Karma and Retribution

It should not have been called a battle.

If anything, it was a hunt.

It was not the kind of hunt where a hunter risks his life to go into the mountains to get food for survival. From the beginning, the hunt was prepared to perfection and was similar to a hunt conducted by the nobility just for the enjoyment of tormenting the prey.

"Haa... haa...!"

“Geho……zehaa……!”

"No more... no more...!"

Erminio, Loretta, and Edgar.

The three of them were simply fleeing across the unobstructed, silvery plains.

There was no way to escape, no prospect of a counterattack, and they were simply fleeing for their lives.

"Damn ...!"

The arm armor detached from Erminio's arm floating in the air, repelling arrows.

"≪Impact-resistant Barrier≫! "

The barrier, which was put up with pinpoint accuracy in order to suppress the consumption of magic power, prevented the lances from being thrown down at Loretta.

Amidst a hail of arrows, falling spears, and miasma breath kicking up snow, the three of them managed to escape while somehow blocking the attacks. Their tenacity showed that they were, after all, adventurers belonging to the second ranked party in the country.

However, it was clear even to the casual observer that they would not be able to hold out much longer.

Their last moment would be when they became just a little more tired and slowed down.

"... Huh? Loretta, what are you wearing alone!?"

Erminio shouted in exasperation.

Loretta was wearing a fluttering cloak that completely covered her body. For some reason, the arrows aiming at Loretta had been repelled earlier. It must be the effect of this magic item.

"Give it to me! It's mine!"

Erminio tried to forcibly rip off the cloak as he ran.

"I don't want to! My cloak!?"

The disruption to their steps would be short-lived, lasting only a fraction of a second.

A skeleton rider did not miss that opportunity. The spear throw that carried the momentum of the plunge pierced Loretta's back, tearing through her arrow-shielding cloak. Loretta sputtered and fell under the plunging rider, which rose again on a trajectory like a square graph.

Erminio immediately jumped away from Loretta, clicked his tongue abhorrently, and ran away without looking back.

"No, stop..."

René landed in front of Loretta, who was coughing up blood.

Flapping her wings lightly, she grabbed both of Loretta's legs, pinning them between the claws of her legs, which were dexterous for their size.

"No, stop, ah, yuh, forgive me, ah, ah, ah!"

Then, easily, as if shredding a wet piece of paper, she tore Loretta in two.

With a short scream, Loretta died, her organs and blood spraying from her torn torso.

"Miss ...! Damn, damn!"

Like crows stalking their prey, the skeleton riders gathered around Erminio and Edgar.

Loretta's fall reduced the number of moves to prevent attacks, and the attackers concentrated their attacks.

Two of them were already stopped in their tracks when they were turned around.

Edgar held up a fist-sized jewel to the encircling hippogriff zombie horde.

"You..., that's enough!"

The item that Edgar brought out seemed to be a ranged attack that projected holy energy into the surrounding area. It seemed that, having been stopped and surrounded, he was trying to use the situation to counterattack.

But what did it mean to stop?

The breath of miasma that René exhaled went straight through the snow and swallowed Edgar.

The jewel he was about to raise rolled away, scattering holy energy, leaving behind a human-shaped object that looked like it had been burned black all over.

Finally, there was only one man left.

While the skeleton riders stayed in the air, readying their bows and throwing spears, René stepped on the snow and approached Erminio.

"Oh, hey...! Do you know who you are trying to kill!?"

Erminio raised his voice, pointing his sword menacingly in all directions.

More than a threat, it was a protest against unfair treatment.

His face, which could have been described as handsome if he had kept quiet, was drawn and wet with sweat, whether from running to escape or from cold sweat, like he had been doused in water.

René did not stop. Approaching.

"I am rminio Drolet! I am Erminio of the great Drolet family! Well, you don't know the Drolet family, do you? The Drolet family has been a prominent family since the founding of the Holy Kingdom of Diletta!　And Father, the current head of the family, is a cardinal, and his influence in the temple is immense. And, yes, his position at the court is high! He is practically equal to a vizier,... or is it not called a prime minister here? And, anyway, he's a great man! And his territory is huge!"

Slumbering, Erminio struggled to get his words out.

René did not stop. Approaching.

"Woh, do you understand? Father is in a position to influence both the Temple and the Holy Kingdom! Now, i-if you kill me here, you will incur my father's wrath! Undead like you are nothing more than mere pawns! The Temple Knights and the "Moon Eaters"! They will come to destroy you!"

Hearing the words "Moon Eaters", René stopped for a moment.

Not as a fear or threat, but as a painful scar that stimulated memories that hurt when touched.

Whatever he thought of it, Erminio was acutely aware of René's reaction.

"If I die, you will know it immediately. Since I had informed my father that I was going to the capital, he will know immediately that it is your doing. Listen, you must let me go. Don't touch a finger. And, of course, don't lift an arrow or a spear. Then I will never touch you again. It's not a bad deal. What do you think?"

Erminio said with arrogance rather than humility even at this point in time.

But René knew that was a big lie. She had read them with the power of "Emotional Detection".

If he escaped safely, he would probably cry out to his father and ask him to supply the men and items needed to defeat the "Rose Princess of Hellrage", or else he would request a military expedition.

Whether Erminio's father would listen to him or not was another story.

What if the Holy Kingdom of Diletta or the Temple forces really do move in response to Erminio's murder?

She didn't care. It didn't matter to René.

"Hey, don't come! Didn't you hear me! Do you understand the language of the people! Yo, okay, I'll say it again! I am Erminio Drolet. I am Erminio of the Drolet, the Drolet family!"

Even René understood.

He was a big shot in the Holy Kingdom. It was a given that he would have his soul protected.

If so, killing him would only be a temporary suffering. If she wants to make him suffer as much as possible, she had no choice but to keep him alive and torture him.

However, it was not easy to do.

René was in no condition to maintain such "calm anger".

“Aaaaaaaaah!!"

With a single roar, René leapt at Erminio and struck him with her wings like a lariat.

"Bugo!"

Erminio fell to the ground with an ugly scream, and René swung her clawed leg down on him.

The overdecorated armor was surprisingly hard and just crumpled. The holy energy that clothed René's legs burned and ached.

But René was unfazed, and bit down on Erminio's leg.

The armored leg also seemed to be well sanctified, and this time the inside of her mouth hurt like a burning iron bar had been shoved into it, but it was better than the pain she felt when a burning iron rod was actually shoved into her mouth.

René swung her head around as hard as she could, like a predator biting off the flesh of its prey.

To Rene, now in the body of a wyvern, Erminio was too light.

Swung around, Erminio was knocked to the ground.

"Guu...gii...ii..."

There was a scream that was no longer a word, just an exhalation of air stuck in his chest. The snow had turned red.

René slammed Erminio again and again. Erminio's arms swam in the air like clothes and laundry fluttering in the wind.

Whether or not the contents were intact, the armor still would not come off.

So René fished Erminio's legs with a bite and released a miasma breath as she did so.

The miasma that blew out from between her fangs smeared all over Erminio's body.

At the same time, René forcibly twisted the claws of her legs into the joints of the body armor. The holy energy and the miasma energy canceled each other out, weakening the repulsion.

With the claws inserted little by little, René used them as support to bite down on Erminio's legs.

Erminio, which had been suspended by the bite, fell to the ground.

Then René gouged out the body armor and stripped it off.

This time, René bit Erminio's head.

Gripping the head, which seemed to be half rotten from the miasma, René slammed Erminio's body into the ground again.

The chainmail he wore under his armor was not enough to protect him.

She felt his ribs shattered by the blow, and his neck was broken as well.

After two or three strikes, Erminio's head was finally shredded and only his upper body was flung out.

René spat out Erminio's head and sprayed miasma breath on it for as long as her breath lasted.

The ground, not just the snow, was scraped into craters by the breath, and all that remained was the skull, which had been so badly affected by the miasma that it had cracked and crumbled into pieces and the rotting remnants of the circlet he had worn in place of his helmet.

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