Chapter 262: Snowy Fields (2)


    "Keuk, Ugh!" Blood fountained from Ohjin’s mouth, and a searing pain spread over his shoulder as if someone were pressing a red-hot iron into his skin. The pain spread like poison and ate away at his reasoning.


    "Heup!" He did his best to suppress the dizzying pain as he used his folding knife to stab down toward Kasia’s arm, which was still around his waist.


    Craaaack—!


    He felt unexpectedly strong resistance, but had the attack worked to some extent? Her hold on him weakened for a moment, and he used the opportunity to leap away and distance himself from her. Before she could react, he took an emergency potion from the bag he always carried and poured it over the stump of his right arm.


    "Huh. You''re a shrewd liar." Kasia licked the blood flowing from her forearm and threw Ohjin''s right arm to the floor like it was trash.


    "Sis…ter…?" Isabe, who had been trying to make a hole in the shadow wall, looked down at Ohjin’s arm, her eyes wide with surprise. "What… are you doing?" She gave Kasia a stiff look, and a thickyer of bloodlust rose from her eyes.


    "Huh? I''m just punishing a liar."” Isabe''s gaze went cold. Looking down at Ohjin''s arm, she stopped breaking through the wall and turned toward Kasia. "How dare you…" The sound of her fingernails breaking cracked through the air. "How dare you… Ohjin''s arm…"


    Crack—


    Crimson blood flowed down her ruined nails and formed into a red sickle. Any warmth she held toward Kasia was long gone.


    "Stop, Isabe!" Ohjin yelled.


    She couldn''t stop. She couldn’t let someone who’d dared to harm her Ohjin be, even if that person was her biological sister, whom she had been anxiously trying to find for 10 years. Isabe sped the red sickle and leaped forward.


    Spurt—!


    A blood-red path sprouted before Isabe as she glided forward and swung her sickle.


    “You dare attack your older sister? It seems you’re as bad-mannered as always.” Kasia clenched her fist as if clutching the air and let out a coldugh. The shadows climbed up her body and gathered in her hands to form a long staff with two snakes at the end holding emerald bells.


    Ring—


    The bells rang out, and a shadow exploded from the staff to strike Isabe’s sickle.


    Kagagagagak—!


    Isabe was pushed back by the impact. “You’re the one with the bad habit,” she said before she drew her palm along the de of her sickle. Her blood welled up into des and shot toward Kasia.


    “You don’t know anything, and you dare say such a thing?” Kasia''s dull eyes bored into Isabe, and the gem on her forehead emitted a grim, ck glow. She swung her staff, sending her shadowy snakes forward in a barrier that collided with Isabe’s projectile. The ground tore apart like paper, and one of the nearby rides copsed, sending up a cloud of dust.


    "Flow." Isabe turned her injured palm downward, causing her blood to gather in a circr puddle that dyed the earth red. Hundreds of bloody flowers bloomed around her, making it seem like she was standing in a garden of blood. She slowly raised her sickle.


    "Hey, those are pretty flowers." Without a moment of hesitation, Kasia walked into the garden of bloody flowers, plucked one of the odd nts from the blood puddle, and burst intoughter. "Come to think of it, do you remember the flower crown you made me when we were children?


    It was a memory from back in the sprawling Cgrande garden. Back then, Isabe had smiled warmly and held a wreath of wildflowers as Kasia sat in a wheelchair and shared the moment. The precious memory was so far in the past that they couldn’t remember exactly when it was.


    "I don''t remember," Isabe said. In truth, she remembered it so vividly that she couldn''t forget it, even in her dreams.


    "Oh? Is that so? I remember it. Fufu. That disgusting gand you put on me back then… Even thinking about it makes me sick.”


    “…” Isabe chewed her lips. Even though she knew Kasia was out of her mind… "Disgusting… was it ?"


    "Fufu. Why did you think I''d like something like that?" Every single one of Kasia’s words seemed to pierce through Isabe’s heart.


    Isabe felt her warm memories being torn apart. "Shut up." Isabe red at Kasia and swung her sickle. Hundreds more of the bloody flowers bloomed around them at the same time, creating a terrifying explosion.


    Rumble—!


    The ground shook, creating an earthquake-like phenomenon akin to a natural disaster.


    "Huh. I thought it was a pretty flower, but they’re very simr to you in nature." Kasia stood still in the midst of the explosion, undamaged. "It''s my turn now."


    Ring—


    The bells on her staff rang, and the ck snakes flooded toward Isabe in a tidal wave of darkness.


    "Ugh!"


    Dozens, hundreds, thousands… There were so many snakes that they couldn’t even be counted. Isabe did her best to cut down the rushing snakes. How long had it been since she felt such pressure? "Haa, haa!" She panted and leaned on her sickle.


    "Are you tired already?" Compared to Isabe, who was panting as if she were about to copse, Kasia lookedrgely the same as she had looked at the start of their confrontation—she was just a little out of breath.


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    Kasia smirked and took a step forward, vanishing in a blur of motion as she closed the distance to Isabe. "I should punish you, Be," she said. Her eyes shone with emerald light, and she mmed her staff toward Isabe. To be exact, she tried to m it toward Isabe.


    "Eugh…" Kasia halted as if she were a machine that’d suddenly been switched off. She groaned low and chewed her lips. "Ah, ugh." The staff fell from her hands and hit the ground, its bells ringing again. She curled up and clutched her head. "St… op… no, I can’t, stop…” she muttered.


    With every shudder of her body, the jewel in her forehead glowed ck again. "Ah… uh. Ah." Kasia wriggled on the ground like a fish and looked up toward the darkness-shrouded sky. Memories flooded into her mind that she hadn’t wanted to think of again.


    -I''m sorry. Miss Kasia''s disease… cannot be cured with modern technology.


    Those doctor’s words had felt like a death sentence. She didn’t remember the exact name of the disease, but it caused the muscles of her legs, waist, arms, and body to be dysfunctional and harden like stone. It was an incurable disease that couldn’t be cured by the Cgrande family''s enormous financial power.


    In the end, all she could do was experience the progression of her symptoms and wait for death in her wheelchair.


    -Kasia! Look at this!


    Back when Isabe had smiled and given her the crown of wildflowers, she’d felt miserable and jealous to see her sister running around in good health while she was trapped in a wheelchair.


    Still, she’d smiled and pretended it was okay and that nothing was bothering her. She believed it was the best way to make sure her loved ones weren’t sad. Then, one day, she awokete at night and went into the hallway, which was where she’d overheard a conversation between her mother and father.


    -Still, it’s a relief.


    What was a relief?


    -If even Isabe was afflicted, I… haa.


    Her mother’s sigh had sounded somewhat relieved. The moment Kasia overheard that conversation, her world fell apart. Her life, the life of Kasia Cgrande, was merely something to be relieved about somebody else not having.


    Like nk paper when drawing lots, nobody wanted or hoped for her—she was fated to be crumpled and thrown in the trash. She lost everything that day. Her sweet father, her sweet mother, and her lovely sister… even herself.


    After some time, ording to family rules, she was ced in a hospital in d. It wasn''t unfair or sad, and she didn''t have anything anyway. All she had was a body that was falling apart. She’d been abandoned by the family once more when a huge fissure leading to the Demon Realm opened.


    No one took care of her when the monsters flooded in like a tsunami. In the end, she’d copsed in the middle of a snowy field, alone in a blizzard on the seemingly endless sheet of white. The cold had felt cold enough to cut her.


    She recalled that freezing memory and looked up at the dark, moonless sky. "Ah." Kasia lowered her head, stumbled, and lifted her staff. "His words… must be obeyed." That recollection had reminded her of the day she waited for death toe—that unbreakable nightmare.


    “That way…” If she followed his orders, she would never be abandoned aga—


    "Blue Lightning!” Lightning fell from the sky and pierced through her.


    Kasia stepped back and groaned.


    Ta-ang—!


    Ohjin shot a wire toward Isabe and pulled her to him. "Whoo." He held the still-gasping Isabe with his remaining arm.


    “Haa, haa. You''re alright now, Ohjin," Isabe said as she gasped for air and stood. She continued, creating a red sickle again. "I''ll buy you time, so in the meantime, run away. I’ll make a small gap for you in the shadow wall."


    "No." Ohjin shook his head, rejecting her n. "It would be better to fight together." Even if he wanted to run away, he couldn''t—everything was covered in shadows. Even if Isabe opened the way for him, he couldn’t leave her behind.


    “…” When Isabe saw Ohjin somehow stand up and prepare to fight with only one arm left, she put a hand on his shoulder and sighed beforemanding, "Run away."


    "Eugh!" Regardless of his will, Ohjin’s body moved on its own ord. "Isabe!"


    "I''m sorry, Ohjin." Isabe gave him a sad smile. "I felt the same way back then." She winked at him, gripped her sickle, and leaped at Kasia again.