Ch.271Fable (1)

I gently shake my head to clear my dizzy mind.

Allowing the old memories that had surfaced after so long to sink back into reminiscence.

I missed those times, but… now wasn’t the time to be immersed in such sentiments.

Isabella’s fourth power, “Black Repose,” was still dominating my consciousness.

I had broken through the trap that held my ankles with regret and longing, but that wasn’t the end.

To completely shatter this power, I needed to go one step further and drive Isabella out of my mental world.

It shouldn’t be too difficult, though.

“How dare you! How dare you pull such a disgusting trick? I won’t kill you quickly! I’ll tear you into a thousand pieces, stitch those chunks back together, and butcher you again!”

The barbarian lady raging uncontrollably.

Well, considering how I escaped Black Repose, she must have had to kill someone with her own hands too.

…Someone she really didn’t want to kill.

There were only one or two people who meant that much to Hersella. Just my guess, but still.

Considering how Hersella would have fits whenever her mother was insulted…

It was all too clear what emotions she would display toward the witch who forced her to kill her mother with her own hands.

“Jin-ye-ryun!”

With a hate-filled roar, crimson killing intent split into a hundred strands and swirled like a storm. Sharp as a sword, flexible as a whip.

Wielding the power of Murder Karma with an uninjured body, Hersella was like a wheel studded with blades.

An unstoppable, ever-advancing wheel of slaughter.

The insect monsters Isabella hastily summoned were caught in Hersella’s charge and torn to shreds.

Even the spells filling the air were cut to pieces by the red whips.

Without even swinging her sword, she charged forward, grinding dozens of monsters to nothing.

Hersella, unleashing her innate Karma at full power, displayed overwhelming might against multiple enemies.

…If she had fought like that before, my style must have seemed quite frustrating.

Compared to her, my fighting style was rather concise.

– Slash!

With a light swing of my blade, the front leg of a giant mantis is cut in half.

The slash that barely grazed its body. The dismembered insect collapsed.

– Crack.

My outstretched fingertips pierce through the carapace of a beetle the size of a bear, and I pull out the nerves clutched in my grasp.

When the central nervous system is pulled out, both humans and insects tremble the same way.

– Whoosh!

The Karma flame I ignite burns the flying insects gathered around.

Creatures that looked like a mix of moths, mosquitoes, and bees crackled as they burned and fell like sparks.

Most of the power of Murder Karma seemed to have dispersed to Hersella, as the burning intensity wasn’t what it used to be… but it was more than enough to incinerate these small fry.

“Elpinel must have gone mad! No, she was always crazy, but…! To make ‘something like this’ her knight? Such monsters!”

Isabella pointed at me… no, at us, and shouted at the top of her lungs in disbelief.

What is she saying?

Monsters?

“Calling others monsters? Why don’t you look in a mirror?”

A witch who looks like a mash-up of human and insect calling someone else a monster.

“You know nothing. How laughable, you monster!”

Isabella spewed out Dark Mana once more.

—-

Perhaps because this was a mental world rather than reality.

Isabella summoned even the insects she would have released in Benes territory, truly fighting with all her might.

But in the end, most were monsters that didn’t even approach Master level.

How could such creatures hope to hold back Hersella and me?

“Is this all you’ve got, Isabella!”

“You crazy wench-!”

As Isabella waved her hand, a magical bombardment rained down from the magic circle hanging in the air.

Black meteor shower pouring down indiscriminately like rain.

In the waterway, I had struggled to deflect all of those, but now… there was no reason to do so.

There were no allies to protect behind me.

I dodge and deflect the meteor bombardment as I rush toward Isabella.

The Dark Mana that missed exploded upon hitting the insects, scattering carapace fragments everywhere.

The bombardment that not only failed to harm me but massacred her own subordinates en masse.

To make such a blunder… she must be quite flustered.

Was it so surprising that I broke through the dream of repose?

Or is she troubled that a power meant for one-on-one combat has resulted in doubling her powerful enemies?

Well, it doesn’t matter.

A panicked mage is excellent prey for a warrior!

It took less than thirty seconds to break through the swarm of insects.

“The death you must face has finally caught up with you! Isabella Benes!”

Toward the witch I finally reached, a sword blade shining brilliantly swings like a cluster of stars.

From her left arm, stretched out as if to block Durandal, a mass of centipede-like tentacles—

Before they could even emerge, the Defying Fate blade severed that arm at the shoulder.

“Ugh…! You monster…! Just you try-!”

Isabella gritted her teeth and stepped back, extending her right arm to the side.

Countless mantis forelegs overlapped, transforming into a massive blade like a pillar.

Just as the great sword, with a blade width as large as my torso, was about to swing—

“Where are you looking-!”

A ferocious roar.

Before Isabella could turn around, the Murder Karma blades, split into strands, tore into her sword and shredded it.

Hersella, who had rushed toward her enemy while staining herself with rage and hatred, bared her fangs and smiled.

Like a red monster with thousands of teeth.

“Eek!”

Isabella seemed startled as she let out an unseemly groan.

Understandable. It was a terrifying sight even to me. I wonder if the nobles who used to scream at the sight of my face felt like this.

“How dare a mere ghost…!”

Perhaps feeling humiliated by the sound she had made, Isabella contorted her face and ground her teeth.

Impressive skill, that she could find a way to look even more twisted from that state.

I don’t know why she muttered “ghost” while looking at Hersella rather than me.

Did she think I was the original?

“I’ll tear you apart-!”

“Just die already!”

Faced with bloodthirsty warriors both in front and behind.

In a crisis where her life could end in an instant, Isabella chose the same solution as any mage would.

That is, she released a shockwave.

“Get away!”

A wave mixed with Dark Mana tears through the surroundings, pushing bodies away.

With enough force to send someone flying dozens of meters if caught in it.

If caught, that is.

You must have been desperate, Isabella. Did you think this would still work?

I’ve experienced this tactic several times already!

I crouch low and firmly drive Durandal and Frosting into the ground.

I’m not sure if I can call this completely white surface “ground,” but still.

Then, the shockwave struck my body.

It certainly had the power its momentum suggested. My hair and pauldrons flapped wildly, and it felt like my body would fly away.

However, Durandal’s deeply embedded blade provided unwavering support without yielding to the pressure.

Hersella simply drove her Murder Karma blades into the floor and endured.

“You, monster wenches…!”

Isabella seemed quite surprised, perhaps not expecting us to withstand it with our bare bodies.

“The monster-“

“Is you!”

Toward her, two longswords flew in a crossing pattern.

—-

A slash unleashed from nearly zero distance.

Unfortunately, that strike fell slightly short of taking the witch’s life.

Though it did inflict a near-fatal wound.

“Kuh, hnngh…!”

Isabella, who barely avoided it, gasped for breath as if trying to endure the pain.

Her appearance had returned to human form rather than insect, as when we first fought.

It likely meant she had almost exhausted the power to maintain “Writhing Nest” and had used up most of her stored insects.

Considering her injuries, the lack of insect arms to draw upon must be quite fatal.

After all, Isabella no longer had arms or legs.

My Defying Fate slash had cleanly severed both her legs, and Karma flames devoured the cut limbs.

Hersella’s sword had butchered her remaining right arm to dust.

As a result, Isabella now had to float with only her torso remaining.

Truly, she looked like a male-exclusive doll.

“What a pleasing sight. Men would really like it, don’t you think?”

“…No, it’s still far from enough. This is just the beginning.”

Hersella, standing beside me, raised her blade toward Isabella.

She seemed to have regained some of her sanity after slaughtering the insects and cutting down Isabella, but thick killing intent was still flowing from her.

“More importantly, why do you still have my appearance even here? It’s truly unpleasant.”

“…I don’t know either.”

It’s actually fortunate.

If I had appeared in my original body, wouldn’t I have become insect food by now?

Even if I had somehow blocked the insects, Hersella would have gone berserk upon learning my true gender.

“Don’t get cocky, you monster wench-!”

Isabella glared at us with venom-filled eyes.

Though she tried to threaten us by drawing up what little Dark Mana remained, with her limbs severed, she only looked ridiculous.

—-

From that point on, it was more like hunting than combat.

Hunting that involved dodging or breaking Isabella’s spells while chasing after her body floating in the air.

“Where do you think you’re escaping to!”

Hersella’s storm of blades grinds away all the black hands that sprouted from the floor.

“Just die already!”

Durandal cuts through chains of darkness, and Frosting tears apart a vortex of ghosts.

An overwhelming difference in power.

There was nothing more Isabella could do in this place.

She could only barely avoid fatal wounds while desperately fleeing.

Her body, which had only the torso left, was cut away even further, leaving just the upper body precariously intact.

The fact that she still wouldn’t release “Black Repose” in that state—perhaps once deployed, it can’t be voluntarily dispelled?

It would be best if we could kill her like this, but… with her flying around like that, it won’t be easy.

“You dodge well, like a fly! How long do you think you can keep running!”

Perhaps irritation had reached its peak, as Hersella shouted at the top of her lungs once more.