Volume 4 Chapter 90 Interception Battle at Dawn ③
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The morning sun crested the hill’s jagged silhouette, but it brought no warmth to the slopes—only a new kind of hell.
Talia’s position, where many Blue Thunder Stone¹ crystals protruded from the black rock ground, had been scoured into a purgatorial waste by the enemy’s high-heat magic sword attacks.
The volcanic rock, long since cooled, now pulsed with a dull, incandescent red. Every drop of the morning’s rain had vanished, replaced by a shimmering haze that warped the air like a fever dream.
(A solar magic sword, I see)
Talia watched the Wolfmen youth whose mana surged in a violent resonance with the sunrise. Behind his crystal sunglasses, his light blue eyes bled into a predatory gold. He was grinning—a savage, toothy expression.
(And Tersea’s weapon over there)
”Her background doesn’t matter. Eliminate her immediately,” the youth said.
Tersea flourished a curved scimitar carved from pure Black Onyx². It was a primitive-looking thing, lacking the keen edge of forged steel, but the eerie mana roiling off the dark stone gave Talia a premonition of death.
”Haaaaah! Divide them, Black Onyx!” Tersea shouted.
Dressed for mobility in a black leather beret and a matching sleeveless top, the silver-haired woman swung the heavy stone blade. She moved with the uncanny precision of the Wolfmen’s Future Sight—every strike was calculated to land exactly where Talia was fated to be.
”Hyaah!” Tersea loosed a sharp cry.
Though thirty meters still separated them, they were well within the “Dividing” blade’s reach. Tersea’s eyes flared, and she brought the Black Onyx sword down in a crushing arc.
Then, for one heartbeat, the world stalled.
In that fraction of a second, Talia’s figure simply vanished.
”-!?” Tersea gasped.
”Behind you, Tersea!” Ozeas shouted.
A sickening, wet crackle echoed across the slope—a sound of bone snapping and gristle tearing.
Tersea staggered, her center of gravity suddenly gone. Her arms were missing from the elbows down, her hands still clutching the Black Onyx blade as they tumbled into the dirt.
”…ngh!? Guahhhhhhhhhh!?” Tersea shrieked.
”Tersea! Oooooooo!!” Ozeas roared.
(No mistake about it. That’s Kharab’s magic sword)
Ozeas, now fully empowered by the rising sun, threw himself into the fray. He was a dervish of solar fire; with every swing of his silver-white holy sword, a literal torrent of flame trailed the blade’s path.
He fought like a man possessed, desperate to keep Talia away from the silver wolf woman.
Talia danced through the inferno. She vaulted to the right, flipped left, and stepped through the gaps in his golden slashes. Ordinarily, the proximity to his heat would have turned a warrior to ash, but the charm in her hair pulsed with a protective light, rendering the fire harmless.
”Phoenix! Lend me your strength!” Ozeas howled.
His sunglasses melted off his face, and the earth beneath his boots liquefied into bubbling magma.
Talia parried a burning overhead strike with her Oathbound Misericorde. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the heavy blade wide and spared a glance at her trophy: Tersea’s severed arms, still gripping the Black Onyx magic sword.
(It’s not a duplicate like my Misericorde…? But Kian mentioned this blade was used elsewhere. Are they teleporting the weapon itself across battlefields?)
”Awaken, Phoenix…! Burn everything to ashes! OOOOOOOOOO!! AAAAAAAAAAAA!!” Ozeas screamed.
He retreated and summoned a gilded scabbard from thin air. He sheathed the silver-white holy sword, gripped the hilt with both hands, and dropped into a low draw-stance. When sheathed this way, the Phoenix magic sword became a weapon of mass erasure—a spirit-breaking engine of destruction.
”Daaaaaaaaa!!” Ozeas roared.
He drew. A blinding arc of light swept across the battlefield, a wave of annihilation that denied even the possibility of immortality.
Talia watched it without any panic.
(Swallow it. Apollo Lykeios³)
”Wha-” Ozeas stammered.
A gargantuan black wolf had manifested directly in the path of the solar beam. Where there should have been nothing left but dust, the giant wolf simply opened its maw. It didn’t just block the light; it inhaled it.
The sun’s wrath was swallowed whole. The glare died. The twilight of the wolf’s shadow stretched long over the slope. The solar magic sword fell silent.
Because it was morning, the sword’s mana was still full, but facing a beast that suffered zero damage from the blast, Ozeas did not fire a second shot.
”Solar illusions do not work on Apollo Lykeios,” Talia declared.
”…!” Ozeas remained silent.
”It was a good strike, though. Of all the solar users I’ve killed, you are about the third whose soul is cleanly fused with the Phoenix.”
”Fufufu… you’re no ordinary Lyritisse. Who on earth are you?” Ozeas asked, his breathing ragged.
”Ugh, kuu… ngh” Tersea had struggled to her feet. Using her teeth, she clamped onto the hilt of the Oathbound Misericorde, her silver hair matted with blood. She took a low-slung stance beside Ozeas.
Talia ignored the question and raised her left arm straight out.
”Close the memories. Baphomet of the Black Sorcery⁴.”
”…!?”
”-!!”
Talia’s left arm became translucent, and beside her appeared a towering, goat-headed demon with the wings of a bat. In its right hand, it held a quill; in its left, a book bound in human skin.
”Baphomet offers a game. Bet every memory you gain on this field. If you win, you keep them. If you lose, you permanently lose one randomly selected memory in addition to the ones you bet.”
”A demon’s curse? Fortunately, since I obtained Phoenix, my magic resistance has increased. I think it probably won’t have an effect. In fact, the game hasn’t even begun.” Ozeas said.
”The objective is simple: touch Baphomet’s book before you kill me,” Talia replied.
The demon let out a feminine laugh and faded into the ether.
”If you touch the book, you win. If you flee, or if you kill me first, you lose.”
”…What will you wager? It’s a game, right?” Ozeas demanded.
”I wager nothing. You are the ones who will desperately try to take back the precious memories you put into hock on your own,” Talia said.
”Ugh…!?”
”What? What is happening!? From my head, paper is coming out!?” Ozeas shouted.
From the hair of both Ozeas and Tersea, thin strips of white parchment began to unravel, spiraling upward toward the sky like smoke.
”It’s begun,” Talia muttered. “The demon values fairness. The contract activates the moment the rules are explained to at least one participant. I’ll leave the explanation to the others.”
”One of the targets… you say?” Ozeas looked up, his face paling.
It wasn’t just his and Tersea’s memories. Across the sky, thousands of white papers were unspooling from the heads of his hidden comrades, drifting upward.
”This is a world-level contract. Magic resistance is a pittance. Dispel is impossible,” Talia explained.
She signaled the black wolf forward.
”Explanation over. If you want to run by sacrificing your memories, go ahead. At least your lives might be saved.”
* * *
Talia had no intention of letting them run. The moment she finished speaking, she jumped and grabbed Tersea’s face in a firm grip. The silver wolf woman didn’t even have time to react.
Talia tried to extract the memories, but before she could, the woman’s brain burst like a firecracker.
”Tersea!! Tsk…!!” Ozeas yelled.
(A soul vessel. A puppet body. When I tried to bypass the mental triggers, a self-destruct ward etched into the skull automatically exploded)
”Whoever built you was a cautious one,” Talia remarked, ducking a sharp holy sword strike. That blade couldn’t hurt the wolf, but it was effective against Talia’s body. If she was cut, her soul would be slashed in one hit.
”…ngh! Oh, this one’s going to blow too!” Talia noted.
She tried to receive Ozeas’s second strike with the captured Black Onyx blade. The stone immediately began to glow, and cracks spider-webbing across its surface.
Talia clicked her tongue, twisted like a snake to avoid his follow-up, and kicked Ozeas’s chest. She tried to hurl the unstable Black Onyx blade away, but the heat caused her reflexes to lock for a microsecond.
The blade shattered into a thousand shards right in front of her face. An instant-death trap.
Before the shards could flay her soul, an automatic teleportation ward snapped her back to her starting position. The hair ornament she wore shattered—the proxy tool that avoids instant-death gimmicks was crushed. To make another would take time.
”In this case, the memories don’t come back,” Ozeas panted, watching Tersea’s memories spiral into the clouds. “What a vicious game.”
”Do you surrender?” Talia asked. “Won’t you join us?”
”…Unfortunately, I have a duty to Jibril,” Ozeas gasped.
”Then you die,” Talia said.
She moved faster than he could track, appearing in his blind spot. Before she could touch him, Ozeas blew out magic power like flames from his entire body. It was a smart move—defending all directions when he couldn’t see the enemy.
”Strike!” Ozeas shouted.
He spun, whipping his sword in a one-handed arc. The Phoenix’s power increased with the morning sun, dissolving a range of sixty meters in an instant.
”Splendid. But unless you defeat Apollo Lykeios, that heat won’t reach me,” Talia said.
She parried with the Misericorde and stepped hard onto Ozeas’s foot.
”If it’s the blade of the holy sword, you might actually hunt me.”
”Ooooo!!” Ozeas roared, throwing her off with raw strength.
Talia felt her blood boiling. Watching Kian’s sword techniques for so long had left her with an itch for a real fight.
”More. Strike me more, Phoenix warrior!” Talia hissed.
”Aaaaa! Fast! Iyaa, Daaaaaa!!” Ozeas screamed.
He became a golden blur of feral strikes. The holy sword carved glowing furrows through the air, trying to catch Baphomet in the collateral damage.
Talia laughed and dodged a vertical strike, leaving an afterimage. She pulled her Misericorde back like a bowstring and thrust.
The blade pierced Ozeas’s right eye. He let out a strangled “Gah!” and swung wildly.
Talia floated upward, avoiding the counter. She descended again, her blade piercing his arm armor and tearing the muscle. She followed up with a palm strike to his face and a kick that sent him crashing into the melting ground.
(Secret Technique—Heavenfall!)
Talia narrowed her eyes, replicating Kian’s mana flow perfectly. Her mana solidified into thousands of invisible swords in the air. A freezing wind sucked the heat from the ground.
As Ozeas scrambled out of the lava, the Heavenfall⁵ descended like a downpour.
The youth’s screams were lost in a deafening roar of pulverization. The ground didn’t just break; it vanished. Bedrock was ground into powder, and the nearby labyrinth tunnels collapsed, burying hundreds of warrior monks.
Talia’s output was monstrous, far exceeding Kian’s own scale.
When the dust settled, the hill was gone. In its place was a flat wasteland reaching to the beach.
Ozeas lay in the center of the crater, a broken, bloody mess. He still tried to crawl toward Talia, lunging for her.
The giant wolf didn’t give him the chance, bringing a massive paw down with a wet crunch.
”Eat,” Talia ordered.
The wolf bit the holy sword in its mouth and crushed the divine metal. The golden light surrounding Ozeas died.
”Phoenix warrior, do you surrender?” Talia asked.
”…” Ozeas panted.
”If you join us, I’ll save you,” Talia said.
”……. Heh,” Ozeas smiled faintly.
”Brave to the end,” Talia sighed.
She turned to give the order to the wolf, but her instincts screamed. She looked to the sky and teleported in a heartbeat.
A microsecond late, a square hole opened in the ground where Talia had been standing.
”…Jibril…” Ozeas wheezed.
As if shielding the wounded Ozeas, a long-haired young noble stood confronting Talia.
* * *
”Retreat! Fall back, Ozeas!”
Jibril, the long-haired noble, barked the order as he leveled his black parasol toward Talia. In his other hand, he gripped a magic sword⁶—the Windsong Blade—its length riddled with hollow apertures that whistled with a deadly, piercing chill.
His dark eyes snapped wide, burning with sudden intensity.
In a blurred flash of motion, Talia and her massive wolf familiar vanished, flanking him from both sides.
Clang!
A high-pitched metallic screech echoed across the field.
Talia materialized directly in front of Jibril, her Misericorde plunging downward. While a short sword’s downward slash should have lacked heavy impact, the sheer force sent a shockwave rippling several meters behind Jibril, splitting the red-hot earth in two.
”────”
A repulsive, eerie magic power began to bleed from Jibril’s back. Shards of Black Onyx⁷, resembling jagged dragon scales, erupted across his right eye with a series of sharp cracks.
Sensing the omen of an attack, Talia immediately leapt backward.
With a dull thud, the ground where Talia had stood only a heartbeat before was cleanly excised-a perfect square of earth vanished into nothingness.
”A clever little magic trick,” Talia muttered, her voice devoid of emotion. She watched as scraps of white paper spiraled into the sky from Jibril’s head. “You don’t look like a mere human… tell me, are you Jibril?”
”Ozeas, run! I’ll handle the rest,” said Jibril.
”Don’t be reckless! I’ll… I’ll fight too!” Ozeas shouted.
”Just go! Can’t you listen to a word I say?!” Jibril snapped.
Jibril swept his parasol in a wide arc. Skeletal white arms erupted from the sand at Talia’s feet, but she didn’t bother dodging. Instead, she began kneading her own magic power to manifest Heavenfall⁸.
Seeing the phantoms vanish like mist the moment they brushed against Talia, Jibril tossed the parasol aside. He drew his Windsong Blade through the empty air. The sword didn’t need to touch flesh; the mere act of swinging it sent scythes of compressed wind shrieking forward.
Talia parried them with surgical precision, her Misericorde sparking as she deflected the invisible blades one after another. Behind her, the stray slashes gouged deep furrows into the earth, leaving trails of frost and jagged ice crystals in their wake.
”Sully the earth, Gorgon!”
While striking repeatedly with the Windsong Blade, Jibril summoned a heavy tachi into his empty right hand. His hair, long and wild like a demon wolf’s tail, whipped in the freezing gale. From the shadows behind him, a monocular Demon⁹-its hair a writhing nest of serpents-slithered into view.
Cursed sigils, shaped like slitted eyeballs, burned themselves into the skin of Talia’s ankles.
”Time is up. Turn to stone!” Jibril declared.
”I see… you’re manipulating my subjective perception of time,” Talia observed.
Suddenly, both Talia and the giant wolf were ensnared by countless slate-gray chains that manifested out of the shadows. They were distinct from the chains of darkness. Her limbs were bound without mercy, her every movement reduced to a slow-motion crawl.
Talia narrowed her sharp eyes.
(Deconstructing spell matrix…)
She remembered this formula. The Gorgon’s Curse was an old riddle she had analyzed centuries ago. As a Vampire Sovereign, any curse she had decoded once could be dispelled immediately.
”Break!” Talia cried.
Jibril didn’t wait for the dispel. He launched a massive, reddish-black arc of energy at the frozen pair-a fatal strike from the Gorgon blade. The blow was over fifty meters high and twenty wide.
At the very last second, Talia teleported through space. Reappearing behind the blast, she unleashed Heavenfall with a slight delay, aiming to pulverize Jibril’s upper body while he was still recovering from his swing.
”Jibril!”
”Boss!”
A golden blur intercepted the strike. The young Wolfman, Ozeas, threw himself into the noble’s path, shoving him aside. In the final moment before the gravity crushed him, Talia thought she saw a faint, defiant smile on the boy’s face.
Jibril tumbled across the sand, his face contorting as he scrambled back to his feet.
”Checkmate,” Talia said.
”I see… that was quite a blow,” Jibril panted. “But… I managed to take out the wolf.”
”Did you?” Talia asked.
Talia stood tall, glancing at the pile of ash where the giant wolf had been. “You’re only the third person to ever bring down Apollo Lykeios. Your sword is impressive, but your mastery of it is truly magnificent.”
”……”
Jibril’s figure vanished. Switching back to the Windsong Blade, he reappeared instantly in front of Talia, delivering a deadly diagonal slash. However, Talia’s figure dissolved into a few drifting black feathers like a phantom.
Jibril slowly looked up at the sky.
”Now, for round two,” Talia said.
”Hahaha, interesting,” Jibril replied.
Talia hovered in the air, Misericorde raised like a conductor’s baton. Around Jibril, who looked up with a cool smile, the giant wolf Apollo Lykeios stood tall once more, alongside a centaur archer and a black-clothed swordsman missing his left arm.
”This is the Star’s Song,” Talia announced.
”Drawing power from the Spiritual Vein… are they spirits?” Jibril asked.
”Indeed. I am Kharab of the Black Onyx. Nice to meet you,” Talia lied.
”A transparent lie,” Jibril countered with a grimace. “But I suppose I’m truly cornered now.”
He watched in disbelief as Talia used her stolen memories to craft two more puppets from the earth: perfect, hollow clones of Ozeas and Tersea. Jibril pointed his Windsong Blade at the giant wolf and leveled his Gorgon tachi at the clones to keep them in check.
”Surrender, General of Azrael,” Talia commanded.
”A recommendation I must respectfully decline,” Jibril said.
”Sir Jibril!”
A woman’s voice pierced the air. High above, the Eastern dragon descended through the clouds.
Tch. Talia felt the shift in the battle. To the southeast, the enemy fleet-no longer fearing her meteors-had begun a massive, synchronized Group Incantation. Taking advantage of the gap while Talia was occupied with close combat, the fleet from the Cyclops direction charged. If she didn’t act, she would be vaporized by the sheer weight of their collective magic.
She began detonating the incoming meteors with Heavenfall bursts from the ground, creating a defensive perimeter of fire in the sky. Meanwhile, Jibril took the chance, chain-teleporting toward the dragon.
”Execute the illusion. Hylonomé Centaurias!” Talia commanded.
The massive centaur familiar readied a bow the size of a siege engine. The projectile was more of a dragon-slaying lance than an arrow. Her finger leveled at the diving dragon.
”Shoot it down,” Talia ordered.
Talia made a small “bang” with her fingers, mirroring the archer. The lance tore through the atmosphere. Jibril and the dragon-rider, Hanami, banked hard to avoid the direct hit.
But the centaur hadn’t been aiming at them. She had been aiming at the countless ice mirages Jibril had created in the sky.
Ice statues of Jibril, Hanami, the dragon, and the dragonfly escort units were all shattered to pieces by the aftermath of the lance. Consequently, Jibril, Hanami, and their dragon-who hadn’t been hit directly-were shredded by the sympathetic damage and fell from the sky.
”Ahaha! Did you really think you could escape me?” Talia laughed, baring her fangs.
She snatched a pitch-black blade from the one-armed swordsman and calculated the perfect angle to skewer both Jibril and Hanami in mid-air.
”Sir Jibril! Light Dragon! Become our shield!” Hanami screamed. “Hanami, barrier! Give me everything!”
(Stubborn girl!)
Talia swung the dark blade. A crescent of void-energy sliced through the sky. The Shikigami dragon threw itself into the path, its scales dissolving into dust as it was obliterated after a moment of struggle.
Hanami lunged forward, shielding Jibril with her own body.
”Aaaaaaaaaagh!”
A woman’s scream tore through the wind. Hanami’s lower body vanished, her hair was scorched away, and her face was gruesomely blasted.
Jibril caught Hanami, his own body cracking like a broken gemstone. He forced a shield of Black Onyx into existence, but it shattered against Talia’s blade. His right side split open, and something-a mass of pure, oily darkness-jerked out of the wound and fled into the distance.
Jibril reached for it for a split second, then realized he was falling. He snapped open his parasol, using it as a parachute to slow his descent.
Talia clicked her tongue and prepared to pursue, but the meteors from the enemy fleet were raining down on the beach.
(If I don’t deal with this, Lyritisse’s body will be destroyed!)
She was pinned down. At this rate, they would escape.
”Don’t you run, General! Are your memories so worthless to you?!” Talia shrieked in her ancient vampire tongue.
Jibril didn’t look back. He hauled Hanami onto a tanuki-like Shikigami and fled across the shoreline like a rabbit.
”Wait! You think you can run from me?! How boorish…! I have never been so humiliated! Come back here! Come back, you low-class pig! I’ve remembered your face, Jibril! Don’t think you can dream of escaping next time! I will tear your soul apart! Even if you lose your memory, engrave the fear of me so deep into your brain that it never leaves! I will kill you with my own hands!”
Her voice, usually so refined, was now a guttural roar. Talia pulverized the remaining meteors with a final, vengeful Skyrend¹⁰. She handed the broken remains of her sword to the black-clad swordsman.
”Not interesting! I’m leaving the rest to you, Apollo, Hylonomé,” Talia said.
She pointed a shaking finger at the sea. “Sink every last one of those trash ships! They’re an eyesore!”
Talia was throwing a tantrum that would have terrified Kian. Disappointed in herself, she covered her eyes and looked at the sky.
(I have to calm down. At this rate, not only Camilla, but Kian will hate me too…)
* * *
Meanwhile, Kian-who was standing in pitch darkness with his junk completely exposed-realized he was in a dream. Standing before him was Umar, the hawk-eyed man whose hair was starting to gray.
”Kian, I am exiling you,” Umar said.
”Ah, this dream again,” Kian sighed, scratching his head.
Ever since he had started his debauched life with the girls in the East End, Kian had gotten quite good at “curating” his dreams. As his vampire transformation progressed, his s*x drive had spiked, and he didn’t want to waste sleep on nightmares. If a dream didn’t seem like it was heading toward a “reward,” he just reset it.
”Kian, you are a failure. You aren’t my child. I only needed Jibril and Sarah,” Umar continued.
”Yeah, yeah. But Sarah isn’t here, so I’m guessing this isn’t leading to an NTR scene. Next dream,” Kian muttered.
”Wait—!”
Kian’s slender hand punched straight through Umar’s face. The illusion faded, briefly showing a fanged ape before vanishing. Then it hit him: he had dove into Hanami’s mental barrier to save Rita. The dream-fog lifted.
Across the darkness, he saw a fox-eared girl kneeling, her head bowed.
(There’s Rita. How do I wake her up? Maybe a tap on the shoulder…)
He hesitated. If a tap didn’t work, maybe a slap? He considered giving her a playful d**k-slap as a wake-up call, then reached out and touched her bare shoulder.
”Oh?”
Suddenly, he felt a violent tug from behind his navel. The void warped, and Kian was sucked headfirst into the back of Rita’s consciousness.
—
Summary:
Talia battles two Wolfmen elite warriors, Ozeas and Tersea, on a lava-transformed hillside. She utilizes her black wolf summon, Apollo Lykeios, to devour solar attacks and unleashes a memory-thieving contract via the demon Baphomet. The fight concludes with Talia pulverizing the landscape with ‘Heavenfall’, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Jibril.
Then, Talia engages in a high-stakes magical duel with Jibril, who uses the cursed Gorgon blade and light-based dragons. Despite Jibril’s petrification trap, Talia deconstructs the spell and counterattacks, leading to a desperate sacrifice by Ozeas and Hanami to protect him. The battle ends in a messy retreat for the Generals while Kian navigates a lucid dream state to find Rita.
—
Character Insight:
Talia demonstrates a ruthless and predatory combat style, taking pleasure in the struggle and utilizing complex, high-level psychological and magical warfare. Ozeas shows unwavering loyalty to Jibril, choosing death over surrender even as his memories are literally unspooling from his head.
—
Behind the Scenes:
The ‘Soul Vessel’ mechanic explains why elite enemies can be destroyed without revealing the true identity of their creators. The ‘Heavenfall’ technique is a direct mimicry of the protagonist Kian’s skill, showcasing Talia’s immense power ceiling.
—
TL Notes:
Notes:
• Talia – A high-ranking vampire spirit currently possessing the body of Lyritisse. In this form, she has flaxen hair, blue eyes, and thick lips.
• Tersea – A shaman who assisted Barghest and is connected to the summoning ritual.
• Ozeas – Son of Glen, involved in forbidden experiments. Wolfmen youth, warrior of the Phoenix, golden eyes (originally light blue), silver-white hair.
• Kharab – The enemy who stole Talia’s soul and possessed her body; referred to by the Black Onyx Spirit; defeated by Kian.
• Nue – A Shikigami summoned by Linca. It has the appearance of a monster with a tiger’s limbs and a monkey’s head. Nue is a powerful but dangerous creature that requires a skilled magician to control.
• Mag – The wolfwoman under Yelmar—the one who was caught by Kian’s group earlier.
• Camilla – A woman; the subject of the chapter; her body was used to seal Erynys’ soul.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply