chapter 246

The Man’s Identity

It was not easy to regenerate when you were being cut while having the magic energy sucked out of you.

You needed energy to make duplicates and to heal your carved up body.

“UGGGAAAAAAAA!”

One after another, the duplicates turned into piles of ash. Even the one I was using Drain Touch on turned into ash.

The only one that remained was the one I had been fighting before I started using Drain Touch.

“Are you the real one?”

As the man let out a scream, I cut into his torso with the Devil King Sword.

“I won’t forget this! I won’t forgive you, you bastard!”

“You don’t have to forgive me. Just go away.”

It was just as I was about to finish him off by stabbing his neck with the Devil King Sword.

—KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNN!

There was a horrible ringing in my ears. At the same time, pain shot through my entire body.

Eric, Goran, and Kathe’s faces were also twisting in agony.

“I did not expect mere humans to be able to use the protection of our god…”

The man muttered, even though he had been split in half and was all bloody bones and flesh.

However, he started to heal right in front of my eyes. Even the torso I had cut off began to reconnect.

“I shouldn’t be surprised…”

I had cast Magic Detection many times. However, this boss was a High Lord. And they were good with concealment magic.

So it would not have been odd if it had been hidden.

“…Still, I was so careful. Where did you hide the core?”

There was a limit to how good you could be with concealment magic.

“Oh? So you know about it?”

The man said with a smile. He was almost completely recovered now.

That being said, I had still sucked in a lot of his energy. So he should be weaker than he looked.

“But I don’t want people to know about this. You will have to die.”

“What does it matter? You were going to kill all of us anyway.”

“Haha. That is true.”

He was so confident in his victory now.

It was then that Goran fought against the pain and attacked him.

“AAAAARRRGH!”

“What!”

The man’s face twisted with surprise. The blade scratched his arm and it started to burn.

He was inside of the Evil God’s Protection. Of course, that meant that Goran’s movements were slow.

However, the man had assumed that Goran wouldn’t be able to move at all, and so he wasn’t able to react in time.

Goran had erased his presence completely. Not only that, but he had moved in a calculated way so that he wouldn’t be noticed.

That’s why the man had been taken by surprise.

Besides, being drained of magic had also weakened him.

“Don’t underestimate us!”

Eric also swung his Holy Sword and moved in.

“Shut up and die!”

The man fired off small magic bullets towards Eric.

“Guh!”

Eric twisted his body and dodged them. However, he could not dodge all of them, and one magic bullet hit him in the shoulder.

It was enough to bring Eric to his knees.

At the same time, with a small movement, he threw something towards me.

The big steps and the Holy Sword and even his body were just a distraction.

The object Eric had thrown towards me was the important thing.

The thing shone as soon as I caught it. It was some kind of magic tool.

But there was no time to use Magic Exploration on it. And so I just sent a surge of energy into it.

The brightness of the tool became stronger. And all at once, the horrible pain began to subside.

So it was a magic tool that helped soften the Evil God’s Protection.

Eric had prepared for such an event.

“You should have told me that you had this!”

I swung the Devil King Sword. The man’s head went flying in the air.

And then I used Magic Detection. I would find the core of the Evil God’s Protection. It was in the body of one of the duplicates. In the ashes.

So that’s where he had hidden it.

I fired off a powerful magic bullet into it.

—Crack!

It was like the sound of shattering glass. And like that, the core was destroyed.

At the same time, the Evil God’s Protection vanished.

“I’m glad that it activated. It was just a prototype.”

Eric said with a relieved chuckle.

“It was hiding it in that body, eh? It’ no wonder you didn’t realize it, Ruck.”

“These duplicates are a lot more dangerous than I imagined.”

Kathe and Goran said as they caught their breath.

As the core of the Evil God’s Protection had been destroyed, they were now free from the pain.

The core had likely been inside of his own body, but he then moved it when creating the duplicates.

It was a troublesome and dangerous thing for us to have to deal with.

Now that only the head remained, I pointed at it with the Devil King Sword and cast Magic Detection and Magic Exploration.

I wanted to make sure that Shia, Serulis, and Grulf were all okay.

“Goran. Serulis and the others are fine. But they are still fighting against a Lord.”

“I see. That’s good to hear.”

“We’re finished here. You leave the rest to us and go to them.”

While he was pretending to be calm, Goran must be worried about his daughter.

Even I was worried about them.

“Are you sure?”

“I would feel better if you were with them.”

“Goran. You should go.”

Eric and I said. And so Goran went running. As he ran, he said,

“I leave the rest to you then!”

“Yes, don’t worry.”

It was better if Goran was with Serulis and the others.

And we could focus on this mystery man.

While keeping the blade pointed at the man, I asked him,

“Now, who are you? You aren’t just an ordinary High Lord, are you?”

“…Hehe. Of course. I am the true ancestor. Do not think of me as being the same as a High Lord.”

Surprisingly, the man just told us his true identity. However, it did make sense.

Up until now, every high ranking vampire that I had called a ‘lesser’ had become furious without exception.

A vampire’s rank was something that they had a lot of pride in.

And so it was unbearable to have someone mistake their rank.

This was why he answered me without lying.

This knowledge would be very useful to me in the upcoming battles against vampires.

That was what I thought.