Chapter 140: The Crimson Blade Has Been Broken

A pure-white noble castle stood at the very heart of the territory known as the “Seraphim Fortress.”

A long red carpet stretched from the gilded grand hall doors all the way out to the garden entrance hundreds of meters away.
Flanking the white stone steps were two perfectly straight rows of guards.

Every one of them wore the same red-and-white Seraphim uniform.

In the distance, a bell tolled.
A Bloodkin cloaked entirely in black pushed open the grand hall doors
and strode directly toward the Seraphim Legion Commander seated deep within.

The vast hall was lined with golden pillars,
each at least a meter thick in diameter.
The polished floor gleamed so brightly it could serve as a mirror.

With a heavy thud, the doors closed behind him.

The Seraphim Legion Commander sat upon the throne with his back to the cloaked Bloodkin.
The visitor immediately dropped to one knee and reported:

“The battle results have been obtained, Lord Augustine.
For you, this may not be welcome news —
your sharp blade appears to have been completely shattered.”

The Seraphim Legion had once served as the exclusive royal guard for the highest echelons of Bloodkin.
Later replaced by the Royal Sanctuary Legion,
its role shifted from defense to offense.

Legion Commander Augustine held the highest seat in the Bloodkin’s Third Legion.
His personal strength stood at the absolute peak of the legion.
He paid extremely close attention to every conflict between Bloodkin and humanity.

Especially this time —
he himself had been the mastermind behind the entire operation.

The cloaked Bloodkin held a special position and title within the legion: the Concealer.

The “sharp blade” the Concealer referred to was not Sheffield.

Upon hearing of the defeat, Augustine showed no great reaction.
It was as though he had already anticipated the outcome.
One hand rested against the throne’s armrest, propping up his head.
He spoke lightly, almost indifferently:

“Report truthfully.”

“Yes.
Former human, now special operations member of the Seraphim Legion — Sheffield —
after receiving your orders, Lord Augustine,
proceeded alone to the Rose Legion.
With his own power, he crushed the Rose Legion,
bound their Legion Commander, the Blood Dragon King,
and used that leverage to force the remaining strength of the Rose Legion
to launch an assault on the human central city of Tantan.”

Augustine slowly raised his eyelids.
Up to this point, the news was still acceptable.

“That human Sheffield… really managed to break the Orderly Enclosure
and let the Rose Legion invade a human central city?”

“Yes.
Lord Sheffield located one of the Orderlies — the Phantom —
and slew it, thereby destroying the Orderly Enclosure.
However, regrettably, the barrier has already been repaired by the humans.”

“Mm. Continue.”

“The Rose Legion’s assault on the human city encountered powerful resistance.
Staff Officer Julius fell in battle;
his subordinate forces were entirely annihilated.
In the end, even Lord Sheffield was no match for the enemy —
he was killed in a single strike.”

At those final words, Augustine’s brows finally furrowed.
He opened the eyes he had kept closed until now.
A pair of heterochromatic red-and-blue pupils glowed with an eerie light in the darkness.

He patted his trousers, gripped the sword sheath at his waist,
stood up,
and turned around to face the hall from the high platform.
In a calm, steady voice, he looked down and asked:

“A single strike?”

“Yes.
The enemy felled the mighty Lord Sheffield with only one blow.
When confirmed, there were no signs of life remaining.
No Progenitor-level Bloodkin noble was present at the scene
to turn him into a familiar.”

“Oh.
Failure was within my expectations.
But when Bed challenged me back then,
he prepared seventeen different forms to fight me —
and it still took me half an hour to crush them all.
Among humans, he would undoubtedly count as a powerhouse.
Any other would have found him extremely troublesome to deal with.

Moreover, all of that man’s form advancements occurred automatically in near-death states.
If the enemy’s explosive power was so overwhelming that he was instantly killed in the first stage…
that is completely impossible.”

Augustine had only accepted Sheffield into the Seraphim Legion —
sparing his life and making him serve —
after personally clashing with him and realizing the enormous gap in strength.

Yet now, someone had crushed Sheffield with an even greater disparity of power.
That fact made Augustine pay very close attention.

“Everything happened exactly as you described.
Lord Sheffield’s strength was absolutely at the level of a legion commander —
he overpowered the Blood Dragon King without giving it any chance to resist.
Yet he was still instantly killed by a powerhouse who appeared in the human city.
The specific reason remains unclear,
but we can confirm that an aura of Sacred Forbidden power was present.”

“Sacred Forbidden aura?”

Anyone who wielded that kind of Exterminator power was instantly recognizable.
It was an inherited talent passed down through a single bloodline.
Only one family in the world possessed it —
the absolute natural enemy of all Bloodkin.

That power was so overwhelming that even ancient-level Dracula had been sealed away.
Bloodkin descendants who inherited branched bloodlines had no chance of survival under its absolute dominance.
It had already become a horrifying legend.

“It can be confirmed that Lord Sheffield was crushed by that power.
All twenty-one of his forms were obliterated in an instant.
However, the user likely exhausted that power as well.
That golden aura carried the meaning of absolute termination —
it was simply too strong.”

“A mutual destruction outcome?”
If that were the result, it would still fall within acceptable bounds.
One could only say Sheffield was unlucky —
to have encountered one of those exceedingly rare individuals.

Augustine’s expression remained neither sad nor joyful.
To him, Sheffield had merely been a pawn.

He still vaguely remembered that day —
Sheffield had arrived at his doorstep carrying unimaginable Exterminator power,
declaring he would avenge his old friend.

He truly was strong.
He carved a path alone from the outermost perimeter of the Seraphim Fortress straight into the castle.
Hundreds of Bloodkin guards couldn’t stop him.
Like a spear breaking through enemy lines,
he unleashed a sharp, piercing intimidation
that forced the encircling Bloodkin to involuntarily take a step back.

By the time Augustine appeared,
over a hundred Bloodkin had already died by his hand.

“Charging alone into the Bloodkin world,
directly storming the fortress of the third-ranked legion…”
While acknowledging Sheffield’s power,
Augustine instantly understood that this strength did not originally belong to him.

Such reckless behavior —
rushing blindly into the enemy’s heart driven by hatred and overwhelming power —
could only belong to someone who had stolen it.
If it had truly been his own,
such a situation would have occurred long ago.

Right now, he looked like nothing more than a reckless fool
who had gained power beyond his control
and lost all reason in his thirst for revenge.

No matter how strong an Exterminator was,
one person alone could never topple an entire legion.
Individual strength could not reverse the grand tide of war.

Yet on that day, Sheffield had done exactly that —
carrying the emotion called hatred,
he issued a challenge to Seraphim Legion Commander Augustine.