Descend On The Dark

The man's yelling didn't make the already quiet place any louder.

Screams from her mother and siblings followed, panicked and clear through the thin walls.

Liora, stained red with blood, held her breath.

"What should we do, Liora?"

"Everyone's an enemy... except for the recently born girl. She's not."

"Do you know which house?"

"Yes."

Alright.

The village has around a hundred people. There hadn't been any children born in years, so apart from the newborn, everyone had mistreated Liora.

If it had only been mistreatment, I might have stopped her revenge.

But they had abused her as a village.

They stole her food, made her carry heavy water alone, and beat her if she was late—such despicable acts.

You might think it's just a game, but I want to kill them.

Liora and I get along well.

"First, as planned. Let's set fire to the houses."

Liora lit a fire as instructed. The fire quickly spread through the wooden house, and the villagers, upon seeing it, frantically began firefighting efforts.

A water magician used water, a wind magician tried to prevent sparks from scattering, and an earth magician attempted to extinguish the fire with large amounts of dirt.

Liora dashed into the darkness.

She headed to a nearby house, quickly setting it on fire too, and soon the village was engulfed in flames.

"It's a curse! We should have killed that demon child sooner!"

"So that's why the fire started at that house!?"

No, that's not the reason.

Liora began killing isolated individuals.

I am currently deploying [Dark Aura] on Liora. It's a spell with no particular effect, but it helps her blend into the night.

[Zephyr has leveled up]

[Liora has leveled up]

[Liora's scythe technique has leveled up]

[Liora's farming skills have leveled up]

In an instant, a dozen people were sent to the afterlife.

However, since the bodies were left in plain sight, the villagers finally realized it was a deliberate massacre.

"What's happening!?"

"I don't know! But everyone, gather! Don't scatter!"

"Mommy!"

The surviving villagers gathered in one place, forming a formation to guard all directions.

"Are you ready, Liora?"

"Yes, God."

Liora ran, melting into the night.

She charged straight into a section of the group, using her own body as a bullet, crashing into the mass of villagers.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhh!"

Liora, with eyes spinning wildly, whirled around like a madwoman. In that one attack, five villagers' heads fell to the ground.

The villagers, realizing they were under attack, launched their attacks on Liora at once.

Swords, axes, and magic tore into Liora's young body.

But,

"The suffering you inflicted on her, she's used to that level. Ravage them, Liora."

"God says... kill them all!"

Despite being wounded all over, Liora did not falter.

Just by swinging her scythe forcefully, she quickly brought down her enemies.

Fear spread among them.

Liora mercilessly chased down those trying to escape, wielding her deadly scythe. The scene was like the reaper of death dancing to his heart's content.

"Hehehe! Die die!! DIE!!!!"

Eventually, the weaker-willed people cowered, muttering apologies and confessions, but their words were empty strings.

Liora did not stop.

After the rampage, Liora stood under the night sky.

Surrounded by a sea of blood.

Mountains of corpses. Ugly intestines writhing, lifeless bodies lying beside them.

"We won. God... it's all thanks to you!"

"No, you did well, Liora."

I used [Darkness Creation] to pat Liora's head. It was meant to be a caress, but it was difficult to do it properly. Maybe I should let her choose [Manifestation]...

'Still, I could feel the touch.'

Despite her beautiful hair, it was damaged by her harsh life.

Liora started crying, tears falling in big drops.

I cleared my throat.

"Now, Liora. We still need to retrieve the baby. The mother is still alive, right?"

"Yes, God... she's the hunter's woman!"

The baby is innocent.

But the mother has sinned.

According to Liora, she had pushed Liora to fetch water on a freezing day and repeatedly said, "Go fetch more! Not that I can use the water fetched by a demon child, anyway."

"Then—"

Before I could finish speaking, a sudden shock shook my entire body. I saw that I had been blown away several meters.

On the ground was an arrow.

I had been shot by an arrow. However, it didn't matter, as spirits don't have an HP concept.

Because I made a pact with Liora, my presence is visible to people.

Still, despite being hit by arrows multiple times, Liora has been enduring well.

After witnessing my sniping, Liora's face turned pale and then instantly flushed with anger. She glared at the roof of an intact house.

On the roof, a sharp-eyed woman was drawing her bow.

"How dare you! Hurt my god!"

"A demon child indeed. You're cursed! To make a pact with a dark spirit!"

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Screaming, Liora started running.

The archer's skills were excellent, and she repeatedly hit Liora in the abdomen and legs. But that didn't stop Liora.

"What the...!"

Of course, I didn't let every one of the arrows hit my contracted; I made a shield of darkness and equipped it as efficiently as I could.

The archer, her eyes trembling with agitation, leaped from the house. She intended to change her sniping position.

Using some sort of stealth skill, she melded into the darkness, disappearing from sight.

"Where did she go!?"

Liora spun around, scanning her surroundings.

'Tch, I can't let her take any more hits...' Although she was constantly recovering, seeing her hurt made me uncomfortable for some reason.

Even if she is just a programmed character...

An arrow shot from the right pierced Liora's young abdomen. Without removing it, Liora ran in the direction from which the arrow came, but this time an arrow flew from the left.

The hit sent Liora flying several meters.

It seemed the attack was imbued with some sort of skill.

"U...ugh. God. God, God! God is on my side!"

Liora got up, wiping the blood dripping from her mouth.

With a quick rotation of her eyes, she continued observing. Watching this deadly battle, I floated into the air using my spirit powers.

There she was.

The archer was hiding on the roof of the house she had supposedly escaped from.

It seemed she used a skill to create a decoy and was using some other skill to repeatedly snipe from a surrounding position.

In that case.

I cast [Dark Aura] on the archer.

Suddenly enveloped in darkness, the archer frantically tried to brush it off with her hands. Hearing the noise, Liora was already on the move.

"Shit—The demon child...!"

"God says: Kill them all!"

The archer released an arrow, and Liora threw her scythe.

Only the arrow hit the girl, while Liora's scythe flew in a completely wrong direction. Seeing Liora fall, the archer's face broke into a joyous smile.

"Ha, haha! She's dead! The village's cursed child is dead! My baby and I are safe! I killed her! I won!"

"Too bad, bitch."

"...What?"

I circled behind the archer and cast [Darkness Creation] on her back. A slight push was all that was needed.

On the unstable footing of the roof, just a slight push was enough to send the archer falling to the ground.

She fell hard with her face hitting the ground.

However, her level must have been high.

Despite her face being bloody, the archer survived.

She glared at me, shouting as if to kill me.

"Dark spirit! Just because you can't die, don't get cocky—"

"God is God. Not a dark spirit!"

"!"

The archer, turning around, was too late by a few moments.

Liora's scythe, which I helped her to retrieve, was already placed right at the archer's neck. Feeling the cold blade, the archer's mouth twisted in fear.

A drop of sweat trickled down.

"F-forgive—"

Liora's mouth curled into a smile, like that of Light Yagami's.

She swung her arm, and the archer's head fell.

Ah, the [Darkness Creation] skill I acquired for fun is really handy.

[Zephyr has leveled up]

[Zephyr's Dark Magic has leveled up]

[Zephyr's Create Dark has leveled up]

[Zephyr's Dark Aura has leveled up]

[Zephyr's HP Auto-Recovery has leveled up]

[Zephyr's MP Auto-Recovery has leveled up]

[Liora's Scythe Technique has leveled up]

[Liora's Farming Skills have leveled up]

[Liora's Light Magic has leveled up]

We leveled up.

The archer seemed to be of a higher rank, so just defeating her allowed us to level up.

Thus, Liora's village was annihilated.

The sounds of insects had vanished into the darkness at some point.

The crackling of burning houses was the only sound filling the world.

The sight of the girl, bathed in moonlight, her white skin tear-streaked, was terrifyingly artistic.