Volume 1, Chapter 38 – Holy Light

Lainia ran without stopping.

Thorns tore through her ridiculous maid dress, leaving bloody scratches across her fair calves.

She did not dare look back. All she could see in her mind was Stella’s seemingly cold yet secretly teasing face.

There had never been any freedom to begin with. It was nothing more than a scrap of false mercy granted before a cat began toying with a mouse. That silver-haired succubus was surely hiding behind some tree right now, enjoying the sight of her panicked flight.

And once she had seen enough, she would personally hunt down her prey.

She would never let her have her way!

Lainia bit her lower lip and tore the collar from around her neck, throwing it aside.

No matter what, she could not stop. As long as she could still move, she would keep running in the direction opposite that demon. She would keep running until…

The surroundings suddenly became unnaturally quiet. Even the sound of the wind vanished, replaced by a faint, dense writhing noise.

Rustle, rustle.

Lainia stopped in her tracks, her amber eyes contracting sharply in the darkness.

From the dead tree trunks around her and beneath the rotting leaves on the ground, countless long, pale creatures the color of dead flesh poked out their heads.

They had no eyes, only sucker-like mouths packed with tiny, razor-sharp teeth. Their mouths opened and closed with every breath, dripping thick saliva.

Magic-devouring worms.

Lainia had seen this creature in the Encyclopedia of Magical Beasts. For someone like her, who had lost the protection of divine blessing, this place was a desperate situation one level deeper than hell itself.

They had smelled the sweetness of her flesh after her magical power had been exhausted, just as flies were drawn to rotting meat.

Lainia took a step backward, only for something cold, slick, and soft to coil around her ankle.

Rеаⅾ οn КаtRеaԁіnɡСаfе

“Lord…”

She clasped her hands before her chest, over the place where that holy emblem, no longer sacred, had once rested, and cried out soundlessly.

‘Please answer me…’

‘Please send down even the faintest sliver of light and drive away this filth.’

The darkness remained thick. Only the sound of worms scraping across the ground drew closer and closer, like a rising tide.

There was no answer.

The Lord had abandoned her.

A worm as thick as a wrist suddenly sprang into the air, opening its mouthparts lined with razor-sharp teeth as it lunged straight for her face.

Lainia closed her eyes.

Squelch!

The searing pain she had expected never came. Instead, a few drops of warm, foul-smelling liquid splattered across her face.

Lainia’s eyelashes trembled as she slowly opened her eyes.

A slender, fair hand had stopped right in front of her face, gripping the worm that was still twisting violently.

“Disgusting.”

A cold voice sounded beside her ear.

Stella Darkfallen stood there, her long silver hair gleaming coldly beneath the faint moonlight. There was no warmth whatsoever in her aster-purple eyes as she looked at the magical beast in her hand with nothing but disgust.

Her five fingers tightened.

Reαԁ оn КаtRеаⅾiոgCαfе

Pop.

The worm burst into a pulp of flesh in her hand.

Stella casually flicked the filth from her hand, pulled a handkerchief from her clothes, and wiped her fingertips clean. Her gaze swept past Lainia and fell upon the densely packed swarm of worms surrounding them.

“Finally, I found you,” Stella said very, very softly.

Lainia’s entire body went cold.

Just as she had thought.

Her escape earlier had merely been entertainment. Now that the hunter had grown bored of the game, she had personally entered the field to retrieve her prey.

However, Stella’s current mood could be summed up in just two words.

Utterly numb.

Stella stared at the worms still pouring toward them without end, her scalp tingling.

Remedios had not been exaggerating. This place really was a nest of worms, and judging by the way these things were looking at her, they wanted her even more badly than they wanted Lainia.

A succubus’ magical power was the supreme delicacy to them, let alone the fact that the magical power inside her belonged to Cheryl.

They had to get out of here quickly.

Stella stared at the surging dark-purple tide before her, her scalp prickling.

With no better option, she could only make a desperate attempt. She mobilized the restless Valentine magical power inside her body and clumsily imitated the way Cheryl manipulated blood in her memories.

Her fingernail sliced across her left palm, and blood welled out.

Instinctively, she scattered droplets of blood forward while imagining them turning into spikes just as Cheryl’s did.

Rеаԁ оո ΚаtRеaԁіոɡСafе

The blood did not turn into spikes.

With nothing more than an instinctive thought, the droplets suddenly erupted into flames in midair. A nearly golden-red wall of violent fire surged upward, tearing open a path through the swarm while radiating an ancient and noble majesty.

It was a technique even Cheryl herself had never used…

Stella discovered in astonishment that the worms charging at the front had not been burned to death. The instant they touched the flames, they stiffened as though they had encountered their natural predator, then were directly crushed apart by the overwhelming magical power.

‘It seemed this is not merely Cheryl Valentine’s power…’

‘After Vice Principal Mara’s brutal treatment, has my current bloodline rank somehow surpassed even Cheryl’s own?’

The worms let out shrill hisses and recoiled in fear.

Lainia held her breath.

The lingering golden-red glow reflected in her amber eyes, stinging them painfully.

‘No incantation…’

Instantaneous casting.

Even the Blood Grand Duke recorded in the Church’s archives had been incapable of igniting sin in this color.

Compared to the disgusting worms around them, the silver-haired girl standing with her back to Lainia seemed to be the truly terrifying existence.

But the eruption lasted only a few short breaths.

Compared with the qualitative transformation in power, Stella’s control over it was far too inexperienced. The golden-red bloodflame was like an uncontrollable beast, instantly draining an entire burst of magical power from her before rapidly dimming and reverting to ordinary embers of magical power.

Without anything suppressing them, the swarm surged forward once more. Stimulated by the scent of blood from moments earlier, they had become even more frenzied.

Stella bit her lip. Her palm was still throbbing faintly with pain, but the magical power inside her no longer seemed capable of supporting another eruption on that level.

Rеad οո КαtRеαⅾiոgСαfе

‘Damn it.’

At this rate, both of them were going to become worm food.

There was no time to worry about exposing her identity anymore. Staying alive came first.

Stella took a deep breath and forced down the panic in her heart. She had no choice but to draw upon the power she knew best, the power she absolutely should not be using here.

She slowly raised her left hand and spread all five fingers.

A sphere of pure, gentle white light carrying supreme majesty quietly blossomed around her.

Holy Light.

A power that caused every abyssal magical beast to instinctively retreat.

The surging tide of worms seemed to slam into an invisible wall. Under the illumination of the Holy Light, the worms at the front did not even have time to scream before melting into puddles of clear water like snow beneath the blazing sun.

Lainia sat on her knees in the mud, staring blankly at the scene before her.

Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Translator Note

Ohhh! secret exposed?