Crack!
Sion's psychokinesis snapped the neck of the hunting dog that guarded the perimeter.
At that moment, Adol softened the ground to muffle any sound as the hunting dog collapsed.
As they quietly dispatched the hunting dogs and prepared to enter the old castle grounds, Boris signaled for a halt.
He had spotted more personnel guarding the interior.
'Those guys...'
They were black knights clad in black armor.
They were modified knights who wielded demonic qi art, the martial technique of demonkind, and felt no pain thanks to the awakening drug.
Boris nodded toward them and beckoned to Bisco.
Bisco nodded back and extended his hand toward the ground, releasing a mist that induced illusions.
Ssssss—
The illusion mist spread thinly across the floor, gradually drifting toward the black knights.
At first, the black knights stood motionless, but soon they began to show abnormal reactions.
"Ughhh—"
They had lost their reason to the awakening drug, but their physical functions were not completely paralyzed.
Combined with Bisco's bloodline ability to create illusions, the drugs crafted by the twin alchemists and the mist generator designed by Feynen amplified the effect twofold.
The black knights reacted to the illusion mist, drawing their swords and unleashing their demonic qi.
Woooong—
They swung their blades at one another, fighting among themselves.
The illusions had made them perceive each other as enemies.
Once Boris confirmed that Bisco's illusions had worked, he and the others pressed forward.
Deeper into the old castle grounds, they saw more personnel guarding the path to the underground.
Boris glanced back at the outer area, then signaled Bacchus, who waited, via the secure communicator orb.
Hidden in the reed thicket, Bacchus received the signal and emitted the ultrasonic waves unique to vampires.
Woooong—
At that moment, figures emerged from the forest behind them.
Thud thud thud—
They were the enemy knights whom Zeke had subdued and brought from the north.
Including Bishop Castick, the Knight of Silence, who had been one of the fivestar knights in Zeke's previous life, all of them had been reborn as vampire knights through Carmilla.
The demonic energy had seeped into their very marrow, making it nearly impossible to restore their reason through normal means, so as a last resort, they had all been turned into vampires, granting them new bodies free from the demonic energy.
Thanks to Carmilla's powerful royal vampire abilities, the enemy knights had escaped their corrupted flesh.
They had lost the realms and strength they possessed as humans, but they now wielded the superhuman strength and agility inherent to vampires, boasting formidable combat prowess in their own right.
"Distract the enemies and draw their attention!"
Upon Bacchus's command, the enemy knights mounted their ghost steeds and charged out noisily, luring the hunting dogs and knights from the old castle grounds.
The knight killers, including the one who had first sensed something amiss, had already been targeted and eliminated by the vampires, allowing them to rampage freely inside.
With the enemy knights—now able to move without restraint—making their appearance, the forces guarding the old castle grounds hurriedly pursued them.
This created a gap in the defenses.
"We're moving too."
Bacchus's vampire intelligence unit slipped through the opening and advanced into the old castle grounds.
He signaled Boris that the forces had shifted, then began targeting the outer region's snipers and hunting dogs.
Vampires moving stealthily in the darkness were as terrifying as elite assassins.
Receiving Bacchus's signal, Boris led his intelligence unit deeper inside.
Serena stepped forward, approaching the knights guarding the path to the underground.
"Halt! Who are you?"
The knights flinched at the sight of the beautiful Serena emerging from the shadows.
Serena did not miss that moment of distraction.
In an instant, she transformed her entire body into metal and dashed forward. Slash—
Her hand, now a sharp blade, pierced the knights' armor and stabbed into their hearts.
"Gah!"
The swift and powerful strike felled the knights, blood spilling from their wounds.
With Serena securing the path to the underground, she beckoned to Boris.
The intelligence unit confirmed no pursuers and descended cautiously.
The underground seemed to be an excavated and modified ancient structure, with supports lining the walls.
Deeper along the wall, they found Siemens knights on guard.
Boris gestured to Sion behind him.
Sion extended both hands toward the vigilant knights.
Crack—
The knights' necks snapped, and they collapsed.
Once again, Adol had softened the ground, ensuring the armored knights fell silently.
Though Sion had not received the enhancement drug and his psychokinesis was weaker than before, his training under Arina had refined his control over the ability.
Boris had Adol bury the fallen knights to erase any traces, then surveyed the area they had been guarding.
There was an arched entrance leading to a long corridor.
But only the nearby entrance was visible; the interior was shrouded in darkness.
Strange sounds seemed to echo from within.
'Something felt off.'
Boris had sharp instincts.
He turned to Serena.
"Scout ahead."
Serena nodded and pulled two metal orbs from her pouch.
She placed them on the ground and activated her bloodline ability, causing their surfaces to split open into beetle forms.
Clack clack!
The two metal beetles fluttered their wings and took to the air.
They were one of Golin's creations, enchanted with magic by Feynen.
It was a magical tool based on familiar spells, designed to be operable only by Serena's metal manipulation ability.
The beetles' vision transmitted to Serena, allowing her to survey the interior.
Guiding them with her will, she checked for threats inside.
As she sent the beetles deep into the corridor, Serena spotted something unusual.
'What was that...?'
Further in, the space was filled with horrific experimental subjects.
Grooooan—
Their skin melted away as they emitted endless groans, or their arms swelled grotesquely, or their boneless bodies slithered like sludge—countless abominations that had lost all semblance of humanity crammed the area.
Serena relayed the sight of the lined-up experimental subjects to Boris.
"How many do you estimate?"
"Hard to say precisely, but at least a thousand." Boris pondered, then turned to Bisco.
"We'll have to use the new weapon here."
Bisco set down the bag on his back at Boris's words.
He opened it and retrieved several metal canisters, then had Serena confirm the path and embedded them in a line on the floor up to the space before the experimental subjects.
He opened the lids and activated the magic circuits as Feynen had instructed.
Rising, he said to Boris,
"It's ready, Captain."
"Good. Sion, Serena—go draw them out."
Sion levitated into the air, and Serena transformed her body into metal.
The two slowly approached the experimental subjects' location.
Grrr—
Up close, the experimental subjects were even more grotesque than imagined.
They spotted Sion and Serena approaching.
Gaaaah!
Soon, they charged madly at the pair.
As they lunged, Sion unleashed psychokinesis at the experimental subjects.
Thud thud thud—
The front-runners' heads exploded from Sion's psychokinesis.
Yet astonishingly, even headless, their bodies continued rushing toward Sion and Serena.
Sion recoiled in shock, shaking his head.
"Eww, what are those things?" Serena sighed beside him.
"Sion, I told you no joking around on the job." Sion grumbled at her nagging but nodded.
"Fine, fine. Always with the lectures."
At that moment, both Sion and Serena leaped up, pressing close to the ceiling.
The experimental subjects passed right under them and kept charging forward.
Groooar!
As the experimental subjects closed in, Boris signaled Bisco.
"Bisco, now!"
Bisco activated the devices embedded in the floor.
Boom boom boom boom!
Plasma nets unfurled from the metal canisters.
The mindless charging experimental subjects were ensnared inescapably.
Splat splat splat—
Upon contact with the plasma nets, their bodies burst apart.
Screeech—
In moments, the interior was filled with scattered chunks of the experimental subjects.
"Urp."
Even Bisco, hardened to horrors, barely suppressed his urge to vomit.
Even Boris, with his strong stomach, felt queasy.
'It looked gruesome, but the effect was perfect.'
It was a plasma generator adapted from the magic formulas for the plasma barrier inscribed on Zeke's Hercion.
It was a one-use item, but it proved highly effective in combat.
Boris, with Bisco and Adol, stepped over the remains of the dead experimental subjects and pressed deeper.
Sion and Serena waited ahead.
Serena said to Boris,
"Captain, the path is blocked."
Boris peered forward; as she said, it was a dead end.
Scanning the space with the experimental subjects, he saw no other paths, which struck him as odd.
Drawing on his Imperial Intelligence background, Boris examined the blocked wall closely.
"Something's here. Bisco."
Bisco handed him a metal rod from his bag.
Boris held it to the spot he had found.
To his surprise, a hidden magic circle emerged, and a portal formed before the wall.
The experimental subjects had likely been placed to block outsiders from reaching this portal.
Boris gazed in wonder at the interference magic artifact Hades had crafted.
'A dragon-made artifact—its performance was impeccable.'
Finishing his admiration, Boris entered the portal with his team.
Woooong—
The portal led to an entirely different scene.
A vast space of solid stonework stretched before them.
'We had exited the barren old castle grounds entirely.' Still, given the portal's scale, it probably was not far.
Adol signed something then, and Boris understood, nodding.
'It felt like a separate place, but it was actually deeper underground from the previous area.'
Judging by the stonework on the floor and walls, this too was an excavated ruin.
The open space appeared unguarded.
They must have assumed no intruders could breach the portal.
Then Serena spoke.
"Captain, there's a path over there." Boris headed to where she pointed.
Following it, they found stairs descending.
Serena sent her metal beetles ahead to scout, and once clear, Boris led the team down cautiously.
The space below mirrored the one above, with stone walls and floors, but as they descended, a strong bloody scent wafted up.
'This...'
A staircase led to the side, and about ten meters down lay a massive cavern.
Boris leaned over the railing to peer into it.
Red smoke billowed ceaselessly from below, where dozens of mages bustled about.
Rumble rumble!
A massive wheel inside the wall turned with a grinding noise, and on the opposite side, people were caged—mostly southern continent folk, it seemed.
One mage shouted,
"Damn it! We're short on volume! Add another one!"
Other mages went to the cages and dragged out a man.
His eyes were glazed from drugs, his body trembling uncontrollably.
The mages tossed him into a hole near the wheel.
The wheel kept turning relentlessly, emitting horrific sounds.
Rumble rumble rumble—
Soon, red granules poured from a small hole beneath the wheel.
The mages collected them and passed them to others nearby.
They processed the granules into ominous dark-red gems.
Boris realized what they were making.
'Blood tear stones.'
They were essential materials for summoning demonkind, produced right here.
He deduced the wheel-shaped device on the wall manufactured artificial blood tear stones.
Destroying this place would deal a severe blow to Siemens and Narak.
But then— Woooong!
A black portal formed inside, and a being exuded an ominous aura as it emerged.
It carried an overwhelming presence that crushed everything, clad in sturdy Hercion.
Seeing the being's face, Boris froze.
It was a face he knew.
'Edward Siemens.'
He was the second son of the Siemens family.