The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage-Chapter 356
The Intelligence Knights, charging in from all sides, seemed to target Seong at first—but then suddenly redirected their attacks toward the ominous blood-red droplets that had materialized out of nowhere.
They had judged them to be obstacles and aimed to eliminate them first.
That judgment was, frankly, excellent.
Seeing them rush at his blood droplets, Seong flicked his finger.
The blood-red droplets released an ominous black aura, then morphed into awl-like spikes that extended midair toward the knights.
Like something out of legend, the awls extended just like the magical staff from myths.
But the Intelligence Knights were quick to react—even after witnessing the transformation, they moved like shadows and evaded every single spike.
There were many of them, yes, but they weren’t the type to be caught off guard by such linear movements.
Having all dodged the attack, the Intelligence Knights immediately closed in on Seong.
Pop! Pa-pop!
In an instant, they narrowed the distance—but just then, fresh droplets of blood appeared before them. Unlike before, this time the blood formed crimson blades and shot toward them like blood-forged swords.
Fwhip-fwip-fwip!
Hundreds of swords appeared in the blink of an eye, forcing the knights to retreat while raising their blades to parry the incoming strikes.
Though they pulled back, the ominous awls were still floating ominously. At that moment, Haldrin drew upon a shadowy aura and unleashed a sword technique.
The shadowy aura stretched out like the elongated shade of a sunlit figure and swept through the area in an instant, shattering the blood-red spikes into pieces.
Seong’s eyes gleamed with interest at such formidable skill.
“D-Damn, that’s insane.”
So murmured Baren, who was simply spectating from the sidelines.
His viewers couldn’t deny it either.
“Whoa, that clash just now was intense.”
“All I can do is gasp.”
“The psychological play in that split-second exchange... damn.”
“Insane. Wait, who are those people?”
“Dunno. I heard the Demon King called them Intelligence Knights??”
“Anyone got confirmation???”
With the sudden appearance of such powerful newcomers, the audience watching the stream was buzzing with excitement.
They were expecting a boss battle, but instead got something like this?
From their perspective, it couldn’t get better than this.
Meanwhile, Haldrin, who had been unable to close the distance, finally signaled with his eyes, as if he had no choice. At once, the Intelligence Knights aligned in a straight line and charged at Seong.
Babababam!
They quickly closed in.
Seong, recognizing their approach, drew more blood forth in response.
A fierce crimson storm surged out to pressure the knights. The ones in the front fell back, replaced one by one, and finally, when Haldrin was the last remaining, he had come just close enough to strike.
As Haldrin swung his blade, Seong’s body instantly dissolved into blood, and from within the vortex of crimson storm, his form reappeared—
Blood Lord.
In other words, the emperor of vampires—Seong.
Which meant this was easily within his capabilities.
Until now, he’d only shown its offensive uses. But from here on, the applications could be endless.
For example—
Wriggle wriggle.
“Oh, so this works too, huh?”
Seong murmured as the swirling blood condensed and soon took the shape of four humanoid figures.
All four blood-forged avatars resembled Seong, as if they were clones.
Each wielded a different weapon: one held a blood-red glowing staff, another a similarly glowing spear, while the remaining two carried a blood-colored sword and bow.
Two ranged, one mid-range, one melee.
Haldrin narrowed his eyes at the sight.
Though his emotions had been suppressed, he clearly understood the tide was turning against him.
Staying cautious, he gave a signal and regrouped with his knights.
Though all wielded swords, they didn’t seem to consider the situation disadvantageous. Without hesitation, they charged as one.
At the same time, Seong’s blood clones moved as well.
Babababa—
Tatatatak—
The clones moved swiftly and fluidly, a touch faster than the knights. The spear clone was the first to charge, using superior reach to lunge at one of the Intelligence Knights.
A knight responded by swinging his sword to deflect the blow.
But the sword clone charged in next, pushing down the spear like a wedge. As he lunged forward, another knight quickly stepped in to intercept.
Chaaaang—!
A sharp metallic clash rang out, and the knight blocking the sword clone felt a numbing sting in his wrist, forcing him to retreat.
Just then, as the knight who had been targeted by the spear tried to slash the sword clone, a sharp noise split the air—and something sliced right between them, forcing the knight to back off.
Whiiish—
A blood-red arrow pierced through the very space where he’d stood moments ago.
Another knight tried to fill the gap—but was immediately repelled by a blast of blood magic from the rear.
Haldrin scowled deeply as he watched the unfolding battle.
Each clone, on its own, was already comparable in strength to an Intelligence Knight.
But every time he tried to engage directly, the two ranged clones interfered.
The ranged pair focused their attacks on Haldrin specifically, while the mid-range and melee clones held off the remaining three knights—sometimes receiving ranged support themselves, creating a balanced standoff.
Chang!
Chaaaang!
As the battle dragged on longer than expected, Haldrin finally made a decision and gave an order.
“Take the pills!”
He shouted, simultaneously rushing in to intercept the spear and sword clones and shielding the others from ranged attacks.
The remaining three Intelligence Knights quickly retreated, each pulling out a pill and tossing it into their mouths.
It was the very pill Haldrin had originally intended to use.
Once they swallowed it—
Their auras exploded outward like detonated bombs.
“Whoa, they can do that? Damn...”
“They just went full dope mode??”
“The hell?!?”
“What is that, drugs?!?”
“Wait a sec—aren’t those what demon worshippers use??”
“Yeah I’ve seen those before;;;”
Some viewers immediately recognized it.
A forbidden drug that temporarily boosts demonic energy to explosive levels—but completely drains one’s life force once it wears off.
And then—
“Wait... Intelligence Knights... aren’t they from the Rieskan Kingdom?”
“Yeah looks like it???”
“And they’re using pills that only demon worshippers use???”
“Holy crap, this is some major plot bomb.”
Realizing that the Intelligence Knights were from the Rieskan Kingdom, viewers were left stunned.
The knights themselves seemed unaware, or simply didn’t care—throwing everything into one final all-out assault.
Even after losing one of their number, Haldrin pulled back and took out a separately hidden pill of his own, swallowing it too.
As the demonic energy surged from him like a detonation, he looked at Seong and the others.
“Krrghh... After seeing this, I’ve got no choice but to kill you all.”
“Hm. Now you’re pretending like you weren’t planning to kill us?”
Normally, Seong used formal language even with enemies—but he dropped it now.
He knew exactly what they were.
He also said, with genuine distaste:
“I know all about that pill.”
“Khhah... Then you know exactly what kind of state I’m in right now.”
Haldrin reveled in the sense of omnipotence granted by his enhanced power, ignoring Seong’s words.
But Seong just shook his head, as if it were all pathetic.
Did he steal the pill earlier out of fear it might power them up?
No.
“I took it because I knew—once you get like this, you become boring.”
“Tch. Drenched in arrogance, are we?”
“That pill temporarily turns you into a demon by injecting demonic energy into your bloodstream, right?”
“...Even if you know that, what use—”
“And what do you think I deal in?”
“...Huh?”
Haldrin blinked in confusion at the question.
Then Seong extended his hand toward Haldrin and the Intelligence Knights.
Throughout the battle, they’d accumulated small wounds—and through those wounds, Seong had already mixed his own blood into theirs.
And now—
He absorbed every trace of demonic energy within their blood using his own.
The highly concentrated demonic energy was sucked out of their bodies and turned back into blood—stripping them of their awakening effect and leaving them drained.
Seong let out a quiet sigh and said:
“I told you. It’d get boring.”
“G-Kkugh...! This... this can’t be...!”
Watching him sputter, Seong shook his head and turned to Helena.
“I’ll have a talk with them later. Mind handling it?”
“As much as you’d like.”
Helena smiled faintly, and with a flick of her fingerless hand—summoned the abyss beneath the knights.
Suddenly, hands from the abyss rose and dragged them down into the depths.
Just moments earlier, the knights had seemed emotionless—drained of life. But now their reactions turned strange.
“AAAGHHH!!”
“P-Please, spare me!!”
“W-Where are you taking us?!”
“GRAAAAHHH!!!”
The abyss dredged up every fear imaginable, and emotions that were thought to have been erased began to surface.
But it was too late—they were already swallowed by the abyss.
Seong watched and muttered with a hint of regret.
“Hmmm. I still haven’t tested everything Blood Lord can do...”
Even though he had won so overwhelmingly, Seong still looked disappointed—leaving Baren and the audience completely dumbfounded.
Was that the kind of mentality one needed to rise to the top?
Baren thought so—and gazed at Seong with ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) admiration. The viewers, too, couldn’t help but express awe.
“He didn’t even go all out and still won.”
“Right????”
“The Demon King really is insane.”
“He’s barely lifted a finger this whole time.”
“Sheesh...”
Just then, as everyone was marveling—
Seong turned to Baren and the others and smiled.
“Well, thanks to all this, I got three more masks here and picked up two more on the way. That makes five—perfect.”
The five missing masks were now all in his possession.
Which meant—
“Shall we head down?”
At Seong’s words, the expedition members and his vassals all nodded.
At last, they were ready to enter the deepest depths of the Masked Lord’s Tomb.
