Chapter 175: Especially Lucky
Alice was playing with her fingers at the entrance of an alley. She tried making shadow puppets of cats, rabbits, and deer with her hands, but eventually sighed in boredom.
"Amon has it better," she thought. "When He's bored, He can play cards with Himself... Hmm, maybe I could summon Amon to play cards with me... All I'd need to do is pray..."
Alice quickly cut off this dangerous train of thought. After all, if she did that, it was unclear whether she'd end up playing cards with Amon or if Amon would just play with Himself.
She sighed sadly, pondering what shadow shapes to make next. Suddenly, Alice looked up and gazed blankly at the surrounding mist. Had the fog gotten thicker?
Puzzled, she stood up. After standing in the increasingly dense fog for a moment, she suddenly seemed to sense something. Frowning, she peered at the passersby in the thick mist.
People hurried past her, seemingly eager to get home. As Alice watched them pass by, she gathered her spirituality and struck out forcefully.
She then received both good news and bad news.
The good news was that she hadn't missed - despite the vast difference between them, a blurry figure appeared in the mist as her spirituality suddenly came under attack.
The bad news was that she recognized this person. It was the holy witch she had seen in her dreams, now materializing in the mist with an icy expression.
This was a demigod.
The intermingling iron-black and pale yellow mist seemed to explain the situation. This demigod from the Witch Cult appeared to have finished whatever she had planned to do and was now admiring her handiwork.
And then, this demigod was attacked by Alice.
Alice knew her expression must have been one of utter shock, not just because of this awkward scene, but also because of news she wasn't sure was good or bad. If she had to comment on this news, Alice had only one thing to say: "Fuck you, Fate. You call this 'especially lucky'?"
Her advancement ritual was complete.
Alice looked at the demigod before her, likely from the Witch Cult, and said softly, "Would you mind if I leave a last message?"
The Lady of Despair had no intention of responding. As an experienced demigod who had come up through the ranks as an "assassin," she had seen too much. Even though the current scene was full of absurd coincidences, and even though Alice's entire demeanor screamed "harmless," she stuck to her convictions. Without wasting words, she launched her attack.
There would be plenty of time to consider these issues once the enemy was dead.
Alice watched as the Lady of Despair conjured a sharp, crystalline ice spear in her palm and hurled it towards her. She immediately understood that the other party had no intention of letting her leave a final message.
For a moment, Alice considered simply waiting for death. After all, she couldn't win in a fight, couldn't run away, so why not die and wait for resurrection...
The ice spear approached, trailing white frost. Wherever it passed, beautiful but deadly ice formed.
"...If I'm going to die anyway, I'd rather not freeze to death!"
Alice, desiring a painless death, decided to struggle one last time. She desperately lunged to the left, trying to dodge the attack.
But her evasive movement was too late and too slow. The ice spear struck her right side, at the waist, with a metallic "ding."
There was pain, but not the pain of her body being pierced. Rather, it was the pain from the force of the impact.
But Alice no longer had the presence of mind to focus on this. She knew what was there - the "Winner" extraordinary characteristic from Charles King.
Without needing to look, Alice could confirm this, as the ice spear had shattered the fragile barrier, exposing once again that fatally attractive force.
"Damn it, at a time like this..." Alice's mind was in chaos. Her body fell to the ground, and the metal cigarette case slid out. That alluring gold coin rolled out, along the ground, coming to rest by her mouth.
She didn't notice that the Lady of Despair had already conjured a second ice spear and thrown it at her. Nor did she notice that the gold coin had been coated in dust from the ground, looking utterly filthy.
Alice instinctively licked it with her tongue.
The dust-covered coin was rolled into her mouth by her tongue. She completely lost the ability to pay attention to the ice spear that had pierced her.
The moment the coin entered her mouth, it melted into a gel-like substance, smoothly sliding down her throat.
The source that had been affecting her all this time disappeared. Alice briefly regained a moment of clarity, and an inappropriate thought flashed through her mind: "So swallowing a characteristic like this really doesn't make you choke..."
After that, Alice lost consciousness completely.
...
The first ice spear had been luckily blocked. The Lady of Despair didn't hesitate at all and threw a second ice spear at Alice, who was lying on the ground.
At the same time, a spider web silently spread out on the ground, eliminating any possibility of escape.
Combined with the plague in the mist, she was surely doomed... The Lady of Despair watched with satisfaction as the ice spear pierced Alice's soft, unprotected waist.
This time, no coincidences occurred. The ice spear sank deep, but no blood flowed out.
The beautiful yet deadly frost began to spread from the wound, invading Alice's body.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, she would become a beautiful ice sculpture.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances.
The Lady of Despair stared in shock as a black-haired, black-eyed woman with a beautiful but blank face, wearing a long hooded classical robe, appeared before her.
She didn't see the newcomer make any movements, but the girl lying on the ground suddenly vanished.
Only the two of them remained at the scene.
Unlike Alice, who might as well have had "harmless" written on her face, this sudden appearance filled the Lady of Despair with immense fear and despair.
Her spirituality was telling her to give up all struggle.
Why?
The answer was quite obvious. She stared blankly at her own body as it rapidly disappeared, centimeter by centimeter, starting from her fingers.
The Lady of Despair wanted to resist, but everything happened too quickly. She couldn't do anything but watch helplessly as she was erased bit by bit, like an unwanted figure in a landscape photo, by some mysterious force.
The spot where she had been standing was now empty.
At this moment, only the black-haired, black-eyed woman with the beautiful face remained in the alley.
That blank face frowned almost imperceptibly, then, as if remembering something, the corners of her mouth twitched slightly, revealing an unpracticed smile.
Then, even this figure vanished. The surroundings fell utterly silent, as if no one had ever been there.