“Ah ha, ah hahahaha! What’s up, brother? Was that all it took to get you sulking?”
“There’s not a single part of my body that doesn’t hurt.”
“Well, that’s to be expected. With a body that broken, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have healed at all, right?”
As she said this, she subtly stroked my arm.
With a strangely seductive gaze, the corners of the girl’s eyes drew a curve.
“…Perhaps it might be too much to handle even for that ‘Aurus’s’ whore?”
“Don’t talk carelessly.”
I swatted her hand away with a thud and growled.
“So, what’s your answer? Are we on the same side?”
“Hmm, you’re worried about a lot. Of course, we are.”
The girl stood right beside me, humming a little tune as if her heart was untroubled.
Then, with a loud crack, a blood-colored whip appeared in her hands.
“Don’t misunderstand, it’s not like I wanted to fight alongside you! The reason I was hesitant to step in was…”
Before she could finish her sentence, mirrors shot up from the ground like stones. There were more of them than the dozens that had been shattered by the vampire’s earlier strike.
In no time, strange sceneries began to replay from the reflective surfaces that split the white light into seven colors.
A woman biting her lips until they bled, a dark room with no visitors, and then someone pulling back their hood approaching.
A burning manor and the Great Forest, a week-long blood feud, and the ‘Vampire’ finally collapsing in tears of blood.
As a myriad of images played simultaneously, my head was spinning. Too many sounds buried their realities within an ocean of information.
As my brow furrowed, a voice drenched my eardrums. It was the elaboration of ‘Greed.’
“I’m currently calling upon the power of the ‘Boundary.’ The ‘Boundary’ is something resembling a collective unconsciousness, meaning memories will inevitably intertwine like this.”
“Is that mirror the medium borrowing the power of the ‘Boundary’?”
“Right. However, there’s one misunderstanding she has… that I also can wield the power of the ‘Boundary.’”
Proving this, when the girl struck the ground once with her blood-colored whip, a mysterious event occurred.
Wooooo!
From the empty ground, faceless monsters began to rise one by one. It was a sight that seemed to tear through space.
What about the brilliantly shining blood moon?
It was a scene that brought back nightmares of the past. I frowned and asked.
“Those poor people again…”
“For my brother, I could sacrifice hundreds or thousands! How about that? Isn’t it touching?”
She even winked as if it were a show of affection.
There was no point in discussing it further, so I sighed and tightened my grip on the sword in hand.
My instructions were short.
“…Let’s go.”
“Okay! I’ll show you the real power of a true sister, not some fake!”
Just as we were about to kick the ground with our weapons drawn,
“Wait!”
The vampire’s scream burst forth, cutting through the polarization and moonlight.
So desperate was her tone that both the girl and I stiffened, caught off guard. Seizing the opportunity, the vampire raised her voice even more.
“‘Greed’… Stop it already! Are you really ready to fight us, just like that?!”
The girl shrugged her shoulders at the vampire’s words, as if unfazed.
“Why not? You targeted my brother first… Not just anyone’s, but mine.”
“Just give him to me!”
Just that one line.
The declaration cried out in frustration from the vampire plunged the area into stillness.
The girl’s eyes narrowed with a soft sound.
The vampire, seeming unable to bear it any longer, spoke in an exhausted tone.
“Really, you crazy woman… Was that all you were aiming for? I did hear from Lord Delphrium, but…”
“Oh my, did Lord Delphrium give me a heads up? How embarrassing.”
“There’s no way you could have pulled off something this significant all by yourself. And Lord Delphrium wouldn’t just let us fight like this.”
To summarize, it implied that she had also been aiming for the same thing.
As the conversation unfolded, the atmosphere grew increasingly strange. I had no choice but to sigh and throw a mixed question at the girl, now crossing her arms in thought.
“You said we were on the same side, right? You said you’d show the real sister’s strength.”
“Hmm, uhh… Hmmmmm…”
It took a long time for a response to come back.
The girl, arms crossed, tilted her head with her eyes closed. After swallowing her silence for a while.
When she finally opened her eyes, a curvy smile was on her lips.
A smile brighter than ever before.
“…You really believed that? Liya Kick!”
Right then, thwack!
I felt the sensation of a kick pressing into my solar plexus and thought.
Ah, as expected.
The Dark Cult isn’t a trustworthy ally…
But, well.
It’s a relief.
It finally seemed like it was coming to an end.
My body sliced through the void, flying far off before rolling onto the ground. It was a strike hard enough that I felt like I might tear apart.
My consciousness faded to black.
The end of the battle.
It was an absurdly obvious conclusion. The two Seven Deadly Sins of the Dark Cult clashed and then began to cooperate, resulting in humanity facing a dismal defeat.
You could consider it a miniature version of the battles to come on the continent. Humans, no matter how hard they struggled, could never win against the Dark Cult.
However, despite the victory, the vampire’s complexion wasn’t bright.
No, rather, it would be more fitting to say she looked increasingly offended.
The sound of her gritting her teeth didn’t stop. The woman glared at the girl who walked lightly towards her with an irritated look.
“I won’t forget today, ‘Greed.’”
“Don’t mention it… It’s something you absolutely mustn’t forget. Especially that ‘promise’ of yours to give me my brother.”
Every response from her, filled with playful defiance, was terribly annoying.
The vampire, feeling a surge of emotions, almost protested.
But in the end, she held back.
After all, the fight was over, and the deal was done. Since it was a conflict mediated by Delphrium, even the world-renowned vampire couldn’t break that.
All she could do was exhale deeply and plead.
“Still, for a moment… Just for a moment, could you lend him to me? That man has ‘Dragon’s Blood,’ you know.”
“Hmm, don’t worry.”
In response to the vampire’s request, the girl puffed out her chest. As if she were bestowing a great mercy upon her, she had a proud demeanor.
“I’ll be sure to lend him for that much. Even if we fought for a while, we’re comrades, right? Just a sip of my brother’s blood, well… just one sip?”
So, after being so puffed up, the idea of sharing just one sip of blood was laughable.
The vampire almost wore a hollow smile but chose to refrain.
After all, everyone in the Dark Cult knew that girl was insane.
It was nothing new.
More importantly, she needed to conclude her long-yearned wish first.
The vampire’s blue eyes bore a cold light that was incomparable to before. That gaze was directed at the witch, who was creeping towards I-an in the distance.
The great witch was struggling to move her trembling limbs with great effort. Her urgent tone was almost draped in moisture.
“Elder sister… Elder sister! Are you okay? Hurry, hurry and get up… You all should escape…!”
What a truly pitiful sight.
That was all the vampire thought about. Reduced to crawling on the ground and whining over a young human male?
At this rate, she wasn’t feeling any better.
The woman whom the vampire was jealous of and wished to annihilate should have been much stronger and more impressive.
But that one determination was commendable.
Even now, she hadn’t unleashed her true form to save the vampire’s essence.
Of course, it was a futile stubbornness.
If the great witch were to die here, everything would be meaningless.
When the vampire’s gaze momentarily shifted towards ‘Greed,’ the girl replied instinctively.
“I didn’t kill her. My brother is precious… The rest is none of my concern.”
“Hmph, that’s how it should be. The revenge must be mine.”
“By the way, just let one little dog live if possible. I want to keep it in the yard. If you train it well enough, it should become a good dog, right?”
‘A dog’?
Hearing that word, the vampire tilted her head slightly. There were no such creatures as dogs here.
But her thoughts didn’t linger.
She realized there was one more human remaining in this place. A particularly small-statured mage.
As the vampire thought of that image, she couldn’t help but click her tongue.
The Seven Deadly Sins of the Dark Cult are going to ‘train’ it in their own way.
It would be fortunate if it could retain even a fragment of its humanity. Just hearing that made it seem like they really were intent on treating it like a dog.
Of course, this wasn’t something the vampire needed to fret over.
The fate of the loser is determined by the victor. Regardless of how they chose to use their spoils, it depended on ‘Greed’s’ heart.
Just then, as Greed silently took a step forward.
“…?”
The vampire’s body that had been about to step forward froze.
Not just her. Even ‘Greed’, who was observing the situation leisurely, and the greatly trembling great witch, widened their eyes in surprise.
A man was standing up.
Staggering, unsteady.
He was definitely raising his body. With his eyes glazed and a gaze that had lost focus, even his panting is couldn’t be subdued.
An undeniably surreal sight.
Yet, it was none other than an undeniable reality unfolding before them. The vampire clicked her tongue and began to make a motion to strike.
If only ‘Greed’ had not screamed out.
“Ah, no!”
The vampire’s brows scrunched at the urgent plea. When she sent a questioning look, the girl began to speak in a tone more frantic than ever.
“More, more injuries, and he could really die! I’ve only been barely keeping him alive!”
“Can’t we fix it later?”
“No! He overused his recovery too much! Just now, to regenerate his limbs, it took the souls of a hundred people!”
The vampire could only exhale a sigh.
Truly, he was a man who kept causing trouble until the end.
Meanwhile, the man was indeed straightening his body. The great witch, who had been stunned into silence, finally began clinging to the man’s pant leg, sobbing.
“R-Run… Hurry and take the second one and escape, elder sister! I’ll manage somehow…!”
But that hand grasped nothing.
A storm.
If one noticed, the bangs of the great witch were fluttering. It was such a swift dash that one couldn’t even let out a sound of surprise.
One could say it was comparable to the speed of light.
There was only one way to achieve such speed.
It was to stop time.
Before long, the vampire, with her eyes wide open, involuntarily embedded her hand into the man’s solar plexus.
