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“Huh?!”
The vampires were flustered by the tremendous speed and change in trajectory. What was even more surprising was that this attack had not aimed for their vital spots, but had merely cut part of them: the flesh of their forearms, their thighs, their waists, or small portions of skin.
What kind of stupid attack was this? Such shallow wounds would not have mattered much even when they were dwarves, let alone vampires.
Had he applied poison? Ordinary poisons did not work on vampires, and even if there were a poison that did, inflicting wounds on this many vampires without replenishing the poison would not possibly make the drug take effect.
The vampires snorted.
However, flames rose from their affected areas, the wounds grazed by the ceramite arrow.
“Kkiaaak?!”
“Huh?!”
“Kkeoeoeoe!”
The vampires were horrified by the flames that began to burn their bodies.
They threw themselves onto the ground to put out the fire, but it was like lying flat on a heated griddle of their own accord. It was, if anything, even hotter and more painful.
The flames kept burning their skin, and the ground was as hot and painful as lava.
“Aaak! W-What is this!”
“You bastard!”
Several vampires began transforming.
It was a transformation ability that upper vampires could use, releasing their true blood-starved forms and transforming into monsters called Bloodletters.
They changed into forms much larger than ordinary humans, revealing sharp teeth and claws, but they could not get rid of the flames.
“You son of a bitch!”
The vampires, driven mad by the pain of burning in the flames, charged at Azadine. Zebec and Niselda blocked their path.
And from behind them, the arrow flew again.
The ceramite arrow, moving freely as though it were a living creature, pierced the wings that had sprouted from the Bloodletters’ backs.
“Kkiaaaaaak!”
“Kkeua!”
Flames caught on the Bloodletters’ wings and blazed. And what awaited them was a miserable fate.
“Why will this not go out! Kkeoeoeoe!”
“Ugh….”
The vampires went mad from the continuing burning pain. At first, the wounded areas had been small, so they could somehow move through the excitement and rage of battle, but while they did, the fire sank deeper and began burning into their bones, making it impossible to ignore.
There were vampires who had cut off their arms early and escaped the flames, but the arrow flew at them once again.
Though it was called an arrow, since it used a longsword as an arrowhead, it was a weapon beyond a spear. If such a weapon moved that quickly and struck directly, instant death would be possible, but… Azadine controlled this ceramite arrow well and made it only wound them.
“…No, this bastard!”
Unable to keep watching, Prince Kalzmati activated Elemental Wailing. A gust of evil power poured down toward Azadine.
But at that moment, Azadine was finally able to understand the true nature of Elemental Wailing.
‘So it was Nether magic.’
From the sky, the hand of a giant reaper descended toward Azadine.
Through the sight he had gained as Azadine of Disgrace, which saw through all magic and objects, that hand was all too clearly visible.
To the others around him, it looked as if a gust of wind had arisen together with a subtle omen of power, but Azadine accurately saw the reaper’s hand and evaded it.
“No, how?!”
Prince Kalzmati, who had launched the attack, was flustered when he saw Azadine look at and evade his attack.
Azadine immediately used Garuda to counterattack. The ceramite longsword that had been flying through the air ignited on its own and spewed out flames like lava.
“Ugh?!”
A spear of flame passed through the vampires.
-Slash!
The spear, which surged upward while tearing through the air at a right angle like golden lightning, split into several branches once again and plunged down.
“N-No!”
Prince Kalzmati, his subordinates, and the high-ranking vampires tried to flee, but the speed of the Flowers, Birds, Wind, Moon ultimate mastery of Garuda was beyond imagination.
A large wound appeared on Prince Kalzmati’s head, and flames caught on it.
“Kkeok?!”
The agony was so horrific that he felt as though he would faint. What was even more terrifying than that was that his hair and beard were burning away and disappearing.
“Ugh… I-Iaaaaak!”
Prince Kalzmati rolled on the ground, clawing at the earth like a beast.
He was not the only one. The other vampires also writhed, unable to endure the pain.
Azadine reached out toward the golden lightning dancing through the sky.
This golden lightning, created by the fusion of Aurelia Dawn and Grimslone’s Club, returned to the forms of a longsword and a club and came back to Azadine’s hand.
Azadine put away Aurelia Dawn and approached the vampires writhing in pain.
“I-Impossible. We are vampires. Predators of the night, and you are nothing but prey… What is this….”
“Ceramite had this kind of power?”
There were hardly any vampires who could even speak, and most of them flailed about, driven mad by the pain. Pitifully, the upper vampires had even stronger vitality, so they could not kill themselves that easily.
Another problem was that they had no weapons, like blunderbusses, that could deliver a tremendous blow all at once.
Prince Kalzmati scratched at his own head, tearing apart not only his scalp but even his skull in self-harm, but despite such desperate efforts, his body healed again.
“Niselda. Is your mother here?”
“She is not.”
“Then….”
Azadine transformed Grimslone’s Club, created wooden stakes, and pierced the vampires’ hearts with them, easing their suffering.
Dawn began to break.
The rain clouds summoned by the magic of Elemental Wailing disappeared, and the sun rose normally.
Under that sky, a noble wearing steel armor walked over and stood before Azadine.
“Are you Sir Azadine, the paladin from the Messenger Clan?”
“I am. And you are?”
“I am Count Ivchek of Sandokar. Sir Azadine. I wish to leave the Banreung Kingdom and enter your service. Will you accept my sword?”
“…….”
A noble of the Banreung Kingdom was trying to offer his sword to Azadine, who was none other than a god-king slayer and a soulless blasphemer. It was an absurd act.
Considering what would happen afterward, it was a blasphemous act that would make traditional nobles curse every last brick in the walls of Count Sandokar’s house.
Of course, more than such people’s gossip or envious gazes, Sandokar was an important region.
Since it was the boundary between the Rescue Knights Order, the Banreung Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Arangi, its value could not be described in words. From Azadine’s position, it was like a pumpkin rolling in with the vine attached. So Azadine became curious whether the count was speaking sincerely now.
“I am grateful for your intention, but how do you plan to handle the aftermath?”
“I saw the prince of the kingdom I served become a vampire and slaughter the people. And you are telling me to keep serving the Banreung Kingdom because I do not want to be gossiped about by other bastards? That is absurd.”
“But there are others besides me, are there not? What about the Kingdom of Arangi? They would gladly accept your loyalty.”
“What is this, some damn test? Do not make me speak at length, Sir Azadine. My eyes are not knotholes. Banreung are like termites that bloom anywhere and eat everything away, and if the Arangiians are wolves, then you are… a dragon. If I am to entrust my sword anyway, I should go under a dragon. Either accept my sword, or watch those damned dwarf vampires massacre our people and my house.”
“…….”
Threatening him with his own life and the lives of his people. He was a strange person.
“In any case, the prince died inside our territory, so if you do not accept me, we will soon become vampire food.”
“Understood. I will accept it. No, let us make it so that you did not request it, but that I forced it. If you do not want to die, Count Ivchek of Sandokar, enter my army.”
“Kahahahaha! Well, well. What an impressive knight. To think such a person would come from the Messenger Clan in a world where chivalry has become a laughingstock!”
Count Ivchek of Sandokar admired Azadine for creating the image that he had yielded to threats and coercion so that he would not be burdened, and knelt before him.
“Ivchek of Sandokar requests the rites of lord and vassal.”
Azadine sighed, accepted the sword Ivchek handed over, spun it twice above his head, and then returned the hilt to him.
The strange image of a mere trainee knight of the Rescue Knights Order taking a count under his command was completed.
A major incident occurred: Azadine, a trainee knight of the Rescue Knights Order, invaded the border of the Banreung Kingdom, killed none other than Prince Kalzmati of Banreung, and took control of the County of Sandokar.
That alone was enough to turn the world upside down. However, what happened afterward went even further.
Count Sandokar accused the Banreung royal family before the King’s Church.
The charge was vampirization. Treason against humanity.
It meant that Prince Kalzmati of Banreung was a vampire, and that his attack had broken the contract between lord and vassal, so Count Sandokar would serve Azadine as his new lord and request the Rescue Knights Order to protect Sandokar.
The Banreung Kingdom naturally denied the charge, declared Count Sandokar a traitor, and announced his excommunication.
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