"They were close, so very close,

but they failed.

Face to face with it, even these six warriors of legend fell. The Final evil, rotten and despicable, took not their life, but something they held even dearer. It left them broken in ways that a blade never could.

From the first, he took the heart, so that the vitality he had enjoyed his entire life would drain away, his body betraying him with each passing day.

From the second, he took the hands, so that he could never worship the Goddess again, the blessings he had once taken for granted now useless.

From the third, he took the voice, so that he could never call upon the world again, his power fading into silence.

From the fourth, he took the eyes, not only so that she could never again witness the glint of her blade, but so that she'd never again see the beauty of what she'd thrown away.

And from the fifth, the Final evil took…. nothing. Not a scar, not a wound. She alone, was left with nothing."

The nameless demon seemed to reminisce as he fended off Evangelina's spear strikes, a sickening expression on his face. "Is that how it went? I remember it somewhat differently."

Evangelina shattered his head with the tip of her spear, but it regenerated faster than it took to blink. "Shut your mouth." Evangelina growled.

Knocking her spear away with his claws, the demon jumped back, and he brought his finger to a small incision on his chest. "We both know what happened with the sixth… but what about the fifth?"

He licked his snow-white finger tips. "What about you?"

Evangelina momentarily glanced at Verity who still seemed to be in a daze behind her, and she grit her teeth. "I already told you to shut your—"

"After all, isn't it unfair?"

The demon made sure to speak loud enough for Verity to hear.

"It was your fault that your expedition failed, and yet… if one were to follow the century old tale… you are the one who suffered the least."

Evangelina's figure blurred, creating multiple after images, and she thrust her spear toward the demon in exactly eleven different places simultaneously.

"Endure"

Not even a scratch.

"A coward… pretending to be something great. A pig wearing swan skin."

Verity could only frown, forced to listen, unable to act. It seemed that statement from the demon had snapped him back to reality. 'A coward… my master? Does this demon know who he's talking about?'

Evangelina was the strongest, bravest, and most impressive person Verity had ever met. To call her a coward was almost laughable.

Yet, Evangelina's expression could only darken.

Soft Silver Aura surged around the blade of her spear. Verity immediately recognized the stance. It was Anger, a single devastating strike of Aura.

Even the demon couldn't simply ignore it as he had done for the previous attacks.

Evangelina launched herself forward, and the demon… simply evaded the strike. He deployed his wings, stepped to the side, and lazily struck Evangelina, giving her barely enough time to raise her guard.

She was hurled several dozen meters away, trashing the garden in her wake.

Verity's eyes widened. 'To Master..? Just like that?? Is that even possible?'

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Then, the demon turned to Verity, which made the young man's blood run cold. "Do you know the truth behind that woman? She–"

"Shut the hell up!!!" Evangelina's power, speed, and whole physicality spiked. She was using Violence at full throttle.

At least three times as fast as she had been before, which was already faster than what Verity's eye could track, she lunged toward the demon.

"Obey."

Time froze.

Demons possessed three types of Words.

Self.

Other.

And the exceptional ones could use the last and most powerful type, Law. Words of absolute power that bent the laws of the world to the whim of the demon.

The world obeyed the demon's command, and he continued speaking.

"The reason that I stand here before you today, the reason why her very protege died by my hand is that…" He smiled softly, yet unnervingly. "That woman is a coward who could not sacrifice herself for her cause."

His finger landed on the frozen Verity's chest. "Rigth there. All she had to do was strike me right there. They had destroyed a few of my cores, the rest were unstable, my options were limited… Ha… I really was in a pinch."

He slid his finger down Verity's chest to his navel. "One last, overwhelmingly powerful attack, and that would have been the end of me… but the only one who could output that level of power before I recovered was her, that silver-haired woman… at the cost of her own life."

TWITCH

Evangelina, after only a few seconds, was managing to break through the demon's Law.

But the demon didn't seem to care.

"The measly, insignificant cost of her life, and yet, she could not do it."

"She hesitated, she cowered, she failed, and so here I stand. That is who that woman is. A selfish human who judged herself to be more important than her world."

The frozen world broke apart and Evangelina collided with the demon, knocking him away in a cloud of flower petals.

Her breath was laborious, blood leaked from her left eye due to the strain, and her expression was dark.

The demon was not finished, However. He unfurled his wings, dispersing the crimson petals, and he slowly stepped toward the two of them. "If anyone is deserving of punishment.... is it not she?"

She did not dare turn back to look at Verity.

"The worst, most cruel punishment. For someone who treasures her connections, that punishment was simple. I cursed her with nothingness."

The demon's ashen gray hair flew behind him with the soft wind gracing the flower garden. If Verity's heart and soul had not been shaken, he might have found the demon, in that moment, to be quite beautiful.

"I cursed her with Oblivion. The first of its kind, and I arranged it so that the more she tried to recall her connections… to maintain them, the more the curse would spread."

Verity remembered hearing of this disease from Ash and Midnight when he had first gotten into this world, but since it had never come up again, he thought they had either lied or it just wasn't as much of a big deal as they had made it out to be.

But now… it made sense.

Why Evangelina had isolated herself.

Why she had so vehemently refused to call him her disciple.

'Wait… She seemed to remember Irina, Aurelius, and Muriel just fine though? How is that possible?'

But the demon quickly answered his question. "Though… you seem to have found a way to retain your most precious ones even at the cost of spreading the curse…. How selfish."

The demon glanced at Verity, and he smirked as an idea seemed to form in his head. "Ah…! It's not that you've opted to protect your most precious connections, You've simply decided to replace the ones lost instead!"

"I understand now. You humans are pragmatic creatures after all. Why care for a foolish disciple who ran to her own death when you can—"

"SHUT UP!!!!!!"

Evangelina brought a hand to her head. It was now twice that the demon had mentioned her past disciple but still… still…!!

Evangelina couldn't remember her face, the sound of her voice, her name…. She couldn't remember anything at all!

Same for her late brother.

Her late parents.

The one who had joined her to battle with the demon king.

Her teacher.

Her childhood friends.

She had voluntarily given up on hundreds of connections to keep the ones she treasured most intact.

She couldn't bear to look at Verity now.

That day in the forest, she had been on her way to meet her end. With her deteriorating mind, she had decided to dive deep into demon territory and at the very least die in battle, something she had been unable to do before.

But instead, before she could even leave the borders of the Empire, a forest fire had caught her attention. Drawn to it, she met Verity. A young boy who had been tricked by bandits.

She had thought nothing of it, and had saved him simply out of obligation rather than interest. That was the least she could have done as a Heroic-ranked adventurer, after all. Not once had she considered extending the interaction past what was absolutely necessary.

But something about those eyes… something about that boy, stirred something within her.

So, against all odds, she had made a deal with him.

Instead of parting ways, she had given him an impossible task to discourage him.

But someway, somehow, he had prevailed against fatigue, dehydradtion and starvation, and he had succeeded.

She still remembered the scene. It was those eyes again. Those eyes had kept him in her life, and they had continued to do so, again and again.

And now, Evangelina was unable to look into those eyes of his.

She calmed herself and without looking back, she spun her spear in the air. "You are a lot more talkative than I know you to be…" She looked straight at the demon. "...But you are right. Back then, I failed, and that is the reason for today's catastrophe… but I won't fail again."

Verity outstretched his hand. "M-Master, wa–"

In the first place, Evangelina knew she could not win, not through traditional means at least. This demon was a terrifyign opponent, even for someone like Evangelina. Perhaps in a prolonged battle she could do somewhat meaningful damage… but what was the point in that?

A demon of his calibre would regenerate almost immediately, and then all of her efforts would have been in vain.

There was another, much simpler way to save her disciple.

Evangelina raised her spear, and she flipped it around, pointing the blade toward herself, and then—

SPURT

She pierced her own heart. Her face contorted in pain, and the normally obsidian shaft of her spear was dyed crimson.

"Master!! What are you doing!!??" Verity screamed.

Blood flowed from the hole in her chest, and more from her mouth as a few coughs escaped her.

Evangelina wiped the blood from the corners of her lips, and the wind around her grew erratic.

"Right here, right now. I'll right my wrong… and I'll put an end to this for good."

She addressed Verity, though she did not directly look at him. "This will be your final lesson. The ninth and final stance of the Nine Hells style… I'll show you Treachery, a stance that reaches beyond the realm of transcendence."

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