Episode 240 Zepia Republic (3)
The first thing Heinz the Second did was analyze the barrier covering the mansion.
“Insight”, combined with his transcendental senses, dissected the barrier’s structure, and “Blood Mystery” started to produce diagnostic results.
‘A complex spell based on blood magic. Quite intricately woven.’
“Blood Mystery”, born from Auterica’s blood magic combined with knowledge from other dimensions.
It held all possibilities and was overwhelmingly superior when it came to spells involving ‘blood’.
And complex spells weren’t anything special to him.
No matter how intricately woven they were, they couldn’t compare to the dimensional magic he had experienced on Earth.
‘It seems like they put a lot of effort into it, but…’
It was meaningless to him.As Heinz calmly observed the barrier, Hans, who was busy with his research in the Immortal Fortress, momentarily paused and joined him.
And his skills, including “Path of Magic”, started to analyze the diagnostic information provided by “Blood Mystery”.
‘Overlapping and inverted phases. The stability is undeniable. To break this, I’ll have to…’
He quickly grasped the barrier’s true nature and how to overcome it.
‘The standard method is to target the core deep inside, but there are other ways.’
To simultaneously destroy the same point on the inside and outside of the barrier.
It was theoretically possible, as communication with the outside was blocked from within, and it was impossible to pinpoint the exact location just by observing from one side, but…
Such trivial matters were no obstacle to him.
“It’ll consume a lot of energy… but I’ve harvested enough on the way here.”
Heinz tilted his head slightly, still maintaining his composure.
And then, several streaks of blood spurted from his upturned palm, raised to chest height.
Drip—
The crimson blood writhed and intertwined, swirling and converging into a fist-sized blood-red orb under the control of “Blood Mystery”.
It was a medium imbued with the power of blood magic, the same one he had given to Hesperon before.
‘Two more should be enough. The destructive power itself is a bit lacking, but this is just a signal flare.’
And after creating three orbs, the real work began.
He summoned Hugo, his only idle avatar, handed him the orbs, and sent him inside the barrier.
To find the point of contact with the inside through his avatar, whose senses he shared.
“Whew.”
Hugo, who had become the Earth’s errand boy, was gradually becoming a master of housework thanks to his “Jack-of-All-Trades” skill.
He entered the barrier with the orbs emanating Heinz’s aura and used one of them on a specific spot inside.
Rumble—
As expected.
A powerful blood magic spell activated, shaking the barrier, but it was quickly suppressed and vanished.
And there wasn’t even a ripple on the outside.
“…Found it.”
But that single attempt was enough for Heinz to pinpoint the exact location, meticulously observing the flow of causality within the mansion.
Goooo—
He slowly extended his right hand, aiming for the target.
A large amount of blood was drawn from his fingertips, and a tremendous amount of blood magic power surged, mixing with the blood and converging.
‘No time to waste. Let’s go.’
A basketball-sized crimson orb, pulsing as if about to explode, appeared before his right hand.
And then, as the second blood magic spell erupted from within the barrier—
Rumble— Boom—!
It unleashed a beam of crimson light, like a dragon’s breath, striking the exact spot at the perfect timing.
Rumble!
The mansion remained intact, unlike the surroundings, which were devastated by the aftershock.
But Heinz could clearly sense the distortion and the resulting cracks in the barrier through “Insight”.
“It’s quite sturdy.”
It was because the orb’s power wasn’t enough to destroy the inner layers of the barrier, only the outer parts, but…
He hadn’t expected it to be destroyed in one shot.
‘It can’t be helped, since it’s an indirect attack. I expected this.’
Unlike the first attack, which had been instantly repaired, the barrier was now significantly damaged, its regeneration delayed.
This was the moment he had been waiting for.
Goooo—
An even more intense light, stronger than the destructive beam from his right hand, shot out from his left hand, aiming for the same spot.
It struck the weakened point, imbued with the power of causality,
And at the same time, resonating with his ‘own blood magic power’ that erupted from within, it distorted the barrier both inside and out.
Kaboom——!
The barrier finally crumbled, unable to withstand the impact.
A deafening explosion, far greater than any before, shook the surroundings.
‘Just as planned.’
He had expended a considerable amount of energy manipulating causality, but he was satisfied with the result.
A massive hole, large enough to fit a carriage, had been blasted through the mansion, starting from the front gate where he was standing.
‘So that’s…’
As the barrier shattered, Heinz dismissed Hugo and turned his gaze to the old man sitting calmly at the end of the path, a troubled expression on his face.
He instinctively knew.
That he was Obaifo, the progenitor of the Obaifo Clan and one of the original Sacred Bloods.
Heinz, pleased with the straightforward and dramatic encounter, slowly approached him.
“So, we finally meet.”
The old man’s head slowly turned towards him at his words.
His initially startled expression quickly returned to a carefully constructed mask of composure, but his twitching lips betrayed his inner turmoil.
“I apologize for the aggressive knock. The homeowner seemed to be hard of hearing, so I had to improvise.”
The old man’s lips twitched even more at his words.
It seemed like the provocation had worked.
Heinz the Second smiled coldly, watching Obaifo’s blood magic power surge and blaze around him.
As if challenging him to reveal any hidden tricks he might have, his demeanor confident and arrogant.
__________________
The twelve original bloodlines.
A long time ago— when the Sacred Bloods, including Obaifo, Ufersh, and Brokoslack, were first born.
There were only twelve vampires in the world.
As time passed, vampires spread throughout the world, and the clans named after each Sacred Blood began to take shape.
They became a race, naturally integrating into society.
‘But now, no one remembers those days.’
Obaifo was one of the original Sacred Bloods.
His estimated age was over ten thousand years.
But unlike dragons, whose mental strength and perfect memory were proportional to their lifespan, vampires weren’t as resilient.
Of course, they were transcendent beings, far surpassing ordinary mortals, but even they had their limits in the face of endless time.
The Sacred Bloods maintained their sense of self for an average of about two thousand years.
Around that time, some started to lose their memories, their numbers dwindling.
Some rampaged, consumed by madness, and were hunted down.
Some were torn apart by enraged dragons for preying on their young.
Some were purged by the Church for failing to cover their tracks.
Some even chose to end their own lives, unable to bear the burden of eternal life.
It wasn’t strange that the number of Sacred Bloods had decreased from the original twelve.
‘I chose to erase all but the last thousand years of my memories to protect my sense of self. Brokoslack chose to hibernate periodically like dragons, reducing his activity, and Ufersh tried to overcome it by dividing his power and memories and storing them in other bodies.’
So the information Obaifo had about the ancient times wasn’t from ‘firsthand’ experience, but rather something he had ‘learned’ later, based on various facts.
Replacing vivid memories with dry, secondhand information.
That was how he had endured until now.
But as the Sacred Bloods’ influence waned, their clans also began to rise and fall, their fates intertwined.
The clans that lost their Sacred Bloods declined at an alarming rate.
That’s when a certain ambition started to sprout in Obaifo’s heart.
…Or perhaps it had always been there.
<How pitiful and pathetic. Is there no way to unite these foolish children? …Yes, I’ll have to do it myself. I’ll become their king and lead them.>
He had been erasing all but the last thousand years of his memories, so he wasn’t sure when that desire had taken root, but it had definitely been over a thousand years.
After all, even his oldest memories were filled with his pursuit of that goal.
And for a very long time…
He had been collecting the essences left behind by the other Sacred Bloods.
It wasn’t difficult to retrieve them from the minor clans or the nobles’ vaults.
The problem was those that were difficult to steal…
‘The Great War against the Immortal King was a great help. Thanks to it, I was able to recover those that had fallen into the hands of dragons and the Church.’
The Immortal King’s invasion, which he had been waiting for, had greatly aided his efforts.
And with the help of Oath of Heaven’s Defiance and the Revolutionary, he had finally obtained the essences of all the Sacred Bloods except for Brokoslack and Ufersh!
The time to realize his long-cherished dream had finally arrived.
He confidently welcomed Heinz the Second.
He hadn’t even considered the possibility of defeat.
He was only thinking about retrieving the essence of Ufersh, which Heinz possessed, and the essence of Brokoslack, which was probably in the Talia Kingdom.
‘Why… How…?’
That’s why the current situation was so baffling.
He had been caught off guard by something he hadn’t even imagined.
Kaboom! Rumble—
“Ugh!”
The mansion, now reduced to rubble.
The throne where Obaifo had confidently waited for his challenger…
…was now a pile of debris, and he was lying on the ground, covered in dust.
Whoosh—
He slowly sat up, brushing the dust off his body.
Crackle—! Crackle—!
Sparks flew relentlessly.
The battle of wills had been going on for hundreds, thousands of times.
But what he hadn’t anticipated was…
‘He’s fast…! Not just his abilities, but his thinking speed as well…!’
Unlike his initial confidence, his opponent’s power far exceeded his expectations.
And for some reason, his greatest advantage, his authority as the one closest to the ‘origin’ of blood, was completely ineffective against him.
He hadn’t expected complete control, as the other party was also a Sacred Blood… but he still possessed the essences of ten out of the twelve original bloodlines!
It was strange that he wasn’t affected at all.
‘How? The bloodlines are all branches of a single origin. It’s impossible for him to be completely unaffected.’
It was as if his bloodline was completely unrelated to the origin.
‘Did he do something? Or… was my research wrong? No, that can’t be. Then what’s going on?’
His thoughts became chaotic, his mind wavering.
There was a limit to how much power a single being could contain, so no matter how many essences he possessed, his strength wouldn’t increase infinitely.
Obaifo’s current limit was probably about 1.3 times his original power.
It wasn’t a significant increase in this situation where he was being constantly pushed back.
‘…I didn’t want to use this… Revolutionary, were you anticipating this?’
He hadn’t considered other options, thinking his control as the origin would be enough…
He felt like he was being played by the Revolutionary, but he couldn’t just stand there and take it.
Crackle—! Crackle—!
And at that moment,
Heinz’s expression, which had been relaxed, hardened.
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