I Revived My Maid, Now She Hungers for My Blood

The spiked structure began to disintegrate from the point of contact, pulverized by that savage, twisting force into fine dust.

It felt like plunging an ice spike straight into a grinding wheel spinning at full tilt.

The terrifying black bear didn’t even need to dodge!

It didn’t even pause its stride. It kept lunging toward Pandora, like a mobile mountain of flesh, carrying an unstoppable momentum.

Pandora’s figure flickered. She sidestepped nimbly, evading the bear’s head-on collision.

The massive body swept past less than half a foot from her side. The gale-force wind it stirred tousled the stray hairs by her ear.

Having failed its first strike, the shadows instantly shifted tactics.

They unfurled like flowing water, extending from every corner, swiftly covering the entire kitchen floor and walls.

At the same time, the flowing shadows drew the scattered members of the auxiliary squad together. A pliant yet irresistible force pushed them into one corner of the kitchen.

Countless shadows writhed and interwove, forming a dense shadow-web before the auxiliary squad.

The web was woven from innumerable strands of incredibly tough shadow filament, layered upon layer, enough to withstand a considerable degree of impact.

As Pandora acted, the members of the auxiliary squad seemed to grasp her intent.

One among them convulsed with a ripple of flesh, the bones in their chest and ribcage growing wildly, breaking through the limits of muscle and skin with a sickening creak. Behind that shadow-web, they layered another wall—one of stark, solid bone.

White bones interlaced, bristling like a thicket of thorns, gleaming with a ghastly sheen under the lights.

Of course, appearances aside, due to the difference in rank, the bone wall—forged with full effort by a member at the Second-Rank limit—did not necessarily offer more protection against a powerful Anomaly than the shadow-web Pandora had casually conjured.

But psychologically, it was indeed more reassuring than a wall of shadows.

After all, a tangible wall of bone was always more comforting than an intangible wall of darkness...

Pandora paid little attention to the auxiliary squad’s actions.

In truth, after completing that series of protective measures, she had no surplus energy to spare them any further thought.

The bear was powerful.

Truly powerful, far stronger than Butterfly or Serpent.

Facing such a formidable opponent, even she could not spare the attention for other matters.

And yet...

That did not mean she was afraid.

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What she considered was not how difficult the bear would be to handle.

What she considered was merely—trouble.

Yes. Killing the bear was, to her, only somewhat troublesome.

As for whether it could be done? There was no doubt about that.

The only issue was that the target of this operation was not the bear alone.

Even though Butterfly and Serpent were now dead, the goal regarding “The Seven” was far from complete.

There was still Crocodile, still Raccoon...

So what she needed to do was far more than simply kill the bear.

She also had to consider that the commotion could not be too great.

The banquet hall was just one wall away. Hundreds of guests were still mingling, glasses clinking.

The aftershocks of battle could not be permitted to affect them too heavily.

Moreover, she could not afford to exhaust herself here. Otherwise, the subsequent operation could be compromised.

The bear was the most powerful among the Seven Anomalies. Bar none.

But she, as the hunter, was bound by many constraints.

With her hands tied, unable to unleash her full strength—that was the true difficulty of this fight.

But then again...

Could such a thing truly hinder her?

“Then... let’s end this quickly.”

Pandora let out a soft laugh and murmured to herself.

The bear’s massive paw came smashing down again with a howling gust of foul wind!

Its five hooked talons carved five visible white scars through the very air.

That single palm strike was enough to flatten a small car into a pancake of scrap iron.

Yet Pandora’s body swayed lightly aside. At an impossible angle, nearly grazing the very edges of the claws, she evaded the fatal blow.

Her movements were fluid and composed, as if she were not dodging a lethal assault from a four-meter-tall terrifying black bear, but dancing an elegant waltz.

The next instant.

A crimson light gathered in her hand.

The radiance spread from her palm, flowing like liquid ruby.

A magnificent, sanguinary two-handed sword materialized in Pandora’s grip.

The blade was broad and elongated, its entirety a deep crimson hue—like dark red crystal steeped in blood.

A visible scarlet glimmer traced along the blade’s edge. That glow was not a reflection; the sword itself was radiating some form of dangerous power.

As a precaution, before she had come here this time, she had not sent Elsa off to do anything else.

Instead, she had kept Elsa in a de-manifested state, ready to be summoned at a moment’s notice.

And now, that moment had come to wield Elsa’s power.

The instant her fingers closed around the hilt—

Pandora’s entire bearing shifted abruptly.

Uncanny, bewitching. Even her stature seemed to grow taller, her features maturing, acquiring a more dangerous allure.

Those eyes, originally calm as still water, now shimmered with a faint scarlet tint.

Her heart pounded powerfully, pumping the heated, feverish blood of a Witch through her entire body.

Every drop of blood burned. Every vessel seethed.

That power was a gift from the deepest wellspring of her bloodline.

The bear, too, felt that rapidly surging aura—one that made its fur tremble with instinctive dread.

Its black bristles stood on end involuntarily, not from rage, but from—fear!

Within its crimson eyes, the bear first registered shock and doubt, then gravity.

Finally, a wild excitement that cast everything else aside.

This petite human before it was strong. Stronger than any prey it had ever encountered.

This time, it truly might die.

But...

Who said it would be the one to perish?

The bear roared, unleashing its full power!

All over its body, flesh and bone underwent monstrous distortion.

Beneath its black fur, muscles twisted and swelled in ways that defied natural law.

Bones creaked beneath the skin, fracturing and regenerating, growing thicker, denser.

Its spine bulged upward. Its limbs swelled ring after ring thicker. Its entire body seemed to transform into an unstoppable, living battering ram forged of pure force and violence!

BOOM!!!

The bear’s strike wrought catastrophic destruction upon the kitchen.

Stainless steel worktables were flattened, crumpled like sheets of tinfoil.

An oven was sent hurtling, spinning until it slammed into a distant wall, embedding there with a final metallic shriek.

Pots, pans, bowls, and basins scattered in every direction. Ingredients and sauces exploded through the air in a chaotic splatter-painting.

The entire room looked as if it had been plowed through by an invisible giant’s blade.

Even with the shadows isolating the impact, the strike still sent faint tremors through the walls.

Dust sifted down from the ceiling.

Behind Pandora, debris flew, and a deep claw mark was gouged into the wall.

Five finger trails were clearly visible, each one a finger’s depth, exposing the brickwork beneath.