The Archdemon vs the Saint - Part 3
Even if she was called the Saint, the Holy Power of Kim Jae-hyun, the Hero, had always stood above her because of the Holy Sword. Of course, the Holy Power was not Jae-hyun's own strength but the power that manifested through the Holy Sword, yet it could not be denied that Jae-hyun was at the pinnacle of everyone who possessed any kind of holy energy.
Even the Archangels who had lived in the Heavenly Realm, the celestial beings, could not match Jae-hyun's Holy Power.
Moreover, Jae-hyun had already demonstrated that when he annihilated ten thousand demons with his Holy Power, he could protect his own subordinates from it, and that protection extended even to his own Holy Power.
In other words, if the Hero wanted to protect those who belonged to the darkness with his Holy Power, the power he himself used as the Hero would not be able to harm them at all. That was only true when he withheld his blessing as the Hero.
That meant that no matter what Irene did, Lucrezia could not hurt her.
How is this possible...
If she had never hoped in the first place, it would have been different, but when hope turned into despair, the emptiness was beyond words.
"You lied to me again, didn't you?"
Lucrezia looked at Jae-hyun and Irene with tear-filled eyes full of fury, but Jae-hyun and Irene only smiled mockingly. When they gave no answer, Lucrezia cried out in frustration.
"You demons! How could you do this..."
She had screamed purely out of her own distress. Too wronged and too infuriated to hold back, and the moment the words left her mouth, she was startled by the sound of her own voice.
Releasing the accumulated resentment inside her, her mind cleared, and terror immediately settled within. The terror of the torture that would soon come again.
"Yes. Jae-hyun oppa and I are demons now. Great Archdemons, the Demon King and me. You and your betrayers created this for us."
Irene smiled coldly, walked behind Lucrezia, swung her arm, and shattered her barrier in an instant before kicking her in the buttocks.
"Aaaak!"
Lucrezia, who had trusted her barrier, tumbled to the floor with a hollow thud, stunned by how completely it had shattered.
"This is all it takes to break it."
Looking down at the fallen Lucrezia with a beautiful golden smile, Irene shook her hair.
"How...?"
Irene raised a hand to her lips to hide her laughter, suppressing the almost explosive giggle.
"Hoof! Ah... hah... I barely held it in."
As Irene forced back the laugh that was on the verge of bursting, she looked at Lucrezia with eyes that held the arrogance of someone who viewed the world as nothing more than entertainment, something unimaginable to her when she had been human.
"You've been in politics for ten years. Too naive. I had no intention of going all out earlier, did I? You should have gone all out expecting a hope-filled attack from me."
In truth, everything was calculated. Even a full-power attack from Lucrezia had been anticipated. That meant she had been toyed with the entire time.
Although her right arm had already automatically healed thanks to the overwhelming Holy Power and the regeneration forced upon her body, it had been an attack she had launched with the firm intention of completely shattering it.
Of course she had launched it believing in the regeneration, but it was one she had endured great pain to deliver.
Yet even that had been a trap to toy with her.
"Thanks to that, aren't you suffering now? With hope destroyed and only despair left, how much more despairing must it be?"
Irene had approached Lucrezia and gently touched her cheek, bringing her beautiful face so close that their noses almost brushed. The continent's most beautiful woman, now a Great Archdemon, smiled seductively in the form of an eighteen-year-old maiden and gazed straight into the eyes of the continent's second most beautiful woman, the Saint, from an intimate distance.
"You will never have hope again. Hope is nothing but a lie to torment humans. Jae-hyun oppa and I felt it deeply in our bones. So I hope you feel despair too."
Though her smile was seductive enough to be mesmerizing, Irene's once-pure blue eyes now held demonic madness, causing Lucrezia to back away in terror.
But Irene continued to walk forward without letting her retreat, driving Lucrezia all the way to the wall.
"Ah... ah..."
With her legs trembling violently and a terrified expression, Irene lewdly licked her lips and said, "It would be best not to make that face. Especially when you look so delicious and smell even sweeter. It makes me want to eat you right up."
Lucrezia knew the words were not a joke but the truth, and she screamed in fear.
"Don't come any closer! What are you trying to do?"
She thought Irene was trying to inflict pain and cried, asking in a trembling voice. After so much torture, she looked ready to break into tears just at the thought of more pain.
"You're too weak. Crying just because you're scared. No wonder oppa tormented you so cruelly."
Irene's voice was gentle, but with the rage of revenge burning in her eyes, the gentleness only made Lucrezia more terrified. Irene's hand slid under Lucrezia's white skirt and then ripped away her white tank top.
The moment the fabric tore, Lucrezia's full breasts spilled free, completely exposed. Irene stared at the beautiful lips of the naked Lucrezia, then covered them with her own.
"Mmmph!"
Lucrezia could not believe Irene would kiss her and widened her eyes in shock. The kiss between the continent's most beautiful woman and the second most beautiful woman lasted nearly a full minute, with Irene sucking on the lips aggressively.
"Huff... hah... hah..."
Only when Irene finally pulled away did Lucrezia gasp for air and stare at her in alarm. Irene smiled satisfiedly and said, "Pretty good, right? Those lips are sweet as well as beautiful. But you know... I've never kissed oppa, have I?"
Lucrezia bit her lip hard. But instead of resisting, she could only answer in a small, weak voice anyone could hear.
"...Yes."
"Are you satisfied now? I've kissed oppa many times, and you even gave him an indirect kiss through me who didn't wipe his lips. Don't you think it's the most satisfying revenge for betraying him your entire life?"
"..."
Lucrezia looked at Irene with the defeated eyes of a loser. Irene noticed the hatred and betrayal from ten years ago in her gaze and spoke.
"Ten years ago, when you first betrayed me, I couldn't believe it. I had followed you like a sister and loved you. Even when I suffered that humiliation from Ferdinand, I desperately prayed that it wasn't real, that someone would save me. But no matter how many people I helped, no one helped me. They even betrayed me and oppa. Who saved this world...?"
Irene's semi-transparent black demon wings on her back had changed into fully black ones.
"So, I'll start beating you under the guise of this duel... Are you ready?"
Irene smiled sweetly, but before Lucrezia could even beg, her long silver hair was grabbed by Irene's hand.
"Aaaak!"
Irene yanked Lucrezia's head violently and hurled her to the floor. The back of her head slammed against the ground, making Lucrezia feel as if she might not even scream from the pain.
In that state, Irene stepped hard on her right leg.
"Aaaah!"
The right leg, now broken, screamed in agony. But within moments, it had already regenerated. The regeneration Jae-hyun had given her healed shattered bones in seconds, even perfectly restoring their shape.
Since her body had been cut just below the neck and regrown, such regeneration was nothing to be surprised about.
And this regeneration only made Lucrezia hate it more.
"Uwaaaa!"
Lucrezia crawled away naked in a panic the moment the regeneration finished. Although she had come first to prepare, now that all hope was shattered, she only wanted to escape in terror.
The endless mental shock had filled her with such fear that rational thought was impossible.
The sight of her naked, crawling body was like a white, plump beauty shaking her beautiful ass as she crawled.
"Jae-hyun oppa, the way she's crawling with her ass shaking looks like a beast."
Irene laughed mockingly at the sight, and Jae-hyun, who had walked over, stroked her head and said, "It's inevitable. You're carrying a demon's baby in your belly, so your actions will be beastly."
Hearing those words, Lucrezia stopped crawling and trembled with shock.
"W-what did you just say?"
Lucrezia asked in a trembling voice, looking at Jae-hyun with desperate eyes that prayed the words were not true. But Jae-hyun's handsome face, gazing down with cold red eyes, showed no change.
His lips moved, and a cold voice full of fresh despair flowed out.
"That's right. Your body is carrying a demon's baby. It will be born within three days."
"A... aaaaak!"
Unable to accept the truth of being pregnant with a demon's child, Lucrezia screamed. If only she could lose her mind right then, but Jae-hyun's power prevented her spirit from breaking, and she could not lose her mind.
"That's why I didn't hit your belly on purpose. I can't let a pregnant woman miscarry."
Irene smiled brightly, and Jae-hyun hugged her and patted her back while saying, "Good job, Irene." Irene nuzzled into his chest with a happy expression, rubbing against him like a dog seeking its master's affection.
Still holding Irene, Jae-hyun spoke to Lucrezia with a cold voice mixed with mockery.
"In the first place, there was no chance you would become my wife, Lucrezia. You threw away that possibility yourself. So it was fate that you would become the breeding tool for the demons' children. Kuku."
Hot tears fell from Lucrezia's beautiful blue eyes as she fell into complete despair.