Chapter 32

-Whoosh!

They stretched their hand towards Noah. Unlike before, a very thin membrane spread over Noah and Sasha. Seeing the curtain envelop the entire street, Noah tightened his grip on his weapon.

“I was going to let you die comfortably, but I guess that won’t do!”

-Bang! Thwack! Crack!

Sasha, their patience finally exhausted, lunged at Noah in one breath. Noah barely blocked Sasha’s arm, which had turned pitch black, with his crossed gun barrels. The heavy force pushed Noah back, leaving drag marks on the ground beneath his feet.

“That’s… my… line!”

Noah’s arms trembled as he blocked Sasha’s strength. However, Noah gritted his teeth and endured it to the end, then violently deflected it upward, unfolding the blade attached to the gun barrel. Seeing the white blade flash with a whoosh, Sasha laughed mockingly.

“What do you think you can do with that little knife?”

But the next moment, Sasha’s laughter crumbled. Because that blade was aimed not at Sasha, but at Noah. With a slash, the blade that shallowly cut Noah’s forearm stuck into the black curtain, and the black shadow that absorbed his blood stopped moving.

“This is why!”

Noah grabbed the hardened curtain with one hand and pulled it with great force. Sasha, unable to separate their power in time, was dragged by Noah’s hand, and thick blood dripped onto their face.

“Urgh!”

Sasha bent over, covering their face from the intense pain. Noah hurriedly fired his gun at their back. However, the Sasha before him instantly collapsed their form to avoid the attack. As Noah continued firing at Sasha who flowed down like water, his vision turned black from pain piercing his entire body.

“…Kuhak!”

Sharp black awls rained down from the sky, piercing Noah. The curtain that Sasha had spread earlier had changed form to attack Noah. It was like pitch-black rain so dense you couldn’t see an inch in front of you.

-Whoosh!

“…!!!”

Noah, his scream swallowed by the shadows, vomited blood. Unlike ordinary rain, it had viscosity and began to stick to Noah.

-Thud, thud thud

The shadows that had absorbed Noah’s blood also fell to the ground. However, an enormous amount of black power, larger than the falling shadows, continuously poured onto Noah, surrounding him.

“…There was a time when I was curious about why only human-fairy hybrids possessed poison, so I hunted only them. Therefore, such a small amount of poison doesn’t work on me. Well, if I extracted all your blood and immersed my entire body in it, it might have an effect.”

A large amount of blood poured from Noah’s mouth and pierced abdomen, and black shadows filled the gaps. Noah’s fingers, not completely consumed by the shadows, trembled finely in the air.

Sasha, who had been curled up covering their face, spoke to Noah looking clean without any damage. And they whispered as if revealing a secret, but Noah couldn’t answer. His mouth and nose were already completely blocked.

It was an overwhelming difference in power.

* * *

“…Hup!”

Regina, hiding behind the street lamp, trembled all over. She barely managed to hold back a scream that was about to escape by covering her mouth tightly as she watched Noah dying right before her eyes.

It wasn’t that she thought she should save Noah, who had tried to kill her. Who was she to save him? But it was horrifying. This situation with blood and gunfire flying everywhere was terrifyingly scary.

This situation felt like a nightmare because in her entire life, or rather in Regina’s memories, she had never hurt anyone or seen anyone being hurt. Regina squeezed her eyes shut to shake off the tears forming and curled up.

‘Please stop! I wish all of this would stop. Please, please!’

She was praying like that, covering her ears with trembling hands. Suddenly, she felt a stretching and stiffness in her back muscles. Regina flinched at that sensation.

-Blink

Was it a coincidence? The streetlight flickered slowly. It started with the streetlight Regina was leaning against. The light gradually weakened, then disappeared and reappeared once, twice, repeatedly.

-Whoosh

Soon after, all the streetlights in the area simultaneously blinked off and on, then immediately went out with a whoosh. And what disappeared was all the light in the area. Streetlights, buildings, even the small lights remaining on carriages parked on the street all vanished.

The street that had been tinged with orange light was instantly plunged into deep darkness.

“…?”

Even Regina, who had her eyes closed, slightly opened them at the sudden darkness. She blinked several times at the pitch-black view despite opening her eyes.

‘…What’s going on?’

She looked around with questioning eyes, but nothing was visible. As she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, outlines began to appear dimly. And not long after, the moonlight floating in the pitch-black sky revealed its presence. Regina gazed at the opposite side relying on that light. The figures of Noah and Sasha, hidden in the darkness, began to appear again.

Regina looked at them with trembling eyes.

* * *

As the view darkened with a whoosh, Sasha, who had been pressing Noah, stopped moving.

In the pitch-black darkness where the boundaries of everything were indistinguishable. In it, suddenly, they felt serenity. Such quietness they had longed for for a long time.

Feeling a light tremor as if their whole body, which had been stiff with tension, was slowly relaxing when immersed in warm water, Sasha narrowed their eyes.

“…”

How long had it been since they felt this sense of liberation?

Suddenly everything felt trivial. They felt an urge to savor this feeling a bit more. Their gaze turned to Noah, wrapped like a cocoon in black shadows, then back to the darkened street.

‘If I absorb him here, this feeling will disappear too. Since he’s half-human anyway, memories will come with it. But just killing him would be wasting power that could be absorbed, which is quite a shame…’

But the deliberation was brief. The comfort they felt for the first time in hundreds of years was so sweet that Sasha withdrew their power without hesitation. This was probably a foolish decision. Nevertheless, Sasha gave up on absorbing Noah. There would still be many opportunities anyway, so they had no need to rush.

-Rustle

The black power on the ground and in the air returned and seeped into Sasha like paint.

-Thud!

Noah, who had been wrapped in black shadows, fell to the ground with a heavy sound. He didn’t even move, perhaps unconscious.

“…!”

Regina, watching from afar, flinched. It was because Noah looked dead. At that moment, Sasha, sensing her slight movement, turned their head. Their red eyes accurately focused on Regina even in the darkness.

“Ah, it’s you. The young lady.”

Sasha smiled. Startled by their gaze suddenly turning towards her, Regina blinked, moving her body backward. The next moment, they were standing in front of Regina.

“Uh, uh…!”

-Thud

Regina slumped to the ground as she looked up at them who suddenly appeared before her. Sasha smiled apologetically and extended their hand.

“Oh my, I startled you. But there’s no need to be afraid.”

Regina looked at that pale hand with fearful eyes. Seeing her lips trembling, Sasha withdrew the hand. They realized that even their extended hand was a source of fear for Regina.

“Hmm, yes. I suppose it’s strange to tell you not to be scared in such a frightening situation.”

As Sasha said this with a smile, the shadow at their feet moved silently. They used their power intending to temporarily subdue the girl in front of them before leaving. It approached Regina’s palm touching the ground and stuck to it with a slap.

“Eek?”

However, startled by the sudden sticky sensation on her palm, Regina quickly pulled her hand away from the ground.

“…Hmm?”

Sasha raised one eyebrow at this. The girl in front of them wasn’t human as they had thought. After all, a human wouldn’t be able to sense their power. They tilted their head and looked down at her closely. As Sasha’s face drew near, Regina’s purple eyes, filled with fear, trembled finely.

“My! You’re a Black Fairy, and a newborn at that! How did I not notice? …Ah, you haven’t molted yet?”

Surprise spread across Sasha’s face as they recognized Regina’s identity. Even though her power was weak, for them not to notice immediately – they were momentarily puzzled, but quickly dismissed it. What mattered was the fact that she was a Black Fairy.

“If you had properly absorbed a human while in spore form, you would have molted naturally. In this form, you must have eaten something already dead, right? This is why initial intake is so important.”

“…”

Their tone was like scolding a child who had eaten spoiled food. Regina was just trembling finely with fear. Even though she knew intellectually that they couldn’t kill her since they were the same kind of fairy, perhaps because she had just seen Noah being attacked, her trembling wouldn’t easily subside.

“Still, absorbing a corpse would have given you little life force, making it difficult to even take human form. To have formed such an excellent shape… You might have maintained your spore form for quite a long time, unexpectedly.”

Sasha said with a smile, as if looking at a praiseworthy child. Surprised by the unexpected information, Regina blinked, her head still lowered.

“Would you like to come with me, lady? There’s a mansion nearby where Black Fairies all live together. I’ll help you ‘properly feed’ there and molt.”

Proper feeding – the meaning of that was clear. Regina finally realized anew that the being before her was a monster that devoured humans.