With a dripping noise, cold fluid fell from a helmet.

The soldier wearing the helmet didn’t take much notice of it. This was a battlefield. A place where blood would normally be spraying through the air. If he was too concerned over a few drops of fluid, he would lose his life.

But that soldier soon began coughing. A headache followed without warning, alongside terrible nausea, dizziness, joint pain, a stomachache… He could even feel that he was developing a fever.

He coughed some more. “P-poison…”

His throat was in pain; he wasn’t in a state to speak loudly. And everywhere across the battlefield, troops were experiencing deterioration in their physical conditions just like the soldier… No, to be more precise, there was one exception. Isla and her group were the only ones unaffected.

It’s gone well.

Vandalieu gave a satisfied nod atop the second fortress wall after having used the trebuchets to scatter the virus projectiles packed full of water containing the pathogen he had made.

The soldiers and knights who were trying to regain their composure were unable to walk, kneeling on the ground while coughing and suffering.

Even Gordan and Riley, who had been striking down the boulders, were no exception. The ones who looked like mercenaries were still standing, flustered at the situation around them. They were likely to be the Vampires. It was convenient that they had all gathered in one spot.

The disease Vandalieu had created was a disease that didn’t infect those who by nature could be affected by Death-Attribute Charm.

It had no effect on Ghouls, Cemetery Bees, Pauvina or Vampires, but the humans that made up the vast majority of the Mirg shield-nation’s expedition army were infected through every possible infection route and the disease took hold within seconds.

That was the kind of disease it was.

“Guh… Antidote Potions… aren’t working…”

“Don’t lower your shields, the shield-nation will be disgraced if we fall to a poison like this!”

“Why, even though I have the Poison Resistance skill…”
Many of the soldiers had mistaken the disease created by Vandalieu for a poison. They couldn’t be blamed for assuming this, as their physical conditions had simply started deteriorating without warning.

But even as they drank the antidote Potions that they had been equipped with, their conditions improved for only a moment. This was only natural, as even if the antidote removed the toxins within their body, the pathogens continued to produce more.

“Cure Disease! This isn’t a poison, it’s a disease!” shouted High Priest Gordan. “You lot, heal the ones around you! Mages, hurry and stand up, will you!”

As expected, he was the first one to recover. As his passive life-attribute healing magic healed his disease, he also cast his own spells as he reprimanded those around him.

“Messara, h-hurry… up!”

Messara coughed violently. “W-wait, my throat…!”

Things weren’t so simple. Without the Chant Revocation skill, even talking normally with her body in pain was impossible right away, let alone reciting an incantation.

And on top of that –

“Wait…! W-why, this disease is supposed to be…!” Gordan, who was supposed to have made a complete recovery, began coughing violently once more.

“Unlike poison, diseases can be spread from other people. That’s obvious, though,” Vandalieu whispered as he watched Gordan suffering.

Gordan had indeed cured himself of the disease with his magic. However, there were thousands of infected people around him, coughing and sneezing without masks.
Each cough and sneeze would send large quantities of pathogens flying several meters. This had caused Gordan to become infected once more.

There are some diseases that cannot cause a second infection due to an immunity forming after the first infection, but there was no way Vandalieu would have gone out of his way to create such a forgiving disease.

“This is my special disease that mutates even faster than influenza,” Vandalieu murmured. “You can experience it repeatedly until you die.”

To escape from the disease in this place that was filled with it, one would have to wear a Magic Item with a continuous anti-disease effect, completely heal the disease in those in the immediate vicinity, or do everything possible to escape the battlefield and then treat the disease with magic afterwards.

Alternatively, they could try to survive until the period after which Vandalieu had set the disease to stop working, which was half a day, but that would be impossible.

Isla and her Vampires, who couldn’t contract the disease even if they stopped worshipping the evil god, were forced to make a decision.

“How could this be!”

Ternecia had taken measures so that Isla and the other Vampires could disguise themselves as humans to sneak into the army, but that army had been turned into a mass of pitiful, sick people in an instant.

The Vampires were unaware that the disease would disappear after half a day and that it wasn’t fatal on its own, so in their minds, the army was completely useless, not even something they could use for cover, let alone as a fighting force.

With this, they had to abandon their original plan.
Isla clicked her tongue. “Everyone, keep going! We’ll fly up to kill the Dhampir and hunt down the traitors!”

“Is that really alright? If we do that, the fact that we are Vampires will be exposed, will it not?”

“We’re already as good as exposed! Who would believe that there are this many humans with the Status Effect Resistance skill!”

The Vampires had noticed that this was a disease, not a poison. However, they didn’t know the exact effects of the disease that Vandalieu had created. Because of this, they had assumed that it was their Status Effect Resistance skills that were preventing it from infecting them.