Even after the head turned into ash, I didn’t let my guard down .
It was the head of an Evil God . I would not be surprised if it rose from the ashes .
So I observed it carefully and pondered .
“That last magic… What should I call it…”
Black beams of light .
Dark Ray perhaps?
It didn’t sound quite right . But I would think of something later .
I continued to stare at the head for some time, but it showed no signs of reviving .
“I guess I can relax for now…”
I inspected the ashes .
To me, it looked much the same as when vampires turned into ash .
The only difference was that I found a small idol head inside of it .
“Perhaps this is the heading missing from the Evil God idol . ”
If it was the missing piece from the idol we found in the sewers, that meant we now had the complete set .
The dark ones had probably wanted to summon the entire Evil God .
But for some reason, it had not worked for them .
Either they didn’t have enough curses or enough sacrifices . Or maybe it was ingredients .
It could have been that they didn’t have any time left .
Or perhaps they didn’t have the right information .
“But it was so strong while just a head . I’m not sure I would have been able to win if it was against the whole body…”
It was a horrible thing to think about .
I gathered the ashes and the idol head and threw them into my bag .
“Perhaps I should take the core for the barrier as well . ”
Otherwise, the dark ones might use it for something . Besides, I would like to study it .
At this point, the vampires that had been trapped with Terminus Icicle began to melt .
The goblins who had defrosted remained breathless and dead . They were dead the moment they had frozen .
Most of the vampires had died as well . They had turned to ash at the same time that they had frozen .
However, one vampire that had been in the room with the Evil God came back to life .
He must have been a powerful vampire to be so resilient . A High Lord, maybe .
“…What happened…”
He looked around the room . Then he noticed that the Evil God head was not there and his jaw dropped .
I was now using an illusion to look like one of the vampires that I had killed while coming here .
“So you are awake now?”
“Ah, you’re the 10th . What has happened here?’
Apparently, I was now the 10th ranking vampire .
So I was a Vampire Lord .
And since he was talking down to me, he was probably a High Lord .
But normally, illusions wouldn’t work on a High Lord .
However, he had only just been defrosted and his brain was likely still slow .
“My surroundings suddenly froze over . I don’t know what happened…”
I pretended that I didn’t know . It would be easier to avoid saying anything I shouldn’t .
“And what happened to our God? I do not see him?”
So the head was the god of the dark ones after all .
Establishing that alone made it worth talking to this High Lord .
“It has vanished . ”
“Vanished? That cannot be . God was not yet whole . He should not be able to move . ”
“Whole or not, a god is a god . Perhaps he escaped from the ice . ”
“That’s impossible . As long as your body is not whole, you cannot move one step away from the summoning circle . Else your body will disappear . ”
“Then where did he go?”
“Perhaps he was killed by the ice…”
The High Lord scowled .
“No . We were able to survive it . Surely a god would not die from that . ”
“That’s true… Hmm? My God-given powers are gone . What about you?”
“…yes . I think they are gone as well . ”
I said . So the Evil God really was able to share power with the vampires .
“In any case, if God has disappeared, we must summon him again . ”
“Indeed . We must gather more sacrifices . ”
“It will be easy enough if we work together . ”
“You say that, but it does hurt that the High Lord who was controlling this area in the city is now dead . And by a mere human . ”
“This time, we must summon the entire God . ”
“Yes . We shouldn’t have rushed so much after the death of the High Lord . We didn’t have enough sacrifices and ended up only being able to summon the head . ”
It was a very good thing that we had killed the High Lord .
Just then, a voice came from behind me .
“High Lord! What has…”
There were other vampires that had survived, apparently .
“Ah, the 18th . I do not know . How is it out there?”
“Everyone is dead . No one has survived except for me . ”
“Damn it… We were five Lords . Five who had been given power by God . And now we are only two . ”
And then the High Lord turned to me and said,
“10th . Help me . My legs still cannot move . ”
Then the 18th muttered,
“10th?”
The 18th must have checked the area after reviving .
His brain was working normally, it seemed .
Besides, he had been further from the Terminus Icicle .
And so maybe he wasn’t as affected by my illusion .
“I suppose that’s it then . ”
“10th?”
Instead of offering my hand to the High Lord, I swung my sword . His head went flying .
“Wha…t…”
The head sputtered in shock as I stabbed it with my sword .
“Bastard!”
The 18th came rushing towards me .
However, without the power of the Evil God, he was just a normal Lord . He was no match for me .
I used my right hand to grab him by the neck .
“I’m going to drain you . ”
“Wh-what…”
I activated Drain Touch on the 18th . It had been a while since I last did this .
But my fight with the Evil God head had caused parts of my arm to turn into ash .
Drain Touch would allow me to heal quickly .
High Lords were strong . And there was a chance that they would go berserk while I was draining them .
But Vampire Lords were nice and weak . But still had plenty of magic energy for the taking .
They were perfect for Drain Touch .
My arm was healing at a rapid rate .
At the same time, the 18th was drained of all life as his skin began to wrinkle .
“…AH… . ah…”
“Thank you . That was a great help . ”
Then I cut off his head and stabbed it with my sword .
“Now . For some cleanup . ”
I gathered the magic stones from the ashes along with the medals .
Then I gathered all the goblin bodies that had not turned into ash and put them in my bag .