Chapter 527: A simple word that contains a ton of feelings.
Sasha appeared beside Tatsuya while holding his shoulder, which was leaking blood.
"Are you okay-"
"Cough."
She coughed up some blood that fell to the ground. When she saw her black blood, she realized that the miasma had entered her body through the hands of the demons, and her regeneration was not working.
"Heh, you look just like me now, cousin!" It's worth mentioning that Tatsuya was mean at times.
"..." Tatsuya looked at his cousin with a twinkle in his eyes but didn't comment. She just took off the broken helmet and threw it on the ground.
Silently thanking her husband for this gift and feeling sore for damaging the gift the first day she used it.
'Damn demon!'
[Don't breathe a sigh of relief, remember, he's a Phoenix.] Those words of warning from Hecate were enough to get them both serious again.
And just as Hecate spoke, flames rose from the ground like a pillar of fire.
FUSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
[And like a phoenix, he will rise from the ashes.]
Soon the image of the completely healed demon was seen by both of them.
"Fuck, he's completely fine." Victoria muttered.
"To kill this duke, we need a being of Light or a being that can attack souls. If not, it will keep respawning no matter how many times we kill him." Hecate commented seriously as she tried to hide the concern she had about Tatsuya.
"Do we have no other choice but to seal him somewhere?"
"Yeah, or buy time until Vlad or Victor comes back. As a progenitor, they have the power to damage souls, so they can kill this demon." Hecate bit her lip.
They were really unlucky. They were quickly invaded by one of the strongest and most troublesome demon dukes.
"...I must congratulate you. There are few people who manage to kill me, and even more so coming from two young vampires."
"If it was another Demon Duke, you would have won, but unfortunately, you found me."
Phoenix stretched his arms and cracked his neck a little, his expression unreadable, but everyone could feel the heavy feeling around him.
He was irritated.
"Haah, Baal will annoy me for eternity for what happened here."
"I can already imagine him telling the other demons about it."
"...I must wash this stain on my honor." The demons' eyes suddenly glowed.
And a gigantic pressure fell on the entire territory of Clan Fulger.
The surrounding weather began to get hotter and hotter.
Sasha and Tatsuya opened their eyes in shock.
'Was that all his strength!?'
"I will make a point of making this territory disappear into ashes." Phoenix's fiery wings grew, and the ground around him began to burn.
It was as if a mini-sun had suddenly started to rise in front of them.
"Ugh." Sasha and Tatsuya will feel their skin burning even though they are so far away.
The worst effect was on Tatsuya, who was completely unprotected, his attire had long since disappeared, and mysteriously, only the bottom part of his kimono was left.
From the beginning, Phoenix treated it like a game. Why?
He was immortal, and no matter how many times he died, he will come back.
He is a Phoenix, after all.
And even if he had taken it a little seriously before, that changed when he was killed because of his negligence.
Killed by two young vampires?
He wouldn't feel humiliated if it was a being like a countess or something, but it was just her descendants!
His pride wouldn't allow it!
Long ago, he lost sight of the duty that his king entrusted to him. First, he had to cleanse his honor, then he could think of his duty!
Tatsuya and Sasha gulped as fear gripped their entire beings, and Sasha felt like she was in Scathach's presence.
A sentiment that was shared by Tatsuya, but the target of that sentiment was not Scathach but Natashia.
But they wouldn't falter because of it.
Biting their lips, they positioned themselves, and once again, their bodies flashed with lightning.
[Any countermeasures?] Sasha asked.
[I'm working on a spell that will seal him, try to hold on for five minutes.]
The two were silent. Five minutes? This woman was asking too much!
But they had no choice.
"You're talking too much for someone who just died, demon." Sasha spoke in disdain.
"That was negligence... It won't happen again." The heat started to build even more, and his entire body had long since turned into pure fire, so only his chest and head were visible.
"As expected of a demon, you are good at making excuses." Sasha started to stall for time.
"... Excuses?" Phoenix raised an eyebrow.
"Correct. By thinking of us as inferior and a weak target, you let your guard down and died."
"If you weren't a glorified chicken, you'd be right back in hell getting fucked by some demon that would love to eat your flaming ass." Feeling her healing start to take effect, Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. She needed some time for the miasma to leave her system, and her healing was reacting better than she thought.
"...." Tatsuya swallowed hard.
Woman! Your mouth is cruel! Who did you learn that from!?... Ah, she is that man's wife!
Tatsuya unintentionally spat blood. This wasn't because he received critical damage from what she heard; it was because he was actually injured!
Veins started popping in Phoenix's head. He'd never felt so humiliated before.
Losing to someone younger and still being laughed at.
Hell must have frozen over for him to suffer something like this today.
"That is enough, you will-."
Phoenix stopped in his tracks, and he felt an immense pressure descend on him. In fact, they all felt it.
Phoenix looked in one direction and saw the annoyed face of a man in full armor.
"Vlad/Vampire King." The three spoke at the same time.
And at the same time, a distorted and irritated pressure was felt.
'Darling.'
"...Two progenitors, that wasn't in the plans..." Phoenix's eyes narrowed.
His thoughts immediately calmed, two beings that could kill him arrived, and that was bad.
Vlad's appearance was also a message for something only demons knew about.
'The plan worked. My work is done.' The moment he thought that a dark portal appeared at his side.
Looking at the portal, the duke walked towards it, and before entering the portal, he looked at the two:
"…Don't die to another demon, young vampires. You can only die for me! I will wash away this stain on my honor!"
"Honor...?" Sasha snorted in disdain, demons with honor? What is it? Is it some bad joke?
Did Santa suddenly lose weight?
A demon with honor was like asking for the sun to rise in the West! That is, it was impossible. It was pure bullshit that this demon was talking about.
Thinking that Sasha was questioning him, he spoke:
"That's right, hold your heads there." He snorted in disdain and walked through the portal.
When the demon passed through the portal, all the bottled-up feelings and the pressure the demon was emanating disappeared, and the two fell to the ground.
[Good job you two, that was a well-deserved victory.] Hecate sighed.
"... Haah, can this be considered a victory?" Tatsuya spoke up.
[Of course, you did it, you young vampires fought a demon duke, killed him, and will survive, few can claim such a feat.] Victoria spoke with a relieved sigh.
[Not to mention that Phoenix was one of the strongest pillars due to his immortality and fire power]
"... That's still not enough. I don't want a victory like that. I want a complete victory." Sasha spoke with a determined gleam in her eyes.
"...." This was something Tatsuya could silently agree to, but for now, he just wanted to rest and think about the mistakes he's made.
'...I was arrogant.' He thought that with only his katana, he could fight a duke of hell, and without wearing armor, he went to war, and because of that, he suffered damage and became a hindrance to Sasha.
Another thing he noticed.
'I didn't train my lightning.' Even though he had that much power, he neglected to train his bloodline, and as a result, he was substantially slower than Sasha.
'Haah.' He sighed slowly and decided to take this fight as a lesson for the future.
Rumble, Rumble!
Natashia appeared, and when she saw her daughter, she cried out in concern.
"Sasha!" In the blink of an eye, Natashia appeared beside Sasha.
Seconds later, Victor appeared next to Sasha and knelt down in front of her. He came here first because he felt that the demon sent here was stronger than the one sent to the Snow Clan territory, and Scarlett, not to mention the Clan Fulger, was currently the Clan that had the least defenses and soldiers.
He wasn't worried about the royal capital, Vlad's main force was there, and so were Jeanne and Morgana.
He looked silently at Sasha, and the two women could feel his fury, but even more, they could feel his pride. Even though his fury completely dominated his feelings, the feeling of pride was escalating in the same proportion.
He really was a complicated man.
After a long silence looking at Sasha's state, Victor looked around, and when he saw the destruction, his eyes widened. This scenario was familiar, and he remembered seeing it in the game of Clan Fulger and Clan Horseman.
'She did it…' Feelings of pride couldn't help but sprout even more throughout Victor's body.
Victor turned his attention to Sasha, and with kinder eyes and proud feelings, he swallowed his anger and his worry. That's not what Sasha needed right now.
She fought like a warrior, and that shouldn't be a cause for shame:
Victor opened his mouth, and the words that followed were:
"Good job."
And with just those words, Sasha felt that all her effort in training was worth it. She wasn't weak anymore!
"Mm." And at that moment, she displayed one of the most beautiful smiles Victor had ever seen.
He saw the realized form of his belief in Sasha now.
'A beautiful woman is the one who shines the most when she does something she likes.'
That belief that made Victor help Morgana and Jeanne. He didn't like to see two strong women in that deplorable state.
And it was at that moment that he realized something.
'...I protected them too much, huh...?'
And at the same time, that was the moment when Victor made a decision, a decision that would throw Ruby, Sasha, and Violet into training hell.
'There is a better way to protect them… And that is to make them stronger, insanely stronger.' Victor's eyes gleamed with determination.
'...But the rotten side of the world, I won't let them deal with it. That's my job; they should just shine like now.'
"...." Natashia just watched everything in silence with a smile on her face. She just stroked her daughter's head and felt the feelings of their connection.
'...He is indeed a good husband.' She once again sighed in relief at having made the right decision.
'As long as my granddaughters, daughters, and future great-granddaughters are with him, everything will be fine.' Once again, she reaffirmed her belief.
Looking at the pink weather, Tatsuya thought:
'...I was ignored...?'
Tatsuya had complex feelings for this situation, he didn't want the pity of these two beings, but at least a little concern was a good thing, okay? I am not your friend? And your nephew?
Hello? I exist here, okay?
"..." Somehow, he felt like crying now.
But his feelings were washed away when Victor looked at Tatsuya and displayed a small smile:
"Hey, looks like a truck hit you, and the driver left without paying your hospital bill."
"..." A vein popped in Tatsuya's head.
This man was still annoying!
Haah, he didn't even have the energy to answer Victor now. He'd rather close his eyes.
[Sister, you're back.]
Victoria's voice was heard by everyone.
"Yes. Tell me the damage?" Natashia asked a simple question as she got up from the floor. It was obvious that her mood was not good right now.
[Only a few young vampires died, only the property damage was astronomical, other than that, the territory is intact.]
The magic circle that was in the sky began to disappear, and soon everyone saw that the land around it had completely rotted away.
[Oh yes. The miasma has seeped into the earth, so we need to spend a lot of money to get it back to normal.] Victoria commented with pain in her heart. She knew that the tools to remove the miasma from the soil were very expensive, even for her, who owns a trillion-dollar company.
Speaking of business…
"Lady Victoria, we have an emergency." The Fulger family butler appeared.
"What is it?"
"All of his business in Russia, China, and around Ukraine and the Middle East has disappeared."
"...Eh...? What did you say?"
"All your property in these countries was destroyed by the demons, causing more than 500 billion dollars in damage."
Victoria looked at the butler as if he'd grown a second head.
And when reality hit her face again, her eyes rolled up, and she passed out.
She couldn't take this news. All her efforts of several centuries were destroyed like this…
Like a snap of her fingers.
'Damn demons…' Those were her last thoughts before she passed out.
"Lady Victoria!!"
While this was happening.
Victor lifted his shirt sleeve and handed his arm to Sasha.
Sasha obediently bit Victor's arm and drank his blood. A few seconds later, a new arm is born where she had lost it.
"I'm sorry, Darling, I destroyed your gift." She stopped drinking Victor's blood and stood up. She was feeling completely fine, she could fight another Demon Duke now!
Victoria patted Sasha's head, "Your safety was more important to me, and I want you to come to Clan Adrastea to make better custom armor."
"Mm."
"You will also go with me, Natashia."
Looking at her daughter's armor that had several broken and slightly burned parts, she realized that the armor helped her daughter a lot, and she said:
"...Of course, with the fights we're going to go through in the future, going with the leather outfit is foolish." Natashia commented.
Victor looked around with his eyes glowing violet.
And he can see several 'small' completely black dots in his vision.
"Sneaky, they've put little demons to lurk around." He spoke in disdain.
"I will work it out." He disappears, leaving behind streaks of lightning.
.....
