Chapter 462 - 462: The Flame in the Girl’s Heart

There is a flame in this world that never goes out.

It burns in the chest and tears at reason.

As if scorching the soul itself, it seeps little by little into every part of the body.

The girl understood. This was not the justice she had searched for so desperately, but the fire of hatred.

It burned in her heart, reducing everything inside her to ash.

All that remained in her sight was a blood-red wasteland.

The girl had once believed that the warmth of an encounter would be enough to withstand that flame from the depths of hell.

She had been wrong.

The girl had entered the Dungeon specifically to test the skill she had just acquired.

At first, everything carried a faint, buoyant warmth. Even as she swung her wooden sword and defeated monsters, she could feel the changes in her Status, and when she thought of the skill's effects, she could not help feeling shy.

Until she encountered those people.

Even from far away.

Even after so much time had passed.

The girl still recognized who they were.

Her eyes felt bound in threads of blood.

Her right hand trembled around the sword.

It was that man.

He was still alive?

Still alive…

Still alive!

Reason collapsed. Justice crumbled. Only the flames burned on.

Her old friend's katana trembled in the girl's hand, as if roaring in fury.

Encounters, warmth, all of it was swallowed by the flames in that instant.

The moment she saw the arsonist in the Dungeon, the girl charged.

Her opponents were cunning. The moment they sensed her hostility, they scattered like frightened birds.

Some fled to the 19th Floor, while others scattered across the Safety Floor.

The girl swept out arcs of silver blade-light.

That katana of justice was soon stained crimson with blood.

Flames devoured the girl's body, sending up endless black miasma.

She had no time to bother with anyone else. After severing one man's Achilles tendon and forcing him to reveal the arsonist's objective, she rushed straight into the 19th Floor.

That man wanted to summon despair, and the girl had simply happened to run into him.

A pure coincidence.

A brief reunion.

Yet like a volcanic eruption, it dragged the girl into the abyss of hatred.

She hated fire.

More precisely, she hated explosions.

She loved flames of justice like the boy's, dazzling and pure.

She loved them almost unbearably.

But the girl could no longer feel that warmth.

Never had she regretted anything more than failing to take that man's life.

Cutting off his right hand, slicing away his ears.

She had thought that was the end of her revenge.

Too light.

She should have cut him to pieces.

Repentance?

Atonement?

Those things would never exist.

The girl carved out sprays of blood again and again, her vision filled with red.

These people were all that man's discarded pawns, a lizard cutting off its own tail in a despicable attempt to flee.

The girl had no time for them. She only sank, step by step, deeper into the abyss of revenge.

When she reached the 25th Floor.

A roar sounded, and flames rose with it.

It was the girl's nightmare, something she would never forget for as long as she lived.

The first to be swallowed by those flames had been a cheerful, kind friend.

Unlike the girl, who had been lost, that gray-haired friend's view of justice had been far deeper than she let on.

It was a justice that brought warmth just by hearing of it.

Like a light in the darkness, she healed everything around her with her smile.

And that very friend had been swallowed by flames.

An explosion.

A roar.

Not even remains were left behind.

A battered iron sword and scattered bloodstains. That was all there was of her friend.

The girl had failed to save her. Forced to flee the site of the explosion, she had even lost the right to mourn.

Until the very last moment, her friend had carried out the justice in her heart.

But for the girl, it had become a nightmare of the end.

No matter how much time passed, the flames kept burning at the girl's chest.

Blue, crimson, and finally, along with the cry of despair being born, the flames turned completely black.

Ah…

This sight again…

This sound again…

The girl could no longer tell whether her heart was screaming or her lips were whispering deliriously.

The 25th Floor.

Smoke filled the air, and explosions rang out without end.

On the day she lost all her companions, the girl had also heard the Dungeon wail.

She and her companions had fought Evilus to the death. Though they survived those cruel, despicable explosive traps, they could not escape the claws of despair.

The girl did not want to remember the details.

But her noble heart often questioned her.

Had there truly been no way out back then?

Was it not her own impulsiveness that had gotten all of her companions killed?

Had she been a little calmer, had she been able to read the battlefield as clearly as that boy did, would the outcome have been different?

At the very least…

That powerful dear friend surely could have survived…

The girl's heart was ravaged.

No matter how many storms had washed over her, that fire of hatred had never faded.

She was a sinner.

And the man who had summoned despair was even more unforgivable.

He wanted to recreate the nightmare of the 30th Floor and turn despair to his own use?

What a joke.

She would kill him.

Once, a hundred times, and let that twisted soul suffer endless agony.

The blade thirsted for blood.

The girl became Gale and charged toward the 26th Floor.

Let the fire of hatred burn everything away.

The girl had someone she needed to apologize to.

Not one of the dead. There were still a few things in this world she could not let go of.

That gentle and kind Goddess of Justice had left the Labyrinth City alone in order to watch over the girl's justice.

The hearts of the two had once drifted apart, but with the boy's help, the girl had finally been able to face the goddess and continue down the path of justice.

What she was doing now betrayed that goddess and desecrated those beautiful days.

But the girl had no room to care.

An explosion rang out ahead, as if blasting open a great hole in her memory. The brutal sight of her companions being swallowed by despair drifted before her eyes.

The hole in the girl's heart had no end.

Once, her gray-haired friend at the tavern had stopped up that hole for her.

Warmth.

Peace.

Each ordinary day had filled the girl's heart.

But that daily life was over.

True [Despair] was about to fall, and the girl would never allow things to continue.

Even if she became hideous beyond recognition, it did not matter.

The only one the girl could not stop thinking about was that pure white-haired boy.

The hands they had once held, the comfort and praise she had once received, everything the two of them had experienced together. None of it was something she could ever cast away.

What kind of face was she supposed to show him?

Only a moment ago, everything had been so warm. Why had she fallen into something so ugly in the span of a single instant?

Bell…

What would you do?

Did she still have the right to long for that warmth?

The girl did not know the answer.

She only prayed in her heart that the boy would never see her as she was now.

Once everything was over, the girl would repent.

She would keep her distance from that boy and not let her sins and ugliness stain his purity.

Yes…

That would be enough.

The Dungeon's 26th Floor.

Ryuu gripped her katana, wrapped in the flames of vengeance, and burned everything away.

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