Chapter 24: Annihilation
“Little Shay…”
The girl before me was filled with sorrow, her face twisted in a heart-wrenching expression.
I lay cradled in Aili’s arms, gently wrapping my weak arms around her waist and forcing a smile.
“I’m fine, how are you all back here? It’s dangerous, cough cough…”
Dabs of bl**d splattered on Aili’s chest as she lifted her trembling right hand, trying to wipe the bl**d from my face with her sleeve, but it just wouldn’t come off. The tightly strung nerves that had held up so far began to unravel, and she opened her mouth to cry out, her voice broken, unable to say anything except holding me tightly, as if afraid I might vanish at any moment.
“Why are you still… worrying about others…”
The girl’s broken words drifted out.
Don’t act like this… This is so awkward; I’m really fine.
“Aili, stop hugging her like that! Put her down on the ground first!”
The boy named Barry’s voice trembled, as if he was suppressing some emotion about to explode.
“Uh… okay…”
Aili replied, but she didn’t dare move, terrified of breaking something else; she was suddenly all thumbs.
“I’ll take a look. Barry, support her shoulders, Aili, you handle her waist and legs, gently let her down… Yes, just like that, lay her flat. Little Shay, can you hear me?”
Alan, being from a hunter’s family, knew a thing or two about situations like this.
“Cough cough, I can. I’m really, cough cough, fine…”
What I said wasn’t meant to comfort them; I genuinely knew I’d be okay. No one understands this body’s remarkable healing abilities better than me — just a few days of good rest and this little injury would heal quickly. Heck, if I wanted, I could just run into the forest and devour a ton of animals… Yeah, let’s not do that unless absolutely necessary.
But knowing all that is one thing.
Seeing me continuously cough up bl**d, the gentle words I uttered held no convincing power for Aili and the others.
“… There’s a depression in her skull, a fracture in her right shin, large areas of abrasions on her body, and she’s starting to show symptoms of severe bl**d loss… The most serious is at her chest; her ribs must be broken… by the look of things, it’s likely pierced her lung…”
Alan’s voice grew increasingly heavy.
Such severe injuries in this world, where even a typhoid infection could be fatal, the arrival of d*ath was just a matter of time.
This was something everyone knew.
“Ugh—”
Aili finally broke down, wailing loudly.
“Brother Alan, there has to be a way, right? Please save her…”
Barry’s eyes were red, staring at the silent Alan, as if a giant rock had crushed his chest, causing him to struggle for breath.
“…Maybe the bishop from The Holy Church can help…”
“But where can we find the bishop…?”
“Even if we could call for the bishop, there wouldn’t be enough time…”
“Cough cough, you don’t need to. I just want to… sleep…”
Before I could finish, Aili interrupted with a heart-wrenching plea.
“Don’t sleep, Little Shay, please, don’t sleep!! Ah—”
Watching Aili wail with her mouth wide open, big tears dripping onto me, I suddenly felt like laughing.
“Ha ha, okay, I won’t sleep. Help me, over there, Dragon…”
I turned my head to see how the Dragon was doing; it had been a while without any movement, and I was somewhat worried.
In the next moment, the smile on my face vanished.
I saw the monster move.
Before I could even figure out if it was a trick of the light, the Demon’s Whisper echoed in my ears once more.
“‘Abyssal Language’… slice, k*ll.”
The state change happened in an instant, black smoke surged forth.
“Boom—”
“Crash, crackle, crackle—!!”
“Ahhhh—!!”
A hoarse scream escaped my mouth as ice pillars, icicles, and ice walls, along with black flames… every power I could muster was thrown forward with reckless abandon, trying to block the oncoming d*ath’s black smoke.
You tricked me! This guy tricked me! How did it pull that off!?
No wonder its resistance was so weak back then; it had to land where there were people.
In that moment, I understood the monster’s trick.
Even inching closer to d*ath, a despair I had never felt before began to creep into my heart.
I nearly jumped up from the ground, positioning my body in front of Aili, then yanking Barry behind me, summoning the last remaining strength in my body and forcefully creating a gap in the black smoke.
“Alan, stay behind me…”
I didn’t finish my sentence before Aili suddenly turned around, arms wide open, blocking my way.
The girl’s figure was as frail as ever, looking even smaller in the face of the raging black smoke.
A moment of shock.
“Aili—”
“Whoosh—”
The impact of the black smoke rushed in an instant, and just as quickly, it ended.
The smoke cleared.
A white mist erupted around Alan’s body.
“I…”
He looked blankly at his hands, raising his head as if to say something, but the words never came.
His body turned to ashes.
“Alan…”
Aili whispered softly, lifting her foot as if to walk towards Alan.
But she collapsed.
“Aili—!!”
The instant the girl fell, I caught her soft, warm body.
So light.
“Little Shay, Alan… did he…?”
Aili asked, confusion in her eyes, as if unable to comprehend what had just happened.
“Aili, hang in there, you’re fine, you’re fine…”
Droplets of water fell on her face, deepening Aili’s confusion.
“What’s wrong with me? Uh… ah… it hurts…”
Her body began to tremble violently.
“Aili, I can save you… you’re fine…”
“Uh… uh… Little Shay… it hurts… it hurts…”
“Sister!! What happened to you!! Sister!!”
Barry seemed to snap back to reality, wholly hidden behind me, untouched by the black smoke.
He saw Little Shay, covered in bl**d, holding her sister, a look of anguish on his face that was unlike anything he had ever shown.
“She’s fine… she’s okay… she won’t…”
My eyes were vacant, mumbling to myself.
In my arms, Aili’s body had turned mostly charred, the Abyss eating away at her with a virus-like hunger.
“Ah… it hurts… Little Shay… what do I do… it hurts…”
Her body started to convulse.
“Aili… sleep now, sleep. If you sleep… it won’t hurt anymore…”
I gently patted Aili’s head as if calming a crying baby.
“It hurts… ugh… it hurts… uh… Grandma…”
The girl in my arms gradually lost her voice.
She fell asleep.
Behind me, Barry shivered, his lips quivering, the color drained from his face.
I stood there, frozen, still holding her body.
Until the ashes enveloped my vision.
A stream of bluish-white light smoke floated away from my embrace.
I wanted to reach out and grab her but only touched emptiness.
She slowly floated into the sky, joining the many other streams of light smoke rising towards the monster that was trying to rise again.
“Hiss hiss—”
The monster absorbed the bluish-white light smoke, its body trembling.
I could almost feel its joy in that moment.
“Roar—!!”
The monster bellowed excitedly, head tilted back.
I stared blankly at it, my mind a whirlpool of nothingness.
This image spun in my consciousness for a long time.
The black smoke had killed Aili and the villagers hiding nearby.
Suddenly, the truth crashed down upon me.
“Barry, get away!”
“Where’s Sister!!”
“Go. I’m going to k*ll it.”
I pushed Barry away several meters, tears streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks.
My gentle features contorted into an expression of pure rage.
I will k*ll it.
k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it, k*ll it…
“Ahhhhh—”
The black smoke whipped up a violent whirlwind, wrapping around me like a world-ending tornado.
It obscured my small body.
“Boom—!!”
In the next moment, a cyan arm shot out, crashing down onto the ground.
“Bang—!”
The immense force shattered the earth, sending countless fireballs burning with black flames shooting into the sky, hurling toward the monster from all directions.
“Boom boom boom boom—!!”
“Roar—” The monster howled in pain.
Even though devouring hadn’t affected it, the violent explosions still managed to injure it.
“Crack.”
I quickly jumped up, the massive arm pinning its head down forcefully.
“Boom—!!”
The monster’s head was slammed into the ground, leaving cracks in its wake. Then, I quickly moved my hand down to its neck, clamping down.
The black smoke tornado unleashed another cyan arm.
Clenching my fist, I swung down.
“Bang—”
The monster’s head was forced deeper into the ground.
Another punch.
“Bang—”
“Bang—” “Bang—” “Bang—”
Each punch followed the last, creating a large, dark hole in the ground.
“‘Abyssal Language’ We, the same kind, why must we… slaughter so?”
The monster’s tone remained flat.
I stared into its eyes, which were leaking black goo, and spoke each word slowly.
“You and I. Are not, the same kind.”
I swung down again.
“Boom—!”
“… Enough, little creature, stop.”
A strange voice rang out.
“Who!!!”
I furiously lifted my head.
A bearded swordsman in silver armor stood by, with a pale-faced Barry cowering in his cloak.
“… Let me handle this from here.” He said to me.
Hearing those words, an indescribably complex feeling surged in my heart.
Sadness, pain. Grief, rage.
“… Hand it over to you?”
I laughed.
“Say that again? Hand it over to you?! What were you doing! Ugh… my sister is dead! Killed by this damned monster… I am also a damned monster… ugh, damned… monster… didn’t you want to k*ll me… ugh… then just k*ll me!!”
The fragile voice turned into a desperate scream.
Carlos looked at the seemingly demonic girl before him, yet full of sorrow.
Days ago, he thought she was nothing more than a terrifying monster.
But in this moment, the words she spat out were like a sharp dagger, piercing right through his heart.
He was actually on his way to discuss the girl’s fate with the higher-ups at the church, because he alone understood that this girl was not a simple monster.
Carlos desperately wanted to save her, to have the Pope agree to his proposed solution.
He succeeded.
But all that couldn’t be an excuse. Things had escalated to this point due to his negligence. Had he been there, it might not have turned out this way.
Why did it come to this?
“Crack, crackle crackle—”
The air abruptly turned cold.
He watched as a pale blue blade appeared in the girl’s hand.
As the temperature plummeted, the color of the blade deepened.
“Roar—”
The monster seemed to sense something and struggled but couldn’t escape the grip of the cyan giant hand.
The girl controlled the giant hand, plunging the blade toward the monster’s head.
“Poo—”
The deep blue blade pierced through the monster’s skull, nailing it to the ground.
After a violent convulsion, the monster’s massive body began to disintegrate, scattering into countless tiny particles.
A bl**d-red light smoke entered the girl’s body.
“Boom—”
The black light surrounding the girl instantly surged, then the cyan arm quickly retreated back into her body.
“Thud.”
She collapsed.
