Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

"We don’t need a long, drawn-out battle," Caius said, "We just need to make it over the border."

Caius’s eyes were so fixed ahead that he practically didn’t see the Border Guards forming blockades and instead saw past them at the dividing line that separated the Acheron Empire from the lands beyond it.

In a world such as this, walls along the border are essentially useless for keeping people out. From spells that can catapult one tens of feet into the air in a single bound to the Eighth Circle barrier where unaided flight is possible, scaling walls, no matter how high, is not only possible, it’s also absurdly easy.

Also, with the massive size of the Empire, making a wall around it would be such a massive undertaking. It would be completed eventually of course, and relatively quickly with magic, but as it would still be useless, there really would be no point.

So the alternative was two-fold: Fortifications and Formations.

Fortifications refer to the massive forts that are each often the size of a large town and inhabited by thousands of Mages and Mage-Knights who keep a watch over the border and react first in case of an invasion.

Formations refer to the sensory formations that have been etched along the border, powered by mana drawn from the atmosphere and serve to alert the Forts of anyone who comes within even twenty kilometers of them, assessing so many details such as what arms the potential intruder might carry, what magical energy signature they give off to decipher their Circle and so much more that lets the Border Guards decide if it was pressing enough to act on.

Should the Border Guards decide to act, and act quickly, they are usually sure to arrive before the enemy even reaches the border, often able to fend them off.

From Caius’s knowledge of the events in [To Kill A Demon Lord...], he knew there was also a defensive Formation in place. It was an undertaking of one of the past Emperors— the most paranoid and maybe the one with the most foresight considering how the Formation was eventually needed in the original Canon.

The Defensive Formation was a safeguard to ensure that, if there ever was a situation where fending off intruders was not enough, the Formation could be activated, and the Acheron Empire could turtle up against all attacks.

There was a reason Formation wasn’t always up, and had so far been saved for a distant emergency. But that’s a matter for another time.

"Could we go around them?" Meline asked but even as she did, she already knew the answer.

"The ones behind us will catch up before we make it around," Caius said, "And yes, that’s even if you were at the wheel, Kyre."

"I know," Kyre said with a sheepish smile because he truly was about to suggest that he take the wheel again.

"Roxanne, do it," Caius said like there was already a plan in place.

"Already on it," Roxanne said with an inscription pen in hand. She pointed it at the roof of the carriage above her head where there was a space between the other symbols she had already etched.

The moment she drew the last symbol, the Formation activated, drawing Mana from the atmosphere. Arcane symbols began to appear all around the outside of the Carriage, interlinking with one another, and in a second, a dome composed of Arcane symbols surrounded the Carriage like a turtle shell.

"Stop in the name of the Emperor!" Said the leader of the squad of Border Guards, with one hand stretched out in front of him.

Caius just scoffed as he pushed the carriage as hard as he could with his Fifth Circle Mana, heading directly for the blockage. For a second, the Squad Leader stood unflinching like he was daring the Carriage to keep coming but when he realized it wasn’t going to stop, he cast a movement spell and moved to the side.

Even as the Squad Leader moved aside, he was already forming seals to cast another spell— This time, it was an attacking spell that he sent striking into the Turtle defense around the Carriage.

*Bang!*

The wheel vibrated in Caius’s hands and he almost lost control of the Carriage. Fortunately, the Carriage was sturdy and the turtle Formation around it deflected most of the force from the attack so he could keep going forward.

By now, the pursuing carriages were finally picking up speed, and as they drove with Seventh Circle Mana compared to Caius’s fifth and had smaller carriages compared to the Leopolds’ massive and relatively slower carriage, it would take them only seconds to get close enough.

"You’re up," Caius called then because the Carriages had gotten so close that even his limited Fifth Circle senses could detect them.

Which meant they were now in range to be attacked with spells.

Meline and Nadine stuck their heads out of the window, their faces masked and their hood pulled over their head to hide their beautiful platinum blond hair. It was a wonder how their hoods stayed in place in the buffeting winds.

Meline cast a dark purple spell circle and it conjured a dark cloud around one of the pursuing Carriages. Roxanne’s formation allowed attacks out of the turtle shell even while it blocked any from getting through.

It was a compromise that made the turtle formation weaker but Caius was fine with that because, to get away, he believed they couldn’t just huddle in or they’d be overwhelmed quickly. They needed to be able to take out some of their enemies at least and reduce the pressure on their one carriage.

Those seated in the carriage Meline attacked with her spell felt and saw the dark cloud seep inside from the outside. Any of them would have long said they knew what ’odorless’ meant but as the dark cloud hit their noses, they had to reevaluate because what they knew as odorless had never been as without odor as this dark cloud was.

The cloud was the epitome of nothing. It erased all senses: smell, touch, sight, hearing—

"Wait—" the occupants of the carriage thought as they realized they couldn’t see or hear the others in the carriage.

Even worse, the longer they had contact with the dark cloud, the less they became capable of thought or even emotion. Suddenly, they struggled to feel motivation for being here and chasing the carriage.

A bounty? What was that?

Killing vampires? Who cares?

The oblivion of the spell was affecting their very minds and unraveling the very basis one would ordinarily point to as signs of existence. With that one spell, Meline tossed everyone in that Carriage into an existential crisis.

The spell couldn’t last forever, of course, and there were countermeasures against it. It was just that, in such a high-speed situation, Meline guessed the occupants of that Carriage were far too carried away with the adrenaline rush to actually use the countermeasures.

And even if they did, she only needed to distract them for a second anyway.

And sure enough,

By the time the occupants of the Carriage had the sense to shake their heads and use their Mana to ward off the attack and push away the dark cloud of oblivion, the driver had already steered the carriage wrong. Lacking sight, hearing, emotion, drive, and the overall ability to even form a conscious thought, a crash was inevitable.

*BANG!*

The carriage collided with the one by its side and that one struck the one by its side, as three carriages were essentially derailed at once. Because those three led the formation, the carriages coming up behind slammed into them before they had the good sense to stop or go around.

While Meline was casting her spell, Nadine held her sword at the ready, channeling her Mana into the blade. The sword absorbed her Mana and even amplified it while holding the charge.

As soon as the dark cloud-shrouded carriage started the domino effect of Carriage crashes, Nadine thrust a hand forward, conjuring an electric blue spell circle and then she swung her sword through the circle.

The energy she had charged into her sword merged with that of the spell, creating a slash of Mana that crackled with lightning. It moved so blindingly fast that even if the carriages hadn’t been derailed and slowed down, they likely couldn’t have avoided it anyway.

The slash struck the dark cloud-shrouded carriage, adding to whatever damage had been inflicted on it by Meline’s spell. There was a violent reaction between the cracking of Nadine’s slash and the Mana that powered the carriage so the slash not only cut through the carriage, it also started a chain reaction that resulted in an explosion.

*BOOOMMM!!!*

The carriage that the dark cloud-shrouded carriage had knocked into, suffered the point-blank effect of the explosion the most and was blasted apart, sending one or two of the occupants flying out. One seemed to be missing a limb.

The other Carriages that had been involved in the pile-up were able to pull away in time to not be affected by the explosion and continue to give chase.

Right after their combo attack, Meline and Nadine returned into the Carriage just in time to brace themselves for Caius’s violent collision with the blockade.

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