The Hunted Regressor: Rise of the Heretic Saint-Chapter 147: Weight of the Earth

Lothar's words only roused the Colosseum further.

The poor guy had nearly lost his voice from commentating.

Yet he didn't let that stop him, continuing on the show:

"WHAT A SPECTACLE! WHAT A GENERATION!"

And John couldn't help but agree:

"They've done well."

The last team.

Gaia's.

Would she live up to the others?

***

There she stood, her blonde hair dusty from ash and battle.

Around her were half a dozen girls, her cohort, all visibly tense, clutching their weapons like they'd rather be anywhere else, which they definitely would.

Across from them was… something different.

A woman, or at least the shape of one.

This Demon was far from monstrous.

Nor was it grotesque or a mirror of one of them.

She was only a tall, barefoot, red-haired woman.

If not for her entirely black eyes, one could mistake her for a normal human.

Her expression was blank, her skin was pale, and her clothes were tattered and stained with black tar.

Her—its appearance made the girls hesitate. None of them attacked or spoke.

That was, until Gaia broke the silence, her grip on her bladed staff tightening.

"Is she…?"

One of the girls behind her finished her question:

"Is that even a Demon?"

"I don't... it looks... normal."

Even Gaia couldn't tell.

The Demon simply stood there, its head slightly tilted, as though curious why they hadn't moved.

They didn't know what to do; were they really supposed to kill this woman?

Yes, yes, they were, because the moment they let their guard down...

The one moment where they slightly lowered their weapons...

"HEEEE~."

The Demon slowly smiled...

Thump.

And vanished.

Shhk!

Blood splattered across Gaia's face.

A girl beside her collapsed, her throat slit.

"—!"

Screams erupted immediately.

"Ahh—AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

The group panicked, stumbling backward.

The Demon reappeared just meters away, its head cocked.

That was when Gaia moved, her staff slamming into the dirt.

An earth wall exploded upward, erupting between the Demon and the girls.

The impact sent the Demon skidding back, calm even in retreat.

Gaia stood in front, shielding the others.

"Stay behind me!"

One of the girls choked out:

"T-thank you, Lady Gaia!"

She didn't respond.

Her gaze never left the Demon.

'That speed…'

Gaia's mind was racing.

She didn't even see the Demon's attack.

It wasn't a strike that killed the first girl, but something else...

While Gaia theorized, all of the other girls gathered behind her, their faces familiar.

Because yes, they were the same ones who'd followed her around the Academy on that first day, the ones who'd called her "Lady Gaia," chasing her for advice and praise.

None of them were from Main Houses, so they saw her thigh as their lifeline.

And if it wasn't obvious by now, none of them had trained much for war.

Yet here they were, in this nightmare, sent to get more Runes.

What a realm this was, eh?

The ones here tried their best at the Academy, inspired by Gaia because of her journey. But they were far from being as 'talented' as her, their improvement leaving a lot to be desired.

Still, Gaia wanted to support them; that was how she worked, and so:

"L-Let's prove ourselves here... we are b-better."

After saying those stuttering words meant to rile them, she swallowed hard.

"We… attack together."

Her voice kept wavering, but it was enough.

"Ready?"

The girls nodded.

"Yes!"

"Together!"

"We're behind you!"

One of them, the same energetic girl who'd always followed her around in the dorms, stepped up immediately.

"I'll start!"

She raised her hand, and green flared across her palm.

Wood twisted together into a spike, sharp as a spear.

"Ha!"

With a scream, she blasted it forward.

It flew straight through the Demon's chest, impaling her from front to back.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The forest went silent, and the girls froze.

Even Gaia stood stunned.

"Huh?"

Was it that easy?

The Demon looked down at the hole through its chest.

Without moving much, it tilted its head once more.

It smiled again and straightened its back.

Right before their eyes, the wound sealed shut, and behind Gaia...

"Ah..."

Someone gasped.

A girl collapsed right after, clutching her chest, blood spilling through her fingers.

"Wha—?!"

The wooden-spike girl turned around and screamed:

"No! No, no, no!"

The Demon stepped forward slowly, blood dripping from its hands now.

"It… transferred…"

Blood that was not its own.

"It transferred its injury."

Gaia couldn't help but mutter, a realization dawning.

"She's… reflecting it."

Indeed, the Demon had transferred the injury to someone else, ridding itself of it.

Raising a blade that was formed from its own arm, it stabbed itself in the stomach.

"AAHHHHH!"

The poor girl behind Gaia screamed once more, this time her stomach bursting open with the exact same wound. And then, before the others could react to what had just happened, the Demon flickered again, appearing among them.

"NO!"

Gaia slammed her staff down.

"EARTH WALL!"

A wall erupted around the Demon, locking her in.

Though she didn't intend to scream out her attacks, she seemed to do that when panicked.

She wasn't the only 'panicked' one, however, as the others fell back, gasping for air.

"She's trapped—!"

But before they could finish, the Demon calmly drove her fingers through her own neck.

Another girl behind Gaia convulsed, her throat torn open.

Blood splattered the dirt.

"No… no…"

Gaia clenched her teeth and forced her shaking hands to move.

"EARTH SPIKES!"

The walls closed in, collapsing with a deafening crash! crushing the Demon inside.

But, of course, when the dust cleared, the sound that followed wasn't relief...

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

It was another scream.

Gaia spun around, and before her...

Blurrrgh!

One of the girls lay crushed and pierced through.

It was as if she were under the very same stone Gaia had summoned.

Her eyes widened, and her body went cold as vomit escaped her mouth.

"I… I killed her…"

Her voice cracked while she wiped the digested food from her mouth.

She tore her staff out of the ground and shook her head repeatedly.

Even though she knew that most, if not all, of them used Butterflies...

"No… no no no…"

Their deaths affected her too much.

The walls crumbled completely, and the Demon stepped out again, completely unharmed.

It was smiling like nothing had happened, rather enjoying itself.

Around Gaia, the last of her girls were falling one by one.

Coughing blood, clutching their sides, only to die.

Gaia wanted to cry... she wanted to run.

But she couldn't.

Directly before her fell another.

Her arm was broken, and her body was bleeding, stabbed all over.

The pain was obvious, yet she looked up at Gaia and smiled weakly.

"You can… do it…"

Crack...

Her neck twisted, collapsing her to the ground.

It was a broken sight, but that wasn't the only thing that broke.

Gaia's eyes filled with tears, but she stood.

Straightening up, she wiped her face...

'Be ruthless.'

And remembered her husband's voice.

"Ruthless..."

Gaia lowered her stance.

"Alright."

She didn't know why she wasn't targeted despite being the strongest, but she wasn't currently thinking about that—no, far from it—as she prepared herself to end the Demon.

"SINK."

The ground beneath the Demon liquefied instantly, turning to molten soil that swallowed it to the knees.

"SPIKES!"

Dozens erupted from the ground, piercing the Demon's body and trapping it fully in place.

Since the damage remained even after it healed itself, or at least tried to, every second made another girl cry out, bleed, and collapse, but Gaia didn't let go of her spells.

Even as, one by one, the voices around her went quiet.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

She only kept whispering that word between clenched teeth while ensuring the Demon would stay still. And then, just before it could try to break the spikes, Gaia screamed:

"WAAAAALLLLLLL!"

The ground cracked and rose, an enormous wall of solid earth, bigger than any she'd ever summoned.

"RIIIIIISSSEEEEEE!"

She flung her arm upward, launching herself into the air with a sharpened spike beneath her, flipping high above.

"—and FAAAAALLLL!"

Her bladed staff came down with her, smashing into the wall midair.

The wall plummeted down in its entirety, slamming into the Demon.

THIS WAS THE WEIGHT OF THE EARTH!

BOOOOOOM!

The entire ground shook.

Dust, smoke, and blood filled the air.

When it cleared, there was nothing left.

Only the imprint of the wall and black mist.

Gaia stood on top of the debris, barely able to stay upright.

Her knees shook, and her breathing was uneven.

The pressure that took over her mind was...

"I'm sorry."

All around her were fallen girls, the light of their Butterflies still faint on their bodies.

She dropped to one knee, dirt caking her face.

A weak smile tugged at her lips.

'I did it… hubby…'

***

Her eyes fluttered shut as the projections zoomed out.

The Colosseum went silent for just a heartbeat...

"LADY EARTH!"

"LADY EARTH!"

"LADY EARTH!"

"LADY EARTH!"

"LADY EARTH!"

Then the cheers came, thunderous.

"WHAT A DAY!"

"AN INCREDIBLE FINISH!"

"EVERY GROUP WAS VICTORIOUS!"

Lothar raised both arms, eyes wide with awe. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

John's eyes were much the same; his mind was stuck on a word.

"Ruthless."