Chapter 594: Jealousy is My Power (94)
Chapter 594: Jealousy is My Power (94)
The Vampire stood there, having regained her senses at some point. Her arms were outstretched to either side.
She stood right between the Great Witch and Elsie.
Whether they were being manipulated by her hands or not, blood-red tentacles were binding the Great Witch and Elsie. It was a magic he had seen before.
Nevertheless, the man’s face remained devoid of emotion. Seeing this, the Vampire increased the intensity of her threat.
“If you take even one more step, I can’t guarantee the lives of these two—!”
“A ‘Blood Hex,’ I see.”
At the man’s certain declaration, the Vampire’s mouth snapped shut for a moment.
A look of slight bewilderment crossed her face, but it was soon replaced by a twisted smirk, as if his knowledge made things easier to explain.
“…So, you know of it?”
“It’s one of the primary magics used by the Dark Cult. It requires a massive amount of blood, but the Dark Cult never hesitates to grind up beasts or humans alike to get it.”
“Then you must know well that I’m not joking, right?”
The man tilted his head indifferently. His expression invited her to go ahead and speak.
The Vampire gritted her teeth for a moment at his arrogant attitude, but soon forced her expression to smooth out.
She held the initiative, after all. There was no need to act desperate.
“I was caught off guard earlier and suffered for it, but not anymore… All the blood in this vicinity is under my control. Even the blood inside the bodies of these two women.”
“Hng, uuuuuh….”
As if to prove her point, faint groans escaped the lips of the two captive women. Even then, the man’s expression remained dry.
Only his eyes betrayed a deep sense of exhaustion.
The Vampire despised his inscrutable demeanor.
“Do you understand?! As long as the blood circulating through their veins is under my control, the moment you touch me, they die!”
“W-we’re…!”
It was then.
The Great Witch finally regained consciousness and, with her eyes barely open, forced words from her lungs.
“We’re fine, so do what you have to… Ghuuuk!”
“Shut up.”
The Vampire snarled, gnashing her teeth as she intimidated the Great Witch.
Her eyes were thick with murderous intent. Had it not been for the man’s presence, she might have taken the Great Witch’s life long ago.
For now, she needed a means to save her own life from the man.
Her attitude made it blatantly clear that she was only keeping them alive for that purpose.
Even seeing this, the man’s voice remained flat.
“That is, assuming the control is actually in your hands.”
At his retort, the Vampire let out a mocking scoff. Then, with eyes swirling with a mix of bloodlust and a desire for revenge, she continued her confident threat.
“Yes, it is. Unless one masters the Blood Hex, there is no way to control another’s blood—!”
Squelch.
The sound of blood overflowing from somewhere tickled the Vampire’s ears. Huh? The woman’s blue eyes blankly sought the source of the sound.
The blood-red tentacles were melting away.
In an instant, they turned into a mere handful of gore.
The bodies of the Great Witch and Elsie fell to the ground simultaneously. The Vampire turned a look of even greater shock toward the man.
Step, step.
The man was already walking forward. His stride showed not a shred of hesitation.
The Vampire’s curled lips began to tremble violently.
“W-what…?”
The man gave no answer.
He simply kept moving. The Vampire snapped her fingers repeatedly just in case, but the blood of the two women did not flow backward or rupture.
How on earth?
The Vampire eventually let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.
“Impossible, it’s impossible… The Blood Hex is a secret art of the Dark Cult. It can never be used without forming a contract with the Evil God….”
Step, step.
His footsteps were relentless.
Unlike the Vampire, who was slowly backing away.
“There’s no way. No matter how much a secret art is passed down, you can’t ignore the basic requirements… No, is it even possible to cram that much mental imagery into a single human body? Into the body of a mere, mere human?”
As she continued her frantic deductions, the distance between her and the man gradually narrowed.
No matter how much the Vampire backed away, it was the same. Finally cornered, the woman let out a scream.
“Y-you! Who the hell are you?!”
The man still offered no reply.
He simply continued his weary march.
The woman’s desperate outburst continued.
“That swordsmanship, I’ve heard of it… The Sword Demons who dwell on Heavenly Sword Mountain! It’s the ultimate mystery of the ‘Sword Circle’! And the martial art you used to take down ‘Greed’ earlier was the Holy Kingdom’s secret martial art! You even have five Dragon Blood Runes, and now you’re using the Blood Hex too?!”
Her tone was one of utter incomprehension.
The woman shouted with an expression of total disbelief.
“It’s impossible!”
The man took another step.
“I said it’s impossible! This isn’t a matter of ‘one in a million’… A being that possesses every secret art? That’s a fantasy! A single human cannot accept that many secret arts… Their mental image would become unstable! They should have broken or gone berserk long before that!”
Capillaries burst in the woman’s eyes as her agitation reached its peak.
Yet the man remained silent, only walking.
One step, two steps.
“If such a thing were possible, our Dark Cult would have tried it long ago! But even after thousands of attempts, it was impossi—!”
Then, thud.
The man’s footsteps stopped right in front of the Vampire. The woman, having forgotten she was even backing away, simply stared with a dazed expression.
“Impos… impossi… ble. Right, it was. Yes, except for one….”
The man continued to maintain his silence. He waited until the Vampire’s knees gave out and she collapsed to the ground.
A whirlwind of complex emotions surged within the woman.
Anxiety, disbelief, and a laugh that bubbled up her throat for no reason.
Bursting into sudden laughter, the woman pounded her chest as she sat there.
“Pfft, kuku… Haha! Ahahahaha! To think, to think… to think we’d meet like this!”
Unable to contain herself any longer.
The woman’s hands struck the ground, her feet stomped, and she sprawled out, twisting her body as she squeezed out laughter.
Only when her eyes were brimming with tears did the Vampire wipe the corner of her eye with a slender finger.
Then, a sorrowful smile clung to her face.
“The seed sown hundreds of years ago… You, too, were of our kind.”
The man still said nothing.
* * *
My consciousness floats within the unconscious.
Every time memories, like shards of broken glass, brush against my skin, unfamiliar emotions pierce my chest. Memories that are nostalgic, yet cruelly painful.
As my body sinks deeper, more scenes fill my mind.
Crying.
Fighting. Bleeding, advancing, and swinging a sword as if to kill the entire world.
Is even this not enough? How much longer must I go on like this?
Whether it was despair or rage.
An inexplicable heat scorched the depths of my chest. That emotion was so hot that the man’s heart, once like a lake, soon withered and burned away, becoming a wasteland.
I wanted to scream.
These memories are still too early for me.
It was agonizingly painful and difficult. Was the time the man endured such a path of thorns?
Even when his feet were tattered and he was covered in blood.
Still, it was a path he had to take.
And so, I opened my eyes, gasping for breath.
An empty void greeted me. In a space where nothing existed, only cracks and fissures filled the surroundings.
Every single one of them reflected the man’s memories.
I blankly tried to push myself up.
Then, I realized I wasn’t the only one here. Surprisingly, in the center of this empty space, a small girl was sitting.
Her face was hidden by a pointed hat. However, her back looked somehow lonely.
After a moment’s hesitation, I slowly approached the girl.
The girl with brown hair was looking up at the sky without a word. Judging by her seated posture, she had likely been like this for a long time.
Looking at that yearning expression, I quickly deduced her identity.
The ‘Senior Elsie’ from the future.
The girl, who had been maintaining a long silence, finally spoke after sensing my presence.
“After I died… this is how you were living.”
I didn't intentionally add any sentiment.
I simply stood beside her in silence and looked up at the sky as well.
No matter which image I looked at, that man was covered in blood.
“So desperately… in so much pain and hardship.”
Was it an illusion?
The reason the girl’s voice sounded strangely moist as she said that.
We decided to look up at the sky in silence for a while.
Though no words were spoken, that was likely the case.
* * *
“……Hello, ‘Pride.’ Have you paid your respects to Delphirem?”
At the greeting the Vampire offered with a smile in her eyes, the man finally spoke.
“I’ll tell you just one thing.”
Immediately after.
A silent sword strike pierced the woman’s neck. Her head fell before she could scream or even groan.
A voice that could no longer reach her followed.
“……I hate being called by that name the most.”
As he muttered those words, the man’s eyes looked exceptionally weary.