Ch.130Red Moon (4)

Thud- Not even a hint of strength remained in the footsteps walking down the dark corridor.

Empty pupils, eyes that once sparkled but had now lost all their light, merely followed the distant shadows.

Not knowing why she was here or where she should go next.

The woman following the masked people lifted her gaze to the pitch-black sky.

Clouds covered the moon, but the light shining between those clouds was red.

Everyone had been told the total lunar eclipse would happen tomorrow, but the woman instinctively knew from the sensations in her body that it was happening today.

Woong-

“Hnngh…!”

She clutched her head at the ringing that seemed to claw at her ears. The persistent sound, the sensation of someone whispering inside her head—it was an unbearable feeling for any ordinary person.

Where was her mother? Her father? The red hair that everyone had always praised as beautiful was now disheveled and falling to the floor in clumps.

Why, why had things turned out this way? The ringing in her ears whispered. A woman’s voice she didn’t recognize.

Though she had never heard this voice before, it sounded eerily familiar, as if it couldn’t be mere coincidence.

Who are you? No matter how many times she asked, no answer came. A rough hand shoved her back, causing her posture to falter and collapse.

Thud. Even as she fell to the floor, all she heard was the sound of someone clicking their tongue in disdain.

The woman called Scarlet lifted her head from the floor, sobbing.

Dark makeup streamed down beneath her hollow eyes. What had she done wrong to deserve this?

She had done nothing wrong. She had merely been friendly with Kaisel at the imperial capital.

Hadn’t they encouraged her to be friendly with the crown prince?

They had cheered her on before, but now that she had returned home, all she received was the devastating reality of having everything she once enjoyed stripped away.

“Why… why…”

Her chattering teeth collided with her lips.

Her dried lips split slightly, and blood trickled down her chin, but no one approached her.

There were knights watching her with expressionless faces, but what reflected in their eyes was a chilling emptiness, devoid of any emotion.

“Why are you doing this to me… I did everything you asked. Where’s my mother? Where’s my father—”

“Silence. Everything will be over soon, so just follow quietly and it will be easier for everyone.”

“What do you mean by ‘easier’? I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to kill me. Sir, don’t you know me? I’m Scarlet. Uncle Fabian, you know me…!”

“I don’t know someone like you.”

It was a familiar face. A familiar voice, and certainly a knight who had greeted her with smiles before she left for the imperial capital.

But now everything was different. There was not a shred of goodwill directed toward her.

Trembling at this unacceptable coldness, Scarlet eventually backed away and leaned against the wall.

She struggled to escape what she told herself was just a dream, an inescapable nightmare.

She clawed at her body with her nails, sobbing until blood soaked through her clothes.

But when the scenery before her remained unchanged, and she saw the knights staring blankly at her, Scarlet could only laugh hollowly.

Two weeks—wasn’t that too short a time to accept that everything had changed?

The despair of watching everything crumble at the very moment she thought she had everything in her grasp.

What reflected in her empty pupils was a woman who looked eerily identical to Scarlet.

A woman with rounded horns on her head and a red tail was facing Scarlet.

After her long tongue brushed against Scarlet’s cheek, the woman sat in front of Scarlet with a sly smile and spoke.

“Didn’t I tell you, child? How foolish, how foolish you are.”

“……”

“If you give up everything, it will all become easier. Didn’t I say I would personally annihilate everything for your sake? It’s not too late. If you surrender your body to me…”

“No… I don’t want that.”

Scarlet looked directly into the woman’s eyes.

She didn’t know exactly what “giving her body” meant, but she could tell that the woman before her was certainly not benevolent.

A woman who looked exactly like her, except for one thing—those purple, gleaming eyes.

It was twilight. Like the ashen sky already stained with darkness, it was the light of irreversible destruction.

She had thought the organization called Extinction was merely considered evil in people’s misconceptions.

But what she had seen and heard in the imperial capital proved that was all wrong.

Would she have known this if not for Kaisel?

When she learned that everything she had seen, heard, and learned since childhood was actually wrong.

When she discovered that her mother, father, and the butler who had served her since childhood were all actually part of Extinction.

Scarlet felt a despair like falling alone off a cliff.

She felt lonely and wanted to give up everything, but it was Kaisel who caught her.

Even if everyone else turned their backs on her, he would reach out his hand to her.

As Scarlet firmly shook her head, the woman who had been staring at her for a long time began to fade.

The gently smiling face disappeared completely, replaced by a face covered in hideous scales glaring at her, but Scarlet did not avert her gaze.

Even if the red moon rose, she would not die.

Somehow she would survive… and escape this hell. Scarlet raised her wobbling legs and began walking forward again.

Through the darkness illuminated by the bright red moon that had risen a day earlier than expected, cutting through the pitch-black clouds.

“Do you think I won’t devour you just because you resist?”

The woman was still lurking around Scarlet.

Sometimes in Scarlet’s form, sometimes as her parents, sometimes as a dragon too terrifying to even look at.

But what hurt Scarlet the most was when that being spoke to her in Kaisel’s form.

“Scarlet, I want you… to let everything go and be happy.”

“…No.”

“When everything is over, you can come to the imperial capital. I’m just borrowing it for a while, and after everything is done, everyone will be happy. You, and me too. It’s good for everyone.”

“No.”

Scarlet shook her head at the voice penetrating her ears.

It was an identical voice. The voice she always heard, the voice that became unusually gentle when she spoke to him, whispered in her ear.

Even when she covered her ears because she didn’t want to hear it, the voice coming from within was gradually making Scarlet’s mind unravel.

One step, the numerous torches visible in the distance were all waiting for Scarlet.

Two steps, what came to Scarlet’s mind was the altar she had once heard about from her parents.

On the day the red moon rises, everything begins there.

Why hadn’t she known then? That she would be the one to ascend that altar.

Why hadn’t she realized that when she climbed that altar, everything wouldn’t begin—it would end.

“One day… left. Kaisel will come. I—”

“Oh, how foolish. Why do you mistakenly think there’s a day left?”

The dragon, covered entirely in black scales, opened its mouth.

As its purple eyes flashed, Scarlet trembled as she felt the moist sensation of its tongue wrapping around her neck.

Why did this sensation feel more vivid than before? The once blurry form was now completely vivid.

The black dragon she had once seen in a book. The dragon covered in rough black scales except for its eyes laughed with a giggle.

“After preparing for a thousand years for this very day, did you think I would easily fall to humans? Ah, how pitiful. Unfortunately, the red moon rises not tomorrow, but today. All that you thought you had magically determined was merely an illusion.”

As sharp teeth stained with human flesh were revealed, Scarlet stepped back and leaned against the wall.

No, she tried to lean, but the people standing beside her pushed her back again, forcing her to stand before the dragon.

The dragon was no longer a being from an illusion. Now that the red moon cast its light, the dragon had become reality and descended upon the world.

Black wings covered the light of the sky. Scales gleaming in the moonlight were like stars in the night sky.

The dragon’s strength could crush mountains, its wings could cover the sky. As the dragon laughed, those standing behind Scarlet all knelt and trembled.

The ancient dragon, an ancient being, had finally descended upon the world. Mabet, smiling with satisfaction, stroked Scarlet’s hair with its enormous hand.

“Oh, poor thing. Child. You still haven’t escaped the illusion.”

What the ancient dragon showed Scarlet was the future.

With Scarlet’s own hands piercing Kaisel’s heart, she was laughing madly, drenched in his blood.

“No, no. I would never do that.”

“Of course it wouldn’t be you. It would be me making you do it.”

Crack! Mabet, who had casually broken Scarlet’s arm, sneered.

Before she could even feel the pain, Mabet pierced Scarlet’s stomach with a finger, and the corners of its mouth turned up.

It wouldn’t kill her. After all, it needed to use this body to fully manifest its power, so it was merely shocking her.

Breaking her mentally, and ultimately taking her body completely.

“Such a tenacious child.”

Mabet, entering Scarlet’s body, smiled faintly and gently stroked the red hair of the girl who had not yet lost consciousness.

In her hazy consciousness, Scarlet watched as Mabet was sucked into her stomach.

She couldn’t let that future come true… but her hands wouldn’t move.

All she could do was struggle desperately to hold onto her consciousness, but with the heart-rending pain, blood spewed from Scarlet’s mouth.

‘Kaisel… I—’

I don’t want to become a monster. But there was nothing an ordinary woman could do.

The unpleasant laughter in her ears was irritating… but she could only feel that sentiment,

as her arm, which had brushed through the air, fell powerlessly again.

The eyes that had once shone with a small light were now empty as her body began to collapse to the ground.

Then silence fell. Those watching Scarlet collapse on the altar murmured briefly,

but the blood flowing from Scarlet’s writhing body began to flow back into her body.

As if everything was finding its place, returning to where it belonged.

When Scarlet rose in an eerily strange posture, her pupils were already gleaming purple.

“…Ah.”

The voice was not much different from before. But what was different was that it was chillingly cold, to an unfathomable degree.

The wind froze from the voice alone. In that cold, colder than winter wind, the lips of those wearing thin robes turned blue.

“It has been such a long time. A thousand years, a time not to be taken lightly even in jest.”

Scarlet laughed. No, Mabet laughed.

Though possessing Scarlet’s body, her mind had been completely consumed by Mabet,

and black scales began to form on the hands that gently stroked her body.

Crunch- crunch- awkwardly large bones protruded from the twisted body.

Twisted joints widened, and black wings sprouting from her back began to stretch straight toward the sky.

Boom!

The dragon that had tried to destroy the world. Calling itself Extinction,

the ancient dragon that had clashed with Alarr a thousand years ago and been sealed. Its foot, large enough to tear apart several humans, crushed the altar.

Collapsing the nearby mountain, the wind caused by the slightest movement of its wings swept away trees and knocked them down.

“I… have come here. Alarr. But you are not here. What an ironic fate.”

People were startled by the enormous size that covered the entire domain,

and Mabet, looking down at the humans who had summoned it to this world, revealed its teeth in a grin.

How could it not be amused? These foolish creatures who had loyally followed it for a thousand years, not knowing it would kill them.

“Arthur Fried. My most loyal servant.”

“Y-yes, it is an honor.”

Recalling the name of the one standing at the front, Mabet lifted its head toward the sky and spoke.

The clouds covering the moon were pierced and scattered by its presence.

The sky cleared, revealing nothing but darkness without a single cloud. And what appeared in that sky was a single red moon.

Purple eyes tinged with red light gleamed, and Mabet’s large mouth slowly opened.

“Prepare to welcome our enemies. And tell them.”

Destruction, and the ender of all things. The being that could rightfully call itself Extinction spread its wings and leaped toward the sky.

“That the end has come.”