Chapter 72

Lunar Eclipse (10)

“Now... I don’t care anymore...”

“What?”

“Just... if I can... kill everyone here...”

Kuuuuung-!

A heavy tearing sound suddenly thundered by my ear.

“......?”

From the direction of the cathedral.

The crash of something collapsing echoed through the entire village.

I could see the cross atop the tallest part of the cathedral falling.

‘The cathedral collapsed...?’

If the cathedral collapsed, that meant the Black Knight would awaken.

Why now, all of a sudden?

I had definitely smuggled out every sacrifice meant for the ritual.

There should have been nothing left that could summon an Apostle of the Evil God.

‘Wait, no way...!’

I hurriedly checked Jersian.

A pitch-black shadow was writhing across his chest.

Through the dense fog, bizarre markings were carved into his skin.

“Ah.”

Wriggling tentacles.

And a single floating eyeball inside them.

It was a deeply revolting shape.

I recognized it instantly.

‘A contract with an Apostle...!’

He implanted something like that into his body?

A pureblood vampire who prided himself on his bloodline?

I never expected this.

Jersian sneered as if it was already too late.

“Here... we all... die, together...!”

He coughed through his crushed face.

The contract had already activated.

Killing this bastard right now would not fix anything.

Jersian opened his torn, ruined mouth and muttered.

“All ghouls... bound to me, all the other vampires, even my life force... all of it... I offer as sacrifice.”

Was he really going all in?

The ritual originally required human offerings, but he was forcing in substitutes instead.

It would be unstable, but he meant to force an Apostle’s descent anyway.

“I offer... everything...!”

We were fucked.

“Answer... the contract!”

He screamed.

Right after that, the ghouls prowling nearby exploded all at once.

Like blood balloons bursting, those feral dogs popped where they stood.

Kugugugugu-!

Chunks of flesh writhed as if they had wills of their own.

Then they rose into the air and flew toward the cathedral.

Before long, even the cathedral, which had barely held its shape, collapsed.

Kuuung, kurururur-.

“Haha...!”

Jersian laughed.

What emerged from the crumbling debris was giant armor.

A colossal figure painted pitch-black, so dark it looked like a living shadow.

Kkudeudeuk, kkudeuk-!

The twisted sound of warping flesh filled my ears.

Fragments of ghouls and vampires stuck all over the Black Knight.

It looked almost like a centaur, its lower body shaped like a horse.

“Did... it work...?”

Dark mana flooded the barrier, overpowering every life-form inside.

The pressure was on a completely different level from the Red Knight I had faced before.

If I met its eyes, it felt like my whole body would be torn apart on the spot.

A faint mechanical sound rang in my ears.

Ding-!

[Name: Corrupted Black Knight (T̶̢͈̘͖̙̥̑͑̂͆͞h̷̨̯̣͙͓̱̠̙̓͛́͌̈́̾͑̂̕e̸̡̙̳̠̗̬̝̠̽̿͋́́͐̏̂͠ Ç̶̠͉͕̙̩̓̃̄̎̽͊̉͠o̵̡͓̗҇͋̈͑̔͂͑̒̓ṟ̵̨͕͔̥̣̭͖̝͌̐͑͊̕r҉̡̛͔̤̬̫̯͓̽̀̀̑̒̊u҉̨̖͓̄̓́͠ͅp̸̡̝͔͍̆̈͊͝t̵̰̪͍̠̖̪̀͒͜͝e҈̗̙̫̪̯͆̓̂̕͢ḑ̸̛̟̗̪̖̝͍̐̔͋̀͋̌̍ B̴̢̖͍̭͍̯͑̇̽͂̌͊̇̕l̶̝̦̍̌͐͑̀́͊̚͢͠a̶̧̗͍̙͉̣͗̍̕ċ̶̡͇̤̏͡k҉̡̱̖̅͛͆͠ K̶̡̬̳͇̳͈̫͙̐͒̏̈͞n҈̢̫͍̰̦̘̯͋̆̇͆̅̌̓͠ǐ̷̗̫͖̜͋̎͜͠g҉̢̯̘̤͎̞̀͒͆͡h̴̡͔͔̝̱͉̖͇̒̍͡ţ̴̛͎̬̐̉̚)]

-Race: ■■■, ■■

-Description: ■■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■■ ■■■.

Jersian had succeeded in summoning it.

It was different from what should originally have been summoned, but that didn’t matter right now. What mattered was that it worked.

Even if it was weaker than in the original story, it still seemed more than enough to wipe out everything around here.

We were already too exhausted to even lift a finger.

Ding-!

[The Corrupted Black Knight has been summoned.]

[The Apocalypse begins.]

Those messages passed by mercilessly.

I froze for a moment, and Jersian’s spiteful sneer reached my ears.

“It’s... worse than, the original... plan, but enough... to butcher, everyone... here...!”

That was the price of offering all his life force.

Jersian had even thrown away his pureblood authority, and now he looked like skin and bones.

He was wasting away in real time, like a dying chicken, looking ready to crumble into dust at any second.

Maybe he thought I was overwhelmed by the Black Knight.

Even while dying, he could not hide his glee.

“You human... bastards... how dare, you... ha, hahat...!”

I didn’t answer.

I just quietly tapped the status window.

Ding-!

[Executioner]

-Category: Title

-Grade: A

-Description: You massacred the Queens of the Nightmare. Courage toward the unknown dwells within you. When this title is equipped, damage dealt to Ghost-type enemies increases by 500%, and critical hit rate increases by 500%.

Apostle of the Evil God.

One of the race tags shown in the status window was Ghost.

From this point on, every bit of damage I dealt to the Black Knight would be multiplied fivefold.

“......”

I quietly walked over to Carmilla.

She was leaning against a nearby wall, looking up at me through blurry eyes.

“Vik, tor...”

Her eyes trembled.

I had fed her plenty of blood packs, so her wounds had closed up quite a bit.

Still, she seemed too weak to stand and just sat there limply.

“Princess-nim.”

“......”

“Don’t worry.”

I gently stroked her head.

That alone made the trembling in her pupils settle a little.

I reached for the robe I had wrapped around her and searched inside it.

“I’ll handle everything.”

Thud-.

Something caught in my hand.

I pulled it out without hesitation.

An item I had only stored after obtaining it, never once used.

“You know.”

A massive shape slid out from inside the robe.

Clank-.

“You didn’t actually think that was enough to win, right?”

“......What?”

It was a giant crossbow.

The moment Jersian recognized it, his eyes widened.

‘God-Slaying Bow.’

A weapon of string and silver, named for its power to kill even gods.

A weapon passed down for generations by the Blandid dynasty.

At the end of its taut string, an arrow was set.

Wooooong, wooooong-.

Silver polished with divine power for a hundred years, then aged in sunlight for another hundred.

Two hundred years just to carve one arrow.

Even veteran vampire artisans could only make two in a lifetime.

‘Stake.’

The crossbow killed gods, so it was called the God-Slaying Bow.

The arrow pierced souls, so it was called the Stake.

Ding-!

[God-Slaying Bow and Stake]

-Category: Weapon, Holy Relic

-Grade: SSS

-Status: Top Condition

-Description: A weapon long used by the Blandir dynasty as a symbol of peace. In the distant past, when humans and vampires ended a long war and signed a peace accord, the human side gathered 20,000 master craftsmen from across the continent and spent five full years forging this armament. The humans gifted this weapon to the vampires and laid the foundation for peace.

God-Slaying Bow and Stake.

Among purification and exorcism weapons, this stood at the absolute top.

Enough to erase a mere Apostle of the Evil God with a single shot.

Ding-!

[Number of Stakes in possession: 1]

One shot was enough.

The huge, imposing Stake flashed and lit up the area.

Jersian stood there with his mouth hanging open, so I gave him a wink.

“Got anything else prepared?”

“......”

Yeah, everyone has a solid plan.

Right up until they get punched in the face.

Click-.

My finger pulled the trigger.

A deafening blast erupted, and the entire village flashed white.

-----!

The Black Knight had been towering high enough to touch the ceiling.

The next moment.

Half of it was gone.

It wasn’t pierced, and it didn’t explode.

Its body was simply erased along the exact trajectory the Stake passed through.

“Direct hit.”

Annihilation.

No other word could describe that scene.

The Black Knight couldn’t even twitch before scattering into a cloud of pure white light.

Ding-!

[Sub Quest cleared!]

-Title: Lunar Eclipse

-Objective: Defeat boss monster ‘Corrupted Black Knight(The Corrupted Black Knight)’.

[Impossible Achievement Unlocked!]

[You defeated an enemy that could not be defeated!]

[Special rewards will be provided. Please check your inventory.]

Status-window alerts popped up noisily in front of me.

I smiled faintly and lowered the God-Slaying Bow, steam rising from it.

“Hehe.”

“......”

Jersian looked blank, like his mind had gone empty.

I spread both arms dramatically in front of him.

“Ta-da, disappearing magic~”

It was time for some joyful teabagging.