikael raised the scythe high. Divinity flooded the weapon, and the curved blade began to grow even larger.
A divine aura completely dominated their surroundings.
-Your deep devotion and my unyielding faith. Let us find out whose belief is deeper between us!-
Mikael lowered his torso and dashed forward, while Agares also charged towards the incoming holy grim reaper.
The two of them faced each other moments before their collision.
“Ohhhhh!”
Agares’s physique suddenly ballooned past four metres in height, his eyes glaring murderously at Mikael. The vampire clenched both of his fists, planning to completely obliterate the grim reaper before his eyes with this one powerful attack.
However, the power accumulated within his attack was more than enough to destroy the entire city. If Agares unleashed that attack, then the place meant to shelter the refugees the Holy Emperor had guided here would vanish from this world, as well.
That alone would count as a successful counterattack for the vampires!
Agares punched down with his tightly-clenched fist, while Mikael the grim reaper powerfully swung his scythe.
The blade of divinity collided against the vampire’s fist.
“Oh, my Vampire Kiiiing!”
-Oh, my Holy Emperor!-
The two roared out at the same time, and...
A massive explosion went off. With the two of them as the epicentre, literally everything around them was destroyed and blown apart.
Agares’s brows shot up as he witnessed his fist gradually being shoved back by the grim reaper’s scythe.
The Vampire Duke’s lips trembled open. “...Oh, Your Majesty Vlandmir...”
His arm was cleanly severed and flung away through the air.
-It’s my victory, oh Vampire Duke!-
Mikael’s figure rapidly spun around in the air and his scythe was swung around once more. Just like that, the great curving blade reaped Agares’s head.
The severed head flew up in the air before landing with a wet thud on the ground. Soon after that, the huge headless body of the vampire limply collapsed where it stood.
Mikael swung its scythe around and roared out. -Truly commendable, Vampire Duke! However, my faith is absolute!-
The grim reaper began offering a prayer while still wielding its scythe.
**
Time passed by.
The refugees stared at the outer gates of the city of Chaves with worried faces.
Without any warning, the gates were shoved open, revealing the state of the city inside.
Total devastation was the only thing they could see. It was like seeing the aftermath of a powerful tornado; most of the buildings had been crushed flat.
Charlotte stared at this scene with a stunned expression for a little while, but hurriedly sucked in a deep breath to calm herself down and spoke up, “It seems that we can at least avoid the rain for now. Go and secure any usable housing so that the refugees can rest!”
The empire’s soldiers hurriedly got to work at Charlotte’s command.
It was also at that moment a Paladin quickly approached her and called out to her, “Your Excellency, Marquis Charlotte!”
She turned to look at him, and the Paladin and his pale face walked up to her and whispered something in her ear.
Her expression gradually hardened at the report, then she urgently rode on her horse to head towards the fortress in the distance.
—-
“Your Majesty! Were you trying to kill us as well?!” Hans was noisily complaining to Allen.
The Naglfar was slowly dissipating from view. Mikael was kneeling on the ground and was also gradually disappearing in motes of light.
Allen was sitting on a nearby boulder, stretching his limbs as a feeling of fatigue washed over him. “Of course not. I genuinely had no idea that you and Alice were still stuck inside the castle, I swear.”
“But Your Majesty, you didn’t even give us enough time to escape from the fortress, you know,” Alice smiled wryly and began massaging Allen’s shoulders.
She was trying to help him by alleviating the muscle pain he was currently suffering from after exhausting his divine energy reserve far too much.
Allen waved his hands in the air apologetically, then recalled Avaldi’s Spear. ‘For sure, that thing’s performance was really good.’
The holy water amplification effect was quite considerable. The amount of divinity he exhausted today would’ve left him unconscious in the past, but right now, he thought that he could still endure it to some degree.
‘Still, the burden on my physical body is just too much.’
He didn’t expect the burden to be this great even though he had attained a transcendental body.
Allen continued to loosen his aching muscles, all the while thinking about the refugees that would soon occupy this city.
He was thinking of having them rest here for at least a week or so before guiding them over the border of the Theocratic Empire. Things would really get hectic from that moment on.
Well, he had to prevent the invasion of the giants and also prepare to hit them back, after all.
“Your Majesty!”
It was at that moment he heard someone call out to him. Charlotte, riding on her Unira, was quickly rushing up to where he was.
She swiftly dismounted from the horse and went down on one knee, her head bowed deeply. “Sire. How are you feeling?”
“Don’t you worry. I’m feeling more or less fine.” Allen nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.
Doing that caused a little bit of pain to shoot through his senses, but compared to how it was in the past, this much was nothing at all.
“Sire, I have something urgent to report.”
He stared at her, frowning. He couldn’t help but always get worried whenever Charlotte said those exact words.
She seemed to be hesitating somewhat as her lips parted, only to shut again. But after taking a few moments to sort out her heavy breathing, she finally came out with it. “The giants are marching towards this location, the fiefdom of Chaves, sire. Their numbers are estimated to be around three hundred strong.”
There it was, his ominous prediction from a second ago coming true.
Allen’s lips clamped shut.
Three hundred giants?
“Our opponent this time is the Fire Giant.” She raised her head and stared at him. “It’s name is Surtr.”
< 186. Naglfar -2 (Part One and Two) > Fin.