Ch.192Hersella of Madness

* Gore Warning *

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Every time they saw the Aishan-Gioro Princess building her brilliant reputation, Imperial knights secretly harbored one question.

‘Why did such an ominous reputation follow someone like her?’

Before she came directly to the Empire and earned the nickname Were Eater, they had only heard rumors from Dane about her infamy.

The whore of Ka’har.

Orhan’s mad dog, Hersella the butcher.

Human slaughterer.

In the days before her proper name was even known, the nicknames hinting at her were all filled with deep contempt and hatred.

However, the princess they actually encountered was completely different from the rumors.

Certainly, her methods were unspeakably cruel, and the aura she occasionally revealed was as fierce as a wild beast.

But aside from that, the actual conduct the princess showed after coming to the Empire was truly exemplary of a knight.

A female knight who risked her life without hesitation to save people in the archipelago, in Ainfeld, and in countless contaminated zones.

Achievements that seemed abundantly blessed by the goddess, and unlike other barbarians, her willingness to embrace Imperial culture without reservation.

Contrary to prejudices that she would be arrogant and rude, she maintained respectful etiquette toward the Imperial family.

Even her exotic attire and appearance only appeared as exotic beauty in their eyes.

That’s why… they didn’t know.

Why Danes would tremble in fear and curse at the mere mention of her name.

Not until this moment, when the princess herself revealed the answer to them.

A red beast burrowed through the knights.

—-

The knight who became the first sacrifice didn’t even realize what had happened to him.

Perhaps thanks to his faithful donations to priests, one could say he was fortunate.

– Crack!

The black iron greatsword split the knight’s crown vertically.

The pressure made his eyeballs pop out, and his pulverized brain flowed down into his half-cut torso.

Even his armor couldn’t withstand the impact, crumpling like paper.

– Crunch!

Like a guillotine blade, the crimson blade that was cutting through the spine and splitting the human body vertically stopped around the knight’s navel.

It wasn’t because she ran out of strength.

From the beginning, cutting this far was her purpose.

‘망인 (Net Blade)’

The web of murder karma wrapped around the blade unraveled in all directions, creating a whirlwind.

It was already a net made of blades.

The knight’s body was sliced into thousands of pieces.

Perhaps because every part was cleanly cut, the blood filling the body didn’t spray outward but poured down in clumps along with the flesh.

It was a magical sight.

A crimson whirlwind flashed for an instant, and where a person had been, there was now only a stew of minced meat.

“Hehe.”

Haschal revealed her fangs in a bright smile and unleashed all the anger and irritation she had accumulated toward the dumbfounded knights.

“Y-you-“

– Crack!

“-gaaack…!”

Frosting plunged into the mouth of a knight trying to speak.

Haschal’s left hand, which had crushed the skull like a cookie, grabbed the contents and roughly pulled them out.

The knight’s facial skin was torn off like parchment, and everything inside spilled out.

At the tip of her extracted hand was the inside of the face, turned to meat.

A half-crushed brain, eyeballs dangling from optic nerves, and a tongue pulled out by the roots.

The knight collapsed, convulsing with an empty face.

Blood gushing from his throat pooled in the half-remaining skull.

Fragments of facial bones and crushed flesh floated on top.

Like a fruit salad in a hollowed-out watermelon.

It was an unspeakably horrific sight.

“Aaaaargh! Keeeeein-!”

A knight screamed as if being torn apart and rushed toward Haschal.

A rare female knight not under Leonore’s command.

A pale face distorted with shock and grief. Eyes stained with hatred shed bloody tears.

She resembled the man whose face Haschal had just pulled out—called Kein—suggesting they were siblings.

‘Perfect.’

That was the extent of Haschal’s reaction upon seeing her expression.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Haschal threw the flesh entangled in her left hand at the female knight’s face.

– Splat!

The female knight, Eibel, kissed her brother again after fifteen years.

It probably wasn’t what she wanted. This time, her lips met not his forehead but his crushed brain.

Eibel, who fell back after being hit by the thrown flesh, reflexively spat out what filled her mouth.

Brain fragments, crushed as if hammered, sprayed onto her chest.

Eibel’s pupils trembled.

Because she realized the salty, fishy taste she had just experienced was her brother’s brain.

“Ah, aah…!”

Her parted lips trembled.

Her mouth was full of crumbled meat fragments and blood.

As if that wasn’t enough, there was also the moist, sticky warmth on her neck.

Where her trembling eyes looked, a bright red tongue was stuck.

“Aaaah…!”

And then.

Her brother’s eyeball, which had shot into the air when the optic nerve was severed by the impact, fell before her eyes.

Eibel’s mind broke.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The desperate scream that rang out pierced the knights’ ears.

If Eibel’s screams had continued, perhaps the knights might have felt anger rather than fear and rekindled their fighting spirit.

In fact, several knights were rushing toward Haschal.

So, Haschal grabbed both of Eibel’s ankles.

She had no particular grudge, but it was necessary.

With a distorted smile, Haschal lifted her ankles and—

tore her in half.

—-

The screaming stopped abruptly.

The torn uniform fluttered down, revealing Eibel’s beautiful, firm naked body to everyone, but no one could feel lust.

Not even the knight who had secretly admired her.

From the left side of her neck to her groin, intestines soaked in blood poured out through the roughly torn cross-section.

Eibel, or rather, what used to be Eibel, revealed all her secret parts without concealment.

Not just what was under her clothes, but everything under her skin as well.

A disgusting smell permeated the palace garden.

Even a beauty’s intestines emitted the same stench.

“You demon-!”

A knight gritted his teeth and swung his sword at Haschal.

Haschal swung Eibel in return.

No, since only half remained, perhaps she swung “Bel.”

– Splat!

Crushed flesh and shattered bone fragments flew up like a burst balloon.

The knight who had been convulsing on the ground, merged with Eibel’s half-body, went limp while leaking excrement.

His head had already burst open.

“Ugh, uwaah!”

One of the charging knights instinctively stopped.

Because the monster’s left hand was swinging Eibel’s right half toward him.

His gaze turned to the dangling head.

Bulging eyes, empty pupils, protruding tongue.

The horrific face, with no trace of its former beauty, approached—

– Crack!

With that nightmare-like scene imprinted on his retina as the last thing he saw, the two heads collided and were crushed together.

The man and woman’s brains mixed and mashed like clay.

Vitreous humor flowed from the scattered eyeballs.

“Ahah, ahahahahahaha-!”

Drenched in a rain of blood, swallowing the flesh and blood that touched her lips, Haschal laughed maniacally.

With an expression of uncontrollable joy, she spread her arms and looked up at the sky.

Her clear laughter, like that of a young girl, was all the more terrifying.

The advancing knights stopped in their tracks.

Their recovering morale was broken by the too-cruel sight.

That was exactly the reaction Haschal wanted.

The monster of Ka’har stopped laughing and rushed toward the knights.

‘As I thought.’

Twenty seconds after diving into the midst of the knights.

The ghost sword didn’t approach. Just as Orhan had predicted.

—-

“Aaaaargh!”

A knight whose eyes were gouged out by Frosting’s claws screamed, shedding bloody tears.

The black iron greatsword carved around his abdomen.

The man with a hole the size of a child’s head in the middle of his stomach collapsed.

With his spine cleanly cut, his legs couldn’t move properly, and he just flailed his arms while screaming.

While stepping on his head and slowly pressing down, Haschal licked the two eyeballs skewered on her fingers like candy.

Her blood-stained tongue moistened the empty sockets.

Then, one by one, like picking meat off a skewer, she tore off and swallowed the knight’s eyes.

It wasn’t particularly tasty food for her either…

But whether she wanted to or not, she needed to display the most cruel and alien appearance possible right now.

Humans gripped by fear react slowly, and the swords of those whose fighting spirit is broken lose their sharpness.

Make your enemy fear you.

When facing multiple opponents, there was no better method than this.

Indeed, even the knights who prided themselves as Imperial elites were turning pale, helplessly being torn apart by her slaughter.

Unlike the ‘Haschal’ from earlier who had struggled desperately to dodge and roll around, this was a completely one-sided massacre.

‘Do you see? How easy this is.’

Haschal once again mocked the usurper within her mind.

In a crisis situation, surrounded by enemies pointing swords at her, desperately struggling not to kill them.

With such an approach, even with this power, she had been driven to this point.

“Ahahahahahaha!”

While pulling off a person’s limbs like insect legs, Haschal burst into laughter again.

“You, crazy witch!”

“Kyahahat!”

She blocked a descending greatsword with the knight she was holding, then deliberately swung her black iron sword shallowly to only open the opponent’s belly.

So he could scream while clutching his spilling intestines.

“For the Empire-“

The thrusting blade emitted a familiar blue light.

Mother’s sword. Haschal’s eyes burned bright blue.

‘Finally…!’

After slaughtering dozens of knights in the forest of swords, she finally faced her target.

Before the man could finish speaking, Frosting shot out like lightning and tore off his lower jaw along with his tongue.

“Ugh, gaack…!”

Next, she reclaimed Durandal from his right hand.

She pierced his wrist with the black iron greatsword and deployed the blade net at minimal scale.

A small red web bloomed and erased the knight’s hand like dust.

“Gaaaaaack!”

The knight screamed, clutching his vanished wrist.

Haschal gripped the black iron greatsword in reverse and pierced through his knee to his instep, fixing him to the ground.

Grabbing the falling Durandal with her empty right hand, Haschal smiled at the man with only his upper jaw remaining.

A worm who touched her mother’s legacy with his filthy hands. She had no intention of killing him quickly.

After sheathing Durandal, with only her two hands.

Haschal dismantled the knight.

She gouged out his eyes, tore off his nose, ripped his ears, and skinned his face.

She pulled out his collarbone, crushed his shoulder blades, and tore open his chest to spread his ribs wide.

She pulled out his left arm and pierced his abdomen with it, then thrust his torn-off right arm through his groin.

To finish, she took his spilling intestines and stuffed them into his throat where his lower jaw had been torn off.

Despite this condition after just two breaths of elegant butchery, the knight was still not dead.

A cruelty unbelievable as human action.

No, even monsters wouldn’t commit such madness, yet Haschal’s mind remained clear and unwavering as she revealed her insane handiwork.

Come to think of it, they say repeating routine actions brings mental stability.

She too felt peaceful when tearing people apart.

She no longer remembered when this had started.

Of course, she wasn’t doing this simply to feel stable.

‘As expected, you can’t approach, old man. Orhan was right.’

The ghost sword.

Even as his subordinates were being cruelly slaughtered, the traceless sword never came for her.

The reason why that old man insisted on one-on-one combat even after surrounding her with numerous subordinates like a folding screen.

Orhan’s speculation about the ghost sword’s weakness was simple.

– It’s a bizarre technique… but he hardly uses it in chaotic battles. Thinking about it, that makes sense.

The essence of the ghost sword was to eliminate presence and avoid line of sight to launch surprise attacks.

Yes. It was a technique that couldn’t neutralize vision alone.

‘Why don’t you try using it? You’ll kill your subordinates before me.’

Imagining the old man trembling with anxiety, Haschal smiled coldly.

Without speed sufficient to disappear from Orhan and Haschal’s vision, the ghost sword is useless.

And to achieve that speed, sufficient space is needed.

Haschal was surrounded by critically wounded men and knights frozen in fear.

In such an environment, using the ghost sword would mean colliding with subordinate knights without proper movement.

Knights colliding with a master moving at such speed would naturally be shattered and die.

– Fill the surroundings with his subordinates.

This was Orhan’s first method to counter the ghost sword.