Blood Goddess: Ten Years After a Girl's Nightmare
Ten years had passed since one girl's nightmare. A single warrior emerged from the forest into the outside world. Her name was Kutrin, the last survivor of the Ku clan.
Kutrin formed a pursuit squad with three companions. She unhesitatingly took command, determined to hunt down and kill her own sister.
'Can you do it?'
That was the question from Kirtan, the unified leader of the seven tribes, head of the Ki clan.
At the time, Kutrin didn't answer. She simply tightened her belt firmly around her waist.
Kirtan left a curt remark behind her back.
'Don't forget why I spared your life.'
Kutrin didn't open her mouth then either. Instead of replying, she bowed and tied her shoelaces tight.
Ten years ago, Kutrin had survived her sister's hand. Ironically, it was because her heart was on the right side.
The sin of Kubelin, who had lusted after great power and made an unforgivable choice, was transferred entirely to Kutrin. The elves enforced collective punishment.
But Kirtan defended her, arguing she'd already endured pain equal to death, and saved her life. He had raised and cared for her ever since.
'The reason you live is to send your wayward sister to her end with your own hands.'
That was what Kirtan always told Kutrin.
Over the past ten years, following his words, Kutrin had pushed her body to the brink like a madwoman. She'd shattered countless rocks, felled trees, slain innumerable giants. In that way, she had forged herself into a top-class warrior.
And now, at this moment. Her blade sharpened to perfection, Kutrin stepped out of the forest to kill her sister.
"Where the hell is that crazy elf right now?"
Chattering endlessly beside Kutrin was Kaily, a master archer. His feet were so swift he could cross the forest from one end to the other in a single day.
"Who knows? Rumors say she's been going around slaughtering giants nonstop. Maybe up in the Northern Mountains where they're swarming?"
"You mean the red-haired elf ghost story? Is that even real? It's all too unbelievable... An elf alone cutting down hundreds of giants? Come on."
The ones gossiping now were the Koik siblings, Koik and Koike. The brother Koik excelled in fire magic, his sister Koike in ice magic.
The four-person pursuit squad was hunting the traitor known as the Bloody Elf, Kubelin.
The land they now trod was called the Death Call Strait. Beneath its rugged peaks stood sheer cliffs carved like blades. Below raged a mad sea. A single misstep on the narrow cliffside path meant plummeting straight into the abyss below.
"......"
Kutrin stared silently down at the base of the cliff.
"Hey, Kutrin. What're you thinking?"
Kaily spoke to her. Somehow, he'd already plucked a single yellow lespedeza flower, twirling it between his fingers.
"You like these, right? Tons blooming down there."
"......"
Everyone knew he had a crush on Kutrin. Probably everyone except him. Even the stone-faced Kutrin.
"......"
But Kutrin didn't respond to Kaily. Thwack! She slapped the flower from his hand.
"Gah!? If you don't want it, just say so—why hit it?!"
Kaily wailed, but Kutrin didn't even turn her head. She merely scooped up a handful of sand and let it drop over the cliff.
Shhh...
The sand curved gently left. Gauging the wind, Kutrin turned her head.
"We go with the wind at our backs."
"Huh? Why?"
Kaily asked, but Kutrin offered no reply. She leaped into the thicket beyond without a word.
"That prickly attitude is just so charming."
Kaily grinned, shouldered his bow, and followed.
"He's got it bad."
"Real bad."
The Koik siblings hurried after as well.
"Whoa!"
Kaily let out a gasp. Good call following Kutrin's lead. Past the thicket and wild vine clusters, with the wind at their backs, the air's scent shifted sharply.
It carried the acrid stench of smoke and the metallic tang of blood from beyond the treacherous rocky ridge.
"Vines let smells pass right through. Sniff the wind, and you know what happened beyond the forest and ridge."
Kutrin grabbed a fistful of air, sniffed, and pressed on. The others trailed her with impressed looks.
The rocky ridge was brutal. No sure footing, no place to step. The path twisted at angles past vertical amid fractured boulders, yet Kutrin's group navigated it deftly.
Thud! Kutrin drove a piton into the rock face and vaulted atop the ridge.
"Argh! Help!"
Kaily slipped midway up. Crack! Kutrin's iron grip seized his collar and yanked him up.
"Th-thanks, Kutrin."
"......"
Kutrin turned away wordlessly. Kaily drooped, ears flopping.
Then Koik spotted something.
"There! I sense fire mana!"
He pointed to a distant peak, barren of grass, nothing but stone. No obvious fire source, but as a high-level fire mage, Koik's word was gold.
The wind had died anyway, halting their scent trail. Kutrin moved without hesitation.
"No way!"
Kaily, Koik, and Koike gaped. Atop the ridge lay heaps of charred ash.
Stockade fences, watchtowers, earthen ramparts—all smashed and burned, but their shapes discernible.
"Giant corpses..."
Koik shuddered, chills racing his spine. Over a hundred bodies at a glance, mangled, severed, scorched. Giants nearing 10 to 15 meters tall.
"She took down this many alone? Impossible!"
Kaily shouted. He'd lost his father, a top archer, to a single giant punch as a child—no body left. Yet here they were butchered.
"......"
Kutrin swallowed hard. Her sister, unmatched across the seven tribes even ten years ago. Now a Bloody Elf, slaying giants endlessly—how strong was she? Kutrin couldn't fathom.
"But she has a weakness, surely."
Kutrin muttered, hypnotizing herself. Legend held the Bloody Elf as an elf deviant born solely for slaughter—a demon god. Possessing supreme flesh but vile temperament, unable to live without constant killing, a walking calamity.
Grip! Kutrin tightened on her kukri.
No confidence against her sister, but monsters? That she could handle.
Then—clink.
A small sound from behind the rampart.
"There!"
Kutrin slashed like lightning. Crack! The massive rampart split in two.
Even unflappable Kaily's eyes widened. He nocked two arrows and loosed!
Ice and fire magic poured from the Koik siblings.
BOOM!
Amid deafening blasts, the rampart crumbled.
"......"
Through swirling ash, Kutrin glimpsed something enormous.
"What is that!?"
The village chief, it seemed—a shaggy brute in a water buffalo horn helmet, several times larger than the others.
Thud! He toppled sideways.
"......Da."
The giant mumbled as he fell.
"What'd he say?"
Kaily approached. Waist severed, two head holes, charred and frosted—yet still speaking!
"......I do not lie."
Those were his last words.
Kutrin stared at the corpse. Near 50 meters—a small mountain. If told to fight it? No win. So who wrecked this monster—and all the others?
Suddenly, a languid voice drifted from the half-collapsed rampart.
"Tch, still had questions..."
Sweet yet sleepy, like molten cotton candy. Kutrin knew it. Once her favorite voice in the world.
Kubelin! Her sister stood above!
"Hng..."
Kubelin gazed down, bastard sword—jagged with missing teeth—over her shoulder. Hair and blade drenched in giant blood, crimson.
"Bloody Elf!"
Koik and Koike recoiled, instinctively chanting fire and ice songs.
Grrr! Crackle!
Crimson flames and blue frost whipped into a storm. The Ko clan's top mages' joint assault!
But Kubelin just tilted her head blankly at the massive wave.
"......That all?"
She yawned, chuckled wryly, then cleaved the oncoming magic with her bastard sword!
Split! Flame pillar and frost storm halved. Koik and Koike's eyes bulged!
"Kutrin! Fall back!"
Kaily nocked an arrow. Twang! Two shot toward Kubelin.
"Hoo!"
Kubelin blew hard at the arrows. They froze midair, dropped limply.
Kaily's jaw dropped.
"M-monster!"
Kubelin smirked.
"I'm no monster. You're just too weak."
Then Kutrin moved.
Clang! Kukri met serrated bastard sword. Deafening roar, sparks flying.
Groan...
Not pushed back by force, Kubelin spoke, surprised.
"Ah, this blade. Old man Kusco made it, huh."
"Shut up! Don't speak the clan name with that filthy mouth!"
"Yeah, just did."
"Argh!"
Kutrin retreated, slashing. Kubelin lightly leaped over, landing opposite.
"Missed you, little sis."
"Shut up! I've trained like a maniac these years just to kill you!"
"What happened to the clan? Built a cemetery?"
"I said shut it!"
Kutrin charged, kukri forward.
"Kutrin, stay calm! She's not your sister anymore—just a monster!"
Kaily loosed arrows, shouting. Koik and Koike's magic followed.
But Kubelin's power crushed it all. One sword swing—snap! Her blade halved? No—Kutrin's sword!
A ferocious aura storm trampled everything. Arrows, magic, even their resolve as pursuers.
BOOM!
"Guh!"
Kutrin spewed blood, collapsing. Vision blurring. Tendons snapped, organs boiled. No sensation below the neck.
Kubelin loomed, expressionless. Body soaked in giant blood, red.
"......You've grown."
"Damn it! Don't play sister!"
"Been a while since I left the village."
"......Urgh!"
Kutrin ground her teeth. Kubelin, gazing down, suddenly spoke as if struck by thought.
"Makes me wanna pay respects at the graves."
She smiled lightly at Kutrin writhing worm-like on the ground. Then turned, heading off.
Toward the strait exit—and the clan village.
"Ah!"
Kubelin paused mid-stride.
"Ground's weak there. Don't linger."
"......!"
"Fought that big one rough earlier. Stay far away, okay?"
She smiled brightly, then truly turned and vanished swiftly.
Rumble!
The instant she left, the ground shook like a lie.
"Damn! Snap out of it, everyone!"
Kutrin crawled, yelling. But far off, collapsed on the cliff—Kaily, Koik, Koike unmoving.
"Go first, Kutrin. We can't."
Kaily forced a grin. No strength left, sprawled.
Koik and Koike same. Koik blind from mana backlash. Hugging Koike—chest hole from burst mana core—he wailed.
"Go, Kutrin!"
Kaily bellowed. Kutrin stared blankly, disbelieving.
"Kutrin! Go! Kill your sister!"
Kaily hurled his bow and quiver toward distant Kutrin.
Rumble!
Cliff twisted again. Kutrin snapped to. Desperately crawled. Knees, elbows raw and bleeding, she gritted, crawled on.
Roar!
Earthquake flipped heaven and land. Millennia-old rocks collapsed into the deep strait sea.
"......! ......! ......!"
Kutrin clenched eyes, teeth, endured. Clutched earth, clung desperately. All crumbled. Bounced off bucking ground countless times?
On the heaving earth, Kutrin finally blacked out.
"......!"
How much time passed? Awakening, she felt the ground still.
"Hey, friends! You okay!?"
Kutrin jerked her head up. Agony! Neck near-breaking, but irrelevant. Whipped around.
She lay precariously at cliff's edge. Heels back—nothing. Just abyss and endless sea churning below.
"......"
The steadfast heart that endured the collapse hit its limit.
Kutrin screamed.
A long, deep wail. As if ripping her heart from her throat.