Disqualified as a Villainess - Chapter 74

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#74.

Dong, dong, dong, dong—!
A xylophone-like sound rang out, a kind of warning from nature itself.
The five pillars of light that formed the reverse Alchemy Circle extinguished simultaneously.
“The reverse Alchemy Circle has vanished? Surely Lady Octavia hasn’t….”
But she was not one to die so easily. With that conviction, Ewain raised his head and gripped his sword anew.
Between the transformed Gates, brilliant beams of light descended like curtains.
The diffuse radiance that filled the sky illuminated the surroundings as if it were midday.
The night sky surged like an incoming tide, stained in azure, then transformed into an artificially perfect and beautiful firmament.
Matteo unfurled his scripture upon witnessing the clear bell tones, the warm breeze, and fragrant flower petals fluttering down.
“Young lambs, if you do not regain your senses, you will be slain by the Chaos Entity wearing the guise of an angel.”
That the Saint Man resorted to such blunt speech meant the situation was dire indeed.
The people, who had been paralyzed with terror moments before, now gazed at the light as if entranced.
They beheld a beautiful human form descending, dressed in flowing garments and playing a lute.
The being, wreathed in shimmering golden light, was unmistakably an angel to all who gazed upon it.
“Ah, an angel without wings. A celestial being has come to save me…!”
Crack—!
The man who had gasped in wonder collapsed, his expression still rapturous.
“Ahhh!”
Someone screamed upon witnessing the bisected corpse.
Beyond the fallen body, an angel smiled beautifully, its golden sickle stained with blood.
The Chaos Entity’s illusion had enchanted them to their deaths.
“All ability users of Grade 3 and below, evacuate to nearby buildings! The rest of you, arm yourselves with potions and prepare for combat!”
Behind Julia’s commanding voice, Febrien came rushing with a cart laden with supplies.
It was the anti-psychic potion Octavia had prepared in advance to suppress mental disturbance.
“We’ve activated the defensive barriers installed beforehand to prevent the Chaos Entity from escaping toward the city!”
Those remaining hastily drank the potions from the cart.
“Saint Chloe, why aren’t you moving quickly?”
At Logan’s gruff voice, Chloe flinched and blinked her eyes.
“I….”
“Get out of the way!”
Chloe watched as Ethan gathered combat potions and disappeared into the building.
The fact that she was more useless than that man still felt unjust and infuriating.
“I want to help too. My blessing might be of use.”
“Please evacuate the people and protect them with your blessing, Saint Chloe.”
Ewain, drawing his sword, assigned her a role that would at least be helpful.
Twang—!
Julia, now positioned atop a building, fired her magitech sniper rifle at the Chaos Entity.
Febrien, holding out a sacred bell, looked toward Matteo.
“Saint Man, can you intervene without permission from the Central Authority or the Emperor?”
“A grave personal matter has arisen, so I have no choice.”
Matteo laughed with ease. Above his hand, pages of a scripture wrapped in silver light flipped rapidly.
“This is the second time we’ve synchronized. Let us begin. First Form, Scripture of Purification.”
Febrien’s face paled slightly as she realized what he was attempting—a sacred connection only possible between Saints—but she steadied herself and took her place beside him.
Whether he was pretending not to know her identity because he didn’t interfere in Kingdom affairs, or whether he would report this to the Central Authority after it was over and have her punished, remained to be seen.
But now, she had to fulfill her mission of salvation.
Even if she was a fallen Saint, cast out and condemned.
Ding.
A dazzling silver sacred light enveloped the ability user confronting the Chaos entity.
Meanwhile, Logan was frowning at the illusion that had appeared before him.
“Uncle Logan, help me….”
It was an illusion of Prince Jeriel sitting on the ground and weeping.
He thought that if his young nephew had died from Shadow Infestation, he might have collapsed mentally and perished.
Because Prince Jeriel was alive, he had been able to hear the xylophone sound of trees and mushrooms striking and respond swiftly to the Gate.
‘And thanks to that, I was able to prevent the summoning of a supreme-tier Gate with the Alchemy Circle infused with my mana.’
It would have been impossible with a mind shattered by the loss of his nephew.
Beneath hair that swayed slowly, his coral-colored eyes that had closed and opened again turned pitch black.
Crackling black mana crawled up his wrist.
“My precious little nephew—he’s safe, isn’t he?”
Lowering his upper body, he leaped lightly as if unaffected by gravity.
“Phase Erasure.”
He then slashed through the empty air with a cross-cutting strike of both hands.
Kwaaaack—!
Where he cut, the spatial domain split open, creating a pitch-black fissure.
“Kyaaaack!”
The Chaos entity that had been hiding behind the dimensional realm let out a grotesque shriek.
In the next instant, its body split in two, and simultaneously, the swarm of Chaos entities hiding behind it were all severed in half at once.
The Chaos entities, their very coordinates carved away, scattered into the void.
“Kiyaaaah!”
Above Logan’s hand, which had just bisected dozens of Chaos entities in a single strike, blade-shaped black mana crackled and surged violently.
“What’s this?”
The backlash of the mana was extraordinary.
Logan realized his ability had been amplified several times over in its output.
The reverse Alchemy Circle of the Sarcophagus had manifested, and simultaneously the restrictions placed on his enhanced weapon had been lifted.
But since this was no ordinary Chaos realm, the gap in space that had formed quickly sealed itself.
Kaang—!
Ewain was also effortlessly eliminating Chaos entities with his blade.
Taang!
“Kyaaaack!”
From her position atop the building, Julia’s mana bullets pierced through the Chaos Entity that had drawn its bow on Ewain.
Julia’s sniper rifle, which had eliminated the mid-tier Chaos Entity in a single shot, was also a magitech-enhanced weapon.
Octavia’s Northeast Squadron ability users eliminated the Chaos Entities using their own enhanced weapons.
‘Octavia has completed all preparations, so now we who owe her our lives must see this through.’
It was a thought they all shared.
Swoooosh!
Crack-crack-crack!
Logan, cutting through beautiful-looking Chaos Entities and moving like an arrow, shouted to his subordinates.
“Cover me! I’m heading for the Gate!”
Logan’s black eyes, now burning with released mana, fixed on the Gate floating in the sky.
“Imaginary state.”
By altering his body’s phase, he entered an imaginary state unaffected by the physical laws of reality, and he soared into the heavens.
The Gate, split into a cross shape, was also an imaginary concept that could not be destroyed physically.
Chaos is born from twisted causality. Therefore, to eliminate chaos, the only method was to find the disorder serving as its medium and annihilate it.
The method he had chosen was recklessness incarnate.
Blaaaast!
Enduring powerful mental attacks and hallucinations while searching for the type of disorder.
‘This is no joke. My head feels like it’s going to shatter.’
Plunging into light so brilliant it blinded his vision, he clenched his teeth against the overwhelming mental assault.
Chaos, like a nightmare of its own making, always twists and shows the saddest and most fearful memories.

“Logan, why don’t we go to the Acedia Kingdom together? I’ll pass down the Acedia title to you.”

His older brother, the Third Prince and former Duke Ortega, who had brought him to the kingdom to escape the constant threats and checks from his siblings due to his first-rate ability.

“Please look after Jeriel. As you know, my princess has much to do.”
“Love my nephew as dearly as I have loved you.”

The last image of him, seen through countless battles, never dulled and throbbed like an unhealable wound.
Now it ached even more painfully.

“Uncle, goodbye.”

The sight of Jeriel departing from the world and disappearing into shadow was so vivid it seemed to expose the fragments of a tragedy narrowly avoided.
Beyond the countless thoughts that disturbed his mind, what appeared was.
“…What?”
A hallucination of an entirely unexpected being emerged.
It was the image of Octavia, kneeling with her hands placed neatly on her knees, smiling.

“Logan.”

She called my name in that characteristic gentle voice, and my breath caught as though I were moments from suffocation.
Unlike her usual preference for fine fabrics, she wore a cheap white cotton dress, and one sleeve of her modestly folded hands hung empty.

“…Furthermore, she conspired with the Chaos Forces, murdered Prince Jeriel, unleashed a calamity that claimed innocent citizens and key state officials including Logan Ortega Duke, bringing them all to their deaths.”

A solemn voice reading a verdict echoed from somewhere.
The words made no sense—that Octavia had killed the Prince, caused the calamity, and brought about my death.

“Therefore, we sentence Octavia Ludovisi to death.”

Her head, which had worn a serene smile, slowly tilted backward.
A crimson line traced across her pale, slender neck, and blood-red roses bloomed in chaotic profusion.
The sight of platinum hair mingling with scarlet petals resembled both an ecstatic death and the final moment of a condemned criminal beneath the guillotine.
It evoked the roses from the Royal Palace that I had once told her to break freely from their stems.
I remained on my knees, staring at her.
My eyes darkened as I beheld her—where her head should have been, a bouquet of crimson roses now rested.
It resembled a vase shaped like a human form, crafted by someone with deranged tastes, filled with roses in place of flesh.
“What is….”
I could not fathom why Chaos would show me such a thing.
Setting aside that this was a vision I had never witnessed before, her death should not have possessed the power to shatter my mind.
She was neither a lover nor family—no one truly precious to me.
Yet despite being nothing more than a hallucination conjured by Chaos, it felt as horrifying as a trauma I would carry for a lifetime.
“Duke Ortega! Danger!”
At Ewain’s cry, the surroundings darkened in an instant.
Seeing light converge at the Gate entrance, I hastily shifted to an intermediate coordinate.
Boom—!
Lying on my back against the earth, I gazed at the sky where light exploded like fireworks and wondered.
‘Why does it feel as though I’ve lived through this before?’
Thud.
Ewain, rushing over at full speed, caught me as I fell helplessly.
“Are you unharmed? What disorder did you witness inside that has left you in such a state?”
I slowly blinked my eyes, which had returned to their coral hue.
The aftereffects of the mental assault left me too dazed to even register that I was being cradled like a princess by the muscular knight.
My lips, which had remained sealed in a daze, finally parted.
“Octavia was executed.”
I exhaled a long breath and covered my face with one hand.
“I feel… like hell.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————