The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

96 A poorly-ending conspiracy and future plans

"We managed to escape... or should we say, she let us get away?" said Edgar.

"I don't know about that," said Heinz. "That Pure-breed Vampire didn't look like she was in a position to do that, either. But let's just heal our wounds for now."

"Yes. Diana, we're counting on you," said Delizah.

Heinz and his party were healing their injured bodies with Diana's healing magic and Potions, inspecting their equipment and stripping the Magic Stone and other materials from the 'Fighting Dog' that they had defeated.

"With this, we've managed to cut through the Vampire organization that worships the Evil God of Joyful Life, but..." Jennifer murmured.

"Damn it, she was more evil than the Vampires in fairy tales," said Heinz. "So that was a fragment of the Demon King."

He and Jennifer seemed regretful.

"Don't beat yourself up over it," said Edgar. "It's true that we let Ternecia escape, but we've destroyed several of the Vampires' bases and defeated three of her close retainers. There's no way that this is small damage for them, is there?"

"And apparently there is only one of the Five Dogs left," Delizah added. "It seems that there is someone out there who defeated one of them."

"We have no information on this whatsoever, so it is possible that this retainer was not exterminated by someone, but defeated during a secret feud with other Vampires," said Diana.

As they conversed, the empty air in front of them began shining. Ternecia, who now had a strange appearance, appeared in that spot.

She screamed as her severed head, from which her spinal cord and organs were trailing like the body of a snake, attacked Heinz's party with fangs bared. Heinz had happened to be closest to her; although he was surprised, he reflexively slashed at her with his magic sword.

With a deep cut in her head, she fell onto the ground and stopped moving.

"... Why did she come back?" Heinz felt the sensation of gaining a large quantity of Experience Points that told him that he had defeated Ternecia, which only added to his bewilderment.

His companions could only blink in confusion with him.

It would be a little while later when they realized why Ternecia had worn such a satisfied expression as she died.

With that said, Ternecia's spirit ended up being seen by the Lemures monitoring Heinz and his party, so Vandalieu would use Spirit Communication on her later.

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The offensive spell that had been released instantly struck the entrance of the cavern... the entrance of the Dungeon. But although there was a thunderous noise, not a single crack appeared in the cavern. Even if the entrances of Dungeons were made of wood or stone, it was impossible to physically destroy them. Not even gods, let alone Pure-breed Vampires, could cause any damage to them.

If destroying them was possible, Bellwood and the others would have gone around destroying every dangerous Dungeon that was mass-producing monsters after they had become heroic gods.

Looking at it the other way, the fact that the Vampires' attacks couldn't destroy it meant that this entrance-shaped structure was a Dungeon.

"Impossible," Gubamon muttered. "Is that a Dungeon? Why is there such a thing here... No, more importantly, what is the Dhampir planning to do after having flown in there?"