The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 135

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 135

Bang, a loud sound echoed through the air.

Since there was no longer any need to be careful not to wake people, it wasn’t a silent round. A golden trajectory cut across the dark garden and struck one of the countless eyes of the Mimic that had revealed its true form.

Using that gunshot as a signal flare, Lindsey ran frantically. From where they had been just moments before, or more precisely from the shadow of the garden tree that had been there, sharp black thorns shot up.

Lillieta extended her arm over Lindsey’s shoulder and fired continuously. Bang, bang, bang, with each successive gunshot, the Mimic’s eyes burst one by one.

Lindsey, who was supporting her, moved constantly without stopping. In the shadows of every path they passed, black thorns sprouted like spears before subsiding.

Rita occasionally turned her muzzle to aim at their feet while lightly tapping Lindsey’s shoulder. Then she would immediately close her eyes, and without fail, a flash grenade would explode, reducing the shadows. The thorns that had nearly pierced through Lindsey’s feet were pushed back by the light and faded away.

Grrrowl, a sound like a beast’s growl or gentle thunder echoed under the night sky. It was the sound the Mimic made in anger at the humans who were annoyingly running around at its feet, constantly bursting its eyeballs, as it towered high enough to pierce the sky.

Even amid that eerie sound, the gunshots didn’t stop. Even as her vision and arms swayed wildly while riding on the lightning mage’s shoulder, the mage gunner’s aim was precise.

Every golden trajectory pierced through branches that fluttered like wind-blown hair and countless flailing shadow hands to achieve its exact purpose.

‘I need to burst all the eyes.’

The Mimic’s core was hidden among those countless eyeballs. Only by destroying that could the monster die. In the past, not knowing this, she had struggled against the continuously regenerating creature.

‘The Mimic’s core doesn’t blink because it’s not a real eye.’

If she observed calmly, she could find the non-blinking core among those hundreds of eyes, but Rita didn’t have that luxury right now.

There was no Luca or Gid to block attacks from the front and buy time, and no Ethan or Is to draw attention so the Mimic wouldn’t escape or target other people while she searched for the core.

‘There’s no Oli to safely isolate the battlefield either. Right now, I have no choice but to focus the Mimic’s attention on us while shooting all the eyes.’

The question was whether Lindsey’s stamina would hold out until then. Of course, she had prepared backup plans and alternatives for that.

[Ah, Miss, I’m sorry, I don’t know! There are too, too many, and it’s dark, and they keep writhing…]

Hanna, one of the alternatives, sent a tearful communication. After Rita had jumped down, Hanna remained alone on the dome roof, watching the Mimic and searching for the core.

“It’s okay, Hanna. Even if you can’t find it, we’ll finish once we burst them all, so don’t feel too pressured.”

[Yes, yes…]

If Hanna could find the non-blinking eye from the roof and inform them via communication, the situation would end immediately. If successful, it would actually become the best plan rather than an alternative.

‘But finding that thing’s core in this situation with ordinary human eyesight isn’t easy.’

The probability was too low. So the basic goal was to burst all the eyes. The backup plan for Lindsey’s stamina not being able to hold out until then was…

“Persuasion’s done, switching!”

Richard, who had been stopping people awakened by the explosion from coming out of the manor and had locked the garden-side door, shouted. Lindsey ran toward where he was standing. Rita aimed her muzzle at the ground between them and shouted.

“Close your eyes!”

As soon as Richard closed his eyes, she pulled the trigger. A flash grenade exploded between Lindsey and Richard, reducing the shadows. The thorns that had been constantly shooting up to target them hesitated.

In that gap, Rita moved from Lindsey to Richard. She sat across his thick arms and leaned her upper body against his broad shoulders.

Having changed into holy knight armor while preparing the battlefield according to the plan, his figure gleamed silver-white in the darkness. As she rested her arms on the smooth iron plate covering his shoulders, engraved with wing patterns, Rita muttered.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in armor, brother.”

“What, do I look cool all of a sudden?”

“No, it’s been so long that I’m worried you might not be able to handle the armor’s weight since you’ve gotten weak.”

“Hey, you—”

“Run!”

Richard, who was about to grumble, immediately moved his feet at her signal.

Rita continued to burst the Mimic’s eyeballs to prevent its gaze from focusing on Lindsey, who was gasping and collapsing.

Meanwhile, Richard raced through the garden while holding her. He ran along the gravel paths between the hedge maze and crossed the lawn.

The Raskail family members clinging to the manor’s windows stared down in amazement at the surreal chase unfolding in the garden.

A red-haired knight ran while holding a blonde woman in a torn, fluttering negligee with a cloak over it. The black cloak fluttered behind the silver-white armor like the Black Dragon’s Wing, living up to its name. Her long blonde hair was tightly bound and swayed like a golden tail.

Black thorns followed closely behind them like footprints. Gunshots continued like rainfall, and shining trajectories connected them with the monster. Intermittent white light exploded, driving away the shadows.

The spectacle was so magnificent that it was hard to believe it was a battle, and most watched in entranced admiration, but to the Duke and Duchess, they could only see their daughter and son in precarious danger. They held each other with bated breath.

Rita covered the overheated, hot barrel with coldly processed Oaths and thought.

‘It should be getting angry about now.’

Her gaze moved upward. The Mimic, which had been standing tall like a tree rooted in the warehouse, only shooting thorns, was finally rising.

Writhing shadow roots burst out, collapsing the old warehouse, and stepped on the earth like a giant’s feet.

The well-maintained grass was crushed and torn up, revealing the bare soil beneath. The monster covered in eyeballs and shadows dragged its feet, leaving the garden wounded all over.

The massive thing bent down to look down at the humans fleeing like mice. The moon was obscured. Shadows fell over the silver-white armor and black cloak.

Branches that sprouted from the top of the monster like hair poured down over them like a waterfall. From the vast shadow created by the monster, thorns rose like spears.

“Stop, brother!”

Lillieta aimed her gun at Richard’s feet while simultaneously raising her opposite arm high. The black cloak spread like wings to cover them, and beneath it, a flash exploded.

The light drove away the thorns and the cloak blocked the branches. Richard’s arm came to support her arm, which had nearly buckled under the tremendous weight pressing down on the cloak.

‘The cloak is holding up better than expected. I won’t need to use defensive rounds. In that case…!’

With the arm that became free as he supported the cloak, Rita quickly pulled out ammunition she had prepared in her inner pocket and loaded it into her mage gun. It wasn’t a Matan made by processing Oaths, but a physical round.

One of the rounds she had commissioned from the workshop as a trial while planning training for the Tritoma Musketeers.

A second means to use when output restrictions were in place, following rapid fire.

‘Supplement the power using physical ammunition.’

She pulled and released the slide, then aimed with both hands gripping the gun. Toward the massive Mimic’s main body, glimpsed beneath the fluttering cloak.

Incendiary Munitions.

Rounds containing incendiary materials that create flames upon impact.

Normally, they wouldn’t have much power at pistol round size and would lack practicality, but with a mage gunner’s processing, they become as powerful as decent artillery shells.

‘With physical ammunition, I can concentrate the Oaths that would go into processing the round and gunpowder solely on adding incendiary materials.’

Boom, with a sound closer to a cannon than a pistol, the incendiary round was fired. Pure white flames erupted from the round embedded in the root moving like the Mimic’s foot. Fire that wouldn’t easily extinguish wrapped around and climbed the monster’s root.

A sound like thunder roaring echoed, and the branches that had been pressing down on them shot upward. Rita quickly shouted.

“Run, brother!”

“Rita.”

However, instead of moving, Richard called her in a low voice. At that moment, Rita saw a trickle of blood flowing over the silver-white armor covering his raised arm.

Her complexion turned pale. Richard lowered his arm.

One part of the cloak was torn. It was the section that had been scraped by teeth when previously shoved into the Mimic’s maw. A thin, sharp black branch like an awl had penetrated through that weakened point and was embedded in a gap in the armor.

“I tried not to use it, but when something got stuck, my aura activated out of habit.”

Ominous foam bubbled near where the branch was embedded. Richard continued speaking with trembling lips and a smile.

“This means… there’s no choice, right?”

Rita didn’t answer. There was no time to talk. She quickly reached out to dab the blood flowing down the armor, then grabbed his palm and drew the oath’s pattern.

The contingency plan she had explained when making the strategy. In the unlikely event of contamination by the monster, Richard would…

“This actually worked out well.”

Abandoning the dreams and aspirations he had held since age 13, the devout faith he had kept since childhood, the values built upon that, the identity as a holy knight of Shadea that he had barely been recovering, the goal of returning to the Order of the Holy Knights, and the lifelong beliefs and everything he had learned and practiced as a holy knight’s attitude.

“Now I don’t need to agonize over it.”

He had decided to follow only Lillieta’s words, believing her stories about magical contamination that he had never actually seen, and become an Oathbinder who had abandoned God.

“Rita, the promise to definitely return to the Order of the Holy Knights… I won’t be able to keep it.”

Looking down at the pattern she had drawn for him with a gentle smile, he placed his hand on his throat and began to recite the incantation.

“⟨Oaths, I make a vow.⟩”

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