At the same time, with a small movement, he threw something towards me.

  The big steps and the Holy Sword and even his body were just a distraction.

  The object Eric had thrown towards me was the important thing.

  The thing shone as soon as I caught it. It was some kind of magic tool.

  But there was no time to use Magic Exploration on it. And so I just sent a surge of energy into it.

  The brightness of the tool became stronger. And all at once, the horrible pain began to subside.

  So it was a magic tool that helped soften the Evil God’s Protection.

  Eric had prepared for such an event.

  “You should have told me that you had this!”


  I swung the Devil King Sword. The man’s head went flying in the air.

  And then I used Magic Detection. I would find the core of the Evil God’s Protection. It was in the body of one of the duplicates. In the ashes.

  So that’s where he had hidden it.

  I fired off a powerful magic bullet into it.

  —Crack!

  It was like the sound of shattering glass. And like that, the core was destroyed.

  At the same time, the Evil God’s Protection vanished.

  “I’m glad that it activated. It was just a prototype.”


  Eric said with a relieved chuckle.

  “It was hiding it in that body, eh? It’ no wonder you didn’t realize it, Ruck.”


  “These duplicates are a lot more dangerous than I imagined.”


  Kathe and Goran said as they caught their breath.

  As the core of the Evil God’s Protection had been destroyed, they were now free from the pain.

  The core had likely been inside of his own body, but he then moved it when creating the duplicates.

  It was a troublesome and dangerous thing for us to have to deal with.

  Now that only the head remained, I pointed at it with the Devil King Sword and cast Magic Detection and Magic Exploration.

  I wanted to make sure that Shia, Serulis, and Grulf were all okay.

  “Goran. Serulis and the others are fine. But they are still fighting against a Lord.”


  “I see. That’s good to hear.”


  “We’re finished here. You leave the rest to us and go to them.”


  While he was pretending to be calm, Goran must be worried about his daughter.

  Even I was worried about them.

  “Are you sure?”


  “I would feel better if you were with them.”


  “Goran. You should go.”


  Eric and I said. And so Goran went running. As he ran, he said,

  “I leave the rest to you then!”


  “Yes, don’t worry.”


  It was better if Goran was with Serulis and the others.

  And we could focus on this mystery man.

  While keeping the blade pointed at the man, I asked him,

  “Now, who are you? You aren’t just an ordinary High Lord, are you?”


  “.……Hehe. Of course. I am the true ancestor. Do not think of me as being the same as a High Lord.”


  Surprisingly, the man just told us his true identity. However, it did make sense.

  Up until now, every high ranking vampire that I had called a ‘lesser’ had become furious without exception.

  A vampire’s rank was something that they had a lot of pride in.

  And so it was unbearable to have someone mistake their rank.

  This was why he answered me without lying.

  This knowledge would be very useful to me in the upcoming battles against vampires.

  That was what I thought.