"These wounds…they are so hard to heal!"

Irene was perspiring profusely even as she did her best to cast healing spells on Herman. For his part, the Hero looked like he was in pretty terrible shape.

"Herman! What's going on?!" Bradley demanded while swinging his axe at a couple of evading vampires. "What about the lord of vampires?"

"The enemy is too strong!" The bitterness was clear in Herman's voice. He looked humbled and frustrated, yet afraid. "His spear…it's a cursed spear! If you get stabbed by it, it dispels all magic and seals your mana! In just one…strike, he destroyed all of the divine blessings that Irene placed on me! And sealed my spells!"

That was pretty bad. I recalled that Herman was overly reliant on his magic and blessings, which were what made him the Hero in the first place. Without Irene's divine blessings and his overpowered magic spells, he was little more than a normal human. A mortal without anything to boast about. His skills, his speed and his strength – they all depended on the Heroic magic that coursed through his veins.

Therefore it was only natural that he would be petrified beyond reason when his magic was sealed off.

"I can't beat him! We can't beat him! His spear is too terrifying! We must retreat!"

"Do you think I'll let you go just like that?" Vincent Lucard laughed scornfully and approached us. He raised a hand and conjured a storm of blood stakes, firing them at us.

I immediately responded by answering his barrage of blood stakes with a hail of icicles. Blood and ice mixed and exploded in midair, raining down on the courtyard in a crimson mist.

Miranda then launched a colossal fireball at Vincent, but he easily cut it down with his spear. We watched, amazed, as the spell literally ceased to exist the moment it came into contact with the cursed, crimson weapon.

"F.u.c.k!" Bradley swore. "That's just cheating!"

"What's the matter?" Vincent sneered. "Not coming at me?"

I continued to bombard his position with icicles, clouding the entire place in fog. While I did so, Herman staggered to his feet and waved for everyone to move. I nodded and followed him…

"Ugh?!"

Herman suddenly turned around and chopped my legs off, severing my limbs and causing me to crash onto the ground. I screamed in pain and writhed, clutching my bleeding stumps. Staring up in disbelief, my mouth formed a single word.

"Why?"

"Sorry, Klein, but you'll have to remain behind." Herman was wearing an ugly sneer. "For all our sakes."

I continued to stare at him, not understanding.

"You'll have to serve as the rearguard. You're probably the one with the greatest chance of stalling that monster for the longest. So you'll have to remain behind. Sacrifice yourself for our sakes."

"Even so, there's no need to cut my legs off!" I protested, growing dizzy from the loss of blood. Herman chuckled.

"Are you stupid? It's the only way to ensure you stay behind and don't run away."

What the f.u.c.k?

I glanced at Irene, hoping that she would cast some healing spells on me. Or at least argue for my sake. No matter how terrible her personality was, she wouldn't go as far as…

That small hope died in my chest when I saw how cold her expression was. How she was looking at me disdainfully.

"You like being a kind person, don't you?" she said scornfully. "Then continue being a nice guy all the way until the end."

"At least heal me…" I pleaded through gritted teeth, nearly unable to withstand the pain in my severed legs.

"No. Since you're going to die anyway, why should I waste my mana on you?" she took Herman's arm and the both of them moved quickly toward the gate. "Let's hurry, Herman, before the lord of vampire catches us."

"Don't worry, that's why I'm leaving Klein here. He'll help us fight off Vincent Lucard for the rest of his short life."

I stared at the others, hoping for help. Bradley avoided my gaze and continued his retreat.

"Sorry, but I want to survive. You understand. Your life is a small price to pay for the continued survival of the party."

Yvonne's lip curled in disgust when she saw me. "You brought this upon yourself, you know?"

"What? How?"

"Always being the kind person, acting so nicely to the common folk and soldiers. You were usurping Herman's position, staining his reputation. He's the one who should bask in the admiration and love of the masses, yet you were taking that affection away with your kind deeds. Helping the villagers, caring for the soldiers. But you're just a hypocrite, you are doing so just to gain favor from everyone, aren't you? To ruin Herman's reputation so that you can bolster your own."

"You're so selfish," Miranda agreed darkly. "So we all agreed beforehand…if we ever need to sacrifice anyone, it'll be you."

"To tell you the truth, even if this hadn't happened, we would have arranged for a little accident to take your life during this assault." It was Alan this time. He shrugged when I turned to gape at him. "Sorry."

"You've exceeded your remit," Miranda growled.

"It's your fault for making the rest of us look bad," Irene agreed vehemently. "The gods will punish you for your impure motives! The most despicable person is the one who acts kind, but harbors some sort of motive!"

I had no idea what they were talking about now. I could only stare at them blankly, the blood loss making me dizzy. I was doing my best to cast spells, but the mana was slipping from my grasp because of the grievous injury.

"Well, even if you are truly a nice guy," Herman said with a nefarious smirk. "I'm sure you're kind enough to sacrifice your life to help us escape. Since we are your precious comrades."

Then they were gone, hurrying past the gate. All six of them, leaving me in here. I realized that, because of my decision to order the soldiers and knights to retreat, none of them was here to save me. None of them witnessed the betrayal.

This tragedy was of my own making. Then again, better that those soldiers survived. If Alan was telling the truth, my party was planning to murder me during this assault anyway.

"F.u.c.k!"

Smashing my fist against the ground, I dragged myself across the courtyard, leaving twin trails of blood from my amputated stumps. Perhaps I would be able to crawl my way out of here…

Then Miranda turned around and raised her staff. Boulders rained down and covered the breached gate, sealing me inside the castle with the enemy.

"You…!" I howled in fury, punching the gravel again and ignoring the blood that burst from my fists. Trying not to weep from the pain, I rolled to my back and froze my stumps with very minor ice magic. That was the only spell I could cast for now.

Sealing the bleeding, I felt slightly better. The cold numbed the pain, but I knew it wouldn't be optimal to let it continue for long. Even so, by stemming the loss of blood and reducing the pain, my mind became clearer. Closing my eyes, I readjusted my breathing and delved back into the discipline of casting spells.

"What a farce."

Vincent Lucard slowly approached me, shaking his head in amus.e.m.e.nt. In one hand, he held the spear, and with the other, he conjured a fresh wave of blood stakes to hurl at me. Having recovered a little from my temporary treatment of my legs, I was able to finally respond with my own hail of icicles. The frozen projectiles collided with the hardened and deadly blood spears, knocking them to the side and raining upon the devastated courtyard.

Hissing, the vampires continued to circle me, assisting their master. Unlike me, who had no comrades left, the courtyard was still filled with a good number of the enemy. I gritted my teeth and threw out a hand, casting another spell that entombed a trio of vampires who were pouncing on me.

And then Vincent threw his spear. Without my legs, I couldn't evade and the powerful weapon punched through my shoulder. Instantly, terrible pain wracked my body and I could feel my mana slipping away. Despite doing my best to retaliate with another wave of icicles, I found to my horror that I was incapable of casting anything.

Herman was right. This cursed weapon was capable of sealing my magic!

"Ah….AAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The excruciating pain exploded through my shoulder, feeling as if barbs were extending out and hooking into my flesh and digging deeply. Hissing triumphantly, the vampires closed in on me, their leader strolling leisurely from a distance.

They were so sure that their victory was secured.

"I don't know what happened, but just because you were abandoned by your comrades, that doesn't mean I will show you mercy. All you humans will die."

Coming to a stop, Vincent then raised a hand and conjured more blood stakes. However, with his subordinates crawling toward me and hissing for my blood, he refrained from impaling me with his projectiles. He decided to leave me with his men, to let them suck my blood dry.

I scrabbled back, half dazed from the pain. Recklessly seizing the shaft of the cursed, demonic spear, I yanked it out, heedless of the agony it caused. Red-hot pain continued to surge throughout my body, and I felt as if I had literally ripped a good deal of flesh out along with the cruelly barbed spear. Even so, the magic-inducing block it placed on me was gone when I tossed the evil weapon aside.

"Huff…huff…"

Was it too little, too late? The vampires were eagerly pouncing on me now.

Closing my eyes, I gathered the last vestiges of my strength and cast my ultimate spell.

"Absolute Zero!"

"!!!"

The vampires instinctively realized the danger and tried to pull back with their preternatural speed. Alas, their thirst for blood had become their undoing and they were too close to evade. It was too late for them.

In an instant, the entire courtyard was enveloped in a domain of ice. The vampires were caught in a storm of white and their bodies were immediately frozen solid, their organic matter transmuted into ice. Their entombed bodies fell and shattered into countless shards of frost.

With a single spell, I had wiped out the legion of vampires in the courtyard, save their leader.

"You…!"

Vincent Lucard howled furiously, but his blood stakes had been frozen along with his subordinates. He recalled his spear toward him and smashed through the ice, the magic-nullifying abilities of the cursed weapon allowing him to cleave through the frost with ease.

Even so, this was now my domain. As deadly as the demonic spear was, its magic-canceling abilities were limited. I could see now that he must pierce the target with the spear in order for it to seal the magic abilities and dispel buffs or blessings or curses.

Icicles burst out from every direction as I attempted to engulf Vincent in a blizzard of deadly ice. Despite wielding his spear with great effect, dancing across the frozen courtyard and closing the distance as he weaved through my relentless barrage, Vincent wasn't able to escape injuries. Close shaves saw icicles cut hundreds of scratches through his skin, and several larger ones actually punctured his body, impaling him.

However, he contemptuously smashed the ice into bits with his spear, dispelling the magic that gave them form, and barreled forward. His regenerative abilities kicked in and I watched in dismay as the cuts and horrendous wounds all over his body knitted together, mending and disappearing, leaving him whole and in good health.

As the lord of vampires, his regenerative abilities were on a different level.

With a sneer, he slammed down on my position. I tried to roll away, but he slashed out with his spear and my left arm went flying.

I let out a cry and clutched my stump with my remaining arm. Gritting my teeth and feeling tears streak down my face from the pain, I glared up at Vincent Lucard defiantly.

"It's over now," he sneered as he towered over me and got ready to deliver the finishing blow. "I'll ensure you don't die a quick and painless death."