Chapter 64: Dawnfall (2/2)

A rift in space opened right behind Vainqueur’s enemies, a black, winged rider rushing through.

Bat Lavere and Mell Lin barely had the time to turn at the new threat, than Manling Victor was already on to them, carrying his scythe in one hand and his strange cannon in the other. He pointed his weapon at the bottle and fired a projectile.

While ridiculously weak in comparison with Vainqueur’s own fireball, the explosion shattered the bottle, threw Mell Lin backward, and blew dust in all directions.

“Minion!” Vainqueur rejoiced, as the vortex collapsed and died down, allowing him to land safely on the sand.

“Lavere, there’s a thing you don’t get,” Manling Victor taunted the bat, swinging his empowered scythe with moxie before trying to cut her down. “You can’t break a winning team!”

The vampire moved to dodge the attack, only to realize, too late, that she had been tricked. At the very last second, Manling Victor’s scythe deviated from her neck to her book and sliced it clean in half.

The grimoire immediately let out a final wail, hundreds, thousands of screaming souls escaping its strange pages, only to move back into Manling Victor’s scythe. When Bat Lavere managed to summon a shield between the chief of staff and herself, her prized weapon had already turned to dust.

You have recovered the use of [Spell Purge]!

“Winning team?” his chief of staff’s mount complained, as Manling Victor rushed back to his master’s side. “You horseslaver, you made me run all across the desert non-stop!”

The vampire’s eyes bulged in shock, yet managed to regain her composure. Jolie struggled against her bindings to escape, but the witch maintained her spell. “This is not over,” she promised. “I will find another way.”

“No, you will not.”

Mell Lin emerged from the dust cloud, almost as furious as Vainqueur himself. The fairy piper had stopped playing music and abandoned his disguise for his true, hideous, wooden face.

“That is your last chance,” Mell Lin warned the vampire, raising his cape to reveal a blackened crest. “Die to them, or die to us.” He tossed the item to Lavere, formed a fairy ring by rending space itself, and then fled like a coward as Vainqueur attempted to incinerate him.

“You… you traitor!” Unlike a true, dignified chief of staff, Bat Lavere had lost all composure at her master’s abandonment.

“Guess you’ve chosen the wrong crowd,” Manling Victor said. “It’s over.”

“I will just return to the dark,” Lavere replied, her ugly mammalian face twisted into a snarl, her eyes having turned crimson. “I can change my identity! Without the map, you have no way to track me down!”

“Our minions are already stamping out your hideouts in both Gardemagne and Murmurin as we speak,” Friend Victor taunted her. “You’re not going to run far, and you heard your forgiving master. Face it, either you kill us here, which you won’t, or they will finish you off for us. You’re cornered!”

The vampire glanced at the [Black Crest], clearly fearing to use it for some reason, and then turned to Vainqueur. The emperor could see the emotions in her eyes changing from anger, to fear, and then despair.

Good.

The dragon let out a furious roar and unleashed a torrent of furious flames at her. Lavere raised the Black Crest in response, the item crumbling into black dust, and unleashing its power.

A blast of purple, fairy energy surrounded her, repelling even Vainqueur’s fire. The vampire underwent a metamorphosis, her flesh turning purple and ripping her clothes apart. She grew enormous wings, sharp claws, and fangs. She increased in size until she almost matched Vainqueur himself in size, more a monstrous, primal bat than manling.

Lucie Lavere used a [Black Crest] and gained ten Levels in the [Fairy Beast] class.

The abomination let out a hiss, her hands suffused with dark magic. Fighting dragons was stupid, but in her eagerness to die, she would try.

In response, Vainqueur immediately activated his [Spell Purge] and launched a fireball at her. The creature transformed into a swarm of bats, dispersing to avoid the projectile, before quickly reforming on the dragon’s back. When he turned around to face her, Vainqueur found her throwing a sphere of dark energy at him.

It failed.

His [Spell Reflection] activated, sending the sphere back at the witch. Her own projectile hit her in the head, making her stumble.

“Bat, you do not understand,” Vainqueur said, through playing. “You have done what only the evil Furibon and the elf grasshopper managed to do. You infuriated me.”

The dragon saw fear and dread in the bat’s eyes; as he should. Extending his own wings, his body covered in flames, Vainqueur charged at her with berserk rage, a winged incarnation of destruction.

She tried to keep him at bay with a volley of spells, of black cubes and frozen stars, only for them to reflect back at her. He punched her in the chest in response, shattering ribs and making her cough thick black blood. Except he didn’t stop and kept pummeling her.

As a last-ditch effort, she summoned a purple shield to defend herself, Vainqueur hitting it with his claws and shaking the desert with each strike.

Manling Victor, who had wisely stayed out of his master’s range, finally decided to speak up. “Your Majesty, can I borrow some of your immense lifeforce for a minute?!”

“This will come out of your pay!”

Manling Victor, ever ready to serve his master for free, sheathed back both of his weapons and raised his hands at the shield. “[Hades Blast]!”

Sorcery cackled from his fingertips, before taking the shape of a shining ray of purple light, whose might and shininess rivaled Vainqueur’s own breath. The laser smashed through Lavere’s defense, vaporizing the left side of her stomach while at it. Smoke sizzling from the wound.

You sacrificed a quarter of your HP!

Vainqueur punched the defenseless bat in the face, burning it. And then kept going, even as she retaliated with claws and fangs. It burned her more than it hurt him, and while she inflicted some damage, it didn’t even itch!

“Unshle, shesh drashon!” Jolie encouraged him through her muzzle. “ Unshle, shesh drashon!”

Through [Master’s Shield], you have recovered all your HP!

For the first time since Brandon Maure, Vainqueur fought seriously.

If she had confronted him back when Vainqueur hadn’t rediscovered the great, dragon-made system, she might have been a challenge… but for every strike she made, the dragon returned each hit tenfold. Her spells bounced back at her, and without her magic or trickery, the bat couldn’t stand against him. He didn’t leave her any opening, deflecting her punches with his mastery of brawling, and retaliated with deadly strikes of his own.

And unlike Vainqueur, she was alone.

“[Hades Blast]!” Manling Victor repeated the process again and again, overwhelming the witch with spells. He waited for Vainqueur to recover his energy, then struck again; when Lavere attempted to escape Vainqueur by transforming into a bat swarm, he shot them all, forcing her to reform. He cost the Emperor more health than the creature’s claws, yet for once, the dragon let him play.

For it wasn’t a fight.

It was an execution.

“Stop, please…” the monster rasped, her wings broken, her flesh burnt to the bone. “I yield… I yield… I will pay you… I will pay… the Apple… gold... anything…”

Vainqueur was good and merciful. He had accepted tribute for insults to his person.... but by threatening his family, she had committed a crime of lese majesté. For this, there was no forgiveness.

Instead of granting her mercy, he seized the bat by the shoulders, kept her in place, and opening his mouth.

“[Charged Attack: Dragon Breath]!”

Within seconds, his almighty flames turned the sand to glass, and her body to dust. As he had promised, by threatening his niece, Bat Lavere had become ashes.

She didn’t even drop a crest, nor loot.

Congratulations! By cornering and demolishing the Nightblades’ leader, you earned four levels in [Augustus]! You earned the [Shining Majesty] and [Golden Road] Class Perks!

Your Witch Hunter can be promoted into either [Hellsing] or [Witchfinder General].

+120 HP, +10 SP, +8 STR, +1 VIT, +4 SKI, +4 AGI, +2 INT, +8 CHA.

[Shining Majesty]: Technique, 120 SP. Your scales can unleash a mighty, searing flash of light, bombarding peons with a glorious vision of your hoard. This inflicts heavy [Light] damage, and the target suffers from the [Blind] ailment on a failed Vitality check and/or [Enthrall] ailments on a failed Charisma check.

[Golden Road]: Technique, 30 SP per 5 seconds. You can create a [Portal] as per the spell, but only to open a spatial doorway leading to your hoard.

With Lavere’s demise, the chains holding Jolie turned to shadowy dust, finally freeing her. “Uncle!” his adorable niece cried.

“It is over, Jolie,” Vainqueur promised, rushing to her side and cradling his niece in his arms. “The evil bat is gone!”

“Am I…” She looked up at him with her cute eyes. “Am I still grounded?”

“Of course not,” Vainqueur reassured her. “You are not grounded anymore.”

“Thanks, Uncle!” Jolie replied, the tears in her eyes gone, before hopping out of his arms. Vainqueur remained speechless, with the feeling he had been tricked somehow.

Yet, as a shower of gold fell from the heavens to reward his good work, the dragon abandoned himself to the blissful feeling of absolute victory.

“Is it raining gold?” Manling Victor’s mount asked, in awe of Vainqueur’s ever-growing fortune.

“It’s a golden shower,” the chief of staff replied with a sarcastic tone. “It’s a president thing.”