Chapter 1222: 209. Deception
The blood mist spread through the air.
Even more bewitching than the flower of flesh from before.
The barrier surrounding the building suddenly contracted, firmly confining the cloud of blood mist within it, until it finally became a small golden sphere.
Hamreign drew the small golden sphere into her palm.
She gently squeezed it.
Pop.
The small sphere shattered like a bubble. The blood mist that the shop owner had transformed into was completely annihilated together with the Pollution.
As though it had never appeared at all.
Hamreign stood where she was.
Her fiery red hair danced, appearing especially vivid within this city that was gradually growing dark.
Yet her entire body seemed to merge with the darkness. Her thorn-covered gown swayed gently, as though the night itself were swaying along with it, becoming a thin veil that enveloped her.
"Clarence's method of announcing it probably wouldn't allow everyone to understand what they were supposed to do. After all, there will always be some people whose minds aren't very sharp and who wouldn't think of those things."
Hamreign spoke. Her tone was still without joy or sorrow. She had remained in this state ever since a moment ago. Even her usual coldness had disappeared.
"...Is that so?"
Muen secretly observed her. He still did not know what he should say, so he could only respond hollowly.
"In addition, children who are still young would find it even more difficult to understand his words. It would be impossible for them to follow along and pray. Therefore, there should still be a considerable proportion of people in this city who haven't been Polluted."
Bang.
Bang, bang.
Those deformed figures were still striking the restrictions.
Hamreign still did not move. Only her golden eyes shifted slightly as she looked in those directions.
"So... as long as those who have been Polluted can be quickly eliminated, they can be prevented from affecting the others, and then... the remaining people can be saved."
"Evil dragon!"
As the cracks across the restrictions became increasingly distinct, what came from inside was no longer merely those heart-stopping banging sounds.
"Die!"
"Death to the evil dragon!"
"You should never have lived in this world!"
"Great Goddess above, please grant me the power to destroy the evil dragon!"
Countless roars gathered together like a surging wave sweeping toward them.
"...As long as I move quickly enough, there won't be a problem."
Hamreign was still murmuring softly, as though she had not heard those roars at all. She spoke extremely quickly, so quickly that even Muen could barely hear her clearly.
"Although the restrictions won't hold for much longer, as long as all the Pollution is eliminated before then, the disaster won't spread."
"The remaining people can still be saved."
"They can still be saved..."
Darkness enveloped the city. Hamreign closed her eyes, and everything here was imprinted into her mind with incomparable clarity.
And with incomparable familiarity.
Familiar streets and alleys.
Familiar roads.
Familiar squares.
And this familiar...
Pollution and hatred.
"This time, I won't repeat the same mistake."
Her final words rose with the wind and then fell into Muen's ears, carrying a coldness that had once again condensed.
Bang.
A distorted figure suddenly transformed into blood mist.
Bang.
Another figure also transformed into blood mist.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
One after another, every distorted figure within Muen's field of vision transformed into blood mist in an instant.
The might of calamity rapidly spread outward like the scythe of death, mercilessly harvesting lives.
Every person who had been Polluted was being rapidly annihilated by Hamreign, without leaving the slightest trace behind.
She opened her eyes. Her majestic golden pupils pierced through the darkness, but within that blazing light there was only the mercilessness and indifference that followed slaughter.
"I will absolutely not allow this place to repeat the same mistake.
"Absolutely.
"No matter how many people that requires me to kill."
Hamreign stepped forward and entered those restrictions.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang...
An incomparably cruel massacre proceeded at tremendous speed just like that.
...
Muen withdrew his gaze.
The sounds of bodies shattering one after another were like needles stabbing into his heart.
Pain.
An inexplicable pain.
He did not even know whether this pain came from his pity for those innocent people, or...
From something else.
But the current situation would not give him any opportunity to distinguish between such things. He suppressed that pain and cast aside all the complicated thoughts drifting through his mind.
He began thinking about another question.
The most fundamental question.
What exactly were those survivors trying to do?
They had plotted back and forth, circling around countless times, yet in the end, all they had done was spread Pollution.
Yes, it was disgusting.
Disgusting to the extreme.
But...
It was still only disgusting.
Muen did not believe that Pollution alone could harm Miss Dragon.
Even a qualitative change caused by a quantitative accumulation would be impossible. After all, over the course of the past thousand years, Miss Dragon had definitely dealt with Pollution even more severe than this.
Even if the filth gathered from an entire city truly attracted some extraordinary existence, as long as it remained within the World Barrier, it would still be unable to change the final outcome.
She was calamity.
She was the Dragon of Death and Doom.
She was the strongest living creature beneath the sky.
Unless the World Barrier disappeared and an Evil God completely descended like the Demon God once had, it would be utterly impossible to threaten her.
But Clarence had also said...
This city was a hunting ground.
A hunting ground specially prepared for Miss Dragon.
From the very beginning, this city had never had any possibility of being saved. It seemed that it had been built precisely so that it could be Polluted, so that it could be Polluted before Miss Dragon's eyes.
They were very confident.
Everything developing at this moment was within their plan.
But the problem was...
With only this, how exactly were they supposed to hunt Miss Dragon?
"Weapons. Clarence said the people here were weapons meant to deal with Miss Dragon."
"Could it be..."
A sharp light flashed through Muen's eyes as he suddenly realized something.
A terrifying possibility surfaced in his heart.
He did not dare remain where he was any longer. He directly flashed forward at high speed and caught up with Hamreign.
The entire path was abnormally clean.
Ever since a moment ago, those banging sounds had never stopped.
Yet there was not the slightest scent of blood in the air.
That was because everything belonging to those who had been Polluted had been completely eliminated. Not the slightest remnant would remain in this world.
When dealing with Pollution, Miss Dragon was more cautious than anyone else.
She would absolutely never spare a single person who had been Polluted.
"Miss Dragon, wait."
Muen called out to Hamreign.
"...What is it?"
She slowly turned around, impatience in her tone.
"Don't waste my time. What I'm doing right now is very important."
Muen arrived beside Hamreign. Without saying anything else, he directly grabbed her wrist.
He had grabbed it many times already, so by now the movement had become somewhat practiced.
"What are you doing?"
Her golden eyes abruptly fixed upon him, her gaze cold and merciless.
Normally, she could tolerate this kind of offense, but at a time like this, this audacious human actually still dared to...
"It's trembling."
Muen lowered his eyes. He completely ignored the pressure of that terrifying aura and merely carefully examined that fair, jade-like hand, feeling something that completely contradicted everything Muen understood about her...
Coldness and trembling.
"Miss Dragon, your hand is trembling."
Muen's tone was heavy, and an inexplicable fury also began to rise from the bottom of his heart.
Trembling.
Cold.
For an ordinary person, this would be completely normal.
But the person whose hand he was holding was not some ordinary girl.
She was calamity.
She was the Dragon of Death and Doom.
She was the strongest living creature beneath the sky.
Even if she had only placed restrictions around every building in the entire city a few days ago, consuming an enormous amount of power.
Even if she had just been disgusted by an old bastard, with unimaginable rage compressed within her chest.
Even if, within these short dozens of seconds, she had already experienced and eliminated so much troublesome Pollution while countless flowers of blood blossomed before her eyes.
Her hand still should not be trembling.
Because she was Hamreign.
Unless...
"You lied to me!"
Muen stared into Hamreign's eyes.
"You said earlier that there was no poison... but there actually is. You were lying to me!"
That was right.
Only an extreme poison specifically designed to target a creature like a dragon could possibly have such a tremendous effect upon someone as powerful as Hamreign.
And it was not merely her hand trembling.
Standing beside Hamreign, Muen could no longer sense the terrifyingly sharp aura she had possessed before, an aura that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth.
When he grabbed her hand, it had felt completely natural. He had not even experienced the slightest sense of alarm or fear.
She truly had become weaker.
This was definitely not weakness caused by excessive consumption of power.
It was a deeper kind of weakness.
The weakness of someone enduring extreme pain.
"What poison?"
Hamreign abruptly pulled her hand back and hid it inside her sleeve.
"I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Are you still going to pretend not to understand at a time like this? You've already been poisoned, haven't you?"
Muen spoke angrily.
He had personally experienced that poison and knew just how terrifying it felt, yet the fiery red figure before him was still standing as straight as ever, as though she had not been affected at all.
She was clearly forcing herself to endure it.
She was even pretending so perfectly that she did not display the slightest sign of poisoning.
"I haven't been poisoned!"
"You can't deceive me! The goal of those survivors is clearly exactly this. They said they wanted to turn this place into a hunting ground aimed at you, and the people who were Polluted are the weapons—poisoned weapons!"
Muen said:
"You've already been wounded by those weapons!"
"Your speculation is reasonable, but that isn't the truth. They are merely trying to disgust me."
Hamreign turned her head and prepared to leave.
"Are you saying that they went to such enormous lengths, even willingly coming forward one after another to throw away their lives, and even sacrificed this entire city, yet everything they did was only meant to disgust you?"
Muen grabbed Hamreign's hand again and half-forced her to look directly at him.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"Then what do you intend to do?"
Hamreign also became impolite. Her golden pupils once again blazed brightly, forcing Muen to instinctively lean his head backward.
"Do you want me to stop? Do you want me to allow this Pollution to spread throughout the entire city, and even spread to places farther away?"
"I..."
Muen suddenly became speechless.
Once again, he fell into a situation where he did not know what he should say. Even the single word he uttered sounded so hollow.
Because Miss Dragon was right.
In the situation before them, it was utterly impossible to stop.
The Pollution was still spreading.
The disaster was still extending outward.
If she stopped now, it would be the same as sitting by and watching everything before them be destroyed.
It would be the same as sitting by and watching the Pollution grow stronger.
For Hamreign, who had spent the past thousand years continuously eliminating Pollution, that was absolutely impossible.
Being deceived by Miss Dragon had made Muen inexplicably furious, so much so that he had almost forgotten.
Once the Pollution successfully spread throughout this city, the plan of those survivors...
Had become an open conspiracy.
An open conspiracy that Miss Dragon was certain to step into.
"You don't understand anything. You're merely guessing."
Hamreign directly shook Muen away.
"I'll say it again. No poison can do anything to me, and the Pollution before us is the same... Just stay here obediently and watch. I will completely resolve every problem very soon."
"..."