Birthing Legends: My Womb Creates SSS Monsters

Chapter 275: Wait… They’re Alive? The Adventurers Who Ruined My Home Are Back?! — Part 2.

Without breaking eye contact with the horrified crowd, Erwin drew a small dagger from his belt. He pressed the tip against his index finger, slicing the skin just enough to draw a thick bead of dark red blood. He held his hand over the black steel, letting the droplet fall directly onto the faded markings.

The moment the blood struck the metal, it didn’t smear. It was instantly sucked into the grooves like water into parched earth.

The black steel suddenly shuddered, the markings flaring with a violent, crimson light. A sudden, oppressive wave of mana erupted from the steel, bursting outward through the entire hall. The temperature in the Guild plummeted, and the bright orange flames of the torches and chandeliers violently swayed and flickered, threatening to go out as a heavy, suffocating darkness seemed to bleed into the air.

Several low ranking adventurers fell to their knees, clutching their chests under the sheer weight of the aura.

"This... this pressure. It’s exactly like the history described. This is definitely the same feeling of a Demon Lord..."

"It’s real," a merchant wailed, backing toward the exit in absolute terror. "The legends weren’t exaggerating! The Demon Lord is real, and it’s waking up!"

"Ignite our hearts... we are doomed," a receptionist muttered, her face pale as she stared at the pulsing metal.

Erwin suddenly raised the pulsing black steel high above his head, his voice booming with the confidence of a conqueror to settle the rising panic.

"Worry no more!" he shouted, his golden armor reflecting the flickering torchlight. "Though the threat was grave, my party and I did not merely investigate. We fought. We bled. And we successfully slain the Demon Lord and its entire growing army!"

The effect was instantaneous. The suffocating tension in the room snapped, replaced by a wave of relieved murmurs. People who had been backing toward the door stopped in their tracks, their faces flooding with color as they realized the "omen" in the room was actually a trophy of victory.

Erwin gestured to the black metal, which was slowly dimming as it consumed the last of his blood.

"This steel is but a fragment of the Demon Lord’s magic—a remnant of the darkness we purged. We have all felt its weight today. We have seen what this dark mana is capable of, and we know why it is so dangerous."

He paused, his expression turning grim and sanctimonious.

"It is dangerous because this power does not belong to this world. It comes from the deepest abyss... from the Primordial Evil, Satan. The most dangerous primordial to ever exist."

A shiver ran through the crowd at the mention of the name. In the theology of Prometha, there was no greater shadow. To the common folk, the logic was simple: if the steel felt this foul, it had to be linked to the ultimate darkness.

"He’s right!" a veteran yelled, slamming his fist onto a table. "Only that Kind of evil could produce such a chill!"

"Victory to Captain Erwin!" another shouted.

Soon, the entire Guild hall was a sea of raised arms and fervent cries.

"Defeat the evil!" they roared in unison. "Exterminate every monster that would dare make a pact with the Primordial Evil! Cleanse the land!"

Standing in the shadow of the cheering crowd, Maddy felt a cold, dry irony settle in her chest. She watched Erwin bask in the glory of "slaying" a Demon Lord that she knew was still very much alive—herself.

But more importantly, she looked at the black steel. She knew its origins weren’t from some ancient devil, but seeing how easily the humans latched onto a name like ’Satan’ to justify their fear made her realize just how deep the lie truly went.

Beside her, even Johnn was swept up in the emotion, his hand still gripping hers as he cheered along with the rest, oblivious to the fact that the "evil" they were cursing was currently standing right next to him, holding his hand.

Maddy felt the warmth of his hand, but the words echoing through the hall—Satan, Primordial Evil, Exterminate—felt like a physical weight pressing against her skin. The irony wasn’t just cold; it was suffocating.

Slowly, she untangled her fingers from Johnn’s grip. The sudden loss of contact made him blink, his cheers dying down as he turned to her. Without a word, Maddy turned her back on the celebration and began to push through the crowd toward the exit.

"Hey! Maddy!" Johnn shouted over the roar of the "victory" party. "Where are you going? We still need to report the quest! We need our stamps!"

Maddy didn’t stop. She didn’t even look back.

"Go alone," she called out, her voice flat and distant, barely audible over the chanting adventurers.

"But the payment!" Johnn scrambled a few steps after her, but the density of the celebrating crowd blocked his path. "The gold! Tell you what, if you stay, we can split it, or, actually, you know what? It’s all yours! I’ll give you my whole share, just don’t walk out like that!"

The offer of gold, which usually would have caught her attention, did nothing. Maddy simply kept walking, her cloak swirling around her ankles as she pushed open the heavy guild doors.

The cool afternoon air of Prometha hit her face, a sharp contrast to the sweat and fanaticism inside. She left the partying guild behind, the sound of the humans cheering for a genocide they thought they had already committed fading into the background.

However, as the doors swung shut, she wasn’t entirely unnoticed.

In the center of the hall, amidst the praise and the glory, Erwin’s gaze shifted. He ignored the veteran adventurers clinking mugs near him and narrowed his eyes, taking a long, calculating stare at Maddy’s retreating figure.

There was something about the way she walked, the lack of fear, the lack of celebration, and that brief, violet flicker in her eyes, that didn’t sit right with the "son of the Hero."

He watched the door settle into place, the silence of her exit screaming louder to him than the cheers of the crowd.