A new and mysterious figure emerged amidst the confrontation. Julia and her maids locked their eyes into her, all while the skeleton knight Darkbound protected the ladies. The clearly Vampiric woman walked through the corridor, her steps made loud sounds as she made herself clear to be here. A beauty covered in black clothing, her face was not visible as she covered it with a black and red mask in the shape of a laughing jester.
An aura of dread and darkness emanated from within her body, as the scent of blood constantly filled the room. Julia was completely surprised by how the vampires got inside so easily. It was now more than clear that someone was a traitor, or various people. The barrier of magic made by the magicians of the Fiefdom and the Court Magician Emiliano would easily not let others get inside without any sort of wounds.
The barriers were also made to generate loud, alarm-like sounds whenever someone tried to forcefully enter, and to make things even clearer, if the barrier was broken down, it would generate a broken glass sound that would easily tell anybody the barrier was destroyed. There was no way these people got inside without a traitor already inside the castle, who could also know the structure behind the barrier… it was most likely someone that knew how it worked and held the capacity to shape it and open it so others could sneak in without being noticed.
“You… how did you all get inside the house? Is there a traitor?!” Asked Julia angrily, taking out her rapier and infusing mana into it, as the magic weapon, forged by blacksmiths that were well paid, began to glow with a bright blue aura. She was not the strongest, and her strength could be said to be average, but she wasn’t completely defenseless either. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Fufu, little duchess, you’re always acting as if you were in a comfortable position to be asking questions.” Laughed the Vampiric woman wearing the mask, as she suddenly took two blades from their sheaths, although they had a strange half-moon shape, they were scimitars. Such weapons were often used as tools to harvest crop, but there were some countries in the world that used them as weapons. The woman paid no effort into infusing the weapons with vast mana and her Blood and Darkness Aura.
“You Vampires… what’s your end game? You want to slay me and then what? Take over the fiefdom by yourselves? Do you truly believe my grandfather will allow you all to just take over a fiefdom?! You’re demons that had been preying upon our people in the shadows for generations, I shall not allow you to do as you please!” Roared Julia, braver than her strength could allow her to be.
“L-Lady Julia, aren’t you being a bit too rash?!” Asked the clumsy Faire, as her wand was glowing with bright green light.
“Rash? I am merely asking things! We might as well ask stuff before we begin smacking each other!” Julia said while looking at her maid angrily.
“Fufu, aren’t you all so cheery tonight? Julia, do you truly think this Undead is going to make a difference? Without your mercenaries at your side, you’re nothing but a defenseless little girl getting her nose into your business… You and this entire town will soon know what’s hell.” Said the vampiric woman. “Men, do your worst!”
The Vampiress commanded her men, as the black coated men slowly walked towards the girls. They were all wielding magic weapons imbued with mana and even souls, making them stronger Cursed Weapons. However, as a response, the shadows of Julia began to move around, suddenly several other figures emerged from within the shadows, they were animal shaped, it was Kuro and Raven, and others Undead, around four skeletons wearing armor and rusty weapons imbued with magic.
“Huh? More Undead?” Asked the Masked Vampire Woman, as she looked at the mighty Kuro and Raven, two powerful Undead that had accompanied Maria through her journey from the very beginning emerge, they had evolved and grown stronger over time, and both irradiated the auras of creatures close to B Rank in terms of strength!
And that’s while they had yet to unleash their fullest potential. At the same time, many other snakes emerged alongside the skeletons wearing magical equipment, these giant phantasmal snakes were all Maria’s Familiars, and held a bit of her magical capabilities.
“More?!” The Masked Vampire Woman couldn’t help but ask in shock, she had not expected Julia to have so many guardians, and through such a rare method of shadow magic! It was already very rare to find a user of specialized darkness attribute magic, but even those she knew were not capable of doing something as storing undead inside shadows, not only from the original conjurer, but from a designated target as well. “What sort of magician is capable of doing this to such an extent, is this “Marie” that you’ve employed an S-Ranked Adventurer or something? we researched everywhere and we couldn’t find anything about her or her stupid little party…!”
“Heh, Marie is a Mercenary, and perhaps a Bounty Hunter, she is not from these lands, and come from far away, she’s strong enough to piss over all of you… Now, Undead, my friends, onwards!” Said Julia with an extremely cocky smile. She was actually incredibly fearful deep inside, but she was pretending to have the upper hand to cement fear into the hearts of her foes.
The Skeletons began to laugh with terrifying and phantasmal voices as their jaws clacked constantly, they moved quicker than the vampires expected and swung their cursed weapons at them!
A battle quickly began as the vampire subordinates immediately felt overwhelmed by the restless Undead, there were no doubts in their movements and they were like automatons, devoid of emotions to abuse, the Vampires were incapable of putting any fear into their hearts, the undead lacked them.