chapter 89

Even after the head turned into ash, I didn’t let my guard down.

It was the head of an Evil God. I would not be surprised if it rose from the ashes.

So I observed it carefully and pondered.

“That last magic… What should I call it…”

Black beams of light.

Dark Ray perhaps?

It didn’t sound quite right. But I would think of something later.

I continued to stare at the head for some time, but it showed no signs of reviving.

“I guess I can relax for now…”

I inspected the ashes.

To me, it looked much the same as when vampires turned into ash.

The only difference was that I found a small idol head inside of it.

“Perhaps this is the heading missing from the Evil God idol.”

If it was the missing piece from the idol we found in the sewers, that meant we now had the complete set.

The dark ones had probably wanted to summon the entire Evil God.

But for some reason, it had not worked for them.

Either they didn’t have enough curses or enough sacrifices. Or maybe it was ingredients.

It could have been that they didn’t have any time left.

Or perhaps they didn’t have the right information.

“But it was so strong while just a head. I’m not sure I would have been able to win if it was against the whole body…”

It was a horrible thing to think about.

I gathered the ashes and the idol head and threw them into my bag.

“Perhaps I should take the core for the barrier as well.”

Otherwise, the dark ones might use it for something. Besides, I would like to study it.

At this point, the vampires that had been trapped with Terminus Icicle began to melt.

The goblins who had defrosted remained breathless and dead. They were dead the moment they had frozen.

Most of the vampires had died as well. They had turned to ash at the same time that they had frozen.

However, one vampire that had been in the room with the Evil God came back to life.

He must have been a powerful vampire to be so resilient. A High Lord, maybe.

“…What happened…”

He looked around the room. Then he noticed that the Evil God head was not there and his jaw dropped.

I was now using an illusion to look like one of the vampires that I had killed while coming here.

“So you are awake now?”

“Ah, you’re the 10th. What has happened here?’

Apparently, I was now the 10th ranking vampire.

So I was a Vampire Lord.

And since he was talking down to me, he was probably a High Lord.

But normally, illusions wouldn’t work on a High Lord.

However, he had only just been defrosted and his brain was likely still slow.

“My surroundings suddenly froze over. I don’t know what happened…”

I pretended that I didn’t know. It would be easier to avoid saying anything I shouldn’t.

“And what happened to our God? I do not see him?”

So the head was the god of the dark ones after all.

Establishing that alone made it worth talking to this High Lord.

“It has vanished.”

“Vanished? That cannot be. God was not yet whole. He should not be able to move.”

“Whole or not, a god is a god. Perhaps he escaped from the ice.”

“That’s impossible. As long as your body is not whole, you cannot move one step away from the summoning circle. Else your body will disappear.”

“Then where did he go?”

“Perhaps he was killed by the ice…”

The High Lord scowled.

“No. We were able to survive it. Surely a god would not die from that.”

“That’s true… Hmm? My God-given powers are gone. What about you?”

“…yes. I think they are gone as well.”

I said. So the Evil God really was able to share power with the vampires.

“In any case, if God has disappeared, we must summon him again.”

“Indeed. We must gather more sacrifices.”

“It will be easy enough if we work together.”

“You say that, but it does hurt that the High Lord who was controlling this area in the city is now dead. And by a mere human.”

“This time, we must summon the entire God.”

“Yes. We shouldn’t have rushed so much after the death of the High Lord. We didn’t have enough sacrifices and ended up only being able to summon the head.”

It was a very good thing that we had killed the High Lord.

Just then, a voice came from behind me.

“High Lord! What has…”

There were other vampires that had survived, apparently.

“Ah, the 18th. I do not know. How is it out there?”

“Everyone is dead. No one has survived except for me.”

“Damn it… We were five Lords. Five who had been given power by God. And now we are only two.”

And then the High Lord turned to me and said,

“10th. Help me. My legs still cannot move.”

Then the 18th muttered,

“10th?”

The 18th must have checked the area after reviving.

His brain was working normally, it seemed.

Besides, he had been further from the Terminus Icicle.

And so maybe he wasn’t as affected by my illusion.

“I suppose that’s it then.”

“10th?”

Instead of offering my hand to the High Lord, I swung my sword. His head went flying.

“Wha…t…”

The head sputtered in shock as I stabbed it with my sword.

“Bastard!”

The 18th came rushing towards me.

However, without the power of the Evil God, he was just a normal Lord. He was no match for me.

I used my right hand to grab him by the neck.

“I’m going to drain you.”

“Wh-what…”

I activated Drain Touch on the 18th. It had been a while since I last did this.

But my fight with the Evil God head had caused parts of my arm to turn into ash.

Drain Touch would allow me to heal quickly.

High Lords were strong. And there was a chance that they would go berserk while I was draining them.

But Vampire Lords were nice and weak. But still had plenty of magic energy for the taking.

They were perfect for Drain Touch.

My arm was healing at a rapid rate.

At the same time, the 18th was drained of all life as his skin began to wrinkle.

“…AH….ah…”

“Thank you. That was a great help.”

Then I cut off his head and stabbed it with my sword.

“Now. For some cleanup.”

I gathered the magic stones from the ashes along with the medals.

Then I gathered all the goblin bodies that had not turned into ash and put them in my bag.