LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 28: A Human soul? Or none at all?
Hanna was less then pleased, which was something she didn’t expect of herself to be honest, after all her greater goal of completely tearing that old hags family apart had succeeded hadn’t it? Yet she still didn’t fell truly satisfied and it was making her quite angry.
Was it because her plan hadn’t gone the exact way she had planned? Or was it because Julia didn’t turn into her thrall like Adeline did? Maybe because Julia was able to go out on her own terms, giving Hanna a metaphorical kick in the groin telling her she wasn’t the boss of her?
Whatever the reason was, it compelled her to angrily stare at the young girl‘s unmoving body that was lying on the floor, she wants to kick it, mutilate it until anyone could but barley recognise it to be the daughter of that old hag, take parts of her body and feed them to the pigs.
Her more rational side tried to reason that it was pointless, after all the girl was already dead so what‘s the point? They had different things to worry about right now, but the thing with Hanna was, she had stopped listening to reason a long time ago.
She grabbed the dead Girl by the neck and lifted her off the ground, the sight of the sword stuck in her abdomen made her pause as a unpleasant memory shot forth to her mind, a burning forest, a pool of black blood and unbearable pain. Hanna recoiled in pain at the memories and for but a short moment, she stood dazed, unaware of her surroundings and unable to move.
As such she didn’t notice the collapse of Luisa and that short moment of unawareness was all the head butler needed to send her flying into a nearby wall, the impact enough to tear a hole in the wall, debris fell onto Hanna and dust and rubble spewed everywhere. The impact was enough to get Hanna out of her own daze, as a pain ripped through her body she had only felt once before and she remembers it well, it made her furious, but it also…
'Not again, NEVER AGAIN!! I have to get out of here!'
It made her afraid. She had luck the last time, but she knew she couldn’t rely on it here, she needed to get out of here as fast as possible, her pride and need for revenge be damned! Of course her monster side was rather not pleased by this development, but survival and the need to survive is a basic instinct every living being shared, even most bloodthirsty of monsters would choose survival if it had to.
So, as the dust cleared and the rubble stopped falling, Hanna shot out from the pile of rubble she was buried under, her body painted with bruises and cuts that leaked small droplets of black blood that sizzled and released smoke whenever it hit the wooden floor, and she bolted down the hallway before anyone could even so much as blink.
Just before she reached the doors that lead to the main hall ,and therefore the exit of the manor, she was stopped by the doors bursting open to reveal bright golden armor and a broad sword that was delicately decorated with various symbols of religious importance at the hilt, such as The God of Light’s Arc or The God of Mercy’s tears. Through the slits of the golden helmet Hanna saw silver eyes staring at her, filled with apprehension and determination, but it was what popped out behind the armor that truly caught Hanna‘s attention and it made her worse mood much, much more worse then she thought possible.
"You!" Hanna all but screeched as the head of Vex the Necromancer appeared from behind the golden armor staring at her with a mixture of fear and determination, it was quite hard to place, what wasn’t hard to figure out however, was the simple fact that Vex had betrayed her.
Vex flinched upon hearing the loud shout but she quickly regained her barring, she took a deep breath and pointed a finger at the smaller girl, the person in the armor looked between the two of them, his thoughts and expressions hidden by the helmet, but his body language expressed a calm and ready demeanour.
"It’s her, she is the Monster we are supposed to kill! She is the Dark Margenko!! Kill her!" Vex exclaimed loudly, the person in the armor nodded once, and then in an impressive speed, swung his broad sword at Hanna, who barley jumped backwards to avoid the fatal attack.
Hanna was absolutely seething with anger and shaking with fear, her odds of getting away alive were slim at beast right now.
She stumbled backwards, away from another swing, turned around and bolted away, back to the room she came from. The head butler had luckily not pursued her immediately, rather checking on the now free Lady Kathrin, who was a sobbing mess next to the unmoving body of Julia. Hanna wasted no time and ran through the room and towards the window, her only possible escape route.
But just as her body was to make contact with the glass she was pulled back by a golden chain of light, which wrapped around her ankle and caused her to bash her head on the windowsill before falling to the ground with a pained scream. Through all the pain she didn’t even notice the sizzling and smoke coming from her ankle the golden chain was wrapped around, burning her flesh with holy power.
In the doorway, the man in golden armor stood, his hands glowing with holy power to constrain and stoping Hanna from escaping, the head butler recognises the man immediately and silently thanked the heavens that he was here to stop the monster from escaping.
He would have chased her, but his duty was to serve Lady Kathrin And ensure her safety first and foremost. So, since she didn’t move after being freed from her restraints, he remained by her side instead of chasing the monster, silently praying the adventurers outside would stop the monster from escaping.
He was never happier to see Bright Knight Jack that day.
Suddenly, Hanna stopped screaming, it was so abrupt that the sudden silence startled both the head butler and the Paladin and the Paladin stopped his pulling of Hanna‘s body, which suddenly lay just as still as the corpse the First Lady was silently cradling on the side.
Both Jack and the head butler silently looked at each other, unsure of what to do now.
First Lady Kathrin didn’t notice anything happening around her, all what she could see was the sad smile on her daughters lips before she killed herself, all she could her was the silent sorry her daughter spoke before she killed herself and all she could feel was the cold and unmoving body of her own daughter, the sword still stuck in her abdomen, there was no blood spilling from the wound anymore, except for the occasional small droplet, falling gently onto the ground.
Finally, for the first time in what felt like days to her, the tears stopped falling, she could hear the world around her again, feel the air against her skin again and see the world around her once more and what she saw brought her a mixture of emotions that were to much to handle in her current state.
She saw the devastation of the room, debris and rubble all around, there was a hole in the wall for crying out loud! She saw the puddles of blood near her, one crimson red and the other pitch black and smoking and she saw Bright Knight Jack talking to her Head Butler Marco and behind him three distinct bodies were chained together and laying on the floor. Their sight, particularly one of them, filled her with rage.
There she was, the murder of her daughter.
Slowly she stood up and like she was in a trance she walked forward, only one goal in mind. Her hands balled into thight fists she took one slow step forward after the other and with each step her fists grew more thight, to the point where her knuckles turned white.
She heard the calls of Marco and Jack but she ignored them, whatever they were saying was simply not important enough, not nearly important enough to interrupt her, nothing was, not even a direct order from the king would be able to stop her at this point. She had to avenge her daughter and if she had to beat the monster to death, then so be it!
Once close enough, she threw her hand back without any hesitation, but before she could get close to Hanna‘s face she flinched and them stumble back, slowly. She felt pain, not a lot, but noticeable enough to alarm her, looking down her own body, she saw her crimson red blood slowly dripping onto the floor, a small hole was situated right above her abdomen, under her left arm. Then everything began to swirl around her.
The room began to spin, and the walls were melting around her, dripping onto the floor and melting together with the floor to creat a brown liquid of filth in which she slowly drowned, it became harder and harder to breathe with every passing second and she fell to the floor, clutching her head.
Then came the pain, unimaginable and intense pain she has never experienced before, her skin was burning and her insides were turning into liquids, her head was throbbing and her bones were breaking apart one by one. Constant screaming filling her ears, causing them to bleed yet never silencing the scream.
Through half opened eyes she saw two huge shadows over herself, both looked upon her with mad eyes and even madder grins. We’re these her tormentors? All she wanted right now was for it all to stop!
And so it was, suddenly all the pain faded and the spinning stopped, there was silence again and no colours, only darkness and herself, Lady Kathrin sighed in relief, finally she could sleep and rest.
And so she did.
Never to wake up ever again.
"S-she‘s dead." Jack removed his hands from Lady Kathrin‘s neck, in all of his years serving both the church and as an adventurer he never once saw something like this, one moment the lady was ready to punch a motionless body of a monster and the next she falls to the floor screaming in pain and violently spasming on the floor and within a single minute falling completely lifeless.
Marco fell to the floor besides the lady, how could he led this happen? He had seen both of his masters die in a single day, right before his eyes and he couldn’t save them. It was is sworn duty to protect them, it’s what he had promised his old friend, Kathrin‘s husband, at his death bed, yet here he was having let both die right in front of him, simply watching as their lives were taken away.
And it all happened because of this one child sized monster, that was currently hanging by the wall, chained in holy chains together with two of its accomplices, Marco felt nothing but pure disgust and hatred upon seeing the three. To him they were taunting him, laughing him in the face for failing his task, that all it took to destroy his oathsworn duty was merely three people all three of them having barley survived more then a single decade while he had survived more then 60. That all his experience of age was for naught.
He swore he saw a smirk on the lips of the monster.
His rage slowly consuming him he wanted to do nothing more then to finally rid this world of this beast, causing nothing but suffering wherever it went, that was the reason he had hunted them for so long, to protect the innocent and rid the world of the dark beings who only cared to cause as much suffering as possible.
This had been his duty as Marco, The Beast Hunter, and now it was time to retake that mental one final time, he had failed at his oathsworn task and he would be punished for his failings, but right now he had to retake his old oathsworn task one last time, to prevent such a tragedy from happening ever again.
Jack had claimed the beast to be dead already, as no being without a human mind could survive being chained by the 'Chains of the Calamity Queller', but he didn’t care, until his sword was covered in the black blood of the beast he would never be sure that the beast was truly dead.
In his later years he had come to terms with the fact that he probably never summon his sword again and as he channeled his magic for the first time in over 40 years, he couldn’t help but form a small smile, even after all this time he could still do it with no incantation.
The long, grey sword forged from a stone golems heart and a Lindwurms hide, supposedly blessed by the God of Hunting and protected by a curse that only truly worthy people may wield this blade and not fall into madness, still felt the same, even in his now wrinkled hands, still light as a feather, still fitting perfectly into his grip, like it was molded directly in his hands. Timor Bestiari, still felt as strong has it had all those years ago. He was ready to rid the world of a beast one final time.
A blade crafted by three ancient smiths of an far away land, to give their ancient kingdom an edge against the Supreme King of Beasts and Monster, father of all monsters and beasts, Timor Bestiari was said to cut the soul of any beast it came into contact with, though to be blessed with such an ability it couldn’t hurt those with souls that weren’t beasts. It was the bane of beasts, but to everything else it was nought but a large metal stick.
How this sword had come to Fahrgust and into the hands of his family was long lost to history, but that didn’t matter right now, all that mattered was this, this exact moment.
He turned to the wall the beast was trapped against and raised his blade ready to strike down the beast that plagued the world and all he had hold truly dear for the last few decades.
With a scream that was filled with all the hate, frustration and grief he felt at this very moment, he drove the sword right through the body of the suspended Hanna that it was sticking out the other side of the wall.
He was panting and tears were falling down his cheeks, Hanna hadn’t reacted to the deadly attack, confirming to the old man that she had been already dead and he collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. It was finally over.
Bright Knight Jack came up to him and put his hand on the old man’s shoulder.
"You know the church of the light would accept you anytime, if you want I could-"
"Thank you Jack, but I have failed my sworn oath and I will have to take the fall for it. If you could leave that would be a big enough favour for me old friend. Tell our friends I have found peace and I could never repay you."
With some hesitation, Jack removed his hand from the man’s shoulder and bowed his head once, at the door he gave one final prayer before saying his goodbyes.
"I will see you on the other side right?"
"Don’t worry, I will be waiting for you with your favourite Apple Cider at my side." Marco smiled.
"Haha. Farewell then my friend, may the light guide you on your path through the darkest of days."
"I don’t think it will get any darker then today my friend." Marco silently mumbled, making sure the man was out of earshot before speaking.
He stood up slowly and walked over to the wall where the impaled Hanna was hanging from and he noticed something odd.
"You bled like a fountain earlier and yet now there isn’t a single drop, just what are you… Aggh it doesn’t matter, after all your dead, aren’t you? Well let’s hope your friends are alive so they can face their appropriate punishments, or maybe they are finally free from your influence? It doesn’t concern me either way."
As he turned away from Hanna to inspect both Julia and Adeline he suddenly felt a slight pain in his hand, thinking a shard of glass or something similar lodged into his hand by accident, he tried to remove it, as he looked down however he didn’t see a piece of glass, rather a thin needle like tail that had punctured his hand.
A tail that belonged to the now smirking Hanna.
"Honestly you would think they were smarter then not checking if I was still alive, or turn your back towards me. Oh well it’s your loss."
His body grew weaker, she had clearly poisoned him, that is probably the same reason his mistress Lady Kathrin had died as well, oh how dangerous Hanna was, a simple small prick from her tail and the greatest of all kings would fall without treatment, but even as his body started to grow heavy and his limbs stopped responding, Marco only had a single thought going through his brain.
"That’s impossible, that sword cuts through the very soul of any beast it comes into contact with-" He hissed in pain as he fell face first onto the ground as even his knees began to stop obeying his orders.
Hanna only laughed.
"Well it certainly hurt like a bitch And my entire body feels like it could fall apart, but as you can see, I am very much alive. I‘ll let you do the rest of the maths to figure out what that implies."
Further comments where interrupted by Hanna coughing up a bit of blood that fell to floor to slowly burn through it like acid, she again complains about the pain, while Marco comes to the only possible conclusion.
This Dark Margeko, beings described as destroyers of entire kingdoms by fairy tales and as the worst monsters to have ever lived by those who had truly fought them, had a human soul, but that isn’t impossible as otherwise his blade would have bounced off immediately, yet he clearly pierced her body so just what was happening.
His thoughts became more jumbled and all over the place as the pain from slowly suffocating befell him as his lungs gave out due to the poison in his system, he heaved and squirmed on the floor for a few minutes, before ultimately falling still, but not without coming to a final conclusion on this great question.
There was no soul in Hanna‘s body in the first place.
Hanna continued to complain about the pain, constantly interrupted by her own coughing fits, until finally closing her eyes and falling into unconsciousness due to her own exhaustion.
