71
Chapter 71
Karon blankly stared at the scene unfolding before him.
A blue-haired girl wearing a mad smile, yet simultaneously weeping sorrowfully.
She was walking towards Karon right now.
Holding a sword stained with blood.
However, it wasn't the appearance of that bloodied girl that horrified Karon.
While undertaking the task of mimicking a Demon's contract, Karon's body had been modified to become closer to a Demon.
That allowed him to see things he normally wouldn't have been able to.
The soul behind the girl became visible to Karon's eyes.
The filthy waste that inevitably resulted from the process of extracting Divine Power.
In other words, the souls of children.
Because they harbored a deep resentment and Curse towards the Holy See, they had definitely been gathered into one and sealed away to suppress their power so they wouldn't cause harm.
Yet somehow, that very thing was now possessing that girl.
'Just why...'
His mind simply couldn't keep up with the situation.
Just who was that child, and why on earth had the discarded waste merged with that girl?
He couldn't figure out a single thing.
But whether Karon understood the current situation or not, the events unfolding before his eyes didn't change.
Literally speaking, his sins had come looking for Karon.
The consequences of the atrocities he had committed until now were trying to kill him.
"Did you think changing your appearance would stop 'us' from finding you?"
Hundreds... no, thousands of voices overlapped with the blue-haired girl's own.
Cold sweat ran down Karon's back.
An overwhelming difference in their level that felt entirely natural.
Having lost most of his power, including his Divine Power and Stigma, the chances of Karon defeating that monster were slim to none.
However, that monster couldn't care less about Karon's circumstances. The blue-haired girl continued to approach him.
Slowly.
Step by step.
Those footsteps felt like the tolling of a bell heralding the end.
Declaring that his life was now over, and that a second chance didn't suit someone like him.
That it was time to bid farewell to this world.
'No...'
He couldn't accept that.
He would survive.
He had decided to survive, no matter what it took.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
Just keeping his life was enough.
He didn't even dream of career success. He simply, desperately wished to reclaim an ordinary life.
However, even as Karon desperately pleaded in his mind, the girl approached without hesitation.
He could see the souls behind the girl sneering at him.
It was as if they were speaking.
Saying that the survival he so desperately clung to was something they had wanted as well.
Telling him to recall how he had reacted when they had screamed and begged for their lives.
Asking if he truly thought they would listen to his pleas for mercy.
"S-Stay back! I said, don't come any closer!"
Karon's body trembled violently from fear.
Driven by terror, Karon recklessly fired off his Curses.
But... there was no way that would work.
Even if his body had transformed to resemble a Demon's, he had only absorbed a single life.
Consequently, the Curses Karon unleashed were feeble.
The blue-haired girl didn't even seem to feel the need to dodge, calmly taking the Curses as she continued to approach Karon.
And.......
Finally, the moment arrived.
The moment he had desperately wanted to avoid, no matter the cost, had finally come to pass.
That monstrous girl stopped right in front of his face.
A horrific Bloodlust.
The Curses and resentment washing over him.
Crushed beneath them, Karon collapsed pathetically to the floor. He didn't even have the strength left to back away.
Watching him, the girl raised her sword.
In a flash too quick for Karon to even perceive, the blade swung down.
Karon's face twisted in agony.
Blood gushed heavily from his stomach. The sheer intensity of the pain threatened to tear his consciousness away at any moment.
Uncaring of Karon's agony, the girl smiled as she dug into his innards.
His mind grew distant.
His vision steadily blurred until he couldn't see anything at all.
Just like that, Karon was supposed to meet a futile end. That was undoubtedly how it should have happened.
However.......
Karon's consciousness didn't fade. Karon was still alive.
His utterly destroyed body swelled up before regenerating its shape. In an instant, Karon returned to his original form.
Yet, there was no joy of survival on Karon's face.
Because he knew.
He knew this wasn't some fortunate miracle.
"That counts as one."
The girl said with a smile.
She smiled through her tears.
A thoroughly broken and twisted madness.
What stood before Karon was an Avenger.
An Avenger created by none other than Karon himself.
"Ah......."
Sin weighed heavily upon Karon.
The sins Karon had accumulated were staring right back at him.
This was the punishment bestowed upon him.
*****
Her mind was hazy.
Ever since she submerged her body in the black liquid, her consciousness had been faint, as if she were dreaming.
All she could hear were the voices.
Voices ceaselessly spewing Curses and resentment.
And so, Lucy moved according to those voices. She obeyed the voices and carried out her vengeance.
The magnificent Great Temple.
Its once solemn and sacred atmosphere was nowhere to be found.
Blood was splattered everywhere, covering the space in flesh and gore. Corpses filled every direction.
And... standing before the girl was an old man.
The last remaining member of the Holy See.
He was so broken that he could no longer form human words, making it impossible for him to even beg for death.
Lucy stared at him... and then snapped the old man's neck.
She didn't bother reviving him this time.
Because the children's revenge was already complete.
With that... the old man's life was finally extinguished.
The man who had so callously sacrificed countless lives for his own gain ultimately met his death at the hands of the very lives he had stolen.
Now, Lucy was the only one left here.
The voices of the souls no longer reached her.
She had certainly been prepared for it.
Prepared for the possibility that someone might remain.
That one of the thirty children might be unsatisfied, remaining in the living world to take revenge on Lucy.
But... the children didn't harm Lucy.
From the moment they confirmed that she hadn't willingly collaborated with the Holy See to kidnap them.
Instead of killing Lucy, the children merely asked to borrow her body as a form of atonement.
However.......
That was what made it even more terrifying.
If only they had resented her, cursed her and blamed her for everything.
It wouldn't have been this agonizing.
Such a horrific sense of guilt wouldn't have washed over her.
The children resented her, yet did not exact revenge.
It was none other than herself who had stolen the futures of those innocent children.
With her own hands, she had stripped away the lives they rightfully deserved to live.
Lucy stared blankly as she drew her sword from its sheath. There were no more enemies. Not a single opponent remained to be struck down.
The children's souls had already let go of their resentment and returned to where they rightfully belonged.
But even so.
'The one who deserves to die still remains.'
Tears streamed down Lucy's cheeks.
However, a single drop of a tear couldn't wash away the blood she was covered in.
Nor could it wash away the sins she had committed.
That was only natural.
Ignorance could never serve as an Indulgence.
The girl had handed over a total of thirty children to the Holy See. Her ignorance had plunged those thirty children into Hell.
That was a sin that could never be erased simply by apologizing.
No matter how she apologized or atoned, the children who had departed would never return.
'I have to pay for my sins.'
Until now, the girl had lived her life taking pride in her actions.
Far from saving people, she had completely stolen their lives away.
The girl had shamelessly believed she was realizing justice.
Someone like her had no right to keep living.
She simply shouldn't be alive.
Therefore.
There was only one thing she had to do.
It wasn't a particularly difficult task.
It was merely doing what she had always done.
Striking down a heinous Murderer.
The girl closed her eyes.
She brought the blood-stained sword to her neck.
The sharp tip of the blade grazed her neck, drawing blood. She felt a tiny drop of blood trickle down her throat.
But nothing changed.
This body was already drenched in blood anyway.
It was the ugly body of a killer, already corrupted to the very core.
And so, the girl put an end to her life.
......No,
She tried to put an end to it.
The sensation of the sword she was holding vanished in an instant. Someone had snatched her sword away.
"...Lucy Valiere."
At the same time, a voice called out.
It was a voice she had heard once before.
She opened her eyes and looked at the man who had called her name.
A white-haired boy wearing a black robe.
His deep blue eyes stared intently at her.
The Leader of the Black Fang was standing right before her eyes.