Broken Will

“You will understand, Xiao Ya… You will surely understand your master…”

Kaelan, as if possessed, chanted the spell. The amethyst pendant on her chest instantly emitted a blinding, brilliant light, beginning to float rhythmically up and down.

The witch lightly pinched her fingertips, drawing out a wisp of translucent magical thread from the multifaceted crystal. With a flick of her wrist, she sent it forth, and the thread shot out, piercing the foreign maiden’s forehead.

The foreign maiden’s fox tail trembled slightly. She lifted a pair of vacant eyes, slowly turning them towards Saranya, who stood nearest.

“Save… save…”

!

Sensing the maiden’s faint plea, Saranya, who had been frozen in a daze, suddenly snapped back to reality.

‘My master had inflicted inhumane torture upon the fox maiden. She intended to use the maiden’s body as a vessel, forcibly eradicating her consciousness to make way for Lenix. My master claimed this was revenge, telling her that the maiden before them deserved such treatment.’

‘How could she possibly condone such an act?!’

‘Their past suffering had been tragic, yet it was Lenix’s fault, Lenix, the boss, who was problematic. It had little to do with this foreign maiden.’

‘This was not revenge; it was an unjustified slaughter. Her master reveled in such atrocities, deriving intense pleasure from tormenting and destroying others. The maiden’s broken expression, her master’s deranged giggles, and her trembling, ecstatic demeanor were all undeniable proof.’

‘As long as she drew breath, she would fight against such wicked deeds to the very end.’

‘Yes, in this regard, she and her master were entirely different.’

“I will save you… Hold on…!”

Saranya swiftly drew the dagger from her waist. She forcefully plunged it into the shackles on the maiden’s wrist, knowing that with her years of experience handling weaponry, she could easily dismantle restraints of this caliber.

With a grating screech of metal that set teeth on edge, Saranya successfully freed one of the maiden’s arms. She discarded the twisted shackle in her hand, then immediately lunged for the maiden’s other arm, destroying the second shackle in the same manner.

“Xiao Ya! What are you doing!!!”

Kaelan’s shrill roar echoed from behind her. The immense pressure terrified Saranya, causing her to collapse to the ground, but she immediately struggled to prop herself up, crawling towards the fox maiden’s bound ankles.

“Master… we cannot do this!”

“How could this be…”

Filled with immense disappointment and disbelief, Kaelan’s tone grew increasingly frantic.

“How could you help her… Why would you help her?! You love your master, you should love your master! You must obey your master!!!”

“Kaelan… I don’t like you like this… I’m sor—I’m sorry…”

“Ugh!”

The moment Saranya’s words left her lips, the distorted smile on Kaelan’s face instantly froze. Her once clear, sparkling crimson eyes, like those of a fawn, were now terrifyingly vacant.

“Xiao Ya… I did all this for you…”

Kaelan wrapped her arms tightly around her shoulders, slowly squatting to the ground. Large, heavy tears welled from her eyes, her posture resembling that of a helpless little girl.

“Kaelan, you’re only doing this to satisfy yourself…”

“Xiao Ya… you misspoke, didn’t you… You like me…”

The young witch stood up, looking utterly distraught. She swayed as she approached Saranya, her words a statement, yet also a stubborn demand for Saranya to confirm her feelings.

“I told you, Kaelan, I cannot accept you like this… But, but people can change! As long as you—”

Saranya tried to explain further, but Kaelan did not give her the chance.

Kaelan’s body convulsed as if struck by a whip, twisting abnormally and wildly. The weeping from her lips gradually morphed into sharp, ear-splitting laughter.

“Wuwu… Wuwuwu hahahahahaha—”

“Kaelan…?”

“No… No! You can’t!!! You like… you like me! You love me, you love me, you love me, you love me, you love me, you love me, ahhhhhh—!!!”

Kaelan howled, unleashing a mass of pitch-black demonic light. Centered on the fox maiden, the ground abruptly bloomed with dense, purple incantations.

‘Ritual magic! Damn it, Kaelan intends to forcibly erase the fox maiden’s consciousness!’

The thread on the fox maiden’s forehead abruptly brightened. She opened her mouth in a shrill scream, her hands flailing wildly in the air before falling back to the ground, lifeless.

Saranya’s heart pounded with anxiety; she could no longer afford to hesitate. She forcefully snapped the two leg shackles binding the maiden, then gripped her waist.

“Fox! Bear with it! Talk to me, tell me your name?!”

“Liriel… Haaaaahhh—”

Amidst the dull, grinding sounds of flesh and metal, Saranya brutally pulled the maiden down from the iron hooks.

“Thank you… Thank you… but I’m already…”

“Don’t speak so much, Liriel, you will survive!”

‘She had to save Liriel, and she would save Liriel. This was to prevent Kaelan from straying further down the wrong path, to expel the demon residing within the dark witch, and to bring back the lovely, charming Kaelan Novfloss to her side.’

‘Just as she was saving Liriel now, she also had to pull Kaelan back from the vortex of corruption, to transform the young witch into the person she was meant to be.’

‘She had to succeed!!!’

Saranya scooped Liriel into her arms. She pushed aside the debris in her path, intending to rush out of the ritual magic’s range.

However, the moment she took her first step, a searing pain erupted in her abdomen. Bright purple demonic runes, like raging flames, instantly engulfed her entire being.

‘This was not Saranya’s first time experiencing such a nightmarish ordeal. She had believed herself immune to her master’s methods, capable of enduring for a while longer…’

‘The truth was, her master had merely held back before.’

The demonic runes blazed intensely. Saranya’s mouth fell open, yet the fear and agony from the depths of her soul rendered her voiceless. Her legs buckled, her knees crashing heavily onto the flagstone floor, and Liriel, too, tumbled to the ground.

Saranya half-knelt on the ground, her lower abdomen convulsing. As an animal, her primal response to pain and terror manifested as an urgent need to urinate. She could no longer bear it, allowing a warm, foul-smelling stream to soak her leather trousers.

Only then did her brain register what was happening. Her beautiful, icy blue eyes slowly rolled upwards, leaving only wide expanses of white in her eye sockets, as hoarse, broken screams emerged from her throat.

“Ah… ah… ahhh…”

Urine mixed with cold sweat, soaking through the lining of her armor and spreading into a dark stain on the flagstones beneath her. She, meanwhile, seemed to have had every bone removed from her body, collapsing limply into her own puddle of urine.

Liriel’s eyes were tightly shut, her body still. After a long while, she finally reopened them, yet she seemed like a different person, her expression clouded with confusion, and a faint, emerald glow flickering in her pupils.

Liriel was gone.

Saranya’s last vestige of consciousness plunged into endless despair.

“Pitter-patter.”

“Pitter-patter.”

“Hoo♪~ hmm-hmm♪~”

Kaelan hummed a pleasant tune, her footsteps growing closer and closer before abruptly halting before Saranya.

“Xiao Ya… you love your master most of all, don’t you…?”

“Yes… Xiao Ya… loves master…”

“No matter what your master is like?”

“No matter… what master… is like… Xiao Ya… loves master’s… everything…”

“Hee… heehee… hahahahahaha—”