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IBP 90
Chloe slowly turned her back.
Her face was, well, like that of a yaksha.
However, Dahlia, who failed to see her properly, gave a fresh smile.
“But it probably didn't show. Ah, that dog was seriously hilarious. The way it barked, insisting it would protect you without even knowing what we were doing—it was truly entertaining.”
“Keep talking.”
The revelations that followed made Chloe furious, even though she had already anticipated the situation.
At that, Dahlia smirked and sneered.
“Ah... is there anything left to say? Oh, honestly, it was kind of fun. I heard that bastard dog's grave—the one with no lineage—is as big as a decent park. What's the point of treating it well after it's dead? You should have been nicer to it while it was alive, shouldn't you?”
“Shut your mouth. You have no idea how precious the thing you touched was...”
As Chloe's voice trembled noticeably, Dahlia replied with excitement.
“Precious, my foot. I didn't touch it. Gillen was the one who tormented that bastard dog until it died. Ah... I can still remember how he kicked it until his stress was relieved, then poured healing potions over it before it died.”
“...”
“So, you probably didn't know, right? You must have thought that dog was just a normal, flawless mutt. We knew that dog was quite special, but...”
The moment Chloe's frost-like gaze struck Dahlia directly.
The darkness flowing from her fingertips forced Dahlia to her knees.
Thump.
It was the sound of heavy darkness, carrying a massive mass, crushing Dahlia's head.
“How dare you.”
But Dahlia was not weak either.
As she tumbled across the ground, she drew a magic circle in the air.
“I've... also... become... quite... cough... strong...”
In an instant, the ability <distortion> entered Chloe's interior.
The distorted flow of mana toyed with Chloe's insides, attempting to shatter her from within.
“You must have... put in quite a bit of effort, Dahlia.”
Chloe lightly coughed up blood.
However, regardless of the blood flowing between her teeth, she wiped it away roughly with the back of her hand and muttered.
“But it's still nothing. Well, got any more provocations?”
Chloe smiled brightly.
“If you can, try to leave some evidence.”
Dahlia barely shook off the heavy darkness and pushed herself up.
“You...”
Dahlia glared at her with an anxious face.
‘There's absolutely no sign of her going berserk.’
She had come here for one purpose.
To trigger Chloe's berserk state.
She had no intention of killing her.
She simply intended to cause minor berserk episodes in her body to inflict great pain, just as Chloe usually did to others.
She only wanted to warn her: ‘Don't touch my man.’
‘Just go berserk. Yes, just make her go berserk. So that my man's gaze won't reach her...’
If she couldn't make Chloe go berserk with her own ability, she would have to wake the magical beast beneath the Dragon's Lake.
‘I'll just wake one. Then she'll go berserk while fighting the magical beast.’
Rationalizing to herself, she held a bead in her hand.
On a night where the moon had barely risen, the sparkling bead stood out clearly in the darkness.
It was just as Chloe attempted to seize Dahlia's wrist using the darkness.
The bead Dahlia held rolled across the grass.
The bead rolled along the ground and then exploded with a pop near the lake.
The glass shards enclosing the bead shattered and scattered around.
“Ha, haha! Ha!”
Dahlia burst into a satisfied laugh, confirming that things had gone according to her plan. She knew exactly what the bead she had detonated was.
Her fiancé, Gillen, often went out to hunt spirit beasts.
When a spirit beast was killed and a mystical power emerged, he would put a portion of that power directly into a bead.
That power was now flowing out.
The Dragon's Lake, where a divine beast had personally sealed a magical beast.
To wake a part of the magical beast sleeping beneath, the power of a holy spirit beast had to be infused.
Finally, as Dahlia intended, the surface of the Dragon's Lake surged violently.
The bottom of the lake, so deep that its height could not be measured.
The giant magical beast buried within began to squirm and rise.
“Try and survive this, Chloe. By all means.”
Despite Dahlia's provocation, Chloe remained indifferent.
Even as the magical beast slowly rose from the lakeshore, Chloe stared only at Dahlia.
“Grrrr—!”
The magical beast roared, moving wildly.
Chloe's darkness attempted to bind the magical beast behind her tightly and slam it into the ground.
However, no matter how excellent Chloe's ability was, there were things that were difficult.
After some time, the darkness and the magical beast struggled back and forth, unable to determine a winner. Just as the deafening noise echoed loudly inside the barrier stone.
Chloe bound the roaring magical beast tightly with darkness and slammed it down near Dahlia.
“Die.”
Along with a cold and chilling voice.
K-boom!
The sleek body of the giant fish-type magical beast nearly burrowed into Dahlia's skin as it slammed into her.
Dahlia rolled across the ground, struck by the magical beast.
However, even while bleeding and crawling on the ground, Dahlia cackled wildly.
“You're on the verge of going berserk right now, Chloe. You should restrain yourself, shouldn't you?”
It was visible that Chloe's entire body was trembling.
And what of the darkness flowing from her hands? It seemed she could not control it properly.
It was evident that the magic circle flowing from Chloe's fingertips was crumbling into a mess.
Everything was clearly going according to Dahlia's plan.
She intended to slip outside the barrier stone while Chloe was fighting the magical beast in a berserk state.
But...
Blood surged from the corner of Chloe's mouth.
She grabbed a shard of the bead that Dahlia had dropped on the ground.
Then, she wiped the corner of her mouth eerily and muttered.
“Now that I've successfully obtained the evidence, is it my turn to kill you?”
Chloe's darkness was expanding by the second to kill the magical beast.
Only then did Dahlia's laughter stop abruptly as she realized the gravity of the situation.
‘What? Don't tell me she intended this situation?’
“Grrrr—!”
Simultaneously, the darkness crushed Dahlia's body as if hacking it apart along with the magical beast.
Dahlia collapsed, coughing up blood on the ground with her eyes tightly shut.
‘No. I'm fine. It doesn't matter anyway. You'll go berserk soon, and all your abilities will vanish.’
And what kind of evidence could a trivial shard of a bead possibly be?
‘So, I'm fine.’
As Dahlia consoled herself, her consciousness faded as if being crushed.
Thump.
Around the time the giant magical beast collapsed to the ground after being attacked by the darkness, Dahlia also collapsed as if fainting.
And the same went for Chloe.
Before long, Chloe's darkness cast a vast shadow over the surroundings.
‘Damn, I wonder if I'll actually go berserk.’
If one goes berserk, they fall into a hellish state of pain and delusions.
‘Still, it's not like I'll die, right?’
Even if she faced the risk of going berserk, it didn't matter.
But...
“Hng, is Big Sister okay now?”
Strangely, the face of the little child Coco came to mind at that moment.
‘...I feel sorry for that kid. She'll be worried.’
But since she had captured the evidence.
Though that stupid Dahlia wouldn't know.
The ‘various’ pieces of evidence collected today would be a great help in locking up Gillen and Dahlia and catching other spirit creature hunters.
It was exactly then, just as she thought that.
Chloe barely managed a cough.
As the blood flowing between her teeth became visible, she slumped haphazardly to the ground.
Darkness was creeping up around Chloe.
The darkness that had climbed up her entire body finally consumed her whole.
Her trembling body was devoured by the pitch-black darkness...
Just as Chloe collapsed helplessly on the dust-filled ground.
A rustling sound was heard from a distance.
And then, a faint light shimmered above her head.
A vivid light was frantically eating away at the berserk darkness.
The light that began to devour the darkness was gradually becoming blindingly bright.
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