Chapter 191: 102. The Blackened Village -4 (Part One)
Baron Lava Labert became terrified by the massive storm of divinity.
Bloody hell?! That boy Priest wasn’t the most dangerous one here, this girl was!
Lava hurriedly opened the blood-stained bible’s cover and injected demonic energy into it. The pages urgently flipped open as he began chanting his spell.
It was magic meant to summon the undead.
Skeletons and zombies broke through the ground and emerged out in the open.
-Ku-oooooh!
The eerie glow in their eye sockets gleamed sharply as they raised their weapons high. Swords and spears fashioned out of bones reflected the light.
To deal with just one young girl, hundreds of skeletons and zombies had set up a cordon around her, with countless arrows made out of bones now trained in her direction.
Even then, they were still nothing more than some low-grade undead. They couldn’t even serve as hindrances to her.
As the deluge continued falling, the undead rushed towards Charlotte, trying to take her life. Arrows made out of bones were fired towards her.
She silently stared at the incoming projectiles. She didn’t even feel the need to dodge them.
The trajectories of all those arrows that had been fired haphazardly flew to everywhere, the falling deluge disturbed their trajectories and the volleys missed their target without her needing to do anything.
She dashed straight into the ranks of the horde of undead.
The zombies and skeletons all looked down and saw her compact, lowered posture as she rotated 360 degrees with her unsheathed sword.
CRUNCH-!
The knights of Lome watched this scene unfold and became utterly entranced. This beautiful sight prompted gasps of admiration to leave their mouths.
The arc left behind the sword was silky smooth, uninterrupted.
While leaving behind visible afterimages, the sword gleaming in pure white light split apart the bodies of the undead around her. And almost at the same time, all the affected creatures were turned to ashes, ceasing to exist altogether.
Charlotte continued to step forward. Like an expert dancer, she smoothly and gently guided her blade around.
Hauntingly gorgeous arcs of blade afterimages were engraved in the night sky as her figure darted in and around the gaps of the undead.
The walking dead continued to wield their spears, swords, and maces made out of bones, but she didn’t feel the need to defend herself. She minimised all unnecessary movements and easily evaded all the attacks.
“T-this can’t be…?!”
Baron Lava was flustered beyond words while Charlotte’s gleaming, cold eyes remained locked on the panicking Vampire.
Every time she took a step, dozens of undead got exterminated.
She advanced quickly without facing any serious resistance. But then, a huge zombie warrior suddenly blocked her path.
This huge, two-metres-tall creature extended its hand out and tried to crush her. However, she simply swung her sword upwards.
The flicker of a sword light later, the zombie warrior was split apart into two halves and got exterminated as well.
‘I, I need to do something here!’
Baron Lava quickly lifted up the blood-stained bible, and its protruding eyes rolled around this way and that.
He read out aloud the chants for another illusion magic spell.
He knew he needed to resort to something much more powerful, something much more expansive than before.
The Progenitor Vampire desperately roused up his demonic energy. His brain got overloaded almost to the point of melting down.
He glared at Charlotte. She was getting closer and closer. She wielded her sword and broke through the ranks of the undead soldiers with ease. She continuously wielded her sword, all so that she could cut off his head.
“…!”
Baron Lava’s eyes shot wide open.
But right at that very moment, Charlotte’s ruthless and unhesitant movements came to an abrupt stop.
It happened the moment her blade was just about to reach Baron Lava’s throat. The girl managed to completely cut down all the undead in what seemed like a blink of an eye and had reached the front of the baron.
“Heo-urhk…?!”
Baron Lava swallowed back his dry saliva and gasped in shock. He could feel the blade touching his Adam’s apple, and it had already started burning his flesh.
He cautiously reached up and grasped the blade. The divinity permeating her sword burned his fingers, but he didn’t care about that. That’s because, with just one slip-up, his head would go flying away from the rest of his body!
‘Careful. Careful…!’
Baron Lava succeeded in pushing the sword away and retracting his head back. He sighed in relief as his protruding eyes arched in a grotesque grin.
He stared at Charlotte’s face; her reddish eyes were lacking in focus.
She had fallen under the Vampire’s illusion magic.
Baron Lava looked into the blood-stained bible. It displayed the illusion she was currently under.
Charlotte was looking at her ‘parents’ right now – her father and mother who became zombies and died. The two of them were gently smiling at her.
Baron Lava guffawed out and extended his hand out. His saw-toothed wheel-like fangs bobbed up and down.
-Ahhh, my beloved daughter!
She should currently see his outer appearance and hear his voice as her parents and their voices.
Charlotte dazedly stared at Baron Lava, then began gradually inching towards him.
Hints of tears began pooling near the edges of her eyes. Her longing started echoing loudly within her heart.
Baron Lava opened his sharp rows of fangs wide.
This girl was a seriously dangerous existence. He had already expanded a lot of demonic energy and maintaining this illusion for long would be difficult, so he had to kill her in one fell swoop and…!
But right at that moment, she opened her mouth. “This is wrong.”
Charlotte gripped her sword tightly. Her eyes that lacked vibrant colour were now angrily glaring at Baron Lava.
Thick murderous intent began crushing down on the flustered Vampire.
“…!”
She pulled her sword back and sucked in a deep breath. Her clouded eyes began regaining their sharp, clear light once more.
Baron Lava screamed inwardly at this unbelievable sight. She undid the illusion magic by herself?!
“How can this be?!”
The Vampire hurriedly stumbled back, but right at that moment, Charlotte swung her sword. The strike travelled diagonally downwards, cleanly slicing off Baron Lava’s right hand that held the blood-stained bible.
The severed arm went flying in the air. Ashes, along with the rotten blood and countless writhing maggots, spewed out from the open wound.
“Uwaaaahk!”
Baron Lava sucked in his breath. Both his throat and face suddenly ballooned up. He then spat out a pitch-black smoke from the hole serving as his mouth.
Powerful toxins spread out in every direction and dyed the surroundings like black fog.
The knights hurriedly ran off from the area, but Charlotte remained behind. She held her breath and quickly scanned her vicinity.
Baron Lava could be seen escaping into the forest.
After spotting the Vampire’s fleeing back, she began massaging her temples. That undead dared to insult not just some random thing, but the precious memories of her parents.
That disgusting Vampire, a measly little undead no less, dared to imitate not just his highness, but even her father and mother who were no longer in this world.
“I will not forgive you.”
Charlotte gritted her teeth.
With her expression distorted in rage, she dashed after Baron Lava.
**
Meanwhile, at the open space in the forest where the carriage was located.
Not just the zombies, but dullahans, ghouls, and even lycans were here. They were all mid- to upper-tier undead.
Amongst them, the lycans possessed the highest level of intellect, and they were currently feeling quite nervous.
They were glaring at a boy and young man before their eyes. Zombies were low-tier undead, but even if that was the case, the fact remained that the boy Priest they were facing possessed a monstrous level of divinity capable of sweeping away hundreds of them in one go.
Letting down one’s guard or hesitating for even a second was not an option against such a dangerous individual.
-We must kill him in one strike.
-Go for his throat. Rip it apart.
-He has already used magic back in the village. Either his divinity has run out or he’s too fatigued to fight. As such, we shall kill him right away.
The lycans strengthened their bodies; their muscles began bulging in a grotesque manner.
Their figures ballooned to over three metres in height, while breaths thickly laden with demonic energy escaped from their maws.
They got low to the ground and howled loudly into the night sky.
Barus witnessed the unfolding spectacle and yanked his sword with a trembling hand before shouting out loudly at his companion, “What will we do now?! The knights meant to protect us are no longer here!”
Allen scanned his vicinity and calmly replied. “I told you, I already knew these idiots would show up.”
The Seventh Imperial Prince raised his musket, a firearm with a lengthy barrel. Even though it was supposed to be nothing more than a decorative ornament in this world, it became a lethal weapon in his hands.
Allen possessed [Divine Aura], an ability to ‘upgrade’ any item to their next level.
While holding the musket, he let out a breath into its loading chamber. The lycans witnessing this scene opened their eyes.
-Now!
-The bastard is trying to offer a prayer!
-He will be defenceless for several seconds. Attack him now…!
The lycans strengthened their legs, and veins bulged in their leg muscles.
The ground below their feet caved in and the undead pounced forward like released springs. They leapt in the air before extending their arms out to support their weight on the ground.
They dashed in on all fours with a frightening turn of speed from every direction.
“Your highness, it’s dangerous!”
Barus gripped his sword tightly and stood in front of Allen. He needed to buy some time for the latter to finish his prayer. Only then would they have a chance to overcome this crisis!
“Well, it’s been a while since things got this interesting.”
Barus flinched and looked behind him.
The corners of Allen’s lips had curled up so much that they threatened to rip his cheeks open at the moment. Although his overall expression seemed pure like a child discovering a new toy to play with, what Barus’s eyes saw just then was the face of a ‘devil’ completely lost in pure ‘madness’ instead.
“What on earth…?!”
Allen suddenly used his leg to trip Barus off his feet. Then, he waved his hand in the empty air. A short sword appeared in his grip and he promptly attached it to the end of the musket.
Allen then kicked the ground and leapt up towards an approaching lycan.
The lycans were stunned by this sight, as they hadn’t expected their target to actually come toward them.
Just as the undead flinched in surprise and froze up for a moment…
Allen thrust forward the bayonet attached to the musket.
Stab-!
The thick head of a lycan was torn apart by the rough thrust of the bayonet. Its forehead was cleanly stabbed through, and divinity permeating the blade completely blew apart the skull into bloody bits.
The other lycans flinched in shock and turned their heads. Allen was standing right in front of them now.
He gripped a musket in his right hand. On his left hand was yet another musket, but with a slightly different shape.
Divinity was injected into these two lethal ornaments.
Chantless casting, with no prayer offered; only two and half seconds were needed to breathe into the weapons. The muskets were aimed at the heads of the lycans to his left and right.
The lycans’ faces were drained of all colour at this sight.
-R-run away…!
Ka-boom-!
The heads of two lycans exploded at the same time.
In the proverbial blink of an eye, three lycans had been killed off. The surviving lycans hurriedly distanced themselves away from him.
‘The attack power just now wasn’t that high.’
Indeed, his attack power was far lower than back when he offered prayers first before using the musket.
Even then…
The lycans glanced at the corpses of their fellow undead, which were currently turning into ashes and disappearing from this world.
Cold sweat trickled down their backs.
‘Each and every shot is still lethal!’
