Chapter 49 Village (7)
The Village (7)
"Ugh..."
A pained groan escaped her lips.
Adel clenched her teeth and tightened her grip on the blade. Hot blood began seeping from the Emperor's abdomen.
The revolting sensation of splitting flesh and piercing organs transmitted itself through her fingertips.
The act of taking a life still felt unbearably unpleasant.
Yet she desperately drove the blade deeper into him. The moment she faltered even slightly, it would be her life on the line.
Consumed solely by that thought, Adel summoned every ounce of strength into her arms.
"Keh, kehahaha!"
The Emperor burst into laughter at the sight.
Even accounting for this being a Possessed Body, he hadn't anticipated being caught off guard by such an attack.
An ordinary person might have been furious, but he found it utterly delightful.
It had been ages since anyone had landed a solid blow on him, making this feel refreshingly novel.
His laughter showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Killing intent radiated from Adel's blue eyes. Seemingly pleased by this, the Emperor met her gaze with a smile.
"How entertaining. This Saintess has quite the bold personality, doesn't she?"
'Saintess?'
Before the Emperor's words could fully register as a question, his fist came flying toward Adel. Caught off guard by his sudden attack, she hastily raised an arm to block.
Thud.
The impact sent her crashing into the wall.
Boom!
"Kkh—!"
A suffocating sensation triggered a dry heave. Staggering, she barely managed to push herself up.
The Emperor chuckled at the sight.
"Indeed, it's been centuries since I last allowed an attack to land."
Gripping the Artifact Blade embedded in his abdomen, he pulled it out without hesitation.
Blood gushed forth like a fountain, yet he simply smiled as if nothing were amiss.
Whoosh...
As Adel stretched out her hand, the blade flew back toward her palm. The Emperor's lips curled upward again at this display.
"Oh ho. You handle it better than expected."
"You madman..."
Adel muttered under her breath as she watched him approach slowly, making no effort to staunch his bleeding.
This blade carried magic that prevented wounds from healing—the very reason the old woman had struggled to stop her bleeding after being stabbed.
Yet she never imagined anyone could move so nonchalantly without even attempting to stem the blood flow.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Responding to her curse, the Emperor closed the distance between them before she realized it.
Adel immediately hurled the blade at him.
Thwack.
He caught it effortlessly with one hand, blood dripping between his clenched fingers.
Dropping the blade to the floor, the Emperor firmly stepped on its edge.
"Tricks will always remain just tricks. How do you plan to face this body with that fragile frame of yours?"
"Shut up."
She knew.
The moment her last-ditch effort—throwing the blade—was neutralized so easily, any chance of victory had already vanished.
Part of her wanted to rewind time immediately, but she resisted.
Saintess. Centuries.
Just these keywords alone were valuable clues. She needed to prolong the conversation and extract more information.
"What do you mean by 'Saintess'?"
"Is that your final words?"
But the Emperor seemed to have already guessed her intentions, grinning viciously. He then extended his right arm and began strangling her.
A suffocating sensation crept in as her vision gradually blurred.
"Ghk... Kkh..."
"No! Lady Adel!"
Hearing Adel's strangled gasps, Lily frantically grabbed the Emperor's arm and pulled.
Regaining a sliver of awareness, Adel clutched at his wrists with both hands.
She tried with all her might to twist them, but her arms refused to cooperate. The Emperor ignored Lily tugging at his side.
His focus remained solely on tightening his grip around Adel's throat.
"Gggk—"
The terror of death washed over her. The thought surfaced again—if she died, she would simply regress.
But when she met those golden eyes, something felt wrong.
'Why isn't the clock ticking?'
The clock's chime.
That sound which had always echoed in her ears whenever she regressed. Without fail, it had rung each time she approached death.
The agony of dying had simply been too overwhelming to hear it clearly before.
Now, there was no sound at all.
Even the question of why began fading before the pain of impending death. Every nerve in her body screamed as her face contorted.
'Am I... dying?'
Primordial fear blossomed within her.
Her mind was gradually numbing. Panic set in as her vision dimmed inch by inch.
She strained her arms desperately, but it was futile.
The clock remained silent. A futile hope flickered—that it might chime at the very moment of death.
"I don't... want to die."
She couldn't catch her breath.
The man with golden eyes grinned viciously before her. Even the emotion called fear was gradually fading.
'Ah... Bel...'
Why did his name come to mind at a time like this? Of all things, why did that wretched man's name surface while she was dying?
Perhaps she cared for him more than she'd thought...
Just before her thoughts completely ceased—
A pure white light seeped from Adel's right hand. A single stroke of the emblem engraved on her hand flared with blinding intensity.
Before the Emperor could react, a white magic circle coiled around his right arm.
An enormous amount of mana began gathering around her. A powerful presence manifested beside Adel.
Simultaneously, the Emperor's arm was severed cleanly in half. With a sickening shhk, the cleanly sliced arm sent the Emperor stumbling backward.
Blood gushed from the cross-section as a man stepped into his line of sight.
"Cough... Ugh..."
Adel, collapsed on the floor, gasped raggedly for air. Starved for oxygen, she drew in harsh, uneven breaths before cautiously lifting her head.
A man stood there.
Immaculate in his uniform, with silver-gray hair. Eyes sharp as a blade, pupils gleaming with mysterious silver light.
The Family Head of House Hardenberg—her fiancé, Abel.
He carefully gathered Adel into his arms before turning his back to shield her from the fallen Emperor.
"Well now... To think you had such a trump card hidden away."
"How tiresome."
A snow-white magic circle unfurled in the air. An ocean of mana erupted around him.
Feeling that eerie sensation, the Emperor grinned and pushed himself up.
"Calculation Deployment."
At Abel's murmur, dozens of spears materialized midair.
"Strike."
With a flick of his hand, the spears shot forth.
The Emperor extended his remaining left arm, weaving magic. A golden magic circle appeared, intercepting each spear one by one.
"Ghk—"
But only for a moment. Cracks began spiderwebbing across the golden circle.
Unable to endure the endless barrage, the magic circle shattered completely.
The Emperor immediately stretched out his hand again, conjuring dozens more magic circles.
"I've no time to play with puppets."
At Abel's whisper, every last magic circle around the Emperor exploded into nothingness.
A method of nullifying magic itself through overwhelming disparity in mana.
An impossibility for the Emperor in this mere Possessed Body.
"Heh. What an... eventful day."
A spear pierced his throat mid-sentence. Without so much as a scream, the Emperor smirked.
His composure until the very end made Abel click his tongue.
Thud.
The Emperor's Possessed Body crumpled to its knees before collapsing entirely. The corpse went limp.
The golden eyes flickered out like a switched-off light.
This was precisely why dealing with the Emperor was so troublesome. He could possess and control any eyes or hands at will.
"Abel..."
"Are you hurt?"
"...No."
He sighed at her automatic, hollow reply. The red handprints around her throat, her shattered left arm, the dark circles under her eyes—
It grated on him how she insisted on pretending to be fine when she'd clearly been pushed past her limits.
After gently setting her down against the wall, Abel retrieved a potion from his coat.
Uncorking the crimson vial, he carefully tipped its contents into her mouth.
Barely clinging to consciousness, she grimaced the moment the potion passed her lips.
"Ugh—"
"Swallow it. It won't heal you otherwise."
Ignoring her disgusted head-shaking, he continued pouring. When she tried to spit it out, his stern expression made her reluctantly gulp it down.
"Hah... Haah..."
The potion's effect was immediate. The pain in her arm had already vanished without a trace.
Abel studied her silently before speaking.
"Had I been even slightly later—"
Adel had no retort.
It was true—she'd acted recklessly, thinking she could extract information from the Emperor.
Her Regression Ability failing to activate had been completely unanticipated.
Had she not recalled his name at the last moment...
She would undoubtedly be dead. The realization made her body tremble faintly.
"I'm... sorry."
"'Thank you' is the appropriate phrase here."
"...Thank you."
At her choked whisper, Abel sighed again.
Removing his uniform coat, he draped it over her shoulders before standing.
"Rest awhile."
He wanted to lecture her further, but...
For now, letting her recover was best.