556 Chapter 556: Fall of a Legend

If Green Dragon hadn't fallen back, he would have been impaled by the damned thing.

Unfortunately, that meant I was still on my own.

I ducked under a slash before deflecting a strike. Fan Le Lao's attacks were coming at me fast and thick now, almost overwhelming my defenses. Even with the ability to see him through Green Dragon's eyes and the training I received from Dad, I could barely keep up with his assault.

Realizing that he could overwhelm my defense with sheer speed and raw strength, Fan Le Lao increased the intensity of his attacks, thrusting his spear almost in a frenzy. I struggled to keep up, but once again I found myself slowly cut apart, blood splattering across the floor as his blade found my skin and sliced through them.

"Ku…!"

I could barely hold on against the glowing onslaught of attacks as Fan Le Lao mercilessly struck again and again. Standing firm, I defiantly clashed against him, only to be pushed back. My arms trembled violently from the impact of a particularly strong slash.

Even if my swords could withstand Fan Le Lao's relentless barrage, my body couldn't. My arms already felt as if they were going to break.

Damn it! As if I was going to lose to this bishounen fucker!

I couldn't stand such a humiliation. Swallowing, I spread my feet apart to stabilize myself for a final stand. Time to finally unleash my most powerful Constellation spirit.

"Draco!"

"It won't work!" Fan Le Lao shouted as he thrust his spear at me. I was blasted all the way back, coughing out blood as I hit the ground. Rolling to my feet, I leaned on both of my swords. Sneering, the vampire prince approached me with an air of inevitably.

The arrogant bastard smirked triumphantly.

"Whatever game you're playing, it won't work," he sneered. "You can't defeat me."

"No, I know," I admitted bitterly. Then I shrugged. "But he can."

"…huh?"

Draco burst into existence with a ferocious bellow. No matter how many blood spears Fan Le Lao conjured, the black dragon smashed them apart with his claws. His jaws glowed and black mana flowed out in a tremendus torrent.

"Draco, mini-Thuban attack. Try not to nuke my friends and allies along with him."

My Constellation spirit was already unleashing his powerful spell even before I completed the command. We were linked spiritually and mentally, so he already knew what I wanted. From his eyes – and those of Black Tortoise and Green Dragon, as well as Vermillion Phoenix – I watched Fan Le Lao stumble away in panic, raising his spear desperately to defend himself.

A black maelstrom of chaotic mana surged from Draco's maw and washed over Fan Le Lao. For a moment, despite using the eyes of my Soul Beasts, I couldn't see anything. The world literally disappeared. Rossetti shouted in fright, but Vermillion Phoenix swept her away in his protective embrace and flew off.

The vampires they were engaging were not so fortunate. They screamed as they were engulfed by the black tsunami of destructive mana.

They weren't the only ones.

"What the hell is this?!" Fan Le Lao shrieked.

Those were his last words. His question disappeared, drowned out by the roar of Draco's ultimate spell. Then he screamed along with his retinue, the horrendous cry lasting for only a second before he was engulfed in the immense tidal wave of destructive mana. His existence was completely erased as his body burst apart from the impact and disintegrated.

Holy…

I stood there for almost a minute, my shoulders sagging. I leaned on my swords and checked on Rossetti. She was safe, still protected by Vermillion Phoenix. The rest of my Celestial Guardians were gone, but that was because I was smart enough to dismiss them before they were engulfed by Draco's spell of mass destruction.

Speaking of which, there was a smoking crater burned into the floor of the basement, the rock still glowing red and black from the superheated energies.

Catching my breath, I tried to stand but stumbled onto my knees. I had a feeling that I was forgetting something very important…

"Richard?"

"Whoa!"

I almost yelled in fright, swinging my swords in the direction of the voice. Rossetti was above, with Vermillion Phoenix, so it couldn't have belonged to her. An enemy then! I heard a squeal, and from the corner of Draco's eye I caught sight of someone falling over. When my massive Constellation spirit turned to help me get a clearer look, I saw that I recognized her.

"It's me! Zhao Yan!"

I knew it. Lowering my swords, I bowed my head apologetically.

"Sorry. But seriously, I'm already blinded, so don't scare me like that!" (It's a pun, basically the words for blind and scare in Chinese are homophonic)

"I apologize."

"Nah, don't worry about it." I sighed and bowed again. "As I said, it's my fault."

"You should be more careful, Richard!" Rossetti chided me and landed nearby after Vermillion Phoenix let her go. "You almost killed the person we came here to save!"

"Sorry."

"It's all right." Zhao Yan raised both of her hands. "I'm safe now, thanks to you two. The both of you really saved me.

"Richard, you're hurt! Let me look at that!" Rossetti wasn't paying much attention to Zhao Yan and was rushing over to me. She produced a handkerchief and began dabbing at my eyes.

"Ouch! Hey! Watch it!"

"We got to get rid of that stuff on your eyes! They look pretty harmful! Then we need to get a medic to see you!"

"All in good time."

While Rossetti fussed over me, Zhao Yan turned to stare into the distance, amazed.

"What did you just do?" she asked, her voice full of wonder.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Thanks to Rossetti's efforts, the burning sensation in my eyes were disappearing and I could finally rely on them again without having to defer to my Constellation spirits for sight. I slowly opened them, wincing from the slight sting.

"Ah…"

I cocked my head when I saw what Zhao Yan was referring to. She was gaping at the scene of total devastation that unfolded across the chamber. Draco's spell had, as I said earlier, gouged a colossal crater out of the ground and left sludges of molten magma in its wake. The area had been scoured clean of any living being, with Fan Le Lao and all his surviving vampires disintegrated.

Well, not exactly. Unlike his lackeys, he vampire prince wasn't completely disintegrated. Parts of his body lay scattered here and there, his blood pooling across the ruined ground. It was clear that he wouldn't be sucking any blood and acting like a cool bishounen vampire prince ever again.

With his body literally in pieces, no amount of regeneration or healing magic was going to help him. As miraculous as magic was, there existed no spell that could resurrect the dead. And he was most definitely dead. There was no trace of living mana being emitted by his scattered body parts.

Good riddance. He would not be missed.

"I have never seen such a spell before!"

Zhao Yan was staring at the devastation with wide eyes. I offered her a weak smile before I looked for my glasses. Unfortunately, as I noted earlier, they had been melted into a puddle of twisted metal and plastic by the acidic blood spell that Fan Le Lao flung at me earlier. Oh, well.

"Of course you haven't."

Anyone who witnessed the full power of my nuke spells would most likely end up dead. After all, this was one of the spells used to level entire cities. A spell capable of killing a hundred monsters in a single swing (well, probably thousands of monsters if I were to be honest) was not something that I cast lightly.

"Huh? You didn't know?" Rossetti was astonished. "Richard is famous for his spells of mass destruction. He nuked three Crastrates about a year ago. And a couple of dragons. Didn't he also nuke an entire horde of monsters that were attacking a city somewhere in the southeast? Or was that a mountain? I can't remember."

"You mean I nuked a few thousand monsters that were moving toward a military fortress," I corrected. The southeast city whose defense I had helped out in, I had spent all of my mana nuking a mountain with terrifying monsters, so I didn't have enough to nuke the hordes that were attacking the city.

Rossetti nodded. "Yeah, that's right! Anyway, Richard is pretty famous for his spells of mass destruction. They call him the walking nuke or something."

"No one calls me that!"

Zhao Yan watched us bicker, and then she began giggling. Both Rossetti and I turned to stare at her, surprised.

"Are you feeling all right?"

I wasn't able to conceal the concern in my voice. Zhao Yan nodded and raised her hands to test her arms. Satisfied, she turned back to us.

"Yeah, thanks for the help. Seems like the effects of the drug are wearing off. My mind's no longer fuzzy and I can feel my mana returning to me. Thank you both!"

"It's nothing."

"As long as you are okay."

I waved her thanks away while Rossetti smiled warmly.

"Yeah…well…" Zhao Yan hesitated, but she pursed her lips and steeled her resolve. "I'm sorry to ask you of this so soon after such an intense battle, but can you help me? I need to find Ji Yan…and we also have to save the other hostages."

Sighing, I sheathed both of my swords. Rossetti managed to help me up and I was forced to lean on her or collapse. My legs were still trembling uncontrollably, almost unable to hold up my body.

"Ji Yan is safe," Rossetti assured Zhao Yan. "We'll bring you to her later. She should be with one of the medics. They were treating him for…shock or something."

Zhao Yan nodded. "What about the others?"

"The Federation military and the Midnight Order are raiding the castle and rescuing hostages even as we speak," I explained. "We should leave the rest to them."

I remembered that there were a bunch of really strong vampires who had escaped from Saint Teresa Academy after Fan Fu Qing was killed. I was surprised that I hadn't run into You Shou, but he was probably busy with organizing a hasty defense against the mages of the Global Federation. I was immensely relieved that he didn't accompany Fan Fu Qing. That fellow was hard enough to fight against, and if he had one of the more powerful adults accompanying him…

Simply put, I didn't dare imagine what the outcome would be.

Unfortunately, the battle against Fan Le Lao and his cronies had drawn the attention of many people. Both vampire elders and Federation soldiers were rushing toward here, and the vampire elders were the first to arrive.

"You…!"

Blood-red mana was flaring out and condensing across the ruined chamber, surrounding the vampire elders who had rushed in. At their head was You Shou, and his eyes widened in dismay when he saw the remnants of Fan Le Lao's corpse.

"You killed his highness!" he roared in fury.

"Yeah, well…he tried to kill me first."

"I'll kill you!"

He raised his hand to conjure a huge number of blood spears. The sheer number of crimson spears blotted out the ruptured ceiling, drowning us under an ominous shadow. I could feel Rossetti tightening her grip on my arm. We both prepared to defend ourselves from the merciless onslaught.

A large blast of purifying fire roared across the cavernous hall and incinerated the blood spears to nothingness before they could reach us. Teresa Taylor landed between the vampire elders and us, her blazing sword drawn. Before the vampires could whirl away to flee, she swung her sword at them.

"Holy Judgement, Sacred Flames."

The entire basement was bathed in white light, almost as if a miniature sun had just risen. The vampire elders, including You Shou, were caught in the thunderous inferno, their bodies disintegrating to soot and ash before they could even scream.

Even the pieces of Fan Le Lao's corpse were not spared, blasted into oblivion by the purifying flames. There was no longer anything left of him.

"Sorry for being late." Teresa Taylor turned to look at us. Zhao Yan's mouth dropped.

"Headmistress Taylor!"

"You were involved in the operation too?" Rossetti asked, dazed. The White Witch smiled and nodded.

"Of course I would be. There's no way I would sit out a mission that involves the rescue of my students, right?"

"You're just in time." I breathed out a sigh of relief. "Any later and we would be…"

"You did well," Teresa Taylor assured me. She then gestured toward the exit. "Now, if you would be so kind as to escort Zhao Yan to her sister…I'm sure she really wants to meet Ji Yan as soon as possible."

Zhao Yan's eyes widened, tears beginning to flow from their edges, and she nodded with a smile.