Blade Forest – Labyrinth (9)

“Help, you’ll give it?”

The imp raised his head.

My offer had zero credibility, but he couldn’t ignore the single word ‘help.’ Both he and I were desperate, at least from his perspective. Intrigued, he wiped his moist eyes and looked up.

“How, will you?”

A short-lived, inferior being with severed legs and no magic. What could someone like you possibly do?

That’s right.

There was nothing I could do.

Not if I kept hiding my power.

“Ha, hee…”

I let out a whimsical chuckle, out of place in this desperate situation. Not the laughter of a madman, but the dry chuckle of someone too sane to survive without going crazy. I was sane. Hard to believe, but surprisingly so.

The imp’s eyes wavered. His demonic instincts warned him to kill this human immediately, but it was too late. He couldn’t escape. He’d taken the bait. I stared directly into his tear-blurred eyes and opened my mouth.

“Y-you’re planning to run away, aren’t you? I-I won’t fall for it…!”

“Run away?”

-Tududuk.

I infused Mana into the chains, severing them instantly. My arms were free. The shattered restraints lost their power, becoming useless hunks of metal.

I reconstructed my legs. Bubbles simmered on the bandaged stumps. Soon, muscles and veins formed over them, and finally, pristine white legs were created.

“If I wanted to run, I would have done it a long time ago.”

I rotated my newly reconstructed legs to check for any issues. My ankles bent, my knees flexed. Good. No problems. I snapped my fingers, eliminating all the impurities on my body. The Semen filling my womb, the dirt and meat scraps staining my lips, the blood splatters everywhere.

“H-huh…?!”

While the imp struggled to process the situation, I reconstructed my clothes. Scraps of fabric gathered and wove together into a form over my pristine white legs. A slightly tight garter belt, a short frilly skirt with wind rushing through the gaps in the underwear. I fluttered the hem of my skirt as I approached the imp.

Just moments ago, I was a woman with severed legs, barely able to eat, now I was walking towards him with two perfectly good legs, it was like something straight out of a cosmic horror. The imp backed away, making strange moans. But with no space to retreat, he waved his hands with a terrified expression.

“D-don’t come closer-!”

-Huuwoong…!

A sharp windstorm flew straight at me. In terms of the Magic Tower, it was a low-level attack spell, around the 25th floor. His Mana was greater than a 30th-floor mage, but his efficiency was even lower. He was a pathetically weak Demon.

I seized control of the windstorm. It was easy; I could seize control with a simple gesture of raising my index finger.

I seized control and amplified the storm’s power. Objects around us flew away. A strong wind filled the cave. It was a small but powerful vortex. I made the Blade Forest storm thin like a spear and threw it right next to the imp’s face.

-Paaaaaang!!!!!

The sharp wind pierced the wall. The imp trembled, gauging the depth of the hole that had appeared next to him. If it had hit his face, it would have splattered his brains like a watermelon.

“H-hic.”

“Do you trust me now?”

There were no words of gently cooperating.

I crouched in front of the imp, meeting his gaze.

“G-Gan-“

“If you’re thinking of calling Gan-kan, you should stop. Gan-kan?”

At my call, Gan-kan followed. I extended my right hand towards the gray horse. Gan-kan then extended his right hoof, following my lead. If I extended my left hand, he’d extend his left hoof. This dog-like behavior filled the imp’s eyes with despair.

“W-why are you doing this… Ah, uh?”

Pushing aside his white hair, I pressed my forehead against his exposed, pale skin. The imp was startled by the sudden contact and squeezed his eyes shut. His forehead maintained a moderate warmth, unlike a typical Demon.

“U-uh?”

“Just stay still for a moment.”

I raised my hand and caressed the imp’s cheek. It was soft and squishy like bread. The unique sensation, different from Clark, made it impossible to take my hand away.

“In two days, the subjugation force will come to kill you.”

“Hic…”

“You said you wanted to live, right?”

I then raised my finger and groped his temple. I touched the horns hidden by his hair. A fatal weak point. And an important area where magic and Mana gathered, the essence of a Demon.

The imp was startled and convulsed when I touched his horns.

“W-what are you doing?! T-this! Let, let go…”

“…”

“Please let go…”

But after a brief struggle, he clamped his mouth shut and lowered his eyes when I glared at him with a fierce look. I withdrew my killing intent and spoke in my usual voice.

“…Many people want you dead.”

At least dozens of people had died because of this monster wave. Combining the unrecorded adventurers, at least fifty must have died.

But in this world, people dying was tragically common, so no emotions other than conveying information were involved.

“T-that’s.”

I cut him off.

“Are you going to make excuses? Yes, what could it be? Did you want to become a Great Demon? Did you want to find your identity? If you finished molting like that and became a powerful Demon, would you kill more humans? Are you planning to kidnap human women like me and use them as breeders for monsters?”

I moved my finger again. This time to his neck. I created a steel thorn at the tip of my fingernail and slashed the imp’s neck. Very thinly and precisely.

“Sorry. There’s no reason to keep you alive. Considering your potential for growth, the most rational decision would be to cut off your head right now.”

Blood droplets stained the imp’s clothes.

“Or it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to capture you alive and hand you over to the Holy Empire. As an immortal Demon, you’d be a valuable experimental subject. Your blood would be drawn, your flesh would be cut. As long as your life is attached, forever. Without ever seeing the light, for an eternity.”

The imp trembled, his eyes glazed over. Tears flowed down his cheeks like rain. He couldn’t say anything and licked his pale lips.

I cut off a piece of my sleeve and wiped away the flowing tears. I tasted it slightly and felt a sour taste. A hollow laugh escaped me. This was truly crocodile tears. If you were truly sad, you would have bowed your head and mourned for the dead.

“A pitiful child born as a Demon.”

I feigned sympathy. I hugged the imp with a mournful expression. His malnourished body fit entirely in my arms. My large, soft breasts pressed against his chest. I felt his warm body temperature and said,

“You have two choices.”

Like a snake offering the forbidden fruit, I used my silver tongue to make an irresistible offer.

“To die as a Demon.”

Or.

“To live as a human.”

No matter which you choose, you can’t escape from my grasp, but if you choose the latter, you can at least save your life. I waited for his answer, hoping he would choose the latter.

“…”

A moment of hesitation. But the result was obvious. In this mentally cornered situation, it was nearly impossible to choose the former.

“S-save me. I, I don’t want to die…”

He buried his face in my chest and sobbed. From an angle he couldn’t see, I gave a vile smile.

“Haa…”

Okay. I said I’d save you, so I have to save you somehow. But your life as a Demon has to end.

It’s time to settle the karma.

-Kwaaaak!!

“Hegeuk-?!”

“It’ll be over soon. It’s going to hurt a lot.”

“Kak, keuk. Heup…”

I pushed him against the wall while still hugging him. Before he could recover from the shock, I grabbed his neck to control his movements. The imp poured all his strength into trying to escape the restraint, but he could only pant, unable to breathe from the pressure constricting his neck.

I can’t let him pass out… I have to deal with this quickly.

-Tududuk.

“Kkeuek-?!”

As I applied force to the hand holding his horn, the startled imp convulsed and struggled. I ignored his desperate resistance and applied even more force.

-Jeojeojeok!!

His right horn began to crack. The imp trembled, his face contorted in pain. His face turned red like a tomato. He foamed at the mouth and convulsed. Before he passed out, I quickly pulled off his horn.

-Kwaduk.

The imp’s horn came off more easily than expected. Perhaps because his main body was weak, he had little resistance, and he was too terrified to even think of resisting.

“Eugeuk, heuk, heuek…”

The imp collapsed, tears and snot streaming down his face. His breath and mind were still intact, but his body wouldn’t move. I still had his left horn to deal with, and it would be troublesome if he fainted. I thought he could handle at least one horn while conscious…

“M-my horn… Heuek…”

Clinging to his almost-gone mind, the imp somehow managed to get up, touched his empty temple, and began to wail sadly. He cried so, so sorrowfully.

Of course, that didn’t mean I was going to stop.

“Come. Here.”

“Heuk. I, I was wrong. P-please. S-save me. Heuk, heuek.”

“I won’t kill you. I said I’d save you.”

I approached the imp, who was cowering and trembling in the corner. He couldn’t even meet my eyes. I crushed the horn rolling around at my feet and squatted down.

“Hold out your left one too.”

There was no mercy.

“Ah, uh, p-please.”

“You chose this path. There’s no turning back.”

“Aah?!”

-Hwik! I grabbed his hair and forcibly turned his head. Only one horn remained. I wondered if I should strangle him like before, but he seemed to be petrified at just the touch of my fingertips, so there was no need.

“Aah, ack, aah…”

“It’ll hurt more if you scream.”

-Kwaduk…

“Aah… Aaaaaack-!!!”

The act of ‘breaking a horn’ was like tearing off a human’s limbs alive. No, it was even more painful. All the Mana circuits were concentrated in the horns.

For reference, most of a human’s Mana circuits are concentrated in the heart. So, for a Demon, the horns were another heart. Breaking them didn’t stop bodily functions, but it was like a death sentence for Demons, who relied on magic for almost everything in their daily lives.

No other race had such a deformed body structure.

To expose their weak points like that.

If there was someone who created Demons, they must have been forged with malice and hatred.

“Keuk, kkeuek…”

A race cursed by God.

That was the Demon.

-Tuk.

With a weak sound, the left horn fell. I pulled it out all the way to the root, so the cut surface wasn’t visible. A huge amount of blood flowed as chunks of flesh were pulled out. It was no problem. I could just create new skin with reconstruction.

After washing his bloodied face, I created new skin where the torn and pulled skin had been. White skin filled the empty space. It was a horn that wasn’t even very visible in the first place, but even that had completely disappeared, leaving only an ordinary, cute boy.

“Haeuk, heuek…”

“Are you calm now?”

“I, I’m… going to die… Without horns… How…”

Washing his already innocent-looking face made him even more naive. He had no beard, so you could believe he was a girl. I wiped away the imp’s tears and hugged him tightly once more. He quietly nestled in my arms, seemingly without the strength to resist.

“Hmm…?”

It was when I was patting his back in that state.

As I lowered my eyes, something black and long caught my attention.

A tail.

It was a long tail attached to the imp’s back.

‘…That’s right. He had a tail.’

There was a spade-shaped ornament at the end of the tail.

It was a typical Demon tail.

‘Should I cut this off too…’

I pondered how to deal with this and grabbed the tail without much thought.

“Haiiik-?!”

But an unexpected reaction came back.

“D-don’t touch, there…”

“What is this?”

“Higiiik-?!”

His reaction was so funny that I kept pulling on it. I scratched the end with my fingers and gently tickled it as if caressing it.

“Haa, haaheuk, heut…”

The imp blushed and leaned into me. He couldn’t even think of lifting his head buried in my chest and panted. I could guess what function the tail roughly served. Mischief sparked within me. I wondered what would happen if I kept stimulating it, so I stimulated the tail even more intensely.

“S-stop, stop it… Haaheuek…”

I ignored him.

As the imp’s body reached its limit with the endless fiddling-

“Heeuk…!”

-Bureureut…!

A considerable amount of liquid spilled onto my thighs. Hot, white liquid covered his lower body. It was a familiar smell. I picked up the milky liquid flowing on my thighs and smelled it.

‘Semen…’

The tail was an erogenous zone.

“Haa…”

The imp was a hopeless race that exposed two weak points.