Outside Silvervein City, dense, dark clouds completely obscured the moonlight, yet the battlefield was exceptionally bright.
The people huddled fearfully inside a crude barrier constructed of pure light.
Inside the barrier, a dense crowd of citizens packed together, their bodies trembling as they wept and prayed.
Their eyes were fixed on the blonde nun standing in front of the barrier, offering up their prayers for her.
“Hehehe... Hero, how much longer can you hold out?”
A cold sneer drifted down from above.
In the sky, dozens of grim figures clad in scarlet robes slowly materialized.
They were all elite Tenth and Eleventh Generation Vampires.
Cruel light gleamed in their crimson eyes as they cast greedy gazes toward the defenseless civilians huddled at the edge of the barrier.
Almost simultaneously, more than a dozen Eleventh Generation Vampires raised their hands, violent mana gathering at their fingertips.
They unleashed a volley of area-of-effect magic projectiles that screeched through the air, bypassing Kaila entirely to rain down directly onto the crowd.
With a deafening boom, the city walls along the path silently disintegrated in the scarlet light, reduced to fine stone dust and swirling ash under the torrent of blood magic.
The earth trembled, sending a wave of dust billowing toward the barrier.
At their level of power, turning an entire block into dust was child's play.
The streets were violently torn up and shredded by the raging gale of blood shadows. Amidst a dull rumble, deep, scorched craters and vast swaths of ruins were instantly plowed into the ground.
The civilians at the edge of the barrier shrieked in terror, desperately trying to flee but having nowhere to run, left with no choice but to huddle together and shiver.
Kaila slammed a massive shield formed of light into the ground. The shield suddenly expanded, covering the crowd.
With a sharp, air-rending screech, she vanished from the spot.
A Holy Light Scythe materialized in her hand. She swung it upward, the vacuum pressure from her extreme speed tearing a hundred-meter-long afterimage of holy light across the ground, violently ripping a gap through the thick blood mist.
A Holy Light Bow coalesced in her hands. Ten arrows fired simultaneously, tracing perfect arcs through the sky. They forcibly detonated the dozens of scarlet magic spheres hurtling toward the crowd, bursting into a brilliant display of red light high in the distance.
There were too many of them.
The enemies were simply too numerous.
Moments like this were always troublesome; her body and mind would fight each other, her left brain elbowing her right.
Kaila thought to herself.
Even when there was a clearly superior tactical option, she was forced to choose the safest, most defensive route to protect the civilians below.
Abruptly redirecting a slash meant for a vampire, Kaila reappeared beside a man who had stumbled out of the barrier in panic.
A burst of blood magic exploded against her back. The highly corrosive blood attempted to eat into her flesh, but the Hero's light forcibly purified it, reducing it to charred black smoke.
However, the impact tore more gashes into her nun's habit, and fine cuts began to bleed across her pale skin.
She didn't make a sound.
Right then, a Tenth Generation Vampire saw this and immediately blew a venomous whistle.
It was the vampire racial ability: Charm.
Mana drilled precisely into the back of the civilian Kaila had just protected.
The civilian's body shuddered violently, his eyes instantly bloodshot.
His facial muscles contorted into a monstrous mask. His terror vanished, replaced by a frenzied malice as he roared and charged at the Hero who had come to save him.
“Die... Die!”
Kaila backhanded him, sending him flying dozens of meters away to crash back inside the barrier.
She let out a muffled groan.
【The Hero must not harm the innocent】
“Yes, yes, exactly like that!” the Tenth Generation Vampire roared with laughter.
The next instant, a longsword formed of light pierced through his forehead, and he dissolved into ash amidst a startled shriek.
But by then, the other vampires had already begun to replicate the tactic.
A young father whom Kaila had just pulled from the rubble now wore a savage expression. He raised a heavy, sharp-edged stone block high and hurled it viciously at Kaila.
Beside him, a boy barely ten years old swung a rusted iron bar with bloodshot eyes, aiming straight for her knees.
When Kaila leaped into the air to dodge, the vampires controlled blood wolves and bats to launch close-quarters attacks on the civilians, forcing her to rescue them.
And the moment she touched the ground, they would charm the civilians near her to attack.
One after another, vampires were burned to ash by her light, but even more rushed forward to take their places.
Kaila stood her ground, letting out a soft sigh as her blonde hair whipped wildly in the bloody wind.
Thud! A sharp stone struck Kaila squarely on the temple.
The rusted iron bar whipped against her knees.
“Hero! You hypocrite!”
The controlled civilians let out beast-like roars, clawing frantically at her white habit.
Kaila kept her eyes lowered, waiting for their attacks to finish before gently subduing them one by one and tossing them back into the barrier.
“No... No! What have I done? I'm sorry... I'm sorry!” The man dropped the stone, kneeling on the ground and slapping his own face in a frenzy as he wept bitterly. “Lady Hero! I didn't mean to! Please... please save us!”
“Lady Hero, save me!”
“Lady Hero, keep going!”
“Lady Hero, you have to win!”
The citizens wailed, instinctively trying to hide behind this young girl.
“Stay inside,” Kaila said helplessly. She adjusted the position of the barrier and began moving at even greater speeds so the civilians couldn't target her.
Inevitably, the wounds on her body began to accumulate.
Her regenerative capacity was reaching its limit.
Even more high-tier vampires appeared.
The Tenth and Ninth Generation Vampires let out cruel, mocking laughter.
“That's it, Hero! Use your own body to shield them!”
The next moment, an even more violent torrent of crimson fire and bloodstorms rained down from the sky, aimed directly at the citizens weeping at Kaila's feet.
Kaila took a deep breath.
The vampires had figured out how to deal with her. If they used ranged attacks, she could block them in advance. But if they forced close combat, she would have to...
The moment she reappeared beside another civilian, a heavy blow of bloodlight, prepared long in advance, struck her squarely.
Kaila was sent flying, crashing heavily into the city wall.
The violent aftershocks of mana pulverized the remaining stone walls around her into dust.
She struggled to rise, her body trembling violently from the massive kinetic impact, before finally collapsing onto one knee.
She plunged her sword of light into the ground, using it to support her swaying body.
“How pathetic.”
Duke Vivian stood atop the towering ruins, looking down coldly at the young girl drenched in blood.
“Hero, this is your destiny.”
Dozens of vampires slowly closed in, their immense bloodline pressure compressing the air around them until it almost solidified.
Kaila's fingers tightened around the hilt of her silver sword.
Her consciousness was growing hazy from blood loss.
She could feel that her body had reached its absolute limit, and her mana pool was completely drained.
This was indeed a fatal, open scheme targeted at her within the defensive line.
If it were a simple battle, she could have won. But when every attack targeted the civilians, and the civilians themselves were turned into weapons against her, she was trapped in this tiny patch of land, forced to stay until her life was completely ground away.
She had reached her limit.
In the end, she only had a human body; it was impossible to withstand the frontal assaults of the vampires through sheer physical endurance alone.
But.
She couldn't fall here yet.
Kaila slowly closed her eyes, taking a deep breath of the cold, metallic air.
When she opened them again, all the exhaustion and bloodshot strain in her pure Hero's Eyes were wiped away in an instant, leaving only a burning, brilliant gold.
“Release,” she whispered softly.
Hum—
In an instant, an indescribable, terrifying pressure erupted from the battered girl's body.
The flickering Holy Light Shield transformed into a pillar of pure gold that pierced the heavens, instantly tearing through the heavy blood mist hanging over Silvervein City.
Under the stunned gazes of countless onlookers, a golden sun the size of a football field slowly rose from Kaila's chest, hovering a few meters above her head.
This was the inspiration she had drawn from the Witches.
By materializing her mana into a concrete projection, she could grant herself a field effect.
Kaila stood atop the sun.
An endless torrent of holy light poured from the miniature golden sun back into her body.
The wounds on her skin closed at a visible rate, and her depleted mana pool was instantly replenished to the brim.
Then, she stomped downward with immense force.
“Wait,” Vivian cried out in terror. “Wait, we can negotiate a truce—”
Boom!
The golden sun detonated directly in the midst of the vampire horde.
“W-What kind of power is this?!”
A Tenth Generation Vampire standing at the very front shrieked in absolute horror.
Before he could even take a step back, the golden sunlight washing over him erupted with a terrifying, all-consuming heat.
His transcendent physical body, despite its immense regenerative power, could not withstand the light for even a millisecond. Under the absolute heat, he was instantly carbonized and vaporized.
His flesh, bones, and the Blood Essence within him were reduced to wisps of black ash in the blaze. His shriek was cut short, vanishing entirely into the pure golden light.
And he was not the only one.
The moment the blazing sun rose, all the nearby vampires began to melt and disintegrate.
Wherever the light touched, the foul blood mist, the screeching bat swarms, and the high-tier vampires radiating violent auras were instantly swept clean.
Kaila slowly stood tall.
Her nun's habit was still torn, the white fabric stained with mottled blood.
The holy light longsword in her hand flickered twice before dispersing.
The blinding light faded.
She could still fight.
The battlefield fell into a brief, eerie silence.
The vast blood mist had been burned away by the blazing sun, leaving a massive void. A gold-rimmed rift tore open in the heavy clouds, and a ray of genuine, crimson moonlight spilled down for the first time in ages, landing on Kaila's messy blonde hair—
—singeing a small lock of her hair.
The next moment, the thick clouds closed back up.
Inside the barrier, the citizens who had been wailing just moments ago fell silent. They stared up blankly at the blood-drenched girl standing alone in the center of the ruins, watching the hem of her tattered habit sway gently in the fading holy light.
Someone instinctively held their breath.
A mother slowly released her tight grip over her child's eyes, letting those clear eyes witness the scene.
At this moment, whether it was the rescued people or the vampires who had luckily escaped the blast, everyone's gaze converged on the same spot.
It was an almost divine image.
—And this was precisely the image Crown Muse wanted.
Clap, clap, clap.
Crisp, slow applause drifted out from the dense blood mist ahead.
The sound was sharp in the silent ruins outside the city, carrying a leisurely composure and the distinct arrogance of a superior.
“Splendid. Truly magnificent.”
A deep, elegant voice spoke. Along with the applause, the blood mist parted to both sides.
A man dressed in a dark red coat with gold trim stepped forward. He had meticulously styled short silver hair, a face as pale as marble, and handsome yet sinister features.
He held a pure silver cane, his crimson eyes reflecting Kaila's battered figure, his gaze filled with unconcealed malice and cold mockery.
The Seventh Generation Vampire Duke, Crown Muse.
With his carefully nurtured descendants slain by the Hero, he had come to Silvervein City burning with vengeful fury.
Yet now, not a trace of impatience showed on the face of this noble Duke.
Kaila's gaze landed on him standing before the defensive line, but she did not answer.
She was not in the habit of trading barbs.
Scanning the ground at her feet, she spotted a thick, broken branch lying in the soil scorched by the sun's intense heat.
Kaila bent down, grasping the charred branch with her right hand.
She pointed the branch diagonally toward the ground.
Crown Muse watched her actions, his crimson eyes narrowing. He bowed elegantly, stepping aside to avoid the edge of the killing intent Kaila had instinctively focused on him.
“Your battle just now was splendid. But tell me, was it perhaps a bit too splendid?”
Duke Crown spoke with a smile.
Kaila did not reply. There was no warmth in her pure Hero's Eyes. Pushing off with her foot, she left a shallow indentation in the hard, scorched earth, turning into a blur of white as she instantly closed the distance between herself and Crown.
Even with her mana drained and her body battered, the Hero still possessed a speed that mortals could never hope to match.
Treating the charred branch like a rapier, she thrust it straight at Crown's throat, tearing through the air with a piercing screech.
However, Duke Crown merely smiled.
In an instant, his body dissolved into countless black bats, dispersing into the air before reforming on the open ground several meters away.
Crown pulled an exquisite silver metal box from his breast pocket, a crimson gemstone button set in its center. He looked at Kaila, the smile on his lips growing wider, and reached out to press the button.
Hum.
An invisible ripple expanded across the battlefield outside the city.
All the civilians brought over from the border towns froze.
As if pulled upright by invisible threads, they stood straight and looked in unison at Kaila, who was positioned in front of the defensive line.
Then, they opened their mouths.
“Lady Hero!”
“Great Lady Hero!”
“Defeat the vampires! Save us!”
“Lady Hero! You are the incarnation of justice!”
“Lady Hero!”
Thousands of civilians chanted in perfect unison.
Kaila froze on the spot.
She looked at the expressionless yet frantically cheering civilians, her brow furrowing.
“They even know about this?” She ceased her attack, standing quietly in place.
“Of course. We paid a heavy price to deal with the Hero, after all.” Duke Crown tapped his cane gently against the ground, his smile twisting. “You should feel honored. We sacrificed so much just to bury you. Now, please enjoy your power to your heart's content, Lady Hero.”
Kaila did not move.
For the people of Destinos, the more they acted in accordance with their identity, the more they fused with it, gaining immense power from it. But at the same time, they would be gradually consumed by it.
Once this fusion reached a certain threshold, the identity would instead take control of their mind and body.
At that point, a person became a mere puppet of their identity, ultimately dragged into it until both the individual and the identity vanished from the world forever.
This was the curse.
And for the identity of the Hero, what could be more conceptually fitting than being recognized under the spotlight of ten thousand eyes, surrounded by countless people cheering her on to eradicate calamity?
Kaila had always kept the boundary between her self and her identity strictly controlled at a three-to-seven ratio.
This allowed her to retain enough of her own self while still drawing immense power from the identity.
It was enough to last until she defeated the Witches.
She had never expected the vampires to exploit this.
From the very beginning, their goal had never been to kill her in combat.
The cheering infected the rest of the crowd.
The citizens who had been staring blankly at the light felt their despairing, chaotic minds suddenly find a pillar of support upon hearing the cheers.
They didn't notice the vacant eyes of the border town civilians; they only heard the thunderous cries of “Lady Hero.”
In extreme terror, the human instinct to conform was amplified infinitely.
“Lady Hero... won?”
“Yes! Lady Hero is still fighting!”
“Lady Hero! Defeat them!”
“Save us, Lady Hero!”
One by one, the citizens stood up, hope regaining in their eyes. The cheers spread, instantly infecting thousands of people.
Whether they were controlled puppets or genuinely rescued civilians, their wills and voices merged at this moment, transforming into a colossal wave of sound.
“Lady Hero—!”
The soundwave materialized into a tangible force of reality interference, slamming heavily into Kaila's body.
Hum—!
A blinding ray of golden light lit up without warning from beneath Kaila's torn habit.
Immediately after, countless fine, pure golden chains wove themselves out of the surrounding void, wrapping layer after layer around her arms, waist, and ankles.
Her depleted mana pool expanded in an instant, and her cracked skin mended under the wash of golden light, radiating a flawless luster.
Her aura began to skyrocket at a rate that defied all logic.
The colossal power, enough to obliterate an entire city, roared within her. Yet on her face, there was not a single trace of joy from this breakthrough.
“Then you are dead too,” Kaila said calmly. “You will die before me.”
Crown opened his mouth to speak, but the branch was already flying toward him.
The next instant, Crown was pierced straight through by the branch, exploding into a cloud of blood mist.
The blood mist instantly shattered into droplets, which were entirely vaporized as the branch swept past.
Reforming, Crown's eyes widened in horror.
Although he knew the Hero would be consumed by her identity, he had never imagined the power after consumption would reach such an absurd level.
“This is... the Hero?”
Crown's Adam's apple bobbed as his body instinctively tried to retreat.
Kaila waved her hand.
Crown's smile froze on his face.
He looked down, staring in shock at his own chest.
A thin white line extended diagonally from his left shoulder to his right abdomen.
The next moment, half of his body, along with his noble dark red coat, slid slowly downward along that white line without meeting any resistance.
The vacuum pressure of the holy light forcibly vaporized more than half of his Blood Essence in an instant. The pure Blood Essence that served as his core of life evaporated into nothingness the moment it touched the white light, leaving not a single drop of blood behind.
He had been cleanly sliced in two.
“Ah... Ahhh!”
A shrill shriek finally squeezed out of Crown's throat.
As a Seventh Generation Duke, his immense vitality prevented him from dying immediately. The remaining half of his body collapsed to the ground, the flesh at the wound writhing frantically as countless blood-red threads crawled out, trying to drag the other half back.
But under the purification of the lingering holy light, the severed half turned to ash the moment it hit the ground.
Fear, an unprecedented terror, overwhelmed the proud Duke.
He no longer possessed any of his former elegance; only the instinct to survive remained.
“No... This is impossible... How can this be!”
Crown desperately suppressed the remaining holy light at his wound with mana while using his sole remaining hand to crawl pathetically across the ground, trying to retreat into the surrounding blood mist.
The wounds on his body writhed as they desperately tried to regrow his missing half. His face was as pale as a ghost, and he spat out blood mixed with charred black flakes.
“Of course... I am no match for you...”
Coughing up blood, Crown let out a venomous, terrified low growl, his crimson eyes fixed on the expressionless golden statue walking toward him. “But... your opponent is...”
Before his words could finish.
The blood mist over Silvervein City vibrated violently.
Immediately after, a bright, pure silver light tore open without warning in the air above the center of the battlefield, forming a web of intersecting spatial rifts.
Pulled by countless gold-and-silver torrents of causality, the rift suddenly expanded, revealing the turbulent void shimmering with starlight behind it.
Then, a figure clad in a black Gothic dress, her bare feet snowy white, tumbled headfirst out of the rift like a piece of roughly discarded luggage.
“Eh? Ehhh—?!”
A panicked female voice shrieked in the sky above the battlefield.
Miaoyue flailed her arms clumsily in midair, her pitch-black hair whipping wildly in the wind, her pale legs kicking beneath her skirt as she tried to find her balance.
Her body flipped twice in the air before landing with an inelegant splat, tumbling pathetically onto the scorched earth.
...
Rate on N.U.
