Frieren: Understand Humans, Aura!

Hello my lovely readers, how about the surprise in the previous chapter? Did you think the book was really over? ZEHAHAHAHAHAHA....

Of course not! The previous chapter was just the final chapter of Volume 1. Volume 2 will focus more on how Aura finds allies and friends who truly cares for her—seriously, I'm not lying this time.

Well, without further ado, here's the first chapter of Volume 2. Oh, and by the way, I need a 7-day break to think about the plot for Volume 2, so see you next week~~

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Overcome with grief, Flamme's grip on her staff loosened more and more until, at some point, the staff slipped from her hand.

"Now's the time!!!"

In an instant, Aura's eyes shot open, the dull haze of impending death vanishing from her once-dim purple irises. The cunning demon had been playing her role perfectly, biding her time, waiting for this very moment. With Flamme's anti-magic spell fading away as the staff left her grasp, the seal on Aura's power broke, and the oppressive weight of death lifted from her.

Aura's left hand, the only limb still free from the soldiers' spears, shot towards the golden spear embedded in her abdomen. Her fingers clenched around the spear with the strength of desperation and determination. In a display of raw power, she crushed the golden spear to dust, the mana within it dissipating into the air like scattered embers.

Before the golden glow had even dissipated, she waved her hand, shattering all the spears in her body with the help of the Auserlese spell.

Holding Frieren, she vanished from Flamme's astonished view, disappearing rapidly into the distance.

It happened so fast that no one present could react, and everyone was immersed in the depressing atmosphere of sadness and sorrow.

Only Aura's lips curled into a victorious smile.

'The plan succeeded!!'

Every word she had spoken to Flamme from the beginning was part of Aura's plan.

Flamme's heart plummeted as she watched Aura disappear. Her mind raced, trying to comprehend how the situation had turned so quickly. The grief that had clouded her judgment, the sorrow that had weakened her resolve—it all seemed like a cruel trick now. She had been outmaneuvered, played by the very demon she had sought to destroy.

"AAAAUUUURRRAAAA!!!!!!"

Flamme's grief-stricken roar came from behind, but Aura didn't care. With the speed of a human, it was impossible for her to catch up with a great demon who was accelerating at full speed with the obedience spell!

'Humans! Remember this day as the honor of a lifetime! You nearly killed Aura the Guillotine, one of the Seven Sages!' Aura thought, her thoughts a mixture of pride and mockery. They had come so close, closer than any before, but in the end, they had underestimated her. The game was far from over.

"Aura!! I will catch you one day! I will lock you away to atone forever!!!" 

"Forever!!!!"

Flamme's hoarse, furious cry resounded through the forest.

As Aura ran, she thought—

'So the legendary human mage Flamme is just like this~~ She was deceived by Aura's superb acting skills and escaped~~ Flamme doesn't seem to be as smart as Aura~~'

The thoughts flitted through her mind like taunts, a fleeting satisfaction in her narrow escape. But as the adrenaline surged through her, pushing her battered body forward, the reality of her situation began to set in.

After shattering Flamme's sealing spear, Aura had randomly picked a direction, fleeing with all the strength she could muster. It was a desperate, instinctive choice, driven by the need to put as much distance as possible between herself and the enraged human mage. The forest blurred around her, the trees becoming indistinct shapes as she sped past them.

In her arms, Frieren remained unconscious, her small frame cradled tightly against Aura's chest. The violent jostling as Aura darted through the forest had no effect on the elf; she was deeply unconscious, her mana reserves completely drained.

At this time, Frieren was clearly not as powerful as she would be in the future. In the future, she would be able to repeatedly use high-consumption spell like Purification on Headless Warriors while still preserving most of her mana.

"You're really weak, Frieren."

Aura muttered under her breath, her voice a mix of exasperation and concern. She glanced down at the elf, noticing for the first time the blood dripping from her own wounds, large droplets splashing onto Frieren's pale face. The sight was jarring, a stark reminder of the toll the battle had taken on her.

A sharp pain shot through Aura's body, and she realized with growing dread that she wouldn't survive much longer without treating her injuries. The spears that had once pinned her down had left deep, gaping wounds that were now bleeding profusely. Each step she took sent fresh waves of agony through her, but she forced herself to keep moving.

The obedience spell that bound that she use on herself to escape would keep her animated, perhaps even after death, but it couldn't prevent her life from slipping away. Aura knew that once her blood drained completely, she would become nothing more than a lifeless puppet, a corpse that moved solely through the remnants of the spell's command.

Desperation clawed at her mind as she tried to dispel the obedience spell, to free herself from its grip so she could tend to her wounds. But the moment she released even a fraction of the command, her body betrayed her.

Aura's legs buckled, and she collapsed mid-stride, her momentum sending her tumbling across the forest floor. She curled around Frieren protectively as they rolled, each impact sending searing pain through her battered body.

They finally came to a jarring halt as Aura crashed into a tree trunk, the force of the collision nearly knocking the wind out of her. She lay there, sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath. The world around her seemed to spin, her vision blurring as she struggled to stay conscious.

Intense pain surged through her with every shallow breath, her wounds screaming for relief. There was no part of her that didn't hurt, no part that wasn't screaming in protest. Even her limbs felt heavy, numb with fatigue, as if they belonged to someone else.

She felt like she was already halfway to being a corpse, her body moving only through the sheer force of the obedience spell. But even that was failing her now, her life force ebbing away with each passing second.

"I can't die yet. I managed to survive. Frieren didn't die, so how could I die?"

Aura's thoughts were a desperate mantra, an iron will refusing to surrender. Despite the unbearable pain that racked her body, her fierce desire to live surged through her like a fire that refused to be extinguished. Most beings, human or demon, would have succumbed to such injuries, their muscles torn, bones fractured, and blood loss draining them of strength. But Aura was different. She clawed at the very threads of life with an unyielding tenacity, forcing her body to respond even when it screamed in protest.

Each movement was agony. Her muscles, shredded and torn from the battle, resisted every command, but Aura's determination overpowered the limitations of her damaged flesh. She gritted her teeth, her breathing ragged, as she began to address the gaping wounds left by the spears. She could feel the warm, sticky blood oozing from her injuries, each pulse of pain reminding her of just how close she was to death. But Aura was not ready to let go. Not yet.

How she wished she had learned healing magic. It was a bitter realization, one that gnawed at her as she struggled to stop the bleeding. Healing magic was a field entirely different from her expertise, something she had never deemed necessary to study. She had always relied on her offensive magic, on her cunning and strength in battle. But now, as she lay on the brink of death, she cursed herself for her shortsightedness.

If only she had learned healing magic, Aura wouldn't have had to resort to such crude methods. Instead of mending her wounds with a gentle touch, she was forced to cauterize them with high-temperature spells, a brutal and painful process that was anything but precise. Each time she summoned the fire, the mana within her body flared violently, and the searing heat burned through her flesh. Aura's entire body convulsed with each burst of fire, her screams muffled by sheer willpower.

"It hurt so much! It hurt so, so much!!!"

Despite her outward appearance, Aura was terrified of pain. Among demons, she was an anomaly—a creature with a heightened sensitivity to pain, something almost unheard of among her kind. Other demons could shrug off grievous injuries, their bodies capable of enduring unimaginable torment without so much as a flinch.

But Aura? A simple cut could send waves of agony through her, reducing her to tears if she allowed it.

It was this intense fear of pain that had driven Aura to develop the Spell of Obedience: Auserlese. It was a spell designed to keep her out of harm's way, to command others—puppets, minions—to fight in her place, sparing her from the frontlines of battle. Aura had always been more comfortable orchestrating from behind the scenes, manipulating events and using her cunning to achieve her goals without ever needing to dirty her own hands.

Yet now, in a cruel twist of fate, the very spell she had created to protect herself had turned against her. Auserlese, once a means of avoiding personal combat, had become a berserker spell, forcing her into the thick of battle.

The demon who feared pain above all else had been thrust into the role of a warrior, her body pushed to its limits in close combat. The irony was not lost on her, and it made the pain all the more unbearable.

After what felt like an eternity, Aura finally managed to stop the bleeding. But the physical pain, intense as it was, had barely begun to subside before another wave of torment crashed over her—this time, a mental agony far worse than any physical wound.

The command "Do not harm humans" surged through her mind like a branding iron, scorching her soul with unbearable intensity.

"Wait, I clearly… didn't… I didn't harm any humans!! Around Flamme, I didn't hurt a single human, so why? Why is it judging that I harmed humans? Flamme? Where did Flamme get injured? I didn't even touch a hair on her head!!!"

Aura clutched her head and cried in pain.

She didn't understand, couldn't comprehend—what exactly causes humans pain? Why were humans such a fragile race, could humans be hurt even when they weren't attacked??

When Aura's command to herself remained unlifted, her body felt as if it had been turned to stone, her consciousness detached, floating somewhere above the agony that threatened to swallow her whole. It was as if she were a puppet, her strings pulled by some unseen force, moving her body against her will.

The spell of obedience, Auserlese, had numbed her to the excruciating pain that should have overwhelmed her long ago, bottling it up, keeping it at bay like a dam holding back a flood.

But the moment Aura released the spell, that dam shattered.

Any normal human would have collapsed under such an onslaught, their mind and body shutting down to escape the torment. But Aura endured it all.

Her body trembled violently, her breaths coming in ragged gasps as she forced herself to stand, to move, to act.

Her eyes, once vibrant with cunning and intelligence, were now bloodshot, burning with a fury that bordered on madness. She stumbled over to the unconscious Frieren, her hands shaking as she broke off a thick tree branch. The jagged end was sharp, rough and splintered, a crude but deadly weapon. Aura gripped it tightly in her palm, her knuckles white, and pressed the sharp point against Frieren's chest, right over her heart.

Aura's entire being trembled with hatred, resentment, and a near-insane desire for vengeance. She could feel the twisted satisfaction of what she was about to do—the thought of driving that jagged branch into Frieren's heart, of ending the life of the elf who, a thousand years later, would order her to commit suicide without a second thought. The elf who had already ordered her, years ago, to understand humans.

Frieren had never cared about Aura's will. Aura didn't want to die; she didn't want to understand humans. She wanted to survive, to live her own life free of the shackles that bound her. But Frieren… Frieren had never cared. She had imposed her will on Aura without a second thought, as if Aura's pain and suffering were inconsequential, as if her life didn't matter.

How arrogant and cruel Frieren was.

But at the same time, how fitting. Frieren had every right to be cruel, to be arrogant.

Aura was a demon, after all, a creature evolved from the monster, a natural enemy of humans and elves alike. What did her pain matter in the grand scheme of things? They were supposed to be enemies, not friends. They were never meant to understand each other.

"We are ultimately enemies, not friends, Frieren..."

Aura's voice was hoarse, choked with emotion as she stared down at the unconscious elf. Her hand trembled as she held the branch, her mind warring with itself. She could do it—she could end this now. It would be so easy, just one thrust, and Frieren would be dead. But as she stood there, her body shaking with the effort to hold back her rage, something inside her broke.

With a cry of anguish, Aura let the branch fall from her hand. Her bloodshot eyes, filled with tears of frustration and pain, stared down at Frieren with a mixture of hatred and sorrow.

"It hurts! It hurts so much!! It's all because of your command, all because of that cursed binding magic! I can't hurt humans, nor can I understand humans. I can only endure the pain. This is all your fault, Frieren!!

Why do you always need me to save you? Why can't you just live peacefully? Why can't I let go of you?!

I want to kill you, kill you ah ah FRIEREN!!!"

Aura's voice broke into a scream, a raw, primal sound that echoed through the forest. Her body convulsed with sobs as she crumpled to the ground, her tears mingling with the blood and dirt that stained her face. She was overwhelmed by the sheer weight of her emotions, by the impossible situation she found herself in.

For a long time, Aura remained there, her cries gradually subsiding into quiet, broken sobs. She was utterly spent, both physically and emotionally. But even in her despair, a small, stubborn part of her refused to give up. She couldn't afford to. Not yet.

With great effort, Aura pulled herself together. Her wounds had been crudely treated, enough to stave off death for a while longer. She forced herself to stand, her body trembling from the strain, and she gave herself a new order—a command to keep moving, even though her body was on the verge of collapse.

Aura bent down and carefully lifted Frieren onto her back, her movements slow and deliberate as if any sudden motion might break her. Frieren was surprisingly light, her small frame easy for Aura to carry despite her own injuries. Aura adjusted the elf's weight on her back, making sure Frieren was secure before she began to walk.

The path out of the forest was blocked by Flamme, and Aura knew she couldn't go back that way. So, with Frieren on her back, she turned and headed in a different direction, moving deeper into the forest in search of another way out.