"Your so-called 'friends' have already left you behind, you know."
Nanoda stood alone, blocking the exit of the barrier. By this time, Himmel had already left to pursue the four fleeing adventurers.
"If I destroy you both, they should all come back, right?"
Jane glared with her slightly dull, crimson eyes and launched her offensive once more.
"No, they won't come back. They were just using you."
However, Nanoda's response was met with blood spikes thrusting out from the blood wings. Unlike before, these spikes did not shoot out straight; they curved and twisted, their power significantly increased.
Nanoda's deployed Defensive Magic actually struggled to withstand them. Several blood spikes penetrated the defense, tearing through Nanoda's cloak.
"What a dull fellow. How about we change the topic? For instance, that 'Father' in your hands. I know you were his precious test subject. Don't you want to know why he hasn't responded to you anymore?"
The blood spikes, poised to strike, paused abruptly. Upon hearing the word 'Father,' Jane suddenly stopped her attack.
"Why?"
"He is already dead."
"Dead... What is that?"
Just as Nanoda had expected, the Demon girl before her had only been instilled with the concept of "life" by that Mage due to the experiments with Eternal Life magic. She completely lacked any understanding of what "death" was.
Like most ordinary Demons, they actually possessed no emotional fear of death because they didn't even know what death was. When they finally realized it, it was almost always at the very instant they were killed. Some wouldn't even experience the fear of death before they died.
Of course, some older Demons understood the concept of death to a degree, but their arrogance made them fearless. If a Demon fled during battle, it was usually a rational decision to seek advantage and avoid harm, not out of a fear of death.
Even though Jane possessed a history of at least five hundred years, comparable to a Great Demon, she had spent it entirely within the tower without any contact with the outside world. She was incredibly simple.
"If you are 'Eternal Life,' then your Father is now on your opposite side. That is 'death,'" Nanoda explained to Jane.
"Cannot understand..." Jane remained expressionless.
"Is that so? Then I will demonstrate to you, the immortal one, just what 'death' is."
The surrounding mana began to converge toward Nanoda. Mimicking the Hero, Nanoda infused her mana into the broken horn in her hand.
To make Jane understand 'death,' this was the first time she had genuinely revealed killing intent.
"..."
Sensing the opponent's rising mana, Jane gathered her pair of massive blood wings, wrapping them around her entire body. A slit opened where the blood wings met, where mana and blood entangled and brewed together.
On the other side, having attached Severance Magic to the broken horn, Nanoda utilized the optimal amount of mana her current physical condition could mobilize.
A long-suppressed primal impulse for destruction climbed into her heart. Her long white hair danced without wind, revealing vertical golden pupils flickering with a fierce light.
Enveloped in her blood wings, Jane felt an inexplicable chill run through her body.
A thick magical cannon blast composed of blood erupted from the slit in the wings, faintly revealing the posture of Killing Magic.
Nanoda was on the right, Jane on the left.
Just as she was about to be engulfed by the blood cannon, the broken horn imbued with Severance Magic swung out.
Countless invisible slashes formed a giant white dragon that pushed the pillar of blood flat, swallowing it and smashing directly onto the blood wings.
Jane only felt the blood wings turn back into liquid blood as if out of control, falling to the ground. The severed sections felt as though they were being devoured by something, unable to regenerate.
A black shadow flashed before her eyes.
Nanoda swung the other broken horn, slicing Jane's head off!
Her long white hair was severed at the neck, drifting in the wind.
In that instant, Jane felt as if she had returned to more than five hundred years ago.
That person full of white hair had stabbed a dagger containing mana into her heart, yet had suddenly stopped halfway. With her mana at the time, if the dagger had pierced through completely, she would not have been able to recover from such an injury.
It turned out that the sensation she felt in that moment—the unprecedented pain and the instant loss of the ability to think... that was "death."
The moment Jane's head was about to fall, Nanoda quickly pressed it back into place.
Simultaneously, she released Severance Magic again. The two forces of Severance Magic collided and canceled each other out.
In just a split second, the so-called Eternal Life magic activated, and Jane rapidly recovered from the brink of death.
"So this is..."
Jane came back to her senses, stroking the skull in her arms and murmuring to herself.
Observing up close, Nanoda discovered that the Eternal Life magic Jane had cultivated had already transcended the structural scope of ordinary magic, becoming a part of Jane's body. It was purely based on her own total mana, constantly regenerating mana and proliferating cells.
Unless she was killed in a single blow by an attack exceeding Jane's mana capacity or recovery speed, Jane could recover from any injury. And purely physical attacks without mana could only restrict Jane's movements; they could not kill her thoroughly.
"So he is already dead. The death of humans... cannot be reversed."
Under the earlier barrage of attacks, Nanoda's hood had long since been blown away, revealing the face of a Demon with broken horns.
Jane, whose hair had become short due to the cut, looked at the skull for a moment of silence. Seeming to accept this fact, she turned her gaze to Nanoda.
"You... are clearly a Demon, so why do you have no horns..."
"..."
Silent for a moment, Nanoda changed the subject.
"Do you still want to fight? I don't mind letting you experience 'death' again."
"No. The book says, if you encounter a situation you cannot win, you must... surrender. But what do you do to surrender?" Jane shook her head.
Seeing Jane's blank look, Nanoda revealed a faint smile.
"Surrender means listening to the winner. Since that's the case, do you want to come with me?"
"Why?"
"Uh... for example, there are more interesting books outside?"
"Then will you read them to me?"
Stunned for a moment by this strange question, Nanoda then nodded.
"When I have time, I will."
"Alright then, I will go with you, Mother."
"Wait, what did you call me?"
"Mother."
"No, why are you calling me that?"
"Because you look very much like Father."
Looking at Jane's clear, expressionless appearance, Nanoda was left speechless. Had this child's brain broken after staying in the tower for five hundred years? Oh wait, Demon brain circuitry didn't seem normal to begin with.
"Just call me Nanoda. I can't bear that title. Before that, I have a few questions I want to ask you."
"Okay, Mother, ask away."
Jane became unexpectedly obedient, leaving Nanoda speechless.
She had intended to abduct a Demon to expand her forces, but she had gained a child for no reason.
"What is this thing?"
Nanoda took out the magic potion in the glass bottle.
"That is my blood."
Seeing the red potion, Jane answered very quickly.
____
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