Dark clouds pressed down, lightning tore through the night sky, the horizon seemed to split open, and torrential rain poured down, recklessly washing over this muddy forest.
“This is the end, you damned demon monster.”
Raindrops slid down the black-haired youth’s longsword, gathering at the tip before dripping onto the woman before him.
The woman curled up in the muddy water, her body covered in wounds, trembling slightly—whether from cold or fear was unclear.
If anyone else saw this scene, they would probably think it was some noble young master bullying a helpless and fragile girl.
“No… please, spare me, I don’t want to die yet.”
Boom!
A flash of lightning suddenly illuminated the woman’s face.
Though her disheveled hair covered her eyes, her features were still breathtakingly beautiful, carrying a fragile, pitiable vulnerability.
But in the youth’s eyes, she was nothing more than a demon monster in human skin—a bloodthirsty bat.
“I really just got lost by accident, I never intended to harm the human race!” Her voice trembled, as if desperately defending herself.
But the youth was completely unmoved by her words.
Because even a three-year-old child wouldn’t be fooled by such nonsense.
To travel this deep from demon territory, there were only two possibilities: either forcefully cross the heavily guarded border fortress, or traverse the monster-infested [Blood Burial Forest].
And judging by the strength this woman had shown, she clearly couldn’t have done the latter.
That left only one answer: she had secretly infiltrated the human heartland.
Though he didn’t know how she had done it, it could never be for the ridiculous reason of “getting lost.”
“If you surrender obediently, when I hand you over to the academy, I might make it a little less painful for you.”
The youth gripped his longsword, his purple-black eyes reflecting a coldness that didn’t belong to his age.
He was a genius who had broken through to the third tier at twenty, and a freshman about to enter the continent’s top academy—Contar.
He even had the potential to inherit the title of Duke Adams in the future.
Just before the academy entrance exam, he chose to travel alone to temper his skills and further increase his strength.
As a result, he had unexpectedly run into this sneaky Blood Demon.
After a brief thought, he decisively gave chase. After all, capturing a demon alive might become a bonus score for the academy exam.
“Please, let me go, I’ll do anything…” The fear on the woman’s face grew more apparent, her voice even beginning to choke with sobs.
But even so, her trembling body was still secretly inching backward.
Such a small movement naturally didn’t escape the youth’s eyes; his brows furrowed slightly.
‘Still hoping to escape even at this point? It seems I’ve been too softhearted.’
‘In that case, I’ll cripple her mobility first.’
With that, the youth no longer hesitated. He raised his longsword, pushed off the ground, and swung at the monster who looked completely defenseless.
“No! Don’t come near me!”
The woman scrambled backward in terror, her disheveled hair hiding her expression but not the despair in her voice:
“Don’t force me, or else…”
At that instant, the youth’s movement suddenly halted. Not because he had softened. But in the dim moonlight, he suddenly saw—
On that face hidden by hair, a sinister smile was actually curling up.
‘No!’ The youth’s heart leaped, every hair on his body standing on end. Instinctively, he wanted to retract his sword and retreat.
But by the time he realized the danger, it was already too late. Due to inertia, the longsword still plunged fiercely into the woman’s shoulder.
Shlick!
Blood instantly gushed from the wound, warm droplets splattering onto the youth’s face.
The next second.
A pair of blood-red eyes slowly lit up through the gaps in her hair, emitting an eerie glow.
Only then did the youth finally see clearly—
She was smiling, had been smiling from start to finish.
That earlier appearance of fear, trembling, and pitiful fragility—it was all an act.
“I told you not to come.”
“Why won’t you listen?”
The youth’s face changed drastically.
Though he didn’t know why this woman had deliberately taken the blow, the longsword was now embedded in her shoulder.
The initiative was still in his hands; with just a slight twist and force, he could directly cut off her head.
Even a Blood Demon would die if beheaded.
But the woman’s smile grew more malicious, her scarlet eyes full of mockery, two sharp fangs faintly visible:
“You should have aimed for my head.”
The youth’s blue-purple pupils contracted sharply. Instinctively he tried to pull away, but it was already too late.
Boom!
The wound on the woman’s shoulder emitted a blinding red light, and together with the blood that had splattered on the youth, it all exploded at that moment.
Violent blood-colored mana instantly swept across the entire forest.
Trees were uprooted, earth exploded. Everything around was engulfed, even the raindrops were shut out.
The youth didn’t even have a chance to react; he was completely swallowed up, and the woman was also caught in the blast.
…
After an unknown amount of time, when the rampaging mana gradually subsided, moonlight once again fell upon the forest. Everything around had been razed to the ground.
The black-haired youth lay deathly still in a mud pit, blood and rain mixed together, staining the soil beneath him a deep scarlet.
Fierce wind and rain raged through the forest, drowning out the mournful sound of the steel longsword shattering.
But the blood ceaselessly flowing from the youth’s chest could not be hidden.
The cold rain poured over his wounds, slowly carrying away the last traces of warmth in his body.
His body felt as if it had been completely crushed; the intense pain left his mind nearly blank.
If he hadn’t activated the protective magic tool on him at the last moment, he would have been reduced to ashes by now.
But even though he survived, his fragile human body had completely lost its mobility.
The massive impact had been enough to shatter his insides.
Yet he still didn’t give up. His right hand, covered in blood and filth, clawed deeply into the mud, his nails splitting, leaving a deep bloody gash beside the broken sword.
‘Move… just move, damn it!’
The youth roared wildly in his heart, desperately trying to mobilize the mana inside him, but his shattered mana circuits gave no response.
“Hahaha… Hahahaha—!”
Compared to the youth’s misery, the woman’s state was actually even more wretched.
The injured half of her shoulder had completely vanished, and half of her once-beautiful face had been turned to ash.
But even so, she was still the one standing. And those wounds were slowly recovering at a visible rate—this was the racial advantage of the demon race.
Dragging her broken body, the woman walked step by step to the youth.
Then she raised her foot and stomped hard on his sunken chest, the silver pendant around her neck embedding deeply into his flesh.
She looked down at him from above, her face devoid of any trace of that pitiful look from before, leaving only naked mockery:
“Didn’t expect that, did you? I still had a trick up my sleeve.” The woman covered her mouth and chuckled, satisfied with her earlier act.
She continued leisurely, “Next time, learn your lesson and use magic attacks from a distance…”
Before she finished speaking, she seemed to suddenly realize something, and her smile grew even more sardonic.
“Ah—”
“Could it be that you actually can’t use magic at all?”
The youth clenched his teeth tightly, his mouth full of fragments of internal organs and bloody froth.
The sickening metallic taste triggered a wave of nausea, but he still forced himself to swallow it down along with the blood and flesh.
“Damn it… cough… monster…”
He was furious—furious at himself for being blinded by immediate gains and making such a fatal rookie mistake, something that would never have happened to him before.
But more than regret, he felt an overwhelming sense of unwillingness.
Because he knew better than anyone how much he had sacrificed to get where he was today.
From the moment he was born into this world, he had been like a discarded pawn toyed with by fate.
Not only was he from a remote orphanage, but also due to atrophied mana circuits from birth, he could only barely survive in a cramped hospital room since childhood.
But he had never surrendered to fate, because he always believed that human effort could change things.
And his belief proved correct—he seized a chance opportunity and was successfully adopted by Duke Adams.
Naturally, the youth did not betray the Duke’s trust.
For five whole years, he struggled desperately to get stronger, finally barely reaching the threshold to apply for Contar Academy.
‘But could all of this end today?’
“Enough.”
The mockery on the woman’s face gradually faded. “I’m tired of this game.”
She looked down at the youth, as if pronouncing the final verdict:
“This game ends here.”
As her words fell, the youth could no longer withstand the overwhelming dizziness. His eyelashes trembled slightly, and his eyelids closed weakly.
‘Is this the end?’
‘Dying in a muddy ditch like a stray dog in this forgotten corner?’
The last glimmer of light in his vision faded completely. Endless darkness surged like a tide, swallowing all his anger and unwillingness.
The sound of rain stopped, the thunder grew distant, even his heartbeat slowed until it was almost imperceptible.
‘In the end… I still couldn’t fight back…’
In the last second before his consciousness fell into the abyss, the youth used his final ounce of strength to tightly grip the object hidden in his inner lining.
Memories flashed wildly in his mind like a lantern show, finally freezing on a dazzling golden-haired figure from behind.
She held her hands behind her back, tilted her head slightly, and spoke in the lightest, most playful tone, uttering the same words as the female vampire now, yet ones that stabbed his soul even harder—
【Hey, Sevi.】
【This little game of playing friends… ends today.】