Chapter 274 – The Source of the Mist

“‘Uh, Mr. Locke. Why are you here?’”

I could hear the voice directly and from the bracelet at nearly the same time.

“It will take too long to explain it here, so it can wait. We’ll talk after killing them.”

“Father!”

“Papa!”

Charlotte and Marie looked happy when they saw Eric. While the danger was still present, they now felt safe.

“I’m sorry for being late, Charlotte and Marie. Now, close your eyes.”

“Yes! Father.”

“Okay!”

And so the two princesses closed their eyes obediently.

He did not want them to see the carnage that would ensue.

“You really were late, my love.”

“But we came as fast as we could.”

“Well, I shall forgive you then.”

Lefy was sweating from her forehead as she held her staff up in order to protect her children. Spreading out from where her feet were, was a magic circle that surrounded Shia, Serulis, and the princesses.

It was a defense barrier.

Up until she became pregnant with Charlotte, Lefy was in the same party as Eric, Goran and me.

She was one of the best healers, and used holy power. Any barrier that she made would be incredibly effective.

In fact, it was likely her barrier that caused the fog to be so thin in this area.

“Good work, Serulis.”

Goran said with a smile. Then he looked at Serulis and Shia’s feet.

Aside from the ten living vampires, there were piles of ashes that suggested that at least ten vampires had been slain.

Those ten must have been defeated by Serulis and Shia.

They were chased by twenty and managed to kill half of them. The two had grown so much.

“We were just buying time, that’s all!”

Shia and Serulis were probably holding off the vampires until Lefy could finish making the barrier.

“It’s amazing that you were able to buy time against twenty of those bat bastards. You can leave the rest to us now.”

So saying, I used the Devil King Sword to cut off the heads of the remaining ten vampires.

Eric and Goran were also killing them. Even Grulf jumped on one energetically.

The ten were vampire Lords. But ten Lords were nothing to us.

And so we hunted them down in no time.

Some tried to escape by transforming into mist or bats, but Lord Gerberga cried and turned them into ash.

Once the room was secured, I used Telepathy to talk to the others.

‘Lefy. You should take the princesses and escape to my mansion.’

‘Yes. That might be a good idea.’

‘What are you talking about? I can fight too?’

‘It’s not just about keeping the princesses in a safe place, but I want someone to guard Philly and the others.’

‘Aye, Locke is right. Currently, Philly is trying to come up with a way to deal with the hole in the divine barrier.’

‘If that’s the case, very well. I might be able to help in some way. I’ll go to your mansion then, Locke.’

‘Perhaps we should go to your mansion as well, Mr. Locke.’

‘But I…’

Serulis seemed like she wanted to say something. I suppose she wanted to stay and fight as well.

But then Goran turned to her.

‘Serulis.’

‘What, daddy?’

‘We could use another hand. Follow me.’

‘Yes!’

‘Obey my orders. And don’t be reckless.’

‘Yes!’

Serulis looked happy and excited.

Shia and Serulis had protected the children while dealing with twenty vampire Lords. And they had defeated ten of them.

That was a lot harder than merely killing ten vampires who had attacked.

And this was no time to be wasting such a powerful fighting force.

That was Goran’s decision. It was a precise and accurate one, as you would expect from a Guild Master.

And then I turned to Shia.

‘You come too, Shia.’

‘Understood!’

After we saw Lefy and the princesses leave through the secret passage, I used magic to search the area.

In the meantime, I talked to Philly through the communication bracelet.

“Philly. Can you hear me?”

‘…I can hear you.’

If we could hear each other, that meant she wasn’t covered by mist.

So my mansion was still safe.

“I’ve sent some friends your way.”

While I spoke out loud, I left out any specific information.

And since Philly was so smart, she would be able to detect my intention, and that I didn’t want to say anything specific right now.

‘Understood.’

“How is the situation over there?”

‘Difficult.’

“I see. Well, please continue.”

‘Aye.’

And the conversation ended.

At that point, I had finished searching the palace with magic.

That being said, I couldn’t search within the mist. All I knew was what was happening outside of it, and the position of the mist.

However, we could make a lot of guesses based on that.

‘This way. Follow me.’

I ran, and the others followed.

‘Locke. What will we find this way?’

‘The place where the mist kept returning, even after Lord Gerberga dispelled it.’

Lord Gerberga’s cry affected a large area.

And so it wasn’t as if we could search the entire place carefully.

So there would be things that we missed.

‘I see. The source of the mist. There must be something that they wanted to hide.’

‘I think so.’

As we ran, the place came into view.