Chapter 261
Meanwhile, Tesillid was not the only one who felt something amiss.
“Your Holiness?”
“Huh? Uh-uh?”
“Why is Your Holiness suddenly like this?”
“Aillet, what’s wrong?! What’s happening?!”
The battlefield, which everyone thought had concluded, entered a new phase.
“Haa… haa…”
The Holy Saint, who had displayed such immense power, was currently unable to fully control her own body.
Holy Scythe Librilly, plunged into the ground, barely supported her center of gravity.
With every rough gasp and exhale, something unusual happened to the Holy Saint’s body.
Black aura flowed from her back, polluting the air.
“Demonic aura?!”
Something impossible was unfolding before their eyes. No one knew what was happening.
Even the Holy Saint, who possessed near-omniscient knowledge of this world, seemed equally bewildered, her eyes trembling widely.
Just then, the only one who understood this shocking situation appeared.
A handsome man with long black hair crossed the stage of the amphitheater with elegant and measured steps.
His steps, of course, led directly to the Holy Saint.
“The Black Holy-Demonic Swordsman…!”
Everyone felt a chilling tension as Reed approached the Holy Saint.
However, Reed himself showed no intention to fight.
Of course, only towards the Holy Saint.
He opened his mouth towards her, who was busy trying to catch her breath.
“You seem to be in pain.”
“…!”
Only then did the Holy Saint lift her head and discover the man before her. The sight of him extending a hand was imprinted in her uncontrollably trembling eyes.
Soon, he made her an offer.
Sweetly, as if tempting her.
“Shall I help you?”
Immediately after a new Holy Stigmata began to be carved onto my back, I felt that something was going terribly wrong.
My heart felt as if it wasn’t my own. Beating so large and ponderously it felt like it would break through my ribs and burst out, it seemed less like an organ of my body and more like a separate entity detached from me.
Instinctively, I thought I had to suppress this. So I gathered all my strength. But.
<Aillet?! Aillet, what’s wrong with you?!>
Agnes’s voice was filled with bewilderment.
Barely able to control my body, I could only endure by using Holy Scythe Librilly as a staff and looking down at the floor.
The fortunate thing was that even that was enough to assess the situation.
Surprisingly, demonic aura was accumulating layer by layer from the floor I stood on.
What is this?
The Demon King is dead.
Why is there such dense demonic aura everywhere?
‘No way.’
It was at that moment a cold bead of sweat trickled down my chin.
“…!”
The aura within my body began to rampage uncontrollably.
[
Even as my mind felt like it was about to fly away, the warning message stood out clearly.
Hidden spell.
Words that brought an ominous feeling to its peak. At the same time, the description of Holy Scythe Librilly I had read previously came to mind: -‘Newly Born Chaos Evil’ earnestly desired your corruption and meticulously custom-ordered this weapon.
I intuited.
Reed, he did something.
“Ugh!”
[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ initiates cause analysis.]
[‘Heavens’ Secret Overseer’ confirms all information from the original work.]
[‘Eye that Oversees All Chaos’ detects abnormal signs in the Lily Cross Scythe.]
[‘Scales that Judge Souls’ detects abnormal changes in your soul.]
[‘Scathing Critic of Balance’ discovers the collapse of the good-evil balance.]
Every cell in my body screamed, sounding an alarm. It was at a time when my condition only grew more severe.
[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ has completed analysis!]
Information was broadcast through my increasingly blurry vision.
[
Ah, Reed had set a threshold.
[
Because of that, the raw power of the Demon King is being carved onto me.
[
So, in the end, I am now…
[
[
[
…I am being dragged down to where you are, Reed.
Ssss-ssst!
Holy Scythe Librilly, supporting my body, transformed its appearance.
The gently curved lily cross adorned with white moonstone transformed into a sharp cross made of black metal and red onyx.
[
It wasn’t just Holy Scythe Librilly that changed its appearance. The parasitic weapon immediately affected its host.
My bowed face. The hair cascading down both sides began to turn black.
“Ugh…”
Trapped in the devised snare, I could do nothing on my own. I could only endure, rendered powerless.
Someone approached me.
“You seem to be in pain, shall I help you?”
“…!”
I was late in sensing his presence. He was already right before me.
I lifted my head with all my might.
“…Reed.”
Indeed, he was the Final Mastermind. The cunning strategist who had manipulated every situation in the palm of his hand was smiling with satisfaction.
Even at this moment, his incomparably beautiful face made my stomach churn.
“…”
He extended a helping hand towards me. I eyed the seemingly friendly hand approaching my vision with caution.
Instead of an meaningless struggle telling him not to touch me, I spoke.
“You were planning, something like, this?”
My voice came out terribly broken.
“Yes.”
“No wonder, the gift, felt ominous.”
“Thank you for accepting it nonetheless.”
“What are you trying to do by corrupting me? Don’t tell me this is…”
I asked, looking at his face which seemed devoid of any ill will.
“The salvation you spoke of?”
I had not forgotten what he said in Anaksia’s audience chamber: -I’ve just decided, Aillet Rodelain. I’m going to save you.
-…What?
-I can’t let you live as a puppet of the gods like me. He smiled with satisfaction.
“I’m glad you understand.”
He extended his hand even closer. He was incomparably courteous, as if to escort her.
“Come to me. I’ll treat you like a queen.”
“I won’t be a queen.”
“Whatever it is.”
At his dismissive remark, I no longer retorted.
I had to conserve my strength for the struggle.
I need to prepare, prepare.
With the means I have.
Somehow.
“Hurry and fall, Aillet Rodelain.”
“…”
“Fall and come to my side. And let’s live together in a ruined world.”
His sweet whispers made my composure vanish. My ears felt like they would melt, and my head felt like it would go mad.
With a thud, my body collapsed.
In the end, I found myself prostrate, as if crawling.
Clutching my chest as if to rip it open, I fought the urge to tear out what was inside.
Just then, countless light-blades flew towards Reed’s position.
Reed, unfazed, deployed an equal number of aura blades to intercept them.
As the dust cloud from the explosion cleared, the spectators’ stands on the other side were revealed.
[
Demon King Inferinos’s cheering section transformed into a swamp of specters.
Sharp-clawed black hands latched onto Tesillid’s entire body, dragging him into the swamp.
“Ail…!”
Even covered in scratches from the claws, he resisted the dungeon’s rules.
His struggle to resist with both arms seemed like an attempt to crawl towards me.
It was then that Reed’s perpetually composed face stiffened slightly.
“My apologies, Aillet Rodelain. I need to finish this before the interrupters arrive.”
“…!”
His right hand, which had been acting as if to escort me, revealed its true nature. A large, hot palm covered my eyes.
Instead of resisting, I opened my mouth.
“Teri.”
To someone other than Reed.
“You trust me, right?”
Because Reed had covered my vision, I couldn’t see how Tesillid reacted.
Perhaps the distance was too great, and my words didn’t even reach his ears.
The next moment, darkness enveloped me.
[
[
My defenses protecting my mind shattered one by one, and a ruthless invasion commenced.
<Aillet! Aillet, no!>
[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ calls your name like a scream.]
The last thread of my consciousness, which I had been holding onto, finally slipped away.
The last message I remembered was as follows:
[
Perhaps that was the most ecstatic sight of Reed’s entire life.
Aillet Rodelain, touched by his hand, changed colors. With black hair like his, and red eyes like his.
As if tainted by him.
As Aillet inherited Inferinos’s power, the moon in the night sky changed its form.
The crescent blue half-moon was erased, and only a thin silver ring illuminated its outline.
The symbol of the new Demon King was the new moon.
The Holy Saint, no, the one who was the Holy Saint, rose from her crouched position.
With hair and eye colors that mirrored the Black Holy-Demonic Swordsman, she took her place beside him.
Everyone who witnessed the moment humanity’s vanguard betrayed them sighed in despair.
“Ah… how could this be…”
“The Demon King… the Demon King prophesied by the Black Holy-Demonic Swordsman…”
Everyone’s expectation that she would fight Inferinos was proven wrong.
Hestio cried out as if in agony.
“It was Aillet?!”
Privilege for Possessors