Julia began to cry. She had been resisting the urge for a very long time, after going through so many dear-death experiences, it was natural for someone her age to suddenly feel like braking down. The people around her looked at her with new eyes, as they saw her devotion to them, but also her weakness and humanity.
She wasn’t perfect, she was a girl given a tremendous task of raising a ruined fiefdom back together. She was doing everything she could, but against Fate, even doing everything you can sometimes simply doesn’t work. Everything was crumbling now. She should definitely run away for her life right now, not stay here, in the middle of utter chaos.
But because she was devoted to her people, because she held what her mother taught to her inside of her heart, she was willing to give up her life for them, or at the very least, die at their side.
“We’ll stay with you as well.”
“We will protect you, you’re way better than the previous duke anyways!”
“Although things were rough, when you came here, suddenly things began to change for the better. It’s obvious you always intended to aid us.”
“Lady Julia has already done everything she possibly could, so you guys stop asking her to do the impossible! She’s a human after all.”
“Everyone…” Julia felt moved by the words of her citizens. Although several of them seemed to only have grown angered, a large part of them began to favor her more, and seemed to have seen through her emotions and what she truly intended to say with her word and honesty.
She looked into the distance, up into the hill where her house ruins were. The darkness continued to expand, but she knew that Mary and her allies were there, fighting. Whoever they are, if they can even fend off a threat of this level, they’re not just mere mercenaries. For her, they would already be heroes. She crossed her eyes and began to pray, not to the God of Light, or the God of Nature… but to the Goddess of Death herself, Hel.
“Oh Lady of Death, please bless my mercenaries with the strength they need to fight and win… Please, I implore of you. Please!” Julia cried, as she continued praying with her hands together. Her maids quickly joined her prayers, and so did some people, surprising some of the fervent priests, fanatics of the Light God, Odin.
To Julia, it made more sense to pray to the Goddess of Death for the benefit of a Necromancer such as Mary than to pray to the arrogant God of Light, who saw anything non-human as abhorrent.
…Meanwhile, a green-haired man ran down the hill where Julia’s ruined house was. After going through extensive pain and agony, Emiliano had somehow managed to become a Pure-Blood Vampire. However, afraid from joining a fight against Mary and the others, he ran away for his life.
“Now that I have become a Vampire, there’s no reason to stay there and die like an idiot… I have finally broken through my Level Cap, and I can continue evolving and raising my power… Why would I risk my life when there’s so much to research for?” Emiliano said to himself while trying to convince himself that he wasn’t being just a coward. “Goodbye, Lady Agatha, it was good to have business with you…”
A smile surged in the man, as he quickly ran into the woods, running as fast as possible and ignoring the people and Julia. He wasn’t even interested in killing anybody, just run as fast as possible. Whatever Agatha was becoming now was something he knew he wouldn’t be able to handle, staying any longer here meant that he would be risking his life even more after all.
Three figures flew across the sky, shrouded in black and phantasmal auras, Maria, Emeraldine, and Partner. Now with the help of two newly created undead that covered their entire bodies and worked as if they were space suits to be able to “breathe” within the Miasmic Domain, Maria and her two girlfriends flew through dark fog, looking at the distance as the enormous larva began to groan, noticing their approach. It was very much alive and constantly emanating more and more of this dark fog, which was a very diluted miasmic essence.
“Shit’s getting more dense as we get closer…” Maria said with a groan, she seemed to be struggling as she was getting through the miasma, unlike Emeraldine and Partner who were able to move more freely thanks to the armor. “(I have to learn how to absorb this miasma… Into my own soul… With the evolved Mana Siphon, it shouldn’t be hard!)”
Maria concentrated her intent into her chest, as the black hole that had emerged within it after her [Mana Siphon] Unique Skill evolved suddenly began to intensify its draining and absorption effects. The dark fog surrounding the three women slowly began to gather more and more within her chest, as she was slowly, somehow, managing to absorb it!
“Uughh…! This tastes like shit!” Maria said.
“What are you doing now!?” Asked Emeraldine in surprise.
“I am trying to absorb the miasma, but the density and corruption that this energy has is horrendously big! It takes a toll on me to absorb it and get to the good part to refill my energy… But I am getting the gist of it!” Maria said with a smile.
“Master! Emeraldine! Look!” Partner suddenly interrupted Maria, as she pointed out with her spear at the distance, the enormous floating fetus began to excrete strange masses of flesh that slowly began to shapeshift into bug-like monsters, resembling a combination between locusts and wasps that were completely black, with red-shot eyes and transparent wings.
“So that thing can also make an army by itself, huh?” Wondered Maria. “Well, it’s not like I don’t have my own army of flying units…!”
Maria’s body suddenly began to self-divide, using the rich amount of energy she was getting by swallowing the miasmic fog, and generating large swarms of flies and gigantic snakes! It was an all-out-war in the middle of the skies!