Chapter 43

10 Years After – 43

Even when he was just a severed head, the Vampire High Lord showed no signs of dying.

He glared at me.

“Now, what to do…”

“Do whatever you like.”

The High Lord was not intimidated at all.

Shia picked up her sword and came forward.

“Shia. Let’s just kill him for now.”

“Do you not have to question him first?”

“We can’t risk having him escape. Besides, we have to go back and help Goran and Eric.”

“I understand.”

I held the Devil King Sword above the High Lord.

And just as I was about to swing down on it,

“Wait a minute!”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Ruck.”

Eric and Goran came into the room from behind us.

“You two came out safely!”

“Cluck!”

Shia and Gerberga said happily.

I sighed in relief and lowered the sword.

“That was fast.”

“It’s you and Shia that were fast. We rushed in here in order to help you. And here you are, ready to deal a death blow.”

“Goran. Maybe we need to train harder.”

“There’s no doubt about that.”

They said and then laughed.

“You two killed 5 Lords. That’s not too different than killing 1 High Lord.”

“I don’t agree with that.”

“Aye, not at all. Clearly, a High Lord is much more dangerous.”

Goran and Eric declared.

Indeed, a High Lord was probably a little more dangerous.

But I didn’t think it was that big of a difference.

Goran and Eric inspected the High Lord’s head from a short distance away.

“So, this is the Vampire High Lord then.”

“There’s still powerful magical energy coming out of him.”

The High Lord looked at Eric and smiled slightly.

“I see. So the Hero King has come to visit me. And the Hero Ruck himself as well. Now I see why you were so abnormally strong.”

“You seem very calm.”

“There is nothing I can do to avoid death now. I have no intention of panicking.”

I guess I should have expected as much from a Vampire High Lord.

His resolve was strong. I was almost impressed.

Of course, I would still not let my guard down. There was a chance that he was just waiting for a rescue.

I sharpened my senses and remained cautious.

Shia seemed to have sensed danger as well. She was nervous. Her ears were twitching.

On the other hand, Goran looked quite relaxed as he faced the High Lord.

“So, Mister High Lord. I have a question for you.”

“Surely you do not believe that I will share any information with you?”

“Well, yes…”

Goran said with a slightly annoyed expression.

And so I asked,

“Hey. Was it you who created this protection of the god of the dark ones?”

“Hehehe… You will hear nothing from me. No, you must live in fear.”

And then the High Lord said as if nothing had happened,

“Oh, it looks it is time to say goodbye.”

And then he immediately turned into ash.

There was still magic remaining. In other words, he had chosen to die himself.

He had likely had such a spell ready inside of him for such an event as this.

Only the medal and the magic stone remained now. There were not many curses left inside of the medal.

Eric looked serious as he said,

“Ruck. The protection of the god of the dark ones?”

“About that…”

I went over to the destroyed core.

It was made of a strange, crystal-like material that I had never seen before. And it was about as tall as a five-year-old human child.

I showed Eric and Goran the broken core while I explained.

It was the dark version of the protective barrier around the capital.

The barrier caused great pain towards strong people and made it difficult to move.

Eric and Goran gulped upon hearing this.

“That’s horrifying.”

“Adventurers would go extinct if such a thing was placed in the dungeons.”

“I never would have imagined that such a thing could exist.”

“Indeed. It is a shock.”

For a second, I thought that I was going to lose.

“It will be a terrible thing if the dark ones are able to use this protection freely.”

“No, surely there are limits to its use?”

“Is that so?”

“If there weren’t restrictions, then it would have been used from the beginning.”

“That’s true.”

“Ruck. Do you have any guesses at what restrictions there could be?”

“Yes, let me think. First, the area of effect is small. It didn’t affect you two. Did it, Eric?”

Eric and Goran nodded.

“And they must be rare. None of the Lords I killed up until now had one. That means that not even Lords can acquire them.”

“So they are difficult to create?”

“That’s a possibility. Or the materials are very rare. Or both of those reasons.”

Eric and Goran looked a little relieved now.

“And this High Lord medal. It wasn’t filled with curses.”

“Hmm? You’re right. The medals inside of the Lords we just killed had more than this.”

“My guess would be that it is necessary to spit out all of the curses in order to activate the barrier.”

“But isn’t it possible that he just hadn’t stored any curses from the beginning?”

“That’s unlikely. Curses are stored when you kill and drink blood. And vampires grow weak if they do not drink blood for a long time. There is no way that he avoided doing it.”

“Hmm. I see.”

“Besides, think of the timing. He only did it once he noticed Lord Gerberga.”

“Ah, yes. That is right,” said Shia.

“Drinking Lord Gerberga’s blood would fill it with curses all at once. In that case, it would be no loss to lose everything he had gathered until now. That’s what he was probably thinking.”

“Cluck-cluck!”

Gerberga clucked quietly against my chest.

“In any case, we will have to look into it further.”

So saying, Goran and Eric began to throw the objects in the room into a magic bag.

It was a useful magic bag that had a expanded space within.

The weight remained the same, but it had a feature that kept the contents in the same condition.

I had one of those a long time ago, but I lost it during my decade long battle with the Devils.

“These bags really are convenient. I should get myself a new one.”

As I muttered this, Goran turned around.

“Ruck. What is that?”

“Oh.”

“I forgot all about that,” said Shia.

Goran was pointing at a cage with a giant wolf inside.