EP.216 Life is a Flower. Love is the Nectar of That Flower. (3)
Apiss had a saying she would often tell me.
No matter how superhuman one might be, if you pierce the head or the heart, it’s game over.
When I first heard that, I brushed it off as just the bravado typical of the longevity tribe.
But after witnessing Apiss effortlessly cut off the breath of a monster the size of a mountain with just one arrow right in front of me, I couldn’t deny the truth in her words.
Not long after, I began to vaguely understand.
The reason Apiss would relentlessly share that saying with me was her way of encouraging me, someone who always struggled with self-esteem.
“Apiss──!!!!”
With a scream that ripped through the air, I frantically stomped the ground.
A chain had brutally pierced right through the center of Apiss’s chest.
The wound that mercilessly pierced around her heart was undoubtedly fatal.
Even for an adventurer whose physical abilities had dramatically grown through repeated training, as a mortal being, the limits were clear.
If the head gets smashed, you die, and if the heart gets pierced, you die.
And that applied to those so-called heroes as well.
“Ku-huh!”
With a moan like the wind escaping from a balloon, Apiss suddenly began to cough up blood.
In that moment, a wave of intense anxiety overtook me.
Coughing up blood meant that Apiss’s wound was far more serious than I had initially confirmed with my own eyes.
She could have had internal bleeding. Perhaps blood was pooling in her lungs.
It was unwise to hastily assume something about a wound that hadn’t even been checked yet, but one thing was certain: Apiss had injured a vital organ that she could not afford to lose.
“Apiss! Stay still! Right now!”
“Fuhut♪”
Chwa-reul-leug!
Right then, a low proclamation came, and a heavy iron chain blocked my path.
“Get out of the way─!”
With a shrill shout, I swung my arms wildly.
At that moment, a chain surged from my arm, thrashing menacingly at the command of my will.
However.
Kwaang─!
“Kurgh!”
My desperate thrashings were all in vain, crushed under an unknown force pressing down on me.
“Don’t interfere with Mother.”
“·····!”
With eyes wide open, I struggled to look up, only to see another Saint Candidate who had pinned me down, my body sprawled on the ground.
After the shock of the unexpected intruder wore off, the clear view I had began to be consumed by a thick wave of despair.
Even while I was in this position, Apiss’s spark of life was rapidly flickering out.
If the area she was stabbed was indeed her heart, then the time I had to save her was a mere ten seconds at most.
I had no time to dawdle.
Ppudeuk! Ppudeuk!
“Let go·····.”
“Don’t move. Stay still.”
With my lungs pressed under my knee, even talking was ridiculously hard, let alone breathing.
As I forcibly twisted my joints to move, I could hear bone and muscle breaking all over my body, but I paid it no mind.
Right now, the only thing on my mind was reaching for Apiss’s body.
“You don’t have to rush. The elf is still alive. For now, at least.”
“·····!”
Just then, she spoke to me softly.
To hear that blood was spewing out meant that this situation was indeed dire.
The fact that the one who had put my precious comrade in such a state was calmly speaking with a faint smile was slowly eroding my already fraying sanity.
“Don’t worry. If Priest Regis agrees to my little request, the elf’s life will be safe. If you don’t believe me, I can swear it on this spot before the gods.”
“Stop the nonsense and bi─”
Kwung!
My head was forced back to the ground by the pressure.
“Kuh, ugh·····.”
The taste of the mud mixed with blood was undeniably the worst, but it paled in comparison to the iron taste leaking from her lips.
“Swear to me that you will obey my words without question, that you’ll never go against what I decide. How about it? Not too hard, right?”
Though her offer was brief, it was also bizarre.
I had some understanding of this figure’s identity.
Once mentioned alongside Sister Beltein as the leading candidate for this generation’s Saintess, she was a covert figure tormenting an intact Saintess from the shadows.
Raiza Claudia.
If you had to say we knew each other, it was true, but it was just that—an acquaintance without any deep connections.
The fact that I recognized her and recalled that name was purely a coincidence.
Fragments of memories falling like clouds in a dream world, inadvertently grasped in my hand.
That was truly all there was to it.
Thus, even after learning her identity, the truth behind her abnormal obsession with me remained entirely unclear.
According to what Apiss had said during her last interrogation of her, this puzzling figure had shown much more interest in me—a mere bystander—than in the Warrior she’d intended to assassinate.
“Oh, right. Thinking back, it makes sense you couldn’t talk in that state. Please, take your hands off. Ipsilon.”
“Understood. Mother.”
With that final word, the force that had been pinning my head vanished.
Thanks to that, I could now clearly see her arrogant expression as she looked down at me sprawled on the ground.
“Now then, let’s hear what you have to say─”
“I’ll do whatever you say.”
With her sneaky smile, she attempted to extract an answer from me, but my lips moved one step faster than she expected.
“Oh, you didn’t hesitate for a moment. Priest Regis, you’re much more refreshing than I’d thought! Or should I say cowardly? Either way, it’s quite surprising!”
“·····”
Clap clap.
After clapping her hands a few times in admiration, she suddenly gazed intently at my face.
What she expected from me was still unclear at this moment.
One thing I did know: the figure known as ‘Mother,’ who had been leading the group of Saint Candidates, was this person.
And it was clear she was deeply involved in this entire situation.
There was no need to say how foolish it would be to follow the suspicious figure’s requests blindly. But since my comrade’s life was at stake, I had no choice.
“I’ll follow whatever you say, so please let me save Apiss right now·····.”
“Hehe, no. First, you need to swear to the gods.”
“·····”
The sly serpent’s tongue tightened around my throat again.
Swearing to the gods.
For a priest, that declaration is a more trustworthy guarantee than any heavy restraint.
“·····I swear to the gods. I will follow your─”
“Lightning. Come forth.”
Pakiziz!
Before I could even finish my words, a thunderbolt tore through the air, shaking the sky with its awe-inspiring echo.
“KYAAAH──!!!”
“Mother─!”
As I grew accustomed to the light flashing in my retina, the sight of Sister Raiza thrashing in the throes of lightning slowly came into view.
“Kugh! This crazy bastard···. Just when I looked away for a second, again with the madness···.”
“Ah, Apiss!?”
Despite coughing blood, Apiss desperately attempted to curse at me.
Both her hands were gripping tightly to the chain that pierced her chest.
Only after seeing that did I finally grasp the depths of Apiss’s desperation.
It seemed she had used her own body as a catalyst to channel lightning magic through the chain piercing her heart.
A perilous act that could easily melt her insides if mishandled.
No sane person would dare to do such a thing.
“Kugh!”
“Apiss─!”
With a thud!
As the chain that had been piercing her body was pulled out, I hurriedly caught her as she was about to collapse like a rag doll.
Ji-i-ik!
Time was running out.
With force, I ripped apart the clothing covering the wound and placed my hands over the area, quickly channeling divine power.
“Kugh, coug··· you bastard···. I told you to never bow your head to those fools···”
“I get it! I get it! Just don’t speak now!”
Despite her scolding of my loathsome choice, I tightened my resolve.
“This··· these cursed creations···!”
Immediately after, she spoke in a tone laced with foreboding as if she was about to curse me.
Noticing she was recovering much more slowly than before made it clear that the current agony she was experiencing due to the chain wound was quite a significant blow to Apiss.
“Just hang in there a bit longer. You’ll recover soon, Apiss·····.”
“Hah···. Hah···.”
Thanks to the timely prayer I made, she could cling to life, but Apiss continued to breathe heavily, slow to recover for the same reasons.
“I’ll kill them──!!!!”
That ferocious declaration marked the beginning of a deadly game of tag, one that would end only in death.
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