The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 337

The Celestials, Trio Dana’s subordinates, were utterly exhausted.

Unlike Azadin and Trio Dana, who rode hippogriffs, they had been on ordinary horses, constantly using magic to keep them going.

This forced march had rapidly depleted their energy. The flames of their ceramite longswords were weakening, and the cold rain was stealing their body heat, freezing their hands and feet.

Moreover, increasingly powerful cultist mutants were appearing.

Previously, the cultist mutants were mainly the size of two adult men, but now, four-legged mutants the size of bulls and mutants the size of elephants began to emerge.

The massive mutants with limbs split into tentacles were so powerful that even the Celestials avoided close combat. Even human-sized mutants could kill a horse with a single blow, so how powerful would these giant ones be?

“Fall back!”

Trio Dana used magic to defeat the large mutants, but the monsters kept coming endlessly, no matter how many they shot down.

Trio Dana’s magical power was also gradually being depleted.

“Where is Lord Azadin?!”

“I don’t see him!”

“Damn it. That guy. He pushed us to march hard, saying he had to save his merchants. Is he trying to kill us in this situation?”

The Celestials suspected that Azadin might be abandoning them.

But then, the mutants parted, and a woman walked out from within.

“Stop….”

The mutants ceased their attacks.

The Celestials also stopped resisting.

Most of the surrounding soldiers had already been annihilated, and the Celestials were exhausted and weakened, reaching their limits.

“Heh heh heh. So, you are Celestials? Truly impressive. The Northern Empire actually managed to do this.”

Her blood-red eyes, shining clearly even in the darkness, turned towards Trio Dana.

“Surrender, child of the Northern Empire.”

Trio Dana was taken aback upon seeing the woman.

He was afraid.

In his previous life as Prince Triton, Trio Dana was a fearless warrior.

The only thing he had ever feared was the wrath of his father, the Northern Emperor. Yet, he was feeling that same fear now, from the woman before him.

“Who are you?”

“I am Griselda. One of the founders of the Banreung Academy [a prestigious magic academy]. Child of the Northern Empire.”

She said this and pointed to her forehead. The jewel embedded there opened its eye. When closed, it looked like a jewel, but when opened, a vertically slit pupil appeared within, emanating an immense pressure from the woman named Griselda before them.

The eye was bleeding, and this woman, Griselda, was absorbing the flowing blood into her body.

“A founder of the Banreung Academy? That’s news to me! Anyway, you’re the leader of these things!”

Trio Dana, while talking to Griselda, quickly charged at her.

He swung his ceramite longsword, aiming to cut her from her side to her shoulder in one blow.

It was a surprise attack so magnificent that even Trio Dana himself was astonished.

Had he ever put so much power into a strike, and swung his blade so accurately and flawlessly?

However, Griselda lightly extended a hand with sharpened nails and parried Trio Dana’s ceramite longsword.

-Clang!

The ceramite longsword shattered, and Trio Dana’s gauntlet was destroyed.

The right hand that had been holding the sword was torn open to the bone, and blood flowed from within.

“Ugh!”

Trio Dana collapsed from the intense pain.

“Heh heh heh. Is this the blood of a Celestial?”

Griselda licked the blood from Trio Dana that was on her hand, delighted.

“It’s truly delicious. The blood of an angel mixed with human blood, it gives a truly deep flavor.”

Griselda said this and reached out to grab Trio Dana’s chin.

Sharp nails pierced his cheek. Trio Dana tried to resist, but Griselda’s strength was immense.

Of course, Trio Dana was also a Celestial, possessing strength beyond that of a human, but if he were to struggle with nails embedded in his cheek, his cheek and tongue would be torn off.

“Your face is also quite handsome. Is it because you are a Celestial? You are truly like an angel. Good. I shall make you my plaything.”

“Lord Trio Dana!”

The other Celestials rushed to rescue Trio Dana, but at that moment, ominous black shadows appeared beside them.

They were beautiful women dressed in black mourning clothes. These women, holding side swords, slashed the Celestials’ wrists and pinned them down.

“Kya ha ha ha ha!”

“He’s handsome. As expected of a Celestial!”

“Mother! Can we have these ones?”

They called Griselda mother and asked her.

“……….”

Trio Dana tried to resist in any way he could, but after the forced march and fighting so many cultist mutants, his magic and stamina were completely depleted. There was no way he could do anything.

From the looks of it, these women were vampires… If he were caught by them, he would be constantly drained of his Celestial blood and treated like preserved food.

‘Should I commit suicide?’

Just as Trio Dana was making up his mind.

*********

“Have you tasted the blood of an angel?”

A clear voice asked from behind Griselda.

“Of course. It is… like chewing on seasonings or spices that are said to be delicious. No matter how precious a spice is, if it’s too strong, it’s not something you can eat.”

Griselda said this and looked at the person who had asked her.

A young man wearing a bird mask was standing on top of an elephant-shaped cultist mutant.

Surprisingly, the mutants were not aware of him standing on their bodies.

This man had completely erased his magical power and presence, so the mutants, who did not see with their eyes, could not recognize him.

“So, you must be Azadin. Impressive.”

“I have one more question. Do you know of a Niseldah?”

“Niseldah? All my daughters have that name. When you have too many daughters, it’s a hassle to name them. All the children here are also Niseldah.”

As Griselda said this, the female vampires holding the Celestials giggled and winked at Azadin.

“What about Bernard? He’s Niseldah’s father.”

“He was probably one of my playthings. The nights are long, and my bed is too wide to be alone. Why? Do you also want to become my plaything and warm my bed?”

“No, I’ll pass. I have one more question. Is that jewel on your forehead the Eye of Ashajit?”

“…Ah, impressive. You know so much. As expected of Azadin. Now I understand why the Shade Hags [a group of powerful witches] offered a reward for killing you.”

Griselda said this and touched the Eye of Ashajit, the jewel on her brow.

Then, a blood-red wave emanated from her, and blood splattered on Azadin’s body.

-Groooaaar!

As blood touched Azadin’s body, his magical concealment was broken.

The elephant-shaped mutant, which had been carrying Azadin on its head without realizing it, finally recognized Azadin and tried to attack. However, Azadin dodged the mutant’s tentacle attacks by a hair’s breadth, and began to provoke the tentacle attacks.

The mutants became agitated and began attacking each other.

In the midst of heads being crushed and brains splattering, Azadin calmly spread the damage among the mutants. It was truly an amazing skill and courage.

“Kya ha ha ha ha!”

The female vampires, Griselda’s daughters, rushed in. They melted into the darkness, scattering and coalescing like mist, flying towards Azadin and swinging their side swords.

The dazzling attacks, like the daughters of a demon king, were beautiful, ugly, frightening, and captivating.

However, Azadin didn’t even look at their dazzling attacks, turning his back and running away in a straight line.

“Hey! How boring!”

“Look here! Handsome!”

Griselda’s daughters giggled and chased after Azadin. But then, while running, Azadin pulled out a bow and, bending his head, looked back under his armpit.

Azadin, with the ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn, on the bowstring, shot the sword behind him.

“What?!”

It was when Trio Dana was surprised by the bizarre scene.

The ceramite longsword, shot from the bow, emitted a dazzling light and then exploded, turning into dozens of streams of fire that began to pour down.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Kuaaa!”

The sword itself melted and exploded into molten metal. The cultist mutants and female vampires hit by the molten metal screamed.

The vampires, in particular, suffered severe damage, as the fire that clung to their bodies could not be extinguished no matter what they did.

“Cut it off. This is Aurelia Dawn!”

Following Griselda’s orders, her daughters cut off the limbs that had begun to burn from the sparks.

By peeling off the skin on their backs or cutting off their arms and legs, Griselda’s daughters, who had avoided the fire, now lost their composure and revealed their true forms as monsters driven by anger and bloodlust.

The beautiful appearance of the beautiful women was nowhere to be seen, and they cursed Azadin in the form of hideous monsters that looked like a combination of bats and ogres.

“You bastard!”

“I’ll kill you and suck every last drop of your blood!”

“No, I’ll torture you alive! I’ll impale you on thorny hooks and feast on the blood flowing from you!”

They shouted this and rushed at Azadin.

It was a feast of illusions and shadows, like the phantoms of trees swaying in a storm, impossible for the human eye to follow.

But when Azadin opened his hand, a bluish-glowing axe-spear flew into his hand.

“Kyaheuk!”

The vampire who was in the path of the axe-spear flying towards Azadin suffered a terrible injury, her waist split in two just by being hit by the axe-spear.

“…….”

“No way!”

Griselda’s daughters were horrified by the sight. That axe-spear was surprisingly a divine artifact of a Nether Reaper [a powerful being associated with death].

To be precise, the shaft was a divine artifact of one of the Nether Reapers, Grimsloth, but the magic contained in the shaft, as well as the axe-spear blade, was extraordinary.

Azadin swung the axe-spear, parrying Griselda’s daughters who were approaching.

“What!”

“How dare a human try to cross swords with the bloodline!”

Griselda’s daughters scoffed, but their thoughts changed when they saw the half-broken swords in their hands.

Arms were cut off, and waists were severed.

The axe-spear that Azadin wielded had terrifying power, and even the beasts they had transformed into could not stop it.

“Uh….”

“What is this.”

Moreover, golden flames rose again from the ground.

The ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn, which had turned into molten metal, was returning to Azadin.

“Ugh!”

“We have to avoid it!”

Griselda’s daughters jumped around to avoid Aurelia Dawn, which was flowing along the ground.

When they attacked, they were like a dance of reapers taking away people’s souls, but when they were surprised and ran away, they were as chaotic as a flock of quail fleeing in fear of an eagle.

And that was exactly what Azadin wanted.