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The mansion of the noble Idol.

In front of it were Raphtalia and the other demi-humans of Nazarick.

There were no schemes or any tricks. They stood in front of the mansion gate proudly as they gazed upon it. Just past the gate were multiple guards ready to engage them. There were many guardias(A kind of monster) tamed by the guards for protection too.

In the mansion, lit the lights of one and only room. There stood a man with an overweight, middle-aged man with an unkempt mop of frilled, strawberry-blonde hair and a mustache there. He dressed in elegant clothing of black, golden, and purple hues, with some white frills to match his royalty status, a dark purple cape, olive-yellow pants, black riding boots. He had a flaunting smile on his face as if inviting them to break through the gate.

However, he was not what attracted eyes, but the being beside him. A small demi-human child laid there bare naked as his body ridden with wounds. It was easy to connect them with the whip in Idol's hand. The small boy trembled uncontrollably beside him.

Raphtalia's eyes turned cold. She currently ignored the infuriating scene as she would make sure to kill the despicable noble afterward. Even though Nazarick didn't help in the attack itself, the whole area around the mansion was sealed by them. There was not an iota of a chance that anyone could escape from here. Tonight, either they live or die.

She turned away and looked at the gate. The only thing separating them from those humans was this metal gate.

"Let's go!"

As she exclaimed, her sword turned into a blur. The next moment, the seemingly strong gate was blasted away into bits and pieces.

The two sides moved and collided with each other. The demi-humans were stronger in every sense but there were still a few who had momentary gaps because of the limited battle experience and the opponents seized it to deal damage. The guards far outnumbered them all but they still stood strong.

Raphtalia waited for a moment before leaving the fight alone and moving in a particular direction.

After walking for a short time, she reached a small gate leading to the basement. She took a deep breath to prepare herself for what was to come. The small gate opened with a slight push.

Upon entrance were stairs leading down. The only source of light the two torches hung on either side. She slowly went downstairs, step by step until the end.

The scene ahead was something akin to a jail. A strange and sticky odor permeated her nose as she kept moving in the narrow corridor with dark prison cells on both sides. In each room, there were corpses of those that died as slaves, some even reduced to mere bones.

She kept on moving as she looked at each corpse carefully. She prayed for them in her heart. She kept moving ahead until she found a skeleton in a corner. Its clothes in tatters as in its hand what looked like a very small broken flag. Raptalia's eyes shook as they met the empty eye sockets of the skeleton.

She kicked open the bars and knelt in front of it. She carefully held the skeleton up as she intently looked at it. The handle of the small flag was broken into two. It was done by the clenching of hands tightly, perhaps because of pain.

A teardrop fell on its rib bones, then another...

The silent cries of Raphtalia were heard by none but the skeleton.

A little far away was another corpse that was almost intact indicating that it had died not too long away. She recognized that one as well. Another one of her dear friends.

She shed tears as she remembered the always bright and cheerful girl. She liked talking about legends. Her sweet and silly best friend wanted to find and love someone kind like the legendary Shield Hero.

But her dream never came to be true. She died in this cold and lonely basement.

She remembered the other one as she saw his open eyes. Even death did not come peacefully to him.

Just thinking about it filled her with deep rage.

They probably wanted to live and wished to escape this hell.

All of this happened just because they were born demi-humans.

She would avenge her. Her and every single one.

She placed the cold bones on the ground again. She would come back to bury all the remains here.

She went to the other one and placed her hand on his eyes. She slowly shut them with a pained expression on her face.

She turned around and went outside. She looked at the moon as she took her sword out of its sheath. Its blade glimmered beautifully in the moon as it started glowing lightly reacting to the soft moonlight.

She didn't put it back in the sheath as she focused on a particular spot far away. She was directly gazing at a boulder. In front of it was standing Idol chanting some kind of spell. It was clear by his hastened and surprised expression that it had not gone as he had expected. The "slaves" were stronger than he had expected. Almost all the guards and monsters were defeated. He was riddled with wounds and was clearly not having a good time.

Raphtalia had learned many things regarding combat and one of the most crucial ones was-

A cornered rat would even bite the cat.

She did not know what he was trying to do and did not want to know it either. But one part of her also wanted to crush whatever he conjured to see his face riddled with despair. She chose the rational option and sprinted as fast as she could towards him.

The garden was quite far away and she couldn't just reach it in a moment. On the way, she saw her friends fighting against a few guards. They were stronger than the normal ones. Perhaps they were the personal guards for him.

She was fast but the spell chant was over already.

*Rumble*

The Earth shook as cracks spread throughout the land. The shockwaves and cracks spread to the boundary of the mansion but were intercepted by a transparent barrier. Ripples spread across it but it showed no signs of weakening.

Idol paid no attention to that as he laughed loudly like a maniac. He already seemed assured of his victory. He ran as far away as possible as he could while laughing loudly. She did not give chase as she instinctively sensed danger coming from below the large boulder.

"Go away! You are no match for it! Don't come near!"

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She shouted at the others to make them go away. Although they were strong, they were still very weak in front of her. In an all-out fight, they might get involved too.

The cracks kept spreading as a gigantic hand appeared from underground. It resembled claws like that of a dragon. It slammed down as the rest of the body was pushed out from the ground. It was a 20-meter tall monster with large reptilian feet, enormous eyeballs, and a massive jaw with rimmed teeth.

It was a giant dinosaur that resembled a Tyrannosaurus Rex closely. It had red-scaled skin, with spikes growing out of its body in places. It was a being made for destruction.

It started rampaging the moment it got its freedom back. The mansion collapsed while the claws and spikes tore apart the ground. It ran wanting to run over the city but slammed heavily into the barrier. It fell on its back as the remnants of the mansion and the beautiful garden were crushed underneath.

The residents were completely unaware of everything happening in the mansion. From the outside, the mansion looked completely normal. This made sure that no outside forces interfered.

The Rex, on its back slowly raised itself. But a strike aiming straight for its eyes came from above. The sword pierced the left eye of the rex.

"GYAAAOOOOO"

It roared in pain and got back on its feet right away. Raphtalia revealed herself a few feet away. She had actually tried to pierce through the eye and the head in a single strike but it was so tough that even the eye was only half-pierced.

With blood dripping from its left-eye, the rex looked at her before lashing out with its tail. She jumped sideways to avoid the tail but had a claw aimed straight at her chest. She could not defend in time and her body was split apart. But no blood split apart as her body dispersed into mana.

The mana rearranged itself into a very thin needle as it pierced the rex's body from the gaps in its scales.

Raphtalia's mana ran rampant in its body, tearing it apart from the inside. It cried out in pain but immediately after, led out a fear-inducing roar.

A primal fear took over her body as her eyes became teary and her movements slow and sluggish. Her ears and tail both drooped down as she closed her eyes to shut out the world. She even let go of her sword.

"AAARGH!"

She was awoken out of the stupor by an attack from the front. There were three bloody claw marks on her chest, of which one passed through the place her heart was. She was barely saved by her armor.

She was sent flying backward through the air and tumbled on the ground a few times. The ground shook as the rex ran towards her hoping to crush her small body like a bug.

She gathered her strength as she turned to dodged the charge while leaving a strand of concentrated mana on the ground.

BOOM

The mana blasted as the rex stepped on it. Its balance crumbled as it fell headfirst on the ground and slid along.

Raphtalia used that little window to intake a healing potion. It was one brought from this world and was not much potent. However, it did its work in stopping her bleeding.

She got up and held out her hand. The sword that she had previously let go of came back flying to her. She immediately used a skill.

Eclipse. The skill that was imbued in her weapon. She swung her sword horizontally as a powerful wave was released. The wave directly went through the scales on its head and made a horrific cut in its skull almost even cutting through it. Black blood dripped down from the wound.

"GYAAA!"

She usually avoided using this skill as it required a lot of mana and could not be used many times. But it was very powerful in comparison. However, that wasn't the end. The wound was prevented from clotting and the rex was continuously losing blood.

The rex became agitated and started another rampage.

Raphtalia retreated a little back only evading its attacks. As time went by, the blood loss only increased. The attacks just got more and more aggressive.

The rex was more resilient than she expected. Her mana reserves were finite and she had to finish the fight faster. The sword suddenly became incandescent which blinded the rex for a moment. She used that moment to get above the rex in the air.

She held out her hand and let out a stream of yellowish-white mana. It quickly formed a ball on her hand and she let it fall directly over its head.

It instinctively dodged right and it barely scraped by its right side. The scales were directly burnt crisp as it slowly fell apart and revealed its reddish flesh.

The rex turned upwards but she was no longer there.

A shrill sound came from its right side. Raphtalia's sword was currently in its sheathed state. A large amount of mana was being converted into light and dark magic together. All the mana gathered on the sword in its sheath as she stood in a quickdraw stance.

The rex did not falter either. It directly faced the attack head-on as it rushed towards her. Its speed a lot slower than the start of the fight. But the power contained within the slam was still very vast. Just one hit was enough to fatally hurt her.

Even her eyes turned white and black respectively. This was the best technique in her arsenal created through countless efforts. It made the best use of her innate magic gifts. Even Cocytus had praised this technique as one of the best for her current level.

Almost her entire mana was used leaving the bare minimum. The sword left its sheath and confronted the rex's charge. The blade directly hit its right side previously burnt. It cut into its flesh and penetrated deep inside. Blood spurted out as the attack directly went through its body cutting its body in half.

At the same time, its charge hit her on the flank and she was sent flying backward. Her body was in tatters. She had stacked up many minor wounds earlier after the use of eclipse. Now this direct hit was fatal to her. Although she had tried to dodge at the last moment, it was too late.

The monster was certainly very strong. She had to use her all to kill it. She was very exhausted, both mentally and physically.

She looked at the two halves at the rex before looking at the notification for leveling. She laid her exhausted body on the broken ground. She wanted to sleep for a bit. But, now was not the time. There was still something left.

"Raphtalia-san. Are you alright? Can you walk? Rest for a bit."

Many demi-humans came to help her. She faintly smiled at their care and didn't refuse their help.

She resolved her mana to stop the bleeding and took out a tier-2 healing scroll. Healing potions were very scarce in Nazarick with no source of production so it was very precious. A healing scroll could at least be replenished in some way.

After healing enough to walk, she set off towards the place where all the others were gathered with the support of two others. The place they headed towards was the same basement she came out from. The gate there was already sealed off using magic. Idol Rabier was currently hiding there.

She slowly went downstairs. In an inconspicuous corner, Idol stood there with a whip in his hand. His face contorted into a disgusting frown with a sense of fear.

"You… How could you all do this to me? Death is not enough of a punishment for you. You all will experience hell."

She just looked at him with vacant eyes with a fire of rage whirling deep within. Her tail stood on its end as she shook off her support and took one step closer to him.

"YOU DISGUSTING CREATURES! YOU AREN'T EVEN HUMANS. SNEAKING INTO MY TOWN AND HURTING ME! MELROMARC WILL NOT LET YOU LIVE! GOD WILL PUNISH YOU, YOU FILTHY CREATURES! Cough cough."

He shouted so loud his throat hurt. He was clearly insane. He did not repent or regret anything even now.

"That's right. That's the kind of man you are. You had not changed at all."

"You… Who are you? Yes! You are that slave I disposed of. Haha! Your shouts of pain and that crying face. I still remember them. They were very satisfactory."

She leered at him with calm eyes. All traces of emotions disappeared as she let out a magic string. It pierced through his lung and tied him to the ceiling hanging him mid-air.

"AARGH! YOU! DAMN YOU!"

She did not do anything more. Her friends vent out all their frustration on the fat noble. She only watched with cold eyes as her former nightmare was almost beaten to death before her. But death would not come easy to him.

She turned her eyes away to look at her childhood friends' body.

'I've changed. But I guess it's not bad.'

She closed her eyes as she remembered her mother and father.

'I am no longer the weak and timid Raphtalia. Mom! Dad! Please continue watching over me from heaven. I will forever love you.'

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X-X-X-X-X

The sun shone brightly as a cool sea breeze met her face. She took in a deep breath feeling the salty air and enjoying the wind. Admiring the sea, the cool weather, and the ever-so beautiful scenery. She felt she could spend an eternity watching the scene and still not be satisfied.

A plethora of emotions hit her as she looked at the almost destroyed village not far away.

She turned around to face the two tombstones in front of her. She was currently standing on a cliff surrounded by graves. These were all the graves of the slaves from the underground basement.

She was in front of her two most precious friends. She still vividly remembered the dear time they spent together.

The present is the witness of the past. Everything that happened till now made her what she was now. She will clearly remember every part of her past and never forget it. She turned back-

"Goodbye Rifana. Goodbye Keel."

She became a little teary-eyed but did not let even a single tear fall.

She went down the cliff where Ainz was already waiting for her.

She turned to gaze at them for one more moment as her vision blackened and they disappeared from the cliff.

The cliff regained back its peaceful silence once again.