"Hey, Aura, did you know?"
"In my holand, there's a tradition."
"Whenever things turn out perfectly and everyone's happy, people start wanting to make dumplings."
Shane paused and looked at Aura's fearful yet confused expression. Reflected in the demon girl's trembling eyes, he revealed a malicious grin.
"You've probably never eaten dumplings before."
"You should know, the key to whether dumplings taste good or not lies in how finely the filling is chopped."
As he spoke, he smilingly patted Aura on the shoulder.
Then he stood up and looked toward the vast sea of the Undead Legion before him.
These were Aura's proudest achievents. Her most treasured spoils.
In that case...
With a single thought from him, every Headless Puppet heard Shane's command. They all drew their swords and pointed them at Aura.
Then Shane softly gave the order.
"Chop her up."
Few simple words rang like a funeral bell beside Aura's ears.
The demon girl frantically shook her head, tears instantly covering her beautiful face.
No.
She hadn't lost.
How could she possibly have lost?
Clank. Clank.
The sound of armor scraping slowly approached her.
The puppets that once obeyed her now stood before her with raised swords.
She furiously lifted her head, wanting to scold them.
How dare they disrespect their master!
How dare they stand before her!
These lowly pieces of trash were nothing more than puppets. How dare they look down on her!
"Mmgh..."
The scream she wanted to let out beca stuck in her throat.
Because Shane had said, "Shh."
Slash.
The first sword fell.
Aura opened her mouth and silently shook her head.
She wanted to flee.
But Shane had said, "Don't move."
Slash slash slash.
More and more blades rained down onto her body.
Shane turned around and stood in front of Frieren, blocking the elf girl's view.
Behind him echoed the dull sounds of swords chopping into flesh, Aura's muffled groans of pain, and the crackling noise of shattered bones.
Shane closed his eyes and tilted his head upward, savoring the beautiful sounds as though they were music.
Elegant.
Pleasant to the ear.
He really loved dumplings.
After an unknown amount of ti, the sounds behind him gradually faded away.
Frieren peeked out from behind Shane.
The place where Aura had originally knelt was now completely empty.
Only drifting black magical particles remained in the air.
At the sa ti, the overwhelming mana radiating from Shane gradually cald down.
The effect of the trait [One Against Three] had ended.
Frieren looked up at Shane standing before her. The madness and distortion in his eyes were also slowly fading.
Just then, Shane looked back at her.
"So, Frieren, wasn't I aweso?"
"..."
She silently let out a sigh of relief.
Good. Everything was normal.
To be honest, "madman" Shane had genuinely frightened her a little.
The "normal" Shane was much more approachable.
"You could've just ordered her to kill herself."
"Wouldn't that be letting her off too easily?"
At that mont, the morning sun slowly rose.
The cold dawn light dispersed the thick darkness and returned light to the world.
The puppets once controlled by Aura had now broken free from Obedience Magic. Standing beneath the sunrise, they still maintained the final sword-striking posture they had taken monts earlier.
Golden sunlight shone across their battered bodies, making them resemble towering monunts proclaiming humanity's unyielding spirit.
Shane's voice drifted through the morning wind, carrying both coldness and warmth as it swept across the mountains and forests.
"Only when victims can personally take revenge themselves will justice remain unstained."
The words fell into Frieren's heart like a stone sinking into deep water, sending ripples spreading outward.
A conversation with her master, Flam, before her death suddenly surfaced in her mind.
"In the end, all I ever taught you were spells ant for battle..."
"Do you regret it?"
"No." Flam shook her head. "I'm glad I was able to entrust these spells to you. You possess a long life. Soday, you'll reach heights capable of defeating the Demon King."
"Frieren, I look forward to the day you personally achieve your revenge."
For a brief mont, Flam's figure overlapped with Shane's.
So he hadn't simply gone mad because of the trait's influence.
He had rely given those unyielding warriors a chance to personally avenge themselves.
He truly was a reliable person.
"That's..."
Behind the puppet army stood a gigantic Bone Throne over twenty ters tall, grotesquely eye-catching.
The countless bones magically fused and piled together had long since lost their original shapes. Dried blood and rotting flesh still clung to them.
Shane gradually frowned.
These were most likely the remains of ordinary humans killed by Aura.
They weren't warriors, so Aura hadn't turned them into puppets.
They had rely beco food.
Even after death, their bones had been shattered, twisted, and fused together by Aura into a symbol ant to flaunt her power.
Demons truly were monsters.
Shane stared at the throne and let out a long sigh.
The bones had already been twisted beyond recognition. There was no longer any way to separate them individually.
And if the families of the deceased saw sothing this horrifying, who knew how heartbroken they would beco?
Thinking this, he reached into the pouch at his waist and took out a bean.
[Shape-Shifting (Blue/Rare)]: Alters the hardness of a target's material, granting it malleability for one minute. Once the duration ends, the material returns to its original hardness.
With a thought, he focused his ntal energy. The [Shape-Shifting (Blue/Rare)] trait on the bean transford into a pale blue light and landed on the Bone Throne.
Instantly, the grotesque throne beca soft and pliable in his eyes.
Using his ntal power like clay sculpting, he buried the disgusting blood and rotting flesh inside the center while arranging the white bones neatly on the outside, shaping them into a square monunt.
Boom.
The Bone Monunt slamd into the place where Aura had died, deeply embedding itself into the soil.
No matter who they had once been, warriors or civilians alike, they were all naless heroes who had protected this city.
Shane and Frieren stood before the monunt with solemn expressions.
"You may rest now..."
The morning wind swept through the mountains and forests.
The rustling sound resembled quiet sobbing.
At that mont—
Shane suddenly trembled.
His exhausted mind, worn down after battling for an entire day and night, suddenly beca invigorated and full once more.
At the sa ti, he noticed that the information that had remained unchanged for so long had finally shifted slightly.
[Shane]
Status: ntal Power · Excellent
Traits:
[Wisdom Under a Simple Mask (Gold/Legendary)]
[Accelerated Thinking (Gold/Legendary)]
[Ti Manipulation (Gold/Legendary)]
[Great Luck (Purple/Epic)]
[Occluncy (Blue/Rare)]
[Nurical Mirroring (Purple/Epic)]
[Iron Head (White/Common)]
[Piercing Immunity (Blue/Rare)]
Evaluation: A human.
His ntal rank had increased!
User Comments
0 comments from readers