“Just let you witness the power of the Vampire True Ancestor!”
Facing the howling gale, Sophia instantly reached the edge of the explosion. Magic kept her little skirt plastered tight against her thighs; otherwise, it would have fluttered like willow leaves in the wind, swept away by the hurricane.
Countless trees and leaves, mingled with muddy dust and unrecognizable debris, all transformed at high speed into a barrage of razor-sharp blades—no less deadly than a storm of bullets. If an ordinary person stepped into that wall of tempest, they’d be churned into pitiful chunks of meat, struggling futilely in a giant grinder.
Then…
She saw it.
Blinding golden radiance, laced through the onslaught, rolled in from beyond the storm wall. This wasn’t some ordinary explosive shockwave, nor the chaos of a hidden divine power run amok…
No, it was a premeditated time bomb, triggered ahead of schedule by the expansion of the Evil Dragon Domain—or perhaps remotely detonated by some schemer at this critical moment. Clearly… before the Evil Dragon Domain could fully envelop the area, this blast had the potential to wreak utter devastation.
This level of destruction…
Without the Evil Dragon Domain’s suppression, at least ten thousand Demons inside the city walls would have perished in the explosion. Left unchecked, over a thousand more would have been obliterated by the Light Envoy’s power.
If triggered at just the right moment, could even the Demon King withstand such terrifying force…?
What vile bastard had planted this trap?
Sophia thrust out one hand. In an instant, a mass of crimson energy coalesced into a massive scythe gripped firmly in her grasp—its exaggerated size dwarfing even her petite 150-centimeter frame.
“Hyah—!”
With a fierce cry, Sophia unleashed a storm of scarlet from the scythe. On any other day, it would have shaken mountains to their roots. But against the crisis before her, it proved as helpless as a fledgling chick, devoured in mere heartbeats by the far more ferocious whirlwind. Amid this apocalyptic vista, it became nothing but a disheartening, unfunny joke.
“That’s way too much, damn it! At least twitch a little, come on!”
“No helping it. Time to use that one.”
Sophia dropped to the ground and bit her lip. Crimson blood trickled slowly from the corner of her mouth, utterly unaffected by the encroaching wind wall, falling vertically like a droplet of lead.
The moment it touched the barren earth beneath her feet, the blood ballooned outward, spreading in a narrow red circle around her. Bloodlines extended from its edge, forming an outer ring… And so, with the blood’s relentless creep, a vast crimson blood array materialized underfoot. In mere seconds, it swelled from a few paces wide to the size of a football field, still expanding at the same relentless pace.
“‘Blood Blade Domain’!”
In a flash, the overcast sky shifted to a deep wine-red hue of blood. The array beneath deepened to an even richer crimson, enveloping all who trod there in the eerie atmosphere of a sacrificial blood rite.
The only reply was the wind’s savage howl.
“Setra, you idiot! This technique only works on living things! What an idiot—total moron!”
Sophia stomped her foot, quivering with rage at the General. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She wanted to drain her dry as punishment—of course, by sucking her blood.
But outright draining her would be letting her off too easy.
Better to turn her into a Blood Servant instead. As the Vampire True Ancestor, enslaving Dark Filth was entirely feasible; it was just trickier than with humans or other non-Dark Filth races.
Sophia shoved aside such idle thoughts and refocused on the battlefield.
“Gorgeous robes, brilliant eyes, goblets of skulls, rain of scarlet… In this moment, let the world taste agony!”
As the incantation ended, the blood array flared with blinding light, as if some vital gear had clicked into place. The entire formation began to rotate slowly, then faster and faster, until it blurred into a dizzying vortex of flaming crimson.
“Ssssizzle—!”
From the earth erupted countless blood thorns, each the size of two grown adults and rose-hued as fresh gore. They burst skyward like a torrential downpour, hurtling toward the heart of the explosion. In an instant, the space before Sophia dissolved into a hellscape of brutal crimson.
Millennia ago, against the armies of alien foes, this Vampire True Ancestor’s barrier could have massacred nearly any human legion. But before the Light Envoy’s absurdly swelling power, it amounted to little more than a misty drizzle.
…It wouldn’t end there, though.
“Blood Thorns—shatter!”
Soul Tier Layer 6
The powerhouses of the Camiran Continent were defined as A-Rank by the Light Envoy. Even the antagonists of the world’s most intractable crisis realms were among the scant handful of supreme experts across all planes. Not many gods at the entry level of Soul Tier could reach this daunting height. They could only lift the soul restrictions on humans, nurturing those exceptionally gifted individuals with immense potential until they grew strong enough to vanquish the Demon King. This was the key strategy most gods employed to reclaim worlds not yet fully defiled by the Dark Filth.
As Sophia’s voice echoed across the land, the soldiers who had been clinging to their desperate last stand seemed to hear some rallying call. Amid the dust-choked, rampaging storm, one crimson explosion after another bloomed, transforming into brilliant fireworks that reignited their fighting spirits.
And so, the Demon Race soldiers who had rushed to the front lines unleashed their magic as well, striving to keep this force beyond the city walls. Dazzling spells streaked forth like a barrage of cannon fire, converging on the shockwave from every angle…
“Charge—!”
“For the Demon King! For the Dragon King!”
From the initial blast to the erection of the barrier, no more than three minutes had passed.
“Aaah, hold the line! Hold it!”
Sophia was drenched in cold sweat.
A true Soul Tier Layer 6 powerhouse might have blocked such an attack single-handedly. But she had merely absorbed Setra’s blood to borrow a fleeting burst of power.
Even back when she was the Vampire True Ancestor, her base strength had only been Soul Tier Layer 4…
Sophia felt a profound regret.
Had she not lost most of her power, how could a mere god-forged explosion affect her?
The storm paused. The magic had worked. The sky reverted to the Demon Realm’s signature dimly lit clarity, and the cataclysmic spectacle vanished.
“Did we do it?”
“As expected of Miss Sophia. Ah, I’m beat…”
Exhaustion felled most of the soldiers; they sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath, while a few slipped straight into unconsciousness.
But…
Only Sophia gazed on in despair at what lurked beneath the shattered, quelled storm: a near-perfect translucent sphere, slowly expanding and annihilating everything in reach of the true peril. Its path carved a perfect hemispherical crater into the earth, like a mold pressed into the ground.
“Setra, you’re such an idiot…”
She should have just grabbed Setra and fled.
Sophia had expended all her strength; she no longer had the power to evacuate everyone.
That Soul Tier Layer 6 outburst had merely pierced the enemy’s laughable illusion.
Now…
What should they do?
