Chapter 45: Battle 1 — Terra no Fire no Sasuke (Part 2)

“Alright, I’ll start with the weakest ones, and after that I’ll move on to the ones I want to make suffer the most.” The lamia witch’s words dripped with pure malice. It was obvious she cared nothing for others’ lives — only her own. That was natural for a demon: they only cared about their own existence, and, of course, about making others suffer, especially those weaker than them. Evil was in their very nature.

Suddenly, she moved at blinding speed. We couldn’t even see her — but in an instant, more than half of the fused girls were dead. Only we remained: Ranma’s fusion and her friends, and four other fusions. Just six of us. Before we could even process what had happened, the lamia witch laughed cruelly.

“It seems you’re not as strong as I expected. Then again, I should have known. I am superior to all of you, you worthless trash. You can’t hurt me. Why don’t you just surrender and let me kill you quickly and painlessly? Don’t you know when to give up? No matter what you do, I will kill you.”

But as we looked closer, we noticed her body was covered in cuts, with one leg nearly torn off, and her arms in similar condition. Was she so obsessed with killing us that she hadn’t realized the damage she’d taken? Could it be that those she slaughtered managed to wound her before dying?

One of the surviving fused girls stepped forward. We didn’t know what she was planning. Suddenly, she launched shadowy tendrils that bound the lamia witch, trapping her in place. The witch finally realized just how badly she’d been hurt and, with a voice full of pain, snarled:

“How… how could this happen? Those damned girls I killed — it was them! I won’t forgive them! But I know they’ll now suffer pain for all eternity. I can’t lose! Once I break free of this technique, I’ll kill all of you!”

The girl who had trapped her spoke words that froze us all.

“I’ll have to sacrifice myself and take her down with me, so that you’ll have a chance to continue. Don’t cry for us. We knew sooner or later we’d die — whether here, or as old women. You still have the best chance to kill the Demon Queen and the traitor Kori. Please, go on without me. Don’t cry for my sacrifice. I know this is important for humanity and our kingdom to survive in peace. When it’s all over and you return home, please bury me with our grandparents. Lay each of us to rest with them. And also… bring back the bodies of our fallen friends. We can see now that they separated after dying while fused. Please, don’t stop for us. Don’t try to save us. Just go.”

Tears streamed down her face as she spoke.

All of us were crying too, unable to speak.

“What the hell are you saying?! We can’t just leave you! Are you serious about sacrificing yourself so we can move forward? Don’t be ridiculous! Together we can kill this damned lamia witch!” Ranma’s fusion shouted through her tears. She was heartbroken, but she knew nothing she could say would change things now.

“We wanted to be fashion designers… each of us. But we know that dream will never come true now. Please… kill that cursed Demon Queen. And make the traitor pay for everything she’s done to us.” Those were her final words.

She collapsed, her fusion dissolving. The lamia shrieked in agony as the shadows consumed her. Both fell — and both died.

Silence filled the air. None of us could speak. We could only cry. Deep down, we knew the truth: there were two damned monsters left that we had to kill.

Now it was personal. Those wretched demons — especially the Demon Queen — would pay. Today was the day the demons would die, forever.

“Alright, girls… let’s go finish this. We’ll come back for their bodies later. But for now… let’s go.” That’s what we told the others.

Ranma’s fusion and the three surviving fused teams nodded, and together we pressed on — up toward the second floor.