"Sebas!"
A shrill, haughty voice echoed from the heavens.
"This is truly disgraceful! You have brought utter shame upon Nazarick! Now, step aside!"
High in the sky, Shalltear Bloodfallen materialized.
However, she looked completely different from the Gothic Lolita who had just been skipping through the Great Tomb. The voluminous dress that had made her look so deceptively cute had vanished.
In its place, her petite body was encased in a legendary set of full-plate crimson armor. Two pairs of pure white, angelic wings sprouted from her back and the sides of her helm.
[True Vampire: Blood Valkyrie Form]
Knowing the Supreme Being was watching, Shalltear hadn't held back. She arrived on the battlefield already in her absolute strongest form.
Down on the ground, the tip of her massive Divine Class weapon, the [Spuit Lance], was embedded deep in the asphalt between the combatants.
Sebas, who had just been held by the throat by Hebe Shikai, used the distraction to break free from the Dragon Servant's grip. The moment Sebas saw Shalltear appear in her Valkyrie armor, his burgeoning desire to unleash his Dragonoid transformation vanished into thin air. He knew his role was over.
Shalltear slowly descended from the sky, her white wings beating gently as she landed beside the battered butler.
[Summon Household: Vampire Bride]
Behind her, two scantily clad Vampire Brides emerged out of thin air, their eyes glowing with unnatural devotion.
Shalltear glanced at Sebas's battered figure. Considering that he was her comrade, and knowing that Ainz Ooal Gown was observing everything through the Mirror of Remote Viewing, she didn't just leave him in the dirt.
"Take him away," Shalltear ordered her household, gesturing with a gauntleted hand. "Keep him far from this battlefield."
The Vampire Brides immediately supported Sebas, moving the exhausted martial artist away from the epicenter of the crater.
"Who are you?" Hebe Shikai demanded, his silver hair whipping in the wind, his blood-red eyes narrowing at the newcomer.
"I have come to kill you by the order of the Supreme Being," Shalltear replied. She had absolutely no intention of introducing herself to a dead man. She raised a crimson-plated hand to her mouth and gave a lazy, exaggerated yawn.
Only then did she glance sideways at the Dragon Servant.
"You really are... just as arrogant as the rest of your kind."
Shalltear's blatant disdain successfully stoked Hebe's fury. Although the raw kinetic power of the lance she had thrown earlier was outstanding, it wasn't enough to make a warrior in the Fourth-Order Blood Rage feel true fear.
The surrounding air began to surge and violently compress. Provoked by the vampire, Hebe abandoned all desire for conversation. He launched his offensive.
An invisible, hyper-dense wall of atmospheric pressure rushed toward Shalltear with the force of a collapsing building.
Facing the terrifying Yanling attack, Shalltear only offered a mocking smile.
A blinding holy light shone from her open palm.
[Tier 10 Magic: Purifying Javelin]
The white light rapidly elongated in her hand, forming a massive, radiant spear of holy energy. With a flick of her wrist, she hurled it.
Before the crushing atmospheric pressure could even reach her, the [Purifying Javelin] tore through the vacuum.
Hebe watched the spear of light flying toward him. He shifted his weight to dodge, leveraging his supersonic speed—only to find that his body was completely paralyzed.
He looked down. A small, glowing magic circle had appeared squarely on his chest. The javelin had locked onto him with absolute certainty.
SHLUCK.
The spear of light pierced clean through his chest, blowing a fist-sized hole straight through his torso. Even with the immense durability of his dragon scales, the holy penetration of the [Purifying Javelin] was unstoppable.
Hebe staggered, coughing blood. Yet, almost instantly, the gaping wound on his chest began to sizzle and heal.
He glared up at the Valkyrie. Since his Yanling couldn't crush her before she cast her magic, he would have to use his physical superiority.
Hebe's figure blurred. He darted left and right, leaving a trail of afterimages across the pulverized street as he rapidly closed the distance.
This display of speed only deepened the disdain in Shalltear's crimson eyes.
Her palm opened, and the [Spuit Lance] she had thrown earlier instantly teleported back into her grip.
Facing the devastating, scaly fist Hebe swung at her head, Shalltear simply raised the shaft of her grotesque lance horizontally to block.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
In an instant, the two engaged in a blindingly fast flurry of blows. The deafening sound of dragon-scaled fists clashing against Divine metal echoed across the ruins of Manhattan.
"Is that all?" Shalltear mocked, casually parrying a strike that could have leveled a skyscraper. "Sebas really has been too lax lately. To think he actually failed to defeat an insect like you."
Hearing this, Hebe retreated, his boots skidding across the asphalt to widen the distance between them.
He was panting heavily. A long time had passed since he activated the Blood Rage. A deep, bone-weary exhaustion was already sweeping through his mutated body. Yet, an even stronger, more terrifying enemy had just stepped onto the battlefield. Hebe could feel his bodily functions declining; his regeneration was slowing down.
'To defeat this monster, there's only one way,' Hebe realized, his silver eyes burning with a desperate, suicidal light.
'Fifth-Order Blood Rage!'
Standing amidst the rubble, Hebe Shikai threw his head back and roared. He clenched his fists so hard his claws drew blood from his own palms.
His muscles began to swell with horrifying rapidity. Originally two meters tall, his skeleton cracked and expanded under the violent blessing of his bloodline. A hulking, five-meter-tall behemoth emerged, entirely covered in thick, interlocking dragon scales. Jagged bone horns violently pierced through the skin of his skull.
That wasn't all. As Hebe's roar devolved into a guttural, inhuman shriek, massive bulges appeared at his ribs. The flesh tore open, and two massive, leathery bat wings broke free, unfurling in the dust-filled wind.
At this moment, Hebe Shikai was no longer human. He was practically a true dragon.
However, as he continuously emitted low, vibrating growls, it was obvious that this creature had sacrificed its majestic intellect. He possessed only pure, unadulterated savagery.
"A beast?" Shalltear sneered, looking up at the towering monstrosity with profound displeasure. "Discarding your reason in exchange for raw power? Tch!"
The way he had lost his mind and mutated reminded her of her own True Vampire form—the terrifying, lamprey-mouthed appearance she absolutely loathed.
A sudden, explosive gust of wind rose from the crater. Hebe vanished.
Before the dust could even settle, a massive shadow blotted out the sun in front of Shalltear.
Relying on her extensive combat experience, Shalltear instinctively crossed her arms in front of her chest.
[Skill: Impure Shock Shield]
A localized barrier of dark, bloody magical energy manifested just as a deafening BANG erupted.
An iron fist, tipped with five razor-sharp dragon claws, slammed fiercely into the blood shield.
The sheer kinetic impact scattered in all directions, turning the surrounding rubble into fine powder. Shalltear's newly cast [Impure Shock Shield] spider-webbed with cracks and dissolved into points of red light.
The remaining force of the blow hit her, sending the Blood Valkyrie reeling backward. Her pure white wings flapped frantically, carrying her high into the air until the momentum was finally neutralized.
"What an insolent beast!" Shalltear hissed.
Floating in mid-air, a horrifying thought crossed her mind. She thought about how her clumsy, backward stumble had just been broadcast directly to Ainz Ooal Gown through the viewing mirror.
The fire of pure, unhinged rage danced in her crimson eyes.
"I only just arrived on the battlefield..." Shalltear's voice dropped to a terrifying, demonic whisper. "...and you dare make me look unseemly in front of Lord Ainz?!"
[Summon Household]
[Trump Card: Einherjar]
In front of Shalltear, a mass of pure white, glowing liquid suddenly appeared, writhing and twisting in the air. Within seconds, it hardened, forming a faceless construct identical in shape and armor to Shalltear herself.
It was her ultimate skill. Aside from lacking its own magic casting, the [Einherjar] replicated Shalltear's devastating physical strength and combat skills perfectly.
And in the shadows stretching behind her, the horrific, high-tier household monsters belonging to the True Vampire began to crawl out of the darkness, one after another.
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