Chapter 298: 157. Aslan in Chaos -2

Translated by a Passing Wanderer

Edited by RED

**

“Tina, you head to the World Tree,” Allen directed.

Tina dismounted from the skeletal horse. The hashashins escorted her to their new destination, while the monks followed Allen to break into the royal palace.

Orc soldiers showed up on every floor to block their progress.

“We, must stop them-! Master said so! Master ordered! Stop them!”

These orcs were brandishing all sorts of weapons.

The monks rushing along in the narrow corridor quietly whispered under their hoods, “Under the name of Goddess Gaia, Holy King Allen Olfolse’s Blessing be with us.”

Under the mountain goat skull-helm, Allen’s face displayed his surprise when he heard that.

These monks were praying, but they weren’t simply praying to Gaia. They also mentioned Allen’s name during their prayers.

A white aura gushed out from the figures of the monks as they recited their prayers. They wielded their staves and held their heads high.

A staff overflowing with divine power was ruthlessly swung around to sweep an orc off its feet, and then the sharp end of the weapon was thrust into the helm of the downed monster.

Blood splattered everywhere, and the orc went limp.

Another monk dodged the weapon swung around by an orc, grabbed the monster’s wrist, and bent it in the wrong direction. He then snatched the orc’s weapon away and killed the orc with it.

The five hundred or so monks quickly spread throughout the royal palace to suppress the thousand-plus orcs present inside the building. As expected of monks trained by none other than Damon, they were truly multi-talented with how excellent their martial techniques were, as well as their proficiency in handling various weapons.

“Humans! Stop them!”

“Shields, formations!”

More orcs hurried into the royal palace’s corridors. Kitted out in heavy armour that humans would’ve found too heavy to wear, they quickly overlapped their forged steel shields, each weighing at least thirty kilograms, to create a sturdy shield wall, then pushed their spears through the small gaps in this wall.

The monks took in this sight before stepping back.

Allen pointed the cannon mounted on his right arm at the new obstruction while his eyes glowed even more fiercely. “Get out of my way.”

The holy projectile exploded forth and tore through the orcs mercilessly. The steel armour and the flesh of the monsters were literally erased from existence.

The ensuing explosion caused angry flames to spread out. The nearby windows all shattered, and many orcs were thrown out of the palace altogether from the force of impact.

Debris fell from the quaking ceiling.

Orcs lying half-dead in the obliterated passage of the palace vomited out mouthfuls of blood. They raised their faltering heads and stared at the human walking towards them from the end of the corridor.

This being with a mountain goat’s skull for a helm and a set of bone armour surrounding him, framed by the backdrop of billowing flames behind him...

On his right arm was a gigantic cannon over two metres in length, all encased in bones. It was so long that it extended past the tip of his hand and well, well past his shoulder.

“A devil. A devil...!”

The orcs were utterly terrified. But when they turned around to try and flee, the spells of obedience the vampires had placed on them activated, causing their bodies to suddenly balloon up, before exploding into gory bits.

The orcs witnessed their kin die in such a gruesome fashion and began shaking their heads frantically, as if to reject their current reality.

If they tried to fight, the Holy King would murder them. But if they tried to run, the vampire’s spell would blow them up, instead.

They couldn’t flee either way. Only death awaited them!

The cannon aimed at the head of another orc next.

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“Ah, keu-aaaaaahk!”

The orc roared out and tried to pounce on the human, but a blinding flash of light wiped the poor creature from existence, starting from its head.

**

“Truly excellent, King Rahamma Aslan.” While saying that, Duke Duran panted heavily to get a grip on his breathing.

His wrecked helm was being reconstructed with blood and securely enclosed his head once more.

Duran snickered, then glared at King Rahamma, currently on one knee while maintaining his balance with his mace.

“Even then, did you really think you can win against us, the noble vampires, just because you were revived?!”

The once-sacred royal audience chamber of the ruler of Aslan had been thoroughly defiled by now. Toxins from the Basilisk had deeply stained every visible corner, while blood corrupted by the demonic energy had splashed and spread everywhere.

Orcs were standing and waiting, while Rehton was injuring his own flesh to extract blood from it. The demonic energy from the surrounding area was rapidly being sucked into Duran.

Despite his confident tone, though, there was a strand of sweat trickling down his cheek. ‘You goddamn monster!’

He needed the assistance of his blood-creations in order to fight evenly against King Rahamma. But even after receiving the boost from their blood and demonic energy, Duran could only barely suppress Rahamma.

‘I shouldn’t have turned Rehton into a blood-creation.’

If him dividing a portion of his strength off in order to seduce a feudal lord could be seen as the root of his current problem, then yes, it certainly was!

“If you are an undead, be a good undead and go back to hell, Rahamma!” Duran roared out and gripped his blood sword tightly before thrusting at Rahamma’s forehead.

It was at that point Rahamman’s jaw broke the weighty silence he had been observing.

-Back when I was still the King of Aslan, I believed I could win against you. However, that was wrong, it seems. Indeed, you are strong. I now acknowledge it.-

Duran furrowed his brow at that. The personality of King Rahamma he remembered was not like this. For him to reject his own strength, and then to acknowledge someone else’s power?

-But with this, now I know for sure.- Rahamma raised his head up, and his glowing eye sockets arched like new moons, an eerie cackle leaving his bony jaw. -I know for sure now that my master is stronger than you.-

A deathly chill ran down Duran’s spine. That was because he had detected a massive amount of divinity somewhere behind him.

He urgently turned his head around and stared at the firmly-shut door, only for his jaw to drop. “Crazy son of a...!”

KA-BOOM-!

A cannon shell made out of light came flying in like a shooting star. It broke through the doorway and obliterated Duran’s upper body. His remaining lower torso stumbled back.

King Rahamma tried to get back to his feet, but his body crumbled and he had to fall back to the floor. action

In the meantime, the remaining orcs and Rehton jumped up in shock and hurriedly retreated. Duran’s lower half began writhing around at the same time, and his body started regenerating.

The destroyed spine sprouted up from the hips before the ribs, arms and hands, and finally, the neck and the skull grew out from there. New flesh started reforming to cover them all, and Duran’s trembling eyes shifted over to the audience chamber’s doorway.

Rahamma too also turned his head towards the doorway and deeply bowed his head. -Master. You’ve arrived.-

The doorway with a big melted hole in it, was flung wide open. Around five hundred monks entered, dispersing to the left and right sides of the chamber. These monks, clad in robes that dragged on the floor, stood tall and proud before slamming their staves down.

“So, you were the one.”

Boots covered in bones stepped on the floor. Glowing eyes under the skull of a mountain goat glared sharply at Duke Duran, still in the middle of his regeneration.

“The one responsible for this event.”

The Holy King, Allen Olfolse. He had finally shown up!

The muscles around Duran’s eyes that had just finished regenerating began twitching. His whole body even shuddered a little from instinctive fear. ‘This is too dangerous!’

To think that he’d actually have to confront the Holy King in this manner!

‘Marquis Kirum, you stinking bastard! Just where the hell are you-?!’ Duran inwardly cursed out while finishing up the last of his regeneration. He sucked in a deep breath.

At the same time, he also stared back at the Holy King and spotted the cannon with divinity swirling within it taking aim at him again.

“As expected. You’re different from a Count-class. To think that you’d still be alive after your body blew into pieces. In that case...” The glowing eyes under the mountain goat’s skull arched in a creepy grin, “...why don’t we experiment on how many times you must die before you are really dead?”

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**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

I sucked my breath in deeply before exhaling.

Duke Duran was in the middle of regenerating himself, completely bathed in blood.

Wowsers, I guess he’s really different from the other, ‘regular’ vampires, then. His body got obliterated into bits and pieces, yet here he is, still alive.

The divinity contained in my attack should’ve greatly restricted a vampire’s regenerative ability, yet this bloodsucker was strong enough to overcome that. A normal person who didn’t know how to wield divinity would never be able to kill this Duke-class vampire.

This was the reason why this continent required the Imperial Family’s presence.

I injected more divinity into my portable cannon. The holy shell expanded before condensing even further.

One of the twelve feudal lords who had raised the flag of rebellion first, Rehton, urgently cried out, “M-master, what should we do now?!”

Even then, he didn’t forget to hold his bizarre-looking claws up high, getting ready for another round of battle. The orcs next to him also raised their weapons and glared threateningly at the monks.

This tense silence seemed to stretch on for a bit, before Duke Duran finally said, “Attack them! We don’t have an escape path left anyway! If you wish to live on, kill them and survive!”

At the same time, I also spoke up, “Kill them. This is a territory of the Theocratic Empire. My territory.” I finished reloading the cannon and aimed it at Duke Duran’s face. “I will not tolerate some vulgar vampire daring to soil my own territory!”

Flames spat out from the cannon, and the blinding shooting star flew straight at Duran.

“Danger...?!”

Duran’s body suddenly split apart into droplets of blood before dispersing everywhere. They seemed to float up, before coalescing in one spot to reconstruct his body.

‘Man, what a tricky, rat-like bastard!’

The twelve bone hands on my back spread out. Muskets were summoned into their grips and I took aim at the quickly-regenerating Duran over there. Holy bullets rapidly condensed before firing at their target.

Duran looked quite flustered as he dispersed his body once more, and was sucked into a puddle of blood on the floor.

“Protect Duke Duran, now!” Rehton roared out, prompting the orcs to rush towards me.

But the monks quickly stood in their way. They wielded their staves and began to wage a messy melee against the orcs and Rehton.

Meanwhile, Duran’s body was rapidly reconstructed from the puddle of blood soaking the floor, which I also happened to be standing on top of at the moment.

He dug deep into my defences. “For the glory of our great Vampire King-!” He raised his sword high before thrusting it towards my heart.

The twelve bone hands let go of the muskets and at the same time, spears, swords, and maces were summoned into their grips to defend against the incoming blood sword, overlapping with one another.

“...?!” Duran gasped out, while I took a hard swing with the cannon in the air. From right below its muzzle, a blade belonging to my greatsword shot out towards the vampire.

I braced myself on the ground and pivoted around. My right hand continued to swing the greatsword poking out from under the cannon muzzle.

“You monstrous basta...!”

Duran quickly withdrew his blood sword to block the incoming greatsword.

Clang-!

The two blades collided noisily. Divinity and demonic energy clashed and exploded from the impact. Despite that, neither I nor Duran were blown away. We held our positions and glared into each other’s eyes.

The floor beneath our feet began buckling and breaking down.

My physical ability, amplified by divinity, was also bolstered by the strength exerted by the hundreds of bones, and was enough to overwhelm Duke Duran’s own monstrous physical prowess.

The greatsword was gradually pressing the blood sword down.

“H-how can a human be this strong...?!”

Duran’s sword of blood shattered. Even his armour of blood broke apart, and his figure was flung helplessly away.

He rolled around on the puddles of blood on the ground, splashing them all over the place. “Aaaahk...”

All the blood in his surroundings began gathering on Duke Duran again. It looked to me as if he was trying to recover by absorbing the blood from the orcs and Rehton.

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I summoned holy water from the tips of my feet. The blood containing demonic energy violently rippled before exploding everywhere about me.

At the same time, the blood being sucked into Duran’s body also exploded, leaving his body in tatters. “You, you monster-!”

‘Oiii, who you calling a monster here?!’

I quickly sprinted towards Duran as he forced himself up.

“I, I don’t have enough blood...!” He muttered, urgently looking around his vicinity. Eventually his searching gaze landed beyond the broken-down wall of the audience chamber.

The Bone Dragon and the Basilisk were still fighting outside, viciously tearing into each other. The poison and tainted blood from the white-scaled snake monster spewed out everywhere.

“...That’s it!” Duran extended his hand.

Blood was rapidly extracted from the Basilisk and gathered around him.

He then confidently glared in my direction. “A mere human dares to...!”

I flinched in surprise and stopped getting closer. After urgently Summoning a whole bunch of bones, I stacked them in front of me to create a sturdy shield wall.

CRUNCH-!

A stake of blood drilled straight past the shield but I managed to retreat in time to avoid the attack by a whisker.

“From now on, I’ll start fighting you seriously!” Duran proclaimed, as his flesh began writhing rather ominously.

His body suddenly ballooned up as he finally shed all pretence of looking like a human being. A pair of bat-like wings broke through the skin on his back, while his human legs blew apart, only to be replaced by a pair of hooved legs similar to a horse’s.

Even his once human-looking face changed to something resembling a lion, while all the muscles on his torso took on this distinct crimson hue, as if they were super-heated stones.

He had become a literal monster standing at least three metres tall. The way he looked kinda reminded me of a devil, too.

A greatsword of blood materialised within the grip of the new devilish Duran. When he took a casual swing with the weapon, blood drops spread around like dancing flames, and spewed out powerful poisons.

“Oh hear ye, you stinking livestock! You should not have opposed me!” The devil-ified Duran slammed his blood greatsword on the floor hard.

The holy water was corrupted instantly, and the ground was stained by the blood once more. It didn’t stop there; clones bearing the same appearance as when Duran still resembled a human began rising up from the surface.

There were a total of six of them, and they all wore the same armour of blood and held the blood swords as well. Their murderous glares locked onto me.

“Even if you are the Holy King, you are still no match for me, the noble one who was granted the Title of a Duke!” He pointed that blood greatsword in my direction as the light in his eyes sharpened considerably. “Know your place, you damn livestock-!”

I ignored him for now and glanced to my side. I could see King Rahamma standing back up, seemingly finished recovering. Kasim the Berserker and Nasus the Lich were also entering the audience chamber behind me, having disposed of the trio of feudal lords outside.

“Hmm. Our headcount is still on the low side, isn’t it.” While saying that, I raised my left hand and snapped my fingers lightly.

A portion of the blood staining the floor was shoved back once more by my holy water. The two got mixed up and undulated wildly.

My monster legion began leaping out from the holy water’s surface. From the skeleton centipede, to the skeleton cavalry featuring the lower half of horses and upper half of skeleton soldiers, followed up by the four-armed skeleton infantrymen...

My bizarre monster army made entirely out of bones emerged into the open, making the audience chamber a rather cramped space. The monks still fighting intensely against the orcs stopped and withdrew in smart formation.

The orcs and Rehton also retreated.

And just like that, our two opposing camps started a glaring contest.

“M-master, all those monsters...!” When Rehton gasped that, the devil version of Duran shifted his gaze over to the former feudal lord of Aslan.

A sneer suddenly formed on Duran’s face. He reached out to grab Rehton’s head, then used his blood greatsword to chop the latter’s torso in half.

He lifted the bleeding upper torso up high, gulping down all the falling blood with his gaping mouth. Yet another clone materialised as a result.

Duran discarded Rehton’s body and began loosening his muscles. His hooved feet stomped loudly on the floor, while he bent his back like a hunchback.

The devil Duran roared out in anger, “For the glory of the Vampire King-!”

His roaring drove his clones into action. The orcs also roared out and charged forwards.

I aimed with my cannon and issued my orders, too, “Go and hunt down the filthy vampires!”

Kasim, Nasus, Rahamma, the monks, and the monster army all rushed forward at the same time.

Both sides charged with all their might, trained their weapons at their targets, and began swinging away.

< 157. Aslan in Chaos -2 > Fin.

(TL: Only one chaptet today, 16th of Feb...)