Every one of Milin’s punches was saturated with killing intent… She had never felt her power reach such a height before.
Luc’s armor, forged from Magic Power, was being hammered into twisted, shattered shards.
Blood continuously seeped from the gaps and cracks in the visor.
Seeing her in such a wretched state and hearing her groan in such agony sent a surge of pleasure through Milin’s heart.
She had already stopped using her flames.
Fire would only scorch the blood that was meant to splash onto her, preventing her from feeling the warmth of being soaked in her enemy’s lifeblood.
“This is the tenth! The eleventh! The twelfth!”
Luc was unable to fight back under the onslaught.
Milin saw the skin beneath the broken armor festering from the burns of her previous flames, only to be rapidly restored by the repair of Magic Power.
The bruises and swelling caused by the heavy blows also receded at a pace visible to the naked eye.
‘She’s just like a ragdoll that won’t tear no matter how hard I pull.’
This realization filled her with an inexplicable joy.
Driven by this delight, the fists she rained down grew even heavier.
The force of every punch tore through Luc’s body, causing the ground beneath them to fracture into spiderweb-like cracks as debris flew everywhere.
“Yes, exactly like that. She is the one you must strike down, the one you must kill. You must tear her to pieces and scatter her ashes. Only then can your existence become whole.”
Milin suddenly heard someone whispering in her ear.
At first, she thought it was the Shadow Demon Lord who had vanished… but when she stopped her hand and turned her head, she saw a girl with black hair and a black dress standing beside her.
“Who are you…?”
Milin was startled to realize that although the hair color and attire were different, this person’s face was identical to her own.
Under her astonished gaze, the girl smiled and waved a hand at her in greeting.
Milin blinked to check if her vision was functioning normally… and then she found that the girl had disappeared.
In her place, only three words resounded through her mind and soul —
“Kill her.”
Luc’s helmet completely split apart under the force of the last punch.
Milin saw her eyes lose focus as blood leaked from the corner of her mouth… The sight of her enemy’s miserable, helpless state filled her with a sense of ecstasy.
She no longer cared how many people were left to avenge, nor did she care about whatever conspiracies or schemes might follow.
She raised her fist high, and flames as fierce as a Red Lotus blazed upon it — she would ensure this strike blew Luc’s head into pieces.
“DIE!”
She swung her fist down with a frantic laugh.
…
From which punch onward had she stopped feeling the pain?
Luc didn’t know why she was pondering such a question now — it had been a long time since she had thought about things like this.
The girl currently straddling her… her punches actually didn’t hurt that much.
Enduring these fists was much easier than biting and clawing with those Magic Hounds.
“These are the hunting hounds raised by the King. Since they only eat flesh and blood infused with Magic Power… I can no longer afford to keep them. Go and eat them.”
When she was 6 years old, her mother had thrown her into the enclosure in the Royal City where the Magic Hounds were kept.
“If you eat them, perhaps that pathetic power of yours might actually grow. But if you can’t even beat these dogs… then it wouldn’t be bad for you to become their food, so they can live a little longer and be of some use to me.”
The gate of the enclosure fell with a heavy clang as her mother departed.
Just as she had said, those dogs had already gone mad with hunger and had begun cannibalizing one another.
However, when they caught the scent of a fresh meal full of Magic Power in the arena, they all turned together, staring at Luc with bloodshot eyes.
Little Luc recoiled slightly, terrified by their dripping, salivating maws… but she stopped after only a few steps.
Because she knew her mother was right — the Royal City truly could no longer provide food for these hunting hounds.
After her magnificent father died, the once bustling and crowded Royal City had become a ghost town.
The generals and soldiers who were loyal to her father had died in battle alongside him, while the courtiers and vassals who admired his strength or succumbed to his prestige had vanished without a trace, taking almost all the treasures in the Royal City with them.
For as long as she could remember, she had lived in this empty Royal City with her mother and a few servants who remained loyal to her mother and the Demon King.
It was only after following her mother here that she learned such an enclosure for hunting hounds even existed within the Royal City.
Before this, she had never heard of the servants coming here to feed these hounds.
Therefore, she concluded that they must have been starving since the day the Royal City’s power collapsed… starving until today.
Luc did not resent her mother. On the contrary, she was grateful to her mother for giving her this chance to prove her worth — a chance to prove she was more valuable than these hunting hounds.
‘Because I don’t show the traits and strength of a Heavenly Demon, those Magi who are still loyal to the Demon King won’t acknowledge me as his bloodline. That’s why Mother, despite her noble status, has to guard this empty city alone, weeping in despair day after day…’ Luc believed this to be true.
She felt she should be responsible for her mother’s pain.
So, she desperately suppressed her fear and fought for her life, biting and clawing back at the Magic Hounds that lunged at her.
Even now, she remembered the sensation of pain as the flesh on her arm was torn away by their fangs.
Even now, she remembered the thick, bloody scent that filled her mouth and nose when she bit through their throats.
She remembered how she had endured it back then — to escape the pain she was experiencing, her mind began to count the instances of pain and contemplate the meaning of the pain itself.
By thinking this way, her body stopped feeling the hurt.
It was the same now. Her body remembered the pain of the past, and her brain was using the same method, engaging in the same contemplation to numb herself.
She watched the red-haired girl before her show a frenzied smile, raising a fist wreathed in flames —
‘Am I going to die?’
‘That’s fine. Because Mother said… just like the other trash, it doesn’t matter where I die.’
She felt so very, very tired… so tired she couldn’t even lift her hand. It was the same feeling she’d had after biting the last Magic Hound to death that day.
“…Luc!”
She seemed to hear someone calling her… and that was the same as that day, too.
She opened her eyes and, in a vision blurred crimson by blood, saw her mother stepping over the messy carcasses of the mangled hounds, running over to pull her into an embrace.
“Luc… Luc… Luc…”
She heard her mother constantly calling her name, hugging her body with all her might.
She saw that the long-standing sorrow and indifference in her mother’s eyes had vanished.
In their place was a deep sense of shame and heavy regret… these emotions turned into a steady stream of tears, falling from her deep blue eyes.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I didn’t want it to be like this… I… but…”
‘Ah… Mother really does love me.’
Luc smiled, spitting out her broken teeth and bruised blood… and raised her hand.
She remembered what she had wanted to do when she raised her hand back then — she had wanted to wipe away her mother’s tears.
“That is all.”
Her raised hand firmly caught Milin’s fist.