Chapter 43: Black Parade (3)

A thick black darkness engulfed Tartarus.

Normally, such a thing would be impossible. Even though this place was underground and devoid of sunlight, it was still a steel production facility.

The red light emitted from the molten decomposition stone illuminated the entire workshop 24 hours a day.

No matter how many torches were installed on the walls, they could never compete with the brightness of that furnace.

And yet—

“!?!”

“What… What the hell is this?!”

The sudden darkness caused the soldiers to shout out in confusion, their voices filled with panic.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t see anything at all. They had certainly seen it—when the girl muttered something, her shadow suddenly grew, expanding rapidly in all directions.

But after that, they could see nothing.

As if their entire bodies had been submerged in pitch-black ink.

“Hey, is there no one here with a light?”

“Wizard! Why the hell aren’t you casting a light spell already?!”

Panicked soldiers shouted frantically in all directions.

Fear comes from the unknown. And visual information is the most primitive and fundamental type of information that a living creature can acquire.

That is why people are most consumed by fear when their vision is obscured.

The anxiety of not knowing where, what, or how something might emerge.

“Daylight!”

Fortunately, the lack of light was quickly resolved. A wizard among the soldiers swiftly cast a light spell. Though the shadow had spread so widely that it only illuminated a small portion, it was enough to quell the chaos for a moment.

But they did not know.

The true nightmare was only just beginning.

-Grrr…

“Huh?”

At the sudden growling sound, the wizard instinctively looked up.

A long body, over ten meters in length. An unnaturally large mouth. Thick saliva dripping between sharp fangs.

A Giant Death Worm.

A creature they were all too familiar with.

“Why is that here—”

Crunch.

The wizard’s words were abruptly cut off. In the blink of an eye, the Death Worm had snatched his head and devoured it.

With the death of the caster, the light spell naturally vanished.

The workshop, which had momentarily regained its light, was once again plunged into darkness.

But this darkness was not the same.

“What was that just now—”

Splurt.

“Aaaah!!! My arm!!! Some bastard ripped off my arm!!!”

Tear.

“Help me… please, help me!!!”

Crunch.

In the pitch-black darkness, there were only two sounds to be heard.

The faint remnants of life fading away, one by one, without knowing why. And the brutal sounds of something tearing them apart.

It would have been better if they could at least see their enemy. Then they could try to fight back.

But the only thing the soldiers could feel was their own bodies and the hot blood splashing in all directions.

They couldn’t identify the cause. They couldn’t understand the effect.

The only thing they could confirm was the result—only the death of their comrades.

At this moment, what had descended upon Tartarus was death itself—inescapable and undeniable.

“Hiiek! S-Save me!”

“Turn the light back on, damn it!”

“Are you crazy?! Didn’t you see the head of the wizard who cast the light spell get torn off?!”

The soldiers, gripped by panic, each expressed their despair in different ways.

Some screamed and ran wildly in all directions, losing their minds. Others drew their weapons and indiscriminately slashed at anything nearby, be it friend or foe. Some stood frozen in shock, unable to do anything.

But regardless of how they reacted, they all met the same end.

Their bodies torn apart by the unseen slaughterer lurking in the darkness.

It was the miserable, wretched end of the elite Gluttony Legion detachment stationed at Tartarus, renowned for its strength.

“What the hell is this bullshit?!”

Sophia roared in fury.

Yet, as expected of a high-ranking officer, she was holding her ground against the darkness, unlike the lowly soldiers who were swept away like sand before a tidal wave.

Of course, it wasn’t just her pure skill that allowed her to survive; her racial traits played a part as well.

Her race was the Hellcat. Not an actual cat, but a race that shared many characteristics with felines.

For example, she could climb trees effortlessly, transform into a quadrupedal beast form, and attack enemies with sharp claws specialized for tearing them apart in an instant, among other things.

One of the key strengths of a Hellcat is their excellent night vision and keen sense of smell.

With the help of these sharp senses, Sophia was able to grasp her surroundings to some extent, unlike the other soldiers. 

She even understood what was butchering her subordinates in the darkness.

However, what she saw only added to her confusion.

“Giant Death Worms, Spirit Wolves, Blightspawn, Devourers, Hunting Horrors, Moon Beasts… 

What is this? Why are those things emerging from a human shadow?!”

The creatures currently massacring the soldiers were famous beasts that had once made names for themselves in the Demon Realm. 

Some of them were even types that no longer existed in the present world, either having gone extinct when the Demon Realm disappeared or dying out over the long span of five hundred years.

Why on earth would such beasts be attacking them, the Demon King’s army? 

“Could it be that those above are trying to purge us?”

One possibility surfaced in Sophia’s mind. But she quickly shook her head. 

Tartarus was the heart of the Demon King’s army, quite literally. It supplied bloodstones forged from blood to all pure-blood demons in the Demon King’s army, allowing them to sustain their lives.

No matter how rebellious a body may be, no living being would be insane enough to stab its own heart. 

So, it wasn’t a purge. She was certain of that much.

But… then what on earth was it?

“So, Sophia! Please, save us! Sophia!”

A soldier floundering among the shadow beasts called out her name.

Sophia bit her lip.

Yes, now was not the time for speculation. More important was to get the situation under control.

She stretched her hand forward and shouted, 

“Everyone, run in one direction and stick to the wall as much as you can! If you can’t see well, at least stand with your back to the wall! Then, find a way to get to the lower floors and call for reinforcements! Especially, get that damn Karma here no matter what!”

Fighting in this kind of darkness was impossible. Coordinated commands were meaningless. 

Even if a legion mage dared to use a light spell, they would only be devoured by a beast in less than half a second.

The best command Sophia could give was to retreat. There were no other alternatives.

But as a warrior, not a commander, it was a different story.

“That weird silver-haired brat!” 

Sophia ground her teeth.

Whoever she was, that brat was the cause of all this. The one controlling the shadow beasts. 

She was probably a specialist summoner. Otherwise, there was no way she could have unleashed so many beasts at once.

And traditionally, summoners are fragile. Moreover, summoned creatures would automatically vanish if the summoner was eliminated.

Sophia’s choice naturally narrowed down to one.

“Where’s that bitch? I need to rip off her head…”

She tore apart a beast charging at her, then squinted into the workshop.

Shadows writhing dynamically. Spurting blood like a fountain. Soldiers flailing helplessly like marionettes.

And in the midst of it all, one figure standing perfectly still, without the slightest movement.

“Found you.”

Sophia’s narrowed eyes gleamed.

She had no idea what confidence the brat had, but she hadn’t moved a single step from her original position. 

Maybe she feared being torn apart by the beasts if she moved recklessly, or perhaps her spell would unravel if she left that spot.

Either way, it didn’t matter. Now that her location was detected, she was merely Sophia’s prey.

“You’re dead, you bitch.”

Sophia’s body began to change, cracking and morphing into something else.

Sophia didn’t like her beast form. She thought it was neither beautiful nor appealing; rather, it was grotesque.

Therefore, she only assumed her beast form when she was genuinely, exceedingly furious.

An enraged Sophia was unstoppable, even for Karma. She was a warrior capable of tearing apart any opponent below the rank of a legion commander in a one-on-one fight.

And now, she was feeling a fury beyond the threshold towards the insolent brat who dared invade her territory.

“Hellcat Pounce!”

She leaped off the platform toward the girl like a bolt of lightning.

Hellcat Pounce—a technique where she lowered her body to the fullest and rotated all her magical energy through it to gain explosive acceleration.

It was an ambush, but it didn’t matter that she announced her move; when using this technique, Sophia’s speed exceeded even the speed of sound.

And speed equals force, so any creature struck by this charge would be pulverized into pieces, regardless of who they were. 

There had never been anyone who survived this move—the strongest, deadliest technique Sophia possessed. 

No matter how strong a shield her opponent had, she could tear through it in an instant.

‘Got you!’

Just as she anticipated, the target didn’t even notice as Sophia closed the distance. The girl wasn’t looking in her direction, nor did she show any sign of drawing the sword on her back. 

Of course, expecting someone to perceive an attack faster than sound was absurd in itself.

Certain of her victory, Sophia extended her claws toward the girl’s neck.

And then—

-Shhk.

“..Wha?”

For a moment, her vision spun wildly.

It wasn’t because she’d lost focus on her target just before striking; she wasn’t foolish enough to look away from her enemy at such a critical moment.

However, for some reason, the scene before her eyes was spinning violently, rotating 360 degrees.

Sophia couldn’t comprehend why this was happening.

She only realized the truth when she saw her own body appear at the edge of her vision.

Her own body, cleanly beheaded, drifting in the air, devoid of the brain to command it.

-Thud!

Sophia’s head rolled helplessly across the ground, tumbling, and tumbling again.

After rolling about seven times, her head finally came to a stop as it hit the base of the furnace. Only then was she able to clearly see what had happened to her.

The girl hadn’t even drawn her sword. She had merely swung her right hand once to the side.

She had made a knife hand with her palm and simply sliced sideways with a single, smooth motion.

With just that, Sophia—who was second to none in terms of strength within the Gluttony Legion—met a pathetic end.

“You damn…”

Sophia muttered blankly in her fading consciousness.

She saw her own body, now without a head, collapse lifelessly, and then…

-Crunch.

Simultaneously, Sophia’s severed head was stomped on and crushed by the foot of another beast.

The storm subsided.

The darkness that had blanketed the entire workshop began to recede, and light slowly returned. The shadow beasts also began to lose their forms and dissolve, as if melting away.

When the darkness that had stretched out and covered the surroundings finally fully receded and disappeared,

There was only one figure standing.

“Looks like it’s mostly over.”

She surveyed the surroundings with a casual glance.

It was a horrific sight, so gruesome that the word “carnage” could not fully capture it.

Crushed brains, disemboweled guts, dismembered limbs rolling around, abandoned by their owners.

It was nothing short of a hellscape brought to earth. Even if people were thrown into a giant blender and ground up, it might have been a less appalling scene than this.

A sight so repulsive that even crows scavenging the corpses turned their heads away in disgust.

And yet, the sole survivor among it all had a calm expression, as if she were out for an afternoon stroll.

“The ones who fled downstairs are definitely all dead, and as for those left here…”

She used echo detection to search for any remaining signs of life in the workshop, to ensure that everything was cleanly wrapped up before she departed.

And the result?

“Just one left.”

She glanced toward a corner filled with a pile of corpses and swung her hand toward the debris.

The remaining corpses flew apart, scattering explosively around the area due to a telekinesis spell. The bodies, already in poor condition, hit walls or floors and shattered into even smaller fragments, losing what little form they had left.

And from within that heap—

“Hiiik!!!”

Johan, who had been hiding among the corpses, pretending to be dead, was exposed.

Only then did she finally move her feet. Slowly, she began to approach Johan, who was trembling in fear.

“So, you are the last one.”

“Gah!! Ugh, aaah!!!”

Johan screamed and scrambled to his feet, trying to flee.

But he didn’t get far. After just five steps, he tripped over an intestine and fell.

Covered in blood and trembling, Johan looked up, his fear-filled eyes meeting the calm smile of the living embodiment of death.

“Do not worry. I have no intention of hurting you more cruelly than necessary. 

In a way, perhaps this too is fate. Is there any final statement you wish to leave behind as your last words?”

A relentlessly cruel and heartless question, thrown casually while his death was already decided.

Hearing those words, Johan’s eyes widened in panic.

“Sa—”

Thud.

With tears streaming down his face, he banged his head against the ground.

“Please, spare me…!! I will do anything you ask! Just, please… spare my life…!!”

“…..”

A man trembling and begging in the most pitiable way imaginable.

In response to his desperate plea, she sighed as if disappointed and spoke.

“Neither creative nor courageous. 30 points.”

Shhk.

In the next instant, Johan’s head was severed from his body and rolled to the ground, lifeless…