Despite the impulsive nature brought on by his status condition, Ian’s charge turned out to be the best possible action.
Swoosh—
Had he retreated, he would have struggled to avoid the blood spikes erupting around the Empress and the simultaneous attacks from her blade-like claws. Only when she was almost upon him did Ian realize he was unarmed. But it didn’t matter.
Crack!
He had his fists.
Ian’s right fist smashed into one side of the Empress’s face. His metal gauntlet dented and squeezed his fingers painfully, but he didn’t care. He just focused on the large head his fist had sunk into. The thin skin beneath gave way, with one cheekbone crushed and the eye above bulging out.
Slash—
Almost simultaneously, the Empress’s dual arm swings missed him and raked the wall behind him, leaving ten deep gashes next to the embedded blood spikes. As Ian retracted his right hand, he swung his left fist. Though a thought briefly crossed his mind about his previously injured left arm, he dismissed it.
Crunch—
His left fist crushed the opposite side of the Empress’s face, despite the horrendous sound from his arm. Almost instinctively, Ian activated Vacuum Explosion.Boom—
With a silent blast, the Empress, her face deeply indented on both sides, was flung away. Ian, too, was thrown sideways. He got up quickly, his eyes falling on his left arm. The bone had pierced through the skin and twisted grotesquely, a result of removing his arm guard to feed blood to Thesaya earlier.
“Hah…” Ian let out a short, bitter laugh and used his right hand to push the bone back in place roughly.
He had to rely on his body’s regeneration now. The greater the injury, the stronger the Primordial Vitality’s healing effect. At the same time, he felt the anger and hatred boiling inside him begin to subside. His instincts and reason quickly returned to their proper places.
There was a slight regret. The status effect wasn’t entirely bad given the situation. Thanks to his high Mental Fortitude and Resistance, he hadn’t completely lost his reason. With clarity returning, Ian noticed the Legion Commander’s Greatsword embedded nearby. He ran toward it without a second thought.
Crunch, crunch—
Meanwhile, the Empress, who had been rolling on the ground, began to rise again. Her partially obliterated head was puffing back to its original form. Ian reached the greatsword and grabbed its hilt. The rubble, unable to bear the weight, crumbled, freeing the blade.
“Ahh…aaah—”
The Empress’s eyes flared as she turned toward him, raising numerous blood blades around her. She seemed to instinctively decide on a long-range attack strategy. Perhaps if her body were fully formed, things would be different, but her defense was currently critically low.
Which means I need to stick to close combat.
Ian’s eyes turned ashen, and the Empress fired her blades and spread her wings.
Whoosh—
A violent whirlwind erupted around Ian. The gust was so strong that it momentarily threw off the Empress’s balance. The Whirling Barrier, filled with chaotic power, couldn’t be controlled delicately at the moment, so Ian poured the maximum amount of magic into it.
The whirlwind not only scattered the trajectory of the blade rain but also carried Ian upward in the direction the Empress was rising.
Spinning with the greatsword as a counterweight, Ian began preparing his next spell.
Woosh.
Flames flickered around him, dozens of Dancing Flames manifesting. Ian launched the fireballs while balancing himself with the greatsword, following closely behind the fiery projectiles. The Empress spread her wings wide and extended her palms forward.
Swoosh—
The blood mist around her quickly formed a blood barrier.
Boom, boom, boom—
The fireballs exploded against the barrier. Ian followed through, smashing the barrier with his greatsword. The Empress reached out toward Ian, who was charging with the greatsword. A blue force field erupted around Ian.
Crack—
The Empress’s hand crushed the force field. The bright flashes of the force field crumbling gave Ian just enough time to use the Whirling Barrier again.
Wham!
The burst of wind caused the Empress to lose her balance, and Ian was flung upward once more. Even while spinning, Ian cast Wind Blade.
Finally, Ian stabilized himself in mid-air, scattering the Wind Blade from his sword as he descended toward the Empress. She barely regained her balance and hastily raised her arms.
Crack!
The greatsword was embedded deeply in the Empress’s forearm. Utilizing the Wind Blade as propulsion and striking with one hand, he didn’t sever the limb entirely, but it was enough.
Boom!
The ensuing Vacuum Explosion around the sword shattered the Empress’s forearm.
“Kiaaaargh!”
The Empress screamed as she plummeted, her single wing failing to stabilize her. Ian, falling with her, watched her spiral downward.
Could I do it?
Whether he could or not didn’t matter. Ian gripped the greatsword with both hands, despite his trembling left hand.
Boom! Crash—
The Empress landed on her back in the midst of the ruins. Debris crumbled around her as she flailed, raising her severed arm. The significantly fewer petals converged into blood droplets, forming blood blades.
But Ian was faster, descending directly onto her abdomen.
Crack!
The blue energy-infused blade pierced the Empress’s stomach, with Frost Blades exploding within her, tearing her insides apart. Half-frozen blood splattered everywhere. But that wasn’t the end. Ian immediately cast another lower-tier red spell.
Boom!
Chaos-infused flames shot from the broad blade, burning through the already shredded insides. The Empress arched her back in pain, with red light flaring in her eyes.
“Kyah—aaargh!”
Her scream, a mix of pain and rage, released a psychic wave and magical explosion from her body.
“...!” Ian clung to the greatsword hilt, curling up to endure the shock. It felt like crashing into a massive wave. Blood burst from his wounds, and his whole body felt like it was shattering. At the same time, he froze, with his breath caught in his chest. The status effect was unmistakable: Fear.
Feeling like a frog before a snake, Ian’s body stiffened, but he didn’t lose his rationality. He didn’t get swept away by the shockwave. He remained atop the Empress.
Just as Ian finally let go of the hilt,
Swoosh—
The scattered petals transformed into spikes.
The Empress seemed indifferent to her own body’s damage as she sent the spikes toward her abdomen. Despite still being gripped by Fear, Ian instinctively raised his right arm, casting Frost Shield. A magic barrier flared up simultaneously.
Crack—
The Frost Shield blocked all spikes targeting his upper body.
But some angled spikes struck his lower body, hitting the magic barrier first. The barrier shattered as a spike pierced Ian’s left thigh and melted away immediately, causing unavoidable bleeding.
Damn, the left side is taking all the hits today.
However, thanks to that, the state of Fear disappeared completely. The stiff muscles and senses returned in an instant.
Swish—
At that moment, the Empress suddenly swung her right arm. Ian leaped up with just one leg almost simultaneously.
Slash—
Claws and sharp nails narrowly grazed past Ian’s feet, leaving a distinct trail. Ian could clearly feel the surge of magical power flowing through the hand. It was a strange sensation as if his mind became sharper the more his body was torn to shreds. Indeed, nothing heightened Concentration like a crisis.
Thinking this, Ian drew the broken Sword of Judgment from his pocket dimension. He twisted his body, spinning around to discard the scabbard.
Swoosh—
The broken blade, imbued with blue divine power, was revealed. Even after using the Strike of Judgment, the remaining divine power surged unevenly like saw teeth. Chaos power, emitted by Ian, mingled with it. The blade of divinity was instantly dyed purple and regained its momentum, a trick he had used before.
Ian swung the sword powerfully toward the Empress’s forearm, which loomed below.
Clang—
The purple trail slashed across the Empress’s right forearm. Despite its length, the thin forearm was severed as if sliced by saw teeth. The remnants of mixed chaos power and divine power burned the severed surface.
“Screech!” The Empress’s startled scream echoed.
Crack—
Ian landed on the Empress’s chest as if to break her ribs.
A tingling sensation spread through his left leg. The blood that flowed down made his calf sticky. Without even using divine power, Ian reversed his grip on the sword hilt. At the same time, chaos power once again mingled with the blade. Without hesitation, he knelt on one knee and brought the purple blade down onto the Empress’s ribs.
Crash.
The blade began to cut through the Empress’s chest, embedding itself as if piercing metal. Her entire body convulsed as if in a seizure.
Shwaaaa—
At the same time, the blood on her wings and the crown on her head transformed into countless blades and shot up.
Ian’s eyes flickered blue as he drove the sword in. With the Frost Shield, a blue barrier blossomed behind him.
Crack—
The blades started to rain down on the wide shield almost simultaneously.
The shield covered a narrow area, allowing it to block all the blades. However, there were too many blades.
Crack, crack—
White cracks spread across the entire shield. Without even glancing at it, Ian focused solely on driving the sword in.
There was no turning back now.
If he retreated here, the Empress would tear her impaled body from the sword and take to the skies again, beginning to regenerate by absorbing the surrounding blood. At that point, even Ian wouldn’t be able to do anything.
His left arm and left leg were not in a condition to continue such intense movements. No matter how much his recovery had improved, he couldn’t heal such injuries in just a few minutes. Moreover, the holy power left in his tattoo was minimal. The same went for his magic and chaos power. So he had to finish it now, even if those blades would end up tearing his body apart.
Crunch.
At that moment, the Frost Shield shattered.
The remaining blades poured into the fluctuating Magic Force Field behind him.
Boom, boom, boom.
Ian pressed down with his tattered left hand on the weight of the sword. The broken blade pierced the Empress’s ribcage and sank deeper.
Crash.
The magic field burst and the Sword of Judgment plunged in simultaneously.
He felt something burst inside the Empress’s chest. Her body, which had been thrashing like a seizure, suddenly stiffened.
Splat—
The blood blades crumbled into blood clots, covering Ian’s entire body.
Ian didn’t move an inch, focusing on the sensation in his grip. The strength was draining from the Empress’s body.
“Ah...” A sigh mixed with a breath escaped from her lips. It was her true voice, completely different from the one that had been dominated by instincts until now. Blood oozed from her severed arms, mouth, and from beneath her body. Her body went limp.
The Empress of True Blood was dead.
...But why is it still?
The true blood spreading around suddenly surged fiercely as Ian narrowed his brow.
Poof!
The magic contained in the true blood erupted violently. Ian tried to pull out his sword.
Crack.
But before he could, the Empress’s ribcage burst through her skin. Like a Venus flytrap, crimson magic whirled around Ian through the gaps in her ribcage.
"...!"
Ian’s eyes widened as he was engulfed by the magic. Karha’s holy power flickered faintly but wasn’t strong enough to burn away all the magic spewing from the true blood. It felt as if all the blood in his body was flowing in reverse.
What the fuck?
Bloodshot veins appeared in Ian’s eyes. Blood started to flow out from every wound on his body. He still couldn’t move.
Ian focused all his mind on drawing back the magic and chaos power mixed with his blood. But the power of the true blood, which was sucking out his blood, was a bit stronger. Blood continued to flow out of his body, little by little, but continuously.
Is self-destruction their passive skill or something?
Gritting his teeth, Ian didn’t stop trying to reverse the flow of his blood. Without a vessel to contain it, the true blood couldn’t last long.
Even now, the true blood that had surged around him was evaporating like smoke and disappearing. The problem was that he couldn’t hold out until then. He wouldn’t last; he’d die from excessive blood loss before that.
No matter how hard he tried, all he could do was slow down the blood loss a bit. Thin tendrils of his blood spreading from his entire body were now visible to the naked eye.
Fuck....
Ian swallowed a sigh and opened his status window. There was no other way.
His consciousness drifted toward the skill window, and just as it was about to stop at the universal skill, Primeval Resistance, there was a deep throb from within.
Thump—
A reverberation echoed from deep within. Ian, who had just raised Primeval Resistance by one level and was about to raise it again, hesitated.
It was the shard of chaos.
The shard, pulsing like an additional heart, began to absorb the chaos power, seemingly aiding Ian. It was a change significant enough to alter the situation.
Ian closed the status window and focused his mind. The streams of blood that had been draining out began to flow back into his body.
So, was this an event that would resolve itself as long as I just held on without dying?
Ian breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. It was fortunate that he discovered this by using only one skill point.
He had planned to max out Primeval Resistance, then also the Vision skill, Flow of Spell. If that wasn’t enough, he intended to invest all remaining ability points into Mental Fortitude.
If he had discovered the current situation after doing so, he would have literally shed tears of blood.
"...?"
All idle thoughts vanished in an instant right after that. Though the blood had already returned to his body, the pulsation of the shard did not cease.
Now, the shard was absorbing the true blood in reverse. He tried to stop it, but the shard did not follow his will. A strand of crimson true blood, drawn in like a tentacle from the ribs, finally touched Ian’s torn left arm.
Swoosh—
As if it was a signal, the true blood began to pour into Ian’s body.
His mind became noisy in an instant. All kinds of emotions echoed chaotically, and his vision turned red. In the midst of it, a selection quest window popped up.
[Owner of the True Blood.]
Is this a quest exclusive to the corrupted one?
If he had no choice, it might have been different, but it wasn’t a matter to ponder over for long. Ian refused the quest.
Simultaneously, the shard of chaos began to absorb the true blood as if it had been waiting for this moment. His vision flipped completely, and all his senses disappeared immediately after.
No, but I refused it...?
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