Atonement (1)
“Temomron—Varian!”
A hoarse voice shouted the incantation sharply.
Crack!
With the utterance of the dark magic invoking the name of an evil god, the air split horizontally, revealing a massive gate to the underworld.
Neigh!
From the gate emerged twelve spectral knights. The vampire, who had cast the high-level summoning spell, raised a finger, slightly out of breath.
“Those over there! Get them—ugh!”
Before he could finish his command, a searing pain struck. The vampire lowered his trembling head, feeling as if his chest was being torn apart.
“Ugh, ugh…”
His crimson eyes reflected not just a simple wound, but a chest brutally ripped open.
His ribs were exposed, his chest shredded, and dozens of sharp feathers embedded in his organs.
And then, his neck, cleanly severed, revealing the cut ends of his spine and blood vessels… Wait, his neck?
The thought didn’t last long. His head, having been severed, spun in the air before thudding to the ground.
Behind the body that followed the head to the ground, Sienna was flicking the vampire’s blood off her sword.
“That’s fourteen purebloods down.”
There had been about forty pureblood vampires aboard the ghost ship.
Considering the ones others had taken care of, there were roughly twenty left.
After collecting the feathers from the fallen vampire’s corpse, she quickly scanned her surroundings, her gaze naturally assessing both enemies and allies.
Boom! Boom-boom!
“Hahaha! Let it all burn! A sea of fire!”
The first thing she noticed was Bjorn Kaladrakum, scattering bombs like seeds.
The one-eyed dwarf was mowing down the approaching undead horde with bombs and a shotgun, the explosions and noise drawing even more of the dead.
Like grain ground to fine powder in a mill, the undead caught in the blast radius emerged moments later, their bones shattered and scattered.
He had apparently bought a spatial pocket worth thousands of gold coins from Dalen at the auction in the labyrinth city, and it seemed he had filled it with explosives, spending his entire fortune.
Neigh—screech!
Sienna confirmed the newly summoned spectral knights being torn apart by silver dust bombs and turned her gaze.
Below the ridge, a spectacle even more dazzling than the homemade explosives was unfolding.
“Elle—Memento Casivolg!”
Tommy Valentino’s incantation conjured a golden, translucent dome.
The undead and vampires within its range froze in place, unaware of what was happening.
[――――!!]
Charging at the immobilized vampires and their minions was Akasha, the azure-scaled dragon, now grown to over ten meters in length.
The dragon’s maw, gathering magic with draconic words, unleashed a breath so cold it froze the air itself.
Crack-crack-crack──!
As the breath touched, the golden barrier dissipated.
With the return of time’s flow, the dragon’s breath swept away the enemies in one fell swoop.
The undead army shattered, frozen and then broken by the breath’s force.
The shattered ice rained down like hail on other undead, creating a chain reaction of destructive ice storms.
The breath covered nearly a hundred meters in a fan shape, and the ensuing ice storm ravaged an area twice that size.
On the frozen and shattered ground, only one high-ranking vampire remained.
“Curse you… vermin!”
Crack—crash!
His clothes and skin shattered like ice.
Barely standing, bleeding profusely, he was a familiar face.
Upon closer inspection, despite his face being crushed, it was the vampire baron who had led them onto the ghost ship.
“I, Baron Anghelak, even if I return to Temomron today, will stop you…”
Screech───
With his declaration, a storm of magic began to swirl.
It was a prelude to opening a domain.
“Tommy!”
The deadly aura targeted the young mage forming seals nearby.
A necromancer of the fifth rank, opening a domain with a resolve to die, would be hard to withstand without damage, even with Valentino’s time-manipulating magic.
Fwoosh—
Just as Sienna was about to move, feathers rising beneath her feet.
━━━━━━━━━
A single line bisected her vision.
A straight line shot from the high sky, piercing the ground.
The heat of a concept, not a physical entity, erased the vampire baron’s domain as it began to unfold.
It annihilated magic and evaporated thoughts.
What remained after the heat, capable of melting a mountain peak, was two figures standing in a deep crater.
“Ugh…”
One was a woman with short, dark red hair standing on the ground, the other was the vampire baron, dangling from her grip.
The baron, in a state that seemed he could die at any moment, managed to speak.
“Why… weren’t the dragons supposed to side with the underworld…”
[You must be a young bloodsucker. Child, not all have succumbed to the power of the dragon god.]
The baron’s expression twisted. The woman with dark red hair smiled gently as she spoke.
[If one is a sentient being, even when faced with overwhelming force, should they not reason with clear logic?]
“Such…”
Crack!
The baron’s words were cut short. His neck, veins bulging, snapped effortlessly.
The woman, who had twisted the neck of a fifth-rank transcendent with ease, tossed the baron’s corpse aside like a dead insect and turned away.
”······.”
A strange silence descended on the battlefield.
In the tense atmosphere, Sienna and her companions, as well as the vampires and their army, cautiously distanced themselves.
The appearance of an unfamiliar presence was one thing, but the undeniable fact that this being’s power was beyond anyone present.
The effortless defeat of a fifth-rank transcendent stirred an instinctive wariness.
[···Hmm.]
The vertically slit eyes scanned the battlefield.
Beyond the black and red glint of her pupils, a faint smile lingered.
Friend or foe?
Judging by the baron’s death, she didn’t seem to be on the side of the vampires and undead, but there was no guarantee she was an ally either.
Flap!
Breaking the precarious silence, Akasha, who had just circled the sky and landed, spoke.
[…Father?]
”······?”
“What?”
[Ah, no. But there’s definitely a presence I felt from Father…]
The dragon’s eyes, rolling around, suddenly stopped. Like a boy who had solved a riddle, he spoke.
[Third Mother!]
”······!”
Sienna’s expression hardened, and Bjorn, clutching his chest, broke into a cold sweat.
[You’re the child of the Azure Dragon.]
The woman with dark red hair, the red spear, smiled.
The vertically slit dragon eyes softened with warmth. She didn’t hide the smile on her lips as she spoke.
[Your father is a remarkable man. A true superhuman who defied fate, a hero who transcends causality and encompasses the world line.]
[Uh… yes.]
[You too will become a remarkable son. His judgment is never wrong.]
“Hey, you. You’re the ancient dragon inside Dalen, right?”
Sienna stepped forward. The red spear turned her head.
“I heard from Bourbon. Dalen almost died trying to control your power. They say you were the reason for the Azure Heart transplant?”
[You’re the Feathered Witch. Your story can be interpreted differently depending on perspective. At the time, the relationship between Dalen and I wasn’t established, and the dragon heart and bones ultimately contributed to his victory.]
The dragon smiled gently, like an adult looking at a child.
[Moreover, we saved each other’s lives, so past mistakes can be lightly overlooked, don’t you think?]
“···I get it. But you’re not here for small talk, are you? If you’re on Dalen’s side, prove it.”
Sienna crossed her arms and gestured with her chin toward the vampires and undead army regrouping at the mountain’s base.
Bjorn, beside her, tried to dissuade her with silent stammering, but she shrugged it off and stared at the dragon.
Meanwhile, the red spear met Sienna’s sharp gaze without flinching. She nodded slowly and spoke.
[Of course, young witch. But there’s no need to be so wary.]
”······.”
[Even if a witch’s lifespan far exceeds that of a human, they cannot escape mortality. And I am a patient dragon. Waiting a few centuries for you and the paladin to enjoy his embrace is not a difficult task.]
“What do you mean by that…”
The red spear turned her gaze silently. She began to walk slowly, looking beyond the mountain’s edge.
Rumble…
The sky and earth beyond the ridge were in a state of constant upheaval.
Dark crimson storm clouds were being pushed aside, giving way to a dull, ashen sky that expanded its reach. Then, a massive wave of corpses rose, visible even from beyond the ridge.
The mountains shook as if an earthquake had struck. In an instant, several peaks were covered in bones and entrails.
”[…The Blood Spirit has made an unimaginable choice. A part of Temomron’s great hell has descended.]”
The Red Spear murmured softly. Around the same time, the vampires sensed the anomaly.
They realized the dark magic within them was raging wildly, swelling in size.
“Temomron—Varian!”
“Temomron, Adulatak!”
They quickly formed hand seals and chanted spells.
Though the gates of hell did not open as usual, the ground writhed and spewed forth spectral knights and decaying corpse golems.
“Hahaha! The land of the dead has descended!”
“This is the power we have longed for, even at the cost of our lives…!”
“The Blood Spirit has cast the shadow of the great hell upon this land!”
The vampires laughed maniacally, cheering.
They repeatedly chanted spells of a scale they wouldn’t normally dare attempt, commanding the surging army like a fountain.
The ridge, already littered with corpses from previous battles, was now overrun with more moving dead than fallen bodies.
Thud, thud, thud…
Thousands of undead soldiers charged down the mountainside.
Facing the wave of the dead, hungry for the life force of the living, the Red Spear extended her hand with a calm demeanor.
Fssst—
The moment her hand grasped a tiny spark floating in the air.
Boom!
Dozens of pillars of dark crimson flame erupted simultaneously, engulfing the vanguard of the undead army.
With a leisurely stride and a wave of her hand, lava bubbled over from the valley.
Spheres of black fire swept across the mountainside, grinding the undead army to dust.
“This is a true sea of fire! Take a lesson from me, Dalen’s third wife!”
“You crazy old man! Can’t you aim straight?”
[―――!!]
As Bjorn, Sienna, Akasha, and Tommy joined the fray, the tide of battle turned completely.
The thousands of troops that had seemed poised to overwhelm the five were now desperately throwing themselves to protect their vampire masters.
The Red Spear, who had effortlessly dispatched the core of a giant specter, suddenly turned her gaze beyond the opposite peak.
Screeeech!
A golden pillar shot up into the sky.
It was the direction where Felber Valentino and the vampire count were fighting.
“[The battle on the wizard’s side seems intense as well.]”
The Red Spear remarked. The spark at her fingertips elongated, forming into a spear.
Crack!
Crimson membranous wings tore through her black robe, unfurling.
With a light step, her figure soared high into the sky.
As she lifted her gaze slightly, she saw the dark crimson storm clouds, which had been relentlessly advancing, split apart, revealing a cascade of multicolored lightning.
“[The storm left by the archmage is standing against the great hell. It seems we needn’t worry about Dalen, so let’s finish up quickly and assist the wizard.]”
He’s a reliable man, indeed. The Red Spear smiled lightly.
She swung the spear in her hand from above to below.
What seemed like a light strike distorted the entire space, and as the two-colored inferno poured down like a tidal wave…
━━━━━┳┻┳┻┳┻
In response, red lightning crashed down like waves from the split storm clouds in the distance.