47: Chapter 47 Awakening and Integration

Cecilia's sword was still in her hand, but she did not strike.

Her left hand grabbed Richard's shoulder abruptly, her fingers gripping him tightly.

She lowered her helmet, the visor facing Richard's eyes, and those blood-red pupils were no longer filled with the out-of-control madness from moments ago.

Cecilia gradually regained her composure.

"I... I... I will not let her... control my consciousness again."

She turned around to face The Noble Lady again.

This time, her sword tip was pointed at that damned woman in the black robe.

The Noblewoman's face had mostly healed, leaving only a thin, light red line extending from her forehead to the bridge of her nose, which was still slowly shrinking.

She watched Cecilia turn around, the curve of the left corner of her mouth receding slightly, as if she were reassessing the situation.

The next moment, she smiled—a smile filled with cold malice—and stretched both hands out from her sleeves, making strange gestures.

"It doesn't matter, my little Vampire; there are plenty of materials anyway," she said with a laugh.

Four strange Masked Men emerged simultaneously from the shadows behind her.

Like the Masked Man who died by Richard's blade earlier, they were all wearing dark grey robes and had dark purple masks fixed to their faces.

However, the number of arms extending from beneath their robes varied; some had four, others had six.

Some arms ended not in palms but in curved bone blades, while others were covered in rough stitches and patches of skin of different colors, as if they had been pieced together from limbs of various origins.

They made no sound as they emerged from the shadows, save for the faint rustling of their robe hems dragging across the stone floor.

Dozens of different weapons flashed out from beneath their robes simultaneously, reflecting a chaotic glint in the cold light.

Richard propped himself up against the wall, bent down, and picked up the hand axe that had fallen to the ground.

His ribs made a teeth-gritting grinding sound as he moved. He held his breath in his chest, forcing himself to steady his breathing, then stood up straight.

Cecilia stood to his left, holding her sword horizontally with the tip pointing outward.

The numerical disparity was significant, but Richard felt no panic at this moment because Cecilia was standing by his side.

"You take the left, I'll take the right," Cecilia said.

"Understood. Don't push yourself too hard," Richard replied.

The next moment, the four Masked Men moved simultaneously.

Richard charged head-on toward the four-armed Masked Man nearest to him.

This guy's four hands were gripping a curved broadsword, a short spear, and two small round shields, respectively—the standard configuration for both offense and defense.

The broadsword came down first; Richard blocked it with his hand axe, the sound of metal clashing exploding in the stone chamber.

The short spear immediately followed, thrusting toward his abdomen from beneath the broadsword. He dodged sideways, the spear tip grazing past his stomach.

Both round shields smashed toward his head from the left and right simultaneously. He ducked, and the shields collided above his head with a dull thud.

Taking advantage of the gap before the opponent could retract the two shields, Richard hacked his axe into the joint connecting the opponent's left forearm and shoulder.

The Bloodthirsty Brand activated the moment the axe blade cut into flesh, and a surge of warm life force flowed back up from the wound, pouring into his body.

The broken ribs in his chest began to heal at a slow pace under the effect of the life-force recovery.

The Masked Man let out a muffled grunt, and one of his four arms hung down limply.

Cecilia was already locked in combat with two Masked Men.

Her speed was several levels faster than before her transformation; her enchanted sword traced pale blue arcs in the cold light, and every swing precisely inflicted damage on the Masked Men.

Her footwork was no longer the steady, calculated pace from before, but possessed a nearly ghostly fluidity.

Cecilia slid between the Masked Man's three weapons, pierced the opponent's wrist with her sword tip, and then used the momentum to retreat, dodging a bone blade swung from behind by another Masked Man.

Her reaction speed was fast enough to find openings to strike between the gaps of two weapons, but the two Masked Men had too many weapons, and wounds began to appear on her body.

Her left shoulder was slashed, and the outer side of her right leg was stabbed, but she did not slow down.

Because she knew that as long as she held these two off, Richard would be able to free himself.

On Richard's side, the four-armed Masked Man had already fallen to the ground, a deep, long gash across his throat from left to right, his four hands still twitching slightly.

He turned around and launched a second Charge without hesitation.

This sudden offensive was not aimed at the Masked Men, but at The Noblewoman!

He dashed through the gaps in the melee, his hand axe blade aimed straight for The Noblewoman's nape!

Since hacking her head wouldn't kill her, he would try to chop the whole thing off!

The Noble Lady didn't even turn around this time.

The air behind her twisted violently before the axe blade could land, and a mass of dark purple energy erupted from her nape.

Richard's axe blade struck that mass of energy, feeling as if it had hacked into a patch of highly dense slime; the blade was enveloped, unable to penetrate further or be pulled out.

The Noble Lady turned her head; her split face had completely healed, and even the thin light red line had vanished.

She looked at Richard, her expression shifting from a smile to one of impatience.

"Enough," she said, extending her left hand and pushing the air toward Richard's chest with her five fingers.

The same invisible hammer-like impact struck again, but this time, Richard did not fly backward.

He dug his feet firmly into the ground, his body sliding back nearly five steps, grinding two bloodstains into the stone floor.

In an instant, Cecilia stabbed her sword into The Noblewoman's lower back from behind.

The sword tip passed through the black robe and flesh, emerging from the front of The Noblewoman's abdomen, and the sharp runes on the blade erupted in a small burst of pale blue light upon contacting flesh.

The Noble Lady looked down at the sword tip protruding from her abdomen, her expression showing a hint of surprise.

She had not expected Cecilia to break free from the siege of two Masked Men, nor had she expected her to strike at this moment.

She let out an angry hiss: "You insects, enough—!"

She spread her arms, and all ten of her fingernails exploded simultaneously, the off-white fragments turning into countless tiny particles in the air and spreading outward.

When those particles flew past the Masked Men, they passed directly into their bodies; not a single Masked Man dodged, and not one was injured.

As the particles made contact with them, they began to fuse; dense, dark purple veins emerged on the surface of the Masked Men's bodies, and they stopped all movement simultaneously, turning to walk toward The Noblewoman.

The moment the three Masked Men's bodies touched The Noble Lady's black robe, they began to dissolve.

Their skin and bones all turned into a semi-liquid, off-white paste, wrapping around The Noble Lady's body layer by layer.

Her figure expanded and deformed during the fusion, her black robe tearing into countless fragments that drifted to the ground, revealing the deformed body growing wildly beneath.