The Price of Betrayal
It doesn't matter anymore...
“Haaah… Haaah…”
Amelda's entire body trembled violently as she let out pained moans. The tips of her fingers had already turned a sickly brown, and her flesh—corrupted by the demons' dark mana—was so thoroughly ruined that she could no longer wield ordinary magic. At the same time, the vivid agony that felt as if it were devouring her from the inside out continued to hammer at her mind without mercy. It urged her to accept this inescapable fate. To stop her meaningless resistance and simply find peace.
Yet even now, despite that overwhelming temptation, Amelda fought with every fiber of her being to suppress the horrific power trying to swallow her whole.
I… will not… submit… Never… There’s no way… I’d ever become… something like a Dark Elf…
Even if her body were torn to pieces, she was determined not to fall. Clenching her teeth against the terrible sensations raging through her, Amelda forced her trembling hands together and began to pray with desperate fervor. She begged to endure until the very end. To preserve her purity as an elf until her final breath. Her prayer was offered to the gods… and to the Hero, whom she believed was surely watching over her from above.
Then—
The sharp creak of a door opening reached her ears.
“!”
Amelda assumed the vile, monstrous demon Elisa had returned to continue her work of corruption.
“Kuh… You can stop wasting your time. I am Amelda, paladin of the Elf Theocracy… I would never submit to the likes of a demon like you!”
Her body was in ruins and her mind was frayed to threads, yet her voice still rang with defiance. But in the next instant, Amelda realized the figure who had entered was not Elisa at all. It was a demon warrior she had never seen before, his entire body encased in black armor. He carried a massive greatsword and radiated an unmistakably sinister aura. For a fleeting moment, hope flickered inside her—perhaps that filthy demon bitch had finally given up on breaking her.
Has she decided to kill me after all? If so, that’s for the best… There’s no reason left for me to live anyway. If I can meet my end cleanly, as a noble elf warrior…
A sense of relief washed over her at the thought of dying with atonement and at least a shred of honor intact.
Then—
“Oh? It really is her. It’s Amelda.”
“!”
At the sound of that voice, Amelda’s face froze solid. The voice coming from the black-armored demon warrior… It belonged to the one person she had believed she would never hear again. The voice she had longed for even in her dreams, yet could never welcome in this nightmare. Her head still bowed, Amelda felt her whole body begin to shake uncontrollably.
Wh-what… is this? Th-this voice… It can’t be… No… No, it can’t… There’s no way…
Shock slammed into the back of her skull as she tried to deny reality. But no matter how hard she fought, an undeniable truth began to take root in her mind.
“It’s been a while. Have you been well?”
The chilling greeting struck her ears again. Overwhelmed by unspeakable terror, Amelda slowly lifted her head. The moment she did, she saw the man remove his helmet. The sight felt like a sword gouging out her eyes.
“H-Hero…?”
The Hero stood before her wearing the demons’ foul armor and radiating an evil presence. The cold smile on his lips held not even a trace of the noble conviction he once possessed. Seeing him like this, Amelda forced her voice out, desperately trying to reject what was right in front of her.
“N-no… That can’t be possible. The Hero died back then! He met a noble death after being struck by the Demon King’s blade! Who… who the hell are you?! Even if you’re just disguising yourself as him, I won’t be fooled!”
“Haa…”
The Hero let out a heavy sigh at her outburst. With an icy expression, he looked down at her and spoke.
“Unfortunately, this is neither a lie nor a trick.”
“N-no… It can’t… It can’t be…”
“Your mouth can say whatever it wants… but you already know the truth, don’t you? That I am the Hero.”
“No! It’s not true!!!”
Tears poured from her eyes as she screamed in denial. Yet even as the words left her lips, her heart had already accepted the cruel reality. Amelda, who until this very moment had been slowly devoured by the demons’ mana, could not escape the clarity of the corrupted Hero standing before her. This was the result of her betrayal. The Hero had not met an honorable death—he had fallen into corruption even before she had.
And then—
“B-because of me…? It’s because of me…? That you… ended up like this? Because I… I betrayed you?”
As she accepted the sight of the Hero defiled by her own foolish choice, something deep inside her heart finally shattered. A truth too cruel for her to bear. Amelda’s already fragile mind broke into pieces.
“Ah… Aaaah…”
A hollow gasp filled with emptiness, sorrow, and crushing regret escaped her lips. In the next instant, the brown stain that had only touched her fingertips spread rapidly across her entire body. Elisa’s suppressed mana now surged forward, consuming her completely and twisting both her flesh and soul beyond recognition.
It doesn’t matter anymore… Whatever happens to someone like me…
Buried beneath an abyss of guilt so deep it had no bottom, Amelda could no longer cling to her pride as an elf or her hatred of Dark Elves. Her skin, once sparkling like pure white clouds, and her heart were dyed as black as the dirt beneath her feet. And so, the being known as Amelda—former member of the Hero Party and noble elf paladin—ceased to exist in this world. All that remained was a single Dark Elf woman with brown skin and black hair.
Right after the transformation was complete, the Dark Elf who had once been called Amelda turned toward her master. The figure who had stepped out from behind the Hero now stood before her. With sincere devotion, she bowed her head to Elisa and spoke.
“O great and exalted Master Elisa… Please accept this girl’s insignificant and unworthy loyalty.”
Watching the former elf paladin of the Hero Party turn into a Dark Elf in real time, I felt the same refreshing satisfaction I had experienced when I turned Terra into a dog.
Serves you right. I never imagined I’d live to see that arrogant bitch crawling on the floor like this.
Amelda had always boasted about the nobility of elves, yet she had become Torare’s whore and stabbed the Hero in the back. I had expected it would take much longer to encounter her again, but she received her karma far sooner than I anticipated—and in the most humiliating way possible, by becoming the very Dark Elf she had despised.
According to the original story, elves transformed into Dark Elves retained their memories but were instinctively driven to absolute loyalty toward the demon who had “created” them. No matter how fiercely they had tried to kill that demon only hours earlier, once the transformation was complete, they became eternal slaves. I could see the truth of that perfectly in Amelda as she prostrated herself before Elisa.
“How should I put it… It certainly feels refreshing, but apart from that, it’s rather fascinating. To think someone as proud as Amelda would end up like this.”
“Dark Elves are like this by nature. They retain a degree of intelligence and free will, yet they obey their master’s commands without question. In that regard, they make for quite useful and trustworthy slaves.”
Following Elisa’s orders, the Dark Elf Amelda was literally licking her feet. At first glance the sight resembled Terra, who was currently guarding my room like a loyal hound in a corner of the Demon King’s Castle. But there was a significant difference. Terra moved purely on animal instinct, her consciousness somehow still alive but sealed in an unreachable corner of her mind. Amelda, on the other hand, was licking Elisa’s feet with her full awareness and will intact. In a way, it could even be considered a slightly better fate—she was at least capable of feeling genuine “happiness” in her submission.
As I watched her obey her master like a perfectly trained dog, Elisa suddenly spoke.
“Um… Hero? So, what do you think? Does my gift… please you?”