Chapter 211

The moment Do-Jin saw it, certainty hit him like a punch to the gut.

That attack was never meant to be blocked or dodged, and standing there staring at it like an idiot wasn’t going to magically give him a way out. Watching a tidal wave of blood rush closer only made the dread coil tighter in his chest, and he knew freezing up would get every single one of them killed.

When an attack came in without a clear way around it, the worst possible response was to fixate on it. Survival depended on tearing his eyes away and scanning the surroundings instead, because something out there had to be able to take the hit for them.

His gaze snapped to the nearby buildings, and he dismissed the idea almost immediately. Structures that should have been solid were collapsing the instant the blood touched them, folding and crumbling like they were made of soggy cardboard. Hiding behind one of those would have been a fast and incredibly stupid way to die.

Then he saw it. One of the spires embedded throughout the Shadow Principality caught his eye. Even as the blood wave rolled over it, the structure held together, its shape staying intact while everything around it disintegrated into useless rubble. Unlike the buildings, it was still standing, and that alone made it worth betting their lives on.

Those spires were not decorative monuments. They were anchors installed by the Grand Duke, built to stabilize and maintain massive mana frameworks across the territory.

“This way,” Do-Jin shouted.

The panic gripping the party shattered instantly. Trust filled the gap without hesitation, and they moved. Do-Jin took the lead, cutting the distance by kicking off a wall and hauling himself onto the roof of a second-floor building in one smooth motion. Seeing him rush forward without hesitation, the others followed on pure instinct.

Theresa spun around to grab Soso.

“I’ve got her,” Tanto said, already moving.

He slung Soso over his shoulder like she weighed nothing and activated his rogue skills, tearing across the rooftops along the same route Do-Jin had taken with practiced ease.

Theresa decided finesse was overrated and jumped after them. The power was there, but her landing was sloppy as hell, and her foot clipped the narrow edge of a wall with a solid thud. She went down hard, slammed into the ground, then scrambled back up in a flailing mess.

“Fuck.”

At that point, she gave up on subtlety entirely. She hurled herself through the nearest window, shattering glass and frame alike, and bulldozed through the building to keep up.

The spire they were aiming for was within reach. They got there just before the sluggish blood wave caught up to them. The impact came with a heavy, wet crash as the curse slammed into the structure, and the sound alone was enough to make Do-Jin grit his teeth.

“Holy shit,” Theresa said as she stumbled in last and pressed a hand to her chest. “I was about half a second away from dying back there. I almost popped my shield.”

“Save it,” Do-Jin said without looking back.

“Fine. I’ll hold it until you tell me to stop being responsible.”

Outside, mana crackled violently. Sparks burst and scattered as the spire’s defensive frameworks collided head-on with the curse’s corrosive presence, and the air filled with the sound of power grinding itself apart.

Do-Jin could see the problem immediately. The mana and authority bound into the spire were being burned through at a terrifying pace.

So yeah, this thing was absolutely single-use. Once it took an attack like that, there’s no way it would survive another.

A sharp cracking sound echoed overhead.

Tanto shouted, “Look up!”

The upper section of the spire finally gave out and snapped, and the damage cascaded downward almost immediately. Fractures spread through the structure, and the whole thing started coming apart piece by piece. Despite that, they still couldn’t move yet.

“Get ready,” Do-Jin said while batting away falling debris and shielding himself from the fragments. “We move on my timing.”

They held out, gritting their teeth as the spire burned through the last scraps of durability it had left.

Then, Do-Jin finally gave the command. “Now.”

All four of them launched themselves out of the collapsing structure at once. The blood-hand’s path had left the ground flooded, unstable, and slick with lingering pressure. Compared to the absolute hell they had just endured, though, it was finally something they could survive.

The moment they cleared it, the spire sank completely with a heavy, crushing boom. If they had jumped out any earlier, they would have been torn apart by the attack. If they had been even a second late, they would have been buried and crushed instead. The window had been incredibly tight.

“This is such bullshit. Seriously.”

This time, it was Soso speaking from Theresa’s shoulder after Tanto passed her over, her voice flat but packed with genuine irritation. Despite the complaint, her hands never stopped moving. She was already restoring the party’s condition with practiced speed. She had rolled around with Do-Jin enough times by now that her body reacted faster than her thoughts could.

“Move now,” Do-Jin said, activating his mana circuits the moment his health recovered.

Through all of that, the curse’s manifestation was still advancing, giving them no room to breathe. They attacked the moving mass, blocked its counterattacks, and barely managed to absorb the larger patterns when they came crashing down.

Whenever the group found an opening, they blew apart another blood-formed leg to slow its advance. Over and over, the same brutal cycle repeated. The one small mercy was that damage caused by the curse didn’t affect vampires directly. Everything else paid the price.

The principality was being torn apart piece by piece, turning into a wasteland of wreckage and gore. At the same time, the distance between the curse and its target kept shrinking. As the fight dragged on, the curse changed its attack patterns again and again. It felt like the entity was learning, adjusting its movements and becoming more vicious with each exchange.

“This thing can actually die, right?” Theresa asked, breathing hard, her armor soaked as if she had been dragged out of a pool of blood.

They were currently fighting what felt like an endless flood of blood and cursed flesh, a monster that just kept producing more of itself.

“Probably,” Do-Jin answered, though he sounded worn down.

He was managing his mana as carefully as he could, but this wasn’t a fight where he could afford to hold back forever. The drain was stacking, and there was no avoiding it.

He turned to Soso and asked, “You okay, sis?”

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and nodded. Even so, her pale face made it obvious she was far from fine. Tanto was the exception. If anything, he was fighting harder than ever, moving deep into dangerous positions without hesitation.

Either way, we need to break more legs when the chance comes.

The entire party was wearing down. If they kept playing whack-a-mole with the endlessly spawning trash, the fight would never end.

Do-Jin pushed them forward by carving out space with wide-area mana attacks. Whenever he forced even a sliver of breathing room, he redirected everything into damaging the massive legs supporting the curse. Multiple legs attached to the curse collapsed simultaneously.

“The legs all went at once!” Tanto shouted from a position even riskier than the tank’s.

“Guuuuuh...”

A deep, miserable sound echoed as the curse’s manifestation slumped forward and collapsed onto the ground. The impact shook the area, and with another heavy boom, a new message appeared.

[You have temporarily halted the movement of the curse’s manifestation. The core of the curse will soon be exposed. Do not miss this opportunity.]

A massive wound tore open along the side of the fallen curse, splitting apart like the gills of a gigantic fish. From deep within that opening, an overwhelming mana reaction surged outward.

Seeing both the message and the opening at the same time, Theresa raised her shield and charged. She plowed through the blood masses blocking the way, roaring at the top of her lungs as she forced a path forward. Tanto ran alongside her, swinging his axe and dagger without slowing down.

Meanwhile, Do-Jin followed through the path the two of them forced open, dealing with anything that tried to crash in from the sides. The party broke through the resistance and pushed into the interior of the curse’s body.

“Fuck, the trash mobs got stronger!”

“I’ll handle them!”

The moment they crossed inside, lesser enemies began spawning directly from the walls. Blades, spears, and whips formed from coagulated blood lashed out constantly, hunting Do-Jin’s group from every direction.

[The curse’s manifestation is attempting to recover its strength.]

The space trembled as they fought their way forward. The curse was trying to rise again. Do-Jin could feel it immediately. The interior was shrinking. The wounds and fractures were closing as the flesh knitted itself back together. If they stalled here, they would be crushed and buried alive inside the curse’s body.

“Break through!” Do-Jin shouted as he hurled mana forward.

A wave of flame tore through the corridor, sweeping enemies aside in a violent burst. The momentary opening was all Tanto needed. He charged ahead like a lunatic, hacking down enemies as they peeled off the walls, buying precious seconds with every swing.

Do-Jin overtook him. Anything that rushed him was burned away by the flames clinging to his body or electrocuted mid-charge. Reflected through Crimson Night, the world looked like it was burning in dark red fire. The mana pouring out of the curse’s core felt just as intense, thick with a suffocating sense of decay.

Found it.

At the end of the passage, a black mass sat embedded deep inside the flesh, connected by countless vein-like strands. It pulsed like a heart that was swollen and rotten.

Do-Jin unleashed a Flame Cannon reinforced with a Destruction Rune right into the core, causing the walls, ceiling, and ground to shake violently as if an earthquake had ripped through the interior. Destroying the core caused the curse’s manifestation to take tangible damage. For a split second, it felt like it might actually be over.

[One of the nine cores possessed by the curse’s manifestation has been destroyed.]

Seeing the message, Do-Jin and the other three reached the same conclusion at once.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

No other words even came to mind. That was why they were slow to react when fresh flesh began growing over the spot where the core had been.

“Run!”

The realization hit too late, but it hit hard enough to get them moving. They bolted the moment Do-Jin understood that this space was about to collapse. They barely managed to escape, and even that small victory brought no relief.

The curse’s manifestation stood back up as if nothing had happened and resumed its advance, unfazed by the core they had destroyed. Trying to cling to hope by telling himself that they had at least broken one core felt pointless. The pressure coming from the eight that remained was overwhelming.

As Do-Jin took in the sheer scale of the enemy before them, a suffocating sense of despair settled in. It felt like being trapped in a room that was slowly filling with water. It also felt like blood was leaking out of his body one drop at a time. A disaster that had already been decided was taking one steady step closer.

I have to stop it. I have to, but...

They kept fighting. Through sheer persistence, they managed to destroy a second core. They threw in everything they had. Any consumables or items they had were used without hesitation.

The fight dragged on to the point where they had to rotate life, mana, and stamina recovery just to stay upright. At one point, Theresa got separated while the healer was down on mana and the damage dealers lost momentum. Those setbacks combined into a fatal opening.

“Theresa!” Soso’s scream came out thin and pale with shock.

It might as well have been the entire party screaming at once. In a fight this long, losing the tank wasn’t a setback. It was a disaster.

Do-Jin ordered a retreat. “Tanto. Pull in and protect the healer first.”

With their anchor gone, fighting the way they had before was no longer an option. The pressure was too heavy, and the margin for error was gone.

If she had at least activated the relic shield...

Unbeknownst to him, Theresa never got the chance. Her body had hit its limit, causing her to black out first. It was a common way to die. Losing consciousness for a split second and getting killed before the body could react.

After their tank had fallen, the battle became even more brutal. Even so, Do-Jin didn’t give up. Hope was nowhere to be seen, but that didn’t matter. Letting go meant the end, and he refused to accept that. Maybe if he took one more step, just one more step forward, there might be something ahead that he couldn’t see yet. As long as he didn’t give up, it wasn’t over.

Hold on. A voice echoed inside Do-Jin’s head.

No, it wasn’t from his head. It was closer to his eyes. Something felt wrong inside Crimson Night. Do-Jin raised a hand and brushed his fingers across his eye. He could feel his skin, but there was no sensation from the eye itself. It felt numb, like part of it had been anesthetized.

This is no longer under my control.

Only one being could do this, and only one being would ask him to endure.

“Grand Duke?”

The one who had given him these eyes.

“Hold on just a little longer.” The voice was faint and laced with static, but it was more than enough to become hope.

“I am already hanging on by a thread, but I will hold out a little longer.”

So whatever you are doing, hurry the hell up.

Do-Jin rubbed his eye once more, steadied his breathing, and began charging another spell.