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Chapter 77 Part 1 – The prelude to the ball. Alisa clashes against the Light Bat Tribe. Then, I reminisced about the night of 「Thunderbolt」.

「…… Ahahaha, could it be that you guys are planning to abandon your human form?」

As the power of God’s eyes overflowed like a dam that had broken, Alisa glanced at the Light Bat Tribe and laughed happily. The presence of the members of the Light Bat Tribe who had been gnashing their teeth and writhing in an attempt to break off the restraints of Alisa’s blood mist had changed. First of all, the expressions on their faces disappeared in an instant.

‘…… We were able to stop being revengeful ghosts thanks to meeting Princess Scarlet. However, if it’s to protect the princess, I will gladly become the flames of carnage again. Even if I can never return to human form again.’

Their movements suddenly stopped. It’s like a puppet with broken strings. Their bodies trembled and shook. Then their silhouette becomes blurred.

「That devotion of yours isn’t bad. Fufufu, I can no longer restrain you with the blood sakura poison. You’re finally exhibiting your strength. I’m relieved though. If the battle ends at that level, it would be a disgrace to the title of the strongest tribe.」

The members of the Light Bat Tribe bent their bodies and spouted fire one after another. No, rather, they themselves are turning into an eerie flame. It was the form of a distorted flame of resentment that they had before Scarlet’s kindness touched their hearts and they regained their human hearts.

Until just a moment ago, they had the form of a human, so the memory of having a physical body came out strongly, and Alisa’s blood sakura poison was able to restrain them. However, now that they have given up their human body and returned to the form of flames of resentment, the technique was no longer effective.

「Welcome back. Evil spirits of the flame.」

Alisa extended her hand as if to welcome them. Her fingertips were enveloped in bloodthirst and were repelled.

Exuberant with joy at having found a worthy opponent, the demon beast tried to move forward. But Alisa held it back.

「Ahaha, give it up. I’m the one they want to fight. Stealing is not good ……」

Without letting Alisa finish her sentence, the killing intent of the Light Bat Tribe was united into one and became a large crimson waterfall that swallowed Alisa in one fell swoop.

‘Don’t be conceited!! This is not a battle, but an execution!! Do you understand that now!? The pain and sorrow of those who were trampled!! The pain of those left behind!! Someone like you who has no qualms about taking away the people precious to Princess Scarlet will not understand those feelings!! Then we shall teach you with our curse!!’

The children of the Light Bat Tribe were slaughtered while believing until their last moments that their parents would come for them. But their parents could not come to help them. Because they had already been poisoned and suffered a sneak attack. Due to the resentment that is more painful and heart-breaking than being killed themselves, the people of the Light Bat Tribe turned into revengeful spirits and obtained a curse that allowed them to make other people experience the pain of their children’s deaths. And they used it to bury many people who were unworthy of being the possessor of the True Emperor’s Ruby.

‘…… Have a taste of hell!!’

The curse pierced through Alisa.

The Light Bat Tribe showed no mercy to Alisa. A normal person would go insane and die from the curse of death for just one person. Scarlet was the only one who could withstand the curse meant for several people. They simultaneously attacked Alisa with the painful death of all of the children and combined it with their own death full of regrets as they were cut into pieces while shedding tears of blood.

The flames of resentment turned into a tornado and completely engulfed Alisa.

After taking a single step backwards, the demonic beast was observing the battle with its one eye gleaming with interest.

‘Die!! Keep on dying for eternity!! Let your spirit be shattered by the pain!!’

The resentment of the Light Bat Tribe, whose entire family had been slaughtered, was tremendous. The battle should have been finished in an instant. No matter how strong Alisa is, if her heart was broken by the curse, she would become a cripple.

And yet –

「…… Ahaha ahahahaha, that’s amusing. With just this much, you’re talking about the pain of death to me?」

Alisa laughed loudly while being enveloped in the flames of the curse.

A slender hand extended out from inside the wall of flames.

「How disappointing. It was much more vivid when I first experienced this in the Castle of the Sea Swallows’ Nest during the『True History』. I should have let the memories remain as beautiful as they were. What a kill-joy. Fufufu, well, even if I say that, you guys have no idea what I’m talking about. …… How insolent. Just how long are you going to surround me. Crawl on the ground.」

Unbelievably, Alisa directly grabbed the flames of resentment of the Light Bat Tribe with one hand and slammed it to the ground.

‘…… That’s impossible!?’

The people of the Light Bat Tribe were shocked when they were torn away from Alisa.

Alisa actually grabbed them although they currently had the shape of a formless flame, and not only that, an unbelievably intense pain flowed back to them from Alisa. Ironically, the pain reminded them of the time when they were human. Alisa looked down at the spirits of the Light Bat Tribe, who had gone from the flames of resentment to human form again, and were sitting on their butts in dismay.

「…… How does it feel? How does it feel to taste someone else’s death? Just the fact that you weren’t torn apart is already great. As expected from former great vengeful spirits. Let me tell you something. Death flowed backwards because you tried to break into the big flow that is me with the little flow that is you guys. I have experienced much more intense and terrible deaths than you guys did. I told you earlier. I have stepped through millions of deaths. That wasn’t just about the people I have killed.」

Alisa began to dance gently like a shrine maiden who gave an oracle.

「Ufufufu, I’ll tell you a bit about it. You see, I have been shouldering the pain of death of all the world’s human beings at the end of the world’s loop. Of course, I will take it all without fainting, because it would be a shame to not experience it all. …… But it’s quite an unsightly way of death. Even those who hate me will vomit when they see it, instead of feeling delighted.」

Alisa rotated faster and faster. The wind whistled around her.

「Ahahaha, but after repeating it for 「108 times」, I got used to death. So, unfortunately, the deaths of you and your children did make my heart tremble a little, but it’s not to the point of crushing it. You guys can’t stop my dance.」

Alisa danced all by herself.

As if she’s standing on a lonely stage where her partner will not appear. Like the girl who cannot stop dancing because of the curse of the red shoes.

「…… Ahh, my dear Scarlet. My one and only twin star in this world. Dancing all by myself is so boring. I have been going on stage with a certain amount of determination. So now, it’s time for you to dance in the center of the stage so that the next play can raise its curtain. Otherwise, the curtain will never come down on this play.」

Alisa suddenly stopped.

She had an expression full of madness on her face. With a terrifying smile in the shape of a crescent moon.

And yet, her dance that had suddenly come to a halt looked terribly sad. And beautiful.

The people of the Light Bat Tribe couldn’t take their eyes off of her.

Because there was something about her dance that tugged on the heartstrings of these ill-fated warriors.

This is no mere dance. It’s the heavenly dance that is the base for the way Alisa fights.

It is the work of the thorn princesses whose story was buried in the darkness of history. Those women had to share a bed with enemy generals as their mistress and assassinate them once they spotted an opportunity. In order to catch the men off guard, the thorn princesses were not allowed to carry weapons of any kind. Because of that none of them was able to survive even after they killed their targets. They were all tortured to death in the middle of the enemy camp. They were miserable suicide attack weapons in the form of women. They were no match against armed men. It is a sad technique that is only effective because it takes the naked opponent by surprise.

Ironically, with Alisa’s talent, the rusty martial arts of those women who were used and thrown away by the influential people were revived as an invincible sword.

This has a frightening significance.

Alisa, who is nearly invincible even with pure brute force, is most adept at the art of the weak against the strong.
What would happen if the lion had extremely poisonous fangs and claws?

Alisa does not perform this heavenly dance unless she is dealing with a very good opponent. This is her way of showing her respect for the Light Bat Tribe.

After she had finished her dance, Alisa passionately sang a song about her feelings for the person she loved. It was a twisted love song.