The icy night wind pierced through the thin clothes, making the wound on her neck burn with pain.
Aurelia stumbled down the small path behind the Base’s back door, almost propelled forward by sheer inertia.
The gravel and dead branches beneath her feet kept tripping her, and every stagger tugged at the wound on her neck. More warm liquid trickled along her collarbone, soaking the front of her clothes.
She didn’t dare to stop now, nor did she dare to look back.
The once warm light behind her—the dim Warm Light shining from the Base’s window, the one she’d wiped countless times with her own hands—seemed especially mocking at this moment.
She was afraid that if she turned around, she’d see that red-haired figure chasing her with a sword, ready to run her through in a single stroke.
“Huff… Ha…”
Her lungs felt as if they were about to explode, her throat filled with biting cold wind and the heavy scent of blood.
In a moment of inattention, she stepped on a patch of slick moss, falling into the damp leaves and mud.
The earthy smell mixed with the stench of blood flooded her nose. Muddy water got in her mouth, making her retch and spit several times.
The wound on her neck was still bleeding. She could feel the warm liquid running down her skin, dripping onto the fallen leaves with barely audible drops.
The strength she had forced out earlier in the room now felt utterly drained.
Cold, pain, dizziness from blood loss, and the hollow feeling of a chunk torn from her heart all rushed to her mind the instant she let down her guard.
***
『Look, this is the price for defying Me.』
The voice in her mind was cold and mocking, unbearably irritating.
『Had you submitted to Me sooner, would it have come to this?』
Aurelia didn’t answer.
She buried her face in the mud, dug her fingers into the ground, and her shoulders started to tremble uncontrollably.
Her body was reacting instinctively to the hypothermia, blood loss, and the severe shock to her psyche.
So the heart really can go numb from pain…
Those warm smiles, the caring reminders, the cheerful bustle around the dining table… It could all become sharp knives in an instant, stabbing her full of holes.
“No.”
“Not even for a second.”
Those two sentences echoed in her mind, every word landing like a thousand-pound hammer on her heart.
She could even clearly recall the cold and disgust in that red-haired youth’s golden eyes when he said those words.
Yes, disgust.
He looked at her as if she was something filthy, even filled with inexplicable anger and hatred that came from who-knows-where. It made no sense at all.
『Foolish. Still mourning those false feelings?』
Its voice was full of sarcasm, snapping Aurelia back from those recent memories.
『Hurry and leave this Region. The blood you shed will attract those worthless scum. In your current state, you couldn’t even handle a goblin.』
Aurelia struggled to prop herself up. The wound on her neck split open further from the sudden movement, making the pain even sharper.
She grunted, raised her hand to press hard against the wound, and her palm was instantly soaked with warm liquid.
[Must stop the bleeding… or I’ll lose too much blood and die here…]
She tore off a piece of her already shredded hem and fumbled to wrap it around her neck.
The darkness and cold made her fingers so stiff they barely obeyed her will. Her vision kept darkening; she simply couldn’t muster any strength.
『My Force could heal this trifling wound in an instant. Why persist…』
“Shut up…!”
Aurelia squeezed out the words through gritted teeth, her voice hoarse, but her meaning simple.
The cloth kept slipping off, its rough edge scraping the torn flesh, hurting so much her vision blackened and tears streamed out.
『Why suffer needlessly?』
That voice, like a maggot clinging to bone, softened and relaxed as her consciousness grew fuzzy from pain and cold, even carrying a hint of temptation.
『Just accept a sliver of My Force. The pain will vanish, the wound will heal, the cold will recede. You’ll survive. Surviving will become easy—effortless.』
“Survive using your Force?”
Aurelia finally managed to tie a haphazard knot. Although blood still seeped out slowly, at least it would slow the bleeding a bit.
Bracing herself against the damp, slippery Tree Trunk beside her, she struggled to her feet, still rejecting the voice in her mind.
“And then what? Become your puppet? Watch you use my hands… to do whatever you want? Dream on!”
『Meaningless stubbornness.』
The Disaster Source’s voice turned cold again, even tinged with disdain.
『Look at yourself now, like a stray dog. Dignity? True self? They’re worthless in the face of life and death. Did those who abandoned or hurt you ever care about your true self?』
Aurelia’s body froze.
Laurence’s icy gaze, Vera’s pained and silent profile, the Companions’ fearful, averted eyes… The scenes flashed through her mind again.
『You were abandoned.』
The voice echoed, calmly stating everything that had just happened.
『You have been abandoned by this world. Only I remain with you. Accept Me, and I will grant you Force—so strong that no one can bully you, no one would dare abandon you. Then, you can reclaim everything from this world.』
Reclaim everything…
Those four words carried a kind of black magic, stirring a dangerous ripple in the hollow chamber of her heart.
All her negative emotions were like fuel, about to be set ablaze by those whispered words.
But just as the sparks were about to ignite—
***
Aurelia suddenly raised her hand and pinched her thigh hard, the pain clearing her muddled mind at once.
“Price…” she murmured, a twisted smile at her lips. “Isn’t it you who always demands a price from me, old bastard?”
Leaning against the Tree Trunk, she stood up and gazed into the depths of the night, but her eyes seemed to see even farther.
“It was you who wormed your way into my mind, who made everyone treat me as a monster, who destroyed the hope I’d only just grabbed…”
Her voice was no longer agitated, only clear and indifferent from sheer exhaustion.
“And now you want to use the excuse of giving me Force as bait, to trick me into selling myself to you? Even now… you still think I’m just some naive fool, don’t you?”
『……』
The voice in her head fell silent for a moment, apparently surprised that she could think so clearly even in this situation.
Then, it let out a low, ambiguous hum.
『Sharp-tongued. Let’s see if you can still act so tough when your life is about to end.』
“Just watch…!” Aurelia gritted her teeth, straightened up again, and limped down the path, moving forward.
“Watch how I… perfectly play out this… ‘leaving the party’ script you set up! Old wretch!”
She completely ignored the voice’s attempts to tempt her and kept going.
The lights behind her had long since vanished. Around her, only the whistling night wind and the rustling of the forest kept her nerves taut.
She no longer knew how far she’d gone, only that the Force in her legs grew weaker and weaker, her pace slower, her vision ever more blurred.
She reached up to rub her eyes, the dried blood at the corners feeling unpleasant.
[Ugh… can’t see…]
So she rubbed again with her other hand, only making her vision even more blurred.
Darkness and coldness clung to her like thick liquid, gradually wrapping around her, devouring what little Force and consciousness she had left.
At last, she could no longer support her body. Her foot landed on a piece of gravel, her ankle snapped with a crisp sound, and she collapsed directly into a nearby bush.
This fall became the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
Her will, which had held on until now, finally reached its limit. The wound on her neck split open again, her broken rib stabbed with pain, and the icy wind poured into her mouth, leaving her too weak even to cough.
Her vision was swallowed completely by darkness, and in her ears remained only the gradually weakening wail of her wildly beating heart.
***
She felt herself sinking into a freezing sea, all sound and sensation becoming distant. Yet that cold voice rang out in her soul, sharp and clear…
『Your bloodline, compared to My Force, is truly peculiar. The tip of the iceberg you revealed before the Brave… If you keep using it, perhaps… our Force could evolve even further.』
The Disaster’s voice sounded once more, echoing in Aurelia’s ever-dimming consciousness.
『To stand against Me… you are indeed no ordinary mortal. In that case, let Me use you a little more…』
As the Disaster finished, Aurelia felt every inch of her skin, every muscle, every vein explode with unbearable agony.
She felt her consciousness torn to pieces, leaping back and forth between boiling lava and frigid ice.
Her past life and present, everything of the original host, all memories, emotions, obsessions, were crushed and twisted by these two Forces, tormenting her mind.
Laurence’s cold “Not even for a second.”
Vera’s silent, half-step retreat.
The Base’s warm lights extinguished behind her.
In even older memories: countless cold, hateful, or lustful, greedy eyes… wandering, hunger, being cast out, the biting cold of being abandoned by the world…
Ten thousand Warm Lights, and not a single one… was ever left for her.
These scenes, these feelings, became the Disaster’s perfect opportunity and bait, luring her to fall.
The bewitching whispers grew clearer in the storm of pain.
『See… this is the reward your beloved home gives you.』
『Does it hurt? Are you full of hatred? That Captain you trusted, those Companions you protected—did any of them believe in you, even for a second?』
『Accept Me—why bother avenging yourself on the void of the world? The first to tear apart is that heartless red-haired Brave! Make him pay for his betrayal. Make everyone who abandoned you… pay the price!』
Aurelia curled up in the cold, damp bushes, her body spasming uncontrollably from the pain.
The conflict between those two Forces inside her had already far exceeded what a mortal body could contain or understand.
They ground her nerves to dust, pushing her consciousness to the edge of total collapse.
『Destroy it all.』
The whisper, laden with endless negativity, rose with the icy Force of Disaster inside her to its peak at this moment.
A clear thought cut through her fevered, chaotic mind.
All of this… deserves to be destroyed!
That man who utterly denied her, those backs that turned away in silence, those false warm lights…
This cold, cruel world that never truly accepted her, and these two Forces wreaking havoc within her, bringing endless pain… they should all die!
If living only meant endless pain, betrayal, and torment—if she couldn’t even control her own body or Destiny—if this world gave her only malice and exile…
『Kill them all…』 a malicious voice screamed in her mind, 『The first is that not-yet-awakened Brave! Tear him apart! Make him taste betrayal and being pierced through!』
『Then every bystander! Don’t let a single one escape!』
But then, an even deeper sense of emptiness drowned out Aurelia’s magnified hatred. And then what, after killing them?
The world was always this cold and cruel… what’s the point of such a world even existing?
Then… destroy it all together!
The thought was so strong, she felt this was how it ought to be—this was her true self.
Everything she’d done before… was just acting. Acting… all to survive…
If she had the Force… ha, yes, with Force, why act anymore? Kill them all! Leave no one alive!
And before that, the first to die… would be that damned redhead! Gouge out those golden eyes, see if even for a second there was ever anything true in them!
And those who just watched from the sidelines… they must die too! No one gets to escape! Tear them all to pieces!
『Yes, that’s right…』
The Disaster Source’s voice was imbued with a strangely paternal, soothing rhythm, as if a loving father comforted her.
『Accept this power… embrace your true rage and hatred… let that dragon blood become the channel for Our great might to descend… let this decaying world hear the overture of annihilation…』
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