Chapter 167: Chapter 167. Blood Princess (2)

Desir approached the soldiers who had lost their rationality, and placed his hands on their heads. He attempted to invert the magic currently possessing them.

‘So that’s why.’

Desir spoke to the members of Desir’s group. “I’ve figured out why we can’t invert the spell.”

The first thing Desir had tried when he saw the soldiers was to invert the spell. There was no other plausible explanation for the infection other than magic.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t invert the spell. No matter how hard he searched, he just couldn’t find any spell on them to invert in the first place.

After examining the soldiers, he was able to realize why he was unable to detect any magic. . “The soldiers weren’t individually possessed by the mind controlling spell. They were connected to the spells that the magician was arranging from a remote point.”

Desir pointed towards the blood that was running down from the soldiers’ face.

“This isn’t ordinary blood. It’s a conduit for the magician to arrange his spells through.”

This formless magic was well beyond human knowledge and ignored several theories that were the foundation of magic, as they knew it.

Undoubtedly, it was a form of Vision Magic. *Boom*

When the sound of an explosion came from somewhere nearby, Desir raised his head and looked around.

Black smoke billowed up from another location in the outskirts of the city. The Outsiders were still continuing their assault.

Desir didn’t hesitate in giving orders to Romantica. He needed information in order to accurately grasp the situation.

“Romantica… can you confirm the direction of the flow of the black smoke for me?” “Understood.”

Romantica, busy invoking the spell, didn’t seem very happy.

“The Outsiders have entered the castle and are now heading towards the harbor. The number of infected people is increasing and if this goes on… ”

Desir gave orders to a nearby soldier.

“Please hurry and communicate the current situation to Colonel Yuta. We should give up on the defense of the rampart and go defend the harbor.”

The harbor was the focal point for the supply route. No matter how hard they tried to hold the rampart, if the harbor was destroyed, then none of their efforts would matter.

Desir spoke towards the remaining soldiers.

“There are two ways we can resolve this situation. The first way is to pull the blood out of their body. The blood that is the catalyst of the spell.”

To do so, however, was impossible. It would mean death for the soldiers. “The second way is to get rid of the magician who is performing this spell.”

Desir was thinking that if they directly confronted the magician, they would definitely be able to stop the spell.

Even if they couldn’t invert the magic, if they could get rid of the magician, the spell would be broken.

“If we follow the trail of mana coming from the catalyst, we can find the magician and put an end to all this.”

* * *

The room was filled with the thick, pungent smell of blood.

Raden looked down from the top of the church spire.

He saw a crowd of people, numerous beyond count, who were shuffling around. No, to call them people wasn’t right. After all, they weren’t human anymore.

“… ”

It had a close resemblance to a tidal wave.

An army of the dead.

A spell that had started with a single individual was now dominating the entire Imperial Army, and had successfully forged a new army.

The undead army was flocking towards the location of the next skirmish between the Imperial Army and the Outsiders. As soon as they arrived, they lashed out indiscriminately, transforming both Imperial soldiers and members of the Outsiders alike.

This indiscriminate magic was unstoppable.

Even Raden had no choice but to watch the marching of the mad men.

“Isn’t my army magnificent? An artistic parade, filled with those who thirst for blood. I must admit, I’ve really outdone myself this time. I’ve sculpted this beautifully!”

Sculpted.

Feather Mask would usually use that expression to refer to the cruel treatment that she has placed upon others. She referred to herself as an artist.

‘… Turning the Outsiders, our own soldiers, is unnecessarily cruel.’

Raden kept his thoughts to himself. He was acutely aware of Feather Mask’s ability. “It’s almost time.”

“Time for what?”

“For us to achieve our goal, of course!”

“What are you talking about? Isn’t our goal to destroy the harbor, the enemy’s supply route?” Feather Mask just smiled in silence, not responding to Raden’s question.

It was a smile filled with pure excitement and thrill. *Crash*

There was a sound of an explosion and the building shook violently.

At the same time, sounds of weapons clashing and sounds of people screaming echoed through the building.

One of Raden’s subordinates rushed in and reported. “G-General, the Imperial Army has…!”

He could not finish his words. A pure white sword has penetrated his chest.

His body slumped, and revealed the Starling Party behind him, along with a few accompanying soldiers from the Imperial Army.

Raden recognized Desir and was startled. “That man… ”

He remembered Desir, because even though he didn’t use all his strength to strike him, Desir was able to easily block his hatchet, which he had infused with his Aura.

“I knew you would be able to reach here.” Feather Mask greeted them while clapping.

Even though Desir expected the magician to be aware of their arrival, since he had been following her flow of mana, he was suspicious of how they were greeting them in such a relaxed state.

“Were you waiting for us?”

“That’s correct. Desir Arman, I wanted to get the chance to meet you.”

Desir didn’t think it was strange that the Outsiders would know his name after the incident at Prillecha.

“I’m flattered.”

Raden’s subordinates started to surround the Starling Party.

Desir smirked as he looked around him, taking note of the number and power level of the soldiers surrounding them.

There were approximately thirty of them.

Feather Mask spoke Desir.

“All right. I would like to reward you since you managed to come here. Is there anything you want? How about a kiss?”

“That’s nice, but I was thinking maybe you could stop the spells that are wreaking havoc outside.”

“That may be a little difficult. It was a very tough spell to arrange, after all. Besides, I couldn’t cancel it, even if I wanted to. Hmm, if you don’t want the kiss, let’s see… What choice do we have here?”

After thinking for a while, she clapped.

“That’s right. You should probably see the face of the artist that will be sculpting you, right?” She took off her mask.

Behind the mask was a captivatingly beautiful woman. Her eyes and hair were redder than blood. Her lips were occupied by a smile which seemed like it could bewitch men.

She lifted her dress slightly to curtsy at Desir.

“Nice to meet you, I am Dracul Labutte Elkaera. I’m the only surviving Blood Magician in this world, and an artist beyond anything you’ve seen before.”

There was an intense, pungent smell of blood. At the same time, a red ghastly energy started to swirl around Dracul’s body.

She was almost certainly invoking a spell.

There was a faint sound of wailing mad men outside the window.

An explosively dangerous situation had developed.

*BANG*

A single gunshot signaled a declaration of war. A wind spell came out of nowhere and completely blew up the rooftop.

Before the Starling Party charged in, Romantica had positioned herself in a neighboring building. A sudden attack from an unexpected direction hit harder than imagined. One of Raden’s soldiers was killed in a blink of an eye.

“Everyone, attack.” “Waaarrghh!”

The Imperial Army charged towards Raden’s bandits, disconcerted from the sudden loss of their comrade. The initiative had been seized by Romantica’s quick thinking, and even quicker bullet.

Leading the Imperial Army’s charge was none other than Pram. “Keukkk!”

One of the bandits who was blocking his advance had a long red mark carved into his chest. He wasn’t able to dodge. Before too long, a few soldiers had fallen and the bandits continued to accrue damage. Raden wasn’t going to let his men fall needlessly, and joined the battle. He drew a hatchet and imbued it with his Aura. “How dare you… ”

“Your opponent is me.”

Adjest blocked Raden, preventing him from joining the battle. [Frozen Palace]

Dozens of ice spells were shot out from the gigantic palace. Raden wasn’t able to break through the walls of ice easily. With the number of spells flying towards him, he couldn’t join the main force of the battle, and was forced to focus on Adjest first.

He stole an opportunity to assess the situation outside.

“Krodin! North-East! The two-story building! You handle the sniper!”

He was able to identify the location of the sniper in an instant through the trajectory of the spells.

“Understood.”

Communication within a well-trained team could be extremely fast. Three subordinates started to head out in order to deal with the sniper.

When the Imperial Army couldn’t instantly crush Raden’s bandits, they began to enter formation while counter-attacking any oncoming blows.

Raden’s bandits were well-trained and masterfully controlled under his command. Their forces were composed of skilled soldiers ranging from the Pawn to Knight Classes.

Despite the huge numerical advantage the Imperial Army had, it wouldn’t be an easy battle to win.

When the cover that Romantica was providing them was cut off, the advantage had fallen to the Raden Bandits.

Pram made a strenuous effort to succeed, but he eventually resigned himself to preventing soldiers from dying rather than taking out the bandits.

Adjest’s situation was not all that great either.

Raden quickly adapted to the Frozen Palace. He was able to calmly deflect all the spells Adjest fired and slowly advanced.

Through tactical responses to the spells she invoked, Raden had turned this into close-quarters combat in no time.

Raden’s swordsmanship was far greater than Adjest’s. With each swing, he gained a greater advantage.

[Magic Sword: Ice Breath]

Adjest invoked her Magic Sword in order to gain the upper hand.

However, her trajectory was easy to read.

Raden parried Adjest’s Magic Sword with his right hatchet before it could even reach half way towards its intended destination.

While she was off-kilter, from the counter-attack, Raden swung his axe from the left side towards her neck.

Adjest barely raised her sword in time. *Claaang*

The impact of Raden’s Aura-imbued hatchet was too great for Adjest. She was launched backwards, but before Raden could take advantage of this, she formed a layer of ice to prevent his approach.

All of Adjest’s attacks were being read.

Adjest has experienced something like this before. It was just like when she faced off against Donape.

Raden was not an ordinary man either.

A man known as the King of the Mountains.

A strong man who dominated numerous battlefields with his ferocious bandits.

He didn’t just have overwhelming Aura… His swordsmanship was almost King Class.