Chapter 262: 138. A Small Clue -1 (Part Two)

Translated by A Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

It’d be December 25th later this evening.

The mud giant, Mist Calf, would become ‘drunk’ on the demonic energy permeating the Land of the Dead Spirits on that day. That in turn would make the creature even more powerful.

If it consumed living sacrifices while in such a state, then its heart would possess an even greater level of energy. If Timong used that…

…He’d get to open up the warp gate connecting to another dimension!

Count Timong began shuddering in excitement at his own thoughts.

Finally, the end goal of all Alchemists, the power to rule over the gateway leading to other dimensions, would fall into his hands!

His actions would be the same as intruding upon the domain of the gods!

“Finally, my long-held wish is…!”

Right at that moment, the still silence flowing within the ice castle was suddenly shattered into pieces.

KA-BOOM-!

Count Timong flinched in shock and looked below, leaning against the balcony’s railing.

Thick smoke was gushing out from somewhere inside the ice castle.

“What’s going on here…?”

Just as he began tilting his head this way and that, a vampire urgently rushed up to him. “My lord! Count Timong, sir!”

Timong looked behind himself and saw that a pale-faced Vampire standing in the passageway connecting to the balcony was busy shouting for him. “We have intruders!”

“Intruders?”

What did he mean by ‘intruders’? Was there a human mad enough to enter this place?

Count Timong grew puzzled, but then abruptly flinched.

There hadn’t been any news from the undead army dispatched to Ronia. Could it be…?

Timong hurriedly scanned the vicinity of the ice castle. No matter where he looked, though, he couldn’t see any human soldiers anywhere.

That meant that it wasn’t an invasion.

Count Timong looked back at the vampire and demanded, “How many intruders are there?”

The latter replied with a stutter, “W-we estimate there to be around one hundred.”

Such a large number had invaded the castle? But they shouldn’t have a way to sneak in like that…

Count Timong fell deep into thought, then suddenly covered his mouth in shock. ‘No, it can’t be! Warp magic?!’

But, what about the coordinates? Could it be… through their own warp circles?!

But it should’ve been impossible for humans to decode the vampires’ warp magic circles. Beyond that, one hundred combatants infiltrating through warp magic should be even more impossible!

“Also, they are wielding muskets, as well!”

Loud gunshots suddenly rang out within the ice castle, followed up by the sound of equally loud explosions. Layers of frost covering the structure came loose and tumbled down.

Finally…

“…It seems that they used our own warp magic circles to invade us, my lord!”

Count Timong clamped his mouth shut at those words.

**

The frozen-solid steel door was blown apart.

Vampires standing on the frost-layered corridor flinched nastily in shock, while staring at the entrance of the staircase leading to the basement.

What followed next was a gunshot.

At almost the same time, the heads of the vampires were blown apart while their bodies were turned into beehives full of holes.

“Uwaaaaah?!”

“M-my leg! Ah, my waist, my waist, too…!”

Their bodies were burning away.

A vampire who still managed to survive screamed loudly, and stared at its lower torso dissipating from existence.

The sounds of metallic clacking could be heard among the dense smoke.

Clack, claaaack-!

Those noises came from the Paladins kitted out in heavy armour.

The ones in front of the group carried large shields and swords. Without hesitation, they slammed their blades down at the still-alive vampires crawling desperately away on the floor.

The knights behind them carried muskets, and pulled their weapons’ triggers whenever they spotted vampires trying to flee in the distance.

“Uwaaaaahk!”

“H-hide somewhere!”

The vampires couldn’t put up any decent resistance at this sudden onslaught. They either hid themselves inside some dark room and shivered in fear, or just hurriedly ducked behind a corner somewhere and hoped for the best.

Unfortunately for them, the Paladins marching through the corridors ferreted out the hiding vampires and systematically killed them all.

“We need to push them back!”

“Kill the intruders!”

Eventually, the Vampires began mounting a proper resistance. They put on some armour and picked up their weapons.

“Unleash the chimeras!”

The hybrid lifeforms created through alchemy, the chimeras, were released from various corners of the ice castle.

Vampires covered in cold sweat leaned against the corners of the corridors and took a peek at the legion of the Paladins approaching them from the other end.

It looked like they were gradually making their way up from the basement. They continued to relentlessly press forward, as if they were planning to not let a single vampire escape from here.

‘You honestly think we’ll just take the beating lying down?!’

The vampires shifted their gazes back to the chimeras filling up the corridors behind them. “Go and devour the intruders!”

The hybrid monsters immediately charged ahead at the vampire’s command.

Zombie Golems, created through combining countless many zombies, marched forward with great tottering steps.

Many beast-type monsters featuring tiger’s limbs but with the heads of lions pounced forward, while bizarre creatures boasting lycan’s bodies but with minotaur heads joined them.

Paladins raised their heads at the sight of the monstrous chimeras rushing at them.

“Get into a close formation,” one of the Paladins suddenly ordered.

Their shields were rapidly overlapped, and the Paladins wielding them arranged themselves in an organised line. Behind them were dozens of other Paladins, leaning against them to provide additional support.

Not a single mistake could be spied in their defence. They quickly created a sturdy, strong wall of shields.

-Ku-aaaaaaahk!-

Chimeras collided into the shields.

The rows of Paladins were pushed back a little from the resulting impact, but that was all.

“Pikes.”

Spears were thrust forward from behind them to impale the Chimeras and shove them away.

Chimeras were dangling in the air, impaled by dozens of spears. Muskets were aimed at them next.

“Fire.”

BANG-!

Chimeras were turned into torn rags and purged from existence.

However, one of the dying chimeras took a last-ditch swipe with its front paw. It struck the helm of a Paladin in the front, destroying it.

The Paladin’s face could now be seen under the broken bits of the helm. It was a skull with a new claw mark running across it.

Vampires witnessing this sight from behind the corners screamed at the top of their lungs.

“…Holy undead?!”

“It’s really him! The Holy King has really come!”

The culprit who had murdered so many Progenitors had come! There was no way that these vampires could win against an opponent of such calibre!

It was at that moment that one of the holy undead suddenly tossed a crystal sphere at the corridor’s intersection.

The sphere rolled along the ground and reached the corner, glowed with a crimson light, then exploded loudly.

Thick smoke spread out in an instant, and when it touched the vampires nearby, their skin began melting. Even breathing in the smoke caused them to vomit blood.

“Uwaaaaahk!”

“R-retreat! We, we must get to Count Timong…!”

The surviving vampires hurriedly fled. What was happening right now was like a horrifying nightmare come true!

The one commanding the holy undead, Allen, took his helm off and cast his gaze on his Summoned creatures filling up the corridor.

“Go and procure any and all information you can find.”

More warp magic circles had been engraved in various parts of the ice castle.

“The things that cannot be confiscated, burn them down. Destroy them!”

The data Vampires had compiled while researching various subjects practically overflowed in this location. This data would soon become a source of knowledge that improved the Imperial Family’s strength even further.

“And then, hunt down any vampires you come across.”

The holy undead Paladins all slammed their weapons down in unison. Their eyes glowed a nightmarish hue under their helms.

Frost containing divinity whooshed out from the gaps of the helms, as if they were breathing out heavily.

They split into several teams and scattered throughout the castle. Soon, the tragic screams of vampires began echoing along the ice castle’s vast corridors.

Allen walked down on the passageway as his skeletons continued to deliver the freshly-collected data to him. He unilaterally shoved all of it into his item window.

‘Things are going well.’

The vampires had fallen into a panic. Rather than escaping outside the castle, they were actually climbing up higher.

If he continued to kill them off systematically in this manner, then everything should come to an end pretty soon, unless he ran into some unseen problems.

Allen grinned at that thought, and continued collecting the data.

He noticed that quite a few interesting research topics had entered his hands.

[Bloody Golem], [Synthesised Lifeforms], [Other Dimension Warp Gate], [Multiple Dimensions Theory]…

This was all information on magic that the vampires had been researching for thousands of years. Soon, they would all become a part of his power.

‘Well, Hans will be quite pleased by this…’

Quite a lot of the books the holy skeletons had recovered were related to the topic of warp magic. Even Hans’s goal was to understand the truth behind the warp itself, so he should be chuffed to get his hands on the Vampires’ research data.

Allen continued to collect the recovered data. But when he nonchalantly reached out to the next item brought in by his undead…

‘…What the hell is this?’

He was so stunned that the inside of his head blanked out completely.

‘Why is this thing here?’

Allen swallowed back his dry saliva.

He extended his hand again, and lifted up the ‘item’ his holy skeleton had brought to him.

[A Story of a Ring.]

The item in question was a book. A mere novel, at that. Except that it was….

“…Korean?”

…a novel written in Korean.

Fin.