Chapter: 211
It was a split second.
Sylvia’s body swayed, and the protective barrier that was shielding her from the rain disappeared.
Whether she had no strength left to evade or not, she wrapped her body around the child she was holding.
Like a prelude to a concert, the demonic beast unleashed a torrent of tentacles above their heads.
And I, unable to deflect all the remaining attacks, took them onto myself.
It happened in an instant.
Coughing, blood surged from my throat and flowed out of my mouth.
Seeing that blood, perhaps startled, the child behind Sylvia, looking over her shoulder, began to tear up.
As blood dripped from my mouth onto the child’s face, they couldn’t hold back their tears any longer and started to sob.
Feeling sorry for startling them, I brushed my hand over the child’s face, which was smeared with blood, rain, and tears.
In the trembling eyes of the child, Sylvia’s expression was reflected.
In that reflection, Sylvia was also crying, just like the frightened child.
“It’s okay… I’m fine,” I said with a smile to reassure both of them.
Of course, I wasn’t really fine.
The beast’s attacks were far more painful than I had anticipated.
Aside from that…
But just like the teacher and others who melted away before my eyes.
Before losing someone like that right in front of me again,
Before subjecting anyone else to such terrible pain,
It would be better if I were the one who suffered, much better.
“The weather is awful… It’s raining here… Let’s go inside… Okay…?”
The rain kept pouring down.
If I left it like this, another attack would surely come, so I quickly pushed Sylvia and the child into the sewer.
I saw the child, who was sobbing uncontrollably in relief after being held by what looked like their parents.
I muttered a relief and quietly watched Sylvia descend into the sewer.
Just as she had said earlier, she would wish for me to truly be okay, to come down there and take shelter with her.
But it seemed I wouldn’t be able to grant her wish.
I saw Sylvia turning her head towards me.
Words of various kinds swirled at my lips.
However, I held my tongue, fearing that anything I might say would hurt her,
And before she could turn back, I quickly shut the manhole cover.
From inside the closed manhole cover, I thought I could hear Sylvia’s voice calling for me.
…I’m sorry for being selfish until the end, Sylvia.
Take care.
With a bitter smile, I left her with an unheard last farewell and hurried toward the rain.
*
“Ow… Urgh…”
It hurts.
It’s tormenting.
It’s painful.
The excruciating pain that started at my back spun through my body.
If it was just a big sharp stake lodged in me, it wouldn’t be this bad.
The tentacles that had just been embedded in my back caused an agony that couldn’t be compared to something like a stake.
It’s melting, melting away.
I felt the miasma flooding into my body as the tentacles dissolved and disintegrated, trying to dismantle me in real-time.
For an ordinary person, as I had seen before, they would melt away into a black liquid in an instant,
But
“Ik… Aaagh…!”
I was not an ordinary person.
Flames erupted from the place where the beast had struck.
As if I wasn’t someone to be toyed with by a demonic beast, the miasma that tried to disassemble me was engulfed in flames, and the wound on my back began to heal slowly.
Though I should have been happy to have survived an attack that should have killed me, I couldn’t feel any joy at all.
The flames that had just ignited from my back weren’t my doing—
That was the reason I had tried to distance myself from Sylvia as quickly as possible—
It hurts
It’s tormenting
It’s painful
“Shut up, and just be quiet…!”
As the voice echoed in my head, my consciousness faded.
I tried to smack my head as hard as I could against that chilling sensation, but the voice didn’t quiet down.
“Ugh… Ugh…!”
Since being attacked by the beast, my symptoms had gradually worsened.
Was that accursed tentacle triggering me by pouring miasma into my body? The voice just wouldn’t stop.
It felt like the chains that had desperately held the witch down had come undone.
The flames that had risen against my will hissed as they met the rain.
My body trembles.
If I let go of my consciousness, even for a moment,
It felt like I would lose my self and unconsciously ignite everything around me.
Even now, even now.
In my head, the persistent thought that
I should burn the entire world that makes me hurt and
My pain, my torment, revenge for it all, I’ll burn it away, kill the world that made me suffer—
“—Ugh…! Hah, ugh…”
…Somehow, I managed to regain the fleeting consciousness that had drifted away.
My legs shook, almost bringing me to tears.
The ground beneath me felt like a steep path with a gaping cliff on either side.
One wrong step, and I would tumble down, unable to recover.
Had it ever been so terrifying?
I felt like a bomb ready to explode at any moment.
But until now, I had realized that there had been some tolerance before it blew.
Today was a critically disastrous incident for me.
The last bit of my resolve had completely burned away.
Now I was genuinely a bomb that could explode at any moment.
And with this, I instinctively knew I couldn’t go back to the way things were.
Facing that situation made it hard to keep my wits about me.
“Guh…!”
But still, in such a situation, I had something I needed to do.
Clinging tightly to the last remnants of my sanity, I moved my feet.
As I dashed through the rain, I spotted my house.
More specifically, the house of Yoon Si-woo, where my room is.
I didn’t want to burn it down, so I did my best to suppress the flames flaring up from my body and entered the house, opening the drawer in my room.
Inside the drawer was a box I had carefully kept to avoid shock.
It contained capsules filled with miasma that my uncle had given me before he passed away.
Grabbing that box, I stepped outside.
Outside, the rain was still pouring down.
Damn rain.
I looked towards the direction of the source of this rain.
Despite the time that had passed, it seemed the beast hadn’t progressed as far as I had expected.
Perhaps there were those clinging desperately to the legs of the beast.
However, they could only hold the beast down; in the end, they wouldn’t be able to take it down.
Only when Si-woo or the other captains come to support can we defeat that beast.
I believed they would do their best and would come someday.
But since I didn’t know when that would be,
I continued to stare at the relentless rain,
Thinking of the people who might have died because of this rain.
And of those who are still dying now.
“……”
The more I thought, the more reasons flooded my mind and there was no time to hesitate.
The teacher said so.
Defeating that beast was not my role.
He was right.
I wouldn’t be able to help in taking down that beast in my current state.
Yeah, in my current state.
I opened the box I had taken from home.
Inside were capsules filled with miasma.
The task ahead was set, but as I attempted to execute it, my hands trembled.
It was a gamble for me, and honestly, I couldn’t help but feel scared.
But I didn’t stop my hands.
I pulled out all the capsules from the box,
And even recalled the words my uncle had said when he handed them to me.
“Hang in there.”
I’ll hang in there, steeling my resolve.
I shoved all the capsules I held into my mouth at once.
“Ugh…!”
I felt the miasma, without a master, seeping into my body, filling me with strength.
For just a moment, I was intoxicated with the rush through my body,
And then—
■■■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!!
The voice of the witch, neither cheer nor scream, began to rave in my head, and flames erupted from my entire body.
It was an inevitable result.
What I had done was akin to throwing logs into a fire that was trying to consume my very being.
A terrifying amount of sorrow, resentment, hatred, and anger tried to engulf me.
“Shut up and be quiet…!!”
I yelled with all my might, resisting it.
What was the reason I had asked Yoon Si-woo to kill me?
It was because I wanted to live fiercely.
I wanted to remain the Scarlet Evande who protects people until the very end.
That thought was my happiness, I believed.
So, would I let you take that from me?
Burn it all
Burn it all
Burn it all──!!!
The witch’s voice echoed, demanding that everything be burned.
But there was only one thing you needed to burn.
As flames dripped from my body,
I dragged my unwilling body and took steps forward.
Toward the place where the source of rain lay.
If I was going to explode anyway,
I’ll decide where to explode.
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