Chapter 258

Even the nobles following Isabella couldn’t remain indifferent after witnessing this scene. What they desired was power, pleasure, and decadent enjoyment, not this hellish nightmare.

“…Wouldn’t it be better to back out now? No matter what, this is…!”

“No, calm down, Duke Marius. Think of it the other way around. With a legion of this size, even Ai-shan Gi-or and Leopold wouldn’t be able to hold out. Those bugs are our lifeline!”

Of course, among them were those with a more cold and realistic perspective. Even in the face of a horrifying swarm of bugs, they felt anticipation rather than disgust.

“—I’m glad you think that way.”

A voice so seductive it could melt you. The nobles quickly turned their heads to see Isabella, clad in a bizarre dress. Her outfit, made of a translucent material resembling insect wings, clung to her body, faintly revealing her dazzling figure.

“Your Highness Benes…!”

The blushing nobles dismounted and bowed. Though none of the nobles present had failed to bed Isabella, they still had to maintain decorum in this situation. With thirty thousand troops defeated and even Marquis Valenstein, who should have taken responsibility, dead… they had nothing to say.

Meanwhile, the soldiers stared at Isabella with gaping mouths and dazed expressions. For them, the sight of the empire’s most beautiful woman, half-naked, was something they never expected to see in their lifetime. The image of the bugs that had filled their minds moments ago was momentarily forgotten.

“Raise your heads. I don’t blame you for the defeat. Against Ai-shan Gi-or, no matter how many conscripted soldiers you gathered, victory was impossible.”

Isabella approached the nobles with a seductive smile and light steps.

“Thank you for your merciful words…!”

“Honestly, I thought none of you would return, but since you brought back three thousand, I might even praise you.”

Her voice was sweet, almost tempting, and her words were gentle. Yet, none of the nobles could lift their heads. They trembled like aspen leaves, unable to speak a word.

Her tone was soft, but something was different. Her voice, her laughter, even her scent carried an inexplicable chill.

Evil. A force filled with malice, hostile to all living beings.

Isabella, revealing her hidden dark aura without hesitation, grew more terrifying the closer she got. She was no longer the lustful courtesan they had rolled around with, but a hungry beast baring its fangs.

Their survival instincts, never before triggered, screamed at them. An ominous, overwhelmingly ominous feeling gripped their hearts, making it hard to breathe.

“Huhu… trembling like pigs in a slaughterhouse. Why so scared? Did you think I’d kill you? I have no such intention… there’s something you need to do for me.”

Isabella dropped her playful formality and grinned so wide her mouth seemed to split her face.

Her cheeks split open, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Jagged molars and a pair of small mandibles protruded like insect antennae. She looked like a mantis wearing human skin.

“I was just in need of humans to command the forces here… how fortunate, so many puppets.”

At her gesture, dozens of bugs flew up, heading straight for the nobles now kneeling and convulsing.

“Your Highness! Please spare us!”

“Just once, just once forgive us…!”

The nobles, sensing their fate, begged and cried, but Isabella only smiled coldly, looking down at them with icy eyes.

“I said I wouldn’t kill you, didn’t I? Your brains will still work, your hearts will still beat… isn’t that sparing you?”

Isabella wasn’t wrong. Even if the bugs parasitized them, as long as they didn’t turn them into half-corpses, vital organs like the heart would remain mostly untouched. Though parts of their brains would be eaten.

The swarm of bugs clung to the heads of the nobles trying to crawl away.

“Ah! Aaaaah! Stop! Stooop!”

“The bugs! The bugs are in my ear…!”

“Gyaaaaaaah!”

Ears, noses, even mouths. The bugs burrowed into their bodies, gnawing at their flesh and crawling into their skulls.

The nobles twitched like epileptics, screaming. The sound of chewing and unbearable itching tore through their minds.

“You, you cursed whore! I never trusted you…!”

“—Trust? That’s an interesting word. We never did, did we…? Neither you nor I.”

A cold sneer. Yes, what connected them was pleasure, greed, and sin. There was never room for trust.

Soon, even the cursing nobles rolled their eyes and drooled. Isabella licked her lips, smiling.

Her gaze turned to the three thousand soldiers—no, three thousand meals—whose legs had turned to jelly, trembling.

And then.

—

A week later.

Isabella walked leisurely through a dim underground passage, accompanied only by Ernst. The maze-like paths were lined with underground rivers, and faintly glowing magic lamps illuminated the pillars supporting the ceiling.

“Benes must be in the thick of battle by now. How busy they must be, struggling in vain. Don’t you think, Ernst?”

A leisurely sneer. Thinking of Leopold, who was likely in a fierce battle with millions of bugs to exterminate the witch, she couldn’t help but laugh. Meanwhile, Isabella herself had long since left her territory.

From the start, Isabella never expected the bug legion to finish off Leopold’s forces. They could inflict some damage, but in the end, bugs were just bugs. A little fire, and they’d die in droves.

The swarm of bug monsters summoned in Benes territory was nothing more than a time-waster and a hobby.

‘Judging by the state…’

The second barrier must have been shattered… With this battle, there’s a chance the third barrier might break too.

The pact with Feyrus. The plan to kill countless humans and use their vengeful spirits to destroy the Holy Grail of Sealing was smoothly achieved through this civil war.

Over a hundred thousand deaths. That number wasn’t enough to destroy the second Holy Grail, but it certainly filled up the third one quite a bit.

Thanks to that, her magic had also grown stronger than before.

‘It would have been even better if the third barrier was definitely broken… But for now, I should be satisfied.’

Considering her goal, the fewer barriers, the better.

With only two destroyed, even she couldn’t be sure if things would go as planned.

“Why do you look so stiff? You’ve finally returned to your homeland, so smile! Your throne is right in front of you.”

Ernst remained silent, his expression as blank as ever.

From the beginning, it was impossible for him to speak or smile of his own will.

The swarm of bugs implanted by Isabella had taken complete control of his body.

The fact that the very person who made him unable to smile was now telling him to smile was nothing but mockery.

‘What are you planning, witch…! Why have you returned to the capital…?’

Ernst muttered in his mind.

Yes. The place she was now walking through was not the outskirts of the empire, but its very heart.

—

The City of Exra-shapel.

After dealing with the nobles and palace guards, Isabella concealed her identity and headed straight for the capital.

It took quite a while to avoid being seen, as the news could reach Leopold… but she finally arrived.

Here, in the underground waterways of Exra-shapel.

Even before this civil war began, Isabella’s destination had always been here.

This was the place where Carolus, who had been granted the Holy Sword, had… buried a fragment of the dragon, Nidhogg.

The resurrection of the dragon. That was her ultimate goal.

No, resurrection might not be the right word. She didn’t plan to bring it back to its former glory, but rather to fill its remains with her familiars and mold it into something new.

‘If I had to give it a name… I’d call it the Insect Dragon. Though the dragon itself wouldn’t be too pleased.’

When Nidhogg awakened, it would undoubtedly go berserk.

It was already a ferocious dragon, and now with the resentment towards the humans who had brought it down, and the anger of being resurrected as a bug-infested corpse, it would lose all reason.

But even so, it wouldn’t be able to attack Isabella, the one who resurrected it.

Far from being hostile, it would be under her control.

If it were a normal dragon, this would be impossible, but since its body was fundamentally made of Isabella’s bugs, it couldn’t escape her domination.

Isabella was absolutely confident.

A witch who controlled a dragon—something unprecedented in the history of this world.

That was Isabella’s goal.

Ever since she heard the secret that the remains of a dragon lay beneath the capital’s waterways, this had been her aim.

A treasure no one dared to claim. The ultimate toy she could imagine was right beneath her feet.

‘I might not be able to bring it back to its full glory, but a dragon is still a dragon.’

Even an incomplete resurrection would be more than the humans of this era could handle.

And once she had control, she could use it to spread death across the world, gaining more power and evolving into a complete state. There were no issues.

‘What should I do once I have control…?’

Her goal had always been to resurrect and control the dragon. She hadn’t thought much beyond that.

But now, with her goal just one step away, Isabella began to ponder what kind of mischief she could unleash with the ultimate toy.

Announcing the dragon’s resurrection by slaughtering everyone in the capital sounded fun.

Tearing the empire to shreds and burning down the Holy Kingdom would serve as revenge for the believers killed in the witch hunts.

Not that she cared much about revenge… but at least her goddess, Lilith, would be pleased.

‘Or… maybe something like this…’

Lost in her delightful fantasies, Isabella’s cheeks flushed.

Just imagining it made her mouth water and her thighs damp.

Finally, Isabella’s footsteps halted before a sealed iron gate.

The entrance to the deeper underground. The forbidden area passed down through generations of the royal family.

Below this, the remains of the dragon lay.

“Now, Ernst. I’ll show you something amazing. A sight so extraordinary that even if ordinary people died and were reborn, they’d never see it.”

With a bright smile, Isabella swung the iron gate wide open.

Now, just a little further, and—

“Took you long enough, you damn witch!”

A fierce roar.

A crimson fist filled her vision.

“Huh?”

Before Isabella could react, a surge of martial energy struck her chest.

-*Crash!*

The sound of leather tearing. The upper half of the empire’s most beautiful woman was reduced to chunks of meat, scattering in all directions.

Her brain, now a pulpy mess, clung to the ceiling, dripping brain matter, while her detached eyeballs sank into the waterway.

Injuries severe enough to kill even a beastman.

Her trembling lower body lost strength and collapsed, spewing blood and urine.

‘Truly, a magnificent sight.’

Ernst applauded inwardly.