Chapter 98
Translator: uly
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Forest
My mind feels like it's about to snap.
Mad sneers filled with insanity and relentless worries kept surging up, filling the entrance to this frozen wasteland. Swords and wings forged from vengeance clashed, circuits and magic intertwined. Yet those two things-stained with worries and laughter, madness and revenge-never stopped.
"Ha! So you're a knight order? You're nowhere near that knight's level!"
The one pressing the ferocious assault was Kirumin Jay, the Night Hag Queen. Elis deflected, dodged, and blocked her attacks, but the queen's unpredictable strikes, empowered by the Demon King's horns, were beyond flashy-they inspired awe.
She detonated circuits at her claw tips to ignite flames, from which blood-red heat poured down like molten lava. Some spell or curse imbued them, melting and corrupting the earth itself as they fell.
The heat was lethal even from a graze, yet the onslaught continued.
The Night Hag Queen vanished from sight if you blinked, hurling waves of heat into the air with wings harder than steel, detonating them mid-flight while charging with brute kicks or grabbing Elis's arm to shatter its circuits.
Elis tried severing her own arm to create distance, but this time, the queen raked the ground with circuits in her foot, kicking up ice that shattered into razor shards and surged upward. Riding her horse-like knight, Elis raised both hands to barely block the fragments, but Kirumin Jay exploited the opening, circling behind to spew hellfire from the circuit etched on her tongue.
Whoosh!
"Tch. Haha! How about this?"
Not even waiting for Elis to fully melt, the attacks raged on. Flames and blood, ice and explosions-a festival brimming with madness. Truly befitting the Demon King's trusted subordinate, a horned demon queen worthy of the title. But Elis hadn't been idle either.
'Knight's Spear Piercing the Eyes'.
Screeeeech!
With her arm severed and her body melting in the inferno, vengeful red energy gathered at her sword's tip, firing a deep purple beam. Predictably, Kirumin Jay whipped her head aside to dodge, but the beam didn't stop-it kept firing relentlessly.
"Tch!"
The beam scraped across the world itself, pursuing Kirumin Jay and carving deep gouges. Even when she took to the air, Elis twisted her sword to chase it, deeply scoring the golem's armor behind her mid-flight. Ice shards exploded with a thunderous boom, and the beam finally ceased.
"That's not all, is it?"
The queen's mocking question drew no response from the knight.
She simply drowned in endless worries. If this madness was true life, was it right to succumb to it? What reason drove her to raise her sword against flesh that was neither foe nor ally? What must she do here and now? How could their twisted vengeance ever end?
"I need madness."
Elis dismounted her horse-like vengeance knight and roused the others, their red eyes glowing.
"Ha! I crave revenge, knight!"
Kirumin Jay activated the golems' blue eyes and set their massive arms in motion. Both unleashed colossal power almost simultaneously, awakening the other eyes, but their gazes locked solely on each other. No tales, causes, or consequences entered those stares. Neither Demon King nor Hero mattered in this instant.
Not life, not even death. Only madness and revenge faced off, fueling deranged laughter and soaked worries once more.
"Die!"
At Kirumin Jay's shout, the golems smashed down with their brutish fists in unison.
"Rise!"
In response, Elis's knight order scattered, transforming their right arms into lance form to target the golems. Snowstorms whipped up from the ground around each one.
Boom!
"You think I'll let you?!"
Of course Kirumin Jay wouldn't miss such an attempt, but before the golems could thin the knights' ranks, deep purple and red energies coalesced on their blades faster.
'Knight Order's Spear Piercing the Giant'.
Screeeeech!
In an instant, dozens of purple beams lanced toward the golems. Like swords of light, they didn't vanish-they relentlessly assaulted.
As the light built into heat and exploded, one golem's head blew apart. But as Elis herself knew, golems would move again unless their cores were destroyed.
She felt no need to target the cores. Not preparing for some future war, just a simple thought: aim for the one controlling them.
Crackle, zzzzzz-
"All units, turn your sword tips to the Night Hag Queen!"
'Knight's Spear Piercing Death'.
The purple beams converged with a single crimson one in midair, firing straight at the Night Hag Queen.
Boom!
But it didn't end there.
The beam kept bombarding Kirumin Jay without stopping. She barely blocked with flames from her circuits, but the ominous light pierced through, melting her body literally.
"Graaaah!"
As the queen's eyes burst, massive blood sprayed into the air, mingling with the flames. The fire snuffed out instantly, and the beam devoured her.
Crackle-
Now, preparations for reflection were complete.
"Devour even Harpia's share, vengeance knight."
Screeeeech!
A colossal beam capable of obliterating a distant Hatam mountain peak hurtled down, blasting the peak as it descended on Elis.
Boom!
Her position and surroundings melted in heat that scorched even the ice. Elis was gone. But her knight order, still brimming with madness, prepared their next assault on the golems. It wasn't over. Sensing this, Kirumin Jay summoned flames hot enough to burn her own molten body, gathering them in the sky.
The red inferno compressed until its heat turned it blue. Where? Where is she? She frantically searched for Elis's remains. But no traces remained on this land.
"Where are you?!"
Invisible to the eyes. She existed only in thought.
Like kin of sin manifesting so.
Only worries lingered where her life had burned away. Where had she reborn, and where was she headed? All living things marched toward death. Thus, her descent from the peak was no different from life.
Life was merely a path from somewhere to somewhere, filled with indulging madness and exacting revenge.
Worrying endlessly, sharing malice, killing without end. So fleeting, so ugly.
Thus, her death was just.
"But..."
Elis didn't want that.
If she could break free from this malice-filled tale through endless worries and embrace hope. Gladly, she would die. And revive. Slay the gods. And save her enemies.
Her will set, her life was just.
"I'must rise."
Through her vengeance, Elis rose in massive red light, forming a knight taller than giants, piercing the heavens like a god.
"Impossible..."
Beyond words, beyond thought. Kin of sin had descended; her persecution became vengeance striking down. Without a sound, Kirumin Jay plummeted as thick droplets of blood wracked with pain.
"Ha, haa, heh, haa..."
If not for the circuits flowing across her body, even identifying her as the queen would be impossible amid the damage. Yet her intact left eye stared straight at the approaching knight.
Fierce madness for revenge pierced Elis.
"Enough now."
Through vengeance, Elis slowly repaired Kirumin Jay's body. The queen briefly raged, fearing she'd be turned into one of Elis's knights, but thankfully, it didn't happen. Vengeance without madness couldn't achieve it.
Amid the motionless golems, Elis roused her knights, remnants of madness intact. Among them was the one who'd seen Harpia. No, by some coincidence-or divine prank-it bore Harpia's wings.
The black-winged knight knelt beside the regenerating Kirumin Jay.
"Haa..."
The winged knight stroked Kirumin Jay's face.
"I'm heading down."
With no apologies, Elis turned away. What just happened wasn't her doing. Why the Harpia-winged knight acted that way, even Elis didn't know. Perhaps the immortal who'd retained consciousness fused with this alien kin of sin, leaving some will.
Watching, Kirumin Jay drew a deep breath and smiled faintly. At last, the queen's revenge was fulfilled.
Elis led the Harpia-winged knight and the others back toward the river.
***
"S-Stop, by the gods..."
The young wolfkin there could only lower her drawn bow at the sight of Elis's knight order.
"F-Follow me. Kin of sin."
As the knight order crossed the iron bridge, dawn broke, casting brilliant orange light upon them. That fiery warmth stirring their hearts-it was morning.
"Have you come to reclaim your sword and madness?"
"Yes, Wolfkin King."
In the dawn returning each day, she met the death she'd glimpsed before once more.