Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Regret (2)
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Before the shock could even linger, the Hero moved first.
With a motion so leisurely it almost seemed relaxed, she extended one finger while pulling her opposite arm back.
Plunk. Like brushing something away with a push. An unremarkable attack flew out.
And half of Astarion’s body exploded from the direct hit.
“-?!”
Of course, a noble-rank demon wouldn’t die instantly from something like this.
Even so, the horrific shock that twisted both body and mind was undoubtedly shredding him apart.
He wrapped his demonic energy around the gushing blood and organs to hold himself together somehow. He retreated to regenerate quickly, but...
When Astarion raised his head, what he saw was Gray pulling her fist back again.
He hastily crossed his arms in defense, and the Hero’s attack crashed down on them.
His arms crumpled. The pain hit as his barely intact body tore apart and his nervous system turned to mush.
And what shook Astarion more than the physical impact was the mental blow.
It was the movement the Hero had just shown.
She could have ended it in one strike, but she deliberately waited for his defensive motion before piling on the attack.
As if she didn’t want to finish it in one blow.
“-?”
But before he could dwell on the bewilderment, the Hero’s attacks continued without giving him a moment to breathe.
She hadn’t even drawn her holy sword. It was just a fighting style of swinging raw mana with her bare body to pummel him.
...And there he was, helplessly taking it.
Something.
Something was off.
No matter that the Hero, humanity’s guardian, was a monster—even he was a noble-rank demon. This level of overwhelming gap was beyond expectation.
This was combat ability far beyond what he’d observed of the Hero’s usual capabilities.
In that sense, what he was experiencing now wasn’t even a fight.
The opponent was simply crushing him like a “real bug”...!
“-Kuh!”
Some of the barely regenerated parts of his body burst again under the Hero’s kick.
All countermeasures were futile.
She constricted him as if she knew his movements better than he did himself.
Piercing his defenses effortlessly, nullifying his responses.
As if “torturing” him with those beatings.
The truly maddening part was that every attack hovered just on the edge of not killing him outright.
“Keheuk-!”
Without exaggeration, his entire body was repeatedly torn apart and regenerated in real time.
And as this dragged on, he couldn’t help but realize.
‘That damned...!’
Right now, their goal wasn’t simply to kill him.
It was as if they were trying to draw something out of him—
“You, damned beast bastard-”
Even his desperate counterattack was easily dodged. In that gap, the opponent burrowed into his torso.
In that close contact, horrific body blows hammered into his midsection in succession.
“Guh, ugh, uuuuk-!”
Bones shattered. Muscles tore. His organs turned to pulp—
“Stop, stop-! Damn it, what do you want!”
Spitting blood as he collapsed to the ground, Astarion screamed.
“Kill me if you’re gonna kill me! What do you want!”
It was a disgrace never seen from a noble-rank demon.
Tears, snot, and the foul secretions spewing from his worm-like body in terror—he writhed on the floor.
“If you want something, just tell me! Stop! Stop! Please...!”
“That.”
And.
Gray, who had been watching silently, finally spoke.
The words slipped out with a sigh of accomplishment.
“I just wanted to see you looking that pathetic.”
“....”
So.
She just wanted to see him begging for his life like this?
...Throwing away all noble pride, she tortured him for so long just to see him grovel in such an ugly state?
Such mutterings escaped him unwittingly.
He was the demon, yet their positions felt reversed.
“Do you have anyone close? Family or relatives?”
“....Why...?”
Gray kicked the fallen demon.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Astarion rolled across the ground.
“Do you, or don’t you.”
“Y-Yes. Yes, I do!”
“Good for you.”
Gray smirked on one side of her mouth.
“I can track them down and kill them all now.”
“....”
While Astarion was dazed.
She drew her holy sword.
Mana on the level to obliterate everything around gathered at its tip.
Even as she did this, Gray’s expression was utterly blank.
What to call it.
This whole situation still lacked any sense of reality.
The demon in front of her was yelling something, but it spread beyond her brain like meaningless noise.
‘Ah.’
Come to think of it, were there still people nearby?
Vespa, and those shrieking noisy ones.
Firing this might sweep them up too.
“....”
Whatever.
Who cares.
Gray blankly continued compressing the mana gathered at her holy sword’s tip.
She just wanted to erase everything.
She didn’t know what came after.
She just wanted to wipe out everything here—
“Lady.”
“-”
Gray’s body froze.
“Lady. You can’t fire that.”
She turned her head with a creak.
There was Carlyle, clutching the blood pouring from his abdomen, coughing as he spoke.
His pale face held barely any life.
But.
He was moving.
Breathing, speaking.
“....”
He was alive.
-Alive!
Gray tossed her holy sword aside and rushed to him.
“You, ar-are you oka-”
“There are still people nearby— You can’t.”
“Stay still. Don’t talk.”
His breathing was ragged.
What should she do.
Even Gray wasn’t used to her own state.
Since taking up the holy sword as the Hero, she’d never once fallen into such panic.
But seeing him hurt this badly.
Her vision spun. She didn’t know what to do.
A near-terror emotion surged through her body.
No.
No.
I don’t want to lose you.
Amid the jumbled mess of emotions cluttering her mind.
The only words she could form were these.
“Don’t die.”
Me.
Don’t leave me alone.
“-Don’t die. Please.”
Clutching Carlyle’s body, she said it in a trembling voice.
It was laced with sobs.
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“....Hmm....”
Felix twirled her pen, glaring at the documents before her.
Imperial Palace office.
The documents, painstakingly produced by grinding Pale Moon—fully gifted from Carlyle—to death, were neatly arranged on the table.
...Though their contents only elicited sighs no matter how you looked at them.
“This is insane on sight, right?”
“Anyone would think so.”
Siona nodded gravely in agreement.
She’d long known that the Black Lion Margrave and the Emperor had brought all sorts of horrific cargo into the capital. But she’d just learned what it was.
“What kind of rocket is that? What reason is there to install a rocket right in the middle of the capital?”
Grumbling, she glanced at the massive spire visible outside the palace.
By imperial order, a “rocket” stripped from the Mage Tower slumbered inside it, launch device and all.
It was top-top secret, so she’d only just gotten the info.
A rocket in the capital where people lived.
...No matter how you sliced it, the combination felt ominous.
Especially if the “demons’” hands were involved—who knew what it would lead to.
“We need to send people right now to search inside there. Once Gray gets back—”
She started to say, but the sentence never finished.
The office’s main door grew noisy.
Wondering what it was, she turned—and there was Gray, barefoot, kicking open the massive door like she was smashing it.
On her back, she carried someone’s body, and in one hand, she held someone’s head.
“....”
No idea what incident would result in such a bizarre ensemble.
At least the head Gray held was a familiar face to Felix.
‘Gregory Priest?’
Wasn’t he from the Exorcism Division she’d pulled?
Why Gray had that man’s “head” was secondary.
What truly drew the eye was the person on her back.
“Doctor.”
No telling the speed she’d come here at, but Gray spoke with a wrecked face, disheveled hair.
Dried tear tracks seemed to mark her cheeks.
That alone delivered a massive shock to Felix.
...She cried?
That girl?
“Doctor. Right now—!”
Who the hell was she carrying that—
“....”
The moment she checked the person on Gray’s back, Felix instantly understood her reaction.
Carlyle Bellfast.
...One look, and it was clear: a total wreck.
Anyone could see he teetered on the boundary between life and death.
The pen slipped from Felix’s hand.
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