Legend

Pree couldn’t comprehend the scene unfolding in front of her. ……No, rather, she didn’t want to understand.

The dolls that she had created herself. Her beloved children who would never betray her, unlike humans. Those dolls appeared from the magic circles one after another, leaping at Oricule, who had turned into an abnormal human, before being destroyed by the sharp arms that extended from Oricule’s shoulder blades.

「St……op……」

Her faint voice leaked out.

However, no one heard her. One after another, the dolls rushed towards Oricule with weapons at the ready, sacrificing themselves as Oricule continued to destroy them with a mere touch.

Pree could do nothing but watch the scene of her dolls being destroyed one after the other.

If her opponent had been just a human……even if they were an A or S rank adventurer, she might have been able to do something.

Regardless of if she had a chance of winning or not, she would have been able to demonstrate the results of her research so far by casting multiple magic attacks with her gems.

However……after turning into an abnormal human, Oricule had slashed through her Thunder Cage as if it were nothing and was now wiping out her dolls while ignoring all the magic she used.

「……This is getting tiring. Is there anything else you can do?」

At Oricule’s provocative words, Pree clenched her teeth as she resisted her despair.

When Oricule first transformed in this room, Pree had been confident, as a ruler of Exil. However, after finding out that the basis of her confidence, magic that used gems created from the sacrifice of people, had no effect at all, she was no longer had the same confidence.

She was now just a middle-aged woman on the verge of collapsing to the floor.

She was still wearing a large number of gems, and considering the amount of money she had spent on them, it wouldn’t be right to treat her like an ordinary person.

However, even so……after finding out that everything she had was useless, she was nothing more than a narrow-minded, middle-aged woman being protected by her dolls.

「Master, please leave now!」

Another doll appeared from a magic circle and said that to Pree, who showed no signs of movement, before jumping at Oricule with knife in hand.

As if it was too troublesome to deal with it, Oricule simply turned his head as his hair, which extended down to his waist, drew a large arc.

The sharp needle like tips of his hair pierced the doll countless times, turning it into rags in an instant.

Of course, some of the dolls tried to block Oricule’s hair with their weapons. However, they could only wield two weapons at most with their two arms.

There was no way they could block the countless attacks against them……it was like Oricule’s hair had a will of their own as the dolls were shreded in just a few seconds. It was only a matter of time.

「……op it……stop it!」

Seeing how the dolls she had created were being destroyed, Pree spoke an incantation.

『Like the Wind.』

Along with those words, the yellow gem fitted on her right anklet was activated.

She only made a light jump. However, that light jump turned into fast movement, as if blessed by the wind itself, and the next moment, Pree was right next to Oricule.

『Ice Embrace.』

The blue gem on her right thumb activated immediately and the area around Oricule was instantly filled with a cold air.

「Futile.」

Oricule had a sadistic smile on his face, seemingly due to the influence of his transformation, as he once again swung the two arms that extended out from his shoulder blades, dispersing the cold air created by the magic as he tried to take a step to stop a doll jumping at him. But, just as he was about to take that step forward, he suddenly realised that his legs wouldn’t move.

「What?」

Still, without panicking, he raised both his arms to block the spear tip swinging towards him, breaking it.

The next moment, he grabbed the broken spear tip with his hand and, with a flick of his wrist, threw it back at the doll, piercing it and causing it to bounce along the floor several times before stopping.

Having no interest in the fate of the doll he had attacked, Oricule turned to look down and found that his feet frozen to the ground.

He tried to move his legs, but couldn’t due to the ice.

『Fire, Dance!』

Touching the gem on her right ear piercing, Pree spoke an incantation.

More than 10 fist sized flames appeared at the same time.

The flames flew through the air, as if they were dancing, before shooting towards Oricule.

「Child’s play.」

The one of his arms from his shoulder blades swung at them as he spat out those words.

When the sharp tips touched the flames, they naturally dispersed.

(He couldn’t nullify the ice at his feet. How come? No, wait. Could it be that Oricule himself is intentionally nullifying magic rather than nullifying magic unconditionally?)

It seemed that was why the surprise use of ice magic had been so effective.

(In the first place, if all magic gets nullified automatically, even healing magic won’t work if he’s injured. I don’t know how much his thoughts have influenced his transformation, but I don’t believe Oricule wouldn’t have considered that beforehand.)

Considering that, Rei’s thought continued in that direction.

(Besides……if magic power is repelled by his blue skin, or the areas that stand out like tattoos, the effect would only be on a surface level. In other words, magic from the inside can’t be stopped, or even if it is affected, the effect will be very weak.)

As Rei collected his thoughts, the battle between Oricule and Pree continued to escalate.

『Stone, Appear.』

At Pree’s incantation, sharp stone arrows appeared……no, considering their size, they should be called stone spears.

Immediately after, the stone spear shot out all at once.

Oricule’s second shoulder blade arm extended out to intercept them.

The stone spears shattered just by coming in contact with his arm.

However, Pree had never considered that such an attack would work. The attacks she used were purely for the purpose of distracting Oricule.

In fact, as Oricule’s second arm shattered the stone spears, the fragments scattered out, blocking his vision.

In addition, even though Oricule had just been attacked with fire magic, his legs were still frozen to the floor, making it difficult for him to move.

「Now! Everyone, take vengeance for your brothers and sisters!」

Pree shouted out as the fine, sand like, stone fragments blocked Oricule’s vision.

Her own magic couldn’t be used to inflict lethal damage on Oricule. That being the case, she could only rely on the dolls she had created

Pree’s dolls answered her call.

All remaining dolls in storage appeared through the magic circles at the same time as they all attacked Oricule.

Wielding swords, spears, mallets, clubs, daggers, battle axes, halberds, and scythes…….more than 100 dolls armed with all kinds of weapons imaginable attacked Oricule.

The number of dolls present accounted for every doll left, excluding the ones currently deployed by Pree to guard the mansion.

「……」

While watching Pree’s battle, Rei heard the faint sound of teeth clenching.

Looking to see where that sound had come from, he saw Byune, who usually had a static expression, frowning unhappily.

To Byune, it was unforgivable that Pree, who had killed her parents, was now calling on her dolls to avenge the other dolls.

Still, she knew it was folly to run wild out of hatred and decided not to repeat her mistakte……no, that was the reason why she couldn’t help but feel angry at Pree’s words and actions.

Byune tightly grasped the hilt of the dagger in her hands when a hand was placed on her shoulder.

It was a hand that had protected her up until now and, above all, the hand of someone who had been seriously injured due her losing herself in hatred.

Just by being aware of that, Byune suppressed the storm of hatred that had been about to blow up again inside her.

「Byune.」

「Weehera.」

It had been a long time since Byune had spoken, and perhaps she still wasn’t used to it. Her voice was still a little unclear to those around her.

「……Eh?」

Hearing Byuen speak for the first time, Elena’s eyes went wide.

She had felt something earlier and wondered what had happned to Byune in this short period of time.

However, it wasn’t hard for her to figure out what had happened. It was obvious when she considered the gaze Byune had directed at Pree, who was currently fighting Oricule alongside her dolls.

Pree didn’t notice such a gaze directed towards her……or more precisely, she didn’t have time to care, as she focused on fighting Oricule.

After all, even if she used her gems to cast magic, which was overwhelmingly faster than using normal magic, it would be immediately repelled as the magic itself was nullified.

She continued to fire out magic without slowing down just to block Oricule’s vision and direct his attention towards herself, creating an opportunity for her dolls to attack.

That was the only thing that Pree could do against someone that could stop most of her magic.

However, even so……yes, even with so much effort, the dolls that attacked Oricule were almost all one-sidedly destroyed without being able to inflict any injuries.

Before they knew it, Oricule’s frozen legs were freed, and even if they swung their swords, thrust their spears, or slammed their axes into him……their attacks were all blocked by Oricule’s shoulder blade arms as their weapons were destroyed.

For the dolls that didn’t have any weapons, he simply just took their attacks.

It was a fight she stood no chance of winning, but Pree didn’t give up as she continued her assault.

But……the power Oricule had gained from his transformation wasn’t something that could be stopped just with Pree’s hard work.

No, rather, it was impossible matchup as none of the magic Pree used from her gems had any effect.

Eventually……

「Is that it? It seems like you have nothing more, you’re finished.」

It was as if he had grown tired of watching a street performer. Muttering to himself, Oricule made a sharp attack with his shoulder blade arms.

「……Eh?」

Pree let out a sound as if she didn’t understand what had just happened.

However, the next moment, she saw her arms……her beloved rings on her left and right hands as well as her bracelets fly through the air before landing on the floor and realised what had happened.

「AHHH-AHHHHH……AHHHHHHHHHH-!」

A large amount of blood erupted from both her shoulders as Pree fell to the floor, unable to stand.

『Master!』

The cries of the dolls echoed out into the surroundings as they immediately stopped their attacks against Oricule and rushed towards Pree, their creator.

Towards their master, who couldn’t help but scream due to the excruciating pain.

……In this state, Pree had a partial realisation of Oricule’s aim.

「N……No! Don’t stop attacking!」

Was it because of her pride as head of the Marschel family, or because of the dolls she had created herself?

In any case, Pree told her dolls to continue attacking, but the dolls prioritised Pree’s health over defeating their enemies.

「HAHAHAHAHAHA, die……no, break!」

In front of Pree, who continued to bleed profusely from her shoulders, Oricule tore apart the dolls one after another with his new arms……as if showing off.

The current situation was like a mother having her beloved children killed in front of her eyes.

Forgetting the pain of her amputated arms, she cried out in pain.

「Stop……please, stop!」

「Hahahaha. I didn’t expect even a woman like you to understand love. I’m sorry, but if you had belived in the Goddess’ teachings from the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened.」

With a smile that held neither pity nor ridicule, Oricule’s arm tore off the limbs of a doll reminiscent of a small girl and twisted her necked before tearing its body straight in two.

「AHHHH-AHHHHHHH!」

With all her dolls destroyed, Pree’s blood rushed to her head as she opened her mouth.

『Spear of Light, be……』

「I can’t let you do that.」

Not letting her finish, Oricule’s new arms and hair instantly slashed through Pree’s body.

Her legs were both cut off at the knees while his hair sliced away her necklaces.

Only the gems in her hair ornaments weren’t destroyed……but that wasn’t out of mercy, but ruthless judgement.

The gems in her her hair ornaments had the ability to heal the injuries of the person wearing them. To be exact, it would heal the person to the extent of keeping them alive.

Originally, their purpose was to keep someone in a state where they wouldn’t die until healing magic or potions could be used, but……Pree couldn’t use healing magic and she didn’t have any potions with her right now.

In other words, even with her arms and legs cut off, she couldn’t die.

「You used to boast about the effects of the gems in your hair, didn’t you? That’s why I left them.」

After saying that, Oricule kicked Pree’s body, sending her flying, like a child throwing away a toy that they had lost interest in.

Almost all her ribs were smashed by Oricule’s kick, and even though her internal organs were injured, she was unable to die, leaving Pree in endless pain.

「Right then, shall we continue?」