Chapter 158: Well, Anyway, I'll Drop the Title
After passing through an extremely dark and winding tunnel, Elsa finally saw the end of it.
It was a stairway entrance, appearing before the two of them through a shaft of light.
Below the stairs was pitch-black, so dark that nothing could be seen at all.
Yet Elsa had an incredibly strong premonition.
The person she had been longing for was right beneath those stairs.
Soon, Viktor's voice sounded beside her ear, "Go in. He's inside."
"Remember, don't forget what you promised me."
Elsa's heart thumped wildly as she dragged her heavy steps onto the staircase.
One step, two steps.
She didn't know how long she walked, not even realizing it herself.
Around her, there was nothing but darkness.
She kept walking, continuing downward.
Ahead in the darkness, a beam of light appeared.
Elsa stepped into that light, and in an instant, a powerful brightness surged toward her.
She raised one hand to shield her eyes, barely managing to adapt to the glare.
Finally, a whistling wind rose beside her ears.
She squinted, slowly opening her eyes.
The surroundings seemed like an entirely new world.
This was a plain, incredibly vast and open.
The sky was filled with dark, gloomy clouds, giving off an oppressive feeling.
In the distance, there seemed to be several towering mountain peaks, but beneath those heavy clouds, she couldn't see them clearly.
At some point, the staircase behind her had vanished without a trace. When she looked back, there was only a vast plain.
Elsa clearly remembered that she had been walking downward along the stairs, deep underground.
So why had she arrived at an open plain instead?
Suddenly, Elsa's body trembled slightly.
It felt as if a deep, unfathomable gaze was fixed on her.
'No...'
Elsa reacted sharply, a chill spreading through her entire body.
This place was a space created by spatial magic, something only mages could build.
That gaze belonged to Viktor.
He was watching her the entire time.
Before Elsa could adapt to her surroundings, suddenly, a familiar voice sounded behind her.
"Are you… Elsa?"
Elsa's body stiffened. She spun around sharply and looked back.
In that instant, she felt joy and excitement surge through her.
It was the person she had been thinking about day and night.
At this moment, he had appeared by her side.
Seeing Elsa turn around, Cindy was just as excited, nearly overwhelmed with joy.
He hadn't been mistaken, this was his Elsa.
"Elsa, are you here to save me?!"
"Since you can get here, you must be able to find a way out!"
"Quick! Let's leave together! Get out of here!"
Perhaps because he was too excited, his body trembled uncontrollably.
He stumbled toward Elsa, step after step.
But just as he was about to reach her, a red sword light flashed, and scorching flames burst violently beneath Cindy's feet.
Startled, Cindy hastily retreated, staring in disbelief at Elsa, who had swung her weapon at him.
"Elsa…? Why…?"
'I'm sorry, Cindy.' Elsa closed her eyes, unwilling to let Cindy see the complicated expression on her face.
Within this space, she could feel Viktor's surveillance at every moment.
She understood that if she didn't do what Viktor told her to do, then both she and Cindy would die here, buried together.
'So, for you to be able to leave here alive, please forgive me, Cindy.'
'My love.'
Elsa opened her eyes again. At this moment, her gaze was ice-cold.
Her voice, carrying a distant chill, reached Cindy's ears.
"I'm sorry."
"I have pledged my loyalty to Lord Viktor."
Shock filled Cindy's eyes, something he couldn't accept.
He stood there blankly, staring at the Elsa before him, as if she were an entirely different person.
"Elsa, you…"
"How could you…"
But Elsa's gaze was frigid, as though she were looking at a stranger, prey to be hunted.
"This is the task Lord Viktor, my master, has given me."
"…Master?" Cindy's emotions began to collapse. He widened his eyes, staring at Elsa, shouting madly.
"Tell me, Elsa!"
"Tell me this isn't real!"
Slash!
The flaming blade tore through the air, drawing a burning arc that completely ignited the space between them.
Cindy could no longer see Elsa's expression. He could only hear her voice, calm and detached.
"This is the truth, Cindy."
"Draw your weapon."
She raised the weapon in her hand, the cold gleam of the blade aimed directly at Cindy.
At that moment, it felt as if something struck Cindy's heart, wrenching it painfully.
He couldn't accept what was happening before him. His body staggered as he stepped back twice.
"No… Elsa."
"This isn't real… this isn't real…"
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became, as if falling into madness, eyes wide, hands flailing wildly before him.
"You're not Elsa! You can't be her!"
But the instant his frantic shouting ended, Elsa's figure had already appeared before him.
The blade flashing with cold light tore through the air, carrying an extremely sharp force as it came down toward Cindy.
Clang!
At the last moment, Cindy swiftly drew the greatsword from his back, blocking the lightning-fast strike.
The force was immense, forcing him to retreat several steps.
After steadying himself, he stared in shock at the weapon in his hands.
His pride and joy, the greatsword, now had a visible crack along its edge from that single cut.
'How… how was this possible!?'
This greatsword had been gifted to him by the Lesser family at great expense.
Cindy had even used it to cleave through half a mountain, without even a nick appearing.
But compared to that, what he found even harder to accept... was Elsa.
Under that terrifying force, Cindy could clearly feel it.
Elsa was serious.
After striking once, the woman's body blurred at high speed, her figure vanishing into afterimages.
The moment she disappeared, Cindy felt the hair on his entire body stand on end.
As comrades, he and Elsa had fought together for who knew how long.
He knew very well just how fierce Elsa's attacks were.
And likewise, Elsa knew him just as well.
His instincts screamed that danger was closing in.
Cindy raised his greatsword and swung it violently behind him.
BOOM!
As a fourth-tier warrior, Cindy's powerful body still couldn't withstand that brutal force.
Dust exploded from beneath his feet, cracks tearing open across the ground.
Ferocious winds swept across the land, the raging gusts slamming into Elsa's armor with loud thuds.
"Impossible!"
Elsa was just an assassin...
An assassin who nearly crushed him, a warrior, in a contest of raw strength?
"There's nothing impossible about it." Elsa's figure reappeared as she spoke calmly.
She could feel the lightness brought by the armor she wore, and the strength granted by the blade in her hand.
The sensation was incredibly strange.
But at this moment, Elsa couldn't afford to relax.
She lifted her head, a cold glint flashing in her eyes, and continued launching her attacks at Cindy.
She could show no mercy, no personal feelings whatsoever.
Otherwise, Cindy wouldn't be able to leave this place alive.
She had to use all her strength, relying on this powerful equipment, to cripple Cindy.
Even if it only left him clinging to his last breath, it would still achieve the result she desired most.
Alive. Leave this place.
With that thought, Elsa's attacks grew even fiercer.
The number of afterimages in the sky increased, leaving Cindy unable to tell from which direction the danger would strike.
He could only do his best to block Elsa's relentless attacks.
Yet with every block, his hands trembled more violently.
The battle raged intensely.
Yet no one noticed that high above, within the massed dark clouds, a figure slowly appeared.
Viktor looked down, bored, watching the fight below.
He had no interest whatsoever in their struggle.
"No skill at all."
Though they were both around level forty, NPCs and top-tier players were simply not comparable.
Players had better equipment, more meticulous planning, and more refined control.
In Viktor's eyes, Cindy and Elsa were nothing more than two ordinary NPCs who had barely passed level forty.
There was nothing entertaining about this fight.
If one had to make a comparison, it was like, two Silver-rank players desperately trading blows.
Viktor watched coldly from above.
"How boring."
Even though they were both fourth-tier, whether in strength or technique, neither of them came close to Angus Delin, a boss-class unit.
After all, even at the same tier, bosses and ordinary fourth-tier NPCs were never comparable.
"Is it? I think it's pretty interesting."
Vega, standing on Viktor's shoulder, stretched its neck, trying hard to look down below.
It had always enjoyed this kind of cricket-fighting spectacle.
"But that man is going to lose."
"That's only natural." Viktor replied flatly, without the slightest emotion.
When both sides' strength and technique were similar, the quality of their equipment played a decisive role in influencing the outcome.
Elsa was wearing armor and weapons that Viktor had enhanced five times in a row, greatly boosting her attributes.
Cindy, at only level forty, was already one level lower than Elsa.
With such a gap in equipment, resisting her was even more difficult.
"However, this test can already end."
A trace of cold air radiated from Viktor's body. "Someone with no value left to use…"
"Can die."
Chapter 159: Black Widow
Very soon, Cindy got a chance to fight back.
He seized the instant Elsa made a mistake and swung his greatsword, chopping straight into that extremely hard suit of armor.
Elsa failed to dodge in time and took the heavy blow head-on.
The tremendous impact made her entire body tremble nonstop.
The organs in her chest shook violently, and a wave of dizziness and nausea surged up from deep inside her.
But…
That was all.
Along with that heavy strike, her body suffered no real damage at all.
On the armor, there was only a white mark left behind.
As for the greatsword in Cindy's hands, the moment it touched the armor, it was like striking stone with an egg.
It shattered completely, breaking into pieces that scattered all over the ground.
Cindy stared at the broken great blade in his hands and suddenly froze.
Elsa also stopped her attack, staring at Cindy's shattered weapon in disbelief.
At this moment, Cindy lost his final means of defense.
The hand Elsa used to grip her blade suddenly began to tremble slightly.
If Cindy were still holding a weapon, then Cindy, who knew her so well, would definitely be able to block all of her attacks.
Even if she went all out.
But Elsa had underestimated her own strength.
Or rather, she had underestimated just how terrifying the power granted by this equipment truly was.
And as a warrior who had lost his weapon, Cindy, at this moment, was like a toy waiting to be slaughtered.
Elsa held the blade in her hand, unable to bring herself to slash down for a long time.
However…
A quiet, unseen gaze seemed to fall upon her.
Waves of chill climbed up from her spine.
Elsa suddenly felt an intense tremor rise from deep in her heart.
She could not resist Viktor.
That feeling was as if he were commanding her, seeing straight through her soul and heart.
Suddenly, an absurd thought rose up in her mind.
'Kill Cindy.'
'Kill… him?'
In an instant, Elsa's mind held only this single thought.
This thought rapidly took over her entire brain. She could no longer control her hand, could not stop the chaotic reason in her mind, and could not resist the constant voices echoing in her head.
Pfft!
The blade pierced through Cindy's chest.
The moment the blade went through, Elsa's eyes widened.
Cindy was equally stunned, staring at his chest where he had been pierced through.
Elsa gripped the hilt and stabbed a sword straight into his chest.
Under the scorching flames, the blood did not even have time to flow out before it was completely dried up.
Without realizing it, even Elsa herself did not notice.
In an unconscious state... she had killed Cindy.
'Well done.' The cold voice in her mind rang out calmly.
In an instant, Elsa felt her whole body go limp. Seeing the horrifying wound in Cindy's chest, she felt overwhelming despair.
She helplessly looked around, looking at Cindy, whose last traces of life were rapidly slipping away.
Cindy opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.
But the very next second…
Crack!
A shattering sound rang out beside her ears, and the surrounding space shattered like broken mirrors.
The space cracked layer by layer and gradually returned to reality.
Elsa looked around in despair.
All around her were cold stone walls, hung with many dark, rusted iron shackles and instruments of torture.
And Cindy's limbs were completely restrained, firmly locked onto a wooden post.
Suddenly, Elsa trembled as she looked at her own palm.
That hand was still gripping the blade tightly.
The sword blade had long since pierced straight through Cindy's chest.
In the end, all she could see was Cindy's eyes wide open, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
He could not even speak, his head tilted as he swallowed his final breath.
Elsa loosened her grip on the sword, her mind collapsing completely.
At this moment, she fully realized it.
From beginning to end, this had all just been an illusion.
There had never been any battle with Cindy. From the very start, when she arrived, she had already been in this secret chamber.
Cindy, unable to resist at all, had been imprisoned on that wooden post the entire time.
Allowing her to launch attacks against him.
Everything had merely been fantasies within her illusion.
Until the very end, when she personally used a sword to pierce Cindy's chest.
At that time, even a weaponless Cindy could have dodged that attack.
Unless...
He had been imprisoned here all along.
That's right. She had personally killed him.
At this moment, Elsa's mind completely collapsed.
She dropped to her knees on the ground, wailing in grief.
The sword blade was still lodged in Cindy's chest, blood gushing out.
Elsa clutched her hair tightly, utterly disheveled.
In the entire interrogation room, only her piercing cries echoed endlessly…
———
In the warm study, sunlight streamed through the window and fell onto the red wool carpet.
"Tell Liya to notify Halnarsen."
"Have him select a group of fairly strong demi-humans and send them over to the royal capital."
Vanilla stood before Viktor and gave a slight bow.
Then, with her face faintly flushed, she slowly withdrew.
Watching Vanilla's small figure as she left, Viktor couldn't help but feel a trace of confusion in his heart.
'Why does it feel like the little catgirl isn't quite right today?'
But he didn't dwell on it. Sitting at the desk, he looked down at the two documents in his hands.
These were the investigation results sent over by Liya.
They were two information files, each bearing a name.
Cindy and Elsa.
Viktor skimmed through them, gaining a basic understanding of the two.
Cindy and Elsa were both adventurers.
In the southern Adventurers' Capital, they had once belonged to the same team.
And during their time as adventurers, the two fought side by side as comrades. Gradually, Cindy developed feelings for Elsa.
At the time, Elsa rejected Cindy on the grounds of improving her strength.
After becoming a fourth-tier ahead of him, she was noticed by the Lesser family, recruited into their ranks, and eventually became Lady Cassandra's personal guard.
The Lesser family took notice of the relationship between Cindy and Elsa. Using Elsa as leverage, and offering a weapon as bait, they also pulled Cindy into the family.
However, Cindy and Elsa were assigned to different departments. Within the Lesser family, Cindy was mainly responsible for capturing demi-humans.
What was interesting was this.
Before the mission to capture demi-humans and bring the elf Lacey back to the family, Cindy proposed to Elsa.
He told her that if this mission went smoothly, they would get married.
As fellow comrades, the two knew each other inside and out.
So this time, Elsa agreed.
But what no one could have imagined was...
"In the end, Elsa personally killed Cindy."
Two flames climbed up the documents, easily burning the two files into ashes.
"Presumably, once this news spreads to the south, it'll cause quite a stir."
Whether it was Cindy or Elsa, both were legendary adventurers well-known in the south.
Their deeds made many adventurers extremely envious.
After all, being noticed and recruited by the Lesser family was a tremendous honor for southern adventurers.
It was like being a freelancer, barely scraping by day after day, and then suddenly someone offers you a job that guarantees you'll be full for the rest of your life.
Naturally, everyone else would be incredibly jealous.
Just imagine, if news spread to the south that Elsa personally killed her fiancé Cindy.
Elsa would probably gain a new title.
"[Black Widow]? Or maybe [Mantis Slayer] would be better."
Vega shot Viktor a glance.
"No one is more sinister and ruthless than you, Viktor."
He had never intended to let Cindy live.
He merely gave that pitiful woman a faint sliver of hope.
And in the end, let her personally shatter that hope with her own hands.
"Don't misunderstand. I'm just someone who always repays grudges."
"And besides, a mentally broken woman is much easier to control than a woman whose heart is full of hatred."
Viktor explained calmly, paying no attention to the sarcasm in Vega's words.
As his words fell, a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in."
Viktor raised his head and saw the succubus young lady in loose robes enter timidly.
She first turned around and carefully closed the door.
As if steeling herself mentally, she took a deep breath.
Then, Henny lifted her head and looked at Viktor, her face flushed red.
As if cheering herself on, she shouted loudly at Viktor, "Professor! Please prepare yourself mentally!"
"I'm taking it off!"
Viktor, "?"