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Chapter 839: Houbelia's Resolve (Part 1)
Chapter 839: Houbelia's Resolve (Part 1)
The depths of Blood Moon City seemed endless, twisted and deformed within a distorted void.
A slender figure transformed into an invisible gust, weaving and spinning amidst the scattered ruins.
She stepped on tilted, deformed stairs, her toes touching the ground, leaping and dodging on the rocky walls of the buildings.
"Houbelia, be careful. This is the Chaotic Void Zone, where the Mechanical Messenger's vision is limited. We've lost track of Marquis Ulysses' coordinates."
Abigail's instructions reached her ears.
"Understood," Houbelia replied briefly and flew forward again.
Her direction was guided by Abigail's map, as the battlefields ahead were under control, allowing the Mechanical Messenger to observe from a safe distance.
As for the unguarded, high-speed moving 8th-tier unit like Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Ancestor, the Mechanical Messenger would be destroyed if it got too close.
In Houbelia's sector, the broken walls and rubble of the buildings spun and rose endlessly in the crimson abyss. The fragments chased and played with each other in mid-air, sometimes drawing close, sometimes separating. Walls and damaged floors were pulled and flipped by an invisible giant hand, twisting straight lines into bizarre curves and bending horizontal planes into unbelievable slopes, defying her deeply ingrained spatial laws.
Gravity, defying logic, formed an invisible web. Houbelia felt like she had stepped into a bizarre time-space tunnel, each step seemingly defying the world's physical laws.
Fortunately, her high rank made using flight spells convenient. She could easily switch to high-speed wind magic or psychokinesis by changing her spell cards.
"It's almost four o'clock..."
Houbelia glanced at the time and rushed into the boundless crimson mist.
Since the start of the second half of the Kreth Coronation Festival at 3 p.m., when Emperor Saint Baldus of Kreth gave his speech, to the appearance of the War Gods and the commencement of the blessings, followed by their intrusion into the City Hall and descent here, the battle had lasted for nearly an hour.
The situation was dire, and time was running out.
If they couldn't succeed within the limited time, once the blessings of the War Gods ended, the controlled War Gods of Lashar would undoubtedly attack Blood Moon City, leaving their companions with no chance of survival.
The urgency of time prompted Houbelia to accelerate again. The ruins receded rapidly behind her, shimmering and flickering in the crimson abyss, becoming illusory afterimages as she increased her speed, leaving them far behind.
"Abigail, how's your side?"
Houbelia's agile figure carved a smooth, powerful arc in mid-air, like a drawn sword, slicing through the dense mist of Blood Moon City.
"For now, we're okay. The worst situation is at the Annihilation Palace, where Antonas is. The Faded Palace of Armis and the Soul Palace of Ifatia are also in trouble. Toliatos is significantly slowed down in the Glacial Stagnation Palace, unable to cast teleportation spells. He's barely holding off Farmer, preventing him from reaching the Faded Palace and swiftly killing the Ice Maiden."
Abigail described the battles.
The Ice Maiden and Withered Bishop's battle was a stalemate, even if Toliatos went, he couldn't help the Ice Maiden kill the Withered Bishop Nedoqika, who had excessive vitality. But if the Withered Bishop Farmer went, his damage would be enough to assist Nedoqika in swiftly killing the Ice Maiden.
"I understand. I'll get to the Abyssal Palace as soon as possible."
Houbelia leaped over the crumbling walls, moving so swiftly that the Mechanical Messenger couldn't see how she landed. She sidestepped, fish-leaped, and glided along the slanted, collapsing walls, narrowly avoiding the upside-down tower's tip. She deftly adjusted her direction, dodging the oncoming bricks.
"In about ten minutes, you'll break through this crimson mist and see the Abyssal Palace, the lowest point to the south."
Abigail's instructions continued to guide Houbelia.
The real challenge awaited Houbelia, utilizing her unique abilities to clear the 8th-tier Summoned Creature, the Blood Serpent, guarding the Abyssal Palace. She had to find a way to wear it down around the crystal.
As Houbelia raced through the void of Blood Moon City, she suddenly sensed something unusual, her agile figure coming to an abrupt halt. Like a leopard sensing danger, her graceful movements ceased, and she became still.
Her sharp gaze scanned the surroundings, her pupils slightly constricted.
"... "
Houbelia swiftly changed direction, lightly leaping behind a floating building, perfectly concealing herself in its shadow.
Leaning against the stone wall, she remained motionless.
After a moment, at the edge of the crimson abyss, a tall and slender figure appeared in the sky.
The figure gradually enlarged in the blood mist, becoming clearly visible.
It was a young male vampire with silver-white hair brushed back on one side, wearing a navy blue ceremonial robe with its hem fluttering behind him.
His red eyes were calm and gentle, initially appearing non-threatening and exuding a spring-like warmth.
An alarm bell rang in Houbelia's mind.
She keenly sensed an alarming and powerful force approaching from afar above her, an instinctive intuition.
Without needing to peek, Houbelia guessed it was likely the Tenth Ancestor, Marquis Ulysses.
Previously, in the shadow world of the Blood World, the Demon World, within the Demon King's Palace of Naykalis, she had encountered this vampire marquis.
As one of the outstanding vampires, Marquis Ulysses' strength was formidable, rivaled only by a few great demon generals in direct confrontation.
"... "
Abigail paused their communication, maintaining silence.
She guessed Houbelia's situation.
Houbelia and Ulysses had a brief encounter.
Abigail silently rejoiced that Houbelia had sensed the danger and evaded Ulysses' gaze before she could warn her.
Houbelia held her breath, concentrating, and suppressed her magic power to the extreme, even slowing her breathing to minimize any trace of her presence.
"... "
Houbelia was confident in her superb stealth abilities. She could even erase her presence before great demons, and usually, an 8th-tier unit wouldn't detect her.
Above, in the sky.
Ulysses' movements subtly changed.
He stopped, his toes lightly touching the void, slowly turning back to look down at the crimson abyss.
The crimson eyes of Marquis Ulises, the Tenth Ancestor, were captivating, piercing through layers of architecture and obstacles, and precisely locking onto the location where Houbelia was hiding.
"If my guess is correct, you must be Miss Houbelia, the Duchess?"
Ulises hovered motionlessly in mid-air, penetrating the intricate void of Blood Moon City, and landed directly on Houbelia's cover.
"..."
Houbelia, who had thought she could continue evading Marquis Ulises, felt her blood freeze in that instant. An unprecedented sense of weightlessness swept through her entire body.
Houbelia couldn't understand how her disguise could be seen through by Marquis Ulises.
If he could identify her from such a distance, then she must have already been exposed to the Tenth Ancestor's mental sensing, leaving her with nowhere to hide.
"My dear lady, why hide? Come out and let me admire your beauty."
Marquis Ulises stopped in his tracks, his lips curving into a composed smile, as if waiting for the girl to come out willingly.
He didn't emit any magical power around him; he was simply politely asking her to come out.
Houbelia leaned against the stone wall, trying to calm herself down. Her mind raced, thinking of ways to escape.
After a long while, she took a deep breath.
After much deliberation, she stepped out from behind the building, facing the Tenth Ancestor, Marquis Ulises.
In Houbelia's memory, Ulises was a vampire with a lower tendency towards violence and a high self-regard. Sometimes, if he didn't feel the urgency, he would even engage in conversation.
Being discovered by Ulises meant that her plan to sneak into the Abyssal Palace to steal from Duke Migaya was essentially exposed. The opponent wouldn't be foolish enough to let her go.
However, if she could stall Ulises and prevent him from going to other battlefields, it would also achieve the effect of restraint.
"Hello, Miss Houbelia. You're even more beautiful than in the photos I've seen."
At this moment, Houbelia noticed that the vampire ancestor she was looking at was also aware of her gaze, and he returned a gentle and polite smile.
Unlike other vampire ancestors, there was no sense of danger about him. His very existence was like a naturally formed work of art.
"You must have seen the bounty for my assassination, haven't you?" Houbelia said with a cold smile.
Ulises didn't rush to capture her, and she maintained the principle of dragging things out for as long as possible.
"No, I'm different from them," said the Tenth Ancestor, Marquis Ulises, as he looked at Houbelia with a gaze that seemed to have already begun sketching.
At this moment, looking into the void of Blood Moon City, he captured a perfect angle—
The night sky behind Houbelia was shrouded by a strange mist, emitting a faint glow that was neither the darkness of night nor the brightness of dawn, but a unique light belonging only to Blood Moon City.
The contradictory yet harmonious interplay of light and shadow rendered the shattered architecture in exquisite detail. The suspended stone corridors meandered, leading to the tall girl standing at the very end.
She seemed to be forever trapped in Blood Moon City, engulfed in an eternal night, her soul about to fall into the abyss.
"How can you see me?" Houbelia instinctively resisted Ulises' gaze.
Back in the Demon King's Palace, she had disliked Ulises' painting.
But at that time, there was no need to hide, and she hadn't realized that Ulises had a way to pinpoint her location precisely.
"It's true that you've almost erased your aura and magical power. A typical eighth-tier vampire would never be able to find you," said Marquis Ulises, the Tenth Ancestor, with great interest.
"But liking is a feeling. Relying on inspiration and intuition, I can sense your presence nearby."
He explained slowly.
"?"
Houbelia shuddered as she listened to Ulises' words.
This vampire didn't seem to be joking.
Talia had also said that it was almost impossible to find her based on rational factors like magical power and aura.
So, the only way to find her must be through some unconventional, emotional factors.
Recalling carefully, Ran Chi had also always managed to find her mysteriously.
But Ran Chi was her external aid.
And Ulises was her arch-nemesis.
"Did we meet tens of thousands of years ago?"
Ulises pondered for a moment, as if searching his mind for the reason he was drawn to this girl.
Although it was impossible, the girl before him reminded him of a flower that had withered away before he could grasp it many years ago.
If she hadn't died, perhaps over a decade later, when he went to the Demon City of Necalis, he would have focused entirely on her.
"No, you're imagining things," Houbelia said firmly, remaining vigilant and ready to flee at any moment.
For her, the best situation was to waste Ulises' time.
Perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, when the Witch Lady was still alive, Ulises might have seen her, but at that time, neither the Witch Lady nor Lanklos had reached a level where they could rival a vampire marquis like Ulises. At most, they would have had a brief encounter and then escaped.
According to the Witch Lady's identity as a princess of the Demon World, during the period of the North-South Treaty, Ulises wouldn't have dared to act against them in the Demon World.
"Let me guess what you're thinking, Duchess," Ulises observed Houbelia's expression and smiled slightly.
"You want to hold me back, preventing me from supporting the Annihilation Palace or going to the command camp in the far west where you're secretly stationed, right?"
He spoke as if reading her mind.
"Why don't you be reasonable and pretend you didn't see me?" Houbelia knew that Ulises was the type of opponent, like Ran Chi, who excelled in psychological warfare. The more she faced such an enemy, the more she couldn't show weakness.
Whether Ulises went to the Annihilation Palace or the command camp, it would be disastrous.
If Ulises cut off communications while the situation was already at a disadvantage on multiple fronts, and then went to support the Annihilation Palace, it would be game over.
Even if Sigrid achieved a breakthrough, it would be of no use and wouldn't save the overall situation.
"Is there a possibility that I can handle everything at once?"
Marquis Ulises stood atop the vast darkness, raising his hand to tear through the shadows. Droplets of scarlet blood connected in mid-air, forming a totem, and then burst into a physical entity.
It was a fusion of darkness and light, an embodiment of both art and destruction.
The crimson eagle's cry echoed through the sky, its feathers shimmering with a bloody glow. The blood-red bear's eyes were like two burning garnet gems, and the pressure of an eighth-tier blood servant was overwhelming.
Marquis Ulises, the Tenth Ancestor, lowered his arm, and the blood eagle soared high, turning into a blood-red storm of lightning, sweeping westward. The blood bear also transformed into a falling star, rushing towards the Annihilation Palace.
Houbelia's eyes trembled as she witnessed Ulysses' ability.
As the Supreme Artist of the Blood Clans, the Tenth Ancestor's ability, Blood Creation, could temporarily manifest his creations, allowing him to quickly distribute his power among powerful summoned creatures according to the situation. He was an extremely versatile summoner.
Not only had he left an eighth-tier giant snake in the Abyssal Palace, but he had also dispatched an eighth-tier blood eagle and an eighth-tier giant bear, sending them in different directions based on the battlefield situation.
"It's simple," Ulysses said leisurely, as if enjoying afternoon tea. "I've sent an eighth-tier summoned creature to your camp in the west, and even sent one to assist Somerset Marquis at the Annihilation Palace. What's wrong with me staying here to chat with you?"
He was as polite as ever.
If Houbelia wanted to chat with him a little longer, he had no reason to refuse.
The smile in his eyes seemed to say to Houbelia, "What are you afraid of? I'll do as I please."
He relished the mental torment he inflicted on her.
Even her tears were more beautiful than crystal.
Houbelia's nails dug deep into her palms, using the pain to stay alert.
Even though the eighth-tier summoned creatures Ulysses had dispatched were only at the basic eighth-tier level, they posed a lethal threat to Abigail and Barton in the west, as well as the three great demonic beings facing Somerset Marquis.
"Alright, come a little closer, and let me take a good look at you."
The smile in Ulysses Marquis' eyes grew more intense.
He slowly floated towards the girl, each step a graceful performance.
At this critical moment, Houbelia made up her mind.
She bent her legs slightly, her body's magic surging within, ready to burst forth. In the next second, she drew an arc in the air and sped towards the southern edge of the void.
Her only option now was to continue engaging Ulysses' main body, approach the enemy's crystal, and then think of another plan.
Even though Ulysses had divided his power among the three eighth-tier summoned creatures—the eagle, bear, and snake—weakening himself, his remaining strength was still at the eighth tier. She couldn't allow the highly mobile Ulysses to personally intervene in other battlefields.
"Give up, Miss Houbelia," Ulysses Marquis said calmly as he accelerated, a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Having hope is a happy thing, but when it's shattered, the despair is even greater."
"But it's precisely because of this that destroying you is a noble art. I haven't found such an excellent human in a long time."
He had realized it the moment he saw Houbelia.
This Duchess was as pure as falling snow. If life was a journey, she experienced despair and loneliness, yet she could dispel these emotions. Her dignified, brave, and kind demeanor, along with her beauty worthy of being cherished, made her an ideal candidate.
Destroying her, soul and body, would undoubtedly be an unparalleled tragedy, an unforgettable experience that would move him deeply.
...
At the western camp, the cold wind howled. Barton, outside the camp's barrier, was engaging the Count of the Blood Clans.
He aimed to intercept the incoming blood clans and allow Abigail to continue fortifying the camp.
The Blood Count launched the first attack, transforming into a black lightning bolt that instantly struck Barton.
Sharp claws glinted in the moonlight, aiming for Barton's throat.
At the last moment, Barton dodged with a bow, drawing his longsword. The blade traced an arc, aiming straight for the Count's heart.
The Count sidestepped, his black cloak billowing, but his chest was slashed open.
Enraged, the Count roared, his fists transforming into black flames that smashed towards Barton.
Barton raised a short dagger to block, the impact causing sparks to fly.
Not far away, Abigail's camp was also under attack.
The sudden turn of events left Abigail's face grave, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
The attacking Blood Count was manageable.
The problem was the unexpected arrival of the Tenth Ancestor, Marquis Ulises, a Bishop-level power.
"Antonas, be careful! An eighth-tier unit is heading your way!"
Abigail urgently sent out a warning to her companions.
At that moment, a piercing screech filled the sky, and a massive blood-colored eagle descended, its wings spanning the heavens.
The eagle dove, charging towards Barton outside the barrier.
In a flash, Barton's longsword slashed at the eagle, but the eagle's power was overwhelming. It rushed towards Barton, knocking him into a nearby building.
Several buildings on the western side of Blood Moon City collapsed, sending dust flying.
Barton struggled to rise from the rubble, spitting out a mouthful of blood, but he stubbornly held onto his dagger.
The crimson eagle's wings flapped once, stirring a violent wind that swept away the dust and smoke from the ruins, creating a deafening roar.
The eagle circled and headed towards Abigail's camp.
On the battlefield, Abigail's mechanical defenses and camp barrier were in place, with countless floating mechanical parts assembling into a sturdy net.
The clanging of metal rang out.
As Ulysses' blood eagle collided with the barrier, sparks flew, and the barrier began to collapse.
...
In the misty void of the southern edge of Blood Moon City, Ulysses Marquis hovered in the air, watching the direction where Houbelia was hiding.
"Playing hide-and-seek with you is a form of entertainment, and preventing you from running amok is my duty."
He gracefully raised his right hand and waved lightly towards Houbelia, his voice as smooth as silk.
Invisible psychic power enveloped the floating architecture, shattering it into countless pieces. Houbelia transformed into a shadow and vanished, becoming transparent in an instant.
"As for your desire to go to the Abyssal Palace, that's probably too much to ask." Ulysses' voice echoed, heavenly and authoritative.
Taking advantage of the collapsing void, Houbelia leaped towards the distant, swaying floating architecture.
"Blame your weakness. Even with all the power I've given to my summoned creatures, you can't stand against me."
Ulysses pursued relentlessly, his black cloak trailing behind him like the wings of death.
He glared at the girl in front of him.
For him, this was probably an interesting game.
He had the patience to block Houbelia here, ensuring she couldn't do anything.
The void within Blood Moon City continued to distort and deform, with shattered buildings turning into meteors that rained down from the sky.
(End of Chapter)
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