TDATD⋆♱✮

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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 82

Hannibal, who exhaled deeply as if trying to regain his lost sanity, smirked.

“You seem to be mistaken, but I never wanted to become a commander.”

“……”

“Of course, I wanted to. The position where all the demons in the district would obey without question. How could I not be tempted? But as you said, would the demons follow a mixed-breed commander like me? They would likely start a rebellion.”

Hannibal’s expression, with his whites showing like a madman, was unsettling.

“I never had such grand dreams.”

“……”

“I just wanted to see that complacent face of yours twisted in utter despair.”

Hannibal’s magical aura surged violently. It felt like a bomb about to explode at any moment.

He tilted his head at a strange angle and looked somewhere. Following his gaze, Derrick soon discovered Judith standing at the edge of the garden.

Hannibal’s gaze towards her was raw with emotion. A chilling look of utter destruction, wanting to erase Judith from existence. Derrick, noticing this, felt his heart beat anxiously, and Hannibal laughed maniacally.

“And… I think I finally found a way.”

His eerie voice scraped like a drill in Derrick’s ears. Hannibal pulled out the dagger embedded deep in his throat. Blood gushed out, turning Derrick’s vision red, but he had no time to wipe it away.

He tried to hold Hannibal back somehow, but his rapidly depleting magical power was reaching its limit.

“Judith!”

She flinched at the loud call.

He needed to tell her to run. No, it seemed too late. In the blink of an eye, Hannibal, who had been pinned beneath him, vanished without a trace.

Judith, witnessing the suffocating scene, blankly stared at Sylvia Wirrel suddenly running towards her.

It was an unreal, dream-like scene. Blood drenched her brown hair and beautiful dress. Blood was oozing endlessly from the gash at her neck. Clumps of blood fell onto the green grass.

But she, no, Hannibal, seemed to feel no pain as he rushed toward her with a bright smile, aiming a dagger at her. The sight of his twisted smile sent shivers down her spine.

Terrifying.

She knew she had to run, but her body was frozen stiff. The horror was so great that her entire nervous system seemed to shut down. All she could do was curl up, clutching her abdomen.

She felt suffocated. The scenes unfolding before her were too vivid to be a dream. She felt as if she were in a barren wasteland where no one would come to save her.

As she crumbled and sat down, Hannibal’s red eyes flashed fiercely.

Just before the dagger he held could pierce Judith’s delicate skin, it was blocked by something else. Blood droplets splattered on her radiant silver hair.

Judith, trembling in place, looked up at the shadow that blocked her. Once again, she witnessed Derrick being stabbed by the dagger. The sharp dagger had pierced through his large palm, which always held her tightly.

Judith forgot to breathe. Seeing him get hurt felt like parts of her own body were being torn away.

Derrick groaned and muttered through the pain.