My Blacksmith System: Transforming my Weapons into Beautiful Maidens Chapter 45: Fourth pillar

Seriphina’s eyes widened when she realized she had co to.

Rashin was still holding her hands, though the expression on his face showed he was wary of her, while Eri was afraid, her back glued to the wall.

"Rashin!"

She called out, yanking her hands from his grip before standing to her feet.

She first looked towards the mirror to make sure she hadn’t begun to transform.

Her face was normal.

Seriphina let out a breath, her hand on her chest from the relief.

But if she truly hadn’t let out her monster side, why the hell were Rashin and Eri looking at her like she was so kind of anomaly?

"G...ood morning, Rashin. I do hope you slept well?" she uttered, clearly getting nervous.

Rashin didn’t say a word.

Instead, he pulled out his dagger and pointed it toward Seriphina.

"Eh?" Seriphina raised both her hands. "What’s going... on?"

"Y...ou have a Hakia inside you," Eri spoke from behind Rashin.

Seriphina was shocked but not surprised.

She had suspected for a while that it would be sothing similar to that.

"A Hakia, huh..." She placed her hand on her chest, a sad look playing on her face. "So that’s what you were..."

Her voice was directed to the woman hiding within her body.

Just then, she could feel the fear swelling in her heart, strong enough to make her wince a bit.

This fear only ca from one place...

Seriphina looked at Rashin.

It was clear that the Hakia was afraid of Rashin ever finding out about her being a Hakia. And now that he had, she was entering a total ltdown.

She sighed and then shifted her gaze to Eri.

"Should I take that as you were unable to remove the monster?"

Eri looked to the side in response.

"I see."

Seriphina began to walk towards the door.

Not a second more—she could not stand the way Rashin was looking at her.

Suddenly—

"Where do you think you’re going?" Rashin spoke out.

Seriphina paused, her hand still lingering on the doorknob.

"I am willing to hear you out if there’s an explanation as to why you have a Hakia hidden inside you. And if there is none—"

"You’re going to kill ?" Seriphina interrupted as she turned around to face Rashin, a sad smile on her face.

"I know. Your hatred for Hakia is not sothing you can hide so easily. Once, you looked at with such a soft gaze. Now, I can tell you think nothing more than to kill where I stand."

Rashin was quiet.

"You may leave today if you wish. I doubt you’d want to stay in the sa house with a Hakia."

With that, she walked away.

For so reason, Rashin could not find it in himself to kill her.

Not until he fully understood what was going on.

Once she had left, he turned to Eri. "Eri," he called out.

Eri sat down on the ground, resting her forehead on her knee as she sighed.

"I thought for sure you would kill her," she said. "I guess you have really learned to hold yourself back."

"I just would rather not hurt an innocent person. So, what’s the deal with that? I was sure I sensed a Hakia when I held her, but I can also tell there’s a human there too."

"Yeah, she is," Eri raised her head. "In fact, she is more human than she is Hakia."

"So, a hybrid?"

"Sothing like that," she replied. "It’s more like she’s a vessel for the Hakia."

She then proceeded to explain.

"Right after I tried to pull out the demon I thought was inside her, the Hakia tried to escape through the hole I created. But it wasn’t to be free—it wanted to kill . I could sense its hatred." She gripped her hand. "The worst part is, the two of them have beco codependent on one another. There’s no way I could have separated them without killing the other. I have never seen anything like this before."

Rashin sighed. He dispelled his blade and sat on the ground in front of Eri.

"Seems I can’t catch a break today," he said out loud.

"Rashin," Eri called out softly.

"Yeah?"

"I saw her mories."

"Uhn?"

"The Hakia... I saw her mories." Eri’s eyes welled up. "Rashin... she’s in pain."

Bang!

The door opened, and Seriphina stord into her room, closing the door shut.

She stood at the center of her room, allowing the silence of her heart to swallow her whole.

And then...

"Ahhhhhh!"

She collapsed to her knees, tears dripping from her eyes.

"He saw ," she sobbed.

"The monster I am, the monster he hates... Why am I all of that? Tell , Seriphina! Is this what you wanted?!"

Her question was t with a single drop of water.

Drip!

She was back where she once visited—the empty void that housed her inner demon.

Seriphina stood in front of the Hakia, a calm look on her face as she stared at the weeping monster.

"You’re hurt," Seriphina said.

"You’re angry, you’re sad. I don’t understand it."

The monster frowned. "I never expected you to. You’ve killed . I no longer have anything to lose. I’ll burn this world to the ground."

Those words were indeed threats.

Seriphina sighed.

"Tell your na, please?" she uttered. "If you are going to kill regardless, I feel I deserve to know that much."

The monster opened her mouth and then closed it again, wondering if she should indulge the human.

"My na... is Death," the Hakia replied.

"Death?" Seriphina was a bit surprised. She never expected soone could actually bear such a na.

Death suddenly smiled—a dark, nacing smile. "Since you are so curious about who I am, here, let grant you that selfish wish."

She placed her finger on Seriphina’s forehead.

"Don’t fall."

With a single push, Seriphina found herself drowning inside the endless abyss.

---

(Flashback.)

Death lay on the ground, her body covered with dirt and mud.

Her skin had begun to peel, and her body was rotting from the inside.

’Why has this happened to ?’ she uttered to herself.

The pain she felt was unbearable.

She recalled being one of the Pillars sent to destroy the world for the resurrection of the Catastrophe King.

She was the fourth Hakia—Death.

Her mories were foggy; there was not much she could rember.

One thing she did know was that sohow, she was going to die if she didn’t get attended to.

’I... I need to live.’

Death struggled, dragging her body on the ground as she looked for the unexpected—anything that could possibly change her dying fate.

’I can’t die yet. I... I haven’t t him yet...’

For days, Death dragged her dying body across the terrains.

There were tis she was completely ignored by the people around her. There were tis she was simply kicked to the side.

Yet, she kept on moving, seeking anything that could save her.

Lady Luck finally smiled at her when she was noticed by the Frontress family.

A noble family ruling over a small barony in the kingdom.

The lady of the house saved Death after her daughter, Seriphina, found her dying body on their farmland.

Taking her into their ho, they had so of the best doctors try to heal her, but they all said the sa thing—

"I have never seen a disease like this before."

At the end of the day, it beca hopeless.

The little hope Death had left completely crashed on her.

Reality was often cruel.

Feeling bitter and angry, she lost control of the last of her ability and burned down the entire barony.

Her flas spread wide and far, burning down everything they touched.

Well, all but one.

The daughter of the Baron, Seriphina Frontress.

She was so traumatized by the death of her parents that the ability to run no longer existed within her.

Death, with her body also turning into a pile of chunks, decided it was best to kill the little girl too.

In her own words, "Every human should die if I don’t get to live."

Alas, she was too weak to act.

Instead, she found herself leeching onto the skin of the girl, and then slowly, she began to slip in until she had fully entered the girl’s body.

She was going to take this ans to survive, even if it ant taking the body of a lowly human.

Or so she thought.

Seriphina turned out to have an unusually high amount of mana, making it possible for her to resist the force of the monster trying to take over her body.

Years passed, and Seriphina learned to live with the monster inside her while rebuilding the barony.

Unfortunately, she had no mory of what happened during the death of her parents or how a Hakia managed to enter her body.

All she knew was that in order to stop the monster from taking over, she needed to inflict an unprecedented amount of pain on herself.