142 – Son of the Dragon – 2

On the top floor of the castle, a blood mist so dense that even an ordinary knight would suffocate to death the moment they entered was spread, making it a space where one could not even see properly in front of them.

Sitting on a throne elaborately carved with the shape of a dark red-feathered eagle biting an inverted cross, the ruler of Valahia—the Lord of Thorns—closed his eyes and recalled what had once happened.

It was a scene of destined destruction that could not be avoided no matter how much one struggled.

Perhaps as early as tomorrow, or was it a hundred years later?

Faced with that, what did the gods say, or rather, wail?

He held his throbbing forehead and tried to recall the memory—but his consciousness, which was heading beyond it, quickly returned to reality due to the noise coming from outside.

“…They are fast.”

Realizing that the uninvited guests who visited the castle had arrived right before him, the Lord of Thorns opened his eyes and quietly muttered.

Looking back to check the condition of the eagle carved on the throne, he narrowed his eyes and muttered.

“With guests having arrived, the preparations to receive them are this lacking. It is different, indeed, many things are different from what was planned…”

Looking back, this plan had been strangely full of noise.

It was a fact that it was impossible to perfectly control vampires, who would ultimately follow their inner impulses no matter how strongly they were suppressed with authority and blood power.

Thus, although it was true that he had pushed forward despite some loopholes in the plan, he had believed without a doubt that the desires and conflicts of the people of Gratia would aid the plan.

At least, it had always been that way until now, and even if it deviated from expectations, he had never suffered a major loss.

“Gratia’s defenses are strong, making it hard to cause a disturbance, and the expeditionary force, which should have been a rabble, far from crawling into the trap, has escaped it and is instead holding down our forces. The castle’s intruders have insolently granted eternal rest to my precious kin… Even though they should be serving Valahia with their very souls even in death.”

Speaking slowly, the Lord of Thorns ultimately let out a hollow laugh.

It was insufficient.

The energy source was woefully insufficient.

Even if he tried to fill it with human blood.

Even if he tried to fill it with vampire blood.

Either way, it fell far short of the target.

Perhaps this faction war would truly end in a swift defeat for the Lord of Thorns—.

That might not be bad either, but the Lord of Thorns, who was the Grand Duke of Valahia and the representative of Kudlak, had an obligation to struggle until the end.

Just as he would tomorrow, today as well.

“My brother.”

As the Lord of Thorns quietly murmured, the blood mist in front of him gathered and formed a human shape.

He looked somewhat similar to the Lord of Thorns, but unfitting for a well-built man’s body, he wore a priest’s robe engraved with a cross.

If an ordinary vampire had copied him, they would have burned up as if they had been exposed to sunlight, but his priest’s robe looked as natural as if he had been wearing it for decades.

—What is the matter that you, who have confined and oppressed me for so long, are calling me out yourself? Especially at a time when the castle is being invaded.

“Both confinement and control end as of today. My brother, leave the castle and go to Leta. From now on, you are Kudlak, so inform the Gratia royal family that Kudlak is still going strong, and after that, act as you wish.”

—Even though everything I must possess and rule is here?

“Soon, it will all collapse. Whether I succeed or fail, that is.”

Just as the history of Leta was long, the history of Valahia was also long, and though many things had happened between the two in the past, now, none of that mattered in the slightest.

—You are going to destroy it yourself? Valahia? Are you out of your mind?

“None of this is real anyway.”

—…

“The only real ones are us, the bloodline of the dragon. So go. From now on, the place where you stay will be Valahia.”

Yes, the important thing was that his brother was one of the few individuals who could represent Kudlak as the most noble vampire.

The man in the priest’s robe looked at the Lord of Thorns with an expression of utter incomprehension—but in the end, unable to refuse his command, he had to leave.

—Fine, I will prove to you that my way is right. I will make all of Leta into Valahia, and in the name of Kudlak, I will put an end to this ridiculous war.

“That is well.”

Having obtained conditional freedom, the Lord of Thorns’ brother left the castle.

Having finished all preparations, the Lord of Thorns waited for the guests with a much lighter heart.

—Crash!

Before long, the door that doubled as the barrier protecting the Lord of Thorns’ space shattered, and a part of the blood mist filling the space dispersed.

“Rude guests, I see.”

“We had no choice since the hospitality was poor.”

The one who walked out, calmly replying to the Lord of Thorns, was a walking lizard carrying the dragon factor.

He was a noble hero who rarely emerged from the kingdom of lizards that claimed to be the rulers of the continent, but for that very reason, he always stood out in a bad way.

For a pure white cloth was bound to show even the slightest stain.

And he was already quite stained.

“Hospitality, was it not satisfying? You will not be able to hide the blood of my kin clinging to your body, even if you wipe it off.”

“Ha, they have all turned to ash and perished.”

“It could not possibly be all of them. Especially you, who would not have been able to do so…”

The Lord of Thorns spoke in a meaningful tone and chuckled softly.

The moment the hero frowned and pointed his greatsword, the Lord of Thorns released a light wave of blood, disrupting the movements of the hero and his party as he spoke once more.

“How many of the dragon knights are left?”

“O Son of the Dragon, excluding the one who went outside and has not returned, three of us are in this place, awaiting Your Majesty’s command.”

From the high ceiling, from the floor, or from the pillars, voices replying to him were heard.

The hero still maintained a calm expression, but his party members were all tense, narrowing the distance between one another.

It was no wonder, as all of them already had a history of nearly being defeated individually by the vampires.

Watching them, the Lord of Thorns clicked his tongue.

It was a humiliating thing in itself that cowards and greenhorns who did not even deserve to stand on the final battlefield had set foot in the inner depths of the castle, saved solely because they were lucky.

“Step forward, all of you. I will need your blood. They will never be able to interfere with your noble sacrifice.”

“We obey your command!”

The three knights, replying in unison, manifested from different locations and charged at the hero and his party.

This was a space where the vampires were enhanced to the maximum, and since all of them had reached the legendary realm, they could not be easily killed—or so it should have been, but.

—Kaboom!

Just as the full-scale clash between the Dragon Knights and the hero’s party was about to occur, Patum raised his greatsword and slammed it hard into the floor.

The golden wave that erupted from the greatsword instantly erased the blood mist dominating the space.

The vampires who had been approaching under its cover were also heavily damaged and rolled across the floor all at once.

“I have no interest in the history of you filthy vampires. But I cannot overlook how you cursed creatures, who prolong your lives by sucking the blood of others, call yourselves dragons without knowing your place.”

“An interesting story. I am especially curious about who you are saying does not know their place.”

“You will realize it!”

Finally, Patum declared his unique territory.

His vertically slit pupils flashed gold, and the dragon’s pressure descended heavily upon the space that was filled with the Lord of Thorns’ majesty.

“Ha—yes, that is quite decent.”

The Lord of Thorns smirked as he watched his knights, who were unable to properly support themselves within the activated unique territory.

Even so, he did not even think of moving his body, because he was casting a blood magic that could only be maintained as long as he remained seated on the throne.

It was a complex magic with various functions mixed together, but the important part was the enhancement of targets within the magic’s domain and the forced retribution of the price.

If that magic were to be cut off right now, the three knights would perish without even being able to fight Patum properly.

Well, even with the magic maintained, it seemed they would be taken care of before long anyway.

“This is the true power of a dragon! The bats who presumptuously call themselves dragons will turn into a handful of ash and vanish!”

Patum shouted as he surged with momentum and pushed the enemies back.

If the Lord of Thorns had been able to deploy a unique territory, the hero would not have been able to show off his unique territory like this.

The Lord of Thorns spoke as if teasing his own knights.

“What are you doing, bats? Shouldn’t you clear away the obstacles before you die?”

“All will be done as you commanded, O Son of the Dragon!”

“Clear the obstacles!”

Obstacles? Frowning, Patum soon blocked the vampire rushing straight at him with his greatsword.

But immediately after, the creature turned into a viscous clump of blood, clinging to his greatsword, arms, and legs to bind him.

Never expecting a Legendary-grade vampire to use their own self as a tool, Patum was startled and summoned his breath once more, but shaking off the vampire who clung to him with a firm resolve to hold him down was no easy task.

Meanwhile, the other two vampires attacked the hero’s companions.

“Cowardly mosquitoes—!”

“Cowardice is a word only used when the weak justify their ugly defeat! Therefore—our kin do not use such words!”

Lectus, who could be considered the strongest after Patum, struggled and fought against them, but there was no way to withstand two legendary-class vampires running wild under the enhancement magic of the vampire lord, which remained active even within the hero’s unique territory.

In the end, one, and then another, lost their lives under the swords and thorns of the vampires.

Lectus, strengthened by the effect of the lair created by Patum, unleashed his Draconian power and drove back the enemies—barely succeeding in killing one, but to provide him with that opportunity, a knight of Gratia had to sacrifice his life.

Looking at the enemy dissolving into a handful of blood and the corpse of his allied knight, Lectus grit his teeth and shouted.

“Are you going to admit defeat and withdraw like this, Patum—!”

“No, it is almost over! We can win!”

—Aaargh!

The dragon breath, extremely strengthened within the lair, flared up once again centering around his body.

The legendary-grade vampire who had persistently held him down and harassed him perished, leaving behind only a single drop of blood after a long yet short battle with him.

Patum saw that drop of blood glide through the air and seep into the dark-red eagle carved on the upper part of the throne where the vampire lord sat.

Only then did he realize how the vampires they had killed so far had been ‘recycled,’ and he let out a low groan.

“But that is… a holy relic? No, that cannot be. The gods would not have permitted it.”

“Of course, they cannot be defied. This was a situation that even I did not expect. It was unexpected from the start that my foolish kin would deceive the system and act under the excuse of doing it for Valahia. Thus, I had to carefully ponder all the things that I was no longer able to do in this war.”

Patum had received confirmation from the gods that Kudlak would be unable to use holy relics in this war.

However, his enemy kindly informed him of the fact that there was a loophole in that.

“I was quickly able to confirm what ‘use’ they were talking about, and how the prohibition was carried out. If all the abilities of the holy relic had been neutralized, Valahia would not have even been maintained and would have collapsed. But that was not the case. The system did not eliminate the value of the holy relic; it simply prohibited the process of constructing a unique territory using it. In other words, the holy relic can still be used in ways other than constructing a unique territory.”

“Damn it.”

Having already anticipated the Lord of Thorns’ next words, Patum spat out a curse.

The vampire knight, who was the only one to survive until then and stood blocking the way to the Lord of Thorns’ throne, pointed his blood-red estoc.

At the strike force members, not Patum.

“Therefore, I decided to offer all of Valahia’s holy relics as ‘sacrifices.’”

“I will not allow it!”

“I do not need your permission.”

The moment the Lord of Thorns declared with a smile.

The body of the vampire knight exploded.

The estoc, containing all of the knight’s blood power, shot out in a straight line and skewered the bodies of two strike force members, and in the next moment, all of it turned into blood and flowed down.

The dragon breath, arriving a step late, tried to incinerate it all, but the clump of blood dissolved in the air just before contacting the breath, as if mocking Patum.

The eagle, which had drunk all of the blood, spread its wings wide as if it were about to fly off from the throne at any moment.

Looking at the eagle statue dyed in a ruby-like, vivid blood-red, Patum—

regretted, far too late, that he should have entered together with Gi-jun’s party.

“It is woefully insufficient—but with this much, I should at least be able to activate it for now.”

And finally, the Lord of Thorns rose from his seat.

The Lord of Thorns found it strange as he felt an emotion he had forgotten for a long time warming his cold chest, but he soon realized that it was ‘anticipation.’

To whom was he looking forward? The hero before his eyes? No, that could not be.

His emotions were solely—

—Boom!

—directed toward that variable who broke through the hallway, one who did not exist in his memories until now.

“Patum, sorry I am late.”

Gi-jun, who entered the middle of the battlefield leading his party members, pointed his shield at the Lord of Thorns and spoke.

Patum replied with an expression filled with mixed emotions.

“Help me, Jun.”

“Of course.”

Gi-jun’s mask was dyed pitch black.

Glowing bright red in only one eye, it was vibrating as if it had guessed the identity of the vampire its master intended to hunt.