Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

“W-Wait…! That young Druid was killed by someone else! It wasn’t my fault!”

“I don’t care.”

Elayne’s eyes suddenly turned deep red, as her aura started to warp, growing monstrous, demonic. Resembling an abhorrent dragon with countless tentacles, jaws, and eyes.

“W-What…?! Just what are you?! You even survived having your head cut off and your throat stabbed!”

“Your attack was strong and caught me off guard, but that level of miasma and poison would never truly harm me. And my head? As you can see, I can regrow a new one.”

“T-That’s…! I-It doesn’t make… any sense! Y-YOUUUUU! AAAGGH!”

As the assassin screamed in horror, her soul was torn to pieces, bitten apart as she experienced the most painful and agonizing death, paying for the thousands of people she had killed through her life.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

“AAAAAIIIIEEEEEHHHHH!”

Once her screams stopped, Elayne’s monstrous Aura swallowed everything through her [Soul Devour] Innate Ability, which she gained from her bond with Blackie after she helped him evolve to a Divine Beast.

To an extent, it didn’t even feel like she ate that soul, but her Aura did, as if it had become the inner demon, the inner dragon within her.

“Haah… Haah…”

Elayne felt slightly agitated, her hands trembling slightly, but then she remained in silence for a moment.

And then, as her Draconic Aura finished digesting that soul, she felt her own soul growing stronger much faster.

She crossed the line she never thought she would cross, eating another soul…

And the worst part was that it felt really great.

“…”

Elayne has been afraid this entire time to turn into a monster, but right now, those that came after her…

Simply left her no other option.

She wasn’t sorry though; after seeing the fragmented memories of that woman, she learned a bit about her.

She was a forty-two-year-old woman, despite looking like she was in her late teens.

That woman’s name was “Lamina”, and she was one of the many assassins trained by the Black Hand from a young age, picked up as an orphan.

She pitied her younger self a little bit, but Lamina had already fallen too far into a darkness she couldn’t return from.

Having killed over a thousand people through her career, most of them innocents, some even children, it filled Elayne with disgust.

However, Elayne also thought about what would have happened if Lamina was raised correctly? If she was adopted by a good person instead?

What would have happened to her?

“…I guess I’ll never know.”

Perhaps it was her motherly instincts talking to her at that moment, and despite how stupid it felt, it made her slightly happy, relieved.

If she still had the kindness in her heart to have some sympathy for this monster… then perhaps she wasn’t so far gone as she imagined.

“That was freaking brutal…”

She heard Gardenia’s voice behind her.

“Hey Gardenia, don’t be like that…”

Ignis sighed, trying to just shut her down.

“I-I mean, she has already killed other people, in the other world too, and they’re all monsters anyway, right?”

“But this time she wasn’t quite a monster, more like a human forced to become one, without any other option in her entire life.”

Elayne walked away the entire domain rapidly shattered into pieces.

“I guess ugly monsters aren’t the only thing we’ll fight… Sometimes we’ll even have to go against other humans, people, that have simply walked a different path but didn’t just sell their souls and turned into a demon exactly.” Elayne said.

“Hmm… I suppose you’re not wrong, master. But this is life, and this is how this harsh world is. Slaying evildoers, criminals, and barbarians is something as common as eating, even in ancient times,” Ignis said. “Perhaps in this world, modern times are much tamer, people isn’t used to fight and kill to protect their lives or their families, but this is a fact of nature that you cannot deny.”

“You may be right, in a way, this is also part of Nature…” Elayne sighed, as her Nature Soul, The World, continued growing stronger, feeding off her experiences. “Let’s go finish this, we have to get to Avalon after all.”

She caressed her stomach gently, her child had been protected in this intense battle, Elayne could easily lose her head without problems, all her limbs even, but she protected the area around her hips and her stomach the most.

“We cannot prolong this any longer…”

For the sake of her family and of her baby, she couldn’t hesitate. If it’s truly necessary, she will walk a path tainted red by the blood of her enemies.

.

.

.

A minute ago.

FLUOOOSH!

Suddenly, as Elayne’s head turned into a bunch of plant monsters that attacked and tore apart one of the arms of Lamina, a beam of light impacted Lamina, as space distorted, creating a pocket pseudo-domain in an instant, floating in midair like a bubble.

“HMM? LAMINA?!”

Lord Nakuna glared at the scene with disbelief, the many crimson eyes across his ghostly, spectral and nightmarish aura widening as he noticed Lamina was dragged away into a pseudo domain.

“THAT WOMAN’S NOT DEAD; SHE MOVED EVEN WITHOUT A HEAD?! IS SHE A DAMNED UNDEAD? A VAMPIRE?!”

“Hmph, don’t worry, Lord Nakuna! Despite being young, Lamina is powerful and has killed thousands of men before. Although her opponent is strange, she has even killed people born with Draconic Bloodlines. I doubt she’ll struggle. The plant monsters caught her off guard but that-“

As the older assassin spoke, the arms and legs that he sliced from Mark began moving on their own, floating in midair and changing shape, transforming into giant totems of black wood and crimson flames.

TRUUUM!

From a safe distance, they floated around him, forming a formation out of nowhere!

“Huh?!”

The man’s eyes widened as he was shocked to see a blazing formation powered by four strong totems packed full of spiritual energy.

“What in the world? When did this…?”

He looked back at Mark, his eyes glowing bright red instead of their emerald color.

“Hah, did you fall for our act?”

He noticed Mark regrowing all four of his limbs out of wood and flames, and his wounds regenerated easily, covered by wood and fire.

“You’re not even a human anymore, huh?”

—–