In the casino hall that had endured the fierce melee, broken remnants of furniture and the corpses of sub-dragonkin lay scattered in every direction.
The unconscious Talen was carefully settled by Ophelia onto a chair in front of the counter.
The four surviving city defense soldiers surrounded Anne, tightly gripping the rifles in their hands as they listened to the banshee’s wing-claws scraping across the stone door with a sound that set one’s teeth on edge.
The sickle-like wing-claws stabbed into the gaps between the bricks.
They were so sharp that limestone which required a full-power blow from fully loaded Kheshig armor to shatter was, to them, no more difficult than a table knife cutting cheese.
A ghostly song seeped into the hall through the rock crevices pierced by the wing-claws.
Fortunately the two stone doors were extremely thick, greatly weakening the effect of that ballad.
Flora gently helped Claire up and took out a handkerchief embroidered with gold thread from her bosom to wipe Claire’s wounds, her eyes full of concern.
“What is the monster outside the door?” Flora asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Claire frowned slightly and cast her gaze toward the unconscious Talen beside them, a trace of sympathy showing in her eyes.
“It is a banshee, probably a Siren… and also Talen’s daughter.”
In the myths of countries all over the world, the image of a human-faced, winged demon repeatedly appeared.
This was because the banshee race had remained continuously active on the human-demon battlefields for a thousand years.
As the demonkin race with the most complex branches, subtypes such as the banshee of mourning, the harpy, the sea Siren, and the swamp hag were all branches of the banshee race.
Although the appearances and habitats of different subtypes differed enormously, they all possessed vigorous wings and voices that could truly be called witchcraft, making them one of the most dangerous demonkin races.
The various characteristics of Abigail outside the door completely matched the description of Sirens in the textbooks of the Intelligence Academy.
Claire lightly took Flora’s hand, paused for a moment, and then slowly withdrew it.
She then rose and came to Ophelia’s side in front of the great doors.
Following Ophelia’s line of sight, Claire looked through the rock crevice pierced by the wing-claws and saw the banshee’s scarlet compound eyes.
She too was observing the people behind the door through the gap.
That face was clearly that of the adult Abigail, her features brilliantly beautiful.
Yet on both sides of those delicate cherry lips, a crack extended all the way to the ears, and her mouth was filled with long fangs that interlocked like thorns.
Claire shifted her gaze and looked toward Ophelia. “Why would she attack us? And how did she suddenly turn into this monstrous form?”
“Those bastards from the Mutual Aid Society severely wounded Talen. This child witnessed her father on the brink of death with her own eyes. Her spirit suffered a heavy blow, which triggered the self-protection mechanism of the banshee bloodline… This is quite similar to the blood frenzy of vampires. In a short time her body rapidly matured and transformed into the adult Siren form she has now. We took her father away, so she regards us as enemies,” Ophelia pushed up her glasses.
After the great war seventy years earlier had ended, Orfa University had conducted anatomical research on large numbers of demonkin corpses from the Northern Continent.
This measure greatly advanced humanity’s understanding of the ecosystem of the Demon Realm.
Among the most shocking discoveries was that scholars had extracted the bloodsucking virus that caused vampirism from within banshee bodies.
This discovery indicated that vampires and the banshee race actually shared a common origin.
The various physiological characteristics possessed by vampires might also exist in banshees.
Regarding the current situation, Abigail’s condition was best explained by the blood frenzy of vampires.
That was a self-protection mechanism activated when a vampire fell into extreme hunger or faced life-threatening danger.
In the blood-frenzy state, a vampire’s bodily functions would expand dramatically, at the cost of becoming an animal that followed only the instinct for blood.
It was exactly like Abigail, who had fallen into frenzy outside the door at this moment.
Anne also came to the front of the great doors and stood shoulder to shoulder with Claire and Ophelia.
Ophelia, just like Liz, was full of doubts in her heart as to why Anne and the city defense army had appeared in the Ant Nest.
Yet the situation at this moment was critical, and it was not the time to discuss such matters.
They could only temporarily suppress their questions.
“Do you have any way to deal with this monster?” Anne’s gaze met the banshee’s eyes behind the rock crevice, and she could not help but shiver.
“Can you still use your fire magic?” Claire asked.
Anne stretched out her hand.
A weak flame barely ignited in her palm, yet it was instantly extinguished by the wind blowing in through the rock crevice.
She shook her head. “I have already cast five techniques tonight. I do not have a single bit of mana left.”
Claire sighed helplessly.
At that very moment the sharp wing-claws once again pierced a new crevice into the stone door.
She understood that this door would not be able to hold Abigail back for much longer.
Claire walked quickly over to Liz. “This place is about to become a battlefield. The class monitor and I will deal with the banshee. You take the princess and Anne and the others to take shelter.”
She pointed toward the rock cave that Talen had smashed open.
“The corridor behind the cave leads to the underground chapel of the Dragon Worship Cult. That place is safe.”
Liz firmly shook her head and refused. “I will fight together with you.”
Claire tightly gripped Liz’s arm and said with earnest eyes, “I need you to protect Flora. You are the only person I can trust… If there is no more movement from the hall side, then abandon Anne and the others and take the princess to escape through the sewers.”
Her voice was so earnest.
Claire was not joking.
What a cruel request this was—asking Liz to abandon the person she deeply loved in order to protect a rival in love.
Yet Liz knew she had no way to refuse Claire.
She had never had any way.
Flora, upon hearing these words, suddenly rushed in front of Claire and tightly grasped both of her hands.
“No. I will not allow you to disappear from my side again.”
Anne took hold of the princess’s arm and said indifferently, “Listen to her. If we do not leave now it will be too late.”
Liz wordlessly pried open Flora’s hands that were tightly gripping Claire and pulled her toward the direction of the cave.
Flora looked toward Claire with tear-blurred eyes and shouted loudly, “Promise me you will not die!”
Claire forced out a faint smile and nodded toward Flora with deliberate firmness.
Anne led the remaining four city defense soldiers over to Claire’s side.
“I leave them to you. Take down that monster, or else the princess will be under my protection from now on.”
She patted Claire’s shoulder and then followed behind Liz toward the cave.
The leading city defense soldier performed a standard Carolingian military salute toward Claire and Ophelia.
Ophelia asked in confusion, “Do you not suspect our identities at all?”
The leading city defense soldier’s expression was solemn. “You are people trusted by Her Highness Anne. Naturally we have no reason to suspect.”
“Thank you. With your cover our chances of winning will be greater.”
Ophelia also solemnly performed a salute—it was the military salute of Albion.
In the face of the approaching crisis, concealing their identities was no longer important.
***
The sickle-like wing-claws scraped across the relief at the very top of the stone door.
The statues of the group of dragons shattered under the claws as easily as silk cut by a sharp blade.
The adult-form Abigail hung from the threshold with that snake-like long tail.
Her scarlet compound eyes swept across the entire hall.
Her father was leaning weakly against the chair in front of the counter.
In front of him stood four humans in crimson cotton armor, while the two enemies she had previously locked onto had disappeared without a trace.
The four city defense soldiers raised their guns in neat formation and fired at her.
Abigail straightened her snake-like body.
The bone wings on her back spread open, proud and ferocious.
She had no intention of dodging, for those weak bullets could no longer injure her.
These humans before the current her were no different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Yet a spherical object appeared in front of her without the slightest warning.
The instant the bullets pierced the sphere, a large amount of smoke was released.
In the pitch darkness Abigail heard the whistling of metal cutting through the air.
Ophelia leaped high into the air.
The straight sword in her hands cut through the smoke like a crescent moon and chopped toward Abigail’s neck.
Abigail cast a cold glance at Ophelia and rapidly swung out her wing-claws.
In the time it took an ordinary person to blink, the sword edge and the wing-claws had already collided multiple times in midair.
String after string of sparks exploded amid the flashing blades.
Ophelia was still using her original “Tree-Chopping Stance.”
The sparks from the previous cut had not yet died when the sparks from a new cut splashed out again.
In the end the sparks became as dense as woven cloth.
Abigail had no interest in entanglement with her.
She let out a sharp screech.
Sorrowful memories and pain like a twisting blade surged into Ophelia’s heart.
Ophelia’s brows tightly furrowed, and the cut in her hands could not help but pause slightly.
Before she could free herself from the memories, two sickle-like wing-claws shot out as swiftly as flying shuttles.
Ophelia instinctively swung her sword to block, yet she was only able to cut off those two sharp claws and was completely unable to stop the severed front halves from fiercely stabbing into both of her shoulders.
She was struck down from midair by the enormous force on the broken claws and crashed onto the ground, coughing up large mouthfuls of blood.
A few seconds later, long hair as brilliant as the Milky Way descended from above.
The inverted Abigail appeared in Ophelia’s field of vision.
A strange smile of examining prey hung at the corners of Abigail’s mouth as she stared into Ophelia’s bright red pupils.
She wanted to taste the prey’s fear, yet from those eyes she saw the flickering enemy shadow behind her!
Abigail once again let out a soul-captivating screech.
At the same instant the running Claire released her Ability.
The world gradually stagnated in her eyes.
Yet she had committed a fatal error.
Before undertaking the Rebirth Vessel Project, Sibyl had spent some time guiding Claire’s combat techniques.
She had said that Claire relied too heavily on her Ability in battle.
Her ability might count as powerful in this era, yet if placed seventy years earlier there were many people who could kill her.
Claire’s Ability essentially achieved the effect of pausing time by accelerating her own speed, rather than truly stopping time itself.
In this world there existed some extraordinary individuals whose own speed was comparable to Claire’s after releasing her Ability, and some magical effects that could act upon Claire even while she was accelerated.
That piercing screech had already penetrated Claire’s eardrums before time stagnated.
A wave of intense pain exploded inside her brain, and the world before her eyes began to blur.
The fingers of her left hand dug forcefully into her scalp as she maintained the last of her clarity.
With her trembling right hand she tightly gripped the Can Opener and aimed the muzzle at the banshee’s white-scaled chest.
Yet the burning summer palace came crashing down over everything.
Within the raging flames of that nightmare she ultimately still lost consciousness for a brief instant.
It was precisely in that instant that the stagnated time resumed its flow.
Intense pain exploded inside Claire’s body like an internal detonation.
She only felt every single cell throughout her body twitching madly.
Following the intense pain, a sense of numbness spread outward.
Adrenaline prevented her from feeling the pain, yet she could sense with extreme clarity that something had stabbed into her heart.
She slowly lowered her head and saw that at her chest, blood plasma was spraying outward like a brilliantly blooming flower.
That snake-like winding long tail had already deeply plunged into her chest.
Claire collapsed to her knees without strength.
She struggled with all her might to pull the trigger once more, yet this final struggle proved futile.
Abigail needed only the slightest movement to easily end her life.
Abigail looked down at her, as if a monarch examining a sinner.
The snake-like winding long tail coiled around Claire.
Abigail suddenly pierced Claire’s neck with her fangs, and her forked tongue probed into the artery.
She carefully savored the taste of that blood, as if it were the most mellow fine wine.
Banshees and vampires shared a common origin.
Fresh blood was the supreme nectar for them.
Her consciousness gradually blurred amid the intense pleasure.
Yet a majestic voice came from high in the air, echoing in every corner, as if something was roaring in the sky. “Filth of the Demon Realm, get away from my vessel!”
Abigail abruptly woke with a start.
She realized that some power was invading her consciousness.
She suddenly opened her eyes, only to discover that she was standing beneath a tower.
A giant tower of white and gold stood before her, towering into the clouds as if connected to the horizon.
The giant dragon coiled at the top of the tower looked down upon Abigail from the clouds.
Driven by banshee instinct, Abigail felt fear for the first time.
Yet her fear came too late.
The enormous dragon head suddenly lowered, leaving her not the slightest chance of escape.
As the dragon’s jaws slammed shut, Abigail wailed and screamed between the dragon’s teeth, yet she was unable to free herself from this hell of being swallowed alive.
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