A dull ache throbbed at the wound on her neck, and every breath tugged painfully at the broken bones in her ribs. The pain was so intense that Aurelia, who had just barely regained consciousness, almost passed out again.
“Hiss… I’m… actually still alive?”
Aurelia rubbed the back of her head, feeling her heart still beating steadily in her chest. She rubbed at her eyes, the tears long since dried.
It was already the early hours before dawn, and the scene around her… was horrifying. She forced herself upright, sitting with her back against a completely withered tree trunk.
From her position at the center, the earth was cracked, all the grass and trees reduced to ash, as if some terrifying force had drained every last drop of life. The air still carried a lingering, ominous aura that stabbed at her heart, sharp and cold.
Memories of the previous night suddenly surged through her mind. The dark red sky, the eerie blood clouds, and that force which had nearly swallowed her consciousness whole, dredging up every ounce of malice from deep inside her.
“That old bastard…! Hiss! It hurts…”
A wave of fear swept through her, the cut on her neck and the stabbing pain in her chest making her whole body tremble uncontrollably.
The trauma wrought by the Disaster Source was deep and lingering, and she realized that she had truly brushed past the gates of death.
If she had given in completely at that moment, this body would probably already have been taken over by that old bastard whose sole obsession was to “hear the Overture of Oblivion.”
Grief and helplessness suddenly surged in her heart, and she felt her nose sting with the threat of tears.
***
At that moment, a rustling came from the bushes, accompanied by low growls that didn’t sound like any normal creature, darting swiftly through the darkness.
Several pairs of glowing green eyes emerged in the growing light of dawn, obviously drawn here by the lingering, intense aura of disaster—Corrupted God’s Artifacts.
Aurelia’s heart clenched. She tried to get to her feet and run, but the pain in her ribs sent her collapsing back to the ground.
The movement agitated the Corrupted God’s Artifacts. One of them, shaped like a hyena but with forelimbs like those of an insect, was the first to pounce.
In that instant, Aurelia instinctively raised her right hand, just like she had when facing Laurence before, trying to block the attack.
Just as those jagged fangs were about to sink into her skin, her right hand and forearm suddenly became covered in jet-black dragon scales, her five fingers turning into dragon claws that shattered the hyena’s teeth to pieces.
Aurelia was stunned.
The Corrupted God’s Artifact was stunned too.
She looked down at her right hand, now covered in dark scales and tipped with razor-sharp claws, forgetting to even breathe for a moment.
This wasn’t an illusion, nor the hallucination of someone on the brink of death. The strange sensation she’d felt when blocking Laurence’s two sword strikes last night had now manifested, real and tangible, on her arm.
The scales were cold and hard, the claws gleaming with a sharp luster that seemed capable of tearing through steel with ease.
“What… what is this!? I’ve mutated!!?”
The pain and rage sent the hyena-shaped Corrupted God’s Artifact into an even greater frenzy.
Ignoring its shattered teeth and the black blood pouring from its mouth, it paused only for a second before pouncing again with renewed ferocity.
Faced with its renewed assault, Aurelia gave up on holding back. She swung her draconic right claw fiercely, exuding a wild dragon aura.
“I don’t care what you are! Get away from me!!”
“Shraa—!!!”
The claws sliced through the air, making a faint tearing sound. Then came the dull, sickening crunch of something being effortlessly ripped apart.
Aurelia only felt the faintest resistance against her arm before it gave way entirely. The sudden force pulled at the cut on her neck, making the pain flare up again.
“Plop… Plop…”
Several lumps of blackish-red flesh, still twitching, scattered across the withered ground in front of her.
That hyena, under her wild, untrained swing, had been cleaved into several pieces as easily as slicing tofu.
Filthy blood and viscera splattered everywhere, the stench of rot instantly filling the air, making her clamp a hand over her mouth and nose, her brows knitting tight.
“Urgh! Ugh, that’s so disgusting!” Aurelia’s stomach heaved, a wave of nausea surging straight to her head.
But what chilled her even more was the strangeness and power of this force. She had just… just swung her hand!
The instant slaughter of its companion didn’t scare off the other Corrupted God’s Artifacts lurking nearby. Instead, it drove them into a greater frenzy, making them more agitated and aggressive.
Green eyes swayed in the morning mist, inching closer.
Aurelia panted, staring intently at her right hand as it slowly returned to normal. Her arm felt weak and hollow, as if that one attack had drained her strength.
She could feel that the faint power lingering on her right hand had grown even dimmer.
Gazing at the twisted figures around her, Aurelia bit her lip. She didn’t understand where this power came from or how long it would last, but right now, it was her only lifeline.
And this feeling… it didn’t come from that old bastard. That was enough for her.
***
But before she could try to activate the power again, her vision went black, and she staggered forward a couple steps before collapsing to her knees.
‘Foolish.’ The voice of the Disaster Source suddenly echoed, making Aurelia’s heart skip a beat.
‘The power you wield is nothing but scraps left behind by self-important crawling lizards. It may be enough for these insolent ants, but…’
Aurelia wanted to retort, but dizziness and the cold of blood loss left her almost too weak to even rage inwardly.
[If this were before… I’d be cursing up a storm in my head eight hundred times by now, but now I don’t even have the strength to curse… Damn redhead, old bastard! Neither of you are worth a damn!]
‘Cease your noise, Soul Container. Now, let me show you the true use of power. Watch closely, and… do as I do.’
As soon as the voice faded, an aura of disaster crept onto her right hand. Jet-black dragon scales covered her right arm again, but this time, at the tips of the claws and between the scales, a sinister dark red shimmer flickered.
Before Aurelia could resist or even understand, her right hand seemed to move on its own, yanked forward as if by invisible strings, stabbing straight into the hyena’s heart and gouging out a dull, irregular crystal.
“Old bastard… what are you doing!?”
‘What am I doing?’ The Disaster Source’s voice remained cold, now tinged with mocking scorn.
‘I’m teaching you the proper use of power. Watch closely—you should find this method familiar.’
No sooner had it spoken than her right hand, covered in black dragon scales, clenched tight.
“Crack!”
A crisp shattering sound rang out, eerily overlapping with a brutal memory from the night before.
The dark red crystal shattered in her dragon claw, turning to powder. Wisps of fine dark red energy seeped out, snaking along the gaps in her scales and burrowing into Aurelia’s arm.
Guided by the Disaster Source within her, this foreign force of disaster surged straight to her broken left rib, just as it had healed the torn muscle in her calf before.
Within a few breaths, the pain vanished like ashes blown away by the wind, not a trace remaining.
‘Feel the difference now, Soul Container?’ The Disaster Source’s voice sounded at just the right time, its superiority making Aurelia want to throttle it.
‘Your laughable resistance before was like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water—useless effort. True power is about control, about plundering, about turning all things into nourishment for yourself. The force within these ants is weak and paltry, but it’s enough to patch up your tattered Soul Container.’
It paused, its false concern making Aurelia’s skin crawl. If only she had the strength to curse it out some more!
‘See, your bones are stable now. This is what you call saving your own life. If not for me, you’d already have died in agony beneath the bites of these ants. Remember this gift, and… learn to claim it for yourself.’
With those words, the icy force controlling her right arm receded like a tide. The black dragon scales faded, her hand returned to normal, leaving only a trace of powder from the shattered crystal and a lingering cold sensation in her palm.
With her strength returning, the first thing Aurelia did was shout at the voice in her head, loudly and with all her might—
‘Old bastard! Don’t think you can fool me! I’m not some naive pushover—your temptations are worthless!’
Then, amid the Disaster Source’s silence, Aurelia transformed her right hand into a dragon claw once more, suppressing the restless disaster force within, and sliced the two still-attacking Corrupted God’s Artifacts into chunks of flesh.
‘Heh…’ The Disaster Source’s thoughts rippled through her mind, its mocking sneer undiminished.
‘Stubborn Soul Container. Do you think that by refusing my guidance, relying on that feeble lizard’s power and your tottering so-called will, you can survive in this world brimming with malice?’
Aurelia didn’t answer. She clenched her teeth, forcing what little focus she had left.
Her right arm throbbed with a tearing ache, the black dragon claw appearing again.
She could feel it clearly—the dragon’s energy clinging to her right hand devoured her stamina and something deeper with every use.
‘Look at yourself now…’
‘Your power is crude, your control shallow. Each attack exhausts the foundation of your frail body. Last night, when that red-haired ant swung his sword, did you even retain a shred of your true self?’
‘That was just pointless venting after fear, begging, and humiliation. What do you even hold on to? A ridiculous self-consolation?’
“Shut up!” Aurelia snarled under her breath, plunging her claw through the last Corrupted God’s Artifact’s chest and gouging out the Magic Crystal hidden within.
‘Stubborn Soul Container, what are you doing? Gathering these ants’ Magic Crystals—are you building yourself a grave? For the epitaph, how about: “The Stupid Disaster Soul Container”—what do you think?’
Aurelia didn’t respond immediately.
Dragging her battered body, she staggered among the scattered monster remains.
Every time she bent down, pain shot through her body, but she gritted her teeth and used her bloodstained, not-quite-normal right hand to dig out several dull, uneven Magic Crystals from each Corrupted God’s Artifact corpse.
When she finished, she slumped to the ground, pressing her hand to the sword wound at her neck, then spreading her palm open to let the irregular Magic Crystals roll in her hand.
She gathered them together, then, using all her remaining strength, lifted her hand so the open palm faced her own eyes—as if she were showing them to the darkness deep in her mind.
‘Old bastard, take a good look!’
She clenched her fingers, squeezing the Magic Crystals tightly, and shoved them into the pocket of her tattered dress.
‘I’d rather starve, die out here, jump off this cliff—no way am I using these things! That’s the reverse flag I’m setting myself!’
Her voice suddenly rose, tinged with a childlike stubbornness, piercing through her physical weakness and blasting straight at the Disaster Source deep in her mind.
‘Utter foolishness!’ The Disaster Source’s voice was now tinged with anger, but mostly incomprehension.
‘Why are you so fixated? Are you really going to cling to this absurd resolve and step into eternal darkness? Is this what you call humanity—something so weak and meaningless?’
‘Humanity?’ Aurelia pulled at the corner of her mouth, almost wanting to laugh, but the movement tugged at her neck wound, bringing another stab of pain.
She raised her other hand—the one not holding the Magic Crystals—and with a trembling finger, gently touched the deep, bone-revealing gash at her neck, which still seeped blood.
‘See this? This wound was made by a human, this pain given to me by a human.’ Then she moved her hand to her chest, pressing lightly over the soft, bloodstained flesh, covered in wounds.
‘These wounds… humans gave them to me, too. It was humans who drove me to this point, forced me to face you, old bastard, in this hellhole…’
She took a deep breath; the cold air stabbed her throat, but made her even more clear-headed.
‘My path—I’ll choose it myself. As for what that damned redhead did to me, I’ll settle that score with him in time. And as for you, old bastard…’
She drew her hand back, her voice suddenly sinking low.
‘You… and your disaster power… can get lost! As long as I still have a shred of humanity, you’ll never drag me down! Never…!’