Chapter 79
Sena turned her back on the dazed Eden and ran toward Bezel. The man, caught in her curse, did not dodge even as he watched her approach. Whatever feelings he was projecting onto her, all he did was curl his lips upward as if pleased she was drawing near.
“I’ll eat you and become human!”
Sena raised her claws and thrust her arm forward. It was a split second, enough that an ordinary human would have had their chest pierced before they knew what was happening. But to Bezel, a being of higher rank than her, it all looked as slow as a snail crawling along.
He calculated the appropriate distance and prepared to step back. Getting hurt was welcome, but he had no desire to be run through by a demon of merely this caliber.
He had no liver to give in the first place. Unlike humans, demons did not possess internal organs. What drove a demon was not a beating organ but overflowing malice. The blood flowing inside their bodies, and the outer shell wrapping that malice, were nothing more than a deception to mimic a living being.
‘This should be about right.’
Bezel took a step back and lowered his eyes. It was the moment he closed his eyelids completely, anticipating the pain to come.
“Ah…!”
A short cry rang out, and something lukewarm splattered across his face.
The liquid that wet his cold skin trickled down, leaving a sticky trail. At the unfamiliar sensation, Bezel lifted his lashes.
The first thing he saw was Sena’s face, now close to his. Her elegant features, befitting a demon who had seduced ninety-nine men and taken their livers, were twisted in dismay.
Dropping his gaze a little further, he saw two arms extended toward him. One was Sena’s arm aimed at his chest, and the other was….
“Ah, damn it. That hurts like hell.”
Eden’s arm. Her brow was furrowed tight as she cursed through gritted teeth.
Drip, drip.
Drops of blood soaking Eden’s hand bright red fell to the floor. Embedded in her palm were five fingers tipped with sharp nails. The fingers, which pierced through the flesh and jutted out the other side, twitched grotesquely.
“I-I definitely cast Reverie…! How did you snap out of it so fast…!”
“Aren’t you underestimating human willpower a bit too much? The person I live with was about to get his chest ripped open. You think a little curse is going to matter?”
Eden’s body was already suffering under a curse far more powerful. Having been tormented by pain every single day, she seemed to have developed a resistance, so most demonic curses barely worked on her. There had even been a demon who tried to force a curse on her and ended up coughing blood instead.
She did not know the exact principle behind it, but Marbas’s curse seemed to repel other demons’ curses. It was as if it were asserting ownership over her body.
Even so, she could not ignore Sena’s curse as if it had not affected her at all. That was why she had blocked the attack with her hand instead of deflecting it with her sword. Her head had been too foggy, and the situation had been far too urgent to stop and think it through.
‘Still, at least I managed to do this much. I nearly lost a valuable asset.’
If she was being honest, “valuable asset” was just an excuse. Eden simply could not bear to lose another person close to her again. Why else would she have worked alone for seven whole years?
She was famous for working solo, with the exception of a few extremely difficult commissions. On the surface, she claimed it was because she didn’t want to split the money, but the truth was that she was terrified that her partner might get hurt or something might go wrong.
The weight on her shoulders was heavy enough with the deaths of both her parents. She had no desire to add any unnecessary burdens.
“Making me bleed from my precious sword hand. You’re really dead today.”
Eden clamped her fingers around Sena’s hand that had pierced right through her palm.
“L-let go!”
The demon thrashed and twisted her fingers. The penetrating wound tore wider, sending excruciating pain shooting through Eden. But if she let go now, both she and Bezel might truly be in danger. Even with a healthy body, a demon in human form was a difficult opponent. She would not be able to kill it with her right hand injured.
She might die, so what was a little pain? Honestly, it was a big deal, but Eden gritted her teeth and forced herself to endure the pain anyway.
“Aaaargh!”
With superhuman strength, Eden gripped the demon’s hand and yanked her toward herself so she couldn’t escape and shouted.
“What are you doing, Bezel! Earn your life!”
This time it wasn’t ‘earn your keep’ but ‘earn your life.’ Maybe it was because she loved money so much, but Eden was truly ruthless when it came to tallying what she was owed. Bezel raised the gun and aimed it at Sena.
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