Royal Princess of Blood

A large part of the forest was obliterated, and it left a giant and deep crater on the ground. It left no trace of the rocks and trees that once stood. The area was silent, not even a sound of critters or insects, nor monsters. Either they were blown away by the shockwave, or had fled in fear in the face of intense power.

Those in the nearby city bore witness to the light it radiated towards the sky. Those atop the wall had a glimpse of what happened. It was something beyond their comprehension. This had caused confusion, but considering nothing else happened, they didn’t worry too much about it. But it sure was something that needed investigating.

It was magic that could vaporize an entire city, leaving no trace of the people who got caught in it. However, even so, it bore no holy element. In ground zero, in the crater, there survived the smallest piece of flesh. This tiny dot of flesh shifted and grew. It was slower than it should have been, but that was due to the intense damage the body sustained. But several minutes later, a humanoid silhouette began to form. Then, eventually, a red-skinned demon was restored.

“Agh, what in the gods was that?” The imp, a dread lord, Trigel slowly stood up while placing a hand on his head, still feeling a bit wobbly. He staggered as he looked around. “That was crazy…” Never could he have imagined that they could do something so absurd. That was perhaps one of the most powerful magic he had ever seen. He truly thought he was going to die.

He looked around and saw the other imps gradually regenerating. Then he saw a giant lying on the ground, and his eyes widened in astonishment. He slowly walked up to the giant.

“Ongrus, you survived that. Unbelievable.”

Lying on the floor was the ravagers’ dread lord, and despite surviving, he didn’t look too good. His arms were significantly torn apart, it was a doubt he could even move them at the moment. Part of his torso was vaporized, and you could see a bit of his bones peeking out. His face was torn in the upper part. His legs clung on mere flesh and remaining bones. His blood was all over the ground. But despite this, the giant didn’t seem to be too bothered.

“It took all my might to shield myself and survive,” said Ongrus. “You did not tell me they are capable of such.”

“It was unexpected. We would never know their full capabilities.”

Ongrus’s eyes shifted, that was all he could move. “Your imps are recovering. My kin, however, are gone.” The ravagers, despite having hard skins, could never survive such a powerful explosion. None of their traces even seemed to remain. And unlike the imps, they couldn’t regenerate.

“If there is a tiny piece of flesh remaining, my imps will recover.” As everyone was still regenerating, there was no telling just yet how many imps they had lost — they just couldn’t stay alive if there was nothing to regenerate from. Trigel glanced at the edge of the crater, at the figures standing on top. “It would seem there were a few that didn’t get caught in the blast.” There were a few imps standing at the edge, and around three ravagers. However, the ravagers appeared to be a bit wounded — it would seem those outside the explosion still sustained damage.

“Where is the prey?”

“From the looks of it, gone. They must have reached the mountains. We’ll wait for everyone to recover and regroup. It will be hard to search through that region.”

Ongrus groaned. “I will only need an hour to recover my mobility.” As a dread lord, the most excellent among his kin, Ongrus had a particular set of abilities. And among them was the ability to recover from the most severe injuries. Although not as potent as regeneration on imps.

“I can only think that the goddess is the one responsible for this. But it might have incurred a heavy cost. She’ll come to regret this.”

***

No regrets! But fuck!

I vomited blood on the ground beside me as I lay on a stone wall. Dammit, it was hard to take a breath, like something was squishing my chest and lungs. My limbs were trembling terribly. I wheezed as I forced myself to breathe, and I tell you, it hurts to even do just that.

“I-Is the goddess going to survive this?!” Nira asked in sheer panic.

My vision was becoming hazy, everything was blurry, but Nira was leaning close to me with wide eyes of concern. Maybe because it was a bit dark here that everything was hazy, but I usually had sharp eyes in the dark.

At the moment, we were in a cave. We found it when we were rushing through the mountains, or to be specific, the Cursed Children found it by flying around. It was best to find cover for now and escape the enemies’ eyes. Especially that we had to stop and check my condition closely — which was not very good.

Taneva held out his hand and cast healing magic on me. “Well, she doesn’t look like she’s dying just yet.”

Bullshit! I’m totally dying here!

Hartwin took a close check on me. “Bloodshot eyes, nose still bleeding, paler skin. And look at this,” he pointed at my lower neck. “Why is she still bleeding through her pores? Wasn’t she just healed there just now?”

What? What the fuck does that mean, my pores?

That sounded pretty horrifying!

“Her mana is still damaging her body,” Taneva answered. “We need to maintain healing spells for now until her body stabilizes. We still have to worry about internal bleeding. Not only because of her using her power, but a ravager also crushed her body.”

“Holy shit.”

I surely hope blood didn’t fill my lungs or some other shit.

“For now, let’s do what we can with healing magic.”

I slowly took a deep breath. “That ravager, I’m surprised you… you couldn’t kill it quickly.”

“That one was a dread lord. That thing was likely around as old as me, or older. They’re the peak of their kind, the dread lords. Their strengths are not to be taken lightly.”

“You think my attack could have killed it?”

“I’m not sure. Although given time, I might have been able to defeat it. But taking you to safety was a priority.”

My eyes squinted, my head felt even wobblier. Every passing moment felt as if I were closer to death. But it was the only way to get out of that predicament.

“Estelia, I’d prefer if you kept conscious,” Taneva said.

“R-Right… That’s why, we keep talking…”

It was a way to keep the mind busy and to keep me awake.

“Don’t die, goddess.” Nira gently placed her hand on mine. And it felt kind of sweet of her. Huh…

For the first time in a dying moment, I had more people with me… People that were concerned about me. Last time, which was only once, I had one friend with me. But he didn’t really show much compassion. Friendship between assassins was not so wholesome…

To be honest, I might prefer this.

It felt less… lonely.

But I’m not going to die… I’m not letting myself die.

I turned a glance down the further passageway. “Where do you think it leads?” I asked.

Velar held out his blade, which was glowing with golden light, giving us illumination in this place.

“As long as it leads us further into this region, it will be fine,” Taneva said. “But we should expect monsters.”

“Cave monsters, I can already guess they’re ugly as fuck.”

“A princess using bad words now?”

“In this situation? I’ll say whatever I want.”

“Where did you even learn to speak like that? You were never exposed to that kind of environment.”

I groaned. “... You hear all sorts of stuff. And did you forget how foul-mouthed the people are here? You could say I'm adapting.” I weakly chuckled.

“... Hm… Once you get back home, what do you really intend on doing?”

“I’ll rest up a bit, then get rid of the empire.”

“What do you mean by that exactly?”

“... Been wanting to check out another nation, anyway. I’ll erase their royals while I’m at it. That should be enough to dismantle the entire thing.”

“... With divine power, you can do more.”

“I won’t set aside other options. Sometimes, you just have to burn a nest of pests.”

“So much for Wisteria’s Saint, huh?”

“Being good does not mean not getting rid of evil. We ought to raise our swords against evil.”

Taneva chuckled. “The empire is the evil one in this tale, huh?”

“Not only them.” I suddenly winced as I felt a sharp pain in my right leg.

Taneva looked down to see it bleeding. “Crap, calm your mana already.”

“It’s really not easy to rein it in completely. Not everything is under my control.”

“At this rate, you’ll use a lot of blood.”

I glanced at Nira and saw her staring at my blood. My blood was extremely attractive to her kind, and Nira was doing a good job resisting the intense temptation, even Galik and Heneis were not near me at the moment. But there was just too much blood that Nira closed her eyes and stepped back.

“I’ll, I’ll keep away for now.”

I nodded. It was for the best. I wouldn't want her attacking me while blood was a need for me at the moment.

“But this is too close, Estelia,” Taneva continued. “Don’t do it again next time we face the demons.”

“That goes without saying.”

It was then that Taneva noticed something, and he grimaced. He was looking at my left forearm. “Uh oh.”

“W-What?” I looked down to see some sort of light leaking through my sleeve. Seeing that strange thing, I was baffled.

Taneva quickly rolled up my sleeve. And on my arm… there was some sort of small rupture, or crack, whichever fits best. From the crack oozed golden light. Which didn’t make sense, it should be blood coming out of that. But seeing it seemed to make Taneva freak out a bit.

“Uh oh,” he said again.

I was also freaked out. “W-What is going on, Taneva?”

He tried to cast healing magic on it, but it didn’t appear to be working. “Not good.”

“What is it?”

He let out a long sigh. “You’re leaking.”

“L-Leaking what?!”

“The divine part of you is leaking through your mortal body.” He pulled out a cloth from his inventory and wrapped it tightly around the crack. “Let’s hope it doesn’t grow any bigger.”

He tightly wrapped the cloth, but the light was still leaking ever so slightly. I heard the reason why I was hurting every time I used a great amount of my power was because my body couldn’t sustain my divinity. And it would seem it was starting to get out, and if it completely gets out — not good for me. Dead, I’ll be dead.

Fuck me.

I just have to be relieved that it was a small crack for now.

“Avoid using any kind of magic from now on,” Taneva said.

“Y-Yeah.”

“But oozing divinity, we don’t know what manner of things it might attract. Anyway, can you move?”

“... A little.”

“We need to quicken up the pace. The bleeding has stopped for now, we should move.”

“I’ll carry her,” Velar said.

Taneva nodded and picked up his spear and cast light from his palm. “I’ll take the front. Estelia and Velar in the rear.”

Velar gently picked me up and carried me in his arms. “Is this comfortable, Princess?”

“Yeah… I’m sleepy…”

“If you don’t feel like dying now, I guess it’s safe to sleep,” Taneva said.

“... I’m fine for now. I’m so sleepy.”

“... Then sleep.”

I slowly closed my eyes, and before I even realized it, I had fallen asleep.