My Blacksmith System: Transforming my Weapons into Beautiful Maidens
Chapter 33: The sixth, Echidna

Chapter 33: The sixth, Echidna

"You summoned me... Sixth."

Rouga said, standing in front of the table.

He was currently in the home of the sixth member of The Pillar, Echidna.

She wore a dark Gothic dress with a bonnet on her head and dark, long thigh-high socks that were complemented by black high heels.

With her black umbrella over her hand, she sat on the table, two strong men standing beside her.

"And you came... Are you not afraid?" Her voice dripped like venom.

"Well, I can tell you didn’t only call me here to chit-chat. Are you pissed that I was unable to complete my mission?" Rouga spoke.

"That would have been it. At least then I would take pride in killing you. I mean, looking at your injuries that haven’t healed, this human is most definitely not normal. But that isn’t the reason..." She slightly raised her umbrella, exposing her red, toxic eyes.

"It’s the fact that your master decided not to show himself during the meeting. Is he still afraid I’ll murder him?"

Rouga was slightly stunned by her words.

"Wow, I never expected to hear that from you, Sixth."

Echidna bit her lower lip in annoyance.

Without any warning, she snapped her fingers, allowing multiple spikes to hover behind her.

Like sharp spears, each one of them shot towards Rouga.

And while he was able to dodge a few, he wasn’t so lucky, as he got stabbed in the leg and arm.

Slowly falling to his knees, Rouga uttered, "Come on... I only just managed to recover from my last fight."

"Honestly, what is a pretty girl like myself doing with the likes of you? I hate that I have to resort to such a vulgar method, but you leave me no choice... Ninth."

Echidna got down from the table and began to move towards Rouga.

"Wait, now hold up. Don’t do anything crazy. You don’t want to kill a fellow Hakia, now do you? Come on, I still haven’t gotten to take the flesh of a human. Don’t kill me just yet. It will take forever reviving!"

Echidna wasn’t listening to a single word he said.

She grabbed him by the neck and stared into his soul.

"If I recall, you are connected to him, are you not? If you die, that means he no longer has any connection to this part of the world. In other words, he loses his powers. I wonder... just how important are you to him..."

"I assure you, he wouldn’t pick me over a stray animal..." Rouga said shakily.

"Is that so? That’s too bad—for you, I mean."

Echidna then opened her mouth, long tentacles growing from within like veins as she sought to swallow Rouga whole.

In terms of power, Echidna was far more powerful. He wouldn’t last a single round.

But just at the last minute, when Echidna was about to rip Rouga’s head from his body, she stopped, retracting the tentacles back into her mouth.

"Would you look at that? You really were important to him."

Echidna released her hold on Rouga’s neck and then slowly turned to the side, where she could see a man standing there, his entire body covered with a cloak.

"Ninth."

The man sighed. "Echidna, for a powerful Hakia, you sure do act childish ever so often," he said out loud.

"What?" Echidna could not hide her anger.

"Rouga, leave us," said Ninth.

"As you wish," replied Rouga, rubbing his neck as he headed toward the exit.

Once gone, Ninth fully faced Echidna.

"Knowing well that he possesses half of my powers, you still tried to kill him."

Echidna chuckled. "I wanted to draw you out, and out you came. What happened? You paused your research to save your little slave?"

The man sighed yet again before looking around to see the two buffed men in the room.

"You have also tamed some Hakias. I’m impressed. I could never hope to tame anyone other than Rouga."

Every now and again, it was known that some Hakia who had gained superiority could tame other Hakias to obey them.

It was only known to be true amongst the Hakias. The more Hakia you could tame, the stronger you were said to be.

With gentle steps, Echidna made her way back to the table while gently dropping the umbrella, her shining black hair dancing behind her.

"I am stronger than you. What did you expect? That I could only tame a single one of my kind? Don’t be ridiculous." She huffed.

The room fell into silence for a while, only broken by the sound of the heavy breeze hitting the window.

"Why have you requested me, Echidna? If this is about what I did years back, I assure—"

"Don’t give me empty words. I just want to know, why did you kill her? The others may have chosen to ignore it, but I never will," Echidna said with a cold voice.

"You spend too much time with the humans. You have begun to develop their way of thinking. Fourth agreed to be my experiment. She simply was too weak to—"

"She begged you to stop!" Echidna suddenly yelled, her voice filled with raw emotions.

"I begged you to stop! So what? You wanted us to exist in the human world without needing to take over a human body! So what? So what?! She didn’t need to die for that!"

Ninth stayed quiet.

"Echidna..."

"If you had used one of your fucking pigs, wouldn’t that have been better?! Why did you have to use her? She only agreed to do it because she trusted you!"

"And I do feel sorry about that. But what is done is done. We are Hakias. We cannot die. She will be reborn. Maybe even far stronger than she was while alive," Ninth continued.

"You seem to be angry at the fact she died but forget she will be reborn."

"Master’s blood is in her veins. No Hakia can survive that without having some kind of damage. Yuki is not ever going to be the same because of what you did, even if she’s reborn. It’s been years, so why don’t you tell me where she is?"

"I do not know."

Echidna bit her lip again.

"But I do know one thing. Her sacrifice did not go to waste. I’m close to breaking the curse. I can feel it."

Sigh!

Echidna grabbed her umbrella and placed it over her head again.

"That’s enough emotions for today. The more I talk about it, the more I feel like ripping your heart out."

"I see."

"Instead of rotting away wherever you are doing your shitty research, why not help us figure out this weird human that is able to kill us... note, without any means of reviving?" she said with her feet wiggling.

"Oh? The Hakia Slayer. My slave told me about him. Quite the abnormal individual."

"So you do know."

"Yes. I gathered some samples to run a test on it. Whatever powers that human has are very dangerous to us Hakias. I suggest we ignore him for now, at least until the countdown begins."

"Doesn’t that start in about a month? I seem to have forgotten."

"You are correct. 32 days to be exact."

"I’ve fought in so many countdowns, killed so many humans, and hid so many times. It’s no wonder I can’t keep track of them all."

"You are indeed impressive."

"But I cannot ignore that human."

Ninth slightly opened his mouth as if trying to say something but held himself back.

"Perhaps I’m just curious to know who this human is that managed to pique the attention of the Pillars. It’s not every day you see First worried," Echidna said with a smile.

"You are quite stubborn, and I know you won’t listen to me. So I’ll only leave you with one piece of advice."

Echidna looked at him.

"During my examination, I noticed something from the dead Hakias. All their cells and mana were turned into dark icy-like material. Whatever that energy is, it’s suppressing our abilities. Do not let this human touch you, or you’ll have no way of recovering from that."

"Whatever am I going to do without you?" Echidna stood on the table and then pointed at him.

"I cannot die. I cannot be defeated either. If anything, my ability already gives me an advantage over him. Once I kill this human Hakia killer, I’ll rise up to the fourth rank, that will prove I’m better."

"Suite yourself, I’ll be going now."

" Ahhh?! Are you trying to say I’m boring to listen to?"

" No I’m trying to say I have work to do. I am a lecturer in a magic academy. Being missing is not something they take lightly."

Echidna made a disgusted look, "I can’t believe you’re happy being around so many humans. Why not just be like the rest of us, and be isolated."

"That will do no good for my research. Anyway, I’ll be going now. I’ll have my slave accompany you on your mission. He can be quite helpful."

With that, the ninth pillar disappeared into the ground like he was never there.

"Tsk! Research." Echidna walked away.