Chapter 34
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The screams ceased, the Monsters stilled, and silence descended upon his bloodied shoulders.
Ludville inhaled lightly.
He remembered entering the Grauter's habitat.
Charging straight at the first Monster that lunged, without slowing down.
The Monster's fierce claws tore through his armor, causing a sharp pain, but Ludville didn't flinch.
Instead of pulling out the claws that had dug into his muscles, he secured that arm like an anchor and instantly beheaded the Monster.
Immediately afterward, he thrust his sword at the Monster that was opening its mouth to devour him.
Through the root of the tongue, into the skull.
Piercing it in one go.
Black blood spurted out.
A moment of elation followed by emptiness.
Without joy in victory or fear of death, he was instantly covered in the Monster's blood.
Only the unconscious awareness that he had to keep swinging his sword as long as he was alive remained.
He just slashed because it was in front of him, slashed because it was moving, and didn't care that blood splattered.
There was no will to survive, nor a desperate desire to die.
How much time had passed like that?
Suddenly, he came to his senses.
A drop of blood clinging to the tip of his sword slowly fell to the floor.
Only after blinking once or twice did he realize that he had annihilated all the Grauters.
His face, hands, and even the inside of his armor were soaked with the Monster's blood and remains.
'My memory cut out again.'
It had been happening for a while now.
Whenever he faced Monsters, whenever Demonic Energy seeped into his lungs, his senses faded one by one, as if the feeling in his fingertips was being extinguished, even though his mind was clear.
He liked that feeling.
A feeling close to death.
Like eternal rest was coming...
He could stop thinking about anything for that moment.
The reason he rolled herbs that were said to have severe side effects into Cigarettes and smoked them was to feel that sensation.
But this time, even the familiar numbness he always felt seemed somehow unfamiliar.
His heart pounded strongly for a moment, then its rhythm began to slow.
The blood that should have burst out violently moved sluggishly, as if blocked by something.
His mind felt heavier and heavier, as if sinking into deep water.
'Something is going wrong.'
He was sure of it.
His body, which had somehow endured, seemed to be reaching its limit, exceeding its threshold.
'Is this the end?'
He was aware that he would pay a great price someday.
But so what?
He wanted to do it right away.
He didn't think deeply. What would be the point? It would only come back as another terrible headache.
'Ah, come to think of it...'
...The Princess will get rid of the headache now.
The thought suddenly occurred to him.
With his hands, sticky with Monster blood, he touched his forehead where her hand had been.
He wanted to feel the warmth of that low temperature one last time... or so he seemed to think.
And as if the god who had never answered his call in his life was granting his prayer for the first time.
"Didn't I say you'd need me?"
From behind, the voice he had been waiting for—
The voice he didn't even know he was waiting for, was heard.
* * *
The forest was already a battlefield after the war.
Trees uprooted.
Crushed piles of dirt.
The Monster's corpses torn mercilessly as if swept away by a whirlwind.
It was a hellscape created by only one person.
And Ludville stood at its center.
The hem of his cloak was already torn and bloodstained.
The sword was halfway out of its sheath, hanging from his hand, and blood dripped from between the cracks in his gauntlets, tracing the joints of his fingers.
Ludville was not moving.
Like a statue frozen in place.
'Could Demonization already be in progress?'
Monsters are transcendent beings born from the condensed 'despair' of humans.
Pure Monsters are born by feeding on human despair, but occasionally, humans who have been exposed to the Demonic Energy of Monsters for a very long time also turn into Monsters.
People called that 'Demonization.'
It was a rare occurrence.
Special conditions had to be met.
Most of the time, the body would turn black and necrotic upon exposure to Demonic Energy, and the whole body would rot and die.
So she didn't know.
There were no signs of necrosis on Ludville's body at all.
But what if the reason he looked fine was that Demonization was already in progress?
What if Ludville met those conditions today, in this battle?
The worst imaginings followed one after another.
She felt suffocated.
Odelia pulled on the horse's reins, almost rolled off onto the ground, and approached him.
And without hesitation, she touched his back.
She felt a thick, sticky, and hot energy through his tattered armor.
'This is...'
She was startled.
And she stopped breathing, focusing on her senses.
What she felt through her fingertips was not just exposure to Demonic Energy.
It was as if he himself had become the 'source' of Demonic Energy.
'To this extent...'
It was as if his body was filled with a liquid concentrated with Demonic Energy.
It was truly the 'essence' of Demonic Energy.
'How could I not have known until now?'
No, how could he have endured this pain?
He hadn't even shown the slightest hint.
At this point, it was a miracle that he had maintained his sanity and lived normally.
How could he walk, how could he talk, how could he work, how could he...?
Perhaps the reason he had changed so impulsively, as if he had become a different person, was also due to the influence of Demonic Energy, she thought.
But...
"...Haa."
Odelia let out a sigh of relief.
'Fortunately, Demonization has not yet progressed.'
That's right.
Ludville's body was saturated with Demonic Energy, but he had not turned into a Monster.
There was only one reason for that.
He had no despair.
To be precise, he was so emotionally drained that he couldn't even feel despair.
'Because there was no nourishment called despair.'
The same goes for Monsters and Demonization.
You need to have some emotion to take root and bloom the flower of evil.
Ironically, due to his completely depleted emotions, Demonization did not progress even though this level of Demonic Energy was satisfied.
Because he had continued to live without feeling anything...
'He survived because he had no emotions.'
Odelia raised her hand and placed it on his heart.
And soon, the energy of Purification gathered.
The golden energy of Purification began to permeate the red aura that had formed like blood.
