The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 209

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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 209

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It felt like being swept away by rapids.

She was shaken violently, unable to distinguish up from down, left from right. Amid the nauseating dizziness, colorful lights flashed endlessly before her eyes. She couldn’t see anything properly. Her ears were filled with all kinds of noise, making it impossible to distinguish any sound.

Then suddenly, all those sensations disappeared.

Cold, damp earth touched her hands and cheek. Air so cold it was almost freezing pierced into her nostrils.

Lillieta pressed her hands against the dirt ground, raised her head, and vomited.

“Ugh.”

Murky water dripped down. Her throat burned with a bitter taste.

She wiped her mouth and blinked her eyes. Her blurry vision barely came into focus. Her entire body ached as if she’d been beaten.

‘Just now, what happened…?’

Unable to continue her thoughts, she instinctively rolled across the ground. A massive front paw covered in thorns slammed down with a thud where she had been lying just moments before.

Rita sat slumped on the ice-cold ground and looked up.

From a dizzying height, the Black Dragon was looking down at her with all its thorns bristling.

The blood that had been flowing from its empty eye sockets had stopped at some point. Instead, corrupted magic power like black smoke was rising from those holes like chimneys.

‘Has the rampage gotten worse?’

Because of me? From seeing me?

A sharp, stinging sensation pierced her chest like thorns. Though it wasn’t actual physical pain, it felt more vivid than reality.

She swallowed that sensation and opened her mouth.

“Gid!”

She raised her voice to call him. Freezing cold air filled her wide-open mouth, and white breath puffed out along with her voice. Only then did Rita notice the scenery spread around the Black Dragon.

‘Snow…?’

The entire world was white.

The surrounding trees were draped in pure white snow like coats. The ground where she sat was piled with white snow like cream. She could feel the bitter cold.

‘But it’s July right now?’

Only mountain peaks of the White Mountains would have snow that doesn’t melt regardless of season. No matter how much this was the northern edge of the Black Forest, this much snow couldn’t accumulate in midsummer.

This was absolutely not July weather. Had Pascal used some magic that caused weather anomalies?

She remembered the star exploding and being caught up in that light. Or maybe, or maybe perhaps.

Her thoughts stopped at that point.

She felt ominous heat from above her head. Black flames were gathering in the mouth of the Black Dragon that had been looking down at her.

She reflexively rolled away. After tumbling through the snow and barely getting to her feet, black flames struck directly where she had been sitting. The accumulated snow melted away in an instant.

‘It got warmer.’

Rita let out a hollow laugh and straightened her posture.

She felt the texture of Silvergrass in her right hand. It seemed she hadn’t let go of her gun even while being shaken around like that.

‘I don’t have much Oath left.’

She had used a lot of Oath while breaking through the Black Forest, and used chunks of it when making bait. Then she had performed the feat of rapid-firing magic bullets at Pascal, shooting explosive rounds, and even ricochet shooting with defensive rounds, plus she had used harpoon rounds several times with form processing, which was still harder for her than nature processing despite practice.

She was quite exhausted. Moreover, being caught in the explosion seemed to have shocked her somehow, making her nauseous and causing pain throughout her body. In many ways, she was in poor condition.

Her Oath would recover if she rested a bit, but it didn’t seem like she’d have that luxury.

The black flames stopped.

The Black Dragon, realizing she had dodged, moved its head. Corrupted magic power billowing from its eye sockets scattered in the air like smoke.

Rita stood straight, loading magic bullets into the empty chamber while shouting loudly.

“Gid, don’t you recognize me?”

The Black Dragon didn’t answer. Instead of an answer, what came was a massive claw. The dragon’s front paw with thorns bristling struck down toward her. It felt like a roof was collapsing down on her.

[Casting: Applying enhancement magic to user’s legs.]

She heard the quick-witted artificial spirit’s voice. Rita kicked off the snow with her enhanced legs and leaped to the side.

The dragon’s front paw slammed down with a thud where she had been. She twisted her running body and fired a magic bullet at that front paw. It hit accurately, but the dragon wasn’t particularly damaged.

‘I’d need at least an explosive round to leave a scratch.’

Rita wasn’t flustered since she had expected this. She didn’t want to hurt him—Gideon—in the first place anyway.

Groooooo.

Still, it must have stung a bit, as the dragon made an angry roar and looked down at her. Corrupted magic power surged and began flowing from him to fill the surroundings.

Rita drew up her Oath to resist the rising corruption and looked up at the towering Black Dragon.

‘…This reminds me of the old days.’

When Gid Pascal went on a rampage.

It was the winter when she was twenty. A period when the drawn-out, agonizing war with the Commander’s Demon Army covered the entire Last Line of Defense.

Rita had participated in an operation to recapture Block 9, which had been occupied by the monster army, bringing along Luca who was still inexperienced.

If Block 9 was breached, the water source supplying the Last Line of Defense would be contaminated. It was a place they absolutely couldn’t afford to lose, but there were no fronts with spare capacity. All the other places were also locations they couldn’t afford to lose.

She and Luca were the last reinforcements.

There was a siege tower that was originally meant to be used for the recapture operation but had become isolated when the monster army swarmed in. Rita rode on Luca and sniped the Command Unit, then drove the rampaging monster army and shot Twilight from atop that tower.

Thanks to that, a large number of monsters were eliminated, but many survived, and she suffered seizures as the price for shooting Twilight with a body that had poor Oath compatibility.

Luca carried the unconscious Rita on his back and desperately fled from the monsters, but in his panic and confusion, he ended up fleeing in the wrong direction—toward the Demonic Army Camp beyond the Last Line of Defense, opposite from the Defense Force.

The Defense Force, barely able to breathe thanks to their achievements, successfully recaptured Block 9 riding that momentum, but Rita and Luca went missing from the battlefield.

Ethan, who arrived late, found Luca and Rita hiding in ruins after a search, and Sera, who came with Ethan, immediately treated Rita.

After that, when Rita woke up in her sickbed, what she heard was news that Gid Pascal had gone on a rampage.

Upon hearing that she and Luca had gone missing in the Demonic Army Camp beyond the Last Line of Defense, he had advanced alone, suppressing monsters while overusing his still-clumsy Domain Control, eventually entering a rampage state due to Oath overuse.

Thanks to his reckless advance, Ethan was able to infiltrate the monster camp and rescue Rita and Luca.

While Rita was receiving treatment, Ethan, Luca, Oli, and Is worked together to try to calm down Gid.

As soon as Rita woke up, she heard from Sera that the squad members were confronting the rampaging Gid.

Rampage is a race against time. If left alone, one burns even their own life force as Oath and dies.

Rita immediately went to where Gid was rampaging.

Everyone except Oli, who was providing support from the rear, was already battered. They said they couldn’t possibly stop Gid and should just give up.

Rita Pascal didn’t listen to those words. She pushed away her friends who tried to stop her and stepped into the domain where Gid Pascal was rampaging.

She broke through the crushing force pressing from all sides—the Domain Control he was overusing without restraint—with her bare body. She intercepted the debris flying at her, caught up in the storm-like swirling Oath, one by one as she reached Gid.

And she shot him without warning as he was attacking everything with blood streaming down his entire face and unfocused eyes.

Of course, not in the head, but toward his right arm.

Only then did he recognize her presence.

He reflexively attacked her. When Gid pounced and pinned her down, Rita instead let go of her gun. She completely dropped her defensive stance and went limp, offering her entire body defenseless.

His Oath clawed at her. Even then, Rita twisted her body to avoid fatal wounds but didn’t resist. She remained defenseless, taking the hits while extending her blood-soaked hand to him and calling his name.

Then Gid Pascal stopped. He stared blankly at the blood flowing from her while his sword remained frozen mid-strike, and focus returned to his eyes.

The rampage stopped.

The years and trust built between them had stopped him.

After that, Gid went crazy in a different sense, but since the result was good, Rita was satisfied.

Anyway, everyone survived safely. Since no one was permanently disabled, injuries could be healed with treatment.

Gid Pascal nearly lost his mind at her attitude but ultimately couldn’t say anything.

It was true that he had nearly died from rampaging, true that he had beaten his squad members half to death with his own hands, and true that he had barely regained his senses thanks to Rita, so there was no way he could have anything to say.

Reflecting on that past, the present Lillieta thought.

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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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