NOVPUBThe rain poured relentlessly, turning the stone floor into a flowing river of red.
But even the rain couldn't drown out the sound.
Smack— Smack— Smack— Smack—
The sound of flesh hitting stone echoed throughout the destroyed estate.
Each time the heavy stone came down, more blood spilled out.
Bits of flesh, brain matter, and bone fragments mixed with the water.
Chunks of what was once inside a skull were now floating along the cracks in the ground.
The rain washed them away, but the next hit added more.
Ruby watched all of this.
She was there—frozen in place.
Her katana was in her hand, but her fingers wouldn't move.
"Huh…?" A gasp escaped her mouth.
She was having a hard time gathering her thoughts.
Zane had stood in front of her just seconds ago. Alive.
He told her not to worry.
He looked so confident that Ruby thought he had experience.
But now, she watched his body twitch after every blow until it stopped showing any sign of life.
Ruby wanted to move, but she couldn't.
It was because of the Death Symbol.
The moment that corpse woke up, the divine energy leaking from it was suffocating.
She couldn't even move her fingers.
Never in her life had she experienced this much energy at once.
The corpse raised the stone again.
Smack—
Another blow.
Ruby gritted her teeth.
'Move... Damn it! Move!'
Was she that powerless?
What was she so afraid of?
One of her academy's students had died the other day, and she did nothing.
She hadn't saved her, hadn't even tried enough to bring her justice.
And now, that dead student's brother was being killed too.
Right in front of her eyes.
She didn't deserve the Headmistress title.
Her vision blurred from the rain as the crushing force pressed against her.
'I-I'm not forgiving this time.'
Smack—
One more smack echoed out.
And in that moment, her blade twitched.
That was all it took. This time she didn't care about the suffocating energy.
Click—
In her next breath, a thin line of fire sparkled along the blade's edge.
The raindrops around the blade sizzled midair.
The corpse raised the stone for another hit, but this time, it never got the chance.
Ruby's blade swung once, with a clean horizontal slash.
The thin line of fire trailed behind the ack, cutting through the corpse diagonally like it was paper.
Szeeee—
All it took was one blink, the rain hissed as the steam exploded from the impact.
The corpse's body split in half before collapsing into two charred pieces.
She hadn't even stepped foot inside the Death Symbol. From 20 feet away, she took that thing down.
"Haaah… Haaah…" She was gasping for air. The entire attack had taken a toll on her.
Ruby's eyes landed on the floor, where the symbol was.
She couldn't take a step inside it, so her current plan was to destroy the symbol by breaking the floor apart.
Her gaze then shifted to the half-smashed face lying beside the corpse.
"..." She averted her eyes suddenly.
He was dead.
No one could survive this, and Ruby knew it was too late to do anything.
All she could do now was to get his body away from the symbol. Who knew what would happen if she left his body there?
Activating her Fire Essence, she spread it through the floor. But the moment her Essence touched the divine symbol, her connection to the element shattered.
'Why… why is my Essence resonance fluctuating?'
She couldn't seem to resonate with her Essence.
But Ruby's worries became worse.
Her eyes fell on the corpse she had just sliced as it began to move again.
The severed halves twitched.
Thin, red threads came out from each part, pulling the limbs and body back together.
The two sliced pieces reattached as if nothing had happened.
And it wasn't just that one.
All the remaining corpses scattered around the Death Symbol started reacting. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
Their rotten bodies jerked as their limbs twisted unnaturally.
"Gr..rr..rr…"
They desperately tried to stand up, falling over until they finally succeeded.
Their intestines dragged across the floor as they rose up, some even had an eyeball swinging from its socket.
"Grrrrrr…!"
A low, guttural growl came out from each one of them.
Ruby's grip tightened on her blade.
"Shit. What the hell are those things?"
All the hollow eyes turned towards her.
"..."
Ruby's eyes twitched.
'Today was a bad day.'
She took a small step back.
As she did, one of the corpses dashed towards her.
"...?!"
Its speed was superhuman.
Positioning her blade, she did a vertical slash towards its head.
Sprut—
Fresh blood gushed out as her blade dug deep into its skull.
Pulling it out, she rotated her waist in a swift motion and kicked the corpse away before it could regenerate again.
Tapping her heels, she created a mini fire vortex, which consumed the corpse completely, burning it to a crisp.
"I can only hope for it to work."
If the body kept regenerating, then the most optimal choice was to erase any trace of it from existence.
And the good thing was, Ruby was a Fire Elemental user.
Despite her failed attempt to connect with the Essence around her, she used the small amount of Essence condensed in her body to create that mini vortex.
"GRRRR!!!"
The other corpses sensed it, and they all dashed towards her.
Ruby only had a small portion of Essence stored in her. She could probably create five more mini vortexes at most.
But she didn't flinch.
Her expression wasn't even anxious.
Gripping the hilt of her blade, her eyes scanned every position of the corpses rushing at her.
"My master prides herself on calling me her student," she whispered. "And one of the several cool things about her was…"
Her hands moved with laser-sharp precision, aiming at the limbs of every corpse.
Her heels tapped on the floor as she spun her body like a dancing maiden.
Even her movements were so fast they appeared as blurry slashes from afar.
"...she's my kingdom's greatest sword master."
Click—
She stopped in her tracks, resting her katana over her shoulder.
Sprut— Sprut— Sprut— Sprut— Sprut—
In an instant, all 19 corpses were diced into pieces, collected in a single spot on the floor.
A huge lump of pulpy flesh and bones piled up, one over another, all diced into chunks.
Lifting her foot, she tapped her heel hard on the floor.
A huge surge of Fire Essence reverberated from her body into the pile.
The air cracked with a smoky smell as the pile of corpses ignited in blue flames.
The flames burned so hot that even the rain couldn't do anything against it.
"Haah… haah.. Haaah…"
Wiping water from her face, she looked around.
"..."
Not a single corpse was left.
Their bodies burned to ash, not even trying to regenerate this time.
Turning around, her focus landed on the Death Symbol.
Her eyes dulled. Her throat dried up as she saw a single body lying flat on the floor.
The rain had washed away all traces of blood.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, walking toward the symbol.
She felt guilty.
If only she had stopped him from stepping inside. If only she hadn't listened to his ridiculous stories about Gods and Authority Holders.
She even believed that bullshit.
"Idiot…"
That look in her eyes didn't suit her. It was a look of despair.
She had just met him today, yet somehow, it felt like he understood her better than anyone else.
Even more than she did herself.
"What should I tell your parents…" she whispered.
It was crushing her heart.
His parents had just lost their daughter, and now their son too.
Life was truly ruthless for some.
Some people were born just to suffer.
Standing at the edge of the Death Symbol, she tried once more to resonate with her Fire Essence.
This time, she succeeded.
Taking out her blade, she punched it into the ground and activated her skill.
"Crimson Rift."
A highly dense, concentrated fire ripple spread across the ground.
Anything the ripple touched started melting—rock, metal, all reduced to molten slag.
Her aim was to melt half the symbol along with the ground, to break that suffocating energy leaking out of it.
She did it carefully, avoiding Zane's body from getting caught in the ripple.
As the ground melted, the divine energy surging from the symbol dimmed.
"Almost—AAGH!"
Her body froze. The ripple broke.
She tilted her head toward her shoulder and saw it—a sword had just pierced her from behind.
The blade twisted inside her.
"Ugh…"
Swoosh—
In a swift motion, she clenched the blade with her fist and broke it in half.
She didn't wait.
The moment it snapped, she grabbed her katana, rotated her body, and slashed toward whoever had stabbed her.
But just before her blade could strike, she abruptly stopped.
The tip of her katana halted, barely an inch from the attacker's face.
Her eyes widened.
Blonde hair. A sly grin. A white gown swaying in the rain.
She stood there, just a hand's distance away.
"How…?" Ruby's voice cracked into a whisper. "But, you…"
Lifting her gown slightly from both ends, the woman politely greeted Ruby.
"Beautiful night, isn't it? Headmistress."
Ruby's hands shook.
Her katana slipped from her grip as she whispered the name.
"Cristine."
Cristine didn't respond at first.
Her gaze drifted to the body lying behind Ruby.
"Oh my, I didn't mean to kill his Apostle."
She sighed.
"I wished to greet him too. The new Apostle of his."
Her tone, her Essence, it all clicked in Ruby's head.
This wasn't Cristine.
The energy radiating from her was overwhelming. Just like the Death Symbol behind them.
Ruby's lips trembled.
"Wh-Who are you? And how do you know Zane?"
Cristine smiled.
"I'm Nyth Valeshade," her grin widened, "the previous Apostle of Agroth."
