Ch.91Black Eyes

Serena stood motionless on the dead earth.

Her emotionless blue eyes stared blankly into the void. Her brilliant golden hair, gathered into a ponytail, swayed gently at the nape of her neck.

Despite having sliced through countless demonic beasts, not a speck of dust marred her beautiful appearance.

Serena took a deep breath while holding World Eater in her right hand, its blade pointing downward. The murky air, tinged with darkness, gathered around her.

The surrounding soil and trees bubbled up like liquid. The atmosphere was completely polluted, taking on a grayish hue. Her sabatons sank deep into the ground, which resembled a melting swamp.

The blood flowing from the demonic beast corpses carried a chilling toxicity, but it meant nothing to Serena.

She didn’t know why. There was only a simple conjecture that it might be due to her overwhelming strength.

Besides, even if someone knew the reason, there was no one who could imitate Serena anyway.

World Eater hummed and trembled faintly. It wanted more blood. Despite the dozens of black blood beasts she had just slaughtered around her, it still wasn’t satisfied.

Serena gripped World Eater’s handle firmly. As if sensing the intent behind her grip, the trembling stopped abruptly.

There was nothing to gain from such a display anyway. The surroundings were filled with corpses and toxic energy, and no life existed except for Serena.

In this place, which would be forbidden for decades due to the blood and flesh scattered by the dying black blood beasts, only Serena stood on two feet.

The rest had all become corpses rolling on the ground.

The blood flowing from the corpses had caused the very space to rot and collapse. Throughout the entire continent, those who could withstand this contamination could be counted on one hand.

Ordinary humans would die instantly just by approaching the area, and even S-rank adventurers or royal knights would lose their lives after just a few breaths without the full support of priests.

Of course, not just any mediocre priests would do. Generally, only high priests and saints, considered the maximum strength of each religion, could resist the contamination of this place to some extent.

To begin with, there weren’t many religions that produced saints anyway.

She had heard that the Holy Church’s saint was most actively supporting the royal knights and royal mage corps. The reason was unknown.

Serena didn’t particularly have any feelings toward religion, but now she was beginning to develop a hatred she never had before because of that woman named Christine.

She wasn’t trying to find fault with the very idea of worshipping her lord as a god.

After all, Serena herself was ready to worship her lord as a god if just one word fell from her lord’s lips.

That damned woman had just one problem. Why wasn’t Serena herself the subject?

That was what disgusted her most. Only Christine would receive salvation? That’s bullshit. Only she could be by her lord’s side.

If it weren’t for that cursed ability to nullify mana, Serena would have cut off that woman’s head long ago.

“My lord…”

Serena called out to the lord she served with a voice full of longing. She missed everything—the voice, the face, the gestures, the actions, the warmth.

All of it.

But she had to endure. Serena bit her lip and suppressed her own feelings.

As long as her lord had ordered her to hunt down and punish the black blood beasts, even postponing her departure from the royal knights, Serena had to follow that command.

That was precisely why Serena had been killing black blood beasts like a madwoman.

Over the past few weeks, Serena had pathologically slaughtered them, sleeping so little that the hours could be counted on one hand.

Within the royal knights, they might be whispering about what was going on, but she had no explanation to give to those fools who couldn’t properly catch even one beast without the support of mages and priests, let alone exterminate dozens at once.

Believing she had finished her task, Serena was about to return to the royal palace using the summoning function built into her armor when she heard a creaking noise in her ear. It was a familiar sound.

She stopped her movement.

There was something making a splashing sound. Serena gripped World Eater again, which she had been about to sheathe.

“So there was still one left.”

She turned around. In the distance, she saw a black shadow approaching her, trampling the liquefied earth.

The most noticeable feature was its four arms.

Each of the four arms held something resembling a long spear. Those spears were almost as tall as Serena.

Given that the weapons matched Serena’s height, one could easily guess the size of the beast wielding them.

It was easily as tall as if Serena had been stacked on top of herself. Even from a considerable distance, one could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary size.

Of course, this was not a problem for Serena at all. She had caught plenty of larger ones, and even ones that matched the size of buildings.

So there was no reason to fear a demonic beast that was merely about twice her size.

Its skin glistened like sticky mud, with disgusting liquid beading on its surface. Whether it was the creature’s bodily fluid or something else was unknown.

No eyes were visible. Either they were completely absent, or too small to be seen.

Drool dripped from its mouth, which was split to its ears. Between them, a long tongue was visible. The tongue was also black.

As if it had also spotted Serena, the black tongue darted out between its pointed teeth and licked around its mouth.

Serena took her stance. She held World Eater horizontally with both hands and slightly bent her knees to lower her center of gravity.

Her legs pushed against the ground.

“—!!!!!!”

In the very next moment, Serena was standing behind the beast. The sound of World Eater being sheathed echoed quietly.

A long line appeared on the creature’s neck. Black liquid began to drip from that line separating the body and head.

One drop became two, two became three, and the black liquid flowing out gradually increased.

With a thud, its head rolled off.

It was just an ordinary black blood beast, nothing special. Just another number added to the corpses scattered around.

That’s what Serena thought as she was about to activate the summoning magic on her armor again.

“…?”

Suddenly, she noticed that a part of her armor was dented.

Dented? This armor?

While she was using physical enhancement and had wrapped her body in mana?

Serena’s eyes widened slightly. Since the armor had been fine until just now, there was only one possibility.

Her blue eyes turned to look behind her. There was the black blood beast, slowly regenerating its severed head.

‘So it was a regenerative type?’

Serena observed the scene carefully.

She could see the black blood scattered around climbing up its ankles and body, reconstructing its head. It seemed to be a regenerative type that depended on external materials for recovery.

But in the current situation, that wasn’t a problem. The materials needed for its recovery were scattered all around.

And then there was its action just now.

Serena examined the dented part of her armor at the wrist. It was caved in as if something pointed had tried to pierce through the armor but failed.

“You…!”

Flames sparked in Serena’s eyes as she confirmed this. More than the fact that her armor was dented, she was furious that she had allowed an attack from such a creature.

Only one person in the world was allowed to touch Serena’s body.

The armor itself wasn’t important at all. Considering who had made the armor, Serena was grateful just to be wearing it.

Serena drew World Eater again and infused it with mana to its limit. The blade vibrated wildly.

The beast opened its mouth wide and charged. In response, Serena raised her sword.

‘This one was different from the others.’

Serena stared expressionlessly at the black blood beast lying dead on the ground. The earth in contact with the black blood bubbled up.

After that, she had slaughtered it without allowing even a single attack, completely transforming the nearby terrain.

A ravine stretched far into the distance, and beside it was a pit whose depth was difficult to gauge. All were Serena’s handiwork.

However, this creature showed significant differences from the black blood beasts Serena had faced until now.

The way it absorbed the surrounding black blood to regenerate, its almost human-like appearance.

Above all, it had vaguely kept up with Serena’s speed.

The idea that anything other than that damned woman Charlotte could respond to Serena’s speed when she used physical enhancement to its limit would make her lord sneer if she heard it.

But now it had become the truth.

Serena briefly imagined what would have happened if other royal knights had encountered the beast she had just killed.

She concluded that even if the entire royal knights and royal mage corps rushed in with the support of high priests or saints, victory would be difficult to guarantee.

Serena alone could kill them all, and this beast had somewhat kept up with her, so it was naturally possible.

She needed to find her lord. She needed to find her lord and tell her about the appearance of such a beast.

Having reached that conclusion, Serena activated the summoning magic without delay. Her body disappeared in an instant with a blue light.

And that scene was quietly observed by a pair of black eyes.