Ep.7 - Betrayal?
Ep.7 - Betrayal?
***
"Eh, ehh..."
How many hours had he been violated? Delin wanted to let go of the God-thread of sanity and pass out, but his passive skill's outstanding performance forced him to cling stubbornly on.
"Hwoo—"
Beside him, Riko, burning mana-laden herbs and throwing back hard liquor, smiled with satisfaction at the freedom and debauchery she was indulging in after so long. As she kneaded Delin's luscious backside—which was gradually becoming her God-own—with just the right amount of force, she truly felt as if she possessed the whole world.
"I'll let you rest for exactly five minutes. Once you've rested, we'll squeeze in one more quick round, and then we'll Load."
At that incredible, almost unbelievable stamina, Delin shuddered. Could a human being truly overflow with so much sexual desire?
Face buried in the thoroughly soaked bed sheet, he trembled lightly. The trembling came from two sources: one was fear, and the other was the lingering aftertaste of a thrilling pleasure.
His urge to ask just how much longer this would last blazed like a chimney fire, but he could not bring himself to voice the words.
"Ugh, uuh..."
He only babbled as he felt his backside being fondled and kneaded.
"Come to think of it, though, Loading is a pain in the ass too. The whole mess with my subordinate—if I'd Loaded earlier, I'd never have even met her. Tch—"
Riko, with collapsed, groaning Delin before her, mulled over the ability, God. It was certainly a cheat-like ability; from now on, she'd likely secure safety from death and equivalent agonies. However, because of the annoying penalty that reset everything she had done, she was bound to suffer plenty going forward.
Of course, calling it a penalty was a stretch. Turning everything back to zero could be used to one's advantage—used well, it would be an excellent ability without a single penalty...
"So first, let's screw over that bitch of a queen. Got it?"
Screwing over that shitty bastard with this excellent ability shouldn't be too much trouble.
The queen can track Load.
That is an extremely dangerous situation, but
if you look at it the other way around?
"That cunt is sharp—she'll probably catch on fast. If I keep repeating Loads in the middle of the night like this, what I'm doing with you, I mean."
Riko couldn't hold back her laughter and burst into a cackle. The liquor bottle she was holding swayed back and forth, spitting liquor onto the floor, and the drug-like smoke that densely filled the room swirled chaotically along with her laughter.
"Kk, kkhup... hm..."
Suddenly, she reined in her laughter. Along with it, the hand kneading Delin's backside also stopped.
"..."
Riko sensed something. She never ignored her own intuition.
"Delin. Get up."
Because the room was thoroughly soundproofed, no sound from inside escaped outside, and no sound from outside entered inside.
"Quick."
From beyond the door situated in one corner of the room, Riko felt faint traces of killing intent and human presence.
In a situation where the silence—normally natural—was becoming suspicious, Riko first released the curses she had placed on the unconscious Delin's tongue and ankles, then scanned the area for nearby objects.
There was no dagger. She'd left it with the subordinate she met hours ago.
"..."
But she was not a thief who would be bound by such a shoddy dagger; she immediately drew a small blade she had secretly tucked near her ankle and gripped it.
With that hand gripping the blade, she deliberated for a moment. Should she slit Delin's throat and Load, or should she kill the five—who were about to walk through that door?
"Delin."
She called for Delin one last time, but it seemed he was already in no condition to speak properly. In that case, the method she could choose was—
"...Ah~ fuuck, I'm tired."
Feigning exhaustion with a voice that might leak outside,
all the while stealthily, Dragon-style, and with God-speed, shoving Delin under the bed,
"What a nuisance, seriously."
Anyway, if things went south, she could just slit Delin's throat. Before Loading, she wanted to find out as much as possible—who sent them, which bastards hired them.
Riko sat down on the edge of the bed. Silence hovered in the room.
In the silence interspersed between the occasional panting God-breaths of the man, Riko sat quietly, glaring at the vicinity of the door.
The doorknob trembled faintly.
Staring at that minute vibration, Riko blinked exactly once, then immediately hurled the blade in her hand, piercing through the door. The flying blade tore through the door, passed through the forehead of the woman beyond and out the back of her skull, embedding itself into the corridor wall.
Through that small gap, red blood was visible.
And through that small gap, sound came through—the noise of a body crumpling with a thud, the sound of several humans swallowing their spit, and—
"Go in!"
covering all those sounds, even a rough voice shouting boldly.
When Riko swiftly rushed forward and kicked the door fiercely, a horrendous scream rang out again from outside. It seemed their plan had also been to kick the door down and break in.
The force that met from both sides gave birth to tragedy. Riko's side, being stronger, completely blew the door off, and as a result, the leg of the woman outside who had been trying to force entry was smashed apart.
"Aaaaagh!"
Two dealt with. Three remaining.
One of them lunged at Riko, who had drawn near the door, with something coated in poison, but her arm was seized before it could even graze Riko's skin, and just like that, Riko bent her elbow—in a direction that normally does not bend.
"Agh! Aaaagh!"
"What the... you..."
But Riko could not finish off the opponent.
"Why you?"
The subordinate who had roamed with her, staking their lives on each other even before meeting a man named Delin—she ultimately could not kill her.
"Keuheok..."
"Euk, eogeok..."
Of course, she did kill the remaining two assassins by snatching and throwing her subordinate's weapon.
"Leila. Why did you do this. You, better than anyone, know you can't beat me."
She showed her subordinate mercy, granting her time to explain the situation.
"U, unavoidable... they said if we just grabbed the boss and handed her over, they'd let everyone go..."
Inside the room where the other assassins' blood was beginning to soak the floor, the two had their final conversation.
"Let who go?"
"The older sisters... keuheuk..."
"So there'd been no word earlier. Right. That's how it happened. Who took them."
"Heuk, keuheuk..."
"Answer me. The punishment will come after I've rescued them all."
"N, no... boss, Khalid is different from before now... it's completely their gang's den, so..."
"Who are 'those bastards'."
Riko glared fiercely at her former subordinate and demanded an answer, but the woman could not bring herself to speak.
"...Ah, well, shit. You got done in."
Instead, she laboriously nodded her head, conveying the truth.
The black line vividly etched into her neck, her weeping face, and the tears streaming down—all of it told the whole story.
"...Forget it. Rest."
Along with Riko's final words, the black line carved into the subordinate's neck deepened further, and— Ppujik- with that sound, her head was separated from her torso. That fatal death was not something even the most excellent priestess could mend.
That was why it was wretched, and that was why it was mournful, but Riko did not weep for her subordinate.
"Delin. Come crawling out now. We have to go back."
Because she had a weapon that would return everything to the beginning anyway.
"...Ugh, uuh! Euh!"
Though she couldn't tell what he was grumbling about, Delin wriggled his tiny body out from under the bed, squirming forth, and directed his anger at Riko.
"Ugh, uuk... ek..."
Then, seeming to have been shocked again upon seeing the corpses, he frowned and pantomimed vomiting.
"Quit putting on a show and Load already. I released the curse on your mouth a while ago."
"Uwek... e... uh... it's true..."
Anyway, now that his mouth had regained its freedom, he began to vent the innermost thoughts he'd bottled up over the hours of getting pounded.
"Thi, this... you perverted, no, you freak of a bitch...! I really hate it, you said it was a mission, and yet that way, with me, so... so!! I really hate... it, though..."
He hated it, though. Right now, it seemed he needed to Load, and fast. The sound of countless footsteps could be heard from beyond the door where Riko stood.
"If you don't do it now it's gonna get annoying—how about you Load instead of messing around?"
"...Lo, Load..."
------------------------------
The two of them returned to the lodgings where everyone was once again asleep.
Just moments ago they had been in a ghastly room lined with corpses, but the two of them were now right back to having sex.
"Tch, what a hassle..."
Riko ruminated over the facts she had learned before Loading, deliberating how to handle things—all the while *peok-peok-* slapping down onto Delin, who had just poured a bucket of curses on her God-self.
"Ek! Ehek!"
"There's another cunt as cocky as you that's latched on. What should I do, huh? I can't fix her by fucking her like I do you—what the hell do I do about that piece of shit? I oughta just go kill her right now..."
Riko replayed in her mind the black line that had been etched into her subordinate's neck. There was only one group that used such a technique.
"That fucking bitch... haah, seriously..."
If Philmark was a great thief who had spread her name far and wide, shaking the world,
there was also an assassin group that hid its body in the shadows, committing all manner of atrocities. Most people do not know of them.
Their name was Raven. An organization composed of assassins.
And the one who drove a black line into necks and used them as her puppets was
the leader of Raven.
Kirem.
"But really, there's nothing to worry about. Right? Huh?!"
"Euhheuk, kkup...!"
The usual Riko would have embarked on an extremely God-cautiously [dangerous] mission to infiltrate Raven and extract her subordinates,
but now?
"Let's use that Soul Bond while we're at it. Enhance it properly. I'm gonna keep going until I'm satisfied, so don't bother racking your brain and just Enhance it straight!"
"A, I got... it... pleeasse... sallsaal..."