NOVEL NEXT Chapter 141: Reap or Be Reaped
"Do you understand now? The depth of what your heresy has cost?" Marie's voice scalded Zulema as if she had just bathed her in boiling oil. "The depravity it took for you to choose a false god over us."
"Lucia… T-This can't be happening." She could barely process the words that left her mouth. Flashes of Lucy's outgoing personality burned in her mind. The bold smirk that always followed her obstinance. The passionate zeal in which she lived her life. The beautiful luster of her hair. None of that remained. All Zula could hear now were the deafening screams as that monster almost tore her apart. Her trembling hand squeezed into a fist while the other gripped her weapon with a white-knuckle fury as she looked back at Marie with a piercing glare. "You claim this is my fault…? That a simple case of misfortune brought down all this ruin? No. Derleth was right. I am starting to see now that the Scarlet Church creates only victims. Me, you, Lucia. Nothing but collateral to them while they prostrate before a god who's too mad to even appreciate it!"
"Kill her!"
At Marie's command, the feral Lucia flew at Zulema with claws brandished, ready to kill whatever she was ordered to.
Each sudden strike was parried with a quick spin of the scythe. The ice maiden had quickly restored the part of her weapon that had broken off and brandished it like a madwoman. But the situation pushed her even further onto the defensive. She had hesitated to raise her blade against Marie, but she couldn't even fathom the thought of striking at the mindless remains of her once-called Sister. So, this was how Matcha doled out her absolution. It was far worse than anything she could have imagined.
"Where did that sudden rebellious spirit go, Zulie?" Marie sneered in a mocking tone much harsher than before. "I thought you were finally ready to put up a fight. The Zulema I know wouldn't just lie down like a wounded animal and die."
"You! Shut your mouth!" Zulema shouted, leaping backward to deflect yet another oncoming attack. The creature's frenzied flurry of armed blows grew faster and more with each rabid strike. "How could you just use our comrade like this? Our friend?! Lucy did not deserve this. Tell me, was this her punishment for almost dying to some monstrous beast?"
"An attack that would not have happened had you not defied my orders to leave and chase after a mere rumor."
An almost imperceptible glint out of the corner of her eye forced Zula to quickly jump out of the way as another violent slash swept past her. A movement that she had almost missed as a consequence of her missing eye. She cursed the huge disadvantage having only one eye caused her.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
As Lucia turned to charge again, Zula swiftly raised her arm, bringing an emerging wall of thick snow before her. A pillowy-soft barrier that was plowed through almost instantly as the creature rushed through it with claws wide.
But as Lucia crashed past the frozen barrier, her target had mysteriously disappeared from sight. In her feverish search, she failed to notice the sudden erection of ice rising up around her—sealing her in a suffocating, frozen casket.
"But it wasn't mere rumor! You must have reached the same conclusion we did, didn't you?!" shouted Zulema, now standing on the opposite side. "You saw what that E-class did to our army! To us! To Lucia!"
At the sound of her name, the glacial walls surrounding Lucia shook violently. From within her prison, the bestial Sister had started to bounce around rapidly, causing the walls to crack and crumble under the pressure.
A sudden wail and the ice around her finally shattered.
"And had you two but waited," replied Marie. "We could have all gone and took it down together. A beast, I might remind you, that was also cutting down swaths of our enemy. But you didn't. Your far too generous nature got the better of you."
"I—I…"
"Tell me, Zulie. Exactly whose idea was it to go after it? Lucia's? I was always such a big fan of her bloodlust, but she never struck me as the proactive type."
"It was me…" Zulema's grip had faltered for just a split second, causing the next battering strike from Lucia to send her tumbling backwards into the snow, her back slamming hard against the giant tree behind her.
"My fault…" She mumbled, staring desolately at the snow for questions she already knew the answer to. "It was my fault. All of this was my fault. Your punishment. Lucia's degradation, my laicization and condemnation... It's all because of me."
"You finally realize the extent of what you've done. I'm overjoyed, Zulie. Now you can finally seek penance. Accept it like Lucia and I had to."
"Like you both had to…" Zulema raised her head weakly. There was a sudden flash and then a searing hot pain as the claws of the fallen Lucia dug deep into her shoulders. The ice maiden howled in agony with each second the metal buried itself in her skin. Bright blood gushed from the openings in her pale flesh, staining the snow beneath them.
"And who more poetic to deliver it to you?" A dark chuckle escaped Marie's lips. "You should be proud of her! It's not every day a Scarlet Sister gets to continue her service after death and receive the sacrament of a penitente."
"Ngh… Is that what… you call this… mockery?" Her hands gripped at the claws, still trying to slice their way through bone. She groaned. "This is… no way to live."
Each of Lucia's moist, ragged breaths were like choking little pinpricks in her ear. The sound of metal grinding against creaking bone seemed to drain the life out of her. And then, as quiet as a whisper, Zulema heard a hoarse whine sputter a name that made the color drain from her face.
"Zu…les…"
Zulema jerked her head to face the twisted monster that was once her friend. Through the dirty and wiry strands of brown hair running down her face, she could see a broken eye peeking through. The same way Lucia used to look at her through her ceremonial armor's veil.
A tear glimmering with glacial light fell along Zula's cheek.