## Chapter 1097 – Krasheim

“What the hell is that crazy bastard doing?!”

I stared at the Oracle in shock.

That ominous amethyst skull! It was emitting a crimson glow from its eyes in the darkness, its jaws snapping as if in glee.

The Oracle, which couldn’t even move on its own, was flying through the sky.

“Could it be…!”

Did it suck Coltarahen’s blood and recover?! It makes sense if it was recovering by sucking blood inside Coltarahen’s barrier, and then started flying to escape as soon as the barrier collapsed.

“That son of a bitch, Coltarahen!”

How could a guy like him not even realize his blood was being sucked?! And if that thing was sucking his blood, he should have identified it as an intruder and attacked! It was a mistake to completely forget about the Oracle because it was such a fierce battle earlier.

Sensing the crisis, I calmly calculated my remaining power and plummeted.

—Kuuung!

And landed.

“The Oracle’s escaping!”
“What the fuck!”
“We’re screwed, really!”

Karin and Liztina cursed and immediately raised their energy. We quickly discussed our situation. Our remaining power was less than 10%.

We had to deal with that thing with only 10% of our power left.

“Winia! Claudia! Fall back for now! Ari too! Hilde, watch over her!”
“Yes!”

Since I knew it could use mental attacks, I had to pull the relatively weakened girls back and only attack with the tankers who could withstand it.

At my words, Winia jumped back with Claudia.

“Father, I’m okay. This is a forest, after all.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes. The situation is better than before.”

Then that’s good.

“Then we’ll quickly destroy it with a coordinated attack. It would be best to subdue it if we can, but if not, let’s just destroy it.”

We had to act fast because it could escape. As soon as I briefly explained the coordinated attack, we launched our assault.

—Wooddeudeudeuk!!

Ari attacked first. As Ari caused the plants near the Oracle to overgrow, several giant plants that had grown like monster hands were fired to attack the Oracle. At the same time, Risha activated a magic circle.

—Pueoooong!

The plants that were about to cover the Oracle all exploded. Nevertheless, Ari continuously attacked to make it focus on her plants, and only then was Risha’s spell completed.

Two black hands that appeared in the air grabbed the Oracle tightly, and a black current surged, stopping all of the Oracle’s movements.

“Andromalius!!!”

I shouted while gripping the handle of Bugal. No. Gripping the blade tightly.

“Kuh…! Who calls me!”

Only then did Andro wake up. It hadn’t reacted until now, but it woke up only after escaping the barrier. It seems there was something in the barrier after all.

“Here I go!”

Anyway, holding Bugal’s blade, I took a stance as if throwing a javelin and aimed at the Oracle. I would use all my remaining power to perform an extreme throw. In the first place, if I recklessly engaged in close combat with this much power left, I could end up in a bad situation.

—Paaat!

I kicked off the ground and took a brief run-up.

—Hwaak!

Then, I raised my left foot high.

—Kwaaaaaang!

I slammed it down powerfully, explosively twisting my waist and shoulder, and shot Bugal in my right hand like a missile.

—Swaeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

With that, Bugal was shot out as a flash of light. A Heavenly Demon Throw with all my remaining power packed into it. The flying Bugal was just a black streak of light. At that moment, as it pierced the air and flew with destructive speed.

—Jiiiiiiing!!

Several layers of magical shields were created in front of the Oracle’s head, blocking its path. That bastard… can it even use defensive magic like that now?

And when the shot flash touched the shield.

—Pachangchangchangchang!!!

The shield shattered like a glass window, and Bugal was deeply embedded in the center of the Oracle’s forehead. At the moment I sensed the success of the attack, Karin and Liztina kicked off the ground and flew towards the Oracle, then delivered a powerful blow, causing it to crash.

—Kugugugugugung!

A brief flurry of attacks poured out.

“Hey! Come over here!”

Karin shouted.
What? Is it over?

I immediately dragged my discharged body towards them. Karin and Liztina were there. And the Oracle was half-buried in the ground, completely wrecked.

“What the hell is this?”

The Oracle, in a miserable state, was just trembling on the ground, showing no other reaction.

What is this?

Is it dead?

“I thought it would be super strong… but it wasn’t that much? Is it really dead?”

Liztina said, bewildered. I briefly examined the Oracle, but I didn’t feel any murderous power.

“I don’t know, damn it. Call the witch over here quickly.”

I immediately called Risha.

“Be careful for now!”

She shouted sharply and ran over.

I’m already being careful.

“Risha. Take a look for a second. Is that thing dead?”
“Hmm…”

Risha deployed black magic and approached, examining the Oracle, then floated the Oracle into the air and pulled out the deeply embedded Bugal.

—Jureuk.

Then an unknown liquid flowed down.

“I don’t feel much power… rather, it seems to be in a very faint state now… It feels like it’s facing death.”
“It died from that?”

Wasn’t it supposed to have absorbed Coltarahen’s blood and regained its prime power? It died from just getting hit by that? No. If ordinary guys got hit by that, they would die a hundred times over.

“Well, even if it absorbed a portion of Coltarahen’s blood, Coltarahen would know everything that happened in his barrier. Furthermore, if there was something inside absorbing his power, I think he would have taken measures.”
“Ah.”

Was that it?

The Oracle didn’t absorb a huge amount of power, but only a portion, and I jumped to conclusions and rushed to finish it off. Certainly, a guy like Coltarahen wouldn’t just let his power be absorbed. It’s just that we were more threatening, so he was paying more attention to us.

“This is bullshit.”

I killed it for nothing.

“Aww, that’s a shame. It would have been useful in many ways. But we couldn’t help it just now. So don’t be disheartened.”
“Hmm… well, that’s true. Don’t be too disheartened.”

They grabbed my shoulders.

“Haa. Still, I can finally rest a bit. Let’s hurry to the stream…”

It was the moment Liztina was about to take off her gauntlets.

“Th… th-th-theuk…”

The Oracle made a sound.

This bastard!

“Risha! This thing wasn’t dead!”
“It doesn’t seem to have stopped breathing yet.”
“It has a hole in its brain?”
“It is currently recovering.”
“Recovering!”

Recovering a brain that was pierced?
Did it absorb that much power?

Whatever the case, it would be better if it was subdued without dying.

“Hey, Oracle.”

I called out to the Oracle.

“Th… theuk… grrr…”
“Damn, it can’t talk.”

As I was trying to see its reaction, Karin poked my side with her finger and said.

“Hey, hey. How can a guy with a hole in his head talk? Witch. Can we handle this well now? We have to use it in the future, right?”
“Of course, we can.”
“As expected!”

As soon as Risha deployed black magic, a black cloud was created and enveloped the Oracle, then it transformed into a round shape and hardened into a large crystal ball.

“I’ve simply sealed it, so let’s go back home and recover our strength before doing anything else.”
“Ooh!”

No problem!

“Ah! You guys really worked hard!”
“Damn, that was really tough.”

I stretched and went back with them.

“Hey, Blackie. How did it go? It looks like it was resolved well.”
“Yeah. There’s no problem. It was subdued and Risha sealed it. It wasn’t as strong as I thought.”
“That’s a relief… Blackie. You know it was a bit dangerous this time, right?”
“It was a bit dangerous. But it wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t like it was super strong.”

It was persistent.

No. To be honest, it was damn strong. It’s just that we were even stronger. There probably aren’t many beings in this world as powerful as Coltarahen right now.

But with a gang beating, we couldn’t lose.

“Still. It was dangerous. Will you be more careful next time?”
“Okay. Don’t worry.”

If something like this happens next time, I’ll be able to resolve it more easily than today.

—True Heavenly Demon Advent Step.

That principle still remains vivid.
Let’s try it again after recovering my strength.

“Haa… Katt. Still, it was very good this time. It was a bit dangerous, but we gained something from it, right?”
“Hehehe, that’s right.”

The battle with Coltarahen was very helpful.

“Then, Katt-nim. Let’s go to that stream today, wash up, and then rest a bit!”
“Let’s do that.”

We’ll rest and leave tomorrow morning.

* * *

The morning after killing the vampire was very refreshing. We woke up leisurely with the morning sunlight, immediately hunted, ate monster meat and fruits, and then took a short break.

Let’s leave leisurely.

Because once we start moving, we’ll have to run like crazy. More than anything, even though we slept for one night, our stamina and mana weren’t fully recovered. At this rate, we’d have to recuperate for about a week to fully recover our mana and condition.

“But, Blackie. That thing. Coltarahen’s heart. Let’s take a look at it.”
“Ah.”

I immediately took out Coltarahen’s heart.

—Sparkle.

A brilliantly shining jewel heart.
Everyone looked at it and touched it.

“…I can feel the power. A considerable amount of power.”
“I can feel something just by looking at it!”

As they said, it seemed to contain a very large amount of power.

“There’s no denying that this contains immense power. The spirit king’s heart we acquired last time… it’s possible that even more power is condensed in this.”
“Exactly what kind?”

Karin asked.

“Well… we’re the first to see something like this, aren’t we? I can’t even imagine what kind of power it contains.”

We surrounded Coltarahen’s heart for a while and made predictions.

“Hmph… Since he’s a vampire lord, wouldn’t it be something related to blood?”

Claudia tilted her head and said that.

“If it’s power related to blood… could it be the power to control blood?!”
“But the spirit king’s heart didn’t have the ability to control ice.”

That’s true too.

I thought there might be some kind of blood-related ability, but it wasn’t a very realistic story. It just contains a huge amount of energy… Can we just make this into an elixir and eat it like the spirit king’s heart?

“Either way, we can only find out by experimenting and researching.”
“There’s no other answer.”

Whatever the case, now that we’ve obtained it, there will be a use for it.

“But what was Coltarahen’s identity?”

Liztina said.
His identity.

Everyone nodded, as if they had become interested while fighting hard.

“Summarizing what I heard while fighting, it seems he was the king of an ancient nation called Tescania.”

So I explained.

He was a king who cared for his nation and people at the time.

“But he was betrayed or something, and he ate all the people of Tescania. The reason for the betrayal was because he was a vampire? That could be it.”

Anyway, he gained immense power from that.

“So he lived as a vicious vampire lord. He was defeated and sealed during the Idol War, but he was released recently. In a completely insane state.”
“Hmm…”

His past isn’t very important.

“That’s a decent story.”

Ari said.

“Right?”
“Well, if we hadn’t killed him here, it would have been damn dangerous. Unpaid labor is a bit much, but we got his heart, so we didn’t lose anything.”
“That’s true.”

Then let’s move on.

We immediately got up and set off for Krasheim.