Chapter 67: Blood Magic
ROARR!
Lana let out a massive roar that shook the world to its foundation, and Rita put her hand up towards Lana’s head to pet her nose gently. Lana released a low rumbling sound, and Rita smiled at Lana before she floated off the ground and landed on Lana’s back.
"Let’s go."
Rita only said this, and Lana immediately flapped her heavy wings to lift them off the ground before she began heading towards the Ashton Castle!
....
[Ashton Castle]
[Outside Courtyard]
The kingdom of Varina was a world divided into three main territories. The Ashton, the Pastoni, and the Horox all took charge of one of these three territories, and they were responsible for ruling and supporting the people living in these territories. At the center of these territories was the massive Varina Main Castle that could be seen from every part of the Kingdom. But there were smaller castles belonging to the various nobles living in the kingdom. The castle in the Ashton territory was named the Ashton Castle, and it was located in the city of Yuva, east of the great River of Varina.
The Ashton Castle was not only the ruling seat of the head of the Ashton Faction, but it was also the headquarters of the Ashton military. So it was in the courtyard of this castle, just inside the outer gates, that Lyra and her men appeared.
One hundred vampire soldiers landed on the ground in a heap as they arrived from the past, and Lyra gently struggled to get up to her knees as she felt her heart beating rapidly in her chest! The fear that Lyra had felt when facing Roland the golem was still fresh in her mind, and she swore that she would never go back to the library again!
Multiple Ashton soldiers who had been standing around the castle were stunned to see Lyra and her men! Although the time travellers had been in the past for more than three days, they had all returned to the exact moment that they left from, so there was a large audience waiting for them already!
"They’re back already!?"
"Didn’t they just leave?"
"Look at their clothes. They looked like they’ve been camping."
"Maybe that’s how time travel works."
The soldiers around all began to speculate about what was going on, and one of the generals stepped forward to speak to Lyra about what had happened. Lyra felt relieved that she was back in the future, but she had no idea that she and all her men had already been marked by time itself for death!
Time was a delicate construct that needed to be preserved. And every powerful mage knows that everyone who goes across time and does anything that affects the past or future will be visited by the Time Wraiths, and their time will be taken from them!
But for now, none of them knew about this, so they just felt relieved with the knowledge that they had returned to their own time. The soldiers got up from the ground as they faced their superior officer, and Lyra stood in front of the soldiers and saluted!
"Sir!"
The general nodded to Lyra and spoke.
"How was the mission? Was it a succ-"
DOON!
All of a sudden, an unbelievable power surged across the entire castle, and the general felt his words die in his throat as he was almost sent to his knees!
"UGH!"
The general grunted as his head bowed from the pressure, and he sent a surge of mana through his body to try and counter the pressure! But no matter how much mana he used, he just wasn’t capable of getting back up! This general couldn’t believe it! He was a High Magus of the Seventh Realm! One of the most powerful soldiers in this army! And yet there was someone here who could use just their aura to hold him down like this!?
’Is it a Saint of the Eighth Realm!?’
The General finally fell to one knee, and he grunted as the pressure on his back increased even more! But even though the general was able to withstand the power to a certain extent, the soldiers around him weren’t powerful enough to do the same! Hundreds of lower-ranking soldiers immediately fell to their knees as the pressure nearly suffocated them! Lyra also fell to one knee from the immense pressure, and she struggled to raise her head so she could see who was responsible for this!
A massive shadow passed over the Ashton Castle, and all the soldiers who could still move immediately looked up in fear to see what was flying above them!
ROARR!
The loud roar of a dragon echoed over the landscape, and the soldiers felt their heart rates rising when they saw the majestic creature looming over their heads. The dragon was pure black with scales that glittered in the dim moonlight of the Varina night. Its wings were large enough to cover the length of the entire castle, and its massive tail swung behind it with powerful strokes.
On the dragon’s back was a woman dressed in a long black robe, and she was looking over the castle with cold, impassive eyes! The dragon swerved across the castle grounds before it began flying back towards the courtyard while gathering a massive amount of mana in its mouth! The people on the ground all realised at the same time what the dragon was about to do, and one man screamed loudly!
"WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!"
The dragon opened its mouth and unleashed a blast of pure wind towards the central region of the courtyard, right between the soldiers who returned from the future and the soldiers who had been here waiting for them! The soldiers who had been expecting the attack were thankful that they weren’t hit with fire, but that didn’t mean they were able to avoid getting blown back by the intense winds! The winds separated the gathering into two groups, and Lyra immediately noticed what the dragon had done! One group was made up of all those who had come from the past, and the other group was made up of those who had been waiting!
’They’re herding us like animals!’
Lyra was about to shout for the groups to mix up so that the dragon wouldn’t know where to aim its next attack, but Lyra was stunned when the dragon didn’t bother attacking again! Instead, the woman standing on the dragon’s back raised her hand, and a massive pool of red liquid began to gather in the air! Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized that it was blood, and she backpedaled as she immediately figured out who that person was!
’Rita followed us back!? She’s using the blood arts!’
"Find cover! Everyone, find cover!"
Lyra shouted to the men around her, but no one was able to move since they were all still being pressed down by the oppressive mana that had surrounded the region! The pool of blood floating in the air began to stretch and expand as it took the shape of a lance, and Rita put her hand forward and unleashed the lance in a blast of pure mana!
BOOM!
The lance flew straight towards the group of time-travelling soldiers and impaled one of the men through the chest! Lyra’s eyes widened in shock when she saw this, and she watched as the man was pinned to the ground like a skewered chicken! Rita raised her hand, and the lance began to carry the skewered man into the air. Rita then squeezed her hand into a fist, and the man’s entire body swelled until it was nearly three times its original size before exploding in a spray of gore and blood that scattered over the entire battlefield!
....
A/N: Please vote with Golden Tickets!