Chapter 628

“What is that?”

He was so shocked that the words burst out of his mouth.

Jack, who was dwelling within the Guiyeong Sword, also widened his eyes and spoke.

- Wow, I didn’t think he’d come up with an idea like this.

“What do you mean?”

- That bastard is resonating with Red Maria right now. But to be precise, it’s not resonance. He’s receiving power from Red Maria.

“From Red Maria? How?”

- I don’t know either. But if what I’m thinking is right, you should go put your hand on Red Maria too.

“On Red Maria?”

There was no time.

Su-ho immediately widened the distance backward and placed his hand on Red Maria.

- Suck it in.

“What do you mean, suck it in?”

- Use Bloody Hand!

He did not ask back.

Right now, the situation was urgent, and Jack was the finest strategist he had.

He immediately activated the skill.

[ Bloody Hand activates. ]

SHWAAAAAA!

Then something astonishing happened.

From Red Maria, blood and mana began to be drained little by little.

“Kuhuuuuung!!”

At that moment, Alucard, who had finished recovering, charged at Su-ho.

The bastard rushed in fiercely, as though his eyes had rolled back, and in an instant enlarged his body, lunged over Su-ho, and bit down. Su-ho immediately took his hand off Red Maria and enlarged the Guiyeong Sword.

CRUNCH!

The Guiyeong Sword lodged itself upright between the opened jaws.

“You damn bastard......!”

Alucard desperately tried to close his jaws.

But since the bastard’s intent was plainly visible, Su-ho made both ends blunt so that the Guiyeong Sword would not pierce through the bastard’s head and jaw.

Su-ho raised one corner of his mouth in a grin.

“You son of a bitch...... I wondered where you’d been storing all that blood and mana. So the secret was Red Maria?”

“Nonsense!”

The excited Alucard spewed poison from his mouth.

When closing his jaws did not work, he had brought out another measure.

A powerful acid poison, like hydrochloric acid, sprayed from the bastard’s mouth.

[ Protection Holy Art activates. ]

KWAGAGAGAGAGA!!

The acid poison was powerful.

But Su-ho’s Protection Holy Art was powerful too.

Because he had invested plenty of true demonic energy and strengthened Protection Holy Art to the maximum.

The corners of Su-ho’s mouth, now that he had found the answer, showed no sign of coming down.

Amid the pouring acid poison, Su-ho spoke in a clear voice.

“You’re finished now.”

“Shut up!”

The acid poison intensified.

It went beyond hydrochloric acid, turning dark and murky, and melted everything.

Soon, the pouring acid poison ended.

CRACK!

Alucard’s mouth closed.

The sound of the Guiyeong Sword breaking rang out, and something had clearly been chewed inside his mouth.

However.

“You damned—!”

Alucard roared harshly.

Because he had felt it clearly.

The fact that he had missed the rat inside his mouth.

And Su-ho was in a place he had never expected at all.

“Haha, idiot.”

It was the Subspace House.

When the acid poison intensified, Su-ho chose to evacuate into the Subspace House rather than pour in more mana to strengthen Protection Holy Art.

There was one reason.

Because there was no reason to go out of his way to face that ignorant acid poison.

Su-ho released Giantification and comfortably accepted the risk that came with it throughout his body.

[ Giantification duration has ended. ]

[ The risk for using the Giantification skill begins. ]

Since he had enlarged his body quite a bit and used a fair number of skills, his energy consumption had been considerable.

Accordingly, the size of his body shrank considerably as well.

But it was fine.

As long as he was inside the Subspace House, nothing would interfere with him.

Su-ho immediately displayed the outside scenery.

There, he saw the enraged Alucard sharpening his nerves as he searched for him.

“Haha, that dumb bastard.”

He had never imagined it.

That Red Maria, which he had thought was part of nature, was actually Alucard’s life force vessel.

This must be what people meant when they said it was darkest under the lamp.

He immediately called Jack.

“Jack.”

- I’m listening.

“How’s your condition?”

- Fine. We hit and pulled out at the right timing, so the shadow loss rate is low too.

“It’s really a shame. If only those vampire bastards had shadows, I’d collect every single one of them.”

For some reason, vampires had no shadows.

So from the start, he had not even thought of supplying shadows from them.

“Anyway, thanks to your advice, I think I found the method to break through him. But you saw it too, right?”

- Yeah. Your bloodsucking ability was lower than expected.

This was the new problem he faced.

It was good that he had found the location of the vault, but the vault door was thick, so he could not take what was inside.

On top of that, in front of the vault, there was even a vicious guard snake rampaging around, so the difficulty rose another level.

- Alucard will probably try to protect Red Maria with everything he has from now on. Until now, he had been hiding the connection point itself with Middle Town and the dead soil, but you flipped that over and exposed it, so in many ways...... No, he must be extremely anxious.

It was exactly as Jack said.

Even Alucard, visible on the screen right now, was like that.

Unlike the relaxed attitude he had shown until now, the bastard was repeatedly screaming and searching for Su-ho.

“Still, the fortunate thing is that he can’t move that huge Red Maria anywhere else right now.”

- Right. That’s the main point. But you can’t do anything about that thing either, can you?

It was as Jack said.

Red Maria was far too large.

It was not at a level that could simply be moved with tools. Its area amounted to several dozen times the size of Middle Town.

- What’s hidden beneath it is probably greater than what’s exposed above the ground. That’s what the tip of the iceberg means.

“How fascinating. Just how many years does a bastard have to gorge himself to store that much blood and mana?”

- He’s a bastard who’s lived at least several hundred years. I don’t know if he actually did it, but if we assume he exploited even ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) all the Normal and Under classes in Third Town, then it makes sense that he gathered that much.

“So, do you have a good idea?”

- Well, to come up with an idea immediately, I think we need to investigate Red Maria a bit more......

Jack’s eyes narrowed.

They had learned that Red Maria was the main body of the power the bastard possessed, and also his weakness.

But would Alucard really have made no preparations for that fact?

Just from the fact that Bloody Hand was not working well, he must have laid down a considerable number of measures.

After thinking for a moment, Su-ho spoke.

“Let’s just clash with him directly.”

- Directly?

“Do you think we’ll get an answer by sitting here and racking our brains? Let’s just keep crashing into him and pull out data. There’s no other method, is there?”

The corners of Jack’s mouth rose.

- True. It’s inefficient and ignorant, but there’s also no method more certain than that. How long until the risk recovers?

“Soon.”

A little later, Su-ho’s shrunken body grew again.

Su-ho kicked off the floor.

[ Protection activates. ]

[ Consecration activates. ]

[ Extreme Strength activates. ]

[ Foxfire activates. ]

[ Rage has accumulated sufficiently. ]

[ Blessing activates an additional effect. ]

[ Rage Mode activates. ]

Holy arts surged around him.

Su-ho spoke solemnly.

“Let’s go.”

At the same time as his shout, the Subspace door leading outside opened, and Su-ho immediately leapt out.

“Where are you, you bastard!!”

A ringing shout thundered out.

It felt as though his eardrums would burst.

It did seem certain that he had grown very excited after Red Maria’s existence was discovered.

It was truly fascinating.

He was called a High Priest, but in truth, he was effectively an existence like the king of Noctarion.

Was it really something for such an existence to become this agitated over the discovery of a single Red Maria?

It was possible.

Because there were quite a few cases where people in high positions had an extremely low threshold for enduring shame, displeasure, or anxiety when their weakness or shame was discovered.

“Here!”

Su-ho’s voice.

Alucard’s head turned reflexively.

But now, he was not in Giantification. He was the size he had been when Alucard had first seen him.

For an instant, a triumphant smile appeared on Alucard’s face.

Judging by the smaller Su-ho, he considered that the bastard’s power must have diminished because of Giantification.

Alucard immediately spewed acid poison.

KWAGAGAGAGA!!

The acid poison engulfed Su-ho.

Protection Holy Art manifested, and Su-ho moved to the side, dodging the acid poison.

However, the enormous acid poison’s pursuit speed was faster than Su-ho’s running speed.

He could not evade it.

He was hit by all of it while running.

In the end, Protection Holy Art collapsed.

PUKWAAK!

With the sound of a person melting in acid poison, his form collapsed.

Had he done it?

Alucard’s eyes narrowed.

That was when it happened.

“Here!”

Su-ho’s voice was heard again.

But this time, he was not alone.

Several.

No, an army of An Su-hos numbering in the dozens, hundreds, had appeared.

They were even riding black horses, spirit horses made of shadow.

Each of them held a Guiyeong Spear in hand, scattering in several directions as they attacked Alucard.

“You damned bastard!!”

Alucard’s rage exploded.

Because no matter how he looked at it, it was clear that Su-ho was making a fool of him.

He was already at the peak of sensitivity, and now he truly felt as though he could no longer endure it.

[ Alucard uses the High Priest’s authority. ]

HWAAAAAK!

When the authority was used, Alucard’s body began shining with the brightest light Su-ho had seen yet.

Then, when the light scattered.

PUHPUHPUHPUNG!!

All the Su-ho clone soldiers around Alucard exploded at once, like the heads of the Immortal Crowns bursting.

“Where are you!!”

“Kuhuhuhuhung!!”

Alucard and his snake shouted at the same time.

Then Su-ho appeared from somewhere once again.

“Here!”

“You son of a bitch!!”

[ Alucard uses the High Priest’s authority. ]

HWAAAAAK!

Light burst out.

And another Su-ho exploded.

This one was fake too.

And a little later, Su-ho appeared again.

It was a repetition of the same pattern.

Sometimes from the front.

Sometimes from behind.

There were even times when he appeared from the sky or from underground, and the number varied greatly, from one to hundreds.

It was annoying.

Just what was this bastard’s intention in doing this?

On top of that, he subtly did not give him any timing to rest, making it feel as if a mosquito missed in the middle of the night was waging guerrilla warfare against him.

He was angry.

The anger built and built, and finally, another burst of rage exploded.

[ Alucard uses the High Priest’s authority. ]

HWAAAAAK!

At that moment.

“Kuhuk!”

It was immediately after the High Priest’s authority activated.

All of a sudden, blood erupted from Alucard’s mouth.

Alucard was greatly flustered as he looked at the black blood flowing from his mouth.

“What is this......”

At that moment.

“It’s finally starting to take effect.”

Su-ho’s voice.

Alucard lifted his head toward the direction from which the sound had come.

However, the reason Alucard was shocked was not Su-ho.

“My Red Maria......!”

The reason Alucard was shocked.

That reason was none other than the fact that black spots had sprung up all over Red Maria, which should have been deeply, deeply red, as though mold had grown on it.