Chapter 93

A barrier was placed a little further away from Elysia.

“What is that? If it’s a barrier, I’ve seen it, too.”

Ramote added that he was holding her because she might not have seen the barrier. Elysia covered her mouth with the back of her hand and furrowed her brow. As long as she was simply gathering monsters, it didn’t matter whether she was caught by Peloit or not.

Even if she broke the barrier and wiped them all out. It would have been better if he was here. If not, she would just kill the monsters.

The former was welcome because she could reveal that she also used black magic, and the latter was not bad because she was able to practice black magic using just getting rid of monsters as an excuse. However, there was simply no way for a monster to give her such a feeling.

Something making her instinctively reluctant to enter the barrier.

As she waited, she wondered if something that had no glimmer of hope was happening now. The true nature of her intuition that something was wrong came when she was hesitant, and while she was hesitating, Ramote broke the barrier, and Der ran away from her arms and ran somewhere.

And, when she reached the edge of a not-so-high cliff and looked down.

“That… you…”

Ramote furrowed his brow with an expression that he couldn’t get words out of his mouth.

“It’s crazy. This is nonsense…”

Elysia raised her trembling hand and covered her mouth. At the bottom of the cliff, there was someone confidently attacking monsters with an expressionless face among the enormous monsters.

…No, the vampire looks just like her, but the skin color turned black like a dead person.

“Uughh…!”

Elysia couldn’t stop the nauseous and fell to the ground.

Outside the barrier, she felt the aura of her people. She thought it couldn’t be. She wondered why she felt that way when she came to stop Peloit from doing what he was doing, She wondered why it was unpleasant thinking about her own kind…

…Probably because it was made.

“Is that possible?”

“…There are records of success in the past.”

“It…is that what you said before? How is that possible?”

Even if it was magic.

“All I know is a theory, so I’ll have to check the exact details, but with your blood… It seems possible. But it wouldn’t be possible to create it as if it was a duplicate of the same entity.”

Ramote muttered strangely.

That was to say, there was an experiment that could make humans possess the characteristics of a monster. When she heard those words, she felt even worse, as if she had been treated like a monster. Elysia barely got her body up and ran down the cliff.

She had no desire to keep it alive.

Ramote seemed to be screaming something, but she couldn’t hear it.

Elysia immediately raised her magic and fired at the place where the monsters were gathered. The destructive power of black magic was truly extraordinary, and the howling of monsters spread thickly along with the poison in the air.

She could see the existence running towards her even in the dust that she couldn’t see well. The vampire made an expressionless face as she ran as if she was thinking nothing, and she exposed her fangs to Elysia.

Elysia reached out her hand and gripped the vampire’s neck.

“Kuhk….”

The strength to grab her hand that clasped the vampire’s neck seemed to be similar to her. When she looked at something that resembled her, she frowned at the sense of disparity. If she looked closely, she could see that there was illusion magic on the vampire.

Elysia immediately raised her magic, breaking the spell. Then, she saw the face of a woman she had never seen before.

“Haa… What a relief.”

Even though it was strange that Ramote said they looked exactly the same, it was simply using illusion magic to make her look just like Elysia. She got goosebumps at the detailed illusion magic that deceived her.

Perhaps, the existence felt a sense of danger from being strangled, it grabbed her arm that was holding its neck and gave strength.

“Ugh…”

Elysia frowned at the pain that seemed to break her arm along with the sudden surge of pain, but Der appeared suddenly and bit the arm. She then retreated a couple of steps and murmured in a dismayed voice.

“Ha, you’re strong.”

Did it have the characteristics of a real vampire…?

She was hoping that wasn’t the case, though she was a little nervous.

The next moment, she grabbed her right arm and looked around her — whether Peloit or someone else was watching. The only way to kill a vampire was to have their head decapitated and burned. Could she show them that…?

Thinking that no one was there, the ground trembled finely.

“Hoo… What else is that?”

Most of the monsters were dead, but she could see monsters coming that looked double the dead. When she raised her senses, it seemed that the monsters in front of her were not everything.

Elysia turned her head to look over the cliff, thinking she might be tight on her own.

“Old man…?”

Even though Ramote didn’t come this way over the cliff, he was talking eagerly to the bracelet he was holding that was used as a means of communication. He knew that the bracelet was now with Cassian.

Before she could even look at what was happening, the monsters rushed in.

She continued to fire magic, and as Der grew in size, it bit the monsters. It seems that they killed more monsters than when they went to subjugate the monsters in the Jericho Mountains, but they flocked endlessly.

It was surprising how they could be gathered like this.

“Kuh…”

It was amazing to see it attacking her with a beast-like sound like she had seen it in some zombie movie… How quickly they moved, they avoided all attack magic.

“I think this is faster than me.”

Elysia frowned in displeasure. She was distracted from killing the monster while avoiding the attack of the fake vampire.

“Ha…”

When she saw that the blood dripping was black instead of red, she felt like she was going crazy.

How many times had she repeated the same situation…? The fight that started just before noon continued until sunset. The monsters finally began to show their end, and her magic was almost bottomed out.

By the time she felt she was running out of power, she was finally able to cut off the vampire’s head. For a moment, Elysia felt a chill at the unfamiliar sensation, and from behind, she saw the same thing she had just decapitated.

There seemed to be at least twenty vampires who looked like her. Biting her lip in frustration, she heard a voice calling her from behind.

“Elysia.”

“Cassian…?”

It was as if he had received the communication from Ramote.

He approached her to check for any injuries and saw a group of vampires approaching this way with a half-dazed expression on his face. It was understandable. Although they had the same appearance as Elysia, they looked like a corpse and made strange noises, showing clear hostility.

Elysia grabbed Cassian’s arm and added hastily.

“…That’s illusion magic. They don’t exactly look like me.”

“I know because they look different.”

“Yes…?”

They looked almost identical to her. Where did they look different?

She didn’t think it was just a matter of skin color.

“It’s totally different.”

Contrary to his lightly uttered words, there was a clear sense of anger in his voice. Elysia glanced at the top of the cliff and asked Cassian, “Why is old man still doing that?”

“Because he couldn’t break through the barrier.”

Elysia furrowed her brow as if to ask what that meant.

“…The barrier? I broke that.”

“There is one more. However, it’s not a magical barrier, so he can’t get through.”

“What? I didn’t feel it.… Then, how do you…?”

Was there another barrier that she haven’t felt? It was also surprising that Ramote couldn’t get past the barrier that she and Cassian had crossed.

The next moment, he reached out and wiped her eyes with a worried face.

Elysia buried her cheek in his hand and closed her eyes. She thought that she was acting too leisurely with the vampires who were approaching her, but with him, the tension and disgusting emotions had long since melted away.

“I didn’t even feel it. Your complexion isn’t that good.”

“I’m almost out of magic.”

“Hoo…”

When she saw his expression, Elysia remembered what happened in the monster subjugation, and she quickly added it as an excuse.

“I’m not out of magic yet. If there are no more monsters, it will be enough to deal with them.”

Cassian nodded his head and swung his sword. After cutting off their arm or leg a couple of times, he saw that they continued to run and glanced at what had to be cut off.

“Should it be decapitated?”

“Right. And, burn it.”

…Did she realize that it was the same way to kill her? Cassian pursed his lips and looked at her intently. Elysia shrugged her shoulders and smiled, telling him not to bother.

“You stay here.”

She moved her step as if Cassian alone was enough.

Remembering that she was barely caught one, she thought he would not be able to do it himself, too, and she took a step forward but then paused. Although Elysia had seen him face Peloit with a sword, it was the first time she had seen him swing a sword indiscriminately like that, so she was a little surprised.

Was he that strong?

Questions about how Cassian was moving so quickly filled her head. He just cut them off one by one without hesitation, as if he was just displeased. The vampire’s fast speed did not exert much force in front of him. She felt a little creepy as she watched them fall blankly one by one.

Elysia wondered if she really could have died if she had not become his lover and if he had judged her as one of those who should be killed. She decided that Cassian would be safe on his own, glanced around, and moved her steps.

While thinking that there might be Pelliot somewhere, she carefully moved in the direction in which the monsters came out and raised her senses, but there was no sign of a presence.

“There’s none. I didn’t feel anything.”

“Ah…”

She glanced back, wondering if it was already over, then she saw things that had fallen to the ground with the illusion magic broken and their heads cut off.

Elysia frowned and waved her hand.

She stared blankly at the raging fire as Cassian grabbed her by the neck and turned her around. He held her tightly in his arms. At the same time, he seemed to be telling her not to look at things that were burning.

“It’s okay.”

At the voice that already knew something that wasn’t okay, she cried and felt like something was coming up. She struggled to suppress her feelings, and she replied in a low voice.

“I’m dirty.”

The clothes she was wearing were messed up with the monster’s blood.

Cassian heard her and hugged her more strongly. Feeling that everything was really okay, she wrapped her arms around his waist.