I Became the Narrow-Eyed Character in the Little Prince Game-Chapter 165: Faith (3)
Irene Foxis.
She had stepped into the alley purely by coincidence.
A vague sense of unease had tugged at her sleeve.
The fox had merely been drawn by that ominous feeling, unwittingly witnessing the scene unfold before her.
Perhaps calling it coincidence was a stretch.
Simply put, the girl had followed her instincts.
"You are on the verge of transcendence."
"If slow, within three years. If fast, within a year, you will reach the stars."
She was standing at the threshold of the stars.
As her body, the foundation of her existence, began to change, her senses sharpened to their peak.
It was the so-called "transition period" that those on the verge of transcendence always experienced.
As a result, Irene’s nerves were sharper than ever.
And when combined with the innate intuition of beastkin, her keenness had surpassed its limits.
This time, it had served her well.
‘Something’s off.’
She had been on her usual path home after shopping in the market district.
Then, suddenly, she sensed a murky aura nearby.
Following the stench that accompanied it, she discovered an alley crowded with more than a dozen people.
There, within the encircling thugs, was a familiar head of pink hair.
Irene did not hesitate. She leapt.
And now—
“Ugh...!”
Clang! Ka-grrk...! Boom!
The girl was parrying attacks coming at her from all directions.
Even in the darkness, afterimages wreathed in flames blossomed around her.
Her sword’s tip wavered steadily, composed.
Swaaaash—!
A sword strike surged toward her from above.
The fox dodged with a slight tilt of her head, channeling energy into her blade.
For a brief moment, as if oil had been poured over it, the flames roared fiercely.
The expanding blaze engulfed her surroundings in a brilliant radiance.
Like the Flame Petals that devoured the dawn.
Fwoosh—!
“Hmph...!”
With a breath, she unleashed a strike.
The surging flames split the darkness apart, consuming her enemies in a crimson storm.
The shadows caught in its wake collapsed, leaving behind only charred flesh and the acrid scent of burnt bodies.
Yet those who had blocked her attack remained standing with ease.
Whoooosh—.
As the smoke cleared, the figures of her foes emerged.
Each of them was cloaked in blood-red robes.
“......”
On some of their shoulders was a symbol she knew all too well.
Irene immediately recognized their identity.
‘Cultists.’
It was an insignia she could never forget.
She still remembered being kidnapped and ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) taken to their research facility.
The hatred seared into her mind was not something that could be easily erased.
The fox cut down another enemy rushing toward her.
Her eyes darted, quickly assessing the situation.
Her mind calculated at high speed.
‘What the... What’s going on?’
Cultists had suddenly appeared.
And among them, she caught glimpses of figures adorned with golden epaulettes.
Though scattered, Irene saw through them at once.
They were none other than the Hounds, the elite forces directly under the [Merchant].
Irene took a deep breath, maintaining her composure.
‘No way.’
She had once heard rumors that the two factions had joined forces.
But she had never expected them to be orchestrating something like this.
Srrrng—.
The girl did not allow her emotions to sway her.
Instead, she forced her mind into an icy calm, searching for a way to break through the situation.
This was something she had learned over the past year with Yuda.
‘The Hounds... They’re not particularly dangerous.’
But carelessness was a blade that cut its wielder.
Irene steadied her breathing.
Then, she pointed the burning edge of her sword at them.
"Get lost."
Though her declaration was bold, the situation was hardly in her favor.
As mentioned, the Hounds were more of a nuisance than a true threat.
The real problem was the man leading them.
His clothes were ragged, like a pile of stitched-together scraps. Yet the presence emanating from him was chilling.
Just from the brief moment he had stood there, silently observing, the girl had already made her judgment.
‘...That one’s dangerous.’
For now, he remained still, watching from the sidelines.
But there was no telling when he might change his mind.
The fox furrowed her brows.
‘This is the worst.’
Unfortunately, Irene herself was not in peak condition.
Perhaps because she stood at the threshold of transcendence, her abilities felt more restricted than usual.
Even Crimson Flame, her ultimate technique, had been growing unstable lately.
Handling both the Hounds and that ragged man in this state would not be easy.
Of course, victory did not necessarily mean wiping them all out.
‘A barrier is blocking off the area.’
A strange force delineated the entire alleyway.
Irene calmly scanned the reddish-hued boundary.
Since a dense concentration of dark energy had erupted within the academy grounds, the staff would soon notice something was amiss.
No matter how well the enemy concealed their tracks, it was impossible to deceive every pair of eyes.
The girl estimated how long it would take for reinforcements to arrive.
‘Roughly... ten minutes left.’
It wasn’t a particularly pleasant conclusion.
For now, she was holding them off, but once the real fight began, her defenses would inevitably break.
Especially that ragged man—he wasn’t someone she could take on with her own strength.
Even just from his presence, their levels didn’t match.
From the brief clash she had with him, she gauged that he was at the level of Astro’s deputy commander.
Just standing off against him made it feel like her breath was caught in her throat.
“Haa...”
She couldn’t see any way to win against him.
The chilling pressure made her shoulders tremble.
As she lingered in that fleeting moment, a voice brushed past her ears.
A piece of advice she had received once before.
"Never go against the flow."
"The natural order is an absolute law."
"If a mere creature tries to defy the stars, they will pay a price worse than death."
Was there truly no way out?
She clicked her tongue lightly.
Corpses from her initial attack littered the ground around her.
Five Hounds remained.
And the ragged man.
“Hoo...”
She forced her ragged breath to steady.
Her sword pointed toward the sky.
Just as she prepared for her next move, a chilling presence licked at the back of her neck.
Overwhelmed by the sheer bloodlust, the fox froze in place.
At the edge of her flickering vision stood the ragged man.
Step.
A slow, deliberate approach.
The man who had remained passive all this time had finally begun to move.
The air grew heavier, thick with an eerie, oppressive force.
His lips parted, murmuring in a broken rhythm.
"Time. Insufficient. Handle. Quickly."
His voice was disturbingly fragmented.
Like rusted iron bars, his decayed fingers reached into the air.
A faint incantation followed, echoing softly.
"Destruction... array yourself... before dawn."
And then—
The moment ignited.
A whirlwind of energy surged forth.
The surrounding miasma coalesced, swallowing the entire area in pitch-black darkness.
The stretching void completely obscured the inside of the barrier.
Swept up in the storm, Irene squeezed her eyes shut.
And then, moments later—
As she cautiously reopened them—
“......?”
They were in an entirely different place.
A sinister wind scraped down her spine.
The lively academy town was nowhere to be seen.
Before her stretched a cemetery, its air thick with an unnatural chill.
This was the domain the ragged man had unfolded.
‘A domain sorcerer...!’
Irene’s face twisted in frustration.
A biting cold crept along her cheek.
The pitch-black surroundings were hauntingly eerie.
At the center of the grave-littered land, the ragged man gripped an old, worn shovel.
Behind him stood rows of shattered crosses and desecrated gravestones.
With hollow eyes, he stared directly at the fox.
"Answer... the call."
A twisted declaration.
The final phrase needed to complete his domain.
The swirling miasma began to solidify.
Kuuuuuu—.
From the pitch-darkened sky above, something began to rain down.
Coffins.
Thousands upon thousands of them, each bearing a corpse.
They fell in an endless downpour, crashing into the earth.
Boom! Boom!
Black caskets embedded themselves into the ground one after another.
Then, in unison, their lids burst open.
Shattered fragments flew, and from beyond the darkness, figures writhed and emerged.
Corpses, so steeped in dark energy that their forms had melted into grotesque distortions.
Skeletons, flesh barely clinging to their rotting frames, stumbled forward.
Even for just a moment, the sheer scale was overwhelming.
"What... the hell is this..."
Irene muttered blankly.
It was as if she had stepped into hell itself.
Yet, even amidst the apocalyptic scene, the necromancer simply issued his command.
His cold voice sliced through the cacophony of the dead.
"Fill your empty stomachs."
A voice dropped among the swarming corpses.
The deathbound, devoid of will, answered their master’s call.
Without hesitation, the undead rushed toward the fox.
Their decayed steps turned the graveyard into pure chaos.
A chorus of distorted screams tore through the silence.
KIEEEEEEK!!
Had their vocal cords rotted away?
Their cries were too grotesque to be called voices.
Jagged, pitch-black teeth gnashed hungrily as they charged.
The blend of malice and insatiable greed played out like a funeral dirge.
"Damn it...!"
Completely surrounded.
The fox hurriedly unleashed her flames, trying to push back the flood of undead.
But it didn’t go as she had hoped. Even as they burned, the corpses kept charging forward undeterred.
They tore through the flames, relentless.
In the end, the girl had no choice but to engage them blade to blade.
Sssht—!
A crimson streak carved through the air.
Her sword slashed straight and true.
Flames danced alongside the spraying chunks of rotting flesh, defiling the dead with every strike.
The dawn that approached was relentless, leaving her arms numb from the ceaseless slaughter.
Yet Irene continued cutting them down, one by one.
Pssht, crack—!
A skull shattered with a sickening crunch.
The enemy’s numbers were overwhelming.
Perhaps due to the necromancer’s domain, the undead fought with unnatural strength.
And to make matters worse, the remaining Hounds were lurking, waiting for their chance to strike.
At the forefront, the necromancer himself swung his shovel like a weapon.
Despite her efforts, the fox was steadily being pushed back.
‘There’s no way out.’
