Ch.33Descent – 3

“This thing won’t die.”

I suppressed a sneeze triggered by the dirt dust as I lay on the ground, looking up at the sky.

The sky was clear without a single cloud, shining with a pristine blue color except for the brown dust rising from all directions.

From far away, I could hear the continuous booming of explosions. It was probably the sound of Serena and Kartina going at it.

Serena seemed desperate to beat Kartina since earlier. Whether her target was Kartina herself or something that had descended into Kartina’s body, I wasn’t sure.

I waved my hand in front of my face to clear away the dust. Behind me, I heard the crumbling sound of dirt and gravel.

I placed my arms back at my sides and thought about the attack Kartina had just performed.

When I told her to try attacking with something stronger, she gathered magic in her hands and completely blew away everything around us.

Thanks to that, the mansion was completely destroyed, and a massive crater formed where it once stood. And there I was, lying right in the middle of that enormous crater.

If Kartina could return, I wondered if she’d be horrified at the sight. If she couldn’t return, well, that would be unfortunate but unavoidable.

Of course, unlike me who was completely shattered, Serena was perfectly fine. When I finished regenerating and looked to the side, Serena was standing in her usual posture with just a bit of soot on her.

When I asked if she had taken that attack head-on, she said yes. She claimed that since I didn’t dodge, she, as my knight, couldn’t dare to avoid it alone.

As she said this, a cold smile appeared on Serena’s face. When Serena made such an expression, it generally meant something was greatly displeasing her.

I got up and roughly dusted off the dirt from my clothes. I needed to climb out of here somehow. As soon as I stepped on the crater’s slope, the crumbling dirt made me sigh.

How am I going to get out of here?

“You—”

“Shut up.”

With a crunch, Serena’s sabaton crushed Kartina’s head. Kartina’s body then transformed into red particles and reassembled itself some distance away.

Tsk, Serena clicked her tongue in annoyance. She had lost count of how many times Kartina had escaped like that.

At first, Kartina had charged head-on, but after her body was torn to shreds several times without even putting up a proper fight, she had been consistently keeping her distance and fleeing, refusing to engage in close combat.

Though Kartina’s speed was far inferior to Serena’s, that particle transformation was particularly irritating. Without it, Serena would have killed her dozens more times by now.

It was solely because of that cheap trick that Kartina had survived and continued to grate on Serena’s nerves.

Simply cutting her down was useless. Earlier, even when Serena had reduced Kartina’s body to practically dust, she had still regenerated.

Serena briefly pondered what technique she should use to kill her completely.

Serena had absolutely no intention of missing this golden opportunity.

She had disliked Kartina even before whatever entity calling itself a god had descended into her body, and now that she had a legitimate reason to kill her, it was only natural to take advantage of it.

Her lord had given an ambiguous order—not to definitely save Kartina, but to save her if possible—making this an even more perfect opportunity.

The fact that this woman had conversed and laughed with her lord, and had dared to blow up her lord’s body, meant she deserved death.

The same went for the massive explosion that had occurred moments ago.

Originally, Serena had intended to take her lord and escape the blast radius together, but noticing the slight expectation in his expression, she had obediently remained by his side.

As a result, she had to watch her lord being blown to pieces, so it was only natural for Serena to grind her teeth at Kartina.

For Serena, the only one who should be allowed to harm her lord was herself.

Kartina extended her right hand. The blood-red bracelet around her wrist and the magic circle drawn on her palm glowed simultaneously.

Instinctively responding, Serena read the direction. Right shoulder. She lowered her waist, bent her knees, leaned her body diagonally forward, and accelerated.

By the time Serena reached Kartina, Kartina still hadn’t completed her spell.

Just as the magic circle became more vivid, seemingly about to release the spell, Serena sliced through both the circle and Kartina’s wrist.

Before surprise could even register on Kartina’s face, Serena continued her attack. She stabbed her blade under Kartina’s ribs to immobilize her body and infused mana into World Eater.

A vortex swirled around World Eater’s blade. Unable to withstand the vortex, Kartina’s body began to be torn apart from the center.

After stepping on Kartina’s foot to prevent her from rising, Serena lifted World Eater vertically. The wind-wrapped blade split Kartina’s upper body in half as it passed through, scattering flesh and blood.

When World Eater, having torn through Kartina’s chest, neck, and head, completely exited, Serena struck down with the sword again, following exactly the same trajectory.

—Wind Path.

With a crushing sound, Kartina’s body crumpled from the top down, unable to withstand the pressure, even before World Eater made contact.

The blade stopped just above the completely compressed and flattened human body. The vortex swirling around the blade scattered in three directions along its trajectory, like an explosion.

The transparent blade dug into the earth.

The colorless slash, formed by numerous localized vortices, literally tore through everything in its path, advancing in the direction it was swung.

The terrifying sound of the earth splitting echoed between buildings.

The vortex slash, which greedily devoured everything in its path—buildings, ground, rocks—without discrimination, finally dissipated into a handful of air after completely devastating tens of meters.

Where the slash had passed, only three long lacerations, as if something had deeply clawed through, and debris of all kinds remained.

A small house that had been precariously standing collapsed with a thud as it couldn’t withstand the gentle breeze, triggering a chain reaction of several buildings crumbling with a noise disturbance.

Their tattered skeletons had given way under their own weight.

However, Kartina, who should have been torn to shreds, had returned completely intact.

“Such petty tricks won’t work on me, insignificant one.”

Perhaps due to being one-sidedly toyed with by Serena, Kartina’s tone and expressions had a strange edge to them.

It was a markedly different atmosphere from when she was first summoned here. Her pale, slender finger pointed at Serena again.

With a jolt, Serena clenched her fist at the alien sensation penetrating her entire body. Kartina had probably used the same trick that had blown up Serena’s lord.

Serena neither wanted to know why it didn’t work on her, nor did she need to make an effort to find out. The fact that it didn’t work was enough.

“That crude technique doesn’t work either.”

“…How impudent you are, Serena Elizabeth.”

Serena hesitated when her name came out of Kartina’s mouth. Had she ever told that woman her name?

The answer was obviously no.

She might have heard what Serena’s lord called her, but the fact that she even mentioned her surname was concerning.

“Confusion is evident in your expression, insect.”

“That’s rich coming from someone who was getting beaten just moments ago.”

“Yet here I stand, unharmed.”

Unable to deny that, Serena swung World Eater and cut off Kartina’s head. The severed head turned into bright red particles and reformed above the neck.

While it was true that Serena had been one-sidedly beating Kartina, it was equally true that despite all that beating, she hadn’t been able to kill her.

Seeing how Kartina perfectly recovered even after being cut into thousands of pieces, completely ground up, or destroyed along with the city, it seemed this would have to be a long battle until her recovery ability was exhausted.

Serena had faced many opponents with such persistent recovery abilities before. There was no difference between them and this woman.

Kartina, with her neck perfectly reconnected, calmly stated:

“Do you truly not realize the futility of your actions?”

“That’s for me to judge, not for you.”

“Then, let me help you with that judgment.”

At Kartina’s gesture, the ground turned blood-red. As the floor became submerged in blood rising from below, Serena narrowed her eyes and looked around.

Everything her eyes touched was dyed in blood. The pungent metallic smell stung her nose. Come to think of it, had the blood been absorbed into that body along with the corpses?

The pool of blood rose to ankle height before finally stopping.

Judging by the fact that the water level didn’t rise further, ankle height seemed to be the limit, but the sight of everything in view being covered in bright red blood would have been more than enough to cause panic in an ordinary person.

Suddenly, blood surged up beside Kartina.

The rising blood clumped together and dispersed repeatedly, gradually taking the form of a demon.

Eight eyeballs and a long, torn mouth. It was a familiar-looking demon.

Soon after, hundreds of blood pillars shot up from the blood pool. Each one transformed into a demon.

What was strange was that despite the entire path being completely filled with blood-made demons, the blood on the ground still remained at ankle height.

The demons gradually closed the distance with Serena. Kartina narrowed her eyes and smiled.

“Now that I’ve adjusted, let’s try this again, shall we?”