Chapter 10: The Devil Smiling in the Moonlight
Patricia's head flies off.
In the center of the dark room, Patricia's parents, tied to chairs, had been a decoy to distract her. Just above the large door of the bedroom, a lightly-armed swordsman attached to the ceiling leaped at Patricia with his sword in his opposite hand, skewering her cervical vertebrae, and reaping the life out of her.
The sword was twice as wide as a normal longsword―― about eight centimeters, so the blow that was supposed to skewer her resulted in Patricia's head falling off, along with the momentum.
Patricia's long red hair, which is one of her distinguishing features, rolled around on the carpet.
Meanwhile, her headless body was being mounted by the swordsman, blood gushing from her neck in time with the beating of her heart. The beautiful lines of her back and her large, womanly buttocks twitched and spasmed.
"I guess I get ten points."
The man riding on Patricia's neckless body pulls out the sword from the floorboard.
It is a sturdy, straight sword with a chunky appearance.
It has not been strengthened with the holy art [God Sword].
Even without strengthening it, an ordinary sword would have sufficed if he had finished Patricia off before she noticed him.
"Did you do it?"
The warrior of the "Black Hunter Corps" who had been hiding in the shadow of the canopy bed appears in the moonlight.
The man who decapitated her carried a sword dripping with greasy blood on his shoulder.
He was lightly dressed in a black undershirt, but the muscles of his well-developed chest and shoulders were visible through his clothes.
"You can tell just by looking at it. It's a single blow."
"The genius Patricia. The treasure of Count Lowell. But her end was so quick."
"You guys, do you have any other impressions? We're comrades who fought together until last month."
With these words, a third warrior emerges from the corner of the room.
This man covered his mouth with a cloth on which were painted skeletal teeth in white embroidery. It is a horrifying sight to behold.
"This is work."
"I wanted to go one-on-one with Patricia. I don't get many opportunities to hunt warriors of the same race."
"That's what every one of us thought."
However, the Lowell family had eighty armed maids and twenty well-trained guards.
In addition to that, the royal capital's guardian knight station was closer than expected.
It was a situation where if they and Patricia were to engage in a fair fight, not only would they be interrupted in the middle of the fight, but they might fail in their important mission.
So, Sebastian and the rest of the assassination group, though hungry, decided to switch to [assassination], as the herbalist in the beast skin had said.
"How are things outside?"
"Sebastian-sama is taking control. We can get out now."
"Alright, let's go."
The Lowell family's control was going much better than originally planned.
The reason was that the number of assassins had increased from twelve to thirteen.
Sebastian's holy sword maiden had followed him, saying that if her husband was going to die, she would go too.
Sebastian himself was just an old soldier with excellent swordsmanship and familiarity with the occasion. However, by using the pseudo-holy sword that the Holy Tree gave him to kill the demon race, he literally becomes the [Immortal Sword Saint]. Now that the holy sword maiden has come, Sebastian exercises such power that he can easily slay dragons, and instead of being crushed by sheer mass, he has become the one to crush them with his overwhelming individual power.
Finn did not allow Sebastian's wife to leave the country, so even now that the assassination had succeeded, it was inevitable that all but the holy sword maiden would be killed by Finn if they returned to the country.
The three of them moved like shadows down the corridor, then jumped down the spiral staircase and landed in the entrance hall on the first floor.
There they were joined by five others who had been tasked with holding off those who had come to their rescue from outside.
The other two, Sebastian and the holy sword maiden―― Sebastian's wife were going around clearing out the armed maids in the area.
They don't know where the herbalist with the beast skin is.
It seems that she is doing the job of erasing the traces, and the maid's corpse and the blood that splattered were completely gone from inside the mansion.
"Wait"
When the black wolves were about to turn around from the entrance to the back door, the person who was carrying the cloth with the head suddenly called out.
"The head is missing."
"What do you mean?"
"It's true. There is no head."
The man who was carrying the head grabbed the cloth with his index finger and thumb, and swayed it around.
"Idiot, where did you drop it?"
"I didn't drop it. It suddenly disappeared."
"It must have been lying around, then."
"No, if we stay here any longer, we'll run into a guardian knight."
"…We can’t go back to the country anyway. We won't be bringing back proof of our assassination, so we won't need the head."
"What about our accomplishments? What about our honor? There is no proof that we bravely faced the Lowell family in small numbers."
"It was supposed to be a secret that we were the ones who killed Patricia."
"But――"
The man's voice, which was still trying to make a counter-argument, suddenly trailed off as if he had been cut off.
It was an unnatural pause.
The other members of the group instinctively felt a sense of discomfort and turned their heads in his direction.
For a moment, the moonlight was blocked by the clouds and darkness fell.
The faint scent of fresh blood.
A sense of foreboding.
Everyone forgot to breathe.
The next white light illuminated the entrance hall, and in the center of the seven members of the [Black Hunter Corps] a woman with long red hair hung loosely in the air.
"――――!?"
Red blood spurts out.
The head of the man who was talking just now is missing.
The headless warrior's body eventually lost its support and collapsed on the spot.
"[God Sword]"
The hunters are not daunted by the unexpected.
The fact that something that was thought to be dead would get up is something that happens every day when you are fighting demons.
Each of the seven leaped backward and quickly drew a holy seal to generate a sword of blue light.
× × ×
She once asked Setanta.
What does it feel like to be alive even after being decapitated?
Setanta replied, [It's normal. It's just that your vision suddenly collapses and the ground turns upside down]. Patricia thought that was an odd thing to say.
Even though the bottom of her head was cut off, she still felt the same as usual.
The body moves according to the commands from the head.
And her body had not only the senses of touch, but also smell, hearing, and sight.
Patricia's body followed the three assassins from behind and adsorbed her head when she saw an opening. The droplets of blood that dripped onto the floor floated up in threads and connected her neck and torso into one.
"It's Patricia."
One of the enemies holding the [God Sword] muttered.
"She's alive"
"――――"
The sound of the wind cutting through the air was heard, and a blue slash ran diagonally across the air.
The man behind Patricia attacked her.
His aim was from the shoulder to the waist.
On the trajectory of the slash is the heart.
But the [God Sword] was dodged by Patricia, who melted into darkness as she fell on the spot.
"No!"
The Black Hunter Warriors' attacks don't stop until they finish their enemies.
Slashing diagonally through the air, the warrior spun his body around, and with his left hand, he went on the marble floor. He used his momentum to cleave the darkness right beside his feet where Patricia had disappeared.
At the same time, the knights on either side of him swung their [God Swords] at their feet to block her escape route.
One, two and three blue semicircles flashed in succession, illuminating the darkness for a moment.
"It's gone......! She's hiding in the perimeter! Don't let her escape!"
(Don't worry so much, I have no intention of escaping.)
She swung the axe at the warrior nearest to her.
The axe, which was cleaved right across, made a dull sound when it hit the warrior's neck.
It is the effect of the physical enhancement, [Oath to the Blue Holy Tree].
The flesh of his neck has been strengthened.
A heavy response reminiscent of a well-fed werewolf returned.
The axe Patricia had borrowed looked like it had not been cared for a long time.
Or perhaps the blade had been drawn for ornamental purposes.
Patricia didn't care either way.
She changed the direction of the force applied to the axe, which had been embedded in the neck, from horizontal to downward at an angle.
The warrior, his neck gouged out, was pulled down to the marble floor and plopped down on the spot like a crushed frog.
The feeling of crushed muscles.
The sound of cutting bones echoes.
"Trevor! Shit!"
She disappears back into the darkness.
Patricia dissolves into the darkness below the stairs, her axe held lowly.
Two blue flash, but neither catches her.
"Where is she?"
Fear is mixed in someone's voice for the first time.
"What the hell is going on!?"
The blue lights were landmarks.
Patricia remembered a time when she was a little girl playing hide-and-seek...... and startled the maid from behind.
At that time, she poked the head of the idiot who couldn't find Patricia no matter how long it took. If she does the same thing, she was sure the warriors here will be surprised.
Even though it was out of place, she couldn't control her excitement as if she had returned to her childhood.
"Boo."
"Ah, gah."
Hand sword.
Patricia, with her demon strength and hard claws in her hands, surprises the knight from behind as she approaches the shadows of the marble floor. Piercing the knight in the back of the head, Patricia also pierced his throat, the first joint of her finger sticking out from between his mouth.
A blue slash swung instantly.
Patricia spins and dodges as if dancing.
Patricia disappears into the darkness, leaving behind the light of her two green eyes.
Her next prey were two warriors standing guard with their backs to each other.
It will be fine if you leave your back to your comrades.
With these thoughts, they can overcome any difficulty.
If they think like that, she can enjoy the greatest pleasure.
Their trust and friendship.
She dares to trample on it.
She will defile, violate, invade, and stain their souls with mere unreasonableness.
Patricia twisted her body like a snake and crawled across the floor, using her body as a spring to attack the two wolf warriors as if raising her sickle on their necks.
She steals a dagger for self-defense from their waists and stabs them both in the eyeballs, killing them both.
Patricia, who gouged out their brain with her non-human physical strength, whispered in her mind, [Now you will be together forever].
(Right now, I'm on top of my game. I can calmly understand that. A tremendous sense of versatility. A feeling of freedom like flying in the sky. A vulgar and indecent elation similar to climax. I can't control it. I'm more ecstatic than anything. If I get carried away, I'm sure my personality will be distorted.)
"Retreat at once! Withdraw, aahhh..."
"That's six people"
Crack*.
She pulls the axe from the man who was slammed to the floor with one blow and had his head split open.
"Two more."
A smile appeared on Patricia's mouth, which was dyed red with blood.
Against the moonlight, she closes the distance to her remaining prey.
"Run. Go call for backup!"
Among the survivors, a man with a tight cloth covering his mouth shouts.
The one who was told to, nodded and disappeared toward the back door.
"Good for you."
"......?"
"You wanted to do a one-on-one with me, didn't you?"
Patricia's figure blurred.
With a thud.
Patricia had moved in front of the man.
"I hope you fight proudly."
"Spacial transfer...! Devil's authority! You're not human."
"[Kneel down]"
"――――"
Patricia's emerald eyes sparkle with a bewitching light.
The man's eyes lose focus.
Patricia whispered again in his ear.
"[Shamefully, kneel down]"
"――――"
"Good boy. Now, please answer my question honestly."
With her almond-shaped eyes squinting, Patricia smiled sadistically.
The man was drooling from his mouth.
In addition, a sexual odor rose from his crotch.
Apparently, the charm was too effective and his mind was destroyed.
This is no use.
If she asks him what she wants to hear, he will spend the rest of his life as a cripple.
Patricia smiled devilishly.
This is the pleasure of dominating――.
She kept it deep in her heart and acted as an honor student.
But no one is watching, so her true nature comes out.
Patricia's little bit of rationality screamed that this was dangerous.
× × ×
Patricia was dominated by the sexually pleasurable sensations brought on by Christopher, but fortunately, this state, which could be called a crisis of reason, did not last long.
As she thought she heard a ground-shaking vibration, a pair of figures fell into the entrance hall through a window in the middle of the spiral staircase.
One of the figures is a woman.
She is dressed in white.
The other belonged to an old man whom Patricia remembered well.
"Sebastian..."
"Patricia-sama."
The old knight in black wolf armor slowly raises himself.
He turned his sharp eyes toward her, shining beneath his thick eyebrows.
He looks at Patricia, who is standing in a pool of blood, and his eyes are twisted.
"Thank you for your hard work, Patricia-sama."
He reached for the belly of the woman next to him.
"Have you fallen into the devil?"
"What are you doing here?"
Patricia casually slaps the cheek of the man who was broken.
The man's neck twisted with an unpleasant sound.
"I'm here to kill you."
"Then I'll run away so you won't kill me. I hope you will do your best to escape from the guardian knights."
"You can't escape. The herbalist has set up a barrier around this house. No help will come."
The white-haired old knight then carelessly threw four pebbles at her.
They emit a dazzling orange light that spreads out in all directions around Patricia and Sebastian.
"Rune stones...?"
"It's called Ato Goura. It was given to me by the herbalist."
Sebastian continues.
"It seems that it is a rune that means invincible and unquenchble. Only one of us will make it out of here alive, me or you."
"Who's that lady?"
"I am with Sebastian... forever."
"――――. Was it Sebastian's holy sword maiden? How dare Finn allow you to leave the country?"
Patricia, seeing the look on Sebastian's face, made an insightful remark.
"No, she left without permission."
"…………"
"Then don't you think it's pointless for us to fight here? Even if you defeat me, Sebastian, Finn will kill you for taking the holy sword maiden without permission, which is not allowed to leave the country."
"Even so, I am a warrior who will serve the Lou family to the end. I will deliver your head to Finn-sama and wait for hell."
"Is that what you want to do with your life? It's not a very human life."
"You say that?"
Sebastian had a smile on his face.
"I would not like to hear you say that, if only because you have been forced to live as the bride of the hero and have had to live with it."
"――――"
Patricia wordlessly pulled the ax out of the floor.
Everyone has a part of them they don't want people to touch.
This man has now touched Patricia's wrath.
"Katina"
Sebastian calls the holy sword maiden's name.
He puts his hand on her thin belly.
The knobby hand does not gouge the sword maiden's abdomen, but instead emits a brilliant blue light.
Patricia's instincts call her to flee.
Her body tissues were awash with the premonition of death.
As expected, when the blue flash stopped, Sebastian was holding a blue sword in his hand.
"[Holy Sword that Blows Out Flames and Slays Dragons]"
Patricia mutters.
The effect is the negation of wind magic and dragon magic.
It also causes the user himself to be covered with a film of wind, which reduces or repels all physical attacks. It was the holy sword that Kat had inside her, and the one that Setanta used most often.
Even if the enemy is not a dragon, the wind coating can nullify most attacks.
Even if an attack did pass through, Setanta, with his tremendous resilience, would regenerate the wound immediately.
Setanta, handling that pseudo-sacred sword, was invincible.
(The problem was that the wind coat would also cut down his allies.)
Patricia narrowed her eyes as she watched the blue turbulence swirling around Sebastian, shattering the marble floor and the stonework of the spiral staircase.
(But I needn't worry about that now.)
Sebastian's holy sword maiden stepped backward and Sebastian stepped forward with his blue greatsword at the ready.
Only the blue greatsword is not cut into shape when it touches the wind coat.
A weapon with solid defense and long reach.
A simple yet powerful combination.
"[Stop]"
"What's the big deal now! Prepare yourself."
(Doesn't work? Then I have no choice but to suppress it from the front.)
Patricia swung her axe and held it behind her in a low position.
The Lou family's axe technique.
It is called the poison tail stance because it looks like the poisonous tail of a manticore.
Sebastian, on the other hand, put his right foot forward, leaning forward, and raised both hands holding his sword.
The tip of the blue greatsword takes aim at Patricia's chest.
The Lou family's great swordsmanship ――the bull's stance.
"Sebastian. The Patricia Lowell you know is dead."
"......?"
"In answer to your earlier point. I was supposed to fight as a hero's bride, bear his children, and die as a cornerstone of the country."
Patricia smiles.
"But last time, I was worried by myself. But before this, I was alone, wondering how to live after I had torn Shifu's murderer to pieces. To be troubled is to have a choice. To have a choice is to have freedom before me. Sebastian, that's me."
Sebastian's stance leaned forward.
At the same time, Patricia's arms creaked.
"You are much more human now."
× × ×
A huge blue rock jumps into the room.
As soon as she stepped forward, a blue sword was thrown at Patricia's heart from the upper part, and she ducked and dodged. Patricia used the motion of turning her body to slash her axe, which was held in the lower position behind her, at a low angle.
It is a move that cuts off the ankle at the same time as dodging the enemy's attack.
With Patricia's enhanced physical strength, the silver axe slammed into the spherical wind coat around Sebastian.
A high-pitched sound like the scraping of iron is heard, and the handle of the axe shook in her hand.
(Hard……!)
"Hya!"
Sebastian thrust the blue greatsword from the upper part as if he were thrusting a spear, but as soon as he saw that Patricia had ducked, she sank down hard as if to get under the body of the sword that he had thrust down.
Rather than forcing the blue greatsword to move, he changed his position and stance so that he could deliver the next blow.
Sebastian, sinking his body under the blue blade, takes a posture like carrying a greatsword on his shoulders while watching the ax being repelled by the wind coat.
Then he extends his bent knees and drops the sword over Patricia's head again.
This time it is not a thrust, but a diagonal cut.
It is a trajectory that cuts from her shoulder to her waist in a single blow.
Patricia, unable to avoid being hit by the greatsword, is deeply hit in the shoulder, chest, and stomach.
A large amount of blood sprays out.
But the bleeding is instant.
When Patricia flew backward, her torn torso was attached to its original position.
(Is this the devil's regenerative power?)
In the blood-drenched vision, Sebastian steps forward while sinking his body down again to get under the sword's body. He takes a low posture as he is carrying the blue greatsword on his shoulder, and as he extends his knees, he cuts down from above.
It's like a blue water wheel rotating diagonally.
Instead of swinging the sword with force, he spins it by his own movement.
As if the blue sword itself has a will, it relentlessly pursues Patricia.
Patricia gives up on attacking and simply falls back.
Perhaps sensing that she was concentrating on evasion, Sebastian's step widened.
The wind coat and the blue greatsword scrape the marble floor, shattering the corpse of the Black Hunters and closing the distance between them.
From there, the movement of the enemy, who had only been carrying it on his left shoulder and swinging it down, changes.
At one point, he twists and turns his body and swings it directly to the side.
At other times, the enemy would carry the sword not on his left shoulder but on his right shoulder, step further into the foe's body under the guise of cutting down, and turn his body sharply at Patricia's neck.
Sometimes he thrusts the tip of the cut, sometimes he pushes off his foot.
(Sword on the side―― Bend down to avoid it.)
(He carries it on his right shoulder. Steps to the left.)
(Feint. An attack that cuts the neck by stepping in at once. It does not interfere with motor function, so it does not lose momentum.)
The wind coat had scraped off Patricia's nose, toes, and fingertips.
Whenever a heavy blow grazed her skin, Patricia's blood spurted out and she regenerated instantly.
"Haa, dah, ――ha! Haaa!"
As long as there is a wind coating, she is on the defensive.
The enemy will only cut down her body.
However, Patricia, who has a genius sense of combat, had already begun to see through Sebastian's swordsmanship.
Sebastian changes his tactics and demonstrates all the greatsword manipulation techniques he has cultivated over the decades, and tries to behead Patricia.
However, no matter how many times she is hit with the pseudo-holy sword, which has no special effect against devils, she will instantly regenerate.
The end was already in sight for Patricia.
Perhaps Sebastian himself saw the end in those few dozen seconds.
Patricia is a devil.
Also, Patricia does not know it, but she is a monster of the king-class breed, mutated by the blood of a demon god named Christopher.
Sebastian, on the other hand, is a flesh-and-blood human whose body becomes immobile when he is fatigued, and whose body is greatly reduced if he is hit by Patricia even once.
Will Sebastian's strength run out first?
Or would the guardian knight, hearing the commotion, break through the barrier and come rushing in?
Without the pseudo-holy sword, it was a barren battle between a nearly immortal monster and the [Immortal Sword Saint].
As for Patricia, she could have stayed with him until the end, but it would be mercy at least to finish him off quickly.
"――――"
Patricia deliberately thrusts her right arm forward.
Sebastian cut it off.
Patricia dances and leaps, picking a flat spot on the broken floor.
Sebastian follows her.
As they circle around the rune's barrier, suddenly the debris under Sebastian's feet pops up, and Patricia's right arm, which had been cut off, flies out.
"Nh――――"
The coat of wind scraped away the flesh of anyone approaching, blocking physical attacks.
However, Sebastian's feet on the ground cannot be covered with wind.
If it were, Sebastian's own feet would be scraped off, or the ground would be scraped off endlessly, and his body would be buried like a stinking mole.
Therefore, the attack can pass through if it is from under the feet, which are not covered by the wind.
Sebastian immediately leaned back and dodged Patricia's arm, but he was unable to avoid it, and his right ear and side of his head were shaved off.
Behind him, the Maiden of the Holy Sword used the sacred art of [Healing Light] to heal Sebastian's wounds.
But
(You received my bloody nails)
Patricia narrows her eyes.
The current Patricia is a succubus.
Just as Christo's bodily fluids are, Patricia's bodily fluids have a poison that humans cannot resist.
"Ugh..."
The old man's hips broke.
She grabs her arm and presses it against the wind coat, which splatters red blood inside the coat and down onto the old man's face.
His eyes blurred and his torso wobbled as if intoxicated.
"Sebastian!"
The holy sword maiden called her husband's name in a voice that almost screamed.
No mercy.
Patricia transitions in front of the woman's eyes, who is now completely vulnerable as her vanguard disappears.
"Ah……"
With a flash of her hand.
The woman's hood blew off and her brown hair mixed with gray scattered in the moonlit darkness.
"Katina... where are you... Katina..."
The coat of wind disappears.
The old man endured with the support of his blue greatsword, but as the holy sword maiden was silenced, the greatsword's blue particles melted into the sky. He crawls, and with a slurred mouth calls out the name of his wife, who is sinking in a pool of blood.
"――――"
The holy sword maiden stretched out her hand to Sebastian while holding the laceration on her neck.
The woman smiled.
Her face is gentle, with deep wrinkles etched into it.
She was wrapped in blue particles and was about to become a small holy tree.
"Kati-"
With a thud.
Patricia crushed the head of the woman who was dripping fresh blood.
"Aaaahh――――! Ah………………"
She pulled out the dagger that was attached to Katina's waist and shot through Sebastian's forehead.
The poor old man's head was half blown off, and the fire of life was extinguished.
× × ×
"That was good. As expected of the genius from the Lowell family."
When the old couple died together, a crackling and dry applause resounded.
Patricia looked up at the second-floor railing without surprise.
There she saw an old woman in a beast skin.
"The herbalist."
"If an already strong individual becomes a demon, even if they have a pseudo-holy sword, you've shown that humans can't compete."
"Did you come to kill me too?"
Patricia asks, looking sideways at the rune barrier that is disappearing now that Sebastian is dead.
"No, I have only been told to erase the traces of the attack on you. If I only erase the traces, I will quickly disappear from this place."
"Then disappear. Right now I'm not normal. I don't want to fight... Mel's benefactor."
"I'll leave when my work is done, even if you don't tell me to."
After saying that, the herbalist took out a red spear out of nowhere and threw it at Patricia's feet.
The red spear pierced through the stone with a loud cracking sound.
"It was a parting gift. It was a magic spear from the Lou family's storehouse, the one used to cut out hearts."
"This magic spear must have belonged to Finn, the head of the family. Did you steal it from the storehouse?"
"He gave it to me. But I don't need it, so I'll give it to you."
"Thank you very much. But I don't want to be cursed, so I'll have one of our guardian knights retrieve it for me."
When Patricia said this plainly, the herbalist put an indescribable smile on her mouth.
"Setanta will be back"
"Eh?"
"Someday he will stand in your way"
"He's sleeping in the hospital.... quietly. He's about to go back to the holy tree."
"No, no, I doubt that."
"You speak of speculation."
"He will return. You'd better think about what you're going to say to him then."
"――――"
"Bye."
The herbalist's figure dissolved in the moonlight.
At the same time, as if the barrier covering the mansion had disappeared, the hustle and bustle of the outside world suddenly resounded.
The sound of many iron armors running toward her.
Patricia waited for the guardian knights to come rushing into the broken entrance hall, slowing the regeneration of her shredded skin.
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