Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: 11. Superior-Subordinate Love (8)
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"Sssip. Looks like they're scheming something after all."
Svetlana confirmed Julius and his group entering the labyrinth before continuing to monitor Karin's coordinates. The fact that they'd brought along a woman she hadn't seen before made it clear they were targeting her and preparing something—but she had no idea what exactly.
"Well, it's not like I have any choices."
Smirking in the form of a transformed human woman, she headed straight for the back alley.
She wasn't the type confident in head-on fights or scrapping it out with her body, but she didn't die in the first place. The authority granted by pledging loyalty to the Demon God was lust, infinite regeneration, and fission.
Even if purified outright, she'd revive even if the Goddess herself intervened. As long as a single trace of Svetlana's existence remained in the world, she could return no matter how much time it took.
Just as it was nearly impossible to strip humans of their lust, she herself was lust incarnate, etched into the world.
So she could handle most petty tricks. And that made it all the more fun.
For her, who had essentially achieved immortality and lost all desire for survival, only the thrills that jolted her brain remained.
After a brief moment of contemplation, she teleported toward Karin. The instant her body arrived in that bizarre shrine, her head went flying.
"Oh my, oh my, oh my. How rough."
The cross-section of her severed neck bubbled furiously, infused with the Goddess's power, but she reached out, caught her flying head, and placed it back on her neck. It reattached in no time.
And now, a greeting to the handsome human man she hadn't seen in ages.
"First time seeing me in this form, is it, esteemed Julius Lebedev?"
"No need for the honorifics."
Sword qi from the high-ranking demon like herself came flying at a speed even she struggled to track visually. She barely dodged her head, but this time her shoulder was sliced clean off.
The cross-section was seared by the Goddess's flames as expected, but there was no need to heal it deliberately. Chunks of cooked meat sloughed off, and a new arm sprouted.
Julius grimaced at the sight and momentarily sheathed his sword. Seizing the chance, Svetlana flashed an eye smile and attempted conversation.
"You already know I won't die from something like this, right?"
"Yeah."
"Oh? Didn't expect a reply."
She flung flirtatious glances laced with mana at the impassive Julius, but they fell flat. The girl behind him—that so-called Saintess of Light—seemed to read the intent in the mana and wore a faintly annoyed expression, which was laughable.
The plump girl trembling at her first sight was far cuter.
She winked at the girl cowering behind Julius, chuckling as she shrank back even further upon eye contact.
"Anyway, I can't beat you physically, and you can't kill me, so how about we unravel this place's secrets together?"
"No. No need for that."
"Putting on a brave front."
The plump girl was inside the Saintess of Light's deployed barrier, but since they were already connected and in such close proximity, manipulating her was a cinch.
Thanks to whatever gadget that Reimi girl had provided, it was a bit sticky, but she raised Karin's right hand to grasp her own throat.
The plump girl let out a squeak of fright, but Julius didn't change expression. He knew at this range he could end her life in an instant if needed—yet he remained eerily calm.
Oh ho. So you'd anticipated up to this point.
As she focused more intently on the increasingly pale plump girl, something grazed past Svetlana's cheekbone and flew off.
At the same time, her own outstretched hand froze solid.
"What... trick is this?"
"Got a chance to finish off an unkillable foe—why would I explain?"
Julius approached slowly, still wary, and—not with the left-hand sword infused with the Goddess's power, but the one in his right—stabbed straight through the center of Svetlana's chest.
Her body was pierced by Julius's potent sword qi, but it wasn't a fatal wound. Halting her movement wouldn't stop regeneration.
If he thought something like this could stop her...
She tried to say as much, but her mouth wouldn't move properly. Before she could spit it out, she realized Julius's true intent, and her lips merely quivered.
In her immobilized state, space magic unfolded centered on the sword embedded in her chest.
The black-haired human woman she'd dismissed as a decoy, and the magic circle the connected plump girl had prepared.
A perfect barrier sealing entry and exit. Of course, it wasn't insurmountable. It only prevented passage; with time to reverse-engineer the magic, escaping would be trivial.
"Let's begin!"
"Lenny. Don't announce it like that."
"Ah, got it."
With the decoy girl's idiotic signal, the barrier enclosing her began to shrink. Crafted to filter living beings, the sword passed through while she alone was crushed within the diminishing sphere.
It hurt. But it wasn't bad.
Few had ever treated her like a lump of meat this way.
She even savored the agony of her body twisting, letting out a guttural chuckle. Through her compressing vision, she saw everyone but Julius harden their expressions.
The result was a sphere of tangled blood and flesh with a sword stabbed through it.
"Sorry, but this isn't the end."
Julius lifted it up, brought it before the plump girl, set it down, and said,
"Grab the hilt."
"Hng... Okay."
"And, whatever it was—you said it was time for a choice? Let's do it."
"I-I don't know how."
"Remember last time. The day the Goddess's seal was engraved on your hand. What frame of mind were you in when you sought her?"
With those words, Julius gripped the holy sword in his left hand and began glaring from behind the plump girl.
What? Why start the ritual like this?
Such doubts were fleeting. As the plump girl raised a reverent prayer, the bracelet near her melted down. Like before, it split half white, half black, flowing beneath the two divine statues.
And without hesitation, she chose the white line this time.
Holy golden flames surged up, and a markedly different divine presence of the Goddess descended upon the plump girl.
But so what? This tepid warmth wouldn't burn her.
If their scheme was to exploit the descended Goddess's power...
Ah?
"Now you're showing some panic."
Svetlana realized she was being "devoured." The culprit consuming her was her own seed planted inside the plump girl's body.
"...There are no one-way connections."
Being simply devoured would be fine. But this—her seed, purified by the Goddess's power, was desperately sucking in everything around it to survive.
With the massive sphere that had crushed her body hovering overhead, the plump girl below received her melting form, harmonizing the powers of Goddess and Demon God seamlessly.
When about a third had melted, creating some slack in the barrier, Svetlana urgently opened her mouth.
"Julius, Julius! This won't work. You know I'll just revive like this. I told you—as long as a trace remains outside, I come back even from death. Erasing me from the world is impossible!"
"No. Not killing you. You'll be refined purely into the form of the Demon God's power and live on inside Karin."
"But."
"And this is a completely isolated space. No one enters without the bracelet's approval or stamped coordinates. Wipe your traces here, and you have no way to remake a body outside."
And so, if the existence known as Svetlana lost self-awareness almost entirely and melted away completely...
Then she couldn't remake a body outside while "living intact without loss."
"No way. A human body can't withstand me!"
"Karin already has the Goddess's seal, the Demon God's power from the first choice, your seed embedded in her, and now the Goddess's power from this choice. The balance should be perfect."
"Right, right! Julius. I'm the incarnation of lust. Just neutralize and capture me—I'll grant any wish. Whatever desires you have for women, 100% fulfilled. I can reshape my body to your exact tastes."
"Ah, seriously not interested."
"Uh. And. So..."
No proposals left. She could feel it. Her melted lower half was no longer part of her body but a flow of power. And the moment her heart and brain were consumed, her entire being would follow.
"Spare me, please. Ah, yes. I have tons of info on the Demon God cult. I managed it, so I hold all the secrets. I'll spill everything. All the labyrinth research too. Yeah? If needed, I'll come find you!"
"I'll get it out of you slowly later."
"Ah, ah, ah, ah."
With her waist down already gone, only her upper body remaining, Svetlana felt terror.
Essentially pouring bleach over her brain. Her ego, memories, faith—all would blur away, leaving something that was Svetlana yet not, subservient to a human in the form of power.
Julius would relentlessly erase every trace to leave no loopholes, and the moment the plump girl died and released her, a mindless demon spawn would be born into the world, adrift.
When she tried to move her eyes to accept it all and leave last words, even her mouth had vanished, silencing her forever.
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