episode_0063

She, who had been looking down at Ian, turned to gaze at someone who had once again grabbed her shoulders.

She could feel the emotions of those nearby through the waves of magic.

Right now, Uriah, who was gripping her shoulder, was showing anger, and there was a sudden overwhelming aura. To be more precise, at the moment when she couldn’t even realize the fact that she couldn’t shake off the hand on her shoulder and that someone ‘stronger’ than herself was revealing their presence.

With the thought, “Could it be?” she immediately thrust her fingernails into Uriah’s abdomen.

-Ting-

In an instant, as her fingernails, which had been in a W shape like claws, crumpled into an I shape as if squeezed by force, she felt a punch to the back of her head as if she had been hit hard.

The problem was that even this was crumbling at a speed she couldn’t properly comprehend. Uriah still stared silently at the woman with fiery eyes.

“I won’t kill you. Instead, I’ll make things better for you.”

Suddenly, her body stiffened at the proclamation ringing in her ears.

Accompanied by a ringing in her head and dizziness, “…What?”

As she looked up at Uriah, who was restoring her nails with magic, this time her hand twisted back involuntarily.

Moreover, Uriah was still waiting for her response with a relaxed demeanor.

The demoness had to taste such a profound sense of helplessness that she couldn’t even muster the courage to do anything.

“This is… unbelievable.”

Ignoring the fact that her actions were still calm, she couldn’t even choose to take direct action against the enemy standing before her without even assuming a defensive posture.

“…That,”

Her instincts were telling her. The opponent’s race was Inwai. And within that Inwai, she could sense the lineage of that ‘vampire,’ who had once ruthlessly dominated her own kind to the point of treating even the Demon King as a mere pawn.

“How are they still around…”

Despair began to creep onto the face of the once confident woman.

Were they the kings who ruled the land before demons? Descendants who stood against even the gods.

Her pupils shook. Suppressing the sound of her teeth clenching in fear, the demoness clenched her upper and lower jaws tightly.

The momentum couldn’t just die out. Unable to swing her nails any longer, she instinctively tried to move the wings attached to her waist, but soon her steel-like wings tore apart like paper.

“Aaargh!!!”

“Screaming, how noisy.”

She dispersed a 4th-rank curse spell, a wide-area mental attack that made the entire surrounding forest tremble, but it didn’t stop at just a slightly loud scream in front of Uriah. That sight was enough to bring even greater despair to the demoness.

Unable to bear the fear, the demoness tightly shut her eyes to avoid seeing Uriah, but eventually, she reflexively opened them, inflicting a certain amount of pain to allow her eyes to adjust, only to find Uriah holding a dagger lightly with a smile.

For some reason, Uriah, dressed like a maid, displayed a height of 170cm, and her eyes had cooled down as much as her voice had.

Uriah, like the others, didn’t look much different from a human in overall appearance, but hidden within her was something tremendous and unreal beauty, along with a vitality unimaginable for a human. If one were to meet her red eyes with torn pupils, it would be impossible to believe she was human.

Decisively,

“Am I, frightening?”

When Uriah spoke, the fangs tinged with crimson blood briefly caught the eye.

“I have been taught to possess a merciful heart by someone, to the extent that you are still alive for a reason,”

Within those words lay the implication that at any moment, she could have torn apart his skull instead of his wings and killed him.

“You… just what…!”

Trembling at such humiliating words, Yuria added with a sigh,

“I’ve shown you three times. You asked to kneel before me comfortably and die peacefully from the beginning. So there wouldn’t have been any need to get caught up in anger from now on. But I will bestow mercy one last time. Quietly, beg the humans here to kill you. Right here.”

“…”

“Perhaps because you’re a mongrel, you’re speechless. Did you understand my words properly?”

At such mocking words, veins bulged on her temples.

“A… mongrel…?”

“Is there a problem? Did you know that when lowly creatures gather, a mongrel formed by them, like maggots gathering in one place, would become a proper being?”

At those words, the demon, who had been hardened until then, finally clenched its nails.

Despite wanting to bravely attack, at that moment she felt regret creeping along with cold sweat on her back. Because instinctively, she knew that all the demons who had attacked vampires like this in the past had met a miserable end.

Moreover, now she also felt firsthand that even a sneak attack did not work at all.

Flames blossomed on Yuria’s hand.

And attaching them to the demon’s body, it started to burn the once beautiful skin hideously, leading to one-sided violence.

How many times had she been killed by Yuria?

Now, it’s hard to tell who is the villain and who is the hero.

The floor was scattered with the demon’s entrails and body parts. It was all Yuria’s doing.

Could there be more despair here? That fleeting question echoed.

“Get up, we haven’t even begun yet.”

In those eyes, the torn pupils awakened themselves again.

As if trapped in some mental realm, all the scars and wounds that were there just moments ago were nowhere to be found. Only the clear legs and arms, as if severed, twitched with sensation, remembering vividly the pain that ‘was’ there.

She could now understand. Yuria was just getting started.

This was just a taste of what was to come.

Without even intending to do it properly, she was simply overwhelmed by the basic passive effect emanating from that power.

Yuria wields a sword as a vampire, yet that sword has never been swung properly. She hasn’t really tried to harm her yet.

In short,

In the opponent’s ‘gaze,’ her whole body must be frozen in fear, unable to move.

But at the same time, veins rose in her eyes again.

It was disgraceful. Being treated worse than a toy she had been playing with, feeling humiliation worse than being a bug, she couldn’t bear it.

Then, she gritted her teeth and rushed at Yuria again.

At least.

Even if she had been torn to shreds and died from Yuria’s blow, it would have been better.

However, the scene that unfolded 10 seconds later.

Four wings were torn off,

Limbs were lightly severed,

Yuria, gripping her throat, looked down as if to ask what she was going to do.

Is this really the end? That kind of look.

The real terrifying aspect of the vampire lies not only in their physical abilities but also in their kinship control and regenerative powers.

But now, she hadn’t properly utilized her physical abilities, let alone her kinship, not even summoning, engaging in a one-on-one fight alone.

In a fight like that, she couldn’t even land a single blow and was brutally cut down in just 10 seconds.

The difference was so immense that it felt like there was no value in engaging with her from the perspective of the one being attacked.

Even a mere graze was impossible.

She couldn’t even defend against a light swing, let alone escape; there was no option for her but to run.

To the monsters she disappeared from, there was only the command to charge.

Despite their attempts to cause chaos and distract, the remaining knights at that spot managed to prevent even a single monster from escaping, leaving her unable to shift attention elsewhere or interfere.

“I should have dealt with those guys first…!”

Pushing through the numbers might have allowed for an escape. However, in the current situation, it’s difficult to even hope for additional support.

“Don’t be ridiculous! I, I’m like this…”

“You won’t die. How many times must I say it? I won’t let you die.”

As she desperately tried to crawl away and flee in a pitiful manner, her body froze as soon as Yuria’s voice echoed in her ears.

“Just a beast born briefly in an era without vampires…”

With those words, dozens of spears for subjugation pierced the woman’s head and body.

Outside the cave, it was Yuria who killed the monsters that emerged.

More accurately, it was Yuria who projected hallucinations to appear as Rachel.

Yet, there was no time for celebration.

As if enraged by the death of a comrade, more monsters began pouring out from the depths of the cave. The sanctity of the saint was not infinite.

And Yuria mentioned that there were opponents within the cave that couldn’t even be compared to the subordinates she had just dominated.

Eventually, Ian could see Isabella kneeling with clasped hands in front of the cave, as if reciting a blessing.

‘…Ah,’

Come to think of it, Isabella recently fully unleashed her eyes of truth, as heard.

Truth was indeed an ability, and from reading the original description, it was understood that when unleashed, the limit of sanctity momentarily became infinite.

Of course, it wasn’t truly infinite. It was a way to momentarily gain and use the sanctity limit one could handle.

Filling the sanctity to its maximum required a tremendous offering, effort, time, and continued recitation.

However, the release of truth ignored all these and simply allowed for a single use unconditionally.

A saint truly unleashing truth was a rare occurrence in history.

Though it was absolutely a secret between her and her collar’s SM play.

The trembling that had been echoing through the cave ceased. The cacophony of monsters tormenting eardrums vanished, leaving only the sound of knights’ steel armor clinking.

Amidst the eerie silence that followed, the knights could see a radiant light advancing into the cave like an aurora.

With eyes filled with vigor, they gazed endlessly into the cave.

“Reveal yourself.”

[ Level 6: End of Dawn. ]

[ Area Buff ]

– Disperses magic.

– Original distortion of dawn.

– User possesses exceptional sanctity. Power slightly increases.

– Extreme effectiveness against opponents. Power increases by 100%.

The radiant flames beginning to dissolve the sticky magic spread out, whitening everything in a single word.

And as the bodies of countless monsters melted into the light, becoming a single dust and disappearing, the entire world turned white.

Inside the cave, the purified white embers falling resembled a bright fire illuminating the area.

“I will re-enter.”

Before the immaculately purified Isabella, the knights saw the return of the lost light.

…”

In front of Ian, Rachel approached, appearing as if she hadn’t done so.

Instead, her expression was even more perplexing.

Twisting her body.

“I…Ian,”

Grabbing Ian’s collar, the first words she uttered were,

“We…need to escape. Even if it’s just the two of us…”

It was a completely uncharacteristic statement from Rachel.