Chapter 85 Eyghon, Fortress of the Earth (2)

“Eyghon has appeared!!!”

It wasn’t just Jin and company that noticed the tremendous change in the environment. The moment Eyghon mysteriously appeared, the entire Blackburn headquarters broke into a frenzy. Hundreds of operators rushed to their positions as thousands lined up in front of the Warp Gates, waiting to be teleported.

For the first time in over a thousand years, the entire Blackburn House had been deployed. High Elders that had been slumbering for centuries were abruptly woken up for this emergency. Anyone with connections called their friends and former comrades, hoping to add one more fighter into the equation.

It didn’t matter if they were a Vampire, Werewolf or Human… Everyone in the Blackburn House had focused all of their attention on the threat looming over their necks.

And that includes the person standing at the very top.

“Report!”

The Blackburn House acted exceedingly similar to that of a well-oiled military. They had barracks for soldiers to sleep in and traditional ranks that each member could obtain. Incidentally, since Ysabelle was one of the most talented individuals from the main branch, she had been fast-tracked to the position of Major, even though she was barely a quarter of a century old.

But that position was primarily ceremonial, and she didn’t command a battalion like most Majors. However, unlike that discount major, the man standing at the top was the bona fide General of the entire Army. The most powerful man in the Blackburn House and the only person capable of calling himself the unadulterated Lord that ruled over the mighty Vampire House.

“General Enzo!”

One of the officers beamed at the entrance of their leader. Standing at over 2.3 metres tall, Enzo Blackburn towered over most people and was considered extremely tall even by Vampire standards. His massive frame was loaded with dense muscle, making him look more like a bodybuilder than a General who sat in command post all day. With a well-defined jawline plus a rough exterior that few could replicate, the man didn’t seem like the average Vampire, who barely lifted a day in their life.

If anything, the man looked more like a Werewolf than a Vampire.

“An earthquake had been detected, and after observing the location with satellite imagery, we can confirm that Eyghon had made its appearance!”

“Tch, did our countermeasures fail? There weren’t any signs that it had passed the Gate!”

Enzo clicked his tongue and desperately frowned. Falling onto his command chair, he started to play with the data on his holographic screen, pulling out top secret records that no one other than he could see.

“We defeated every outbreak… We hired the Warclaw Tribe and solicited the help of the humans… And we made sure to calculate everything to the slimmest margins! So what went wrong?! How did Eyghon still manage to slip through our radar?!”

The Blackburn General’s frustration wasn’t unwarranted.

Eyghon was completely unlike the other two Demon Lords that humanity had encountered. In complete disregard to its size, the massive turtle-like Demon Lord was perhaps the most elusive Outer Demon of the three. It could hide in plain sight, disappearing from its original location and reappearing thousands of kilometres away.

It had an impregnable defence, and yet, it never behaved aggressively like Baishe, who flew from country to country, burning everything with its draconic breath. Neither did it act like Cthulhu, who killed its enemies to feed its spawn.

Eyghon was a complete enigma. Whenever it appeared, it would stay in place for a few hours, allowing its spawn to deal with any attackers who dared to disrupt its slumber. Plus, it didn’t help that Eyghon had a magic cancelling field capable of halting the assault of numerous magical beings.

And if it got too chaotic, Eyghon would simply disappear without a trace.

All these factors combined made Eyghon the most cryptic and difficult Outer Demon to deal with. Most of the time, the Blackburn House was able to prevent its descent into the mortal world simply through breaking the possible methods of entry it had. From killing off its spawn to monitoring the Major Gate twenty-four-seven.

And for the most part, it worked just fine. The thousand years of tranquillity was evidence of that fact. Yet, Eyghon had mysteriously been able to intrude into the planet, surpassing the calculations and expectations of all the experts that the Blackburn House had brought together.

“We have no other choice then… Call an emergency meeting with the Guardian Houses! Also, send a message to the United Nations and request them to send help! And… send an SOS signal to the Holy Church.”

It took Enzo all of his effort to push those final words through his gritted teeth.

The Holy Church was the bane of the Vampire race. Ever since the First Vampire walked the Earth, the Holy Church had been hunting them. It was only after the arrival of a common enemy, the Outer Demons, that the prosecution stopped. However, the wounds of millennia couldn’t be washed away through one simple ceasefire.

Till this very day, there is still tension between the Holy Church and Vampires. And the General also had his own reasons to hate the Church. But alas, the threat of a Demon Lord was far too great. They needed all the help that they could get, including the powerful exorcists the Holy Church possessed.

It would require the collective effort of the entire world to push back, let alone eliminate a full Demon Lord. Not to mention, this was Eyghon, the most mysterious of the three Demon Lords on record. In fact, the main reason the World Congress was formed in the first place was to bring together every living being on the planet to fight the threat of the Outer Demons and Demon Lord.

“Reporting to the General!”

“What is it?!”

Enzo growled back, already annoyed by the fact that he had to grovel down and ask for help from the Holy Church. However, the following words out of his subordinate’s mouth changed his face entirely.

“About the location that Eyghon has appeared at… It seems that Mistress Ysabelle was present.”

“What?! Why was Ysabelle there?!”

?[0??]? “S-She was responding to an SOS call, my Lord!”

“Fuck!” Ignoring his so-called dignified persona, the massive man cursed out loud. “Where is she now?!”

“W-We don’t know, sire! Contact had been cut off, and we haven’t heard from her since!”

“Fuck! Why was Ysabelle there?!”

A deep frown painted Enzo’s face as he hung his head down. As a loving father, he naturally knew his daughter’s personality. She was one to take her duties as a member of the House seriously and would never abandon a subordinate who needed her help. Even if it meant putting herself in harm’s way.

That was the Noblesse Oblige that members of the Blackburn House were raised on.

But still… As a father, all he wished to do was abandon his post and rush down to find his daughter. Alas, he was the head of the Blackburn House as well. He was responsible for the tens of thousands of lives under his command, and he couldn’t risk all of their lives because of his own familial ties.

Therefore…

“Lieutenant Colonel Yoel! Colonel Yannis!”

“Present!”

Two young men, who seemingly looked like they were in their thirties, stepped forward and clicked their boots together. They saluted the General and awaited his next orders.

“Ysabelle has gone missing, and I’m currently too preoccupied to go. So, the responsibility of saving her will fall on you two.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t let me down. Bring back your sister in one piece, or I’ll rip you two into pieces, got it?”

“… Yes, father.”

Enzo’s two sons sighed helplessly at their father’s blatant favouritism. However, neither of them complained as they had gotten used to Enzo doting on his only and youngest daughter. Alas, they weren’t going to complain. After all…

“We’ll make sure to bring Ysabelle back safe and sound, Father!”

Enzo wasn’t the only one who doted on the family’s youngest member.

???

Darkness. That was the first thing that engulfed my senses. As my shock subsided and my other senses came online, I started to comprehend the situation that I was in. The world had turned damp, and the heat within this foreign land had become ever so humid. Shrouded in complete darkness, I couldn’t rely on my eyesight to navigate around.

However, the moment I activated my sense of smell, a putrid odour overcame my nose, forcing me to scrunch up in agony.

Combining the fact that the environment that I was in had completely changed, there was only one probable reason for this current predicament of mine…

I see… So that Outer Demon had swallowed me.

In my fear, I couldn’t react to that Outer Demon’s attack and could only hold onto Ysabelle while it charged forward with its mouth open. Speaking of the black-haired girl…

“…”

I felt a warm entity squirm in my embrace, moaning and groaning as she awoke. Possibly due to the fear that overcame her, Ysabelle had passed out for a few minutes there. If not for my tight bear hug, the two of us might have been separated the moment this Outer Demon swallowed us.

“J-Jin?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“W-Why? W-Why did you come?”

“You’re still obsessed about that?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Even during an emergency such as this, Ysabelle’s priority was about my arrival in the Blackburn House. And while I would love to discuss everything at length with her, there was a more pressing issue to handle.

“Ysabelle, we’ve been swallowed by the Outer Demon.”

“W-What?! S-So, are we dead?! A-Am I having hallucinations right now?”

“Don’t you silly, you lass…”

I sighed and chalked Ysabelle’s odd reaction to her recovering from shock. Fortunately, after checking myself for a bit, I found out something incredible. My magic power that had been sealed before was finally freed from that mysterious force, allowing me to summon out my Soul Armament and cast the spells that I needed once more.

With my Creation magic, I summoned a wisp of light that illuminated the entire area, allowing us to see what exactly we were dealing with.

“T-This is…”

“We’re probably still in the esophagus of the beast.”

Although I didn’t know what the biology of this Outer Demon looked like, I vaguely guessed our position based on human biology. Surrounding us was a muscular tunnel with thick, viscous liquids laced on every side. There weren’t any teeth around, so it couldn’t be the mouth and judging by how perfectly centred the tunnel was, it should be the tube that led to the stomach.

Wait a second, I could use magic, right?

That means…

“Genesis: Dragon Breath!!!”

Channelling my magic power to my thumb ring, I sent out a blast wave of fire that would melt even the toughest of metals down. The intense flames collided violently with the inner linings of the muscular walls, but they didn’t pierce through it in the slightest. Rather, before it could do any damage, the magic faded away entirely, just like it did when faced with an anti-magic field.

“So we can still use magic here, but the insides of its body still possess some anti-magic properties, huh? Tsk, now this is a problem…”

I knew that things wouldn’t be that easy. But still, the fact that I could still use magic was a big plus. Almost instantly, I warped space around us, preventing any more mucus from dripping down on us as well as any stomach fluids from corroding our bodies.

After confirming that we wouldn’t become digested chunks of meat, I heaved a deep sigh of relief.

Well, that’s all the damage mitigation I could do for now. I could find methods to escape from this disgusting hellhole at a later time. The most important thing for me now is…

“Ysabelle, let’s talk…”