Writes "Elf" But Reads "Bitch"
"Sssip! Pahaa."
I steadied my ragged breathing after the endless bloodbath.
"Haa, haa. If I'm gonna die... cough! Might as well go out pretty!"
Thud―my light rose-pink hair fluttered into the air. My legs, trembling from Mana Exhaustion after depleting every last drop of mana in my body, finally gave out, and I collapsed face-first. Even at the frigid mountaintop whipped by knife-like winds, the ground felt oddly warm, scorched from the brutal fight. Or maybe my head was messed up from the mana depletion too? I cautiously flipped my body over and stared at the sky. It was gradually brightening. The total solar eclipse was starting to fade. That meant the witches had triumphed over the gods.
"Wow, we actually won this."
It had been 200 years since I'd been dragged to this world and forcibly TS'ed. I'd ended a war that hadn't shown any sign of conclusion for over a thousand years with my own hands. Well, technically, Nihilum's elite vanguard had finished it off, but I was one of them, so let's gloss over the details. For someone whose greatest achievement in my past life was perfect attendance through 12 years of school, this was overflowing with glory. Sure, I'd gone from sudden loli life to a near G-cup glamour girl, and plenty had happened along the way, but life-or-death scraps like this battle were rare. It was against a god, after all.
I turned my head, and there lay a white-haired macho hunk over three meters tall, bisected at the waist and stone-cold dead. The sight made my face twist involuntarily.
"Haa, I should've medium-rare'd that pervert's balls before killing him... tsk."
The massive god dude had spewed all sorts of sexual harassment at me even before the fight kicked off. It started with offers to be his concubine, escalated to threats of turning me into his bedroom plaything if he won, and as things heated up, he wondered if I'd be just as wild in bed. Any woman would've filed charges on the spot, but as a former guy, you can imagine how I felt. Throughout the fight, I'd relentlessly targeted his lower half for a physical castration, but in the end, I just sent him to eternal rest without that satisfaction.
"Rose!! Rose Crimson!!"
A woman's shout echoed from somewhere. I turned toward the voice and saw a green-haired elf in a barely-there traditional elf outfit, staggering closer.
"Sonia? You're... alive, huh..."
As I spoke, Sonia peered past me and gasped.
"Heavens... Did you seriously take on the Celestial God all by yourself while I was gone?! And you left him in that state...!"
"I told you it'd be over by the time you got back."
Sonia gaped wordlessly at what used to be the Celestial God.
"Help me out now. Ground's getting cold."
"...Ah! Right!"
Snapping to, Sonia hurried over and tried to sling my arm over her shoulder.
"Ugh, give me a little strength here!"
"The hell? That's how you talk to a patient? I can't even twitch a finger right now."
"What about your 'Magic Spear'?"
"Sleeping over there. Guess it overdid it too after so long."
Where I nodded toward stood a flashy black obsidian spear jabbed diagonally into the ground. My lifelong weapon and partner, Laurus. Honestly, without Laurus in this fight, that pervert would've had me dead to rights. It covers 70% of my combat, a super reliable partner. Poor thing suffers with such an immature master. Right now, it was in auto sleep mode for mana recovery, looking all pitiful. I'd have to pamper it plenty when we got back.
As I smiled wryly, lost in thought, Sonia's steps halted.
"Rose, so you're in full Mana Exhaustion right now, right?"
"Yeah, first time in forever. Haven't spammed spells like this since training with my master as a kid..."
Stab!
"Guuk!!!"
I was about to vent about my PTSD-ridden childhood training hell when agony exploded in my side, sending me tumbling to the ground. Skin and muscle tearing, ribs scraping against jagged metal―a sickening sensation. Craning my neck to find the cause, I saw Sonia grinning ear-to-ear, dagger in hand.
"Kuhuk... you crazy bitch... what the fuck are you doing!!"
"Hmm... Should've gone for the heart after all?"
She sounded disappointed but kept that creepy smile. I flicked the dagger tip protruding from my side with my index finger.
"Surviving the Celestial God was unexpected... but this works out better. I've wanted to kill you with my own hands for ages."
Sonia von Trigrad, witch of Nihilum's elite. A wood elf who's unilaterally decided I'm her rival―the ultimate bitch. Her skills are legit, but her filthy personality makes her unpopular among the other witches. Elves in this world are all racist pricks with elf supremacy etched into their frontal lobes, zero manners across the board. Sonia's the espresso of that arrogance―ultra-concentrated. She talks all refined, but her backhanded insults are creatively vicious. I knew she hated me, but stabbing me in the side? Never saw that coming.
As my fevered head cooled, rationality kicked in.
"Ugh! You smug cunt. Can you even handle the fallout from this?"
Clutching my wounded left side, I demanded the reason―there had to be a trigger. Sonia ignored me, approaching the bisected Celestial God's corpse. She extended her hand, chanting a spell, and black mist poured from the body.
Mana? The black mist―presumed mana―gushed endlessly, and Sonia spread her arms wide, greedily absorbing it into herself.
"Hah! Even an 'evil god' is still a god, huh? Ahh, with this vast mana, I could wipe those filthy sub races off the face of the earth!!!"
Who hates other races that much? Maybe in her past life, she was some art school reject turned dictator. I'd thought it weird how she bailed at the fight's start, but that was her goal all along. The spell she just used was wood elves' specialty, Mana Drain―sucking mana from living beings to make it your own. I figured corpses were off-limits, but...
"Pfft."
I was pissed to my core, but watching Sonia cackle maniacally while guzzling black mana made me burst out laughing despite myself.
Hearing me, Sonia turned her creepy grin my way.
"Oh dear, has the fear of death finally broken your mind?"
"Puhahaha! Ow!"
Laughing too hard reopened the wound, ramping up the pain.
She's totally trying to make me laugh myself to death from blood loss!
"Fuck, that hurts... You wouldn't laugh? That pervert was strong, but he lost to me. And here you are, sucking up his mana and deluding yourself you're the world's strongest. It's straight-up comedy gold."
"Haa, what a letdown."
Sonia sighed, hand to her forehead, shaking her head like it was cliché.
"You're as simple-minded as your personality. Fine, I'll tell you as a parting gift. You're right―there was a time I thought beating you, Rose, made me the strongest. But then I saw your sisters, and my mind changed."
Sisters. My second family, blood sisters sharing the same biological 'mother.' I say 'mother' specifically because our actual mom, Vain Crimson, birthed us using only her own genes, rejecting any outside DNA. Utterly absurd by my old world's standards, but what can you do? Common sense from 22 years on Earth didn't apply in this fantasy dump.
"I heard the Crimson sisters are all evenly matched. And all three of you fought in this war, nice and cozy."
"No way you..."
"That 'no way'! With the primordial witch Vain Crimson gone, you're the so-called strongest in Nihilum. If one Crimson's ended up like this, imagine the others? I'll kill you now and send your sisters to join you soon enough!"
Does this bitch think she's top dog if our family vanishes?
"Haa... Sonia, you're a real fucking moron."
Stalling had recovered a sliver of mana. Clutching my wound with my left arm, I propped my right hand on the ground, knees bent, hauling my upper body up.
"First off, fact one of four you need to know: our sisters aren't evenly matched. No clue where that rumor started, but it's bullshit."
Clang! The sleeping Magic Spear Laurus spun through the air into my hand. Using it as a cane, I shakily stood fully.
"Fact two: we're not the strongest. Sure, us sisters outclass other Nihilum witches, but the real top dog is Red Crimson, my big sis. The baby sis might have a shot, but I've never beaten Red once in my life! Hup!"
With a short shout, I assumed javelin stance, poured all recovered mana into body enhancement, and hurled Laurus at Sonia. A deafening sonic boom split the air, black afterimage trailing.
Crack!!
But Sonia smirked mockingly, effortlessly dodging the incoming spear.
"Pathetic, Rose Crimson. Like a wriggling bug―entertaining, though."
All mana spent on the throw, I collapsed again, powering through.
"Fact three: you don't 'block' attacks like that―you 'dodge.' 'Cause you're shit at defensive magic."
"Elves, unlike barbaric sub races, sense ambient mana flows to predict attacks. No need to waste mana on defenses."
"Yeah~ We call that 'can't do it'~"
Face-down, I glared at Sonia and thrust out my right hand.
"And fact four: the partner I just threw is a total tsundere who adores me but pretends otherwise. She'll sneak back to my side if I leave her alone too long."
My lips curled up involuntarily. Seeing it, Sonia's smile faltered.
"Oh, bonus fact. You're a fucking moron. Laurus!!! Now!!!"
Calling my full-power-thrown partner, Sonia whipped around in panic―too late. Anticipating that, I scraped together nonexistent mana for a space spell. Forcing it without mana felt like my veins would burst, but no time like now! The incantation ripped open a small rift in the air, and I reached in, pulling out a slim metal cylinder. One end had a transparent case over a tempting blue button.
Realizing the trap too late, Sonia spun back to me. Grinning through the pain, clutching my wound, I taunted.
"Dumb bitch falls for it again?"
Slam―with my last strength, I smashed the cylinder into the ground. The case shattered, activating the rune inside.
Whoosh―a teleportation magic circle engraved around me on the ground, glowing bright. Sonia hurled a black-mana lightning bolt my way.
"Think I'll let you escape!!"
Sizzle! The black lightning streaked fast. Shit, too late?!
But against my expectations, the bolt veered downward at the last second, drawn in. Zap! Crackle! It slammed into the teleport circle instead of me, blue glow engulfed in black sparks.
"Uh? Wait, this is fucked..."
Before I could finish, the teleport's signature floaty pull yanked me into darkness.