Ch.165Faith (3)

Irene Foxis.

Her entering the alley was purely coincidental.

Some eerie intuition had tugged at her sleeve.

The fox was simply drawn by that ominous feeling, unconsciously witnessing the scene.

Perhaps it’s flawed to dismiss it as mere coincidence.

In short, the girl had simply followed her instincts.

“You’re approaching transcendence.

Within three years at most, one year at earliest, you’ll reach the stars.”

She was standing at the threshold of the stars.

It was the period when her senses became sharpest in her life, coinciding with the transformation of her physical foundation.

This was the so-called “transition period” that those approaching transcendence consistently experience.

Thanks to this, Irene’s nerves were sharper than ever.

With the addition of the unique “intuition” of the beast-folk, the girl’s alertness had exceeded its limits.

This time, she reaped the full benefits of that gift.

‘Something’s off.’

While returning from her usual shopping trip in the market district.

The fox suddenly detected a murky energy nearby.

Following the stench it emitted, she discovered an alley crowded with more than a dozen people.

There, familiar pink hair was surrounded by suspicious figures.

Irene leaped forward without hesitation.

And now.

“Ugh…!”

Clang! Kachak…! Thud!

The girl was in the midst of blocking attacks coming from the front.

Even in darkness, afterimages wreathed in flames bloomed.

The tip of her sword was swaying steadily.

Swish!

A sword strike rushing toward her upper body.

The fox avoids it with a slight nod, then channels her energy into her sword.

For a moment, the firepower intensifies as if oil had been poured on it.

The flames that spread out cover the surroundings brilliantly.

Like a flame flower devouring the dawn.

Whoosh!

“Hah…!”

She launches a strike with a battle cry.

The surging flames split the pitch-black night and devour the enemies like a crimson storm.

The shadows caught in the flow are scattered, leaving only charred flesh and the smell of burning.

However, those who blocked the attack remained standing calmly.

Wheeee-.

At the end of the clearing smoke stood the assailants.

All of them were wearing blood-red robes.

“……”

On some of their epaulets was engraved a pattern all too familiar.

Irene immediately discerned their identity.

‘Cultists.’

It was an unforgettable pattern.

She still remembered when she had been kidnapped to their laboratory.

The hatred etched so intensely in her mind was not easily erased.

The fox cuts down another approaching enemy.

With her eyes, she was quickly assessing the current situation.

The calculator in her head was spinning.

‘What… what’s going on here.’

Cultists appearing suddenly.

Moreover, figures with golden epaulets were flickering nearby.

Despite their scattered presence, Irene saw through them.

They were none other than the forces commanded by [The Businessman]… his direct elite unit, the ‘Hounds’.

Irene maintains her composure with a deep breath.

‘No way.’

She had heard that the two forces had joined hands at some point.

But she never expected them to be plotting like this.

Shing-.

The girl doesn’t let her emotions sway her.

Instead, she cools her reason and seeks a way to break through the situation.

This was something she had learned during her year with Judas.

‘Hounds… not a particularly threatening force.’

However, carelessness would only be a dagger that stabs oneself.

Irene calmly steadies her breath.

Then aims her burning blade at them.

-Get lost and stop this nonsense.

Although she made her declaration boldly, the situation wasn’t particularly favorable for the fox.

As mentioned, the Hounds were merely annoying.

They weren’t particularly threatening opponents.

However, the problem was the man at the front who seemed to be leading the group.

Ragged attire. Beyond that appearance flowed a chilling aura.

Just from the brief atmosphere, the girl made her judgment.

‘…That one’s going to be dangerous.’

For now, he wasn’t stepping forward, just watching from behind.

But there was no telling when he might change his mind.

The fox furrows her brow.

‘This is the worst.’

Unfortunately.

Irene’s condition hadn’t been good lately either.

Perhaps because she was at the threshold of the stars, her abilities felt more restrained than usual.

Even her ultimate technique, the Red Flame, had been becoming unstable frequently.

Under these conditions, it didn’t seem easy to handle the Hounds and subdue that ragged figure over there.

Of course, annihilation wasn’t the only condition for victory.

‘Is the area blocked by a barrier?’

An unidentified boundary marking the entire alley.

The fox calmly examines the reddish background.

With high concentrations of Demonic Energy deployed within the academy, the faculty would soon notice something unusual.

No matter how well they concealed their traces, they couldn’t deceive all eyes.

The girl estimates the time until other support arrives.

‘Roughly… 10 minutes from now.’

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant conclusion.

Though she was holding the opponents at bay for now, once a full-scale clash began, they would break through.

Especially that ragged figure over there wasn’t an opponent she could challenge with her own strength.

Just his aura alone made it clear they weren’t in the same league.

From her brief assessment, he was at the level of an Astro vice-captain.

Just facing off against him made her feel suffocated.

“Haah…”

She couldn’t envision any path to victory against that.

She could only tremble at the chilling pressure.

As she pondered the moment, a voice naturally brushed her ear.

It was advice she had received once.

-Never go against the flow.

-The natural order is absolute law.

-If you try to defy the stars with the power of a mere creature, you will surely pay a price worse than death.

Is there really no way?

She clicks her tongue lightly.

Around her lay the bodies that had been cut down in the initial clash.

What remained before her were five Hounds.

And one ragged figure.

“Huu…”

She tries to steady her disturbed breathing.

The tip of her sword points to the sky.

Just as she was about to take the next leap, a chilling presence suddenly licks the back of her neck.

Overwhelmed by the dominating killing intent, the fox freezes in place.

At the end of her trembling gaze stands the ragged figure.

Thud-.

Footsteps approaching quietly.

The man who had been standing back until now had finally moved.

The eerie air wraps around, pressing on the surroundings.

His lips mutter softly.

“Time. Limited. Quick. Disposal.”

A voice that breaks oddly.

A finger, rusty like an old iron bar, points to the void.

Following that, a faintly colored incantation rings out.

“Extinction… enjoy. The dawn.”

Was it the moment that triggered after that?

A storm whirling from one side.

The Demonic Energy swirling nearby concentrates and soon covers the surrounding space in pitch black.

The spreading darkness completely obscures the view within the barrier.

Caught in the flow, Irene tightly closes her eyes.

And, not long after.

When she lifted her eyelids again.

“…?”

They were standing in a completely different place.

A wind chillingly brushing against her spine.

The scenery of the academy district that had been lively just moments ago had disappeared somewhere.

Before her eyes was a cemetery with lingering cold air.

It was a domain deployed by none other than the ragged figure.

‘He was a domain artist…!’

Irene makes an expression as if caught off guard.

Sharp cold colors her cheeks.

The pitch-black background was desolate beyond words.

At the center where all death and bones were scattered, the ragged figure holds an old shovel in his hand.

Behind him were only broken crosses and damaged tombstones lined up.

The man stares at the fox with dead eyes.

“Answer. The call.”

A twisted phrase.

It was the final sentence completing his domain.

The rippling Demonic Energy establishes its form.

Kuuuu-.

Simultaneously, something begins to pour like rain from the sky that had turned black.

None other than thousands of coffins carrying the dead.

They strike the ground in countless numbers.

The objects falling overhead were quite threatening.

Bang! Crash!

Black boxes embedding themselves in the dirt one after another.

Afterward, the lids of the coffins open all at once.

Through the broken fragments and beyond dawn, shadow-like forms wriggle and spring out.

They were corpses whose forms had been blurred from being soaked in Demonic Energy.

Skeletons smeared with rotten flesh stagger on the ground.

A momentarily overwhelming scene.

“What is this…”

Irene can only mutter blankly.

It was as if she was facing hell.

Yet even in such a horrific situation, the necromancer simply gave commands calmly.

His cold voice spreads out, mingling with death.

“Fill. Your hungry stomachs.”

A voice dropped among the corpses gathered like ants.

Deaths without self-awareness answer their master’s call.

The dead begin to rush toward the fox, one after another.

Their decayed steps turn the cemetery landscape into chaos.

Bizarre screams tear through the silence.

Kieeeeek!!

Was it that their vocal cords had decayed?

The monsters’ howls, hardly describable as voices, ring in her ears.

Pitch-black teeth, maliciously bared, come rushing in.

The intercourse of murderous intent and greed plays a funeral march.

“Damn it…!”

Surrounded on all sides.

The fox hurriedly spreads her flames and drives away the pouring spirits.

But it didn’t go as planned. Despite the red flames, the corpses were still charging undeterred.

They were surging through the flames.

The girl ultimately had to face them one by one with her sword.

Slash!

A crimson line races through the air.

The trajectory of the sword drawn straight.

Flesh scattering with flames depicts the contempt for the dead.

The dawn approaching as her arms ache is so dreadful.

Nevertheless, Irene butchers the corpses one after another.

Splat, crack!

The sound of a head being shattered.

The number of enemies was overwhelming.

Whether they were receiving buffs within the necromancer’s domain, the strength of the charging dead was unnaturally strong.

Moreover, the undealt Hounds were also watching for an opportunity.

At the very front, the necromancer himself was swinging his shovel.

Despite her struggle, the fox gradually loses ground.

‘There’s no answer.’