Odely seemed completely unaffected by the evil energy.
For a moment, everyone held their breath at the unbelievable sight, and then a faint light began to spread from her fingertips.
The purifying energy that canceled out the evil energy.
The Cardel family called the ‘energy’ at its source ‘purification power.’
Purification was fundamentally different from simple healing or blessing.
It was neither a power borrowed from a god like ‘divine power,’ nor a force forcibly drawn from nature like ‘mana.’
‘Purification power’ was the power to restore the world.
Much like nature’s own process of purification.
Just as polluted water slowly flows and flows until it eventually becomes clear and clean again.
It was a power that returned a corrupted world to its original state.
As purification power spread from Odely’s body, the thick, murky evil energy that had been swirling around was gradually pushed back in the opposite direction.
Her ability was quiet yet overwhelming.
The evil energy gradually peeled away like scales before evaporating into the air without a trace.
It had been ‘purified.’
The air became clear.
The oppressive energy that had been weighing heavily over the area slowly disappeared like mist.
The ends of Odely’s silver hair fluttered lightly.
With her eyes closed, she quietly drew in a breath, and the last remaining trace of evil energy gently scattered from her fingertips.
Only then did the soldiers, who had been staring blankly at the scene, begin to come to their senses one by one.
“W-What in the world is happening? What did you do?”
“You only raised your hand, and the evil energy retreated…….”
“No, wasn’t it avoiding the Young Lady from the very beginning?”
“As expected of the Cardel family. The descendants of dragons…….”
Everyone began murmuring about her mysterious power, their words filled with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and amazement.
“…….”
Odely slowly wrapped her trembling fingers around her hand.
She quietly hid it behind her back so no one would see.
She felt like something might rise up inside her, but this much was fine.
She swallowed it down and raised her head again with a calm expression, as though nothing had happened.
Meanwhile, a growing sense of danger spread among the soldiers.
“It doesn’t seem like the evil energy simply leaked out by chance.”
“That’s right. It didn’t just reach this level. It spread. Almost as if something had gone berserk inside…….”
Their expressions gradually hardened.
“If the Young Lady hadn’t suppressed it, this entire force would have been consumed by the evil energy.”
“This has never happened before. If it’s this bad out here, I wonder how serious the situation is inside…….”
“We need to find out immediately!”
When the soldiers tried to recklessly enter the forest, Odely quietly raised her hand and stopped them.
“Stop. If you enter the forest, you’ll be exposed to the evil energy again.”
Her voice was firm yet calm.
“I’ll enter alone.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“I’m not affected by the evil energy. You clearly saw that.”
“That may be true…… But even so, we can’t allow that! There are monsters in the forest!”
“No.”
Odely shook her head.
As the soldiers desperately tried to stop her, she took another step forward and focused on the presence within the forest.
It was strangely quiet.
There were none of the eerie cries unique to monsters, nor the heavy, clattering sounds of their footsteps.
It was as if no life existed inside.
“It seems His Highness has killed every monster in the forest.”
As Odely calmly continued speaking, the soldiers finally made expressions as if they had just realized something.
“Now that you mention it…… I really can’t hear any monsters anymore.”
“Then where did that evil energy come from?”
“Did it come from the monsters’ corpses?”
“If so, it shouldn’t have spread all the way outside the forest…… Then again, there must be mountains of monster corpses in there, so I suppose it’s possible.”
Listening to the soldiers’ conversation, Odely narrowed her eyes.
A chill ran down her spine.
Something was wrong.
More precisely, someone was going wrong.
‘……This isn’t evil energy coming from the dead corpses.’
It was continuing to appear.
Right now.
In real time.
‘Ah, no way…….’
Odely quickly searched through Ludville’s memories and realized it too late.
‘Was his body unable to withstand being exposed to such a powerful concentration of evil energy in such a short period of time? He must have already accumulated a great deal of it, so perhaps he exceeded his limit.’
The blood of monsters, their breath, and so on.
Everything that made up a monster contained evil energy.
For that reason, it was common knowledge to leave a certain amount of time between monster hunts.
But recently, Ludville had continued slaughtering monsters without taking any breaks.
He had even covered himself in the blood of hundreds of monsters, all by himself.
‘There’s no way Ludville doesn’t know that.’
Why would he do something like this?
If he continued absorbing evil energy, he would gradually lose his humanity, and the process of turning into a monster would begin.
There was no way he didn’t know that, so why……?
‘……No, wait.’
Odely suddenly remembered the most basic nature of evil energy.
Evil energy consumed human life and distorted the senses the more a person became addicted to it.
There was something strangely similar to the Normallin cigarettes Ludville smoked as a habit.
‘This man, could it be…….’
Had he become addicted to evil energy and deliberately come here to cover himself in monster blood?
‘Is that why he said that strange thing about needing to get blood on his hands regularly?’
She should have realized it as soon as she heard him say that!
“……Crazy man.”
Odely felt her head go numb.
Anger was rising all the way to the top of her head.
“Pardon?”
Elderick, who had heard Odely mutter, looked as though he briefly doubted his own ears.
But Odely was already consumed by her blazing anger, unable to see anything around her.
She mounted her horse and charged straight into the forest.
No one had time to stop her.
Before the soldiers could even shout in surprise, she had already disappeared into the darkness.
Elderick reacted a moment later, mounting his horse and immediately trying to enter the forest after her.
However…….
Hiiiiigh—!
The horse, terrified, suddenly threw its head back, lifted its hind legs, and stumbled backward.
It snorted violently as though absolutely refusing to enter the forest.
Elderick tried whipping and soothing the horse after seeing its strange behavior, but nothing worked.
Even when he pulled on the reins and turned his body, the horse remained firmly rooted to the spot.
“……Damn it.”
Elderick gritted his teeth and let go of the reins.
Then he jumped off the horse and reached for the sword at his waist.
“Dismount! We’re going in on foot!”
Elderick’s shout rang out through the fierce snowstorm.
The knights hesitated for a moment when they heard him, but soon they began checking their weapons in perfect order.
No one knew exactly what was happening inside the forest.
But the horse’s reaction alone was enough to tell them that something was seriously wrong.
Even so, they had to go in.
Because their lord was in there.
Elderick led the way, and the soldiers followed behind him.
****
The forest was silent.
Monster corpses were scattered across the trampled ground.
Their blood was still warm, pooling heavily and seeping between the roots of the trees.
And in the middle of it all stood Ludville.
Evil energy was pouring from his entire body.
The presence he gave off as he caught his breath was clearly human, but…….
The energy leaking from his body was no longer entirely human.
And it was slowly consuming his true nature.
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