141 – Son of the Dragon – 1

Until Tilla and Gin, who had been moving with Lora, appeared in a tattered state and reported that she had been isolated in Carmilla’s barrier.

Gi-jun killed several vampires while climbing the Lord of Thorns’ castle, attempting to suck the blood of all of them, thereby raising his Anti-Blood Power to 50 and increasing his skill proficiency, but—.

Simply sucking all of a vampire’s blood to kill them and accurately destroying only Carmilla without causing damage to Lora were on entirely different levels.

―I can help you.

However, an unexpected ally appeared at this timing; it was none other than the evil spirit whose presence had recently grown exceptionally thick.

Since Gi-jun now knew well enough that she was related to the destruction of Carmilla’s split soul, he could not simply ignore her words.

‘There must be no damage to Lora.’

―It would be impossible to perfectly separate again what has already been merged into one. But at least, you will be able to perfectly distinguish that woman’s soul.

‘…That is enough.’

Under the influence of the union with Carmilla, Lora’s physical body moved a step further away from being human.

She would probably be forced to confront various issues she had desperately tried to ignore until today, but even so, it would be far better than dying like this.

―Can you also give me something?

‘I’ll listen.’

―Give me her soul.

Gi-jun agreed immediately.

It was because he felt he understood the mechanism by which the evil spirit grew in power.

‘We can talk seriously once more about what to do after that when this task is finished.’

In effect, it was the moment Gi-jun completely approved and accepted the evil spirit.

―Fufu, I am glad. But I only want to be of help to you. Always, forever.

The evil spirit whispered in a sweet voice—and, just like his other spirits did, connected more deeply with Gi-jun’s spiritual power to “strengthen” his act of blood-sucking, transparently sharing her mental imagery with him.

Since she had already absorbed Carmilla’s split soul before, identifying only Carmilla’s soul from the blood flowing through Lora’s body was not a difficult task.

At that moment, Gi-jun realized that in the process of sucking Lora’s blood, he had become able to distinguish the two souls that had been mixed into one and perfectly separate them.

This meant that his spiritual power, which had previously done nothing more than serve as an energy source for the spirits or a booster effect for his abilities, had stepped into an entirely new realm, even if it was with the help of the evil spirit.

Simply put, he had finally moved beyond the realm of simple self-discipline, and his spiritual eyes had opened to observe and distinguish the external world.

Perhaps thanks to that, he could already clearly capture even Carmilla’s intent, which Lora was no longer able to hear.

―No, no, no, no, no! That cannot be, do not separate me from Lora!

‘I am sorry, but I do not have the leisure to listen to your whining right now. Just be cleanly devoured and disappear.’

―Fufu…

―No… No! Lora!

Indeed, Lora herself was so focused on sucking Gi-jun’s blood that she did not even seem to properly realize that Carmilla’s soul was breaking away from her.

Gi-jun gently stroked Lora’s back with one hand as she mindlessly savored his blood, and carefully, yet quickly and accurately, extracted all of Carmilla’s soul, memories, and will.

Originally, this was supposed to be absorbed directly by Gi-jun and echo as a meaningless whisper for a brief moment before disappearing completely, but for the evil spirit, it was the ultimate nourishment.

―You, you… You took my split soul! You took away Lora and my precious memories, my, mine, aaah, save me! Do not come near! Kyaaaak! Loraaaa!

―…Fufu.

Immediately after the unpleasant death rattle, the distinct disagreeable presence of Carmilla’s soul completely vanished.

Gi-jun was appalled at himself for feeling a momentary sense of relief upon hearing the laughter of the evil spirit that had cleanly devoured Carmilla.

―You have sucked the blood of a vampire who reached the legendary realm, but failed to obtain most of the essence. Anti-Blood Power (U) has increased by 5, becoming 55.

Unsurprisingly, because Carmilla was already weakened after losing her split soul, most of her blood power was permanently absorbed by Lora, and even her soul, which held her karma, was completely sucked dry by the evil spirit—the result was ridiculously poor for having sucked the blood of a legendary-grade vampire.

However, since this was the first time Gi-jun had ever learned that Carmilla had reached the legendary grade, he was only surprised and did not grumble about the reward being stingy.

What mattered was Lora’s safety.

No, seeing as only the message “sucked the blood of a vampire who reached the legendary realm” appeared, he could be sure of his success.

‘No matter how fast Lora grew, she must still be at the Rare grade. I sucked the blood of Carmilla, not Lora, after all.’

The reason a message indicating that he had sucked Carmilla’s blood appeared even though Gi-jun had bitten Lora was that a vampire was not a being bound simply to a physical body, but one that had its origin in the blood.

When he first saw Lora having a seizure, he had braced himself in many ways—but he was glad he managed to resolve it somehow.

Actually, if the blood power was too excessive for Lora to control, he had intended to draw out an appropriate amount, but after Carmilla was destroyed, the blood power inside Lora’s body was moving perfectly in accordance with Lora’s will to a surprising degree.

Although he was concerned because the flow was excessively active, at least it was not the kind of activity that would harm her.

Rather…

“Lora.”

“…Ah?”

When Gi-jun strongly patted Lora’s back, half in doubt of a sudden thought that crossed his mind, Lora, who had been licking the remaining blood around Gi-jun’s collarbone even after finishing her feeding, belatedly regained her senses and stepped back from him with wide eyes.

“J-Jun-nim! This… this is, I mean!”

“Is your body alright?”

“Y-Yes? That is right—Carmilla!”

She really seemed not to know that Carmilla had disappeared.

Since Carmilla had perished while calling out Lora’s name so desperately, Gi-jun felt a bit strange at Lora’s lackluster reaction; but on second thought, he realized that disappearing after being ignored by the person she was obsessed enough with to risk her life for was indeed a fitting end for that vampire.

“She is really gone… that woman.”

Upon hearing from Gi-jun that Carmilla had completely vanished, Lora quietly murmured to herself and inspected her hands; realizing that her fingers had become longer and slenderer, she touched her body anew.

The habit she originally wore had already been torn to shreds during the fierce battle, leaving no trace, and what she wore underneath was a red dress she had no choice but to wear due to its stats despite its excessively bold appearance—because of that, the altered contours of her body were displayed all too clearly.

Even if she knew Carmilla had vanished, looking at her drastically changed body would naturally make her feel anxious.

“Jun-nim…”

“It is alright, Lora. Compared to your safety, it is a minor change.”

Giving a reassuring smile to Lora, who was looking up at him with an anxious expression, to show that he did not mind it at all, Gi-jun pulled out one of the spare robes he kept in his inventory and draped it over Lora’s body.

“So you do not need to worry either.”

“T-Then, Jun-nim…”

Lora, who wrapped herself in the robe Gi-jun had given her by carefully pulling the front collar with both hands as if it were precious, spoke up while staring with a somewhat dazed expression at the two small holes in Gi-jun’s collarbone that were slowly closing up.

“Jun-nim, which do you prefer…?”

“That…”

Gi-jun, who had already felt a glimpse of deep affection in Lora’s attitude when she sucked his blood, could not answer her question.

Yet, did she read his mind from just a brief change in his expression? Lora muttered, “Thank goodness,” with a visibly relieved look.

“I will think of it as the last gift Carmilla left behind.”

“…Yes, I am glad you are looking at it positively.”

Since pressing her on her attitude would not lead to anything particularly good, Gi-jun decided to bury everything that had happened between them until just a moment ago right here and move on.

“I think everyone can come over now.”

Once Gi-jun confirmed Lora had stabilized and motioned behind him, the companions—who had been quietly holding their breath and watching from behind due to the continuous sequence of events from Lora’s seizure to the blood-sucking, which others could not intervene in—finally approached them.

“Ah.”

Tilla was stroking her chest as if truly relieved; Ji-hye, with a mischievous smile on her face indicating who knew what thoughts she had, raised a thumb to Lora; and Gin was sweating profusely, unable to shake off his tension even now.

Lora, whose attention had been focused solely on Gi-jun, only then realized that everyone had been worrying about her and showed an expression filled with indescribable apologetic feelings.

“Um… I was out of my mind… I am sorry.”

“It is enough that you are safe. Do you know how worried we were when you vanished before our eyes?”

Tilla, who answered on behalf of the members, came close and whispered while gently wiping Lora’s forehead, which had become dirty with dried sweat, dust, and blood clumped together.

“Gin was extremely worried and blamed himself, saying he failed to protect you even though you were right in front of him. Just say a word of thanks to him separately later. Okay?”

“I understand. …Thank you, Scintilla.”

“Not to me.”

She wore a dumbfounded expression at Lora’s words, yet she ultimately chuckled and stepped back.

The subtle conflict between the two also finally seemed to show signs of improvement.

To Lora, who was looking around at the party members with a very awkward expression, Gi-jun delivered the final blow.

“Thanks to the two of them rushing to find me, I was able to arrive in time. Lora, they are all good people, right?”

“Yes… after all, they are the people Jun-nim gathered.”

Perhaps a side effect of Carmilla’s blood power, Lora replied by avoiding the answer Gi-jun wanted, speaking as she cast her eyes down.

“More than that, it would be best to hurry, Jun-nim. It seems the suicide squad and the Lord of Thorns are about to clash.”

“Ah, right.”

Because the clash between Lora and Carmilla had been so shocking, he had temporarily forgotten the purpose of their coming here.

Gi-jun immediately set out for the top floor of the castle after gathering the group and giving them time to make final preparations.

“Did all the suicide squad members that Jun-nim saved move ahead first?”

“I thought it might not be a very appropriate scene to show others. Besides, most of the other high-ranking vampires in the castle have already been cleared out anyway.”

“I see…”

Due to the union with Carmilla, Lora, whose status as a being had risen a level higher, could now perceive exactly how many humans were breathing alive in this castle and where they were, even with her eyes closed.

There were three casualties so far.

One could say they were putting up a good fight at this rate, but—.

Now that Lora had grasped the structure of this castle and the blood magic of the Lord of Thorns who ruled it, she could vividly picture the scene that would unfold the moment they clashed head-on with the Lord of Thorns.

It would be best if they could arrive as quickly as possible, but as expected, most of them might die before then.

“The Lord of Thorns will be more wary of Jun-nim than anyone else.”

“Is the guy really keeping track of everything happening inside the castle? Does that mean he is wary of the power of my mask?”

“Yes. Jun-nim’s existence will be a reverse scale to the vampires even more than mine. However, there is a separate, direct reason why the Lord of Thorns is wary of Jun-nim.”

Lora grimaced in displeasure as she shook off the magic of the Lord of Thorns, which was trying to dominate and control her even at this very moment.

She had barely escaped Carmilla’s influence, and now she was expected to follow the Lord of Thorns’ domination? There was a limit to bad jokes.

“The Lord of Thorns can dominate the blood of the vampires who died inside the castle and utilize it as a resource. He probably modified that magic to create the spell formula of the Overflow, which is activated by offering a large number of people as living sacrifices.”

“…The blood of the vampires who died inside the castle?”

“Yes, as I have said time and again, perfectly destroying a vampire is an extremely tricky task. The members of the suicide squad might think they killed the vampires, but in truth, all the vampires they cut down became fuel for the Lord of Thorns’ magic.”

However, the vampires defeated by Gi-jun were different.

To begin with, the light mana he manipulated possessed the ability to weaken vampires and evaporate their blood, and ever since he donned Sanguis and began sucking blood, he did not even leave a trace of the vampires behind.

How wonderful it would have been if Gi-jun had been able to find and kill every single vampire in the castle.

However, many vampires had already died while following the Lord of Thorns’ orders inside the castle, and he had steadily gathered their blood, preparing to face the suicide squad.

“With Jun-nim’s Anti-Blood Power, you might be able to efficiently neutralize his magic.”

“No wonder he is wary of Jun. If I were the Lord of Thorns, I would have personally moved first to kill Jun.”

“I believe he will not do so for two reasons. First, because the Lord of Thorns’ territory is established on the top floor, making it rare for him to step outside of it, and second… because his primary goal is probably not Jun-nim.”

“Primary goal?”

Originally, Kudlak had intended to cause an Overflow across the entirety of Gratia.

If so, was the Lord of Thorns’ target Lectus, the Crown Prince of Gratia?

At the inference, which was natural enough, Lora shook her head.

Her brow was faintly furrowed as she recalled the memory of the moment she had been invaded by Carmilla, but her voice was extremely calm.

“I think it was the Lord of Thorns’ intention for the plan to invade Gratia to be revealed.”

“…Then, could it be that his target is Patum?”

“If we assume he even anticipated that a hero would be dispatched to Gratia due to the discovery of the invasion plan, then probably.”

However, Lora trailed off, as if she did not know anything beyond that.

There was someone who whispered the answer in Gi-jun’s ear in her stead.

―My hero, that mosquito duke is trying to offer that lizard as a sacrifice.

It was none other than the evil spirit.

―He believes he can summon a dragon by sacrificing the lizard. Truly laughable.

However, remembering the power of the unique territory that Patum wielded, Gi-jun did not find it laughable at all.

Just in time, a grand explosion resounded above their heads.

It meant that the battle had begun.