Chapter 1057
Chapter 1057
The Leader of the White Blood Religion vaulted into the open air, absorbing the brunt of Raon’s blazing fire, Lecross’s sword cleaves, and Larian’s surging thunderbolts directly with her physical form. Even though a barrier of bloody energy shielded her, the sheer force of the onslaught rattled her deeply, draining all color from her face.
“H-How did you pull this off…?”
Pressing a trembling hand over the fissure across her torso, the Leader of the White Blood Religion coughed up mouthfuls of pale, milky blood.
“Not a single trace of your presence reached my senses!”
Teeth grinding together, her frame spattered in milky gore, she desperately kept her sensory perception active even through the fog of her mounting panic.
“We brought forth a hidden dimension.”
Larian twirled a clover card upon her fingertip, and an intense bolt of radiant yellow lightning descended upon the Leader of the White Blood Religion, interrupting her attempt to mend her flesh with bloody energy.
“Brought forth a dimension…? What madness are you babbling about…?”
Forced to give up on treating her injuries, the Leader of the White Blood Religion backed away, bewilderment clear in her voice.
“Chamber constructed a separate spatial pocket capable of completely erasing a warrior’s presence, and Lecross stayed dormant within it. While your attention was entirely consumed by your rage toward Raon, we simply dragged the space housing Lecross directly behind your blind spot.”
Chamber gave an approving nod, lazily flicking a diamond card between her fingers.
“Fabrications! A spatial rift tearing open could never have slipped past my awareness!”
Vigorously shaking her head, the Leader of the White Blood Religion tried once more to direct energy into sealing her torn flesh.
“Chamber wasn’t the one who cracked the spatial doorway.”
King Lecross vaulted toward the left flank of the Leader of the White Blood Religion, bringing his blade crashing down toward her skull with crushing momentum.
“Vermin!”
She rapidly conjured a crystalline barricade of bloody energy overhead. Yet Lecross’s shadow-laden blade obliterated the crimson barrier in a single blast, slamming her violently toward the ground. She crashed deep into the masonry of a collapsed building, spewing another burst of milky blood. Crippled by the devastating wound she had taken at the onset of the clash, she could neither properly mend herself nor mount a stable offensive.
Seizing the initiative without an instant of hesitation, Lecross closed the distance like a shadow, thrusting his tip directly toward her throat.
“Khh…”
Gathering a dense concentration of bloody energy into her palm, the Leader of the White Blood Religion managed to knock Lecross’s incoming edge aside, though the exertion forced yet another surge of blood past her lips.
“The second you began weaving your incantations, boasting that you would slaughter the Light Wind Palace Master, Lecross pierced straight through the dimensional threshold and into your chest at the exact same instant.”
Larian explained why the Leader of the White Blood Religion had failed to detect Lecross’s approach—the gateway had never truly unfolded in the conventional sense—while raining down ten consecutive pillars of roaring lightning.
“We spent more than a month drilling to bifurcate your heart simultaneously with the gateway’s rupture, though its flawless execution owes something to good fortune.”
Confirming that their rigorous preparation had yielded fruit, King Lecross unleashed a relentless storm of heavy slashes toward the retreating Leader of the White Blood Religion. Working in seamless harmony, Larian and Lecross hounded her every retreat, denying her even a fraction of a second to stitch her flesh or gather her true reservoir of power.
“Confound it all!”
Abandoning any immediate hope of self-regeneration, the Leader of the White Blood Religion focused purely on dodging Larian’s arcane bombardment and parrying Lecross’s unrelenting steel. It was evident she was frantically scrambling to gain enough room to catch her breath and rally her bloody energy. As Lecross and Larian engaged her from the front, Raon slipped behind the Leader of the White Blood Religion, raking his twin divine and demonic swords across her midsection and thighs.
“Ngh…”
She bit down hard on her lip as fresh streams of milky blood welled from the deep gashes along her waist and legs. Murderous intent radiated off her as if she longed to tear him limb from limb, yet under the combined pressure of Lecross and Larian, she could do nothing more than give ground, utterly incapable of launching a countercharge.
-Splendidly done! Your reserves are running thin, so overcommitting would have led straight into her grasp.
Wrath bobbed his head in approval, urging Raon to maintain this rhythm and capitalize on the openings created by Lecross and Larian.
-Winter gnats can be relentless, but that creature is on another level entirely. Despite suffering a fatal strike before the clash even began, she is buying time and steadily knitting her flesh back together.
Wrath scowled, noting that had the Leader of the White Blood Religion completed her ascension, not a single mortal soul across these lands would have drawn breath.
‘Which is precisely why she cannot be permitted to leave this place alive.’
Raon dragged the fiery edge of his divine sword across the back of the Leader of the White Blood Religion just as her focus shifted toward Lecross, immediately disengaging toward the left flank.
“Credit shouldn’t go to mere fortune; it was entirely because the Light Wind Palace Master drew her focus.”
King Lecross nodded in agreement, recognizing that Raon’s deliberate goading of the Leader of the White Blood Religion had set the stage.
“Just how far back did you start orchestrating this scheme…?”
Fixing a venomous glare on Raon, the Leader of the White Blood Religion ground her blood-smeared teeth.
“We have spent the past two months dissecting how to breach this barrier and end your life, ever since Raon pinpointed the White Blood Religion Headquarters. To be precise, the gears were set in motion over three months ago, the moment Raon journeyed across the sea.”
Larian reflected softly, remarking on how the span felt both endless and brief.
“Raon and the Light Wind Palace tracked down the White Blood Religion Headquarters; Chamber, Evelyn, and I spent sleepless nights researching methods to shatter the defensive wall and reach you; while Lecross and Owen subjected themselves to brutal regimens to wipe out you and the blood fiends. The paths walked by the Five Kings were aligned from the start.”
A knowing smirk tugged at her lips as she described how the actions of the Five Kings converged like dozens of rushing rivers joining into an ocean.
“So the root of all this misery was you from the beginning.”
A searing wave of murderous intent surged from the Leader of the White Blood Religion toward Raon, her suspicions fully validated.
“Once again, you stand between me and everything I built!”
“It was never me; your own arrogance and foolishness tore down your plans.”
Raon offered a cold sneer as he drove Revolving Sky and Crimson Slash toward the furious Leader of the White Blood Religion’s shoulder. Sweeping her arms forward with surging bloody energy, the Leader of the White Blood Religion snuffed out Crimson Slash and Revolving Sky, only to be hammered immediately by Larian’s arcane arts and Lecross’s heavy blade striking from opposing flanks, sending her tumbling across the dirt.
“Khak!”
She pushed herself back into the sky, forcing weight onto a leg so badly shredded that bone peeked through the torn flesh.
“Enduring holy lightning to this degree and still taking flight…”
Larian let out an incredulous, breathy laugh.
“She is simultaneously fleeing and mending her flesh. We must remain on her heels and grind down her vitality.”
Channeling boundless willpower into his edge, Lecross surged upward in close pursuit of the Leader of the White Blood Religion, his brow knit tight with grim resolve. The violent gale whipped up by his blade disrupted her flight path, crashing her back down toward the earth.
‘To think she maintains such agility after absorbing repeated magical lightning…’
Even after being sliced by Lecross’s sword and scorched by Larian’s lightning, the Leader of the White Blood Religion managed to outpace him. Her endurance was borderline horrifying.
‘A monstrous existence through and through.’
Lightning carried sacred properties that incinerated corrupted forces. Watching the Leader of the White Blood Religion match Lecross’s martial prowess despite taking repeated direct hits from lightning—the natural counter to bloody energy—was truly chilling.
‘I would sever that monster’s head this very second, but…’
The immediate priority was stripping away her remaining strength. Slaying the Leader of the White Blood Religion outright would also claim the life of Martha’s mother, whose physical vessel was being used. They had to force the abomination to abandon Martha’s mother’s body of its own accord.
“Ngh…”
Martha stood shivering, clutching her hilt with a vicious aura so dark and suffocating it felt almost demonic, radiating an overpowering urge to decapitate the Leader of the White Blood Religion herself. Glistening tears welled within her dark eyes.
“Martha. It is during moments like these that our minds must stay clear.”
Denier placed a steadying palm on Martha’s shoulder, intervening to rein in the turbulent fury of someone staring vengeance in the face.
“Hmph…”
Detecting that dense, sharp surge of murderous intent, the Leader of the White Blood Religion shifted to the right and cast her gaze downward toward Martha. She made no move to strike or approach, merely lingering with her eyes locked onto the girl.
‘Could my suspicion truly have been mistaken?’
Raon narrowed his gaze, observing Denier standing as a protective shield before Martha.
‘There couldn’t possibly be a more opportune moment than right now, could there?’
He had remained vigilant, reasoning that if Denier harbored treacherous motives, this exact chaos would offer the ultimate opening for a backstab. Yet the man did nothing more than comfort Martha, standing firm. He appeared entirely like a devoted father watching over his daughter and an honorable warrior loyal to the Zieghart name.
“Martha.”
Raon signaled toward her with a firm nod.
“Now is the moment. Reach out to your mother who still lingers inside that vessel.”
Despite her severe injuries and shaken composure, the Leader of the White Blood Religion still held an immense spiritual mass. Her soul was too dense for his soul blade to sever directly; Martha needed to fracture her internal equilibrium from within.
“M-Mother!”
Martha pulled a weathered, teardrop-shaped pendant from beneath her garments, voicing the desperate plea she had kept locked inside.
“Please, open your eyes! You swore you would wake me each dawn until the day of my wedding!”
She cried out desperately, her gaze fixed on the exact matching teardrop pendant dangling from the neck of the Leader of the White Blood Religion.
“Your mother drew her final breath moments ago. She wept and begged for salvation, but I personally shredded her soul to pieces with these very hands.”
The Leader of the White Blood Religion looked down on Martha with a cold, mocking smirk, as though all hope was lost.
“L-Liar! Silence your wretched tongue, you filthy parasite!”
Martha shrieked at the top of her lungs, outright rejecting the claim.
“You ought to feel it yourself, shouldn’t you? The only presence occupying this vessel belongs entirely to me.”
Unleashing a blade of bloody energy directly toward Martha, the Leader of the White Blood Religion declared that she would unite mother and child in death. Denier instantly erected a sword barrier, neutralizing the crimson arc before it could reach Martha.
“Ah…”
Martha’s jaw trembled as she stared at the remorseless figure seeking to end her life while wearing her own mother’s face. The light in her dark eyes began to wither into a hollow void.
“Has… has my mother’s soul truly been…”
“It has not!”
Driving back the Leader of the White Blood Religion beneath a whirling tempest of crimson petals, Raon called out toward Martha without breaking his rhythm.
“Your mother’s spirit endures.”
“Cease this pointless denial. The former master of this flesh has already perished.”
The Leader of the White Blood Religion shook her head with cold finality, acting as though salvation was an impossibility.
“If that were the case, why do you still keep that pendant around your neck?”
A knowing smirk surfaced on Raon’s face as he singled out the teardrop pendant hanging over the chest of the Leader of the White Blood Religion.
“…”
Even upon hearing his challenge, the Leader of the White Blood Religion could not bring herself to rip the necklace away.
“A heartless monster of your kind would never show mercy to the residual spirit of a vessel you hijacked. You aren’t leaving it intact by choice; you are forced to preserve it. That ornament serves as an absolute prerequisite for possessing her mortal frame.”
She had worn that very necklace when he had encountered her previously. Clearly, possessing someone else’s flesh imposed strict constraints that she had no choice but to follow.
“You miserable, meddling pest…”
The Leader of the White Blood Religion gripped the pendant tightly, looking as though her deepest secret had been laid bare. Yet in the end, she could neither crush nor discard the ornament, reluctantly lowering her trembling fingers.
“T-Then…”
A tiny spark of hope flickered back to life within Martha’s dark gaze.
“That’s right. Your mother is undeniably still there.”
Raon’s tone rang with absolute conviction.
“I will bring that monster to her knees and reclaim her, so remain where you are.”
Employing the Supreme Harmony Steps, Raon shattered the ground beneath him, which was slick with milky blood. He lunged straight toward the Leader of the White Blood Religion, pushing the blaze of his divine sword and the biting chill of his demonic sword to their absolute apex.
“Well spoken. Let us bring an absolute end to this.”
Larian hurled a flurry of cards saturated with roaring lightning magic into the sky, blanketing his advance.
“I will set my chivalric pride aside for the moment and dedicate every breath to securing our triumph.”
King Lecross threw his entire weight behind his thrust, declaring that coordinated combat bore no shame in such a fight.
Lecross’s heavy, razor-sharp steel bore down upon the waist of the Leader of the White Blood Religion, while dozens of lightning arcs summoned by Larian bound her limbs, and Raon’s erupting frost and flame tore deeper into her flesh from below.
“Aaaargh!”
Letting out an inhuman screech, the Leader of the White Blood Religion darted through the fractured structures. She exhaled a thick magical haze to blind their pursuit.
“Such tricks are useless now.”
Cleaving the white fog in two with the Azure Sky Sword Great Bind of the Heavy Sky, Raon charged through the alleys on the trail of the fleeing Leader of the White Blood Religion. Lecross and Larian mirrored the chase from the sky, cutting off every escape vector with sword arcs and lightning barrages to ensure she remained cornered.
Raon fought to control his ragged gasps as he caught sight of fresh blood bursting along the Leader of the White Blood Religion’s spine.
‘We cannot afford to grant her even a single second of respite.’
Right now, the Leader of the White Blood Religion was so horribly mangled that pausing her self-healing would spell her immediate demise; consequently, she was incapable of wielding her peak power and could only flee while patching her broken flesh. If she gained enough breathing room to mend her critical wounds, the entire flow of battle would swing in her favor. They had to keep the pressure absolute.
“D-Damn you all!”
With her left shoulder seemingly paralyzed, the Leader of the White Blood Religion was reduced to defending against Lecross and Raon’s blades and Larian’s arcane strikes using solely her right hand, causing her injuries to multiply by the second. The grim reality of impending defeat settled over her features.
“Do not let up on the Leader of the White Blood Religion! Prevent her from concentrating on her flesh!”
Raon unleashed a dual pair of Flame Dragon Strikes using both his divine and demonic blades. The fiery serpent and the freezing drake intertwined into a destructive vortex, engulfing the entire figure of the Leader of the White Blood Religion.
“Guh!”
Her lips twitched as severe burns and deep frostbite tore through her defenses, her hasty barrier of bloody energy proving insufficient to blunt the attack.
‘Keep pressing forward!’
Exploiting the moments when the Leader of the White Blood Religion was occupied parrying Lecross’s strikes and Larian’s lightning, Raon launched fierce, lightning-fast thrusts from her blind spots.
‘If we sustain this rhythm, victory is ours.’
Although the Leader of the White Blood Religion clung to survival with an endurance outstripping a cockroach, her physical reserves and bloody energy were visibly withering away. They needed to keep hounding her until her last breath.
‘Even so…’
The toll was staggering. Though the clash had not dragged on for an eternity, the constant terror of instant death should a single counterattack land was devouring his stamina and focus at an alarming pace. Cold sweat soaked his tunic, and dizzying exhaustion tugged at his mind.
‘I cannot afford to stop here.’
For the sake of the vow made to Martha. And to carve his path of retribution against Derus, he had to crush this repulsive parasite once and for all today. Slipping behind the Leader of the White Blood Religion, Raon triggered the Heavy Sky Cannon. Dragging her frame closer with an immense gravitational pull, he detonated the massive aura compressed within the sword form.
The Leader of the White Blood Religion’s arm, bathed in bloody energy, trembled uncontrollably as she failed to fully divert the concussive force of the Heavy Sky Cannon against the crushing gravity.
“Your evasive footwork is truly remarkable. You certainly hold the crown for fleeing among the Five Demons.”
Larian offered a dry, mocking laugh, surprised by the Leader of the White Blood Religion’s stubborn refusal to fall.
“Regardless, the curtain falls now.”
Unlocking the full magical arsenal contained within her fifty-two trump cards, she called down an immense blanket of lightning that completely swallowed the sky above the White Blood Religion Headquarters.
“I shall stake my entire being upon this single blow.”
Lowering himself into a knight’s lance posture, King Lecross locked both hands onto his hilt. His entire silhouette shimmered with a profound obsidian radiance as if fusing with the steel, projecting a presence fierce enough to cleave the heavens from the earth.
“I will strike alongside you.”
Raon infused his divine and demonic blades with opposing currents of aura while unsheathing the Wooden Ring Sword. Channeling his supreme technique, he unleashed a whispering breeze alongside the Invincible Azure-Red Sword.
“If I turn away from this, my life ends here.”
Understanding that evasion was impossible, the Leader of the White Blood Religion withdrew the bloody energy that was maintaining her torn chest to reinforce an impenetrable crimson barricade, unleashing an absolute warding barrier.
“Come, then!”
She shrieked, slamming her heels into the dirt, preparing to absorb the full collision directly rather than retreating.
“Ten Thousand Lightning Bolts!”
A deluge of countless lightning strikes descended upon the Leader of the White Blood Religion’s crown at Larian’s command. Plunging straight through the cascading thunder—which recognized and spared him completely—Raon drove the twin tempests of searing flame and freezing frost from his divine and demonic swords straight toward her chest.
Tearing through the magical barrier with the devastating twin fangs of the Invincible Azure-Red Sword, he slipped the Whispering Wind through using the concealed Wooden Ring Sword held behind his frame.
Her attention entirely absorbed in resisting Larian’s lightning barrage and the Invincible Azure-Red Sword, the Leader of the White Blood Religion failed to notice the stealthy passage of the Wooden Ring Sword as it bypassed her bloody energy, and the blade ran clean through her neck.
“Gah!”
Even with a blade piercing through her throat, the Leader of the White Blood Religion refused to yield an inch, digging her heels in and holding her ground with palms drenched in bloody energy until the fiery remnants of the Invincible Azure-Red Sword dispersed.
“You won’t slip away!”
Gasping for breath, Larian refused to halt her momentum, closing in on the Leader of the White Blood Religion’s right side and driving an enchanted dagger into her existing gash. Searing flames erupted from the crimson dagger, ripping the wound wider and deeper.
Yet, despite having steel impaled through her throat and her body engulfed in magical fire, the Leader of the White Blood Religion held her footing without collapsing, violently shoving both Raon and Larian away.
‘How can this be possible…’
Raon’s jaw tightened in disbelief as his eyes met those of the Leader of the White Blood Religion. Within those dark pupils, there was no trace of the despair that had gripped her moments prior; instead, they burned with a terrifying, ecstatic triumph.
‘Hold on… Come to think of it!’
A chilling realization struck Raon, and he spun around, suddenly recalling the one person who had charged alongside them but never reached the front. Lecross Albern de Owen, the revered Silent Sword Master, stood frozen, gasping hoarsely as he stared down at the cold blade erupting from the center of his own chest. The scene was an exact mirror of the strike he had delivered into the back of the Leader of the White Blood Religion just moments ago.
“Ah…”
Behind Lecross, who was vomiting thick ribbons of crimson gore, emerged a figure of icy countenance, framed by flowing, pure-white hair cascading past his waist. Though the shade of his hair had shifted and a foreign chill filled his eyes, the man’s identity was undeniable.
“Denier Zieghart…”
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