Chapter 595: Chapter 530: The Legacy of the Cat Fraction Chapter 595: Chapter 530: The Legacy of the Cat Fraction Clang, clang, clang!
Roger swiftly struck three times at the same spot, forcing the charging Ito Rieko to retreat, his demeanor serene and movements fluid, seemingly without any effort.
In fact, Roger really felt nothing from Ito Rieko’s attacks.
To Roger, this woman couldn’t even be considered Third Tier; she was simply no match for him. She roared angrily, frantically trying to get close.
But Roger, sword in one hand, never moved an inch. He even turned his attention away, asking Higurashi Chika behind him.
“Is there any hope for her?”
After a few breaths’ worth of circling, Higurashi Chika had also regained some strength. She watched as the imaginary horns above Ito Rieko’s head slowly took shape, the madness in her eyes growing more intense.
“There’s not much of a chance.”
Higurashi Chika shook her head, but then she gripped her sword hilt tighter, “But I am willing to try one last time!”
Having said that, her gaze swept towards Aoki Kazuo lying on the ground.
“Stop playing dead, help me restrain her.”
Aoki Kazuo rolled over, his face smeared with dirt as he propped up his head.
“It’s gone, I really don’t have any spiritual power left.”
He complained with a pitiful look on his face.
Exhausting himself with the eruption of four talismans was a desperate move that nearly cost Aoki Kazuo his life; he wasn’t pretending to be pitiful now.
Seeing the determination in Higurashi Chika’s eyes, Aoki Kazuo reluctantly got up from the ground. He knew her well – though she appeared gentle on the outside, her character was more stubborn than anyone else’s.
Aoki Kazuo bit his tongue and spat out a mist of blood. The mist dissipated, and he waved a talisman through the veil of snow, bringing it next to Ito Rieko before it exploded abruptly.
The frenzied Ito Rieko became rigid as invisible shackles seemed to bind her in the air, and the next moment, Higurashi Chika stepped forward to Roger’s side.
Her weapon pierced at a tricky angle into Ito Rieko’s forehead, the tip burrowing into her skull, but at the crucial moment, Higurashi Chika suddenly stopped the sword technique, her face flushing with an abnormal rosiness.
She then sharply retracted the thrusting weapon.
Roger saw something seem to be pulled out of the wound along with Higurashi Chika’s motion, a struggling pale ghostly specter.
“Use your fire!” Higurashi Chika barked, and Roger instinctively extended his palm.
The light of the Igni Dharma Seal flickered and vanished, but just as the flame touched it, Ito Rieko somehow broke free of Higurashi Chika’s control, leaping out to shield the fire with her body.
The next second she opened her mouth, swallowing the ghostly specter Higurashi Chika had pulled out.
Having done all this, Ito Rieko seemed to have exhausted all her strength, no longer launching attacks, but instead plummeting from mid-air.
“What are you doing?!”
Higurashi Chika’s complexion changed, her sword shifting down slightly to point at Ito Rieko, now lying on the ground.
After the specter was absorbed by Ito Rieko, something beneath her skin appeared to be moving erratically, eventually concentrating on the woman’s face.
A hideous pale visage slowly emerged.
There was no longer any madness in Ito Rieko’s eyes; she had stepped from being human into the irreversible process.
In the short span of time, Ito Rieko seemed to regain lucidity, her eyes opening with blood dripping from them.
“I want vengeance, I want to find the man who hurt me.”
“And to repay all he did to me, a thousandfold!”
With a mouth twisted into a grotesque smile, she made a strange cackling sound.
“This is my only chance, I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”
“But that beast must die!!”
Ito Rieko wept, with not tears but beads of blood rolling down.
“Do you know who he is?” Higurashi Chika asked.
“I couldn’t find him as a human, but I can surely do it .”
Trembling, Ito Rieko’s fingernails grew wildly, turning into hook-like claws, and she carved deep gouges in the ground.
“Finding him, and then killing him!”
Higurashi Chika took a deep breath.
“Ito, you won’t be able to maintain your sanity for long. Choosing this path is hopeless; without a true target for your vengeance, you’ll soon become a mindless beast.”
“I could have helped you.”
A faint expression of pain crossed her face.
Ito Rieko scoffed bitterly, “No one will help me.”
“No one.” She shook her head.
“During those seven days in the basement, how I wished someone would come to help me.”
“But when I was rescued, I realized that dying there would have been the best ending.”
Ito Rieko’s voice grew shrill, the redness in her eyes deepening, as if something within wanted to burst free.
“I will find him. I will find him.”
She softly repeated to herself, as if to etch the words into her own consciousness.
Just then, Aoki Kazuo’s voice came from not far away.
“She has undergone monsterization.”
Aoki Kazuo walked forward, his face pale, obviously on the verge of collapsing, but a blue talisman slipped from his sleeve into his hands.
“She can’t leave this place.”
“Those are the rules.”
Aoki Kazuo looked solemn, his gaze sweeping over Ito Rieko, and he sighed deeply.
“Such a rare opportunity, yet it was given up.”
Aoki Kazuo looked at Higurashi Chika, “The price you paid for swinging that sword wasn’t light.”