Volume 4, Chapter 9-2 – Demons, Delicious

Stella watched Veronica slowly walk toward her and relaxed slightly.

Even though the Dragon Attendant had just said Veronica would flatten Blood Demon Manor, Stella did not feel all that pressured.

For one thing, there was still a group of her good coworkers, the White Tower’s Chastisement spirits, working in the courtyard. They would diligently fulfill their duty of protecting her.

And as for the golden-haired, vertically slit-eyed girl in front of her, only a few watches ago at the banquet, she had still been looking at Stella eagerly and wanting to acknowledge her as her mama.

Although the situation back then had indeed been a little awkward.

Still, Stella figured that as long as she put on a little of an elder’s dignity now, made a simple show of it, and stroked Veronica’s fur the right way, tonight’s absurd surprise attack should more or less come to an end.

However…

Stella still remembered Franleya’s warning.

The Nightmare young lady had personally said that Veronica was a pureblood monster, a dragon demon with an extremely abnormal mind.

But no matter how abnormal her mind was, she was ultimately just a child desperately lacking motherly love.

How hard could comforting a child possibly be?

Give her some candy, pat her head, and there probably wouldn’t be much of a problem.

Stella began doing the calculations in her head.

It would be great if she could simply poach someone from Samael. That would basically be picking up a top-tier combatant for free, then keeping her at Blood Demon Manor as a guard.

The problem was that Family Head Samael would definitely come looking for trouble afterward, and the trouble that brought would be anything but minor.

While Stella was still thinking, the situation at Blood Demon Manor changed immediately, almost the instant the Samael Dragon Attendant Captain fell.

The Chastisement spirits all turned their empty hoods in unison.

They immediately designated the newly arrived Veronica as their highest-priority target for chastisement.

Several chains condensed from highly concentrated Holy Light shot out of the void, accurately winding toward Veronica’s limbs. Immediately afterward, three Chastisement spirits raised swords of light burning with pure white holy flame and swung them down from midair toward the top of Veronica’s head.

The chastisement had begun.

Stella froze for a moment.

‘Huh?’

‘Wait!’

‘Don’t hurt the kid yet!’

Stella was a little worried about Veronica.

The Holy See’s Holy Light was extremely effective against demons, and the White Tower’s jailers definitely had no concept of holding back, much less respecting the old and caring for the young. They wouldn’t actually hurt the kid, would they?

But in the next instant, Stella realized her concern had been completely unnecessary.

Facing the descending Holy Light, dark golden magical power spilled outward around Veronica.

Various draconic traits emerged across her body. Her clothes were torn apart by scales and bone spikes, exposing steel-hard muscles across her entire body. Jagged bony protrusions appeared along her forehead and jaw, while her golden pupils remained incomparably clear, gleaming with the luster of gold.

Veronica spread her five fingers and caught the blade of the foremost descending sword of light with her bare hand.

Holy flame scorched her dragon scales, producing an ear-piercing hiss.

Veronica remained expressionless as her right hand closed and clenched.

The blade made purely of Holy Light shattered on the spot.

Immediately afterward, Veronica swept out with her dark golden dragon claw.

The Chastisement spirit’s right hand instantly burst apart into countless motes of light. The motes drifted through the air for a few moments, then slowly began gathering back toward the Chastisement spirit. Clearly, it would take time for the limb to reform.

Stella blinked.

Higher demon.

She had almost forgotten that Veronica was a high-ranking demon, on the same level as Aetlana at her peak.

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Chastisement spirits could indeed restrain demons and were more than capable of fighting ordinary higher demons. But in the end, they were merely simple spirits that used Chastisement Brands to attack ordinary targets, not composite spirits specifically created to fight high-ranking demons and Archdemons. On top of that, after the successive battles against six Samael Dragon Attendants just now, the remaining Chastisement spirits were already far from their peak condition.

Now that they were facing Veronica, a high-ranking demon with the pure physique of a dragon demon, they simply did not have enough strength, no matter how willing they were to fight.

Stella was starting to feel that something was wrong.

She realized Veronica had changed.

The somewhat stubborn girl from the banquet was gone.

The Veronica before her now was like an asura, brutal and merciless, acting without the slightest regard for the consequences.

She tore apart Holy Light chains with her bare hands and smashed charging spirits apart with her barbed dragon tail. Her entire body radiated madness and murderous intent.

Most importantly, Stella noticed that throughout Veronica’s battle with the Chastisement spirits, those utterly calm golden eyes had never stopped staring at her.

Her target was obviously Stella.

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

‘Hmm… could it be that because I had refused to be her mama at the banquet, she had turned love into hatred and now wanted to kill the mama she couldn’t have?’

‘What kind of pathological family ethics drama was this?’

‘Are demons all this bizarre?’

‘If their adoption request got rejected, they just started fighting?’

In the blink of an eye, Veronica beat the last few Chastisement spirits until they could no longer fight, then instantly switched targets.

A dark golden afterimage charged straight toward Stella, carrying a gale that seemed capable of crushing everything, as though Stella were the only person in Veronica’s eyes right now.

Veronica’s speed as a high-ranking demon was simply too fast. Stella actually had some trouble seeing her movements clearly.

She instinctively wanted to activate the Eye of the Black Mass and use Pale Sacred Remains to protect herself. As her strongest defensive measure at present, she could use it without worry when no one else was around.

But she needed time. Pale Sacred Remains required her to maintain focus before she could summon the bone armor.

Yet Veronica was absurdly fast.

The dragon claw covered in dark golden scales was already right in front of her.

Then…

Stella heard a whoosh, followed by a low roar in the surrounding air, almost like the sound of a soul leaving its body.

Immediately afterward, a black-and-white figure slid sideways and forcibly cut between the two of them. A greatsword instantly appeared in front of Stella, its blade meeting the dragon claw head-on without the slightest flourish.

Clang!

Dazzling sparks burst outward. The deafening crash of metal against metal made Stella’s head ache.

Veronica flew away like a cannonball knocked off course, landing beside the fountain on the other side of Blood Demon Manor. Bricks and stone collapsed as dust billowed everywhere.

Stella stared in surprise at the figure standing in front of her.

A filthy black-and-white maid dress, lace trim covered in dust, and messy raven-black hair.

“Lai… Lainia?”

Lainia did not look back.

She rested her greatsword on her shoulder and swallowed the rest of the grilled sausage in her mouth.

“Who gave you permission to hurt my Master?”

She tilted her head slightly, flicked her hair neatly behind her, and spoke each word distinctly toward Veronica.

Stella stared somewhat blankly at the figure standing in front of her.

Lainia.

Stella was quite surprised.

She never would have imagined that her idiot coworker, whose brain usually did not work all that well either, could suddenly erupt with such astonishing speed at a life-or-death moment like this.

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After all, aside from eating, Lainia was never enthusiastic about anything.

Even more absurdly, she had actually taken Veronica’s frontal attack head-on, then used the opportunity to smack Veronica away with one swing of her sword.

Stella briefly recalled what had just happened.

There had undoubtedly been only Stella in Veronica’s eyes, while Lainia had accurately caught her blind spot. Completely abandoning the useless glutton act she had been putting on while sitting in her chair and watching the show earlier, she had entered the battlefield without the slightest hesitation, valiant and decisive.

What sharp battle instincts.

Stella could not help but sigh in admiration.

At least Stella’s meal card had not been maxed out by Lainia several times for nothing. Now, she had finally proven worthy of her appetite.

“Master.” Lainia said with rare seriousness. “Please leave what comes next to me.”

Stella was stunned. “You?”

“Yes. Please take a few steps back.” Lainia said as she raised her sword parallel to the ground and assumed a standard ready stance. “For now, leave what comes next to me.”

“I’m Master’s gatekeeper now. A gatekeeper’s duty is to make sure no one hurts Master.”

“Actually, just now… you were pretty cool.” Stella said, feeling deeply gratified.

Being able to watch the human slave she was raising slowly become better and better really was something happier than anything else.

“Of course I was.” Lainia said with a small note of smugness in her voice. “After all, I’ve eaten so much of Master’s food. If I weren’t useful at all, wouldn’t that mean I ate it all for nothing?”

“Besides, no matter what, if someone wants to hit Master, shouldn’t they first ask whether her dog agrees?”

“…”

The corner of Stella’s mouth twitched.

‘What kind of weird metaphor was that?’

‘Aren’t we coworkers?’

Although Stella inexplicably felt touched right now, she was far more worried.

‘Could Lainia really win?’

Not long ago, Lainia had shown in the training arena that she could withstand successive battles against a whole group of succubus students and slaughter her way through them.

But Stella herself had personally gone down there and beaten her up.

Based on Stella’s own firsthand experience, Lainia’s current strength could at most barely reach the threshold of a first-rank exorcist of the Holy See, enough to contend against higher demons. She was still quite a distance away from a true upper second-rank exorcist capable of standing on her own.

And Veronica Samael was a high-ranking pureblood dragon demon. The gulf between the two of them was absolutely not something that could be filled with hot blood and determination alone.

“Lainia, can you win?” Stella asked worriedly.

“I’ll win!”

Lainia looked back and revealed a brilliant smile.

A speck of pure, warm golden light was rhythmically flashing over the position of her heart.

The second step of the Nineteen Paths of Ascetic Cultivation recorded in The Asrita Scripture, Heart of Holy Light.

Even under extreme conditions such as oxygen deprivation, blood loss, or even approaching death, as long as the heart was still beating, Holy Light could continuously squeeze out physical strength. If one’s divine energy was sufficient, it could even provide uninterrupted Holy Healing on its own.

Stella immediately relaxed.

With Heart of Holy Light, as long as the Holy Light stored inside Lainia’s body was not completely exhausted, she was the most durable punching bag in the entire Abyss.

The smoke and dust around the central fountain gradually dispersed, and Veronica appeared before the two of them once again.

She stood in the middle of the crater of broken stone, her golden hair covered in dust, yet there were almost no wounds on her body.

That sword strike just now had caused no substantial damage.

Veronica raised her eyes. Her slightly reddened golden pupils stared at Lainia as though examining a stubborn rock.

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Then she moved.

She shattered the ground beneath one foot and transformed into a golden afterimage, lunging straight at Lainia.

Lainia charged forward without dodging at all.

Clang!

The greatsword collided with the dragon claw, sending sparks everywhere.

The impact forced Lainia back three steps. The stone slabs beneath her feet shattered inch by inch, but she gritted her teeth and forcibly steadied herself.

Veronica lunged again.

Before Lainia could regain her footing, the barbed dragon tail had already whipped toward her like a long lash.

Immediately afterward, the dragon tail struck Lainia squarely on the shoulder.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Lainia’s left shoulder was mangled into a bloody mess, and her entire body lost balance as she toppled to one side.

A clear wave of agonizing pain swept through her, almost impossible to endure.

Lainia gritted her teeth, bit the pain to pieces, and swallowed it together with her blood.

The agony of the flesh and the torment of ascetic cultivation both transformed into raging flames, burning within her chest and abdomen day and night without ever ceasing.

“Holy Healing!”

She shouted.

The Heart of Holy Light instantly erupted with brilliant golden radiance.

Pure divine light covered her entire body in an instant.

The wound deep enough to expose bone began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye under the nourishment of Holy Light.

Before the splattered blood had even hit the ground, newly grown flesh had already filled the missing portion.

“Steady as a Rock!”

Lainia roared.

She planted one hand against the ground, exerted strength through her waist, and stood back up as though nothing had happened.

The pitch-black greatsword spun through the air like a giant windmill and came straight down toward Veronica’s head.

Veronica could not even be bothered to dodge. She simply used her dragon scales to take the human insect’s sword head-on.

Sparks flew everywhere.

Veronica remained completely unharmed, while the web between Lainia’s thumb and index finger split open.

“Holy Healing!”

The next second, golden light flashed, and the torn flesh instantly healed.

The battle that followed completely turned into a bloody war of attrition that left Stella dumbfounded.

After all, personally witnessing a Holy Light freak she herself had created really left her with complicated feelings.

Dragon claw tore open her chest?

No problem.

Holy Healing!

Knee strike broke her ribs?

Piece of cake.

Holy Healing!

Scrapes, burns, impact wounds, crushing injuries, sprains, even internal injuries?

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Whatever. Lainia did not care.

Keep using Holy Healing!

Stella finally understood.

No matter how violent Veronica’s attacks were, and no matter how badly Lainia was injured, as long as Lainia was not instantly reduced to paste, the Heart of Holy Light would immediately restore her to normal and drag her back up to keep fighting.

No wonder The Asrita Scripture emphasized that practitioners had to endure extreme burdens, extreme hunger, and extreme pain before they could temper their prison into an indestructible fortress.

If an ordinary person had to endure pain like this, they would have broken long ago and chosen to slit their own throat and ascend to heaven.

Veronica had clearly noticed the problem too.

Although the defense of her dragon scales was not something a human insect could shake, no matter how severely she injured the human insect, the girl simply refused to fall.

That filthy maid stood in front of Stella like an immovable boulder. Veronica could neither get past her nor do anything about her.

Veronica frowned slightly.

Her patience was exhausted. She did not want to keep wasting time on this.

The madness and desire for destruction grew even stronger. Veronica did not know what abyss they had crawled out of, slipping through the heels of her shoes, climbing up her feet, rising higher and higher until they gradually seized control of the last remnants of her consciousness.

A beastlike roar burst from her throat.

Dark golden magical power swelled violently and erupted outward in a ring with her at its center.

Her eyes turned a merciless dark gold, as though molten lava were flowing deep within them. Her dragon blood surged violently, completely beyond her control.

Stella was astonished to discover that Veronica was undergoing a drastic transformation.

She was becoming even more draconic.

She was no longer in a half-dragon form that retained a human silhouette.

Instead…

She was becoming a complete dragon.

Massive claws covered in scales crushed the ground beneath them. A thick dragon tail swept across the courtyard, grinding all the broken walls and ruins into powder.

Enormous damaged dragon wings spread across the night sky, blocking out half the moonlight.

Her golden eyes were like two blazing flames as they looked down from above at the two tiny figures on the ground.

A fully transformed dragon.

The true form of a dragon demon.

Lainia dragged her greatsword as she raised her head and stared at the colossal creature that had become even taller than Blood Demon Manor. Standing beneath the giant dragon’s feet, she looked a little dazed.

The gale tousled her short hair.

Lainia swallowed.

“Master.”

She glanced back, pointed at the now fully formed and ferocious dragon, and spoke with an aggrieved expression.

“Someone can’t handle losing.”

Translator Note

Second phase!

At first I didn’t believe Lainia became fully devout to Stella, but now… it seems Lainia has truly broken after Stella beat her xD