Chapter 71 : Chapter 71
Volume 1
Chapter 71 : Love God’s Whisper (11)
“Good afternoon, Eluka. Have you eaten yet?”
“The roast whole lamb from last time was delicious.”
Muen stood atop the writhing flesh, looking down at Eluka before him.
He concealed all his killing intent and cast aside all his savagery.
Smiling softly, he wiped the blood from his face, as if he had come to meet an old acquaintance, his expression gentle and warm.
The sunlight was mild.
With the light at his back, he was shrouded in a sacred halo.
“Ah...”
Eluka stared blankly at Muen, as if the smile at the corner of his lips had soothed away her anger.
Even her lovely, pale face became calm again.
“Mr. Muen, have you finally come to accept my love?”
“I will never accept your love,” Muen said.
“Why? Could it be... that my love still is not enough?”
Eluka opened her eyes wide in confusion.
“But I have already given everything I have—my blood, my flesh, my soul. Even that... is still not enough?
I only wanted all of you to stay with me forever. I only wanted you to accept my love.
But why? My Master too, and you as well. Why are neither of you willing?”
“Of course neither of us is willing.”
Muen lowered his eyes and said softly:
“Because what you have is not love at all.”
“Not love...”
Eluka murmured under her breath.
Then her expression twisted violently, as if she had suffered a tremendous insult.
“Nonsense, nonsense! This is love, this is love!
Look—everyone who has accepted my love is so happy!”
Around Eluka, those hundreds of faces began shrieking once more.
Countless cries of “I love you” merged into an ocean of sound that drowned out everything.
The limbs that the man had shattered moments ago regenerated once more, descending upon Muen like a giant sea anemone lunging for its prey.
“Come, Mr. Muen. Let us stay together forever. My love is endless!” Eluka smiled as she stared at Muen’s face, her expression filled with infatuation.
Like a girl gazing at her beloved.
But how could Muen possibly be her beloved?
Her beloved should have been someone else.
And love could never be endless.
Only when it was given to the one you truly loved could it be called love.
“As expected, that childish idea of trying to wake you with words was never going to work,” Muen sighed softly.
He raised his eyes, and his expression turned cold.
He no longer paid any mind to the danger behind him, because he knew that Ann, now free to act, would absolutely protect his back.
So Muen tightened his grip on the short blade and drove it into both sides of Eluka’s head.
“Ah!”
Eluka let out a twisted shriek. It seemed to be the first time she had truly felt pain.
The monster’s enormous body thrashed violently.
The flesh beneath Muen’s feet writhed madly like waves churned up by a storm.
It was trying to throw him off.
“Ann!”
No extra words were needed.
A bridge of steel pierced through the monster’s flesh and halted beneath Muen’s feet.
Now that he had firm footing, Muen drew in a deep breath and slashed down hard with both blades.
Huge gashes split open on both sides of Eluka’s head.
Crimson flesh intertwined and reformed within them, healing at a speed far faster than anywhere else.
It was as if... something was being hidden inside.
“So I found the right spot.”
A smile curved at Muen’s lips. Suddenly, he released the short blades in his hands and thrust both arms into the hideous wounds.
The monster’s blood corroded his arms, yet he seemed not to feel it at all.
His hands continued groping through the flesh.
The monster howled and grew even more frenzied, but every attack was blocked by Ann, who clenched her teeth and held the line with all her strength.
At this point, there was no way she would let the young master suffer even the slightest harm again.
At last, Muen touched something hard.
“No, no, no, no! Stop, stop!”
The instant he touched that object, immense terror appeared in Eluka’s eyes.
She screamed for Muen to stop, but what could she do now, with only a head left?
She could not even lift her beloved wand anymore.
And the person who had always protected her had, not long ago, become one of those faces that could only chant, “I love you.”
The smile on Muen’s face grew brighter, while the sorrow in his eyes deepened.
“I’ve finally got you, you damned evil god!”
Muen yanked his hand out of the flesh.
Clutched tightly in his palm was a statue.
It was a statue of a young girl embracing a heart, as though she wanted to knead it mercilessly into her chest.
Although it had just been pulled from a mass of blood and flesh, not a trace of blood stained the statue.
Instead, it radiated a holy glimmer that made one feel an involuntary urge to kneel in worship.
There was no mistake. This was the source of the corruption!
All he had to do next was destroy it, and everything would finally end.
“Ann!”
In truth, Muen did not even need to shout.
Ann, who had been watching this side the whole time, had long since prepared herself.
The instant Muen threw the statue into the air, a jungle of steel crashed toward it like a wild dump truck tearing across a road.
A huge mass of steel engulfed the statue, then twisted and compressed it without pause, like a gigantic stamping press grinding it over and over.
Finally, spinning blades carved through everything, reducing both the steel and the statue to fragments.
The metal condensed once more under Ann’s control, but the shattered pieces of the statue could no longer be restored.
They were scattered by the clamorous autumn wind until not a single trace remained.
Not even dust was left behind.
“It’s over.”
At that sight, Muen finally let out a long sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
But the moment his mind relaxed, all the exhaustion that had accumulated in his body crashed over him like a tidal wave.
He staggered and nearly collapsed to the ground.
Fortunately, he caught himself against the monster’s body in time.
“So disgusting.”
Muen straightened up and shook his hand with distaste, wanting to find somewhere to wipe off the monster’s filthy blood and slime. Then he suddenly realized—he was still only wearing that fur skirt.
“No wonder Ann managed to hold herself back this whole time without saying anything.”
Some peerless hero in a tiger-skin skirt... the more he thought about it, the worse it felt.
Still, probably no one cared.
After all, the only living people here... were him and Ann.
Muen glanced at Eluka’s head, her eyes shut tight, and at those faces that no longer cried out “I love you.” With a bitter smile, he turned and waved toward Ann, who was jogging over from the distance, just about to say something—
when he suddenly froze.
Wait, something was wrong.
If the medium through which the evil god projected its power had already disappeared, then why was the monster’s body still here?
This monster was obviously a grotesque creation stitched together through the evil god’s power. Without that power sustaining it, shouldn’t it have collapsed on the spot?
Could it be...?
“Don’t come over!”
Muen shouted at Ann, then immediately turned back around.
The instant he turned around, he heard the sound of a droplet falling.
A drop of pitch-black liquid, appearing from nowhere, landed on Eluka’s forehead.
There was no time to stop it.
Eluka opened her eyes.
There was no white in them, nor any pupil.
They were completely black.