215

Chapter 215 — Life Is Cruel (10)

“We have to go there right now……!”

The Inquisitor instinctively turned.

Stagger.

But her body swayed helplessly.

The Sanctuary had already been released now that it was no longer needed, yet she still reeled.

The consequences of spending too much power all at once had been carved into her body.

She wiped at her burning-hot face and grabbed the battlement for support.

THUD!

“Ah. We’re screwed.”

Something rumbled.

At exactly the same moment Meister spoke in a flat voice, a chill ran down the Inquisitor’s neck.

She turned back toward the sea.

KIIIIIAAAAAAH!

The beast roared.

A tiny projectile had punched a hole through its neck and ravaged the inside of its shell.

Rustle.

But something new had been added to the sight.

Something pure white began crawling from within the wound.

“…Its head is splitting?”

A head resembling the turtle’s, yet thinner, narrower, and smoother, emerged from the hole.

The way it pushed itself out through the small wound looked almost like a new head growing.

Its scales gleamed a pale white even through the darkness of night.

For some reason, the sight felt nothing but ominous.

“No. That looks more like a snake.”

If it had truly been another turtle head, the two heads would not have looked different.

Nor would there be any reason for the turtle’s original head and neck to shrivel as though their insides had been emptied.

The pure-white head coiled around the turtle’s drooping head and neck in a spiral.

The turtle’s head, supported by the white creature, looked like thoroughly dried leather.

It did not move in the slightest.

“…For now, we should run. We don’t have another way to attack that thing.”

“You go. I’ll remain here.”

“Suit yourself. Hero, are you going to do the same?”

There was, however, one thing that could be understood with certainty from everything they were seeing.

“…I…”

The battle here was not over yet.

“…If I…”

And behind her were soldiers who had only just begun leaving the wall.

“If I withdraw from here, what happens to this place?”

Soldiers who would be crushed to death if no one stopped that monster from advancing.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the point when those on the wall had not yet even fired the first weapon—

I sprinted forward to recover the Zweihander lying all by itself on the ground.

Now that my longsword was destroyed, the Zweihander was the only weapon I had left.

I had no other option.

Ssssss.

The sword that had just been swallowed by lightning was insanely hot, but I ignored that too.

Whether my palm got cooked fighting with a weapon heated by lightning or got cooked blocking the lava that demon poured at me with my bare hands, it amounted to pretty much the same thing.

The faceless demon brought one pair of its three pairs of arms together, pressing the fingertips together as it laughed.

Rrrrrrrumble—

Oh, of course, that did not mean I could swing the Zweihander around however I pleased.

It might not break, but the True Zweihander was still an iron sword.

Metal attracted lightning.

Goddamn it.

So I snatched up the Zweihander, immediately shoved it into the Inventory, and threw myself aside almost in a roll.

Whirl.

The hem of my coat twisted around my body.

BOOM!

Lightning struck directly behind me by the narrowest margin.

My body, crouched—or sitting?—with part of the coat trapped beneath it, kicked hard against the ground.

My folded knees unleashed their force and launched me forward.

Back into the lava zone.

GRRRRRAAAK!

At that moment, stone spears came hurtling toward me from the front.

As an added bonus, spikes erupted half a beat late from every place my feet touched now that I had reentered the lava.

Forcing me to maintain maximum speed so I’d have trouble avoiding the stone spears coming from ahead.

Absolutely genius levels of malice.

But if that bastard thought being barehanded meant I couldn’t deal with those, it was mistaken.

I manipulated my Mana with such intense precision that it felt like squeezing my brain dry.

The goal was to protect my hand using the thinnest possible layer.

The bare minimum.

Tap.

Then I caught the first stone spear that reached me.

It felt a little like trying to catch an arrow.

The spear tried to slide through my palm from the friction, but I squeezed harder and swung it.

The stone spear spun as fast as a pinwheel and knocked away all the others.

Maybe because their durability was similar, they did not smash each other apart outright.

Instead, they ground each other down until they were ragged in seconds.

Well, I hadn’t expected it to last long anyway.

I drove the nearly shattered stone spear into an incoming volcanic bomb, dragged the bomb downward, and used the recoil to launch myself upward.

The spikes barely failed to pierce my heels.

My airborne body kicked another volcanic bomb.

Using nothing but the strength of my core, I jerked myself through the air once and landed somewhere without lava.

Then I pulled a dagger from the Inventory and threw it.

Rrrrrumble.

The clouds growled.

BOOM!

Just as I’d thought.

I had thrown the dagger into the highest piece of building rubble I could find, and lightning struck there almost immediately.

Electricity raced through the ground and tingled through me, but this much was tolerable.

I kept an eye out for places where I could plant daggers later as I avoided the heaving ground and the lava giant’s fist.

SPLASH!

Then, suddenly, water began filling the waterways.

Magma touching the water threw up clouds of steam before hardening in place.

Considering I’d nearly gotten myself trapped earlier by stepping into slow-moving lava pooled inside one of the channels, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As long as there was not enough water to cover all the magma, it was better for the lava in the channels to harden so I couldn’t fall into them.

And this would reduce the distance lava could spread through the waterways too.

Any lava touching water would solidify and form its own barrier.

Thinking about what came afterward, this was definitely better.

I deliberately ignored the question of why the water was rising and dragged my foot across the ground.

My boot scraped over stone, then flew into the air.

BOOM!

Two volcanic bombs slammed into the spot where I had just been.

[You’ve been doing nothing but dodging for a while now. You look like a guinea pig. Cute. Ah, do you know what a guinea pig is? It’s a rat about this big…….]

Guinea pigs are in the family Caviidae, not Muridae, so calling them rats is technically wrong, you ignorant demon bastard.

I thought of the guinea pig one of my friends used to raise and swallowed a breath.

If that guy heard this, he probably would’ve told the demon to stop radiating stupidity and fuck off before he caught it too.

Too bad.

WHAM!

Meanwhile, my body tore through the lava and landed a flying kick on one of the lava adds.

Honestly, I wanted to dropkick it.

But I wasn’t confident I could break my fall properly—and more importantly, the floor was lava—so I gave up on that idea.

Instead, I used the add I’d kicked down as a stepping stone and ran right over its body.

BOOM!

The volcanic bomb and stone spear that had buried themselves behind me exploded by a narrow margin, spraying lava.

Magma transformed into spikes in midair and narrowly reached for me.

GRRROOOOOO!

And that wasn’t all.

Apparently the lava giant had decided that punching me over and over wasn’t working, because it changed strategies and started vomiting.

Bleegh.

Lava poured down like rain, targeting the upper half of my body that I couldn’t protect.

[If you surrender even now, I might specially decide to keep you instead of killing you, Gretchen!]

“Fuck off.”

But I’d already gone through far too many shitty moments to submit because of something like this.

Hell, just today, getting hit by lightning had been worse.

That alone said everything.

I shot forward, avoiding most of the falling magma.

A few drops I failed to evade melted my clothes and left dark burns across my shoulder, but I could tolerate it.

Getting struck by lightning had been worse.

[Hahaha! Yes. Honestly, I didn’t expect you to accept anyway.]

Around then, the demon standing in the middle of the lava finally made a move.

Was it actually coming to me personally?

A thin sliver of hope appeared in my chest after those irritating ranged attacks had driven me half insane.

[If anything, I would’ve been suspicious if you’d actually accepted.]

A volcanic bomb flew at me instead.

You motherf—

BOOM!

Even more irritatingly, it was considerably different from a normal volcanic bomb.

I stared at the thing rolling toward me after swelling to an enormous size and covering itself in an armor of spikes.

A spiked ball now?

My lips moved soundlessly.

Several curses that would’ve been replaced by ♡♡ in a game with a profanity filter danced on my tongue.

It almost made my vow to swear less look ridiculous.

But honestly, wouldn’t even Buddha admit this one was justified?

The field itself forced me to spend Mana continuously just to move.

That meant I couldn’t recklessly use attacks that consumed Mana.

The enemy attacked nonstop, so I never got a proper damage window.

And the boss stood so far away that half the rare openings I did get were wasted just closing the distance!!

You’re telling me even Buddha wouldn’t get pissed off at this?!

PTOO!

And because the lava giant had started spitting, even the adds were doing similar shit now.

Since I was standing on lava and couldn’t roll, I twisted my whole body around trying to evade everything somehow.

Whenever things became truly dangerous, I briefly summoned the Zweihander from the Inventory.

Rrrrrrumble!

[To think the day would come when I completely overwhelmed you. The world truly is unpredictable.]

‘Put it away, you stupid bastard!’

“……!”

After nearly getting struck by lightning while holding it, though, I stopped daring to summon it at all.

WHAM!

Then, in the middle of working so hard to avoid the lightning, I discovered something new.

The lava adds exploded when struck by lightning.

They were already hot liquid, so they didn’t melt or shatter further, but apparently they couldn’t withstand the sudden energy pouring into them and burst apart on their own.

[It’d be disappointing if you got distracted!]

Then could that work on the lava giant too?

Could I blow up that fucking giant the same way?

Rrrrrumble!

As if on cue, the clouds howled.

Lightning would strike in roughly three seconds.

“Hup!”

I responded to what was gradually becoming an established attack pattern and glanced toward the demon’s hands.

The handful of pearls it held was pissing me off beyond belief.

Thnk!

In any case, the dagger I threw half in doubt buried itself blade-up in the lava giant’s forearm.

The lightning struck the giant’s arm in the very next instant.

The overcurrent traveled through the dagger acting as a lightning rod and entered the lava.

POP!

The giant’s arm exploded.

[……!]

“……!”

Its hand and forearm separated.

I’d thought maybe.

Just maybe.

And it actually fucking worked.

[Ha. You used it like that?]

Great.

From now on, the giant was my designated lightning rod.

I took advantage of the moment it lost an arm and shot forward.

Avoid the spiked ball.

Step onto a volcanic bomb and leap.

Now the demon was finally right in front of me.

Since I could no longer hear thunderclouds rumbling, I summoned the Zweihander and gripped it tightly with both hands.

“……!”

You fucking demon bastard.

Come here.

I had saved and saved my Mana, and now I even wrapped the blade in sword aura.

I wouldn’t get many chances to close the distance like this.

I had to deal as much damage as possible right now.

[I’ll praise you for that, Gretchen—!]

Suddenly, a shrill laugh rang through the air.

[I didn’t expect that!]

‘No! If you get closer—!’

Even as that laugh filled me with unease, I closed the remaining distance in a single burst.

Then I had the illusion that the faceless demon was grinning at me.

Splash!

The demon submerged into the lava and avoided the path of my blade.

This motherfucker?

Naturally, my common sense abandoned me on the spot.

‘Behind you!’

SPLASH!

But would my enemy kindly give me time to stand there bewildered?

Obviously not.

The moment I heard magma splashing unnaturally behind me, I reacted.

The sound came from directly behind me.

Near my feet.

GRRRAAAK!

I twisted as fast as possible and swept the Zweihander along the ground.

CLANG!

A hand that seemed to have been aiming to slice through the meat of my calf was stopped by the Zweihander.

Of course, the bastard had six hands—because fuck me—so I immediately backstepped.

Apparently it had been the right call.

Several of the demon’s hands sliced through the empty air where I had been standing.

[Huhuhuhuhahahahaha!]

Its unpleasant laughter bent through the air as the demon melted back into the magma.

I leapt backward almost as if flying, landed atop a piece of collapsed building debris, and heightened my senses as much as I could.

‘If that merchant bastard had only been able to come at me directly……!’

Fuck.

Beneath my razor-sharp reason, emotion boiled furiously.

[But… but Gretchen. It seems I’m stronger than you without your flame, now that I came prepared.]

Fuck.

Could a fight this unfair actually exist?

This was supposed to be a raid?

[Ahahahahahaha!]

This.

Something like this.

Rumble.

I was too far away to throw a dagger into the giant.

The moment the storm clouds growled, I threw the Zweihander as far away from myself as possible.

Lightning struck the ground by the narrowest margin.

BOOM!

The Zweihander began falling after taking the lightning strike.

“Goddamn it……!”

Meanwhile, the ground beneath my feet started heaving in preparation for a lava eruption.

I spotted the demon’s form appearing in the distance and watched another spiked ball rolling toward me.

My fist tightened.

BOOM!

Before the lava could erupt beneath me, I launched myself upward.

At the same time, I caught the red-hot Zweihander before it could plunge into the magma.

The leather on the hilt, warped by heat, stuck to my hand.

[I truly love that angry expression of yours. If you really were Wrath, I’d never get to see a face like that.]

Still gripping the sword in midair, I twisted my body, cut through an add, and ran to avoid the one-armed giant vomiting magma.

THUD!

The spiked ball blocked my path again.

But now I had a sword.

It was wasteful, but I extended sword aura along the Zweihander and split the thing apart, pushing beyond it.

Sections of the lava covering the ground began glowing in circular patterns.

Spikes erupted.

Above them, lightning crashed wildly and randomly all around me.

Read only on MUGEX

[Still, playtime is about over.]

Could I see those and dodge them?

The answer was no.

[A merchant doesn’t let an opportunity slip away because of carelessness.]

‘Fuck, move—!’

Realistically, avoiding something after seeing the light was impossible.

Obviously.

How was I supposed to move faster than light without even knowing where it would strike?

Until now, I’d either heard the thunder and lured it elsewhere, or simply sprinted at full speed and escaped the target zone.

With thunder and lightning exploding everywhere like this, even that was impossible.

KRAKABOOM!

“Ghk!”

‘Fuck!’

So I finally took a direct lightning strike.

Then one of the adds that erupted immediately afterward got a hit in too.

My body, unable even to react through the numbness, flew through the air and crashed down far away.

Even then, lightning struck my body twice more.

My vision flickered black, flashed white, then turned red.

This was bullshit.

Alongside a hollow laugh, a feeling of injustice slowly raised its head.

SHNK!

Even funnier, my luck with the landing point had hit rock bottom too.

Apparently a piece of collapsed building debris had pierced straight through my shoulder.

I felt a sharp impact.

Blood sprayed.

“Kh.”

Something ran from both my mouth and nose.

Judging by the flames dancing all around me, it seemed to be blood.

My entire body felt hot.

Hotter.

“…….”

Seriously.

All I could do was laugh.

[Let me ask. Do you think you’re going to die?]

…What meaning was there in a fight like this?

If it was all going to end this way anyway, what value was there in all the running I had done until my feet practically burned?

It was difficult to attack.

Every time I finally closed the distance, it meant nothing.

And in the end, I was simply going to get hit by a random attack and collapse anyway.

Then I…….

“Cough.”

I didn’t bother holding back the blood surging up my throat.

My vision repeatedly blurred and sharpened as my focus shook.

For some reason, the field of view itself felt strange.

Like it had shrunk to two-thirds its normal size.

[If you think you’re going to die, tell me. I need to preserve you.]

Mm.

Ah.

Did one of my eyes get cooked?

I thought about how I could now add “having an eyeball cooked” to the list of things I’d experienced, then put strength into my legs and shoulder.

If someone asked why I was still moving when it hurt this much, well.

I think it was already too late to look for a reason.

Fighting demons was closer to inertia now than determination or resolve.

An inertia no different from taking another step toward that illusion called an ending.

Sliiide.

So even in a situation so absurd it only made me laugh, I forced myself upright.

The piece of wood piercing my shoulder slid free as I moved.

Blood poured from the hole left by the sharpened splinter.

[And yet you still have enough strength to stand. Impressive in its own way.]

Fuuuuuuuck.

I’m killing whoever designed one of the handful of Great Demon raids to be cleared blind on the first attempt.

I’m absolutely killing whatever operator shoved a brand-new raid with no guide in front of players and said, “Go clear it.”

I somehow covered the emptiness with jokes and pulled out a dagger to stop the bleeding.

The dagger, glowing red after being dipped into magma once before, pressed directly against the wound.

Sssssss.

Cauterizing the injury with fire.

A bleeding treatment method passed down since ancient times.

Probably.

If not, whatever.

[Weren’t you human? Could humans always be this hard to kill?]

Did it still feel disgusting even when the pain setting reduced the actual pain?

That realization gave me a whole new reason to get pissed off.

I exhaled hot air.

Stagger.

Even if I could not properly feel the pain, damage was still accumulating honestly throughout my body, and I swayed for a moment.

[Well… I suppose you’d have to be at least that stubborn to suppress Wrath despite being nothing but a vessel.]

Still, I could not stop.

I couldn’t.

‘If you think it’s unfair, then get angry.’

Like I’d already said, I’d come too far to stop now.

‘Then I’ll kill that thing for you.’

Creeeeak.

A metallic screech came from somewhere.

My fist twitched.

Boom. Bang.

The sounds of fierce fighting reached me from the distant wall.

‘I’ll tear that bastard apart somehow……!’

That was another reason I couldn’t stop.

‘Fuck, so get angry already! Stop hogging control!!’

My body, apparently cooked half to death after being struck by lightning twice, finally stood completely upright.

“I’ll kill you.”

Where was the Zweihander?

Ah.

Had I put it away?

Yeah.

It felt like it was inside the Inventory.

“Demon.”

My body stepped forward again.

[As if I’d stand here and let you.]

‘Fuck!’

BOOM!

Suddenly, tremendous pressure struck my entire body.

I had no idea what attacked me.

Maybe lightning.

Maybe something else.

Not even a scream came out.

My thoughts were cut apart and stitched back together over and over.

It felt like I had skipped through time.

Even the pain had retreated so far away that it gave me no sensation at all.

The world was white.

“……!”

[…But the entrance to the Pantheon is complete.]

THUD.

A few seconds passed like that.

Or maybe several minutes.

My mind barely returned and began feeling its way through the world.

Beyond my distant senses, I could faintly tell that something was pressing my body down.

My dim vision blinked and finally saw what was crushing me.

[Now not even the Hero can stop it.]

What had flattened me was an enormous hand of stone.

…Ha.

A laugh escaped before I knew it.

[Go, demons.]

So this was unwinnable from the beginning.

I could never have won.

[As of today, the destruction of the East begins!]

I stared blankly beyond the faceless demon.

A black temple had revealed itself openly.

Countless hordes of demons were pouring from within.

Apparently what that thing had been preparing was something like an infinite summoning formation.

If I’d known, I would have destroyed the ritual altar first even if it meant sacrificing my whole body.

‘Goddamn it. Hey, are you still dragging your feet?!’

…No.

Even if I had known, could I actually have destroyed it?

I remembered every attempt I had made being rendered meaningless, then closed my dry, rustling eyelids.

‘Maybe that bastard doesn’t know how the mechanism works, but you do!’

There was no way.

Even if I’d known, I wouldn’t have been able to stop it.

I knew that from my entire body, which had no strength left—hell, it didn’t even feel like I still had arms and legs attached.

No matter how badly I wanted to stop that thing, I couldn’t.

[It starts with this city. Kill every human in it.]

Yeah.

I couldn’t stop it.

Because I was too weak.

Because that thing was too strong.

Because that bastard had broken through any reasonable concept of balance so completely that there was no way I could win.

‘Everyone’s going to die at this rate! Not just you and me—everyone in this whole region!’

Fuuuuuck.

Was this even a game?

Something like this.

Something this fucking—

The sorrow of lacking power swelled inside me.

Then frustration at the injustice and absurdity joined it.

Why the fuck did I have to go through bullshit like this?

Rage, painfully vivid, flowed down over my melted and distorted skin.

Why did I have to fight something so unfair?

The emotion finally took shape, sliding past the deeply shadowed corner of my eye, toward my ear, around the hollow of it, and down the back of my head.

Among a body that no longer obeyed me, as though the nerves had been cut, it was the only thing still reflecting my will.

‘You seriously don’t give a damn?!’

Even that, though, seemed to be slipping beyond my control.

My hands and feet felt like they had vanished completely.

Even turning my head was difficult now.

Honestly, thinking itself had become difficult too.

My mind kept threatening to turn white, like I had been awake for three days straight.

Thoughts no longer felt like thoughts.

Thinking no longer felt like thinking.

Everything was hazy.

I wanted to sleep.

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!’

…If I slept like this, it would be peaceful.

‘Fuck. Get up. Get up!’

…If I died like this, then I wouldn’t have to—

‘Get up!’

…Ah.

[Um, Lord of the Pantheon. What should we do with that one?]

[Just prepare to fight. Wrath will wake up soon.]

I barely managed to remember the lord’s words and forced my eyelids open.

『The lives of everyone evacuating are all in your hands.』

I still had something left to do.

[Yes, sir.]

So.

So I squeezed out the last of my strength.

Conveniently, the giant stone hand had stopped pressing down on me and was moving aside.

The sky opened overhead.

Rustle.

A signal flare appeared in my empty hand.

[Huh?]

Tap.

I forced my arm to move and struck the bottom of the flare against the ground.

The trigger activated.

The flare began functioning.

FWEEEEEEEEEE!

[Whoa! Lord of the Pantheon, that guy moved!]

[What? Still not yet?]

A thought passed faintly through my mind.

Was there even anyone left who could come here?

Did the Hero’s party have enough strength remaining to reach this place?

But…

Even if they didn’t, that was fine.

Even if they couldn’t help me…

At least the flare would tell them how dangerous this place had become.

POP!

The light fired into the sky and burst.

That was the last thing I saw.

「…You’ve worked so hard. Now… you can rest.」

My vision cut out along with that gentle comfort.

Crash.

Something shattered.