Chapter: 255
“Have you heard of the Witch of Lust?”
The name “Witch of Lust,” which slipped from the girl’s lips, made people gasp.
It was a name they all knew too well.
Long ago, wasn’t she the witch that the Dolos ancestors led a crusade against at great cost?
Even with a gaping hole in her belly, she ran tirelessly from the distant west, finally collapsing after announcing to the world that she was defeated thanks to the noble sacrifices of the crusaders. The legendary feats of the former Dolos family were tales that had circulated widely up to this day.
However, in a situation where it seemed like the entirety of Dolos was following someone, people couldn’t help but think about the name the girl had just uttered, “Witch of Lust.”
Maybe the stories they had always believed were actually wrong.
“Well, I’m sure you’ve all heard about it at least once, right? The name of the witch who was defeated by humans.”
And to confirm that thought, the girl spoke with a smirk, laughing at the listeners.
“But what’s this? The witch who was said to be defeated is actually alive and well. Aahhaha, it’s honestly so funny to see everyone believing that lie without a shred of doubt.”
She claimed to be the so-called defeated Witch of Lust.
The expressions of the people were frozen in disbelief.
Seemingly pleased with their reaction, the girl began her story with a grin.
“There was a time when I was causing chaos without a clue. And then a bunch of humans came to take me down.”
As if reminiscing a precious memory, the girl spoke dreamily, gazing into the void.
“Still, there were some strong humans who were supposed to be elite and resisted my powers. Especially that one with the Dolos name—he was so stubbornly tough it honestly scared me a little bit! But…”
Yet those watching her expression understood better.
“Not every human was that strong.”
What she was doing was not reminiscing but rather mocking and ridiculing.
“It was hilarious. The humans I thought were my allies turned into puppets following my orders and ended up attacking themselves. They ended up smashing their own heads, crying ‘sorry’ while doing it…!”
The girl shivered with excitement, seemingly recalling the spectacle of that day.
Just from watching her, one could easily tell she derived pleasure from looking down on others and flaunting it.
“They went crazy, killing each other. As they lost their minds, it became harder to resist my power, and they ended up becoming puppets. It repeated until eventually, only that one strong human from Dolos remained.”
One could only wonder why a being with such power had to carry such a personality.
Some thought that perhaps it was precisely because of her power that she developed such a nature.
“The last human who remained was said to be his wife. I don’t really know, but isn’t love terrifying? Even that monstrous human who was so strong became weak in front of the one he loved. If he hadn’t hesitated to kill me and instead had stabbed me, could he have possibly stood a chance against me? Aahhaha.”
Her ability to manipulate living beings showed no respect for life.
Before her, no sense of dignity or noble spirit could survive; all were lost and trampled in the mire.
“Do you know what that human said while he was crying after killing his wife? He cursed me, saying I would one day die miserably. It seems he believed until the end that others would take revenge for him. Isn’t it funny? He ended up boasting to those who were supposed to avenge him that I was dead.”
The girl cackled.
The man’s strong spirit, unlike others, did not bend easily, but eventually, it was bound to happen.
No matter how resilient one may be to pain, enduring pleasure is far more difficult.
What would it feel like to see the one you loathe as the person you love most?
In his resistance, the man had to burn with hatred while looking at the one he loved.
Could he keep hating someone who whispered love to him while subjecting him to horrifying pleasure?
A crack appeared in his once-impenetrable heart.
And the girl relentlessly exploited that small gap, leading the man who had long resisted to finally succumb to her.
The man, shedding tears of blood while cursing her, eventually became her loyal servant.
“And to make matters worse, all the demonic beasts I implanted in him have turned his family into this mess. What could be funnier than that, huh?”
The girl giggled as she glanced at her own body and the area where Diakonos and the other Dolos people were.
While the dead hero’s body was being taken away for a funeral, the story unfolded that the demonic beasts she secretly implanted had devoured his family.
The tale of the man effectively handing over his family to the witch amused her so much that the people could only feel anger.
Dwight, listening to the girl’s story from beneath her feet, trembled with boiling rage and muttered.
“So from that time, the Dolos family has been your puppet all along?”
“Uhuhuh, that’s right. They’ve become complete puppets that obey my every word.”
Diakonos, who accepted the girl’s petting on his head, tried to deny this with a vigorous shake of his head.
“That can’t be true… The Dolos family I’ve seen has been a respectable family that worked hard for the people… each and every one of them took pride in working for others…! But were all of that just a facade…?”
Dwight was someone who only believed what he saw.
Seeing with his own eyes, he observed everything around him closely.
And the people of Dolos he had observed were, without exception, those who carried pride in their actions.
That’s why he couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t accept the bitter truth that the pride he had witnessed was nothing but a lie.
In response to Dwight’s words,
“Aah, if that’s the case, it’s as you say. They don’t particularly like doing what I tell them.”
The girl responded nonchalantly, laughing like it was no big deal.
“Honestly, even for me, managing all of them from afar isn’t easy. With that pesky barrier set up and all, whenever I try to force them to do something odd, they resist surprisingly fiercely. So from a young age, I’ve instilled just one thing in them.”
A proud look spread across her face.
It was the expression born from talking about something she could brag about.
“‘The greatest joy is to follow my words.’ Just that one thing.”
However, the message behind that was utterly horrific.
“Isn’t it fascinating? They genuinely desire to see others happy, you see? So, as soon as I touch just one part of their brains, it naturally becomes like this. They ended up sacrificing humans to make others happy with that desire, ahaha.”
As she laughed with delight, Dwight stared blankly at Diakonos.
He recollected the words Diakonos had once said.
He was a man who always claimed to work for humanity’s happiness.
When he said those words, his usually stoic face shimmered with pride, and Dwight had respected him.
Even Yoon Si-woo, who had the ability to distinguish truth from lies, admired his character, believing he genuinely was that way.
Diakonos was indeed such a man.
“Speaking of which, that old human who died recently to the demonic beast, right? He was quite a character. He went to great lengths to protect people, saying no one should die until everyone got to enjoy the happiness of following me. You wouldn’t believe it—while on the brink of death by a demonic beast, he worried more about whether people would die than his own life. Aah, honestly… isn’t that funny?”
The girl asked playfully, but the thought of it brought to mind Telos.
A man who had renounced holidays for over fifty years to protect humanity from the frontline claimed that if people died, they couldn’t enjoy the happiness they deserved.
To think the one who cherished human life more than anyone else was the reason people were en danger!
Finally realizing the truth made Dwight feel like he could vomit.
He felt something rise from deep within, and he could hardly breathe.
Amidst this turmoil, he realized he had been crying.
And only then did he become aware of his emotions.
This rising feeling within him was nothing less than rage.
For the noble beliefs of Telos, who dedicated his life to protect people,
For the beliefs of Diakonos, who had worked for humanity until now,
Their, Dolos’s esteemed conviction had been sullied by the pranks of that girl, causing Dwight to feel a rage deep enough to make him cry for the first time in his life.
“You… you bastard…”
“Huh? What’s wrong? Is our footrest angry?”
When Dwight glared at the girl with fierce eyes, she merely responded playfully.
“Hey, Dwight… don’t get mad…”
Suddenly, she adopted her persona as the most innocent girl, telling him not to be angry.
Glancing down at Dwight, who lay beneath her, Floreane murmured.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I hope everyone becomes as happy as Floreane! If you and Marin feel the happiness of following the master with Floreane, you’ll understand…!”
Floreane’s pure and earnest wish for her friends’ happiness drew a deep sigh from Dwight.
It was too much, it was too much.
If he continued to hold in his anger, he felt like he would truly go mad.
And at that moment,
“Dwight! Now…!”
With a shout from somewhere, Dwight activated the magic he had secretly prepared.
Floreane’s body was bound, unable to move.
“Footrest?! What’s going on…!”
The girl exclaimed in surprise as the scenery around them began to blur.
In the no-longer-familiar landscape, the heroes surrounding them had subdued all the people of the Dolos family.
Now risen, Dwight helped Marin, who had been troubled, to her feet and spoke to the girl.
“…Did you really think we would just watch your antics?”
The ambush operation unfolded behind the illusion of Eve, unnoticed by the girl.
Dwight had been engaging her in conversation from the start to distract her, and all of it was for the purpose of safely reclaiming the Dolos family.
Dwight shot the girl an intense glare.
“You said to purify thoroughly from head to toe, reaching every nook and cranny of the body, right?”
The reason he needed to buy time was simply that perfect preparation required time in case things went awry.
As Dwight signaled, Sylvia had already finished preparing in the background, showering the girl with brilliant starlight.
No matter how deeply the demonic beasts had pervaded her body, they could never withstand Sylvia’s abilities, which were bolstered by the World Tree and stood in stark contrast to the miasma.
With the radiant starlight behind him, Dwight shot at the witch concealed within Floreane.
“Get out of my friend’s body, witch.”
“…Hah. Well, it doesn’t matter.”
And amidst the swirling radiance, the girl muttered.
“…You’re all finished, no matter what you do.”
With that ominous smile.
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