Karahan's End
The headquarters of Red Scorpion was sealed behind ash-gray walls. At its heart stood a gaunt man named Kuran, thirty-one of his people clustered tightly around him.
“Lord Kuran. They’ll be here in ten minutes.”
“Their condition?”
“Mariel handled things cleaner than expected. Truly your daughter, my lord.”
Kuran’s face twisted.
“She’s nothing but the worthless spawn of some whore. And she even let the artifact get discovered. Useless bitch.”
“Haha… Still, she did slit her own belly open to plant it. Of course… you forced her to.”
“If she hadn’t, I’d have killed her on the spot. Lucky for her. Enough. Shut that mouth of yours, Mute. I know you want to fuck her, but I told you clearly—we sell her while she’s still unused.”
The man called Mute bowed at the waist.
“…Forgive me.”
After Mute’s apology, silence swallowed the room. Only the excited breathing of the rank-and-file filled the air. Kuran closed his eyes and let his mind drift back four days.
To the black knight who had suddenly stormed headquarters.
To the black knight who, without ever drawing a blade, had torn the heads from three hundred of his men.
Eyes could not follow. Magic could not sense. There had been no time even to bite down on a “pill.”
Even he, boss of Red Scorpion, had been able to do nothing but watch his people die.
When only a tenth of the organization remained, the black knight had handed them a single small scrap of paper.
The contents were simple.
Kill the pink-haired smith named Hepais.
It detailed everything—from how to lure her, to the exact route she would take.
It was only an order to dispose of one girl, yet it had to be obeyed.
It was a command from the strong to the weak.
“Haa…”
A deep sigh slipped from Kuran’s lips.
Red Scorpion had crushed three Platinum adventurers—even if he himself had only recently risen to that rank. Two of those Platinums he had killed with his own hands.
And yet.
They had been annihilated by a single knight who never even used his main weapon.
True, only the expendable trash had died, so the organization itself had not suffered a mortal wound. Still, the bleeding had been far from light.
Then a voice shattered his thoughts—an operative racing down the stairs from the fourth floor, boots hammering every step.
“Eight hundred meters left! But… there are two unreported companions!”
“Women?”
“Yes. Both women.”
“Good.”
Kuran slowly opened his eyes and rose from his seat.
“Perhaps—”
Mute watched his lord’s face carefully before speaking.
“Yes. If you can subdue those two as well, do whatever you like—fuck them, cook them, I don’t care. But the one with the biggest tits is mine first.”
At Kuran’s permission, the men’s morale soared.
“Kehehe… Understood. We thank you for your mercy, Lord Kuran.”
“Didn’t you say you liked Mariel?”
“Ahem. Main course and special course are separate matters, I believe…”
“You piece of shit.”
“Th-thank you.”
Already some of them were grabbing their crotches, bodies twitching with anticipation. Kuran himself felt heat gather between his legs as he pictured the girl who would soon be gasping beneath him.
In that instant—
“Shit! Get out here already!”
Mariel’s frantic voice forced its way through the crack of the door.
At the same moment the man at the very front wrenched the door open.
Crunch—
Beyond the open doorway came a sound like a pumpkin splitting. Mariel collapsed, foam bubbling from her mouth.
“Kill the pink-haired one first!”
At Kuran’s shout the lead man hurled his axe at the pink-haired woman.
Empowered by a “pill,” the axe tore through the air with a savage wind pressure that would have shredded ordinary flesh and burst a body apart.
Yet—
Clang—
The small girl standing beside her flicked her sword hilt lightly and knocked the axe aside. Its path twisted; it slammed into the floor and carved a shallow crater.
“Huh…?”
A sound thick with disbelief left the thrower’s mouth.
Kuran’s expression crumpled as well.
An attack from a doped operative could tear even the famously tough hide of a minotaur in a single blow.
And she had swatted it away so easily.
He studied the girl who had deflected the axe.
Black hair. Closed eyes.
A small frame that somehow carried… a greatsword?
Kuran recalled the rumor circulating through Urusphier—the rumor that had driven so many adventurers to take up greatswords.
The red-eyed demon who had single-handedly torn apart tens of thousands of monsters that invaded Roholan and drunk their blood.
And who, not content with that, had slit the throat of the Nightmare of the East—Carpeng—and drunk the blood that poured out.
The blood-drinking demon.
“Lord Kuran… that adventurer, could she be—”
Splurt—
Mute never finished the sentence.
The body of the operative standing in the doorway simply exploded.
Nor did it stop there—the lower half of the man beside him was ripped clean away.
Wet, meaty sounds filled the room.
“Fuck…!”
Mute spat a curse, crushed a pill between his teeth, and red mana roared from his hands—twice as strong as his own, strong enough to scorch his own flesh as it blasted forward.
The target was the girl in front, the one holding the greatsword.
Mute watched the flame streak out at a speed the eye could barely follow and allowed himself a thin smile.
That smile vanished almost at once.
The full-power blast struck a silver-white barrier and died. In the same breath the greatsword swept through the ranks and more of his men burst apart.
Mute dumped another pill into his mouth and dragged mana together again. An even fiercer flame bloomed at his fingertips—
BOOM—!
It erupted with savage force.
This time the target was the robed mage who had raised the barrier.
The silver-white aura was slow to react.
This one would hit for certain.
Burns were a pity, but as long as the holes still worked he would be fine. The corner of his mouth lifted.
“Haha! You dog-bitch, how dare you—wait, what the fuck is that?!”
But once more the smile fell.
The greatsword girl had simply flung a crawling operative into the path of the flame. The fire he had sacrificed every finger to launch detonated against his own ally and fizzled out.
He spat another string of curses.
And in that instant the girl was suddenly right in front of him, fist driving toward his gut.
Mute sucked in a breath and poured every scrap of mana into his abdomen. Layer upon layer of power became a thick wall.
Yet the girl’s strength surpassed mana.
“Guh—!”
A bare fist, uncoated by any magic, shattered the doubled barrier and pulverized every one of his ribs.
Her hand did not escape unscathed. Nails were ripped out; fingers twisted; her wrist hung limp, blood streaming.
Kuran saw his chance and spun to put distance between them.
He could not move.
“Ah… that’s enough.”
A voice thick with rapture.
Crunch—crack—grind—snap—
Crunch—crunch—screee—screeech—
Snap—crackle—grind—
Sounds like skin being flayed.
Like bone being ground.
Like tough meat being chewed.
Those sounds rooted his feet to the floor.
Stopped his breath.
Cold sweat ran down his spine.
He forgot even to swallow; saliva dribbled from his lips.
Instinct screamed a warning.
Never look back, it howled.
His body refused to listen.
Slowly his head turned.
His body, his legs, every part of him moved to find the source of that sound.
And he saw it.
Skin torn away.
Bare bone of a hand clenched around the edge of the greatsword.
Not breath, but blood, spilling from her mouth.
Then she tore an operative’s head free and laughed—a bright, delighted giggle.
The blood-drinking demon.
He saw her.
Teeth chattered. Clack-clack.
Trembling legs dragged him to the floor.
A mind paralyzed by terror denied reality until thought itself froze.
Those red eyes, glittering with madness, swept the room.
“So… this is how it feels…”
The demon’s mouth opened.
“Better… than I thought…”
“U-uaaaaaaah!!”
A subordinate who charged from behind—
Splurt—
—burst and died.
“B-Boss! R-run!”
The head of the man lying on the floor—
Crrrack—
—split open.
“You fucking bitchhhh!”
The body of the man who swung an axe from behind—
Ssshhhk—
—was cleaved in two.
“Ahh… better… than I… thought… so… good…”
While she tore the remaining men apart, the demon wore a blissful smile. She licked the blood that had spattered her lips and walked slowly toward him.
“D-don’t come…”
He raised a hand and fired ice.
It sank into the demon’s arm.
She only smiled.
“I said stay away!”
He fired again.
Ice pierced her leg.
Still she smiled.
“U-uaaaaaaagh!!!”
Ice, fire, wind.
The demon’s abdomen was pierced, her skin melted, her hide torn open.
And still—
“Heh… heh… doesn’t… hurt… oh… this is… bad…”
—she smiled.
Step— step—
One step, then another, the demon advanced at a leisurely pace.
Crack— crunch— grind—
Endlessly killing the men around her.
Coming closer.
Closer.
Until there was nowhere left to retreat.
Splash—
The demon stopped.
“Heh… why are you… shaking so much? Don’t tell me…”
Then she simply sat down right there.
“Are you cold?”
Their eyes met.
“Want me to… cover you with a blanket?”
She smiled shyly.