Chapter 1057

Kuwaaaaaang!

The White Blood Lord endured Raon’s flames, King Lecross’s slash, and Larian’s lightning with her body and fled into the air.

Although she had protected her body with Blood Energy, the shock must have been severe, because her complexion had turned deathly pale.

“What… what the hell did you do…?”

The White Blood Lord coughed up white blood and clutched the wound in her chest.

“Your presence definitely wasn’t there!”

She gnashed her blood-soaked teeth, saying she had kept her senses spread even in her agitated state.

“I summoned a dimension.”

As Larian raised the clover card on her finger, a bright yellow bolt crashed down on the White Blood Lord, who had been trying to heal her wounds with Blood Energy.

“What do you mean, you summoned a dimension…?”

The White Blood Lord gave up on healing and stepped back, demanding an explanation.

“Chamber created a dimension that could hide a person’s presence, and Lecross waited inside it. While you were running wild in a frenzy because of Raon, I summoned the dimension Lecross was hiding in right behind you.”

Chamber flicked the diamond card up and down and tilted her chin.

“Lies! If a dimensional gate had opened, there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed!”

As the White Blood Lord resumed healing her wounds, she shook her head violently.

“It wasn’t Chamber who opened the dimensional gate.”

King Lecross leaped to the White Blood Lord’s left and brought down a heavy sword strike toward the top of her head.

“Bastard!”

The White Blood Lord used Blood Energy to raise a transparent wall above her head, but Lecross’s dark sword strike shattered the wall of Blood Energy and sent her crashing to the ground.

Kuwaaaaaang!

The White Blood Lord smashed into a building and spat out white blood. It seemed the severe wound she had taken at the beginning was so grave that she couldn’t focus on either healing or fighting.

Chiiiiing!

As if he had no intention of letting this chance slip away, Lecross chased after the White Blood Lord and thrust his sword toward her throat.

“Kuhk…”

The White Blood Lord concentrated Blood Energy into her hand, shoved Lecross’s sword strike aside, and coughed up blood again.

“The moment you started throwing curses around, saying you’d kill the Light Wind Palace Lord, Lecross pierced your chest together with the dimensional gate.”

Larian rained down ten bolts of lightning, saying that because the dimension itself had not opened, even the White Blood Lord couldn’t sense Lecross’s presence.

“We trained for over a month to carve out your heart together with the dimensional gate, but I didn’t expect it to work this well. We got lucky.”

King Lecross said the training had paid off as he fired one powerful sword strike after another at the retreating White Blood Lord.

Woooooooong!

Larian and Lecross pressed the White Blood Lord fiercely, giving her no time to heal her injuries or draw out her full power.

“Damn it!”

The White Blood Lord gave up on healing her wounds and focused only on fleeing from Larian’s magic and Lecross’s sword. It looked like she intended to catch her breath first and then gather her Blood Energy.

Slaaaash!

The moment King Lecross and Larian struck the White Blood Lord from the front, Raon circled behind her and slashed her waist and thigh with the divine sword and the demonic sword.

“Ugh…”

The White Blood Lord bit her lip as she looked at the wounds on her waist and thigh, white blood spurting from them.

She sent him killing intent as if she wanted to tear him apart, but because of Lecross and Larian, she could do nothing but keep retreating.

》“Well done! Your martial might is lacking, so if you had gone in any deeper, you would have been caught.”

Wrath nodded, telling him to keep using Lecross and Larian’s movements like this.

》“Winter mosquitoes are vicious, but that one is insane as well. Even after suffering wounds that should have killed her before the fight even began, she’s buying time and recovering her body little by little.”

He frowned and said that if the White Blood Lord had succeeded in awakening, there wouldn’t have been a single human left alive on this land.

‘That’s why we have to finish this now.’

After slicing open the White Blood Lord’s back with the flames of the divine sword while she was focused on Lecross, Raon fled to the left.

“No, it wasn’t my luck. I should say it was thanks to the Light Wind Palace Lord’s efforts.”

King Lecross nodded, saying it was because she had stirred the White Blood Lord up.

“Since when did you start preparing this kind of bullshit…?”

The White Blood Lord bit her blood-streaked lips and glared at Raon.

“Since Raon discovered the White Blood Cult’s main headquarters two months ago, we’ve been researching how to break through these walls and kill you. No, since it all began when Raon set out to sea, I suppose it’s been more than three months.”

Larian stroked her chin, saying it had been both a long and a short time.

“Raon and the Light Wind Palace found the White Blood Cult’s main headquarters, while Chamber, Evelyn, and I spent day and night researching how to break through the walls and reach you, and Lecross and the Owen Knights went through hellish training to exterminate you and the Blood Demons. The paths of the Five Kings were all connected.”

She drew a meaningful smile, saying that just as dozens of rivers joined to form the sea, the movements of the Five Kings had all flowed together.

“So it really did all start with you.”

As if she had expected as much, the White Blood Lord unleashed vicious killing intent toward Raon.

“You ruined everything again!”

“It wasn’t me. Your own stupidity ruined it.”

Raon let out a mocking laugh and unleashed Revolving Sky and Crimson Flash toward the enraged White Blood Lord’s shoulder.

Baaaaang!

The White Blood Lord erased Crimson Flash and Revolving Sky with a hand wrapped in Blood Energy, but she was struck by Larian’s magic and Lecross’s sword strike rushing in from the left and right and rolled across the ground.

“Ghhhhh!”

She planted strength into a leg whose flesh seemed torn open enough to expose bone, then fled into the air again.

“To think she’s still like that even after being struck by holy lightning…”

Larian let out a disbelieving laugh.

“She’s healing and fleeing at the same time. We need to keep after her and wear down her stamina.”

Lecross followed behind the White Blood Lord with a deep frown and brought down a sword strike carrying the will of Transcendence.

Kuuuuuuuuu!

The majestic wind called forth by his sword stopped the White Blood Lord’s movement and drove her into the ground.

‘Even after being hit by successive lightning spells, she can still move like that…’

Even while being cut by Lecross’s sword and bound in Larian’s lightning, the White Blood Lord moved faster than he did. Her stamina was absurd.

‘A monster really is a monster.’

Lightning possessed holy power that burned away sinister energy.

Even after being struck again and again by lightning, which was the bane of Blood Energy, the White Blood Lord’s martial might still wasn’t falling behind Lecross’s. It was terrifying.

‘I want to kill that monster right now, but…’

For now, we need to drain her strength as much as possible.

If he cut off the White Blood Lord’s neck, Martha’s mother, the true owner of that body, would die as well.

He had to force that monster to abandon Martha’s mother’s body on her own.

“Huuuuu…”

As if she wanted to cut off the White Blood Lord’s neck herself, Martha raised killing intent vicious enough to seem evil and trembled all over, her hand gripping the sword shaking. Clear droplets welled up over her black eyes.

“Martha. At times like this, you need to stay calm.”

Denier held the shoulder of the excited Martha, who had revenge right before her eyes, and helped steady her emotions.

“Hm…”

As if she sensed Martha’s dense and profound killing intent, the White Blood Lord retreated to the right and lowered her gaze toward her. She didn’t attack or approach, as if simply guarding against her, and only stared in Martha’s direction.

‘So he really isn’t?’

Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked at Denier standing there as though protecting Martha.

‘There won’t be a better chance than now.’

If Denier was really a spy, now was the best possible moment for an ambush, so he had been staying on guard, but Denier only comforted Martha and didn’t move.

He truly looked like nothing more than a father who cherished his daughter and a swordsman who valued Zieghart’s honor.

“Martha.”

Raon tilted his chin toward Martha.

“Now it’s your turn. Call out to your mother, who should still be inside that body.”

Even though the White Blood Lord was severely wounded and mentally cornered, she still possessed a vast soul.

It was too thick for even his Heart Sword to cut, so Martha needed to shake her soul herself.

“M-Mom!”

Martha pulled out the old teardrop necklace from inside her uniform and cried out the word she had been holding back all this time.

“Please wake up! You promised you’d wake me up every morning until the day I got married!”

She shouted as she looked at the identical teardrop necklace swaying from the White Blood Lord’s neck.

“Your mother died a moment ago. She screamed for me to save her, but I tore her soul apart with these very hands.”

As if it were all over, the White Blood Lord sneered at Martha.

“L-lies! Stop spouting bullshit, you mosquito bitch!”

Martha screamed at her not to talk nonsense.

“If it’s you, you should be able to feel it. That the only soul left in this body is mine.”

The White Blood Lord sent a slash of Blood Energy toward Martha, saying she would send mother and daughter off together.

Kuuuuuuung!

Denier raised a sword curtain and blocked the Blood Energy pouring toward Martha.

“Ah…”

Seeing the White Blood Lord’s cold gesture as she tried to kill her wearing her mother’s face, Martha’s jaw trembled. The color in her eyes dulled.

“D-does that really mean Mom’s soul…?”

“No!”

After pressing the White Blood Lord back with a storm of flames raised by crimson petals, Raon turned his gaze to Martha.

“Your mother’s soul is still alive.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. The owner of this body is already dead.”

The White Blood Lord shook her head firmly, as if it were long past too late.

“Then why are you still wearing that necklace?”

Twisting his lips, Raon pointed at the teardrop necklace hanging from the White Blood Lord’s neck.

“Mm…”

Even after hearing those words, the White Blood Lord couldn’t tear the swaying necklace from her neck.

“A cold-blooded monster like you would never leave the soul of the body you stole alone. No, it’s not that you’re leaving it alone—you have no choice but to. That necklace must be one of the conditions for taking over the body.”

He had seen her wearing that necklace even before. It was obvious there was some restriction she absolutely had to bear in order to gain another person’s body.

“You cursed bastard…”

As if he had struck the mark, the White Blood Lord gripped the necklace harder. But in the end, she couldn’t break it or remove it, and lowered her trembling hand.

“T-then…”

Martha looked at him, a faint light returning to her black eyes.

“Yes. Your mother is definitely still alive.”

Raon nodded in a tone full of certainty.

“I’ll subdue that monster and bring her back, so wait here.”

Raon shattered the white-blood-soaked ground as he stepped with the [Supreme Harmony Steps]. Raising the flames of the divine sword and the frost of the demonic sword to the extreme, he charged at the White Blood Lord.

“Well said. Let’s finish this for good.”

Larian scattered cards infused with lightning-attribute magic through the air, as if supporting him.

“For now, I’ll cast aside a knight’s honor and think only of victory.”

Lecross pressed his lips together and threw himself forward with his sword, saying he felt no shame in attacking together.

Kuwaaaaaang!

Lecross’s sharp yet heavy sword strike crushed the White Blood Lord’s waist, dozens of bolts of lightning raised by Larian bound her arms and legs, and the flames and cold erupting from the ground by Raon’s hand dug even deeper into her wounds.

“Kyaaaaaaagh!”

With a beastlike scream, the White Blood Lord fled between the buildings. She scattered a fog made of sorcery to block their vision.

“That won’t work anymore.”

After splitting the white mist apart with Sky-Piercing Sword – Great Blaze of the Midheaven, Raon chased after the White Blood Lord as she fled through the alleys.

Baaaaang!

As if they had no intention of letting her escape, Lecross and Larian also rose into the sky and intercepted the White Blood Lord with sword strikes and magic.

Slaaaash!

Watching blood burst from the White Blood Lord’s back, Raon steadied his roughening breath.

‘We can’t give her a single moment.’

Right now, the White Blood Lord was too gravely wounded to draw out her full power unless she healed, so she was fleeing while regenerating her physical wounds.

If she was given time to erase those injuries, the situation could reverse at once, so they had to keep pressing her.

“D-damn it!”

Unable to move her left shoulder, the White Blood Lord could only block Lecross’s and Raon’s sword strikes and Larian’s magic with her right hand, and her wounds continued to pile up. The shadow of defeat began to fall across her face.

“We have to keep pressing her so the White Blood Lord can’t focus on healing!”

Raon unleashed two paired dragon strikes with the divine sword and the demonic sword. A fire dragon and a water dragon twisted together and swept across the White Blood Lord’s entire body.

“Ghhhh!”

Even though the White Blood Lord raised a wall of Blood Energy, she failed to block all of his sword strikes and trembled, burned and frostbitten at once.

‘Keep going!’

Whenever the White Blood Lord blocked Lecross’s sword and Larian’s magic, Raon thrust in powerful yet swift sword strikes from blind spots outside her field of vision.

‘At this rate, we can win.’

The White Blood Lord was showing tenacity beyond even a cockroach’s, but her stamina and Blood Energy were clearly dropping. He had to stay on her until the end and keep attacking.

‘Still…’

This is a lot harder than I expected.

The fight hadn’t gone on that long, but the sense that a single counterattack could kill him was making his stamina and mental strength drain much faster than usual. Sweat soaked his back, and his head spun.

‘Even so, I have to go.’

To keep his promise to Martha. And to take revenge on Derus, he had to finish hunting down that annoying mosquito buzzing around today.

Chiiiiing!

Circling behind the White Blood Lord, Raon unleashed Great Blaze of the Midheaven. Using immense pulling force to drag the White Blood Lord in, he detonated the massive aura gathered at the tip of his sword.

Kuwaaaaaang!

Because of the pulling force, the White Blood Lord seemed unable to fully disperse the shock of Great Blaze of the Midheaven, and the arm wrapped in Blood Energy trembled.

“You really are incredible at running away. Probably the best among the Five Kings and Five Demons.”

Larian let out a hollow laugh, as if she had never expected the White Blood Lord to hold out this well.

“But it’s time to see this through.”

She released every spell stored in all fifty-two trump cards and summoned a massive storm of lightning that filled the sky above the White Blood Cult’s main headquarters.

“I’ll pour everything I have into this sword as well.”

King Lecross gripped his sword with both hands and took the stance of a knight charging with a lance.

Goooooooo!

His body shone with a dark luster as if it had become a single sword, releasing a force that looked ready to tear heaven and earth apart.

“I’ll follow your lead as well.”

Raon wrapped different auras around the divine sword and the demonic sword, then set the Wooden Wheel Sword floating. Together with the Azure Crimson Invincible Blade, he prepared his strongest strategy, ready to unleash Whistling Wind as well.

“If I try to dodge this, I’ll really die.”

As if she had realized she couldn’t escape this time, the White Blood Lord even pulled in the Blood Energy that had been healing the wound in her chest, raised a wall of Blood Energy, and activated a spell of absolute defense.

“Come!”

Unlike before, when she had fled, she stamped the ground and roared as if she meant to endure it with her body.

“Myriad Flash Thunder!”

At Larian’s cry, thousands of bolts of lightning fell over the White Blood Lord’s head.

Kuwaaaaaang!

Raon pierced through the lightning, which didn’t harm him in the slightest, and detonated the heat and cold dwelling in the divine sword and the demonic sword toward the White Blood Lord’s chest.

Kugugugugugu!

Driving the two blades of the Azure Crimson Invincible Blade through the wall of sorcery with their shuddering power, he also unleashed Whistling Wind with the Wooden Wheel Sword he had hidden behind his back.

Puh-ooooock!

Focused on blocking Larian’s lightning and the Azure Crimson Invincible Blade, the White Blood Lord failed to sense the Wooden Wheel Sword piercing through her Blood Energy, and her neck was run through.

“Ghhhhhh!”

Even with a sword stuck through her neck, the White Blood Lord didn’t retreat, but endured with a hand wrapped in Blood Energy until the Azure Crimson Invincible Blade faded.

“Not so fast!”

Even though her breathing had grown ragged, Larian didn’t stop. Moving to the White Blood Lord’s right, she drove a magic-infused dagger into her wound.

Hwaaaaaak!

The flames rising from the red dagger tore the White Blood Lord’s wound open even deeper.

Kugugugugugu!

Even with a sword lodged in her neck and her body burning, the White Blood Lord did not collapse. She stood in the exact same place and pushed both him and Larian back instead.

‘What is going on…?’

Raon’s jaw trembled as he looked into the White Blood Lord’s eyes. Her black eyes were burning not with the despair he had seen before, but with ecstasy.

‘Wait… now that I think about it!’

Raon turned around, recalling the one person who had departed with them but had not arrived.

Drip. Drip.

Lecross Albern de Owen, the absolute master of the sword known as the Black Sword King, was gasping for breath as he looked at the blade protruding through his chest. It was exactly the same sight as when he had stabbed the White Blood Lord from behind.

“Ah…”

Behind Lecross, who was coughing up bright red blood, a man with icy features and pure white hair flowing down to his waist stepped forward. His hair color was different, and even his eyes had changed, but there was no mistaking who he was.

“Denier Zieghart….”

(T/N: So this fucker is really a traitor!!)