The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 328

Clearly, vampire spawn are more powerful than ordinary humans or dwarves.

Having become vampire spawn, they could use their terrifying mobility to bypass and cut off Azadin’s retreat.

Bare-bodied dwarves were slower than humans, making this impossible, but in return, they had a weakness to the Seramite longsword. [A sword imbued with holy power, particularly effective against evil beings.]

That weakness was so terrible that it ignited a burning rage against Prince Kalzmatti, who had turned them into vampire spawn.

When you think about it, what was so important about royal power that it could force such a terrible death?

They absolutely did not want to die like this.

“Ugh… Ughhhhaaa.”

Chashan, with his groin on fire, hammered the final nail into the coffin of the vampires’ resolve.

To put out the fire in his groin, Chashan picked up a stone with his severed hand and began to beat his own groin with it.

His genitals were crushed—his testicles, vas deferens, urethra, blood vessels, muscles, and so on. Something like a long, red mass of blood and flesh was dangling, but he didn’t care.

Even as flesh and blood splattered, he kept hitting himself, hitting and hitting again, like a man possessed.

That bizarre and gruesome sight vividly conveyed the pain Chashan was experiencing to those around him.

How much pain must he be in to do something like that?

Yet, the flames did not go out and only continued to spread.

“K-Kill me! Quickly!”

As Chashan was smashing his groin, he suddenly found a blunderbuss on the ground.

Like a drowning man desperately swimming towards the surface, he floundered and crawled towards the blunderbuss. Chashan, who could no longer walk properly after breaking his groin and pubic bone, was so gruesome as he staggered and crawled that it horrified those who watched.

“……”

Azadin was also taken aback by the horror.

‘No, I thought he deserved to die a hundred times, but this is…’

How terrifying the Seramite longsword was to beings of evil…

He realized it to the bone.

Just then, Chashan finally reached the blunderbuss. Chashan grabbed the blunderbuss with his forearm and lifted his foot.

His shoe was torn, and his toes were exposed.

Chashan was putting the muzzle of the blunderbuss to his chin and trying to fire the gun with his toes.

With his severed hand and broken groin, yet so desperately trying to commit suicide, it was so pathetic that it seemed to grip everyone’s hearts.

But…

-Click.

The blunderbuss clearly fired and sparks flew, but the gun misfired.

It was not a loaded gun.

“Huh?! Ugh…. Aaaaaaa.”

When the blunderbuss misfired, Chashan screamed in agony as if he were witnessing the end of the world.

Unable to watch any longer, Azadin picked up another blunderbuss from the floor and blew Chashan’s head off.

“Ah. Damn it.”

Everyone was startled and looked at Azadin.

Azadin was the one who had declared that he would torture Chashan, that he would kill him a hundred times over for torturing and killing innocent merchants out of revenge against him.

Yet, Azadin couldn’t stand it and ended Chashan’s life.

“Enough. That’s enough. Good heavens…”

Azadin swung Aurelia Dunn in the air and then placed it back into its scabbard.

“This should be enough of a lesson for Chashan. Even if they are vampires, this is not a punishment to inflict on a being with a soul.”

Azadin had only intended to use the Executioner of Azure, but he suddenly felt eyes on him.

“…Hmm.”

Chashan’s cousins, and the vampire spawn gathered here, were all looking at Azadin.

Although they were thugs, drug dealers, and criminals, they knew what it meant when Azadin sheathed Aurelia Dunn.

A weapon that seemed to destroy their souls just by touching it, he was not going to use Aurelia Dunn.

Seeing Azadin sheathing the Seramite longsword out of consideration for them, they lost their will to fight.

Chashan’s cousins laid down their weapons on the ground and knelt before Azadin.

“…We surrender.”

“Please, sir. Forgive our past recklessness.”

“……”

The other vampire spawn were also flustered, then laid down their weapons and knelt.

But Bernard shook his head.

“Sir Azadin. Vampire spawn are bound to submit to the blood lord who made them vampires. Even if they surrender now…”

“Shut up, wizard! We know that much too! What do you think we were prepared to do when we threw away our weapons and knelt?! Do you know what a dwarf’s knee means?!”

Chashan’s cousin, a dwarven sorcerer, was enraged at those words. He cast a spell of destruction arrow and then released it against his own head.

-Bang!

The dwarven sorcerer’s head flew off, killing him instantly.

“Prince Kalzmatti has come with vampires. He can freely cause Elemental Wailing [A magical phenomenon that causes sickness and can turn people into magic stones], making healthy people sick and turning them into magic stones.”

The dwarven sorcerer who said that blew his own head off again.

Rather than fighting Azadin and burning to death in the Seramite flames, they chose to commit suicide cleanly.

“Hey…”

“As that wizard said, we are lower-level vampires and may be controlled by our blood lord. We don’t want to burn to death in the Seramite flames, and we don’t have the audacity to rely on your mercy and ask you to kill us with that axe-spear. We already died as dwarves a few hours ago, so this is not suicide but rest. Ancestors! Please accept our souls!”

The dwarf vampires began to kill themselves one after another.

*********

“Kyahahahahaha!”

Prince Kalzmatti, having captured the Sandokar Gate and completely occupied the earldom, burst into laughter.

He had drunk so much blood that he felt as if he had ascended to paradise.

In the excitement of bloodsucking, at the peak of pleasure, Prince Kalzmatti gathered and manipulated the magic power generated by the Elemental Wailing and scattered it into the sky.

Rain clouds formed, obscuring the brightening eastern sky in the distance.

The power to freely summon torrential rain and thunderstorms to block out the sun.

To vampires, it was truly the power of a god.

He had finally gained control of the Elemental Wailing and was now able to create vampires at will.

The research that the Banreung Academy had gathered many wizards to study had finally yielded results.

“Now, drink to your heart’s content! Dwarves will now rule this world!”

Prince Kalzmatti, drunk on bloodsucking, could not hide his excitement and rampaged.

“Congratulations on finally achieving the first step of the great work.”

“Yes. Hahahaha!”

Prince Kalzmatti was delighted to hear his subordinates’ congratulations.

But then…

A group of cavalry was seen running along the southwest road.

Less than ten people on horseback were approaching.

The largest horses that dwarves could ride were ponies, so anyone riding such horses was obviously human.

He had clearly sent Chashan’s group down, so why were humans approaching in the middle of the night?

“No way… Is that Azadin?”

Prince Kalzmatti also knew Azadin’s name.

A man who was a member of the Messenger Clan and the Knights of Salvation, the Kinslayer. This figure, even branded a traitor among the Messenger Clan, was already known throughout the Hybris region.

“…No, how incompetent must these guys be.”

Prince Kalzmatti doubted his eyes when Azadin’s group appeared.

How many were Chashan and his men? They had become vampire spawn and had a large number of blunderbusses.

It was a difference in military strength that was hard to lose even if they wanted to. Even if Azadin was as skilled a warrior and wizard as his reputation suggested, there was no way he could have dealt with that many vampire spawn so quickly.

Perhaps Chashan’s group was too stupid and foolish and had simply gotten lost from each other.

Otherwise, there was no way Azadin’s group could have advanced this far at this time.

“But this guy is not in his right mind either.”

Prince Kalzmatti scoffed as he watched Azadin approach without flinching at all, despite seeing his forces.

But then, a woman next to Prince Kalzmatti clicked her tongue.

“Niselda…”

“Hmm? What is it, Diore?”

“Your Highness. Do you remember your promise to Griselda?”

The female vampire called Diore asked.

“What promise was that?”

“The promise that if you found Griselda’s daughter, Niselda, when attacking the Knight’s Territory, you would secure her. And it seems that the one coming over there is Niselda. This blood smell… half-vampires are not that common.”

She warned.

“In other words, the opponent knows us well, yet they are approaching with that small number. We must be careful. They must have something they are confident in.”

“Hmm. Isn’t it just that they got separated from Chashan? And I don’t know if she’s a half-vampire or whatever. Besides, it’s been quite a while since I saw Griselda’s daughter, the half-vampire. Even a dwarf child would grow up so much that you wouldn’t recognize them, let alone a human child. Isn’t she just mistaken?”

“Still…”

“I’m going to kill her. I don’t like that arrogant Griselda. How dare she order me to find her daughter or not.”

Kalzmatti showed that he didn’t care who the opponent was. As a dwarven prince, he was only focused on repaying the contempt that the Banreung Kingdom had received. And how dare a vampire who didn’t even have a kingdom tell him what to do?

“Your Highness, please do not forget that your blood lord is Ashajite. The request of Griselda, the priestess of Ashajite…”

-Crack!

At that moment, Diore’s head turned. It wasn’t just turned, it was a blow that was enough to break her neck.

Diore, who had momentarily lost consciousness, regained her senses, and Kalzmatti apologized.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I got carried away. Assaulting my aide, that was an undignified act unbecoming of royalty.”

“………”

“Will you accept my apology?”

“Of course. Then, Your Highness, I will send word to Chashan’s group to return.”

Diore, realizing that it was useless to talk to Kalzmatti, bowed to him and transformed into a bat, flying into the sky.

*********

The sky was burning with magic power.

The magic power emitted from those who died from the Elemental Wailing was being exploited by some force, and the remaining magic power was released into the sky, becoming a huge torrent flowing high above.

Azadin looked at the torrent of Elemental Wailing and examined where it was flowing.

It was flowing towards the north of the Banreung Kingdom, towards the Kerim Mountains.

The Kerim Mountains, where the headquarters of the Messenger Clan was located. The place where Azadin had spent his childhood. Looking at the flow of magic power, memories of his childhood suddenly came to mind.

He had thought it was a time full of only pain, but looking back, only beautiful memories came to mind.

Memories he could never return to, the smile of Aldis, and the beautiful scenery of those days were so vivid that his heart ached.

“Sir Azadin!”

“…Ah, yes.”

Azadin came to his senses at the voice calling him.

Niselda was calling him.

“Perhaps my mother might be there.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes. My biological mother, Griselda. A disgusting blood-sucking monster!”

Niselda did not hide her contempt even as she spoke of her mother.