I stared up at the sky, then lowered my gaze to study Luciela. As the fighting around us intensified, I sighed.
"Do you seriously intend to fight? I honestly don't like violence. At this rate, both our sides will suffer grievous losses. I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I believe my allies will be able to eliminate your comrades."
"Comrades?" Luciela laughed. "You're so naïve. I thought you would be a little more mature because you're the new Demonic Emperor, but you still lack the ruthlessness required to be a ruler."
"My reign is about ideals, not trampling upon the bodies of others," I replied and narrowed my eyes. "Though I understand the inevitability of casualties in battle, I do not like sacrificing my allies like pawns."
"Yet you do that anyway." Luciela shook her head. "You're so pretentious, pretending to be noble, but in the end, you're just like me."
"Ah, but you're mistaken." I raised both hands. "I'm not noble. I'm not a saint. I just don't like betraying others. I've been betrayed by my comrades once before, and it's not a good feeling. So if I'm going to request that my allies risk their lives for my goals, I'll at least be honest about it and give them a choice on whether they wish to help me or not. I'll at least have the decency to not deceive them and treat them as pawns."
Luciela snorted. "Whatever. I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you. I suppose we should just get on with this."
"All right." I drew my swords. "Let's settle this once and for all, Luciela of the South."
The ground shook beneath us as we clashed, almost as if there was an earthquake. Entire houses exploded from the tremendous impacts, splinters raining about. Fissures erupted, the earth unable to withstand the sheer violence.
As the smoke cleared, Luciela landed gracefully atop one of the broken houses, her bare foot gently setting on the surface of a relatively intact wooden beam. She smirked as she looked down on me.
"Hmm?"
She glanced around and saw the dozens of icicles that had punctured both houses and earth, their long, sleek forms resembling lances.
"I didn't expect you to already start casting magic," she remarked in amusement. "I thought for sure you would hold back to prevent any more damage to this human town. Being a former human, you hold a lot of affection for the people and homes here, don't you?"
"Well…I won't deny that," I conceded. "But…"
The blood dripping off my face slowly retreated back to the ugly gash on my temple, which immediately mended. My vampire regenerative abilities were kicking in, and I had to remove my glasses to wipe the blood off the lenses.
"…it turns out that preserving this town isn't practical at all."
Raising my hand, I conjured a fresh batch of icicles and had all of them point toward the stationary Luciela.
"Besides, while you criticize me for using magic, weren't you the one who started employing your demonic tricks first?"
I fired off a barrage of icicles at Luciela, but she didn't move from her spot. Nonetheless, there was a blur and something massive lashed out, swatting the icicles to the side and shattering them. Luciela giggled and shrugged.
"Sorry, it seems that I've might have been a tad dishonest, doesn't it?"
Two tails burst from underneath her long, frilly dress, snaking through the ground and sending smashed rocks and gravel into the air. I could catch glimpses of multiple mouths opening up, jagged teeth ringed around their maws and barbed tongues flicking out. One of the tails slithered over her shoulder and Luciela stroked it lovingly with a hand.
"I was hoping you wouldn't see them under my long dress."
"I got careless," I admitted. My glasses had an x-ray function and I failed to activate it for this battle, otherwise I would have seen the sneak attack coming. Stupid of me, subconsciously treating her like a normal woman and not wanting to see what was underneath that dress. "I shouldn't have tried to be a gentleman."
"You? A brat like you claiming to be a gentleman? Don't make me laugh."
"…yeah, well. Master did tell me that men can never win a duel of words against women." I never took him seriously because he was obsessed with goblins and his only words were "I see" or "is that so?" But it seemed like he was right.
Taking a deep breath, I froze the entire area around us, turning the ruined town into a tundra. Luciela shook her head as she struck the ice aside, her demonic aura protecting her from the cold.
"You really don't intend to hold back, do you?"
"Neither do you," I pointed out, sheathing Nocturne and drawing Night Fang. With a single flick of my hand, I lashed out with the black whip, causing Luciela to jump aside.
"That's more like it," she said with a giggle. "For all your talk of being a gentleman, you're just as brutal as a barbarian."
I didn't respond to her barbs and continued to attack, this time aiming for one of her tails. The whip coiled around the appendage and sliced through it, causing the dismembered thing to flop helplessly on the ground. Luciela clicked her tongue, but she managed to regenerate her tail without much effort.
While she did so, I was already casting another spell. Raising Blood Angel to the heavens, I replaced the icicles with blood lances. With a swing, I launched a volley of blood spears down upon Luciela, who calmly remained where she was standing.
She scoffed as she watched the bombardment. "Oh? Did you think that your spell somehow got more powerful because you changed its color?"
Swerving in midair, the blood spears homed in on her and lanced toward her frail body. Luciela calmly raised one of her tails, the gnashing mouths growling and biting incessantly. To her surprise, the blood lance obliterated her tail instantly and the Possessed leader found herself impaled by at least five massive blood lances.
I watched her for a few moments, swapping my Blood Fang for Nocturne. I knew that wouldn't kill Luciela. A being as powerful as her wouldn't succumb so easily.
I was right.
"I see. You didn't change the color. That red sword in your hand…it has the ability to augment your blood spells, right? No wonder your vampire magic is several degrees stronger than your ice magic."
She sighed, almost sounding regretful.
"What a pity. I really liked this town. I was hoping I could preserve at least some portion of it."
I instinctively jumped several paces backward when the demonic aura around her flared like a supernova. Right before my eyes, Luciela transformed, her body swelling and growing rapidly. Her dress was ripped apart and her face contorted and expanded, along with her body. Spikes burst out from her back and horns frilled her head.
Within seconds, she was a humanoid monster the size of a house, almost crouching on fours. There was a feline grace to her new form, a grotesque beauty that enthralled and disturbed simultaneously. Her yellow eyes fixed upon me, she purred half menacingly and half seductively.
Tensing, she looked as if she was going to pounce. Not that I was going to give her the chance to do so. I immediately launched another barrage of blood lances, which pierced through her body mercilessly with thunderous impacts.
"What the…?"
My eyes widened when I saw that my spell did no damage this time. In the areas where my blood spears had penetrated, organic maws with jagged teeth had opened up, chewing the blood spears and swallowing them with sickening crunches.
"I honestly don't understand you vampires," Luciela said as she stared at me condescendingly. "How can you stand drinking blood? Human meat is so much more delicious."
"I almost thought you were going to say human guts," I muttered under my breath.
"Of course…human guts are the most delicious portion."
Okay…I so didn't need to know that. Shaking my head, I refocused my energies on the battle before me. Adjusting the stances of both my swords, I prepared to charge. Mana crackled dangerously along both blades.
"Looks like I'll need to do a lot more damage with each strike."
"Ho…hand to hand combat, huh? I like it." Luciela licked her mutated lips with a purr. "I'll devour every last piece of you."
The both of us charged and clashed in the middle of the town, colliding with such force that it razed the entire section we were occupied in. The explosive burst of mana buffeted the other vampires and Possessed, bowling them over.
"Amazing…" Larson momentarily broke away from his wounded opponent – a gigantic humanoid with black carapace as hard as steel and triple pincer-like claws for hands. "So that's his majesty's true power."
"His opponent is extremely strong too," Stella remarked, concern in her tone as she flipped herself over a blob-like demon with several heads. It hissed and struck at her with several barbed tentacles, but she easily severed them with her claymore…ahem, I mean red sword. "Just what on earth is she?"
"An Abysmal Ruler," Eleanor replied, her retinue having retreated so that they could leave the Possessed to Larson and his knights, plus Stella. They weren't idle, though. They were combining forces to cast a net of blood stakes that rained down upon the Possessed and deal incredible damage.
However, the Possessed Beings possessed regenerative abilities similar to that of vampires. Already they were healing from the grievous wounds and redoubling their efforts aggressively. Displaying superior physical power and flexible mutant abilities, they hunted the vampires relentlessly like super-predators, prowling through the ruins of the town.
The vampires were not to be outmatched, though. What they lacked in raw strength and mutations, they more than made up for with skill and magic. Larson quickly issued an order and his knights swiftly switched formation, closing ranks and bringing up their shields to deflect the claws, fangs and various appendages of their opponents.
While they did so, Eleanor and her retinue cast more devastating spells, including a wave of corrosive blood that reduced a behemoth into nothing, his hulking form dissolving under the acidic red tide.
While they continued to fight, embroiled in their own struggle, explosions continued occurring throughout the remains of Zaid Town. More houses were demolished, the roads were wrecked, and even the nearby plains and trees were razed. I deflected one of Luciela's tail aside with Blood Angel, only for her other tail to strike at me from the right. Barely able to parry the tail – which was full of ravenous mouths – with Nocturne, I was then forced to retreat when Luciela slashed at me from the front with her claws.
Jumping back, I conjured a shield made out of ice, but she easily smashed through it and kept coming. Another volley of icicles rained down on her, and even though the mouths opened up to chew on them, this time ice began to spread from the supposed wounds.
"This…!"
Luciela frowned when she noticed the ice expanding all over her body. I shrugged and smirked, even as I continued to retreat.
"Since you'll just eat whatever projectiles I throw at you anyway, I thought of making it a little colder for you."
"This won't be enough to hurt me, but it's really annoying." With a click of her feline tongue, Luciela shattered the ice with her demonic aura and whipped one of her tails at me again. It smashed through my second ice shield and I had to block it with my crossed swords. Despite defending myself successfully, the power behind the blow was so huge that I was sent hurtling backward.
Eleanor did warn me that the Possessed were physically much stronger than vampires…
While the two of us fought, we hardly noticed a single newcomer approaching the ruins of Zaid Town. Neither vampire nor Possessed, she was a human. Clad in silver armor and carrying a claymore strapped to her back, she watched the fight from the distance.
Her attention particularly focused on Luciela, the newcomer's gaze was filled with sorrow and regret.