Chapter 398

Chapter 398
## Chapter 398

An Unknown Threat (4)

Temiran McCleary directed his crimson glare at the glowing holy blade aimed straight at his chest. His mind spun furiously, searching for any possible escape route from this predicament.

‘…I managed to delay things… but what is the next move?’

The sudden intervention of Heinrich Saint Landguard—the celebrated Saint of the Main God Church and the Hero of Light—had completely disrupted his designs.

The Saint’s forced entry, which shattered the pocket dimension known as ‘Twilight’s Edge’, introduced a massive wildcard. It was a danger so severe that Temiran could no longer guarantee his own survival.

‘…This is incredibly vexing. I genuinely believed everything was progressing flawlessly… ’

His eyelids twitched as he sensed the sharp, agonizing pressure radiating from his adversary—a weapon ready to cleave him apart at a moment’s notice.

Carefully shifting his balance, he searched for a vulnerability, letting his own aura waver unpredictably, silently threatening the unconscious youth resting behind his position.

Responding to the threat, the aggressive posture of his opponent wavered. The Saint pulled back slightly, commencing a wary orbit around him while searching for a fatal opening.

“Huu— Your tenacity is remarkable.”

“Tsk, you are the one who should be saying that.”

The adversary was unable to launch a reckless assault due to the presence of the captive, yet this standoff could not persist indefinitely. Time was working against him.

At the end of the day, he served as the emissary of a deity locked away in the abyss, and this realm, Auterica, represented hostile territory.

‘…I succeeded in reforming my pocket dimension… but its secrets are exposed now. There is no assurance it can withstand another assault.’

Had that elderly shaman not caused an interruption, or if the High Elf had delayed her arrival by even a brief window, he would have successfully claimed his objective and vanished without a trace.

An unfortunate string of random occurrences had culminated in this… catastrophic outcome.

…No, he understood the truth.

This was no mere accident. It was the direct consequence of his deity losing dominion over causality itself—the very trajectory of destiny that he had been precisely steering until this point.

‘…I have met with failure too frequently. The toll is becoming too heavy.’

The manifestation of the Immortal King, the rising tide of lunacy, the intricate plots of the Revolutionary…

Orchestrating such monumental catastrophes had demanded a severe compensation.

Furthermore, he had been executing these plans from the depths of the abyss, a harsh and unforgiving realm that only intensified his exhaustion.

To make matters worse, the majority of his high-stakes gambles, his frantic moves to reverse his fortunes, had collapsed.

He had committed every resource at his disposal, only to be left empty-handed.

Because of that, he had been pushed to take action prematurely, long before his full development as an apostle was complete.

He had anticipated clawing back his losses to discover a path toward victory…

…yet it appeared that prospect was fading away.

“…This is thoroughly aggravating! I am merely rectifying his blunders! What is the purpose of all this effort?!”

“I am inclined to agree, Temiran McCleary. Why not choose surrender? It would spare both of us a great deal of exertion.”

“Tsk, if only that were an option…”

The young boy, possessing a countenance that remained youthfully soft despite his blood-red gaze, clicked his tongue at Heinrich’s proposition.

However, he lacked the autonomy to act on his own desires.

Bound fast by a binding pledge, he was a servant to his deity’s commands, compelled to forge ahead even as he recognized the ship was going down.

Running a hand through the hair at the back of his head, he muttered,

“What alternate path is there? Orders must be executed. Though, you and I share a comparable plight…”

…and then his voice trailed off, his attention dropping toward the floor.

‘…Hold on, what is wrong with my shadow…?’

He caught sight of it completely by accident.

A minute irregularity, a faint… warping of its contours.

His reflexes took over immediately, his physical form reacting on pure survival instinct.

Right then,

———!

…a vibration passing beyond the limits of mortal perception, a silent detonation, tore through the space.

A sudden, unpredicted occurrence materialized without a single hint of warning or preparation.

Rumble—!

Directly following it came a fierce tempest of wind, slicing through the atmosphere with a deafening, thunderous crash.

“…Regrettable. Your reflexes are commendable.”

Emerging from the eye of the swirling vortex,

…a detached, icy tone resonated.

Click, click—

The rhythmic striking of footsteps sounded clearly through the surrounding bedlam. A figure draped in an extended overcoat stepped out from the swirling dust and fragments, keeping his pace measured and unhurried.

He casually cleansed the crimson fluid from his fingertips, his face remaining tranquil and unbothered, showing no signs of frustration at the missed strike.

His red eyes remained locked onto a far corner where the airborne debris was beginning to drift downward.

Cradled securely within his arms was the slumbering girl.

“Mister—!”

Aaron, who had been shielding both his grandmother and Lafi against the sudden blast of wind with tightly shut eyes, yelled out in sheer relief upon spotting him.

Pure joy washed over him; his protector had arrived at the perfect moment to preserve his sister.

Naturally, he harbored gratitude toward the Saint who had come to their aid… but as a young child, his heart naturally leaned toward Heinz, a figure he knew intimately.

“…What? Precisely when did you…?”

A muted snarl emerged from the exact spot Heinz was watching.

Temiran, his diminutive form coated in grit, stepped out from the fading haze as blood dripped down his arm.

“No intruders crossed my senses. By what means…? And what is the meaning of this…”

Glancing down at his wounded limb, a deep crease formed on his forehead.

The harm inflicted was not fatal, but the reality that he had been blindsided and struck by a hidden assault was… profoundly alarming.

Furthermore, for some inexplicable reason, the flesh refused to mend.

In fact, the condition was degenerating, the skin surrounding the injury turning darkened and corrupted, resembling the effects of a virulent toxin.

He sliced away the corrupted flesh and reduced it to ashes with a burst of heat, his features contorting into a mask of disgust.

‘…This is no common venom. This is… a clash arising from distinct varieties of vampire essence.’

An antagonistic bloodline, carrying a foreign intent, had breached his physical form.

Yet even as he deduced the cause, the reality remained baffling.

This physical vessel belonged to him, it was his sovereign domain, and his internal protections were formidable.

Despite that, a mere handful of droplets from an external source of blood was successfully suppressing his system?

“What did you execute against me?!”

Though he remained ignorant of the mechanics, the outcome was logical.

The vampiric essence belonging to Heinz the Second had endured an architectural rewrite through countless alterations and upgrades, refining its potency through continuous evolution.

It existed as an apex force, fully capable of shattering standard biological defenses.

“Who can say?”

Heinz the Second had absolutely no intention of clarifying the matter for his foe.

He merely offered a mocking grin, utilizing his now pristine hand to smoothly adjust his dark, polished hair.

“That details holds little relevance at present.”

A solitary, dismissive remark dripping with open contempt.

Temiran’s expression darkened as a tremor passed through his frame. He suddenly bounded forward, thrusting his remaining hand ahead.

Kaboom—!

A brilliant eruption of illumination, a surging wave of platinum brilliance, expanded outward in an instant, swallowing the surrounding environment.

A tide of concentrated, unmitigated sacred energy broke free like a captive predator unshackled from its bonds, obliterating the space it occupied.

Temiran, barely managing to deflect the brunt of the strike at the cost of a blackened, scorched hand, mashed his teeth together.

“Ugh! A treacherous strike! You… Saint… you lack all honor…!”

“Hmm? That strikes me as a peculiar grievance. Particularly from an individual utilizing a captive as a shield.”

Heinrich merely let out a soft laugh, genuinely entertained.

They had been measuring each other up, waiting for a single lapse in concentration… and the boy’s focus had drifted.

…Granted, he had purposefully set the stage for that lapse to occur.

“Our dialogue has reached its natural conclusion, wouldn’t you say, Temiran McCleary? Should you possess further remarks, I am entirely willing to receive them.”

The individual with silver hair, his plumage of light extended wide and his physical form radiating a sanctified aura, offered a gentle expression.

“Naturally, there remains a… minor procedure we must observe beforehand. Solely to guarantee our subsequent interactions are… secure and… useful. Will you… cooperate?”

“…Ha… Hahaha… Confound it all.”

The tide of battle had broken entirely against his favor.

Temiran cast about frantically for an escape vector, but his adversaries offered not a single vulnerability to exploit.

‘…Securing an alternative shield is out of the question… ’

He could no longer target the young girl.

That ‘Vampire King’ was now acting as her shield.

He had personally felt the weight of that strength. The man was undeniably a lethal adversary, a fundamental counter to his existence.

If Saint Heinrich represented a specialized tracker, a apex hunter, then Heinz existed as a… superior predator, a member of the identical category but operating on a vastly grander scale of might.

As an unformed apostle, Temiran remained restricted by the natural boundaries of his heritage, rendering Heinz—a vampire of Divine Blood and the sovereign Blood Ancestor—his ultimate nemesis.

‘…The remaining mortals… Tsk, and that High Elf… ’

Lydia, having successfully gathered the wounded practitioner along with the non-combatants, was currently sheltering them behind a dense defensive field, her spiritual allies keeping watch.

She had chosen to anchor herself to the preservation of the innocent, curbing any wider devastation rather than inserting herself into the offensive, placing her confidence in the Saint’s ability to resolve the threat.

He could not gamble with the risk of becoming ensnared by her traps.

‘…It is unavoidable. No other paths remain. I must depart, even if it requires abandoning a portion of my power.’

He should have taken flight the very instant the Saint materialized!

His own avarice had blinded him, and now the circumstances had deteriorated exponentially.

Rumble—

His personal domain, ‘Twilight’s Edge’, began to shudder violently as his resolve solidified.

It existed as an isolated pocket of reality, forged from his personal intent and a portion of his fundamental soul.

It amounted to far more than a basic defensive wall.

‘…The price will be severe… but alternative options do not exist.’

Kaboom! Crash!

The pocket world, bending to his internal command, turned its full wrath upon those trapped within, the very surroundings transforming into a lethal engine of destruction.

The terrain split apart to disgorge molten rock, the atmosphere grew corrupted and fatal, arcs of electricity cascaded from above, and destructive energies permeated outward from the bedrock.

It transformed into a purgatorial waste, a setting where no standard mortal could maintain life.

“Do not entertain such foolishness!”

Heinrich’s wings expanded fully, and a sacred asylum, rolling outward from his position, blanketed the individuals inside.

He was unable to simply… slice through the fabric of the space as he had done previously, not while the territory itself was imploding and its internal forces were discharging erratically… yet he maintained the strength to anchor it.

And that brief window was all Temiran required.

‘…I have secured sufficient time. Now… ’

The barrier would not endure indefinitely.

In due time, the latent power would burn out, and the fractured reality would dissolve into nothingness.

Yet he could not afford to expend focus on future consequences.

“I can discern the machinations of your mind.”

“Hmph, I merely adopted the practices you demonstrated!”

Heinz, the Vampire King, stood directly across his path of retreat.

His primal heritage whispered to him…

…that this individual was his fundamental antithesis, a being he could not hope to best in an open duel of strength.

‘…Yet if I can merely… vanish while his focus is anchored to the disintegration of this space… ’

The prospect remained within the realm of achievement.

Particularly given that his opponent was… restricted by the task of safeguarding a captive.

“Farewell! May our paths never cross again!”

Capitalizing on a fleeting lapse in coverage, he slipped through the boundary of the pocket dimension,

…rapidly locking down the threshold behind his exit.

The maneuver would grant him the necessary seconds to slip away into a subterranean void.

‘…The endeavor was not entirely devoid of gain. I have confirmed the identity of the vessel housing the relic, ensuring tracking her during our next encounter will be far simpler. They cannot shield her from the world indefinitely.’

The tapestry of fate had been laid bare. Subsequent prospects would inevitably manifest.

He shifted his weight to advance a step, and then—.

Wooong—

…his physical form seized up as an unfamiliar weight, a dense and suffocating gravity, abruptly bore down upon his shoulders.

“…What is the meaning of this?”

Shifting his focus along the currents of discharging force, his gaze rose toward the heavens.

It was then he perceived the phenomenon.

A titanic runic array, spanning the entirety of the firmament above Tarak.

“I have located your position.”

Stationed at the exact axis of the runic formation, suspended directly above his head,

…Isea, who had been waiting patiently with a subtle grin gracing her features, peered down at his form.

A spellcaster, when granted adequate preparation and materials, was capable of executing feats that far outstripped their standard thresholds… yet her nature was… unique.

「Unlimited Power」, a singular talent that magnified her internal reserves to a nearly limitless degree.

Furthermore, ‘force’ was not strictly confined to traditional mana.

Rumble—

Her psychological endurance, her cognitive calculation speeds, her fundamental concepts…

…every element served as fuel to stoke her sorcery, provided she could comprehend and direct them.

‘…Granted, achieving this degree of control is a highly recent development.’

Mastering and cataloging such intangible theories was an arduous path.

She had forged herself into something far more formidable, tempered by the challenges and conflicts she had managed to survive.

This expansion of her capabilities arrived at an opportune moment, given the looming confrontation against the Immortal King.

She cast her gaze downward toward the flailing entity below, who was desperately trying to break away despite being ensnared within the web of her incantation.

That entity represented the ‘unknown threat’ that the Saintess had predicted in her visions.

Allowing his escape was out of the question.

Rumble—

The monolithic runic array, put together with exhaustive precision across numerous sophisticated strata, commenced a deliberate rotation, mimicking the movement of clockwork components.

Right then—.

[“Halt.”]

…as she released a solitary word, a mandate saturated with her absolute focus, a Word Soul,

…the passage of reality froze for the fleeing predator.

It amounted to nothing more than a fleeting hesitation, a microsecond of stillness…

…yet it provided more than enough opportunity for the alternate apex beast, who had been lying in wait, to clamp a hand firmly around his throat.