Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Chapter 49
Anomaly in the Border Region (2)
Rebecca had been standing behind Decarabia for some time now.
Decarabia felt a chill run down his spine, having failed to notice her approach until she was this close.
"What do you want, girl."
"......"
"What are you, wench!"
"Run away, Rebecca!"
Despite the village chief's shout, Rebecca didn't move an inch.
She merely fixed her gaze on Decarabia with cloudy eyes, as if drugged.
'...What's with this girl?'
When he first felt someone behind him, he thought an unimaginably skilled person had appeared.
But upon closer inspection, the girl before him was just an ordinary village maiden.
'magic level is ordinary. She seems somewhat trained, but only at a commoner's level.'
Yet for some reason, Decarabia's instincts warned him not to underestimate his opponent.
SWOOSH!
The moment Decarabia's hand moved slightly upward, several magical stakes that had been surrounding the village chief changed direction and shot toward Rebecca.
"Rebecca!"
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Rebecca, unable to put up any resistance, was pierced by the stakes and thrown far back.
CRASH!
She slammed into the wall and slid down limply.
"Re-Rebecca! You bastard!"
"......"
Regardless of the village chief's outburst, Decarabia carefully observed Rebecca's form.
'...Was that an overreaction?'
She was still breathing, but that would soon cease.
With her heart and shoulder pierced, no human could possibly survive.
"I-I'll kill you!"
The village chief, having lost his reason, lunged at Decarabia.
But such anger was nothing more than futile struggling to Decarabia.
"My, you shouldn't die too easily."
"ARGHH!"
As a small stake cleverly penetrated his thigh, the village chief lost his balance and collapsed.
Decarabia turned his gaze away from Rebecca and revealed his vicious nature once more.
"Now, shall we spend the night leisurely together?"
"......!"
The village chief widened his eyes and stared straight ahead.
But that gaze wasn't directed at Decarabia.
More precisely, it was behind Decarabia.
He had seen Rebecca, covered in blood, standing up again and approaching.
"Wh-what?"
Rebecca silently grabbed Decarabia's arm.
SHUDDER!
As Decarabia swung his arm violently, Rebecca was flung back and crashed into the wall again.
'What is this girl.'
Though he had swung wildly due to surprise, it was a blow powerful enough to send a human's head flying.
Yet Rebecca got up again, staggering.
"...Remarkable durability. Are you even human?"
She clearly hadn't used magic to defend herself.
She had withstood Decarabia's blow using purely physical ability.
"Run away, Rebecca!"
"How noisy."
After silencing the screaming village chief with a shadow over his mouth, Decarabia slowly approached Rebecca.
He met her eyes, half-open above dark circles.
Decarabia twitched his eyes at the strange discomfort.
'Am I imagining it? Her eyes and hair seem to have turned blood-red...'
The eyes of a demon, accustomed to darkness, remembered Rebecca's appearance when he first saw her.
Orange hair.
But now it was distinctly red.
"Whatever you are, this ends when I take your head."
The opponent was just silently glaring, showing no signs of resistance or ability to fight back.
Separating her head from her neck would end this easily.
Yet for some reason, he hesitated to make a move.
TWITCH!
Decarabia momentarily saw Rebecca's wounds healing rapidly.
He had felt something strange about her moving despite having her heart pierced, but witnessing the cause with his own eyes was a different matter.
Decarabia brought down his magic-infused blade on Rebecca's crown.
CLANG!
"......!"
Decarabia's blade, which should have easily cut her in two, was somehow blocked and couldn't advance.
"Ma-magic?"
Above the opponent's head, a barrier made of magical energy had appeared to block the sword.
The problem was that this barrier wasn't just protecting her; it was absorbing Decarabia's magic.
"Th-this is insane!"
Decarabia was greatly shocked by this unheard-of phenomenon.
If he had been an ancient demon who had experienced the First Heaven-Demon Great War, he might have understood this situation, but unfortunately, he was barely over 3,000 years old, making him relatively new to the demon realm.
So instead of retreating from the unknown, he chose to confront it.
And it didn't take long to realize that was the worst choice he could have made.
"AAAAARGH! WHAT IS THIS! WHAT IS THIS!"
It was all being absorbed.
Whether in the form of a sword, a blunt weapon, or even a massive explosion.
As long as it had the properties of magical energy, all of Decarabia's attacks were absorbed by Rebecca.
BOOM! BOOM!
"Die! Die!"
The village chief's house had long been reduced to an unrecognizable state.
The fortunate thing was that because Decarabia was focusing solely on Rebecca and not spreading his attacks, the damage to the village was significantly less.
"AAAAH! RUN AWAY! QUICKLY!"
For the villagers, the fury of a high-ranking demon was like a natural disaster, forcing them to evacuate in the middle of the night.
"How! Why aren't my attacks working!"
Facing Decarabia's outburst of anger, Rebecca fumbled for something with her foggy eyes.
'I'm overflowing with power.'
Though her mind was still hazy as if in a fog, her body was brimming with unprecedented vitality.
The blood of the Demon Eater, awakened by Diablo's power, was instinctively guiding Rebecca on how to use this power.
Rebecca's fumbling hand eventually grabbed something, which turned out to be none other than Decarabia's neck.
"Kuheck!"
Decarabia couldn't believe it.
Magical wings had suddenly appeared on her back.
She flapped those wings and instantly closed the distance, ignoring several layers of defensive barriers he had set up as insurance, and grabbed his neck.
"Y-you, what the hell are you!"
The bigger problem was that the moment his neck was grabbed, strength was draining from his entire body.
"Kek! Kek!"
His power was being sucked away.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't resist the opponent's power.
The magical energy Decarabia had accumulated over thousands of years was being absorbed into the hands of this insignificant human with a crackling sound.
"Th-this can't be...!"
Decarabia desperately shouted while grasping Rebecca's arm.
"This is impossible!"
"No."
A curved line appeared on Rebecca's lips.
"It is possible."
In that brief moment.
Beyond Rebecca's pupils, Decarabia encountered a familiar energy he had felt only once before.
The moment he recognized the identity of that energy, Decarabia let go of his strength with a hollow expression.
"One of the Seven Seats...!"
Long, long ago.
Ten thousand years ago, seven demon kings who ruled the demon realm.
Unlike the current seventy-two demon kings who all claimed the title indiscriminately, these were true demon lords who fought the gods of heaven as equals with their original power.
Although he had never seen them in person, Decarabia knew something about the nature of their power through the legacies of the demon realm.
"The Primordial Destroyer, Diablo of Rage?"
Whether it was atavism or she was a subordinate left behind by Diablo, he didn't know.
But what was certain was that the human woman before him definitely possessed Diablo's power.
"Could it be that you were hiding in the human world, biding your time...?"
As far as Decarabia knew, after the First Heaven-Demon Great War ended, the Seven Seats, except for those who were sealed, were either annihilated or went missing due to rebellion from their subordinate demons.
Not knowing the exact circumstances regarding Diablo, Decarabia couldn't help but make such a misconception.
"...Damn it."
With those words, Decarabia was drained of all power by Rebecca and perished.
Having followed his lord Iblis and come directly through the demon gate, he met with outright annihilation rather than being reverse-summoned.
HISSSSS!
Rebecca watched with indifferent eyes as Decarabia turned to dust and disappeared.
Then she slowly descended to the ground, moving her wings.
"Re-Rebecca?"
Most of the villagers had evacuated due to the sudden disturbance, but the village chief, who was severely injured, couldn't escape.
Yet somehow, miraculously, he had managed to survive despite being caught in Decarabia's rampage.
"Village Chief."
Rebecca was sobbing for some reason.
"I broke my promise..."
"What, promise?"
"The promise I made with Rudian."
The village chief didn't understand what Rebecca was talking about.
"I shouldn't have... I promised..."
"Ca-calm down, Rebecca."
"I need to apologize. I miss him. I need to apologize. I miss him."
The village chief realized that Rebecca's mental state was extremely unstable.
Not only had her hair color changed, but upon closer inspection, her pupils were also glowing with the same dark red color as her hair.
The village chief felt fear at this version of Rebecca he had never seen before.
"I'm going to see him... I'll go and apologize."
"Are you talking about Ru-Rudian? He's in the capital now. It would take at least fifteen days to get there, and how would you find him inside the capital?"
"......"
The village chief regained his senses and tried to dissuade Rebecca.
But he quickly realized it was useless.
"I can tell."
"What?"
"I can sense Rudian's energy."
Rebecca's confidence had a solid basis.
In Rebecca's heart, awakened as a Demon Eater, Diablo's unique magical energy was functioning as a central core.
No matter how well Diablo concealed his energy with his unique powers, Rebecca, having the same power, could easily pinpoint his location.
"I'm sorry, Village Chief."
"Uh, yes?"
A clear voice, different from before.
Rebecca looked at the village chief with sad eyes and said,
"It seems I need Rudian to suppress this power."
"......"
The village chief didn't know the background of that ominous black power that Rebecca was emitting.
But at least he could feel that Rebecca wasn't lying to him now.
"Will you be alright?"
"...I don't know."
Currently, three powers were swirling within Rebecca's body.
Diablo's power, the Demon Eater's power, and the power of Decarabia she had just consumed.
Among these, Decarabia's power was a highly volatile one-time use, but it was so massive that it was impossible to predict when it might explode.
As the situation was settling down, villagers were starting to show their faces one by one.
If Rebecca's current state were to be seen in this situation, it was hard to tell how the villagers would react, even though they had lived together for many years.
Even the village chief himself kept having the word 'demon' rise in his mind when looking at Rebecca's current appearance.
"Well, it can't be helped."
The village chief let out a painful sigh.
"...Leave the aftermath to me."
At that moment, the village chief realized that Rebecca could never return to her normal life.
All he could do was hope that things would work out well when she met Rudian.
And pray that God's blessing would accompany Rebecca's future path.
***
SHUDDER!
"What's wrong?"
Rudian, who had been intensely training in the front yard of the mansion late at night, suddenly stopped swinging his sword as a chill ran up his spine.
"N-no. I just suddenly got a chill..."
As his magic approached its limit capacity, Rudian's body was growing stronger day by day under its influence.
Elvin scanned Rudian's entire body with suspicious eyes.
"Are you not feeling well? Even with physical training, you need to be careful as internal diseases can develop regardless."
"No, that's not it..."
Rudian instinctively looked to the east, feeling an ominous sensation.
Of course, there was nothing in the direction Rudian was looking.
"What on earth is it?"
Why had he looked in that direction?
Rudian had to tremble with a strange anxiety, not knowing the reason himself.