The atmosphere of the ball changed in an instant. Those who had been chatting casually while wearing masks suddenly revealed their malice and let out horrifying screams.
Their mouths were torn unnaturally long, and their pupils were all dyed the color of blood. Some even displayed physical transformations such as their fingernails growing longer.
"Ah, this scent! So sweet!"
"Your blood! Your youth! Give them to us!"
They revealed their naked desires as they looked at Osian and Grace. Among them was the woman who had danced with Osian, and she sent particularly bright red and sweet gazes toward Osian.
"That man's blood is mine!"
Even though they had danced together, who would have thought she would betray him so easily. No. They weren't on the same side to begin with, so it wasn't betrayal, was it? Osian asked Grace.
"Now the real ball begins, do you know how to dance?"
"What do you take me for? This is basic education for a lady."
"Then I'll leave my back to you."Osian gripped his Starlight sword and slowly walked forward. The priest of the Eternal Church watched the scene quietly from the second-floor balcony.
Osian could read arrogance in that attitude. The priest thought that since they had fallen into a trap, no matter what they tried, they wouldn't be able to escape.
Then he would just have to flatten that nose.
A corrupted one who had revealed their true nature rushed toward Osian. Despite the brilliant Starlight streaming out, it was a cheerful movement that felt no fear. That action contained confidence that they would never die.
'Of course they would. If you believe in Red Eternity, you have that vain belief that you'll never die.'
Even if cut by sword, pierced by spear, shot by gun, or burned by fire. They would never die. Immortality was like that.
As Osian's sword moved, the heads of three corrupted ones running at the front simply flew off. The headless bodies collapsed powerlessly. They never rose again.
"It seems you don't know that those who weren't even granted status in the first place just die when cut."
They couldn't have known. The people gathered here were those who had never experienced something called fighting. People who ruled over others with their innate wealth and harbored elitist consciousness, thinking they were better people.
Had they ever properly engaged in even fistfights? They probably despised and looked down on such things as what only lowly people did.
It was true that becoming a corrupted one increased physical abilities and reflexes. Their aged bodies, having regained the vigor of their youth upon becoming corrupted ones, must have been elevated with joy.
With this power, they thought it would be enough to make these arrogant ones who came with just two people into prey.
"Those who haven't even experienced a proper fight."
Osian despised the corrupted ones.
Those who, despite having what they were born with, didn't give but rather tried to extort more. That appearance of not knowing their place, being arrogant with the power they were given, thinking they were the best. It was so pathetic.
He simply couldn't bear it without drawing his sword.
The Starlight sword, influenced by Osian's emotions, surged even higher. As he swung the sword, pure white flashes drew a fan shape in the air. The bodies of the corrupted ones touched by the fan were cut through far too easily.
"Kill! Kill them!"
"Kraaak!"
"I, I should have been chosen!"
The fallen corrupted ones scattered blood and screams. Those who had rushed forward with vigor all became cold corpses.
Grace's side was the same.
"If you're going to struggle so earnestly, I can't just stand still either."
Particularly many male corrupted ones flocked to Grace.
"That woman is mine!"
"Shut up! I've been keeping an eye on her!"
"Hehehe. She looks so tender, I'll play with her thoroughly before eating!"
Although they had acted as gentlemanly as possible while wearing masks during the ball, once they revealed their true nature, not even a speck of their previous appearance could be found.
That vulgar and base thing must be their true hearts. Grace, who had already felt this from their gazes, wasn't particularly shocked.
Rather, their openly changed attitude only fanned the displeasure she had originally harbored.
Grace beckoned toward the corrupted ones with her white, slender hand. The seductive smile telling them to come and try was a bonus.
The corrupted ones, their eyes rolling back at that sight, rushed toward Grace. They believed that with just a little force, that delicate nape could be easily broken.
-Slash!
And the corrupted ones who had rushed forward enthusiastically collapsed with their entire bodies sliced into thin pieces. The bright red contents deeply stained the ballroom carpet.
"What, what is this?"
The corrupted one who had been waiting calmly in the rear was considerably flustered because it happened so instantaneously. The enhanced dynamic vision they gained from becoming corrupted ones clearly showed them what Grace had just done.
It was hair. Her jet-black hair, like cutting and spreading out the night sky like silk, undulated like a mirage with its own will and cut down the corrupted one.
Grace's hair cut through the corrupted one's body, which wouldn't budge even when shot, more easily than cutting butter with a heated blade.
How tough and sturdy was a corrupted one's body, yet could it be killed by mere hair?
"Why are you all acting like this? Such a wonderful lady is desperately looking for a man to dance with. Please come forward more."
Grace gestured for more to come in. Even with her impudent eye-smile and subtle smile at the corners of her mouth.
"Ah! That one's mine!"
"Shut up! First come, first served!"
At that seductive appearance, some corrupted ones rolled their eyes back and rushed toward Grace. Even though they had seen what happened to their comrades who had recklessly stepped forward just before, there was no hesitation.
Grace inwardly sneered at the sight of them losing reason and simply craving blood.
'Even though they might die, they rush forward recklessly, intoxicated by the desire before their eyes.'
Just like moths rushing toward hot flames. Primitive savagery with no sense of cool restraint. This was the true nature of those who usually looked down on people from high positions and spoke arrogantly.
Grace's hair rustled and moved in the air.
Along with her light footsteps, her hair swayed accordingly, fluttering and rotating in the air. The bodies of corrupted ones that her hair brushed past were cut into hundreds of pieces.
"Eeek! Die!"
One corrupted one who had been carrying food threw the silver tray in his hand. The silver tray flying at tremendous speed was easily caught by Grace's hair. Grace returned the silver tray she received. At a speed several times faster than when it came.
-Splat! Slash!
The corrupted one's neck was cut off without even being able to react. The silver tray didn't stop there and pierced or cut through all the other corrupted ones waiting behind.
"Move aside."
One corrupted one stepped forward. The other corrupted ones, seeing him, shrank their shoulders and made way.
"Hmm? It seems someone more proper has come this time."
Just from how the other corrupted ones were being cautious, the one who appeared now was undoubtedly a corrupted one of slightly higher rank. Although he appeared to be a gentleman in his mid-50s, he smiled viciously and reached out toward Grace.
That hand twisted strangely and grew longer, then whipped like a whip, aiming at Grace.
Grace used her dark-tinted hair to raise a barrier in front of her.
-Clang!
Along with a sound unbelievable for a collision between fingers and hair, sparks flew. Grace immediately grasped that the corrupted one's fingertips had hardened very solidly and changed like sharp blades.
Unlike other corrupted ones, he had transformed his body into the desired form.
When Grace took a defensive stance for the first time after only responding with attacks, the other corrupted ones seemed quite excited. Encouraged by that response, the corrupted believer rushed toward Grace with an arrogant smile. His both arms had already changed into some kind of strange flesh whips that could no longer be called human.
"Hmph. How aggressive."
Grace changed the form of her hair. Like knitting, the hairs overlapped densely and rotated in a double helix form.
Grace, wrapped in the black drill thus formed, penetrated through the corrupted believer's body and emerged on his opposite side. The corrupted one, whose upper body was completely blown away rather than just pierced, died feeling exactly how he was dying due to his tenacious vitality.
Grace, who had let her hair loose, lightly wiped the blood that had splattered on her cheek with her hair.
The moment she looked toward Osian to see how the knight was doing, Grace had no choice but to nod.
More corrupted ones had gathered on Osian's side, and Osian was literally massacring such corrupted ones. It was so one-sided that even if a wolf entered a chick coop, such a scene might not occur.
"Ah! Blood! Give me blood! The blood of the strong!"
The corrupted one who rushed at Osian was split vertically like firewood along with his cry. The same went for those who tried to sneak up using the corpse as a blind spot.
Every time the Starlight sword was swung with a whoosh, corrupted ones were cut down. The number of corrupted ones gathered in the ballroom decreased at tremendous speed.
Some high-level corrupted ones, typically those at believer grade, grasped Osian's skill and were cautious, but those who couldn't even reach that level couldn't do so.
Because Osian was strong, they rather coveted the blood of the strong. Because drinking the blood of a superior superhuman rather than an ordinary person's blood gave them greater power and vitality.
Loss of reason and excessive obsession with life. That was the reality of corrupted ones who followed Red Eternity. Although high-ranking corrupted ones were said to gain reason, their inner nature sleeping deep within was no different from believers.
"I've cut down your disgusting kind many times before."
Such guys were nothing more than mobs. Mobs that could be cut down in one stroke no matter how many came.
"Beyond you, I'll also take Red Eternity's neck."
The believer-grade corrupted ones bristled at those words. After all, serving an outer god meant having faith. There was no believer who wouldn't be angry when the god they believed in and followed was insulted.
The believers rushed toward Osian in a group. Osian watched that sight quietly, then split his sword into two branches.
The twin starlight swords, divided from each other, displayed different movements and embroidered pure white lines in the air.
The corrupted ones couldn't react to the sword strikes that exceeded cognition. They realized they had been cut only long after being cut.
The believers who had rushed forward all at once all collapsed in pieces.
"We do not die."
One believer muttered so with his severed head. Even though he had been helplessly destroyed by Osian like this, he had firm faith that they were immortal.
"For a believer, you have quite tenacious vitality. Were you just before becoming a priest?"
Not dying, indeed. Osian knew well how ridiculous those words were.
"It would have been better if you could fall asleep with your consciousness cut off like other guys. Looking at your level, you can't even do that."
"What does that—"
"You'll know soon."
The believer tried to ask Osian something but couldn't. Soon, he felt his consciousness rapidly draining away somewhere.
‘Ah. That was it.’
The believer recalled the story he had heard from the priest when receiving evangelism beforehand.
The God of Eternity would never give them death even if they received mortal wounds. And their consciousness would receive God's salvation.
This must be a moment similar to that. The believer who thought so had his consciousness cross some distant world like swimming through a black sea.
The sky was black and the sea was black. The boundary dividing them was entirely white lines showing waves. Like an adventurer sailing, the consciousness that crossed the void sea reached a certain place.
It was an island emitting brilliant red light even in the black world. Because of the surrounding darkness, that red light was relatively much more vivid. Both ethereal and beautiful.
At the center of that island stood a single pine tree that was overwhelmingly majestic and sacred at first sight. The believer who saw that sight realized he had received Red Eternity and felt deep emotional resonance.
Yes. The priest's words were true. As long as they decided to believe in and follow that being, they would never experience death.
The believer who thought so gradually felt something strange as he approached Red Eternity.
The pine tree was gigantic. He didn't know when viewing from afar, but as he gradually got closer, it was difficult to grasp with his cognition.
When seen from afar, it was just about the size of a finger joint. That became the size of an ordinary pine tree, then soon exceeded the size of a mountain. And when he completely approached the island, it was much more gigantic than that. A truly gigantic pine tree comparable to the size of a continent.
And the closer he got to it, the more he could see things that weren't visible before. Bright red blood flowing along the hard and bumpy grain of the pine tree, and even eyeballs writhing between them.
Even one of those eyeballs was larger than any decent skyscraper. Such eyeballs were growing on the pine tree in countless numbers.
The believer's consciousness headed toward one of those eyeballs.
'Wh-what is this.'
The large eyeball recognized and looked at his consciousness. At the same time, the believer could see what the red flesh around the eyeball was.
—Aaaah! Save me!
—Please get me out of here!
—I didn't want this!
It was the sight of countless red flesh in human form crying out in agony. Those things that had become one body with the pine tree struggled desperately to escape, entangling and colliding with each other, spewing unspeakable terrible screams and pain from their mouths.
'Ah, uh, aaaah.'
The believer realized too late and tried to flee, but it was useless. His consciousness, already recognized by the eye, was being pulled toward Red Eternity with tremendous gravitational force.
[Come. Into my embrace.]
Regardless of resistance, his consciousness soon became one with Red Eternity. He would become one body with countless dead in the same situation and live in this terrible world of red flesh without any death forever.