Chapter 83: Schemes and Conspiracies

A few minutes ago, in the forging room, Lilith was seated across Nagano Nanaka. Aoyama Aoi stood beside Nagano, his figure giving off assurance in what seemed like an otherwise tense confrontation.

However, Nagano continued to smile warmly, placing her cup of tea back on the table in an elegant manner.

"Give Tanaka-kun's broken sword to me, Lilith-san."

Lilith watched her, her face seemingly devoid of emotions.

"I'm sorry."

She rose to her feet and drew her blood-red spear.

"But Tomoyuki-kun never told me to so."

She calmly leveled her spear and pointed it at Nagano, as if issuing a challenge. Lowering her head apologetically, she continued.

"Also, I would like to apologize again for this discourtesy."

She swung her lance.

At that moment, Aoyama also made his move and lunged forward.

Crossing his scythes, he parried Lilith's spear and held firm, narrowing his eyes as he scrutinized her.

"Did Tanaka-kun tell you to attack us?"

"Hmm…"

Lilith smiled mischievously.

"You don't need to know that~"

With a single swing of her spear, she forced Aoyama back, causing him to stagger several steps from the sheer force of her blow.

However, Aoyama was not to be outdone.

He unleashed a counterattack of his own, his swift strokes disappearing into a blue blur that was too fast for the normal human eye to follow.

Unfortunately, Lilith was not a normal human.

She parried his strike, twirling her spear almost casually. The two of them charged at each other, disappearing into blur and red blurs that zipped across the room.

Right in front of Nagano's eyes, the two superhumans' exchange sliced the table apart into pieces. However, Nagano didn't seem the least bit fazed by the violent duel, and calmly remained in her seat to sip her cup of tea, which she had taken off her broken table.

She smiled, already knowing the outcome of the duel.

"Give up," Aoyama commanded.

Lilith merely smiled as she parried another strike from his scythes. This time, it was Aoyama who forced her back with an incredibly strong blow. Skidding backward, she spun her spear around and slammed it into the ground to stop her slide.

"Why should I?"

Lilith lifted her spear from the large crack she had just pierced into the ground and elegantly twirled it back into an offensive stance, her lithe body curled and poised to strike.

Aoyama merely stared at the glowing digits that had appeared on the back of her left hand. Lilith followed his gaze and snickered when she saw the blue 17.

"I'm sure Tanaka has already informed you of my special ability…of my curse, didn't you?" Aoyama sounded calm and confident. "If you exchange blows with me thirty-three times, you will be forcibly teleported out of here."

"I see."

Even with the revelation, Lilith remained unmoved. She tilted her head as she analyzed the situation, her smile never leaving her face.

"And since the one you guys need is Tomoyuki-kun and not me, you have no compunctions teleporting me away from here."

Aoyama nodded. "That is correct. Don't worry. We have no intention of killing or hurting you."

Lilith's smile widened. "Can you even hurt me in the first place?"

Back in the underground lair, Suzuki Shirou continued to engage the Demonic Shadow Dragon in furious combat.

"You dumb oversized lizard!"

With a yell, Suzuki slashed at the dragon with his golden spear while unleashing lightning on his foe.

"I'll show you what the true power of a dragon is!"

Lighting danced and spiraled around his spear, taking a life on its own and transforming into a bestial figure.

Divine Gate Chaotic Battle: Lightning Dragon Summon.

The lightning took the form of a ferocious dragon before it leaped out of Suzuki's spear and struck the hapless Demonic Shadow Dragon. The monster bellowed before it vanished in a golden explosion, tendrils of lightning spraying out and scorching the surroundings.

Suzuki landed behind the Demonic Shadow Dragon, his spear dripping with blood after he delivered a particularly vicious slash. Straightening himself, he continued to turn his back on the shrieking Demonic Shadow Dragon.

"Hmph."

Lightning and thunder blasted out of the flailing Demonic Shadow Dragon, illuminating the dim cavern and temporarily turning its dark interior into day. With one final cry, the Demonic Shadow Dragon collapsed, the life leaving its body.

A distance away, Nishida Kensuke whooped and cheered.

"You won!"

Throwing a fist into the air, Nishida triumphantly crowed, watching the spectacle excitedly. But Suzuki merely stood there without turning to face the fallen dragon.

"Boss, what are you waiting for? Finish him off!"

Nishida urged Suzuki, who remained stationary.

"Idiot…"

Suzuki glared at the bewildered Nishida, and then turned to sneer at a shadowy corner of the cave.

"Couldn't you tell that someone has been watching us all this time?"

Swinging his spear, he pointed it at the corner, lightning erupting from the deadly tip of his treasure weapon.

"Hey…get out of there!"

With a single blast of lightning, he blew up the corner of the cave with impudent fury.

"The person hiding over there!"

Here, I had no choice but to interject, using my first person protagonist privilege.

"Uh, if you blow the place up and tried to kill the person hiding there, how do you expect him or her to get out and talk to you?"

"Ugh! Don't mind the details! And I'm not talking to you! Go back to fighting Takeda! I'll take care of the winner after the both of you're done!"

Back in the forging room, Aoyama continued to aggressively pressure Lilith, who was defending his blows with astonishing ease. However, Lilith wasn't toying with him. Even as she parried or evaded his strikes, beads of perspiration rolled down her face.

As expected of a hero. Aoyama wasn't going to make things easy for Lilith.

With another strike, Aoyama sent Lilith skidding backward. The vampire queen grimly lowered her spear and righted her balance before she counterattacked. Aoyama deflected her strikes and then dodged a thrust from her spear before lashing out with a kick from below. Lilith used her left elbow to block his foot, and then jumped back to widen the distance between them.

Aoyama refused to give her a breather and he pressed on. Realizing that she had no choice but to accept this confrontation, Lilith abandoned her efforts and met his charge head-on. The two of them collided in the middle of the room with such force that the ground caved in, turning into a cracked crater under the tremendous impact.

The both of them then sprang apart, widening the distance between them. As Lilith paused to catch her breath, she glanced at the back of her left hand.

The number had grown to 24.

"A few more attacks and this will be over, huh?" Nagano was still spectating the battle calmly. "Good work, Aoyama-kun."

"No."

However, Aoyama shook his head and remained where he was, his expression perplexed.

"Something is off. That girl should have been forcibly teleported out of here already. She should have surpassed the 33 mark long ago."

Lilith smiled, her eyes hooded. Aoyama felt a chill run down his spine.

"This is a trap…"

"Are you sure?"

Nagano furrowed her brow, puzzled by Aoyama's remark.

"But her hand shows that she needs nine more hits, doesn't it?"

Aoyama's eyes widened.

"Damn it!"

He glared at Lilith, who was slowly dissolving. Her body was melting away, turning into a human-shaped blob made entirely of blood.

"We've been tricked!"

Back in the lair, after Suzuki blew up the corner with his little tantrum, Nishida was reacting rather frantically to the person who emerged from the shadows.

"Aren't you that beautiful girl who is Tanaka's comrade?! Are you here to steal the kill on that dragon?!"

Unlike the flustered Nishida, Suzuki remained calm, but he continued to emanate a murderous aura.

"Speak…what do you want?"

"I need a favor," Lilith replied as she stepped forward and lowered her two blood-red spears.

Back in the forging room, Aoyama was glaring at the transforming blob.

"This…"

"Looks like Bloody Doppelganger." Nagano sighed. "We've been had. That's a vampire ability, to create a clone of herself using her blood. She was never here from the start. And now it appears that the doppelganger ability has expired."

At her words, the shrinking blob of blood was imploding and slowly disappearing from sight now that its purpose had been fulfilled.

"Eh? This is…?"

Aoyama noticed something strange. Even though the Blood Doppelganger had disappeared, the spear had not.

"A favor from me?"

Back in the Demonic Shadow Dragon's lair, Suzuki was staring at Lilith incredulously, unable to believe what he had just heard.

"Not you…" Lilith smiled sweetly. "You will be forcibly teleported out of here soon, and will be of no use to me."

"Boss!" Nishida shouted frantically as he pointed. "Look at your hand!"

"Eh?"

Following Nishida's gaze, Suzuki noticed the blue, glowing digits of 33 etched across the back of his left hand.

This number…isn't it Aoyama's ability…!?

Aoyama himself had picked up the spear and studied it, noticing something strange with it thanks to his role as a healer.

"There's hardened flecks of blood on it. Don't tell me…this is Suzuki's blood?"

He suddenly recalled the battle.

"Back when Tanaka was battling Suzuki, he cut him and absorbed his blood. Don't tell me…this is the blood from back then? He…or perhaps it was Lilith, manipulated the blood using magic and hardened it around her spear."

Aoyama finally understood.

"All this time, when we exchanged blows, I was placing the curse not on her spear, but on Suzuki's blood that was coating the spear!"

Aoyama clenched his fists in frustration.

"I see…so that's why she was on the offensive all this while. I had thought it weird that she was taking the initiative because it would accelerate the process of me teleporting her away from Cross Castle. No, it was precisely because she wanted to accelerate the process…!"

"Not bad. Impressive. Very impressive!"

Rather than furious, Nagano looked very pleased as she sipped her tea cheerfully.

"Not only Suzuki's bunch….even we have been played by Tanaka-kun and Lilith-san. We have to hand it to them…I didn't think Tanaka-kun would plan things this far ahead in advance."

"DAMN YOU, IRON KNIGHTS!"

Suzuki howled in the lair of the Demonic Shadow Dragon as golden mana swirled around his body, erasing his presence from Cross Castle and unceremoniously dumping him somewhere far away. His eyes glowed with rage as he helplessly cursed the people directly responsible for his current predicament.

"You dare to trick me! Unforgivable! I'm not finished with you all!"

Right at that moment, Nagano perked up when her smartphone buzzed, the cute ringtone echoing throughout the wrecked forging room.

It was a call from the leader.

"Takeda-kun…"

She swiped the green button and raised the smartphone to her ear. As expected, Takeda's voice came through immediately.

"The Saint Sword is no longer of any use. Destroy it."

"I'm sorry."

Nagano sighed as she stood up apologetically, surveying the devastated state her forging room was in.

"But I can't do that."

"I see…"

On the other side of the smartphone, Takeda turned to stare at me, mystified.

"You told that vampire queen not to send the sword to Nagano-san, right?"

I smiled, almost in a gloating manner.

"No…"

In my right hand, the newly reforged Saint Sword…no, Blood Dragon Sword materialized. Crimson mana swirled around the black blade, forming a terrifying, blood-red maelstrom that seemed to give the treasure weapon demonic life.

"The former Saint Sword has already been reforged into an entirely new weapon."

The blood-red dragon roared to life and materialized above me, the resentful, demonic spirit of the Demonic Shadow Dragon taking a new form and hungering for blood.

"Tanaka really pulled a fast one on us, didn't he?" Aoyama remarked as he gripped his scythes tightly. "To think he was able to deceive all of us."

"Yes…"

Nagano acknowledged, still amused by the whole affair.

"When I think about it, Tanaka-kun is really quite the mischief maker."

Not sharing Nagano's insights, Takeda glared at me, still unable to believe what had just transpired.

"What did you do to get your treasure weapon repaired and reforged?"

"Oh, this?"

I raised my demonic sword.

"It just so happened that today was very coincidental."

"What are you talking about?"

"Have you already forgotten?"

I shook my head.

"Your own classmates' abilities…don't tell me you've forgotten who has what? Even if you've a split, you didn't go off and forget about them entirely, did you?"

"…"

Takeda regarded me grimly. I sighed.

"Did you forget? In our class, there are two heroes with the job swordsmiths. And it just so happened that both of them are in Cross Castle today."

Back in the Demonic Shadow Dragon Lair, Nishida was sitting on the ground, his staff lying beside him in an untidy manner. He was breathing heavily, cold sweat running down his face.

"I was almost scared to death!"

Thinking back, Nishida felt as if his life was hanging by just a thread.

The boss was mysteriously forced to teleport out of here…

His eyes had bulged when he saw Suzuki physically vanish before his eyes.

And that scary vampire queen requested for my help!

Lilith was smiling sweetly as she approached the trembling Nishida, but there was something menacing about that overly friendly expression of hers. A dark, seductive undercurrent that simultaneously enthralled and threatened.

Using the Shadow Dragon Egg to help reforge and repair Tanaka's treasure weapon and turn it into an even more powerful sword than before…the boss is going to yell at me for sure.

However, he recalled Lilith's cold gaze, her blood-red ruby eyes piercing into him – a gaze which her sweet smile didn't reach – and he shuddered.

But I can't beat that legendary vampire queen, who's reputed to be among the top 9 strongest demon nobles in Restia. The boss will understand…

Nishida sighed, and calmed down for a bit.

"Having Tanaka owe me a favor isn't bad either…especially if he's a warrior of such high caliber. And I remember he's actually not the type to be ungrateful."

Wiping the cold perspiration from his face, Nishida shook his head.

"Anyway, the boss should be really mad at the Iron Knights."

Indeed…if Suzuki was furious at the Iron Knights, he wouldn't bother berating Nishida or directing his rage at me. We were both safe.

Takeda and his Iron Knights, on the other hand, were not.

"I didn't think…"

The purple skeletal wings stretched out of Takeda's back, almost in a threatening manner. Scorn filled his voice as he slowly spoke.

"…that Nishida…"

He raised his head to glare at me, and at the same time the skeletal appendages lashed out violently in my direction.

"…was also a swordsmith."

"I didn't know either," I admitted as I deftly dodged the strikes from Takeda's skeletal appendages. "But…I have my ways of finding out."

Indeed, when I first met Nishida near the entrance of the Cross Castle, I had activated Absolute Appraisal and seen his job.

Name: Nishida Kensuke

Species: Human

Job/Rank: Weaponsmith/Hero

Special Abilities: Demonic Swordsmith, Curse

"And besides, he was 2nd in command in Suzuki's group. There's no way Suzuki would allow him to tag along as a lackey if he doesn't have his uses."

I admired my new Blood Dragon Sword. I had to hand it to Nishida. He certainly was capable of crafting such a masterpiece.

"Furthermore, given my affiliation with demons, plus how this new weapon is complementary to my uh…demonic, dark abilities, won't you say it's more fitting that Nishida, the Demonic Swordsmith is the one who forged my weapon for me instead of the Sacred Swordsmith, Nagano-san?"

This was not to say I didn't trust Nagano. I respected her abilities as a swordsmith, but in the end, I was an undead. I should be wielding demonic weapons crafted by the Demonic Swordsmith, Nishida, and not holy weapons forged by the Sacred Swordsmith, Nagano.

Takeda didn't offer a verbal reply. Instead, the skeletal appendages from his armor stretched and expanded, trying to catch me in a pincer attack. I stopped and calmly waited for them to intersect and ensnare me before I dropped down, ducking under their slash.

"More importantly…"

I grinned at Takeda, his reflection floating inside my glasses as I used Absolute Appraisal. High-speed calculations and estimations filled my lenses, showing me the trajcetories of his attacks and triangulated possibilities and tactics that he might employ against me, given his abilities.

With this, I was able to dodge each and every attack Takeda threw at me, as well as read every single move he made.

"You think you can win just because you have a new, reforged and enhanced weapon?" Takeda sneered.

I shrugged nonchalantly as I glanced at my new sword.

"I don't know. There are no guarantees in life except death and taxes. But I certainly wouldn't say my chances of winning are zero."

The blood-red dragon reared up and roared behind me. In an instant, my side of the rooftop was covered in a sea of blood.

"Especially now that Lilith-san has appeared to lend me her power. Looks like this demonic sword, the Blood Dragon Sword, is imbued with her vampiric powers. I really should go thank her later. She has helped me out a lot."

Not only that, the blood abilities of the sword complemented my own blood magic very well. This was the first time I could fight all out as a "Vampire Lord."

"Now that she has placed her trust on me, I can't very well let her down."

I plunged the Blood Dragon Sword down into the ground, piercing the cement. All around me, the sea of blood began to bubble as humanoid figures rose, turning into Blood Ghouls. Before long, I had an army of Blood Ghouls standing to attention, staggering forward in neat formations, their fluid bodies rippling as they absorbed the blood from the ground.

"This is the Summoning ability you so wanted to Plunder, right?"

I smiled as I savored Takeda's astonished expression.

"So it's only fitting that I fight you with it."

Takeda hardened his eyes and glared at me. While I was used to glares of hatred from former classmates who were obsessed with killing me, this was a fresh change. Takeda wasn't glaring at me murderously or because he held a grudge against me.

No, he was grudgingly respecting me as a worthy opponent.

"Let's go, Leader of the Iron Knights." Raising my Blood Dragon Sword, I took command of my horde of enhanced Blood Ghouls. "Can the formidable defenses of your Cross Castle hold out against my army of vampiric Blood Ghouls?"