Trenches, Guns, and Magic

Seeing the main palace collapse completely, Morin hurriedly contacted Lieutenant General Marwitz and Lieutenant Colonel Andreas to halt the attack temporarily.

The artillery fire gradually thinned out. The last few shells exploded over the ruins, a final display of fireworks.

The L15 armored airship readjusted its posture. Though no more explosive satchels dropped from the bays, the machine guns and turrets remained on high alert.

After a few seconds of silence, Morin heard a different sound: roars echoing from the ruins.

The roars quickly grew louder. The elite vampires, recalled for support and surviving the bombardment, struggled out of the collapsed rubble.

However, the bombardment had severely degraded their condition.

Many Blood Thralls were missing arms or legs, with writhing granulations sprouting from their severed stumps into the air.

The Blood Servants fared even worse. Buried in droves beneath the ruins, only a lucky few could still move.

The elite Blood Dragon Knights, however, boasted a much higher survival rate.

Morin counted eight Blood Dragon Knights crawling from the rubble. Though covered in dust, their ability to stand proved they hadn't lost their combat effectiveness.

As for the flesh construct, it clearly hadn't suffered heavy damage. It absorbed the blood-red biomass littering the ground to repair its wounds.

After confirming the enemy's status, Morin glanced at the system map. The "Boss unit cards" for Ferdinand I and his wife hadn't turned gray.

They obviously wouldn't die so easily to artillery fire. Still, the bombardment cleared the battlefield for the final showdown, eliminating the threat of tentacles stabbing from the surroundings and ceiling.

The enemy's "field magic" was weakened, at least a little...

Morin looked back at the friendly forces behind him.

Thunder Warriors, Holy See Paladins, three Armored Knights, and a group of elite instruction unit soldiers who had fought their way in alongside the clerics.

Everyone fixed their eyes on the ruins of the Old Royal Palace.

The surviving Blood Dragon Knights, Blood Thralls, and Blood Servants were regrouping under a guiding will...

"Charge... Let's end this..."

Morin said calmly. He refreshed his remaining buffs and protective spells, drew his twin swords, and led the charge toward the ruins.

Naturally, the enchanted shotgun still hovered above his head.

Cleric Cristiano followed closely. The Thunder Warriors and Paladins spread their formation and charged behind them.

For the first time, two groups of "iron cans" wearing different colored heavy armor charged shoulder-to-shoulder in the same direction. Golden and blue light intertwined, crushing toward the blood-red ruins.

The combined charge of a massive group of supernatural iron cans was devastating. The surviving Blood Thralls and Blood Servants in the ruins simply couldn't stop the tide...

Over 400 years ago, they might have stopped the charge of 15 Supreme Paladins, but today, the number of iron cans had risen to nearly 60.

The Thunder Warriors' enchanted weapons and the Paladins' holy spells achieved a "1+1>2" effect. The Paladins' "golden-fire light machine guns" and the Thunder Warriors' "blue-fire light machine guns" laid down intersecting fire, instantly shattering the vampires on the frontline.

Traditional supernatural powers, augmented by modern technology, unleashed even greater might.

Silver-thermite bombs and grenades detonated in densely packed Blood Servant areas, clearing a large open space with every blast.

The Blood Dragon Knights still bitterly holding on were forced into a corner. They were indeed the elite of the elite, each far exceeding ordinary Blood Thralls in combat power...

But besieged by two equally supernatural "iron can" forces, their numerical disadvantage proved fatal.

On average, each Blood Dragon Knight faced a beatdown from seven "iron cans," stripping them of any courage to fight head-on.

They could only look for openings to strike and retreat instantly, using the swarms of Blood Servants and Blood Thralls for cover.

Because the Thunder Warriors and Paladins truly didn't care for martial honor. If a Blood Dragon Knight dared to cross blades with an iron can, warhammers, greatswords, and shotgun blasts would rain down on them from all other directions.

Even so, the iron cans constantly caught the Blood Dragon Knights slipping, stripping away their room to maneuver and surrounding them for a brutal beating.

With nowhere left to retreat, the flesh construct charged the iron cans. It fired its weapons while sweeping its fleshy tentacles, sending two slow-dodging Paladins flying.

"Ludwig! That big guy is yours!" Morin shouted through the comms.

"Copy that!"

Ludwig replied from nearby. Leading the other two Armored Knights, he quickly surrounded the flesh construct.

Experience made this fight much simpler. If three of them couldn't beat one without getting counter-killed... Ludwig wouldn't know what to say.

The three Armored Knights divided the labor perfectly. One launched a frontal assault to draw aggro, while the other two sought openings to attack its leg joints.

Units Two and Three blew off one of its legs with a combined assault from an armor-piercing warhammer and a greatsword. Seizing the opening, Ludwig smashed its other leg with his hammer.

The flesh construct crashed heavily to the ground.

Several Paladins swarmed it, shoving silver-thermite bombs into the gaps and tears in its body.

Soon, a series of muffled explosions reduced this final flesh construct into a pile of burning scrap and crumbling charcoal.

But just as everyone pushed deeper into the ruins, Morin saw a troubling, even scalp-numbing sight on the system map.

The vanguard of the vampire army swarming from all over the city had reached the streets surrounding the Old Royal Palace.

Thousands... no, tens of thousands of vampire creatures converged on the Old Royal Palace from every direction.

"This is really bad..."

Morin muttered, though he maintained a relatively calm mindset, knowing he couldn't afford to panic.

Although Lieutenant General Marwitz ordered a full-line pursuit, the Saxon infantry simply couldn't match the speed of these highly mobile vampires.

The elite instruction unit detachment supporting the Church strike team actually tried setting up blocking positions on the surrounding streets, but quickly found the enemy numbers far exceeded their interception capabilities.

An instruction unit platoon leader, spotting hundreds of Blood Servants surging from three directions, made a split-second decision... He ordered his men to park the modified trucks sideways across the streets, then used explosives and accelerants to block the two access points.

Then, the entire platoon abandoned the blocking mission and retreated into the Old Royal Palace courtyard.

Soon, explosions ripped through multiple streets outside the palace. Roaring fires sealed the roads, but everyone knew this would only hold them temporarily.

The perimeter blocking forces retreated sequentially, all pulling back into the confines of the Old Royal Palace.

Everyone involved in the strike operation—Thunder Warriors, Holy See Paladins, three Armored Knights, elite instruction unit soldiers—were all trapped in this relatively small area.

And the surrounding vampires kept pouring in endlessly.

Morin scanned the battlefield. The Thunder Warriors and Paladins automatically adjusted their formation.

The two groups of "iron cans" took the frontline, shielding the mortal instruction unit soldiers behind them.

The three Armored Knights spread out in three directions, their massive bodies forming three anchor points.

The modified flamethrower mounted on Ludwig's "Siegfried Mark I - Modified" mechanical arm spewed a long dragon of fire at the surging Blood Servants, creating a long, fiery barrier.

The other two Armored Knights also used flamethrowers, or even their fists and feet, to attack the swarming Blood Servants.

These basic vampire creatures were clearly sent to drain ammunition and fuel, but the Armored Knights didn't dare let up their attacks.

After all, right behind them was the temporary position set up by the elite instruction unit soldiers. If the vampires broke through, it was over...

But the vampire numbers were too massive. Eventually, the vampires pouring from the streets piled up on top of each other, forming a literal "flood."

The scene reminded Morin of a classic image from his past life...

A mountain of flesh.

"Bzzzz—!"

Two deep horns blared from the sky.

The L15 and L16 armored airships dropped altitude almost simultaneously, hovering over the Old Royal Palace to provide dangerously close fire support to the ground troops.

The distance between them had already crossed the red line for armored airship formation flying. A sudden crosswind could cause a collision at any moment.

But Lieutenant Colonel Andreas and the L16 captain clearly made the same judgment: if they cared about safe altitudes and distances right now, the men below were dead.

The weapon turrets beneath both airships aimed straight down. Lines of fire from 20mm autocannons and heavy machine guns rained from the sky, plowing sparkling, fiery blockade lines just a dozen meters in front of the ground troops.

Some autocannon shells impacted less than fifteen meters from the Thunder Warriors' boots, kicking up gravel that clattered against their armor.

This support range completely exceeded the definition of "danger close."

On a peacetime training ground, the airship gunners and the infantry who failed to scatter would be thrown straight into solitary confinement for such a stunt.

But no one cared right now; everyone was fighting like madmen.

Behind the Thunder Warriors and Paladins, the instruction unit soldiers fired every weapon they had at the Blood Servants squeezing through the gaps in the defense line.

Shell casings piled up on the ground, and gun barrels overheated to their absolute limits, but no one stopped.

After emptying his last magazine, an instruction unit sergeant pulled the pins on his remaining grenades and hurled them out, then picked up a fallen comrade's rifle and resumed firing.

"Any more bombs from the clerics?!"

"Last three!"

"What about our own 'Anti-Vampire Claymores'?"

"Ran out ages ago, sir!"

"Why the hell didn't you conserve them earlier?"

"Didn't you just tell us to blow this and blow that...?"

Engulfed in fire, explosions, and gunfire, the Old Royal Palace ruins became a meat grinder.

But the number of encroaching vampires only increased with time. Morin stood on a high point in the ruins and scanned the area; the dense red unit cards on the system map completely surrounded their position.

New vampires continuously arrived from distant streets to join the siege. Time was running out...

Just then, a loud boom erupted from the center of the ruins.

A gap blasted open in the middle of the shattered walls and rubble destroyed by shells and explosive satchels.

Amidst flying gravel and dust, two figures walked out of the smoke.

Undoubtedly Ferdinand I, alongside Queen Marie.

Both bore wounds. Ferdinand I still had the deep gash left by the 【Spike of the Holy Relic】 on his left arm, and his ornate, retro red robe was torn in several places.

Queen Marie's blood-red light armor was shattered in a large chunk, revealing charred flesh on her right shoulder.

But they were alive, and clearly still capable of fighting.

Morin and Cleric Cristiano charged the two figures almost simultaneously. The cleric was accompanied by three relatively healthy Paladins.

Ferdinand I didn't rush to engage. He simply stood there and lightly stomped his foot on the ruins below.

The next second, the ground burst open.

A massive number of blood-red tentacles bored out from beneath the ruins. This time, it wasn't just tentacles; thick clusters of viscous, dark-red biomass rapidly spread among the rubble, as if something was squeezing up from underground.

This biomass clung to the building debris, gluing the rubble and broken walls together.

Then, it began to grow upward.

Higher and higher.

The ground beneath Morin changed drastically as well. The flesh tissues that had been blown to bits rapidly repaired and expanded, covering a growing area.

The entire ruin area was transforming into a "blood mountain." Ferdinand I and Queen Marie stood at the peak of this constantly rising "blood mountain."

And their wounds... including the holy light burn on Ferdinand I's arm, healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Even the injuries caused by enchanted silver weapons and holy light were recovering...

Because the "blood mountain" beneath their feet was the physical biomass core condensed by the "Blood River."

As long as he maintained contact with this substance, Ferdinand I could rapidly siphon energy from the "Blood River" for self-repair.

Seeing this, Cleric Cristiano's expression changed.

"We can't drag this out!"

He roared at Morin.

"Colonel Morin, I'll find a way to create an opening! You use the Holy Sword to strike that guy down! Once he dies, the 'Blood River' will collapse!"

Finishing his words, Cristiano held nothing back. He took a deep breath, and the golden holy light around him flared violently, driving back all the fleshy tentacles nearby.

He raised his greatsword high above his head. Blinding golden light gathered on the blade, entering a charged state.

"In the name of the Lord, purify all filth in this world!"

A massive golden sword light rose around the greatsword in Cristiano's hand, carrying an unrivaled momentum as it cleaved viciously toward Ferdinand I.

However, just as the golden sword aura was about to hit, all the remaining Blood Dragon Knights and a large number of Blood Thralls suddenly rushed out, fearlessly blocking Ferdinand I's path.

They raised their weapons or claws high, trying to use their bodies to block that devastating attack.

"Boom!"

The golden sword aura collided with the Blood Dragon Knights' bodies, erupting in blinding light.

The Blood Dragon Knights evaporated the instant they touched the sword aura, reduced to ash before they could even scream. But their sacrifice bought Ferdinand I precious time to dodge.

Pulling Queen Marie, he rapidly retreated backward, narrowly avoiding the core attack radius of the 【Divine Smite】. Swept by the aftershock, his robe tore open, revealing the pale skin underneath.

"Damn it!" Cleric Cristiano cursed.

For Ferdinand I, those vampire creatures who executed his commands without hesitation were simply the most loyal cannon fodder.

At the same time, massive blood-red tentacles bored out from all directions of the "blood mountain," continuously trying to entangle the Paladins' limbs.

The holy light radiating from Cristiano forced back most of the approaching tentacles, but they kept surging in wave after endless wave.

By the time he and the Paladins beside him finally carved through the Blood Dragon Knights' blockade, Queen Marie charged forward with a massive horde of Blood Thralls.

The Queen engaged Cleric Cristiano directly, forcefully halting him less than 30 meters from Ferdinand I.

But a smile finally appeared on the face of the macho cleric beneath the hound-faced helmet.

"The opening is here, Colonel Morin!!!"

Realizing something was wrong, Queen Marie panicked and tried to retreat, but the cleric pressed the attack and tangled her up tightly.

Meanwhile, a black blur trailing gold and blue light flashed past them.

"I'm fucking coming!!!"

Pushing his speed to the absolute limit, Morin closed to within 15 meters of Ferdinand I and cast the highest-tier spell he prepared for today.

5th-circle spell, 【Steel Wind Strike】.

This was the signature spell of the Gallic Sentinels on the Western Front...

【You flourish the weapon used in the casting and then vanish to strike like the wind. Choose up to five creatures you can see within range. Make a melee spell attack against each target.】

【You can then teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 5 feet of one of the targets you hit or missed.】

Morin designated Ferdinand I as his sole target. He drew a perfect arc in front of him with the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】, the golden light coalescing into a blinding halo along the trajectory.

Immediately after, his figure vanished completely from his spot.

From the perspective of others, the Saxon officer standing over a dozen meters away from Ferdinand I suddenly disappeared.

But the next moment, golden sword light flared out of nowhere on Ferdinand I's right side.

Morin materialized less than a step behind Ferdinand I, bringing the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 down toward the back of his neck.

The first strike.

Ferdinand I's reaction was unexpectedly fast. He spun around the instant Morin appeared, raising the Dark Sword to block.

"Clang!"

Gold and dark red light collided violently at point-blank range. A blast wave erupted from beneath Ferdinand I's feet, blowing away nearby Blood Servants, but he successfully blocked the attack.

Morin vanished again.

The second strike.

Appearing on the left, the silver-edged longsword sliced toward Ferdinand I's waist.

This time, Ferdinand I used his left hand to conjure a shield wall of tentacles. The silver blade carved into the tentacles, its enchanted silver burning away a large swath, but the strike was blocked.

Morin vanished again.

The third strike.

This time he appeared directly overhead, bringing the holy sword down in a full-force overhead cleave aimed at the top of Ferdinand I's skull.

Ferdinand I was genuinely frantic now... Three teleports from three directions, each appearing the instant he adjusted his defensive stance.

He barely raised the Dark Sword above his head to catch the heavy cleave.

The pressure from the blow forced Ferdinand I down onto one knee, denting the "blood mountain" beneath his feet.

The fourth strike.

Morin appeared right in front of Ferdinand I, striking with both swords simultaneously.

This time, Ferdinand I could no longer fend him off.

He parried the more threatening 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 with the Dark Sword, but the enchanted silver blade sliced in from another angle, carving a deep gash across his abdomen.

The burning effect of the enchanted silver immediately spread from the wound. Ferdinand I cried out in pain, stumbling backward.

But Morin's assault wasn't over. Once the first four strikes of 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 stripped away Ferdinand I's defenses, the final strike became the killing blow.

Morin appeared to Ferdinand I's front-left.

All the power of the final strike of 【Steel Wind Strike】 coalesced into the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】. The Holy Sword seemed to understand the weight of this blow; its golden flames expanded to a terrifying degree, illuminating the entire ruin.

Morin aimed this strike straight at Ferdinand I's neck. A certain "god" from his previous world had taught him a bloody lesson— not aiming for the neck causes huge problems.

But the instant the blade was about to touch its target, a figure slammed into him from the side.

It was Queen Marie.

She suddenly broke off her engagement with Cleric Cristiano. At the cost of her sword-wielding right arm being severed by the cleric, she disregarded everything and charged madly at Morin.

Dark red blood spraying from her severed arm traced an arc in the air as her left shoulder slammed heavily into Morin's flank.

The fifth strike of 【Steel Wind Strike】 deflected under the impact.

The golden sword light missed Ferdinand I's neck and struck his left side instead. An arm and more than half of his torso were completely obliterated by the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】's "light cannon."

Ferdinand I let out an ear-shattering, agonizing scream.

Knocked off balance, bloodlust having completely taken over, Morin instinctively thrust his left-hand silver blade sideways.

The longsword, already fractured from continuous intense combat, boosted by 【Magic Weapon】 and Morin's "super strength," pierced straight through Queen Marie's breastplate and buried itself deep into her heart.

Queen Marie's body froze.

She looked down at the blade protruding from her chest, a strange serenity appearing on her pale face. Then, she did the last thing she could.

Before Morin could pull his sword out, an explosive burst of blood aura erupted from inside Queen Marie.

The force was exceedingly violent. The intense vibration knocked Morin's left hand off the hilt, blowing his entire body away and shattering all his protective spells.

As he was pushed back, he felt a crisp snap transmit through his hand.

The silver-edged longsword completely shattered into fragments from the middle under the impact of the blood aura exploding within Queen Marie.

The broken shards remained lodged inside her. The sharp silver fragments embedded into the fleshy tissues around her heart, the enchantment burning from the inside out, causing irreversible destruction.

Queen Marie's body trembled violently, the scorch marks spreading wider and wider from the wound.

"No—!"

Ferdinand I's voice came from behind. The emotion within that agonizing scream was so intense it made the surrounding air tremble.

The "Blood River's" pillar of light swayed violently, and a crack appeared in the blood-red curtain.

Sunlight, unseen on the ground for a long time, spilled through the crack. A ray of golden sunlight landed perfectly on the Old Royal Palace ruins.

And landed perfectly on Queen Marie's face...

Her scarlet pupils gradually faded in the sunlight, returning to a light brown color resembling a human's.

Those eyes didn't look at Morin, nor the ruins below. She turned to look at her husband.

Ferdinand I stumbled toward her. His right hand still gripped the Dark Sword, and the flesh at the massive wound on his left side writhed but failed to regenerate.

His face was filled with something Morin had never seen on this vampire king.

Fear... not of death, but of loss.

"Marie..."

Queen Marie slowly turned her head. This queen, who had never abandoned her husband, took one last look at the man she loved deeply. Her pale, almost transparent lips moved as if saying something.

But the voice was too faint. Even Morin, kneeling nearby supported by the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 and coughing up coagulated blood, didn't hear it.

Under the sunlight, the burn wounds from the silver fragments acted as a starting point. Her entire body began to carbonize at an irreversible speed, finally crumbling.

Losing its support, the blood-red light armor collapsed hollowly to the ground.

A gust of wind blew past. Queen Marie's body turned into a pile of black ash, drifting slowly in the breeze.

All that remained on the ground was that inert, shattered blood-red armor and a longsword broken in two.

The battlefield fell quiet for a second.

Even the Thunder Warriors and Paladins still engaged in fierce combat felt a tremor in that moment. The blood-red curtain over the entire city quivered violently.

Ferdinand I dropped to his knees before the pile of black ash. He reached out his right hand to touch something, but his fingertips only grasped a handful of ash.

The ash slipped through his fingers, mixing with the dust of the ruins.

He once possessed everything... a country, a throne, a wife and children... but today, it all went up in smoke.

And all of this was thanks to the people standing before him!

"No... no... damn you..."

"NO!!!"

This roar manifested as a physical shockwave that swept across the ruins, while the "Blood River's" pillar of light surged wildly.

It all happened too fast. When Cleric Cristiano snapped out of it, he immediately charged at Ferdinand I. Morin pushed himself back up and lunged forward through gritted teeth.

But the tear in the sky was instantly patched. Not only was the blood-red curtain restored, it was thicker and denser than before.

The sunlight vanished completely. The sky returned to that suffocating dark red.

Time seemed to slow down as Ferdinand I stood up.

In his scarlet pupils, the dark gold patterns completely covered his irises, looking like two burning gold-red gems.

All reason vanished from his face, replaced by irrational madness.

Massive amounts of fleshy tissue surged madly from beneath the ground, crawling up Ferdinand I's body. He was merging with the core of the "Blood River."

The dark-red biomass encased his legs and torso... layering thicker and thicker. When Morin and the cleric slashed their swords at him, dense spiked tentacles burst outward, knocking them flying back to where they started.

Wincing in pain, Morin picked himself up from the ground. Spitting bloody saliva, he tightened his grip on the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 in his right hand.

The silver-edged longsword had completed its mission. He now had only this final weapon capable of inflicting substantial damage on Ferdinand I.

The energy fluctuations radiating from the Romanian King before him were growing stronger at a terrifying speed.

Just then, the 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】, which had been silent for a long time, spoke in his mind.

Unlike its previous arrogant or urging tone, this time, the Holy Sword's voice carried a complex emotion Morin had never heard before.

"Four hundred and forty years, Swordbearer."

Morin was stunned for a moment.

"That moment in time, is exactly like this moment in time..."

The Holy Sword's voice echoed in Morin's mind.

That complex emotion became clearer and clearer. It was a sense of... destiny, spanning over four hundred years of time.

Four hundred and forty years ago, the leader of the fifteen Supreme Paladins wielded this sword and perished alongside Vlad III.

And today, Morin held the same sword, facing Vlad III's successor.

The enemy opposite had similarly gone mad, they were similarly surrounded by an ocean of vampires—how strikingly similar this was to the end of that battle four hundred and forty years ago.

"So, senior, are you hinting that the last guy who wielded you didn't make it back alive?"

Morin asked in his mind.

The 【Thorn of the Sacred Remains】 didn't answer, but the golden holy light on the blade flared several times brighter.

That warm power surged from the hilt into Morin's palm once more, spreading up his arm through his entire body, thicker and stronger than any time before.

Morin gripped the Holy Sword, watching the Romanian King now completely swallowed by flesh and blood.

"So there's a phase two. But it seems we've already burned through all our bursts..."

He let out a breath, leveled the Holy Sword in front of him again, and said calmly, "Senior, let's write a different ending this time... We can't stop here just yet..."