Chapter 99
Chapter 99
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Dianne's Monstrous Transformation
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“What nonsense are you spouting? Does this ‘Hope’ character kill even clueless kids? There’s a limit to decorating yourself.”
Guchi scowled as he spoke. He was so repulsed he didn’t even want to look at her.
How many tombstones had been erected in Blue Norton for that? Guys who committed such atrocities calling themselves Hope? Righteous Order? They were utterly insane.
“Never mind the rest for now—we’ll get to it later. Where is Inebil right now?”
Lander asked.
“Don’t disturb him. After all the sacrifices we made to get here.”
Dianne kept repeating the same plea like a dazed fool.
Had she lost her mind? Guchi approached the restrained Dianne.
Her eye movements were unnatural. They darted upward, then dropped sharply, soon showing only the whites.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“No idea.”
“The ones we saw in the two-story house didn’t act like this.”
Guchi lightly tapped Dianne’s cheek with his palm.
Her eyes rolled back as she muttered, then suddenly she gaped wide and lunged to bite his hand.
Startled, he yanked it back. Dianne was gnashing her teeth so hard they might shatter.
“She doesn’t seem right.”
Dianne was thrashing like she’d taken cheap drugs. Lander pressed his knee into the back of her neck.
Even so, she flailed her limbs wildly. A bizarre noise emanated from her open mouth.
“Don’t interfere! We have things we must do!”
It was a grotesque sight. Red veins bulged on Dianne’s pale skin, swelling ominously as if about to burst.
“Some kind of magic side effect?”
“Maybe.”
Dianne, who had been shrieking and convulsing, suddenly went still. They approached to check.
Between her half-open eyes, the whites had turned bloodshot. It looked like every capillary had burst.
“Did she pass out?”
Guchi tapped Dianne’s head. Her neck lolled limply side to side, no response.
That was when Lander spoke up.
“Step back. Something’s off with her.”
Without asking why, he moved his feet first. He retreated, avoiding the corpses on the floor.
Purple smoke rose from Dianne’s body. The sight sent chills down his spine. He didn’t know what it was, but it felt deeply ominous.
“What the hell is that?”
“It’s mana taking form. If it’s visible, the concentration is no joke. Just to be safe, evacuate outside.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
He exited the room. At the end of the stairs, a terrified maid was peering down.
She seemed an innocent servant with no connection to this incident.
“Come here. It might get dangerous.”
“W-what’s happening? And that blood on your clothes….”
“Nothing good’ll come from knowing. Just get outside for now.”
He led the maid out. Snow was whipping fiercely.
“Guchi.”
A voice came from the white-blinded periphery of his vision. It was Deong.
Beside him was a stranger—likely the inspector from the joint operation.
“Perfect timing. Take care of this girl.”
“We pulled back after getting spotted and came back—what the hell happened? And all those bodies in the office?”
“You’ll hear the details from your commander later. Kalligo will explain it to death. More importantly, did anyone slip out of the mansion?”
“No one crossed my eyes, at least. Blind, you?”
The man called Blind replied. No one had escaped.
“Good enough.”
“What’s Lander doing in there? I sense ominous mana.”
“Don’t even think about approaching. If Lander says it’s dangerous, it really is.”
He handed the maid to the two inspectors and circled to the left side of the mansion.
He could see inside through the window. Dianne was rampaging. On all fours like a beast. She was so fast her form was only discernible when she paused briefly.
“What the hell is that?”
Deong, who had followed, asked. The maid must have been taken by the other inspector.
“No clue. What is that thing?”
“Is that even Dianne?”
“Until moments ago, she was calmly talking with us like a normal person. Now she’s like a magical beast.”
Guchi recalled the magical beast that had cost his friend his legs.
Dianne seemed like a magical beast in human form. The aura was eerily similar.
Just looking at it sent shivers and evoked thoughts of death—a monster of utter despair.
“I need to help.”
Guchi grabbed Deong as he tried to jump through the window.
“You’d just get in the way. Stay here and wait.”
“It looks dangerous.”
“He’s got it.”
Guchi trusted Lander. If his sword could cleave a magical beast in one strike, it could handle this freakish Dianne too.
A bizarre noise came from the room. Dianne’s unearthly screech. How had she ended up like this? Her appearance was hideous.
Dianne, mid-rampage, whipped her head around. Guchi’s hunter instincts told him: those were the eyes of a cornered animal. Searching for an escape.
Guchi seized Deong’s shoulder and shoved him down. Surprisingly, Deong’s body was rock-solid. Far more trained than he looked.
“Down!”
He yelled and dropped first. Deong followed. As they lowered, Dianne inside kicked off the windowsill and leaped.
It felt like a predator pouncing. They were over twenty meters away, yet in a blink, Dianne’s face was right in front of him.
Her blood-red eyes and saliva-smeared mouth came into view, followed by her raised hand flashing toward him.
Alarms blared in his mind. He wanted to unleash his seasoned hunter skills, but the foe was a monster.
Before his hand could reach the quiver on his shoulder, Dianne’s palm filled his vision.
Like a beast’s forepaw. One hit from that swinging hand would smash his skull.
His body froze, but he didn’t close his eyes. Damn, should’ve stayed farther back. As he steeled for death, thinking it wasn’t a satisfying last thought—
A warm liquid splashed his face. Guchi saw it: Dianne’s body splitting vertically.
From the crown of her head straight down, her corpse splayed grotesquely to both sides.
The organs inside writhed with disgusting vitality. Snowflakes landing on the heart melted into steam.
Dazed, he stared at the bisected remains before wiping his face with his hand. It came away drenched in blood.
Deong beside him was likewise covered.
“Worst mission ever.”
Deong exhaled heavily.
“You okay?”
Lander walked over, looking down as he asked. Guchi managed a stunned grin.
“Alive, so yeah. But this blood—it’s not a problem, right? Feels off.”
“No issues beyond the stench. The condensed mana’s already dispersing into the air.”
“Why’d she turn like that? Felt exactly like a magical beast.”
“The traits were quite similar. Kalligo will look into the details. Deong, mind collecting the bodies? A few more inside.”
“Got it. But this’ll cause a stir. The estate office will send people for sure.”
“Don’t worry. Reinforcements from above are coming. Hold the scene till then.”
Deong nodded, shaking blood from his hair.
“Is this woman still alive?”
The organs were moving. Even the eyeballs shifted. Tenacious life force. More than those in the two-story house.
“It’ll end soon.”
As Lander said, the twitching body went fully still. The spilled blood stained the white snow red. How did she become such a monster?
“Live long enough, you see it all.”
“There’s a basement here too. Shall we check?”
“I’m coming.”
He left Dianne’s corpse to Deong and entered the room.
The interior was wrecked. Dianne’s rampage had demolished furniture and even walls.
“This is the entrance.”
Lander stood before the bookshelf. He gripped his sword and swung lightly. A crack split the solid wooden shelf. Pulling it forward revealed a hidden iron door.
He pondered how to open it briefly, but it was pointless. Lander’s sword sliced the iron like paper.
The door toppled forward with a heavy thud. Before descending the stairs, Guchi examined the cut edge. Smooth as if polished.
Security was meaningless before that man. One sword cut through metal like nothing.
“What’s down there?”
Lander paused midway down the stairs. He eyed the left wall and ran his hand over it.
“Another entrance here. Magical mechanism. Must cost a fortune to maintain something like this.”
“If it’s magic, we should call a mage to disarm it…”
Before he finished, Lander’s sword moved. At the contact, blue light flared, and a cloying energy swept over him then vanished. A magic ward.
“Magic’s useless against your sword too.”
A hidden door appeared. They entered. Structure like the two-story house basement.
Iron bars on both sides, a path leading deeper. The difference: a nose-stinging scent.
“Inebil!”
Inebil was in the left cell, feet chained.
He approached the deathly still Inebil. His condition was awful. What happened in just ten days apart?
Gently shaking him awake. Inebil’s unfocused eyes fixed on Guchi, then he let out a hollow chuckle.
“Uncle.”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell do you have on your face? Smells awful.”
“Better than you.”
Seeing him grin and chat eased the worry. He wouldn’t die immediately.
“Sir Lander.”
“Speak.”
“What about Dianne?”
“Dead.”
“I see.”
“Sorry.”
“Why apologize? She was the one in the wrong.”
Inebil’s weak smile crumbled into sobs. He curled his emaciated frame pitifully and wailed openly.
Inebil must have foreseen Dianne’s death. Yet here he was, crying.
Foreseeing and facing reality were worlds apart. This young man was taking the shock full force.
He always spoke proudly of his master. It must hurt, suffocatingly sad.
Guchi gently patted Inebil’s shoulder. The tears wouldn’t stop easily.
(To be continued next time.)