Ch.258Fast Travel

Isabella’s noble followers couldn’t remain indifferent to the sight before them.

What they desired was power, pleasure, and decadent enjoyment—not this kind of earthly hell.

“…Wouldn’t it be better to withdraw now? No matter what, this is…!”

“No, calm yourself, Count Marius. Think of it the other way around. With an army of this magnitude, how could Aishan-Gioro and Leopold possibly withstand it? These insects are our path to survival!”

Of course, among them were those with more cold and realistic perspectives.

Enough to feel anticipation rather than disgust in the face of this horrifying insect army.

“—I’m pleased you think that way.”

A voice so seductive it could melt one’s resolve.

The nobles hurriedly turned their heads to see Isabella wearing a strange dress.

Semi-transparent material like insect wings, with vein-like lines running through it, wrapped around her entire body, vaguely revealing her dazzling naked form beneath.

“Your Highness Benes…!”

The nobles dismounted and bowed, their faces flushed.

None of the nobles gathered here had failed to bed Isabella, but even so, they needed to maintain proper etiquette in this situation.

Having marched out with thirty thousand troops only to be defeated without resistance, and with Viscount Valenstein, who should have taken responsibility, now dead… they had nothing to say even with ten mouths.

The soldiers, meanwhile, stared at Isabella with gaping mouths and blank expressions.

For them, this was the half-naked body of the Empire’s most beautiful woman, something they’d never see in their lifetime. It was enough to momentarily make them forget the insects that had filled their minds just moments ago.

“Raise your heads. I don’t intend to blame you for losing. Against that Aishan-Gioro, how could hastily gathered conscripts win no matter how many there were?”

Isabella approached the nobles with graceful, almost floating steps, smiling seductively.

“Th-thank you for your merciful words…!”

“Actually, I thought none would return, but you brought back three thousand. I should praise you instead.”

A sweet voice like seduction, words of utmost kindness.

Yet none of the nobles dared raise their heads. They could only tremble like aspen trees, unable to utter a word.

Though her tone was gentle, something was different.

Her voice, her smile, even her scent carried an inexplicable chill.

Dark Mana.

A malevolent force hostile to all living beings.

Isabella, now openly revealing the Dark Mana she had concealed, became more terrifying the closer she came.

Not the lustful courtesan who had rolled in bed with them, but like a hungry predator baring its fangs.

Their survival instinct, never before activated, now screamed fiercely.

An ominous, terribly ominous feeling squeezed their hearts so tightly they could barely breathe.

“Hehe… trembling like pigs at slaughter. What’s wrong? Afraid I might kill you? I have no such intention… because you have work to do for me.”

Isabella dropped her polite speech and smiled with her mouth stretched from ear to ear.

Her cheeks split open lengthwise, revealing teeth hidden inside.

Saw-like pointed molars, and a pair of small mandibles protruding like antennae beside her cheeks. She looked like a mantis wearing human skin.

“I needed someone to command the forces here… how fortunate to have so many scarecrows.”

Following her gesture, dozens of insects rose into the air at once,

Heading toward the nobles who were now kneeling and convulsing.

“Y-Your Highness! Please spare us!”

“Just once, please forgive us just this once…!”

The nobles begged and wailed, sensing their fate, but Isabella merely smiled sweetly, looking down at them with ice-cold eyes.

“I told you I wouldn’t kill you, didn’t I? Your brain will still function, your heart will still beat… so I am sparing you, aren’t I?”

Isabella wasn’t wrong.

Even when parasitized by insects, if one didn’t intend to reduce them to half-corpses, major organs like the heart were generally left untouched. Though the brain would be partially eaten away.

The swarm of insects attached themselves to the heads of nobles trying to crawl away.

“Aaagh! Aaaaaaagh! Stop! Stooop!”

“Insects! Insects in my ears…!”

“Gaaaaaack-!”

Ears, nose, even into the mouth.

The insects that burrowed into their bodies somehow tore at flesh as they crawled into their skulls.

The nobles screamed and shook like epileptics.

Crunch, crunch. Crunch, crunch.

The maddening sound and terrible itching tore through their minds.

“Y-you cursed whore! I shouldn’t have trusted you…”

“—Trust? What an interesting word. That was never between us… neither from you nor from me.”

A cold sneer. Yes. What connected them was only pleasure, greed, and sin.

There was never room for something like trust.

Eventually, even the noble who had been cursing her rolled back his eyes and drooled.

Seeing this, Isabella licked her lips and smiled.

Her gaze turned toward the three thousand soldiers whose legs had given out and were trembling… no, three thousand meals.

And.

—-

One week later.

Isabella was leisurely walking through a dark underground passage with only Ernst accompanying her.

Beside the maze-like complex of roads flowed underground water like a river, and mana lamps on each supporting pillar emitted a dim light.

“I wonder if Benes is in the midst of battle now? He must be busy with his futile struggle. Don’t you think so, Ernst?”

A confident sneer. She couldn’t help but laugh thinking about Leopold, who would be fighting desperately against hundreds of thousands of insects, claiming to exterminate the witch.

Meanwhile, Isabella herself had long since left her territory.

From the beginning, Isabella never expected to finish off Leopold’s army with mere insect troops.

They might inflict considerable damage… but in the end, insects were just insects. If fire were set, they would die in droves.

The insect demons she had summoned throughout Benes territory were merely a diversion and a hobby.

‘Judging by the state, the second barrier should have broken… this battle might even break the third barrier.’

The pact with Feyrus. The plan to break the chalice of seals using the vengeful spirits of many dead humans had been smoothly achieved through this civil war.

Over a hundred thousand deaths. That number was enough not only to break the second chalice but also to substantially fill the third one.

Thanks to this, her Dark Mana had grown even stronger than before.

‘It would have been better if the third barrier had definitely broken… but I’ll have to be satisfied with this for now.’

Considering her purpose, the fewer barriers, the better.

With just two destroyed, even she couldn’t be certain if things would go as planned.

“Why is your expression so stiff? You’re returning home in a way, so smile? Your throne is right before you.”

Ernst maintained his expressionless face in silence.

He couldn’t speak or smile of his own will from the beginning.

The swarm of insects Isabella had implanted controlled his entire body.

It was mere mockery for the very person who made him unable to smile to tell him to do so.

‘What are you trying to do, witch…! Why have you returned to the capital…?’

Ernst muttered only in his mind.

Yes. Where she was walking now was not the outskirts of the Empire, but a place equivalent to its heart.

—-

The Imperial Capital, Extrashafel.

After disposing of the nobles and palace soldiers, Isabella concealed her identity and immediately headed for the capital.

It took quite a while as she had to hide her movements as much as possible to avoid the risk of news reaching Leopold’s side… but she finally arrived.

Here, in the underground waterways of Extrashafel.

From before this civil war began, Isabella’s destination had always been only here.

This place was the burial ground where Carlos the Great, who received the holy sword, had brought down and buried Nidhogg, one of the four dragons.

The resurrection of the dragon. That was her goal.

Or rather, resurrection might be somewhat inaccurate. She planned not to revive it in its original form, but to fill and cover its remains with her familiar insects and mold them into one.

‘If I had to name it… I’d call it a parasite dragon. Though the dragon itself wouldn’t appreciate that.’

The awakened Nidhogg would naturally be enraged.

Already a violent dragon, combined with its hatred for the humans who brought it down and the fury of being resurrected with a body full of insects, it would lose all reason.

Even so, it ultimately couldn’t attack Isabella, who was the subject of its resurrection.

Far from being hostile, it would be dominated by her.

This would be impossible with a dragon in normal condition, but since the foundation of its body was Isabella’s insects, it couldn’t escape her control.

Isabella had absolute confidence.

A witch who commands a dragon—an unprecedented existence that had never appeared in the history of this world.

That was Isabella’s purpose.

A goal she had contemplated since long ago when she first heard the secret that dragon remains lay in the underground waterways of the capital.

A treasure no one would dare to obtain. The greatest toy she could imagine was at her feet.

‘I may not be able to resurrect it in perfect form, but a dragon is still a dragon.’

Even an imperfect resurrection would be beyond what humans of the current era could handle.

Moreover, once she dominated it, she could use it to spread death throughout the world and evolve it to a complete state with more power and enhanced abilities. There was no problem.

‘What shall I do after I dominate it…?’

Her goal was to resurrect and dominate the dragon. She hadn’t particularly thought about what came after.

But now that her goal was just one step away, Isabella finally began to consider what mischief she would create with her life’s greatest toy.

It would be fun to kill all the people in the capital as a salute announcing the dragon’s resurrection.

Tearing the Empire to pieces and burning the Holy State would be revenge for the followers killed in witch hunts.

Though she wasn’t particularly interested in revenge… at least her god, Lilith, would be pleased.

‘Also…, and… or maybe this too….’

Isabella’s cheeks flushed as she indulged in pleasant fantasies.

Just imagining it made her mouth water and moisture flow between her thighs.

Finally, Isabella’s footsteps stopped in front of a sealed iron door.

The entrance leading to an even deeper underground. The door to the forbidden zone passed down through generations of the Imperial family.

Below this, the dragon’s remains would be.

“Now, Ernst. I’ll show you a magnificent sight. Something ordinary people couldn’t see even if they died and were reborn.”

Isabella smiled brightly as she flung the iron door wide open.

Now, just a little further ahead—

“I almost got tired of waiting, you damn whore!”

A fierce roar.

A dark red fist filled her vision.

“Huh?”

Before the startled Isabella could react, a Karma of Murder-infused punch struck her chest.

-SPLAT!

The sound of leather bursting. The entire upper body of the Empire’s most beautiful woman turned to meat chunks scattered in all directions.

Her brain, smashed like mud, stuck to the ceiling dripping cerebral fluid, and her detached eyeball fell into the waterway and sank.

An injury that would have killed even a Werebeast instantly.

Her trembling lower body lost strength and collapsed, spewing blood and urine from above and below.

‘Indeed, a magnificent sight.’

Ernst inwardly applauded.