Chapter 366

Chapter 366

“Well, well, well, you’re suddenly calling me by my first name and—.”
Erzebet winced; it had been a long time since anyone had called her by her full name.
“Didn’t you just come here because you didn’t want to be sick? What’s with the doom?
He had the most serious look in the world, like he was proposing to me.
Archduke Shadow spoke up.
“That means it’s important. Are you aware that you Mages of the Dawn were once our enemies?”
“Ah, I know that, I was taught that the founder of the Dawn Tower was a vampire hunter in the first place, and that he grew his power through the wealth he accumulated.”
“Good. Then do you know why, why the Night’s Clan feared you alone?”
“That’s right–because our fire magic was the hottest, right?”
Erzebet shrugged.
Like the full moon earth magic and the twilight light magic, each mage tower had a specialty.
The Dawn Tower has long been a master of fire magic, and the flames of Dawn are considered the hottest fire in the world, save for the flames of dragons.
“The fear of fire is the fear of us, and I don’t mean to sound like a sales pitch, but nobody handles flames better than we do, and we’re still working day and night to make it even hotter.”
“That’s right. But it’s not a perfect answer.”
“What?”
“The fire you wield has the energy of the sun. I do not know if this is still the case, but it was in the past, and those of my people who fell to the flames of the Mage of Dawn were reduced to dust like their ancestors who perished in the sun.”
“Oh, I know that one!”
Erzebet stammered.
As the Archduke had said, some of the wizards of the Dawn Tower could wield special flames.
The spell to manifest the holy fire, which is different from ordinary fire and imbued with the energy of the sun, has been passed down through the pagoda masters for generations.
“But it’s not available to everyone like it used to be. The difficulty of orchestrating the flames increases exponentially when the power of the sun is mixed in, so I’m only passing it on to mages who are skilled enough to do so.”
Erzebet held up her index finger.
Mana sparked and gathered, and a tiny flame erupted from his fingertips.
The fire burned soundlessly and was not red, but a brilliant yellowish-plum color, like sunlight.
Ophelia’s eyebrows twitched.
“——Haven’t seen that in a while. Creepy.”
She quietly pulled her hood back up.
The fear etched in his blood was stirring his heart.
Sion, who had been listening to the conversation in silence, clapped his hands.
“Oh, I can do that!”
Mate!
A cheerful sound rang out.
A golden goblin fire hovered above her head.
It was quite a sight to behold.
A warmth reminiscent of a summer field enveloped the bin.
Erzebet cautioned.
“Zion. Don’t let it show up to the point of making the guests uncomfortable.”
“Oops, sorry, I didn’t even know that—!”
“That’s okay–yes, that’s the fire, and I’m already nauseated at the thought of having to deal with that.”
The Archduke frowned.
I walked a long way to find it, but I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.
Because when you go to the doctor, you’re not looking for a cure, you’re looking for a bad treatment.
Erzebeth and Sion then disenchanted at the same time.
“As you can see, I can make the fire you spoke of, and Zion next door is quite good at it, but when you said earlier that death in any other way would destroy the whole world, what did you mean by that?”
“It’s literal. Look.”
The Grand Duke of Stargazer opened his palm.
Like a shadow, the saccharine turbidity rose from the wound.
I felt an aura similar to, yet different from, the power of the Shadow Archduke I had witnessed in the past.
Erzebet narrowed her eyes at the blackened hand.
“Is this—?”
“It’s my own magic, corrupted and tainted. It’s absorbing my power and storing it in a subject that can’t even heal this damn wound.”
The Archduke growled.
The black aura emanating from the gaping wound was unspeakably evil.
I wonder if this is what it’s like to see a writhing venomous snake alive.
I could see why they used the word perish.
“If you do not perish in the fires of the dawn, this power will spread around you. The soil will turn black, the grass and trees will dry up, and the animals will become bloodthirsty monsters, attacking everything in sight. And, of course, the animals include humans.”
“—That’s terrible.”
“That’s right. It’s a terrible thing. I hope that’s a good enough explanation–cough!”
“Grand, Grand Duke?!”
It was a flash.
The Archduke coughed up blood as he spoke.
However, it was far from typical vomit.
Black, festering blood gushed not only from his mouth, but from wounds carved into his body.
Ophelia’s eyes flashed red as the blood threatened to spread everywhere.
“Holy—.”
The spray of blood then stopped.
Erzebeth and Sion gulped.
Thousands of blood droplets lingered in the air as if time had stopped.
Ophelia raised one hand, and the blood rushed back into the Archduke’s body.
The Archduke groaned, clutching his chest as the blood returned.
【Khhh, whoosh! Damn it—!】
“—— The cycles are getting shorter and shorter. Time is running out.”
Ophelia sighed.
I could tell that this wasn’t something that had happened once or twice.
The frozen Erzebet let out a gasp of embarrassment.
“What, are you okay! You’re bleeding all over—.”
“It’s not good. In fact, it’s a miracle you’ve survived this long. In twenty years, the wound has never healed.”
Braum scooped up the drunken, staggering Archduke.
The boy, breathing heavily, glazed as if he might faint at any moment.
The majesty of a monarch ruling the night world was nowhere to be seen in the densely packed crowd.
Ophelia said.
“I think you’re going to have to make a decision—won’t you put the details aside and help us out?”
“Oh, not that you can’t, but—we still need to do something called preparation.”
“A mage of your caliber should be able to handle this alone–it’s not something to be done in public–don’t worry too much about it. It’s just the incineration of a body that has served its time, a rather humble task for the Master of the Dawn Tower to undertake.”
“Master of the Dawn Tower—!”
Erzebet’s eyes widened.
Owner.
It’s always been a word that gets my heart racing.
In hindsight, there really wasn’t a reason to say no.
It’s just that things have gotten out of hand so quickly, and the Shadow Archduke is just as innocent as any of the clients who visit the tower, seeking help.
As Erzebet fiddled with Zion’s hair, she finally made a decision.
“Okay, let’s go for it, I’ll make sure it burns.”
“Wahaha, that’s good, that’s just what I remember, just like the day I was telekinetically stampeded by Miss Erzebet!”
“Ugh, you said you were sorry then—!”
Braum burst into a hearty laugh.
Erzebet’s face turned bright red.
He still had fond memories of being beaten by Erzebet at the freshman welcome.
Erzebet coughed in vain.
“Hmmm, but where do we perform the ritual, where we can risk the destruction of the whole world—.”
“Don’t worry—I’ve already decided—.”
“Archduke?!”
The Archduke gasped, and then opened his eyes.
Barely stopped bleeding, his body looked like a leather pouf about to be torn apart.
He fumbles in his pants pocket and pulls out something.
A dried saccharine scroll.
The most powerful of the spatial enchantments was an imprinted scroll with multiple spatial moves.
Erzebet scowled.
“You have a place. Where is it?”
“Warsaw estate–I’m going to trigger the scroll, so get ready—.”
“Well, Warsaw is the land of the Grand Duke, and I’d rather be in the middle of nowhere, wouldn’t you?”
Erzebet raised an eyebrow.
Warsaw was the center of the vampire world.
The castle of the Shadow Archduke’s clan had been built in Warsaw.
The Archduke nodded.
“It is a wound that I did not deserve in the first place—I cannot shed blood on innocent ground, even if it is uninhabited—What has happened to the children of the night must be tied up in the dark.”
“You can’t be—!”
“Then I guess I can count you as helping me–cough!”
Once again, the Archduke coughed up blood.
Erzebet clutched at her sleeve, impressed by the responsibility.
The vampires of venerable families were not called the nobility of the night for nothing.
“It seems we need to start as soon as we arrive… Grrr, just keep a reasonable distance and start right away… You just have to shoot the strongest fire you know filled with the sun’s energy…”
The Archduke spoke in a cracked voice.
Now it seemed like we were really running out of time.
Erzebet nodded and was about to tell Zion to go back to the car.
The Archduke coughed again, his body shaking violently.
“Kaboom!”
“Huh?”
Blood spattered.
Ophelia’s eyes sparkled, and a drop of blood stopped in midair.
For a moment, goosebumps crawled up the back of Erzebet’s neck.
“What is it?
I couldn’t explain it.
But I could instinctively sense that something was wrong.
Sion cried out, suddenly white and fed up.
“Eh, Eri! Scroll!”
“What!?”
It didn’t take long for me to realize what the ominousness was.
All eyes focused on the Grand Duke’s hand.
My hands were shaking and light was leaking from the torn scroll.
Koooooooo!
The magic in the room seemed to surge, and a huge, black hole appeared in the center of the room.
It was a spatial spell that transports the user to pre-specified coordinates.
“Now, wait a minute, if I suddenly trigger it here—!”
Erzebet was stunned.
Their cubbyholes were special places that were cut off from the outside world.
Instead of swallowing the group, the hole was boiling and bubbling.
It was the antagonism between powerful spatial magic and blocking magic.
“Oh my God, everybody get behind me!”
It wasn’t hard to intuit the future.
Braum throws a lob.
A great shield appeared, covering his entire body.
Then, with a lightning leap, he stood in the way of the four.
Kaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!
The bubbling hole exploded.
“Yikes!”
“Uh, sister!”
A storm of mana swept across the land.
Dozens of blocking enchantments shattered simultaneously, and the walls and ceiling were blown away.
The hidden library is now visible.
A dull green light poured overhead.
Braum looks back to see that the explosion has subsided.
“Is everyone okay?! I don’t even have any scrolls left, as far as I know, and I can’t believe this happened—!”
“More, thanks—the rest of you?”
Erzebet wiped her forehead and pushed herself to her feet.
Braum’s defense was so thorough that he wasn’t hurt anywhere.
Zion was sprawled at her feet.
“Woohoo, my sister is—.”
“Zion!”
Erzebet hurried to her aid.
Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, but his robe was torn all over the place.
Tears formed in his ebony eyes.
“Meh, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, if only I had been quicker to react—!”
“No, I’m fine, just go find the Archduke, something–I don’t feel good.”
Zion struck.
It wasn’t his injury that mattered now.
It was a car in which two men were searching for the Archduke.
“Erzebet! Shoot!”
“Ophelia?”
Not far away, I heard an urgent cry.
It was Ophelia’s usual cheerful voice.
Erzebeth turned her head reflexively and stiffened in place.
“What.”
【Crrrr—! Kaaaaaah!】
The Shadow Archduke was struggling.
The joints of the limbs were twisted in bizarre directions.
The wounds that covered his body wriggled as if they were alive, spitting out black light.
Ophelia shouted back.
“We have to shoot now, it’s now or never!”
“Oh, I get it!”
Regaining her composure, Erzebeth stretched out her hand.
I don’t know what happened, but I had a very bad feeling about it.
The Forbidden Books, awakened from their slumber, were chattering.
[Who dares disturb my sleep!]
[Holy shit, what kind of crazy person is talking here?]
[Eh, is Erzebeth there? I feel weird, get me out of here!]
The books lining the shelves were being opened one by one.
There was a loud clatter of paper being flipped.
The voices were echoing back and forth, making my head hurt, but I didn’t care.
Erzebet finished her sentence quickly.
Kaaaaaaaah-!
Waves of flame poured out of his palms, which he held together in front of him.
[What the hell is she doing?!]
[Fire! Save the book!]
The fire startled the gold books, and they screamed again.
The tidal wave of flames was glowing with the brilliant colors of a gold mine.
The Archduke was still writhing in agony.
“Gah, gah, gah!”
“I hope it’s not too late—!”
Erzebet chewed her lip.
The wounds that covered the Archduke’s body scattered black light.
In an instant, flames rushed at him, threatening to engulf him.
Ah.
The Archduke’s body is completely covered in black.
The body that had stopped seizing turned toward Erzebet.
The center of his chest split open, revealing a pair of red eyes.
[Disgusting—I can smell the stench of filth].