Chapter 848: Forcing Me to Show Off!

"No choice, you forced me to do this—"

In an instant, Shinji made up his mind.

The next moment, his figure vanished from where he was and appeared beside Arcueid, who was growing impatient with passive defense.

With a wave of his hands, he cast two streams of Sun's Flame, reducing the tightening frost vines clinging to the front of the train to ashes.

—Forcing me to show off!

"Shinji?"

Arcueid, who had been creating vacuum pockets, tilted her head in confusion and called out.

Shinji shrugged helplessly.

"I've changed my mind. I'm not leaving."

"Great! Great! With your help, I can dismantle it even faster."

Arcueid nodded repeatedly, but Shinji just smiled and shook his head.

"I'm not leaving. You are."

"Me? Why?"

Arcueid was puzzled again.

"Shinji, are you planning to fight it alone? But before—"

"Before was before, now is now. If I could, I wouldn't want to make things this complicated. But since Rozay-en gave me this train, I guess I'm now a train owner too—of the Mystic Eyes Collection Train!"

Hearing this, Arcueid's golden Mystic Eyes gleamed even brighter.

"You mean this train is ours now?"

"That's right. From now on, we can drive anywhere we want."

The train was powered by magical energy and ran on ley lines as tracks. With Arcueid, a walking Great Source, they could go anywhere.

"Hmm, in that case, we can't let it get damaged."

Arcueid said seriously.

"So, leave this to me. You take the train and go. You're the only one who can move it—at least make sure you save the engine and the first carriage, the All-Seeing Mystic Eyes Collection!"

"OK, leave it to me. Where should I move it?"

"Not too far, just make sure you stay within the influence of the Forest of Einnashe."

Shinji spoke as he glanced back at Heartless and the Shadow Servant below. Due to the suppression of the Forest of Einnashe, Heartless had to supply mana to his Servant on his own. The Shadow Servant's magical power was greatly diminished, unable to maintain the chariot, and was barely holding on with her heavily injured body.

But once they left the core's suppression range, the Shadow Servant would quickly recover, becoming the powerful warrior who charges into battle with her chariot again. Although not a threat to Arcueid, if she made a run for it or tried to kill someone, Arcueid might not be able to stop her—after all, she was hopelessly inexperienced in everything but offense and recovery. Her simple-mindedness made her susceptible to Heartless's cunning.

The best strategy was to stay within the Forest of Einnashe's influence, maintaining Arcueid's absolute suppression. It could also serve as bait, preventing the core from wandering off in search of other prey.

Of course, Arcueid didn't know any of this, and naturally, she had no interest in knowing. In her mind, she just had to do what Shinji told her to do.

Arcueid jumped off the train, casually slicing through the branches in her way. Then, she ran to the front of the train and, with a strong lift, the entire engine shook as she picked it up.

"Yoo-hoo, the Mystic Eyes Collection Train is on the move!"

With Arcueid's energetic shout, the engine made a 180-degree turn and sped back the way it came—powered not by machinery, but by the strength of a True Ancestor.

Because of the rough and forceful way it was being driven, the passengers inside were thrown around, screaming in panic. Several almost flew out, and Shinji quickly reminded her, "Slow down, slow down, don't break it."

When he told Arcueid to move the train, he meant using Marble Manipulation to manipulate gravity and lift the train. But she had chosen brute strength instead. All Shinji could do was give a couple of reminders. With Arcueid leaving, the vacuum layers that had been defending them disappeared, and the pressure of the Forest of Einnashe fell entirely on him.

At this moment, Arcueid hadn't gone far; after all, she was dragging a train. Even with EX-level strength, she couldn't run at full speed.

If they couldn't effectively stop the advance of the Forest of Einnashe, the train would still be doomed. It had to be stopped!

Thinking this, Shinji activated his magic circuits, extracting mana from the immense vitality of True Ancestor's blood and casting Sun's Flame. However, Sun's Flame was only part of the power of the Unfading Blade and couldn't burn away a large area of high-level mystic forest, especially one that had evolved into a fantasy species of vampiric plants with ice power.

Soon, the ice power of the Forest of Einnashe overwhelmed Shinji's Sun's Flame. A few tendrils wrapped around Shinji's body, while many more extended toward the Mystic Eyes Collection Train behind him, drawn by the promise of more magical energy.

"Of course, it wouldn't be that easy, huh?"

Shinji drew the Divine GunBlade strapped to his right arm, used to cover the Command Seals, and swiftly cut down the approaching tendrils.

He had to come up with a plan quickly—Rune Magic? No, there wasn't enough time to prepare.

Broken Phantasm? No, like Arcueid's Marble Phantasm, it was hard to control the range. If it destroyed the train, that would be a huge loss.

Noble Phantasms? Some had been lent out and weren't with him. The ones he had left were almost depleted, except for Pegasus Bellerophon and the Kazikli Bey.

Bellerophon's life specs weren't inferior to the Forest of Einnashe, but a flesh-and-blood creature against a vampiric plant was a bad match, and exposing it would have too much of an impact.

The Kazikli Bey were fairly effective against vampiric plants, but this wasn't Romania. Without the local bonus, the stakes' strength and range weren't enough here—well, better than nothing. If they could at least delay it a bit, that would be good. Once Arcueid got a bit farther, he could blow these rotten branches and leaves to smithereens!

This entire thought process took less than a second. Shinji swung the bow blade again, unleashing another Sun's Flame, then pressed his hand to the ground, chanting, "Kazikli Bey (Bloodstained Demonic Impaler)!"

Immediately, countless stakes sprouted in his field of vision, shooting up from the ground and trees, crisscrossing like iron bars, blocking the forest's advance from root to branch.

Shinji who had created the stakes nodded slightly. Good, but not enough. He needed more stakes, covering a wider area.

Mana output, Noble Phantasm release—extend, extend, extend to the edge of his vision, and beyond, ideally sealing off the entire forest.

But Shinji knew that was an impossible task. The edge of his vision was already the limit. Just like now, he would have to think of something else next.

No, wait—the stakes were still extending, beyond his line of sight. Could it be that—

Concentrating, Shinji realized stakes were also sprouting behind him, in his blind spot. And as he continued pouring in mana, the stakes kept growing in scale.

This—this wasn't Kazikli Bey: Bloodstained King Demon. This was the Kazikli Bey: The Lord of Execution, the ultimate embodiment of Vlad III, Romania's greatest hero!