NOVEL NEXT chapter 54
54 – Why Does Life Fall into a Deep Sleep (1)
* * *
Looking at the fallen Astal, a feeling surged up from the depths of Victoria’s heart.
A feeling called regret, that came with a sensation of numbness in her chest, a stinging like a bruise.
“Wake up…. You’re not someone who should be lying down here like this….”
Victoria kept hugging Astal, uttering words that went unanswered into the empty void of her gaze.
It hurt so much.
Even though she had experienced so much during her travels through the Demon Realm, this time it felt like someone was carving out her heart with a knife.
Why was it like this?
She couldn’t breathe, and she felt a pain like someone was grabbing her heart with their hand and squeezing it.
Was it because she knew about Astal’s sad past? Because he rescued her while wandering through a dream within a dream, and then lost consciousness?
Victoria’s mind was struggling to find a reason for this pain. Because she couldn’t believe the scene unfolding before her eyes.
‘At least I shouldn’t have said such mean things, I should have confessed that I liked him, honestly…’
Because even when she pressed her ear close to Astal’s heart, she couldn’t feel a beating pulse.
Silent stillness.
That the heart of the person she loved had stopped, made both her fingertips and eyes tremble.
“Hahaha! Who told you to be so stupid as to face a Succubus Queen in a dream?!”
“……”
Bellamora bared her teeth and laughed as she watched the scene. From the start, her values concerning love were twisted and distorted.
“Ah…, actually, my dream was to be killed by the person I loved, and it really came true…. Don’t you think dying together like this is pretty romantic?”
Bellamora touched the wound that Astal had left, her face flushed as if she adored it.
He, even in that fleeting moment, had chosen the most efficient way to kill her.
“To instantly throw the Core Sword and destroy my heart…! Just how strong is your mental fortitude?”
The Core Sword imbued with Victoria’s divine power. A weapon that inflicted a fatal wound on Bellamora, even across the boundaries of dreams and reality, was something that demanded Astal’s life as collateral.
Astal losing consciousness and collapsing now, his heart stopping, was the reaction to that.
“Haaa… As expected, you’re the best, Astal. A stab from the person you love is so thrilling and hot.”
Even knowing that fact, Bellamora had no intention of saving Astal, but was instead excited by the fact that she was dying with him.
With a seductive voice and flushed cheeks, she wore an ecstatic smile, simply enjoying the fact that blood was dripping from where her heart should be.
“…Crazy b*tch.”
Victoria bit her lower lip and cursed Bellamora. It was the first time she, living as a saintess, had uttered such a vulgar word with such sincerity.
Victoria found Bellamora repulsive. How could she utter the word “pure love” while engaging in such a form of love?
The pure love that Victoria envisioned was being able to risk your life for the person you loved. While also doing everything possible to avoid that person being hurt or harmed.
“Haha! Yes, that’s what love was for me.”
In Bellamora’s case, she didn’t care about what measures or methods she used to accomplish her love. She wouldn’t hesitate to torment her partner to the point of death, or to threaten them by using their past as leverage.
Bellamora also knew that, so she readily laughed and responded to Victoria’s condemnation. For her, love was indeed crazy.
“What a shame. If I’d met Astal sooner, maybe it would’ve been me by his side, not that vapid saint who has nothing to offer but her chest…”
Bellamora sighed deeply, recalling what the Demon Lord had told her before.
An order to kill all life in a certain village, because a hero who would kill him would be born there.
What if Bellamora, instead of Durahan, had been sent to raid the village? The thought blossomed in her mind.
“You’re saying such bullshit after tormenting Astal like this?!”
“And what about you, secretly belittling and degrading Astal with your true intentions? I’d say we’re pretty similar, wouldn’t you?”
Feeling the dwindling embers of her life, Bellamora spoke to Victoria with an unwavering refusal to lose, even once.
Simply because the person she loved was taken from her, she was consumed by an overwhelming jealousy toward Victoria.
“…I am not like you.”
Watching Bellamora, Victoria clasped Astal’s hands in hers and prayed. She thought she could die tomorrow, if it was for him.
Even if her entire body turned into flowers, she wanted to keep the man she loved from dying.
“I’m…a woman who truly loves Astal.”
Victoria poured all of her remaining divine power and miracles into trying to restart Astal’s heart, which had already stopped.
Even as her own fingers and remaining body parts were transforming into beautiful flowers, Victoria didn’t even let out a small whimper, silently using her miracle.
Because if she showed even the slightest pain, it felt like Astal’s life, which she was barely holding onto, would slip away.
Because if she showed any sign of hurt, he would grieve.
Because the chilling sensation of her breaking heart was more painful than the agony in her body.
“…So please, don’t die before me.”
Victoria gazed at Astal and whispered softly. It was the first time she had spoken her true feelings for him, not just what was on her mind, out loud.
* * *
Hero Kyle rushed to Bellamora before anyone else, swinging his flame-wrought holy sword to finish her.
He’d immediately recognized the danger of the situation, Astal collapsed, Victoria clinging to him, weeping.
“Oh my, such a fiery man isn’t really my type.”
“I knew you were trash, but I didn’t think you’d get Astal killed…”
Kyle ground his teeth, raising his voice at Bellamora, who’d stopped his holy sword with a single finger.
Right now, Astal’s Coresword was embedded in the outer wall, far away. If he didn’t retrieve it, no matter how many miracles they poured on him, he wouldn’t survive.
“…Even if he is my beloved, I am one of the Demon Lord’s Four Heavenly Kings, you see!”
Bellamora’s lips curled upward as she listened to Kyle’s curses. Her life was like a candle in the wind, soon to be extinguished, yet she was so utterly amused.
“You lot will never be able to defeat the Demon Lord. He’s a godlike being, versed in all things.”
Bellamora recalled the Demon Lord Ergosum. Even heroes hailed as strong had failed to deal with him. A being with multiple arms and the ability to manipulate reality.
To Bellamora, a hero party that believed they could defeat such a Demon Lord was like moths drawn to a flame.
“Even if you survive here, in the end, the Demon Lord will claim Astal-sama’s life.”
Bellamora covered the place where her heart should be with her remaining hand. As if she was placing her hand on her chest, feeling her heartbeat.
“…That’s why I’ll be waiting for Astal-sama at the gates of hell. I’ll claim him before that loathsome saint!”
Bellamora knew there was an afterlife. It was one of the secrets hidden by the gods who created this world.
The reason why the gods, called Constellations, did nothing to stop the Demon Lord’s rampage, instead choosing heroes and saints, their pawns, to handle it for them, fell into that category too.
“That is what love means to me!”
“That’s a horrifying thing to say.”
“If that doesn’t work, I could reincarnate and aim for Astal-sama’s child, born from between the legs of that loathsome saint!”
Even as she died from the fatal wound Astal inflicted, Bellamora showed no sign of losing her characteristic composure. She simply found the existence of humans, living in ignorance of such secrets, endlessly entertaining.
“Absolutely not. I’ll personally drag you down to the very bottom of hell.”
“How scary. Go ahead and tr─”
FWoooM!
Bellamora’s words were swallowed by the roaring sound that suddenly erupted. A colossal meteor shower of flames was flying in from the distance.
“You goddamn piece of trash!!”
Anima used the Flame Spirit King and the Earth Spirit King to launch an attack at Bellamora. She didn’t want to see her friend and comrade, Victoria, crying anymore.
She had always suspected a relationship between Astal and Victoria, but the fact that they strived to protect each other was obvious when she saw the saintess, covered in wounds, clutching the fallen mage and weeping.
“…Thanks to you, I retrieved the Coresword. Thank you for creating the opening, Anima, Kyle.”
And not missing that opening, the archer Tarion brought the Coresword embedded in the wall to Astal’s side.
Victoria was pouring miracles into Astal, whose heart continued to stop, like pouring water into a bottomless pit. Looking at the Coresword, she let out a hoarse sigh.
“Ah… aah… thank you… thank you… Tarion…”
Victoria’s body was already mostly transformed into flowers from abusing miracles so much. Yet, she was shedding tears of joy, thinking she could save the one she loved.
After all, the dead were something even miracles couldn’t revive.
“…You are a being that shouldn’t exist in this world, Bellamora.”
*Thwack-*
After confirming that Victoria and Astal were safe, Kyle finally put all his strength into beheading Bellamora’s steel-like neck.
Already fatally wounded by Astal, Bellamora couldn’t even use magic or phantasms to resist, and she closed her eyes, sensing her end.
“What a pity. If I had gone on a little longer, maybe I could have actually experienced something called love…”
Bellamora smiled, genuinely and openly, as her last act. There wasn’t a trace of regret or remorse in her expression.
“That crap isn’t love, it’s just a horrific obsession.”
Kyle stared at Bellamora with utter contempt, then took action, shattering the rest of her head.