## Chapter 252 – Malice (15)
Reyna, sensing the changed atmosphere, blocked Ryu and confronted Veronica. It was the first time she felt such a chilling presence from those blurry, drunken eyes. She asked Veronica again,
“Are you serious?”
Veronica pulled a hammer from her waist and pointed it at her. It wasn’t much of a weapon; just a hammer she used for work. But Reyna’s expression showed seriousness.
“Yeah, I’m serious.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than Veronica swung the hammer.
Reyna stepped back slightly, easily dodging her attack.
Being a drunkard’s attack, the accuracy wasn’t great. However, she couldn’t let her guard down. The heavy blow split the bed and literally tore apart the mansion’s marble floor. Could such power come from a palm-sized hammer? Ryu examined her weapon again.
A shining inscription was engraved on her hammer. He couldn’t understand what it meant, but it was clear that her ability, which he had heard about before, had manifested.
“If we can’t talk it out, there’s only one way.”
In Reyna’s hands, a greatsword had appeared.
Ryu couldn’t understand Reyna’s decision to fight Veronica. Even if she wasn’t in her right mind, a Demon Lord was a being who reigned at the pinnacle of their domain. Reyna clearly had an unusual aura, but talent alone didn’t guarantee anyone a place at the top.
“Shouldn’t we run?”
“Run? If that were an option, I would have chosen it.”
Veronica didn’t miss the opportunity while they were talking and swung her hammer again.
The attack, which missed by a hair’s breadth, caused cracks throughout the mansion. The collapse, starting from the pillars, spread throughout the entire mansion in an instant. With just two strikes, the mansion was completely destroyed, and the three who had fallen to the ground entered a brief lull.
Amidst the rising dust, Reyna found Ryu, grabbed his shoulder, and urgently said,
“If the goal is simply to endure, not a life-or-death struggle, I can hold out for quite a while. In the meantime, please find Lord Rowen and bring him here.”
If she could bring Rowen here, Ryu would have certainly done so. But Ryu had no way of knowing where Rowen was, and he roughly guessed that Reyna was just saying she could hold out to reassure him.
Right now, the only way out for the two of them was to incapacitate Veronica, who had gone mad with intoxication. He wasn’t foolish enough not to know that.
Ryu stepped forward without a word, and Reyna, seeing his actions, let out a helpless laugh.
“If that’s what you want, I can’t stop you. You must be careful. Veronica is the Demon Lord closest to Lord Rowen, having lived in his shadow her entire life.”
“What are you whispering about?”
*Thwack!*
From within the dust, Veronica’s kick accurately struck Reyna’s torso.
Caught off guard, Reyna couldn’t properly defend herself and coughed up blood as she was pushed back. Her arm, bent in a grotesque direction and bruised red, testified to Veronica’s power. Veronica wasn’t fazed even after injuring her former subordinate.
“Don’t be so pathetic. You can’t be finished with just that, can you?”
“It’s been a while since we sparred, hasn’t it?”
The expression on Reyna’s face, after spitting out blood, was tinged with a warlike color. An expression that almost seemed joyful. Her arm had already returned to normal, and in her hand was the greatsword she had seen earlier.
Now, conversation was unnecessary. Reyna immediately swung her arm, intent on killing, and slashed at Veronica.
The moment Reyna’s greatsword was blocked by Veronica’s weapon, a transformation occurred at the point of contact. Reyna’s greatsword instantly shattered into several pieces, and those pieces became sharp thorns that stretched towards Veronica’s body.
There was nowhere to dodge, but there was no need to dodge.
“That won’t work.”
The metal that touched Veronica’s body crumpled like paper and flew back towards Reyna.
As Reyna pulled her body back to avoid it, Veronica rolled once on the ground, and as if an earthquake had occurred, the area shook, and then several pillars rose from the ground, beginning to chase Reyna.
Reyna knew it too.
That confronting them had a higher chance of survival than avoiding them.
And that there was no need to avoid them was also true for her.
The pillar that touched Reyna’s hand instantly disintegrated and seemed to return to its original form, then became a giant hammer large enough to cover the sky and fell with terrifying speed. The hammer, which struck the place where Veronica was, cracked with a *thwack* sound, and Veronica, who didn’t shed a single drop of blood, appeared from within.
The shining inscriptions all over her body were granting her master infinite life.
“You know better than anyone that you can’t beat me that way, right?”
Veronica raised her hammer again and looked at her with a blurry expression. When Veronica swung her hammer into the air, she realized it was already too late. The attack, which crossed space and accurately struck Reyna’s side, brought with it excruciating pain that didn’t even allow her to scream, along with her coughing up blood.
Even though her body was shattered, Reyna restored her body without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’ve felt it before, but it’s still an annoying ability.”
Ryu felt that even asking Reyna, who was catching her breath next to him, if she was okay was a waste of time.
He didn’t even dare to intervene between them. As Reyna said, it would have been more helpful to go find Rowen. All he could do was follow their fight with his eyes.
But he couldn’t just stand still. If only to not make his choice to stay here in vain.
A smile spread across Reyna’s face as she glanced at Ryu. Had she gone crazy because she couldn’t see any chance of winning? There was no way she could be smiling in this situation. Reyna slowly approached Ryu and opened her mouth in a very small voice.
“Ryu-nim, there’s only one way… you have to trust me.”
Ryu uttered nonsense to ease the serious atmosphere even a little.
“I tend to completely trust anyone I’ve slept with, so.”
Only then did Reyna chuckle and reply.
“That’s reassuring.”
After a brief conversation with Ryu, Reyna staggered and appeared in front of Veronica, panting as she opened her mouth.
“Demon Lord, you’re still strong. But you’ll never know how strong someone who’s been pushed to the limit can be. Being like this reminds me of the times I only lost in the past, but if there’s one thing that’s different from then…!”
As Veronica listened to Reyna’s words, red flesh began to clump together behind her, and Ryu appeared.
Disassembly and reconstruction.
An ability that could be used freely on inanimate objects, but wouldn’t activate on living beings without a foundation of trust.
He had literally disassembled Ryu and then reconstructed him behind Veronica. If even the slightest problem occurred, he would die, so it wouldn’t even activate if he couldn’t completely trust the other person.
A chance that would never come again, Ryu gripped the spear tightly and struck down on her vital point as if stabbing her with it.
This definitely went in, it was an attack he was so sure of.
Even if it didn’t take her life, he could at least make her unable to move for a while.
However, Veronica didn’t waver in the slightest.
Veronica’s neck disappeared from his sight, and what Ryu saw was her leg.
Veronica, who had instantly lowered her body and rotated, accurately kicked Ryu’s temple with that momentum, and instantly shattered Reyna’s arms and legs with the hammer.
With just one exchange, the entire situation was resolved, and Ryu gradually lost consciousness in a delusion that the world was spinning.
If the ideal he had pursued his whole life was a Demon Lord who had reached an unattainable realm of supremacy, then the seedling that grew up under him would naturally become a giant tree.
Their last hope crushed, they were miserably defeated by Veronica as expected.
Veronica pressed down hard on Reyna’s neck as if to break it, and said in a cynical tone.
“No one can abandon me. I don’t want to be abandoned anymore… I’m abandoning you.”
Contrary to those words, thick tears were dripping from Veronica’s eyes.
“So don’t resent me. I’ll be soon too…”
“Now you’re being honest.”
Veronica was startled by the familiar voice and looked around.
“Lord Rowen?”
The atmosphere she felt was not simply one of coming to talk.
Veronica smiled bitterly and pointed her weapon at Rowen.
“I thought of you as a mountain I would have to overcome someday. Besides, Lord Rowen will eventually…”
Rowen interrupted Veronica and said in a cold tone.
“That’s why you’re being abandoned by me.”
“…Huh?”
Ryu was also startled by Rowen’s cold voice and clung to his fading consciousness. He wasn’t someone who would say such harsh things for no reason.
“Come. I’ll accept all your childishness…”
Rowen pressed his lips tightly and recalled as he looked at Veronica rushing towards him.
That day, he saw a deep abyss in the girl’s eyes. A bottomless desire that seemed to devour everything around it if he let his guard down even a little, burning in the eyes of a small child.
She just couldn’t recognize it herself. She had lived selflessly, giving up everything and believing only in the words that she would become a giant tree, but how could anyone compare the desire of someone who couldn’t have anything?
Veronica’s essence wasn’t a weak giant tree.
A volcano that devours everything. The owner of an infinite desire with no end in sight.
