Chapter 139 : Wipeout (1)
Wipeout (1)
"Ah, aaagh!"
Right after the match ended, Morgan collapsed, clutching his own fist.
The hand that had struck Ian's abs was now completely destroyed.
The back of his hand, once tough as an anvil, was shattered, and his forearm bone had splintered, piercing through the flesh like a broken chopstick.
If it weren't for a vampire's monstrous recovery, he would have been permanently disabled.
At this point, it was less like he had punched Ian's stomach and more like the stomach had punched his fist.
"Krr...! I have no choice but to admit this one."
Without clinging to his pride, Morgan admitted his defeat cleanly.
Ian thought Morgan might dig in his heels, so this was a little surprising.
"Wow~ That was amazing~."
"Hlhhlhlh. A reliable man has come."
"I told you, didn't I? Ian is different from the rest."
The surrounding vampires came closer and heartily congratulated Ian on his victory.
Were they this resilient because they were vampires with near-immortal vitality?
Morgan's injuries seemed severe, but no one fussed or showed any real concern—perhaps for them, this was hardly an issue.
And so, Ian was confidently accepted as a member of their rescue operation.
At that moment, the official alliance between the Noxcar family and Yuria's faction was formed.
That night.
Ian received a modest welcome party from the Noxcar family and was immediately briefed on the next operation.
"This is information we got by torturing the demonic humans."
Scarlet pointed to a spot on the map spread out on the table.
"Our leader is here."
The leader of the Noxcar family.
Noxcar Ravierre.
They called their head not the lord, but the leader.
"You've already located the leader? Is this information reliable?"
Among the vampires of Noxcar, those captured by the Demon Cult were precious prisoners.
Each one was a powerful vampire, and the amount of magic power that could be extracted daily from them was immense.
Especially the chief of the family, Noxcar Ravierre, was an especially valuable captive.
To the Demon Cult, Noxcar Ravierre was one of the most important sources of magic power.
Therefore, information concerning her was managed under extremely strict secrecy, to the extent that even Nightingale found it difficult to obtain.
Yet, Scarlet and her group had already found Noxcar.
How in the world?
Instead of being impressed, Ian first felt an ominous sense of incongruity.
"Honestly... I can't be completely certain."
Sure enough, Scarlet did not seem confident in this information.
"Then it could be a trap."
"Most likely... yeah, the odds are higher that it's a trap."
However—
"But there's definitely something in this place."
If this information was a trap laid to wipe them all out, the Demon Cult would have stationed at least a high-ranking officer.
"Trap or not, it'll be a tough fight, but we have no choice."
Scarlet and her comrades couldn't ignore this lead.
If it wasn't a trap, it was a huge chance.
As the head of the family, Noxcar had the ability to track the location of her clan.
Moreover, she possessed the authority of the strongest family among vampires.
If she could be rescued, saving the rest of the kidnapped clansmen would simply be a matter of time.
"So ideally, the information is real, but..."
Even if it was a trap, Scarlet and her comrades had to go.
Catching only the lower-ranking demonic humans from the Demon Cult wouldn't make it possible to find the imprisoned vampires' locations.
That information was known only to high-ranking members of the Demon Cult.
Therefore, even knowing it could be a trap, Scarlet and her companions were compelled to act.
They had to capture whatever senior officer lay in wait for them in that trap.
"I see. I understand the situation."
Ian could easily grasp their circumstances without lengthy explanations.
He'd experienced similar situations countless times in his past life.
There were countless times you had to go even knowing it was likely a trap.
"Looks like I showed up at just the right time."
Scarlet smiled at those words.
"... Yes. Honestly, until you arrived, our opinions were totally divided. This was both a major opportunity and very dangerous."
"But now we finally have a breakthrough."
The Demon Cult had some assessment of Scarlet and her companions' strength, but they had no idea about Ian's capabilities.
Moreover, the Demon Cult didn't know at all that Ian was cooperating with the Noxcar family.
Even if the demonic humans tried to exploit vampire weaknesses, it would be much easier to overcome those traps with Ian present.
"It's definitely become a challenge worth attempting now."
Then, the next night—
Ian, Scarlet, and the group executed the operation swiftly.
Their destination was a rocky mountain in the wilderness.
A certain cave there.
It was a stark, inhospitable place for humans, but since demonic humans could thrive like cockroaches anywhere, it wasn't strange for them to make their base there.
"Found it. There's the entrance."
Hiding behind a large boulder, Scarlet whispered.
"But I don't sense anything."
That left three possibilities:
The demonic humans had all left temporarily.
Or they were hiding deep, deep inside the cave.
Or perhaps the cave was completely empty.
"Anyway, we have to check."
Ian, Scarlet, and their party glided soundlessly into the darkness.
Passing through the entrance in an instant without even a breeze, they moved down a long passage, deeper and deeper underground.
Soon after—
'It's demonic energy.'
They confronted the demonic energy that filled the cave.
'Ugh. This is severe...'
The demonic energy was oppressively thick.
'It's enough to numb my senses.'
Like how your nose becomes numb if you keep inhaling a terrible stench—
Thick demonic energy can temporarily numb your sense of energy.
'This is...'
Ian and Scarlet's party exchanged glances and nodded.
'It's an utterly obvious trap.'
The cave was saturated with demonic energy to mask the presence of the demonic humans hiding everywhere.
Elder Marcus signaled.
[What should we do?]
Ian answered in kind.
[Let's keep going.]
They always assumed it might be a trap from the start.
So even upon confirming it, nothing changed.
[Since we've come this far, we should go in and at least catch something.]
At that reply, the vampires nodded too.
There would certainly be a high-ranking officer of the Demon Cult deeper inside the cave.
A foe strong enough to take on Scarlet and the others himself.
'If we can just capture that one, we'll be able to extract plenty of information about the Demon Cult.'
During last night's briefing, Ian had heard that Judy possessed a special family ability.
If she smelled an opponent's blood, she could read their memories and emotions.
'That's an incredibly useful skill. Nothing could be better for obtaining information.'
However, the stronger the target, the more enormous the amount of magic power was consumed to read even a small memory.
'Well, that much isn't an issue as long as there's enough magic power.'
For that reason, Ian had secretly projected her ability using his own power.
─《Authority of Projection》─
◆Skill
[family Ability: Bloodscent Mind-Reading (혈향독심술) Lv.91]
─────────
'This way, I can help with intelligence-gathering too.'
The plan was to capture the demonic human officer with the most information here and wring him for everything.
Even if Noxcar could not be rescued today, they would surely manage it elsewhere another time.
Rescuing the rest of the family would also be much faster.
Thinking thus, they advanced—and soon found themselves at the innermost part of the cave.
'This must be the lowest level...'
The lowest level was a massive chamber reminiscent of a colosseum arena.
Demonic energy filled the entire expanse, thick and acrid like sulfur from the pit of hell.
"Ha, ha!"
At that moment, Judy found something and suddenly gasped for breath.
Since everyone had been moving silently, all eyes instinctively turned to Judy when she made a sound.
"Th-th-there! Ah, ahh!"
Her trembling hand tried to point at something, then she suddenly dashed forward.
"W-wait! Big sister Judy! That's dangerous—huh? What the hell!"
Morgan, hurrying to stop her, saw something as well and rushed forward in the same state.
"...?"
What could the two of them have seen to so utterly lose their composure?
Ian took a few steps to see for himself.
"Ah..."
And immediately understood the cause.
On the opposite side of the chamber, another entrance.
A long hallway extending from that entrance.
At the end: a woman's severed head.
Long, limp black hair like seaweed.
A deathly pale, unnaturally white face.
'... That's...'
It could only be—
"N-Noxcar!?"
"B-big sister!"
'As I thought...'
It was Noxcar.
Their leader.
Noxcar Ravierre.
Scarlet and her companions lost their senses in front of her decapitated head.
* * *
About 30 minutes prior.
"Archbishop Bertolf!"
A demonic human slammed open Bertolf's office door without fear.
Veins bulged on Bertolf's temple.
"... What is it?"
"T-they've come! The vampires! They took the bait and showed up!"
"What?"
At that, all anger vanished from Bertolf's face.
In its place—an evil smile took root.
Bertolf's teeth showed as he spoke.
"Prepare the portal. We're moving out now. And summon all my bishops. We begin the vampire hunt."
"Y-yes! Understood!"
The demonic human fled as though his feet were on fire.
Within ten minutes, all officers under Bertolf's command had assembled at the wilderness cave.
"They're already within range of our trap. Things will be very simple...!"
Breathing excitedly as he watched the magic screen in the situation room, Bertolf observed Scarlet, her vampire companions, and Ian.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, one of Bertolf's eyebrows rose.
"Who's that?"
He pointed at Ian on the screen.
"The tall man next to the muscle-bound one. Young, gray hair."
One bishop whispered with his aide and quickly reported.
"He's a human in our database."
"Human? Not a vampire?"
"Yes. He's from Hisperion. Ian Greysel, youngest knight of Lady Yuria."
"... What?"
Ian Greysel was famously known as the world's greatest swordsmanship prodigy.
To the demonic humans who were always plotting to capture the world's heroes, he was a person of interest.
Of course he'd be in the database.
But still—
"Why is Ian Greysel with them? With the vampires?"
"T-that's..."
The reporting bishop was at a loss for words, and another bishop answered in his place.
"There's ample reason for Ian and the Noxcar family to cooperate."
"Explain."
"I suspect the Noxcar vampires were the ones who reached out to Ian Greysel first."
"Vampires making contact with a human?"
"Yes. The Noxcar vampires needed as much power as possible to rescue their leader, and if silver traps lethal to vampires appeared, they'd need a human companion to clear them. The Hisperion knights often lend their strength for reasonable compensation, so he'd be a prime candidate."
"Hmm."
"I can't be certain what Noxcar offered in exchange, but it would have been very hard for Ian to refuse."
"And why's that?"
"Yuria's faction, to which he belongs, is said to be the weakest of Hisperion's direct family lines. As talented as Yuria is, she's been hindered by the other lineages since she was young and hasn't been able to build any power base. So, as her sole knight, Ian must take on any job to strengthen his mistress's position, even a little."
"Hmm..."
Archbishop Bertolf stroked his chin and nodded.
"Sounds plausible. So, what level is that guy? Can our operation proceed as planned?"
The plan was to wipe out the vampires at once using the 'Eye of the Sun', the holy artifact of the god of light.
The Eye of the Sun was fatal to vampires, but for aura-using humans, it was nothing more than a blinding, scorching fireball.
"Any chance he'll mess up our operation?"
"Absolutely minimal."
The bishop responded immediately.
"Yuria, known as the Hisperion's greatest genius, is currently believed to be a mid-stage Swordmaster. Ian's talent is said to slightly surpass hers, but even so, the gap isn't large. At most, he'd be a late-stage Swordmaster—maybe, at the very most, peak-stage master."
"Hah."
Bertolf curled one lip as he looked at Ian on the screen.
"What, they hired a mere late-stage master as a mercenary?"
If he had been near the Grandmaster-rank, it would have been dangerous. But high-rank or even peak-stage master level? Not worth worrying over—the bishops could handle that much.
"Seems like we've indeed reduced the Noxcar family to nothing."
Even when recruiting, they could only bring in such a middling swordsman.
"The Noxcar idiots are even serving themselves up as dessert."
How fortunate.
If he could wipe out the Noxcar family in one stroke and capture Ian, the most celebrated prodigy in history—
'A windfall! The Sin of Greed Cult Leader will be delighted with me.'
Bertolf, unable to foresee the fate awaiting him in just 30 minutes, simply beamed, swollen with evil anticipation.
Who in this place could ever imagine that a nineteen-year-old boy would actually be at peak-stage Grandmaster...?
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
The benefit of hiding your strength...
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】