Chapter: 216
It burns.
It blazes.
The flames continuously consume my body.
Aaaahhh—!
The agony of being burned alive is too horrific; each scream that escapes my mouth is a testament to my pain.
When did it start?
When did I begin to scream instead of speak?
-That witch! That witch is the reason our children died!
-Evangeline commanded the Demonic Beasts to kill the children!
-After all I did for you, why?!
Trying to shout back at people pointing fingers and calling me a witch, no one bothered to listen.
-Revenge! Burn the wicked witch alive!
-I’ll return the pain the children suffered tenfold!
-Witch hunt! It’s witch hunt time!
No one believed me when I pleaded my case to those setting fire to the Burning Platform.
-Burn her!
-Burn her!
-Just burn her alive!
Or perhaps, when I begged for mercy through my pain—when I realized that no one would reach out a hand to save me, nor would the pain of the flames lessen as the villagers looked on.
In truth, the exact moment is not so important.
If no one exists to hear what I say.
If nothing I say holds any meaning to these people.
Then all that comes from my mouth can be nothing but screams.
Aaaahhh—!
So, amid the unending torment, the screams echo incessantly.
With so much screaming, it feels like the entire world should be engulfed in cries.
Yet, despite the screams, one particular sound fills my mind without any chance of fading away.
Burn!
Just burn it!
The voices of those crying out to burn the witch.
Every time that phrase echoes in my mind, the flame ignited by hatred and rage reignites fiercely.
As the flame flares, pain crashes into me.
With each wave of pain, my fury towards the world that tortures me ignites.
With each escalation of rage, the flames burn again.
In this endless cycle, the voice in my head grows louder.
Once a voice of the people, at some point it began to scream as if it were my own, and my body, without realizing it, started moving to whatever that voice commanded.
Burn.
When the voice calls to burn, I burn.
Burn it all!
When the voice screams to burn it all, I burn it all.
Please, please save me.
To the people pleading that they were wrong, that it should stop.
To every single tree in the forest where they used to live.
Aah, if even one had listened when I said those words, I could’ve chosen to stop too.
Since no one did, I ended up driving them to scream instead of speak.
I returned the anguish of burning alive, the pain of not being heard, back to all of them.
What remained at the end was nothing but regret.
Yet still, the flames that would not extinguish continued to scream at me, regardless of my will.
Burn it!
Burn it all!
To those who made me like this.
To the world that tormented me so.
To the hatred, the resentment, the sadness, the curses, the fury that ignites me.
So that this entire world could feel the same.
Burn it all, every last bit!
Aaaahhh—!!!
As I screamed, thick emotions filled my red tears, streaming down my face.
Through my crimson-tinged vision, I could see the things I had yet to burn.
Then I heard the voice again.
The voice wanted me to set ablaze everything in my sight.
So just as I was about to take a step forward,
I felt something grip my ankle tightly.
Looking down,
“…No.”
There was a girl.
A girl with red hair, clutching my ankle while crawling on the ground, enduring the burning pain.
“…You can’t.”
She muttered, shaking her head, repeating that I can’t.
The girl’s voice was so faint it seemed she would lose consciousness at any moment.
The strength holding my ankle was so weak that I could easily shake it off if I chose.
I should be burning, following the voice in my head to set ablaze what lay before me.
Yet, why can’t I push her away?
Why does it feel, like she’s right, that I shouldn’t?
Staring at the girl, wrestling with these incomprehensible feelings, I watched as her dim red eyes flickered with fading light, looking at me, whispering.
“…You promised. You said you would protect the people.”
…What is she saying?
My name is Evangeline.
With that cursed name, people were entities that must be burned.
Yet here I am, protecting them?
That seems like an impossible story.
Yet upon hearing the word “promise,” I discovered I was shaking with unease.
Why? I asked myself.
I, Evangeline, never made a promise like that.
I never swore to protect them.
The contract that binds me is merely a vow to burn this world that made me like this.
Why does that question, regarding whether I didn’t promise, shake me so?
While I was lost in thought, my left arm caught my eye.
My left arm, engulfed in flames.
I felt an inexplicable discomfort looking at it.
It seemed something important was missing.
As I pondered this unease amidst the voice of burning that echoed in my head,
I suddenly looked down.
The girl with red hair, who had seemingly lost consciousness and was now immobile, still held onto my ankle.
Yet, it was her arm that drew my attention.
In that instant, I realized what the unease was all about.
My left arm too was made of metal, like hers.
That arm bore my name.
Yet the name engraved on it was not Evangeline.
It was all.
That’s right.
I am, no, I am Scarlet Evande.
“Eh?!”
The moment I realized this, a detached consciousness was ejected.
Gasping for breath and looking at where I’d been thrown, the girl engulfed in flames stared at me with eyes filled with bloody tears.
[…I thought we had become one. Did you still have some self-awareness?]
Her words confirmed that I had just been completely intertwined with her, and now I was torn apart.
As I had just merged, I knew her identity without asking.
The Witch of Wrath, Evangeline.
This was the result I had dreaded encountering.
I had fused with the Demonic Beast to avoid losing my identity, and yet here I was.
Shivering at the bone-chilling sensation of almost losing my self, I glared at her.
Then, Evan, who had been looking at me briefly, seemed to lose interest and turned away, murmuring.
[…Well, that’s fine. This way, I can’t be hindered anymore.]
She said that and tried to shake off the girl, who seemed to be Scarlet Evande, holding onto her ankle, taking a step forward.
Knowing better than anyone what she planned to do, I shouted in desperation.
“…! Stop!!!”
[…]
But to my cries, she didn’t even acknowledge them.
If left as is, it was clear she’d move to set the entire city ablaze, and the thought of having to stop her fueled me to muster up words to divert her attention.
“Stop it!! You don’t want to burn people either!”
That was true.
Having become one, I understood.
Evangeline regretted her past actions of setting fire to the people.
However,
[…So what?]
Knowing this made her words feel like daggers to my heart.
[You know now. My will means nothing. If this curse resides within me, if these flames desire to burn, I cannot resist. Just as you couldn’t, neither can I.]
“Ugh…”
Having experienced it firsthand, I couldn’t refute her words.
My body, my mind, moved on their own to the voice commanding to burn.
No, it’s not something you can resist.
But I couldn’t allow her to burn everything.
What I had to do was simple.
Just like when Scarlet did, I needed to grasp Evangeline’s ankle.
Without delay, I sprang into the flames engulfing her.
“—Ugh, Ahhh?!”
I screamed in terrible pain, as my body was burned entirely.
It was strange.
I thought I could endure the pain of burning since I had experienced it a few times.
But it wasn’t that simple. This was not pain I could endure.
Why? Why?
[You’re foolish. Right now, your consciousness is the only thing remaining; you’re no different than an ordinary human. An ordinary human cannot withstand flames, let alone burn away like this. Furthermore, if you burn like this, you’ll erase even your consciousness, so if you wish to preserve at least that, it’d be best to stop.]
I gazed at my body burning.
How long had it been since I’d leaped into the flames, how quickly had my body charred black, crumbling like charcoal?
Cinders drifted away, and the sight terrified me.
Am I disappearing? Is this it?
That fear made my legs wobble, and I stumbled toward escaping the flames.
But then,
“Yoon Si-woo!”
From somewhere, I heard Yoon Si-woo’s voice.
What? Where did it come from?
Panic surged as the unexpected voice reached me amid the flames, and Evangeline smirked and muttered.
[…Seems the effect of our shared consciousness still lingered. Your friend is really a fool, though. He was just told to swing his sword the next time he sees you.]
With her words, an image suddenly popped into my mind.
It was Yoon Si-woo charging toward me.
I could tell he wasn’t coming to kill me, now a witch.
What I felt from Yoon Si-woo was not malice but a determination to save.
“Ah…”
-Ack, ahhh!!
As Evangeline waved her hand, flames surged towards Yoon Si-woo.
But even engulfed in flames, he didn’t waver.
With each contact with the flames, Yoon Si-woo was continuously regenerating.
“Don’t…”
It was a desperate rush that took one’s breath away just to witness.
Tears streamed down my face as I knew what the cost of that regeneration was.
But regardless, he pressed forward, undeterred, getting closer.
“Stop…! That’s enough…!”
How much of his lifespan was being cut short even now?
Running recklessly to save me, Yoon Si-woo consumed his own life.
Why? Why would he go this far for someone like me?
I desperately wanted him to stop that reckless act.
“Enough!!!!”
But no matter how loudly I shouted, my voice couldn’t reach him, and I ran with all my strength toward Evangeline, trying to save him from the flames.
Just like Yoon Si-woo was racing toward me.
“Ahh…”
“Aaaahh!”
Our screams overlapped.
My body, lacking the ability to regenerate like Yoon Si-woo, burned steadily, disappearing.
But I couldn’t stop.
Because Yoon Si-woo was screaming over there.
So, for Yoon Si-woo, I needed to do something.
“Ugh, Aaaahhhhhh…!!!”
With all my might, I screamed.
I took a step forward.
But,
Despite Yoon Si-woo making it to where I was,
I couldn’t reach Evangeline.
My legs had long turned to ashes, crumbled away.
Not just my legs.
My arms, torso, head too.
My consciousness, too, like that.
Turned to ashes, drifting away.
In my hazy vision, I saw Yoon Si-woo standing before me, a blade aimed at his own heart.
Then I saw Evangeline attempting to burn him with outstretched hands.
In the end, because of me, Yoon Si-woo would die.
Aah, that, more than anything else.
Just that.
As I filled with regret, reluctance, and despair for that final moment.
It returned,
Scarlet.
Faintly, Yoon Si-woo’s voice echoed.
At that moment,
“—You think you can do this?!”
With a loud bang, flames erupted from the ashes.
[What…?!]
From the flames, the consciousness that had been extinguished returned.
The body that had become ashes was being reborn from the flames.
Like a phoenix, rising once again from the ashes.
So once more, flames burst forth.
[What on earth is…!]
I couldn’t hide the panic in Evangeline’s voice.
What was happening?
I didn’t know well.
Maybe because of the effects of having once become one with her or having lived as a witch-like entity all this time.
Perhaps I had remnants of the witch’s power within me.
What was happening, I could not grasp.
But that didn’t matter.
What mattered was that I could move my legs again.
I extended my now functioning legs and sprinted toward Evangeline.
[Ugh…?]
To stop the flames aimed at Yoon Si-woo, I grasped Evangeline’s outstretched hand.
[What you’re doing won’t stop the flames, no matter if you don’t even understand what’s happening.]
Surprised at my sudden resurgence, she quickly shouted back, questioning if this act could really do anything.
As if to confirm her words, the flames engulfing her surged onto me.
At that moment, just like when I had merged with her, the voice once more filled my head.
Burn, burn it all.
Return to the world the hatred, the resentment, the sorrow, the curses, the rage you felt.
Those horrifying and sincere emotions invaded my heart, trying to consume me.
Yet,
“What do you think?! I won’t!”
That single emotion already filling my heart drove away every other feeling.
It was a feeling I was all too familiar with.
Fury.
“Don’t lay a finger on Yoon Si-woo, my precious person!”
The pure rage that someone dared to touch my precious person surged violently within me.
And that rage
[Ah…?]
Flared into red flames atop my body.
A small but incredibly hot inferno.
That tiny blaze started consuming Evangeline’s flames that aimed to devour me.
[The flames…]
With a fierce roar, the flames protested against my fire.
Yet, it seemed pointless; the ember slowly absorbed that fire until it was entirely engulfed.
[To suppress fire, one requires an even stronger flame…]
Now there were no more flames raging to burn Evangeline.
Only my flames remained, burning strong.
[Aah, I see. I could only mourn and rage for myself. But you can do it for others as well.]
Evangeline murmured, captivated by the sight.
[So, it makes sense that your fury is stronger than mine.]
Thus, Evangeline,
Finally liberated from the cursed flames that had bound her for eons,
Spoke with an expression of utter relief.
After reveling in freedom for a while, she finally lowered her head to me, speaking gratefully.
[I must say this; regardless of thanks for freeing me.]
With a somewhat worried look, she gazed at me, saying,
[Living as a being different from humans must be harder than you can imagine.]
She asked if I was truly okay with that. I nodded and replied.
“I still have to go. There are people waiting for me.”
I promised to grant their wishes.
Her smile returned as she chuckled softly.
[…I see. You’ll be just fine.]
Beyond the fading consciousness, I heard her voice.
Now, Scarlet Evande.
You are now rage.
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