The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 327

Although the Sandokar Earldom was part of the Banreung Kingdom, they were not dwarves but people who served the Yaehagas Divine Royal Family [a specific royal lineage].

There was no way they would stand idly by as vampires flew in and gathered before their eyes.

The soldiers fired crossbows from the gate’s ramparts, attacking the vampires.

-Thwack!

Prince Kalzmatti clicked his tongue as the crossbow bolts hit the bats.

“Mere humans dare…”

As Prince Kalzmatti raised his hand, a whirlwind swept through the Sandokar gate’s ramparts.

“Huh?”

“Ugh… Uaaa…”

“Lament!”

With Prince Kalzmatti’s chilling voice, the soldiers exploded.

Magic stones grew on their bodies, destroying them from within.

“Kuh… Ugh?!”

“Kkyaaaaa!”

The soldiers screamed.

The Elemental Wailing, that terrible disease, had just broken out.

“E-Elemental Wailing?!”

The dwarven sorcerers were horrified by the tragedy unfolding before their eyes.

Controlling the Elemental Wailing to freely obtain magic stones was a long-standing desire of the Banreung Academy.

Of course, outwardly, they claimed to be researching the incurable Elemental Wailing to treat people, not to profit from the disease.

But Prince Kalzmatti was freely causing the Elemental Wailing, wasn’t he?

Moreover…

“Aaaaaaaah!”

Prince Kalzmatti rushed towards those whose bodies had partially hardened into magic stones due to the Elemental Wailing.

And, becoming a bloodthirsty monster, he attacked them.

The bodies of humans, unable to move due to the magic stones sprouting on their limbs, were broken.

Though their outsides were stone, blood spurted from the broken insides, and Prince Kalzmatti grabbed these humans and drank their blood.

The dwarven blunderbuss soldiers regained their senses at the sight of the bloodthirsty monster quenching his thirst, but…

It was already too late.

The bats covered them. They were surprised and tried to swat, roll, and crush the swarms of bats that were biting at their flesh from all directions, but the bats, fearless, continued to bite them.

And among the dwarves being bitten by the bats, the vampires that Kalzmatti had brought walked leisurely, observing.

“Good. I shall share my blood. Be grateful that you have become members of the great bloodline.”

They cut their wrists with daggers and poured the flowing blood onto the fallen dwarves.

As this blood-sharing ritual was performed, a whirlwind descended from the sky, injecting magic power into them.

The magic power released as the Elemental Wailing erupted swirled and struck the dwarves, quickly transforming them into vampire spawn.

Usually, becoming a vampire required at least 24 hours of transformation time, and even then, about half of them died from the shock. Unable to withstand the shock of the transformation, they would simply become corpses or burn to ashes.

However, the magic power of this Elemental Wailing being injected was aiding that terrible transformation.

“Now… you have become my tools entirely!”

Prince Kalzmatti laughed heartily and began attacking the humans of Sandokar.

*********

Screams could be heard from afar.

Azadin opened his eyes.

“What is that?”

Only quiet breathing filled the surroundings. Niselda was keeping watch as the night guard, and the other members were asleep.

“What’s wrong? Azadin.”

“I thought I heard screams. Even now…”

Azadin looked towards the northeast sky. The sky was burning red, and whirlwinds rose from the ground, soaring into the sky.

Each time a sinister and terrible power soared into the sky, miserable screams were heard.

The sound was so loud that it was impossible to sleep, but the others around him were sleeping soundly.

Azadin realized that he was the only one who could hear this sound and clicked his tongue.

“You’re sensing something, aren’t you, Azadin?”

“Yes. The Elemental Wailing is happening over there.”

As Azadin stated this definitively, Niselda looked at him with interest.

“Elemental Wailing? Can you see it?”

“Yes. It’s the same color as when the Elemental Wailing exploded earlier.”

But then, Niselda suddenly drew her sword. She pulled out the side sword she had been wearing at her waist and swung it, striking something.

-Flap!

A bat, cut in two, fell to the ground, twitching and spurting blood.

“……”

Niselda’s expression darkened as she saw it. Her face was already veiled, making it hard to see, but it felt even darker.

“We need to wake everyone! They’re vampire bats.”

Azadin and Niselda woke the others who were sleeping.

“Ugh. Just when I thought I could get some sleep…”

“Everyone, pack your things and prepare to move.”

“Where to?”

“We’re retreating.”

“What?”

“Hurry.”

Azadin urged them to hurry.

Even as they did, bats could be seen landing here and there.

The bats landed on trees, on the eaves of buildings, and on the milestones along the road.

“These are vampire bats.”

“They’re the familiars of vampires! Captain! This isn’t good!”

Jibek and Scott also knew that these bats were unusual.

“Hmm.”

Bernard and Niselda groaned.

“It seems the board of directors of the Banreung Academy has intervened.”

“The board of directors of the Banreung Academy?”

“Yes. The inner circle of the Banreung Academy, the board of directors, are all vampires. My biological mother is among them.”

Niselda said, gripping her side sword tightly.

She was burning with anger and rage, unable to bear the dirty blood flowing within her.

But then, behind Azadin’s group, at the entrance to the Chadra Highlands, dwarves appeared.

Dwarven blunderbuss soldiers and Chashan had appeared.

“Ha… hahaha. You’ve come to this inn, Azadin. Yes. Let me show you my skills…”

But Chashan couldn’t finish his sentence. Azadin was already standing behind him.

“W-what is this?”

The moment Chashan turned around, both of his wrists were severed.

Azadin had shortened the handle of the Azure Executioner [a type of sword], making it the size of a hand axe, and was holding it in his hand. He had used the Azure Executioner to cut off Chashan’s wrists with lightning speed.

“Ugh!?”

Chashan clutched his severed hands and stepped back. He seemed disoriented by the intense pain, but not much blood was flowing from the wounds, even without stopping the bleeding.

The Blood Binding, the vampire’s ability to greedily fix the blood within their body, was being activated.

“So, you’ve become a vampire. Does that mean I don’t have to worry about killing you clumsily?”

“Kuk, kkkkk. You stupid fool. How dare you…”

Again, Chashan couldn’t finish his sentence.

Azadin’s front kick shot out like a spear, piercing Chashan’s face. His cheekbone shattered, and his face caved in, like a deflated balloon.

“Kkeok?!”

“It was my mistake to let you live. I tried to use your knowledge and skills, even though you were just trash who sold drugs and inflicted pain on others, but my greed was excessive! And you were even more of a small fry than I thought.”

Azadin realized that Chashan, despite being called the founder of the Dwarven Arrow, was ultimately just a henchman.

If he had been turned into a vampire spawn who couldn’t properly walk under the sunlight, that was all he was worth.

Chashan and the Dwarven Arrow were all just puppets of the Banreung Academy and the Banreung Royal Family.

“Kill him!”

Chashan’s brothers, the dwarven sorcerers, tried to cast spells all at once, but Jibek cast a spell on them first.

Jibek had thrown a small, rusty hammer as a catalyst among them.

When this rusty hammer fell among them, it caused an explosion of divine power, tearing their bodies to shreds.

“Kkeok!?”

“Aaaaah!”

The power of the sacred white magic was even more devastating to the vampires.

Azadin swung the shortened Azure Executioner, the Seramite longsword, and the Aurelia Dawn [another type of sword], cutting down the vampires who charged at him.

And then… the body of the vampire hit by the Aurelia Dawn burst into flames.

The surprised vampire jumped back, trying to put out the fire, but the fire stuck to his body like a sticky adhesive, refusing to go out and tormenting the vampire.

“Kkyaaaak!”

Moreover, this fire didn’t burn his clothes, it just kept burning him. The vampire spawn writhed in pain, but the fire continued to burn his body.

Eventually, unable to bear it, the vampire set his blunderbuss on the ground, put his chin under it, and pulled the trigger.

-Bang!

The blunderbuss was a firearm that used a large amount of gunpowder, and its power was immense. Although its power decreased sharply with distance, it still had the power to knock down heavy cavalry even at 50 yards.

He had put it to his chin and fired, so his head was blown off completely.

“……..”

Everyone was horrified to see the vampire commit suicide.

The Seramite longsword was, in fact, a deadly weapon against vampires. Everyone had come to realize that fact.

“Alright, then.”

Azadin raised the Seramite longsword and struck Chashan’s groin with the side of the blade, the sword’s spine.

He didn’t cut, but touched his groin.

“Kkyaaaaak!”

Fire spread to Chashan’s body.

“You have ruined many others. I was wondering if it was fair to give you only one death, but it’s perfect that you became a vampire and attacked me. I will give you pain equivalent to a hundred deaths.”

“Kkyaaa. You crazy bastard!”

Chashan cursed at Azadin, but the pain that overwhelmed him was beyond what curses could handle. Chashan writhed and crawled on the floor in maddening agony.

But the flames of the Seramite did not disappear.

“……..”

“D-don’t run away! Fight back!”

The vampire who appeared to be the commander ordered his subordinates to do so, while he himself ran away.

But Azadin approached the fleeing vampire commander.

-Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, Twilight! [a sword technique]

Azadin, who had closed the distance in an instant, cut off the vampire’s leg with the Aurelia Dawn.

The severed surface burst into flames, and the vampire screamed.

“Kyak. A… Aaaaaaa!”

As flames rose from his leg, the vampire commander fell backward, scooting on his rear, trying to put out the fire with both hands. It was no use.

He couldn’t put out the fire with his hands or anything else.

“Ugh, ugh!?”

In the end, this vampire commander also took out a hand pistol and shot himself in the head.

He had blown his own head off to end the pain of being burned alive.

Everyone was horrified by the gruesome sight.

‘Damn it. That damned Prince Kalzmatti. There’s no way we can fight like this? How can vampires be so weak against the holy sword of the Knights of Salvation?’

‘It’s much better to just be a human than to become a vampire… I’d rather die like that than die so horribly.’

It was a terrible scene that completely extinguished the confidence and excitement that had arisen from becoming a vampire spawn.