Reborn As Noble

The girl’s scream tore through the air, raw and furious.

”I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!”

Dark, viscous energy surged from her body, wrapping around her like a living, creeping shroud. Black, thorny tendrils snaked across her flesh, coiling and hardening into jagged, overlapping plates of obsidian armor. The plates pulsed with a sickly red light from within, veins of corruption glowing beneath the surface like molten lava trapped under black stone.

Red and black smoke billowed from the gaps, swirling around her in a violent, chaotic aura. Her eyes blazed with crimson light, glowing fiercely from beneath a horned, demonic mask that formed over her face, its features twisted into a permanent, snarling visage of hatred.

Her eyes locked onto them, burning with pure malice.

”You think your holy light can stop me? You think your precious walls can protect you? I’ll tear through them all! I’ll rip you apart piece by piece and feast on your souls!”

She charged at Cedric with blinding speed, a clawed hand of pure dark energy forming around her fist, reaching straight for his head.

Cedric raised his hand and casually slapped the girl with the back of his palm. The impact sent her hurtling through the air, her body crashing into a crumbling wall with a thunderous crack, the stone shattering around her.

She rose immediately, shaking off the debris, and charged again from his side, launching a dark-powered kick aimed at his ribs. The corrupted energy followed her leg like a comet’s tail.

Cedric tilted his head, evading the kick with a lazy, fluid motion. He gripped the hilt of his sword, pulling it from the ground with practiced ease, his expression calm and composed.

”You know...” he said, his voice casual as he straightened, ”every evil enemy we’ve faced so far always does the same thing. They scream. They transform. They talk about ripping us apart, feasting on our souls, dragging us into the abyss...”

He kicked upward, his armored boot connecting squarely with her chin. The impact sent her soaring into the air, her body twisting helplessly as she arced upward. Cedric raised his palm toward her, holy light gathering at its center, his smile never wavering.

”But at the end of the day... it’s always just talk.”

Four radiant shields materialized around the girl in a perfect square, their surfaces gleaming with intricate golden runes. They hovered in the air, humming with a low, resonant frequency that made the ground tremble.

Before she could react, chains of pure light shot forth from the shields, streaking toward her with the speed of divine retribution.

The girl’s eyes widened, her hand rising in a desperate attempt to deflect them. But the chains moved with a will of their own, coiling around both of her legs and one of her arms, binding her in place. The moment the holy links touched her corrupted flesh, they flared with blinding intensity, white-hot light searing into her obsidian armor.

She screamed, a raw, agonized shriek that tore through the air as the chains tightened, hissing and crackling against her limbs like iron pressed to burning coals. Smoke erupted from where the holy energy met her dark flesh, the corruption writhing and recoiling, desperate to escape the purifying touch.

She thrashed wildly, her free hand clawing at the chains before she made a desperate decision. With a guttural snarl, she raised her free hand and brought it down in a savage arc, severing her own chained arm at the elbow and both of her legs, cutting through her own flesh without hesitation, leaving the chains to fall away with her severed limbs.

She hurled herself backward, her mutilated body tumbling through the air before crashing onto the ground, black blood pooling beneath her. Her severed limbs began to writhe and twist, bubbling with dark energy. New appendages erupted from the stumps, pulsing with sickly red veins, grotesque and malformed, twitching as they slowly took shape.

Cedric tilted his head, a mocking smile curling on his lips.

”Wow~” He clapped his hands together slowly, the sound echoing through the ruined street. ”You actually cut off your own arm and both legs just to break free from a basic paladin skill? I’m impressed~ That’s some real dedication to self-mutilation~”

He let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head.

”I mean, I’ve seen desperate enemies before, but that? That’s a whole new level of self-destruction. I’m almost impressed~”

The girl gritted her jaw, her mind racing with fury and desperation. Her eyes fixed on Marcellus, who was casually leaning back against a crumbled wall, playing with his mana phone with one hand while the other held a small bottle of fruit wine. He took a slow, unhurried sip, completely ignoring her.

Her aura erupted in a violent surge of dark energy, and she launched herself toward him, claws extended, her newly formed limbs still twitching with unstable power.

Marcellus casually took another sip from his bottle before swinging it upward, the glass connecting squarely with her forehead. The impact sent her stumbling back, dazed.

Before she could recover, he delivered a casual side kick to her midsection, the force sending her flying backward through the air. He raised his palm toward her without even looking, his eyes still fixed on his mana phone.

And snapped his fingers.

A bolt of pure white flame shot from his palm, streaking toward her. It struck her chest and erupted into a blazing inferno, the holy fire clinging to her corrupted body, consuming the darkness with a searing, purifying light.

She screamed, her body squirming and convulsing as the white flames ate away at her obsidian armor and the grotesque, regenerating flesh beneath. The fire burned with a fierce, righteous intensity, leaving no trace of shadow untouched.

Marcellus finally slipped his mana phone into his pocket, his expression shifting from bored to mildly annoyed. He narrowed his eyes at the writhing, burning figure.

”You should focus on one target before moving to the other,” he said, his voice calm but edged with cold disapproval. ”Even in dining etiquette, there’s no way to jump straight from the appetizer to the main dish without finishing your course. And to be honest...”

He brushed a speck of dust from his pristine coat, his lip curling slightly.

”Unlike our little brother Javier, who loves to play the fool before getting serious, I don’t like my coat getting dirty from filthy creatures like you who don’t even know the basics of combat, or table manners.”

( End Of Chapter )