‘Young Master Caron, you really are a failure as a person. Fine—stop pretending. With that little bit of spine and scheming you’ve got, you can’t hide anything in front of [Immaculate Eyes].’

‘They only believe Vinny. If you keep playing the good guy and let the three of them return safe and sound, you know what happens next.’ [Blood-Debt] said with relish.

‘The son of the Dragon-Knights commander. Praised as one of the leading figures among Camella’s current nobility. The youngest official Dragon-Knights member. A genius with limitless prospects—Caron—turns out to be a vicious rotten seed who colludes with a demonic sword in the shadows to harm his own kind, with poisonous thoughts and filthy methods.’

‘If you want that earthshaking scandal exposed, then keep hesitating and maintaining your dignity. Keep playing dumb.’

‘Just imagine that scene. A shining image built up over more than ten years collapsing and crumbling in an instant. Heh. What a pity.’

“Don’t spout that kind of nonsense on your own! I don’t even understand what you’re saying!” Caron hurried to explain.

‘Huh? You still want to explain? Didn’t you see the way they’re looking at you?’

Hearing that, Caron turned around and found the three of them slowly increasing the distance from him. Amisha’s eyes were full of wariness and vigilance toward him, and Fennia’s eyes were also full of caution.

‘Understand now? You have no choice anymore.’

‘Do you still need me to teach you what to do next?’

‘Kill them. Silence them.’

“......” Caron fell silent. “Do I really have to do that? I don’t want other innocent people dragged into this.”

‘Hahahaha—Young Master Caron, you really are—hahahaha...’ Caron’s words only earned [Blood-Debt]’s loud laughter. ‘Did you act for so long you even fooled yourself? Do you actually believe you’re a good person??’

‘How to choose—you shouldn’t be asking me. What to do—you already have the answer in your own heart, don’t you? It’s come this far, and you still want me to be the “bad guy” and say your thoughts out loud for you??’

Caron stayed silent for a moment. “Earlier... you switched sides.”

‘Wasn’t that because you refused to tear off the last disguise, still wanted to keep that “nice guy” persona, and wouldn’t cooperate with me?’

‘Even if you aren’t the best choice, I don’t have any other option now. If the best choice can’t be obtained no matter what, then I can only settle for second best.’

‘Come on. This is your last chance. Don’t end up regretting it for life—bringing shame to your family, to your father—spending the rest of your life in prison yourself, hm?’ As it spoke, [Blood-Debt] rose upright in front of Caron.

After a brief silence, Caron’s gaze sharpened as if he’d made a decision. Without hesitation, he gripped [Blood-Debt].

“Senior Caron! Are you really going to do this?!” Fennia cried out despite herself when she saw it.

“Don’t blame me, Fennia. Amisha.” In that moment, Caron seemed to fully decide to abandon even the last shred of disguise he had left. “Originally, this only had to do with Vinny. I only needed to ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) kill him. Everyone else would’ve been fine. No one would’ve known.”

“But you just had to show up right now—and you chose to believe Vinny. You just had to get in the way. Then... sorry.”

“I really can’t understand it. That damned bastard—what on earth is there about him that’s worth trusting?!” The instant Caron gripped [Blood-Debt], his voice began to distort. Crimson living blood vessels crawled up from his hand and spread into his body, stabbing deep into his throat, his chest cavity, every inch of his skin.

“AAAAAAGH—...!” Caron’s miserable scream rang across the black-stone ground. His voice started out still barely human, but it quickly lost all traces of humanity—becoming rough and withered yet shrieking to the limit, as if the living blood vessels jammed into his throat had squeezed out every last drop of moisture.

The other living blood vessels, after piercing into Caron, seemed to suck everything out from inside him.

The sight made Amisha go deathly pale. She shrank in fear into Vinny’s arms and clung to him.

Of course, at a time like this, Vinny didn’t have the luxury to think about much. He simply protected Amisha on instinct and retreated.

Shielding sand from the wind—shielding sand from arrows—shielding from the wind for real.

That bastard Caron at least used to keep up the public dignity of being on the “righteous” side. Now that he’d torn off that disguise, he wasn’t pretending at all.

Maybe he’d realized that maintaining that dignity brought him no benefit—it only weighed him down—and now he truly had no other choice.

For a heaven-blessed prodigy who’d grown up on praise and privilege, having his reputation ruined—at best spending the rest of his life in a prison—was something he absolutely refused to accept.

Vinny raised a hand to block the gale that whipped at them, frowning as he watched Caron writhing and twisting in the middle of contracting with [Blood-Debt]—tortured into something that wasn’t quite human, wasn’t quite a ghost.

So this was the process of fusing with the “Most-Evil Divine Armament.” It looked like selling your soul to a devil—horrifying beyond words.

And that was exactly what it was. Those living blood vessels pierced into Caron’s veins. [Blood-Debt] drained every last drop of blood from his body and replaced it with some unknown blood it supplied.

No wonder once you contracted with [Blood-Debt], you couldn’t escape. You could only become [Blood-Debt]’s parasite and slave—spending the rest of your life as its puppet, sinking deeper under its control until you finally drew the wrath of all and were hunted down.

For a shameless Most-Evil Divine Armament like [Blood-Debt], a host getting hunted down didn’t matter at all. Just switch hosts. To it, that was zero cost.

Other Divine Armaments might wait hundreds of years and still not find a suitable master. If [Blood-Debt] wanted to, it could switch to more than a hundred hosts in a single year. It simply kept a low profile lately because doing that would only draw more and more forces to hunt it down.

Caron’s voice shifted from withered to heavy, then to shrill, as if there were countless people living inside his body. His timbre kept changing—like [Blood-Debt] was reshaping his flesh through the living blood vessels buried deep within him.

Watching this, Vinny almost felt a kind of respect for the “Vinny” from the previous life. Contracting with an utterly evil Divine Armament like [Blood-Debt]—how did he even dare? What had he been thinking??

Every host was nothing but a medium, a container, a tool. History proved it—no host ever ended well. In the end, they were all remodeled into monsters. How could he have believed he’d be the exception??

Rather than saying he’d contracted [Blood-Debt], it was more like he’d been contracted by [Blood-Debt].

Watching Caron get sucked dry by [Blood-Debt]—shriveling into a gaunt skeleton—then being inflated again as [Blood-Debt] filled him with some kind of liquid... Vinny felt his scalp go numb just from looking at it. It was chilling.

Fate was a mysterious thing.

In the previous life, the one driven into a corner and forced to suffer this torment was Vinny. Now, it was Caron’s turn.

And beyond that—this life, the disguise Vinny failed to tear off in the previous life had been torn off.

That alone showed just how deeply Caron resented Vinny.

Vinny suddenly thought of a saying: when a clown who used to be far beneath you in status and strength suddenly changes, surges upward, and in the end even surpasses you—the rage and unwillingness that ignites is unimaginable. Especially for someone like Caron.

But when someone is ten times stronger than you—or far more—you don’t even think to envy them, let alone feel unwilling.

That was probably Caron’s attitude toward Aesphyra. The gap was too vast. So vast that in the previous life, even when Aesphyra and Mirexia publicly announced their relationship, he didn’t dare so much as breathe wrong at Aesphyra.

Because he knew it—he and Aesphyra weren’t on the same level at all. Comparing them was already giving him too much face.

“Ka-da. Ka-da...!” Caron’s muscles rapidly swelled, bulking larger than before with an even more explosive tension—yet it felt profoundly wrong, as if all that strength was unstable, as if none of it truly belonged to him.

And because his muscles and frame expanded, the inner armor he wore completely burst apart, leaving only scattered plates still clinging to him.

‘That’s more like it, Young Master Caron. If you do this, how else will you deal with those sanctimonious “allies” of yours? Heh. They’ll definitely grab you by this handle and demand more~.’

‘How does it feel—holding your fate completely in your own hands?’ [Blood-Debt] giggled.

“Caron, you really have gone insane. If you want to die, no one’s stopping you—but even if you’re going to die, you don’t have to make your corpse this ugly.” Vinny frowned.

“Insane? Heh. No—I’m very good right now. So good. I’ve never felt better. Not once in my life!” After a moment of silence, Caron suddenly burst into laughter. His laughter was like a flash flood—so violent that even the ground around him trembled.

“I used to be such an idiot. Why did I care so much about what those weaklings thought?”

“As long as I’m strong enough—strong enough to beat them all into submission—who’ll dare order me around? Who’ll dare spread rumors behind my back!”

“Just wait. Every person who threatened me—every person who made my life miserable—not one of them will get away. I’ll make every last one of them pay!” Caron laughed with fury.

“Threatened you?” Vinny’s brows knit.

“Then I’ll start with you, Vinny. From childhood to now, you’ve always opposed me—and you forced me into this shape. I’ll carve you into pieces!” Caron roared as he drove [Blood-Debt] into the ground. In an instant, the earth shuddered—like a sudden crustal shift—nearly throwing the three of them off their feet.

Vinny realized something, but in the end he was badly injured and exhausted. The only thing he could do was shove Amisha away—

—and then living blood vessels erupted from the ground and wrapped him up tightly.

“Ungh!” Vinny clenched his teeth. Those thick living blood vessels were contracting like mad, as if they wanted to crush his skin and bones into powder.

His struggle was completely useless.

“Vinny!” Amisha tried to help, but she couldn’t. She had no mana. The staff in her hands became nothing but a useless wooden stick at a time like this.

Seeing it, Fennia hurried over and tried to cut the blood vessels binding Vinny with her sword. But even when she poured all her strength into a single slash—

—the recoil flung her away.

The living blood vessel wasn’t hurt at all.

“Senior Caron! Have you lost your mind?! You actually lowered yourself to a demon! Let Vinny go!” Since she couldn’t cut them, Fennia stared at Caron as he walked toward Vinny step by step, and she charged with her sword raised.

Fennia’s mana was almost gone too. She converted her last magic essence into light, condensing it on her blade.

[Stored-Light Smite]

A dazzling knight’s sword cleaved down toward the demon—yet it didn’t land on Caron. A thick blood vessel blocked it.

Fennia’s pupils shrank.

Her [Stored-Light Smite] striking that living blood vessel only managed to graze it. She couldn’t cut through at all.

“Ugh—!” Before Fennia could pull back her sword and adjust her stance, another tentacle slammed into her lower abdomen—heavy, brutal—into bare flesh with no defense.

Fennia was sent flying. Her sword fell aside. She collapsed limply on the ground, vomiting blood without stopping.

She felt as if every bone in her body had been shattered. She couldn’t stand.

“Fennia!” Amisha cried anxiously.

“You two... you didn’t have to do this.” Caron shook his head, then his mouth split into a chilling grin.

This bastard... he was enjoying the whole thing.

“No choice. Don’t blame me. Now you can only die.”

“Ah, ah—Fennia, Amisha... I really don’t want to kill you. I have a principle, you see—I don’t hurt women. But it’s not like you can’t live. As long as you willingly let me plant my blood vessels into your brains, control your bodies, and from now on obey me, listen to everything I say, submit to everything I want—then you can keep living.”

“Living as blood-vessel slaves.”

With that, Caron giggled and walked toward Vinny, who was bound up.

“But before that, let’s settle some old accounts.”

After contracting with [Blood-Debt], Caron’s already abnormal mind became worse—easily influenced by [Blood-Debt], falling completely.

“Vinny, when you opposed me, did you ever think about today’s ending?” Looking at Vinny like fish on a cutting board, Caron bared his teeth in a grin. “You obviously had a chance to kill me earlier, but you didn’t seize it. I really didn’t expect you to be this stupid—actually letting go of a chance to ‘ascend’ like this, all for so-called human principles??”

“The strong stay strong. That’s the only hard truth.”

“Do you know what happens next, Vinny? I’ll cut you open like a fish, rip out your organs, sever your limbs, drain your blood—torture you to death little by little!” Caron laughed loudly.

However, when he was only five steps from Vinny—

—a staff blocked his path.

“Oh?” Caron looked with amused interest at Amisha, who stood firmly in his way. Her mana was exhausted. She had no fighting power. Her legs were shaking with fear—yet she still raised her staff at him, stubbornly standing between Caron and Vinny.

The milky-golden-haired girl’s hands trembled as she held the staff. She knew she had no power to resist Caron. Her face was deathly pale with fear—yet her eyes were filled with resolve. She shielded Vinny behind her, not moving an inch.

“I—I won’t let you hurt him!”

“Commendable courage.” Caron grinned. “Honestly, I admire you, Amisha.”

“With your looks and temperament... killing you really would be a pity.” As he spoke, Caron lifted his hand. A blood vessel burst from the ground, wrapped around Amisha’s throat, and yanked her straight in front of him.

“Mm—mm!” Her staff fell to the ground. Amisha’s face twisted in pain as she instinctively tried to pry the blood vessel away—

—but it was useless.

“Fine. I’ll plant the blood vessel in you right now.” As he spoke, a wriggling, vivid crimson web grew from Caron’s palm.

“Goddess... Lady Saintesses...” Amisha sobbed. “Please... save me. Amisha doesn’t want to... become a demon’s executioner.”

“Amisha...!” Off to the side, Fennia lay on the ground, struggling to rise. But she couldn’t even crawl to her sword.

“Save you? This is the greatest salvation for you.” Caron smiled. “You’ll understand later.”

——————— 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

At the same time.

‘We’re screwed!’ In Vinny’s Sea of Mind, the golden-haired little angel who watched everything grabbed her head and collapsed in despair.

She’d watched the whole thing and desperately wanted to help—but she couldn’t. She truly couldn’t do anything??

This kid... worthy of being Facilis’s descendant. His stance was firm. At the very least, right now, the little angel acknowledged his identity.

But acknowledging it was useless. His bloodline was dead—because of that alone, she couldn’t help at all.

It was over. This time it was really over—unless a miracle happened, otherwise...

‘Eh...? Eh??’ The little angel clutching her head suddenly froze. ‘Th-this...??’

That feeling—familiar, and making her so ecstatic she could barely breathe.

Could it be...??

The little angel abruptly lifted her head, shocked to find that this Sea of Mind—supposed to be blank—was being rapidly dyed by a sacred pale cherry-pink. A pair of pure, flawless white wings spread open and embraced this empty Sea of Mind.

‘Th-this is?!’ The little angel’s eyes went wide. ‘Facilis... big sister??’

———————

Outside.

Fennia and Amisha both stared in shock at the scene before them.

Vinny, whose entire body suddenly erupted with dazzling light, tore free from the living blood vessels binding him—and at the critical instant, he kicked Caron away.

That terrifying brute force sent Caron sliding back more than ten meters before he stopped.

“What is this?!” Caron snarled, staring at Vinny in disbelief.

“This is...?” Amisha, lowered by the blood vessels, coughed as she stared in stunned awe at that figure wrapped in a cherry-pink beam.

“I—I... how are my injuries...?” Fennia realized she could stand. She’d been beaten until her tendons and bones were shattered—yet with only this warm, gentle cherry-pink radiance shining over her, her wounds completely healed.

Even stronger than Amisha’s [Immaculate Light].

“This light... could it be?!”

“Holy light?!”

Both of them thought of the same possibility at the same time. They stared in astonishment at Vinny bathed in cherry-pink brilliance. Pure, flawless wings stretched freely from the dazzling holy light, like a god descending to the mortal world.

As the holy light dispersed, countless pure-white feathers drifted through the air. A long wind lifted the knee-length cherry-pink hair of that breathtakingly beautiful girl-form.

“Dawn Goddess?!” The moment she saw the cherry-haired girl-form clearly, Fennia was so overwhelmed she almost dropped to her knees again.

“Lady Saintess...?” Amisha was equally stunned, her mouth falling open—at the same time, excitement surging through her.

“Dawn Saintess?!” When Caron saw that cherry-haired girl-form of shocking beauty, he was shaken as well. “N-no—Vinny, you really have a lot of tricks! What is this supposed to be—another illusion?!”