Trenches, Guns, and Magic

Inside the joint command post outside Bucharest, runners constantly dashed in and out. Comms operators stationed at each field telephone covered their free ear as they continually established contact with various units.

The markings on the operational map were updated every ten minutes or so. Units from all directions reported similar findings:

The enemy was retreating madly toward the city center with weak resistance along the way, yet the advancing troops were still not moving fast enough.

Lieutenant General Marwitz leaned both hands on the map table, his brows furrowed tightly.

The blood-red pillar of light rising above the Old Royal Palace had suddenly grown thicker and brighter a few minutes ago, clearly visible even from the command post.

Kleist stood beside Lieutenant General Marwitz, clutching his freshly written combat log, looking grim.

As the battle raged on, the entirety of Bucharest had devolved into a massive, chaotic melee.

Morin and the clerics were attempting a "center bloom" at the Old Royal Palace.

Summoned by Ferdinand I, vampires flooded toward the Old Royal Palace, attempting to drown this isolated force that had pushed deep behind enemy lines.

Meanwhile, the main Saxon forces formed a larger encirclement on the perimeter, engaging in fierce combat with the vampires they managed to catch up to.

Everyone had something to do...

Surveying the situation, Manstein drew a circle around the Old Royal Palace on the map with his pencil and said, "General, judging from the current situation, the trajectory of this battle bears some resemblance to the Battle of Paris... While we lack a strategic-level enemy unit 'threatening half the city' here, the intensity of the fighting is no less than it was then."

Kleist chimed in, "You managed to catch such a 'massive battle,' I suppose it was worth the trip."

"Don't say that... I never intended for it to turn out like this."

Lieutenant General Marwitz smiled bitterly and shook his head. He pulled a cigarette from his case, lit it, took a deep drag, and exhaled slowly.

"Based on early intelligence, I thought the worst-case scenario would be a group of organized vampires in the city—a supernatural force with high regenerative abilities and mobility. But now..."

He jerked his chin toward the pillar of light outside the tent.

"Who could have imagined this monstrosity."

"Lieutenant General."

Kleist was silent for a few seconds before asking a crucial question.

"Do you have any trump cards left up your sleeve?"

Lieutenant General Marwitz slowly shook his head.

"I really don't. If I did, I would have used them by now..."

"Given the multi-front war, our domestic military reserves, while not exactly scarce, can't magically produce more supplies. Especially those high-power, high-end armaments... supply completely fails to meet demand."

Kleist, Manstein, and Paulus exchanged glances, their eyes conveying a shared sentiment: This is going to be difficult. Lieutenant General Marwitz continued.

"Actually, considering the precedent of the Battle of Paris, I requested an allocation of radiant crystal reaction bombs before departure. Even if we couldn't launch them, we could attempt manual detonation."

The three men were no strangers to this weapon. Its effectiveness in clearing the small-scale fortress clusters outside Paris was astounding, and it was standard ammunition for the armored train's main gun.

Kleist: "And the result?"

"The last batch in stock was allocated to His Highness the Crown Prince."

Lieutenant General Marwitz spread his hands, his tone quite helpless.

"The armored train of the Fifth Army Group needs them to bombard the fortress complexes in Belgrade."

This answer silenced the men for several seconds.

The front line where Crown Prince Georg was stationed was equally strained, and the armored trains genuinely needed that caliber of ammunition for siege warfare. From a strategic perspective, this allocation was not unreasonable.

But for Bucharest right now, it meant they lacked a more direct means of attack.

"Even if we wanted to request a transfer now, it's too late," Lieutenant General Marwitz added. Although he didn't need to say it, everyone understood the situation.

Kleist sighed.

"So the current situation is... our conventional forces can only pin them down and compress them from the outside. The true deciding factor..."

"Lies solely with Colonel Morin and the Holy See," Lieutenant General Marwitz finished his sentence. The three men fell silent.

After a few seconds of silence, Lieutenant General Marwitz suddenly let out a short laugh.

"I've served in the Imperial Army for so long. Even though I've always been a cavalry general, I've consistently advocated equipping infantry divisions with more large-scale strategic units... more Armored Knights, larger caliber artillery, heavier airship firepower."

He exhaled a plume of smoke.

"The infantry firepower of our Saxon Empire is indeed vastly superior to other nations. But against these supernatural units... the things conventional forces can achieve are ultimately limited."

Just as he finished speaking, the comms operator received new information.

"General! The L15 armored airship reports anomalies in the Old Royal Palace ruins! A massive amount of fleshy tissue is centralizing and swelling, forming a... uh... they say it's a 'mountain of meat'!"

Lieutenant General Marwitz and Kleist exchanged a glance.

"Also, the vampire forces from all directions in the city have almost entirely poured into the royal palace area... According to visual observation from the L15 armored airship, Colonel Morin and his troops are currently completely surrounded in the center of the ruins."

Kleist and the others quietly clenched their fists.

"Urge all units to accelerate their advance!"

Lieutenant General Marwitz stubbed out his cigarette, his voice rising a few pitches. "Tell the regimental commanders: whatever it takes, carve a path through!"

"Yes, sir!"

After the runner dashed off, Lieutenant General Marwitz stepped out of the tent, looking at the blood-red pillar of light piercing the sky in the distance.

"It's up to you, Colonel Morin..."

The ruins of the Old Royal Palace.

Various golden holy lights flared from all directions of the defense line as Holy See Paladins and accompanying clergy cast spells.

【Prayer of Healing】, 【Cure Wounds】, 【Heroism】... Golden light bathed the wounded instruction unit soldiers, repairing their injuries at a visible speed and restoring their morale.

The Thunder Warriors and Holy See Paladins remained in the front row. The two different colored "iron cans" stood in alternating positions, forming an almost insurmountable wall of steel.

Klaus's two-handed greatsword had swung tirelessly for who knew how many times, the blue light of the magical enchantment still flowing across the blade.

Every swing claimed the heads of at least two or three Blood Servants, but more kept surging forward.

A Shield Guard beside him had emptied another tube of buckshot. He smashed a Blood Servant's head to a pulp with his iron fist before finding a moment to reload.

And behind all this, right in the center of the Old Royal Palace ruins, the expanding mass of dark red biomass was growing ever larger.

Ferdinand I was completely encased within it.

What troubled Morin even more was that the remaining High-Tier Vampires—including a Blood Dragon Knight and other surviving elite Blood Thralls—driven by some will, ran toward the mass of flesh one by one.

Upon throwing themselves at it, they were completely enveloped by the fleshy tissue, appearing as if they had been digested.

And with every High-Tier Vampire absorbed, the mass visibly swelled, and the pulsing veins on its surface beat more violently.

Morin watched this scene, his expression grim.

He and Cleric Cristiano had tried attacking from different directions multiple times, but were repelled every time by the mass's self-defense mechanism: a barrage of sword-like tentacles.

On the system's [Intelligence] interface, two red alerts flashed repeatedly:

[Warning: Target 'Ferdinand I' is undergoing form transition. Combat power is expected to increase significantly upon completion.]

[Recommendation: Launch an attack before the transition is complete, or evacuate the battlefield immediately.]

"Evacuate the battlefield immediately..."

Morin glanced at the tide of Blood Servants surging from all directions. First, they actually needed a way out!

Simultaneously, Cleric Cristiano fought his way back to Morin's side.

The cleric's white heavy armor was unrecognizable, covered in blood, dust, and dents. The terrifying dent on his hound-faced helmet from earlier was now joined by two new ones.

But the macho man was clearly still capable of fighting.

"Colonel Morin!"

The cleric didn't waste words, immediately gesturing behind him.

Three relatively healthy Paladins quickly moved in, forming a protective circle around the two, blocking the Blood Servants darting in from all sides.

"That thing..."

The cleric jutted his chin toward the still-expanding mass of flesh in the center.

"I see it," Morin replied.

"Do you know what's going to happen next?"

"I know... Isn't it just phase two?"

"..."

Although Cleric Cristiano had never heard this term before, he had to admit Morin's description was quite apt. A low chuckle echoed from beneath his hound-faced helmet.

He crouched beside Morin and retrieved two tightly wrapped objects from his lower back.

Wrapped in several layers of holy-water-soaked silk and leather, they looked like extremely precious items.

The cleric handed one to Morin, who took it and unwrapped the outer layers.

Inside was a palm-sized metal vial covered in dense runes. The cap was securely fastened, even sealed with wax.

He shook it. The liquid inside sloshed, appearing to be some kind of concoction or potion.

"What is this?" Morin asked.

"'Paradise Potion No. 3'."

The cleric was unwrapping his own vial while continuing, "An enhancement potion developed by the Holy See. The latest version in the 'Paradise' series."

Morin looked at the small vial in his hand while glancing at the new entry popping up on the system's [Information] interface in the corner of his vision.

[Paradise Potion No. 3]

[A short-acting enhancement potion developed by the Holy See's Holy Relic Research Institute, using holy water from the 'Holy Grail' as the base ingredient.]

[Upon use, fully restores the user's current condition and significantly enhances their all-around combat capabilities for 2 hours; attacks against undead and dark-type targets gain an additional damage bonus. The user may choose to refresh three expended spell slots.]

[Side Effect: Upon expiration of the potion's effects, the user will enter a "Weakened" state. Duration varies depending on individual differences, up to a maximum of 72 hours.]

The system entry's description matched the cleric's verbal explanation almost perfectly.

"Potent effect..."

Morin weighed the vial in his hand, then asked a question that intuitively felt wrong.

"Your Excellency... this thing clearly isn't simple. Why did you specifically bring two vials? And you're giving one to me?"

Cleric Cristiano paused in unwrapping his vial.

"I only requested one vial from the Holy Relic Depository originally."

He scraped the wax seal off his vial, twisting the cap while continuing, "But before departure... the 'Great Sage' sought me out and told me to bring an extra one."

"The Great Sage?"

"Yes. He said 'it will definitely be used'..."

Morin was stunned, a suspicion forming in his mind. Did someone in the Vatican foresee this situation in advance?

But now was not the time to dwell on such things. Some questions could only be pondered after the battle was won.

He glanced at the blood-red mountain of flesh still growing in the distance, turning back to ask, "Why didn't you use this earlier, before Ferdinand I turned into that? Wouldn't it have been better to fight him while he was still humanoid?"

Cleric Cristiano shook his head.

"If we used the potion early, but failed to completely kill Ferdinand I within 2 hours..."

He looked up at the growing mountain of meat.

"When the effects wear off and we both enter a weakened state simultaneously, we truly would die without a burial place."

Morin was silent for a moment. He felt something was wrong with that statement and pointed ahead.

"So you mean... it's easier to fight him after he turns into that monstrosity?"

"Not 'easier to fight'..." The cleric's tone shifted. "It's only at this stage that we have the certainty of a one-hit kill."

Morin's eyes widened in disbelief. What do you mean the boss is easier to fight after entering phase two?

Cleric Cristiano, seeing the "you better explain this clearly" expression on Morin's face, smiled again.

"Colonel Morin, do you know how Vlad III's body was handled after the allied forces defeated him over four hundred years ago?"

Morin had seen the relevant entry in the system's [Information] interface earlier, but he feigned ignorance and shook his head.

"We extracted his heart and sealed it separately."

"Because that heart is the true core of the 'Blood River'. After Vlad III was defeated, his physical body collapsed, but the heart remained active. The Holy See tried many methods but could not completely destroy it."

"So you just kept it sealed? For over four hundred years?"

"Correct."

Morin connected this information with the memory the Holy Sword showed him earlier. The puzzle was complete.

"Then why didn't you just destroy the heart and be done with it? Why go through all this trouble..." he blurted out.

Cleric Cristiano stopped his movements. For once, he remained silent for a long moment before speaking slowly.

"Whatever the case, before falling to darkness, Vlad III was the 'Shield of Christ'..." The cleric's voice carried a complex emotion.

"A hero who once fought for the faith, even if he ultimately fell... The Holy See has always been divided on how to handle his 'remains'."

Morin opened his mouth, then closed it.

It wasn't his place to judge other people's religious sentiments, but this result...

Cleric Cristiano continued, "And frankly, over these centuries, the Vatican truly had no certainty of completely destroying that heart... It was too powerful. Sealing it was the limit of what could be done at the time."

"That's mean you have certainty now?"

"It's different now," the cleric's tone turned decisive. "The Holy See's research on it has never ceased over the years. We discovered a crucial point..."

He pointed at the madly growing mountain of meat in the distance.

"When that heart is in a state of deep slumber, its outer shell forms a kind of 'resistance' resembling hibernation protection, impenetrable by most purification methods. But if it is activated... flaws will appear in its defense."

"Right now, Ferdinand I is fully merging with the core of the 'Blood River'. This process pushes the heart's activity to its peak... The forces at the seal site are waiting for this very moment."

"When the heart is fully activated, they will perform a purification ritual on it."

"Once the heart is purified, the power of the 'Blood River' will be severed instantly... And Ferdinand I, who is merging with it..."

"Will suffer the backlash." Morin fully understood. "So you had me wait until now to use the potion..."

"Yes. Timing is critical... Use it too early, and the effects might not last until the backlash occurs!"

The cleric raised the vial to his lips and looked at Morin.

"Now is the perfect time... Given the current situation, the forces at the seal site will make their move soon."

Morin took one last look at the metal vial in his hand, scraped off the wax, and unscrewed the cap.

Unexpectedly, the liquid inside had absolutely no smell; it felt like plain water.

"To hell with it! Bottoms up!"

The two drained the liquid in their vials almost simultaneously. The moment the liquid hit Morin's throat, his senses immediately changed.

The feeling was hard to describe. It wasn't the violent tearing sensation of being forcibly injected with the modification potion in the Paris basement, but a warm, soothing feeling...

All fatigue vanished in an instant. He felt as if he had returned to his fully energized state before the battle began. Even some partially healed wounds on his body closed up rapidly.

But the most critical changes occurred internally.

[Paradise Potion No. 3 in effect]

[All attributes temporarily increased. Duration: 1 hour 59 minutes]

[Attacks against dark-type/undead targets deal additional damage]

[Please select three expended spell slots to refresh]

Morin rolled his wrists. An unprecedented sense of fullness surged from the hand gripping the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】.

The Holy Sword itself seemed to resonate with the holy water components flowing through his body. The golden flames spread from the blade down his arm, more intense than ever before.

"How does it feel?" the cleric asked.

"Excellent."

Morin twirled the Holy Sword in his hand, looking at the expanding mountain of meat.

"Is there enough time?"

"The forces at the seal site won't make us wait long."

Cleric Cristiano stood up straight. His greatsword was now covered in an incredibly dense golden holy light, even more dazzling than when he unleashed 【Divine Smite】 earlier.

"When the backlash occurs, you will see that mass of flesh stall... even if only for a few seconds' window."

"That moment... is our opportunity..."