They Called Me Trash? Now I'll Hack Their World

His mind raced, fracturing under the sheer impossibility of what he was seeing.

A Demon Hunter? No. No, that’s a myth. A ghost story! They were eradicated centuries ago! Wiped out during the Great Purge! How is one standing right in front of me?

The terrifying reality clawed frantically at Rolf’s sanity.

The predatory mana radiating from Edric wasn’t just strong; it was a localized distortion of reality, an energy signature designed exclusively to slaughter.

Why is a monster like him here? Rolf’s breath came in short, hyperventilating gasps. This ruins everything. The staging area, the master’s grand plan... it’s all completely meaningless against this. This can’t happen.

Then the slow, deliberate sound of Edric’s boot against the gravel snapped Rolf’s fractured mind back into focus.

Edric was walking toward him. But he wasn’t rushing. It was just a slow, inevitable march of execution.

Rolf scrambled backward, frantically dragging Yenna’s limp body with him. His grip on the dagger buried in her spine shook so violently his knuckles popped.

"Stay back!" Rolf shrieked, his voice cracking higher in pure, unadulterated panic.

"Take one more step, and she dies! I swear to the gods, I’ll sever her spine right now!"

Edric didn’t stop.

His boots continued to crush the loose stone, his glowing silver irises completely devoid of human warmth.

"Then do it," Edric said, his voice a flat.

Rolf’s breath hitched.

He was cornered like a rat in a trap, and the predator wasn’t playing by the rules.

"I am serious!" Rolf screamed, his hands trembling so badly he inadvertently shoved the poisoned blade a fraction of an inch deeper into Yenna’s vertebrae.

The sudden, blinding spike of agonizing pain violently jolted Yenna’s failing nervous system.

She let out a horrific, wet gasp, her eyes snapping open.

She coughed violently, a fresh splatter of dark, toxin-laced blood painting her lips and chin as consciousness dragged her mercilessly back into the nightmare.

She shuddered against Rolf’s chest, too weak to even lift her arms.

Edric’s expression didn’t shift a single millimeter at the sound of her pained gasp. He just took another slow step forward.

"I am serious, too," Edric replied.

Rolf’s grip slipped slightly on the bloody hilt of his dagger. His mind simply couldn’t process the absolute lack of hesitation.

"W-what?" Rolf stammered. "Don’t you care about her? Even a little?!"

"No."

The sheer terror in Rolf’s chest violently mutated into hysterical, hypocritical rage.

"You monster!" Rolf screamed, his eyes bulging wildly as he lashed out.

"She is your teammate! She fought beside you! She literally just tried to blow out her own mana core to avenge you! How can you be so utterly heartless?! You’re a cold-blooded psychopath! You’d just let her die like a dog?!"

Edric finally stopped walking.

He stood just a few feet away, the swirling black-and-silver mana casting terrifying, shifting shadows across his sharp features.

He tilted his head slightly, staring blankly at the rogue who was currently holding a poisoned knife inside a dying woman’s back.

"Oh," Edric whispered, his voice echoing with lethal, quiet irony. "Then what about you?"

"If I am a monster," Edric said, his voice echoing with a terrifying, hollow calm. "Then what does that make you, Rolf?"

Rolf gritted his teeth. "You’re bluffing! You belong with them! I know you’re just acting tough... you do care about her! Stop walking, or I will seriously kill her right now!"

Edric didn’t stop. "I don’t."

Then... he paused just a few feet away.

"But you do," Edric whispered softly. "Don’t you?"

Rolf’s eyes widened, his breath hitching in his throat.

"W-what the hell are you babbling about?!"

"If you didn’t care for her," Edric stated, his tone clinically dissecting the scene, "She would have been dead minutes ago. When she overloaded her core to blow us all to hell, you wouldn’t have knocked her out. You would have thrown her at me. It would have vaporized us both. But you stopped her."

"Shut up!" Rolf spat, his hands shaking. "I’m just—"

"And your blade work is sloppy," Edric interrupted, his silver eyes dropping to the dagger buried in Yenna’s back.

"You angled the blade. It’s a shallow wound which didn’t pierce any vital organs."

Yenna let out a weak, shuddering gasp.

"Stop talking!" Rolf shrieked.

Edric continued relentlessly, completely stripping away Rolf’s leverage.

"If that was a lethal neurotoxin, her veins would be blackening. But her mana is just sluggish. It’s a high-grade paralytic. You never planned to kill her. You planned to slaughter us, and take her away with you."

Rolf let out a primal, frustrated scream.

He realized he was completely read. His hostage was useless against a monster who saw right through the board.

Edric’s hand clamped around the hilt of his sword, his silver-black aura flaring to strike.

But the sheer terror of facing a Demon Hunter pushed Rolf’s reflexes to their absolute limit.

He moved faster than Edric anticipated. Dropping his free hand into his cloak, Rolf pulled out a small, intricately carved runestone and violently crushed it in his palm.

A blinding, geometric circle of spatial magic instantly erupted on the stone floor beneath his boots, humming with a high-pitched frequency.

Edric’s eyes widened.

He didn’t hesitate.

And lunged into the blinding light of the circle, driving his sword directly through Rolf’s right shoulder.

"GAAAAH!" Rolf screamed in absolute agony.

The physical shock forced Rolf’s hand to open. He lost his grip on the dagger, and Yenna slipped from his grasp.

Edric immediately caught Yenna by the waist, violently yanking her out of the runic circle just as the spatial magic reached its apex.

FWOOSH!

The cavern imploded with displaced air. Rolf vanished entirely, leaving behind nothing but the echo of his scream and a splatter of fresh blood on the stone.

The blinding light faded, plunging the corridor back into the dim, dusty gloom.

Edric stood there for a long moment, the silver-black mana violently boiling off his body before suddenly sputtering out.

His glowing eyes faded back to their normal.

The adrenaline crash hit him like a physical blow.

He staggered, his breathing suddenly ragged and harsh, dropping to one knee as he gently lowered Yenna to the ground, carefully.

Yenna coughed, a thin trail of blood slipping down her chin.

She stared up at him, her vision blurry but her voice remarkably steady despite the paralytic.

"Are you... okay?" she whispered.

Edric let out a tired, rattling exhale. He kept his hand pressed firmly against his bleeding gut. "It’s fine. Nothing much."

Silence fell between them, heavy and complicated.

Edric looked down at her. The arrogant, fiery brawler was completely helpless, her life literally resting in his hands.

"Sorry," Edric said quietly, his voice lacking any of its usual stoic distance.

Yenna blinked sluggishly, coughing up another speck of blood. "What?"

"I lied," he said softly. "About not caring about you. That was a lie."

"...You bastard!"