Free Web NovelChapter 231: The Spider and the Empress (8)
Beneath the Imperial Palace, the underground chamber glowed in a fierce orange hue, dyed by the massive flame raging at its center. The heat was so intense that it felt hard to breathe.
Staring at the woman before me, who had black hair and thick-rimmed glasses, I tightened my grip on my sword. “Let me ask just one thing.”
“Oh? Perfect. I’ve been wanting to ask you something too,” Melina replied.
She twirled the spiked mace in her hand as if inviting me to go first.
“Why did you betray the Empress?” I asked.
I thought back to how Camellia spoke of Melina. The smug Empress who always looked down on the world from above had actually smiled when talking about her maid. It wasn’t hard to tell how deeply she cherished Melina.
“With the Empress’s trust, you must have held significant influence within the Empire.”
“Why did I betray Lady Camellia, huh. That question is flawed from the start.” Melina pushed her thick glasses up. Her lips twisted into a vicious grin. “I never served that bitch in the first place.”
“But she saved you after the demons had kidnapped you, didn’t she?”
“Saved? Saved, you say? Ahahahaha!”
Melina burst into wild laughter, clutching her stomach. “I think you’re misunderstanding something. I wasn’t kidnapped by the demons.”
Her smile sharpened. “I was sold. By humans. To other humans.”
***
Dale was speechless.
“Time has passed, but I still remember it vividly,” Melina said.
She recalled her mother leading her by the hand into a run-down building, saying they were going to buy snacks. She remembered the rough, intimidating men already waiting inside, the pouch of gold being exchanged, and her mother’s bright smile.
“But I was fine,” she added.
“Fine?”
Her eyes grew hazy, like someone drunk on nostalgia. “Yes. Because I gained a new family. A real family, one that treated me gently and warmly. Not like the father who lived soaked in alcohol, nor the mother who hit me whenever she got bored.”
“That family, don’t tell me...”
“Correct. It was the demons.”
I see. So that’s how it was, Dale thought.
“I was happy. I genuinely believed I could finally live a better life. But that damn woman! She took everything from me!”
Melina recalled the rainbow-colored light that had suddenly descended from the sky, signifying the hateful blessing of the Seven Gods. The light had swept across the city in the blink of an eye, devouring her second parents and her second family. Screams had echoed throughout the city.
“Aaaaaah!”
“P-please! Spare us!!!”
Then a silver-haired woman slowly descended into the ruined city. Her power was so overwhelming, so divine, she barely resembled a human. She approached a girl who lay crushed beneath rubble, dying.
The woman had said, “Hmm. So, you’re not a demon after all. Were you being held here?”
Terrified, the girl had nodded without even having time to mourn her parents. “Y-yes. Th-that’s right.”
Then, that woman had replied, “Come with me.”
That was how Melina became the servant of the very woman who had destroyed her happiness.
Melina continued, “For someone like me, who didn’t even dare dream of revenge, he came.”
She was referring to the Archbishop of Ruin, Amon. Meeting him allowed her to remember the revenge she had buried away.
She looked at Dale. “So? Does that answer your question?”
“More or less.”
Just as Mephisto had abandoned the demons and sided with humanity, she had abandoned humanity and sided with the demons. It was as simple as that.
***
Melina smiled sweetly, tightening her grip on the mace. “Then it’s my turn to ask you. Why do you think I kindly told you my entire story?”
Before I could answer, Melina’s body melted into the air, as though she had vanished. But actually, she had moved so fast that it looked like she had disappeared.
The next instant, with a loud boom, my sword collided with her mace. A shocking impact force shot up my arm, flipping my vision and hurling me backward.
Professor Baldwin created a web-like net with her threads, catching me in the air. “Dale!”
I suppressed the throbbing pain in my arm and stood up. “Ugh!”
Melina pushed up her glasses and looked at me with mocking amusement. “Well? Do you understand now why I told you all that?”
I clicked my tongue and tightened my grip. “Hah! What a nasty personality you’ve got. If you ask a question, shouldn’t you at least give me time to answer?”
Ashen Flames roared to life along my sword.
Melina frowned, staring at the flames as if she didn’t understand what she was seeing. “Hmm? That aura? Why do you have the same presence as him? No. No, impossible. That’s ridiculous.”
“What are you muttering about?” I asked.
“Hmph. Not something you need to worry about,” she coldly replied.
Melina raised her spiked mace. Black flames erupted around it. This seemed like the same type of power the Apostles of Ruin used earlier. No, it was darker, denser, and far more violent. She was at least bishop-class. If the Apostles of Ruin were just shy of Archbishop-level, then a bishop-class enemy like her was probably almost equal to one.
Melina kicked off the ground, her smile wide and bright. “This time, I’ll crush your skull for real!”
Her figure again dissolved into the air before appearing instantly in front of me. The mace, engulfed in black fire, screamed through the air toward my head. The sound of thunder exploded as our weapons clashed. Flames intertwined, gray and black, snarling as they tried to consume one another.
“Kugh!”
The impact was so fierce that my arms went numb. Melina’s formless strike, wreathed in black flames, was far beyond anything I had imagined. Her mace swung without pause, like a raging storm. Every time I blocked an attack, my feet sank into the stone floor as though someone were hammering nails straight through it. At this rate, I was going to be overwhelmed.
I drew in a deep breath and pulled even deeper on the power of the Primordial Flame. “Ignite.”
Ashen Flames flared to life, coiling around me like a predator. The sound of flesh burning filled the air as thick gray smoke rose from my skin. The Ashen Flames that devoured life itself burned savagely, and the mana that had been rapidly dwindling burst back to life in a violent surge.
Once again, we clashed. The sword engulfed in Ashen Flame batted Melina’s mace away with brute force. She staggered back in surprise, and I drove my clenched fist forward.
Berald Combat Style: Mountain Breaker!
The explosion sounded like a cannon blast, shaking the entire underground chamber as if it would collapse. The walls beneath the Imperial Palace, fortified with special magic and left unblemished for dozens, hundreds of years, shattered like glass struck by a hammer.
Melina slid backward from the punch, her boots grinding across the floor. She frowned at me, almost dumbfounded. “Hah! Are you sure you’re actually a cadet?”
She already knew that Dale Han, the cadet Camellia herself had shown interest in, possessed power well beyond the norm. But she had never imagined he could fight evenly against her when she was drawing on the full power of Ruin.
“Why? Should I show you my cadet ID?” I replied.
Melina let out a long breath and shook her head. “I’ll admit it. You’re much stronger than I expected. But, you’re out of luck.”
“Out of luck?”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
She turned toward the blazing Primordial Ember. “Because of all places, you had to meet me right where the Ember of Ruin is burning.”
Melina reached out her hand toward the Primordial Ember. Her expression became solemn, almost priestlike, as though she were praying to a god. “O’ Ruin! The end of eternity! Devour my flesh, burn my soul, and grant me the power to punish Your enemy!”
It looked like her cry had reached the ember, because soon after, a fist-sized ember tore free from the Primordial Ember and poured straight into her.
Melina clutched herself, groaning. The energy pouring out from her skyrocketed, far beyond anything from before.
Black flames wrapped around her body as she lifted her mace, lips curling into a sharp grin. “Shall we start round two?”
“Oh, so that was an option,” I muttered.
“What?”
“No, I mean, it looks like a good method.”
I turned toward the Primordial Ember. Even though Melina had absorbed a fragment of its power, the flame itself still burned as violently as ever.
I extended my hand toward it. Unlike Melina, who had prayed with reverence, I ordered the Ember as though commanding a servant. “Come.”
Melina let out a disbelieving snort. “Hah. What do you think you’re doing?”
I could tell what she was thinking, that I probably thought that just because I wielded fire, I could receive a piece of the flame the way she had.
The idea was so ridiculous she couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Ahahahaha! You really have no idea what that flame is, do you?”
The Embers of Ruin was said to be the flesh and even the fragmented soul of the Demon God. It was a power only the Archbishop of Ruin, Amon, could wield, even surpassing Camellia’s Blessing of the Seven Star. Yes, it was, quite literally, a divinity.
She cackled. “No matter what you do, that flame will never respond to you.”
Ignoring her, I said, “Huh. The little brat’s ignoring me even though I’m talking?”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the roaring flame. “Hey.”
The blazing flame suddenly trembled, shaking left and right like it had flinched. My eyes sharpened as I issued another command. “You’re not gonna crawl over here?”
Melina fell silent, so stunned that she couldn’t even laugh. She closed her mouth tightly and exhaled a long, deep sigh. “You really didn’t get that bottom-rank title for nothing, did you?”
She clicked her tongue. “I’ll say it again. No matter what you do—”
Just then, the Primordial Ember, which had been wavering left and right, slowly drifted toward me.
“Huh?”
Unlike Melina, who had absorbed only a fist-sized ember, the entire Primordial Ember surged into my body.
Melina could only gape, her jaw dropping open. “What? Why? Why is it moving?”
