Heart Extraction Contest

(Ceruno)

Alpha was surprised by Miluno's offer to lend her the dagger, but she didn't hold back. She gripped the dagger in her hand and slashed forward, but Miluno easily dodged the blade by simply using her speed to the side...

Well, I could only see afterimages of Alpha's movements, so I didn't really see what happened. All I knew was that after a few exchanges, Alpha was suddenly stabbed through the heart by Miluno.

Blood was flowing freely, but he was not dead yet.

For witches within the Witch Domain, as long as the Simulacrum Factor remains, even if their hearts are pierced, there is a possibility of recovery...

But Miluno won't give her time to recover.

The dagger piercing his heart twisted and writhed, and Alpha breathed his last in agony, finally collapsing with lifeless eyes.

"Is that all? You're far inferior to Fomalhaut."

Wow, so fast!

I thought I'd be seeing an intense sword duel...

Miluno sighed as she finished off the witch.

In close combat, Miluno's magic has an almost invincible advantage. She is top-notch in terms of reaction speed and physical strength required for life-or-death combat at point-blank range, and her magic can further amplify this advantage... If all else fails, she can also slow down her opponent.

Even Miss Fomalhaut couldn't rely entirely on swordsmanship to deal with Miluno, let alone Alpha, who is Modified Witch.

In terms of swordsmanship alone, Alpha may still be superior to Fomalhaut, but if they relied solely on swordsmanship to face Miluno, it would be reasonable for him to be defeated.

She's very capable, just a bit unlucky.

I glanced at the deep red short staff in my hand.

In the end...

What exactly is the magic called "World-Cleansing Echo"?

Without Alpha's support, the ancient castle began to crumble. Before long, these burning ruins will disappear, and we will return to the North Suburbs...

Perhaps because this is Witch Domain within Witch Domain, the castle did not collapse as quickly as in the previous domains.

We still need to wait, but it's a short break nonetheless.

"Without a 'Great Will,' Miss Alpha wouldn't have such a stubborn personality, would she?"

Hearing my sigh, Phoenix put his arm around my shoulder and shook his head.

"But without the 'Great Will,' she would not have been born, Ceruno. Our enemy is not a 'civilization,' but the undead of a 'civilization'... As for enemies like Alpha, they are merely living weapons."

I understood her reasoning perfectly, but I still felt a pang of regret. From her attire and the design of the castle, it was clear that Alpha recognized and appreciated Earth's civilization... but I couldn't persuade her to adopt the weapon, and we were forced to stand on the opposing side, fighting to the death.

Then.

I saw Miluno on the ground tear open Alpha's strange clothes and reach into the latter's chest... chest cavity?

Yes, she had stabbed herself in the large, bowl-sized sword wound that had been torn from her chest.

For a moment, I seemed to smell the metallic stench of blood.

"Wow?! What are you doing?!"

In response to my questioning, Miluno replied dismissively:

"Find the Simulacrum Factor."

"Alpha is already dead, is there any need to finish it off?"

"She's not dead yet. Only her Base Body is dead. If the Simulacrum Factor is recovered by the enemy, she will still be resurrected and stand in front of us... Then, I think I can finish her off with just one sword thrust, destroying her Simulacrum Factor. Why bother groping around in her corpse like this?"

Miluno's ability to do this without any expression is somewhat frightening.

After Witchification, Miluno seems to have become more rational, to the point of being almost heartless.

"Found it."

She withdrew her hand, holding a metallic red stone in her palm—Miss Alpha's Simulacrum Factor.

For this Monster, this small stone is the vessel of his soul and will.

It is the real heart.

"Then give it to the Association to exchange for money."

"No, Miluno... give me that."

"You don't want to bring her back to life, do you?"

"Yes... Ah! But not now, not until the day we achieve complete victory!"

I don't know how much longer it will take, but I'll just keep it as a memory...

"Then you continue."

Miluno flicked the Simulacrum Factor with her thumb, as if it were a marble.

With the tension eased, Phoenix hugged me tightly from behind for a while, saying, "Ceruno, your kind-hearted nature just won't change at all. You actually sympathize with an enemy who wants to kill you..."

"You just said that they are merely weapons mass-produced by the 'Great Will,' and weapons have no choice of their own... Only by destroying the 'Great Will,' or changing its mind, can these Monsters and witches be freed from their identity as weapons; otherwise... they will only continue to create tragedy."

Unlike Miss Achernar, these witches, transformed by Monster, have no memories of being human. They are also more loyal to the "Great Will," so there is almost no possibility of them being recruited. Even if they are captured, the Simulacrum Factor will quickly turn into gold, which is the poison that Aldebaran planted for them.

They were enemies, but they were truly ruthless...

"So, where's Tiger Cub?"

I wonder if that demolition team leader, that castle destroyer, is still alive...

"That brute is fine."

Miluno replied, "She's just been buried. Once the restrictions are lifted, she'll be able to survive."

"Wouldn't you have been crushed to death by a collapse of that scale?"

Miluno shrugged again and replied:

"No, she has a human cushion."

Mono: Aaaaaaaah!!!

(Screaming and falling to the ground)

Tiger Cub: Let me go! What are you doing?!

The collapse is underway.

Alpha's territory vanished completely, and we returned to the still-burning streets.

Inside the castle, everything seemed as if nothing had happened...

"That's outrageous! Even a temporary body can still feel pain!"

The Wolf Woman with short, dark gray hair sobbed and pounded on Miluno's chest. Milno didn't fight back, but instead rubbed the Wolf Woman's dented head to comfort her.

"Alright, Mono, the results say everyone was rescued. Isn't that a good thing?"

Is that witch Mono?

It's likely that after Miluno killed him, Mono took over his Base Body... Indeed, in this situation, having one more person means having one more fighting force.

However, it's a miracle that this Base Body can still move after its skull was crushed and its back was covered in wounds during the collapse...

As for Tiger Cub...

"I thought you all flew away, so I wanted to smash that lousy castle to pieces and bury those two witches along with it."

She didn't know that Phoenix and I were still in the castle, nor did she know that Miluno had also been dragged into this. She went to fight Alpha with the determination to die.

It was merely the courage of a common man.

But it did make me look at her in a new light.

As for Miss Qianhua...

After she disappeared from the castle, we never saw her again.

It seems to have become moist.