Chapter 162: 087. Ruppel Olfolse -5 (Part Two)
The skeleton king’s huge jawbone popped open and a whitish blue breath gushed out from the open maw.
The golden bone sword soon permeated with the aura of divinity so dense that it would’ve melted down a regular Vampire if one happened to be nearby.
The sacred and pure-white aura crazily swirled around the weapon. The skeleton king’s glowing eyes shifted and locked on to Ruppel down below.
The golden bone sword gradually rose up.
“Tina.”
I turned my gaze over to the side. Charlotte and Harman had quickly retreated to some distance away, while the hashashins were evacuating from the vicinity altogether, carrying Tina away.
She was staring at me with a dazed look on her face.
I looked back and could only smile wryly at her. “Sorry about this but, uh, I’m gonna wreck your castle a bit more.”
“Eh?”
The moment my apology came to an end, the skeleton king’s sword came crashing down.
The blinding white aura sliced the winds apart and a single huge blade fell like a meteor.
The colours drained out from Ruppel’s face as he took in this spectacular sight.
He should be able to tell. With a strike like that, not only would his physical body burn away to nothing, even his soul would be purified out of existence as well.
However, wouldn’t you agree that this was actually a wonderful funeral? I mean, this was basically a cremation and cleansing of one’s soul at the same time, right? I’m telling you, there shouldn’t be a younger brother who worries more about the welfare of his older brother than me in this world.
Ruppel shuddered while crying out, “You! You think I’ll die today?!”
It seemed that the final resistance of the unwilling had begun.
I watched Ruppel desperately gather demonic energy in him.
“I… I died while struggling from the pain of asphyxiation,” Ruppel said in a tearful voice. The little boy doggedly cried out as streams of blood began swirling all around him. “I wanted to live!”
I know. I’m sure you wanted to live back then. No living creature out there would want to die as soon as they were born, after all.
Also, if they had no choice but to die, then they would’ve preferred to die without experiencing pain and anguish.
However…
Ruppel continued to shout at me, “My own mother turned me into a zombie!”
The streams of blood spun like a tornado and blew away the holy water pooling around him on the ground. The blood went onto become all sorts of weapons – from swords to spears, axes, maces, etc, etc…
“And then, my father threw me away, just like that!” Ruppel’s expression distorted from pure rage. “Until I have my vengeance… Until then…!”
The weapons of blood flew out. They stretched out like whips and collided against the skeleton king’s golden bone sword.
Explosion noises resounded out and the weapons of blood burst apart into oblivion.
The final struggles of the living dead proved to be meaningless in front of the sacred sword.
“That damn livestock who abandoned me, but treasured and cared about my other siblings, I…!” Ruppel’s mouth suddenly clamped shut before splitting open again. Tears of blood trickled down his cheeks as he stared at the descending blade. “…I only wanted to kill them all.”
With an expression of indifference, I stared at Ruppel. “Rest well, brother.”
The sword slammed into the ground.
Streams of blood exploded and got purified out of existence.
A portion of the palace got crushed from the giant sword coming down. The same applied to Ruppel’s physical body, also crushed flat by the huge blade.
A deafening explosion rocked the night sky.
I didn’t take pity on him nor did I lower my guard.
My opponent was none other than the second prince of the Imperial Family. There was obviously no way I’d let him escape.
Besides all that, he was also a Vampire. All the things he had done until now were not something I could forgive or overlook, after all.
I was different from White. I didn’t even see this creature before my eyes as a family member of mine, someone hailing from the same bloodline.
If it was Luan or Hilda, they probably would’ve hesitated. But to me, this punk was a complete stranger. I had no thoughts of sparing a bastard who might potentially cause a huge headache later down the line.
The skeleton king’s strike was absurdly powerful.
The attack had not only destroyed a portion of the royal palace, but the shockwave even caused the surrounding buildings to crumble down as well.
The vicious dust storm blocked the view and I had to frown deeply as I got caught in the middle of it.
I waved the dust away and looked below me. The lake of holy water, split in half by the strike, was undulating madly while filling back up once more.
‘Huh. It’s stronger than I thought.’
I had no clue since I blacked out during the battle against the dragon, but this time around, I got to properly witness the skeleton king’s destructive power.
What a relief it was that I had the foresight to evacuate everyone from the royal palace beforehand with my skeleton helpers.
I looked at where the sword had landed and saw Ruppel’s body there.
A figure of a young boy was burning away into ashes. And among the scattering ashes…
-Kkiiiaaaahk! Aaaaahk!
…An ‘infant’ screeching out like a monster revealed itself.
Its whole body was crimson in colour. It should’ve been a stillborn human infant, yet its appearance could only be described as a horrifying monster.
The small monster submerged in the lake of holy water continued thrashing about in sheer anguish.
This creature resembling a newborn monster yelped out in a bizarre-sounding voice, “C-Count Timong! Dammit, dammit all to hell… Count Timong-! Come and save me…!”
I furrowed my brows at that. Was it because he was a marquis-class? He somehow managed to survive that strike.
I stood on the skeleton king’s hand as it lowered towards the floor. Once it touched the firm ground, the gigantic undead entered the lake and began disappearing from this world.
I glared down at Ruppel and asked him, “Oh? So there are other Vampires around, is that it? And not just any, but a count? Too bad for you, it’ll be difficult for them to come.”
“W-what are you…?”
The Second Imperial Prince’s glaring eyes rose up to meet mine.
I kept looking down on him as the corners of my lips curled up. “I mean, you do know that the sword king and the Crown Prince are right outside, don’t you? Besides, even if they weren’t here, I’m not so weak that I’ll fail to handle one unstable Vampire and a Count-class undead.”
I picked up Ruppel in one hand. His body, which was burning away from the effects of the holy water even now, trembled weakly in my grip.
His body’s recovery rate seemed quite slow to me. Huh, this punk, was he really a marquis-class Vampire?
He was way weaker than I expected, that’s for sure. Maybe it was because his body was so unstable?
Still, we should be able to fully ‘utilise’ this little punk.
It was then that I sensed a presence nearby.
I immediately summoned my musket and accurately aimed it at White, who just so happened to be approaching us from the side. “Don’t come any closer. Please.”
White flinched a little and stopped in his tracks. I could see Oscal and the Paladins behind him.
I looked at White once more and addressed him, “You have an undeniable responsibility in this matter. I pray that you won’t become too emotional and do something rather unwise.”
I didn’t call him ‘father’ as I didn’t plan to let him act as he wanted and create more headaches in the future.
White closed his slack jaw for a moment before asking me something, “Are you going to kill Ruppel?”
“Of course. I’ll perform his funeral myself. But before that…” I shifted my gaze over to the monster infant, Ruppel the former Second Imperial Prince. “…I’ll have him confess to everything he knows.”
Ruppel flinched from that.
The organisation of Vampires? If those bastards invaded the Theocratic Empire, then you can bet your bottom dollar that things would get really troublesome for me.
No, hang on. Maybe it’d be a good thing if they did.
By preparing thoroughly beforehand for the upcoming invasion, we might get a chance to completely wipe out the Vampires once and for all.
As far as I could tell, it seemed that our enemies weren’t all that clued up on the situation of the Theocratic Empire.
The current forces of the empire should be plenty strong enough to stop the invasion of the Vampires, or so I figured.
We had the Holy Emperor, the Crown Imperial Prince, the sword king, and the five forces of the Imperial Family. And finally, me.
Oh, and also the archbishops, too.
The moment they showed up, only a one-sided slaughter would be waiting for those Vampire bastards.
White’s expression hardened. “Allen, could it be…!”
“Oscal!”
I called out and Oscal Baldur walked up before bowing his head to me.
“Yes, your highness. This servant awaits your orders.”
“We shall transfer the Second Imperial Prince back to the Theocratic Empire. However, I do not want anyone to get close to him. Do you have any ways to ensure that not even White will be able to interfere?”
I deliberately omitted the ‘Crown Imperial Prince’ title and went with his name, ‘White’, instead.
Right now, what I wanted was the ‘jurisdiction to imprison’ that not even the authority afforded by the position of the Crown Imperial Prince could reverse.
I asked just in case, but as it turned out, I made the right call.
Oscal Baldur gave me quite a satisfactory answer. “Yes, your highness. There is a place where his majesty the Holy Emperor personally imprisons and interrogates the captured Vampires. Not only is his eminence the archbishop present there, we the Order of the Golden Cross has set up a camp there as well. His majesty frequently pays visits as well, ensuring that no one will be able to approach the location.” Oscal glanced at White before continuing on, “Unless one is the Holy Emperor, even someone like his highness the Crown Imperial Prince wouldn’t be allowed to step foot inside.”
Oscal wasn’t aware of the Second Imperial Prince’s story. Even then, he chose to follow my lead. He must’ve thought that I knew more about today’s raid than White, and that’s why he decided to listen to me.
“We will take this creature to that location. I shall personally get his majesty’s permission.” I shook around the monster infant in my hand. “Torture this bastard until he spits out everything he knows. And once he finishes telling us everything, execute him. No, hang on. Call me first. I shall personally handle his funeral.”
“This servant understands.”
After getting Oscal’s confident reply, I indifferently whispered to Second Imperial Prince Ruppel’s ear, “Brother. As a Vampire, you’ve been granted the peerage of a marquis, haven’t you? In that case, you should be rather knowledgeable on the movements of your fellow Vampires.”
The infant Ruppel visibly froze up.
I continued addressing him, “Brother, you are quite something else. To think that you’d personally deliver yourself in order to hand over information regarding the Vampires, all for the sake of the Imperial Family. Overall, I’d say the end result is great, considering that we’d now get to learn more about all the Vampire-related matters thanks to your moronic actions. Once you tell us everything you know, things will get so much more… comfortable for you.”
Only one future remained for him – torture at the hands of the Order of the Crimson Cross, and then death.
The Second Imperial Prince Ruppel’s face grew incredibly pale. “I… I don’t want to-!”
“Charlotte, Harman.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“We await your orders, your highness.”
“We shall return to the Theocratic Empire as quickly as possible,”
I addressed them while handing over Ruppel to Oscal.
“…And we shall start preparing for war against the Vampires.”
< 087. Ruppel Olfolse -5 (Part One and Two) > Fin.
(TL: Back to two chapters a day from tomorrow.)
