Volume 9, The End NO. 9: Heroes (2/2)

It really is silly. I took a deep breath. But I really could not refrain from coming to save X.

“My apologies, Young Master.”

Tilting his head, the young master said, “We’re about to descend into Hell and this is all you have to say to me?”

I laughed, took a deep breath, and revised my statement with a vow from the bottom of my heart. “Even if I find myself in Hell, I will always continue serving as your butler, Young Master.”

The young master laughed too. “Mm, that sentence is much better!”

The muzzles of guns large and small all pointed directly at the young master and me. This time, there was no need to wait for someone to take the bait. There would be no more mercy, and additionally, we were already so riddled with wounds that even dodging would be a problem.

When the sparks burst from the gun muzzles, I was blocking the young master from the front, and in turn, there were blood shields in front of me. Each round that struck the shields left a huge impact. As expected, it was a merciless assault.

Only a few seconds later, I could no longer resist, stumbling backward until my back bumped into the young master. He propped me up, and I had the sense that I was currently fighting side-by-side with him. Even though my partner could no longer fight, this was really an exceptionally wonderful feeling. Even if we were to die now, I would have no regrets.

“Young Master,” I said with exceeding calm amidst the gunfire. “I am almost at my limit.”

The young master let out a “Mm” in response and said, “Press on as long as possible. When you really can’t continue anymore, you may as well cancel the blood shields completely and let their great firepower kill us at once.”

I agreed with this point. Rather than linger at death’s door and give the enemy the opportunity to torment us, it would be better to die instantly.

Not even three seconds later, I felt that my blood ability had already just about reached its limit. I closed my eyes, preparing to cancel the use of my blood ability completely. I look forward to continuing to serve the young master in Hell.

Three, two, one, cancel…

My heart clenched. The sound of explosions continued to resound, but unexpectedly, I felt no pain at all. Did I go straight to being dead?

There was a startled cry. I recognized this as the young master’s voice and promptly opened my eyes. Surprisingly, there was a huge shadow in front of me…

“Dragon Peace!” The young master shouted.

The bullets struck Dragon Peace’s body, eliciting a pained howl. At that moment, a white cape descended from the sky, while an energy whip drew a spiral in the empty air before collecting together into a shield.

First Wind stood next to me and said in admiration, “After Dark Sun’s modifications, my whip has become quite useful.”

“First Wind?” I called softly.

We heard the young master’s voice. “Ah, Solitary Butterfly, did you come too?”

I looked back. Solitary Butterfly was facing directly away from me, wildly returning fire. Just then, the pair of guns she was holding were not small pistols, but two giant rifles almost larger than her own body. The contrast between the petite woman and huge firearms was dumbfounding.

The gunfire was so loud that Solitary Butterfly was forced to shout in response, “Did you think that I wouldn’t come? That the Four Great Heroes are a lie?

The young master stammered, “I-I didn’t mean it like that, and I’m not acting as a hero right now. This is a personal issue…”

Solitary Butterfly gave him a dark look and said disagreeably, “Give your thanks to Dragon Peace. He said, ‘Dark Sun’s going to die. Everyone hurry and save him!’ What else was I supposed to do? And is it that you wouldn’t come save me when I’m not acting as a hero?”

Revealing a wide smile, the young master resolutely said, “I would definitely go save you!”

Solitary Butterfly huffed, then said, “That’s more like it.”

All Four Great Heroes had gathered together, but Dark Sun had no energy left to fight with, and I had also completely spent my blood ability. Meanwhile, the Sin Elimination Committee still has… I cannot quickly count how many people they have.

“Can you break through them with the young master? I can cover you.”

First Wind looked at me strangely and asked, “How do you think we got here?”

At the time, my eyes had been closed, and with the deafening guns and artillery fire all around us, I truly had no idea how they had suddenly appeared. Additionally, had the young master and I not already been completely surrounded? We were still completely surrounded now. How had they appeared?

First Wind gestured at the sky. I raised my head and saw a multitude of planes speeding by. Then, a dense cluster of small black dots descended.

“The Sun Emperor sent us here,” First Wind said simply. “The Sun Emperor’s computer systems have been hacked, and the whole system came to a standstill. Unable to connect to Ah Ye, he nearly went mad with anxiety. This should’ve been the Sin Elimination Committee’s handiwork.”

So it is like that. I let out a huge sigh of relief. As long as the Sun Emperor had not completely abandoned the young master, it was fine. I could not imagine how much anguish that would have caused the young master.

“He dispatched a plane to bring us over here. We climbed onto Dragon Peace’s back, and had to let go of the parachute at a rather high altitude so he could fall directly to the ground. Otherwise, if we had parachuted down the whole way, we would definitely have been shot into a honeycomb.”

First Wind laughed as he pointed into the distance while saying, “Look, the support from your household has also arrived.”

Our household…

I did not even have the time to press him further before I heard a familiar shout.

“What the heck!”

It was Yue Gang, wearing that full-body set of equipment. Behind him followed those who had just retreated: Ezart, Melody, Mr. Bramble, and the others. Furthermore, there were even Father Yue and Father Alex.

Yue Gang raged, “It hasn’t even been a few minutes. How have you already become a burnt and bloodied guy again? Why do you like barbequing yourself so much?

“It seems that the rest of the support has arrived as well,” Alex said softly, with a faraway look.

I followed his gaze and saw the people who had been falling from the sky just then. They glided to the ground from a height that was not exactly low and were even just using tiny little parachutes that they let go of quite quickly. They fell from what would have practically been five stories up. Are these really ordinary people?

They charged directly into the group of Sin Elimination Committee priests. Their high speed was so fast that it contributed to my doubts, but when I saw their leader, these doubts were resolved. They were all completely outfitted for combat, but parts of their faces were still visible. Those faces had transformed to an extent that they rivaled a vampire’s Face Morph—it was the Extraordinaries troops.

Simultaneously, I rejoiced to know the young master could survive and felt somewhat anxious. The Sun Emperor had jets, as did the Elysees, and the Church certainly had them as well. Could it be that the current situation will escalate into an all-out war?

“Halt!” Alex shouted loudly, “Brothers of the Sin Elimination Committee, your current actions have not received the permission of the Church. The Sun Emperor and Elysees have issued a stern warning and furthermore, have dispatched a large number of reinforcements.”

The priests of the Sin Elimination Committee, large shields still raised, did not give any response. Suddenly, a roar sounded from their midst, “You pair of traitors!”

Sin pushed past the priests beside him and indignantly stepped out of the giant shield formation.

“E.X. is already dead!” Still, Alex did not flinch at all. He looked at Sin and said, one word at a time, “The mission of the Sin Elimination Committee is complete. We ought to put a full stop to the thousand years of sacrifice in pursuit of E.X.”

Sin pointed at me, raging, “If he has obtained E.X.’s inheritance—”

However, Alex interrupted him mid-sentence. Breaking from his previous gentle elegance, he responded similarly, shouting in rage, “You don’t even know if E.X. had something like an inheritance! The scriptures of the past have never mentioned any inheritance at all! But right now, the Elysees family has issued an ultimatum saying that if anything happens to Charles Endelis, the Elysees family head, the Elysees will battle the Church to the death! Is this the result you wish to see? Starting another millennium of mutual destruction, here and now?”

At this, Sin’s complexion had gone ashen, and the black-robed priests’ faces finally seemed to waver as well.

“He even wanted to kill the Sun Emperor’s dear little brother,” Adding fuel to the fire, I said, “Do you really want to make an enemy of the entire world?”

However, Sin lifted the weapons in both his hands, turning to face all the black-robed priests. Leisurely, he said, “Even if it means making an enemy of the entire world, brothers of the Sin Elimination Committee, are you with me?”

The passion of mob mentality was roused in all the black-robed priests. They raised their weapons high and screamed with a world-ending vigor.

“This is absolutely ridiculous!” Father Yue said bluntly. “Does this group of brothers spend all day, every day in the Sin Elimination Committee being brainwashed by Sin?”

Hearing the enemies’ clamor, Dragon Peace was fully incensed. He opened his big mouth, threw back his head, and howled. At that time, the Extraordinaries troop was blocked by the priests’ huge shields with no way in. They too were thoroughly infuriated. Upon hearing Dragon Peace’s roar, they immediately began to howl as well.

First Wind quietly asked, “Are we supposed to yell too?”

Solitary Butterfly flatly refused at once. “Don’t even think that I’m going to howl along with them.”

Amidst the uproar, Alex leaned over and softly said, “Charles, wait until we’ve stalled our brothers from the Sin Elimination Committee. Then you and Dark Sun search for a chance to leave the area. Sin is just relying on his influence from leading the Sin Elimination Committee for so many years to command these brothers whose judgments are clouded by zeal. Believe me, even the Church is not pleased with this method of doing things. They only agreed to let Sin execute E.X., with absolutely no intent to involve and harm you. This is Sin’s personal intention. However, once they are unable to complete their objective today, in the future, the brothers of the Sin Elimination Committee will also stop listening to Sin so unconditionally.

I had vaguely guessed this, or else a missile would have long since been shot over to take care of us once and for all.

“Why are you and Father Yue helping us, then?” I did not understand at all. If it was based on the bonds of friendship, like those that caused people to lay down their lives in helping each other, the bonds between us were certainly not strong enough to speak of.

Alex smiled gently and said, “It isn’t to help you. We simply want to discover the original truth, as well as mark the end of the Sin Elimination Committee in its current form.”

A termination… I could not help but think of X. My chest hurt, but I suppressed the emotion at once. At present, it was still not time to wallow in loss and grief. There was now hope for rescue; however, the number of people dragged in had increased. Regardless of whether they were the heroes or the Extraordinaries troops, I refused to let severe wounds manifest on any of them.

I nodded, looking at everyone, and said, “Once we have retreated, please finish this skirmish as quickly as possible. There must be absolutely no excessive bloodlust!

Immediately, Alex said, “I’ll watch them. Our brothers are on the opposing side, and the Lord wouldn’t want them to receive any injuries whatsoever.

This thinking is more naïve than mine. I only hope that the number of casualties will not be too shocking.

This time, rather than waiting for us to start the battle, the opponents acted at their convenience. However, they were also likely pressed by the Extraordinaries troops, who had already run out of patience and were drawing closer step-by-step, leaving the Sin Elimination Committee without any other options.

Initially, we had been surrounded, though, currently, we were still surrounded as before. However, because there was another outer ring composed of the Extraordinaries troops, the group seemingly surrounded on all sides was the Sin Elimination Committee’s priests, even if their numbers were no lower than ours—no, our side still has more reinforcements arriving. The adjudication squad is here.

In a low voice, Solitary Butterfly reproachfully said, “Exactly how many of these things does the Sun Emperor have? Couldn’t he conquer the world with just those?”

Are you certain that the Sun Emperor has not conquered the world already?

Compared to the Extraordinaries troops, the adjudication squad, with the capability of robots, attacked more decisively. They closed large distances instantly, but were also destroyed particularly quickly. Only the unmasked leader at the front of the adjudication squad would even move to evade danger. Moreover, his face was so lively that it was impossible not to suspect that the commander of this adjudication squad was human after all.

He simultaneously fought while yelling with excessive cheerfulness, “Ah Ye, Charles, I’ve come back to save you!”

Melody cried, “DSII? We clearly saw his entire body get completely destroyed for the sake of providing us cover to get us out!”

Laughing, the young master said, “DSII can switch bodies spontaneously. He’s really becoming more and more lively. It’s probably better to give him a single designated body; he’s a little… too strange.”

I agreed too, though in the current situation, his being strange was indeed a good thing. At least, earlier, DSII had chosen to listen to the young master and ignore the Sun Emperor.

Seeing that everyone was busy obstructing the black-robed priests from charging toward us, I walked over to the young master’s side, picked him up tightly, and carried him horizontally in my arms. He asked, “Are your legs okay?”

I nodded faintly. After this period of motionlessness, they were already much better. Although I most likely could not race away from an explosion for a third time, sprinting normally and even using X-speed occasionally should not be a problem. The cost of over-consuming blood candies last time finally seemed to have some payoff.

I shouted loudly, “Please help us clear a way out to advance toward the adjudication squad.”

Dragon Peace responded with a great roar along with a swing of his fist that sent a horde of priests flying. Ezart, unwilling to be outdone, similarly sent enemies flying with his blows. Because of his gloves, these enemies met no better fates than those hit by Dragon Peace’s huge strike.

Solitary Butterfly and Father Yue’s guns flashed unrelentingly, First Wind used all his strength to protect the young master and me, and Alex wielded his cross-shaped chain knives. Often, one sweep would knock over a whole group of enemies, but to no avail; because he seemingly did not want to hurt the priests, they would always climb back up. Still, at least he could stall them for some time, reducing our enemies’ firepower, which also somewhat diminished the pressure on the others.

Melody, Mr. Bramble, and the others, in contrast, did not take very much action. They surrounded the area around Young Master and me, preventing any bullets from injuring us.

Carrying the young master, and under everyone’s protection, I began to break through the encirclement.

“Family Head!”

There was a shout, resounding and brimming with anger to the extent that even on a noisier battlefield, it still would have been impossible to ignore. I turned my head toward it. One of the Extraordinaries had restored their original visage. It was Dong Fang Lei.

“You envelop them from the rear!” I responded using a vampire’s Hollow Roar.

Dong Fang Lei seemed thoroughly dissatisfied, but obeyed and did as I commanded.

I admit I was moving closer toward the adjudication squad and not the Extraordinaries troops because of an incredibly selfish motive. I truly did not want to treat the Extraordinaries as a shield for our retreat. I would rather escape in the direction of the adjudication squad.

I looked up at the adjudication squad, dauntless in the face of death. Fortunately, the only animate face among them was DSII’s. The others were indeed mechanical robots. Even though they looked like people, they were entirely lacking in personhood.

By the time I saw this, we were about to converge with the adjudication squad. There was one group of black-robed priests separating us, but this group was all that was left. However, it seemed they would rather die than retreat. Raising their huge shields, they were knocked to the ground by the adjudication squad one-by-one, and it was unclear whether they were dead or alive.

“Halt! Halt!”

Alex was the first to yield, and stood pale-faced in front of us. He had wanted to stop both our group and the black-robed priests, but instead, the ungrateful priests treated him as a target for their attack, and they immediately began to open fire to sweep him down!

Just in time, First Wind used his shield of energy to block the multitude of attacks, while Solitary Butterfly charged ahead to pull Alex back. However, she herself was shot and forced by the bullets to retreat. She hopped back a few steps before completely collapsing to the ground; fortunately, she had already returned to the area we had surrounded, landing right in front of me.

Solitary Butterfly lifted her head. A half-shattered visor’s mirror surface fell from her face just as she looked at me.

She froze for a moment, then shot me a glare to warn me before lowering her head to adjust the visor.

“You’re not allowed to reveal this,” she threw this one sentence at me before she went back to shooting.

So, it was her, though it should not have been a difficult guess; I had simply not given it any thought before.

I nodded and promised, “All right, I will not say anything.”

Aside from the passionate and emotional Alex, the others had still managed to maintain their calm, though their expressions were also quite ugly. Although they were experts in using weaponry, they were also entirely unused to slaughter.

At that moment, the young master spoke up and asked, “Dragon Peace, could you charge ahead to force a way through while Charles uses X-speed to rush off the battlefield? Is that possible?”

Dragon Piece immediately let out a great roar toward the sky.

I nodded. Even if it is impossible, I will do it!

The young master showed a little worry as he asked everyone, “Can I leave without worrying there’ll be any issues for you guys?

“Your quick departure is the best way to prevent any issues,” Father Yue said, as though making a firm vow, “I swear to properly protect these children and will not let a single issue arise.”

“These children,” including his son, all gave him a big eye roll.

“Hey, who needs your protection!” Yue Gang said angrily. “It’s us who are protecting you, you old geezer!”

“Who’s an old geezer! I’m still in the golden, prime days of my youth!”

“Looks like the declining days of your golden age to me!”

“You’ve completely mixed up your metaphors. If you can’t speak properly, stop talking so much!”

The adversarial father and son had indeed started quarreling on the battlefield, but they actually covered for each other even as they argued. Moreover, they acted with complete tacit understanding of each other, and even their levels of firepower were comparable. One could tell they were father and son at a glance. Met with this sight, “these children” felt even more helpless, and could only hurriedly follow after to cover the father-son pair as they led the charge against the opposing troops.

But the leader of the group quickly became Dragon Peace. He charged directly ahead with the staggering momentum of a thousand-ton train, and in the span of a single breath, a horde of priests had been knocked over like bowling pins. He really forced a way through, though it was only for a short instant, as the beleaguered priests stood up and formed the wall of giant shields once more.

However, this short instant was enough. I bent my knees slightly and dashed out. Before anyone was able to react, I had already run past the priests who had been knocked over and made my way next to the adjudication squad. I hesitated a moment, then rushed past the entire adjudication squad to instead lose myself in the middle of the forest.

Only then did I relax and use my usual running pace rather than continuing on with x-speed. With the current state of my body, if I did not end my use of x-speed, I would really be concerned that I would no longer be able to hold the young master and have to throw him directly out of my arms.

“Charles, come over this way!”

I jumped in surprise. At once, the young master said, “It’s DSII.”

DSII passed me and was even waving his arms. I followed him immediately, quickly increasing our distance from the battlefield. It was fortunate that there was DSII to lead the way, or else I really would not know which way to go.

I was unsure when it had started, but the feed from the visor had disappeared, and we were unable to receive further messages from Ni Cai. Moreover, Lieder had not followed us to the battlefield. He had most probably escaped, perhaps? After all, it could be said that he had completed his task, successfully bringing me into the Sin Elimination Committee, then back out. I really could not ask for more; inciting his malice instead would be unfavorable.

“DSII,” Young Master suddenly asked, “Where did you get this body? I don’t believe I’ve seen this face before. Why does it look a little like Charles?”

I looked toward DSII. The other’s appearance now seemed much more mature, though because his expression was too lively, he did not look mature at first glance. However, I actually could not tell whether this face was like mine or not; a vampire truly did not have many opportunities to see their own face.

As though it were obvious, DSII said, “Gēgē gave it to me. He’s helped make lots of bodies for me.”

“Gēgē made it?” The young master quickly asked. “Why didn’t you tell me? How much has he done? Where is he?”

Cheerfully, DSII said, “Gēgē said this is a secret that we’ll surprise Ah Ye with later, so I didn’t tell Ah Ye.”

“Charles!” Ah Ye said anxiously, “I feel like something’s wrong. You should hurry and go, get away from DSII…”

I halted my steps, but the young master had also stopped talking. In front of us were the figures of people, but they were not standing. Rather, they were lying motionless on the ground.

This situation was too uncanny. I turned to leave, but DSII was standing behind me gleefully, both arms spread wide, in position to block me.

DSII was as joyful as a child as he said, “Gēgē said he misses Ah Ye and that he wants to reconcile, so he needs me to bring him over here to find Ah Ye!”

The young master sighed.

Even if DSII was too unique, to the point that he did not listen solely to the Sun Emperor, this emperor could still find other ways to control DSII in the same way that he controlled this world, as though everyone was just a chess piece on his board.

To him, X’s death was nothing but the sacrifice of a chess piece.

The young master simply said, “Charles, let me down first so I can go take a look.”

I did as he said, supporting the young master as he limped over to investigate. The people lying on the ground were, unexpectedly, Luo Ye and Anceo.

There were so many bullet holes on the two men’s bodies that I did not even know what to say. Even though I personally detested these two people, the thought of wanting to perforate their bodies to such an extent had never crossed my mind.

Moreover, is Luo Ye not… I turned my head to look at the young master, who had lowered his head as he looked at the corpse. He sighed.

“Gēgē, if you want to kill someone then just kill them. Why do you have to beat them to this extent, huh? After all, he’s…”

From one side, a familiar icy voice called over, “He’s nothing! Our only father is Ri Ji Yan. I’ve told you this from the start, but you just won’t listen!”

The Sun Emperor.

He walked out from the midst of the woods beside us. He actually appeared in front of me… all by himself.

“Not even this could kill you, Charles Endelis. You must have a lot of vitality. Ah Ye, look at the expression on your butler’s face. He wants to kill me!”

The Sun Emperor turned up the corners of his mouth and said, “Shouldn’t your first step be taking care of him?”

I stiffened. The words I least wanted to hear left the other party’s lips.

“Ah Ye, kill Charles Endelis!”