Chapter 261

The deafening roar shakes the water’s surface, making the entire canal tremble as if it’s about to collapse.

The people above must be mistaking this for an earthquake, right?

The battle with Isabella is turning the entire world upside down.

A blue sword, golden light, emerald blades, and dark magic clash and shatter.

The magical lights swept up by the sword pressure break apart, scattering fragments, while clawed legs dig into the walls, leaving deep gashes.

Neither she nor I have our feet on the ground much.

Using walls, ceilings, and canal pillars as footholds, we leap and clash repeatedly in this chaotic fight.

Isabella’s spider-like legs and Hersela’s life-force tentacles crush and regenerate, darting around the narrow underground alley like it’s their playground.

[Haha, isn’t this fun? Even for me, such a frantic battle is a first!]

Hersela laughs heartily, clearly enjoying herself.

Well, most of her battles were on open plains, perfect for cavalry. Fighting in a cramped underground space is definitely a first for her.

No time to retort. If I had the chance, I’d throw in another taunt.

“Close your legs! The stench is unbearable!”

“You’ll get used to it! You’ll be licking it like a dog soon enough!”

A rain of insect legs pours down. I dodge sideways while a crimson tentacle shoots toward a pillar.

“Then at least bring some butter next time!”

The life-force tentacle wraps around the pillar like a snake and yanks me toward it.

The power of life-force has grown stronger since the last battle.

Now it’s not just for attacks—it eliminates the risk of leaps and enables three-dimensional combat.

“Even if you butter it, it’ll rot in no time!”

I kick off the pillar, leap toward her, and slash with my sword.

A blue streak of light shoots like a meteor. The pillar I used as a foothold explodes into pieces.

“Such foul language from a little girl who hasn’t even grown fuzz yet.”

In response, Isabella’s legs thrust sharp claws toward me.

[Where do you think you’re sticking those legs?!]

The life-force energy wrapped around my body bursts forth like a blooming flower.

A whirlwind of energy blades cuts through the exoskeleton, severing the insect legs.

For a moment, Isabella’s upper body is left exposed.

“Must be nice having so many legs, grandma!”

As Isabella tries to regenerate her legs, my sword pierces through her skull.

—

The blade digs between her eyebrows, pierces through the back of her head, and emerges.

Against a normal enemy, this would’ve been more than enough to end it.

But.

“…Done already?”

Even in that state, Isabella mutters calmly.

It’s not a resurrection ability. Her magic-infused body can simply endure a pierced skull with sheer vitality.

“No, we’re far from done!”

We haven’t even started yet.

I twist the blade lodged in her skull like I’m stirring a sandpit.

Her skull grinds apart, and her brain turns to mush, as if thrown into a blender.

“Grrrkkk…”

Her pitch-black eyes roll back, trembling as tears stream down, and foam spills from her sharp teeth.

Her crushed brain oozes out through her nostrils.

The witch’s body collapses to the ground.

Her body convulses like it’s been electrocuted, her legs twitching and jerking.

“How’s that? Feels like your brain’s melting, huh?”

“W-well…? You’ll, know, when you, try it…”

My instincts scream a warning.

From behind, the insect legs, now back under control, reach out to grab me.

…Her recovery’s faster than I thought.

I shoot a life-force tentacle to the ceiling and pull myself up like climbing a rope.

The insect legs grasp at empty air.

Is this only the second time?

Seems like dealing fatal blows one after another won’t work.

She slows down after heavy injuries, but if I kill her outright, she instantly revives and counterattacks.

“…Strange regenerative ability. She doesn’t react to minor wounds, but fatal injuries heal instantly.”

Lacey, who’d been waiting for an opening, frowns and mutters as she watches.

I hadn’t explained Isabella’s abilities to the others. It’d be weird if I knew too much about her.

So, I have to show them firsthand.

“It’s not regeneration. She definitely dies, but then she instantly recovers and comes back. It’s more like resurrection.”

I throw in some advice based on experience.

“Resurrection…! Even for a witch, that shouldn’t be possible so easily…”

“…She’s transferring it.”

Ophelia chimes in.

Her multicolored, mystically glowing eyes stare at the resurrecting Isabella.

Ophelia van Sigmilus’s unique ability, Magic Sight.

Her magic eyes, capable of detecting the flow of magic and miasma, analyze Isabella’s ability and its mechanics.

“Definitely. The flow of miasma resembles a curse that transfers illness or impurity. Each time she resurrects, a faint fragment of miasma flies off somewhere. So, she’s… transferring her death to someone else.”

…Accurate analysis. As expected of someone who helped me against her sister!

It’s incredibly convenient how she figures things out with just a hint.

“-Interesting speculation. You could be a playwright.”

Isabella, now resurrected, charges with a sly smile.

She kicks off the wall, leaps to the ceiling, and flips like an inverted spider.

Her charge is wildly aggressive.

– Whooosh!

The grating sound of flapping wings. The reborn insect monster.

They flew in all at once, as if following her.

“Why, are you embarrassed because it’s the correct answer?”

Leaving Lacey and Ophelia behind, he runs towards Isabella.

“If the condition for transferring death is losing your life first, then who would be the target to transfer it to?”

From the tip of Lacey’s cross spear aimed at the monsters, a pure white beam of light shoots out, shattering the monsters into dust.

“I wouldn’t know. But if it’s a power that can avoid death, it’s as important as life itself. They would strive to secure as many sacrifices as possible before anything else… Isn’t the answer in what that woman usually does most diligently?”

The wind blades created by Ophelia tear apart the bugs that dodged the light beam.

“If it’s what you do most diligently, isn’t it rolling around with men?”

Swinging his sword towards Isabella, he jokingly states the answer.

“Well, who knows? Maybe if you whisper in my ear, I’ll tell you? In bed, that is.”

Pretending not to have been caught, even though it’s obvious.

Could they have figured out the principle after just two encounters?

“I don’t want to catch syphilis!”

“How rude. My mouth is much cleaner than yours, you know?”

Before I knew it, another pair had grown, turning into four blades, and the mantis’s forelegs swung towards me like scissors.

“Such childish tricks!”

Neither the speed nor the strength could compare to Valenstein’s sword!

Jumping high to dodge the blade aiming for my waist, I slash with Durandal and Ice Blade, tearing apart the remaining two forelegs.

I’ve become faster and stronger than before.

Now, such attacks are meaningless.

Following that, I stretch out my left hand towards the ceiling near the crown of my head, embedding my nails.

‘Spikes towards the ceiling!’

[Is that what you’re saying?]

From the left hand gripping the ceiling, the force of Life Force spreads out like shadows.

“Your imagination is poor. I’ve seen that before.”

Isabella drops her body from the ceiling.

So, she must have seen it when fighting Valenstein. She knew the exact range of the spikes.

The range from that time.

– Thud!

A red spike, twice as long and one and a half times thicker than before, pierces Isabella’s groin.

“Kyaa…!”

The spike, penetrating between her legs, tears through her insides and emerges between her ribs.

The sharp skewer had her uterus and small intestines tangled at the end.

“Ha, did my old eyes fail to see properly?”

Two, three spikes extend one after another, firmly fixing Isabella’s body.

“Ahaha… It’s thicker than I thought when pierced? You’ll be loved by women… But it’s not enough to finish me off. Is this all?”

“Why. Doesn’t it seem like it didn’t even pierce because it’s too wide?”

The Ice Blade’s nails, swung as I charge forward.

Five cursed teeth tear apart Isabella’s body, and the Life Force’s tentacles, turned into blades from spikes, ravage her insides.

The witch’s body, turned into minced meat in an instant, spills onto the water surface, dyeing the groundwater red.

“This is quite good, completely soaked… Is it because she’s a virgin, rushing in without knowing how to tease?”

With the splashing water, the soaked Isabella leaps out of the water surface.

Is this the third resurrection? So far, it’s been smooth.

—-

A battle that has become too long to be called a preliminary skirmish.

By now, the surroundings had completely turned into ruins.

There were more than a dozen broken pillars, and at the bottom of the waterway, dug out like a mine, more than twenty portions of flesh and intestines were stewing, emitting a strange smell.

In other words, it means Isabella has been killed more than twenty times.

“Are you still trying to fight? Even with a monkey’s brain, you should have realized by now that it’s meaningless… Well, this is also an enjoyable pastime. The longer the teasing, the greater the pleasure that follows.”

Isabella, looking no different from the beginning, calmly smiled and stroked her naked body.

—-

The welcome of the underworld.

Indeed, it was an ability that couldn’t be defeated by straightforward methods.

No matter what injuries were sustained, the moment it activated, all wounds disappeared as if washed away.

Even when Lacey’s holy fire burned her entire body, she screamed, but the flames disappeared the moment she resurrected.

But trying to incapacitate her without killing wasn’t easy either.

I tried cutting off her limbs and spreading curses with Ice Blade to weaken her, and sure enough, she couldn’t move properly for a while.

…But only for a while.

As soon as Isabella felt her body becoming paralyzed, the measure she took was very simple.

Self-destruction.

The witch’s belly suddenly swelled, and her entire body exploded like a firecracker.

Bone fragments and shell pieces swept through the surroundings like shrapnel, still embedded here and there in the passage.

—-

Anyway, I don’t know how many times that trick can be done…

If we stick to the method of killing until she dies, we’ll tire out first.

“Hey, you high-class slut. How many men have you rolled around with to have an endless supply of spare lives?”

“Well… Maybe around eight thousand…?”

What, eight thousand?

It was a number that left me speechless.

No, really, even a mop has its limits. This is a complete public restroom.