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Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 3

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Yana clicked her tongue in displeasure. Elmer, the captain of the heavy knights of Waldrind was a hard-earned familiar of hers. Taking advantage of the emptiness in his heart after losing the war in Selvis, she manipulated him into losing his way and straying into the Forest of Eternal Darkness.

After he has been plunged into the depths of terror at being all alone in the heart of the enemy territory, she then lured him into her abode and helped him “free「 himself from that terror. He was hungry, so she gave him food which had various hallucinogenic plants mixed in it in order to cause his mind to become abnormally excited. And while she was giving him sexual pleasure, she was implanting suggestions in his head, and whenever her suggestions were failing, she used kissing to make his brain more excited and thus more succeptable to her psychological manipulation, since her lips were covered with lipstick made from medicine that had exactly the same effect as the food she was serving him that night. Its effect should have been diluted, but it was enough to keep the suggestions alive.

(But it should not take long now.)

Elmer thinks he’s working for his own purpose, but the truth of the matter is that this whole time he has been working to fulfill Yana’s goal and purpose, but it was not hers alone. It was the goal and purpose of the other 「Black Witch」 as well. Just by thinking that her long-sought goal would be achieved soon, Yana’s entire body was getting hot and she was trembling with excitement.

「Stop it, Elmer! 」

Franz cried out loud.

「Did you not promise to stop using the Werewolf girl as a shield? That tactic is too despicable for a heavy knight! I know that, and I know that you know that as well! 」

「I understand that perfectly. But if I did not do that and things would have kept going the way they did, then Yana would have been killed and we would have been completely wiped out. The Werewolf Queen is simply too strong, and we were never a match for her, even with our numbers. But I cannot afford to fail now, so I have no choice but to do this! 」

Elmer yelled back at Frantz.
「Are you going to throw away even your last pride as a heavy knight of Waldrind then? 」

「I no longer have the pride that you speak of! It has turned to dust on that day! When we lost that battle, I lost both my honor as a heavy knight and my dignity as a human being. That is why I have to complete this plan no matter what! Otherwise, there would be no point in my existence. Because right now, I cannot even apologize to my dead comrades! 」

「Even so, there is a line that we must not cross no matter what! Release the Queen’s daughter, and let us start fighting again! And if we end up getting wiped out, that that would be what fate wanted for us all along…! 」

But then, at that time…

「Well done, Elmer! 」

Yana roared with delight and threw her broom, which she secretly held above her head, at the Werewolf Queen. It was wrapped in red light, and when it pierced Clara’s back, it left an afterimage that looked just like a broomstick.

After glancing at Yana, Werewolf Queen Clara slowly collapsed onto the ground.

「Mother! Mom!! 」

Emma, who was watching the whole thing unfold before her very eyes, screamed.

「I can not believe that… 」
Franz covered his face with one hand, baing at a complete loss for words.

「Now then, finish her off. 」

Yana said to Elmer. Elmer retracted his sword and released the Werewolf Queen’s daughter. Emma tried to run to her mother, but her limbs were still tied and she just fell to the ground, where she started crawling towards Clara.

With their heavy crossbows ready to fire, the two heavy knights timidly approached her and pointed the tips of their weapons at Clara. Franz did not stop them from doing that either, because he thought that if the Werewolf Queen was going to die anyway, then killing her quickly would be the best kind of mercy that they could show her right now.

「Fire! 」

Elmer gave the command for his troops to shoot with a trembling voice. He also had a heavy crossbow loaded with bolts imbued with the power of of house Kraische’s Crest at the ready.

However, the moment the two heavy knights were about to fire their heavy crossbows at Clara as instructed, the Werewolf Queen suddenly jumped up and tore the torsos of the two approaching heavy knights apart with the claws of her hands. With giant holes filled with shredded meat and entrails now adorning their bodies, the two of them fell on top of each other while rotating in opposite directions.

In the meantime, the Werewolf Queen continued running towards Elmer. Elmer pulled back and then hastely fired another shot from his heavy crossbow, making certain the fired shot penetrated her right where the Werewolf Queen’s heart was supposed to be.

Still, the Queen ran on, but Elmer was not her target. She ran to her daughter’s side, and she knelt down and grabbed her daughter’s limbs, cutting the ropes that tied her up with her claws.

「Run away…… 」

Clara returned to her human form and smiled at Emma.

「Be strong… wise… and live… 」

After she said that, she quietly closed her eyes and slowly fell forward.

「Mom! 」

Emma cried as she clung to her mother’s body.

「Hey, y-you can regenerate an injury like this like it is nothing, r-right?! Right?!!」

Emma called out, but her mother’s warmth was rapidly fading away, and she could feel her limbs growing increasingly lifeless as she continued to ruthlessly shake her body.

「Mom! Mom! 」

Emma called out to her many times while crying over and over, but before long, something like black mist rose from her mother’s body. The mist gathers in a spherical shape while swirling, becoming a Chaos Core. When her grandfather and father died, she saw the exact same sphere of darkness forming above their bodies, so that could only mean one thing.

「Mother’s soul… I have to… take it in… 」

Emma muttered repeatedly in a monotonous tone as she tried to reach for the Chaos Core that was left when Clara’s body disappeared for good.

「Out with you! 」

Yana, who saw it, grabbed the Werewolf girl by the hair and forcefully shoved her away from her mother’s Chaos Core.

「Now, Lord Elmer, please make sure to take the queen’s Chaos Core into your Crest.

「Ah, y-yes, of course. 」

Elmer, who was still stunned after what he just witnessed, hurriedly inserted his right hand into Queen Clara’s Chaos Core.

「Khhh…! 」

A sharp pain ran through his hand, feeling as if it was the Werewolf Queen herself who was biting into his arm.

The Chaos Core that she left behind was so huge and dense with Chaos that for a moment Elmer became worried whether he would be able to take all of its energy into his Crest or not.

However, if we don’t take in this chaos core, everything we’ve done so far will come to naught. That is why Elmer concentrated all of his thoughts on the task before him while ignoring anything else happening around him, until finally several streaks of light started overflowing from the Chaos Core after a while.

「Haaaa! 」

Elmer raises a spirited shout while trying to assimilate the entirety of the Chaos from the Chaos Core into his own Crest.

Before long, the Werewolf Queen’s Chaos Core disappeared as if swallowed by the radiance of Elmer’s Crest. There was no corpse of Queen Clara left behind, only eerie darkness and complete silence. In a way, it can be argued that by inscribing Arts onto their bodies, Artists are replacing parts of themselves with beings from different worlds, so when their Chaos-filled bodies finally cease to function, they are evaporating into nothingness along with the remains of Chaos.

「How dare you… how dare you do this to mother…?!!! 」

The Werewolf girl bared her fangs at Elmer and tried to pounce on him in anger.

「I won’t let you! 」

Yana pointed her broom at Emma and vigorously swung it in an upwards to downwards motion, causing Emma to become flattened against the ground as if she had just been trampled by a giant foot.

「If you miss your mommy dearest so much, then why don’t you go join her in Lord Elmer’s Crest?! 」

Yana shouted at Emma and increased the force of the spell, trying to crush Emma.