Helius (7) - The Red Witch
Helius (7) - The Red Witch
Heavy footsteps echoed through the cool corridor of the underground dungeon.
[ Kkigik... Kkigigik... ]
Along with that, the tip of a Longsword, caked with blood and flesh, scraped against the stone floor, emitting a chilling friction sound.
[ Seureureuk... ]
In the darkness, the hem of a red dress swept across the floor.
A thick, unpleasant stench, a mixture of men's bodily fluids and blood, spread through the air.
"Who... who's there! Stop right there!"
The urgent shouts of guards echoed, trying to halt the unknown footsteps.
But the spearheads pointed at the red figure approaching through the darkness were already trembling with fear and unease.
[ Kkigigigik... ]
As if mocking their trembling, the sound of steel scraping the floor grew closer.
"Damn it, if you don't drop your weapon and stop right now...!"
The guard's shout was cut short.
[ Peolleok- ]
In an instant, as the red dress fluttered in the air.
Rose's Longsword, which had closed the distance at some point, struck the side of the man at the very front.
[ Kwaang-! ]
"Keoeok!!"
With a terrible tearing sound, the soldier's body flew through the air.
"This, this monster bitch...!"
The two remaining soldiers, horrified, simultaneously thrust their spears.
[ Papapat- ]
She deflected their attacks.
Closing the distance in an instant.
The Longsword, dull and heavy like a club, cut through the air.
[ Peok- Peopeok-! ]
"Keoeok..." , "Kkeuak!"
The soldiers were instantly sprawled on the ground.
Rose didn't even glance at the fallen men and resumed her indifferent steps.
She hadn't taken their lives.
It wasn't out of petty mercy or guilt.
It was simply because there was no need to kill them.
There were annoying obstacles, so she merely removed them.
At this moment, there was no room in Rose's mind for morality, reason, or pity.
'I'll kill him.'
Rage boiled up from deep within her chest.
Directed at whom?
The Knights who had violated and humiliated her?
Cassian, who had created this terrible cycle of Lust?
Or was it self-loathing for having been so helplessly subjected?
The Knights were already dead, Cassian couldn't be found, and she had no intention whatsoever of taking her own life.
Ultimately, if there was a target to unleash her explosive killing intent on at this very moment.
'Malus.'
The arrogant Guardian who had thrown her to the beasts as prey,
and driven Sherin and Ailan into a death trap.
She would kill him.
The rest could come after that.
< Illustration - The Red Witch >
Her red eyes, overflowing with rage, gleamed in the darkness.
After emerging from the narrow stairs of the underground dungeon and reaching the central hall on the first floor, where tall marble pillars rose.
"So you killed Gareth and Boran."
In the middle of the spacious hall.
The man who had been leaning against a marble pillar stood up.
Silver hair, sharp and cold eyes.
Lloyd, the Knight Commander of Helius.
He faced the approaching Red Witch, who exuded killing intent, without flinching.
[ Seureureung- ]
He merely drew the sword from his waist and took a stance.
"It's my first time fighting a Guardian."
"Get out of my way."
Rose still held her sword with its blade dragging on the floor.
"I don't have time to waste on you."
"Even if you have no business with me, I must take your head."
[ Uwooong- ]
White Aura rose from Lloyd's sword blade.
A powerful force, on a different level from what she had seen from Theodore or Sherin.
"Theodore's squire and his sibling, your companions, are already dead. They suffered in agony, screaming miserably."
"......Is that so?"
For a moment, a fleeting image passed through her mind,
Sherin's shy smile.
It ached as if a knife were tearing at a corner of her heart.
"Then I'll make sure you bastards die just as... miserably."
Soon, a colossal rage swallowed even that poignant sorrow.
[ Kwaaaang-!! ]
With a thunderous roar as if the marble floor had exploded.
Rose kicked off the ground, soaring through the air and instantly closing the distance.
[ Uwooong-]
[ Kaaang-!!]
The Longsword, imbued with blue Mana, and the surging white Aura clashed head-on.
[ Kkigigigik- ]
Lloyd was pushed back, dragging his feet on the floor as if he had taken a blow from a giant Ogre's mace.
'Is this... the power of a Guardian!'
He wasn't given much time to be surprised by the blow, which was more powerful than he expected.
For the sword strikes, imbued with the Guardian's Mana, came rushing in like a whirlwind from all directions, closing the distance and pursuing his retreating movement.
[ Kaaang-!! Chaeng! Chaechaeng-! ]
"Kkeueuk...!!"
Lloyd's eyes widened, and he swallowed a groan.
In terms of swordsmanship technique alone, it was a pathetic attack.
Just a wild, indiscriminate hacking, letting her body be consumed by rage and swinging her arms as she pleased.
[ Kakakakang- ]
But the power was so immense that even blocking it made his bones ache,
and the speed was absurd, too much for his eyes to follow.
'How can she... imbue her body with Mana to increase her speed like this!'
Lloyd, realizing he had no chance in close combat—
"Haaaat!!"
"!!"
Seizing a momentary opening, he swung his Longsword widely horizontally to block Rose's approach,
then leaped back to create distance.
"Die!"
He brought his sword down vertically with force, unleashing a white sword energy.
[ Kwakwakwakwa- ]
The sword energy, like a bolt of lightning, surged forward, cleaving the marble floor.
But Rose, facing the attack, did not move.
"Something like this......"
"?! She's not dodging?"
Contrary to Lloyd's expectation of exploiting the opening when she dodged the slash.
Rose, standing still, swung her free arm, unleashing Mana.
[ Kwaaaang-! ]
"Kkeueueueuk-"
In that fleeting moment when Lloyd's vision was obscured by the explosion created by the clash of the two energies—
[ Chwaaaak!! ]
Rose's sword, which had closed the distance through the explosion at some point,
sliced off Lloyd's right arm, which was holding the Longsword.
"Kuaaaak!!"
[ Chwachwaaak- ]
His other arm, which he tried to use to grab his bleeding shoulder while writhing in pain, was immediately severed as well.
[ Peoeok-! ]
Lloyd was sent flying by a subsequent kick, crashing onto the floor.
"Kkeueueueuk..."
Rose slowly walked towards him, where he lay fallen, having lost both arms.
[ Kwajik- ]
She stomped on his chest and pointed the tip of her sword at his throat.
"Where is Malus?"
"Keuk... Koolleok... Kill me, you witch bitch...."
"Oh really?"
Rose didn't change her expression at all,
and lightly twisted the wrist holding her sword, deeply slashing Lloyd's thigh.
[ Chwaak- ]
"Kkeueueueuk!!"
"Aura Knights are tougher than I thought. If you don't answer my question, you'll suffer far more. Where is Malus?"
"Do whatever you want, you whore bitch..."
"Calling a whore a whore doesn't offend me at all, you know?"
As she mockingly gave a seductive eye-smile to the pain-distorted Lloyd and raised her sword high again—
[ Swaeeaaek-! Swaek! Swaeeaaek-!! ]
With a tearing sound ripping through the air, a rain of arrows unleashed by dozens of soldiers poured down.
[ Uwooong- ]
[ Tudududuk. ]
But blocked by the barrier of wind Rose created with a swing of her arm, the arrows fell powerlessly to the ground.
"What in the..."
"It's magic... arrows won't work...!"
The soldiers, terrified, swallowed hard.
But now that their first attack had been futilely blocked.
No one dared to draw another bowstring or unsheathe a sword and charge forward.
The strongest Knight, lying on the ground with his limbs severed.
The red-haired witch, standing over him with a seductive posture.
The rain of arrows scattered around them.
As the soldiers were paralyzed by the grotesque scene unfolding before their eyes.
"Is this all?"
The witch's slender arm swept through the air again.
[ Uwoooong- ]
The arrows scattered on the floor simultaneously rose into the air, as if threaded by blue Mana.
"Take them back."
"!!!"
Dozens of arrows flew back along the path they had just been shot, at several times their original speed.
[ Papapapapak!! ]
"Dodge them!!"
"Kkeuaaaak-!!"
"Keoheok! My eyes...!!"
[ Puuk! Kwajik! Chwaaaak-! ]
Screams erupted.
Along with them, a spray of blood poured down.
Soldiers collapsed.
"This... monstrous witch bitch...!!"
"...You bastards are the ones who made me like this."
Rose repeated to herself.
Yes. It's not my fault.
You bastards, who abuse and torment the weak just because you possess some paltry power, are the evil ones.
Jeobeok- Jeobeok-
Rose walked.
Leaving Lloyd behind, who lay on the floor, glaring up with venomous eyes.
Suppressing the creeping self-loathing—'What am I even doing?'—
Through the soldiers writhing in pain.
"Sa... Save me......!!"
Soldiers scattered in terror at the sight of the approaching Red Witch.
She roughly grabbed the nape of a soldier's neck, who was trying to crawl away on the floor with an arrow stuck in his thigh.
"Hiiiiiik-! P-Please save me...! Please...!"
"Shhh. Be quiet."
Rose brought her lips close to the soldier's ear and whispered in a sticky voice.
"Good boy, aren't you? If you answer my question, I won't hurt you. Where is Malus right now?"
"Haaak... Eueuk... Ma, Malus-nim is...."
The soldier's eyes, previously filled with terror, instantly glazed over with pink Lust.
Soon, the soldier began to drool, letting out ecstatic moans.
"On the second floor... the innermost room... in the Lord's reception room... he is there... Haat... Please embrace me...."
"Thank you. Go masturbate by yourself."
"Haak... Eueuk..."
[ Tak-Tak-Tak- ]
Leaving behind the grotesque sound of him thrusting his hand into his trousers with glazed eyes.
Rose ascended the spiral staircase leading to the second floor.
[ Kkiiiiik- ]
Opening the door to the reception room, the innermost room on the second floor as the soldier had said, the entire view of the spacious room came into sight.
"...You're that red-haired Guardian."
Taleman, the Lord of Helius, sat in a high place, unable to hide his uneasy expression as he looked down at her.
"...I never thought you'd come this far."
Below him, Guardian Malus glared at her with a heavily distorted expression.
And—
"Rose-nim...!"
Beneath the tip of Malus's extended blade, a wounded Sherin looked at Rose, tears streaming down her face.