Ch.206206. Infection War (4)

Helena Valerius fought with true dedication.

Despite being at a disadvantage in every aspect—from her personal combat abilities to her equipment and blessings—she refused to back down even the slightest bit.

She persevered even through multiple brushes with death, her body soaking in plague.

Though she was constantly pushed back and overwhelmed, her courage had reached such a sublime state.

Thanks to this, she managed to hold out for nearly an hour, but….

After fighting with unwavering courage against a superior enemy, she was reduced to a half-dead state, barely clinging to life.

The various terrible plagues spread by Ense-Fesgut ate away at her flesh, while the magical and physical attacks that came her way were enough to break Helena.

Most of her ribs were shattered by that divine staff, and many of her organs had either burst from magical impact or become infected with plague.

Her skin was covered with all manner of growths from the plague until no healthy skin remained visible, while all sorts of contaminated and decaying substances oozed from her entire body.

She now looked no different from the other plague slaves, yet her eyes still held clear determination.

And approaching her with a twisted but distinct smile, wearing an expression that could be either pure joy or mockery, someone said:

“…What impressive willpower you have. You mare of the old empire.”

“Nonsense!!”

Whoosh───!

Ense-Fesgut, who had irritated Helena with his subtly sinister attitude, dodged the cavalry lance she swung and then spoke with a smile.

“Oh my, it seems my words don’t resonate with you.”

“Shut, up!!”

Helena, reinforcing her nearly-dead body with aura, continued to attack, but Ense-Fesgut easily avoided her strikes while subtly provoking her—

“Well, fine. Since you’ll make an excellent breeding ground, I’ll forgive your slight rudeness.”

Then he uttered words that Helena couldn’t possibly ignore, leaving her bewildered. Suddenly, Ense-Fesgut pulled out a dagger from within his body and stabbed it into her.

Shunk!!

Normally, she could have blocked or avoided such a mediocre close-range attack, but with her body ravaged by plague, she could only be stabbed by the dagger, however…

“……..?!!”

Strangely, despite having a dagger embedded in her shoulder, she felt no pain. To Helena’s wide-eyed surprise, Ense-Fesgut spoke mockingly:

“Congratulations. You too have received the blessing! Soon you’ll be able to become one of us!”

“……What?”

“Ah, I see. Since you don’t seem to know, let me tell you something. Our father, the Plague God, is skilled at creating his slaves regardless of their will. So it’s better not to resist. Otherwise, you’ll suffer.”

Ense-Fesgut looked at Helena with sincere yet sinister and disgusting desire.

He sought to satisfy his inferiority complex by corrupting a noble being with pride into something as ugly as himself—a desire with a different direction than the norm.

Naturally, Helena couldn’t hide her dismay as she looked at her thoroughly damaged physical state, and the vile Ense-Fesgut tried to persuade her with a lewd smile, but….

Whoosh!!

Crack!

Helena’s answer came in the form of a lance suddenly thrust into Ense-Fesgut’s stomach.

Thud!

Of course, someone calling himself an apostle of plague wouldn’t die from a mere hole in his stomach, so he struck Helena with his staff, knocking her down—and became furiously angry.

“You, you, damned, wench───!!”

Thwack! Thud! Thud! Thuuud!!

Having completely forgotten how he had intended to transform Helena, he was consumed by rage and beat her mercilessly with his staff and fists.

The attacks were more noisy than painful or damaging to Helena, but Ense-Fesgut was too enraged to notice the difference.

As he continued to punch wildly and Helena endured the blows—

“……..”

Helena stubbornly withstood the impacts with patience, then channeled a large amount of magical power through the cord connected to her soul.

───Neigh!!

THUD!!!

At that moment, a corrupted Pegasus Lord summoned on Ense-Fesgut’s blind side charged directly into his rage-addled body.

Crunch…..!!

The horn protruding from the corrupted Pegasus Lord’s head pierced through his body, and his plague-softened flesh was flung away, falling to the ground.

Though the wound itself wasn’t particularly severe and quickly regenerated, what mattered was that distance had been created between Ense-Fesgut and Helena.

Of course, “distance” meant only a few dozen meters.

To a warrior of advanced rank, such distance would be practically nothing, but as luck would have it, Ense-Fesgut was not a warrior but a priest, notorious for being slow on his feet.

Thanks to this, Helena, who had easily managed to create distance, immediately mounted the corrupted Pegasus Lord and attempted to escape.

“You, you—rotten wench!!”

Crack!!

But at that very moment.

Helena felt the sensation in her lower body cut off as she was attacked by Ense-Fesgut, who had transformed into a swarm of mosquitoes, and began falling to the ground.

The Pegasus Lord had already been unsummoned, and now she couldn’t even move her body.

So Helena, resigned to death, closed her eyes and began to reflect on her past—

《Where do you think you’re going, trying to die on your own?》

※ ※ ※

‘……Huh?’

Hearing a voice that was both familiar and unfamiliar right beside her, Helena uttered a dumbfounded sound and involuntarily opened her eyes.

And what her eyes saw was a world turned gray and frozen, and ‘someone’ who appeared to be standing upright to her eyes as her head was facing the ground—that is, someone standing on thin air.

This ‘someone,’ who seemed somehow familiar yet strange, was definitely humanoid in form, but beyond that, it was impossible to make out their appearance.

Therefore, Helena, who was about to speak, realized that her mouth—her body—wouldn’t move, and this ‘someone’ who was just watching her opened their mouth again.

《It’s too early to give up. It’s not your time to die yet.》

‘……Even in this condition?’

With not a single intact body part left and a body barely maintained through aura while on the verge of death.

Because she seriously had such doubts and questioned herself, somehow this ‘someone’ read her thoughts and spoke.

《Oh, Helena Valerius. You still don’t understand. Did you really think ‘He’ would leave a good, obedient child like you to die?》

‘……..He?’

Noticing the blatant disrespectful way of referring to her god, Helena immediately changed her attitude and spoke seriously…..

Suddenly, it occurred to her that the entity before her might be the God of Vengeance, and she froze, but ‘someone’ shook their head with a bitter smile, as if denying Helena’s thought.

And unexpectedly, ‘someone’ willingly revealed their identity, which was something Helena could never have imagined.

《I am the blessing of the God of Vengeance bestowed upon you. Somehow, I’ve taken this form.》

The moment Helena heard the identity, she felt her body gradually recovering.

The plague that had been tormenting her body and mind began to be purified and healed, and her body, which had been contaminated by the plague, started returning to its original state.

Additionally, bones that had been broken during battle returned to their original positions, muscle fibers gradually reconnected, and the pain subsided.

As time passed, she slowly recovered to her pre-battle condition, but in proportion to this, the ‘someone’ before her eyes began to gradually disappear.

‘….You, could it be?!!’

And only then did Helena realize that the entity before her was actually divine providence prepared for her—a loving sacrifice from the God of Vengeance for her sake. She tried to convey something to them with an inaudible cry, but….

It was already too late, as ‘someone’ had already lost their sense of self and completely disappeared.

Helena was so dumbfounded by this strange yet mystical experience that before she could properly gather her wits, she began plummeting toward the ground.

But even in a situation where she could have become incapacitated at any moment, Helena instead sensed something and smiled with joy.

With a strong conviction that this war would certainly end in victory, Helena surrendered herself to the oncoming unconsciousness—

BOOM───!!!

At the same time, something fell onto the battlefield with a loud explosion, and from the middle of the thick dust cloud—a warrior in pitch-black emerged.