Under the moonlight, a bat flew overhead, taking in the situation around High Fort from afar.
No large-scale movements. It seemed Alama finally planned to lie low for a few days.
Returning to the blood canopy, Sigmund landed on the outer platform of the Scarlet Spire. His waiting adjutant respectfully offered a familiar jar.
“My lord, there’s no need for you to personally scout every day. Such minor tasks can be left to your subordinates.”
“A large shipment of supplies is arriving soon. We can’t give Alama any opening.”
“As expected of Your Excellency.”
Sigmund took a sip from the jar, then reluctantly capped it. “No sugar next time.”
“Eh? But last time you—”
“No sugar at this hour from now on,” Sigmund added expressionlessly.
The adjutant bowed. “Yes, my lord.”
Back in his chambers alone, Sigmund threw off his robe and pinched the spare tire that had appeared. He mentally cursed Lin Jun’s eighteen generations of ancestors.
All that talk about caution and personal scouting was nonsense. Scouting was just an excuse. His real goal was those two laps in the air!
That guy gorged on sugar the moment it was “his time,” even sweetening the blood he drank.
After months of this, Sigmund had visibly gained weight!
Thanks to the blood clan’s inability to enjoy normal food, almost no vampire ever got fat. Even the originally plump thinned out quickly after turning.
To grow fat as a vampire, Sigmund was probably the only one in history.
At first he hadn’t realized the problem’s severity.
Until last week, in a perfectly ordinary skirmish with Alama, his bloated body had nearly cost him the fight!
Now he had to spend time every day burning off the energy. Even so, the fattening trend had only slowed, not stopped.
Expecting the guy inside him to moderate was impossible. Sigmund could already despairingly foresee his future figure.
So far he had tried several methods to purge the foreign soul; all useless.
But he wasn’t without hope.
After more than two months, he could feel the intruder’s soul force weakening, ever so slightly.
This was still Sigmund’s own body. The other was just an outsider, rootless, constantly draining.
Though the loss was tiny compared to the soul’s massive size, over a long enough timeline, it would weaken more and more.
Sigmund roughly calculated when the soul would fully dissipate: two years.
Not short, not long. As long as there was hope, Sigmund was willing to endure, willing to play nice.
He had endured six years to kill his former master. Two more years would be just a footnote in his eternal life.
Comforting himself with this thought, Sigmund hurled the jar of sugar across the room.
At that moment, a blood-clan messenger arrived with news from the rear. “My lord, Duke Velariss has already departed the eastern front with her forces to reinforce the Scarlet Spire. Expected arrival in ten days.”
“Oh? Finally!” Sigmund snatched the letter.
Regarding Velariss, Sigmund and Elinore unusually agreed: both deeply wary of that lunatic.
But for Sigmund, as long as she could deal with his nemesis Alama, none of that mattered!
He quickly scanned the contents: the elemental lord sealed in Molten Fire Dungeon had broken free, triggering an unprecedented monster tide. Goldflame Fortress had fallen. Two legions were down to less than ten percent. The entire mountain forces were now focused on suppressing the dungeon!
“Those greedy, arrogant dwarves. When they chose to imprison the elemental lord instead of killing it for the dungeon’s resources, they should have known this day would come! But… His Highness the Prince truly has impressive methods…”
The dwarves couldn’t possibly be unaware of how critical the seal was. Sigmund couldn’t imagine how Prince Visarius had pulled this off quietly.
His wariness of the blood-clan elder deepened.
“What’s an elemental lord?” the voice in his head suddenly asked.
Sigmund had intended to ignore him, but thinking of the two-year deadline, he decided to be cooperative to keep the other complacent and prevent any desperate moves.
So he explained:
“Elemental lords are simply the oldest and strongest elemental spirits. No essential difference from regular ones. But elementals have a strict internal hierarchy. Powerful, intelligent individuals have absolute control over lesser ones. The dwarves used trickery to imprison that lord, enslaving the entire dungeon’s elementals. Now they’re reaping what they sowed!”
“So what was the ‘trick’ you mentioned?”
“They supposedly made a bet with the lord, but the dwarves cheated in the end.” Sigmund gave a simple explanation, clearly unwilling to elaborate.
“I see…”
Seeing Lin Jun fall silent, Sigmund assumed he was just curious.
After all, they now shared one body, stuck in the Scarlet Spire all day. What connection could he possibly have with the dwarves?
…
Stone Fortress Dungeon.
Outside the newly opened rift stood three layers of defenses made of Lin Jun’s subordinates.
Space was limited, or Lin Jun would have sent even more.
Fire elementals that came through froze to death on their own, but earth elementals only slowed slightly, and wind elementals were completely unaffected.
But these elementals weren’t why Lin Jun had stationed heavy forces.
The real reason was that he had sent a scout Puchi to investigate and felt terrifying mana fluctuations in the air.
That overwhelming power reminded him of his early days in Mushroom Garden No. 1, when he had sensed the distant Flame Demon unleashing its might.
Now it seemed his feeling hadn’t been wrong.
Lin Jun had several Puchis collapse the entire passage leading to the rift room.
He didn’t think he could beat something that had destroyed a fortress city and required the dwarves’ full might to fight.
Even hoping to scavenge wasn’t worth entering now.
Unfortunately, Stone Fortress Dungeon was only occupied, not controlled by him. If the rift had opened in his own Puchi Dungeon, he could have managed its size and opening himself.
Now that he had collapsed the passage, he hoped the other side wouldn’t notice.
Then there was the other matter…
Watching Little Black, who had been bribed and was now baring teeth at everyone while protecting the two tiny people, Lin Jun decided to withhold tasty Puchis from her for the next few days.
(End of Chapter)
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