Ch.95Two Heroes (4)

*

For a long time, Silvia had been tormenting Alice when she suddenly felt something was off and drew her sword.

How much time had passed?

Due to her poor sense of time, she couldn’t tell exactly, but Alice had been in Silvia’s grasp, her stomach being slashed open, for easily more than an hour or two.

It was winter with long nights, so darkness still surrounded them, but if it had been summer, the sun might already be rising.

Yet, Alice was still screaming vigorously.

At this point, it was Silvia who was growing impatient.

“…Damn it.”

Silvia swung her sword through the air to shake off the blood, fat, and pieces of intestines.

In that brief moment, Alice’s stomach had already completely healed.

Alice smiled coldly and said:

“Didn’t you say you’d kill me over and over? You whore.”

Seeing Alice’s expression still filled with murderous intent, Silvia was completely fed up.

Many people don’t realize it, but enduring pain, screaming, feeling and suffering through agony—all of these consume an extraordinary amount of energy.

Why do soldiers, despite being thoroughly trained to withstand torture, eventually break down after initially gritting their teeth?

Because the very act of experiencing pain consumes massive amounts of energy.

No matter how much divine power Alice possessed, no matter how perfectly she healed, she should still feel the pain.

So why was there no sign of fatigue on this madwoman’s rage-filled face?

“You really are insane.”

Silvia muttered with a hint of admiration, and Alice sneered back at her.

A clot of blood stretched and dripped from her parted lips.

“The insane one is you…”

“…”

“Are you in your right mind, sleeping with him knowing he’s Maria’s brother? Are you sane, talking about sex in front of your fiancée? Is hiding behind Ash because you’re scared of the Demon Lord something a sane person would do?”

“…Impressive. Such skill, such mental fortitude. But it’s too late. If you had been like this earlier, you could have joined our party.”

“Ha, look at you changing the subject.”

“It’s laughable how you bark now that you’ve gained some power, when back then you were just watching helplessly, sucking your thumb. Don’t you think?”

“…”

“You should have been strong earlier. If Maria’s death was such a regret for you, you should have become strong earlier to help her, right?”

“Yes, and if I had, I wouldn’t have just stood by and let you get Maria killed, you bitch.”

The two women tore into each other’s wounds with words as sharp as blades, honed and polished to cut deep.

Their mockery and blame, filled with hatred and contempt, carved into each other’s hearts like daggers.

These fierce accusations they hurled at each other left wounds more massive and hideous than any punches or blades they had exchanged.

Physical wounds, no matter how severe, eventually heal, but the two women who deeply loathed their own images—steeped in incompetence and helplessness—resembled each other like looking in a mirror.

However, Silvia was the one whose heart was scratched a bit deeper.

The critical difference lay in the size of their guilt toward Maria.

For a very brief moment, Alice caught Silvia’s trembling eyes, gave her a mocking smile that grated on her nerves, and spat blood-mixed saliva onto her face.

Then, slowly and painfully, she sneered:

“Go ahead, keep killing me. Just like Maria died. You coward.”

Silvia realized she had been wrong all along.

She had thought that at the end of this torture, Alice would eventually give up.

She had expected Alice to beg for her life and then continue her journey to complete her revenge for Maria.

But Silvia wiped away the bloody phlegm running between her eyebrows with her sword-wielding wrist and abandoned that expectation.

Mental strength? Willpower?

It might be a cliché explanation, but there was no other way to describe the vitality in Alice’s eyes.

It was utterly exasperating.

Crushing Alice’s wrist, which had somehow thickened again, Silvia said:

“It suits you. You truly are worthy of being a hero.”

“…Ugh, ugh… ack.”

“So you do it. I don’t care about being a hero, so you do it. Take the glory of killing the Demon Lord for yourself.”

“Kugh, you’re no longer a hero anyway!”

“I know.”

However, the problem was that Silvia’s obsession was just as far beyond normal levels as Alice’s willpower.

A doubt suddenly crossed Silvia’s mind.

“But if I let you go like this…”

“AAAAARGH!”

“You’ll definitely tell Ash everything.”

It was an obvious concern.

Alice was Ash’s fiancée.

Even if she were to bow her head to Silvia and beg for her life right now, she might secretly contact Ash later.

And judging by her current behavior—refusing to submit to Silvia—she was definitely not someone who would back down.

Clearly, Alice was not going to give up on killing the Demon Lord or getting Ash back.

If she were to persuade Ash to join her on the journey to capture the Demon Lord, she would achieve both goals at once.

If Ash were to leave to capture the Demon Lord, Silvia would have no choice but to follow him.

But that was the worst possible scenario for Silvia.

Even if the Demon Lord had weakened, fighting while protecting Ash would be difficult.

If, by any remote chance, Ash were to die like Maria…

“Kugh.”

Silvia closed her eyes tightly and broke into a cold sweat at the terrible thought that crossed her mind.

She became even more convinced that she couldn’t let Alice go alive.

Not until she made Alice submit.

“Oh my,”

“No, no. You can’t get anywhere near Ash. You can’t say a word to him.”

“Fuck off…”

“My man is very kind and smart, but he doesn’t know I do such frightening things.”

“AAACK, ugh!”

“So I can’t let you meet Ash. Absolutely not.”

“Are you… kugh, hoo… that afraid?”

Alice asked, forcibly swallowing the screams that escaped between her teeth.

“Are you that scared of the Demon Lord? Are you that afraid of dying?”

“You’re still missing the important point. We can’t communicate.”

“What?”

“I don’t care about not catching the Demon Lord. I won’t die anyway, and I’ll kill anyone who approaches Ash, no matter what.”

“Ha, so what you’re really afraid of is Ash discovering your true nature? Your vile true self.”

“…All a weakling like you can do is throw cheap insults.”

Silvia twisted the sword embedded in Alice’s abdomen, then pulled it upward in one slash.

A red line appeared diagonally from Alice’s stomach to her shoulder, and then blood gushed out like a fountain as the wound gaped open.

Silvia tossed aside Alice’s wrist, which had been broken several times already, and slashed horizontally once more.

Alice’s body split into four parts and collapsed pathetically to the ground.

Silvia shook her head and sighed.

“Now, think carefully while you heal—ugh!”

Clang!

Though nothing was visible or audible, Silvia instinctively raised her sword to protect her head.

It was an almost instinctual movement.

Sure enough, amid the sharp metallic sound, Silvia chuckled bitterly at the scene unfolding before her and muttered:

“Insane… you’re in no position to call me a monster.”

In just that brief moment when she had looked away,

Alice had completely recovered and was throwing a punch at Silvia.

With her face lowered, her expression was unreadable in the darkness.

However, her neck and forehead were filled with bulging veins, her mouth foamed with blood, and her golden eyes, more vivid in the darkness, flickered wildly like they were on fire.

Moreover, the pupils at the center of those eyes were fixed on Silvia with a gaze like spear tips, radiating savage hatred.

Silvia unconsciously averted her gaze.

The thin chain mail had been cut along with Alice’s body, revealing her bare chest.

Silvia swallowed hard.

The skin on Alice’s chest was frantically repeating a cycle of melting and regenerating at an incredible speed.

It looked as if her flesh was bubbling and boiling.

That intense heat rose upward and continuously spewed from Alice’s mouth.

Exhaling steam from her mouth, Alice said:

“Go ahead and kill me.”

“…Ha,”

“Go ahead and die.”

“Fine, let’s see this through to the end—”

Silvia couldn’t finish her sentence.

Alice leaped at her body and planted her fist into Silvia’s jaw.

As Silvia regained her balance after nearly falling, they exchanged blows again.

Fists and swords were repeatedly embedded in each other’s bodies.

This time, though Silvia had a sword in her hand, Alice’s recovery ability, which seemed to have reached another level due to her rage, far exceeded imagination.

When Silvia cut off Alice’s arm to block her incoming punch, the fist had already regrown by the time it reached Silvia’s face.

Moreover, the impact sounded like an explosion, and the damage Silvia received matched that sound in magnitude.

Surprisingly, it was Silvia who was being pushed back this time.

“…Kugh,”

With Alice’s fists hitting her body more than a dozen times with each blink of an eye, Silvia bit her lip.

Gradually, her sword-swinging speed was slowing down.

The sword was much lighter than what Silvia usually used, making it tricky to handle, and the damaged handle made it even more difficult to wield properly.

Besides, even when she did manage to swing it, it was of little use.

This madwoman would heal completely by the time Silvia swung her sword again, whether she cut off an arm, sliced through her torso, or even split her head down the middle.

Eventually, as Silvia’s recovery ability couldn’t keep up due to the limits of her divine power, she kicked Alice’s body hard to create distance between them.

“…Huff …huff”

“Haa… hack, haa…”

Standing a few steps apart, the two women momentarily paused to catch their breath and regroup.

Alice rotated her shoulders as if her body was strained, then groaned softly while clutching her chest.

Indeed, no matter how much divine power overflowed within her, this kind of bodily abuse couldn’t be without consequences.

The skin that was melting and regenerating even faster than usual was clear evidence that Alice was pushing herself too hard.

But Silvia was also starting to feel the strain.

Having been protected by the Demon Lord’s curse for so long, Silvia was actually more sensitive to pain, and because of that, fatigue and damage were accumulating more rapidly in her body and mind.

After catching their breath briefly, both women came to the same conclusion about this fight:

It would either never end, or they would both perish.

“Just go, will you.”

Silvia muttered through gritted teeth.

“Go and take revenge for Maria, or cut off the Demon Lord’s head and play ball with it, whatever! Just leave me alone! Is it that hard to just let me be? Is it really so impossible for me to just live happily with Ash?”

“Ash is…”

Silvia roughly cut off Alice’s words and continued shouting:

“Your fiancé my ass! Ash and I have already done everything. Ash took my virginity, and I took his first time! You’re too late, you idiot! Just like how Maria won’t come back no matter how strong you’ve become now! You’re always too late!”

“…What’s so proud about shaking your ass at him like some cheap whore?”

“Don’t you understand? Ash loves me. I love Ash, and there’s no room for you anymore. So you go do that fucking hero business. The Demon Lord hasn’t fully recovered yet, right? Great, go get revenge for Maria and easily kill the Demon Lord. You do it all! Take it all! I only need Ash.”

Alice laughed as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You think Ash loves you?”

“…What?”

“Do you really think Ash is with you because he loves you? You vicious bitch, you’re the one keeping Ash from leaving this forest. Because of that fucking curse.”

“…”

Silvia fell silent.

It wasn’t that she doubted Ash’s love, but Alice’s point was undeniably true.

Ash certainly loved her, but was it really his choice, or was it because he had no other options?

That was one of the questions Silvia had been deliberately avoiding.

Moreover, having just reunited with Ash after he had been away for a long time, Silvia hadn’t had enough time to reconfirm his love.

Her insecurity had grown without her realizing it, and Alice’s question hit that exact point.

Looking at the speechless Silvia, Alice chuckled and slowly turned her neck.

With a cracking sound of muscles loosening, she shot at Silvia, who couldn’t say anything, in a voice mixed with mockery:

“Fine, let’s say I leave you now and go after the Demon Lord.”

“…”

“If I cut off the head of the dying Demon Lord and break the curse on you and Ash, will Ash still stay by your side?”

“Of course, Ash loves me—”

This time, Alice interrupted Silvia.

She mocked her with exaggerated gestures, like an actor on a stage, spreading her arms wide:

“Ladies and gentlemen! It turns out Silvia has been alive all this time without killing the Demon Lord. She couldn’t kill the Demon Lord, let all her comrades die, and has been hiding all this time. Now, everyone, please welcome Hero Silvia with a big round of applause.”

“…”

“You didn’t think that would happen, did you? You’ll have to hide for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t care what other people think of me…”

“Will Ash, freed from the curse, still choose you? Will he live a difficult life on the run with you? With a failure who couldn’t even protect his sister? Do you really think so?”

Silvia kept her mouth shut.

Of course, Silvia wasn’t foolish enough to fall for Alice’s cheap provocation.

She didn’t believe that Ash, who had kept the fact that he was Maria’s brother a secret for so long out of consideration for her, would leave her just because he was freed from the curse.

But even if they no longer needed to live in hiding, could he continue to endure a life cut off from others?

Silvia knew all too well how loneliness could eat away at a person.

How long could her affection and body alleviate the pain Ash would eventually feel?

And if Alice appeared before Ash, would he remain unwavering?

Silvia pondered.

Of course, she didn’t think she was less attractive as a woman compared to Alice.

Alice had a trained body enough for Silvia to pass on the role of hero, with muscles packed on, a carelessly cut short bob, and above all, that disgustingly boiling upper body—objectively speaking, Silvia was far more attractive.

But what about memories?

The traces of life that Ash thought he had lost and given up on.

Could he choose her over Alice, perhaps the only woman with whom he could share memories and recollections of his family?

Silvia chewed her lip uncertainly, mumbling.

Alice looked at her and gave a twisted smile.

“You still don’t get it?”

“Enough… shut up.”

“Silvia. You can never be with Ash. No matter what choice I make.”

Silvia didn’t bother to respond, but even her silence felt like a victory trumpet to Alice.

Alice, with a triumphant face, sighed once more and slowly lowered her body, ready to take a stance at any moment.

Silvia gripped the sharp blade of the dented sword instead of the handle.

Instantly, her fist became soaked with blood.

“There’s no need to worry.”

“What?”

Silvia slowly opened her mouth.

“Whatever choice Ash makes, whatever you do, it doesn’t matter.”

“…”

“Because I have no intention of letting Ash go.”

“And I have no intention of standing by and watching that.”

The sky was gradually turning a deep blue.

It meant this hellish night of blood, flesh, curses, and screams was finally coming to an end.

It was almost time for Ash to wake up.

The two women quietly glared at each other, then kicked hard off the ground they were standing on, raising dust.

The bloodbath that seemed like it would last forever was about to end with a final clash between two women who could not narrow their differences.

*

The sun rose, and morning fully brightened the day.

Ash, shivering in the cold wind blowing through the trees, opened his eyes and stretched widely, rubbing them.

“Whew, it’s cold,”

Ash slowly got up and scratched his messy hair.

Wondering why it was so cold, he found that the campfire had gone out, and neither Silvia nor Pia was in the cabin.

Ash blinked a few times, hugged his arms, and stepped outside, opening the door of the cabin.

“Silvia, where are you…”

At the edge of Ash’s vision,

Far beyond the lake, between the trees, he saw someone staggering toward him.