hotmtlnovel Book 5: Chapter 10
Book 5: Chapter 10
Book 5: Chapter 10
Forest of the Dead
Carla
The one who suddenly appeared just before I departed was Carla Lester.
I wonder if I can also come with you? Its not as good as the black ops, but I myself have my own information source, so Ive been waiting thinking that if its you Aria, you will definitely move.
The combat strength of Carla who possessed all elements was approaching rank 5 even though she was only rank 4. She had equal combat strength with me who possessed close quarter combat ability and multiple sorcery skills.
But, Carlas stamina value was only at the level of a child because she had all those elements. Even that low stamina got capped at half and couldnt recover higher than that. I guessed that it was because the magic strengthening Gift that Carla obtained was continuing to shave off her life.
She was able to move well as could be seen with how she dodged my throwing knife and counterattacked, and she was able to converse normally. But Carlas body was far from healthy. Her complexion was white like paper, and the life force that was radiated from her body was so thin as though she was a ghost.
But, the vast mana and presence that were radiated from her whole body were inversely proportional to the transience of her life. They were surpassing even the mythical beast Coeurl.
Most likely her body was already unable to move properly, but she was forcefully moving it with her mana and sorcery. Carla should be aware herself that doing something like that was shaving down even more of her life, and yet she didnt stop moving.
Im asking one more time. What are you planning?
In the deepest part of that dungeon, Carla wished not for an extension of her life but the power to destroy this country. Our path had separated there.
The path that Carla walked would one day clash with Elena who was concerned over this country. That path was also a blood soaked path where she and I would try to kill each other until one of us died.
Carla absolutely wouldnt change her feeling.
I too wouldnt bend my conviction.
That was why I knew that one day we would try to kill each other.
Most likely she knew that I was going to settle my dispute with Grave and waited until I made my move. I didnt know what Carlas intention for going there, nor was I interested.
What I wanted to know was her reason for showing herself brazenly in front of me like this despite our destiny of fighting to the death in the future.
Do you feel like dying here?
That will be lovely toobut, this time your princess will be troubled if you go without me you know?
Carla spoke with an informal tone that was unbecoming for a noble lady. She took a step forward until her forehead touched the tip of my knife. Red blood trickled down her pallid face in a line. Her deep red tongue licked it off.
I can kill her right now. I watched her stamina silently starting to decrease as both of us glared at each other for several seconds, then she spoke up first.
Im going to clean up the garbage that I brought in when I was still a weakling. I dont need them anymore but, itll be troublesome if they get in the way.
Even if being theyre being together with my enemy?
Even if its something that I already discarded, its still not a good feeling seeing some other fool making use of it as they please.
Do as you like.
I said that and pulled the knife back. Carla smiled sweetly, while Nero who got into a deathly fight with her last time was growling in discontent. I patted Neros neck while exhaling softly.
You must be dissatisfied but let her come with us, Nero. This girl will snatch even our prey if we just leave her out of sight.
Gururuu
Im not that hungry that Im going to steal your prey though?
Liar.
I jumped on Neros back before Nero shook its whiskers reluctantly to signal to Carla to get on too. She was someone who had tried to kill it and vice versa, but Nero too must have conflicted feeling for Carla.
I too almost sighed, but I held it back while offering my hand to the approaching Carla.
Carla, can I take it that your enemy is those guys?
Come to think of it, have you ever heard about this Aria? Apparently there was a small village at the west that didnt even get listed on map suddenly vanishing. Fufu.
Carla took my hand and got on Neros back. She put on a twisted and cruel smile while suspiciously avoiding my question.
.
Carla would go off on her own to kill them anyway even if I left her behind. I didnt think that this girl would die that easily but, it would be troublesome if Grave got away because of her, so I could only accept her coming with us.
Perhaps it would be better for Elenas sake if I killed her here. Even so she was the crown princes fiance and it would trouble Elena if I killed her.
Either way it would be troublesome.
If it was just for travelling then Carla should be able to use teleport type sorcery. Even so she said that she wanted to come with usI didnt understand her. Even I could only say This is Carla were talking about to explain it.
Several days had passed since our departure. Riding on Neros back was completely unlike riding a nobles carriage. Ordinary person who did such thing would be risking their life. It made me amazed how Carla could still live even now.
It would take one week with Neros legs until we arrived at the territory of Marquis Kendras. Naturally we didnt stop by at city and cut through forests and mountains, so at night we were camping inside the forest.
We will camp here.
After I made that decision, Nero went to hunt for prey like boar or bear. It gave me one leg that hadnt even gotten the blood drained out. And then I grilled it together with the wild plants that I picked up around here while starting to eat it. Carla too used a knife to cut the grilled meat without asking, then she brought the piece of meat that was stinking of blood into her mouth without any complain.
Food was just to replenish nutrition. As long as you didnt mind the taste, eating meat without draining the blood would be far more nutritional. Carla who often explored dungeon on her own seemed to have the same opinion. But rather than something like that, I felt the sight of Carla eating like human looked out of place for some reason. Was it a problem with her humanity?
Sometimes Carlas stamina would become one digit while we were continuing to do such forced march, even so I really couldnt imagine Carla dying other than getting killed.
Even I am a human you know?
Youre the only one who think so.
Then we are a kindred arent we.
Kindred huh.
.
If my estimation was right, we should arrive at Kendras territory in three days at this rate. It was midnight. I wrapped myself in my cloak and closed my eyes beside the bonfire, but then I suddenly opened my eyes. Neros whiskers twitched, while Carla lifted up her face and looked toward the forest.
There was a scream.
If I remember rightthere is a viscount territory that is a dependent of Marquis Dans ahead of the valley at the other side from here. There might be a village too thereare you going?
Ill just check.
I put away the cloak while standing up. Carla looked up at me while staying sitting down.
I wouldnt care if it was just a quarrel between villagers or adventurers but, if it was bandit or monster attacking, I couldnt possible ignore it after hearing the scream.
I recalled Carla mentioning about a village disappearing before we departed. I turned my gaze at her and she smiled softly with half of her face illuminated by fire.
Arent you going to learn to enjoy human blood soon?
Dont group me together with you.
My, how mean.
Carla stood up while putting on her cloak. The smile that she turned toward me deepened happily.
I prefer my meat well done(scorched black) rather than rare(raw) you know.
Im going ahead.
It seemed Carla also felt like going now, but Nero looked like it would keep sleeping, so I went ahead by myself.
I decided the general direction from where the scream came and rushed into the pitch dark forest. Even pitch dark forest wasnt that different from noon for me who had night vision level 2 that could see the color of magic particle.
The deep forest absorbed sound. But humans scream could unexpectedly carry far away through forest at night.
There was another one. I was sure of the direction now. I continued running through the forest in full speed. From the gaps of trees, I could see the valley just like in the map and silhouette of what seemed to be a female getting cornered by male silhouette.
The man lifted up a weapon in his hand that looked like a hatchet.
The woman held her head and screamed. I felt the unpleasant sign from that man and switched mentality to combat state.
Iron Rose
My pink hair that was fluttering in the wind changed color to grayish iron blue like a burning iron. The light remnants that scattered from it formed a trail behind me like a comet while I used the speed that was three times faster than ordinary human to jump over the valleys cliff that must have been around fifty steps wide.
*Byuuuu!*
Go sleep for a while.
Gugyah!
I used my jumping momentum to kick the head of the man who was about to swing down his bloody hatchet. The impact helped reducing my speed.
Are you alright?
I landed on the ground and dispelled Iron Rose while calling out to the woman who was covering her head. That woman whose teeth were clattering noisily looked toward me with a face that was obviously pale even under the faint moonlight.
H-help
What happened?
T-the villageattacked
*Gasa*
AaA!!
I heard a sound and voice from behind. The man who I should have defeated just now stood up with his neck still twisted. He ran through thickets and looked toward me with muddy yellow eyes and long fangs.
This overflowing unpleasant presence and smell.
He wasnt humanthis guy-!
UGAaaAAAAH!
The thing that was human before brandished its hatchet and swung at me. But
Gah!?
If it had human shape then it could be killed.
I parried the coming down hatchet and stepped forward while driving my elbow hard between its eyebrows until it left a dent.
Ga, AGAaA
Even so it didnt die. Most likely it couldnt be killed using usual method.
Undead huh
A monster that kept moving even after losing their life. But, even though they were undead, they werent immortal. If you didnt fear them then they were no different than any other monster.
I cut the tendon of the man, broke its bone, peeled off its muscle. I dismantled it and swept its leg when it became unbalanced. Then I planted my black dagger until the hilt into its heart when it fell down.
Ah, ga
The weakness of undead was the magic stone inside their heart.
Magic stone was dregs of soul that melted into blood and magic particles that gradually hardened into a stone. Master also taught me how skeleton and zombie that didnt have blood flowing inside their body also had magic stone because polluted magic particlemiasma turned human with magic stone into undead.
This man seemed to be a villager based on his appearance, but it wouldnt be strange that there was also villager who could use sorcery and had magic stone forming inside their body. But, why was an undead villager appearing in this kind of place?
M-miss adventurer?
The female villager approached me after I destroyed the magic stone in the heart of the undead.
*Hyun!*
Hih!?
Can you use sorcery?
I pointed my black knife toward the approaching woman. The man just now was wearing [normal villager attire]. In other words, he wasnt revived by miasma after he died, it was possible that he got turned into undead while still alive.
The woman who was shaking in fear from looking at the blade that was pointed at her was shaking hard with her teeth clattering noisily
Miiisss addveenturrerr!!
She cried and attacked while baring her long fangs.
I dodged the arm of the woman who tried to grab me with her sharp claws. Then I circled behind her and stabbed her from the side using my black dagger, breaking her neck. Then I slid my knifes blade over that daggers blade, lopping off the womans head.
She was definitely human just a moment ago.
But this woman suddenly became undead and attacked me.
What was going on over there? It was a fact that a village got attacked. If there was still survivor at the village then I needed to do something in hurry. I focused my eyes and checked the direction toward the village from the snapped branches, then I started running to that direction.
.
I dashed through the dark forest that was illuminated by the hazy moonlight. Then I stopped my legs when I smell blood faintly in the air.
Perhaps because I had gotten close to the village, there were a lot of stumps inside the forest around here. When I turned my eyes toward a part of the forest that had been cleared, I could see a lot of human silhouettes lying on the ground. I guessed that they were villagers who ran out of strength, but I could only see magic particles of darkness from their body.
The magic particles drifting around a living creature were mostly non-elemental, but as long as something was alive, there would be all the other elements contained in there too although only slightly. The magic particle of fire adjusted body temperature, water for blood flow, wind for breathing, earth for bone and flesh, and light magic particle was for life force and dark magic particle was affecting the mind.
These people were already dead. It was easy for dark magic particles to remain in corpse because it was easy for thought to remain until the end, and it also could easily adapt to the dead.
ua
Lowly human, dont get in my way
*Bashin!* Sarara struck the ground with her black iron chain. With that the vampire and defective villagers suddenly bared their fang like animal as though they had switched mind.
Sarara narrowed her golden eyes in displeasure because she had to take harder rein over her subordinates, exposing her thin and long uneven teeth.
Sararas golden eyes were still fixed on Carla.
She must be unable to forgive Clara who betrayed them and killed some of their men, but she must also be thinking that a scout and close range fighter like me wasnt any threat against her.
You guys, teach this girl some manner! The sorcerer woman, kill her painfully!
oOOOOOOOOOOO!!
The vampires and defectives let out a war cry by the order of Sarara their master.
First two vampire villagers went forward in order to remove me who was in their way. The boys voice rang out once more.
Daaaaaad!
It seemed that one of them was the boys father. The instant the boys voice rang out, the large vampire armed with an axe and looked like a hunter turned his gaze toward the boy.
D-dad
Scared and sad voice slipped out from the boys mouth. But, that man wasnt human anymore.
The nature of vampire who had been liberated from their reason sought blood of their blood relative because of guilty pleasure. His face wore a twisted smile like an animal.
Human was merely an animal without their reason.
aAAAAA!
His masters order was overwritten by his hunger and desire. He was ready to move toward his own scared son and wife who was protecting him. In that moment
*Zashu!!*
GAAAAAAAAAAAA!?
I leaped forward faster than he could and my dagger stabbed through the mans skull until the inside of his mouth. Fresh blood spurted up.
But, vampire wouldnt perish even when they were killed. The man reached out with his squirming hand even after his head was pierced. I pulled out the dagger while slipping through that hand, then I tore his neck with black knife and stabbed his heart where I felt strong mana with my black dagger.
a?
The vampire father crumpled down without understanding what was happening to him. His transient life expired and he returned to be a mere corpse. The boy who was showered with blood spray stared at his father in a daze
Dad?
The boy whose father was killed right in front of his eyes spoke with hoarse voice.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
The next moment, the last vampire and the defectives leaped toward me.
They had no mind even though they were being controlled, that was exactly why small fear could be seen in their eyes that were looking at me who had just slaughtered a vampire in front of a child.
You guys werent at fault. You all were just pitiful victims.
Even soyou guys were my enemy.
Gah
The slashing pendulums blade horizontally tore the throat of the defective that leaped at me. Then I planted my black dagger between his eyes.
My skirt fluttered while I threw my throwing knives to stab the eyes of the man behind him.
I made full use of my level 4 body strengthening and broke the mans neck with a jump kick. Then I swung my legs midair to rotate while slashing the mans carotid artery with my black knife.
I threw the weight pendulum above my head just before I landed. It drew an arc and swung down at the same time of my landing. The black iron weight smashed the head of a woman who was some distance away.
Even though they had changed into vampire and defective, it just made them harder to kill while there wasnt much change with their combat strength. Lower ranked vampire at best only got stronger by thirty percent. That inability to die easily was really a great threat but, the biggest threat was the livings instinctual fear toward the undead.
But I wasnt scared. It didnt matter if they were undead or whatever, as long as they existed under this worlds principle, they would die sooner or later if I continued to kill them.
Black blade hummed inside the nights darkness and killed the defectives.
Even knowing that these things werent human anymore, the surviving villagers screamed seeing their acquaintances getting murdered. When I broke the neck bone of the last remaining vampire villager while beheading him with my black knife, the villagers were holding their breath and stopped making any more sound.
***
(Is that woman really a human?)
She asked that question not because of the matter of strength. Even Sarara who was living as monster instead as human felt abnormal mental strength from that girl who was expressionless slaughtering the defectives that had the appearance of villagers.
She couldnt be underestimated. Even the minions that she created were getting destroyed in an instant although they were only disposable pawns.
Killing the black haired female sorcerer who used her comrades and killed them was also important, but now she understood that this pink haired woman who was hated by that woman called Tabatha who appeared as an envoy of a new collaborator also wasnt an opponent that she could let her guard down against. Sarara tightened her grip on her black iron chain.
The evil race and human nations had continued to quarrel for hundreds of years until now. There had been no large fighting in the last few decades, but small skirmishes still continued to occur. The evil race was also continuing to secretly maneuver by sending spies to every nation in order to prepare for the next major war.
Human race was weak and short lived compared to evil race, but they had warlike disposition and their number was overwhelming compared to other races.
And even among all the human nations, there were four nations that the evil race couldnt ignore. Those four were Carlfan Empire that was a country of warrior located near the evil race country, United Kingdom of Ganzal that possessed tremendous wealth, Fandora Country where the holy church that was hostile toward the evil race was based on, and then Claydale Kingdom that possessed powerful army and strong national power.
They would be killed if they didnt kill. They could only kill in order to live. Those were the obvious facts in this world where human life was cheap. Those who criticized that were only the ignorant people who had never felt that their life was in danger ever since their birth.
Sarara and others of vampire clan had also to fight in order to live.
The evil race countrys population was absolutely few. In there not only dark elf, even people who turned into monster with intelligence like vampire and werewolf got treated as citizen without getting hunted down.
But, it was difficult to completely believe monster that hungered for blood even if said monster was originally a dark elf. And the vampire clans number was only around 100, too few even compared with the other clans. Because of that they had to continue proving themselves as necessary existence to their comrades the other clans.
That was the reason why only some ten-odd experts got sent to this Claydale Kingdom that was far away from the evil race country.
Looking at it another way, only the vampire clan that could be expected to gain large result even with just a few people could possibly sneak into this country and obtain result.
But vampire couldnt walk under sunlight. Their appearance also differed too much from human so they couldnt approach human settlement. But there were people who came to contact them who were in such state. One of them was that black haired female sorcerer.
The evil race took her offered hand. And then they got horribly betrayed.
It was extremely infuriating to be betrayed like that, but it would be very difficult for them to find one girl in this vast country by themselves.
And so the vampires gave up on taking revenge on the female sorcerer for the moment. Using the information that they received as advance payment, they constructed a base and feeding ground to be used as their foothold in Claydale Kingdom.
One of their schemes, kidnapping the princess failed because it ran in conflict with the noble factions plan.
But, from the start they had no intention of achieving their plan with other peoples help. Sarara who headed out as lookout was also in the middle of making minions in order to move their plan forward with their own hand, where she ran into these two.
These two girls possessed abnormal combat strength. Why were these two appearing in this kind of place? Was there information leak? Was there a traitor?
There was someone else who came into contact with them after the black haired sorcerer betrayed them. The more people who knew about them, the bigger the possibility of information leaking out became, but seeing that only these two were here meant that the information about Sarara and others still hadnt been spread accurately.
In that case, she would deal with these two here. She thought that it was the black haired girl who betrayed and killed her comrades that she should be wary against, but Sarara changed her recognition.
The vampire clan joined hand with Tabatha because they sympathized with her hatred. The target of that hatred was hereshe felt bad for Tabatha but, Sarara thought that she should crush this pink haired girl while the black haired girl showed no sign of moving for now.
.
Womansay your name
Aria
*Gakin!*
In that instant, with either side not showing any sign of moving beforehand, Sararas chain attacked like a snake while Aria parried it with her black dagger.
Sarara was a whip user before she became a vampire. She trained her whips speed and sharpness in order to compensate for her weak strength and reached rank 4. But then the whips affinity with her vampire ability wasnt good. Seeing that Tabatha told her about the weapon that would be a good fit for her vampiric strength and the way to use it.
Sararas ear caught the sound of something whistling through the air from the side. Most likely it was the black weapon that was attached at the end of a string that she saw before this. There would be opening created if she didnt dodge that attack. But a vampire had a vampires way of fighting.
*Dashu!*
The black iron weight flew in an arc. Sarara blocked it with her left arm. Her flesh burst and her bone broke but, Sarara rushed forward without hesitation and swung her chain.
Aria jumped back to dodge the tip of that chain. Although her combat strength was below Sarara, Arias speed was slightly faster than her.
Even so Sarara didnt panic. A wound that would take low ranked vampire dozens of seconds to heal would only take several seconds for high ranked vampire to go back to normal. Poison also didnt work to her undead body and it also didnt feel fatigue like the living.
Its your loss, Aria!
There was no way she would lose the battle even though she lost in speed. Arias blade didnt move into defense and cut Sarara over and over, but even the wounds from that regenerated in the blink of eye.
(Pointless!)
Sarara thought that while swinging her chain. Aria dodged and slashed at Sarara. But, her single attack became twice, and then each attack became consisting of three slashes. There Sarara noticed the strangeness.
(Arias slashing speed is increasing!?)
Arias breathing was getting harder with fatigue appearing on her face. Sweat flew from her skin. The girl who was swinging her blades as though she was dancing looked like she had silver wings made from dregs of light flapping on her back.
Before she realized it Aria was unleashing continuous attacks like surging waves using weapons in both hands. A black knife severed Sararas tendon and muscle, a black dagger pierced her eye and broke her bone.
tsu!?
Her regeneration couldnt keep up with the injuries. No, that wasnt the case. Sarara was starting to run out of mana from regenerating so many injuries in a short time.
Mana was required for regeneration. She would be killed at this rate. Sarara changed her girl face into animal and rushed forward while discarding her chain in order to slurp Arias blood and mana.
Even if she received nearly lethal wound, she would be able to kill her opponent first as long as she didnt die. Sarara threw even her pride to the winds and made her last gamblebut.
Gah!?
Sararas knee joint broke when she stepped forward. Her posture crumpled and she fell on her knee.
Sarara had taken too many attacks defenselessly. She noticed that too slow.
Before her eyes Aria pulled her knife behind her with a movement that even looked lax. For the first time since she became a vampire, the word death that had never crossed her mind for almost a hundred years surfaced to the forefront.
Critical Edge
Vampire wasnt immortal. The only ways to destroy vampire was with sunlight, or destroying the magic stone in their heartor beheading them.
And then the last thing that Sarara saw the ground beside her eyes, and her own body that had lost its head and spurting black blood.
***
The vampires that attacked the mountain village were exterminated. Why were these guys who were suspected to be involved with the attack to the crown prince were here? What were they trying to do by creating minions here?
Originally I should capture them but, I might be the one who lost here if I didnt fight with the intent to kill against something like vampire. The culprit was actually a vampire from evil race, but the corpse that could serve as evidence would become ash when morning came and only the magic stone would remain.
Even so, if I brought that magic stone to the adventurer guild to be appraised, it should come to light that the culprit this time was a vampire and an evil race. And then if that magic stone was sold, it would also help with their living expenses for the time being.
Only ten-odd villagers survived.
The acting village chief said that they wouldnt stay in the village and head to a city where the feudal lord stayed. The number of survivors was few, but that was exactly why they could all ride in carriage to move. They would be able to reach other human settlement before dark.
*Hyu*
A rock flew at me from behind at that time. I wordlessly slapped it down and turned around. The mother hurriedly restrained the boy who threw rock at me in her arms.
Whywhy did you kill dad-!
The boy yelled that while her mother hugged him. That pained scream made the other villagers looked down too from the unbearable pain of losing their close people. ButI didnt say any comforting word.
Because you and I are weak.
Wha-
I walked toward the speechless boy and looked down on him coldly while continuing to speak.
Im weak, so I had no way to save your father other than killing him. You are weak, so your father had to face the vampire in order to protect you and your mother.
Hearing me talked made the villagers who were hanging down their head to lift their faces and turned their gazes at me.
Become strong if you dont want to be victim. Your father faced a vampire in order to protect his family right? If youre bitter than become strong enough to kill me. So that you wont lose anything else again.
The boy looked down while biting his lower lip. Some of the villagers shut their eyes and averted their gaze from me.
The words that I said to this boy were also directed to myself.
The only way to not lose anything was to be strong. After all you would lose everything and became a corpse if you were weak.
The villagers who finished loading their luggage on the carriage were leaving the village where they were born and raised.
But just before that, several villagers including that boys mother bowed their head to me. The boy himself never looked back even once and simply stared straight ahead.
And then.
Carla.
As I thought, being covered with blood really suit you Aria.
Carla spoke at me who was covered with the enemys blood and approached me with an intoxicated expression. She used her finger to wipe the blood on my cheek.
What do you know?
When I asked her that, Carla smiled like a mischievous kid. The morning wind carried her words away.
.
You already know right? I am the culprit of this incident.