Chapter 186: Sacrificial Ritual

"Why are you targeting us?" I asked, keeping my tone perfectly conversational to keep him talking.

"Because you don’t know your place!" Leon shrieked, his voice distorting into a demonic double-tone.

My place, huh.

"Not knowing my place... Senior, why don’t you elaborate on that? Teach your junior a lesson."

"The Herman County is a prestigious, elite family! We are incomparable to the ruined filth of the Ashborne name! And yet, you dare try to surpass me?!"

...Huh? When did I ever do that?

I genuinely couldn’t remember ever interacting with Leon before this trip.

...Oh. Wait. There was one time. Just a few hours ago.

"Is this because I took first place in the shooting demonstration today?" I asked, ducking as another blast of Magi tore through the air above my head.

"No!" Leon roared, firing a continuous barrage of black energy that pulverized the stone pillars nearby. "That was invalid! A cheat! You must’ve used some trick, you filthy trash! You are the scum of high society, notorious in the social circles, and yet you publicly humiliated me in front of my own club!"

Wow. So it really was just petty jealousy.

I peeked through a gap in the rubble. Elisha was hiding behind a fallen pillar a dozen yards away from me, her bow nocked, still waiting for my signal.

"Alright, let’s say I offended your fragile ego," I called out. "Why is Cadet Elisha guilty? Let her walk away."

"Because she chose you! Not me!"

From behind her pillar, Elisha gave me a wildly puzzled look. Oh, she was going to be furious when she fully processed this.

"...Do you like Cadet Elisha, Senior Leon?" I asked, letting a hint of mockery slip into my voice.

Even from a distance, I could see Elisha’s face turn bright red with sheer indignation.

At the same time, Leon radiated a suffocating wave of Magi from his entire body.

"Shut up!"

What an incredibly easy enemy to provoke. When a human willingly surrendered their body to a demonic contract, their rationality and intelligence temporarily plummeted until the corruption fully assimilated their brain. He was fighting entirely on raw emotion. This was great.

"The second son of a mere Count obsessing over the legitimate daughter of a Duke..." I tutted loudly. "Isn’t it

you

who doesn’t know your place, Senior?"

"You bastard!"

’Oh, that hit a nerve.’

A relentless storm of black shockwaves began sweeping my position. I had already retreated to the next piece of cover, but the wreckage I was just hiding behind was completely vaporized.

"I saw Lady Elisha ride in the back of the transport wagon alone with you!" Leon screamed, his jealousy fully unhinged. "Sharing drinks! Preparing dinner together! Sitting by the fire together!"

This getting recorded as official Association evidence is going to be a bit awkward,

I thought to myself.

It sounds like a terrible romance novel. I’ll have to edit that part out later.

I understood Leon’s feelings, to a degree. It was natural to feel jealous of others’ success. I had spent my entire past life envying the talents of others. But to surrender your soul to a demon just because you lost a target practice session and saw a girl drinking coffee with someone else?

"Have you ever heard the term ’pathetic’, Senior?" I asked coldly.

"Arghhh! I’ll kill you!"

As Leon was about to explode with pure, blinding rage, a sharp voice echoed from the other side of the room.

"Stop it right there, Senior Leon!"

"Gah—!"

Leon, who was about to unleash a massive blast of Magi, completely froze.

Of course, Elisha was still here. Leon, his senses dulled by his rage and the demonic corruption, seemed to have completely forgotten about her in his tunnel vision to kill me.

Leon whipped his head around frantically.

"L-Lady Elisha! You’re still here?! Why are you defending someone like Lucien...?!"

"I am going to say this clearly, right here and right now," Elisha said, stepping out from behind her cover.

She stood proudly in the open, the Empire’s premier archer, her red compound bow fully drawn and aimed directly at his heart.

"I utterly reject your feelings, Senior," Elisha declared, her voice ringing with absolute disgust. "I cannot stand cowards. And I absolutely despise demons."

"Y-You...! Ugh!"

Leon’s corrupted face twisted in agony, his fragile ego shattering into a million pieces.

’Now’s the time.’

My [Sixth Sense] highlighted the optimal window of opportunity.

I didn’t use my spatial footwork; the sudden flash of mana would draw his attention back to me instantly. Instead, I channeled raw physical strength into my legs and dashed silently across the stone floor.

While Leon was completely flustered, his black eyes locked entirely on the girl rejecting him, I slipped right into his blind spot, grabbed Valerius by his tactical harness, and ripped him away from the demon’s feet.

****

"C-Cadet Elisha, I’m not... I’m not a monster! I just borrowed this power! No, I’m mastering it! What you see isn’t all of me. I’m going to be much, much more..."

"Much more what, Senior?" Elisha asked, her tone perfectly even, her bow still drawn. "I’m listening. Explain it to me."

"Well, uh, I’ll be... much greater! So you see..."

’Wow.’

Whatever harsh thoughts I had about Elisha earlier, I took them all back. She was actually incredibly helpful!

If I were alone, trying to pull Valerius out of the line of fire while dodging a corrupted sniper would have been a nightmare. Valerius was a Gold-Rank Knight and a capable fighter against the impending disasters; letting him die here would have been a massive tactical loss.

Elisha’s provocations were brilliant. She had instantly caught on to my maneuver. She wasn’t just blindly threatening him; she was actively stalling.

Using the ample time she bought me, I dragged Valerius behind a collapsed section of the wall and quickly kicked a thick layer of loose sand over his body to mask his mana signature. It wasn’t a grave, just temporary camouflage.

"...Huh? Where is Brother Valerius?"

’Caught.’

But it was too late. I was already in position.

Leon’s corrupted eyes snapped toward the empty space on the floor. He shrieked in a furious, distorted tone.

"Ugh! You tricked me! Where’s my brother?! Give him back to me, and I’ll spare your lives!"

I popped up from behind a broken pillar and racked the Reaver shotgun. "Who would fall for a lie that stupid, Senior?"

"Exactly, Senior," Elisha chimed in from the opposite flank, stepping back into hard cover.

"You bastards!" Leon roared.

The shootout began.

Elisha and I moved seamlessly between the scattered ruins, alternating our attacks to keep Leon pinned.

BANG!

I fired a spread of buckshot. Several pellets tore through the edges of Leon’s aura and pierced his shoulder.

"Argh! You!"

Leon retaliated, firing highly compressed, arrow-shaped blasts of Magi that hit like artillery shells. But dodging them wasn’t hard.

It was actually quite easy. Leon was a naturally gifted marksman, but his mind was so clouded by rage and demonic corruption that he had completely forgotten the basics of tactical shooting. He was just mindlessly manifesting projectiles and firing them at wherever he last saw us.

Thwack! BANG!

Elisha’s crimson arrows and my buckshot repeatedly pierced Leon’s body. He stumbled backward, his blood mixing with black sludge.

"Why...! Why can’t I win...?!" Leon screamed, firing wildly into the ceiling.

Even imbued with demonic power, his base flesh was still human. Our combined crossfire shredded his limbs, completely incapacitating him. He dropped to his knees, his arms hanging uselessly at his sides.

’Tch, I was nervous because my rifle broke, but this was a pointless worry.’

I stepped out from cover, walked up to his kneeling form, and leveled the shotgun at his head.

BANG!

The final gunshot echoed through the hall. Leon’s head blew apart in a shower of black sludge. His headless body crumpled to the stone floor.

’It’s over.’

Elisha, stepping out from behind her cover, flinched violently. She lowered her bow, her face pale.

"Y-You executed him," she whispered.

"I don’t have a hobby of leaving loose ends," I replied coldly, ejecting the spent shell.

Save the villain if possible, rehabilitate them if they surrender.

That was Kael’s righteous style. Elisha, who had traveled exclusively with the Protagonist’s party, was entirely unfamiliar with the brutal efficiency of a double-tap. But this was my way. I wasn’t going to leave a corrupted host alive to stab me in the back.

Elisha stared at Leon’s headless corpse, her expression conflicted, weighing whether my ruthless action was right or wrong.

"Let’s grab Valerius and escape," I said, turning away. "There’s a chance Leon created a physical exit when he broke in here—"

"C-Cadet Lucien. L-Look at that."

[Sixth Sense (Lv. 3) detects a catastrophic anomaly!]

What?

I spun back around. My bullet had blown away everything above his jawline. The brain was gone.

Yet, Leon’s body was moving.

The headless corpse rose to its knees. It forced its hands, dripping with thick Magi, directly into its own chest cavity, gripped its still-beating heart... and crushed it.

I recognized this exact horrific scene from the original game’s lore.

It was a sacrificial ritual!

"Tch, get back!"