An Eldritch Legacy: Sin & Sacrilege

Looking at the remaining mercenary, her body screamed in pain, but she refused to relent. Right when fear had consumed him—when his brain was still processing what had happened—right when madness was teetering on his mind, she decided to go in for the kill. Although it seemed she had gotten a power-up, it was anything but.

Limited in what it could use, the presence inside her could only strengthen her speed, increase her body's endurance, make her reactions faster, refine her control over the blade, and sometimes, offer a show of supernatural delight. But much of the girl's power could not be used—she had not yet completed the awakening. It could only use the bare minimum of her power.

But then it discovered something else—only after it had almost killed the girl.

The blood…

---------

This time, she moved even faster. Her body burned through her soul, using it to fuel the power she wielded. After all, she had no Aether to use...

Her soul had become the firewood, and had it not been for her awakening legacy's self-protection... she would have died from the awakening, as it sought the next best thing to Aether to power the connection of realities...

But that would never have been enough. After the connection, the Inheritor must undergo the Trial of Fire within the Legacy World to fully awaken the power within them... and all this required the one thing commoners lacked and nobles had—

Aether.

So, seeing the girl move with the power of her soul alone was perhaps Krael's most interesting experience here.

He had long grown tired of her struggle—after the first and second kills, it had become a bore.

Now, he was interested in the interaction of her soul with the power she had barely awakened.

And yet she was this powerful, even with an incomplete Gate Awakening.This showed how much of an aberration she truly was.Now he was curious about this little pet... how many more secrets was she hiding in that beaten and broken body of hers?

The show continued... she weaved in and out of the man's desperation, swinging her blade with the ease of a master. Her body moved like a broken doll barely holding on, but the power in her cuts had started to corrode the man...

It caused his flesh to turn sick and moldy—it looked like decay.

Adler noted this mentally. Ever since the moment they picked her up, he had become unusual... nothing he did made sense, and all he did was stand there—but that was where the unusualness started.

Had it been any other time, he would have prepared a chair for the Count and would have even had the guts to serve the Count's evening meal out here.

But his eyes remained fixed on the peasant.

And Krael was growing more dissatisfied...

What had made this loyal hound look at the other like that?

But he was too preoccupied to care much...

"Release all of them, Adler. After she's done with that one, I think the girl can manage on her own now that she knows how to wield a blade..."

As he spoke, he heard the sickening crunch of bone and the man's roar...

He turned—only to see the girl had shoved her hand up the man's eye sockets—in fury.

Her small, malnourished hands fit into his socket just right.

It seemed that while she had once been empty, she had regained some emotion. This was good news to him...

Having a subordinate as stiff as a rock was work all in itself.

The girl yanked her hand back, and with supernatural strength, the skull cracked from the pressure as she pulled out his brain alongside the eye still attached...

Blood erupted like a fountain, washing over her whole body. The corpse fell moments later, staining the slope in more blood... that flowed along the cobblestones while avoiding the count's carriage completely...

Krael had never seen such brutality... such beauty!

'Maybe peasants are savage like this...'

As a noble, most of their combat was elegant and refined—but the girl's methods grew more brutal the longer she fought. The longer she stayed drenched in blood, the more bloodthirsty she became.

And it seemed the power she wielded had found a new fuel source and had stopped siphoning her soul.

Most of those who came today were Pathwalkers, and that meant—crippled or not—they had used Aether in their lives, changing them down to their very foundations...

Things like that could not just vanish; even if one fell from the heavens to become a mortal again, there would always be a qualitative difference between them and those who had been mortals since birth.

Meaning in their blood, in their flesh—there was Aether fused in.

And showered in their blood, she had started to absorb that meager Aether.

That let her stabilize her state—she was no longer on the verge of death. Some of her wounds even began to heal, and her strength seemed to step into a new tier...

Though it was an illusion, it worked well in her situation.

She knelt tiredly and lacerated his chest... with improved speed, she collected his heart, and into the basket—that had become heavier—went the brain and heart she had taken... Surprisingly, the basket was never stained with blood during the scuffle, pristine in its look...

She stood, trembling...

Her eyes were blurry, and she wasn't sure whether she'd be done—with all of them.

Just as she began to feel hopeless... a voice seemed to save her from misery.

"Alright, Adler... I think the pet has had enough... finish the rest of them cleanly..."Krael commanded—and he hadn't even finished speaking when he was interrupted.

"NO!!!" A gut-wrenching wail echoed from the blood-drenched girl...

"No... no... let me finish them, please!"The girl had started trembling... tears overflowed from her eyes as she looked at the Count desperately...

The feeling of reprieve when she first heard his voice—the intention to end it all—made her feel that if she let it happen, she'd never amount to anything. She'd always be the rag used beneath others' feet. But with the will to live again, she didn't want to be on the receiving end—she wanted to stare life in the face and be confident enough to say she wouldn't be told how to live it.

"Let me finish them..." Her voice was low, but anyone could feel the desperation hidden within... She spoke between sobs...

Would have been a sweet moment had the topic not been slaughter... the mercenaries shivered; here a little girl was having a breakdown all just so that she could kill more.

She struggled to hold the dagger—it had become a burden. The more life it ended, the more pain it absorbed, the heavier it became...

She couldn't even stand properly, and yet she wanted to finish her fight...

She wouldn't feel alive again if she let things end this way...

A bigger part of her wanted to be empty—to look at life through bleakness—but that small part that wanted to feel mortal had awoken, taken the reins, and was screaming. Though it would be a struggle, she still wanted to...

This part of her felt revulsion at the flesh that remained between her fingers... the pieces of bone that marred her hands... but she'd rather be a monster than a vessel with nothing inside...

She would rather fall into the depths of savagery. At least then she would find joy in something—anything—but that emptiness. Even madness was better.

Krael: "..."

He was speechless... he thought this would be the end of her fight. She looked like she might just fall over dead... but her eyes—no longer empty, even for a brief moment—screamed something at him.

He wanted to tell her, "But you are broken, little pet... you won't do much in this..." But seeing her eyes made him reconsider.

Now, he wanted to see her finish this to the end...

And while he never thought he'd respect a peasant—much less a little girl—she kept pushing his boundaries. First, using her own hands to bury her parents, refusing to acknowledge the temple, daring to talk back to him—and now this raw emotion...

Interesting pet indeed.

"Alright, peasant... have it your way."