Chapter 306: 161. The Return of the King (Part Two)
Translated by A Passing Wanderer
Edited by RED
“How disappointing you are, oh my king.”
Without warning, Kelt’s right hand was crushed by a blacksmith’s hammer. He flinched in surprise and turned his head.
He discovered a Grand Duke-class vampire with crimson skin and a pair of horns on his head, Ivaldi. This undead was using his hammer to crush Kelt’s right hand.
“You bastard-!” Kelt roared out as his left hand let go of the spear shaft.
He reached out to grab Grand Duke Ivaldi, but the latter acted first and kicked Kelt in his chest, then used his tongs to grab and yank out the spear.
The Holy Emperor stumbled back from the kick’s force and a fountain of blood gushed out from his chest, but his body recovered in an instant.
Ivaldi’s eyes narrowed at this sight. This thing called the Word of God, it was proving to be extremely dangerous. “This… we won’t win like this.”
“Grand Duke.” The Vampire King took a look at Ivaldi’s current condition.
A deep wound was visible on the Grand Duke’s chest, and blood streamed down continuously from his waist. His injuries were so grievous that even the superb regenerative ability of a vampire was rendered useless.
Ivaldi spoke up again. “Oh my king, you’re a disappointment. To think that you’d give up so easily.” He then stopped the Vampire King from collapsing and supported the latter with his sturdy frame. “Our escape path has been secured.”
The vampire blacksmith pointed to the hole dug out by the gargoyles in the ground.
“You think I’ll let you leave so easily?!” Kelt roared out and stepped forward, only for more Progenitor Vampires to block his way.
Even though their faces were as pale as they could get, they still confronted the enraged Kelt Olfolse nevertheless.
“How dare a bunch of mosquitoes…!”
“U-uwaaaaahk!” The Progenitors practically threw themselves at him.
Kelt waved his hand dismissively, causing a deluge of sparks to erupt out. The Progenitor Vampires were turned into piles of ashes and wiped out of existence.
The heavily-wounded Cerberus blocked his path next. Kelt picked up his discarded warhammer from the ground.
Grand Duke Ivaldi watched Kelt before shifting his gaze back to the Vampire King. “We have lost.”
“…”
The vampire blacksmith helped the Vampire King towards the hole dug out by the gargoyles, and they entered it together.
“However, we should not despair over this event.”
The gargoyles on standby there lowered themselves and placed the Vampire King on their backs.
A horrifying screech exploded from behind them, and one of the heads of Cerberus slammed down at the mouth of the hole. The side of this head had been crushed to bits, and its tongue was dangling limply out of its slack maw.
“We were always on the losing side, only fighting back for the promise of a future victory.” The Grand Duke also climbed aboard a gargoyle. “As such, we shall continue to survive and fight back for our future.”
He stopped talking there, prompting the gargoyles to begin flying into the hole in the ground.
The goddess statue dragged the corpse of Cerberus away from the mouth of the hole, allowing Kelt to stand tall there. His eyes glared into the darkness of the underground tunnel.
The Progenitor Vampires defending the hole all howled out at the top of their lungs.
“Protect our Vampire King!”
“We need to buy time!”
“…What a bunch of impudent punks.” Kelt tutted unhappily and gripped his warhammer tightly.
The Paladins kitted out in golden armour rapidly surrounded him. They had come to escort Kelt now that the battlefield had been sorted out to some degree.
“Wipe them all out. We shall give chase.”
After issuing his order, Kelt leapt into the hole, and the members of the Golden Cross followed fearlessly after him.
Soon afterwards, the desperate cries of the dying vampires exploded out from the hole.
—-
“Ha, haha… I’m still alive.” White panted heavily while staring at the Duke-class vampire before him. This creature with a lion’s head was burning in blue flames. “Man, to think that one day, I’d get to kill a Duke-class.”
He really got lucky this time.
Allen’s sudden entrance had thrown the whole battlefield into chaos, and one of the two Dukes left the scene, saying it would go and help out the Vampire King.
Thanks to that development, the fight suddenly became one on one. White had barely managed to eke out a victory.
He shifted his gaze down below the destroyed outer wall. “…Huh. I guess a Grand Duke is indeed ridiculously strong, then.”
Both Oscal the Sword King and Cardinal Raphael were collapsed on the ground, utterly spent. Even though those two powerful old men had attacked together, the Grand Duke still shook them off and went to aid the Vampire King.
Oscal the Sword King spat out some blood as his eyes gleamed murderously. “I swear to cut off your neck next time we meet!”
He sounded utterly furious.
But that made some sense, since they had still lost despite ganging up together on a single enemy. If Allen hadn’t shown up to sow such chaos and confusion in the battlefield, then it was quite possible that the two old men wouldn’t have survived.
‘Ah, wait a second. That’s the same story for me, isn’t it?’ White thought to himself, while wiping the back of his hand on his forehead.
The once-noisy battlefield gradually calmed down. The undead horde had all been wiped out, and the Paladins began hunting down any remaining vampires.
These Paladins of the empire were now looking down at the vampires through their helms. They watched the Progenitors helplessly crawling around on the ground.
The Paladins proceeded to place shackles on the ankles of the surviving vampires, and began dragging them away, despite all the screams filled with torment coming from the undead.
The empire’s soldiers roared out, “We are victorious!”
The vampires were then bound to the symbols of the Theocratic Empire that resembled the Chinese character for ‘wood’, before the contraptions were raised up to be placed throughout the battlefield.
——
While the ten thousand or so soldiers were stepping on the corpses of undead horde to display the surviving vampires on the symbols, a certain individual finally reached the city’s outskirts.
This existence who commanded the holy army and the gigantic archangel…
The soldiers watched the Holy King wearing his mountain goat skull-helm and bone armour and proudly riding on the skeleton horse come closer to them, and knelt down, one by one.
“We greet Your Majesty the Holy King-!”
The conqueror of Aslan, and the one who put an end to this war…
The Holy King had returned!
**
Kirum was still stuck in the underground labyrinth, and was panting breathlessly away.
He sneaked a glance beyond the corner, and spotted the Bloody Golem busy turning its head around some distance away, evidently looking for something. It was searching for its prey and was currently wandering around aimlessly.
Kirum shifted his gaze towards the end of the corridor he was in.
He had finally arrived at the location of the Second Imperial Prince, Ruppel Olfolse.
‘Dammit. I had to go through such humiliation just to find some little tyke?!’
Wouldn’t he be more of a help by participating in the war, instead?
Kirum felt conflicted, but he still shook his head. There was no point in regretting now.
Even if they defeated Holy Emperor Kelt today, the vampires still needed to raise more forces in order to attack the remaining Holy King. In order to do that, they needed the strength of Second Imperial Prince Ruppel.
The vampires would be able to greatly strengthen their forces by waking up the sealed Jötnar in the north-west of the continent, making the king of the giants submit, then inserting Ruppel into the creature to take over its body.
‘Although, it’s still unknown whether that’s possible or not…’
The gods had sealed the Jötnar away. As such, it’d not be an easy task to steal their king’s body. The vampires would have to prepare thoroughly beforehand.
‘His Majesty the Vampire King will somehow deal with Kelt Olfolse. No matter how fast the Holy King is, he will still need some time to reach here.’ Kirum flung the steel door open at the end of the corridor. ‘Before that happens, I shall leave with Ruppel in tow.’
The doorway opened into a space filled with inky-black darkness but to Kirum’s eyes, this place was as bright as the middle of the day.
He was now standing on a long passageway, both of its sides filled with steel bars and doorways. The distinct stench of vampire blood wafted out thickly.
“What’s going on…”
“Could it be…?”
“It, it’s a Progenitor! A Progenitor has come to rescue us!”
Vampires rushed closer to the steel bars and reached out through the open gaps. They began crying out to be saved.
Kirum could only furrow his brow. This ‘prison’ was filled with blood-creations, Progenitors, and lycanthropes.
After imprisoning Kirum’s fellow brethren down here, the Imperial bastards no doubt would’ve leisurely watched the undead like some kind of zoo animals, then tortured them and performed all sorts of heinous experiments on them.
But that would come to an end today!
Kirum extended his claws and easily broke the cell door made of steel bars. However, he wasn’t doing that for the sake of comradeship. Actually, what he needed right now was bait to lure the Bloody Golem outside away from here.
“Thank you, my lord!”
“M-may I ask what your name is, sir…?”
Kirum ignored their question and asked them back, instead. “I have something to ask you. Have you seen a Progenitor infant in this place?”
“Pardon? N-not sure, sir…”
“Wait, now that I think about it, I do remember seeing the Crimson Cross bastards bringing in such a baby before. A creature that looked like a fetus…”
Kirum stared at this blood-creation. Not only was it buck-naked, all sorts of wounds riddled its body, as well. It had lost all of its vigour as a vampire and couldn’t even heal itself.
Kirum asked this pathetic-looking blood-creation, “Where was it taken?”
“In that direction, sir.” The blood-creation pointed towards the far end of the passageway. There was a noticeable steel door with thick chains in front of it.
Kirum shifted his gaze over to a nearby table. There were keys strewn about on top.
‘…Something is wrong here.’
The security in the underground labyrinth should’ve been stronger than this. Yet for some reason, Kirum got the feeling that the security was the most lax where the vampires had been imprisoned.
The Imperials had only installed a lone Bloody Golem here?
Besides, what could be the meaning of all those keys carelessly left there on the table? It was as if he was being lured into freeing all the imprisoned undead here.
Kirum scanned the other creatures and spoke, “Go and free the others.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The blood-creations used the keys to open the prison cells. Meanwhile, Kirum headed to the very last cell. Even then, his gaze continued to wander towards the nearby walls.
…Walls that had various holes seemingly everywhere on their surfaces.
Without a doubt, some kind of Runes were engraved in there, but Kirum just couldn’t figure out what they were meant for.
He finally reached the last cell and used his extended claws to break the door down.
His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after he looked into the cell.
“…Oh my gods…”
< 161. The Return of the King (Part One and Two) > Fin.
