Moments after Ahko left the village, an adventurer party returned to the village after another day of trying to exterminate the man-eater. Ahko has completely forgotten to submit the [Solving The Mysterious Missing Yotein Villagers] quest ever since she received the notification that Kate and Alya have died. She should've submitted the quest completion the moment she received the [The Extermination of The Killer Hornet Dungeon], but her rage blinded her. And adventurers keep coming in to solve the mysterious missing Yotein Villagers.
After they were informed that someone had finally solved it, but had yet to inform the guild about it, and man-eaters were still roaming inside the forest, most of them decided to stay for a few days to kill some man-eaters and get their monster core. Since Martha is currently weaker than her past self, she can't detect her man-eating killer unless they are close to her.
The moment the adventurer party arrived back in the village, they were confused about why many villagers were gathering in the center and why some were holding their cloaks as if they were offering something. Smiles on their faces as if they had seen something that made them happy. They slowly walked to the center and asked the chief what had happened while they were gone.
"A perfect beauty?" The swordsman confused.
"A divine grace?" The Archer questioned.
"Unmatched Allure?" The Enchanter asked.
"Who is this girl?" The swordsman questioned.
"Seems like it's a goddess in a human form or something that made everyone like that." The archer answered.
"She's so beautiful... So stunning... So-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Is there like any other feature she has, or she's just a human?" The archer cuts off the chief.
"... Rude..." The villagers said in unison
"H-Hey, hey... We have never seen her yet, maybe when we meet her, we will change our mind." The enchanter announced.
"You better be!" One of the villagers shouted.
"Anyways, you didn't answer my question."
"Hmm? Oh yeah, she has some sort of horns on her head, I think it's her accessories." The chief answered.
"... Horns on her head?" The enchanter stunned.
"...What did it look like?" The swordsman immediately turned serious.
"They are sharp and graceful." The chief commented.
"Hey, Haru... Don't you think that's..." The archer uttered.
"A demon? Yeah, I think so." The swordsman stated.
"Oh, she isn't a demon, she's like a goddess living in this continent." The village chief overheard them and immediately corrected them.
"Worse... A succubus..." Haru added.
"Tell us, where did she go?" The archer asked.
"Oh, she just left minutes ago. I think she's going to Priya City."
"... We'd better catch up before she does more harm."
"Yeah... It was nice talking to you, Chief. We'll be back!!" The enchanter shouted.
"Uhm... Yeah... Say to the beauty, I say hi!"
"Mhm, we won't forget it."
They quickly left the village and headed straight down the path to Priya City. It doesn't take long until they see two hooded people slowly walking on the path. Haru, the strongest out of the 3, put his hand on one of the hooded figure's shoulder and put a stop to their walking.
"Hold it there." Haru said seriously.
The two slowly turned around until their eyes met. Haru and the others were taken aback by one of the girls' glowing red eyes. They look at the other girl, and she has green eyes, not only her eyes, but her skin tone and her hair too.
"Can we... Help you..? The girl with glowing red eyes asked.
"... Are you... The succubus we've been hearing?" The enchanter asked.
"... I am not."
"You sure? Your glowing red eyes are saying otherwise." Haru quickly called her out.
"So we're discriminating red eyes now? What a racist adventurer." The archer jokingly said.
"N-No. What the f-"
"Yeah, Haru... Why do you immediately think that she's a succubus just because of her red eyes?" The enchanter added while acting like she was angry at him.
"See? Even your friend agreed with me-"
"It's not just that, okay!? You have slit pupils too!! And this other girl! Why is she green?" Haru quickly redeemed himself.
"Don't tell me you've never been fighting slimes before and get caught by its slimy substance..."
"Oh yeah? Pull your hood."
"Hmmm? Why would I do that?"
"If you two are humans... Why don't you two reveal that you are humans by pulling those hoods?"
"I don't think we need to, right?"
"Oh, don't mess with us, succubus. We know damn well you charmed those villagers back there." The archer uttered.
"Charmed by a succubus? Now, why would she charm an entire village? A city is better than that, plus she would've drained most of them until they are nothing but lifeless husks." The glowing red-eyed girl stated.
"To not get caught, of course, but too bad for you, your charm even exceeded outside your cloak. You can't contain them all." The archer continued.
"And how do you know that?"
"Why don't we get to the point, huh? My friend here has the appraisal ability, and she can see your stats, abilities, race, anything about you, she knows."
"You are pretty weak for a succubus, Ahko..." The enchanter muttered.
"You think you can talk your way out of this?" Haru questioned seriously.
"And Martha... She's a dryad monster, but she's following your commands like a slave..." The enchanter added.
"Your charm even affected the dryad, huh? Why don't you drain her, too? You'll get more powerful." The archer asked.
"She's useful for me..."
"Aww.. Thank you, Mistr-"
"Enough, [Silent Edge]"
Haru draws his sword and, in a split second, slashes Ahko in half. It was so fast and quiet that Ahko and Martha didn't have time to react to the attack. Haru withdrew his sword and stood straight like nothing had even happened.
Ahko's upper half slowly glides off her lower half until it falls down. Guts and blood are pouring out of the two split bodies. A moment of silence filled the area except for the sound of blood squirting and guts flowing down to the ground. The air quickly filled with the smell of iron, the dirt got darkened by her blood, blood started pouring from her mouth, and she coughed up a ton of blood when her upper body fell to the ground.
"... W-Wow... Coughs blood W-What rank are you..?" Ahko asked weakly
"We're A ranks, but it's okay, it's reasonable for you just to die this fast, you are a D rank after all."
"M-Mistress!!"
Martha quickly gets to Ahko's upper body side in horror. She pulls out her vines and tries to push the flowing guts into Ahko's open stomach, but they keep pouring out, and she can't stop them all, and a puddle of blood has been created in no time.
"It's too late, Martha... You are too slow... And too weak..."
"Don't worry, we'll carry your head back to the villagers, maybe they're gonna put you on a stick to continue worshiping you, huh?"
"Oh please, she's gonna disintegrate like any other monster."
"She is a succubus tho... I don't think a demon's body is going to disintegrate like a monster would do..."
"Fortunately not for Martha, am I right?"
"HOW DARE YOU!!"
Martha threw her sharp vines towards Haru's head, but it's immediately cut down like butter. Haru and the others didn't even need to do anything, the slash was too fast.
"W-What...?"
"Enough, Martha.. Cough blood, Haru, isn't it?"
"Hm? You want to say something? Make it quick before you bled out."
"... Cough blood, I guess... You... Didn't see cough blood those man-eaters behind you..."
"Huh?"
The 3 turned around and saw hundreds of man-eaters already right behind them, their eyes were darting towards them, but especially towards Haru. With no further warning, the man-eater storms together to try to kill them. No words needed, Haru and the others quickly drew their weapon and began fighting. One by one, the man-eaters are getting killed, but since they are stronger than Martha and Ahko, being at least C rank to defeat at least one of them, but required A rank to beat hordes of them. Time quickly passed, and they finally killed the last man-eater. Sweat dripping down their body, they were all exhausted beyond belief. They slowly turn around, and Martha and Ahko have vanished. Well, Ahko's upper body has vanished, but not her lower half. A trail of blood can be seen going straight to the right into the forest rather than going to the path.
"Tch, they escaped." Haru clicks his tongue in frustration
"Well, they leave a marker on them. What an idiot." The archer smirked.
"I thought that dryad weren't capable of controlling the man-eater... She's too weak to control them, especially hundreds!!" Haru exclaimed.
"It's probably her anger when her master is on the brink of death." The enchanter stated.
"Sometimes they got that extra boost of power, you know?" The archer replied
"Whatever the case is, they escaped. At least that dryad."
"That succubus is long dead, it's been hours already. I doubt she can withstand that long." The archer commented.
"I would be worried, demons, but since she's a succubus, it's not a surprise if she's dead." Haru muttered.
"Succubi only think about their pussy, no succubi care about their strength, like what's the point when you can just fuck a lot of dudes for power. Seems easier for me." The archer stated.
"But the dryad is still alive... We can't let a dryad roam around near the village, she'll become strong in no time."
"Yeah... We'll find her tomorrow, she may be weak but we're exhausted. Let's keep it safe and do it tomorrow."
"I'm sure she's still grieving her master's death."
With that, the party returned to the village, looking all bloody from the man-eaters' purple blood. Just a couple of miles from the village, inside the forest behind the village. A pile of man-eater's monster cores is placed beside Ahko's recovered body. Her lower half has healed after she leveled up.
Just hours before, moments after the man-eaters attacked the party, Martha quickly carry Ahko's body to the forest. Unlike earlier, when they went to the village to grab cloaks, she was restricted by Ahko's pride, not wanting to be carried by Martha, so they could reach faster. But because Ahko had been turned into a KitKat, Martha ran as fast as possible until they reached the entrance of the cave, where Yue had been waiting for Ahko.
Yue expected Ahko to be hurt but not this badly, she's basically going to die in any second. Yue, in the "I told you so" face, instructed Martha to gather as many man-eaters as she could and barely keep them alive. If Martha wanted Ahko to live, she needed to make Ahko kill the man-eater and not her. The system doesn't care about who did the most damage, but who delivered the last blow. Of course, Martha doesn't know how this works, but she complies with Yue, since Yue seems pretty close to Ahko. Yue then vanished from her eyes, as she can't make herself visible for a long time since Ahko's Mp is only 10.
She quickly gathered nearby man-eaters and start nearly killing them one by one, she tried to make the man-eater in an almost near death state to where Ahko can lightly punch it and killed it. But Ahko had long died from the blood loss, the moment Martha carried her body to the cave, she had died. But the system still lives inside Ahko, and if she can kill the man-eater until she levels up, her HP will recover, and she will get revived. As long as the system doesn't get taken away from her, Ahko is essentially immortal.
Since Ahko is dead, she can't actually punch the near-death man-eater. Yue instructed Martha to use her vines to wrap around Ahko's arm and make her do "punches". Just as long as Ahko is the last being to hit the man-eater, she will gain exp. Yue calculated that 171 man-eaters needed to be killed by Ahko to revive her. And man-eaters reproduce at a rapid pace, so this is no problem. Yue asked how Martha could control hundreds of man-eaters at the same time back then. Martha answered it's probably because she was so angry that her power to control only a couple of man-eaters increased tenfold, but it was only for a moment before Martha lost control over most of them, but they were already set to kill the party, so they will not leave until either they die or they kill the party. Yue doesn't know how that worked, but at least she did whatever she could to save her master.
Almost all of the man-eaters Martha gathered have been accidentally killed by her, she was rushing, nervous, and the thought of her master leaving her is beyond her comprehension. What is she going to do with her life if her master is gone? She is probably going to join her master too if it wasn't for Yue. After hours of Ahko "killing" The man-eaters. She finally leveled up.
The puddle of blood around her lifeless body has long dried, and the surface of her flowing guts, too, has dried. Then suddenly, her body started shaking uncontrollably. The flowing dried guts outside her stomach slowly but surely pulled back inside her stomach. New tissue, muscles, bones, nervous system, blood supply, etc. They are slowly growing from her open stomach. Finally, after an hour or so, her body is completely recovered. Her breathing stabilized, her heartbeat pumped blood, blood flowing inside her, everything seemed completely how it used to, except for the puddle of dried blood beneath Ahko and the cloak that had been split in half.
Ahko slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Martha's face filled with relief. There was no sunlight, it had been hours. She was going on the journey from morning, and now it's nighttime. She looked around and saw a pile of monster cores, and Yue, with her arms crossed, in her "I told you not to go before gaining your strength back" face.
"Welcome back, Ahko. How was the journey to the afterlife?" Yue, with her neutral voice, asked.
"... Shut up." Ahko embrassingly covered her face with her arm, but brushed it off like she was tired.
"Should've listened to me. I may be just a tool for you to use, but I know the most effective way for almost everything."
"Why would there be A rank adventurers in the fucking village?"
"You forgot to submit that you've completed the missing villagers incident. You were too enraged at that time and forgot about it."
"... Why didn't you remind me?" Ahko questioned almost angrily
"You didn't ask, and it wouldn't matter anyway if you didn't run off."
"... They were so fast..." Ahko commented.
"You died. Good thing the system is still within you."
"... What does that mean?"
"As long as the system is not sealed by an external force, you are effectively immortal."
"... But... I died... Didn't I?"
"Yes and no, yes, you did die, your HP is zero. And no, you didn't die because the system can revive you, if you level up."
"How did I level up? I was dead."
"Oh, Martha uses her vines. She's pretty good at it."
"Martha, huh?" [Right now, Yue is invisible to Martha but before that she was using the couple Mp reserve Ahko has to appear herself and communicate with Martha, so Martha is basically seeing her Mistress talking to the air right now]
"Y-Yes, Mistress? I-I was doing the best I could to revive you!"
"She killed roughly 90% of the man-eater you were supposed to kill. It could've taken minutes, but her clumsy self and her nervousness got the better of her."
"Well, at least she did something, unlike someone else."
"She wouldn't know how to revive you if I didn't come, she thought you were dead, and almost killed herself."
"A-Anyone did their part, Mistress! If it weren't for Lady Yue, I wouldn't be here..." Martha lowered her head.
"... Yue, how long will it take until my powers go back?"
"Roughly 24 more days."
"... Too long..."
"If you are not happy with life, then do what you want. I will not guarantee your safety and intact body. If you have been reduced to pieces, it'll be hard to make you "kill" monsters. Be lucky, Haru only sliced your body in half."
"I bet he's searching for me right now."
"Well, they have been fighting those man-eaters for hours, Mistress. They were just done 30 minutes ago. I don't think they have enough stamina to go and search for us right now."
"We should hurry to somewhere else, I do not want to mess with them. Not right now, but I will take my revenge.."
"Mhm. And do you want Martha to carry you or not?"
"What's the difference when you are joining us too?"
"She has vines, Ahko. And no one can see me, it'll take a while, but I'll reach you."
"... You have my location or something?"
"I am part of your system, and yes, I know your location 24/7."
"... Fine, carry me, Martha."
"Right away, Mistress!!"