< Unknown Threat (4) >
Temiran McClair’s bloodshot eyes glared at the brilliant holy sword aimed at him.
Meanwhile, his mind was racing to find the best way to overcome the current situation.
‘Okay, I’ve bought some time… but what do I do now?’
The saint of the Shinshu Sect and the champion of Shinshu, the Knight of Light, Heinrich Saint Landgard, suddenly appears.
His presence, which broke into her other world, ‘Behind Twilight’, was a huge variable.
Just the fact that he appeared in this place was enough to make it impossible to even guarantee that he would completely get out.
‘It’s annoying. I thought things were going well for some reason.’
Temiran’s eyes twitched at the sharp anticipation that seemed like it would pierce him at any moment.
The momentum of an opponent who is constantly looking for an opening by looking here and there.
He also responded by twisting the flow of the surroundings and threatening the girl who had fallen behind him.
Then, the momentum of approaching little by little slowed down and it retreated, but soon, as if waiting for an opportunity, it approached again and began to circle around stealthily.
“Huh— Are you persistent?”
“Tsk, this is what I should say.”
Right now, his opponent couldn’t rush in recklessly because of the girl who had fallen behind him, but there was nothing good for him if this standoff continued.
For him, an apostle of God who was banished to the abyss, this place was like being in the middle of enemy territory.
‘Somehow I was able to restore the back world… but I guess I should assume that the situation inside is already known to the outside world. There’s no guarantee that what’s broken once won’t break twice.’
If the old shaman hadn’t interfered at first, or if the high elf’s intervention had been just a little bit later, they would have secured their objective without any major problems and leisurely left the place.
A series of coincidences caught up with him and he was left hanging, until at some point the situation took a turn for the worst.
…No, actually he already knew.
The current situation is not something that happened by mere coincidence, but a disaster that occurred because his god completely lost the initiative of causality that he had somehow managed to maintain.
‘Everything I do ends in failure, so there’s bound to be a hit.’
From the appearance of the Immortal King to the spread of madness and the secret activities of revolutionaries.
There could not have been no cost to plotting such a continental disaster.
What more can I say about the increased burden, since I had to do the work while confined in the worst environment, the abyss?
However, most of the aggressive bets made in such situations ended in failure.
He had pooled all the money he had and pushed ahead with the business, only to end up blowing it all.
It was also because of this that Temiran, who was not yet fully prepared as an apostle, had to come forward earlier than scheduled.
It was to somehow make the remaining arrangements a success and find a way to recover, thereby laying the foundation for a comeback.
Looking at the situation now, it seems that that too was a mistake.
“···I’m getting angry again now that I think about it. In the end, aren’t you telling me to clean up the mess that has already been made while nitpicking over others? Gosh, why am I going through all this trouble just to enjoy some kind of luxury?”
“I agree with you on that, Temiran McClair. Wouldn’t it be better if we just surrendered here, so that neither of us would get tired?”
“Tsk, I wish I could do that too···.”
A boy with a youthful appearance who is tickled by Heinrich’s words.
But unfortunately, he was not in a position to move as he pleased.
Because they were literally bound by a slave contract, they had no choice but to stay with the ship until the end, even though they knew that the ship they were on would sink.
Temiran grumbled, scratching the back of his head.
“What can I do? If you want to criticize, you have to criticize. Actually, if you think about it, you and I are in similar situations···.”
Then he paused before he could finish his speech.
His gaze turned to his own feet.
‘Wait a minute, a shadow…?’
It was purely by accident that I noticed that little discomfort.
An angle so subtly off that you might not notice anything unusual at first glance.
But he immediately moved his body according to his intuition.
And right after that.
———!
A burst of noise erupted, beyond the audible range.
A phenomenon that occurs suddenly without any preparation time, as if the process was cut off in the middle.
Kugu Palace—!
Then a gust of wind blew in with a sound that seemed to tear the air.
“···What a pity. But you have a good feeling?”
And at the center of that storm.
A voice came out that was so cold it was almost chilling.
Step by step—
Amidst the commotion, the sound of shoes resonating clearly was heard, and a man who had been there for some time slowly walked forward, the hem of his long coat fluttering.
A handsome man with a cold expression who rubbed the blood on his fingertips several times with an expression that showed no regret at all, contrary to his words.
His red eyes turned to a corner where dust was rising.
In his other arm, he was gently holding the girl who had fainted and fallen down.
“mister-!”
Aaron, who had been tightly closing his eyes and hugging his grandmother and Raphi in the sudden gust of wind, blushed and shouted at the sight of him.
How could I not be happy when the one I had been waiting for suddenly appeared and saved my sister?
Of course, he was grateful to the saint who helped him in a desperate moment, but from the young boy’s perspective, he couldn’t have been happier that Heinz, who was his personal friend, came.
“···What is this? When on earth did you get in here?”
At that moment, a soft growl echoed from where Heinz’s gaze was directed.
Temiran, a small creature, appears from among the slowly settling dust.
Blood dripped from one of his dusty arms.
“I clearly didn’t detect any intrusion. But how…? And this….”
His gaze turned to the wound on his arm.
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It wasn’t a serious injury, but it was significant that the damage was done unilaterally in an unexpected surprise attack.
Even for some reason, isn’t it the case that the wound isn’t even healing properly?
No, now, rather than recovering, the cells began to die little by little around the affected area as if they had been poisoned.
Phew!
Temiran frowned as he grabbed the wound with his own hands and burned it.
‘···This is not poison. It is a fight for dominance between vampires with different properties.’
Blood containing hostile thoughts that have infiltrated the body like guerrillas.
But even after understanding the situation, I still couldn’t understand it.
The battlefield was his own home ground, and the defensive force’s level was by no means low.
But how can you do something about the few drops of blood injected into your body that you’re seeing like this?
“What on earth have you done!”
He couldn’t know it, but in fact the phenomenon wasn’t that strange.
Heinz II’s vampire factor is the ultimate in evolution, having undergone tremendous mutations over the years to maximize efficiency.
It was only natural that it would become a monster that could easily defeat a thousand enemies against a general immune system that simply relied on the individual’s status.
“well?”
Of course, Heinz II, who had no intention of answering the other person’s questions, simply raised the corners of his mouth arrogantly.
He lifted his hand, which was now clean without a single drop of blood, and lightly stroked his shiny black hair.
“Isn’t that what’s important right now?”
A word mixed with provocation and a hint of sarcasm.
Temiran’s body, which had been frowning at him, trembled.
And then he hurriedly stretched his hands to the side and flew again.
Kwaaaaang—!
A dazzling beam of light suddenly grew in strength, and beautiful platinum waves surged.
Finally, all constraints are gone, and like a wild beast released from its cage, a wave of brilliance engulfs space without restraint.
Temiran, who barely managed to block the attack and had one hand burnt black, gritted his teeth.
“Huh! A surprise attack! This saint is so petty···!”
“Hmm? This is a new reaction. It’s also something that feels comfortable for a hostage taker to say.”
But Heinrich just snickered.
They were both looking for an opportunity to exploit each other’s weaknesses, so in that situation, wasn’t it wrong for them to carelessly distract themselves?
···Well, it was I who caused that situation in the first place.
“Haven’t we talked much so far, Temiran McClair? If you still have something to say, I’ll be happy to listen.”
A silver-haired handsome man with wings of light spread and a divine aura covering his entire body had a gentle smile on his face.
“Of course, there will be some procedures required before that. Could you cooperate so that we can have a more comfortable and safe conversation?”
“···Ha, hahaha. Damn.”
The flow has already completely changed.
Temiran rolled his eyes diligently to find the number somehow, but the two did not give him even a single gap.
‘Taking hostages again…’
It’s impossible to catch the girl who was the original target.
Because the ‘Vampire King’ that she had only heard of was personally protecting her.
I could feel just from the previous move that the rumors about him were not exaggerated.
That he is the opponent whose compatibility with you is close to the worst.
If Saint Heinrich is the natural enemy of a hunter, Heinz is the natural enemy of a fellow predator.
Because he had not yet fully matured as an apostle and had come out into the world in a hurry, he could not completely escape the frame of the race, so Heinz, the new blood and the “chief of all bloods,” could not help but be a very difficult opponent for him.
‘Other humans… Tsk, it’s going to be no use because of that high elf.’
Lydia had gathered the injured archmage and the villagers involved in this incident together, and had mobilized all of her spirits to prepare an ironclad defense.
Rather than joining forces with the saint to fight the enemy together, he completely trusted him and left it to him, doing his best to reduce civilian casualties so that he could fight with peace of mind.
In this situation, if you rush in and get caught, you’ll be in even more trouble.
‘There’s nothing I can do. There’s no hope for this situation. Even considering the loss, I have no choice but to evacuate the place for now.’
If I had known this would happen, I would have taken action immediately after the saint appeared!
It was best to take action now, as being greedy could make the situation worse than it is now.
Kurururung—
With his determination, the back world, ‘Behind the Twilight’, shook violently.
This space is a small world where some of his ideas and existence are embodied and constructed.
The barrier that simply blocks space wasn’t the only use.
‘Of course, if you use it like this for one time, the harm will outweigh the benefits. But we can’t be concerned about that now that things have come to this.’
Boom! Boom!
By his will, the world began to count down the days, turning against those within and trying to exclude them by any means necessary.
The ground split open and lava gushed out with a violent earthquake.
The air became toxic, lightning cascaded through the atmosphere, and lethal radiation erupted from the ground.
An extreme environment that a normal person would not be able to endure for even a moment.
“Useless!”
With a shout from Heinrich, his wings spread wide.
The sacred sanctuary spread out in all directions in an instant, protecting those inside.
It wasn’t as easy to cut through it as it had been when I first entered it, as the space itself was collapsing and the energy was rising without end, but I was able to hold out like this.
Of course, that’s exactly what Temiran wanted.
‘With this, I’ve tied the saint’s feet. Now all that’s left is…’
It probably won’t last long.
Eventually, when all energy is exhausted, this space that is burning the final flame will also collapse helplessly.
But now he didn’t even have the luxury of regretting such things.
“I can hear the sound of your brain working from here.”
“Huh, that’s just what I saw and learned from above!”
Heinz, the vampire king, stands in his way.
I could tell by my instincts as a vampire.
The opponent is literally his natural enemy—an opponent he cannot possibly defeat if he fights them head on.
‘But in this situation where the entire back world is going wild, if we only focus on avoiding the fight and getting away…’
It wasn’t a completely impossible opponent.
Especially if you are carrying a load in your partner’s arms!
“Goodbye! Let’s never meet again!”
Eventually, he was able to escape the shadow world by taking advantage of a brief moment of emptiness.
The door was locked again right after, so he won’t be able to come out right away.
That brief moment was enough time for him to completely escape through the cracks in the abyss.
‘But it’s not like they only suffered losses. Since they’ve already observed the child holding the fragments, it won’t be as difficult to track them down as it was before. The situation wasn’t good this time, but they can’t keep that child around forever.’
Once the veil of causality has been lifted, there will be plenty of opportunities to create in the future.
The moment Temiran, who had tried so hard to rationalize himself, took a step forward to quickly move away.
Goooowoong—
His body stopped for a moment as an unknown pressure pressed down on his entire body.
“···What is this?”
His gaze naturally turned to the sky, following the flow of energy.
And what greeted him there was.
It was a huge magic circle that covered the entire sky of Tarak.
“It’s finally out.”
In the middle of that magic circle—in the sky above Temiran’s head looking up.
Isiah, who had received the signal long ago and had been preparing in advance, looked down and smiled faintly.
Although magicians are capable of performing miracles far beyond their abilities if given enough time and materials, she was a being with a rather special ability in that regard.
“How long has it been since I’ve prepared magic in such a relaxed and easygoing way?”
A unique skill that increases the amount of energy you can handle to near infinity, “Infinite Power.”
But that ‘energy’ didn’t just include the magical power that fueled the use of magic.
Gugugugugu—
Mental power, which is an essential resource for building a recipe but cannot be accurately measured in numbers, as well as various brain powers including thinking power and calculation power.
If only she could properly realize and recognize them, they were also great ‘energy sources’ that she could utilize to her heart’s content.
‘Well, this is something I’ve only recently been able to do.’
It can’t be easy to perceive such an abstract concept as a clear number.
I guess I was able to grow thanks to overcoming all the trials and tribulations I’ve gone through.
It was great news that the force had become stronger now that the battle with the Immortal King was just around the corner.
Isiah looked down with a mischievous look in her eyes.
A being that struggles to move its body and escape from this elaborately built gold mine.
The author must be the ‘unknown threat’ that the saint predicted.
We couldn’t miss such a variable here.
Gugugugugu—
The huge magic circle that had been painstakingly built up layer by layer rotated intricately like the mainspring of a clockwork.
and-.
[“Stop.”]
The words of the newly transcended magician froze a single point of time on Earth.
It was only a short moment.
It was enough time for the predator, who had hurriedly escaped the back world, to grab the fugitive by the scruff of the neck.
