As the vampire took off in pursuit of the young man, Joan was left behind. The newly acquired information left her surprised and confused. Leaving the young man who seemed to be just a thief aside, why was her palace invaded by a vampire and why was this being calling her a sinner?
Not knowing the motivations behind this vampire's actions, she could only surmise what it could be. For him saying that the research center is a sin in itself and that he wants to kill her, the creator of the research center, all pointed to one thing, the tools she replicated from her previous world.
This assumption is further strengthened when she add the fact that what he told the young man about the things he took were forbidden and could not be spread around the world.
Because the young man ran away at full speed after striking the vampire, it shows his strength and because Joan is weak, the young man must have received higher priority. Apparently, even if that young man was a sneaky cat burglar, this ended up saving her temporarily.
With that said, Joan was lost, what should she do now?
Before she could come up with an answer, the place shook strongly. Without much thought, the most obvious answer is that the vampire probably caught up with the fleeing young man and the two entered into combat.
After a few more tremors, the wall not far from her exploded. Due to the impact, she was unable to react and was thrown by the explosion.
Spinning uncontrollably in the air, she fell with a thud to the ground.
Having her head shaken, Joan was stunned for a few seconds before coming to her senses. But when she tried to get up, the pain in her body stopped her as she let out a pitiful scream.
She didn't know the extent of the damage to his body, but every inch of her was sore and full of blood. As far as she could see, there were iron shards in her body and some burns.
Clenching her teeth, Joan tried to resist the pain as she took a miraculous potion from her inventory and drank it. In a matter of seconds, the shrapnel was expelled from her body and her wounds began to close. In place of the skin damaged by the burns, another was born and her body was brand new again.
Feeling no more pain, Joan looked around again and noticed that although she couldn't see the young man and the vampire, from the shaking, the fight between the two was still going on.
Afraid of a repeat of what had happened, she began to make her way outside. Although the vibrations from the fight could probably reach down into the underground shelter, because it was a few meters underground, Joan was not worried that it would be affected there.
Making her way while trying to avoid being involved in the young man's and the vampire's fight, Joan finally made it out of the research center. The place in which she appeared was where her soldiers were fighting the invaders.
To her misfortune, at the same instant she left, the man in gray clothes fighting Vincent noticed her.
"That's our target," he shouted.
With a yellow orb of magic in his hand, he turned to the five dealing with the soldiers and pointed at Vincent.
"Hold this bastard, I'm going to kill her!"
Seeing his opponent turn his back on him and threaten to kill his wife, Vincent was furious.
"Your opponent is me!" he shouted as he advanced on the man in gray.
However, even though it appeared that he had ignored Vincent to change targets, this was not the case.
The instant the angry Vincent approached him, the man turned quickly and attacked him with the yellow sphere, hitting the chest of his armor.
With the yellow sphere producing a deafening explosion, Vincent was thrown far away as his scream of pain ran throughout the place.
"Vin!" Joan shouted in despair as she saw her beloved come bouncing out and rolling like a ball on the floor.
"Protect the queen!"
Even without having regained his balance, Vincent managed to shout such words.
This also made Joan realize the situation she was in. However, even if she wanted to run away, given her physical capabilities, this was not possible.
In front of her, the man in gray clothes was approaching quickly while her soldiers who tried to come to her rescue were being stopped by the men in black.
As the man approached, she noticed that he had a similar appearance to the silver-clothed man. Red eyes, pointed ears, and pale skin. That only meant one thing, another vampire.
Taking this into consideration, those who were completely dressed in black were probably also vampires.
When the man in gray was just a few feet away from Joan and the situation seemed hopeless, something unusual happened.
From the man's own shadow, a huge black double-edged axe came out and hit him in the stomach. Like a hot knife through butter, the edge of the axe passed through his belly, almost splitting him in two.
Holding the axe handle, a woman stepped out of the shadows and landed a hook on his chin, making him lean backward. Firmly holding the axe handle that had passed her head height, the woman struck downward.
With a clean cut that started from the shoulder to the ribs while passing through the heart, the man had his torso cut off in two.
With his two halves on the ground, the vampire was still trying to crawl, but before he could do anything, the woman smashed his head with her axe.
When Joan got a good look at her rescuer, she discovered that she was a young cowkin who was probably not even 18 years old yet.
Seeing that one of their own had been easily killed, the men in black stopped their fight against the soldiers. Without any kind of verbal communication, they changed their target. Leaving the soldiers behind, the men were moving towards Joan.
To get past the cowkin girl, they split up as they went along. As it turned out, Joan was top priority.
However, their plan was useless. Moving even faster, the cowkin girl kicked the belly of the one further ahead.
Unable to react, the man flew off and before he landed on the ground, he let out a miserable scream.
The place he was thrown to should be empty, but out of nowhere, an arm was thrust through his chest. At the end of this arm, a blue hand with long sharp claws was holding the beating heart of the man in black.
From the way he was struggling as he tried to escape, it showed that he had great vitality. This is described as a common characteristic of vampires.
Although vampires were classified as the living dead, their cold blood still runs through their veins.
Showing his tenacity, even without his heart, the vampire tried to escape, but it was already too late for him. Even though he was slowly dying, the person who had impaled him drove its claws into his head and tore it apart.
With a fierce look on her face, the person who killed the vampire threw his body to the ground and shook her hand to wipe the blood away as if it were nothing.
This person was a woman with blue hair, blue skin, and a pair of pointed horns on her forehead. Joan had no idea of her specific race, but she was sure that she was a demon.
With one down, there were still four more vampires left, but the next thing Joan knew, they were all trapped. Their own shadows had grabbed their legs and before they could escape, they were pierced by shadow spines.
The attack itself was not deadly to the vampires, but their trapped feet were.
The two girls didn't miss the opportunity and finished all four of them off easily. It was a brutal scene. Those who were not split in half by the huge axe, had their heads destroyed by the sharp claws of the demon woman.
"That was not part of the plan," the blue-haired demon girl spoke to the cowkin girl.
"I feel bad if we rob them and they still end up dying," the cowkin girl said.
From what they just said, these two were probably with the young man who was fighting the silver-clothed vampire.
At that moment, the soldiers arrived and surrounded the two young women, but since they had saved their queen, they did not attack them.
"Put down your swords," Joan shouted.
Following her orders, the soldiers lowered their weapons, but remained vigilant. At the same time, Vincent, who was sent flying, came toward Joan at full speed.
Reaching her, he began to look at her bloodied body and her sweater that was in tatters.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yes, I took the potion."
Vincent wasn't much different from Joan either, his armor was full of dents and bloodstains. Although he had been hit by an explosion at close range, like Joan, he had also drunk a healing potion.
Since he was a fighter and was always on the front lines taking risks, Joan had given him some healing potions that she got when she was reincarnated.
"What's going on?" Vincent asked.
Before Joan could make a response, the research center behind her exploded and a figure stepped out. It was the young man who was fighting the silver-clothed vampire.
Standing in the air, the young man concentrated a dense amount of magic in his hand.
"You better run," the cowkin girl said as she ran.
Following her example, Vincent grabbed Joan in his arms and ran with the soldiers.
Seconds later, a huge deafening explosion came from behind them.
The research center, which was practically an iron fortress, was now nothing but a burning heap of molten iron.
With an ache in her heart at having one of her most precious possessions destroyed, Joan prayed that those in the underground shelter would be safe.
"What a tough bastard," the young man muttered as he landed on the ground.
Under everyone's gaze, a figure came walking over the molten iron. With the flames consuming its body, the vampire's skin was completely charred. But due to its healing, the burnt parts were falling off and giving way to new skin, which was soon charred again.
Even though it seemed like an extremely painful process, the vampire seemed to feel no pain as he chanted a spell, which Joan could understand only the end.
"Rise up and imprison my enemies, chain of shadows!"
Emerging from the ground, the shadows were high in the sky. With the vampire as the epicenter, a spider web spread out, taking over the entire castle area.
When the vampire came completely out of the fire, there was not a single piece of tissue on his body as his burned flesh regenerated.
"Now that the situation has come to this, none of you are going to get out of here alive," the vampire said.
Seemingly amused by the situation, the young man laughed and a black spear appeared in his hand.
"That is an interesting statement. Let's see if you have the strength to back up those words."