Chapter 70

Lucius, from the former Golden Empire, now the Holy Empire, is a vampire.

He was lucky to be born a noble's son and received education to follow in his father's footsteps as an imperial administrator.

Or more precisely, he started but didn't finish.

"Damn it! I'm sick of this crap! Lucius, don't you ever become one either!"

An imperial administrator, to put it in terms of Joseon, was like a local governor.

It was an honorable position bestowed by the Emperor's command, managing a region well to prove one's abilities and potentially become a high-ranking official—a path to an official career, in short.

Every noble wanted to become a high-ranking official of the Empire. Lucius's father was no exception.

But Lucius's father kicked this honorable position to the curb and ran away from it.

Ridiculously, it was all because of money.

The position of an imperial administrator was a money pit.

Many nobles had to cover the city's operating expenses out of their own pockets... there weren't many tax-paying citizens around, only slaves and nobles.

After paying taxes to the Emperor, there was no money left, forcing administrators to cover the shortfall from their own pockets.

How could a country function properly if individuals had to bear the city budgets?

Sane nobles resigned one after another, locking themselves in their manors, living the leisurely life of playing with slaves, like other nobles.

Lucius's father did the same.

He wanted to work for the Empire, but the reality was a complete mess.

"I don't know anymore! Lucius! Live your life however you want!"

"Yes, Father!"

Following his wealthy, idle father, Lucius also began a life of squandering money every day.

He indulged in alcohol and women, collected exotic items from other countries, and even summoned wizards to learn their mysteries.

He made bad friends, killing servants in a Colosseum imitation, and even shot people for fun with a bow.

Lucius was a troublemaker, but not an exceptional one.

Most nobles of the Golden Empire were at his level.

The country was doomed to fail because of it.

Living every day chasing pleasure, Lucius heard about a grim future from a wizard he occasionally interacted with.

"What?! The world is ending?"

If the Empire falls, the world ends.

Then, everyone would face the final judgment together.

Lucius turned pale.

"Looking at the sins I've committed... there's no way I'm going to heaven!"

The wizard whispered.

Like the devil's voice.

"How about becoming a vampire?"

"A vampire?"

"If you give me a little compensation, I can turn you into a vampire, Lord Lucius."

Becoming a vampire meant surviving even after the world's destruction, escaping the confines of mortality.

"Wouldn't it be better to live on the run from God than to suffer eternally in hell?"

"Alright! Turn me into a vampire!"

Lucius, fearing hell, insulted God and became a vampire.

Freed from the shackles of mortality, he decided to hide deep underground until all judgment ended, and then wake up after the world had been destroyed.

And so, he fell into a long sleep...

"Huh?"

Centuries later, Lucius woke up confused.

Why is the sun still up?

Wasn't the world supposed to be ruined???

Panicked, Lucius investigated and soon came across shocking information.

The Empire had indeed fallen, but those damned priests resurrected the ruined Empire like some voodoo magic.

It was now called the Holy Empire.

"Those f*cking priests!"

During the Golden Empire era, priests were as corrupt as the nobles.

Those who feared judgment must have desperately created a new Empire.

Lucius, thinking judgment was over, despaired at the sight of the still brightly shining sun.

"I'm f*cked!"

Now, without any life force left, he needed to drink blood.

How long must he hide from the sun? 100 years? 200 years? 1000 years?

Lucius despaired deeply...

And that despair erased what little was left of his human heart.

"Ah, let's see who wins."

Whether it takes 10,000 years or a million, he'll devour humans as they come and evade judgment.

He became the perfect monster.

"[Darkness be my ally.]"

Lucius, now a vampire, could command the darkness as if it were part of him.

He had studied the Maronius language and, like darkness, became a being that loathed the sun.

He used magic to hunt humans.

Mercy? None of that.

"These people are going to heaven when they die anyway, right? Let their precious God take care of them."

For days, Lucius relentlessly devoured humans.

He didn't think about the consequences. His only focus was on eating humans, filling himself with life force.

Becoming a vampire made Lucius's magic incredibly powerful.

He was a wizard proficient in Dark magic, Frost magic, and Summoning.

The cursed vampire body combined with powerful magic made him a formidable foe that simple villagers could not handle.

A hungry vampire could easily devour an entire village.

But whether by coincidence or as part of the strange schemes of space-time wizards...

In Baron Damon's territory, was wizard Ian.

He was an otherworld cheat user who went around scamming with a status window.

The fact that the scammer Kira was caught by Lucius was no coincidence.

Lucius is an outstanding dark wizard.

He could see through darkness and even sense objects moving in unseen places, so sensitive was he to darkness.

"Today's breakfast is that girl."

Lucius licked his lips looking at Kira.

A woman walking alone in the middle of the night? It was as if she was begging to be eaten.

He launched himself at Kira without hesitation.

"Kyaa!"

Startled, Kira screamed shrilly and fell on her butt.

"Oh?"

That trivial action saved Kira's life...

Kira's feminine voice stimulated Lucius's lustful heart.

Vampires are impotent. Their bodies are cursed that way.

They can't feel joy from eating, sleeping, or even holding a woman.

Only the pleasure of bloodsucking.

They only revel in the sensation of life force, brewed by sunlight, filling their decaying bodies.

However, looking at Kira, sitting with her legs awkwardly spread, Lucius felt disgusted.

Disgusted mentally, not physically.

Lucius had been a libertine, coveting many women since his youth. He was a proud man of the Empire – with a penchant for lust.

Even though becoming a vampire eradicated physical pleasures, the sense of conquest and pleasure he felt from violating women remained deeply etched in his mind.

Yes, for Lucius, r*ping was... [a game of nostalgia].

Not particularly fun, but something that occasionally appealed to him because it invoked memories of the past.

"She's quite good-looking."

Lucius leered at Kira's red hair.

For a country bumpkin, she looked pretty good.

Honestly, even when he was human, he hadn't bedded a woman of her looks.

She could rival the finest prostitute, but Lucius, having confined himself to his estate, hardly ever touched the women of the big cities.

Just by looking, she seemed like a girl sneaking away from the village to escape a vampire.

What's the use of running away, all alone?

Lucius slowly reached out his hand towards Kira.

That's when it happened.

"Back off, you monster!"

Kira shouted, pulling a stick from her waistband.

As she quickly scraped the stick, sparks started pouring out like a fountain!

"Aaaargh!"

Suddenly seeing flames before him, Lucius panicked and stumbled backward.

What's that? Fire magic! Is it fire magic?

He was momentarily startled, but soon realized he felt no mystery from it.

That flame-producing stick was... just garbage.

"Ha, hahah!"

Lucius's face turned red.

Embarrassed, he didn't forget to laugh happily as if nothing had happened.

If Ian had seen it, he would have definitely mocked him for being a total nerd.

"Thought you were pulling some trick... So the people of the Empire have made quite an interesting toy?"

Of course, Kira's firework had no effect on the vampire.

It startled him, but that was it.

'Father...!'

Kira thought it was all over.

So, she just sat down on the ground.

However,

That very action saved Kira once more.

Whoosh!

An arrow flew right above Kira's head.

"Argh!"

The arrow pierced through Lucius's forearm.

Black blood oozed out of the split wound, emitting a foul, rotten smell.

"Kira!"

'... Ian?!'

Kira couldn't believe her ears.

That voice... It was that psycho wizard's voice!

Kira turned around.

There were mercenaries holding torches and a female knight in black armor.

And there was Wizard Ian.

Overwhelmed,

Kira shouted, half acting, half sincere.

"You're late, idiot!"

"Even when I come, you complain!"

Ian, Belenka, and the mercenaries appeared, cutting through the darkness.

They had followed right after Kira disappeared.

Luckily, they weren't too late.

"If you found the vampire! You should've told us, not chased after it!"

"... It, It was my choice!"

Ian shook his head.

Geez, wizards are always so headstrong.

While Lucius was staggering, Belenka charged at him with incredible speed, wielding her sword.

Ian had expected Belenka to easily subdue the vampire.

After all, her combat skills were top-notch from what he had seen so far.

However, contrary to expectations, Belenka struggled against the vampire.

Belenka's swordsmanship was sharp, but the vampire's physical abilities were equal to, or even surpassed, Belenka's sword skills.

'I need to help somehow...'

That's when Ian spotted an opportunity.

The vampire, excited from the fight with Belenka, blurted out a strange curse.

"You damned believers! So eager to meet your God, huh!"

Damned believers...

Ian smirked upon hearing the vampire's curse.

A curse reflects a person's complexes.

People curse based on 'what they find upsetting' because of this.

Ian easily deduced from. 'So eager to meet your God, huh!' that this vampire greatly feared his inevitable judgment.

Ian immediately started acting like a wizard.

That is, he started taunting.

"What's that? It's hard to hear the words of a loser afraid of God~"

"You, you, you... right now...!"

"Go on, suck blood for hundreds and thousands of days~ But what's the use? When you die, it's straight to hell, right? Booked for a medieval-style torture full course till the final judgment, right?"

"You... bastard!"

Hearing Ian's taunting, Lucius coughed up blood on the spot.

It wasn't just a figure of speech; he literally vomited blood.

Vampires have a habit of spitting out rotten blood when they get excited.

Lucius was genuinely triggered by Ian's taunts.

He was already regretting becoming a vampire...!

"F*ck, if I had known the world wouldn't end, I would have died gracefully, you bastard!"

Lucius screamed with a voice filled with genuine agony.

"I'll kill you!"

Lucius's eyes rolled back.

This meant he couldn't see anything else.

Despite Belenka blocking his path, he ignored her and charged at Ian.

Belenka wasn't one to miss such an opportunity.

She swung her longsword and cut off Lucius's arm.

With a thud, the arm was cleanly severed.

But Lucius, brain steeped in madness and rage, didn't stop.

This time, Ian was taken aback.

"Hey! Vampire! Your arm is...!"

"Shut up! I never had an arm to begin with!"

"What the hell are you on about! You're insane!"

Belenka, apparently not expecting him to charge even without an arm, also shouted in surprise.

"Ian! Be careful!"

Kira was just as panicked.

'What do I do!'

Belenka was too far away, and the mercenaries had just started running towards Ian.

'I have to do something...!'

Kira wanted to help Ian somehow...

But she didn't know what to do.

So, Kira launched her only specialty and only skill.

A firework show.

There was no particular purpose.

It was more of a decision made under the notion that doing something was better than nothing.

"Ian!!!"

I'll help you!

Whoosh! Fwoosh!

Columns of flames shot up spectacularly.

It was completely unhelpful, but the flames were splendid.

Ian, as if enchanted by the flames, blankly watched Kira's firework fountain.

It wasn't because he was dumbfounded.

It was because an image came to his mind.

Burning flames?

But it wasn't the mystery of fire he thought of. A flame explosion couldn't stop Lucius's kamikaze charge.

What Ian remembered was a part of a documentary he had seen in a past life.

Flames. Columns. And...

A solar explosion.

The massive cosmic explosion transforming into warm light played out in his mind.

Almost unconsciously, Ian pulled out his magic sword from his bosom.

Anor-lsil, the magic sword infused with the power of the sun.

He didn't yet know how to unleash the sword's power... but seeing that explosion made him think of something.

Wasn't the sun originally an entity that exploded and burned like those columns of fire?

The image of an exploding sun and the image of shooting flames merged into one.

Ian extended Anor-lsil, filling it with a wizard's will, and shouted forcefully.

"[Explode!]"

At that moment,

From the blade of Anor-lsil, a brilliant radiance exploded, resembling the daylight at noon!

"Arghhhh!"

The wrath of the heavens struck down the cursed being.

The sunlight created by magic burned Lucius's body.

"How...! The sun...! The light...!"

Exposed to the sunlight, the vampire's body turned into black ash and crumbled.

Ian crushed Lucius's head under his heel.

"The craftsmanship of skilled fairies."

Amidst the scattering ashes, Ian slowly caressed the magic sword.

Somehow, the blade felt a bit warmer.