The Thunder God was Claudia's guardian deity. On heavily cloudy days, he would slip in from the open sea, peek around, and then let out a thunderous shout towards the earth, pouring down lightning. Thanks to the lightning rods and the Thunder Council Lord, he wasn't that dangerous, but he was a noisy old man who still posed a threat.
However, that appearance of the Thunder God was entirely intentional. The Thunder God, merely faithful to his given role as an 'alarm,' did not aim his power at anyone. He announced the coming of lightning and then played along with human tricks. Just like the powerful but foolish giants in old tales.
[... . -]
However, those words did not apply to the current Thunder God.
The Thunder God raised his spear.
The world vibrates.
Fine hairs stand on end.
A small static electricity runs over the dirt and rocks. The Thunder God's wrath seeks a sacrifice. All things hold their breath and bow their heads, waiting only for the majestic punishment to pass them by.
Until now, the gods had never expressed their wrath towards humans even once. If they had, this world would not have been able to maintain its intact form.
The Thunder God proved that.
[..-. .. .-. .]
The spear, over 10 meters long, turned glowing white. The dirt and rocks heaved and floated up. Then, at some point, the world stretched and the spear turned into a beam of light.
There is no deafening roar that tears the world, nor any blinding light that startles everyone. Even the power that had been scattered across the world condenses into one. The spear is thrown, with that single purpose.
There was not even a throwing motion. The light flashed, and before I knew it, it had disappeared from the Thunder God's hand. The steel spear, having gained the speed of lightning, was impossible to follow with the eyes.
"…Huh?"
The noisily barking Aji blinked. It was because Lungken, who had been massacring humans until just a moment ago, had vanished from sight. Instead, Lungken's arms and legs fell to the ground with a thud. The humans who had been grabbed by him fell along with them.
I didn't know how far Lungken would go, but it seemed certain he had gotten closer to the Mist Duchy than to Claudia. No matter how immortal an Elder he was, it would take quite a long time to restore his body and return to Claudia.
Peru, who had defeated the Elder, exhaled heavily with her arm still outstretched. As both vampires and humans lost their words and stared at her, Peru, who had shot the lightning, saw the carnage she had created.
On the ground where the spear had grazed past, branch-shaped marks were carved. It was the trace of the lightning spear tearing at the earth. Through the cracked and broken crevices, thin strands of lightning shot up like reeds. The earth, fully charged with lightning, awaited only Peru's command.
In the midst of everyone holding their breath, Peru panicked with an expressionless face.
'…Uh, what?'
This was not Peru's intention. She was simply going to modify the Thunder God with the power of the Golden Mirror to only scare them. She wanted the Thunder God to be just noisy and threatening, like his original purpose.
However, the moment she tried to modify the Thunder God, an unknown power intervened, causing an unexpected problem. It was because the Lightning Thief had handed over the power they had tightly hidden to Peru's will. Having come to dominate all the lightning existing on this earth without even realizing it, Peru had created a real Thunder God.
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'…This isn't right.'
When a live round goes off after firing a blank, the most panicked person would be none other than the one who pulled the trigger. Peru was exactly like that. When the Thunder God, modified for threat, blew away the Elder, Peru was horrified by the uncontrollable power.
However, since Peru's facial expressions were extremely minimal, even her surprised face was close to expressionless. Her appearance, tightly closing her lips as if she had expected it and looking at the Elder, gave off the aura of an absolute being transcendent of all things.
There was no time to clear up the misunderstanding. Taking advantage of the moment everyone was focused, Peru quickly got straight to the point.
"…This is the last warning. Stop!"
It wouldn't just be a figment of the imagination that this sounded like a threat to make them all end up the same way if they didn't stop. And it wasn't exactly wrong, either.
Since she had proven she could do it, Peru's words were not a bluff, but mercy. She was suppressing the power that could overturn the world and twist logic, giving them a chance to survive.
Although she still couldn't properly utilize that power. Because what was needed to kill humans wasn't delicate technique.
However, there was exactly one person here who possessed both a mighty divine authority and the strength to have refined it delicately. The one who had been fighting the Steel Saintess acted without hesitation the moment he felt the new power.
"Blood Mist."
Baldamir clenched his fist tightly. The overwhelmingly strong power even burst his own grip, and blood droplets scattered in all directions due to the pressure. In an instant, a blood mist spread thickly and encroached upon the space. The fresh blood spreading from his body swallowed the pools of blood flowing around, gradually growing in size.
A life that became immortal instead because it was closest to death. The Progenitor was the seed of the Demon God, and without fully blooming, became a race god. He established a new rule that applied only to his kin, the vampires.
However, defining the rules did not guarantee being the best in that game. The one who created it was Tir, but the one who learned and honed its principles as a technique was Baldamir.
Instantly, the waterfall of clouds was dyed blood-red. Not a single ray of sunlight entered the dark red clouds, and a sinister stench of blood dampened the tip of the nose. A space by vampires, for vampires. Submerged in it, Baldamir moved, immersed in the mist of blood. In the darkness, only red glints continued like afterimages, and then Baldamir's figure blurred.
It wasn't missed because it was fast. It was because his flesh melted into the blood-red mist.
Demonic Blood Shadow Step.
It bore the name of a footwork technique, but resembled swimming. And to be a bit more strict, it was closer to teleportation.
For vampires, the boundary between inside and outside is blurry. Even if blood flows and their body breaks, they do not place meaning on it. They bind and recreate themselves with the Blood Manipulation Art derived from the Progenitor's true blood. In other words, their root lies in that blood.
Then, if one scatters their own blood like a mist. The entire mist becomes the vampire's flesh, the domain where their power reaches. Baldamir simply shifted his center of gravity slightly within his infinitely inflated self.
With just that, Baldamir reached in front of Peru in an instant. He snatched the greatsword that flew in after him and muttered.
"You wield a power you cannot handle."
A technique that moves after disassembling oneself once. It could neither be caught up to nor stopped. For Peru, who reacted belatedly, there was no time to even feel fear. Looking down at her eyes that held only bewilderment, Baldamir swung the greatsword down expressionlessly. Without even giving her a chance to test her ability to respond.
However, I, who can read minds, always notice the opponent's move. Usually, I notice it but helplessly take the hit, but fortunately, this time I had the means to block it.
The greatsword grazed past Peru's ear. Along with the wind, a sound as if splitting the world in two was heard, and the red sword qi left a large scar on the earth. The greatsword sank into the ground, splitting it halfway.
The red greatsword, considered an object that could cleave even the solid earth. However, Peru's blood was not there. The greatsword of the Red Blood Duke had missed Peru by a paper-thin margin.
Baldamir looked at his right arm. The Elder's arm that had been disassembled and reconstructed just a moment ago. From inside it, something like a thin thread stretched out. A line thinner and more delicate than a spiderweb emitted a pale yellow light and flickered.
What pulled the right arm of the most powerful Elder was a frail thread that seemed unable to even lift a single leaf. Baldamir discovered the card at the end of that thread. The Spade 7. The card venerating the Thunder God was tightly coiled with lightning like a spool of thread.
Spade 7, Lightning Spool. Like a reel winding a kite string, it was a condensation of lightning that had wound thin threads of lightning thousands, tens of thousands... no, to units beyond hundreds of millions and trillions.
Baldamir revealed a faint curiosity and spoke.
"So it was you who handles the power."
Phew. I almost missed it. I let out a sigh of relief inwardly and made an excuse.
"No. It's not my power. I'm also borrowing it."
Literally, it wasn't me who made Baldamir's attack miss. It was Baldamir's own power.
When Baldamir reconstructed his entire body, I sprinkled threads of lightning in that location. The microscopic threads of lightning dug between the merging blood, and when Baldamir was about to swing his greatsword, I intervened and moved it.
If only I could directly touch the inside of the body, even with my shabby magical power, I could make the Progenitor's heart beat for a moment. That's from experience.
And as they say, practice makes perfect; now that I've obtained the Demon God of Lightning, as long as the thread of lightning was connected, I could even control it.
Well, this is also a feat only possible if I directly touch the inside of the body. If it weren't a vampire, what fool would stand by and let someone directly touch their nerves? And even that would be the end if they noticed and resisted like Baldamir.
Baldamir gripped his right hand tightly. With just that, the threads of lightning I had planted snapped all at once. Baldamir, having regained the freedom of his right arm, rested the greatsword back on his shoulder and looked back at me.
"Do you wish to die?"
A chilling killing intent sweeps through my whole body. As the strongest Elder emitted his aura, even the hot blood running through my body seemed to pale and hold its breath.
However, I did not lose my smile even with Baldamir in front of me.
"You cannot kill me."
Because I am favored by Tir.
The wait was not long. Tir gave a low warning towards Baldamir.
"Baldamir. Restrain yourself."
The quiet yet firm voice contained the meaning not to act rashly. Without missing that voice, Baldamir immediately bowed his head.
"I shall do so, Progenitor."
The hostility vanishes as if washed away. As if all his actions up until now had been acting.
It was actually similar to acting. Because his actions, words, and even the aura he emitted were all thoroughly calculated.
Here, it wouldn't even take Baldamir 1 second to kill me. If he just moved the blood spread all around and squeezed my body, I would die, scattering red juice like a pomegranate put in a juicer. The same goes for Peru. For Peru, who had not yet properly grasped the Thunder God, she lacked the power to block an Elder's attack. Even if she somehow deflected the one strike, she wouldn't have been able to hold out if Baldamir had stubbornly continued his attack.
In short, the reason Peru and I were alive was because Baldamir didn't aim for that.
Baldamir does not move with a set purpose. Revealing his killing intent towards me was to check Tir's intentions, and attacking Peru was purely because he felt threatened. He grasped the situation a bit more with his own power and easily gave up. His attempt to kill the Saintess was sincere, but the moment he judged it impossible, he immediately changed his target.
They say people become more stubborn as they age, but it seems that once it passes a certain limit, it comes full circle. Baldamir's judgment was astonishingly swift and flexible.
He's my type of person. As long as I read and accommodate his mood well, there's nothing to lose.
"Now let's calm down a bit, Tir? There's no need for us to fight each other, right?"
Tir still had a displeased expression.
She didn't hate Peru, but if she lent her strength to the Holy Emperor's Court, she could kill her without a sliver of hesitation. Yet, not only had I given the power of the Demon God to such a Peru, but I was also protecting her. By her principles, she should have been able to kill me too, but Tir was intentionally erasing that possibility from her mind. Because she didn't want to fall into such agony.
"Sigh. Are you taking their side? The underlings of the Holy Emperor's Court who tried to throw away even you, let alone me?"
Tir's complaint contained deep resentment towards me for putting her in conflict.
I had let out enough line, so now I had to reel it in a bit. The human heart is similar to flying a kite: if you pull too hard, it nose-dives, and if you let out too much, it flies away entirely.
"I'm not sure if I'm on their side, but at least I've never taken the Holy Emperor's Court's side. Rather, I'd say I want to hinder the Holy Emperor's Court?"
"Then. Why do you stop it?"
"Because the Holy Emperor's Court also wishes for them to die."
Even though I hadn't pointed it out, Baldamir quietly turned his gaze towards the Steel Saintess. Peruel, who had been enthusiastically pounding Baldamir's body until just a moment ago, had let go of her hands at the most crucial moment and was merely watching. Without summoning an angel or using divine power.
You already knew from fighting her directly, didn't you, Red Blood Duke? This guy isn't much better either. Anyway, instead of the Red Blood Duke who was too loyal to convey his opinion, I admonished Tir.
"Because the Steel Saintess intends to martyr everyone here in the clouds!"