The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"G-GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Salak shouted and tried to crawl away from the black-haired elven mage supported by the human warrior.

"...there was a time when I had hope that you would return for me... you know...?"

"...!"

Lairs's voice was so calm and composed that it made Rotte flinch and look at her in confusion – and then the warrior slightly on the bigger side had realized that it was absolutely not the case...

The black-haired elf's anger simply went over a certain threshold and it was no longer possible to express it with a furious expression, hence Lairs's face lost all emotion.

"You...! Who would have returned for you! Because I gave birth to you I was banished from my home! I sacrificed everything for you and then you turned out to be cursed! The only mistake I made was to not kill you off immediately once I saw your disgusting black hair!"

Salak managed to scramble herself back on her feet and growled at her daughter – although at first glance it was hard to believe as the elves' aging process differed greatly from the human one.

Salak looked barely any older than Lairs – and the two of them weren't even similar – whoever Lairs's father was, she definitely inherited most of his traits.

"...yeah. Maybe you should..."

"Lai-lai...!"

"...!"

The black-haired elven mage nodded her head with an indifferent expression – which prompted Rotte to call out to her in a worried voice while making her mother misunderstand and grin triumphantly.

"Nothing that can't be fixed now!"

Salak scoffed and reached out her hand that started glowing with white light.

"Lightni...!"

"Thunder."

*BOOOOM*

As Salak was calling out the spell's foolishly thinking that she had a chance, Lairs scoffed and both her hand and crystal ball shone with a blinding white light – within an instant, the sky above the overconfident light-haired elf darkened and an electrical discharge struck her from above, charring her body.

"...ghugh...!"

A cloud of black smoke escaped Salak's open mouth and she crumbled down to her knees, already on the verge of dying."

"Heal."

"...?!"

Lairs sighed and her weapon shone brightly once more – within an instant all the damage dealt with Salak healed up, leaving her utterly confused.

"Wh-why did you...?!"

She gasped, but Lairs's intention became abundantly clear the very next second.

"Acid ball."

*SPLASH*

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGHEHHAHAGAGHAAGAHEGAHAG...!"

The black-haired elf called out and an orb of extremely corrosive liquid materialized in front of her and shoot out and hit Salak straight in the face eating into her face, burning up skin, flesh, and bones, sending the woman down into seizures as her attempts to get rid of the liquid only added to the pain she was experiencing.

"Ice spear. Ice spear."

*stab* *stab*

"AAAUUUUUUUURRGRRGHGRHRGRG...!"

Two massive icicles shot out and pierced Salak's legs, basically separating her knees from her calves instead of just pinning her down.

"Ah – right – I guess you never bothered to check so you don't know..."

Lairs stopped conjuring new spells for a moment and spoke – more to herself than to her mother as it was doubtful that salak was even able to hear her too busy wailing in agony like a mindless monster getting butchered.

"I was born with the stack skill – it is incredibly useful for making up quite mean spells..."

The dark-haired elf smiled softly and reached out her crystal ball.

"Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball. Fireball."

Lairs repeated the same incantation over and over again but only a single orb of fire ever appeared in front of her – but although at first it was red by the time that the black-haired elven mage was satisfied and stopped adding on to it, the color of flames changed into pure white – and it produced enough heat to make Rotte gritted his teeth from discomfort even though Lairs made sure to conjure the spell at the safe distance away from herself and him.

"I can make things like that out of basic spells, you know? Isn't it amazing? Here, check for yourself."

The black-haired elf shrugged her shoulders and chucked the white fireball at her wriggling mother.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The ice spears evaporated before even the ball of white fire touched Salak's body – but when it actually made contact, the flesh of the elven woman wasn't much different to ice either.

Salak's flesh turned into charcoal and blew apart – her legs, stomach, and hands all disappeared as she screamed her throat sore in agony.

"Truth be told I don't even need to repeat it like that. See? Heal."

Lars smirked and once again healed her mother – but even the stacked healing spell merely recovered whatever was left of her – it didn't cause the burnt-out parts to regrow or anything.

"...you...! You...!"

Salak growled, glaring with hatred at her daughter whom she abandoned – but as she was merely a torso head and stumps laying down on her back unable to do anything, she wasn't even remotely threatening.

"Say... was it worth it? Abandoning me and selling out your entire fucking race? Just because my hair is black?"

Lairs's indifferent expression broke and her face twisted in disgust.

"...because your hair is black...? …eh...? Impossible... You don't even know what your curse is?! Pfft...! Ahaha...! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Even in her situation, Salak flinched after hearing Lairs's words and started laughing maniacally.

"I see... I get it... No elf wanted to talk with you, so you never learned about it... You idiotic child...! Don't tell me that this whole time you thought it's about your hair color...!? Hair color! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The horribly mutilated elven woman couldn't stop herself from ridiculing the black-haired.

"Wh-what...?!"

Her words made Lairs shudder and gasp in bewilderment.

"YOU CRETIN! IF IT WAS ABOUT YOUR BLACK HAIR THEN YOUR FATHER WOULD STILL BE ALIVE AND MY WHOLE FAMILY TOO! THE COLOR OF YOUR HAIR IS MERELY THE MARK OF THE CURSE BEARER! YOU ARE THE PLAGUE THAT WILL BRING THIS WORLD'S DESTRUCTION UNLESS YOU ARE DEALT WITH!"

"...!"

Salak roared, leaving Lairs speechless.

"I WAS RUNNING AWAY FROM YOU AND ACCIDENTALLY MET WITH MY BELOVED RAMBUTAN – HE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD HEAR ME OUT, AND HE EVEN FIGURED A WAY TO SAVE ME FROM YOUR CURSE – HE FOUND YOU AND USED THE POWERS OF THE AVATAR OF ENVY TO STEAL IT AND SEALED IT AWAY – BUT NOW THAT YOUR FILTHY FRIENDS KILLED HIM TOO, THE CURSE'S FULL POWER WILL REVEAL ITSELF AGAIN AND IT WILL BE ALL OVER! YOUR FRIENDS WILL DIE! THOSE YOU HOLD DEAR WILL DIE! AND THEN THE WHOLE WORLD WILL...!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

"!!!!!!!"

Salak was indulging herself in the wild pleasure of seeing her daughter look more and more horrified with each word that she spoke – but then a single unbelievably powerful hit from a jet-black baseball bat annihilated her head and caused a massive tremor that shook the entire fort and could be felt even at the driads' village.

"Haa... Sorry for stealing your kill, Lairs. That bitch was so annoying that I couldn't stop myself – seriously, it was like listening to the woman who gave birth to me..."

Cranberry sighed and straightened her back, nodding apologetically to the petrified black-haired elf.

"Still – what she said about your curse was true – that's why you, me, and my Zombie need to go to the Envy's territory immediately so we can solve this little problem as fast as possible before any of your friends will die."

She added with a lighthearted smile.