Scarlet

Over time I almost lose myself in the massacre; in the hunt. But I manage to maintain myself every time thanks to Tar.

The main battlefield is filled with millions upon millions of demons with nearly a quarter of that in Guardians. And while the Guardians are mostly stationed up on the mountains and cliffs overseeing these plains, the demons are spread out everywhere.

So I just kill demons back to back, ignoring all of the wounds I get from these lowly Class I and II demons as I tear them limb from limb, the vast majority of them not even having the sapience to understand what’s happening as they toss themselves at me like fodder. But because they’re such low leveled demons, I don’t bother checking my System Messages since I’m not expecting any EXP from them.

That is until I get a strange System Message that forces its way through.

{For killing ten thousand demons back to back, you are awarded with a tenth of a level’s worth of EXP.}

I pause in my killing, leaving me standing still in the middle of a pack of hounds that I completely ignore as half of them try to bite my arms and legs with no success. Then after the message finally registers in my mind, I simply snap my finger, boiling the blood of the hounds in an instant and completely ridding them of blood before I continue chasing after more demons.

This explains how Gramps got so strong.

Guess the System really does encourage massacres.

“It’s… not a good way of doing things,” Tar says as I continue killing demons. “Your Grandfather set laws in place to disallow slaughter outside of war, so the demons Nobles on Tartarus aren’t allowed to simply go around slaughtering every demon they see for the levels it could give them. And generally the System does at least limit it to only a couple battlefields with a time limit of generally half a day spread across the kills. So there are limits at least.”

Yeah. But at least this way I’ll be getting progress even from killing the small fry here.

With that thought in mind, I raise on hand in the air and create two dozen blades of blood that I send through the demons before summoning more blades and launching them as well. Then I repeat this while rushing through and slaughtering more demons, tearing them apart with my bare hands. Literally, in some cases where I literally tear them in two.

Those cases also make me really happy that I use blood magic, since it’s very easy to clean myself up of their blood. Especially when I can just use their own blood to attack the other demons around me.

Too bad I can’t use my Metallicized Blood skill here, since that’s a blood lycan only skill that would expose me in an instant to the humans.

A pity.

Also, looking around this battlefield, most of the Class III and IV demons are all closer to the very front of the battle at the mountains themselves, clashing with the Class III and IV Guardians over there. Meanwhile the few dozen Noble demons here are all flying around the battlefield with abandon while locked in combat with some Class V Guardians.

And of the demons here, only those Nobles actually recognize me as the Princess. Which also kind of gave their opponents an opportunity to strike during their shock.

But they’re all too busy to even consider going over to try kidnapping me, so yay for that.

“Sometimes I really question your sanity,” Tar comments, making me scowl as I continue slaughtering demons like ants in an ant hill. “That is the exact reason why I question your sanity. You just thought ‘yay’ while going around ripping demons limb from limb and literally popping some of them like bubbles as you spread a dozen plagues across an army of millions of demons. What part of that is sane?”

I tilt my head.

Every part of it.

He snorts.

No, seriously. I am perfectly sane.

“For a blood lycan, but not really for a human,” Tar points out, making me freeze in place as some of the demons around me try and fail to do any damage to me again.

But my thoughts are too focused on Tar’s words.

For a blood lycan… not a human.

I blink at that thought.

That’s… huh. That actually doesn’t bother me much if even at all.

“I mean, you’ve said from the start that you didn’t really care if you lost your humanity,” Tar says from the in-between. “Why would that change now?”

Well, you’re right about that. But I also didn’t think that my thinking was all that different from a humans.

“Really?” Tar asks, sounding perhaps a bit too incredulous there. “Your thoughts have never been particularly normal amongst humans.”

Huh. If you say so.

I continue slaughtering demons without a care in the world, occasionally getting more System Messages about the EXP until I eventually get a level-up notification.

{Congrats, you have leveled up to level 743. Five Free Points have been awarded to you and your stats have been updated.}

Nice.

My killing spree is halted when I sense a powerful force approaching from the East, making me turn my head only for five more powerful forces to join the first. And what I find is the sight of six Nobles all flying straight from the direction of the demons’ closest base to me.

Well, shit. Looks like my hunt might be taking a turn.

That thought also goes on halt when I feel another powerful force approaching from the West, where the humans’ base is. And when I turn to look this time, I find a very unexpected ally arriving to help me.

My ally makes it here before the Nobles do, slamming his fist on the ground and sending a large wave of black flames straight across the ground to incinerate every last demon here while also avoiding hurting me. Then he stands up and gives me a stern look mixed with battle lust. A look that resembles but is still different from the one the Lord of Hellfire always gives me. Just a lot less happy meathead and more stoic and broody at the same time.

Red turns his gaze from me to look at the Nobles who are all slowing down to fly directly above the large cleared out area around us before he asks, “So who would like to be my sparring partner for the night?”

All while my blood rain is still falling down around us.