Father and Daughter

"Kill... everyone... whoever... hinders... Ailiya..."

The doll Weir stammered, his face expressionless, looking eerie and chilling in the night.

But her movements were so skillful, like a fighting machine!

Erza and the doll Weir clashed, their claws striking the blade, sparks flying.

Chiba didn't create Shadow Clone to help Erza, because since she had already made up her mind, he didn't want to disappoint her. Besides, this was also a kind of test for her.

His figure disappeared into the darkness as he continued his search for Mira.

In a canyon, a middle-aged man stands atop the canyon.

He was dressed in a formal suit, holding a glass of red wine. The evening breeze caressed his face; he remained as elegant and composed as ever.

"It's late, Lord Bolunte, please go back to your tent and rest." A woman's gentle voice sounded from behind him, and then the woman walked gracefully out of the darkness.

"Suomeier..." The middle-aged man turned around, and his handsome face could be vaguely seen in the moonlight.

He chuckled softly, then turned back, looked up at the bright moon, and said calmly, "What? Have you found him?"

"Reporting to you, sir, they are currently encamped in the Edgar Town and will return to Magnolia tomorrow," Suomeier said in a deep voice.

"Yes, keep an eye on them," Bolunte said calmly.

Suomeier quietly approached Bolunte and couldn't help but look at the man's mysterious profile.

I've been following him for many years now, without even realizing it.

From her initial defeat at this man's hands, to her later following in his footsteps, to establishing the Blood Demon Knights, to leading them across the continent to uphold justice, and then... to this man's downfall, she witnessed it all.

She had asked herself if she regretted following this man who had betrayed his original intentions, regretted not being able to see his true colors, regretted... falling in love with this man.

She knew this man had a fetish for young girls, but this fetish stemmed entirely from his magic, the dark magic he practiced. One of the conditions for this was that he needed ordinary young girls... or female mages under the age of twenty, to serve as vessels for his cultivation. He was a heartless person, indifferent to the life or death of anyone, only concerned with the advancement of his own magical path.

Perhaps my only regret is not meeting him before I turned twenty.

Some say love is poison, and for her, that was certainly true. Even though some things had crossed her bottom line, it seemed that for him, everything... nothing else mattered.

"Suomeier, have I told you... about my wife?" Bolunte asked suddenly in a soft voice.

Suomeier's delicate body trembled slightly. She had never heard of Bolunte having a wife, nor had the other two who followed Bolunte.

"Reporting to Your Excellency... no..."

Suomeier's voice trembled slightly.

"Hehe... that was a long time ago..."

Bolunte took a sip of red wine and said softly, "When we were young, we participated in the Sword Mountain Contest together. During the Sword Mountain Contest, I was nearly defeated by her in one move. It was from then on that we officially met. We were both people who yearned for the magic path, passionate about it, and obsessed with it. We discussed magic together and lived together. We fell in love, and those were truly wonderful times."

He couldn't help but smile, then said, "We had two lovely daughters, one named Weir and the other Ailiya. We were very happy every day, and at that time I even thought I was just a father and a husband."

"But back then, her obsession with the demonic path was almost unparalleled, even now I am not as good as her. We were researching the bloodline genes of the ancient Demon God Halphas and the Demon Monster Aibudelun. To facilitate the research, she injected the bloodlines of Halphas and Aibudelun into her two daughters while I was away."

"Why would you do something like this?" Suomeier couldn't help but ask.

"Because of... survival," Bolunte said calmly. "The witches in their village are forbidden from falling in love. She is the next witch. My union with her is tantamount to breaking the taboo."

"The old witch was very strong, about the same strength as me now. She easily defeated me back then, but I didn't kill her because of my father. The old witch took her and our two daughters back to the village."

"Whether our daughters are demons or not, they will be treated inhumanely. Menair injected demonic blood into them partly to observe their reactions, and partly to give them the ability to protect themselves. At that time, her time was running out."

"But you haven't even contacted her all these years," Suomeier said. "Otherwise, Linweier would have known."

"I haven't contacted them, because in my opinion, the bond between us was severed after she altered our daughters' bloodlines," Bolunte said calmly. "You know I'm extremely concerned with bloodlines, even though it's not a good thing. But Weir and Ailiya, who have been infused with demonic blood, still be considered my daughters? They're my daughters if they possess my blood, but they have demonic blood, so are they the daughters of demons or my daughters?"

He let out a sigh of relief and said, "I don't know either, so I've simply stopped thinking about it. This is perhaps the most perplexing thing in my life, even when I killed my father with my own hands I didn't feel this way."

Suomeier fell silent. Tonight, she seemed to see a completely different Bolunte than before. Then she said, "Why are you suddenly telling me all this?"

"Because..."

Bolunte looked at Suomeier and said with a faint smile, "I'm about to die."

Suomeier was startled, grabbed him with both hands, and exclaimed, "What did you say?!"

"This body can no longer withstand [the demonic]..." Bolunte pressed her hand, looked up at the moon again, and said calmly, "To say that I am going to die... is really just that this body is going to die."

"However... before that, we should give that boy a big gift first."

Did I... lose?

Ailiya lay on the grass, blood at the corner of her mouth, her hair disheveled, and spoke softly.

Not far away, Mira sat cross-legged on the grass, panting heavily.

On the other side, the doll Weir lay motionless on the grass, seemingly lifeless.

Mira stood up, stumbled over to Ailiya, then bent down and lifted her up in her arms.

The wheelchair was unusually undamaged, not even blown up, and Mira placed Ailiya in it.

"Why... don't you kill me?" Ailiya whispered.

Mira rolled her eyes. "You really want to die?"

"Yes!" Ailiya suddenly raised her head and shouted.

But tears welled up in her eyes, her hands gripped her clothes tightly, and she bit her lip. "It's all because of you, my sister... my sister can't live..."