He Protected Me! You Killed Him!

The cold wind outside howled, billowing the blood-soaked curtains.

In the trash can not far from the window, only a pair of trembling eyes could faintly be seen. She clamped a hand over her little mouth, having witnessed everything, her tiny body almost completely rigid.

Because she had witnessed a bloody slaughter.

Boom-

Boom-

She kept smashing Lin En's head.

Even after half his head had been reduced to pulp, she still refused to get off him. She reveled sickly in the savage urge to brutalize and conquer him, the smile on her face growing ever more deranged.

At last.

Her strength gave out. Bracing her hands on either side of Lin En's body, she wore a blissful smile, tears shimmering in her eyes as she panted and gazed at the head she had smashed into a puddle of pulp.

"Lin Ke, this is all your fault."

"Why couldn't you have just died peacefully yesterday...? Let my people obediently harvest your Origin Substance, then let the monsters in the Spirit Realm eat you without any pain. Wouldn't that have been the best ending for you?"

She gently took his hand and rested it against her face, closing her eyes with longing and contentment.

Tears dripped down.

"Why did you have to appear before me again?"

"Once I'd replaced my [Origin Substance] with yours, wouldn't we have been together forever again? Why did you have to make me do it myself?"

Crack, crack, crack-

She slowly rose from Lin En's body.

Her once-flawless body had long since sprouted bone spurs and become covered in sharp scales under the effects of Transmutation, making her look like a twisted monster.

She looked at Lin En's body.

And smiled.

She left the blood-soaked bed, picked up a blood-red magic energy crystal from the cabinet, and sneered into it:

"Come here and bring my piece of Origin Substance. Oh, and remember to bring that [doctor] too. He's really astonished me. I'd love to see what kind of extraordinary medical skills could make someone appear before me alive again after having his Origin Substance removed..."

"Right now, I'm really not happy at all."

Crack-

Smiling, she crushed the crystal in her hand.

Then she turned back to Lin En's corpse, its head smashed to pieces, and her eyes once again became impossibly tender.

"Lin Ke, don't worry. I'll kill them for you very soon."

She gently took a sharp table knife out of the cabinet.

"And this time, I won't ever let them throw you away again. I'll make your Origin Substance and your body one with me forever and ever. I don't want to discard any part of you! From now on, there'll be no distinction between us!"

Panting, she hugged her own shoulders and closed her eyes, a sickeningly lovestruck smile spreading across her face.

Carefully.

Brimming with love, she held the table knife and walked elegantly toward Lin En's corpse on the bed, step by step.

"Now then, my beloved Lin Ke, which part of you should I eat first?"

Click-

A strange noise suddenly came from outside the window.

"Who's there?!"

Shakira's tender expression instantly twisted into that of a fiend.

She whipped her head around.

Crash-

In an instant.

Her tongue pierced the window frame with a wet squelch like a vine, shooting toward the source of the noise across the street.

At that very moment, Hana Ye had only just set up the "trash can" she had been hiding in. Clutching a pitch-black shell in both hands, she turned her pale face.

In an instant.

The twisted, snakelike tongue appeared in her pupils, rapidly growing larger.

"Aaaaaah-!"

Her scream rang through the silent, deserted street.

Inside the room.

Shakira tilted her head with a series of cracks, her long, bloodstained hair hanging down both sides of her face. Her sharp-clawed hand gripped Hana Ye by the back of her collar as she examined the tiny girl.

"So, it's you."

A beautiful smile appeared on her face.

She recognized Hana Ye.

When she had seen her Lin Ke again at the school gates that morning, this little girl had been beside him.

In fact, she had investigated the girl's identity today, because she didn't like anyone getting close to her adorable little puppy.

She licked her lips and tilted her head.

"So why? Why would a young lady of the Youzhi Family come to our filthy lower district? Oh! Right, you know my Lin Ke, don't you? But how strange. I never heard him mention having any noble friends. Are you... after my Lin Ke too?"

Hana Ye dangled in her grip, but still struggled desperately, trembling as she said:

"You horrible monster!! You... sob! You killed him! I... I've already told the Exorcist Squad everything I saw!! They'll be here soon!! You... you'll die a horrible death!!"

Shakira lifted the little girl in front of her, extended her winding tongue, and gazed at her tenderly.

"It's naughty to lie, you know."

"But either way, I never imagined you'd secretly follow us here. Since you've come, hehehehe-why don't you stay today? After I've enjoyed my Lin Ke, I wouldn't mind adding a little dessert. What do you think, little princess of the Youzhi Family...?"

"Don't worry. I won't show you the same mercy I showed my Lin Ke. I'll let you watch yourself..."

She gently licked the edge of the girl's ear.

"Being eaten alive."

But at that very moment.

Rrrip-

There was a tearing sound.

Hana Ye (〃＞皿＜) lashed out with her little claws, mustering almost every scrap of courage she had ever possessed. In an instant, she left five catlike bloody scratches across Shakira's face.

Shakira immediately let out a scream.

Seizing that opening, Hana Ye slipped free, dropping straight out of her dress. She scrambled and tumbled toward the broken window frame through which she had been dragged as fast as she possibly could.

But at that moment.

She actually chose not to flee.

Instead, she turned around, trembling, and held her revolver in both little hands, aiming its dark muzzle at Shakira.

"You evil woman! He protected me... he protected Hana Ye!! You killed him! You're a bastard!"

"You little-brat!"

Shakira viciously whipped her head around, revealing her bloody, twisted face beneath her long hair, her long nails trailing on the floor.

"I've changed my mind. Before I enjoy my Lin Ke, I'll eat you first-I'll peel your face off little by little! I'll skin you and swallow you alive!"

In an instant.

Her entire body lunged at Hana Ye by the window like a fiend, as fast as a bolt of scarlet lightning.

"I... I'm not afraid of you!"

Hana Ye shouted, trembling.

"You killed him! You monster, you killed him!!"

At that moment, she shouted with all her strength, squeezed her eyes shut, and pulled the trigger with the gun aimed at Shakira.

Bang-

A gunshot rang out.

The tremendous recoil knocked Hana Ye straight onto her backside.

The bullet blossomed into a spray of blood on Shakira's shoulder, but only made her stagger.

Almost instantly.

Her sharp nails grew larger and larger in Hana Ye's pupils.

Am I going to die?

Hana Ye, if you'd just run away back then, wouldn't that have been the best thing for you?

Why did you have to stay...

For a monster?

Time seemed to freeze for an instant.

Boom-

A tremendous smack rang out. Before anyone could even see what had happened, Shakira's body flew backward amid her screams and slammed into the cabinet behind her.

"What's going on?!"

She shuddered and snapped her gaze toward Hana Ye.

But that single glance made every hair on her body stand on end, and an intense chill swept through her heart.

"That... that's..."

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle-

It sounded like twisting, writhing flesh being squeezed.

A pitch-black tentacle curled around the stunned Hana Ye. After batting Shakira away, it slowly withdrew toward the bed with wet gurgles, gradually retracting into Lin En's chest.

In an instant.

She heard an incredibly familiar voice that made her scalp crawl.

"Hey! Don't do that. Can't you see we're not finished yet? How are we supposed to enjoy getting naughty if you turn around and do something else halfway through?"

At that moment.

Under her utterly horrified gaze.

Lin En, who had been lying on the bed with his entire head smashed to mush, actually swayed as he sat up. He scratched his chest, then turned his head toward her.

He tilted his neck, and an eyeball dropped from his mangled socket, rolling down his chest to the edge of the bed.

Plop-

[Ding! Shakira's Sanity -40!]

"Besides, peeping is her business. Couldn't you just ignore her? And anyway..."

Lin En (๑＞︶＜)و

"Doesn't having someone watch make it even more deliciously depraved?"