Volume 3, Chapter 10 – I Am Laxia

Two afterimages collided.

Boom—!

Two dragon claws crashed together in midair, and the resulting shockwave sent the surrounding ancient trees rustling and trembling.

Aetlana’s assault came like a raging storm.

Every claw aimed at a vital point, and every strike carried enough force to tear steel apart.

Lavinia was no less ferocious. Bone claws and dragon claws collided, producing an ear-piercing metallic screech.

“You really are a higher demon.”

Lavinia tilted her head, dodging the bone blade that sliced past her cheek before raking a claw toward Aetlana’s waist in return.

“But you escaped from the White Tower, were hounded by Chastisement spirits all the way here, and then got chased down by us. You haven’t had any chance to recover, have you?”

Lavinia drove her knee heavily into Aetlana’s abdomen.

“In your current state, I’m more than capable of trampling you underfoot!”

They crossed, then separated.

Muddy water sprayed everywhere.

The two slid several meters backward in opposite directions, plowing deep furrows into the ground.

Lavinia looked at the bloody gash torn across her forearm, then glanced at the wound clawed open along Aetlana’s waist and sneered.

“Trading injury for injury? In your current condition, that really isn’t a wise choi—”

Lavinia’s voice abruptly stopped.

She saw Aetlana standing where she was, raising a hand and silently brushing it across the bone-deep wound at her waist.

There was no blood flowing from it.

Lavinia’s pupils contracted sharply.

Beneath the shattered ice-blue scales and peeled-back flesh lay not blood and muscle, but a seamless layer of bone.

Aetlana had reshaped the bones beneath her skin into a layer of steel-like armor that was nearly impossible to penetrate.

It was the Bone Dragon’s usual way of fighting.

“You…”

The words caught in Lavinia’s throat.

She watched as countless cracks split open across Aetlana’s skin, and ghastly white bone blades burst from her joints, spine, and elbows.

The pale bone spikes spread and extended until they finally formed a suit of skeletal armor that covered almost her entire body.

Lavinia’s smile froze for an instant.

She understood perfectly well that Aetlana had gotten serious.

“Attack!”

Lavinia did not hesitate in the slightest. She immediately turned toward her subordinates in the shadows and roared.

“All of you, get in there!”

The two Samael dragon attendants instantly transformed into their half-dragon forms. Scales covered their bodies, and savage dragon claws emerged. The three formed a triangle around Aetlana before lunging simultaneously from both sides, charging straight at her.

“Now that’s the wise choice.” Aetlana said softly. “Come together, die together.”

“…That’s quite a commotion.”

Stella hid behind an ancient tree so thick that several people would have been needed to wrap their arms around it, poking half her head out from behind the trunk.

Ever since she had forcibly absorbed Mia’s essence in the Corridor of Blood, her dynamic vision had been elevated to an unbelievable level.

The speeds at which higher demons could leave afterimages in the air were broken down into clearly visible trajectories before her eyes.

Without a doubt, this was an extraordinarily brutal melee.

Three dragon-type demons were ganging up on one.

Bone spikes, claws, and dragon tails collided wildly throughout the forest.

Trees toppled in swaths, while earth was blasted into the air like fountains.

At first, the four dragon figures moved with astonishing explosive speed. Relying on the absolute defense of her skeletal armor and the foundation of a higher demon, Aetlana had even managed to suppress Lavinia and the other two for a time.

But such explosive exertion could only last so long.

Dragon-type demons seemed to lack endurance. The high-intensity melee rapidly drained their stamina, inevitably slowing their movements, while Aetlana’s absolute disadvantage in numbers also began to show.

Aetlana gradually shifted from offense to defense.

Fine cracks began appearing across her skeletal armor. One dragon attendant struck her across the back with her tail, sending her staggering two steps forward. Before she could steady herself, Lavinia’s claws had already sliced through the bone armor over her shoulder. This time, the armor failed to block the attack completely.

Blood finally flowed.

Dark gold, glaringly conspicuous against the ghastly white skeleton.

Aetlana seemed to be gradually falling into a disadvantage.

Stella leaned against the rough bark and frowned slightly.

She did not know why Aetlana was fighting so desperately.

She remembered the silence inside the carriage, the apology as they fell, the embrace that had shielded her against Aetlana’s chest, and the absolute resolve with which those broken bone wings had cut through the rushing air.

And just now…

—”She’s only an ordinary student.”

That was what Aetlana had said.

In front of Lavinia, even after knowing that she had already been exposed, her first reaction had still been to deny it and try to distance Stella from the whole affair.

Stella did not understand.

She truly did not understand.

As a decisive higher demon who killed without hesitation, as a serious criminal wanted by both the Abyss and humanity, Aetlana had absolutely no reason to protect her like this.

Unless…

Unless those rumors about her guardian weren’t merely rumors.

‘Unless Aetlana truly regards me as…’

‘Please don’t.’

Stella did not dare continue that thought.

But she could sense the genuine feelings hidden within all those little details.

Although Stella had absolutely no idea how the thought process of this serious criminal demon worked, nor did she know what exactly Aetlana was thinking, the current situation could not have been clearer.

She could not let Aetlana lose.

If the lips perish, the teeth grow cold.

If the Bone Dragon died here, then the person Lavinia dealt with next would one hundred percent be her, the Pale Daughter.

She would be finished right alongside her in no time.

‘But… What could I do?’

Stella took a deep breath and began thinking.

She knew her own limits. There was absolutely no way she could join a battle between higher demons. Charging in would be nothing more than handing them a free kill.

Pale Sacred Remains?

It was fine for protecting herself, but as an offensive method, it was far too one-dimensional. The Corridor of Blood had already proven that. A few illusory ribs could easily be dealt with by demons rich in combat experience.

She needed to play dirty.

Come to think of it, she had not used the Pale Sacred Remains in quite a while. She had no idea what had changed after she obtained Mia’s essence.

The Eye of the Black Mass?

She had tested its illusions on Franleya not long ago.

It was certainly effective one-on-one when the other party was completely unprepared, but in this kind of three-on-one high-speed melee, she could not find an opportunity to lock onto a target and release an illusion at all.

As for the Sanctity of the Heart…

Don’t even think about it.

The moment even a single drop of high-purity Holy Light lit up here, the four demons currently trying to kill one another would absolutely stop fighting on the spot, then tacitly turn their weapons on her and tear this Holy See freak apart first.

One usable card after another was ruled out.

Stella lowered her eyes and looked at the shadow beneath her feet.

The mass of darkness lay quietly curled beside her feet. It seemed to sense its master’s anxiety and squirmed slightly, yet did not dare make a single sound.

Only this was left.

Maybe she should try the shadow?

Principal Gehenna’s words echoed in her ears:

—”Your shadow is very interesting. Its form is filled with malice. It isn’t merely dark magic. But the way you’re using it now is far too crude. You’re only making it bite by instinct rather than truly controlling its power.”

How could she truly control it?

How was she supposed to use the shadow’s abilities?

Stella stared at the pitch-black shadow on the ground.

This power had awakened only after she won the Laxia Ritual and obtained the essence of Mia, the Lord of Blood.

Since it came from Mia’s blood essence, then… blood and shadow seemed to be one and the same?

The ultimate form of blood was the bloodflame used by Cheryl and Vivian.

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If they were one and the same…

Then could she perhaps ignite her shadow… just like bloodflame?

And could the sharp teeth inside that shadow perhaps gnaw on something?

Mia herself was Laxia, so what had Stella, the one who defeated her, truly obtained?

Bang!

A tremendous crash came from the battlefield not far away.

Stella raised her head.

The battle was already nearing its end.

Most of Aetlana’s skeletal armor had shattered, exposing the battered body underneath.

Her left arm hung at a strange angle. It was probably broken.

Yet her right hand still gripped one dragon attendant’s claw tightly, while her last remaining bone blade pressed against the other woman’s throat.

But Lavinia’s claws were already pressed against Aetlana’s throat.

Stella stepped out from behind the tree trunk.

Her little black leather shoes stepped onto her own shadow, the one brimming with malice.

How would she know unless she tried?

—————

“Checkmate, old captain.”

Lavinia stood before Aetlana.

Her sharp claws, covered in dark-gold scales, pressed against Aetlana’s throat. The pointed nails had already pierced her skin, drawing a thin trickle of dark-gold blood.

“The farce is over. Since you ultimately chose to settle this by force, I can only handle things according to the rules.”

Lavinia looked down at her from above.

“I’ll smash every bone in your body inch by inch, then drag you back like a dead dog and hand you over to the Family Head for judgment. Don’t worry, you’ll still be alive when you see the instruments of torture in Dragonbone Land.”

She casually added another sentence.

“As for that Pale Daughter… I plan to bring her to the Family Head too. The two of you can keep each other company on the way. At least that will bring your ridiculous obsession of more than ten years to a fitting end.”

This was not yet a hopeless situation.

Aetlana slowly closed her eyes.

She still had one final trump card.

A talent powerful enough to transform the entire black forest within a radius of one li into a ghastly white forest of bones.

Once activated, countless razor-sharp bone spikes would erupt from the ground around her like bamboo shoots after rain, piercing through the bodies of every living creature within range.

In her current condition, forcibly activating this power would have only one possible outcome. Her life force would be completely exhausted, leaving her as a withered skeleton that would never awaken again.

It was undoubtedly a killing move meant to take everyone down with her.

At first, Aetlana had not been certain whether the Young Mistress had already escaped beyond the range of the bone forest while the others were locked in battle.

An indiscriminate area attack like this had a very real chance of catching Stella in it.

But the battle just now had been so intense. That child should have already run far away, right?

With how clever she was, she should know that a battle of this level was not something she could interfere in.

She had surely already hidden herself deep within the forest, found some safe corner, and was waiting for all of this to end.

It was time.

The magical power within her began to stir, and an extremely faint resonance sounded from deep within her bones.

Just one second before the technique was about to burst from her body.

Click, click, click.

Soft footsteps came from behind them.

Aetlana’s eyes snapped open.

She raised her eyes in confusion, her gaze passing over Lavinia’s shoulder.

Long silver-red hair swayed gently in the night wind, and the black Lilith School uniform jacket was draped over her shoulders.

Stella was walking toward them one step at a time.

Aetlana’s heart trembled.

‘Run!’

‘What are you coming back for!?’

She opened her mouth, wanting to tell the Young Mistress to leave.

But Lavinia’s claws had already closed around her throat, choking off every word in her windpipe and leaving only a muffled grunt.

“Yo.”

Lavinia tilted her head and looked at the approaching girl with interest.

“I was just planning to finish dealing with this useless pile of bones and then go looking for you.” She laughed casually. “And here you are, delivering yourself right to me.”

“Pretty obedient, aren’t you? You know you can’t get away, so you’ve simply stopped trying?”

“The heir of Valentine is the Pale Daughter. It just so happens that the Family Head has been lacking an opportunity to bring down her old enemy, Valentine. The Valentine Family Head consorting with the Pale Lord… the Nexus Council is going to have quite a show to watch.”

Stella kept her right eye tightly shut and said nothing.

She quietly walked forward and stopped not far from Lavinia, appearing completely unguarded.

“Fine,” Lavinia shrugged. “Since you’re being so cooperative, then I’ll…”

Her words caught in her throat.

Something felt wrong beneath her feet.

Lavinia lowered her gaze.

She saw her shadow twisting.

Not just her shadow.

The shadows of the two dragon attendants were twisting as well.

The black shadows that should have lain quietly against the ground were now writhing and swirling as if they had come alive, surging from every direction toward their feet.

Scarlet eyes opened within the black sludge, accompanied by gaping mouths packed with sharp teeth.

Dense beyond counting.

There was no telling how many there were.

“What is this…”

Before one dragon attendant could finish speaking, the black shadow beneath his feet had already wrapped around his ankle.

He instinctively swung his claw down to slash it.

The claws cut through the black shadow. It split apart, then immediately reformed and wrapped around him even tighter.

“No! This thing…”

The other dragon attendant’s voice changed pitch as well.

He tried to retreat, but the black shadow had already completely enveloped his feet.

Pitch-black tendrils crawled up his calves, past his knees, over his thighs, and toward his waist.

Dark-gold magical power flared over Lavinia’s free claw as she smashed it viciously into the black shadow on the ground.

The shadow scattered.

Then reformed.

There was even more of it than before.

“Damn it.”

Lavinia had no choice but to release Aetlana and dodge to the side, while still warning the two dragon attendants who remained in place.

“Don’t let Aetlana break free.”

Stella stood where she was, her eyes lowered.

She raised her right hand and dragged her nails across her palm.

Fresh red blood welled out and dripped into the boiling black shadow beneath her feet.

Drip.

Like cold water falling into a pot of scorching oil.

The pitch-black shadow abruptly changed color the instant it came into contact with the blood.

Dark-red veins raced wildly through the darkness, and the entire shadow transformed into an extraordinarily glaring scarlet.

It was as though the Corridor of Blood from that day had reappeared.

“Something’s wrong… Forget capturing Aetlana alive. Kill her immediately!” Lavinia gave the order at once.

But it was already too late. The two dragon attendants had been focusing their balance and strength on restraining Aetlana. They could not move violently and could only endure the scarlet shadows wrapping around them.

Stella looked coldly ahead.

Her thin lips parted slightly.

“Burn.”

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Boom!

Blood and shadow ignited out of thin air.

Without the slightest warning of heat, black-and-red flames clung to the bodies of the two Samael dragon attendants like maggots gnawing into bone, igniting almost instantaneously.

It was not the demonfire commonly seen in the Abyss, but black flames formed from the fusion of the Lord of Blood’s essence and the Valentine bloodflame.

It was the shadows themselves that were burning.

They burrowed into the gaps between scales, into skin, into flesh, into bone, then burned from within and spread outward.

“Aaaaaaahhhh—!”

The two dragon attendants let out heart-rending screams.

By instinct, they released their grip on Aetlana and frantically slapped at the flames covering their bodies.

But the black flames could not be extinguished at all. They spread across their bodies like living things, devouring scales, devouring flesh, devouring everything.

Only Aetlana remained untouched.

Aetlana did not stand there stunned either.

The instant the dragon attendants loosened their grip, the broken bone blade in her right hand moved.

There was no hesitation or unnecessary flourish in the slash.

The bone blade flashed like white lightning, tracing two exceptionally vicious arcs through the air.

Slash!

Heads hit the ground.

Dark-gold blood erupted from the severed necks like fountains.

Aetlana kicked one of the headless corpses away.

The other dragon attendant had yet to recover from being burned by the black flames when Aetlana’s pair of bone blades had already plunged into his heart. She exerted force with both hands and tore him straight in half.

The faint sound of the corpse hitting the ground was exceptionally clear at that moment.

Lavinia took a step backward.

That flame just now… what was it?

No such form of fire had ever existed in the Abyss’s catalog of spells.

There were no scorching waves of magical power and no explosive sounds.

The intertwined black-and-red streams of flame merely clung silently to the two headless remains, peeling away and melting the Samael family’s toughest dark-gold scales and magical barriers as easily as boiling wax.

In only a few breaths, even the remnants of their bones had turned into empty black ash, completely merging into the shadows on the ground.

Lavinia’s gaze slowly rose from the ashes on the ground until it finally stopped on the girl standing not far away with her school uniform jacket draped over her shoulders.

No lengthy spell chanting.

No construction of a high-level magic formation.

Only a few drops of blood.

All she had done was step on the shadow beneath her feet.

Lavinia stared at Stella.

The arrogant air of looking down on everything, as though victory were already in her grasp, had vanished without a trace.

Cold sweat seeped from her temples.

‘…The Pale Daughter is a monster, just like her mother.’

The intertwined black-red flames gradually died away.

Lavinia stood at the edge of the black-red pool of blood, not daring to move an inch.

The Valentine clan excelled at manipulating blood. That was common knowledge throughout the Abyss.

But Lavinia had never heard of flames like these.

Black-red, without temperature, twisting like shadows.

They had not been released from Stella’s hands. They had grown out of the shadows, from beneath their feet, from every direction, from within those scarlet eyes.

This had clearly gone beyond the scope of a bloodline talent.

It could even be called an as-yet-unformed domain.

Or perhaps the opening ritual of some ancient sacrifice?

Whatever the final form of the writhing blood pool beneath her feet might be, she absolutely could not allow it to fully take shape.

Lavinia’s gaze rapidly swept across her surroundings.

Aetlana was kneeling on one knee in the muddy water. Most of her bone armor had already shattered, and her broken bone blade drooped against the ground, barely supporting her. Dark-gold blood seeped from wounds all over her body and dripped onto the earth.

Her chest rose and fell violently. The wind churned around her, through the foamless bloodwater, through the slanting flames.

Those two vicious counterattacks just now had clearly exhausted what little strength the Bone Dragon had left.

No matter how capable a higher demon was, after being worn down continuously without any time to recover, she had probably reached her limit.

For the time being, the Bone Dragon posed no threat.

And Lavinia herself was completely unharmed.

During the encirclement just now, she had decisively sacrificed the two dragon attendants. Although she had failed to kill Aetlana in time, fortunately, the deadly black flames had not reached her.

From Lavinia’s observations, the black flames seemed to require the shadows to wrap around someone before they could burn them. The two dragon attendants had only been caught because all of their attention had been focused on Aetlana. As long as she paid closer attention, there would be no further danger.

Lavinia glanced at Stella.

The direction of the battle was perfectly clear.

Going alone to forcefully kill a higher demon carried the risk of being dragged down by a final counterattack even if the other party was gravely wounded.

But dealing with a succubus student who had not even graduated yet would take only an instant.

No matter how famous the Pale Daughter’s name was, in the end, she was still just a brat who had only been born a few years ago.

How much magical power could that petite body possibly store?

With her pitiful combat experience, before a Samael higher demon, she would not even have a chance to fight back.

Deal with the brat first.

Cut off the spread of the blood pool.

Then turn around and slowly smash every single bone in the Bone Dragon’s body.

Lavinia crushed a dry branch beneath her foot and exerted strength through both legs.

Bang.

A small crater exploded open in the dirt.

Lavinia’s entire body transformed into a dark-gold afterimage. Completely ignoring Aetlana beside her, she charged straight toward Stella.

The raging wind swept up the fallen leaves of the black forest.

With only a single step, the higher dragon-type demon crossed several hundred meters and closed in on Stella.

Lavinia looked at Stella, now right before her.

The girl had her head lowered, her right eye tightly shut.

Her hands hung naturally at either side of her school uniform skirt. She did not raise them to block, nor did she chant a spell.

As expected, she was only a brat fighting on instinct.

‘Got her.’

Lavinia almost laughed aloud.

‘So what if she was the Pale Daughter?’

In a real fight to the death, the combat instincts and speed built up through years of experience were enough to crush every flashy trick.

‘Once I knock Stella unconscious, I could turn around and finish off Aetlana, and then everything would—’

In the next second, Lavinia saw Stella’s tightly closed right eye snap open.

It was not Valentine’s scarlet.

It was pale.

A pale iris, with a pupil like dying embers.

“Pale Sacred Remains.”

The girl’s voice was very, very soft.

Then Lavinia saw it.

Aetlana saw it too. Her attempt to struggle to her feet abruptly stopped. Her body, still kneeling on one knee, trembled violently.

Too similar.

The curvature of the bones, the pale flames, that arrogance that looked down upon everything…

Exactly the same as the person in her memories.

One.

Two.

Three.

Pale ribs grew out of the void, one after another, curving and closing together as they condensed into a half-body skeletal frame around Stella. In the blink of an eye, an enormous upper-body skeleton formed out of thin air, enclosing Stella perfectly at its center.

Almost instantly, the blood throughout Lavinia’s body seemed to freeze as she watched the enormous skeleton emerge from the void and bear down upon her.

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Her heart pounded wildly, and she nearly cried out.

‘Impossible!’

‘This ability…’

Memories from more than ten years ago flashed through Lavinia’s mind.

She remembered.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

Back then, the Pale Lord had relied on this very skeleton to move freely through encirclements several times larger than her own forces, slaughtering the elites of the great families until they completely collapsed. It was a barrier that only higher demons were even qualified to challenge.

Lavinia stopped instantly, leaped backward, and dodged to the side.

She looked at the skeleton, at the girl standing unharmed within it, and at the pool of blood beneath the girl’s feet.

‘No.’

‘I could not fight this.’

The two dragon attendants had become ash on the ground.

Aetlana was gravely wounded, but as long as she recovered even a single breath of strength, she still had the ability to kill Lavinia with a counterattack.

And the Pale Daughter before her was hidden inside Sacred Remains that even higher demons would struggle to break apart.

Lavinia had no confidence.

No, it was more than simply having no confidence.

If she stayed here, there was only one outcome.

Death.

Run.

As long as the green hills remained, there would never be any lack of firewood.

Run back to Dragonbone Land and report the information about the Pale Daughter to the Family Head.

Intelligence of this level was enough to offset the crime of losing two dragon attendants. It might even allow her to redeem herself through merit.

When that happened, there would naturally be plenty of people who would come looking for trouble with the Pale Daughter.

As for Lavinia herself?

There was no need to die alongside them.

If she wanted to leave, no one could stop her.

Lavinia turned around. Broad fleshy wings spread behind her as she prepared to take directly to the air and flee the black forest.

“When did I say you could leave?” Stella said very, very softly.

She stood where she was, her eyes lowered.

Stella could feel the agitation of the shadow beneath her feet.

The blood-shadow had completely lost the obedient appearance it had shown before. It writhed frantically and spread in every direction. Scarlet eyes opened one after another, while jagged mouths opened and closed as though awaiting something.

It was craving.

Not craving protection.

Not craving battle.

It craved food.

Urgently, greedily, impatiently wanting to devour something.

It stirred like a demon. Like invisible air rippling through the surroundings, it wanted to swallow Lavinia whole. It was filled with eternal, sinful desire.

Only now did Stella finally understand what the essence of Mia, the Lord of Blood, had truly given her.

It was not merely the Valentine bloodline.

It was…

Laxia itself.

Lavinia did not turn around. She had intended to simply leave.

But for some inexplicable reason, a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through her palm.

Lavinia stopped moving.

She lowered her eyes and looked.

The dark-gold scales were completely undamaged.

Yet at the very center of those scales, a blood-red mark had appeared at some unknown point.

A pattern of thorns and roses, scarlet as blood, pulsing faintly in time with her heartbeat.

‘This is…’

Lavinia’s pupils contracted.

She recognized this mark.

A curse mark belonging to Valentine.

Laxia.

The victor’s gift.

The loser’s curse.

In an instant, within the blood pool, the countless densely packed scarlet eyes all rolled upward at the same time.

Hundreds upon thousands of jagged mouths filled with interlocking sharp teeth turned in unison, all pointing directly at her.

Stella said very, very softly.

“Now, I am Laxia.”

—————

Lavinia shot straight up from the ground, charging toward the dark-red clouds above the black forest.

Bang!

She immediately slammed into an invisible barrier, sending a ring of blood-colored ripples spreading through the air.

Lavinia fell for the third time.

She panted heavily. Her dark-gold scales were smeared with blood from her own collisions. The scales on her left shoulder had already cracked, and several cuts had been sliced into the edges of her fleshy wings by the tendrils formed from blood-shadow during her repeated high-speed changes of direction.

But what truly left Lavinia helpless was what lay beneath her feet.

The blood pool below had already expanded to its limit, forming a sealed hemispherical barrier.

The Laxia curse mark had locked onto its prey.

This place had completely transformed into a Corridor of Blood from which there was no escape.

No matter which direction she charged, no matter how high she flew, the blood-colored membrane would always stretch across her path.

Scarlet tendrils shot out from the blood pool.

Lavinia kicked off a tree trunk twice in succession, avoiding the biting mouths.

Immediately afterward, an enormous pale rib swept toward her.

Lavinia spread her wings and forcibly changed course in midair.

The pale rib brushed past her dragon horn and smashed through the ancient tree she had been using as a foothold.

Wood splinters flew everywhere.

Lavinia rolled twice through the blood pool before regaining her footing.

She looked toward the girl standing within the skeleton not far away.

Her long silver-red hair swayed slightly in the night wind, with a pale iris and an ember-like pupil.

Lavinia could no longer laugh.

An uncontrollable despair began spreading through her heart.

Lavinia forced herself to calm down.

She could still fight.

The brat’s defenses really were absurdly tough. There was no way she could bite through that skeleton.

But defense required magical power, and attacking required magical power too.

How much reserve could a brat who had only awakened a few days ago possibly have?

Drag it out.

Drag it out until she could no longer hold on.

Lavinia adjusted her center of gravity and began circling again.

Stella stood at the center of the upper-body skeleton and clicked her tongue.

Higher demons were more troublesome than she had imagined.

But no matter what, Lavinia could not be allowed to leave the black forest alive.

Letting a Nexus Council observer who knew her secret as the “Pale Daughter” escape was equivalent to sticking an Abyss-wide wanted notice directly onto her forehead.

The trouble afterward would be endless.

So Lavinia had to die here.

Stella exhaled.

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Fortunately, the Lord of Blood Mia had dropped this gift for her.

Otherwise, she could only have stood here and watched helplessly as a dragon-type demon flapped her wings and flew away.

But another problem immediately followed.

Stella lacked a method capable of killing her in a single blow.

The Pale Sacred Remains was a mobile fortress.

It could protect her for a time, but not forever.

Maintaining the fortress required an enormous amount of Pale Power, and tiny ripples had already begun appearing along the edges of the translucent ribs.

She could not keep it active for much longer.

The blood-shadow could still hold out for a while. Its tendrils chased Lavinia all over the battlefield and occasionally even forced her into awkward evasions.

But the problem was that it could not finish her off in one strike. It could only keep entangling her back and forth.

Meanwhile, the most destructive black flames could only ignite after wrapping around the target.

Lavinia was simply too fast.

Stella watched as Lavinia drew dark-gold afterimages between the trees and across the blood pool.

She dodged without end, her sharp claws constantly leaving scratches across the pale ribs.

Strike and immediately retreat.

Never linger.

Stella had no choice but to divide her attention between controlling the Pale Sacred Remains for defense and directing the blood-shadow to attack on its own.

But no matter how long it took, she absolutely could not let Lavinia escape.

Should she use the Sanctity of the Heart?

Stella glanced at the holy mark on her left hand.

At this point, her body was stuffed full of Holy Light, Pale Power, and Valentine blood, and now there was even a Laxia mixed in.

Stella was not even sure whether the Sanctity of the Heart inside her would still listen to her in this bizarrely stacked state.

After all, she currently looked even more heretical than an actual heretic.

The pale ribs once again blocked Lavinia’s surprise attack. Stella’s gaze passed through the splashing bloodwater and swept toward a corner of the Corridor of Blood.

Aetlana had risen from the blood pool.

She stood amid the churning blood with one hand braced on her broken bone blade.

She did not join the battle. She simply remained quietly where she was, as though waiting for something.

Stella opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

But Lavinia’s afterimage closed in again, forcing Stella to pull back her attention and grit her teeth as she drove the blood-shadow forward once more.

Another round of entanglement began.

Lavinia was like a hawk that never knew exhaustion, circling, diving, and dodging above the blood pool.

She was too fast, so fast that Stella nearly lost track of her several times.

And every time Stella thought she intended to flee into the distance, she would suddenly double back and feint toward Stella, forcing Stella to divide her attention to defend herself.

Stella knew exactly what she was doing, but she had no other choice.

The glow of the Pale Sacred Remains grew dimmer and dimmer.

One rib after another became transparent, as if they might disappear at any moment.

The pursuit of the blood-shadow tendrils also slowed.

Lavinia stopped.

This was precisely the opening she had been waiting for.

Lavinia transformed into a streak of dark-gold light and dove down one final time.

This time, she had no intention of merely knocking Stella unconscious.

Her dark-gold claws drew five glaring streaks of cold light through the night, aimed directly at Stella’s throat.

All that remained in her eyes was the girl standing at the center of the skeleton.

Kill her, and the barrier would naturally disappear.

Kill her, and everything would end.

As for the information about the Pale Daughter? She did not need it anymore.

She only needed to live.

Live long enough to leave this damned place, live long enough to return to Dragonbone Land, live…

Slash!

Her claws were only three inches from Stella’s throat.

Then they stopped.

The sound of a sharp blade slicing through flesh rang out.

Lavinia felt a sudden chill in her chest.

She lowered her gaze.

A section of ghastly white bone blade had pierced straight through her chest, dark-gold blood running along the pale bone joints before dripping into the blood pool below.

“Did you…” A hoarse voice sounded behind her. “Forget about me?”

Lavinia’s pupils contracted.

‘Aetlana, how did she…’

The blood pool.

She had been inside the blood pool the entire time.

From the very beginning.

A thin blood-colored membrane covered the entire surroundings, trapping everyone inside.

Lavinia had only been focused on dodging Stella’s attacks, only focused on finding the edge of the barrier, only focused on calculating when that damned skeleton would disappear.

She had forgotten.

Forgotten that there was still a Bone Dragon whom she herself had beaten into severe injuries, whose bone armor had shattered and whose blood had never stopped flowing.

Lavinia felt her consciousness beginning to blur.

‘I don’t want to die.’

‘I don’t want to die here…!’

‘There are still so many things I have not done. I have not brought the information about the Pale Daughter back. I have not…’

Lavinia stared at the bone blade protruding from her chest. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something.

But she could not speak.

Because the blood-shadow tendrils that had chased her all over the battlefield had finally wrapped around her ankle.

Then her calf, her thigh, her waist, her chest, her neck.

Scarlet eyes opened in front of her, and mouth after mouth filled with interlocking sharp teeth pressed against her skin.

They did not bite.

They were waiting.

Waiting for a command.

“Take her essence.”

A very, very soft voice sounded.

Then those mouths moved.

The feeding began.

The sharp teeth of the blood-shadow tore at the dark-gold scales, gulping down the blood and magical essence of the higher dragon-type demon.

The sound of chewing echoed through the black forest.

Lavinia was completely enveloped by the pitch-black shadow.

The Pale Sacred Remains dissolved into white light and vanished.

Stella stood where she was and covered her face.

A succubus that lays eggs, a shadow that eats demons, and now… a blood pool that can create barriers on its own.

‘Almighty Lord.’

‘What kind of bizarre thing has Your faithful servant become now?’

Translator Note

Yoo thats some crazy long fight and far more intense than the one against Mia before ><

The faithful Saintess has finally killed people!