Chapter 69
Lilith froze, and the blade of Waltz of Ashes stopped less than an inch from Lucian's forehead.
Cold sweat ran down the Vampire leader's face. He whipped his head toward the speaker.
A Vampire stood at the edge of the battlefield.
Lucian recognized him. He was the strongest of the group Lucian had brought under his control after arriving in the Frostlands, and his bloodline was unusually pure.
Why was he here?
More importantly, what had he just called the young Necromancer?
Your Majesty?
A terrible realization began to take shape in Lucian's mind.
The Vampire continued before Lilith could respond.
"Your Majesty, my investigation uncovered a blood curse carried by every native Vampire. Anyone who kills one of them will be marked, allowing the rest of their race to sense the killer."
He hesitated before continuing.
"I also ask that you give Lucian a chance to swear his life to you. The Vampires guard many secrets, including a method that may allow those of us under your command to evolve."
Lilith regarded him with renewed interest.
"Is that so?"
Now that she looked more closely, the bloodline power within her Vampire Unit did feel different than before.
What he called evolution was effectively a Class Advancement.
Lilith had assumed Vampires couldn't advance because they were already a higher form of undead. Apparently their development followed a different path, and the key to unlocking it was tied to the native Vampires.
That raised another question.
Why had Lilith never summoned a Vampiric Overlord?
She still didn't understand what kept her from obtaining a royal Unit for that branch of the Undead Faction. Her subordinate's hesitation suggested he knew more, but this was no time for a detailed explanation.
Lilith set the question aside.
Keeping Lucian alive offered several advantages. He could provide intelligence on the region, the neighboring territories, and the internal structure of the Vampires. His presence might also help strengthen the Vampiric Undead serving under her.
Killing him would brand her with a blood curse and potentially draw the vengeance of the entire native Vampire population.
That was a poor trade.
Even so, everything depended on Lucian's attitude. Lilith would have no objection to killing him if he refused to cooperate.
Had one of her Units not intervened, Waltz of Ashes would already have split his skull.
Lilith looked down at him.
Lucian was still reeling from the revelation.
The Vampires he had brought under his command had never truly belonged to him. Their master was the Necromancer standing over him.
Once he understood that Lilith was a Lord, the impossible speed of her advancement and the scale of her undead army became even more frightening.
These outsiders really were monsters.
A Lord aligned with the Undead Faction, capable of commanding Vampires alongside several other undead races...
Lucian remembered an ancient prophecy preserved within his race.
When Lilith's gaze settled on him, he immediately bowed his head.
"I submit."
The old prophecy gave him reason to believe that following an Undead Lord might not be a mistake.
Lilith nodded once.
Her Legacy quest had already been completed the moment she killed an Elite-ranked enemy. Whether Lucian lived or died no longer affected that objective.
A living Elite who willingly served her was also worth far more than another Elite-ranked corpse.
The battle had nearly ended, but Lilith wasn't finished.
She intended to question Nysia about the Stormcrown Empire and the strange power hidden within the Royal Knight's body. Once she had the information she needed, she would decide whether Nysia lived.
Before Lilith could approach her, another Elite-ranked aura closed in fast.
Lilith turned toward the cry of a griffin.
A second Royal Griffin descended through the snowstorm, carrying Nysia's companion. Rimefang rode behind him, and two corpses had been lashed across the griffin's armored back.
Lilith recognized them immediately.
Fenrir.
White Hart.
The situation wasn't hard to reconstruct.
The male Royal Knight had pursued White Hart and killed her. During the chase, he had run into Fenrir fleeing in the same direction with Rimefang close behind. The Werewolf leader had already been badly wounded, letting the knight finish him without much trouble.
What Lilith didn't understand was why Rimefang remained unharmed.
Judging by the way they traveled together, the Frost Sabertooth Chieftain and the Royal Knight were no strangers.
So they already had an arrangement.
That explained quite a bit.
Still, Lilith saw no reason to complain. They had delivered two valuable corpses straight to her.
The griffin landed a moment later.
The male Royal Knight surveyed the battlefield, and the confidence drained from his face.
The frozen remains of the Goblin Archpriest lay broken across the snow. The Goblin Chieftain had been cut down nearby. Nysia hung bound and immobile in Soulfrost Chains, while Lucian had submitted.
At the center of it all stood the human woman he had dismissed as insignificant only minutes earlier.
She held a black scythe in one hand, and the pressure radiating from her belonged unmistakably to an Elite.
"How is this possible?"
His voice trembled despite his effort to control it.
He had been gone only a short while, yet the entire battlefield had changed.
His gaze shifted from Nysia to the Elite-ranked corpses, then locked onto Lilith.
She had been only a Tier 8 Veteran before entering the Portal.
How had she reached Elite Rank in so little time?
And where was the dragon claw?
He could find no answer, but he remained confident that Lilith could be beaten. Rimefang stood behind him, giving their side two Elite-ranked fighters.
"Rimefang, with me!" he shouted as he leaped from the griffin. His spear dropped into his hand, its point aimed straight at Lilith. "We take the Necromancer alive!"
He couldn't accept what had happened, and he refused to let an outlawed Necromancer flaunt her power openly within Stormcrown territory.
Rimefang didn't move.
The Frost Sabertooth Chieftain studied Lilith with cold, intelligent eyes. He could sense more than her Rank. The draconic pressure in her blood and soul bore down on him with enough force to awaken every survival instinct he possessed.
Tier 2 Elite.
Empowered by the very relic they had all fought to claim.
The two of them stood no chance against her.
"Rimefang!" the knight shouted, glancing back. "What are you waiting for?"
"I'm not here to die," Rimefang replied.
He stepped back, making his position clear.
The knight's face darkened. He had expected an ally and found a coward instead.
With a furious shout, he abandoned Rimefang and charged alone.
His Tier 1 Elite power erupted at full force. Brilliant sacred light gathered along the head of his spear as he drove it toward Lilith's chest.
Lilith watched him come without moving.
"No!" Nysia shouted from where the Soulfrost Chains held her.
She was too late.
As the spear reached Lilith, she raised Waltz of Ashes and drew a single black arc through the air.
Crack.
Blood scattered across the snow.
The spear broke first.
The Royal Knight's body followed an instant later.
He died before he could scream, collapsing into the snow with disbelief still frozen on his face.
Lilith lowered her scythe and turned toward Rimefang.
The Frost Sabertooth Chieftain shuddered.
Without hesitation, he dropped to one knee.
"I will bring my entire race under your rule."
◆◆◆
Volume Three comes to an end here, and with that, the battle for the Severed Claw of the Dragon God draws to a close.
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