Vladimir the Crimson Duke—an Elder who had mastered bloodcraft to its extre, honed his qi, and accumulated centuries of experience. He was undoubtedly a formidable enemy.
And yet, the Holy Crown Church had always claid victory in judgnt over such vampires. Even while fighting multi-front battles against various heretical forces, they had thrived despite the vampires’ immortality and growing wisdom.
It was only natural. The future belonged to the Saintess.
Or, to be precise, it was because she wielded the future better than anyone else. It was the sa thing. After all, in this world, the Saintess was the only one who could see the future.
“If only everyone had chosen martyrdom here. Order would have been achieved.”
The Iron Saintess was invincible. No matter what happened to the world, no matter how powerful vampires beca, she would remain untouched.
Which ant that everything and everyone except for her could be destroyed. The battlefield where the Iron Saintess shone brightest was one of absolute ruin. Peru always returned from such places, drenched in blood that wasn’t her own. Because even in the worst of situations, she could foresee at least her own survival.
That was why the Iron Saintess only went to such battlefields. The kind where it didn’t matter if everyone except herself perished.
“And yet, how could you just leave this place unattended? It’s too obvious. If you really wanted to stop the slaughter, wouldn’t it have been better to leave the Crimson Duke alone?”
If her goal had been salvation, she wouldn’t have brought them here in the first place. The Iron Saintess’ foresight was limited to herself, but that didn’t an she couldn’t make the bare minimum of predictions.
Even when her true motives were laid bare, the Iron Saintess remained unfazed.
“Do not delve into the Demon God. There is no treasure in a tightly sealed box. Only sin and tragedy will spill forth. The Demon God you unearth will bring nothing but misery to humankind.”
“Misery? What’s more miserable than death?”
“Death is miserable because life is precious. But the Demon God you seek will shatter the value of life, of faith, of the soul. It will blur the lines of life and death, reducing humans to lesser beings—just like those vampires. This is a warning, a request, and a plea.”
Peru spoke in a way that made it unclear who she was addressing, but I knew it was ant for . This was her attempt at persuasion.
Vampires, by their very existence, reduced humans to prey. Vampires who fed on human blood were predators, and humans had no choice but to beco livestock or sustenance. Moreover, they had transcended death itself, defying the heavens with their immortality. It was no wonder the Holy Crown Church despised them.
The secret of the Thunder God might be sothing even beyond bloodcraft. The secret that the Lightning Thief had hidden, even at the cost of obscuring thunder itself, was sothing so dark and deep that even the Holy Crown Church, including the Iron Saintess, remained wary of it.
Still, the fact that the Saintess was trying to persuade ? That was surprising.
I appreciated the sentint, but we stood on different sides.
“Vampires are human too.”
A statent carrying multiple anings. It might have been an obvious fact, or perhaps an emotionally resonant revelation for Tyrkanzyaka.
But for the Saintess, it ant sothing else entirely.
“…To think that even humanity’s own corruption is part of its burden. Are you truly willing to accept that?”
It was a polite yet firm rejection. I smiled and nodded. Peru let out a quiet sigh, her shoulders drooping in resignation.
And then, she moved.
No—she didn’t move. But within my mind-reading, Peru had already moved. She foresaw her own motion, and that foreseen future was now set in stone.
The Iron Saintess charged forward. Her fist, capable of pulverizing anything, shot straight for my chest. Her bare hand pierced through , stopping like a passing breeze behind my back.
—This had yet to begin, and yet, no matter what I did, this future was already promised.
Rejecting her argunt had imdiately led her to predict my death. This wasn’t persuasion—it was a final ultimatum.
More importantly, could I even dodge this?
As I grumbled internally, Peru’s foresight ca to an end.
Every outco is always preceded by a series of steps. No matter how impressive Vladimir’s techniques were, they were ultimately the result of a ticulous blend of skill and authority.
But the Saintess’ foresight was on another level entirely. She observed the result first and then forced the process into place. Peru’s self-foresight, in particular, was absolute because it operated within an extre range of certainty. The power that earned her the title of Iron Saintess was just one facet of this ability.
Peru’s divine blessing was forced foresight. The Iron Prophecy had just declared my end.
The cloth wrapping around her fist unraveled strand by strand, revealing her bare hand. Foresight was a double-edged sword. When turned against an opponent, it was razor-sharp, but it also had the potential to carve into the one wielding it. She had been restraining her power all this ti, yet now, to kill , she had unleashed her full might.
The future she foresaw for herself would inevitably co true. Because it was foreseen, Peru in that mont was invincible. Nothing could interfere with the future she had already set in motion.
Not even ti itself.
Peru foresaw movents beyond human limits. With self-foresight, she bent reality, achieving speeds that no mortal body could reach.
The process vanished. No preparation, no exertion, no propulsion, no displacent through air. All of those interdiate steps were omitted—only the foretold result remained. For an instant, Peru existed at every point she had foreseen. Dots connected into a darkened streak, filling the space between.
Even the Saintess had to be cautious with such overwhelming power. There was no warning, no precursor—only the results of a prophecy determined by a celestial will. The world adjusted itself to fulfill her foresight, causing a storm to surge and a deafening roar to erupt. A miracle beyond the concept of speed, manifesting solely to end my life.
Ripping through the very fabric of the world, Peru’s fist pierced through my body—
But still.
No matter how lofty her power. No matter how formidable the divine entity guiding her.
Even the Iron Saintess was only human.
“…!”
There are many ways to deal with prophecies, but the simplest thod is deception. No matter how perfect a prophecy may be, the one interpreting it will never be perfect.
My body collapsed into pieces. Cards bearing the mark of Spade 8 scattered like popped balloons. The power of the Golden Mirror, the elixir—my clothing and the clouds surrounding had been transmuted into cards. What Peru believed she had struck was rely a shell, hastily crafted from those cards.
Fortunately, Peru could only foresee her own future. Using every power at my disposal, I pulled myself out of the path she had predicted. The sheer speed made my head spin, my ears ring—but I was still alive.
Peru cried out.
“You have taken the Demon God into your body! That cursed taboo—!”
She realized imdiately.
I ignored the tingling pain in my limbs and answered.
“You’re calling this a curse? Seriously? Compared to what you’ve done, this is nothing. If anything, what I did is just a cheap trick next to your unknown foresight!”
A being who could force the future into reality was calling this a curse? Did every curse in existence just up and die?
Spade 7, Lightning Tangle. This card extracts lightning into delicate threads, thin enough to be spun into a coil. Unlike the one Peru used, these lightning threads were too weak for attacks… But weakness had its own uses.
I pulled the lightning threads into my body. They seeped into my nerves, spreading throughout my system.
Before encountering the Demon God, this would’ve been nothing more than self-mutilation—a completely insane act. But after eting the Lightning Thief and uncovering his secrets…
Now, I could move my body with re thought.
…That makes it sound way less impressive than it is.
I an, bodies already move by thought, don’t they? All I did was skip a few steps in the process of transmitting thought to action. Even though I could read minds, I had nearly died from getting hit—no matter how I looked at it, self-foresight was way more broken.
Anyone would agree.
Yet, oddly enough, the Saintess did not.
Peru glared at as if she were looking at a demon.
“The Demon God you wield will one day lead all of humanity to ruin. King of Humans, rember this. When humanity’s end cos, you will not remain the sa.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. But first, let protect myself. I am human, after all.”
Peru bit down on her lips—so hard that I could see a trace of blood seeping through the cracks. Even if she was invincible, it seed she could still harm herself.
She probably wanted nothing more than to eliminate right now.
But she couldn’t.
Because darkness had arrived.
Even within the already poor visibility of the Cloud Waterfall, a foreign darkness spread. A pitch-black void filled my sight, swallowing everything.
It was the power vampires had gained to resist the Holy Crown Church.
It was the weight of suffering that Tyrkanzyaka had endured.
Darkness itself was no different from Tyr’s own body.
And in a place devoid of light, there was no future to be seen.
Peru could still use self-foresight, but that would only result in a tedious siege. Even if she foresaw where she would be, if she couldn’t see anything around her, she’d be no better than soone flailing blindly underwater.
“You reckless fool…! You will regret standing before !”
I had revealed too much.
The Holy Crown Church weren’t the only ones capable of strategizing.
Darkness coiled into a vortex around Peru. Even in the pitch-black void where she couldn’t see her own limbs, she opened her mouth with a devastated expression.
“O First Saintess, who blessed this humble servant… Is this truly the end of the ti granted to …?”
In the swamp of darkness, Peru murmured to herself.
Unable to foresee any future where she could continue fighting, she followed her prophecy and chose to retreat.
That was a huge relief for .
“You think you can escape?!”
Tyr, co on. Just let her go.
She’s an invincible existence who’s willingly withdrawing. Trying to grab her would just be a waste of effort.
Even in the suffocating darkness, which would kill an ordinary human, Peru unerringly found her way. Before leaving, she turned toward us and gave one last warning.
“Tyrkanzyaka, you would do well not to trust the King of Humans. He may be an ally of vampires… but he will never be only an ally of vampires.”
Tyr didn’t even bother listening, scoffing dismissively.
“Play your oracle gas with your own pawns. Do you think I would let sothing so trivial sway ?”
“…Even without foresight, this is an answer that anyone could reach with a little thought. But if a heart is closed, even the most sincere warning will go unheard.”
Leaving behind those ominous words, Peru vanished into the darkness.
Even in a void where nothing was visible, she had clearly foreseen a way out.
Reality twisted, and before I knew it, Peru’s presence had completely disappeared. She had escaped.
Appearing in the heart of enemy territory, deep within Claudia, and retreating without so much as a scratch…
So of us struggle just to avoid making enemies.
And yet, with power like that, she could pick fights anywhere and still walk away unscathed.
“Hmph. Cunning creatures. For all their foresight, all they do is deceive and sche.”
“Well, it’s effective. It worked this ti too, didn’t it? Even without any real reason, we ended up locked in a life-or-death struggle with Claudia.”
I shrugged and looked around.
When it ca down to it, the Holy Crown Church had only swayed the Thunder Overseer.
And yet, this much blood had been spilled.
Hundreds of Thunder Guardians and their leader, who had long ruled and guided Claudia, were dead. Even if no one stirred up further conflict, resentnt would fester and spiral into an ever-growing cycle of vengeance.
At least there was so consolation.
Right now, the Warring Nations had a king who was both feared and revered.
“…Leave.”
The King of the Warring Nations had just ordered us to get out.
Reviews
All reviews (0)