The fight became downhill from there for Henry Dracul as his opponent relentlessly toyed with him until the end.
“H-How…how are you so strong despite being so weak?!”
“Oh my, did you mistake my level as my strength? Are you dumb?”
“...?”
“Just because my level is low, it doesn’t mean that my abilities are weak. You must have some misguided view about how power levels are measured but that’s your problem~”
“Ugh…”
“Simply put, I’m just better than you~ Also do you think that the leader of your enemies is going to be some kind of pushover? Man, you really must be dumb if you think you, a mere underling, could go against me!”
“...Dammit.”
Maria twirled her hair and turned off her [Metamorphosis], reverting to her normal form as she pointed a finger at Henry and began charging up a [Blood Ray] spell.
“It’s quite unfortunate, but I guess this is where it ends. I won’t be merciful to my enemies so you can die in peace.”
“...”
Faced with the thought of certain death, Henry certainly didn’t want to believe it but his survival instincts kicked in meaning that this was the end of his road if he didn't escape right now. However, the moment he thought about running away, Maria quickly bound him with her chains and waved her finger at him tauntingly.
“Nah, ah, ah~ Don’t think you can escape now after fighting with me. You had your chance at mercy earlier but didn’t take it. Now it’s time for you to pay the consequences,” Maria said with a playful voice as a sadistic smile crept onto her face.
Just as Maria was about to fire her concentrated [Blood Ray] right into Henry Dracul’s face and end his life, she suddenly heard Ash’s voice from the distance.
“My Queen, please stop!”
“Hm?”
She had already released the [Blood Ray] but quickly diverted her aim elsewhere and just managed to barely shave a little bit of Henry Dracul’s skin from his face. The beam was fired right next to the vampire’s face and he couldn’t help but grow even paler than he already was after the close shave he had with death just now.
Maria turned to look at Ash and Carmilla who were walking over and asked, “Oh, you guys finished up already?”
“Yes, my Queen,” Ash reported with a bow.
“So, what gives Ash? Why’d you stopped me? If you don’t give me a satisfying answer, I’ll hit you.”
“My Queen…I–”
Henry was able to recognize the voice just now that had stopped Maria from killing him so he quickly looked over and his eyes widened in shock...and with a bit of horror.
“...F-Father?”
“Eh?”
Maria heard his words and quickly turned to him, “Father? What do you mean?”
“It’s as he said, my Queen. This guy is my son…Henry Garm,” Ash admitted with a rather shameful look on his face. "T-To think that he would raise his hand against you, Your Majesty...I've failed to educate him! Please allow me to punish him!"
Maria scratched her head in wonder because the vampire that she had bound was of a different name. He wasn't a Garm, but a Dracul. If he was a Garm, Maria would've immediately realized that he had some connection with Ash and wouldn't have been so heavy handed when dealing with him and instead maybe talk things out.
“Henry Garm? [Inspect] showed me that he’s called Henry Dracul though?”
“Dracul?!”
Ash quickly turned to the vampire who was supposedly his son and used [Inspect] on him. When he saw that his Queen was speaking the truth, he immediately stomped over to Henry and picked him up by the collar. With his face twisted in anger as the seams of his mouth ripped open, he yelled furiously at his son, “You married into THAT family?!”
Henry was powerless at the moment so he couldn’t stop his father from grabbing him like a ragdoll and shaking him in the air but the real question on his mind was how his supposedly dead father was still alive and well right now.
“Wait, h-how are you still alive?!” Henry struggled to ask.
“You fucking bastard! You aren’t even going to deny it!” Ash roared as he began to slap the living shit out of his son.
“U-Ugh, f-f-father, w-wait! Ack, I’m going to die–”
“Shut up! No son of mine marries into another family! Especially not that family! You fucking bastard, just because I went missing you think it's fine to rebel against me?!”
“H-Hey, darling? You might just kill him, please stop!” Carmilla exclaimed as she went over and stopped Ash from continuing his burst of outrage.
Maria was standing on the side with a peculiar expression on her face as she whistled and said, “Wow…this is some family reunion…”
She no longer had any thoughts on killing Henry Dracul because he was Ash’s son. Her subordinate had already lost his family once before so being able to see his son was a joyous occasion. Maria wasn’t so heartless as to take away this moment from her subordinate though it was a bit strange because, at this rate, Ash might just be the one to finish the job Maria had abandoned so she quickly intervened after seeing that Carmilla's words were having no effect in calming down Ash.
“Ash, stop with your silly outrage. You might just kill him if you slap the poor guy a few more times,” Maria said as she pointed at Henry Dracul’s HP bar that only had 2 percent of it left.
Ash quickly stopped as he bowed down and smashed his son's face into the ground next to him before saying, “My Queen, I’m so sorry for this stupid son of mine. To think he’d obstruct your path like this. A sin such as this deserves the death penalty!”
“It’s fine. I was getting a bit bored just watching all of you fight so he was a good sideshow for me. No need to kill him~”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Thank you for being merciful, my Queen. When we get back, I’ll definitely train him to become a good footman for you.”
“Okay, okay. Start treating his injuries and let’s be on our way. I don’t want to take too long to clear this castle.”
“Yes, my Queen.”
Maria saw Raijuu and Alexa walking over and waved to them before walking past Ash, Carmilla, and Henry who were having their family moment. She didn’t eavesdrop on what they were talking about and just left the garden maze’s center after she saw Carmilla applying healing blood magic on Henry.
“Hmm…Carmilla wasn’t even surprised, huh?” Maria mumbled as she took note of this.
Maria exited the garden maze and ended up on the other side of the castle’s North Section alongside Alexa, Orh’bankhur, and Raijuu. In front of them was another area filled with mobs but at the center of this area was a blood crystal and at the end was the staircase to the next floor which was blocked by a red aura.
“Alright, let's clear this place up. Those 3 should be done once we’re finished here so after that, we can go up to the next floor together.”
Once she finished her words, Alexa, Orh’bankhur, and Raijuu immediately rushed forward and began attacking the enemies near them. Maria took out her [Sekhem Scepter] and [Necronomicon] before ordering her shadow and undead minions to move forward while she began buffing them with [Haste], [Barrier], and [M. Barrier].
“Hmm, I wish I had more buff spells for my minions but I guess this is the downside for not being a Necromancer, Tamer, or whatever.”
If she could learn a few buff spells, then that was great as the only buff spells she had for her minions were the Underworld Boundary from her Set Effect and the [Haste] spell she learned as a Dark Priest.
“Oh yeah, I still have the [Summon: Outer Being] from the [Necronomicon]. I didn't get to use it earlier in the fight with Henry so let’s try it now!”
Maria began chanting the cryptic spell for the weapon skill but it took quite a while. An odd magic circle appeared on the ground in front of her which was unlike any other magic circle she had seen before as her spell was invoked and a few moments later, a horrifying cosmic being materialized in the air above it.
“...Ugh…”
There was a rather curious yet repulsed look on Maria’s face when she saw what she had summoned as it was horrifying, to say the least. It was like a monster that came out of a nightmare or something. The creature had an octopus-like face and arms that had long claws on its end. Its face was without any features except for its yellow eyes that glowed with a strange, eerie light that seemed to be able to pierce into one's soul. The lower half of its body was made up of tentacles and these things were wriggling disgustingly around it and as it moved about.
“Uhhh, go fight those things over there,” Maria ordered with a wave of her hand. She felt uncomfortable just looking at it so after assigning a few of her minions to it, she quickly sent it away to deal with the mobs.
It was a strange creature but its stats were pretty high since it had 50% of her total stats. Unlike her other minions, this creature was able to use both melee and ranged attacks as it swept through its opponents pretty easily with the help of Maria’s other minions. Seeing how useful it was, Maria's revulsion towards it began to tone down a little. She was a practical person so no matter how horrifying this creature was, as long as it was useful, she would make the most out of it.
“Nice! Aren’t you pretty handy!”
"Kreereereereee!"
"Okay, calm down big guy."
Maria wasn't only watching her minions battle as she actively participated in them too. She used her [Sekhem Staff]’s [Death Bolt] to attack her enemies as it was the main form of attack for her staff weapon. It was a bit slow because of the 10-second cooldown, but she could still just whack her enemies with the staff if they got too close. Thankfully, the staff was pretty sturdy so it wasn’t going to break no matter how reckless she used it as a melee weapon though other mages would likely frown upon her if they saw her treat her precious staff so crudely.
Unfortunately, her [Death Bolt] did random fixed damage on her opponents so sometimes it wasn’t as powerful as her melee attack with the scepter but it did raise her [Magic Comprehension] every time she managed to kill something with it which was a great boon. After fighting it out with Henry Dracul, her [Magic Comprehension] was on the verge of reaching S-rank and if she had been able to kill him in the end, she would’ve crossed that line already.
She was 5 proficiency points away from S-rank and [Death Bolt] gave her 0.25 points every time she used it and successfully killed a monster so she quickly had her other 3 subordinates stop attacking the mobs since she needed them as targets.
“You 3, stop for a moment!”
“Hm? Okay, Big Sis!” Alexa quickly replied while Raijuu responded with a question. “Why, Master?”
“Just do it and don’t question me, Raijuu!” Maria quipped back at her lightning spirit and continued maneuvering her minions as she used her [Death Bolt] to kill all of the enemies that were about to die.
Orh’bankhur had already stopped the moment Maria gave the order so he was just standing around idly on one side as he surveyed the area. After her 20th kill, Maria finally heard the sweet sound of her skill ranking up, and now, her [Magic Comprehension] was finally at S-rank.
*DING*
Skill proficiency met! Magic Comprehension A → Magic Comprehension S
That wasn’t the end of it, however, as a long string of notifications quickly followed after it.
*DING*
*DING*
Conditions met! You have attained magical affinity with the extra element: Lightning You have learned Paimon’s Enhanced Spell: Thunder
Conditions met! You have attained magical affinity with the special element: Gravity You have learned Paimon’s Enhanced Spell: Gravita You have learned Paimon’s Enhanced Spell: Demi
*DING*
You have met the conditions to acquire the Magus subclass Skill: Magic Mastery E Will you proceed to learn the skill through skill combination? Y/N Note**: Upon learning Magic Mastery E, the 3 subclass skills: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, and Magic Affinity S, will be sacrificed to obtain it!
Maria didn’t even hesitate for a second because [Magic Mastery] was the subclass skill she had been hoping to get from the moment she acquired the Magus subclass.
“Yes, sa~”
She unhesitantly tapped on the [Yes] button and sacrificed her 3 S-rank subclass skills.
*DING*
You have acquired the skill: Magic Mastery E Be advised that certain magic spells have been locked until you obtain the corresponding skill rank to use them again!
Conditions met! You have learned Paimon’s Enhanced Spell: Magic Missile
This was something Maria had already expected would happen. She quickly checked her [Skill] menu and saw that many of her spells had been greyed out, meaning that she couldn’t use them.
“I can’t use [Blizzard], [Terra], [Aero], [Thunder], [Demi] and all of the magic spells that I learned branching off of them. The only available one is [Fire] but at least I can use all of the branching spells that came with it so that’s good!”
This was going to take a hit on her combat power for the short term and she thought that maybe it would’ve been better if she learned [Magic Mastery] after she defeated the Blood Lord but it was a little too late to regret that decision. Also, Maria wasn’t the type to look back on any of her decisions. Once she made a decision, she just lived with it and looked on the brighter side of things.
“I still have a few floors to go so I’ll use all the mobs in the castle as target practice to rank up my [Magic Mastery]. It shouldn’t take long before I can use all of my spells again!” Maria confidently said as she cast her [Fire] spell without any incantation and began playing around with it in her hand.
Skill Name: Magic Mastery Rank: E (0/50,000) Description:
Allows the Magus to cast spells of any tier while shortening or even forgoing the chant based on the mastery level of the invoked spell. Gives maximum affinity with the 4 basic elements and enables the Magus to learn other elements as long as they are attuned or exposed to them for a certain period of time
Effect: Increases INT by 10% and Elemental Resistance by 50% for attuned elements. Provides a 30% increase to Divine Energy Recovery while inside and outside of combat
Spell Name: Thunder (Enhanced) Level: 1 (0/1000) Rank: A Description: Conjures lightning using Divine Energy. The lightning deals 1,000+(INT x 0.2) M.DMG with a small chance to inflict [Paralysis] for 5 seconds onto a target Cost: 500 DE Charges: 1 Cooldown: 10 seconds Additional Options: N/A
Spell Name: Gravita Level: 1 (0/5000) Rank: S Description: Uses Divine Energy to manipulate gravity. Gravity can be manipulated at the caster’s will so its effects will vary depending on its use Effects:
If cast on an area, Gravita will deal 1,000+(INT x 0.02) M.DMG every 2 seconds as long as the target remains in that area. If the target has only 1% HP left, it will no longer take damage but be inflicted with the [Slow] debuff until it gets out of the spell's effect range. Effect range varies depending on the geographical position.
If cast on a target, Gravita will conjure a black hole around the target, cutting the target’s HP by 25% of their current value.
If cast on self, Gravita will enhance the caster’s MOV SPEED by 50% and buff the user with [Gravity Haste]. [Gravity Haste] removes all weight hindering effects from the target and breaks the ATK SPEED limit by 10%. Cost: 1000 DE Charges: 1 Cooldown: 30 seconds Additional Options:
1. Demi
Spell Name: Demi Description: Creates a black hole around a targeted area for a certain period of time and sucks in enemies that get too close to it. Those caught within the black hole will have their HP cut by 50% of their current value Duration: 10 seconds Cost: 10,000 DE Cooldown: 60 seconds Note: Demi shares the same cooldown with Gravita and while it is in cooldown, Gravita will be unavailable
Spell Name: Magic Missile (Enhanced) Level: 1 (0/1000) Rank: E Description: A basic attack spell. Inflicts (INT x 0.1) M.DMG to a target. Has a very small chance to inflict [Stun] on the target for 0.5 seconds Cost: 100 DE Cooldown: 1 second
Maria was expecting after she saw the description but the one magic spell she had been desperately waiting for had finally come to her.
“Ah, finally! I finally got the basic attack spell of a mage!” Maria cheered in excitement.