CHAPTER 518: EPILOGUE 9

The Sword Winds Stance was one of the earlier skills for the Sword Hurricane. It was a skill that distributed one’s sword energies around himself, then hides it as a sneak attack. As an offensive stance, it was highly lethal, and silent. Furthermore, the duration could be extended by feeding it more energy. Even so, every skill had its weaknesses, and this skill was no exception either. The stance did not allow for rapid movements when deploying, else the skill would just fail entirely.

Having dealt with those Spirit Wolves, Aques Lumen wasted no time at all in charging towards the Overlord Werewolf. The Overlord Werewolf, on the other hand, only had thoughts of escaping right now. He had just witnessed his Spirit Wolves torn to shreds by some move that was too quick for even his eyes to catch -there was no way he could ever beat that. However, this fear ended up costing him when he accidentally met eyes with Aques Lumen while running away…

Because he had suffered its effects before, it would stand to reason that he would be on guard against a second attack. Normally, that would be true, and Aques Lumen wouldn’t have been able to gain complete control of him. However, his frightened state had lowered his psychic defenses to the point where Aques Lumen easily broke through them.

He began replaying that scene of that Overlord Vampire being sliced to bits, over and over again, till the Overlord Werewolf was completely overwhelmed by his fear.

By the time the Werewolf recovered, all he saw was his sight spinning around and a strange sense of weightlessness. What was even stranger was that he could clearly see his body lying there in front of him. And it was headless!

“Oh? Done already? I guess I need to stop playing around as well then.” Ferti’nier was a little surprised as well by the strength Aques Lumen exhibited after deploying his Territory. She knew he was hiding his strength, but she never expected it to be that much. However, no matter how strong he had become now, he wasn’t a threat to her at all. It just so happened that she was getting bored.

From the beginning, Ferti’nier had always been floating in the air. Her Territory, Wraith of Purgatory, did most of the work by constantly summoning shadows to attack the Overlord Lich and the Overlord Death Knight. The two Overlords worked with such coordination that it almost seemed like their wraiths and axe was a match for Ferti’nier’s. But all that was about to change now. She was done playing, and this delicately balanced battlefield was about to tilt, rather topple, in her favor. Some of the shades were now covered in reddish-black flames… Nether Flames!

The Overlord Lich wasn’t spared this treatment either. Countless flame-clad shadows started swarming the Lich. Those that stood in their way were promptly reduced to nothingness in seconds. Unlike normal flames, Nether Flames could harm everything except souls. Had these been normal wraiths, their burnt husks would have left behind souls for any nearby Devil to feast on. Unfortunately, these were all creatures summoned by the Lich bending the laws of the world. They had no souls to speak of, thus they left nothing behind as well.

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Soon after, having been deprived of their weapons and means of defense, the two Overlords were burnt to ashes as well.

It was over. From the moment Aques Lumen revealed all his hidden cards, the battle had been decided. The two Overlords did not even get a chance to share a last word with each other before they were summarily killed by Ferti’nier. Having done that, she deactivated her Territory, and devoured the four souls of those Overlords.

“All right.” She returned back to smiling at Aques Lumen from her usual loftiness. “Now, there’s no need to be so tense. Did you think you would still be standing there if I didn’t will it so?”

“…”

That was a fact. Cold and harsh, but definitely true. Aques Lumen knew better than anyone else how wide the gap was between their strengths. That was why when she explicitly said she wasn’t trying to harm him, he undid his Territory, Phantasm of Love. The blue tattoos on his body began to recede while the sword-shaped pendant on his forehead returned to just being a pendant hung around his neck. His Devilish features rapidly dissipated as well.

However, now that the danger had passed, he had a boat load of questions to ask that Fallen Angel floating in the air. First off was what happened to his student, to which she replied thusly.

“That girl? I remember her. That ill-tempered little shrew. I don’t know what my little brother sees in her. The way he’s head over heels for him and yet she just goes and stabs him in the chest with her sword, even after he explained the situation to her… look at this…” She pointed to the wound on her left chest before shrugging her shoulders. “At least I have her to thank for this opportunity to move about. Had it not been for her sending my little brother into the depths of the abyss, I probably would not have had a chance to take control of this body. I’ll be sure to thank her later by telling her exactly how she stabbed the very same brother she had been looking for all these years.”

Laced with mischief as always, her words at least imparted the information required for Aques Lumen to fill in the gaps himself. Being the sharp man that he was, he could already guess what happened next, and that only made him want to shake his head from the headache he would soon have to face…

Knowing how much Nicole cared about her younger brother, that last bit of thanks was anything but. He would have doubted her words, but upon careful consideration, was there a need for her to do so? Probably… maybe… probably not… After all, if Nicole were to ever find out that she really stabbed her own younger brother, the damage would be immeasurable. That alone gave her words credence.

The expression he had on right now could only be described as amusing, but Ferti’nier did not have all the time in the world either. This was her rare chance at freedom while Mo Ke was busy hiding from reality. From the looks of things, he wasn’t about to come out of his shell either. In that case, it would be remiss of her not to stir up a storm while she was out and about!

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However, certain events would soon prove to be just as good of a distraction to hold Ferti’nier’s interest…

“Oh look. That Anti-light Barrier seems to be up and running again. Much larger, too.” Ferti’nier mumbled audibly to herself. “Let’s have a gander then. Nothing beats a new toy to dissect.” Having said that, she flew off towards one of the barrier’s focal points without waiting for Aques Lumen’s response.

(TL: I’m assuming the Anti-light Barrier was activated at this point of time. Not when that Vampire appeared. The way I see it, the timeline goes like this, based on what I’ve reread from 508 to 513:

Initial Battle (Day) — End of Battle (Meal time and break) — Alone Time (Probably night time/evening) — Anti-light Barrier (Daybreak after all the fighting so they deployed the barrier now.)

That’s my own conclusion, I don’t think the author made any explicit statement for or against this conclusion. Of course, that Vampire could just be immune to sunlight. Who knows.)

“Hey… I’m not done asking you questions yet…” His voice trailed after her in a resigned fashion. Despite having defeated two Overlord-tier denizens of the dark, he couldn’t relax yet. Based on all the information he had gathered thus far, he now had a rough idea as to what they were planning. In all likelihood, his enemies had gathered a huge army, with the intention of wiping out the Humans. In that case, the reinforcements he had brought over were in danger as well…

Not daring to waste a second more, he rushed off in the direction he came from. Hopefully, he could still make it in time…

Back at Zurnalin’s side, Zurnalin and her companions were in the midst of a frantic escape. Unbeknownst to everyone, a large horde of Undead had surrounded the entire region beforehand. The reinforcements Aques Lumen brought over were in the midst of battling these creatures while the Assassins had all gathered together with Zurnalin in a bid to effect an escape.

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Even though none of them could figure out when their holy daughter had become so strong, they knew that they weren’t needed at her side right now. In that case, their next logical purpose would be to guard those that Her Holiness treasured the most: Jezsere and Regine.

“Hahahaha! Just watch me slaughter these weaklings!”

Having had to rein herself in for so long, it was now time for Mo Ning to cut loose. She had Jezsere and Ann riding another horse while she turned back to her usual half-horse form, shield and spear dancing about as she gracefully took to the air on clouds of fire. She charged fearlessly into the swarm of bats flying in the sky. These bats were known as Vampire Bats, creatures raised by that Vampire that could operate in the day as well. Individually, they were weak, but their numbers more than made up for that.

As they fluttered about in direct sunlight, they blanketed the battlefield in a wave of piercing shrieks.

Within their current lineup, Mo Ning was the only who could fly reliably. Being a Nightmare Steed, she not only had powerful psychic magicks, she also had a strong affinity for fire -a perfect match for these lowly bats.

She expertly commanded her flames to circulate around her body, forming a barrier that easily scorched any bat foolish enough to approach her. These bats weren’t even a threat to her right now. Perhaps she herself had known this, but just a mere second later, she tossed her shield out at the bats. The spider-crested shield swiftly cut a circle around Mo Ning, slicing apart any bats in its way with its rapid spinning. Bat after bat fell dead to the ground in a gruesome rain of blood and gore…