E-Rantel III

'Interesting,' Raizel mussed while observing the woman murdering the remaining people. The fight had dragged on for some time now, and the reason wasn't that the woman struggled with the adventurers; quite the opposite, they were struggling to contend with her.

Raizel was perched on the roof of one of the nearby buildings, still in his bat form.

Down in the intersection, four bodies were spread around, each with multiple piercing wounds in non-critical areas and a single fatal wound in the chest, precisely where their hearts were. The remaining adventurers fought desperately, but it was clear they were no match for her.

The remaining adventurers were struggling to cope with her relentless attacks. They were all out of breath, their faces flushed with exhaustion.

The warriors had been using their martial arts without reservation, and the continuous activation had taken a huge toll on their bodies. The mages were in no better shape, having already spent most of their magic power.

The young woman, on the other hand, was in top condition, without a single wound on her body. She was still hopping from one adventurer to another, skillfully dodging their attacks.

After evading an attack from the leader of the group, she landed a distance away from him before lunging toward an adventurer who was trying to sneak up on her.

"Oopsie~" she said, trying to act cutely while stabbing one of her stilettos into his chest. She twisted the blade, and a massive explosion occurred at the point of contact, creating a huge wound in the man's chest and killing him instantly.

"You bitch!" one of the remaining mages shouted, channelling the last of her magic power into a spell and firing it at the young woman. However, she dodged it effortlessly, lunged toward the mage, and stabbed her stilettos into her shoulder and back, incapacitating her.

The mage collapsed, writhing in pain, her spell fizzling out. The woman stood over her, her maniacal grin never wavering.

"Nice try," she said mockingly, twisting the stilettos slightly to elicit another pained cry from the mage. "But you'll need to do better than to defeat me!"

The young woman, Clementine, revelled in the mage's pain, letting out pained screams with an ecstatic look on her face.

The other adventurers hesitated, their confidence shaken. Clementine's relentless assault and sheer skill had overwhelmed them. Their breaths came in ragged gasps, their bodies aching from the intense battle.

After a few seconds of fun, she got up from the now paralyzed body of the mage and looked toward the two remaining adventurers.

"Well, who's next?~," she asked as she slowly moved toward the duo, who unconsciously took a step back.

"I guess I should finish up here; I've already had my fill of fun~" Saying this, Clementine activated one of her martial arts before lunging toward the duo and killing them.

"In normal circumstances, I might have played with you two, but I'm also a little bit tired, and I still have to kidnap that boy, so I guess you are lucky," she spoke as she withdrew her weapon from the last adventurer's body.

'I didn't expect to run into someone this interesting this early on in my journey,' Raizel mused as he observed Clementine going to one of the adventurers' bodies and picking up his rank plate.

'Hmm, I had planned to bring out a Vampiric Knight to be my partner as an adventurer, but I much prefer a woman over a man,' Raizel pondered on what to do with Clementine.

Before his transfer to the new world, Raizel wasn't in any romantic relationship because most of the women of the upper society were haughty and arrogant. Additionally, he was paralyzed, so being in any relationship wasn't feasible for him.

However, now that he was in this world, where he was the strongest or one of the strongest, he wanted to have fun and accomplish things he wasn't able to do before his transfer.

'It's decided! I will make her my partner instead of a Vampiric Knight! But first, I'll have to break her will and convert her into a vampire.'

Raizel intended to convert Clementine into a vampire, ensuring she would be completely under his control and unable to betray him or reveal the cave's location or his true identity. He was also driven by a dark curiosity: he wanted to break her will, testing the limits of his own cruelty. He sought to understand how far he could go in torturing her before feeling any revulsion or disgust.

It was a personal experiment for him, a way to gauge just how inhumane he had become since arriving in this world.

'From what I've observed so far, no matter what I do to beings of other species, I don't feel even a pang of disgust or revulsion,' he contemplated as he took a deep breath.

'It doesn't matter. Even if I have become a monster, at least I am alive and free to do whatever I want,' Raizel thought, a trace of worry crossing his mind. Yet, as he reflected on his miserable life back on Earth, those doubts began to fade. The freedom and power he now enjoyed were worth any moral compromises he might have to make in the future.

As soon as he decided what to do with Clementine, he heard the sound of shackles being broken. However, the sound didn't come from outside, but from his inside.

As soon as he decided what to do with Clementine, he heard the sound of shackles being broken. However, the sound didn't come from outside but from within himself.

"What was that sound? I remember hearing something similar in the past," Raizel muttered, squinting his eyes. 'Is it one of my skills doing that? Or something else?' Raizel spent some time pondering the cause but ultimately couldn't reach a solid conclusion.

"~Sigh~ I'll look into this after dealing with her," he said, dismissing the mysterious sound for the moment. Transforming back into his bat form, he flew down. He perched on a nearby tree branch overlooking the intersection where Clementine had slain the adventurers.

Clementine was still rummaging through the fallen adventurers' belongings, humming a cheerful tune as if she hadn't just ended several lives. 

"Quite the performance. I'm impressed," Raizel remarked, still in his bat form.

His words instantly alerted Clementine. She shifted into a defensive stance, scanning the surroundings with her senses. Her vigilance stemmed from two sources: her arrogance and her identity as a deserter.

She prided herself on detecting anyone entering her vicinity. Hearing a voice nearby without sensing anyone triggered her defensive instincts, heightening her wariness.

Her identity as a deserter made her extra cautious. Previously, she was a member of the Black Scripture of the Slane Theocracy. During her tenure with the Scripture, she was known as the 9th Seat: Windstride.

During her betrayal, she also stole one of the Theocracy's treasures and went on the run. Just a few weeks ago, she had a close encounter with another Theocracy Scripture, the Windflower Scripture, which specialized in information gathering and espionage.

'Only that Monster and the captain of the Scripture can evade my senses. No, the 12th Seat is here. However, if any of the members were here, they would've attacked me without alerting me to catch me off-guard. This means the person shouldn't be from the Black Scripture or the Theocracy,' her mind raced, trying to figure out the person's identity.

Seeing her tense expression and defensive stance, Raizel retreated into the shadows and deactivated his skill, returning to his normal form. He then retrieved a Quick Switcher and activated it, causing his armour to transform into a white tuxedo, a replica of his original attire.

'Gotta make a banger of a first impression,' he mused, tucking his fingers into his pants pockets before stepping out of the shadows. The reason he changed into the tuxedo was simply that it looked a lot cooler than his armour.

"No need to fear; I am just a passerby," he spoke calmly as he walked out of the shadows. However, he stopped a safe distance away from Clementine.

Clementine's eyes narrowed as she observed Raizel. "Doesn't look like a member of any of the Scriptures," she muttered to herself, continuing her inspection.

'He's definitely not a fighter, a mage perhaps?' she concluded after a few more seconds of scrutiny. Although Raizel's build was muscular, it was all hidden inside the tuxedo, making it quite hard for anyone to notice it.

'That explains how he was able to evade my senses. He used some kind of spell to hide his presence,' she mused, easing up slightly. Now that she had concluded that Raizel wasn't a member of the Black Scripture, her arrogance swelled.

She adopted a casual stance and spoke in her usual carefree tone.

"May I know your name? Ah, I'm Clementine; nice to meetcha~" She spoke while playing with her weapon.

'Clementine, huh? The deserter from the Black Scripture, according to Nigun. I have really struck gold this time,' Raizel thought in excitement, yet didn't show it on his face.

His excitement arose from her status as a deserter from the Black Scripture. He already had some information about the other scriptures of the Theocracy, and according to Nigun, Black Scripture was the most elite of the elite when it came to the different scriptures.

Raizel had only a little reliable information about them. He knew only a few names of some of their members, and one of those names was Clementine, once a member of the Black Scripture. She had turned rouge, killed a few important people, and stole some treasures before fleeing her homeland.

"Names's Raizel, now then, care to tell me why to killed them?" Raizel asked while pointing toward the corpses littered around Clementine.

"Hooh~ Could it be that these were your friends? Are you mad because I killed your buddies~?" She questioned in a mocking tone.

Raizel remained calm, unfazed by Clementine's mocking tone. "No, they weren't my friends," he replied evenly.

"I just wanted to find out why would you play with them before ultimately killing them? Wouldn't it be more practical and quick to kill them in one shot?"

Clementine chuckled, her eyes glinting with a mixture of amusement and cruelty. "Practical? Maybe. But where's the fun in that?" She shrugged casually, twirling her weapon. "I enjoy watching them squirm, seeing the fear in their eyes. Their suffering is... exhilarating~"

"Ah, I see. Perhaps a perk you developed while in the Black Scripture?" Raizel asked casually. This immediately caused Clementine to stiffen up and take a few steps back unconsciously.

Only a few people knew about her past, and most of them belonged to Slane Theocracy.

"Who are you? How do you know about my past?!" She spoke, almost growling.

"As I said, I'm just a passerby. However, now that I know your name, I've become interested in you. Oh, and before you ask, I'm not a member of any of the Scriptures or the Theocracy," Raizel said while slowly moving toward Clementine.

However, before Raizel could close the distance, Clementine quickly took an offensive stance and began activating her martial arts.

'I need to kill him,' Clementine thought while activating her martial arts.

'He doesn't look like a warrior; a stab through the heart should do the trick.'

"Ability Boost, Greater Ability Boost," she activated her martial arts before lunging toward Raizel at an inhuman speed, her stiletto aimed toward Raizel's heart.

To an ordinary observer, Clementine would have appeared as a blur in motion. However, to Raizel, her movements seemed slow and deliberate, affording him ample time to react.

Raizel swiftly sidestepped, evading Clementine's lunging attack with ease. As she overshot and reached his vacated spot, he executed a calculated kick that sent her hurtling toward a nearby building.

Reacting swiftly, Clementine activated one of her martial arts techniques, ensuring a safe landing on the ground. Despite her quick recovery, the force of Raizel's kick had already dealt significant damage. Though he had moderated its power, the impact had caused intense pain, visibly souring her expression.

"He's just like that Monster!" she seethed inwardly.

To be continued.