"Rashiok……!? You bastard, what did you do!"
I aimed my spear directly at her neck in an effort to pierce her through. While Diferis did open her eyes and see me coming, all she did was tilt her head backwards.
Before I was able to strike her throat with my spear tip, a sword interrupted me from the side, and I glared at the man who interfered. Using the momentum of my thrust, I turned my body around and the centrifugal force from my spear was threatening enough that both of them jumped backwards instantly.
"Oh no, you're actually surprisingly strong."
"She's merciless. There's something messed up about her, that's why she can kill people without any hesitation. It's proof that she's inherited more traits from her crazy father than anyone else."
The man – Melchior seemed to be delighted as he said those words, and even though my logic knows that he's just trying to shake me mentally, it still had its effect and I could feel my brain going numb.
Calling my father crazy, saying there's something messed up about me – shut up, even if he doesn't say such things, even if it's disgusting, I still mentally acknowledge it – thinking so, I couldn't help it anymore and began grinding my back teeth loudly.
Let me analyze the situation. A two against one battle will be almost hopeless for me, but with Rashiok currently fallen down, I don't have any other choices. I tried to regulate my breathing as much as I possibly could, so that I could calm down and stay in control.
"……You don't need to glare at me with such a scary face, little kid. You have a different opponent."
Dark red blood was flowing from her tattoos now, and Diferis's distorted face was showing signs of pain while still laughing somehow. She was holding both her arms out to empty space. A demonic glow was tracing patterns in midair.
With a rumble, the ground suddenly shook, then Rashiok behind me slowly stood up.
"Rash-"
I was interrupted before I could finish calling out to him, normally he should have replied with his typical bark, but this time his huge body came hurtling straight at me.
"……Rashiok?"
I called out his name again in a daze, there's clearly something wrong with him. He fell down to the ground again, moaning painfully while pawing the ground in front of him with his front legs. He's frothing from his mouth, and his pupils are extremely dilated, as if he's in a state of terrible excitement.
Exactly what is going on here? Suddenly, my hairs all stood up on end, and I got a bad feeling about all this.
"Hehehehe. Alright then, let's begin playing with your cute pet~!"
Diferis started her grating laughter again, and she began swinging her arms. It's almost like she was dancing, while drawing ominous purple trails through the air.
Rashiok stood up again, and turned towards me. I could tell from his eyes that he was no longer in control of himself, he was dripping slimy pieces of drool, and roaring at me.
I saw nothing but white. I barely managed to dodge Rashiok charging at me, I was basically moving unconsciously.
"Rashiok-"
I could hardly believe what was happening, and I tried calling out to him again. Once again, Rashiok moaned in agony, and he rubbed his head against the ground as if to clear his head of any confusion. At this obvious act of resistance, Diferis's mocking laughter became even higher-pitched.
"As expected of a relative to dragons! It actually has quite some ability to resist!!"
This woman who's prancing around with blood coming out of her face and neck, dirtying her whole body, is such an incredibly distasteful existence. She's incomprehensible, and of course, what humans can't understand is usually frightening to them.
This woman, she's definitely controlling Rashiok.
Could it really be? Is such an outlandish thing even possible? Being able to control the wills of other living creatures, such a thing – although a little part of me inside still wanted to deny it, in the edge of my vision, I saw the fire moths still in the sky, dancing and spreading fires everywhere in the commoners' district.
"……You, can, control magical beasts?"
Can she use magic, just like Rashiok who's able to manipulate the wind?
On my way to this fountain plaza, I'd already considered the possibility that the abnormal behavior of the fire moths was caused by a human. And, I also remembered about the monster baboon that appeared where it shouldn't have been.
At that moment, my vision was dyed pure red.
I put all of my strength into my right arm, and threw my spear. It drew a black line as it flew, and pierced through the woman's right thigh, causing a spurt of fresh blood to come out in mist form.
Her cackling laughter turned into screaming. "Diferis!" Melchior lost his calm demeanor for the first time, as he called out to her.
My lips are smiling, drowning in this brutal pleasure, that's so heavy and dark, just like oil. When I traced my left hand's fingers along my cheek, I noticed that I also had a terribly distorted smile on my face.
Heh heh, some laughter escaped from me as well. It feels like my insides are boiling, it's painful to the point where I'm wondering if my body is beginning to fester, but contrary to all that it feels like my head is encased in ice, I've never felt such a chilling coldness before.
My ears are ringing harshly. I'm feeling wondrous, as if I'm floating and not connected to the ground. My murky emotions discharged themselves from my body by turning into a low-pitched laughter.
I stepped on the head of the corpse which just happened to be close by, and pulled out my light sword that I had just stuck through his neck and shoulder earlier. At this time, Diferis also managed to pull out the spear from her own leg, and threw it on the ground with a clang. Her expression is painted over now with anger and humiliation, and she was glaring at me with hatred and murderous intent.
I could feel my lips turning even further upwards.
This woman, was directly responsible for Kamil's death. At thinking so, my muddy feelings that I couldn't describe just began overflowing. Even Rashiok's suffering disappeared from my mind.
"I will kill you."
As my atrocious declaration echoed, I could feel my brain reaching subzero levels.