Chương 243: Golden Misfortune

Beliol Azt Mastras had had quite a lot of good words to say about the creature the man in red was currently fighting. With the former ruler's current state of affairs, he naturally strongly desired to partner once again with the entity whose lethal nightmares could throw a nation upside-down. He had made it clear that if she were to join him once more, he would use this power of hers to bring a small, faraway nation to its knees and take over it as a way to kickstart his re-ascension to his true throne.

The man in red–Of his true name Holgod–Did not truly think much of the old man's ambitions. It was a good thing to still have spunk at such an ancient age, but with Beelmart now being a true part of what many referred to as the 'Continental Alliance', taking his throne back was basically impossible. … That is, unless he could use extraordinary means, which Maeve fell under without a doubt.

Holgod had already been quite surprised to learn that the source of the Nightmare Plague wasn't just a monster, but a sapient one at that. Giving such power into the hands of a creature capable of complex thoughts… It was like the world itself wanted the continent to be emptied a bit. Naturally, Holgod was only working with the disgraced king for personal gain. Beliol barely had any loyalists by his side anymore, so the bulk of his current allies were people he was paying like mercenaries. Holgod was one of them.

The man in red would have greatly appreciated it if he were able to convince Maeve to join his side instead of Beliol's, but someone like him, who agreed to do dirty work for a throneless king, naturally didn't have much to offer a voracious creature like her. She feasted upon the ghostly, the cursed, flesh, steel… And apparently, even his fiendish blood was on the menu for her. Even now, she was inhaling the fumes of it as it evaporated under the ungodly heat she emitted.

He didn't even know how she was inhaling anything when she clearly had no lungs–Any organ, for that matter. She was no more than a giant mass of molten and incandescent steel. It was hard for him to believe that a single being could both possess the insidious ability to spread and kill people through nightmares and also the capability of turning into such a mighty form. Try as he might, his attacks that would usually flatten foes were entirely useless. Maeve wasn't just overly tough.

It was as though her corporeal body had become something that his physical attacks simply couldn't reach properly. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually quite close to figuring out why his strikes weren't dealing enough damage, but the pressure of the fight asked of him that he came up with a solution without delay, so instead of building a refined plan through a deep understanding of his opponent's nature, he decided to fall back on the simplest, and often most efficient method of all. From knights to mages…

Using dumb brute force was often an excellent solution. After all, if a regular attack isn't dealing enough damage, then why shouldn't you just hit harder? Holgod controlled the wave of fiendish blood beneath his feet, lifting himself higher into the air, evading a punch that sent some of the molten steel accumulated upon the ground flying, forcing him to put up a blood barrier to avoid being seared by a stray drop.

One of the main problems he was facing was the molten steel his adversary was puking out in abundance at times. For some reason, it wasn't cooling down at all and remained in liquid form, but since it wasn't exactly something that flowed out quickly, it was rapidly accumulating all over the place. On its own, it wouldn't be much of an issue, thanks to the blood wave he was standing upon at all times, allowing him to put a respectable distance between himself and the scorching steel.

The only issue was that the heat Maeve was emitting was affecting energy to a certain extent, making it heat up unnaturally. Thus, the more her molten steel spread, the more energy was caught by the heat… Both ambient and Holgod's own. He could deal with his own mana being affected, but he couldn't do the same for ambient energy, so his mana sense was in shambles. It was already limited due to the misdirection ores in the valley, but now he couldn't use it at all.

When she struck, and molten steel was sent flying, he couldn't sense the drops. He either had to use his eyes or put up a full blood barrier. With how aggressive she was, taking his eyes off her would be a dire mistake, but the alternative was making him eat through his mana fast. He already needed to maintain a whole bunch of spells, keep them whole as the heat tried to mess with his mana, all the while actively fighting and casting more spells.

'This bitch has caught me in a battle of attrition…' Holgod did not like this one bit, especially since he didn't think his opponent could actually get tired. Hence, the need for a quick solution.

'Been a while since I did something like this' He raised his right arm straight, palm positioned as though he was going to chop something with it. High in the sky, fiendish blood was accumulating en masse, out of reach of Maeve. Going all out, Holgod didn't stop at just one massive spell.

He committed to several at once, swinging his other arm to launch a condensed spray of blood that successfully sliced right through his adversary's molten body–She wasn't sliced in half for long, however, the molten steel simply stuck itself back together.

'... Oops' The most damage he dealt was to the mountain they were standing on. He sliced right through it, causing a large portion of this natural wonder to simply slide off and crash into the burning forest.

'I didn't realise the mountains here were so feeble…' He ignored his own act of demolition as the spell in the sky finished manifesting. It took the form of two giant, disembodied hands alongside a head. They were identical to those of his summoned creatures, only much larger. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Let's see if you can endure these" Punches literally rained down upon Maeve, the fists wide and heavy enough not to get caught in her molten body. She raised her guard, but was quickly pummeled into the ground without much recourse to dodge–Alas, the damage she was receiving was either nonexistent or invisible. Holgod didn't mind. He had another plan in mind. Despite the heat being much worse the closer one went to the monster, he directed the blood wave to rush him to her.

He focused much of fiendish blood mana into his right index and middle fingers before making the wave launch him straight at Mave's giant, incandescent face. Even though she was being actively hit by countless blows that were literally pushing her into the ground, she still turned her head to spew a stream of molten steel at him. He gritted his teeth and further reinforced himself, pushing past the safe limits from augmentation to be able to go right through the steam.

The moment his boots landed between her eyes, they began melting, and the same was true for his gloves as he struck her forehead with his two outstretched fingers. … The man in red had a dream, and it was to push his mana affinity to the next step and to one day become a true Blood Fiend, and the speciality of Blood Fiends was to mess with the blood flow of people directly.

He could hardly do so himself, but in the spirit of his goal in life, he had developed a spell hefty in price that could emulate this effect, only that since he was using mana instead of true friendish blood, it messed with a person's internal energies instead. His goal was to shred her internal energies, including things like mind energy and soul energy, which would, by extension, shred her mind and soul.

He was met with dire resistance and did not feel true damage being dealt, but the internal energies, while not damaged, were thrown into an absolute mess. He himself was sent flying away as a burst of energy hit him. He managed to catch himself using his wave of blood, and saw as the giant molten monstrosity simply popped out of existence, leaving only Maeve as he had first seen her–Without the cloaks and other articles of clothing, of course.

The skeletal steel being was quick to rise as the molten steel that had piled up rapidly cooled down and hardened. She looked at him for a second and then proceeded to take off running, scaling the cooled mass of steel.

"Again…?" He followed after her, but with far less swiftness than before. This manoeuvre had cost him far too much mana in a single go, and the heat had managed to penetrate his defences enough to leave him feeling sluggish. She unleashed a whole bunch of her misshapen ghosts, slowing him down as she seemingly headed for the flat portion of the mountain Holgod had created by slicing the poor thing in half.

"J–J–Jack–pot" She spoke for the first time in a little while and jumped into a now-exposed cavern. Only then did Holgod realise why he had sliced through this mountain with such ease. He would call himself a powerful man, but bisecting an entire mountain, even if small, wasn't exactly something he could do on the regular. Maybe if he really set out to it specifically, but with his typical spells? Improbable. This one had fallen so easily because it turned out to actually be mostly hollow.

He had no clue how it had been standing up on its own like this, but the proof was right in front of his eyes. As he placed his molten boot near the entrance of the cavern, Holgod hesitated.

'Jackpot… What the hell did she mean by this?' The man in red questioned whether he truly should pursue her. She might have been bluffing, or she might have genuinely expressed herself aloud because she had found something that would give her the upper hand. He didn't know her enough to be certain about how she would react to any given situation. He felt a sudden pain in his stomach.

'Shit, that hit messed up my augmentation spells further than I thought…' He commanded the blood wave to take him away and instead summoned a singular, special creature similar to the previous one. The only notable difference at a glance was a hood covering its head. Holgod sent it into the cave and looked through its eyes as he decided to retreat for now. Depending on what he saw, he would either call it quits for now and give up on the Star Gazer eye, or move in to actually finish what he started.

'Alright… What's going on in there?' His summons, as imitations of Blood Fiends, possessed the alluring ability of dark vision, the better cousin of night vision… They could see through the dark as clearly as they could in the daylight, and immediately after the summon reached the ground, Holgod realised that this was no cavern. The walls were made out of stone bricks.

'A dungeon? Why would she think a dungeon would be a jackpot in her situation? Does eating creatures heal her? It wouldn't be surprising…' Speaking of creatures, this dungeon, despite having seemingly been uncovered for the very first time, was oddly lacking in defenders.

'Is it one of those dungeons with only enigmas and puzzles?' There was only one direction to follow, so Maeve couldn't have gone anywhere else. The summon approached a great doorway and began hearing a cacophony of sounds… And saw what looked like a dark spectre attempting to run away before suddenly stopping.

'Oh crap' The spectre was being devoured by Maeve, pulled into her maw as this seemingly powerful entity was utterly powerless to do anything.

"Well, w–well, well… Why are you just standing t–there? Come, and j–j–join your friends!" Holgod thought she was talking to the summon for a moment, but she was actually staring at something past him. Looking back, he saw a dark, humanoid shape wrapped in dark red ropes of unknown energy, wearing a cracked, blank white mask. It was just standing there before it stepped through a wall and disappeared entirely.

When the summon turned back around, the first thing it saw was Maeve's teeth as she leapt at it and bit its head off.

'... Looks like she's back in top form, if she can transform once more…' Holgod sighed. His lack of information had cost him victory. It seemed like Maeve wasn't an opponent one could afford to spend time gauging. It was either all-in or nothing with her. It wasn't to say that he had been utterly defeated. He still had plenty of juice, but that molten transformation of hers was the difference between winning and losing. He didn't have enough in him to force her out of it a second time.

If he knew for certain that she couldn't use it anymore, then he would have gone to finish her off. In what he assumed was her normal form, she didn't pose any threat to him. Alas, Holgod wasn't one to make dangerous gambles. The disgraced king would have to suck it up and not get the Star Gazer's eye.