Chapter 450: The Return of the Black Death
What entered her field of vision...
Was a scene that could only be described as a nightmare.
"What... am I seeing...?!"
Even Carmen was not immune to the shock.
In all her long years of life ..
She had never seen such a massive number of corpses gathered in one place before.
The sky was dyed red from the sheer amount of blood spilled here.
The blood had formed a giant lake, so vast that both Ada and Carmen found themselves submerged up to their knees.
Before them ..
Mountains of corpses were piled one upon another, Stacked so high they looked like towering hills.
Colossal Nightmare creatures, some of them surpassing the SS- rank...
Mist stalker... Cursed Blades... Magma Golems... Grave Birds...
All of them were terrifying Nightmare creatures that had wrought destruction for countless years.
And yet now... so many had been slaughtered that their bodies were no longer even recognizable.
Amid this sea of death and blood, the corpses of the Nightmare creatures weren’t the only ones.
Upon closer inspection, the two women noticed other bodies...
Human bodies.
Their heads had been severed and mounted on tall spears, decorating the area like a grim warning.
Hundreds of human corpses lay scattered across the land, while the Nightmare beasts numbered in the thousands.
Whoever killed those men had deliberately displayed their heads this way ...
To serve as a message for anyone who dared approach.
It took Ada and Carmen a long moment to process what they were seeing.
In this heart of death, even breathing became a difficult task.
The only sound that echoed in this place was the cawing of ravens, feasting on the corpses of the Nightmares, enjoying their meal.
And just as Ada and Carmen began searching for the one responsible for this massacre ..
Death itself came to greet them.
Without warning, Ada collapsed into the blood-soaked ground, while Carmen dropped to her knees, unable to stand.
Their faces filled with terror, the two women fell under the crushing weight of an aura that came from nowhere.
An overwhelming pressure that made the earth itself tremble beneath their feet.
It was so suffocating that Ada nearly lost consciousness, If not for Carmen spreading her own aura, trying to shield her from the worst of it.
But even with her efforts, the aura pressing down on them was something neither of them had ever experienced before.
In horror, Carmen raised her gaze to the peak of the corpse mountain ..
The place where the monster behind this aura stood.
"Just how much power does one need to release such an insane amount of aura?!"
It was a strange aura... yet familiar at the same time.
Cold... and deadly... yet somehow gentle. Familiar.
’SS+ rank? ... No. It’s far beyond that. Even Sir Alon has never unleashed something like this...’
At first, Carmen thought it was Frey responsible for this terrifying pressure ..
But she dismissed the thought immediately. There was no way Frey’s strength had reached such a level.
’I need to get Ada out of here...’
Even Carmen struggled to stay conscious.
Keeping Ada in this place any longer was far too dangerous.
Ready to dash away with everything she had, Carmen ignited her eight stars, casting one last glance at the figure standing atop the corpse mountain.
And at that moment, Carmen realized something terrifying:
If this person wanted to kill them...
They wouldn’t survive even a single minute.
That sudden realization only deepened her despair... and fear.
But her fears were misplaced.
Without warning, the crushing pressure vanished the moment the young man withdrew his aura, finally allowing them to catch their breath.
"...Sorry. I’ve been having trouble controlling my aura lately."
The voice... was familiar.
It had been a long time, and his voice was much deeper now ..
But it was still him.
The young man stepped forward, standing atop the mountain of corpses.
At last, the figure revealed itself.
Holding a pair of black swords, wearing nothing but a torn black pair of pants, barefoot, his chest exposed ..
With snow-white hair that had grown much longer .. He finally appeared before them.
With trembling eyes, and a face stained by the blood of Nightmares, Ada stared at him, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.
"Frey...?"
She called his name, Only for her brother to vanish without warning ..
And reappear directly before them in an instant.
Carmen could only stare at him, unable to track his movement.
How could she?
He hadn’t moved at all .. He had simply teleported.
He was covered in blood as well, but a faint smile crossed his face when he finally reunited with his one and only sister after all this time.
"It’s been a while, Ada."
Frey extended his hand to her.
And as Ada looked at that hardened hand,
She realized how foolish she had been to come here thinking she’d find the same person she once knew.
Eight months might seem short .
But it was more than enough to change everything.
The young man standing before her was the one the Empire called the Second Coming of the Great Abraham Starlight ..
The warrior the Ultras feared so much, they named him the Black Death.
This was Frey Starlight.
Staring at him, Ada hesitated before finally taking his hand, Standing up once again, glancing around at the horror surrounding them.
"Frey... what happened here?"
Just standing there was suffocating for her.
But Frey seemed perfectly at ease, as if he were standing in his own home ..
Not in the middle of a sea of corpses.
Staring at the mountains of bodies around him, Frey answered plainly:
"This is my hunting ground.
I’ve been hunting Nightmare creatures here for the past few months."
Hearing this, both Carmen and Ada finally understood why no Nightmare beasts had attacked from the eastern borders during all these months.
Looking closely at the terrain around them,
They could see sword marks and destruction left behind by Frey as he hunted the Nightmares.
But the Nightmare beasts were not the only bodies in this place.
"What about those human heads...?"
"They’re Ultras."
Frey answered immediately.
"They showed up here four months ago. I think they were planning something, but unfortunately for them... they ran into me.
They kept sending more forces ..
And I kept killing them."
It seemed the Ultras had been trying to carry out some kind of operation in the Eastern Nightmare Lands ..
But their plans had ended in complete failure.
Ada understood that much...
But she couldn’t stop herself from looking at those heads mounted on spears.
Heads decorating this canvas of death.
"Why... why did you go this far?"
She asked without thinking.
Killing enemies was understandable.
But to go so far as to decapitate them and mutilate their bodies ..
That wasn’t something her brother—the one she knew—would do.
But Frey showed no reaction, answering calmly as if he had just been asked a foolish question.
"I did it so my enemies would understand what I’m capable of.
And so more of them would come seeking revenge."
"Revenge?"
"Yes—so I can kill even more of them."
Hearing those words, Ada didn’t know what to say.
By placing the Ultras’ heads like this, he had planted fear into his enemies,
And at the same time ...
He had fueled their rage, driving them to seek vengeance.
Frey knew well that the high Blood of the Ultras were very different from the Lower Blood.
They were much like ordinary humans.
They had emotions.
They lived normal lives.
When their comrades were defiled this way, it was only natural that their anger would explode.
And that was exactly what Frey was counting on.
This is how he had killed hundreds of them during his time in the Nightmare Lands.
"After torturing several of them, I learned what they were trying to do recently."
Frey spoke with chilling indifference, his gaze fixed on the severed heads he had mounted himself.
"It seems they’re trying to use the Nightmare creatures in the coming war by taking control of them.
Unfortunately for them, they ran into me here...
But they might have succeeded in the southern and northern Nightmare Lands."
Frey continued speaking, but soon fell silent when he noticed both Ada and Carmen staring at him in complete silence.
"...What’s wrong?"
Killing...
Torture...
Somehow, these words had become ordinary to him now.
Things he could do without hesitation,
As if they meant nothing.
"...You’ve changed, boy."
Carmen finally voiced what was on her mind, wiping some blood from Frey’s face.
"In the past, I could always tell what you were thinking ..
But when I look at you now...
I see nothing."
The boy named Frey had become someone entirely different now.
No one could predict how far he would go from here on.
Whether that change was for better or worse ..
Ada stepped forward, wrapping him in an embrace, Uncaring of the filthy blood that stained them both.
"I’m glad you’re okay, Frey.
As long as you’re safe... nothing else matters."
Whether he was her naive little brother ..
Or a merciless monster ..
Ada Starlight didn’t care.
That young man would always be her only family.
And Frey saw those thoughts clearly through his Affection System,
Which made him hug her tightly in return.
"I’m back, Ada."