CA - Chapter 180
Chapter 180
The direction the body fell from betrayed Lola’s group’s position. Cambecus glanced at the mountain wall behind them, but aside from the darkness, he saw nothing.
Three priests in ordinary clerical robes stepped out from the group and stood before Cambecus. Their silver-white staves shimmered with white light in the darkness. They chanted a spell in low voices, and a holy flame laced with golden light descended from the sky, enveloping the entire mountain wall.
Although these three were dressed as priests, their Power of Light was actually stronger than that of some bishops. Every Cardinal had a few guards with concealed identities by their side.
The light of the flames dispelled the darkness, revealing the faint figures of Lola and her two companions.
The holy flame made all three of them uncomfortable. They took a few steps back to avoid its range. Lola tossed aside the priest in her hand and said with a frown, “Open the Blood Domain.”
The vampire standing to her right raised a hand, and a blood-red mist began to spread. Within seconds, it extinguished the holy flame and consumed the black mist, enveloping Cambecus and his people below.
However, just as the Blood Domain was forming, a golden light shot up from below. It exploded in mid-air, tearing apart the still-thin Blood Domain. The domain’s master suffered a backlash from the golden light, and her hands instantly withered into skeletal bones.
“Beth,” the injured vampire whispered, flashing behind her companion for cover.
Beth glanced at the golden light flying toward her and slightly raised her hand. A barrier blocked the light, but the Power of Light was too domineering. The barrier didn't last long before shattering. In that brief moment, however, a new Blood Domain had already been established, and Beth, Lola, and the other vampire had moved to a new location.
Unable to find its target, the golden light was slowly consumed by the Power of Darkness within the Blood Domain.
Cambecus retracted his staff, his expression turning ugly as he looked at the Blood Domain that had ultimately taken form. “Have you identified which clan they belong to?”
The attendant priest looked at the gem in his hand used for identifying vampires and said with a grave expression, “They might be Gangrel.”
Gangrel… Why are they out and about? Cambecus clicked his tongue, his expression grim and uncertain.
After the Blood Domain was established, the three priests simultaneously chanted a spell to erect a light barrier. Standing inside it, Cambecus twirled his staff and said in a deep voice, “Go see what the situation is with Lord Sela.”
The knight commander selected several Holy Knights and sent them to investigate.
For a Cardinal, breaking a fourth-generation vampire’s Blood Domain wasn’t too difficult; it just required time to chant the spell.
The more advanced the light magic, the more time it required… Cambecus looked up to assess the strength of the light barrier, then calmed his mind and began to chant.
The Cardinal’s Power of Light still made Beth, Lola, and the other vampire wary. The injured vampire was quietly waiting for her hands to heal. Lola dashed out, grabbed a Holy Knight, and threw him to her injured companion.
Beth stared at the layered light barrier in the center of the Blood Domain. Behind her, a thick snake-like tail cracked like a whip, shattering a massive boulder into dust. She frowned and said, “The three of us alone can’t deal with a Cardinal.”
Getting close was too difficult, and this Cardinal had so many guards.
Lola crossed her arms and glanced in Tang Qiu’s direction. “We just need to take care of the guards. Someone else will deal with the Cardinal.”
“Oh?” Beth was curious. “Who? Is Lucille here too?”
“Not Lucille,” Lola replied casually. “It’s Lucille’s keeper.”
Beth was stunned. Even the self-healing vampire was distracted by the word “keeper.” The two of them stared at Lola and asked in astonishment, “Keeper?”
Although they had followed Lucille out of the Blood Domain, they didn’t know much about her due to her cold personality.
They only knew she was a picky eater.
Lola nodded and explained simply, “A Royal werewolf.”
Seeing the Power of Light beginning to gather around Cambecus, she gave Beth and the other vampire a look and said, “Interrupt that Cardinal’s chanting.” With that, she vanished, melting into the darkness to find an opportunity for a sneak attack.
Only one of the Holy Knights Cambecus had sent out managed to reach Sela’s position. Sela and the other vampires were hiding in the black mist, attacking the Holy See contingent Tang Qiu was with. Because Cambecus had previously instructed them to disguise their attack as one from Black Witches, they hadn’t revealed themselves yet.
Just like with Cambecus, Reese had also arranged for two guards for Tang Qiu whose strength was comparable to that of a bishop. With the addition of Mario, despite the endless barrage of dark magic, they still hadn’t broken the light barrier protecting them.
Sela waited for a while, but the “helpers” Cambecus mentioned never appeared. Feeling a little displeased, she was about to signal the vampires behind her to move in and capture their target when the sudden appearance of a Blood Domain above her head made her pause.
“This is… the aura of a Gangrel?” Sela was somewhat surprised. She turned toward the direction the aura was coming from, where she could vaguely see the figures of Cambecus and his group. The powerful aura of light clashed with the thick, blood-colored mist, causing fluctuations in the surrounding energy.
Cambecus’s Holy Knight ran over. He steadied himself, quickly scanned the area, and soon found Mario and the others surrounded by dark magic. His gaze searched the area around Mario before he frowned and asked, “Where is Bishop Grace?”
Sela glanced over, her expression sinking. “She was just here.”
She made a hand signal, and the vampires behind her took half a step back, disappearing into the darkness.
The Holy Knight suddenly felt a sense of unease. He gripped the longsword in his hand and said to Sela, “Archbishop Cambecus has encountered two fourth-generation vampires.”
Sela carefully scanned the besieged Holy See group again, but she still couldn’t find any trace of the blonde bishop. She remained silent for a moment before saying flatly, “I’ll go take a look.”
The Holy Knight breathed a small sigh of relief, only to hear Sela add coldly, “But don’t you forget the purpose of my trip.”
“We won’t,” the Holy Knight said in a low voice. “This area is already covered by a Blood Domain. Bishop Grace couldn’t have fled far.”
As soon as Sela and her group left, the pressure on Mario’s side immediately lessened. He lowered his staff, wiped the sweat from his brow, and was about to speak to Tang Qiu behind him when he turned and realized she was gone.
Mario’s hand froze in mid-air. His expression changed as he turned to ask the surrounding Holy Knights, “Where is Bishop Grace?”
The Holy Knights and priests looked bewildered. They had been concentrating on resisting the dark magic and had no idea when the blonde bishop had disappeared.
Mario’s brow furrowed tightly. He glanced toward where Cambecus and his group were, recalled Tang Qiu’s earlier instructions, and could only suppress his worry. He ordered the others, “Keep an eye on Cambecus’s guards. Don’t let a single one get away.”
Tang Qiu, who had vanished from under everyone’s noses, had arrived nearby right after Beth established the Blood Domain. She twirled the silver-white staff in her hand, her sky-blue eyes fixed on the light barrier protecting Cambecus and his people. There were three layers, and the strength of each was not to be underestimated.
She couldn’t let Cambecus finish casting his light spell. Tang Qiu stroked her staff, contemplating the best way to attack and shatter the three layers of the barrier without giving Cambecus and his men time to react.
A cold breeze suddenly brushed past her from behind, causing her long golden hair to lift slightly. Tang Qiu’s expression flickered. She was about to dodge, but then, thinking of something, she stopped, standing perfectly still as if she hadn’t noticed a thing.
An icy hand pressed against the side of her neck, and an unfamiliar voice sounded by her ear. The speaker was in a very good mood, their low chuckle filled with deep amusement. “Be a good girl and don’t move, you poor little bishop.”
Tang Qiu tilted her head slightly, glancing back. She smiled and asked, “Are you alone?”
The vampire sneered. “How many people do you think it takes to capture you?” As he spoke, he opened his hand to grab Tang Qiu’s neck, but his wrist was suddenly caught.
A fair, slender hand rested lightly on his wrist, yet the force was astonishingly powerful. The vampire froze for a second, then shrewdly released his grip and tried to retreat, but it was too late.
Tang Qiu grabbed the vampire’s wrist, pulled him back, and hooked a leg around the back of his knee, slamming him to the ground. She pressed her palm against his chest, her sharp nails slicing through his sternum to crush his heart.
The vampire lost consciousness completely before he even knew what had happened.
“A fifth-generation vampire…” Tang Qiu shook the blood from her hand, her eyes lowered to the corpse. “A bit weaker than the fifth-generation vampires of other clans,” she mused.
An unfamiliar aura was approaching. Tang Qiu glanced in its direction, picked up the staff from the ground, and vanished.
By the time Sela, drawn by the fluctuation of auras, arrived, only a cold corpse lay on the ground.
She narrowed her eyes and bent down to examine the wound on the corpse’s chest. A trace of surprise flashed across Sela’s face. This aura… was it a werewolf?
The Holy Knight beside her noticed her strange expression and couldn’t help but ask, “What is it?”
Sela straightened up and said impassively, “There’s a werewolf here.”
The situation was getting more and more complicated. How did capturing a mere bishop involve so many different factions?
“Are you sure?” The Holy Knight was astonished. “We searched the surrounding area and found no werewolves hiding nearby.”
“You didn’t find the Gangrel vampires either.”
The Holy Knight frowned, about to retort, when a white shadow flickered in the corner of his eye. He subconsciously turned to look. Within the blood-red mist, a massive white wolf was faintly visible.
The white wolf threw its head back and let out a howl. An invisible force tore the Blood Domain apart, and a werewolf domain unfolded, enveloping everyone within.
This sudden development stunned everyone present. Cambecus had stronger nerves; although he too was surprised, the chanting from his lips never ceased.
The white wolf shook its fur, its sky-blue eyes locking onto the light barrier above Cambecus and his men. It lowered its body slightly and shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
The three priests maintaining the light barrier in front of Cambecus watched the white wolf approach, their pupils shrinking. The immense pressure made their hands, which were gripping their staves, completely rigid.
The three-layered barrier was torn apart by a single swipe of its claws as if it were made of paper. The staves in the three priests’ hands shattered. Their faces turned pale, and they lowered their heads, spitting out a large mouthful of blood.
Cambecus’s chanting was forcibly interrupted. He could only change his unfinished light spell into a light barrier to block the white wolf’s attack.
Although the golden barrier halted the white wolf’s advance, Cambecus’s guards had been scattered, and most of them had failed to get inside the barrier.
Beth, who had been watching, was still wary of the white wolf, but Lola had already dashed out, grabbing a lone priest and snapping his neck.
At the border between the Shas Principality and the Gru Empire, Eva and other werewolves were practicing their skills on nearby magical beasts. The Wolf Race had a special way of communicating through sound, and the howl of a royal could travel across an entire country.
Tang Qiu’s howl had been unintentional, but it had unexpectedly reached the ears of Eva and the others.
The werewolves gathered, looking at each other in confusion. One asked uncertainly, “Is that the clan leader’s summons?”
Some of the werewolves were still unaware of Tang Qiu’s existence.
Eva, however, had already guessed who the howl belonged to. She frowned and said nothing.
Jemma had a flash of insight and said happily, “I know! That’s Grace’s voice!”
“Clan Leader Faye said Grace is our young clan leader,” Jemma added seriously, as if remembering something. “The kind that’s supposed to be a secret.”
Eva cut off Jemma, who was about to say more. “That’s enough, Jemma. Clan Leader Faye will explain things about Grace to us when the time is right.”
She looked up in the direction the sound had come from and remained silent for a moment before saying with a complicated expression, “Let’s go take a look. She might be in some kind of trouble.”
After all, the blonde bishop was their young clan leader. Eva ran a hand through her hair. Thinking of the hostility she had once shown the blonde bishop, she felt a complicated mix of emotions.
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