The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

114 The Trojan horse plan and the one whose left hand I have

A strange scene was unfolding in a vast underground church with rows of thick pillars.

"Kuh, kill me! Wasn't that your goal!" Iris Bearheart spat at the old man before her.

She had been forced to wear only a thin piece of cloth that would have reminded Vandalieu of a surgical gown.

"Hmm... for someone who was called the Liberating Princess Knight, leader of the Sauron Liberation Front, this is quite the cheap show of courage," said Gubamon, one of the Pure-breed Vampires who worshipped Hihiryushukaka, the Evil God of Joyful Life.

He was an old man who was as thin as a dried tree, with his bulging crimson eyes as his only large feature.

Hearing Gubamon's words, Iris shouted at him in rage. "I do not fear death! Even if I die, my companions will definitely achieve the Sauron Duchy's freedom!"

She was someone who would have received a knighthood long ago if the Sauron Duchy hadn't become occupied by the Amid Empire.

Given the social status of the Bearheart family, she was supposed to become the kind of knight who commanded soldiers and defended towns and villages from bandits and monsters, rather than the kind of knight who took part in tournaments to entertain lords and escorted high-class ladies.

Iris had been trained and educated by her now-deceased father since she was child, so that she could one day fulfil this role.

And though she had acted as a leader of resistance activities, she had constantly been fighting on the frontlines. She had crossed blades with bandits and the soldiers of the Empire's army countless times, and her body bore scars from numerous wounds inflicted by blades and arrows. She had faced dangers that could have claimed her life and had passed through many battlefields. She had even walked close to the line between life and death in many of them.

Her courage towered above that of others, so much so that it was impossible to imagine that she was just a girl, less than twenty years of age.

However, Gubamon, who was now caressing her neck and arms, had seen through her.

"Considering that, the muscles of her arms and legs seem quite tense, don't they?" he remarked. "This is the same response that I would expect from a child trembling in fear, you know?"

His words struck true, and Iris let out a groan. She was aware that she was afraid of Gubamon and the things that he would do to desecrate her.

Of course, she wasn't scared of being wounded or killed. She was frustrated at the fact that she had been defeated before achieving her goals, but she had become the Liberating Princess Knight with the determination to face this. She wouldn't start feeling fear now. If the Empire had captured her, they would have tortured her; depending on her captors, her chastity might have been taken from her.

She had been prepared for all of this, but what Gubamon was going to do to Iris was on a completely different level.

She knew this from the heartburn-inducing stench of blood, from seeing the fates of the ones who had produced this stench. She knew it even though she didn't want to know.

There were several dozen Zombie Giants that were even larger than the largest Titans, watching over the area while letting out deep groans.

And there were Vampire Zombies who looked just like bats, hanging from the pillars and ceiling of the underground church with their fangs bared.

Some of them were the Vampires who had brought Iris here. After Iris's abduction, Gubamon had brought them here with space-attribute magic, thanked them for their efforts and then promptly slaughtered them all.