Chapter 178 Tragedy

“Dominique. Are there any towns around here other than Elhagan?”

　I asked Dominique as I continued my search and returned to Elhagan.

"Hmmm. It's not the size of a town, though, more like villages, a few of them."

"Then show me around. Let's check them thoroughly."

　I went around villages and settlements with Dominique, but there was no sign of Upior or even villagers or goblins.

“Dominique, do you have any idea?"

　Dominique said this while keeping an eye on the surroundings.

"...No...wait...maybe..."

　Dominique's face gradually turned pale.

　When I saw Dominique's face, I too thought of a place I never wanted to be.

"...Elhagan...maybe...no! Elhagan is the only one!"

　Seems like he was thinking the same thing. When we headed to the source of the goblin swarm... in other words, the vampires, we didn't pay close attention to the goblins heading toward Elhagan so that the goblins wouldn't notice our presence.

　From the beginning, I had planned to defeat the vampires with a surprise attack, so I didn't use Search to search for enemies, since it undoubtedly revealed our presence to a formidable opponent.

　Also, at first I thought there were vampires, but I thought there was only one, and I never expected there to be four. Moreover, if there were vampires, I assumed it would be floating near the floating wall.

　Maybe I was naive... No, it should have been the best move at that point... I was able to defeat the vampire quite easily in the end, but there was a possibility that there was a vampire stronger than Upial.

　Actually, considering the amount of monsters appearing, I thought it was definitely more than Upial.

“Let's hurry to Elhagan!”

　With that, I started running towards Dominique and Elhagan.

　While I ran, defeating goblins along the way, Dominique ran without stopping. After about 20 minutes of running, Dominique began to show signs of fatigue.

　No wonder. All of my equipment is light, but Dominique's is heavy. Without a doubt, he is wore armor that is many times heavier than me... no, tens of times heavier. It would be tough to run for long periods with such equipment.

"Marth! Go ahead! You'll soon see Elhagan! I'll definitely catch up with you later, please!"

　Dominique told me to hurry to Elhagan by myself. I rushed to Elhagan while defeating goblins, but I didn't burn them after parting ways with Dominique.

　Anyway, I just needed to outdo the current situation, so I ran to Elhagan using the shortest route while defeating all the goblins within sight with my sword and wind cutter. Right now, my top priority is to reach Elhagan as quickly as possible.

　As I approached Elhagan, I saw a crowd of people in front of the north gate, all looking towards the east. There is one person on the east side, facing the north gate. The guy on the east side is probably Upior. The difference in distance from the adventurers is about 50 meters.....

　And there was someone who had been fighting Upior alone ever since. The person wearing luxurious vestments...that was the Pope.

　I slowly approach Upior without being noticed.

　When I got within about 500 meters of Upior, I realized that Upior's right hand was grabbing someone's head.

　I couldn't see it because the angle was bad, so I walked slowly towards Upior's front and looked at his right hand...I saw that the head of the Pope's son, Seraph, was being grabbed.

　The Seraph was desperately trying to escape by flapping its legs, but as expected, the child Seraph would not be able to escape if the vampire grabbed him. After a while, Seraph fainted and became limp.

　Maybe it's because Seraph is a hostage, the adventurers and temple knights are just looking at Upior, holding their weapons at the ready.

　The Pope is fighting Upior. No... he was being toyed with by Upior. But the Pope didn't seem to be giving up.

　He was blown away multiple times by Upior. What's strange is that Pope fights Upior with an ordinary iron sword instead of the Clarent that hangs from his waist.

　I wondered where Hissu had gone, I looked around and saw that he was on top of the city wall near where Pope and Upior were fighting, and was trying to time it to attack Upior who was below.

　I was debating whether to keep going or go slowly so I wouldn't be spotted, but I wanted to keep going and check the situation in detail as soon as possible.

　When I ran towards the direction where Pope and Upior were fighting, Upior seemed to notice me and yelled at me while using Seraph as a shield.

"You! If you don't stop there, I'll crush this guy's head!"

　I got pretty close to it, so I could already hear it, so I guess it's okay.

"Hey! Just go to the adventurers!"

　Upior gave an order to me. I obediently headed toward the adventurers, but while I was there, I appraised Upior. There was a scar on Upior's cheek from where he was probably cut a long time ago. This is probably the vampire who killed Dominique master...

[Name] Upior Barton

[title]-

[Status] Demon (vampire), head of the Earl Burton family

[Condition] Good

[Age] 124

[Level] 50

[HP]249/250

[MP] 198/444

[Strength] 98

[Agility] 80

[Magic power] 72

[dexterity] 32

[Durability] 98

[Luck] 1

[Special ability] Magic eye (LvMax)

[Special ability] Taijutsu (Lv8/B)

[Special ability] Fire magic (Lv6/D)

[Special ability] Gate magic (Lv2/E)

[Special ability] HP recovery promotion (Lv7/C)

[Details] Weak against Holy magic

　It feels like Upior is more of a martial artist compared to the three vampires from earlier. The fact that he has magic eyes makes him troublesome. Upior seems to have noticed that I appraised him and glared at me.

　When I got behind the adventurers, I asked a nearby adventurer about the situation.

"Why is only the Pope fighting?"

　In a hushed voice, I heard,

"That vampire is threatening us. If anyone other than the Pope approaches, he'll crush Seraph-sama's head."

　Well, it's just as I thought...the timing of Hissu attack is crucial. In addition, the Pope's damage has accumulated considerably. Upior is strong no matter how much he is being neglected...

　The Pope's HP is gradually decreasing, and he is clearly exhausted. If this continues, there will be no timing for the Hissu to descend.

　I can feel myself gradually getting anxious. At that moment, a glimmer of hope appeared in my eyes. Dominique, who had arrived late, approached quite closely. Upior is quite wary of me hiding behind the adventurers.

"Hey! Blonde bastard! If you move the slightest bit, I'll definitely crush this brat's head!"

　Alright... it seems that Upior isn't aware of Dominique and Hissu. I'm sure Upior is really worried about me since he can't appraise me.

　Dominique, out of breath, ran towards us with Sonic Boom in one hand. He is now as close to Upior as the Pope.

　Seeing this, the Pope yells at Upior and rushes towards him.

　Furthermore, Hissu is about to jump off the city wall.

　First, Dominique slashed Upior's right arm, which was holding onto Seraph, with a blow from behind.

　Dominique immediately throws Seraph towards me. Even if I'm hiding behind the adventurers, with my tall stature and blond hair so I stand out no matter where I am. However, no matter how small the child was, there was no way he could reach me from Dominique's position.

　But here some effort came in handy. It was a magic created to deal with women at the Martial Art Festival. Well, I used it to carry luggage when I was doing carpentry work, and to carry luggage in the labyrinth, this magic specialized in gently wrapping things, and I named it "Airy". I cast Airy and slowly wrap the Seraph in the wind and carry it to the rear.

　Upior was surprised when Dominique cut his right arm, but when he immediately tried to attack Dominique with a left-hand knifehand strike, Hissu fell from above and aimed at Upior's head.

　However, Upior realized this at the last minute and sacrificed his left arm to block the attack to the head. He probably noticed Hissu's presence through his shadow...

　Now, Upior's right arm was slashed by Dominique, his left arm was slashed by Hissu, and both of his arms are missing. Then, the Pope throws away the iron sword he had been equipped with and uses Clarent, which is hanging from his waist, to unleash an IAI slash attack on Upior. (TN : iai)

　When I thought that the deadly sword had cut off Upior's head, Upior looked at Clarent and showed a surprised expression.

　The surprised Upior turned into a bat and dodged the Pope's Clarent, then immediately returned to his human form and slashed the Pope's right arm with the left-hand knifehand that was supposed to have been cut by Hissu earlier.

　Upior then burned the Pope's arm and Clarent, who were floating in the air, with a flare. Upior's right arm, which was supposed to have been cut by Dominique, has already regenerated.

　Come to think of it, when you fought Upial and gave him an electric shock, he said that he couldn't regenerate...I wonder if it would be able to regenerate under normal conditions...However, Upior's MP is already 98/444.

"That sword is the cursed sword that scarred my face! How dare you... I'll kill you!"

　Upior, who released a flare, exploded in anger at the Pope and was about to pierce the Pope's chest.

　At that time, I was unable to move forward because the adventurers in front of me were in the way.

"Please move out of the way!"

　Even if I scream, no one will listen to me. The adventurers and temple knights were just engrossed in watching the battle between the three.

　Right now, rather than pushing my way through them, I'm trying to forcibly move the adventurers away and come forward. If my future vision had shown the worst outcome, I would have blown these adventurers away with the wind and come forward.

　However, since my future vision didn't show a future in which the Pope would die, I didn't use Wind to move forward... I wish I had noticed at this time... that for some reason, my future vision couldn't predict Upior's attacks either.

　The next moment... when Upior's right arm was about to pierce the Pope's chest... Hissu stepped between Upior and the Pope, and took the place of the Pope and being pierced in the chest.

TN : if you found something wrong just let me know

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