I’m Trying to End This Possession Chapter 171

Ignis got up. And the shadows with holes through their stomachs were also rising to their feet. They were truly disgusting creatures. Dressed entirely in black, their faces were hidden, and they wouldn’t die even if their limbs were torn and their stomachs pierced. They were just like real shadows, no, just like Ignis himself.

 

There must be a weakness. There should be. So he had to find it. Their weakness… what could be his own self weakness?

 

“Ignis…”

 

At that moment, a voice called out to him, like a ghost sobbing.

 

“Ignis.”

 

Someone was stumbling toward him, parting the reeds. As they came close enough for Ignis to see their face, a chill swept over him. Disheveled platinum blond hair. A man whose face was a mess with tear stains. It was Carl Windsor.

 

“Where’s Dana?” He staggered closer, seemingly oblivious to the surrounding shadows. “Ignis, where’s Dana?”

 

“…”

 

“Is Dana really angry?”

 

“…”

 

“Does she dislike me?”

 

“…”

 

“Does she hate me?”

 

Is he insane?

 

At that moment, one of the shadows lunged at him. Carl, his eyes brimming with tears, reached out and grabbed the shadow’s head. Instantly, the shadow’s head was crushed in his grasp, as if it exploded. The shadow with the shattered head died. As it fell, Carl wiped the blood that had splattered on his cheek.

 

“You haven’t got all your memories back yet, have you? The weakness is the head. Destroy the head, Ignis.” Then again, Carl grabbed another charging shadow by the head and smashed it. “I told you something, so tell me something too. Is Dana really angry?”

 

Dana. Ignis gritted his teeth. Right, Dana. He immediately turned around. Whatever those shadows were, those wretched things, he left them to Carl Windsor. It may have looked pathetic to flee, but that didn’t matter.

 

Dana was alone right now. She was in danger.

 

* * *

At this very moment, Raios felt almost relieved. Truly. It was because Dana was looking at him with eyes full of hatred. That meant she had remembered her past life. The memories of when he had treated her so cruelly. So now, he no longer had to try to look good in front of her. In other words, he could do as he pleased now.

 

“I admit I’ve been acting like a child all this time.” Perhaps that’s why Raios felt more at ease. He could speak gently, as if consoling her. “Dana, you must have been hurt by Allice too. I understand that feeling better than anyone. I’ve felt the same pain.” The pain you gave me. He added inwardly, smiling. “I’m sorry, but I can’t break up with Allice, Dana. Allice is…”

 

Raios stopped talking. He didn’t plan to spill everything. So, he just stated the conclusion. “You should meet someone else too.”

 

It was a problem he’d been agonizing over ever since their engagement was broken off.

 

“If you really can’t stand Allice, then meet another man and take it out on me. I can endure at least that much.” It took so much conflict to be able to say this. But in the end, Raios summoned the courage and made up his mind. “It doesn’t matter who. If you want, I’ll even acknowledge Rumie.” He decided to accept that b*stard. “But meet him in secret like a rat. Just don’t let me see it.”

 

There was no response. Dana seemed absent-minded, like her soul had left her.

 

Raios threw in a word as if in passing. “How about coming to that arrangement, Dana? I don’t want to act like before anymore.”

 

Like before. At those words, Dana looked at him in terror, like a lamb cornered. Her face was forlorn and pitiful, but he felt no sympathy. On the contrary, a strange thrill rose up, and his lower body throbbed. He liked that expression on Dana’s face. That look when she was driven to the edge and had to beg for only his mercy.

 

Raios wanted to make her even more desperate. To give her even more pain. To stain that pure face with tears. To humiliate her and ruin her completely. He wanted to make her cling to his feet, pleading and begging. Just like before, as he said. Like that time when all she could do was beg him not to do this.

 

His lips grew dry with twisted desire. Raios rubbed his face to calm the heat surging inside him. “Hurry up and decide, Dana.”

 

Raios loved Dana deeply, but he also hated her just as deeply. Sometimes, it felt like all of this was just hatred.

 

“I love you, Raios.”

 

“Can you promise? Swear you’ll love only me, forever.”

 

“Of course. I swear to God. You’re the only one for me.”

 

Because Dana was the woman who broke her promise to him.

 

“Stop it, Raios! I told you I love Rumie now!”

 

The same woman who betrayed him and changed her heart.

 

“Please, I beg you, stop acting like a child. I’m sick and tired of this, Raios. Honestly, the way you keep doing this… It’s really creepy and makes me nauseated.”

 

Every time that woman was revered as a saintess, it made him sick. He felt like he was going to throw up. A saintess? Don’t make me laugh. She was a witch. A liar, fickle, and a traitor with no loyalty. So, he could act like a demon too. Just as Dana had cruelly trampled him, he could do the same.

 

“Hurry up and decide, Dana. If you don’t, I will.”

 

Either way was fine with Raios. No, in fact, he wished Dana would reject him entirely and refuse him to the end. Then he really would go back to how he was before.

 

Last time, Raios had been too soft. He was so shocked when Dana pointed a gun at her own head and ended up swayed away by the situation too easily. Thinking about it now, that shouldn’t have been possible.

 

Dana would never kill herself. She was a woman with a hidden blade beneath her gentle, soft face. She would survive to the end, even if it meant aiming a gun at his head, but she’d never do something like commit suicide. But last time, he was so shocked and scared that he acted in a panic. Raios had no intention of making the same mistake twice.

 

“I told you to hurry and decide.”

 

Dana didn’t answer. She just stared blankly up at Raios. In truth, Dana wasn’t listening to a word he said.

 

The sun is rising… At last, the sun had come up. And she had a holy relic in her pocket. But Raios’s eyes were watching her every move. There were no openings. If she suddenly reached into her pocket now, it would look suspicious.

 

Did Raios know about the relic? Maybe he does. If he found out, he would take it away. So she couldn’t let him find out. Never.

 

I need an opening… Even just for a moment—if she could just get one chance. If only Ignis would return.

 

“Hey!”

 

At that moment, Dana turned as if seized by a sense of salvation. Ignis, covered in blood, was running toward her.

 

“Ig…!” The moment she tried to call his name in relief, Dana’s eyes widened. “Stop!” She shouted as if screaming, and Ignis came to a sudden halt.

 

Dana hurriedly looked down at the ground.

 

“!”

 

It wasn’t her imagination.

 

Something dark, black, was slowly spreading over the ground like a wave. This was—It’s getting corrupted. The land slowly turned to rotten land.

 

Dana slowly turned her head in the opposite direction of the spreading corruption. To where the rotten land began. Beneath the shoes of a man…

 

“Raios.”

 

She couldn’t believe it.

 

“Raios.”

 

Then Raios looked down at her. He smiled. “Why?” He asked, so gently it was chilling. “What’s wrong?”

 

Dana’s fingertips trembled. Beyond Raios’s smiling face, the forest, the trees, and the undergrowth were all rotting black, dying. The corruption started from Raios. From beneath his feet, at his will.

 

“How…”

 

Raios was making the land rot.

 

“Is this what you’re doing?”

 

Dana could tell. With every breath Raios took, destruction spread. It was his power.

 

“Isn’t it romantic?” Raios spread his arms and spoke with relish. “I corrupt, you purify… Don’t you think we make a perfect pair?”

 

“…”

 

“Like the sun and moon, you and I are fated to be bound together, Dana.”

 

At that moment, realization struck her. So this was it. The supernatural power Raios was said not to have—it was this. Rotting the land. Decaying life. Destroying existence. Of course, he would have to keep it hidden. His power was evil—pure evil.

 

“Lord Ignis.”

 

Wisely, Ignis sensed the danger and stepped back out of the corrupted area.

 

“Lord Ignis, run…” If he touched this, he would die. Dana shook her head at Ignis. “Run. Hurry.” Then she grabbed Raios’s ankle, desperately trying to stop him.

 

“What’s wrong, Dana?” Raios tilted his head, looked at her face as if admiring it, and licked his dry lips. He whispered, almost savoring her. “Should I stop?”

 

Insane b*stard… Instead of answering, Dana quickly placed her hand on the ground. When she drew out her power of purification, the earth turned pure white. For a moment, it looked as if the land was clean and clear.

 

“I’m asking you, Dana.”

 

Then it turned filthy again. No matter how much she purified, the corruption kept spreading. Because the source—the endless, rotten spring—was right in front of her.

 

“Should I stop?”

 

Dana looked up at Raios, eyes filled with horror. Raios knelt on one knee, meeting her gaze. He reached out and grabbed Dana’s chin, lifting it.

 

“Then tell me you love me. If you do, I’ll stop here.” Raios smiled brightly. It was the innocent smile of the boy she had once loved so much. “And say you’ll marry me, sleep with me, bear my child, and live with me forever.”

 

Just thinking about it made her want to vomit. Dana spoke in a trembling voice. “You’re crazy, Raios.”

 

“I told you before, I’m not crazy.” He whispered softly, stroking Dana’s cheek. Pressing his thumb against her lower lip, he parted it. “I’m in love.”

 

As he leaned in to kiss her—Thunk. There was a sound as something fell. The warmth crawling across her cheek like a bug disappeared in an instant. And then, something hot—a metallic liquid—splattered onto her cheek.

 

Dana looked down. Raios’s hand was there. The hand that had just caressed her face. Severed at the forearm, fallen on the blackened, corrupted ground, spattering blood…

 

“…!”

 

Raios let out a low groan and drew back. His hand to his arm had been severed in an instant!