Chapter 47: Recognizing Hell (Part Two)
Suddenly shouting startled the Female Swordsman; her eyes widened in shock. As she stepped back, her body reflexively reacted in an instant. With a sharp “clang—”, the sword she had cradled in her arms leapt out of its sheath!
She horizontally brandished the sword at her side, the blade angled downward. The silvery edge sparkled with crackling arcs of electricity, the twisted light wrapping tightly around her fingertips gripping the hilt. Without a word, she bent slightly, her keen gaze darting around like she was facing a formidable foe.
But just two seconds later, she turned to look at me, still bewildered, and after a moment, her head tilted slightly in confusion as she asked, “Huh?”
…Huh what!?
“Open your eyes and look ahead.”
I didn’t boldly step forward again but stayed put, staring at the disorderly stretch of tents in the distance. I took a deep breath; my head felt a bit jumbled.
Dammit…
“Up ahead…”
In the midst of my internal complaints, I heard the Female Swordsman hesitantly ask, “What’s wrong?”
?
“You can’t see it?”
“…See what?”
“The camp…”
What is wrong with this person…
With a frown, I stretched out my right hand, pointing forward, lowering my voice: “The camp outside the castle, those tents… This whole area looks completely different from when we saw it from afar just now…”
She didn’t notice such a blatant change…?
Is her eyesight gone?!
Ahead, just a few hundred meters away, the grassy landscape that had seemed disheveled and shabby when we viewed it from afar was, at this moment…
Suddenly a wasteland.
The originally dilapidated wooden houses that could’ve been lived in with a bit of tidying up, numerous tents, and even burnt remnants of fires, scattered bottles, empty bowls, and bones… all those things I had clearly seen not long ago had now transformed into a nightmarish scene.
When I finally realized, large portions of the rundown houses had collapsed without any signs or sounds, and more makeshift tents that were still habitable had all become wrecked, as if ravaged by wind, their canvases riddled with countless dreadful holes.
Dark red, bl**d-like, eerily familiar patterns that looked like veins or roots spread out from the now deep brown soil, attaching themselves to ruined wooden walls, broken supports, and scattered tents. It wasn’t densely packed…
But everywhere you looked, there it was.
And this scene hadn’t even registered in my mind less than a quarter-hour ago—such a horrifying change, and I hadn’t noticed a single second of it happening. When did it happen, and how?
It was as if…
Everything had been corroded by some terrifying power in the blink of an eye.
And silently…
“Hiss—”
I couldn’t help but gasp.
Dirty dust floated in with the wind, and the air began to carry a scent of bl**d and decay that hadn’t been there before.
What the heck…
A chill ran down my spine as I instinctively started to retreat, and then I saw the bewildered expression on the Female Swordsman’s face.
After hearing what I said, she seemed to realize something and looked towards the scene. It was as if she was finally reacting, and I clearly saw her pupils widen and then suddenly shrink. Her face turned pale, and the thunderlight around her flickered into existence with a bang, zipping behind her in a flash. By the time she turned around, she’d already retreated ten or so meters away.
“This… this is…”
Moon Step—
Boom!
Before she could finish speaking, I activated Moon Step, soil flying as my figure appeared behind the Female Swordsman. I drew my sword, raised my hand; the wind howled as the short white blade came crashing down to her exposed neck—clang—!
With a resounding clash, my blade was met with hers.
The Sword Demon Miss reacted unbelievably quickly. She didn’t even have time to turn around, but in the instant the wind howled, she thrust her longsword back without looking, blocking my attack with incredible precision.
Then, with a twist of that battered sword edge, accompanied by a screeching “clang-clang-clang!”, the blade rubbed against my Dragon Claw and with a flash of sparks, at a tricky angle, jabbed into my chest.
What had begun as a swift skirmish concluded in the blink of an eye.
As the Sword Demon turned around and realized she had merely pierced an afterimage, I had quietly appeared at her other side, dancing my Dragon Claw back to my waist, lightning-quick I shot my left hand forward, pressing it onto her head, then bowed down and pushed down hard—
Boom!
The Female Swordsman was slammed directly to the ground, her cheek hitting the dirt with a muffled thud.
“Pff…”
In a hurry, she spat out the bits that splashed into her mouth, then shouted, “Wait…”
“Wait for what?”
Before she could finish, I released my grip, pulled down my cape that had flown up behind me, straightened my back, and looked down at the somewhat disoriented Sword Demon, calmly saying, “Next time, if you dare to act recklessly like you just did, don’t blame me for not holding back.”
“Cough cough! Cough…”
She coughed hard, slowly sitting up from the ground: “I… I didn’t mean to escape…”
“I don’t care what you meant.”
I looked down at her for a bit, then reached out my right hand: “I don’t trust you; you understand, right?”
“……”
The Sword Demon and I exchanged glances for a moment.
She ignored my outstretched hand, standing up on her own with a frown and without saying anything more. She wiped her face with her sleeve, fixed her messy hair, and patted off the dirt that clung to her clothes. Realizing she couldn’t get it all off, she simply gave up.
Throughout this, she kept the longsword gripped tightly in her hand.
Seeing her seemingly upset expression didn’t bother me; I shrugged, retracted my empty hand, thought a moment, and started walking towards the direction outside the fortress, my expression gradually turning serious.
A few steps later, I heard the Female Swordsman’s voice following behind me.
“Umm…”
It seemed she wanted to say something again; lingering behind for a while, hesitating, she finally asked, “The sword technique you used earlier, was it Elder Ryan’s?”
Heh…
This little squirt recognized it?
“Have you seen him?” I didn’t turn around.
“No… I’ve just heard of his swordsmanship.”
She paused, then added, “Can you teach me?”
Ha…
“On what basis?”
I rejected her without a second thought: “And besides, is now the time to be discussing things like that? You’ve noticed the bizarre changes in the camp outside the fortress, right?”
After walking a ways more, when the ground beneath my feet began showing a faint reddish hue, I slowed my pace, heightening my vigilance.
“Uh…”
The Female Swordsman followed closely behind, saying, “I see it.”
“When did you notice the change?” I asked again.
“Just now.”
She thought for a moment, seeming like she hadn’t articulated her thoughts clearly, and added, “You told me there was a change. That’s when I saw it—that kind of change.”
“……”
I fell into contemplation.
So, before I told her that the camp outside the fortress had changed, the scene in her eyes was still considered normal…?
…What’s going on…
While I was thinking, I crouched down by a patch of grass off the path, scooped up some dirt mixed with a bit of scarlet and brought it to my nose, gently sniffing the odor.
Strange…
The soil had a charred, bloody scent…
And…
…This smell was somewhat familiar.
