Pain.
Anger.
Pain.
Anger.
Pain like a cracked soul, anger like a creaking soul.
“Not even sorry …? I’m sorry for tricking you!? Or that there were circumstances!? You’re not even going to give me one excuse!? I won’t listen even if you tell me!!”
The limbs, which had been atrophied, came to life.
Wobbling, René stood up and readied her red blade.
“… What is it …? I thought she suddenly stabbed herself… what is she talking about? This one…”
“She must be delirious, unable to distinguish between her memories from before she was killed and the present. It happens to the undead all the time.”
The “Decisive Drolette” who looked puzzled was not in René’s mind.
The inside of Morgana’s mind that René saw with the power of emotional detection.
There was the eye of God.
She did not know why she could see it from such a place.
But René understood that it was the will of God who created this world.
She also had a thought that it might be possible.
Maybe René had been deceived by the Evil God, or there had been some kind of mistake, or there was some unavoidable circumstance.
If not, she would at least feel guilty about it. She had thrown her out for her own reasons.
However, the thoughts of the Great God that René touched … towards René were nothing but the intention of “elimination” as if replacing a malfunctioning mechanical part.
A holy presence approached. The sound of heavy footsteps pounding on the cobblestone pavement. The sound of wings flapping in the dark night.
“The holy beasts have caught up with us… Get ready!”
Erminio’s command was not to the holy beasts, but to the party members.
The three of them started chanting at once, and the bearded Thief took aim at René with a magic item.
The tiger-shaped holy beast leapt forward to shield them. A bird-shaped holy beast swoops down with a flash of golden claws.
Just before the claws of the tiger that took the lead reached her, René executed a ≪Short Teleportation≫ spell. Behind the holy beast in front of her.
The two tiger-shaped holy beasts that jumped at her from another direction struck out at her attack and collided with her at the spot where René was in the air with too much momentum. In that instant when the holy beasts were frightened, René flashed her cursed red blade.
The two tigers were cut in half at once, splattering blood and guts.
” Because they are big! Because they are strong! Because they are more than human! That’s why! For that reason alone! Do you think you can control everything!?”
René’s voice echoed in the night sky like a howling, raging beast.
She believed that the Great God, who was sitting on his haunches somewhere high above, was listening to her voice.
René was a pawn in the Great God’s plan.
He kept her in stock for the time being, and when he needed her, he would give her a Divine Protection and have her fight.
She would not be used, but she would be prepared for the time being.
If they died, he would just replenish the stock.
If they went crazy and rebelled, he would just dispose of them as enemies without any emotion.
They were pawns.
There would be no emotion there. It was a one-sided relationship.
“If so, I will climb up to where you are! I will crush you! I will crush you and slam you to the ground! I will trample you down! It’ll be too late to cry and apologize when the time comes!!”
A bird-shaped figure, fine-tuning the trajectory of its plunge, struck at René’s eyes as she looked up.
The head that turned like a golden mask. The eyes of the holy beast were shining with a strange gleam. Apparently, they were not bird’s eyes.
“≪Ice Shackles≫!”
At first, she attacked with a low-level magic that was reasonably powerful even without chanting.
The wings with golden strips of ornaments froze and restrained it in a posture that seemed to tie them up behind its back.
“Keeeeeeee……!”
The bird-shaped holy beast fell with a creaking sound of metal. It landed on the cobblestones, smashing them with its claws.
The holy beast shook its wings and tried to escape from the shackles of ice. Holy beasts were generally highly resistant to magic, and would have been able to escape at this rate.
René immediately cut off the bird-shaped holy beast’s thin neck to finish it off.
Then, there was the sound of the wind howling.
“Wha…”
René saw the oncoming fireball and immediately took distance with «Short Warp» from the critical distance.
A roar, then an explosion. The cobblestone pavement was blown away like it was being torn up from the inside.
It was an attack of a magic item that looked like a fireworks tube, held by the bearded Thief and Erminio.
“What is that? Is it a grenade launcher?”
This time, the holy magic shot at René, who evaded the attack.
“”≪Shooting Nova≫! ””
The two Temple Knights simultaneously fired shining magic bullets the size of cannonballs.
“≪Calamity Flash≫!”
In response, René shot out a reddish-black flash of death from the tip of her sword.
As the flash cleaved the area, every stone building in the row collapsed in a chain reaction as if it were sliced in a circle and collapsed inward. The shining shower of stars burst into flames, failing to reach René.
The temple knights, who were also targeted, jumped back and dodged the flash.
A tiger-shaped holy beast attacked, breaking through what could be neither gunpowder smoke nor dust.
René catched its claws and fangs with the red blade.
The red blade, created out of blood and curses, mutually scraped against the golden claws of the holy beast, created sparks.
René concluded a chant as it was.
The target was not the holy beast, but further behind it.
“≪Necrobrand≫”
“Tsuah!? Dangerous!”
Around the neck of the bearded Thief, a tattoo like tangled ivy appeared.
He hurriedly curled his body to protect his heart. But that was it.
–As expected, it’s not a naive resistance that will kill you easily…
≪Necrobrand» was one of the “Instant Death Magic” spells.
It was a one or two-strike attack magic that, if it broke through the resistance of the subject, would cause death with a single blow, and if not, would not do much damage.
Instant death magic was a complex and elaborate device for efficiently killing creatures, and its formulas were likened (by eccentric magic developers such as Everis) to works of art. Perhaps that was why instant death magic, when resisted, significantly diminished its effectiveness, just as a golem that had lost a single cog would cease to move.
In fact, the success rate of instant death magic was not very high, but adventurers feared the effect of “if you are unlucky, you will die without question”, and it was a magic that could be used just to keep them in check.
“Here comes the instant death magic!”
“We have no choice but to use the charms!”
Erminio’s order flew, and the adventurers each activated their own charm.
≪Consecration≫ The bad feeling disappeared.
As intended. Now the reinforcement buff was useless. The charm was an item that could block the enemy’s magic attacks, but since it was triggered indiscriminately, it would absorb magic from itself and its allies as well.
–The “Decisive Drolette” seems to be putting the holy beast in a position to stand in front and provide cover fire… Then…
After cutting down the tiger-shaped holy beast, René jumped toward the flying bird-shaped beast and cut off its legs while passing through a claw strike.
And then.
“≪Diastrophism≫”
A crack ran through the ground.
It cracked the cobblestone pavement, even cracked the ground exposed from under the cracked cobblestone pavement, and went deep.
“Uh!”
“Kuh.”
“Ah!”
The targets were the Thief and the temple knights on the ground.
The Thief dodged, but the two in heavy full-body armor were too late.
When the lower half of their bodies were sucked into the crack, the crack tried to close.
Although it did not have enough power to crush them in between, it was still enough to block their movement.
“≪Poltergeist≫”
Then, the rubble of a collapsed house was flung into the air.
Dozens of hundreds of pieces of debris floated around René and formed a meteor shower.
It didn’t matter if the opponent was using a charm or not, it was magic that inflicted physical damage.
“Damn.”
The target was everyone. The two temple knights who were stopped in their tracks had nothing to do with it.
It looked like …, but just before they were swallowed by the storm of rocks, they both disappeared.
Then they appeared next to Erminio.
–Teleportation!?
Both of them were holding something like a shattered jewel in their hands.
That must have been the magic item for teleportation. Perhaps it was disposable and would teleport to Erminio’s location.
The two knights crossed their swords and clasps to protect their heads and shield Erminio from the debris.
Then, a streak of lightning gushed through the avalanche of rocks toward René’s eyes.
“Kyahh!”
René shuddered at the impact that struck her body.
Erminio had fired a lightning bolt from his staff-shaped magic item.
The damage wasn’t much, but her clothes and skin were scorched a little.
“Damn, the damage doesn’t go through. Should I use fire?”
“How about this!”
As the debris flew away, the Thief, who was apparently being protected by the magician, appeared.
He was apparently wearing a gauntlet on his right hand that looked to be twice the size of his original hand.
“This thing works!”
With an explosion, his clenched fist detached.
“Rocket Punch!?”
The steel knuckles came flying in with the momentum of an image-processing software’s magnification tool.
However, René did an aerial high kick to the bird-shaped holy beast that had crashed down after being hit by a rock.
The blasted holy beast was caught in the jet fistbone, and René cut the steel fist in half as it lost its momentum.
“Now!”
” Leave it to me!”
The female magician was holding what looked like a spotlight towards René.
Combined with her costume, she looked like a magician’s assistant or something…
–That’s the holy spotlight they used the other day!
She shouldn’t have had that thing with her.
So she must have taken it out of the storage magic. If she thought there wasn’t much magic flying around even though the magician was there, she was just being a baggage handler.
A moment later, the holy light illuminated.
“Oops!”
With a snap, a fluttering cloak filled René’s field of vision.
It was Tracy, holding up the cloak like a bullfighter rousing a bull.
His damaged leg seemed to have recovered with a potion in his luggage.
The light irradiated with a galactic brilliance.
But it was blocked by Tracy’s body and cloak, and the light spilling through the cracks was unpleasant at best.
“It doesn’t work on humans, after all.”
“Nice cover.”
During this time, René had transformed herself.
The weight of flesh was lost from her body, leaving her emaciated and eventually reduced to nothing but bone.
The cursed red blade became a magic staff that looked like it had been carved out of a jewel.
A Lich form specialized in magic.
“…≪Freikugeln≫”
In order to get around Tracy, who had become a shield, René released a magic spell.
The seven cursed bullets created by the magic flew with a sound like a devil’s teeth grinding.
Two of the seven bullets were fired at a bird-shaped holy beast, two at another bird-shaped holy beast, and the remaining three were fired at the holy spotlight.
“Ah!? Damn…”
As expected, it seemed that they had not even attached the protective charms to the magic artifact.
The Thief who was resourceful prevented two magic bullets with his arm and let the protective charm absorb the attack, but the last shot slipped through and punched a hole in the magical artifact. The irradiated light was interrupted.
Furthermore, a bullet from the one that separated and flew in the air pierced the soaring bird-shaped holy beast.
–This is the last of the bird-shaped …!
“Hold on!”
René hit the face of the tiger-shaped creature that leaped at her with «Shock Ball» and while making its face into mincemeat.
“Hold on, is this what you mean?”
“Yes, that’s right! I’m finally … getting used to it!”
racy put his hands around her body.
René confirmed it and made further changes.
Bloody, cold flesh.
Itchy mouth and abnormally elongated canine teeth.
Sharp claws ripped at the back of her shirt, and wings with a slick, slimy texture sprang from them.
The wings, the same color as the night, were large enough to wrap around René’s body.
The transformation into a vampire.
The vampire transformation, which had only been a mere imitation of its appearance, became something real after feeding on Yuin’s soul.
It would take some time for the soul to adjust to the change. So now, she allocated all the minimum amount of available resources to “flight”.
René flapped her wings like she was smashing through the atmosphere.
“It flew!?”
Leaving a startled voice in its place, René pierced through the night sky.
“Aim! Shoot it down!”
René was illuminated from behind.
It sounded like fireworks going off, and a magical presence was in hot pursuit.
But René did not care about it.
The magic disappeared before it touched René, making an indescribable, unnerving sound.
≪Countermagic Field≫… was a ranged defense magic that blocked all magic by draining magic power.
It was not possible to use this at the same time as other magic. But now René was flying not with magic but with her own wings.
There were several follow-up shots, but they all fizzled out.
“Come down, you coward! It is my “Decisive Drolette” who will defeat you!!”
Erminio’s tantrums gradually became smaller and smaller.
A sleeping forest on a silvery white land, a hazy moon filtering through the clouds, and peaks melting in the darkness.
René flew at top speed, watching the beautiful night world with her body, which now had unusually good night vision.
When the city became small enough, she flapped her wings and shifted to hovering.
“Sorry for the trouble.”
With a sigh, she muttered, and Tracy, clinging to her back, laughed, ‘Nyaha’.
“What is it? But what happened in the end?”
“I’ll explain when we get back. I think Everis needs to hear it too… Is Tracy okay? I mean, you may have been hurt, but you weren’t poisoned to the max, were you?”
“I’m trained in anti-poisoning, so I’m relatively safe. Hemoptysis is a fragile and picturesque thing.”
“I guess it’s okay if you can talk lightly… Wait a minute, you…”
The warm feelings flowed from the clinging Tracy, and René was fed up with it.
“Why are you thanking me, then?”
“Eh. After all, you helped me out, and you even helped me with my body.”
“That’s because you’re a useful piece of equipment. If I can help you, I will, and I also care if your body is damaged. I have to take good care of you because you don’t come down from the heavens or grow wild in the mountains… Generally speaking, it doesn’t add up for me to thank you for helping me there when I was in danger because of being subjected to the ‘S*ave Core’, right?”
“Well, that’s right, but…”
Tracy was frustrated in a ‘I don’t think so’ kind of way.
It was not hard to understand his confusion.
It was common practice to use prisoners of war, and it was not uncommon for nobles to treat their subjects as if they were property. Compared to such cases, René’s treatment of Tracy was quite decent.
She could have literally treated Tracy like a s*ave, but for some reason, René didn’t go that far.
The common sense of a worker in the 21st century that “if you treat people poorly, there will surely be repercussions” was what stopped René.
That was really all she was doing, and she didn’t intend to do anything special.
–It’s still a little unsettling to be thought of as a ‘good person’… when you’re fighting for revenge and you’re prepared to do whatever outlandish acts are necessary to get it…
Feeling tickled, René choked back a growl.
Anyway, René regained her composure, thinking that as long as she could accomplish her goal, that was all that mattered.
First of all, she had to return to the royal capital as soon as possible, instead of thinking about such useless things.
“By the way, Tracy, do you have confidence in your semicircular canals?”
“Huh? That’s…”
René flapped her wings as she flew toward the capital.
She tried to fly slowly, straight and steady, but the trajectory of her flight was like an electrocardiogram, just like when she escaped from Terra Kaine in a great hurry.
Vampire wings, like dragon flight, were a non-magical form that used the magic in the living body.
She didn’t know the detailed principle, but hovering was still better. However, when she tried to move, it became instantly difficult to control. This was the same as the magic spell «Fly».
Moreover, René’s ability to fly had not yet taken shape.
“Hey, hey!”
“I just ate a soul, so it’s not finished yet! Grit your back teeth so you don’t bite your tongue!”
“Uhyaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”
Hearing Tracy’s screams as he was shaken up and down and side to side.
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