Chapter 337: Evil God Subjugation (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 337: Evil God Subjugation (4)
The execution ceremony unfolded within the confines of a dazzling ballroom.
Instead of the grand melodies of an orchestra, the hall was filled with the sound of agonized groans.
Forced into searing-hot iron shoes, Snow White’s mother danced in torment, her anguished steps echoing through a ballroom so vast it bordered on the extravagant.
The charge: the attempted assassination of a member of the Imperial Family.
That day, Emperor Carlos watched the Empress’s dance with cold, dead eyes, like a man whose emotions had long since withered away.
Among the Imperial Knights standing in formation, Merlin Astrea caught sight of Princess Snow White.
White was hiding secretly behind a pillar. Her expression was utterly void of emotion, her gaze frozen and distant.
Another Imperial Knight eventually found White and quietly escorted her out. Even as she was led away, White’s eyes remained fixed on her mother, who was performing her final, horrific solo.
*
“Princess White!!”
In the gardens near Duke Hall, on the second campus of Märchen Academy.
As Snow White hacked her way through the encroaching zombies, claws of darkness lunged toward her. Merlin scooped White into her arms, leaping off the ground to narrowly avoid the strike.
Merlin quickly repositioned herself, shielding White as she adjusted her combat stance.
White’s eyes widened as she recognized the white-haired zombie who had cast the dark magic. Her pupils quaked as if struck by an earthquake.
“Mother…?”
The dress was tattered, yet it had clearly once been a garment of peerless beauty. Her decayed, rotting face still retained faint traces of her former elegance. The high-heeled iron shoes worn by the zombie were the very torture devices that had led to her demise.
She remained unchanged from the woman who had performed that final dance of death, but now, a horde of zombies followed in her wake.
Empress Grimhilde.
This was the woman who had obtained the world’s greatest beauty through a contract with Mephisto, winning Emperor Carlos’s affection and rising dramatically to the position of Empress.
She growled like a beast. Even in death, she harbored a festering resentment toward her daughter.
“The contractors of Mephisto that Lord Isaac mentioned… I see. Grimhilde, it’s only natural that you would appear among them,” Merlin muttered, narrowing her eyes.
“Merlin, that person…”
“Do not waver, Princess White. She is already dead.”
“…I know.”
Contrary to Merlin’s expectations, White remained remarkably calm and steadfast. Her moment of shock was brief.
White summoned the power of the night into her hands. The navy-blue mana flowed like smoke before suddenly intensifying, blazing with the ferocity of a dark sun.
“Merlin, leave the rest to me. I’ll end… my mother with my own hands.”
Merlin had no intention of hindering White’s resolve. She was prepared to risk her life only to help White break the chains of her past.
“…Understood.”
Fwoosh!
Merlin leaped into the horde of zombies, skillfully carving a path through them.
Crash!!
In rapid succession, White clashed her magic against Grimhilde’s. Grimhilde’s dark magic could not easily overpower the fairy power White wielded.
Grimhilde let out a roar of rage, her mouth tearing open to her ears. Even as a corpse imbued with Mephisto’s intelligence, her decayed body still clung to remnants of her memories.
Jealousy.
It was nothing but pure, unadulterated jealousy.
— Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?
Every day, Grimhilde had asked her talking mirror that question to confirm her status as the most beautiful. But as Snow White grew older, the mirror declared that Grimhilde’s daughter, White, was the fairest in the land.
In the past, Grimhilde had sacrificed everything to the demons to gain that beauty—her body and soul included. Yet White, simply by being born from Grimhilde’s womb, possessed a beauty far greater than her own.
How can this world be so unfair?
Grimhilde was furious. She had to be the most beautiful being in existence.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous!”
Crash!!
White sneered as she unleashed a series of wind blades infused with night mana. Grimhilde deployed a dark shield to block and absorb the attack.
“How could you decide to kill your own daughter?! I thought you’d at least consider me your child, even just a little! If you’d done that—even the tiniest bit—I would have tried not to resent you!”
No matter how many times her mother had tried to kill her, White had believed the pocket watch her mother gave her was a genuine gift. She had cherished it.
The fact that even that watch was Grimhilde’s ultimate tool to trap White in an eternal hell… left White with a profound sense of loss.
Step by step, White advanced toward Grimhilde, unleashing relentless blades of night wind. At last, she stood face-to-face with her mother.
“Here… let’s end it all, Mother.”
So that I can break the chains you bound around my heart.
To save herself, White would put an end to Grimhilde.
White’s mana intensified to a breaking point. The relentless barrage of night wind blades finally pierced through Grimhilde’s dark shield, ruthlessly tearing her form to pieces.
Shhhk!!
Grimhilde screamed.
Her decayed body, easily severed, crumbled like a collapsing sandcastle, turning into ashen dust. It was the end all demons faced.
Grimhilde’s parched lips moved slightly, like an arid field devoid of moisture.
[Ah… ga…]
At that moment, White stifled a gasp. Her eyes flew wide.
[My baby…]
The words were clear.
Grimhilde, as if gazing at something precious, murmured while staring into the void. Facing her second death, she had already lost most of her memories. She drifted within the strongest memory that had survived until the very end.
The memory was of a moment when she held a white-haired baby in her arms. When she extended her index finger, the tiny infant, barely able to open its eyes, grasped it tightly with a small hand.
Her heart had swelled with emotion, and an unbidden smile had spread across Grimhilde’s face. The woman gazing at the baby born from her womb had been smiling so happily.
For the first time, she had found a treasure that surpassed beauty.
“Baby, is that…?”
It was then that White realized. Her name had been given to her by her mother. She was named “Snow White” because she was said to be as fair as pure white snow.
Snow White.
If her mother was a woman who would envy even her daughter’s beauty, why would she give her such a name?
Questions followed in rapid succession. Mephisto had made two contracts with Grimhilde.
Why?
Looking at the fates of the other contractors, the answer was simple. Happy endings were never intended for them. The two contracts were likely designed to deliver the ultimate tragedy to Grimhilde.
What was that talking mirror?
The strange mirror was a gift from Mephisto. It constantly fed Grimhilde’s need for validation, telling her she was the fairest. It steadily built her obsession with beauty. Even the jealousy Grimhilde felt when the mirror changed its stance was part of Mephisto’s design.
Mephisto possessed the power to poison a contractor’s heart with malice. Just as she had done to Alice, who usurped the Queen of Hearts’ power in Wonderland. It was impossible for that power not to affect an ordinary woman who merely coveted beauty.
When the time was ripe, Mephisto—as if waiting for the perfect moment—approached Grimhilde and offered a second contract to cast White into the abyss. She had anticipated the tragedy that had already been set in motion.
“Wait, Mother…! Don’t disappear yet, not yet…!”
Swish.
Grimhilde’s form vanished completely. The woman who had been a mere plaything for Mephisto met her pitiful second demise.
Not even her mother’s ashes remained in White’s hands. When she opened her clenched fist, only the meager dust left in her palm scattered helplessly in the wind.
It felt as though her insides were being shredded. Her blood boiled with a furious heat. Unbearable rage consumed her.
Whoosh!!
Driven by White’s intense emotions, her night mana surged. It took the form of navy-blue wings, elevating her power to a much higher level. Immense mana descended upon the schoolyard.
Ssss!
The radiant navy-blue mana spread across the ground. The dense energy avoided White’s allies, steadily devouring only the horde of zombies.
The faculty and students of Märchen Academy, as well as the Imperial Knights, looked around with astonished faces at the overwhelming night mana enveloping the area.
“This is…?”
Only the feeble screams of the zombies echoed.
A startled Merlin immediately looked at White. She saw the white-haired girl kneeling on the ground, her head bowed low, consumed by loss. The surging night mana made her hair and clothes flutter violently.
The wings of mana extending from White’s back flickered like cold flames. In contrast to the navy-blue wings, her body glowed softly, emitting a pure white light.
“Princess White…?”
White stood up. Merlin took in the sight of the girl's face. It was marred by sorrow and rage, shrouded in a thick aura of murderous intent.
“Merlin, I have to go.”
“Where to…?”
“The First Campus.”
The enormous eye that filled the sky was directed toward the First Campus. Fierce flames were spreading across the horizon there—a battlefield where no number of lives would ever be enough.
White intended to head to the place where the 「Evil God Subjugation」 was taking place.
“That demon… I must kill it myself.”
White desperately wanted to destroy the demon that had reduced her mother to such a state.
“Princess White…!”
Whoosh!!
As Merlin charged forward to stop her, White unleashed a burst of navy-blue mana, shaping her wings and darting away in an instant.
A navy-blue comet streaked across the sky, heading straight for the First Campus.