Thirst, emptiness, and the madness that followed…
Once the impulses of the Blood Source Curse—strong enough to strip away one’s reason and turn them into a beast—had briefly receded under her desperate suppression, Anqi finally realized her situation.
She had been numbly flapping her wings until she reached a sandy beach under the starry sky.
Stumbling, she found a large rock to serve as cover and slumped against the stone wall.
‘Luckily, I’m in a city like Aerospace City where no one is out at night,’ she thought, feeling a wave of relief. ‘If this were the Imperial Capital, the Church would have found me before I could fly far, wouldn’t they?’
At this moment, the girl, who was never fond of physical exertion, could no longer maintain her image as a Saintess. She sat there, gasping for breath.
The night breeze brought a piercing chill. Just as Anqi instinctively folded her wings in front of her to keep warm, what she saw shattered her relief in an instant!
It ruthlessly reminded her that this time, she hadn’t run away from home because she couldn’t stand the Church’s strict rules.
She was beyond saving!
“Ah… Ahhh? My wings?”
Anqi’s voice trembled. She reached out in disbelief, her hands shaking as she touched her wings!
The pure white wings that had always been the symbol of the Skywing Race and Anqi’s greatest pride were now being gradually stained black and red from the base.
They radiated a filthy, foul aura of corruption.
The moment she realized this, all the girl’s elegance, dignity, holiness, and tenderness vanished!
“No… this is all fake, right?”
“It’s just a little curse… wait, wait a moment, it will change back!”
Interrupting her own self-comforting muttering, Anqi suddenly began to tear at the black-red feathers on her wings!
The instinctual pain, agonizing as if her ten fingers were being pierced directly to her heart, made her whole body tremble.
Her burning eyes overflowed with tears—it was unclear if they were from the pain or pure despair.
However… it was useless.
No matter how violently she tore at them, the black-red feathers were like the foul curse inside her body; new ones simply grew back, continuing to spread toward the tips of her wings.
Eventually, there came a moment…
Anqi lowered her hands. An empty, hollow feeling spread through her just like the cursed color on her wings.
She gave up her meaningless struggle and accepted the desperate reality she had to face.
Hiding was pointless. The Sister Superior would find her sooner or later and discover the Blood Source Curse within her.
As for her status as a Saintess… it would likely be stripped away by the Church and the Skywing Race very soon.
Her vacant eyes stared blankly at the distant sea as despair slowly flooded her mind.
Emma’s attack tonight came from “the Demon King’s orders,” which meant—Mother had instructed Emma.
Mother was taking revenge on her.
‘Should I hate Mother?’ Anqi wondered. ‘Even though I spared her life even though she is the Villainous Demon King… everything I did to her was only right! She should have just accepted it!’
But now Mother had bitten back, pushing her directly off the Saintess’s pedestal and into a bottomless abyss.
Yet, at this moment, Anqi surprisingly felt no hatred. Her heart was a void of emptiness, as if nothing mattered anymore.
‘Ah… Mother certainly has the right to take revenge on me.’
‘Given my past actions, which part of me was ever worthy of being a Saintess?’
‘Is the Blood Source Curse not the perfect punishment for me?’
The girl could clearly feel her beliefs and persistence collapsing bit by bit.
Her status as a Saintess, Mother’s revenge… these pessimistic futures that had caused her anxiety, fear, and despair just moments ago now seemed less unbearable.
She could no longer be a Saintess, but didn’t that mean the shackles of being a Saintess were gone as well?
Without that title, she could act recklessly; she could descend into madness as she pleased.
She no longer needed to worry about the image and requirements of a Saintess, nor did she have to label her desires as “evil thoughts” and suppress them—she could do whatever she wanted.
She only needed to let go of her identity as a Saintess right now.
“Heh… Heh…”
Looking at her almost completely blackened wings and feeling the halo of red filtering her vision, Anqi’s light chuckle was filled with emptiness. “Isn’t this actually quite nice?”
The moment she accepted it, Anqi even received a premature sense of blissful release—within her blood-red vision, the figure of her mother in her Demon King form actually appeared.
This wasn’t Anqi’s imagination; her mother’s posture and aura were real! Was it because of the Blood Source Curse?
She even caught a sweet fragrance coming from her mother—a scent she found herself craving, nearly losing her reason to.
It made her want to fall to her knees and beg for her mother’s charity.
‘Ah… looking at it this way, Mother truly does have the pure blood of a Demon King.’
“Mother, you finally came to find me~”
Anqi flashed a suggestive smile at the Demon King before her. “How would you like me to address you from now on?”
“Should I keep calling you Mother? Or should I call you Master? Which one would make you happier?”
“Anqi, you…”
Mother’s voice was filled with shock, and her gaze was panicked and anxious.
‘Why? Isn’t Mother here to turn me into a Vampire Kin?’
At this point, Anqi had no sanity left for logical thought.
She had decided to embrace the desperate truth. At the same time, she would use her last shred of reason to fulfill her final duty as the Saintess of the Hidden Sea Church.
‘Don’t… don’t underestimate a Saintess, Mother.’
“It’s okay, Mother. Come, give me your charity. Come, embrace me.”
“I will use the last of my reason to call out your secret, making it impossible for you to keep hiding your identity.”
Everything in her field of vision was turning blood-red. Anqi felt herself being completely consumed by the Blood Source Curse.
But before that, she could at least drag the mother in front of her into the abyss with her—fulfilling her duty as the Church’s Saintess by exposing the identity of Demon King Valo Lant II while also completely possessing her mother.
“Heh~”
“Let us face judgment together. Let us run away together, Mother~ Heh…”
“It seems we can’t stay in Heaven together, but at least… in the depths of Hell, I won’t let you escape again.”
That was right. She would expose Mother, give up her identity as a Saintess, and then drag the mother who would be forced to flee down into the depths with her.
After that, there would be no more restraints. She could be her mother’s daughter and act as she pleased; she could fiercely occupy her mother’s heart as her kin.
Anqi reached out with both hands.
“Come, Mother. Fall with me.”
However, in the next instant…
What greeted her wasn’t her mother’s sweet charity, but…
【Pia!】
A slap that her mother swung with all her might landed squarely on her cheek!