Chapter 547 High Court

Elrohir Gemechu's resistance lasted a full minute. His struggle continued until the last second, burning all his blood into fire to counter Li Mochen's divine intervention.

Thus, in the end, Elrohir Gemechu's body left no trace at all—cleanly gone, not even a speck of dust remaining in this world.

At this moment, Li Mochen gazed into the depths of Rochelle Canyon.

During this time, the other vampire demigods and the legendary vampires deployed on the front lines had all retreated deep into the canyon.

Li Mochen frowned, his gaze sweeping over 'Night Ruler' Delphinia Aldric, who raised an eyebrow, a trace of annoyance flickering across her face. 'What are you looking at? Though I didn't put much effort in, I couldn't keep him.'

She referred to the Camarilla prince who mastered spatial arts; her abilities indeed couldn't detain him, so she hadn't bothered much.

Delphinia dared not risk venturing deep into the canyon for now. Though confident she wouldn't end up like Elrohir Gemechu, it was entirely unnecessary.

'You could have harassed him even if you couldn't keep him. Don't let it happen again. I'm serious, Delphinia!'

Li Mochen initially intended to deduct one hundred million from her salary, but after a moment's hesitation, he dropped the idea. After all, Delphinia had contributed significantly before this. Her 'slacking off' at the final moment hadn't affected the overall progress or gains of the battle.

Then he shifted his gaze southward, where 'Blood-Eyed Angel' Robert Eiffel was still locked in combat with a vampire demigod. The latter transformed into millions of bats, but the blood-eyed maid trapped them all in a storm, unable to escape. The thirteen holy swords were systematically eliminating these bats.

Li Mochen realized Robert was using this opponent to hone her combat skills. That vampire demigod happened to have considerable mastery in wind magic, able to condense an ultimate 'Wind Domain'.

This seemed to excite the blood-eyed maid, who sought to gain insights into the true meaning of 'wind' through this battle.

After watching for a while, Li Mochen saw that Robert indeed had the ability to handle that high-ranking demigod alone. He smiled with satisfaction and withdrew his gaze.

Not only did he suppress his own urge to intervene, but he also stopped Victor Maxim and Professor Alex Granger from doing so.

This battle was a rare experience for Robert, so although he could swiftly eliminate the vampire demigod in an instant, he chose not to disturb her.

After all, the blood-eyed maid's strength came from the Maya's 'War Angel Heart', relying on the god of war Urcan's gift to master the divine power of 'Battle Wind'.

But this divine power had flaws and drawbacks, preventing true mastery. Thus, despite her 'Battle Wind' and two mythical artifacts giving her paper strength rivaling lesser gods and archmages, in actual combat, she could only unleash about seventy percent of her potential.

However, the best classroom for learning is practice, and nothing helps one understand magical principles and combat techniques better than real combat. Now, Robert was much stronger than before; she would eventually control her power—Li Mochen eagerly awaited that day.

Next, with a wave of his hand, Li Mochen manipulated electromagnetic waves to contact Michael Wood, projecting an image beside him.

'BOSS!'

Michael Wood's face flushed as he saluted respectfully: 'Today's feat is enough to awe all of America! Everyone in the Rising Sun Legion is proud of you.'

'Spare me the flattery, Michael.'

Li Mochen said while steering the dragon vein forward: 'I want you to launch a general assault as soon as possible, targeting the three ruined forts in the canyon. Can you do it within three hours?'

The fleeing vampire demigods were hiding in these three ruined forts. Originally, the Bloodwing Grand Duchy planned to build three medium-sized military forts inside Rochelle Canyon.

They were never completed; under the bombardment of the Rising Sun Group's heavy artillery, the three forts were reduced to rubble.

Afterward, the Bloodwing Grand Duchy, in a fit of desperation, used their foundations to build a defensive line and a massive magical array.

One function of the latter was to counter his Life-Death divine power.

Li Mochen wanted to capture these three ruined forts as quickly as possible, hoping to take down two or three more vampire demigods and the surviving legendary vampires.

So far, including Elrohir Gemechu, four princes had died by his hand. If he could take two more, it would be a devastating blow to the Bloodwing Grand Duchy and the Sabbat, damaging their very foundations.

Demigods and legends were not cabbages; the Bloodwing Grand Duchy had fewer than twenty-seven demigods. Their seven counties were each ruled by a count wielding 'divine power', assisted by two demigod deputies—who in the Black Magic Empire held the rank of 'vice-count' or 'viscount'. The Grand Duchy itself directly governed four to five demigods.

Thus, if he moved fast enough, he could eliminate nearly a third of the Bloodwing Grand Duchy's high-end战力. This would not only strengthen the American Federation's military and arms dealers' resolve for war but also make the Bloodwing Grand Duchy a tempting cake, attracting covetous eyes from many American factions and its neighbors.

'Three hours? Wow, that's a bit tough.'

Michael Wood was startled, then showed a troubled expression: 'BOSS, you see, we have many super-heavy artillery pieces—thirty-six 'Saintslayer' cannons and two 'God-Demon Roar' cannons. But their rate of fire is slow, even slower after being converted to railway guns. If we launch a frontal assault on the ground, we'll have to clear out their forward outposts along the way. Unless we're willing to suffer heavy casualties—'

'Of course I know. Your employer is no military fool. I have my reasons for this request.'

At this moment, Li Mochen had arrived at the canyon entrance, above the Sea of the Dead that was beginning to retreat.

This time, he did not use his Life-Death divine power or the 'North-South Life-Death Divine Light', but instead simultaneously invoked the nine deities within his sea of consciousness.

In the next instant, an invisible soul wave spread from him, covering dozens of kilometers around.

Li Mochen interrogated those souls: would they submit to eternal silence, or surrender?

Thus, the zombies, war corpses, skeleton archers, death knights, ghouls, abominations, wraiths, and even necromancers and earthbone dragons all prostrated before him. In an instant, millions of undead troops knelt at Li Mochen's feet under the soul's pressure.

'As you see, Michael, we now have an undead army.'

...

The Rising Sun Group's army advanced swiftly. Li Mochen divided the 2.5 million undead that had submitted to him into ten groups, assigning them to the commanders of his seven regiments and three brigades. This gave them ample strength to sweep through Rochelle Canyon.

Notably, this did not include the nine million skeleton troops controlled by necromancers. These units, with magic levels below seven, were excluded from the statistics.

In fact, these skeletons played little role; their movement was too slow to keep up with the army's advance.

The truly effective units in this battle were mainly the death knights, bone dragons, and ghouls—especially the latter, the mainstay of any undead army. They possessed fierce attack power, almost tireless endurance, and explosive speed far beyond humans.

Li Mochen had subdued thirty thousand skeleton knights, ten thousand death knights, and four thousand earthbone dragons, which were relatively strong and valuable. Thus, he used them cautiously.

Even when used as cannon fodder, these powerful beings were treated as elite cannon fodder.

Li Mochen even planned to organize them, along with the nine thousand necromancers, into an 'Ice Undead Legion' after this battle, commanded by Lind Emers, as an important force for the Rising Sun Group stationed in the dark world.

Lind Emers had no military talent, but as a third-tier legendary lich, he could integrate into this legion.

Actual command would still rely on Michael Wood and others.

But the immediate priority was to capture Rochelle Canyon as quickly as possible.

Two hours and forty minutes later, one of the ruined forts before them collapsed under the assault of the undead sea, supported by intense artillery fire.

Half of the Bloodwing Grand Duchy's 320,000-strong undead legion stationed there was destroyed; the other half submitted to Li Mochen's 'Life-Death Divine Power' and soul pressure the moment the magical array collapsed.

Just seven minutes later, the second ruined fort was overrun by a flood of ghouls.

In fact, capturing these two forts took less than twenty minutes total. Most of the time was spent on marching.

The assault on the last ruined fort was led by the Fourth Armored Regiment under Brigadier General Matsui Hayato and the Fifth Armored Regiment under Brigadier General Delin Gausopp.

Both armored regiments had been formed less than three months ago and were relatively weak. However, Major General Michael Wood allocated nearly twenty thousand undead knights to them.

But the first to attack was 'Blood-Eyed Angel' Robert Eiffel, who had finished her opponent two hours earlier.

With the support of seven magic towers and seven legendary mages, she charged directly into the ruined fort. The demigods inside, unable to seriously wound Robert even together, lost their will to fight. After a brief preparation, they abandoned the fort and fled with all their might.

Two of them were instantly reduced to ash by Li Mochen's 'North-South Life-Death Divine Light'—their preparations did help them withstand the black-and-white beam for about three minutes.

Another vampire demigod was tightly entangled by Robert. The latter's escape speed was among the top demigods, aided by the Night Ruler. Together, they trapped that high-ranking vampire demigod in the astral plane for a deadly fight.

Li Mochen shifted his target to the Camarilla prince. Their confrontation closely resembled his earlier battle with 'Astral Agent' Rayne Brodwick: they continuously crossed realms, tore through voids, and flashed between the dark world and the astral plane, a fierce battle spanning multiple dimensions.

That Camarilla prince feared Li Mochen's 'Life-Death Divine Power' like a tiger, but his mastery of the medium-level 'Blood Divine Power' and his special profession 'Void Mage' gave him some resistance.

By folding space and transforming into a blood river, he partially avoided the impact of Li Mochen's divine power.

However, after a forty-five-minute pursuit, his aura steadily weakened.

His 'Blood Divine Power' was still inferior to Elrohir Gemechu's, unable to directly confront Li Mochen's 'North-South Life-Death Divine Light'. Each clash, even a minor graze, drained a large amount of his blood essence, continuously lowering his blood energy.

By this time, the Camarilla prince had retreated to within less than two hundred kilometers of 'High Court City'.

The distance from Rochelle Canyon was actually only three thousand kilometers, but they had taken forty-five minutes! Though the chase was fierce, most time was spent traversing planes and dimensions; the actual distance covered was minimal.

Here, he clearly had more confidence, no longer prioritizing escape when facing Li Mochen, sometimes stopping to fight head-on.

'High Court City' lay at the center of this blood-red highland, the capital of the High Court County. It housed millions of high-ranking undead, sturdy walls, and a demigod-level magical defense array.

If he could enter 'High Court City', he would be safe.

Li Mochen seemed oblivious, continuing his relentless pursuit. When they were about one hundred twenty kilometers from 'High Court City', a blood-red arrow suddenly shot from the city's direction.

It was an arrow imbued with divine power. Li Mochen's expression changed; before the arrow struck, he leaped across several voids to dodge it.

'King of High Court?'

That was the master of this blood-red highland, Count of High Court, Vampire Prince Eastbrook Lasombra!

The divine powers on that arrow were Corruption and Earthbind. The former was a variant of Earth divine power; anything that touched or approached it would decay, including power, true essence, mana, etc. Earthbind, also from the same source, used the power of earth and all matter to bind people and objects in place.

Thus, Li Mochen dared not touch it, directly flashing into the astral plane and escaping the arrow's pursuit through continuous planar jumps.

Three seconds later, Li Mochen and the dragon vein reappeared over two hundred kilometers away.

Through the observation port, he gazed at a tall figure on the hundred-meter-high wall of High Court City.

'Tell your kin!'

Though he failed to capture the Camarilla prince, Li Mochen showed no regret. Through this exchange, he had achieved his goal of probing Eastbrook Lasombra's condition.

Thus, his gaze was proud and contemptuous.

'From today, all vampires have only three choices: submit to me, stay far away from me, or die by my hand.'

He did not linger; after a flash, he entered the astral plane again.

This legendary figure, said to master four divine powers, the King of High Court, was indeed, as Consul and the military had gathered, nearing his end.

Li Mochen estimated he had at most five strikes left, or three months of life. So this blood-red highland was as good as his.

'Thank you, Prince Eastbrook!'

On the southern wall of High Court City, Camarilla prince and void mage Clodar Ventrue fell as countless bats, quickly coalescing into human form: 'If not for your intervention, he would have hunted me to death.'

'This is my duty. You came here to help defend the blood-red highland.'

Eastbrook shook his head, his expression grave: 'Since you were chased here, the battle for Rochelle Canyon has been lost, correct? I sensed several powerful magical surges; my blood is grieving.'

'Regrettably, we lost. Besides me, the other seven demigods were killed by the enemy, and few legends likely remain. He said we vampires must submit or die—he has the strength to back it up.'

Clodar Ventrue sighed softly: 'This is our tragedy, that in this age, someone who masters both opposing divine powers of life and death has appeared and grown powerful. I fear the disaster Isis brought us may repeat.'

Isis—the ancient Egyptian goddess of life, magic, marriage, and fertility, wife of Osiris, lord of the underworld.

There were also rumors that the Virgin Mary worshipped by the Radiant Church was none other than this former most powerful being of the Egyptian Ennead, second only to the sun god Ra. And the first followers of the Radiant Lord, the Jews, had emerged from ancient Egypt.

In ancient times, this Mother of Life brought great calamity to their bloodline. The 'Bloody Empire' they had established in the Middle East was destroyed at the hands of Isis.

"Indeed a threat."

Eastbrook nodded in agreement: "I have already foreseen the dire situation of the Grand Duchy of Bloodwing in the near future."

Clotaire, however, noticed that the other's state was not right: "You seem unconcerned."

"I am not far from death, Lord Clotaire."

Eastbrook replied calmly: "If it were two hundred years ago, I would not have allowed your Camarilla to join the battle—that would have been an insult to me—nor would I have let you enter this city."

Clotaire Ventrue was momentarily speechless, not knowing what to say, and could only gaze into the distant sky with an even more worried expression.

"Actually, there's no need to be too pessimistic. He has not yet ignited the divine flame. And Isis, everyone knows she is an incarnation of the Mother of Life from another world, reenacting the myth in this world. She was already a major deity when she came to this world."

Eastbrook seemed rather unimpressed by Clotaire's demeanor, 'comforting' him in a detached tone: "Our power is more than this. As long as we take it seriously, killing him is not difficult, is it?"

"It's not that simple! As you can see, he and his pet have the ability to navigate the void. How many can still catch up to him now?"

Clotaire Ventrue shook his head: "Moreover, as far as I know, that fellow has already made contact with our 'old enemies' through some special channels."

"Old enemies?"

Eastbrook's expression finally changed slightly: "If that's really the case, then it is indeed very troublesome."

Conflicts between their Sabbat and the Camarilla were constant, often with vendettas, but their relationship was far from being called old enemies. Whenever they encountered dangers that might threaten the entire race, the two factions would still help each other.

Beyond that, there was only one race that could be called their old enemy.

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, their vendetta had lasted three millennia. What was troubling was that this race's power was only slightly inferior to that of the blood race.

"He doesn't just use brute force; he knows how to form alliances. I think after this battle, those werewolf clans will truly take him and his forces seriously. However—"

Clotaire Ventrue hesitated slightly as he spoke: "You're right, he is still weak now. When I fought him earlier, I found that he doesn't seem very skilled in physical body and martial arts. He is exceptionally powerful in divine authority, but in close combat, he is only at the legendary level. Of course, considering his age and class level, this is already a godlike talent. But in demigod-level combat, it is still somewhat lacking."

"Are you worried about being tricked?"

Eastbrook had also witnessed part of the battle between Clotaire and Li Mochen: "Worried that it was a trap he set for you?"

"That is a concern, but also because I am not entirely sure. The combat assistance system of Light Demon No. 8 is not to be underestimated."

Clotaire rubbed his chin: "But next time, we might try to exploit this aspect."

Eastbrook, however, had lost interest and looked away, as he himself said, none of this concerned him.

Even if the blood race was planning a siege in the near future, it would not be his turn to act. The current King of the High Court could only sustain a fight for at most ten minutes, so going would be useless.

Meanwhile, at CIA headquarters, CIA Central Intelligence Director Cressey Lewis was watching a video image transmitted through an emergency line, twisting his pen into a knot.

"What do you think, Torre?"

He was asking the CIA Central Intelligence's magical advisor, the managing director of the New World Magic Association, another magus, Torre De Oro.

"This person's ability in the void is only slightly inferior to the Void Night Lord. He might be able to catch up to Ryan Brodwick without the latter's assistance. Considering his multiple divine authorities and that the Astral Agent is only at Legendary Level 5, this lucky Andre is very likely the true killer of Brodwick. However—"

Torre De Oro was a conservatively dressed man with a rigid expression. He also looked at the screen, his expression thoughtful: "Not that I'm speaking for him, but why would he attack Ryan Brodwick? And those two divine authority scrolls—according to feedback from the Angel King, they have both been used. So on whom? Lewis, I've heard something—"

"I know. Some people inside the CIA have a grudge against him, and Brodwick got mixed up with them."

Cressey Lewis's eyes showed anger: "But that shouldn't be a reason for him to kill Brodwick! The Astral Agent's abilities are crucial to our exploration, and this guy not only sabotaged our operation but also treated the nation's authority as nothing."

"But what if it was self-defense?"

Magus Torre De Oro glanced sideways at him: "From your tone, it seems you intend to go after him regardless?"

"We'll see."

Lewis did not commit: "I can't get evidence to accuse him now, but I'll have people watch him. This guy should pray that I don't catch him in a crime."