Chapter 255 — 결전(決戰)
Chapter 255
Decisive Battle
Batu tossed the Demon King’s corpse, which no longer bled, carelessly onto the ground.
Then he waited in silence.
For any kind of change.
But—
“…No effect at all.”
Batu frowned as he looked down at his own hands.
Dragon’s blood and a Demon King’s blood. He’d thought mixing the two would awaken some new ability, but it seemed he’d guessed wrong.
There wasn’t even the slightest backlash, much less a change.
A thought flickered through his mind—he should have listened when Sagnard tried to teach him magic back in the day.
But as a great warrior, he’d dismissed such parlor tricks as beneath him.
The higher he climbed, the more strength he gained, the more parched he felt.
And so—
More.
He needed more blood.
Thump!
Thump!
His heart kicked into a harsh gallop again. Blood raced; his nerves stood on end. His skin hardened like stone, and thirst rose in his throat.
‘Again.’
Batu hated this thirst for blood.
It made him feel as if he weren’t in control of himself.
What he’d once taken lightly had been coming more often—and worse—lately. The thirst itself had deepened, too.
At this rate, he might really lose the self called “Batu.”
‘No. Not yet.’
Batu’s eyes flushed a furious red.
‘Not yet.’
There was something he had to do.
Even when he first drank the dragon’s blood gifted by the Guardian Dragon, he’d braced himself for side effects like this.
—Even if you gain my power, don’t draw on it too often. The more you do, the less you will remain yourself.
You are human, not a dragon. Wasn’t that the Guardian Dragon’s warning?
Batu had ignored it.
He had drawn on the dragon’s power more often, dug deeper, tried to scrape the bottom. His body had hardened; he’d gained a superhuman might no ordinary person could possess.
If others were candles, he was a torch.
A torch that could melt everything.
The wick might be short, and it would go out soon—but once he’d begun to burn, he intended to blaze gloriously to the end.
Even if he fell here and now, he wanted a world where his people could live easy, no longer fearing the Empire’s yoke…
“What a waste. Why’d you spill all this?”
Batu’s train of thought snapped.
His gaze swung over.
There stood Elric, wearing a look of genuine regret.
He regarded the Demon King’s corpse, dissolving into smoke, the way one might mourn a dripping banquet spilled on the floor.
In that instant, Batu felt the bloodthirst that had been heating his body go cold, as if doused with a pail of water.
“Been a while, hasn’t it?”
It was him.
The one tearing down everything he’d built, from the ground up.
“The brat who wasn’t worth noticing back then has grown a lot.”
“From here on out, that brat’s going to beat you senseless. You okay with that?”
“You joke well.”
Batu gave a thin sneer and reached for the sword stuck in the ground.
His smile turned vicious.
“Let’s see if you can keep running your mouth with your head hanging from a city gate.”
“Ugh. Why jump to such foul language so fast? This is why people say you lot are under-civilized.”
The moment those words ended, both figures vanished from where they stood.
Krakoom!
Rrrrrumble, rrrr—
A brutal blast blew the barracks to pieces.
A battle had erupted in the heart of the mountain tribes’ camp.
* * *
Word reached Prince Kromhel at once.
“Report from the scouts: an unexplained explosion in the barbarians’ camp!”
“It’s begun.”
Prince Kromhel looked back at the troops who’d been standing by to move out.
“It’s time to go home. Let’s go.”
“Waaaaaah!”
A great roar went up.
Thoom, thoom, thoom—!
The Imperial Army’s Grand Headquarters began a full-scale advance.
* * *
“…Elric, don’t get hurt.”
Sean let the roar shaking the Grand Headquarters wash past his ears and took a long breath.
But somehow, his heart only pounded harder.
He couldn’t calm down.
All of it because of that damned Elric… that bastard.
If life had gone to plan, he’d be doing TA work at the Academy, finishing his doctorate around now, then entering the Mage Tower to start the track for professorship.
Ever since he met that damned guy, his smooth(?) life plan had felt like it’d been wrapped around the axle.
So to get his smooth life back, Sean had to end this war.
Preferably in a way that let him and Elric walk home smiling.
“Hoo!”
He drew a deep breath, forcing his mind to settle.
“Circle Master.”
“Heh-heh-heh. I’ve no idea how many times I’ve had to suffer because of that damned disciple.”
With Augustine’s grumble, the Elder Council began to move.
* * *
“The Imperial Army’s launched a surprise attack!”
“Where? Where?”
“Where Lord Batu is!”
“Damn it all…! Cowardly Imperials, using tricks like this!”
Chaos gripped the mountain tribes’ camp.
They’d been wound tight already, never knowing when the final showdown with the Empire would come—and now they’d been dragged into battle without warning.
The Guard scrambled to rush to Batu’s aid. When spotter reports followed that the Imperial Army’s Grand Headquarters had begun to move, the confusion only worsened.
The decisive battle had begun—from a direction no one had expected.
Koo-koo-koom!
The first thing Elric did the moment he clashed with Batu was threefold.
“Absorb.”
First, he absorbed all of Lazuli’s demonic mana that Batu had so wastefully let spill onto the ground.
Chshhh—
He couldn’t just leave something so precious soaking into the dirt. His shadow swept out, devouring the Demon King’s mana wherever it found it.
Having swallowed two Demon Kings in a row, the dissolution rate of his mana stones spiked—so much that, at first, it was almost hard to handle.
“Sweep.”
Second, he summoned the Guardians.
As his shadow spread wide, the Guardians swelled massively in size.
So when the Guard, alerted by the commotion, rushed in to aid Batu, all they saw were colossal Guardians who obeyed only their master’s command.
Clang-clang-clang!
“Wh—where did things like that come from…!”
“Lord Batu! Looord Batuuu!”
Needless to say, the Guardians were very strong.
Strong enough that even those who prided themselves as warriors struggled to face them.
On top of that—
Whirr, whirr, whirr!
Kra-kooom—
A ceaseless blizzard howled, ice arrows lancing down, making it hard even to approach.
And the last thing Elric attempted—
“Inhabit.”
Possession.
“Hah-hah-hah! Is it finally my turn to take the stage?”
King Yulho was delighted to finally get involved. In the centuries of his absence, he’d wanted to experience firsthand how the outside world had changed.
But—
“Elric.”
Just as King Yulho began to possess him, another voice rang through Elric’s head.
‘Țepeș?’
One of the Six of Winter, the summoning-type necromancer known as the Blood Lord.
Why was he calling out to Elric all of a sudden?
“Use me.”
Elric’s eyes widened a touch at the request.
If it were Nahatram or Mia, maybe—but this was the first time either Țepeș or Damir had asked for this.
“Hey? Hey-hey! Cutting in line is a bit much, no?”
“My apologies, King of a later age. But I have good reason.”
‘What is it?’
“He appears to be using dragonblood. Correct?”
‘He is.’
“Then use me. There is no one in this world who surpasses me when it comes to the handling of blood. I can also set you on the proper path.”
Elric was about to say he’d been managing dragonblood just fine without Țepeș and had nothing to worry about.
But a thought struck him.
What if there was another way—one he didn’t know?
Shouldn’t he learn that, too?
“You won’t regret it.”
Elric recalled Țepeș commanding that skeletal giant who hadn’t yielded even to Azazel.
If one of the Six of Winter said so, then so it was.
‘All right.’
“Much obliged.”
“Tch. I finally get to cut loose, and…”
Leaving a disappointed King Yulho behind—
Elric drew Țepeș’s soul down into his body.
Might as well seize the chance to absorb a new trump card.
Whirrrrr…!
A powerful wave of mana rippled out from Elric. Only this time, the radiance that was always a bright gold burned a deep crimson.
He felt a sizable mass of alien knowledge streak through his mind.
Țepeș’s black magic differed from the usual sort that required contracts with demons.
His sorcery’s essence was blood.
“Blood is one of the body’s most foundational components, and thus serves exquisitely as a medium for carrying a caster’s intent outward.”
Elric saw Batu, thrown back by the shockwave, charge at him again.
Given this was an enemy who could only seize the advantage through close combat, not magic, he had little choice but to keep pressing.
But even that brief moment was enough to swing the initiative his way.
Elric gripped an ice dagger in his right hand, then drew a long line across his outstretched left palm.
Blood spattered into the air.
Fwaa—
Blood motes spread like mist, becoming a fog.
He snapped his fingers.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
Bloodburst Rounds—blood compacted into explosive bullets—spat in a relentless stream.
“Hmph! Pointless!”
Pop-pop-pop—boom—
Batu snorted and hewed his sword in a great arc. A massive gust sent the rounds caroming skyward one after another.
But Elric didn’t tense. He simply drew two long blades out of the blood fog.
Unlike the ice spears he favored, these were twin swords stained scarlet.
He crossed them in an X, and the blood fog swirled, aura condensing bright along the edges.
Chaaang!
“…Kh!”
Agony rang up Batu’s blade; he clenched his teeth. His eyes widened in disbelief.
He’d been driven back—even with his strength multiplied by dragonblood?
In some ways, the brute force opposing him surpassed his own.
As if reading his thoughts, a cold smile touched Elric’s lips.
“You didn’t actually think you were the only one in the world with dragonblood, did you?”
“…!”
Batu’s face went rigid. He’d never imagined the Guardian Dragon would share its blood with an outsider!
But his shock didn’t last long.
The senses honed by dragonblood screamed.
Danger. Right behind him.
Fwoosh!
He heeded the warning, twisted, and knocked the attack away.
Chaaang. And yet he still found himself startled again.
Another Elric was there.
The Mage Who Devours Talent