Ch.250Chapter 250: Lanos (2)

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Fassss

It scatters.

The powerful mage’s body, saturated with dark red energy symbolizing the impurity of the demon realm, turns into less than a handful of ash, adding a gray hue to the dark sky.

One might question how such ash could make any difference in a bizarre sky that rejects light.

But for Iriana, who cultivated the light fighting spirit within her body while observing her surroundings with sensitivity that missed not even the smallest detail, she had the ability to observe how the sky changed as those ashes were added.

However, even if she could confirm the addition.

Such a gloomy sky with added ash wouldn’t dramatically change one’s impression of it.

“How futile. How utterly futile.”

After briefly raising her head to observe the ash-scattered sky, Iriana’s lips uttered words not about her impression of the sky, but about the mage she had just reduced to ashes with her own hands.

She was commenting on the emptiness of the mage who had made grand declarations only to be scattered into a handful of ash by her touch.

Though she spoke of futility, Iriana’s voice carried a coldness that could make even the northern chill seem mild by comparison.

While mindless beasts that moved only by instinct were one thing.

This wasn’t the usual manner of speech from Iriana, who typically showed at least minimal courtesy to mages or demons who, though twisted, possessed intelligence and reason.

“How disappointing that your dream, which you cultivated so cunningly by waiting for others to weaken and using those weaker than yourself as expendable pawns, has been rendered meaningless in an instant.”

Her subsequent words provided a good explanation for why she displayed such contempt for the mage who had just died.

Iriana Ranos is a warrior.

According to the Empire’s inheritance law, which gives priority to the firstborn regardless of gender.

Though she grew up in an environment lacking nothing, designated from birth as the heir to a noble house rivaling the imperial family.

Since the family she was to inherit was a warrior house descended from a legendary hero who helped establish the empire with a single sword.

From her upbringing, she had admired the warrior’s path and spared no effort to become worthy of that admiration.

In her value system, there was nothing more detestable than cunning beings who hesitated to bloody their own hands while trying to climb over others.

“I don’t know if there’s such a thing as a next life, but if you get that chance, I hope you realize that when achieving something through bloodshed, it should be your own blood that’s spilled.”

After leaving these cold remarks about the mage who died by her hand, Iriana lowered her gaze from the sky and turned it toward where the demons had been confronting her moments ago.

She maintained her cold gaze, which had grown even colder after killing a mage so far removed from nobility that it seemed pathetic.

Even in the split second it took to shift her gaze, various thoughts bloomed and withered in her mind.

She had fought enough.

Setting aside the comrades who had gone before her.

The remaining forces she had helped retreat by staying at the rear would have reached Night Haven by now, joining the existing garrison to help withstand the demon realm’s offensive.

Though her objective was accomplished and there was no reason to stay longer.

Iriana still felt unsatisfied.

To honor the spirits of her comrades whose lights had been extinguished in the sudden offensive.

She felt she needed to eliminate as many of the demons before her as possible.

However, what entered her cold gaze was nothing but ridiculous sights.

It was amusing how the demons lowered their heads to avoid meeting her gaze as her cold eyes fell upon them.

Guuuu…

The moans, which had been closer to screams when overwhelmed by her display of martial prowess, now sounded even more pitiful, which Iriana found not even worth laughing at.

Could it be that these servants of destruction, born only to break and kill, were psychologically shocked by the death of the mage who had controlled them with mere words?

“Huuuu…”

A soft sigh escaped Iriana’s lips as she experienced something strange she had never seen before.

It was a sigh infused with the bewilderment she felt seeing even these creatures, who thought of nothing but destruction and killing, expressing fear.

At least, that’s what the sigh meant to the one who uttered it.

But to the demons who had just witnessed their commanding mage turn to scattered ash without putting up any resistance, even such a sigh seemed frightening.

Gu…guuuuu

From the demons, frozen like prey before a predator, only moans revealing their fear flowed out.

“Haah…”

Following the sighs and moans came a lamentation from the one who had sighed.

After executing the mage who was clearly filled with impure energy and ambitious to ascend to a higher existence, not to mention the demons.

She had wanted to spill the blood of as many demons as possible to honor the countless lives extinguished before her eyes yesterday.

It was a lamentation filled with deep disappointment toward the demons who showed no will to fight, intimidated by the feats she had accomplished with just a few sword strokes.

Judging by their appearance, their morale was so shattered that none would dare approach her even if she turned her back on them.

But she couldn’t end it like this.

At the very least, she wished they would show some hatred toward her, or even fighting spirit, if she were to strike them down.

She still had enough strength left to return to the fortress.

Therefore, she was determined to eliminate as many of these creatures as possible, the ones who had taken her comrades’ lives before her eyes.

“Hey.”

With that determination, a sharp voice rarely heard from Iriana’s lips emerged.

“I’m actually quite tired, you know.”

She immediately followed with cheap provocation aimed at skewering them.

As she slightly raised her arms, which had split countless demons in two with a single gesture.

Tremble…

She made them shake lightly, as if revealing that she was too exhausted from the fierce battle to fight any longer.

Of course, this was deception.

She was indeed quite tired.

But the invisible sword wielded by Iriana Ranos, Vice Commander of the Imperial Knights, was sharp enough to cut through anything in the world.

And the fighting spirit that served as the foundation for wielding that sword was in a state of tireless surging.

It was merely a lure to give false hope to the demons who were uncertain whether to fight or retreat, to draw them closer to her.

Iriana could only hope.

That at least a few of them would fall for her deception and approach her.

Despite her body being capable of fighting despite some fatigue, the situation was becoming awkward to prolong, so she wanted to draw in more demons to offer to her comrades’ spirits.

“So come at me, this tired big sister will play with you once.”

Unlike her uncharacteristically low-grade provocation to stimulate the demons.

‘…Please, at least a few of you come.’

Iriana’s inner thoughts were desperate as she deliberately pretended to be tired while trying to skewer them with cheap provocation.

After leading hastily organized troops to rescue Night Haven, which was exposed to an unprecedented demon offensive, making smooth progress.

Then losing nearly 40% of her command to demons that appeared from nowhere, retreating.

Staying at the rear until the end to help her troops withdraw.

Repeatedly standing firm to prevent the enemy from harming her subordinates further.

Before true darkness fell on this land, already darkened by an unpleasantly divine intervention.

She wanted to spill the blood of as many demons as possible on this wasteland to honor the spirits of her comrades who had gone before her.

But the remaining demons were not foolish enough to be blinded by her deliberate display of vulnerability.

Guuuu…?

They expressed doubt at her feigned fatigue, but that was all.

Guuuuu…

Soon they were busy backing away while moaning to express their fear of this opponent who displayed such vulnerability.

With the mage who had whipped them into bloody pulps for trying to flee now gone.

There was no one among their kind to stop their “brave advance to the rear.”

“Haha…”

Seeing the demons backing away and fleeing, a hollow laugh escaped Iriana’s lips, beyond mere lamentation.

She thought that the demons, faithful to their survival instinct and struggling to escape danger, were actually more honest and better to look at than the mage who had been blinded by the prospect of achievements made through others’ blood without properly assessing his opponent’s capabilities.

“…”

Watching the demons slowly but surely distancing themselves from her, Iriana brought her right hand to the side of her head and scratched it lightly.

Her body was clearly fatigued from the fierce battle.

The fighting spirit emitted with each breath remained sharp, but maintaining it would require sacrificing quite a lot in the current situation.

The darkness approaching not artificially but with the natural flow of time suggested the possibility of facing even greater dangers.

And the demons not responding to the tempting bait she had cast to skewer them also temporarily calmed her rising fighting spirit.

In any case, these three factors combined.

Forced a shift in thinking for Iriana, who had been focused solely on eliminating the demons in sight, so she lightly scratched the side of her head to organize her thoughts.

The options that formed in her mind after rapid consideration pointed to two choices.

Whether to raise her momentum and eliminate the frightened fleeing demons at all costs.

Or to threaten the demons away while allowing her unknowingly tired body to rest.

Both were rational choices with their own pros and cons.

Eliminating them all to comfort the spirits of departed comrades.

And making the journey back to the fortress, which needed to be reached as soon as possible, somewhat easier—nothing was more rational than the first choice.

But even with the body of a superhuman who wielded a formless sword, she was at the brink of her limit, and her trembling body needed rest rather than further strain.

No matter how much Iriana was renowned as a specialist in anti-demon warfare representing the Solarium of her generation.

It was too much to instantly eliminate demons that were making this dark space even darker with her exhausted body.

“…”

As she scratched the side of her head with her eyes slowly closed, continuing to contemplate the demons who only felt fear toward her despite her sighs.

During this process, despite the weakening concentration of fighting spirit she emitted with each breath, seeing the backs of the demons moving further away as they refused to approach her.

“Huuuu…”

Her contemplation was decided by the breath she took at her lips to gather light fighting spirit.

Woooong-!!

And the surrounding environment brightened as the light fighting spirit rose in response, as if soaring.

The already stiff bodies of the demons backing away became even more rigid.

Almost like prey before a predator.

“Even you mindless, instinct-driven vermin value your lives, I see?”

A mocking remark with clear intent to provoke the demons flowed from Iriana’s lips as she naturally gathered the light fighting spirit rising from her body.

Though demons lack reason and proper language ability.

They weren’t so lacking in intelligence that they couldn’t understand provocative words from a human who, by their standards, was merely prey.

But they weren’t so lacking in discernment as to lose their reason and rage at such provocation, having already seen their kind cut in two by this human woman’s hand.

Guuuuu…

The demons, upon hearing Iriana’s provocation, not only continued to back away but turned their backs completely to flee.

Facing an entity they couldn’t possibly defeat even if all of them combined their strength.

Fleeing for survival was not at all shameful for those accustomed to kneeling before the strong.

One demon, just before turning to flee, gave Iriana a look filled with various compressed emotions before turning its head again and enforcing a silent escape.

Thud-! Thud thud thud-!!

The heavy sounds made by their massive bodies moving were certainly similar to those made by their kind when they had first approached her with bold steps—Iriana was surely not mishearing.

In any case, Iriana could have chosen to display her technique again to eliminate these demons who had lost all will to fight and were completely fleeing.

But as the footsteps of the fleeing demons became inaudible.

“…Tiring.”

Uttering these words, Iriana completely withdrew the particles of light emitted from her body while activating Fricasa.

“Let’s go.”

With these words expressing her intention not to stay here any longer, she continued her steps.

Toward her true destination, located in the exact opposite direction from where the demons had fled.