The four decapitated heads began to laugh together.
"Hahaha...."
"Heh heh heh....."
"Eheheheheh...."
"Keh keh keh....."
The Commander looked to the laughing heads with horror, but he was not the only one who was filled with shock.
Every single person in the crowd had eyes filled with overwhelming terror and fear.
'What....'
'Those heads.....'
'Those people are supposed to be dead....'
'They're laughing!!!!'
'They're laughing!?!?!'
The four bodies, which were bent over and cuffed with their hands behind their backs seemed to break open the handcuffs which bound them, and they then proceeded to lift up the piece of wood which was locking their heads into the guillotine.
The bodies then walked over to their own heads, picking them up and holding them within their hands before casually surrounding the Commander with smiles on their faces.
"Did you think that killing us would be the end?", Lance said as he put his own hand on the shoulder of the terrified Commander.
"Ah.... I suppose this must be creepy for you to see that view."
The four then placed their heads back onto their necks, reattaching them.
The four of them seemed to have taken rings off their fingers, and the fingers of the woman who had lost them regrew in an instant.
The entire execution was an illusion shown to the people.
When the blades of the guillotine had fallen, the necks of the four were strong enough that they were unharmed, yet because they were wearing the rings which made their appearances to be weak, the people were shown a scene of their heads flying off.
"You killed Pliara.", Charlotte said from behind the Commander, her voice teeming with anger. "And for what reason? Because she was unregistered? Because she wasn't one of you? Because she had the guts to speak against your leader?"
Charlotte then brought her leg around to do a roundhouse kick, hitting the Commander square in the face, sending him flying to the ground with such force that the impact with the ground created a small crater.
"If I met someone like you just a few days ago, I would have been too scared to fight against you. But after meeting their excellencies, I know two things now. The first....."
Charlotte brought her own foot upon the gut of the snakeman, stomping on him, causing him to throw up a spray of blood.
"Is that I don't need to worry about myself. For as long as I have the protection of their excellencies, there is no way we would lose. And the second....."
Charlotte then brought her foot to the head of the Commander, kicking him up into the air.
"Is that I now have a purpose. I have a reason to devote myself as a warrior for their sake. I will fight for their justice. And if I have to...."
As the snakeman was in the air, Charlotte seemed to teleport above him, bringing her own foot onto his throat and slamming him back into the ground.
"I will kill. For their sake, and for the sake of the justice.... or even the evil which they will spread to this world."
Charlotte smiled as she dropped to the ground, placing her foot now on the face of the Commander.
"Even if they lead me down a path of slaughter..... if it allows me to stop people like you and your provider from existing, then I will gladly become a demon."
She then brought her own foot down on the Commander, crushing in his skull, sending bits of his brain matter flying, covering her own foot.
The other three merely watched as Charlotte destroyed the man in mere moments, looking around to see if any of the others would attack.
The people in the crowds were shivering in fear for two reasons.
The first being that the people in front of them were terribly powerful.
The second being that such a disturbance was likely to incur the wrath of the provider, creating an era of depression.
Even the members of the military police who had just taken their own eyes and were still reeling in the pain were overcome with fear and anger on seeing this scene.
Yet they did not step forward and attack, for the pain was too unbearable to completely focus on anything else.
Melody then waltzed over to the stairway, looking up at the provider who was sitting lavishly in his throne with a sour face.
"Men who serve me. Kill those humans now. They have disrupted this sacrifice to myself and slain your very Commander. This is why outsiders will never be welcomed here. This is why we must prevent them from ever coming to this place. They will only ever create disturbances and chaos."
The soldiers began to move forward, though slowly. None of them were in fighting shape, however they forced their bodies to move at the orders of the provider.
All of them took out their own batons. The humans were barehanded, and the guards did not have any weapons on them aside from these batons and their small knives which they carried for utility purposes.
This was because of their natural physical strength. Even a single hit from a baton of a snakeman was usually devastating to a normal human. While the snakemen themselves could withstand it as if it were a regular beating, they held no need for bladed weapons.
"If you attack us we won't show you any mercy. Although.... I suppose you wouldn't be willing to betray your leader as he sits right there. After all, if you do so and he remains alive..... he'll probably just kill you off immediately.", Melody stated. "Then.... I'll focus my efforts elsewhere."
Melody thinned her eyes, smirking as she looked over to the provider.
She then seemed to disappear before the eyes of the snakemen, reappearing behind the cobra who sat on his throne.
"You seemed to enjoy burning our flag. But I'll let you know in advance. That action spoke volumes of the pain we should put you through.", she whispered into his ear.
The provider jumped away in shock, unsure as to how the woman had gotten behind him. He was sweating furiously at this point, and looked over to his own soldiers.
"You allowed this woman to approach me. Is this how you as soldiers are supposed to portray gratitude to your leader?"
The provider began backing up while many men began to rush up the stairs, headed for the woman.
"Ah ah ah. No no. You don't get to protect your leader here."
Once more the woman seemed to teleport behind the cobra, this time grabbing his own arms, locking him into place.
"Provider!!!"
"Fuhrer!!!!"
The soldiers shouted as they ran up the stairs, and many people in the crowds looked up with shock to see the scene in front of them.
Their leader, their provider, the one who produced the food which they consumed had been taken hostage.
If he were to die it would mean the end of the snakemen, or so many believed.
Yet not a single person dared to step up, for even so much as speaking in the presence of the provider without permission was viewed as an offense punishable with arrest.
The military police were left to resolve the situation, however Melody slowly brought her own hand around the neck of the provider.
"Oh..... don't move, or I might just twitch a bit, and snap! This one's head becomes like a twig. So brittle and thin, just the slightest bit of pressure is all it would take for the life of this person to come to an end."
The guards who were rushing up the stairs stopped in their tracks, wielding their batons in one hand and holding their eyes with the other.
"Let the provider go you cowardly woman!!!!"
"Do you dare to remove our very source of life from us!!?? Your leaders.... they must be true demons to allow you to do so....."
Melody then used her own sharpened nails to slice away at the neck of the snake which she held hostage.
"Ooh.... looks like your artery is right here..... should I cut it? Hmm???? You know, it was by your order that so many people have died.... ah, and that's not to say anything about those camps..... oh, whoops! They were supposed to be a secret, right? Hahaha! Well fine then. I'll keep your little secret, provider. Don't worry. It's safe with me. After all.... we're not playing the heroes here....."
The finger of Melody dug deeper into the neck of the provider as she smiled wickedly.
"We're supposed to be playing the villains. Oh, and aren't you supposed to be the hero?"
At this point, Lance, Pierre, and Charlotte were standing back to back, facing off with a number of soldiers who weren't moving out of fear that their provider would be killed.
"Now then..... as the villain, what would be the best thing for me to do? Oh.... I know....."
"You insolent outsider.... you believe you have power, but I will never let you get away with this..... I will wage war!!!! I will declare war on you and those you serve!!! We will not stop until we have wiped out every last person in your nation!!!!"
Melody brought one of her hands up and stabbed her fingernail into the eye of the provider while giving him a condescending look.
"Agh!!!!!"
"Provider!!!!"
"Provider!!!!!"
"You idiots, how could you allow this woman to do this to me!!!! Attack her now!!!! But don't allow her to kill me!!!!"
The provider spouted out orders while in immense amounts of pain, despite having been taken hostage, once more telling his people to do the impossible.
If they made a move their leader would certainly be killed, so they were filled with indecision, even before one of the absolute orders of the provider.
Truly, to the last moment, he held impossible double standards for all those around him.
He expected others to be perfect, able to do the impossible, while he himself did nothing but bathe in the rewards of being known as the provider.
"Oh.... looks like you can match with your soldiers now...."
Melody began twisting her own finger around in the green eye of the cobra as blood began to squirt everywhere.
"AGHH!!!!!!!"
"How is this? Hmm??? Oh..... my my..... I've gotten blood all over my hands, haven't I.... as a matter of fact, this is relatively unsanitary, so I might have infected you with some sort of parasite..... why don't I take a look inside that brain of yours to see?"
Melody began to dig her nail deeper and deeper into the skull of the provider, carving out his eye and then even further, tearing out his optic nerve and reaching his brain as he screamed and quivered in torment.
Yet she held him still. He could not escape.
The soldiers could do nothing so long as he remained alive aside from standing and watching as their leader was ridiculed and mutilated.
"AGHGHHGHGHH!!!!!!!"
Pluck.
Melody threw away the nerve which she tore out, along with many chunks of brain and flesh bits.
"Oh.... it looks like your brain hasn't been infected yet!! Good for you..... ah, but wait..... I suppose your brain was already relatively rotten... now then....."
Melody brought her nail to the neck of the snakeman and sliced the artery, causing a spray of blood.
"It looks like your provider wasn't able to save you all from us. What a shame.... and here I was hoping that he would have been able to grab onto some strength at the last moment..... what ever happened to the hero who unleashes his full power in the face of despair?"
Melody dropped the corpse of the snakeman as it fell to the ground.
It hit with a loud plop, and as the body dropped every person in the crowd seemed to scream out in torment.
"Provider!!!!!"
"Our Fuhrer!!!!!"
"The giver of our life and sustenance!!!!"
Cries and screams were heard from the crowds at the death of their leader, and people began to shout out in anger.
"Kill her!!!!"
"Kill that witch who has come into our town!!!!"
"Slaughter the demon!!!! Slaughter the outsiders!!!!! All of them!!!!"
"How will we survive without the provider!?!?"
"A nightmare.... this is a nightmare...."
It was then that many of the snakemen began to attack Pierre, Lance, and Charlotte, furiously running at them with tears streaming from their eyes.
"For the provider...."
"We must avenge him....."
The three took many blows directly, blocking the baton swings with their hands and then punching the attackers dead on in the face with such force that their heads exploded on the spot.
Hundreds of the soldiers rushed forward at the three all simultaneously, however all three of them were filled with just as much of a rage as those who attacked them.
"You would give your life for that piece of shit!?!?!"
"For that man who killed an innocent girl for no reason other than existing!?!?"
"Fine then. If that's how it is, we will gladly take your lives."
What ensued then was a complete slaughter.
Hundreds of headless bodies littered the landscape until there were no soldiers left- only the shivering people of the snakemen village.
"Monsters...."
"Monsters...."
"Demons...."
"These outsiders... they've come here and destroyed everything...."
"They've taken everything from us...."
"We have nothing left....."
It was then that Melody took a seat on the throne which the provider was previously sitting on.
"I suppose I can warm this up for their excellencies while they are gone."
Crossing her leg over the other and putting one hand to her chin, she smiled as she looked down on the panicking people in front of her.
The other three ascended the stairs, standing next to her.
"Snakemen, your provider is gone. He was so weak, it was truly pathetic. He couldn't even fight back against me. He used a fire spell earlier to burn our very flag, but he wasn't able to use that when I took control of him? I wonder why that was? Perhaps he was too much of a coward to do such a thing? Or maybe it was because he expected someone else to save him?"
The truth was that Melody had obtained a new spell after being promoted called [Nullify Magic](Lvl 9) which would nullify any magic up to 9th tier spells.
"A witch...."
"You witch!!!!"
"Give us back our provider!!!!"
"Demon!!!!"
"Monsters!!!!!"
The people began shouting and crying, furious at the death of their leader.
"Fools.... do you not even realize how truly insignificant your leader was? I'll show you then. He provided you with sustenance, correct? Lance, will you retrieve the items?"
"Of course."
Lance ran off somewhere yet the people did not cease their insults.
"How will we survive!?!?"
"Do you all merely wish to wipe us out!?!?"
Melody laughed at these statements.
"And what if I do?"
The crowd was silenced at this response.
'No..... no..... no no no....'
'She is merely trying to destroy us....'
'All of them.... these humans... they have killed our provider.... and now they are merely going to kill us off.....'
'It was over the moment the provider was killed.....'
"Oh..... I've got an idea. Let me prove to you all right here and now that your provider isn't the only one who can produce sustenance. Look right here."
Melody got up and walked over to one of the corpses of the soldiers, grabbing the knife from his vest pocket.
"Look carefully, people. Take a good long look at this."
She then sliced open the tail of the snakeman, showing the fleshy insides and cutting out a piece of meat.
She held up the meat as it dripped with blood, showing to all the people of the village with a laugh.
"Well would you look at this. See? The provider isn't the only one who can torment people until they become nothing more than sacks of flesh."
Melody threw the piece of meat onto the ground before the people who had been overtaken with shock.
It was then that Lance returned with his own trenchcoat on, and he carried the weapons of the other three.
Handing them over, Melody took her wand and spun it around a bit before smiling.
"Ah.... that feels much better.... it really is annoying to go around without this."
"Indeed.", Pierre said as he cracked his own whip.
"Mhm.", Charlotte agreed, sheathing her sickle.
"E-even if you extracted this meat from those men, that doesn't change the fact that the provider was our leader!!! You..... you are nothing more than a monster who kills our people to obtain that meat!!! The provider did no such thing!!!"
"He was a great leader and the only one in the world who could produce from the sand itself!!! He was an untouchable existence, and yet you laid your filthy hands on him, witch!!!!"
"You must burn for this!!!!"
The people shouted out in protest, clinging to their delusions of their great provider to the very end, even after his own death.
It was then that a cold chill filled the entire plaza.
A weight beyond description filled the very hearts of every snakeman and woman in the area, and Melody grinned sinisterly as both her and her comrades stepped to the side.
The beautiful voice of a succubus played itself into the hearts and minds of the people, captivating them with its utmost delicacy and maturity.
[A great leader? He was nothing more than a tyrant who used every last one of you. He held you to unfair standards, and yet you pawns all submitted your very hearts and lives to him without question. Foolish. Truly foolish. However, if you wish to be fools, then at least do it in a smart way. If you are willing to submit yourself to one dictator, then surely you won't complain if he is replaced with another?]
The people were filled with a terror far greater than even that which they faced when presented before the provider.
From birth, they were taught that the provider was everything to this village, and that his word was the law of the land, never to be disobeyed.
Yet now he laid dead in front of them, and these people were faced with a chill which could not even compare to him.
These humans had killed their leader, and they no longer had anyone or anything to live for.
Their lives themselves had been rendered worthless.
Even so, the terrible aura which enveloped these people caused them to long for something which they never before had so desperately wished for.
They wished to hold onto their lives, and live for themselves.
For it was at this moment that they truly understood that their provider was nothing more than a fraud, and that the beings who appeared before them were true creatures of chaos.