Chapter 9
Give Me Back My Mom!
At eight o'clock that evening, a piercing alarm echoed through the night sky of Kronos:
[Eastern District Third Detention Center is under attack by an unknown Non-Human force! The assailants have breached the outer defenses. All citizens in the Eastern District are requested to proceed immediately to the nearest shelter. Non-combat personnel, please do not approach the incident area. The City Defense Army and Holy See emergency response units are en route to handle the situation! Repeat...]
The streets were already in chaos. Under the guidance of the Holy See and the City Defense Army, crowds swiftly surged toward the shelters.
Almost the instant the alarm sounded, Ximilita, who was seated upright in her study, opened her eyes.
The report before her was precisely the surveillance record regarding "Lia" who had "normally" gone out this afternoon, "looked for her wallet" without success, and ultimately returned to her rented room.
Come to think of it, she seemed to live in the Eastern District as well? According to real-time reports from the surveillance personnel, she was currently heading toward the shelter too.
An icy chill flickered in her ice-blue eyes. Ximilita's form vanished from its spot in an instant.
A holy, white-gold light cut through the night sky, hurtling toward the Eastern District at a breathtaking speed.
When she arrived, the area outside the Third Detention Center was already in shambles.
The originally sturdy rune-carved stone wall had been blasted open into a massive gap, the edges still marked with scorched traces.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, the burnt embers of arcane energy, and... a familiar magical energy fluctuation that made her very soul tremble.
Several injured City Defense Army soldiers were being dragged to the rear by their comrades, and within the rubble, the bodies of a few Holy See perimeter guards could be seen.
From inside the breach, the flashes and roars of battle continued unabated.
Ximilita hovered mid-air, her pristine white Four-Wings spread behind her, gazing coldly down below.
There, a petite figure shrouded in dense, dark-red arcane energy was advancing with an utterly brutal and unstoppable momentum.
That figure had flowing silver hair, and crimson eyes that blazed like burning agate in the darkness.
She was precisely the person Ximilita had longed for day and night, yet also hated to the very bone.
"Give me back my mom——!!"
Veiloria roared. A storm of dark-red magical curses swept outward, shredding through the Holy See guards and defensive arrays trying to stop her, layer by layer.
The moment she saw Veiloria, Ximilita froze.
‘She—why is she here?!’
Wasn't Lia rushing toward the shelter?
Could it be that her previous guess had been wrong? That they weren't the same person after all?
No... that no longer mattered...
"Master, since you have appeared before me of your own accord, this time... I have no reason to let you leave..."
By now, although reinforcements from both the Holy See and the City Defense Army were continuously arriving, they seemed fragile against Veiloria's overwhelming magical bombardment.
"It's the Vampire Princess!"
"Stop her! She cannot be allowed to reach the inner detention area!"
The Holy See commander roared hoarsely. More holy knights and battle priests surged in from all directions, holy light spells raining down like hailstones upon that dark-red figure.
Yet Veiloria merely raised her hand lightly, and a blood-red barrier blocked all the attacks.
Simultaneously, a massive spear of coagulated blood formed in her hand, and she hurled it with tremendous force, directly piercing through a holy light barrier that had risen in her path. The shockwave sent dozens of holy knights flying.
Ximilita watched this scene silently, her face expressionless. Only deep within those ice-blue eyes, a storm was gathering.
"Your Holiness the Holy Maiden! You've finally arrived!" A high-ranking holy knight in silver armor flew to her side and said urgently, "The attacker is a Core Imperial Level member of the Vampire race, extremely powerful. The guards here may not be able to—"
"I know."
Ximilita interrupted him. Her voice was terrifyingly calm.
Her gaze locked onto the silver figure below, still radiating unstoppable momentum despite being surrounded. Slowly, she raised her hand.
The Holy Sword materialized instantly in her palm.
"Notify the perimeter to lock down. Evacuate all non-essential personnel."
"Leave this to me."
As her words fell, the Four-Wings behind her flared powerfully. Her entire form transformed into a streak of white light, like a meteor plunging straight toward the heart of the rampaging dark-red storm—
Straight down!
A holy, white radiance descended like an inverted giant bowl, enveloping the core area of the Third Detention Center.
[Sanctuary: Dust Purification]
Everything outside was instantly sealed off. Within the domain, only a pure, profound silence remained, along with holy light that seemed poised to purify all things.
The dark-red arcane energy surging around Veiloria, within this Sanctuary, was like snow meeting boiling water, dissolving with a hissing sound, drastically suppressed.
Still, fortunately, her plan—to clear "Lia" of suspicion—had already succeeded.
Even more successfully than she had anticipated. Ximilita had directly deployed her domain, meaning no spectators would witness what came next.
However, the strength of this domain... and the nearly tangible, frigid fury of its master, exceeded her estimates somewhat.
The white light receded, and Ximilita's form materialized at the center of the Sanctuary.
She held the Holy Sword, her Four-Wings fully extended, her ice-blue eyes locked unwaveringly onto Veiloria. The storm that had been building within her for a decade finally erupted at this moment.
"Why..." her voice trembled and broke, "Why do you... have to appear before me like this every time?!"
"Last time, it was a fake death! It was the identity of the Vampire Princess! And now... you're openly attacking a human detention center?!"
Ximilita advanced step by step. With each step, the holy light around her intensified, and the domain's oppressive force increased accordingly.
"You know I've been looking for you! You know... I'm in this very city! With so many people outside, you'd rather be taken away by the Holy See than leave with me... Are you that eager to trample on my heart, Master?!"
She screamed the last two words.
At the same time, she moved.
There was no probing, no holding back.
The Holy Sword, wielding a purifying force capable of incinerating all, transformed into a blazing stream of white light cutting across the domain, aimed directly at Veiloria.
Where it passed, even space seemed to warp slightly.
Veiloria's pupils contracted. She dared not meet the attack directly. Her form instantly dispersed into dozens of blood-red afterimages—indistinguishable from the real one—scattering in all directions.
But within [Sanctuary: Dust Purification], her speed was severely limited.
Though the light stream did not strike her directly, the spreading purification shockwave still slammed violently into her true form.
"Cough!" Veiloria staggered back, a coppery taste rising in her throat.
The domain's suppression and erosion of her Vampire arcane energy was proving more troublesome than anticipated.
"Answer me!" Ximilita pursued relentlessly. A second strike followed, then a third, each aimed directly at Veiloria's vitals. "Look at me! Tell me! These ten years... everything I've done for you these ten years, like a fool—what does it even mean?!"