A sphere of light radiant as the midday sun rose over the plaza of the Blood King Palace.
Beneath its grace, even the freezing earth grew warm.
"Rasheal, you still haven't managed to make me go all out."
The brilliant white light illuminated Lanqi's face as his voice echoed across the courtyard.
Duke Rasheal felt as if his skull were about to fracture under that deafeningly calm voice, as though he had been cast into the glare of noon with night and day turned inside out.
Not even Lancrosse at his absolute peak could have summoned such an expansive, wide-area solar power within Blood Moon City!
At this moment, Duke Rasheal would have rather believed the blinding rays burning his eyes were merely an illusion. Yet the brutal reality was that his strength had plummeted instantaneously, weakened until only the level of a tier-8 combatant remained.
It was exceptionally close to Lancrosse's power, yet fundamentally different.
It was as if Lancrosse had been reborn.
Beneath that blinding sun, the expression on the face of the Third Progenitor, Duke Rasheal, gradually twisted from initial shock into burning rage.
He had wondered why this Lancrosse possessed defenses so reminiscent of old, yet attacks that were completely and utterly feeble.
As it turned out, the fellow standing before him no longer had Lancrosse's Radiant Corona at all; all of his solar power had been converted into a single summon.
This meant his lack of offensive power was no illusion—he genuinely was this weak.
"You are far weaker than Lancrosse!"
Rasheal saw through it in a single glance. What looked like a grand spell was merely a fragile summon that could be easily destroyed. This trickery could be dispelled in an instant by shattering that sun, immediately stripping away this trivial solar power.
Focusing his mental energy at top speed, he manipulated the surrounding blood mist, condensing it into sharp arrows that shot straight toward the sun!
"Hey, don't hurt my summon."
In an instant, black talismans swirled and wrapped around the miniature sun, transforming it into an eclipsed black sun.
It bore the same black centipede track marks that had previously marked the Pope's cheek, radiating the obsidian brilliance of the Original Slate: Seal.
Before Rasheal's crimson arrows could even touch the black sun, they dissolved entirely into the sky above the Blood King Palace.
Dark mist surged around the black sun, guarding it like a tyrant's decree.
No matter how Rasheal rallied his blood essence—making it thicker and denser, forging it into sharp crimson arrows that circled in the sky—he could not inflict the slightest scratch upon that sun.
"Master Xia, you're just tickling me."
Watching Rasheal's terrifying mana surge forth once more, the hand beneath Lanqi's silver-white robe vanished into shadow. His knuckles twisted slightly, and an ominous vibration instantly blanketed the entire Blood King Palace.
Dark gray vines and foliage blossomed from his palm, expanding rapidly. The living vines swelled exponentially, turning into a massive predatory net that descended toward Rasheal from above.
A mental shockwave descended from the sky even faster than Lanqi's move, enveloping Lanqi dead-on.
Wherever the invisible mana passed, the air began to stir again, yet Lanqi's body abruptly slowed.
"You just have high defenses—you are not invincible!"
The moment Rasheal noticed the sun had turned into a status-locked black sun, he also realized that his opponent had cast his crucial protection spell onto the summon.
That meant the caster's true body had very likely lost its invulnerability.
Rasheal was not only targeting the sun; he was using instant-cast mental magic to strike at his opponent's true body!
"That was close."
Enduring Rasheal's mental assault, Lanqi quickly steadied himself. The square magic crest within his silver-white robe erupted with dark purple crackling lightning, and the invisible mana barrier deployed before him withstood Rasheal's mental shockwave, kicking up concentric rings of metallic humming and shockwaves.
Yet Lanqi's Legendary Sealer's Flower Blooming had already been unleashed at the same moment.
The veins of every vine radiated a dark, primordial divine brilliance that made the soul tremble.
Not only did it snare Rasheal, but it also began contracting steadily, intending to isolate him in an inescapable void.
Compared to clashing with Lancrosse while weakened, what shocked Rasheal even more was that the black sun in the sky truly could not be shaken in the slightest.
Gritting his teeth, Rasheal condensed the blood mist once more into a denser volley of arrows, launching a second assault against the sun.
The outcome left him profoundly disappointed once again.
Every single attack was swallowed with ease, without exception.
"What kind of sorcery is this?! If Immortal Eternal Punishment is cast on another living entity, how can it still function like this?!"
Rasheal's eyes turned blood-red. Veins bulged on his forehead as he resisted the sealing vines.
Logically, if Immortal Eternal Punishment were cast upon a summon, it should seal it away—no different from using it on an enemy.
Furthermore, Immortal Eternal Punishment should break if subjected to excessive damage; it was never supposed to be an absolute invulnerability that Landry could freely toggle and switch at will!
"Now that the boss mechanics are cleared, it's time to bring out the sun and burst."
Lanqi continued ignoring whatever Rasheal asked, talking only to himself.
"Your tricks are exposed! You possess no adequate means of attack yourself! You've bluffed long enough!"
Rasheal thrust an arm out from between the sealing vines, gathering mana as he roared.
Yet the reality was that not only had the sun refused to extinguish, but its eerie majesty had grown even more bizarre.
In his weakened state, he couldn't even break these sealing flowers.
"Turn back into a spirit of the dead!! Holy Polant Pope!!"
Finally, under Rasheal's mana manipulation, tens of thousands of blood arrows streaked down toward Lanqi's true body, leaving trails of afterimages so swift their trajectories could barely be discerned.
Carrying all of Rasheal's hatred, they vowed to kill Lanqi on the spot.
The previous clash had already confirmed that once Landry's mutated Immortal Eternal Punishment was applied to the sun, his own body was indeed no longer invincible.
"Do you truly think the game isn't over yet?"
Lanqi showed not the slightest concern about Rasheal's attack, glancing at the magic card engraved with a petal insignia that had long rested in his hand.
It was already past four in the afternoon. It was indeed time to wrap things up.
"Allow me to introduce my Demon King."
Lanqi's breezy gaze held not a shred of hostility or battle intent. As if tossing a flower petal from his palm, he granted freedom to this orange epic card.
It was the moment of Blood Moon City's plaza's most violent upheaval.
As if parting clouds to reveal the sun, the Blood King Palace was draped in eclipse-like ripples cast by the black Radiant Virtue.
Where the sunlight converged, pure luminous haze scattered, and a silver-haired witch stepped onto the ground.
Her dress resembled a silver-white rose, and she appeared in the plaza carrying a soul-entrancing floral fragrance.
"Rasheal, do you still remember me?"
Donning the Heavenly Veil, the Great Demon King of Mad Love stood beneath the eclipsed demonic realm. Her voice rang out like an explosive hum that set time flowing once more.
Having seen through Rasheal's intention from the start, she cast a warding barrier in advance, firmly shielding Lanqi's true body and repelling Rasheal's blood arrows.
Rasheal's pupils shrank as he watched his blood arrows shatter like brittle twigs before the silver-white witch.
As her demonic voice fell, a tumultuous tempest of phantasms brewed over the Blood King Palace plaza, as though the boundary between dream and reality were about to flip upside down!
"Impossible... Caliera, why are you still by Lancrosse's side?!"
When Rasheal saw the second spirit of the dead, his face turned deathly pale.
He could no longer distinguish truth from falsehood.
Even if the Caliera before him was far weaker than tier 9, she gave him the feeling of the genuine, unmistakable Caliera.
Worse still, bathed in sunlight as he was, even a tier-8 Caliera would be utterly lethal.
Yet he could barely think straight anymore.
The helplessness of his branch halls falling, the debility inflicted by the sun, and the swirling demonic voice drove the Third Progenitor, Duke Rasheal, into a frenzy. Dazed and disoriented, his vision flickered between light and dark; he felt as though he had slammed headfirst into a wall, stars dancing before his eyes as he teetered on the brink of blacking out.
After enduring the Pope's relentless psychological torment earlier, even a tier-9 Third Progenitor who had stepped into the divine domain—regardless of how high his mental magic resistance was—could not withstand the interference of the Great Demon King of Mad Love in such a state.
The silver-haired witch focused mana at her fingertips. The air where she pointed twisted, turning into dark gray fissures. The Blood King Palace flagstones swallowed by them vanished entirely, subterranean flames gathered around Rasheal, and black fire surged upward.
At this moment, Rasheal's defense was broken and his poise shattered; she could practically stand in place and free-fire at him like a training dummy. There was no need to hold back—unleashing every damage-dealing skill in her arsenal would be more than enough.
"Because I am a beautiful, dignified, mature, and useful great demon. Whenever he needs me, I will always stand by his side."
Talia continued weaving her demonic voice, imitating Caliera's tone from Caliera's Shadow-Weaving Record.
She had told Lanqi that since he was using the Holy Polant Pope skin, she had to use the Caliera skin—as a pair, they had great synergy.
Gray lines sealed Rasheal along the edges of the vines.
This was the dual-affinity sealing and spatial magic Lanqi had given her, an inheritance from Old Sang. If one accidentally brushed against those gray lines of spatial rift in the air, it would trigger rapid expansion and an interlocking detonation.
"Pfft."
Lanqi gripped his mask tightly, holding it steady.
His shoulders trembled violently as he fought with all his might to keep from laughing so hard his mask fell off.
Even if Caliera gave her all to become a comedian, she wouldn't hold a candle to Talia's impromptu delivery.
"Don't you dare laugh!"
Talia sent a resentful and aggrieved telepathic retort, turning back with her ears flushing slightly red.
She didn't know what was wrong with what she had said, but she knew Lanqi was mocking her.
"Hats off to the legendary voice actress Talia. You truly are beautiful, dignified, mature, and useful."
Lanqi finally dropped the act, taking off his mask and bursting into laughter. It seemed the joy Rasheal provided wasn't worth one ten-thousandth of what Talia gave him.
If he held his breath laughing behind that mask any longer, he would pass out from oxygen deprivation.
"Are you two flirting right in front of me?!"
Rasheal glared with eyes about to burst at Caliera and Lancrosse casually chatting as if nobody else existed. Even from across the Blood King Palace plaza, Rasheal could smell the sickening sweetness in the air.
Recalling the past tens of thousands of years, the only thing that had ever brought Rasheal satisfaction was ensuring that neither Lancrosse nor Caliera met a good end.
Now, watching them fighting side by side like something out of a fantasy, Rasheal grew more furious the more he looked.
"...That's right."
Talia looked at Rasheal's expression and seemed to grasp the idea. After a brief hesitation, as if gathering her courage, she hugged Lanqi from the side and pressed her cheek against his.
"That's right. We are living very happily now."
Talia looked at Rasheal and smiled smugly.
"I do not approve!"
Rasheal was driven nearly mad with rage, his sanity completely unraveling.
Lanqi looked at Talia in astonishment. In the tactics he had discussed with her initially, there had been no mention of this move.
Yet Talia's improvised tactic seemed exceptionally effective; coupled with her demonic voice, it extended the duration of Rasheal's broken defenses and poise even further.
"What does your approval matter? Are you the registrar from the civil affairs bureau?!"
Talia suppressed the curl of her lips, released Lanqi, and crouched down to lightly touch the ground. Subterranean fire spread across the Blood King Palace plaza, surging in full force toward the agonizing Rasheal.
Black abyssal flames, accompanied by the crimson radiance of the Original Slate: Manjusaka, pierced the sky and struck Rasheal dead-on.
The Third Progenitor, Duke Rasheal, shrieked in agony. The blood mist around him expanded instantly, condensing into a cocoon-like sphere of energy that barely managed to envelop him.
Even so, Rasheal found it extraordinarily difficult to move. Most of the abyssal black flames battered his defenses, and carrying the peerless destructive might of the Original Slate: Fire, they struck his vitals, scorching his entire body.
Rasheal looked more and more wretched, the bean-sized beads of sweat oozing from his forehead vaporizing instantly before they could even drip.
"Caliera, Lancrosse, you wretched pair of dogs...!!"
Rasheal's entire body emanated a semi-transparent, turbid crimson glow. Even his pupils turned into liquid blood, mist rising as he assumed a defensive posture, unleashing an unprecedented torrent of mental energy.
A vortex of blood essence gathered around him, threatening to swallow everything.
The sky-rending chords lingering around him collided with the vortex of blood, erupting into billions of detonations more blistering than the interplay of ash and crimson!
***
At the western strike team camp.
Abigail held Boss Cat in her arms, lifting her teacup to take a gentle sip.
Boss Cat tilted its head up, realizing Abigail had finally relaxed enough to have the leeway to drink tea.
"Meow, since Lanqi could overwhelm Rasheal like this, why didn't he fight this way from the start?"
Boss Cat lowered its head to watch the battle on the light screen and asked Abigail.
"The mana consumption for this is entirely different from the stalling tactics he used at the beginning. If Rasheal's Blood Moon City buff hadn't been broken, fighting like this would have been a waste of effort."
Abigail set down her teacup and explained to Boss Cat.
"But meow, wouldn't Lanqi's mana consumption to lock the sun be far lower than locking his tier-7 self?"
Boss Cat remembered that the Radiant Virtue miniature sun was only tier 3; locking it with Lanqi's Black Sun Tyrant's Eternal Punishment Edict would consume much less mana.
"When Lanqi fought Rasheal, he didn't keep himself status-locked the entire time. He only activated it when receiving direct offensive spells. Besides, the mana required to summon Tata to fight right now is on a completely different order of magnitude compared to using the Black Sun Tyrant's Eternal Punishment Edict on himself."
Before the battle, Abigail had calculated Lanqi's mana pool and consumption rates under various states alongside him to formulate contingencies.
As a result, Abigail had been shocked to discover that Tata was a mana-guzzling monster. If allowed to go all out continuously, she could drain even Lanqi dry, no matter how much mana he had.
His current state had the highest energy consumption: Lanqi needed to maintain both Talia and the edict simultaneously, while being unable to enter the life-locked state himself. He had to ensure that Rasheal's Blood Moon City protection mechanics had passed before going all out.
"So that's how it is, meow."
Boss Cat nodded repeatedly.
"Still, the more I watch, the more it feels like full-power Lanqi's ultimate move is just summoning his wife to beat people up for him..."
Abigail rested her chin on her hand, analyzing the battle at the Blood King Palace.
"Meow."
Boss Cat suspected Abigail was a closet Lanqi-Talia shipper.
Perhaps that stage play back then had made Abigail fond of the chemistry between those two actors.
For the Half-Witch chapter, Abigail had originally wanted Lanqi and Talia to perform, though recently she had wondered if Hyperion might be more suited to play the half-witch. Deciding between them left Abigail slightly conflicted.
"Can they clear him in one burst?"
Boss Cat asked again.
It saw the Great Demon King of Mad Love dishing out full-power damage against Rasheal, yet it couldn't tell how much Rasheal's health had dropped or whether it had made a significant impact.
"Not realistic. Rasheal is an immortal blood progenitor, after all. Even if he's weakened and Talia gets to free-fire on him, she can't beat him into incapacitation in such a short time."
Abigail looked down at Boss Cat.
In the records of the previous Shadow World, the four great demons had pooled their strength under the sun for a long time before beating the weakened Rasheal to the point where he could no longer fight.
Right now, there was only Talia.
"However, now that Sigrid's side is cleared, the branch halls guarded by the other vampire marquises should collapse like dominoes very soon. They'll be able to launch second and third burst phases shortly, so there won't be any problem,"
Abigail added to Boss Cat in her arms.
Although they could have had Sigrid divert her course to breach the Blood King Palace barrier first and help Lanqi deal damage, by the time Sigrid reached the Blood King Palace, Rasheal's debuffed window might already be over, making it hard to align their timings.
If Sigrid didn't keep moving, the halls guarded by the other vampire marquises couldn't be quickly broken through.
Considering the safety of the three great demons in the Hall of Annihilation, Abigail prioritized sending Sigrid there. Once the Eighth Progenitor, Marquis Somerset, was dealt with, the three great demons wouldn't have to risk their lives holding out against him, and Rasheal back at the Blood King Palace would suffer another defense break.
With an advantage, Abigail preferred a steady and cautious approach, aiming for the survival of all members.
"It's past four-thirty, meow..."
Boss Cat looked at the time, feeling a bit worried.
At five in the afternoon, the War God's Blessing ceremony of the Creti National Day Celebration would conclude.
"It's fine. Things have gone remarkably well so far."
Abigail held both of Boss Cat's paws and comforted it.
They were actually much later than anticipated because, besides the external aid of the Decay Cardinal, the Withered Bishop and the Tenth Progenitor Ulysses—two cardinal-level powerhouses—had appeared out of thin air, nearly driving them toward a total team wipe.
Even though they had turned the situation around, time was much tighter than imagined.
Fortunately, the deadlock had been broken.
***
A few minutes later, in the Hall of Annihilation.
The Eighth Progenitor, Marquis Somerset, was locked in fierce combat.
The sound of shattering rock and the roar of exploding magic were ceaseless, as if the entire hall could collapse at any second.
A black fire tornado raged in the center of the battlefield, blistering heatwaves sweeping through the hall, melting stone, ripping the ground asunder, and filling the air with a charred stench.
Suddenly, a powerful air current erupted from the center of the tornado. The flames scattered, turning into countless streaks of crimson light that traced eerie arcs through the air like bursting fireworks.
Marquis Somerset was still relentlessly pursuing and hammering the three great demons.
The faint light that had filtered in through the arena earlier felt like a natural enemy to Marquis Somerset; even after it extinguished, it left him restless and irritable.
During the brief duration of that sunlight, Rasheal's aura had weakened noticeably.
"A few frail demon bureaucrats dare to flaunt their strength before me?"
Marquis Somerset could only focus on what was right in front of him, his voice laced with bone-chilling coldness.
He slowly raised his right hand, fingers curling slightly. Invisible power began condensing in his palm, a faint screeching sound echoing through the air.
The next second, the bodies of the three demons seemed pulled by the airflow he manipulated. Marquis Somerset's figure flashed like crimson lightning, appearing right before them. Before Sinnora and Pranay could react, a colossal force struck them.
Sinnora and Pranay were sent flying one after the other into the rock walls of the Hall of Annihilation, the stone shattering on impact. Antanas cast healing spells continuously from the rear, pale blue radiance enveloping their bodies like a gentle veil.
Yet Marquis Somerset's assault was simply too swift and ferocious. Before Antanas's warding barrier could settle onto Sinnora and Pranay, it was crushed and shattered by Somerset's raw force, dissolving into flecks of blue light particles in the air.
Striding forward, Marquis Somerset rushed toward Antanas, each step kicking up gale-force winds.
He raised his right fist, which was wrapped in dark-red blood essence boiling like magma.
"Do you want to taste my fist as well?"
Somerset's fist drove straight toward Antanas's chest.
Wrenching herself free from the rock wall, Sinnora flashed in front of Antanas, parrying the blow with the shaft of her scythe. The impact sent her and Antanas flying together in a heap.
"Looks like victory is about to be decided over there."
Pranay climbed to his feet in the distance, casting chains to slow Somerset down as he muttered in relief.
"Heh, Marquis Somerset, you're getting more and more impatient. Doesn't Rasheal being weakened mean one of your marquises has already fallen?"
Sinnora barely kept her footing, steadying Antanas. Wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, she asked with a mocking glint in her eyes.
Hearing their words, the Eighth Progenitor Marquis Somerset's face darkened instantly.
"That has nothing to do with whether you weaklings die by my hands!"
Furious, Somerset charged toward the three great demons, his voice dripping with annoyance and frenzy.
His aura climbed sharply, the air thickening with a pressure that made it hard for the three demons to breathe, as though the entire Hall of Annihilation were about to melt under his rage.
Somerset planted his feet, the earth cracking beneath them. The muscles from his ankles to his thighs bunched taut, magma erupting from the fissures to illuminate his cold face.
Clenching his fist, dark-red blood essence condensed around his knuckles.
No one knew what kind of lethal strike he would unleash once his power finished charging.
Pranay felt a surge of dread and immediately dashed in front of his sister and Antanas. If they failed to neutralize Somerset's charged charge, even Sinnora, the sturdiest vanguard among them, might meet her end here.
Just then, Pranay seemed to sense something and stopped in his tracks.
"Afraid now?"
Poised to strike, Marquis Somerset sneered cruelly.
Yet the moment the words left his mouth, a sudden pang of dread struck his heart.
It did not come from Pranay's unusual reaction.
It was a warrior's instinct warning him of grave danger.
Yet he couldn't pinpoint the direction.
Because every single direction felt saturated with an overwhelming, terrifying aura.
Before Somerset's mind could finish processing the thought—
The sonic boom that had seemed a world away just a second ago had already arrived before him!
A silver comet plunged from the sky, carrying the momentum of a thousand charging armies. A woman with emerald hair and violet eyes occupied Somerset's entire field of vision, her gaze carrying the chilling majesty of a wolf empress. Her boundless punch blasted into Marquis Somerset's body with a thunderous roar!
The berserk force sent waves surging across the magma arena of the Hall of Annihilation, bringing it crashing down. Swifter than thunder, the roar echoed across the entire southwestern sector of Blood Moon City!
A massive chasm ripped open across the center of the Hall of Annihilation, caving in step by step. Even on the outer perimeter, intricately carved blood gems shook loose, their fragments scattering into the wind.
"Apologies, everyone. I'm late."
Having blasted Marquis Somerset away with a single punch, Sigrid turned back to the three great demons.
As the silver glow dissipated, Sigrid's long hair cascaded down like a waterfall, pure as moonlight.
"Sigrid!"
Her grip on the scythe finally slackening from exhaustion, Sinnora spoke in excitement.
"As expected, true beauty belongs only to the strong. Now that is strength."
Antanas sighed in admiration as well.
The moment she heard Sigrid had breached the Hall of Piercing Cold, she had known the Blood King Palace was already beginning to smoke.
"Eighth Progenitor Marquis Somerset, was beating up my civil officials fun?"
Sigrid's gaze locked onto Marquis Somerset amidst the distant rubble—a look sharp enough to pierce his soul.
The moment she appeared, the atmosphere of the entire Hall of Annihilation changed completely.
"Bishop of Domination..."
Climbing out of the ruins, Marquis Somerset's face turned deathly pale, terror flickering in his eyes.
He knew this werewolf's strength was far beyond his own; even the physical power he took pride in couldn't compare to hers.
She was an existence he could never hope to match.
He tried to vent his fury and clash with her head-on, but when he saw the half-dead Heriteer dangling from Sigrid's hand, what little sanity he had left told him to flee toward the exit immediately.
This woman was a vampire slaughterhouse on legs—utterly merciless.
The next instant, Sigrid moved.
Before Somerset could flee more than a few meters, she appeared behind him.
Raising her right hand with fingers like blades, cold light gleamed as she drove them straight toward Somerset's head.
Somerset was horrified and tried to dodge, but Sigrid was simply too fast, her overwhelming pressure freezing his reactions.
With a dull thud, Sigrid's hand seized Somerset's head and slammed him into the ground.
"No, impossible!"
Somerset's eyes widened, unable to believe his strength was completely useless against this woman, his voice laced with a despairing wail.
"You dare flaunt your strength with power like this?"
Sigrid scoffed. With a flick of her wrist accompanied by a sickening tear, Marquis Somerset's neck was snapped completely.
Somerset let out a shrill shriek, his body contorting as he struggled frantically on the ground, powerless to stop his fate of being physically remodeled.
The three great demons stood behind her, watching the scene.
They knew they could already start planning how to celebrate Sigrid's victory.
Sure enough, if Sigrid was at full strength, the three of them didn't even need to lift a finger.
***
In the distant north, at the Faded Hall.
The Faded Courtyard was already in ruins. Amidst the snow, ice, and vines, Netochka and the Ice Snow Witch were still wearing each other down.
Yet the atmosphere had undergone a subtle shift.
Netochka was still using vine magic to ward off the Ice Snow Witch's attacks, but her movements had noticeably slowed, and her eyes had grown dull.
Her heart felt hollowed out, devoid of any desire to continue this fight.
She glanced toward the south.
"It seems two of the vampire marquises have already lost..."
she murmured to herself.
Though she didn't know how these people had managed it, they had miraculously fallen into perfect alignment, and Rasheal's aura was steadily waning.
"Forget it, this is pointless."
Netochka suddenly swung her staff, using vines to push back the Ice Snow Witch, before putting her staff away and talking to herself.
The Ice Snow Witch halted in place, the ice blades swirling around her refusing to dissipate.
Though Netochka's words sounded utterly willful,
they weren't unreasonable.
For both sides, stopping the fight now was the best choice.
Netochka glanced at Almis, checking her intent to fight.
Seeing that Almis had halted her attacks, Netochka turned and floated into the sky above Blood Moon City.
"..."
The Ice Snow Witch kept a vigilant eye on the Withered Bishop, ensuring Netochka was truly leaving and not playing a trick.
If a Cardinal Bishop abandoned the vampires at this point, it was undoubtedly great news that brought their assault team closer to victory.
There was no need for her to waste time fighting a Cardinal Bishop to the death anymore.
The pressing priority was to reinforce the other vampire battlefields; whether it was Iphatia in the Hall of Souls or Mikhail and Hyperion in the Abyss Hall, both needed reinforcements.
Netochka's figure shrank against the horizon of Blood Moon City's night sky, eventually vanishing into the cloud-covered night of the Faded Hall.
Only when Netochka was completely out of sight did the Ice Snow Witch exhale a long breath, as if a heavy burden had finally been lifted from her shoulders.
She looked around at the surrounding ruins, mixed emotions churning in her heart.
This protracted, grueling battle had finally ended in an unexpected fashion.
Compared to the other battlefields, hers had been the calmest and easiest.
"Miss Almis, the Faded Hall where you are is closer to the Hall of Souls in the northwest, but I'd like to ask you to go to the Abyss Hall in the south to assist Mikhail and look after Hyperion. Once you arrive at the Abyss Hall, you can help Mikhail end the battle immediately, whereas you aren't well-suited to fight a high-health opponent like Marquis Bernhard in the Hall of Souls."
A mechanical courier landed on the Ice Snow Witch's shoulder, conveying Abigail's request.
"Understood."
The Ice Snow Witch immediately took off toward the southern skies.
She had long wanted to see Hyperion, and Hyperion needed her healing.
***
At the easternmost cardinal battlefield.
A bitter gale howled within the Stagnant Ice Hall, deep blue frost covering every inch of ground.
Crystal-clear icicles stood like sharp blades, reflecting forest-like rows of translucent monuments.
A biting chill permeated the air, cold enough to freeze one's breath.
In this world of ice and snow, two figures stood facing each other.
"Netochka retreated?"
Decay Cardinal Farmer stood holding a pocket watch, his dark green scholar's coat exceptionally striking in this silver-clad world.
With an easy smile on his face, he looked toward the north, utterly indifferent to the cold and completely unscathed.
In contrast, Toliado across from him looked somewhat worse for wear.
"What, could I trouble you to run away as well?"
Toliado was enveloped in the translucent silhouette of a cube. Had it not been for the defense granted by this six-sided spatial isolation, he wouldn't have known how long he could hold out against Farmer.
"Let us call it a day. We have plenty of time ahead of us, and we will have the chance to fight again."
The Decay Cardinal picked up the case resting on the ground and walked toward the distance.
"Heh, I don't ever want to cross paths with you again,"
Toliado sneered upon seeing that the Decay Cardinal was also willing to end the fight.
Had the Blood Moon City assault team not been so desperately short on hands, he wouldn't have believed he could hold his ground against Decay Cardinal Farmer for so long.
If they kept going, he would run out of mana and truly die.
"There will be a chance. Once His Holiness the Pope emerges, it might be the story of another volume. We will meet again sooner or later."
Farmer slowed his pace, turning slightly to draw an analogy that Toliado, as a playwright, could easily understand.
Or, adding the level theory currently circulating out of the Hutton Kingdom, if this volume was version 89, then the next would likely be version 99; vast, unmapped regions would gradually open, and this southern part of the Southern Continent was merely the tip of the iceberg.
"Are you saying that the Lost Continent beyond the Calamitous Wasteland will eventually connect with our world?"
Toliado's brows knitted slightly, a rare sight for him.
"If they do not converge, then the prophecy of the Grimoire would be in error."
The Decay Cardinal's figure blended into the dark blizzard.
"Whether the Grimoire is a 'book of prophecy' or a 'book of conditions,' you must want to know the answer too, don't you?"
Farmer's final words vanished along with the howling blizzard. Toliado could only raise a hand to block the encroaching corrosive chill; when he lowered it, every trace of Decay Cardinal Farmer's presence had disappeared entirely.
Toliado stood in place, lost in thought for a long time.
"Go to the Hall of Souls and help Iphatia. With your assistance, you two can kill the Ninth Progenitor, Marquis Bernhard."
Abigail's dispatch over the comms broke Toliado out of his daze.
Only toward Toliado was she completely blunt.
"Oh, right away!"
Toliado hastily agreed.
"Use teleportation and get a move on! Back to work, you lazy pig!"
Seeing that Toliado was no longer in danger, Abigail dropped the rare concern she had shown earlier.
***
The moment the Hall of Annihilation fell, the sun rose over the Blood King Palace plaza for the second time.
Lanqi shifted once again from his stalling stance back to the black sun and Great Demon King of Mad Love summon.
Hearing Caliera's demonic voice, Rasheal clutched his head with both hands once more, tearing at his scalp in agony.
"Thank you, Rasheal. If not for you, I wouldn't have handed my life soul over to him, become his guardian spirit, and stayed by his side forever."
Talia also imitated Lanqi, conducting a post-battle review with Rasheal.
She gave Lanqi a brief hug before running off to pummel Rasheal.
"Rasheal, would your True King ever embrace you like this?"
Lanqi remained standing quietly to the side, his emerald eyes calm as still water beneath his silver-white mask.
"Lancrosse—!!"
Facing Lanqi's taunts, Rasheal couldn't touch him in the slightest.
As the battle reached a fever pitch, the entire plaza lay in utter ruins.
The ground was riddled with craters, pillars had collapsed, and walls had crumbled as though an earthquake had struck, filled with bottomless fissures leading straight to the abyss.
"If that gesture hurt you, then I truly apologize."
Lanqi shook his head helplessly.
"Aaaah!"
The air was thick with the acrid stench of smoke and dust, Radiant Virtue shining through the haze to cast an eerie amber glow over the palace.
Spatial rifts sliced through the sky, winding and detonating like giant serpents.
Marquis Somerset's defeat and the debility that followed inflicted unprecedented frustration and humiliation upon Rasheal.
Rasheal finally faced reality.
Though this reborn Lancrosse had yet to reach the terrifying might of the desperate Lancrosse at the end of the Blood Moon Ruined World, the pressure he exerted once gaining the upper hand was not a whit inferior, giving his opponent zero room to breathe.
He couldn't kill him, nor could he counter him; unless the other vampires defeated his companions, there was zero hope of overcoming him.
Gradually, Rasheal's mental fortitude began to crumble.
"Lancrosse! How did you become so despicable?!"
The Third Progenitor Rasheal screamed weakly from the ground.
He was battered and bloodied, his robes torn to shreds and covered in scorch marks.
"You are no longer a powerhouse—you've become a weakling reliant on outside help! You heretic!"
Rasheal's face was pale as paper, blood leaking from the corners of his mouth, his eyes bloodshot.
This Lancrosse only reminded Rasheal of Sadia the Hopeless, the legendary tier-9 great demon of the ultra-ancient era.
Facing Sadia's summoned army capable of replicating opponents, anyone unable to counter that great demon would be completely steamrolled.
And right now, Rasheal felt that exact same terrifying oppression, battered by a summon until he was helpless to retaliate.
"This is called the power of companions and the bond of friendship,"
Lanqi corrected Rasheal with clear logic.
At first, he had never understood the idealistic power in fairy tales where the champions of justice overcame the final foe through sheer passion.
Now he understood.
So this was everyone's power.
Truly magnificent.
"Lancrosse!! To hell with your bond of friendship!"
The Third Progenitor Rasheal reached the brink of physical and mental collapse; all he knew was that Lancrosse had gone completely insane.
The mana defenses around Rasheal grew weaker, and his blood mist thinned.
His face was pale as paper, blood leaking from his mouth, eyes bloodshot.
Even so, he gritted his teeth, refusing to admit defeat.
In his eyes, as a vampire progenitor duke, being defeated by a tier-7 mutant Lancrosse and a tier-8 mutant Caliera was an unspeakable humiliation.
Until nearly a minute later, when Blood Moon City's blessing recovered, Rasheal pulled back in abysmal condition.
Left with no choice, Rasheal turned his attention to offense as defense, striking directly at Lanqi, aiming for the exact instant Lanqi would switch the target of Immortal Eternal Punishment to buy himself breathing room!
"Don't you dare touch him."
Talia, who had just been about to withdraw, stepped in front of Lanqi, blocking Rasheal once more.
"Die together!"
Rasheal rallied the remnants of his blood mist, shaping it into dozens of giant claws that swiped toward the two of them.
Talia's mana wove a web-like mental barrier in the air, while Lanqi, in perfect sync, kept the sun active. The crimson claws slammed into the shield, blood mist splashing from their tips before being shoved back entirely.
As expected, Rasheal's assault was dismantled by Talia and Lanqi's seamless coordination.
Yet at this moment, Rasheal had no intention of pressing the attack; repelling them seemed to have accomplished his goal.
Slashing his bloody hand through the air, a vertical rift unzipped like a seam. Utilizing his authority as the administrator of the Blood King Palace, he opened an emergency exit to forcefully escape Blood Moon City—and the other end connected directly to the surface of Brillda City at dusk!
With the battle reaching this point, he was no longer foolish enough to count on the marquises holding out against their encirclement and giving Lancrosse another chance to beat him.
"Don't run! Stand your ground if you have the guts!!"
Seeing this, Talia charged toward Rasheal, shouting aggressively.
Rasheal was unmoved by Caliera's taunts, plunging headfirst into the spatial rift without looking back, returning to downtown Brillda and triggering a wave of panicked screams from citizens on the streets.
Seeing this, Talia prepared to leap through the rapidly closing rift to capture the fleeing Rasheal.
"Tata, don't chase."
Lanqi called out to stop Talia, and she halted before the rift.
An instant later, the fissure vanished.
"But we finally beat him half to death! How could we let him get away now?!"
Talia ran back to Lanqi, clenching her fists anxiously.
"It's almost five o'clock. Rushing to the surface to fight would likely result in being suppressed by the city defense barrier and encircled by the War Gods. There's no need."
Lanqi raised his hand, letting a mechanical courier land on his wrist, and checked the time before speaking to Talia.
They had already lost considerable time at the start due to Blood Moon City's excessive outside reinforcements.
To turn the tables from the brink of a wipe step by step, driving Rasheal to abandon his ancestral land and flee the city, was already a massive success achieved through everyone's collective efforts.
"Then what about Rasheal? What if he takes control of the War Gods once he's back on the surface? And once night falls, he'll recover to tier 9,"
Talia pressed her lips together and asked Lanqi.
Seeing that Lanqi wasn't panicking, she gradually relaxed a bit.
Not all the War Gods were under Rasheal's control, but fighting on the surface meant some War Gods would definitely protect Rasheal at all costs.
"We can't catch up to Rasheal. Besides, the moment Rasheal left the Blood King Palace, it meant he abandoned Blood Moon City, the vampires' most crucial ancestral land. In truth, 'destroying the vampire ancestral land' equals victory far more than 'sealing this vampire duke.'"
Lanqi explained to Talia.
Compared to Rasheal, the true greatest threat was Blood Moon City itself, which Lancrosse hadn't possessed the strength to completely dismantle tens of thousands of years ago.
"Our mission is simply to focus on destroying Blood Moon City. As for Rasheal, someone is waiting for him on the surface."
Lanqi contacted Abigail through the mechanical courier, broadcasting the message to everyone across the branch halls.
Once their spawn point was destroyed, what good was a vampire hiding outside?
"You mean... Aquamarine Violet?"
Talia's furrowed brow relaxed, and she looked at Lanqi.
During their last meeting with Violet at the Main Administrative Hall, when she had turned into a gray cat, she had indeed heard Violet mention that as the High Priestess of the Moon Goddess, she possessed a barrier capable of isolating Rasheal's mental magic.
And now, Rasheal had been driven to the surface in broad daylight, weakened many times over and heavily wounded.
The conditions for Violet's divine curse-cleansing art were completely fulfilled.
"Yes,"
Lanqi nodded in confirmation.
"Once the four marquises are subdued, please bring them all to the Blood King Palace. Abigail, please send the Blood Clan Forced Demonic Aberration Potion over using the mechanical dimensional gate as well."
He relayed the final instructions to his companions in the other halls.
During this time, the great demons led by Talia had spent their days studying the potion developed by the True Night Lord at the end of the Blood Moon Ruined World, successfully reproducing it from the formula.
Using the four vampire progenitors as fuel, the Nuclear Fusion Wolf, bolstered by both the Sealing and Fire Slates, would detonate all of Blood Moon City.
This feud spanning tens of thousands of years could finally be brought to a definitive close.
As for the turmoil in the Creti Empire, once the vampires were wiped out, they would dedicate all their efforts to quelling it, which shouldn't take too long.
With the battle drawn to a close, the Blood King Palace fell remarkably silent.
Where the moonlight fell, shadows lingered.
The passing stars sang their quiet song.
Only Lanqi and Talia, gradually easing into leisure, stood in the plaza, awaiting the arrival of their companions.
"Looks like it's finally over."
Talia relaxed considerably, resting a hand on Lanqi's shoulder and giving him a thumbs-up of encouragement with the other.
Like passing through a harsh winter, spring would finally arrive with blooming flowers.
Beneath Blood Moon City, just like on the surface, the five o'clock chimes of dusk echoed.
"The past is behind us, the future has yet to arrive, and now—"
Lanqi looked at the map, seeing everyone nearing the central Blood King Palace, and did not push away Talia's uncharacteristically affectionate gesture.
"The most important thing is the present."
The end of a story often called to mind its beginning.
Those who sacrificed their lives in this turmoil would never return.
The Blood Moon Ruined World was in the past.
Yet in the present world,
Lanqi's greatest regret was that he would never see Loren again.
"Dean Loren, rest in peace. I have brought this chaos to an end,"
he murmured to himself.
"Thinking about it now, I truly feel sorry toward Loren. Every time I invoked divine favor, I used the Great Priest's name to do my deeds. It probably caused him quite a bit of trouble."
Lanqi finally lowered his gaze and spoke his heart, reminiscing with a hint of guilt in his eyes.
Even at the moment of victory, those who had passed away had no chance to witness it.
"You actually knew?"
Talia murmured in disbelief.
In the past, Lanqi would do unhinged things without even realizing it.
Now, Lanqi seemed to be slowly gaining self-awareness, acting more and more like a normal human.
Yet she was exceptionally fond of this Lanqi; seeing that he was a man capable of change and willing to change himself brought her genuine comfort.
"From now on, I won't do such things anymore. I promise. If I break my word, Goddess of Fate, you may punish me."
Lanqi gazed up at the horizon, making his vow to the Goddess of Fate.
Chapter 842