Chapter 476: Hauria (11)

Chapter 476: Hauria (11)

As the holy sword’s brilliant light illuminated the underground lair, a red light suddenly appeared behind Eugene.

Eugene wasn’t caught by surprise by this, as he had sensed that an intruder would be arriving sometime soon. Instead of continuing to aim at Amelia, Eugene twisted his body and swung the Holy Sword behind him.

Schink!

The holy sword split apart a spreading, red cloud of light. Eugene realized something before he had even finished swinging his sword through it.

This wasn’t a cloud of light.

The moment his sword sliced through it, Eugene was hit in the face by a terrible bloody stench.

Eugene grimaced, ‘The Blood Fog.’

This fog could seep through a person’s skin through contact alone. If one didn’t have any tolerance for it or a way to resist it, this fog would cause all of the blood in one’s body to run wild, and eventually, their blood would spray out of the pores on their body, leaving them dead. This was an ability that could almost be considered symbolic of high-ranking vampires, who were known for their strong control over blood.

There was only one high-ranking vampire who could have suddenly appeared here and spread this Blood Fog.

Eugene gave a cheeky smile, and once the Holy Sword had finished its swing to the side, he held it in front of him once more.

Fwoosh!

The Holy Sword stood tall in Eugene’s hands, illuminating the darkness like a torch. The Blood Fog, which had continued its spread throughout the underground lair even though he had sliced through it, was completely dissipated under the light of the Holy Sword.

Within the now-illuminated underground lair, Eugene spotted the figure of a man who was squinting in the face of the bright light.

It was Alphiero Lasat.

Glaring at Eugene, who was still shining the light at him, Alphiero muttered, “This is far too bright.”

Any normal vampire would have disintegrated just by being struck by this light. However, Alphiero wasn’t a vampire who could be categorized as ordinary. He was someone who could convincingly claim to be the strongest among all living vampires, and he was also the strongest of all the vassals serving the Demon King of Destruction.

“Mosquito bastard,” Eugene cursed.

Mosquito was a derogatory term for vampires that had been in use for the past three hundred years. No, it may have actually been around for much longer than that. Naturally, vampires would become infuriated upon being called mosquitos.

Alphiero had the same reaction. His red eyes began to emit a chilling aura.

Eugene sneered, “Are you here to save this bitch? I didn’t know that you two were that close.”

“Don’t make that mistake,” Alphiero growled, revealing his sincere displeasure at such an insinuation. “The Incarnation desires your death. That is the only reason why I have come here to kill you.”

“But I feel like that bastard would probably prefer to kill me with his own hands,” Eugene expressed his doubt.

“Don’t you dare address him so casually with your foul tongue,” Alphiero snarled as his hair stood on end.

Without hiding his disgust and rage, Alphiero took a threatening step forward.

“I doubt that you two are all that chummy, so it’s funny to see you get all worked up by yourself on his behalf,” Eugene said with a snort as he shot a glance behind him.

Eugene caught a glimpse of Amelia, who had had both her legs and her left arm cut off, silently wriggling on the ground. Her body was undulating like a slug as she tried her best to crawl forward with her only remaining right arm for support. She was also giving it all that she had to keep herself from panting heavily as a result of her exertions. The reason for this effort was that she was worried she might be caught by Eugene in the middle of her escape.

But such efforts were meaningless. Eugene had already turned around to look back at Amelia. Without even needing to turn her head, Amelia could sense the terrifying scent drifting off of Eugene as he turned his attention towards her, even as she kept up her attempt to escape.

Since she was crawling on the floor like a bug, should he just stomp her to death like the bug that she was? Or perhaps he should restrain her so that she couldn’t escape... then after he was done killing this mosquito bastard, should he spend a bit more time torturing her to death?

After considering these questions for a few moments, Eugene just smirked and turned his gaze away from her. He stopped paying further attention to Amelia and kept his eyes squarely on the person in front of him.

Such an attitude seemed quite surprising to Alphiero. Although this was his first time meeting Eugene Lionheart in person, Alphiero had learned quite a lot about this man.

Naturally, he also knew about the ill-fated relationship between Eugene Lionheart and Amelia Merwin. Based on the rumors, Alphiero judged Eugene to be someone who held no mercy for his enemies. And currently, there was absolutely no reason for Eugene to spare Amelia’s life.

‘I should have revealed myself after he was done killing her,’ Alphiero thought regretfully. CHeCk for new stories on no/v/el/bin(.)c0m

Although Alphiero had this thought, he had actually been left with no choice but to strike so early to launch a surprise attack. This was because, at the time, he had judged that Eugene’s attention had been completely focused on Amelia.

But he had failed.

Truthfully speaking, Alphiero didn’t care whether or not Amelia died. But if he had to add the weight of his personal feelings, he felt that it would be better if she had died.

The war had already begun. Although Amelia herself might not think so, this meant that Amelia was no longer of any use to them. So even if Eugene were to take the time now to execute Amelia, Alphiero had intended to take a few moments and just watch it happen.

However, Eugene hadn’t killed Amelia. Currently, his golden eyes were fixed solely on Alphiero.

“There’s something that I’m curious about and feel like I have to ask,” Eugene began speaking. He lowered the point of the Holy Sword until it was aimed directly at Alphiero, “You, did you really come here because you thought that you’d be able to kill me?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by those words,” Alphiero eventually responded.

Eugene raised an eyebrow. “What do I mean? You should be able to understand exactly what I mean. It’s not like I said anything too difficult to understand, right?”

The grin on his face had disappeared. Eugene’s eyes didn’t have even a trace of amusement remaining as he glared at Alphiero. Instead, they conveyed a chilling killing intent that made Alphiero feel like all of the blood in his body had frozen into ice.

“I’m asking if you have the confidence to kill me,” Eugene challenged.

Alphiero had seen what Eugene looked like when he was fighting. When facing Eugene, Kamash, the King of the Giants from three hundred years ago... hadn’t even been able to land any blows on him and was all too easily sliced into pieces.

Helmuth’s twenty-sixth-ranked high-class demonfolk, along with his dozens of subordinates, had all perished after not being able to withstand even a single one of Eugene’s sword strikes.

Eugene thought it was a pity he hadn’t remembered to do so. This was because Alphiero had known Hamel. If Eugene had said, ‘I am Hamel,’ before killing this guy, he would have been able to see quite an amusing reaction from him.

“Well, it’s not like it’s really all that important,” Eugene said with a click of his tongue as he raised his head to look around.

There were no traces of Amelia left within this underground lair. Eugene had cut off both her legs and her left arm. Thanks to the flames he had embedded deep into her body, she should have been left unable to use her dark power as she wished, but it seemed that she had managed to recover her magical abilities in the nick of time. Thanks to that, it appeared that she had managed to escape by using her magic.

Eugene smirked, “It would have been cleaner for you if you had just died here at my hands.”

Eugene had known that Amelia was trying to escape. However, he had just allowed her to do so. He had already seen all that he wanted to see from Amelia. He had also enjoyed sampling all the negative emotions that he had been anticipating wringing out from her.

I need to kill her with my own hands. That was what Eugene had been thinking before he arrived here — but after having reached the point right before he had been about to personally take her own life, only to be interrupted, he didn’t actually have many regrets remaining.

Instead, now that things had turned out this way, they actually turned out exactly as Eugene had truly desired. Eugene wished for Amelia to die as ugly a death as possible.

‘This leaves her with some hope for survival,’ Eugene thought with a merciless grin.

After struggling to stay afloat, she would meet with despair in her final moments and experience such agony that death would be a mercy.

Eugene wasn’t the only one who wanted to kill Amelia Merwin.

* * *

She had barely managed to escape the underground lair. That was where Amelia Merwin finally hit her limits.

Her magic wasn’t working properly.

While gasping for breath, Amelia clutched at her chest. That damn bastard had left sparks of his flames inside her body. These embers continued to burn on the fuel of her dark power without going out, and every time she tried to use a spell, they cut off the flow of dark power.

Amelia panted, “That son of a bitch... son of a bitch... son of a bitch...!”

If she had been left with just one of her legs, she would have still been able to walk while using Vladmir as a crutch.

As Amelia was crawling on the floor, she had to stop for a moment to cough up some blood, “Gaghk... haaaaah....”

What should she do? She didn’t have any hopes of Alphiero managing to kill that monster. The best that the vampire could manage would be to win her some time. Even that wouldn’t buy her all that long. Maybe ten minutes at the most?

‘Will I be able to recover by then?’ Amelia desperately asked herself.

Her severed limbs weren’t regenerating. That... that was alright. If they refused to regenerate, she could just attach someone else’s limbs to herself.

As long as she didn’t die here.

As long as she somehow managed to survive.

Booooooom!

There was a loud explosion.

“Aaargh...,” Amelia groaned as the huge vibrations transmitted through the ground caused even her body to shake.

As the vibrations ran through her internal organs, Amelia felt agonizing pain. As she coughed up even more mouthfuls of blood, Amelia struggled to lift her head.

In the distance, she could see a wyvern and a pegasus flying through the sky. Nearby... some people experienced a moment of utter confusion.

But those weren’t the only things now racing through the city. Amelia just couldn’t see any of the rest because she was crawling along on her stomach. After getting past the city walls, the knights who had entered Hauria were probably charging straight toward the royal palace while slicing through all of the demonfolk and undead.

‘Why hasn’t he done anything?’ Amelia wondered.

Could it be that the specter was still sitting on the throne in the palace? But why, just why? If he would just make a move himself, he would be able to annihilate the entire enemy army in an instant. So why was he waiting for Eugene to come to him instead of making that move?

‘The palace...,’ Amelia told herself, ‘I need to return to the palace....’

But would it really be the right move to try and escape there?

Amelia recalled how incredibly strong Eugene had been. She also remembered what the Wise Sienna had looked like with a galaxy at her back. Finally, she thought of the Saint, who was flying high up in the sky, standing on the back of a shining dragon.

Amelia still couldn’t imagine how the specter could lose. However, she didn’t have the confidence that she would be able to survive in the battle that was about to take place in the palace.

Would the specter really protect her? As she was now, would she really be able to survive in that undoubtedly chaotic battle? If she, who didn’t even intend to participate in that battle, got caught up in that fight and died just by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time... just what kind of shitty death would that be?

‘I need to escape. Not-not there, but somewhere else. That’s right... if I can just hide in a dungeon for a few days...,’ Amelia thought hopefully.

Once a few days had passed, the battle for Hauria should have ended in the specter’s victory. All Amelia needed to do until then was hide somewhere and wait, giving her body time to recuperate before returning....

But how? Amelia wasn’t able to use any flying magic. It was also impossible for her to use Blink in rapid succession. It was hard for her to even control her body....

Amelia realized that it was impossible for her to escape Hauria without the support and protection of someone else.

“...Ah...,” Amelia gasped in surprise.

As she crawled on the ground, a foot had suddenly appeared in front of her, blocking the way forward.

Trembling in fear, Amelia raised her head to look upwards.

“Grrk.”

Only to be met with the sound of grinding teeth.