Chapter 278: 146. In the Name of the Holy King -2 (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
-For the eternal extermination of all false lives!-
A man kitted out in a set of radiant armour stepped away from behind the Bone Dragon.
The Berserker Kasim Derian swung his huge greatsword and sliced apart an incoming vampire.
-Let there be neverending glory for our master!-
Nasus, wielding a musket, fired a holy bullet.
Charlotte raised her shield and placed her sword on top, making sure to protect Allen’s unguarded back. Her sharp glares landed on the vampires next.
And so, Count Timong was finally given the opening he wanted so desperately.
“I cannot back away now. Now is the time to…!”
This would be the moment that the era of prosperity for all vampires finally began, after thousands of years of ruination.
And he would become…
“I shall be the hero recorded in the annals of history!”
Count Timong’s lengthy fingers quickly darted this way and that, drawing a warp magic circle on the ground. His target was right behind the unguarded back of the Holy King.
The gap between him and Charlotte was narrow, but it should still be possible to land the spell there!
The Warp Circle was rapidly completed. He slammed his palm down and injected demonic energy into it.
Count Timong’s body broke down into tiny particles and his vision darkened momentarily. By the time he regained his sight, he was already right behind Prince Allen’s back.
At the same time, the Seventh Imperial Prince had finished his prayer. He said, “Yup, Hans was right.”
He waved his hand and summoned a musket.
Charlotte flinched in shock, spun around, and instantly took a swing with her sword.
Count Timong yanked out a crimson jewel from under his robe and pointed it at the back of Allen’s head. “Do not move!”
His shout brought about an instant halt to Charlotte’s sword swing. Her divine sword had severed a portion of Timong’s throat by then.
The musket Allen had Summoned was pointing at Count Timong’s face, as well.
Still exposing his back, Allen turned his head slightly and glared at the vampire.
“I, I said, don’t move a muscle!” Count Timong cried out, while breathing laboriously.
The crimson jewel in his hand was the missing part of Mist Calf’s heart. Powerful demonic energy was swirling madly within it.
Allen glanced at that and furrowed his brow.
“The moment you use your divinity, this heart will show a reaction,” declared Timong. What he failed to mention just then was that, even if he died right now, it was engineered so that the dimensional gateway would still open. “If you do, this whole place will turn into literal hell!”
Timong continued panting breathlessly. It felt like his body was finally breaking down out of his control.
“You bastard, you will be trapped inside Purgatory, and the undead in there will emerge on this side.”
The vampire curled the corners of his lips up.
Even if this bastard had made preparations, the Seventh Imperial Prince was still too careless. He probably didn’t expect his enemies to get this close to him.
However, the Seventh Imperial Prince answered with a completely disinterested expression on his face, “You think that’s actually going to work?”
Count Timong began shedding cold sweat at that. A sword was piercing into his neck, while the muzzle of a musket was aimed at his face right now.
Alice’s hymn was also making his head dizzy.
“You’re right. It might not work. Even if a bastard like you was sealed away, as long as Holy Emperor Kelt is alive, the gate to Purgatory will be closed in the end. However!”
However, today’s action would be…
“This will be our first victory!”
…The vampires’ first victory!
Not just any victory either, but the successful sealing of an object of terror, Holy King Allen Olfolse! Once this news spread to the rest of the continent, countless vampires would be encouraged to start an uprising of their own.
The age of revolution would soon descend on this world!
“I shall become a hero, the ray of hope that will save my kind hidden throughout this world!”
Timong was destined to disappear from this world without achieving the glorious feat of opening a gateway to another dimension. If he was going to die anyway, then he might as well die as a hero, instead!
But then, Allen suddenly began snickering. “Go ahead.”
Count Timong was rendered speechless.
“Charlotte? Step aside for a minute.”
Charlotte hesitated when Allen spoke to her.
“It’s an order.”
She cautiously extracted the sword cutting into Count Timong, then stepped back while lowering her blade and raising her shield up. She was ready to intervene at a moment’s notice.
Count Timong glared at the Seventh Imperial Prince.
‘He withdrew his underling?’
Just where was his confidence even coming from?!
‘No, do not be scared. I’ve already lost everything. It’s foolish to be scared of a gamble when I’ve nothing left to lose!’
Allen opened his mouth, “You seem to be deluding yourself, Mister Count. You say your desire is to seal me away and achieve the first victory for the vampires?”
He snorted derisively as if what he heard just now had failed to impress him.
“Have you thought about what will happen when you fail?”
“What?!”
“Are you even aware of what kind of an occasion this is?”
The Seventh Imperial Prince got back to his feet, causing Count Timong to falter and stumble back.
Allen looked behind him, not a single sign of hesitation in his actions.
Even though the heart of Mist Calf that could seal him away was right in front of his nose, he acted as if he didn’t care. He was actively provoking the other side.
“This is the coronation of the Holy King.”
Count Timong flinched.
Allen dropped the musket to the floor and spread open his arms wide. “And a few scared vampires tried to attack the coronation. But what if you all failed? What then?”
Timong’s eyes gradually widened. His head creaked and turned as he took in the sight of his surroundings.
All the other Progenitors had been slain by now. As for the empire’s subjects, they were obviously scared silly.
However, none of them had fled.
Their expressions might be filled with fear, but there was also a hint of expectation, an ardent wish, mixed in their faces as well. All these countless people, humans who had come from all corners of the continent…
They were staring at the Holy King who had descended to this world, and the lone surviving vampire trying to stop him.
So, if Timong ‘lost’ during this encounter, then…
A twisted grin floated up on Allen’s lips. “Looks like your brain has finally begun to function properly.”
…Then, it’d be practically the same as acknowledging the wide-scale defeat of the vampires.
A powerful lump of fear welled up in Count Timong’s heart. This terror took over his rationality in an instant. Just he alone was now the deciding factor in the defeat of the entire vampire race.
“Keep racking your brain. Do your best to struggle.” Allen held his head up high and retorted snarkily. “Think about how to overcome this crisis, Mister Count.”
Count Timong’s eyes shook hard. His teeth clattered noisily.
His opponent held knowledge on Warp Magic. No, wait; it was more like, his degree of understanding on the items of the other dimension was far, far higher than Timong’s.
Just what did that signify?
‘He’s already prepared a countermeasure for the Warp!’
It was right at that moment that Count Timong sensed a distinct presence behind him. It came from a Lich breathing heavily.
Nasus was taking aim with his musket right now. This undead must’ve been responsible for interfering with the Warp Magic back in the ice castle.
‘Does his confidence come from this Lich?’
No, that didn’t seem right. Even if it was a Lich, it’d only add more chaos to the demonic energy in Mist Calf’s heart once the crimson jewel was activated.
It could be that the bastard was thinking of deciphering and cancelling Timong’s Warp Gate as soon as it was initiated.
This human boy, he… he was blinded by his arrogance. Timong had no choice but to think that way.
‘It’s impossible. This punk will never decipher my Warp!’
There was no way anyone could match the knowledge Timong had accumulated for the past fifteen hundred years.
The Vampire Count opened his eyes wider and glared at Allen. His breathing became even more rough and laborious. “Fuu-woo… Ha-ah, ha-ahk… Uwaaaaaahk!”
Count Timong injected his demonic energy into Mist Calf’s heart.
In response to his action, the crimson jewel suddenly went berserk. The nearby surrounding space distorted and warped. A line as thin as a piece of paper suddenly materialised in the empty air.
It was the dimensional gateway, a Warp Gate connected to Purgatory.
And it began opening up!
“I shall seal you away, you bastard!”
Count Timong quickly calculated; using all the accumulated knowledge in his head, he rapidly engraved rune letters in the air and encrypted the access code to the dimensional doorway.
“And with this, I shall announce to the rest of the world!” Count Timong’s body was now crumbling away for good. “I declare that, we the vampires, our kind, have finally grasped victory!”
The thin line split open noisily as if it was a maw of a living creature.
Allen’s brows shot up high as he stared inside the Warp Gate.
It was a literal hell inside, a world dyed in monotone grey hue.
The entirety of the terrain seemed to solely consist of grotesque flesh, while oceans and lakes made out of blood could be seen.
Withered, dried-up trees were moving around, while bizarre corpses of non-human creatures resembling zombies were rolling around or crawling about to cannibalise their own kind.
Screams were echoing throughout the grey sky, while a humongous ship made out of bones easily a hundred metres-plus in length sailed past his view.
It was a completely different world. This perfected dimensional gateway was quite different from what the Necromancers had managed to open back in Elusha.
The doorway to Purgatory had finally opened up in this world!
“You really opened it…?” Witnessing this scene, Allen looked stupefied, before his head fell lower.
Count Timong watched that reaction and broke into a loud peal of laughter. Indeed, this fool had been putting on an act!
This human was planning to scare Timong into not completing the Warp Gate today!
“Oh, hear me, Holy King! Be frightened! Your accursed power, your accursed flesh, they will all be sealed away in…!”
“Thank you very much, Count Timong.”
Allen held his forehead, all the while slowly raising his head. A smile was etched on his face, but it was an indescribably cruel and twisted smile.
He said, “What you, you moron, have done is…”
His appearance, it…
“You opened the gateway to Hell that the vampires will travel through very soon.”
…It was like looking at the face of a demon king from a fairy tale.
< 146. In the Name of the Holy King -2 (Part One and Two) > Fin.
