Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for just $7 to get early access to all upcoming chapters!
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations
─────
Chapter 317: Ryuu's Despair
This forbidden monster had never been documented in any of the Guild's public records. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the God of the Guild, Ouranos—the great deity who safeguarded Orario with his prayers—personally bestowed a name upon it:
The Juggernaut.
Meaning the Destroyer.
The next moment, the monster hanging from the ceiling moved. Its figure simply vanished from everyone's line of sight.
It possessed an acceleration completely devoid of logic. The terrifying wind pressure it generated was strong enough to violently whip a person's hair backward. Then, a blue-purple diagonal slash—so impossibly fast it left only a brief afterimage on the retina—tore through the space.
"Ah..."
A brief, barely decipherable scream was instantly cut short. The wolf-man youth, before he could even register the sensation of pain, had his body effortlessly and brutally dismembered by the fleeting claws.
Warm blood and shredded internal organs sprayed outward in all directions like splattered paint. A few scalding drops of blood splashed onto Jura's fear-stiffened cheek. He shivered violently from head to toe, yet forcibly maintained his twisted grin.
Ryuu had entirely lost her voice. Her pupils reflected only the gruesome shower of flying flesh.
And just as the Juggernaut's hollow, burning red eye sockets turned toward its next target—Jura—he moved.
"Now!"
Jura viciously cracked the long whip he had been preparing. The collar on the paralyzed, shivering Lambton erupted with a blinding red light.
Driven by the magical tool's absolute command, the beast let out a sorrowful cry. Overcoming its primal terror, it swung its massive head around and launched itself like a deep-blue cannonball directly at the pitch-black figure that had just materialized.
It was using its own life to buy its master time to escape.
The Juggernaut's figure vanished once more. Immediately after, several blue-purple claw arcs crisscrossed the air, looking sharp enough to slice through space itself.
Accompanied by the scalp-numbing, sickening sound of flesh separating like violently torn fabric, the massive and resilient snake monster was cleanly sliced from head to tail into dozens of uneven chunks of meat. It hadn't even managed to touch a single scale of the Juggernaut's exoskeleton.
A sky-filling rain of blood, mixed with internal organs and scales, cascaded down furiously like a crimson torrential storm. But under the cover of this gruesome rain, Jura's figure completely vanished from the cavern.
Only Ryuu remained. Standing rigid and bathed in the falling blood, she was left utterly alone to face the demon that had once destroyed her entire world.
The hand gripping her wooden sword trembled violently. She wanted to move, she wanted to swing her blade, she wanted to fight, she wanted to... run. But her stiffened body, completely dominated by fear, refused to execute a single action.
A flash of blue-purple light. The pitch-black figure arrived silently by her side.
A searing breath, reeking of sulfur and fresh gore, puffed gently against her cheek, plunging her into an abyss so cold her very soul felt frozen. The horrifying claws, flashing with the radiance of death, swung out with a screech that tore through the air.
It was in that fleeting instant—the absolute precipice of descending death.
MOVE!!!
Ryuu unleashed a hoarse, mind-shattering roar within her own heart. Miraculously, she reacted in the nick of time. Her upper body arched backward at an angle that defied the limits of human anatomy.
Yet, the claws still grazed her.
Riiip—!
The sound of fabric and flesh tearing in unison. The fatal claws scraped past her collarbone, ripping her entire left shoulder, armor and flesh included, wide open.
The elf's slender frame was punctured like a water balloon. A fountain of blood erupted violently like a geyser.
"Urgh!?"
Before the blinding pain could even register in her brain, the second attack descended. The long, thick, hardened tail slammed into her leg like a massive steel whip with a dull, whistling impact.
Because it wasn't the indestructible claws, the destructive power was far less. But the hardened tail, wrapped in its black and blue-purple shell, was as dense as a solid club. Her right leg, encased in her long boot, snapped effortlessly.
Crack—!
The crisp sound of a shattering tibia was exceptionally ear-piercing in the silent cavern.
Ryuu's body was swept away by the immense force, rolling several times across the floor before slamming heavily into the freezing rock wall. She let out an incoherent, beast-like groan of pure agony.
She instinctively reached out, placing her hand on her right leg, which was now bent at a grotesque angle. The overwhelming agony, far exceeding the limits of her endurance, surged into her brain like molten iron, nearly dragging her into unconsciousness.
But even that final release was denied to her.
Because... Thump. She heard it clearly. The massive body was walking toward her. Step by step, the terrifying footsteps rang out like a death knell tolling for her demise.
Several blood-soaked crystal shards stuck to Ryuu's left cheek. She lifted her tear-and-blood-stained face, trembling uncontrollably from the agony and terror.
Destruction was approaching. Despair had already arrived.
Facing the nightmare incarnate slowly touching down before her, the heavily injured, bleeding Ryuu was incapable of mounting any resistance.
A bitter wave of frustration washed over her. She was so consumed by regret that she wanted to wail aloud.
In her heart, Ryuu spat on her own incompetence. Facing the irreconcilable enemy who slaughtered all her companions, she had ended up in such a miserable, weak, and unsightly state.
And... and, she hadn't even said anything to Syr and the others yet. She hadn't repaid them... repaid the kindness of those families who had accepted her sin-ridden self and given her a new home.
She hadn't apologized to Goddess Astrea yet.
To repay them, to atone to Goddess Astrea, she couldn't... she couldn't end here...
Ah, but... A thought quietly surfaced in her mind, a mind that was on the verge of being entirely consumed by remorse and despair.
─────
Support this fanfict by leaving Positive Review, Comments, and Power Stones.
For Advance Chapters:
> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations