The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 191

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

Chapter 191

Lavinia, who had been struggling behind Richard and Lindsey trying to create something resembling a matan, turned her head at the commotion echoing from behind and saw the corpse of a guard with blood fountaining from his neck like a geyser and a goat-headed demon beast chewing on his head with wet, grinding sounds.

Beside it, another freshly corrupted demon beast was rising to its feet. Behind them, other demon beasts that had climbed through the windows came swarming in. The guards’ blood splattered everywhere.

The desperate screams of people inside the barricade and the horrific roars of the demon beasts pierced their ears, while the stench of blood and foul odors assaulted their noses.

Lavinia trembled.

It was hell. Or perhaps a nightmare.

She came to a new realization. The world was not a fairy tale, and courage alone could not solve everything.

Still, she couldn’t just collapse here.

No matter how afraid she was, she had to be brave, because she had sworn an oath just moments ago.

She imitated Lillieta’s movements, loading her first processed matan into her revolver and aiming at the goat-headed beast that was chewing on the guard’s head while reaching its hands toward the barricade.

Bang! With the echoing gunshot, a pink trajectory cut through the air.

The matan pierced through the demon beast’s head. The creature that had been trying to tear at the barricade collapsed on the spot.

“I got it…”

Lavinia muttered with her shoulders shaking, then trailed off. Her light green eyes widened in shock.

The demon beast beside the goat-headed one—with blade-like protrusions growing from its back like a mane and an extra pair of arms on each side—turned to look at the human who had fired the shot.

Wearing the crushed armor of a guard, it bent its waist like a horse and crawled toward her like an insect with six limbs. No, it charged like a chariot pulled by six horses.

Lavinia tried to create a new matan with trembling hands. She failed. She couldn’t concentrate.

What should I do?

A shadow fell over her.

Am I going to die like this?

“Get out of the way!”

Richard shouted and roughly pushed her aside. He raised his sword and stabbed into the mouth of the charging demon beast. The beast spat blood but couldn’t stop its charging momentum and struck him.

“—!”

Unable to even let out a groan, Richard’s body was sent flying backward after being hit by the demon beast. As he felt the shock of his internal organs being shaken, he soon felt the pain of his back being pierced.

A Card Soldier’s spear in the direction he was thrown had penetrated through him.

“Richard!”

Leonhardt screamed his name in anguish, Lavinia who had been sitting frozen in terror suddenly jumped up, and behind her, a demon beast that had entered through the window raised its front paws.

Lindsey, who had been guarding the door, turned in surprise toward Richard, and the demon beast she had been fighting extended its claws toward her now defenseless side.

Just as those blade-like long claws were about to strike.

A golden trajectory suddenly appeared and pierced through it, continuing forward to penetrate the head of the Card Soldier that had impaled Richard, then exploded the head of the demon beast behind Lavinia.

Instead of looking back at the explosion that occurred behind her, Lavinia looked in the direction where the golden trajectory had originated.

Above the heads of the disgustingly gathered demon beasts, moonlight was pouring down onto the fortress wall overlooking the Royal Guard Training Grounds.

Brilliant blonde hair reflected that light. Torn dress hems and lace ribbons fluttered like jellyfish in the night sky.

Her face wasn’t clearly visible. In the backlit silhouette, only angry purple eyes and a silver gun barrel gleamed brightly.

Lavinia called out to her with tears in her voice.

“Teacher Rita!”

* * *

‘If I had been even a little later, it would have been a disaster.’

Lillieta breathed heavily.

She could see Richard’s shoulders moving as he was pierced by the Card Soldier’s spear.

He was still alive. She wasn’t too late.

Lindsey, who had nearly suffered serious injury, finally came to her senses and ran to Richard. She pushed away the dead Card Soldier, lifted Richard onto her back, and ran indoors.

She could see Leonhardt rushing out in a panic, and Duke Raskail and his wife rising in horror from behind the barricade.

Near them, Lavinia was looking up at her with tears in her eyes. The girl who always dressed up prettily like a doll was now a mess of dust, sweat, and blood.

It really had been close to disaster.

Anger rose over her troubled heart.

Rita steadied her breathing and looked down at the hundred or so demon beasts gathered in front of the Royal Guard Training Grounds.

She felt momentarily dizzy looking at the creatures that showed signs of once being human, but quickly steeled herself.

Those things covered in human flesh and blood were different from Gid. He hadn’t hurt anyone yet.

Gritting her teeth, she spoke quietly.

“Grace, assist with trajectory calculations.”

[Confirmed: Activating trajectory calculation assistance function.]

Small butterflies rose from Silver Grace. They quickly scattered in all directions, and soon the structure and layout of the Royal Guard Training Grounds interior was drawn in the air with golden lines.

Lillieta compared that three-dimensional blueprint with the indoor situation she sensed through her expanded awareness. The positions of living people and the movements of living demon beasts.

The calculation was instantaneous. She raised her voice, infusing it with an Oath.

“Everyone stay where you are and don’t move!”

The moment people froze at the voice that echoed across the battlefield, she immediately fired. Rapid shots. Over ten matans were fired in different directions.

A bullet that hit the window frame of the building ricocheted exquisitely to pierce two demon beasts that were just climbing through the window in succession. A matan that passed between the people guarding the door hit the floor, then bounced upward to penetrate three demon beasts that had been approaching from behind the Oathbinders. A bullet that entered through the window and hit an iron armor statue piece that formed part of the barricade penetrated two demon beasts clinging to the barricade.

Precisely designed ricochet shooting.

People were stunned watching bullets from unknown origins skillfully avoid them and hit only the demon beasts.

[Admiration: Even better than before, user. Truly impossible accuracy.]

Lillieta let Grace’s admiration go in one ear and out the other as she prepared the next bullet. Red light gathering at the gun barrel’s tip.

Sensing the tremendous Oath energy gathering, the demon beasts began turning their gazes toward her one by one. Instead of looking at the humans before them, they turned around.

The hundred or so demon beasts suddenly stopped their offensive. Strange eyes looked up at what they recognized as ‘dangerous.’

A sunset bloomed beneath the night sky. At the center of the spreading red energy, a small sun blazed white at the gun barrel’s tip.

The demon beasts instinctively realized they had to stop that thing. If they didn’t stop it, they would die. They all began turning around and charging toward the fortress wall.

Rita confirmed the demon beasts were swarming toward her and shouted.

“Lindsey! Take the people and get inside!”

Lindsey, soaked in Richard’s blood, heard her cry and hurriedly pulled the Oathbinders who had been guarding the door. The injured people retreated indoors in bewilderment.

The demon beasts that had entered the training grounds were all dead by now. The creatures that had been swarming and clinging to the window frames were all frantically running toward the fortress wall.

Through the broken door, through the shattered glass windows, people saw the sunset rising from atop the fortress wall.

Such intense red light that one might mistake it for the sun rising at the end of a long night.

The golden sun that had been wrapped in that redness fell with a thunderous sound. Trailing twilight like a curtain, downward toward the countless demon beasts climbing up the fortress wall by stepping on each other’s bodies to form stairs.

Various eyes clinging to the fortress wall each reflected the sun. The hundred or so suns reflected in their pupils gradually grew larger. Soon those eyes were filled with red and golden light.

The light exploded.

Terrible heat came first. Then, with a rumbling sound like an earthquake, smoke rose like a volcano from the center of the demon beasts.

The fortress wall shook and began collapsing, unable to withstand the impact delivered below. Gray-white bricks fell and covered the demon beasts caught in the explosion like a tomb.

Lillieta had left that spot immediately upon firing, so she wasn’t swept away by the collapsing fortress wall.

Before impact, she kicked off the fortress wall and leaped to another location away from where the demon beasts had gathered, firing two bullets with quick hand movements.

One shot toward the entrance of the training grounds, the other toward where she was landing.

Simultaneously with smoke rising like clouds, golden light burst like fireworks at those two locations. They were defensive rounds. The hellishly hot blast that soon rushed in was blocked by the defensive rounds.

After landing behind the temporarily created barrier, Lillieta immediately moved her gun barrel. She fired defensive rounds again in front of her and at the training ground entrance.

Following the first explosion, a second explosion occurred due to demon beasts with special characteristics such as fire-manipulating abilities or flammable oils in their bodies.

With an ear-numbing explosion, flames shot up to the sky this time. The bricks from the collapsing fortress wall bounced up like grain dropped into boiling oil.

The surroundings momentarily became as bright as midday. The exploded flames spread in ripples carried by smoke and wind.

Thanks to the defensive rounds that Lillieta, having already experienced cases of secondary explosions, immediately fired again, people were able to watch the entire spectacle through the golden barrier without being burned by those flames.

The Captain of the Guard unconsciously let out a groan mixed with shock.

“What in the world is that…”

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