Translator: Cyrus, Editor: Krizzeir

Chapter 5: Let’s Overturn the Fate of Death, Part 4

「What.... It can’t be.」

Logan muttered in shock while watching the bottom half of the girl’s body roll on the ground.

He was a Great Demon who had seen the souls of humans for thousands of years.

There was no way he could have mistaken Mary’s soul.

It wasn’t an illusion or a fake. It was undoubtedly the real thing.

Mary’s soul had been ripped in half, and was being minced to pieces.

Even resurrection magic would have no effect at this point.

「You.. little.. bitch!!!」

Logan’s body was engulfed in explosive flames.

Curling and expanding his brown body, he transformed into a towering pillar of flame.

Flaming sparks shone brightly within the heat waves, forming huge arms with claws that closed in on Tatsuki from all four directions to rip her to shreds.

The heat was so strong that it could rival Sakuya’s flames.

「Ew. The burning smell is horrible.」

Tatsuki’s tail, which took the form of a snake, had tried to devour it. She seemed relaxed enough to show her dissatisfaction.

「That one over there looks tastier.」

Tatsuki’s tail was pointing towards Sofia.

Immediately, Logan reverted to his original body to cover Sofia’s back.

「....You’ve absorbed the Serpent’s powers?」

The Serpent had died, leaving its melting tails.

Aur realized that it didn’t disappear. Tatsuki was devouring it instead.

He should have noticed that it was unusual when he couldn’t detect a trace of the Serpent within the dungeon.

「Rivers will join the seas, remember?」

Tatsuki answered as if it were a matter of fact.

「So were you actually the Serpent?」

「No? Tatsuki doesn’t know difficult stuff.」

Tatsuki seemed confused.

「What Tatsuki does know is, tasty things come from land every year thanks to this.」

With a slipping sound, she raised her snake tail to attack.

「It’s saying that it looks really tasty.」

Tatsuki stared at Sofia while licking her chops.

「Master. Can’t we do something about her?」

Logan growled impatiently, which was rare for him.

「....No.」

That’s why Aur answered honestly.

Tatsuki devoured everything. There was nothing Aur could do.

「....Huh?」

Tatsuki stopped moving all of a sudden.

「What.. is.. this....」

She clenched her stomach with both arms and crouched.

「Ow, ow ow ow! W-what’s this?!」

Tatsuki was rolling on the floor, writhing in pain.

「Do you know what a Demon King is?」

Aur asked Logan while looking at her.

「Huh? That’s you, right?」

It was a strange question coming from Aur. Logan responded in surprise.

「No. Apparently I’m referred to as a 『Hero』 in the local language, not a Demon King.」

「Just hurry up and tell me.」

From Aur’s calm demeanor, Logan could tell that he had something to do with Tatsuki’s suffering. But he was annoyed by the fact that he could remain so calm despite Mary’s death, so he showed that annoyance in his tone.

「It’s a mistranslation. I’ve been getting their language wrong. The ones they call Demon Kings are most likely what we refer to as God.」

「Huh? How many Gods do they have?」

God.

The absolute ruler, in direct opposition to demons.

The Lord in Heaven who had been exterminated.

Logan had no idea what connection that had in relation to Tatsuki who was suffering right in front of them, or to Sofia who was under his protection.

「That’s the source of confusion. I, too, had always thought that there was only one God. But as for the tribal Gods.... At the very least, there are many of them in this continent.」

「So what the hell does that mean?」

「Um. I was the one who taught him.」

Logan was still openly showing his dissatisfaction by spouting flames as he spoke. Yutsu finally answered with her voice raised.

「I said, what the hell are you talking about!」

「I was saying-」

「Ugh.... No.. more....」

It seemed as if the cheeks of the snake in the lower half of Tatsuki’s body was swelling, when it suddenly vomited something large.

「Witchcraft, summoning, shamanism. We use such magics to conjure demons.... er, those somewhat weaker than Gods? into our own bodies to obtain their powers.」

「I thought I was gonna die!」

Mary cried out while shaking off the digestive fluid that covered her entire body as she came out of Tatsuki.

「Mary....? How are you still alive?!」

Logan saw her soul getting crushed to pieces with his own eyes. But the lower half of her body that had rolled across the ground had disappeared into mist. Her soul came back in one piece, shining brightly like the radiant golden sun. The soul that Logan had watched over for ten whole years.

But it was impossible to recover a broken soul.

「....Wait.」

There was only one exception that Logan knew of.

「That old loli lady!」

It was the Great Saint’s doing.

It was Mary’s sister Melizand, the young girl who was thousands of years old, immortal and indestructible.

「Right on, you pervert.」

Mary echoed Melizand’s words with her own face and voice.

In contrast to her blue eyes, her right eye was shining red.

Demon Kings, demons, and Gods.

Aur saw the commonalities between them, and found a way to exploit that.

After all, Mary was simply another half of Melizand, who had once created the 『Immortal』 heroic spirit using her own soul as a catalyst. And most of all, Mary possessed the ability to wield anything and everything. Even though she had never known witchcraft, she quickly became adept.

It wasn’t difficult for Mary to adopt the Immortal ability by borrowing Melizand’s power.

「If you can’t change your fate of death, you just have to kill your enemy.」

The rest was a battle between the Serpent’s power and the strength of the Grand Sorcerer’s curse.

But the Serpent couldn’t devour the curse that had kept growing stronger over thousands of years.

There was no easy way out for Tatsuki, who had tried to swallow it.

She spat out eight tiny snakes while clawing the ground in pain.

Yutsu immediately crushed the snakes with a wooden club. The lower half of Tatsuki’s body reverted to the tail of a fish.

This spelled the definite end of the Serpent’s power.

「How does it feel to have food poisoning for the first time?」

Aur stepped on Tatsuki’s lower half as she lay sideways on the ground.

「Horrible....」

It seemed as if both the pain and her strength had left her body. She replied Aur weakly.

「....I just wanted to eat tasty stuff....」

「Eat this.」

Aur stuck his finger into Tatsuki’s mouth. She bit it on reflex.

「Argh!」

She felt a sharp pain and screamed.

「Alright, the effect of the curse has returned.」

He had placed a curse on Tatsuki to prevent her from attacking him.He let her go because she was only semi-conscious, and also because she could no longer pose a threat. Or maybe it would be best to kill her now, Aur thought as he cast another glance at her.

Lilu’s golden eyes were fixed on Aur, as if she wanted to say something.

「Do you really like to eat that much?」

「Yeah.」

When Aur noticed Lilu’s gaze, he sighed and asked Tatsuki, who replied without a second thought.

「I see....」

She wasn’t evil. It was just that her appetite was her number one priority. In that case, it wouldn’t help if they kept feeding her, as there was always the possibility that she could grow strong enough to break the curse.

There was only one solution.

「Then, I shall teach you a different pleasure.」

Tatsuki looked quite perplexed at his words.