Scarlet

The portal of shadows vanishes the moment she steps through, following which the two of us stand in silence just staring at each other. And during this silence, I take the time to identify her again.

|Lunara Val Lunid – Red Death – Level 1201|

At least she’s the weakest of the six Noble demons.

The spider lady gives me the formal bow that I got used to seeing from Nobles during my time on Tartarus as she says, “It’s a pleasure, Your Highness.” Then she stands up straight and narrows her eyes slightly. “Please either come with me or leave the frontlines of the war.”

I can’t help but raise a brow at that as I point out, “You do remember that my grandfather told me I could do whatever I pleased, right?”

Although I don’t actually know if she knows this or not.

The red death just nods her head once and answers with a simple, “Yes, I do. But he also said we’re allowed to force you to leave the battlefield should you prove a threat to the war effort.”

Of course he did.

“Then there’s no chance you’ll just let me go?” I ask before activating my beast form the moment she shakes her head in denial of that question. “Then I’ll have to put up a fight, now won’t I?”

“You… you’re not actually…” Tar begins, but I stop him with a quick thought, ‘I just need to delay her long enough for Red to get here.’

The tanuki lets out a relieved sigh in my mind before he says, “Be careful that you don’t cross her Envy.”

Right. Because she might lose control and actually try to kill me if I do.

Well, without wasting any time out of the two minutes remaining of my originally five-minute-long set of stacks from Blood Thirst, I begin using all of my skills at once on her. And almost immediately, the spider woman jumps back in surprise as all sorts of things begin to happen to and around her. Including blades of blood metal appearing in the air and flying towards her, my Blood Shadow separating from me, a line of life energy leaving her, tiny little red spots appearing on her skin from Blood Boil and the many plagues I dump on her, and chains of blood appearing to lock down her limbs. Chains that are quickly shattered without much effort on her part.

Stupid weak skill.

“Remember. Class V,” Tar comments, but I ignore him as I activate both Crimson Overdrive and Blood Sacrifice at the same time while sprinting straight towards her, tearing up the ground beneath my feet in the process. And halfway towards her, my blood rain starts to fall all around us as well.

Despite her quick reaction to my Blood Chains, I can tell she’s still incredibly surprised by my choice to attack her. Which I don’t blame her for. A Class V is leagues above a Class IV in terms of strength. Even a level one thousand would have extreme difficulty fighting against a level one thousand and one, and that’s assuming that would even be a possible fight for the level one thousand despite that.

My claws quickly reach her, but despite me burning a lot of blood and using it as fuel for Crimson Overdrive, and despite all of the numerous stacks of Blood Thirst I have up right now, she manages to instinctively react to my attack by quite literally swatting me with one of her spider limbs, sending me flying straight through hundreds of trees until I slam into a mountainside with a cough of blood. But since it was only a brute force attack made half-heartedly on instinct, I manage to get back up with a grunt as the internal injuries brought by the attack begin to heal already.

“Please forgive me, Your Highness!” the spider lady quickly exclaims after appearing just meters away from me without showing any signs to have moved at all before she bows with a slightly panicked expression on her face. “Just, please leave the battlefield, Your Highness. I don’t want to hurt you-”

My Pride flares up, making me let out a snarl before I rush at her again only to pause right when she’s about to instinctively attack me again, once again not expecting my strike. Then I have my Blood Shadow attack from behind as blades of blood rain down on her. Each of which, including the Blood Shadow, she sends flying with her spider limbs’ claws. But this time I manage to rush in myself and swipe my own blood metal claws straight into her shoulder.

Only for my claws to ping off of her armor and not so much as scratch her beyond a very faint nick in her armor.

“Shit,” I mutter, my mind clearing from my Sin of Pride due to the sheer difference in our abilities.

The red death shakes her head with a light sigh before saying, “Please, Your Highness. There has never once been a contractor below Class V who has even come close to defeating a Noble. Not even a level 1000 demon who had challenged a level 1001 demon was anywhere near their level and stood no chance. Please just give up now and either leave this battlefield or come with me back home.”

A literal pain radiates from my chest and my head as I feel anger and embarrassment from this, my cheeks glowing with a bright red color that can’t be seen thanks to my blood rain. But no matter what I do, I can’t see there being any possible way for me to win this battle. Not only is she a Noble, but she’s four hundred and fifty-eight levels above me.

Despite that understanding, a whispered voice echoes in the back of my mind.

Pride. Pride. Win. Never lose. Priiide. WIIIN!!!

I grab my head at the voice before narrowing my eyes on the red death, my eyes beginning to glow even brighter as I see the crimson light reflecting off of the blood rain falling all around us in the darkness of the night.

“Uh, Scarlet,” I hear Tar’s voice in between the other voices, but they quickly begin to drown him out.

Until a loud explosion echoes from the battlefield with a massive blast of black flames that I can see from here, following which Red once more lands in between me and the Noble, slamming his fist into the ground.

But for some reason, the sight of this… of Red's interruption... only makes the voice grow louder.