My Horny Stepmom Turns Me into Her Vampire Slave

Chapter 185: Sadistic cruelty

"Take this! And this! And this!"

Clink! Clink! Clink!

Evelyne shapes and throws three throwing knives at Mia in rapid succession, but Mia knocks each one aside with her blood scythe.

She barely has time to deflect the third before Evelyne is right in her face.

She thrusts a dagger straight at her chest, but Mia catches the attack by blocking it with the shaft of her scythe.

At that exact moment, Evelyne forms a second dagger in her other hand and drives it into Mia’s ribs before she has a chance to react.

A sharp scream of pain bursts from Mia’s lips, but despite the searing agony, she still manages to slip out of Evelyne’s reach and put some distance between them again.

Mia immediately tries to pull the dagger out of her side, but it won’t budge.

No matter how hard she pulls, it feels like it’s anchored to her ribs.

And that’s exactly what happened.

The moment the blade pierced her flesh, it branched out inside her body like the roots of a tree, wrapping around her bones and even piercing her internal organs.

With the blade and its root-like branches still embedded inside her body, Mia can’t regenerate either the wound on her side or the damage inside her body. Blood keeps pouring from the injury while more continues to fill her body from the internal bleeding.

The pain is unbearable, so intense it blurs her vision.

Even so, she manages to stay calm enough to reach two conclusions.

The first: Evelyne isn’t fighting at full strength.

Even though Mia was already exhausted before the fight even began after Isabelle’s brutal training, she’s still managing to hold her own.

That stab to her side was the first clean hit Evelyne has landed.

The second: Evelyne’s fighting style.

She either attacks from a distance or darts in for quick hit-and-run stabs, never staying in direct contact.

Mia noticed Evelyne let go of the dagger just before it pierced her body.

That cost the attack a lot of power. Otherwise, the blade would’ve gone much deeper.

At this point... it’s obvious she’s being extremely careful around the powers of the Tear of Azkarith. She’s keeping her distance to stay out of my Incandescent Mantle’s range, and she’s holding back a huge amount of mana so she can withstand the Destruction Dragon Eyes.

Normally, fighting someone who knows how to play around my strongest abilities this well would be a nightmare. But right now, I’m actually lucky she’s limiting herself this much.

Unfortunately, I’ve only got enough energy left to use the Destruction Dragon Eyes one more time... and I can’t afford to waste it!

Evelyne bursts into sadistic laughter.

"Damn... and to think I had to waste months on the most boring training imaginable just to learn how to deal with your divine artifact’s powers... What a letdown not getting to see them in action..."

"I don’t need any of that to deal with someone as weak as you!" Mia shoots back with a smug grin.

"You insolent little princess... how dare you mock my strength?!" Evelyne hisses through clenched teeth.

"How can I mock your strength when you don’t have any? It’s hard to talk shit about something that doesn’t even exist, don’t you think?"

Evelyne flies into a rage at the provocation.

Her face turns bright red with fury.

"Grrr... do I need to remind you you’re standing in front of a member of the Crimson Requiem?! I get it. Looks like I haven’t made you suffer nearly enough yet. Get ready to writhe in agony, you little bitch... just like your little brother Jace did!"

The moment those words leave her mouth, Mia’s eyes go wide.

She clenches her teeth so hard they grind against each other.

Her whole body starts trembling uncontrollably, and her hand tightens around the shaft of her scythe with so much force she can feel it creaking.

"J-Jace... my little Jace... don’t tell me... you’re the one who killed him...?!"

The rage on Evelyne’s face melts into a sadistic grin.

"Oh, yes... killing him was so much fun... but torturing him was even better. Listening to him cry and scream in pain was music to my ears. Aren’t you curious to hear what he had to go through before he ended up in the Realm of the Dead?"

"Shut your fucking mouth! Don’t you dare say another word about my little brother!"

"Oh, well... even if you don’t want to hear it, I’m going to tell you anyway. First, we played a little game of hide-and-seek around the castle. Then, after I found him, we had a race to see who was faster. I even gave him a ten-second head start... but the little idiot couldn’t even make the most of my generosity...

"Evelyne... please, stop..." Mia sobs, her eyes filling with tears.

But Evelyne ignores her and continues her gruesome story.

"...but the real fun only started after I caught him. To make sure he couldn’t run away again, I cut off his feet first. Then the little freak, instead of playing along, actually had the nerve to throw a tiny punch at me. Sure, I barely felt it, but the insult was unbearable... so I chopped off the fingers on those chubby little hands one by one. You should’ve seen them — they looked just like little sausages."

The image of her little brother being tortured so brutally becomes so vivid that she can almost hear his screams as Evelyne tells the story.

An uncontrollable rage erupts inside her while Evelyne lets out another laugh before continuing.

"The little prince screamed so loud that he drowned out the sound of the battle outside the castle. Trust me, it was unbearable. My ears were begging for mercy, and all that noise even attracted a squad of soldiers still loyal to the Valakis. But getting rid of them was child’s play. Luckily, before long, the pain made him start throwing up, so he finally stopped making so much noise. Oh, and get this... right before I slit his throat, while I was carving my name into his body, do you know who he was calling for? Not your parents... you. ’Help me, Mia! Please... help me!’ He really must’ve loved you to call out for you in a moment that desperate."

"H-How could you...?" Mia stammers, her voice breaking as tears stream down her face. "He was only six years old... SIX FUCKING YEARS OLD!!! HOW COULD YOU?! HOW COULD YOU?!"

A violent crimson vortex erupts from Mia’s body with such overwhelming force that it tears through the surrounding trees, sending them crashing down.

At the same time, the dagger lodged in her side is ripped out and blasted away, finally allowing her wounds to regenerate.

"Damn... maybe I pushed her a little too far..." Evelyne mutters with a nervous smile as she takes a few steps back.

Then she forms two blood daggers and raises her guard.

"M-My little Jace... he was just an innocent child! He didn’t deserve any of this! HOW COULD YOU MAKE HIM SUFFER LIKE THAT?! Y-You’re... you’re not an enemy... you’re just a filthy, mindless beast that needs to be put down!"

A vivid image suddenly flashes through Mia’s mind.

Her little brother’s mangled body, lying naked in a pool of blood.

His severed feet and fingers scattered beside him. His throat brutally slit open. And Evelyne’s name carved into his chest.

The vision ignites a fury inside Mia unlike anything she’s ever felt.

It spreads through her like a raging wildfire, completely beyond her control.

She lunges at Evelyne with incredible speed, so fast that Evelyne can barely keep up with her movements.

Mia swings her scythe straight at her neck, but Evelyne barely manages to dodge the fatal strike at the last possible second.

The blade only grazes her chest, yet the shockwave alone is enough to shatter the crimson armor protecting her and tear into her breasts. But they regenerate almost instantly.

A second scythe strike follows immediately, just as devastating as the first.

Evelyne barely manages to block it with her daggers.

Even so, the sheer force of the blow sends her flying backward, crashing through tree after tree.

She finally stops herself by driving both daggers into the trunk of a massive tree.

D-Damn that little brat... she’s not even using the Tear of Azkarith, so... where the fuck did all that power come from?! Damn it... now I’ll show her what I can really do!

But the moment Evelyne looks up, Mia is already right in front of her, ready to unleash yet another devastating swing of her scythe.

And when her eyes meet Mia’s face, twisted by a rage and murderous fury unlike anything she’s ever seen before, Evelyne’s smug smile and confidence vanish for a moment, replaced by a look of unease bordering on terror.

For a brief moment, her confidence gives way to something close to fear.

"You fucking bitch... you’re going to pay for what you did to my little brother!!! I’ll make you suffer more than you’ve ever suffered in your entire life! I swear it!"