Flames flickered before my eyes.
To get straight to the point, I wasn’t dead yet.
Right after the Scarlet Flame Lord unleashed her fire,
Babienne who had been taken hostage by me instinctively swung her staff.
The flames she conjured managed to partially neutralize the incoming fire.
But it was only a partial success.
Her magic was quickly overwhelmed by the Scarlet Flame Lord’s flames.
So, I hurriedly tripped Babienne and rolled us both to the ground.
The dissipated fire roared over our heads and slammed into a pillar.
The stone pillar melted as if it had touched lava.
It was instantly clear just how scorching the Scarlet Flame Lord’s fire was.
“Hmph.”
The Scarlet Flame Lord stroked her chin as she looked down at us.
Then, without hesitation, she aimed her hand at us again.
We had survived earlier only because Babienne had used flames of a similar type.
There would be no second chance.
The other disciples’ faces had already gone pale.
Their master had suddenly appeared and was now attacking her own disciple.
To anyone watching, she was clearly an enemy.
Now that the Lord had turned against us, there was zero chance of victory.
“M-Master!”
At that moment, Babienne got up from the ground and shouted,
“Did you use magic to save me just now? If so, please stop! I only worked with him to stop Black Dawn, that’s all!”
Her eyes were filled with desperate pleading.
She was trying to appeal that I wasn’t truly a kidnapper.
But the Scarlet Flame Lord’s expression didn’t change.
That lack of response shook Babienne’s eyes.
She too must have realized what was really happening.
She wanted to deny it with all her heart, but reality was cruel.
Babienne’s lips trembled.
“Wh-Why are you doing this? I’m your eleventh disciple…”
She asked, her voice filled with anguish.
Black Dawn was a globally infamous terrorist group.
The idea that a Lord and her own master would side with them was incomprehensible.
Even if their bond had been forged with money, a master trying to kill her own disciple…
It was a blatant betrayal of decency.
“Because I got paid.”
The Scarlet Flame Lord answered simply.
“More than I ever made as a Lord.”
She had received enough money to walk away from all the privileges that came with her title.
Black Dawn. Their funds must have been obscene.
“So the plan has to go smoothly.”
The Scarlet Flame Lord had always been someone beyond the bounds of good and evil.
Her morality had only ever been dictated by gold.
This time was no different. She simply followed the money, becoming evil in the process.
“You’re…”
Babienne staggered to her feet with rage burning in her eyes.
“…not even human.”
Overwhelmed by despair, she pointed her staff at the woman now consumed by greed.
Her resolve to fight was evident.
It was a brave determination.
That is, until the Scarlet Flame Lord fired another blast of flame.
Fwoooosh!
Babienne was scorched black and collapsed where she stood.
Perhaps she’d cast some magic at the last moment, because her body didn’t fully disintegrate.
But that was all she could manage.
The gap between her and her master was vast.
No amount of righteous anger from the weak could ever change that.
“We’re done here, right?”
The Scarlet Flame Lord turned away, as if she had finished her business with her heels clicking against the floor.
Black Dawn once again drew their weapons in unison.
“Take care of the rest.”
Her steps turned toward the exit.
The moment I saw that, I realized where she was headed.
Sohan and Aransel.
She was going after the two who had escaped.
I ripped off the mask covering my face.
“You bitch. You goddamn fucking bitch.”
And I spoke out.
Even just a few seconds…
I needed to buy more time.
So I’d do whatever it took.
Everyone present knew exactly who my words were aimed at.
Not just the disciples. Even Black Dawn turned to me in stunned disbelief.
The Scarlet Flame Lord froze in place.
In the suffocating silence that followed,
Only I kept running my cursed mouth.
“If you’ll do anything for money, I’ll pay you too. So why not torch that useless head of yours while you’re at it?”
Her eyes slowly turned toward me.
As if she was genuinely wondering if I meant her.
She had always ruled as a powerful figure.
Perhaps she’d been insulted behind her back.
But no one had ever dared speak like this to her face.
And of course… who would, unless they had a death wish?
So in this moment, she wasn’t even sure if I was truly talking to her.
“What, still not sure it’s about you? Even a whore’s got more spine than you.”
Just like that, the mighty Scarlet Flame Lord was dragged down to something less than a prostitute.
It was a fall fitting of this primitive, barbaric world.
“Wow.”
The Scarlet Flame Lord let out a breath.
“Haven’t seen a viper in a while.”
The fangs had reached her.
And now, it was time for punishment.
She snapped her fingers.
That was all it took.
A blast of flame, just like the one that hit Babienne, engulfed my entire body in an instant.
The searing heat burned through skin and muscle,
melted bone, and incinerated even my brain.
My last remaining eyeball watched the world burn.
Before it too was consumed.
As always, this goddamn otherworld was hell.
***
Thud—
A second corpse collapsed beside Babienne.
Unlike her, this one had been burned so thoroughly it had turned to ash.
It was clear. Nothing would remain of that body.
The Scarlet Flame Lord glanced at the scorched remains.
It had been a long time since she’d heard such overt and degrading insults.
Which made it all the more confusing.
Why had he said something like that?
She’d thought there might be some hidden motive,
So she had considered her next move carefully —
But no, he had truly just burned to death without leaving anything behind.
From the moment he took Babienne hostage, she’d assumed he was someone with a plan.
But everything he’d done since had been nothing but madness.
“Whose disciple was that?”
Someone of the Scarlet Flame Lord’s status wouldn’t bother keeping track of every new disciple.
That was Black Dawn’s job.
So, she casually threw out a question to one of them.
“Raphael Vaniola’s disciple.”
Black Dawn answered faithfully.
Raphael Baniola. The daughter of the Grace Magic Tower’s master.
A notable figure in holy magic.
A holy mage?
Then… was that bizarre act a result of trusting in his own holy magic?
But he had seen, with his own eyes, the fire that had melted Babienne.
And even after that, he provoked her, believing his magic would protect him?
That didn’t make sense. Not at all.
If that was the case, then he had a purpose all the way up until his death.
The Scarlet Flame Lord had been planning to go after those who had just tried to escape from this place.
And right after that, Raphael’s disciple spoke out against her.
Then… could it be that he did all that just to buy time for those two who ran away?
The time he bought was only a few seconds at most.
And for those few seconds, Raphael’s disciple gave his life.
Was that even possible?
People instinctively value their own lives the most.
No matter what the reason was, no one would so willingly stake their life like that.
“Hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped the Scarlet Flame Lord’s lips.
“Another lunatic, just like that commander.”
If that really was his intention, then it had worked.
The two had managed to escape, after all.
And before long, they’d probably return with the formal army and their masters in tow.
The Scarlet Flame Lord slowly swept back her hair.
“Only take those you absolutely need. If we take everyone, they’ll be onto us.”
“Will you be alright?”
“Mhmm, I’ll be fine. I’m going to erase the rest anyway.”
There was no reason to keep the disciples alive.
At her words, the disciples flinched.
Just moments ago, she had erased two of them in an instant.
Erasing the rest would be no problem.
“Come quietly now.”
The Scarlet Flame Lord smiled coldly.
“Not if I can help it.”
A voice rang out from behind her just before she could react.
Chill—
The Scarlet Flame Lord’s head whipped around.
The moment the flame extended from her palm toward the voice behind her—
She realized she had been outplayed.
There was nothing behind her.
Instead, a man appeared in front of her and swung his sword.
The flame barrier she had conjured was sliced apart without hesitation.
The sharp aura surrounding his sword was beyond what magic could defend against.
It was a blade that cut through anything.
Whatever he held in his hand became a legendary weapon, the strongest of all swords.
Even if it were just a tree branch.
Because the man himself was the sword.
The Sword Lord—
So-woon.
A man who had reached the pinnacle of the sword had arrived.
Just before the Scarlet Flame Lord’s head was severed—
Someone leapt out and blocked the attack.
The blind swordsmaster, Tear Rain.
With all her other senses heightened in place of her sight, she alone had sensed So-woon’s arrival.
And so, she swung her sword, stepping in front of So-woon to protect the Scarlet Flame Lord.
But Tear Rain quickly realized just how grave a mistake she had made.
So-woon’s sword cut through hers.
Cleanly, effortlessly, without the slightest resistance.
The sharpness radiating from his blade evoked a terror of an entirely different kind.
Because she couldn’t see, she felt So-woon’s presence even more intensely—
And let out a horrifying scream.
The death looming before her gave her no time to see her life flash before her eyes.
Tear Rain’s body was sliced apart. It was cleanly severed.
And So-woon’s blade didn’t stop there. It continued toward the Scarlet Flame Lord.
But Tear Rain’s death had not been in vain.
The brief opening created by her intervention—
The Scarlet Flame Lord used that moment to unleash an explosion from her hand, blasting herself away.
Booooom!
She narrowly avoided So-woon’s sword.
But two of her fingers were sliced off.
That was the price of having her hand brush against the edge of So-woon’s blade while casting the explosion.
Blood dripped steadily to the ground as the Scarlet Flame Lord caught her breath.
Had it not been for Tear Rain’s interference, it would have been her neck that was severed.
“You monstrous bastard.”
Even though they had both reached the level of Lord, the gap between them was ridiculous.
So-woon was a being who existed on an entirely different plane, even among Lords.
That was why he was the one person she had hoped wouldn’t show up here.
…How did he get here so fast?
Just moments ago, her two disciples had left.
Although they had contacted him, there was no way So-woon should’ve arrived this quickly.
At this speed, it must be spatial magic.
But there’s only one person in the world who can manipulate spatial magic to this extent.
The master of spatial magic. Liliran.
But she was believed to have perished alongside Cosmic Zak, the Sinner of Sloth.
…Don’t tell me she’s alive?
Something about this situation was starting to feel off.
A warning bell rang in her mind. It felt like she was going to have to work far beyond what she’d been paid for.
She didn’t yet realize that it all began with a single man’s scornful words moments ago.
“The Scarlet Flame Lord, blinded by greed.”
“Heh, come on. Greed is the most valuable thing in life, isn’t it?”
The Scarlet Flame Lord broke into a cold sweat.
She clenched and unclenched her fist.
In that brief moment of hesitation—
“Ahuhu, need some help?”
A man’s head suddenly popped out from the shadow beneath her feet.
A grotesque-looking man, with nails driven into his skull.
“Now!”
The moment she saw him, the Scarlet Flame Lord shouted. And So-woon was already moving.
As his blade surged toward her, she melted into the shadow.
So-woon’s sword cut through empty air, slicing the chamber wall in half.
The wall had been so cleanly severed that it didn’t even collapse.
At the same time, the Black Dawn quickly converged around him.
They surrounded him with faces full of grim determination, already prepared to die.
Grit—
So-woon ground his teeth.
“Sinner of Envy.”
It was the one who had just taken the Scarlet Flame Lord through the shadow.
“Liliran, pursue them.”
Even as he shouted, So-woon reversed his grip on the sword.
“I’ll take care of these and follow right after.”
To the Black Dawn, those words were nothing short of a death sentence.
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