Chapter 263: Dimensional Descent
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Originally named Fina Milan, Lilith Milan was a high-level member of the Blood Tribe as well as the main character of “Sleeping Beauty.” Events in her past caused her to lose her trust in men and not feel safe around them, and she was now s.e.xually interested in only women.
Yet ever since our time in Sulfur Mountain City, she was my most trusted subordinate…fine, the main reason for this was that my other subordinates were too unreliable and unworthy of my trust.
She would separate personal matters from work and would always keep her cool during incidents. Trusted by all her companions, she possessed a great deal of common sense. This was most important—this last part alone made her stand far above a certain group of b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.
However, Amelia’s appearance had exposed Lilith’s true familial history and ident.i.ty. This had led the higher-ups of the Church of Law to a standstill; they weren’t sure whether she would leave because of this. Without her, things would become incredibly difficult, which would be a disaster.
Luckily, she had made her choice known to everyone by silently continuing to work as needed. She had chosen to remain in the church.
That was why we all were astonished when Amelia and her had suddenly left a few weeks ago. They had only left a short message with no clear explanation. Although we did possess the ability to keep in touch with each other, it was still quite a surprise for me to meet her here.
“Why are you here? Wasn’t Amelia together with you? Where is she?”
Lilith’s face was quite pale as she shook her head. The blood seeping out from the corner of her mouth explained everything. Upon taking a closer look, it was evident that she was in a bad condition.
“Eh? You’re injured? It appears quite serious?”
Lilith’s life had been changed by a secret forbidden spell. She was a special, one-of-a-kind Blood Tribe; basically, she was a type of true ancestor. Although she was quite young (for a Blood Tribe member), not only did she practically not have a fear of sunlight, but her power level was quite high as well. Vampires were also naturally talented at recovering from their injuries. That was why it was definite that she had received some serious injuries; she had even lost control of her blood, the most precious thing to any Blood Tribe member.
“Cough… I was a little injured, and didn’t… suck any blood.”
I instantly understood. Due to some certain preferences of hers, Lilith had always relied on certain women that she “got along well” with as food sources, and had never attacked or killed anyone.
As a Blood Tribe member who served the Church of Law, her morals were a little too proper and outstanding. Even if she was heavily injured, she had no intentions of attacking others to help herself recover. Although she had made it all the way here, her injuries must have only gotten worse; she was almost unable to control her instincts anymore. It seemed like her eyes were turning green as she looked at Yawen.
Why was this picky eater only looking at Yawen? She had known Krose for many years already and obviously knew what Krose had been in the past, not to mention that Krose had been sent out with a task to do today. Harloys had a beautiful outer appearance, but her Blood Tribe instinct kept reminding her that there was definitely a scary monster under that beautiful appearance, so she definitely wouldn’t touch Harloys. Little Red’s dragon blood would be incredibly healthy and beneficial for her, but Lilith wouldn’t even dare to mention this in front of her. So, her only choice was this gray elf female knight.
“…I… can still go on.”
Yet judging by how she was spitting blood as she spoke, it was obviously not a good idea to have her go on like this. No matter if it was a druid’s life magic or a Holy Knight’s holy healing magic, they would only have the opposite effect on a Blood Tribe. Any herbs or medicines wouldn’t work on her undead body, either. If she lost any more blood, it would likely be difficult for her to maintain her sense of reason.
“I’ll do it.”
Although Yawen had said so, I knew that she couldn’t. Part of the moonlight ritual involved using needles to continuously pierce the skin, which would cause a large amount of blood loss. It would be quite difficult for Yawen to donate any blood at this time, not to mention that Blood Tribe members often lost control of themselves when injured. It would be quite unfortunate if Lilith accidentally killed Yawen.
“Who else, then?”
Alright, if none of the women could do, then Lilith decided to make do with a man. Taking a look around, Lilith saw that Cohen was too weak, Eaglestorm was too old, and she was scared of infectious diseases if she bit Beifeng. Finally, her green-tinged eyes landed on me, and she was astonished to discover that her master’s blood had an appetizing aroma, resembling that of three-hundred-year-old wine.
“Master…”
That ravenous stare made me break out into a cold sweat. When I looked around me, everyone backed away and looked at me with expressions of satisfaction at my upcoming disaster.
Well, I could only fill in this pit that I had dug for myself. I helplessly reached out my arm and furled up my sleeve. I looked out the window and didn’t dare watch the sight.
“Please be light with me. I’m more scared of receiving needle shots than anything. Oh, right, my veins are a bit deep. It won’t take you a few extra bites, will it? Look and make sure before you bite down.”
Alright then. At the very least, she was much better than certain clumsy nurses in my previous world and made me bleed with a single bite. However, even though I had clearly reached out with my arm, what hurt instead was my neck… Who said that it was a pleasurable experience having blood sucked by a Blood Tribe member? Come out, I promise not to beat you to death… as for that strange and numbing wonderful sensation that came afterwards, it was definitely a mistaken impression. Yep, a mistaken impression.
“What a wondrous and rare flavor, as expected of Princess P—”
“Shut up! If you keep talking about that, no more blood for you.”
“You’re saying that a Dimensional Descent appeared? How is this possible!?”
“Yes, Aunt Amelia (why does this sound so awkward to me?) met an incredibly powerful opponent, and we were separated. But before we lost each other, she came to such a conclusion.”
Soon, Lilith was fully reinvigorated and filled with energy again, so she gave me an explanation of everything.
It turned out that Amelia had left because of a huge incident after all. The border clashes between the Bardi Empire and Mage Country had turned into all-out warfare, but just such a “small matter” wouldn’t have moved Amelia. Ultimately, she was both one of the highest-ranked mages in the Mage Country as well as a member of the Bardi royalty. Not only that, she hadn’t partic.i.p.ated in either country’s affairs for so many years already, and due to certain ridiculous habits of hers, both sides probably wanted to remove her name from their ranks.
What really made Amelia decide to take action was a piece of news that one of her subordinates in the Bardi Empire privately sent her. This message mentioned that in Port Victoria, a major merchant port city which recently joined the Bardi Empire, a large amount of blood sacrifice incidents had appeared. There even seemed to be signs of the presence of high-level undead. Also, more than twenty strange black towers had been erected outside of the city, with some purple-black crystals lighting up the tower tips. There were even sounds of souls wailing reported to be heard in the vicinity.
“Soul-Summoning Towers” were incredibly common in undead magic. They were a type of magic user’s personal base, very similar to an archmage’s mage tower. There were countless different functions and sizes based on customization, but all of them would have some basic functions in common—summoning the souls of the dead and cultivating the souls into an undead mage’s magic power, which would increase the power of their undead magic. As long as there was a sufficient number of dead and their souls in the Soul-summoning Tower’s area, an undead archmage would have basically limitless mana.
This was also part of the reason why the G.o.ds despised the undead. However, the creator of Soul-Summoning Towers didn’t dare go too overboard to the point of interfering with the cycle of reincarnation. The souls that were drained of their mana could still enter into the cycle of reincarnation after the undead mage was done with them. However, that was only possible if they didn’t turn into undead because of the extremely painful process of draining their mana that would leave them with countless grudges.
When comparing Soul-Summoning Towers with mage towers, the former was slightly weaker than the latter, but due to the fact that materials needed for the former’s construction were undead materials, they were much cheaper to construct. They were easier to construct as well, taking up much less time, so it was a product that could be said to be of high-quality and cheap. Of course, the side effect would be that everyone would come attack you. Not only that, any place that erected Soul-Summoning Towers doubtlessly meant that there were high-level undead present there, which would cause the Holy Church to immediately send people to attack them.
“…But the Bardi Empire has already exiled the Holy Church and all Holy Light job cla.s.s members. The Bardi Empire’s also remaining strangely silent on this matter. Port Victoria’s various organizations and citizens can only think of their own ways to survive. Aunt Amelia has a friend living there. But unfortunately, when we arrived, everything was already in chaos. The Undead Plane has begun its Dimensional Descent already.”
Lilith’s tale caused everyone hearing it to inhale cold air. Although she said it so lightly, everyone here who knew what a Dimensional Descent was could already imagine a scene that was like h.e.l.l on Eich. But what astonished me even more was that Amelia actually had a friend—cough—cough—I should get back to the main topic.
“You’re absolutely certain that it’s a Dimensional Descent and not simply the opening of the Undead Plane Dimensional Door?”
“Yes, it’s Aunt Amelia’s a.s.sessment. With everything that’s happened after that as well, there should be no mistake.”
“Dimensional Descent” was a specialized term that even mages rarely used. This term referred to what would happen if two planes got sufficiently close enough to each other. Parts of some areas would begin overlapping. This would typically appear near the closest areas to the Dimensional Door. For example, if the Earth Elemental Dimensional Door at Antuen really succeeded in opening, then the surrounding environment would have begun showing signs of elementalization. The large amounts of naturally born small and mid-sized earth elementals were the best evidence of this.
However, in most normal cases, even if a Dimensional Door succeeded in completely opening, at most the area around the Dimensional Door would change to match the other plane’s environment. A complete dimensional overlap wouldn’t appear. To use an a.n.a.logy, the change to the environment that a Dimensional Door typically brought about was like adding some sugar to water and making it into sugar water, while a Dimensional Descent was like squeezing two cups of water into one cup of water, which would likely result in the cup breaking.
“If one of the Elemental Planes performs a Dimensional Descent, then more than half of everything living in the surrounding area will instantly die off. Those still left alive would have characteristics of elemental creatures and would never be able to live normally on the mortal plane again. If the Undead Plane, which is filled with death, performs a Dimensional Descent…”
Doubtlessly, Harloys, who was an expert on magic, had the greatest right to make an a.s.sessment of what would happen. Yet judging from her current expression and silence, it was obvious that she didn’t have much hope for Port Victoria.
“I believe in Amelia’s ability to a.s.sess the situation. If the Undead Plane really is performing a Dimensional Descent, then we should consider not going there to save anyone; all the living will instantly turn into the dead, and part of the Undead Plane will appear there. And it’s probably a permanent effect. This is far more troublesome than any Land of Death.”
I nodded in agreement. Harloys’ a.s.sessment, which she had finally ended up giving, was basically the same as what I was thinking. However, I had thought of even more troubles.
“If that place has already transformed into a part of the Undead Plane, then that means some existences that are limited by dimensional natural laws will be able to descend there. No wonder Amelia met with trouble. There’s a high probability that she met a real Undead Emperor.”
It was obvious that the major city Port Victoria would become nothing more than a page of history. Its population of almost one million residents had completely turned into undead, and the veterans of the Undead Plane had their own home bases established there now. But, I was thinking of how the Bardi Empire was destined to leave its name in the history books for infamy, having paid such a large price—a price that was likely only going to grow even larger.
“There’s no response from the Bardi government?”
“None at all, and news about it has been suppressed. When I managed to escape, I even saw knights in the surrounding area keeping the main road leading to Port Victoria on a lockdown. Caped undead were also openly talking to military officials, while skeleton soldiers and zombies were being organized and commanded by human officers. It’s obvious that they’ve already reached an accord. And…”
“And?”
“I heard some news that the Bardi government’s official channels are announcing that the new undead armies are here to help the Bardi Empire defeat the Mage Country. Although it caused quite a lot of resistance, it all seems to have been suppressed.”
As a port, Port Victoria was obviously by the sea. And right across the sea from Port Victoria was the Mage Country. I was basically able to guess their intentions from these pieces of information.
The merchant city Port Victoria originally belonged to another country and was a location that the Bardi Empire had recently obtained; it wasn’t a place that they highly valued to begin with. A merchant city like Port Victoria wouldn’t have many military s.h.i.+ps stationed, while the ones present, typically the small and medium-sized merchant s.h.i.+ps, wouldn’t be able to carry many people. Even if Bardi’s renowned land armies went on s.h.i.+ps into the Strait of Debo, they’d be nothing more than easy targets unable to conveniently use the advantages that they had on land.
After receiving more and more information, I had a guess—but there would be a huge amount of trouble if I was on the mark. I directly stated what I was thinking.
“How wide is the Strait of Debo? I only want the straight line distance.”
Yawen took out a map and measured it with a ruler. When she converted the distance scale on the map, she suddenly lifted her head.
“Less than two hundred kilometers! If the undead army makes a sudden march, one night will be more than enough.”
Undead weren’t afraid of fatigue and didn’t need to breathe. Natural barriers that were impossible obstacles for other living creatures were nothing in front of them.
The ocean waters were treacherous? Ocean waves were tall enough to capsize vessels? While that may be true for the ocean’s surface, the bottom of the ocean was always calm.
All the port areas where vessels could land at in the Mage Country were heavily guarded? In that case, just find any random unguarded area to climb ash.o.r.e.
These were all tactics I had used back in the day to make use of the special characteristics of the undead, attacking with unexpected methods. Yet since I had made these precedents, it was only natural that they became standard undead attacking strategies.
With all this information, the big picture was getting quite obvious. But even the ruler of an empire wouldn’t be able to act entirely as he pleased, making such obviously ridiculous policies. At the very least, he would have to convince all the factions within his country and give the other factions red herrings of benefits to be gained; he would have to convince his subordinates somehow.
The current Bardi Empire was still likely at a cooperative stage with the Undead Emperors. As long as the undead were able to prove their worth, there would be plenty more cooperative opportunities between them and the Bardi Empire in the future, and of course the undead would help the Bardi Empire even more in the future. Since Port Victoria was formerly an enemy country’s city that had been recently conquered, why would the Bardi Empire care about it?
“If the undead armies suddenly ambush the Mage Country from underwater with high-level undead a.s.sisting them, then even the Mage Country might not be able to defend against them. Perhaps Amelia heard some news about this, which was why she personally went… Lilith, do you have more detailed information about what happened to Amelia?”
Lilith anxiously shook her head; she seemed to lack self-confidence.
“No. Not long after we arrived, the Dimensional Descent occurred. Of course, as a member of the Blood Tribe, I was fine. But, no matter how strong Aunt Amelia is, she’s still a human, and apparently she recently fought against someone powerful and was a little injured…”
However, I smiled at Lilith’s anxiousness. Perhaps this would be the brink for others, but I didn’t at all feel like that maniacal witch would have any problems. Her existence had already exceeded the capabilities of life.
“…Relax, she’s even less a member of the human species than you are.”
“Relax, Lady Lilith. I can sense that in that direction, Lady Amelia’s life forces are still blazing strongly. Not only one month, but I think she can easily maintain herself there for another two or three years. She’s not the one in trouble; the undead that angered her are the ones who have to worry.”
Eaglestorm, who had been closing his eyes and thinking, suddenly spoke up and made such a statement. Lilith, however, only believed his words halfheartedly. There was such a great physical distance between them; it seemed for even a Legend-ranked druid to make such a statement with confidence.
However, Harloys and I exchanged glances. Back in the Earth Elemental Plane, Eaglestorm had also witnessed Amelia’s complete form. As a druid who lived in the forests, it was basically a natural talent of his to sense a forest. If he said that Amelia would be fine for the time being, then it was very likely true.
Even at the very worst Amelia would be forced to reveal her true form, and she still wouldn’t be easily dealt with. I was able to somewhat relax when I thought of this. Yet all these things had happened, and I had already decided on what to do for the next part of our little excursion.
“Hurry up with our preparations and gather all the equipment we need. At the very latest, we shall move out on the day after tomorrow. It’ll be best if we can find a Bardi merchant, as that’s the best way to sneak in. If not, we’ll have to secretly cross the border!”