Chapter 41

Crisis (2)

She hit the back of its nose hard with the back of her knife, but it didn’t even budge. It shook its head vigorously in an attempt to shake Christa off as if it were annoyed. In order not to fall off, she grabbed its scaly protruding neck.

She felt a sense of incompatibility. It was common sense to confront a threatening enemy if it attracted this much attention. But something was different about this demon.

‘What’s the difference?’

The identity of the sense of incongruity she felt was soon revealed. Another Sebek, who appeared for the second time, was only interested in Margrethe.

“N, no!”

The demon’s gaze was fixed on her waist. And at the end of that gaze she saw something red. The corsage, decorated with double roses and ribbons, was hanging from her waist ornament.

“Throw it away!”

“What?”

Christa roughly grabbed the corsage on her chest and tore it apart and threw it.

“This!”

Only then did Margrethe realize what she was saying. Her waistband fell with a thud. At the same time she picked it up. She threw it far away.

Kiyaaak!

The two ran toward it at the same time. It was clearly proof that they were aiming for the corsage. One was busy chewing on the waistband.

The other finally paid attention to Christa, as if it was upset that it could not take the corsage.

Crush!

The attack of the demon has begun. Its mouth opened wide as it ran straight toward her.

Christa blocked it with her left hand wrapped around a cloth. She heard a crunch, and she felt like her arm was being crushed by a huge lump of metal. The pain that felt like she was losing her mind came, but she endured it with her teeth clenched.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!

Margrethe, who saw her, screamed. But she couldn’t afford to pay attention to her.

At the same time, she gave up her left hand and blocked the attacking enemy. The dagger in her right hand stabbed into the lower jaw of the demon. It was relatively easy to penetrate under its chin because it was soft.

Kyieeeek!

A warm sensation flowed from her already bloody left arm. She didn’t feel any pain because of adrenaline. Christa hit the demon with her dagger again and again. Thinking that the poison, which could put an elephant to sleep at once, would also affect the demon.

The jaws of the beast opened up. It was a temporary retreat.

Excited by the smell of blood, the demon inflated itself threateningly. The scales on the back of its neck stood straight. She wriggled her left hand a few times, which was already full of blood. The pain that was weighing her down quickly came to her like a tsunami. But she can still move it.

She straightened the dagger in her right hand. Countless calculations whirled back and forth in her head. She wasn’t sure how many more battles she could fight in this state. Maybe a couple of times, or once.

Something soggy dripped from her forehead. Her eyes stung with saltiness. But she couldn’t even afford to blink. If she avoids the fight with the beast now, this confrontation will end. That is not desirable.

She thinks she’s lost too much blood. The heat escaped her body. There was a buzz in her ear. It was like thousands of bees flapping their wings in her head. She was dizzy and distracted. She felt a taste of iron in her throat.

She couldn’t even breathe fast, but strangely, her mind slowly cleared up. She didn’t have time to think much. Her way of thinking gradually became simpler. Naturally, her mind steadily turned violent.

Enemy, kill, death, blood, nape, pierce.

She opened her eyes wide. The meaningless ridicule she had experienced so far, unfamiliar tight clothes, uncomfortable shoes, and women’s laughter passed by. The whole thing was like a dream.

It was unrealistic. That sort of thing was unfamiliar to Christa.

But at this moment, the pain, sticky touch, and fishy smell of iron that comes up on her hand are familiar. As the image of death approached, her mind calmed down surprisingly. This is reality.

There was no hesitation because it was obvious what to do. The noise in her ears is no longer audible. Christa’s red pupils were filled with brilliance.

A strange thing happened then.

Kyaaaak!

The demon in front of her screamed. Was it finally poisoned? Dust rose with a thud. The demon, which never seemed to collapse, knelt down. Suddenly the beast fell helplessly to the floor.

“Kyaaaak!”

At the same time, a great pain struck Christa. The pain radiated through her head. It was as if something was stirring her brain with someone’s hand.

Her field of vision turned red. It felt like all her senses were being boiled. Just even breathing was painful. But it’s not over yet. There was one more left. She also had to check if the woman who fainted was still breathing.

When she managed to hold out by biting her molars, this time, her nose bled. At the same time, she experienced intense pain in her right eye.

She checked with a sideways glance. The first fallen demon was no longer moving. The second demon detected the unexpected event and launched an aggressive attack against Christa.

Crush!

A brief confrontation ensued. Then it attacked with its huge mouth. It was a moment of absolute desperation. Then she heard a click from behind.

“Miss!”

They were soldiers of the Argonod family. When they noticed that Christa had disappeared, they came to look for her.

“Weapon!”

As Christa cried out in a hurry, a knight threw his sword to her. At the same time, a gun was fired. Several chains bound the beast’s feet.

Holding the sword in one hand in the air, she leapt into the air. She was already in tatters, but she was still able to move. As it was, she lowered her sword toward Sebek’s forehead. The demon gave a final scream and died.

The knights confirmed its death by inserting a spear into Sebek’s body.

“Why all of a sudden in a place like this?”

Christa scrawled and pulled out the sword that was stuck in the middle of the forehead of the beast. Its thick blood dissipated. It occurred to her that she had stained her dress when it splashed on her clothes.

But come to think of it, the dress already had more red than its original color. Moreover, it’s already torn from earlier.

It was spilled water anyway. She had no choice but to rip off the other hem and wipe the blood off the sword. However, it was not easy because of her blurred vision. The knight talked to Christa.

“Are you okay?”

Christa stretched out her arm to return the sword to him.

“Well…”

Her condition is too serious to use the word “okay”. Aren’t her fingertips shaking even now? In such a harrowing state, the knight lost himself for a moment.

“Y, you need to be treated.”

“More than me, that person…”

She couldn’t move any more, so she leaned on a wooden stick with the help of the knight. Her whole body was in pain. Her eyes ached from the boiling heat. Cold sweat poured down her forehead like rain, making her back wet. She was thirsty from the burning heat.

The most unbearable thing was her headache. She feels like she’s going to die because she feels like something is going through her head with a sharp blade. She wanted to cut her hair if she could. She thought that would make it easier.

Christa couldn’t even move while the knight called in the doctor, Kenneth. Until the moment Kenneth slowly unwound the cloth wound around her left hand.

Her horribly damaged left arm has already stopped bleeding. He clicked his tongue. Why did a young woman suffer such a wound?

What was more surprising was that it was a terrible wound, yet it was healing at an alarming rate. This was her ability.

“If you continue to use your abilities like that, the pain will be worse.”

“……what?”

“The more you use your ability, the more painful it will be. Stop, stop now, or…….”

Christa’s ability was healing power. However, ironically, the more she used her ability, the more she was consumed at the same time as her healing.

“If you go any further…….”

Her shoulders had already suffered serious damage. At that moment, a scent permeated Christa’s lungs. It was the only freshness in this heat and humidity.

“Christa.”

The moment she heard the voice, her pain mysteriously disappeared. Gradually, her headache that had been boiling loudly subsides. That’s how she got the strength to turn her head around. There he was.

“Oh, Captain.”

Christa opened her mouth girlishly. At the same time, Ragnar’s forehead was horribly distorted.

“…….”

Christa had to prepare herself. It was probably not violence. At least she was prepared to be scolded. He’ll nag her about why she did such a reckless thing.

But he had neither his usual composure nor his usual eloquence. He held her hand in silence. She felt something at her fingertips. It was guiding.

Her headache, which felt like it was unlikely to go away earlier, melted away. The emergency signals that were ringing in her head turned off one by one. But the heat in her cheeks still hasn’t cooled down.

What caught Christa’s eye then was a hunting knife. Ragnar took a dagger from his waist and put it in his palm.

“What…!”

The sharp edge of the knife slipped into the palm of his hand. In an instant, red liquid flowed from the palm of his hand to her wrist. The color was so red that she felt dizzy.

It was like an irresistible drug. Christa clung to it in an instant. She took it in her mouth. The liquid that holds life quickly lowered her body’s heat.

She felt like her mind was slipping away and her head was melting. She felt a sense that she hadn’t known before. What is the right way to describe this?

When asked what a guide was for an Esper, most of them found it difficult to define it. However, there was an expression that was described in common.

Extreme happiness. Some have described it as a sense of security. It’s like being protected in a mother’s womb.

It was her first time feeling it. It was a sensation that was not in her memory. From the moment Christa was torn from her mother’s body into the world, she was out of touch with the world.

She couldn’t feel the touch of warmth for a moment, and there was a thin ice cold in every trace of her life. It was familiar to her.

But this man, Ragnar, was like a warm bonfire.

The fire initially melted her frozen fingertips and then broke her frozen heart and melted it.

‘It’s dangerous.’

The sound of an alarm rang in her mind. Christa doesn’t know these things. Knowing was frightening.