Chapter 223 — The World Is (8)
「…Then I’ll ask you one last question.」
「If… you had two choices—one path that would guarantee you could return home, and another that would make your path home uncertain but would guarantee that you could save everyone… which one would you choose……?」
* * *
The sensation of releasing stubbornness maintained for thirty years was incredibly freeing—
and even more painful.
That was only natural.
Even back then, the pain had been something she had lacked the confidence to endure.
She had hidden it by deceiving herself into believing the bonfire she had made was the sun.
“Hngh.”
But the situation was far too poor for her to remain trapped in that anguish.
[Th-The, s-snake.]
“If it weren’t for you.”
Would she never have tasted this pain if a situation that threatened her life had not arrived?
Even if it had not happened now, wasn’t this a sight she would eventually have had to face?
But who cared about any of that?
Berserk picked up a stone with eyes bloodshot red.
Loss hurt too much.
That was the important thing.
Whether it was something she would eventually have had to endure was not especially important.
Neither was the fact that facing it was truly the right thing for her sister, or the right choice for herself.
What actually mattered was that she was hurting now—
and the perfect target on which to vent the anger born from that pain was standing directly in front of her.
[Y-You sh-shouldn’t, g-get angry.]
Berserk smiled faintly at the demon awkwardly imitating human speech.
Because of the structure of its mouth, it would probably spend its entire life speaking human language with clumsy pronunciation.
Fortunately for it, it was far better at moving its body than speaking.
[I-I-I t-took good c-care of t-the t-turtle.]
“I’m going to kill you.”
Not that it mattered.
She was going to kill that body too.
Driven by an emotion she could no longer tell was her own will or an impulse created by Demonic Energy, she rushed forward.
Even as her reason was shaved away, her body faithfully obeyed the commands of her mind and accelerated in an instant.
SPLAAASH.
The water pushed aside by her movement grew steadily deeper until it swallowed even her waist.
Blood seeped between her torn wounds, worsening both contamination and madness.
The black veins rising across her entire body began bulging grotesquely beneath her skin.
[D-Don’t know. D-D-Diiie.]
At last, her body and the enormous merman drew close.
BANG!
The instant the merman’s tail slammed into the ground, the blood parted to either side, exposing what lay beneath it.
Of course, Berserk was not crushed there.
Splash.
She avoided the tail by a paper-thin margin.
Having anticipated that the current would split, she had flattened herself in advance before finally releasing the breath she had held.
The blood that had surrounded her retreated in every direction and no longer restrained her.
The stench of blood stabbed at the lining of her nose.
KABOOM!
Ignoring the sticky blood, she drove force into her feet.
Now that the blood that had reached her waist had receded, her body could move much more freely.
She shot several meters straight upward.
SLASH!
Not to be outdone, the merman swung its claws.
Too short.
She watched one hand pass without even reaching her, then focused on the next.
Whether it meant to slash her or seize her, that hand would serve perfectly well as a foothold.
THUD!
Before the enormous fingers could close around her, Berserk stepped on one and sprang away, hurling the stone in her hand.
As her body spun and landed on the opposite side, the rock struck the center of the merman’s brow.
She had aimed for its eye.
A pity.
The slick hide caused the stone to glance away after leaving only a small scrape.
SKREEEE!
The merman’s tail moved freely and came crashing down toward where she had landed.
Berserk easily avoided it—
then grabbed it instead.
It was slippery, but there was something resembling a handle—the fin growing from its tail—so it was surprisingly suitable for swinging.
Despite the tremendous weight, veins stood out across her arms.
Then the merman’s entire body began moving according to her will.
“Hup!”
She spun round and round, adding centrifugal force, then hurled the merman away.
Straight toward the island-like space in the middle of the Blood Lake (血湖).
BOOM.
The merman somehow landed in the center of the island while avoiding the concave protrusion there.
Or perhaps it had actually struck it, and the protruding part had simply been too hard to break.
Either possibility was irrelevant.
[H-How d-d-dare.]
She had no taste for throwing an enemy somewhere and simply standing still.
Before the blood scattered by the impact could flow back, she sprinted across the exposed ground.
Her torn and ruined traditional clothing fluttered behind her, reduced to little more than scraps.
[I-If t-the t-turtle g-gets hurt, t-the s-snake g-gets angry.]
BANG!
Then she launched herself so violently that the movement of the air itself almost seemed visible.
Her body reached the merman in a single instant.
[G-Gets a-angry! I s-said it g-gets angry!!!]
SLASH!
As though refusing to simply take the attack, the merman swept its claws through empty space and carved the air apart.
But she was smaller than the merman.
That might have disadvantaged her when attacking, but it made evasion easier.
Whoosh.
With almost acrobatic skill, she twisted her body out of the way and struck the merman’s stomach.
The creature was not carrying eggs, nor did it possess scales.
Its slick hide appeared to disperse some of the force, but that did not reduce the impact to zero.
The merman still possessed bones and organs.
SKREEECH!
For that reason, the dull pain immediately irritated the creature.
Its huge body moved calmly as it drove its claws into the space directly before it.
Berserk’s feet shifted into the exact position needed to avoid them.
THUD!
Her roundhouse kick immediately slammed into the merman’s arm.
The attack was aimed in the direction opposite the joint’s natural bend.
[G-Get out! G-Get o-out of h-h-here!]
But apparently she lacked the strength to break it outright.
Merely angered, the merman swung its arm after her while Berserk leaped backward and avoided the attack.
If only she had a weapon.
Something sharp would have been useful.
The final thread of reason left to her demanded a tool, frustrated by fists and legs that achieved little against the creature’s slick hide.
“Ha!”
Then even that thread snapped.
A tool?
A tooool??
What weakness!
She was already holding the greatest weapon of all.
Her strong body.
Her refined muscles.
Every one of her sharpened five senses!
She needed no tool.
Her flesh alone was enough to kill that thing.
A tool might shorten the time required, but there was no reason to go searching for one merely to turn something impossible into something possible.
“I’ll show you how a Weapon Master fights, demon!”
Weapon Master.
The world misunderstood the title to mean one who can wield every weapon.
Its true meaning, however, was one who can turn anything into a weapon.
Living up to that name, the woman who could turn even her own body into a weapon gritted her teeth and drove out a straight punch.
The attack, executed through control of every individual strand of muscle, slipped past the merman’s assault and smashed into the back of its knee.
SKREE!
A merman’s body and a human’s were very different.
But if both possessed limbs and a head, some structures inevitably overlapped.
Berserk targeted exactly those points.
The merman’s leg twisted slightly when struck behind the knee.
THUD!
She did not stop there.
Using the fact that her body was smaller than the merman’s, she continued attacking from the awkward space between its legs.
Following the visible flow of muscle even beneath the creature’s slippery skin, she estimated the positions of the bones inside and attacked its joints in what she judged to be the most efficient manner.
Naturally, the merman did not simply stand there and allow it.
If only it could have.
The creature was too large.
And with that size came too many blind spots.
Enough that even Berserk, whose reason was being torn away thread by thread by Demonic Energy, could evade the attacks through instinct alone once reason was gone.
Several times she changed position.
Several times she trampled over its tail and arms.
Then she landed on the ground once more.
The wrist supporting her body in place of her legs twisted and sent a rotation through her entire frame.
Her roundhouse kick drove into the joint against its natural direction—
and at last the leg buckled.
SKREEEEEECH!!!
The merman screamed and toppled sideways.
“Ahah, ahahahahaha!!!”
Berserk skillfully avoided the falling body and erupted into crazed laughter.
Blood streamed continuously from red eyes in which reason could no longer be seen.
“Die!!”
A merman was not the sort of creature whose life ended merely because one leg was broken.
So she leaped upward, avoided the sweep of its tail, seized the shattered leg with savage determination—
and tore it off.
The cartilage binding bone to bone ripped apart.
Muscles tore.
Blood poured out in torrents.
The merman screamed even louder, thrashing its tail and limbs.
But Berserk already held a new weapon.
One must not forget that mermen had sharp claws.
CRACK!
After tearing off the leg, she ripped away the toes as well and swung the claws hanging from them.
In that instant, the sharpness capable of cutting even their original owner became poison.
SLASH!
The merman’s limbs were severed in moments, and even its tail was cut in half.
It was almost impressive that the creature’s life still had not ended.
“Hrrgh.”
But it would soon die.
Berserk laughed in a phlegmy voice and climbed atop the twitching merman.
She no longer needed the claws.
Instead, she broke off something resembling a protruding bone and gripped it as though holding a stone.
『You—! What the hell are you doing—?!』
『What you wanted.』
『You fucking bastard! You think this is the kind of dogfight I wanted!? What I wanted was……!』
『A sacred duel and an honorable death. I know. I know, and that is precisely why I’m doing this.』
『……!』
『Die as miserably as possible, Skoll.』
『You fucking brat—』
The past faintly passed through her mind—
then vanished as madness devoured it.
CRUNCH!
The fragment of bone, faint Mana seeping through it, shattered the merman’s scalp and crushed its skull.
It was similar to the time she had smashed her master’s head apart.
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Crack.
And where that blood splattered, inside the concave protrusion rising from the center of the island, a reaction occurred without her knowledge.
A crack formed across the round egg resting there.
* * *
If that was the question, then I…
I definitely wanted to go home.
I wanted to go home, but……
That didn’t mean I could coldly abandon the Inquisitor and everyone else to do it.
If it were just a matter of saying goodbye, maybe.
But this would be like leaving them inside a blazing inferno and running away alone to save myself.
On the other hand, if my return became uncertain…
put differently, that meant the possibility of going home wasn’t disappearing completely.
In other words, I might still be able to return someday.
So I…
I wanted to choose the option that would definitely save people.
Because, to me, that was the more righteous thing to do.
「Even after you’ve suffered so much all this time?」
That was true, but shouldn’t we be precise about this?
It was true that I’d suffered and struggled, but that was because of certain people hiding in the background, refusing to come out, and refusing to explain anything.
If they’d cooperated, I feel like I would’ve gotten over all this a long time ago and gone, All right, let’s do this!
And yeah.
More importantly, was any of that the fault of the people in this city?
Did any of those reasons justify abandoning them?
No.
They didn’t.
「…….」
So I’m fine.
I’m fine.
I’m fine, so…
if there’s some method you can use, use it.
You only brought this up because there’s something you can do if I postpone going home, right?
「…I’m sorry.」
I did not answer.
Suddenly, it felt as though the warmth that had been supporting my head vanished.
My vision, which had never opened in the first place, instead sank completely into darkness.
* * *
Deathbringer clenched his fist while holding the goggles Meister had given him over his eyes.
Aim for the Great Demon?
Aim for the structure?
Aim for the sealed person?
After a long period of deliberation, the choice he had made seemed to have worked quite well.
The structure that resembled a Temple was no longer spitting out demons.
Risking their lives to come all the way here had been worth it.
“What happened?!”
“The demon nest went quiet!”
“That’s good!”
He hadn’t aimed for the Great Demon because the target was small and there was a high chance the attack would be blocked.
He hadn’t chosen the sealed person because, beyond breaking the seal, the shot might strike the person inside as well.
And there was no guarantee that person would immediately become useful combat power.
But what about the structure that had been pouring out soldiers without end?
There was a possibility the attack wouldn’t work on that either.
But if it did, they could stop the demons from continually increasing their forces.
A manageable risk, paired with a result that was reliably worthwhile.
That was why he had chosen it.
And fortunately, it had worked.
A very good sign.
“Uh…….”
Of course, the flock of flying demons now taking off all at once toward them—apparently under the demon’s orders—was not particularly good news.
“We expected it, but we’re fucking screwed.”
“The Great Demon or the lackeys?”
“The lackeys. But there were way more flying types than I thought.”
“We’re fucked.”
Still, they had anticipated something like this, so neither fell into panic.
They had only anticipated it and failed to prepare for it—
naturally enough.
Aside from a few personal talents, they were essentially ordinary people—
so their survival prospects were somewhat concerning.
But still.
“I have good news and bad news.”
“There can actually be good news right now?”
“I think we can fire one more shot.”
“That’s fucking excellent news.”
“But we probably won’t have it ready before those things get here. Absolutely impossible.”
“That’s fucking terrible news.”
Feeling as though he were being alternately doused in freezing and boiling water, Deathbringer forced himself to move.
Sure.
Just because their chances of surviving here were close to zero didn’t mean they should simply give up and die.
Deathbringer preferred living over dying.
Meister preferred it even more.
So, just as they had agreed, the two gathered their things and moved in whatever way might keep them alive.
First floor.
Basements.
Waterways where collapsing buildings had blocked off the places seawater could enter.
Everywhere became part of their escape route.
KABOOM!
“Fuck, they’re fast!”
“Damn it. The water’s rising!”
“What?! You said this place wouldn’t flood even if we blew the waterways!”
“When did I say that!? I said there was a high probability it wouldn’t flood!”
“That’s the same damn thing!”
“It’s different! It is different! You think one hundred percent and eighty percent are the same thing?!”
Neither wanted a flying demon to tear off their head, so they moved exclusively through spaces where the larger flying creatures could not properly shove their heads inside.
A slight error in calculation had left some of the waterways flooded, but even that was something they could deal with.
They sprinted madly through the channels, holding the magical device that was practically their lifeline as carefully as if carrying a child.
The demons perched above clacked their beaks and tried to peck them apart.
“You motherfucking…….”
But even that escape route eventually became blocked.
The flying demons finally brought down a building and sealed the way ahead.
And as though they had dug their own grave, the waterways they had destroyed to help the Hero struggling against the lava now began tightening around their own throats.
The water was rising.
“There’s a hole over there. Let’s get out through it.”
“Good call.”
They couldn’t remain inside a flooding waterway.
The device getting wet would be disastrous, and they were far too exposed to the demons.
For now, the only creatures present were flying types too large to catch them in here.
But if something small enough to enter appeared, they would be in serious trouble.
So they entered a building through the hole.
Only a single stone wall separated the waterway from the house’s basement, and part of that wall had collapsed enough to permit passage.
BANG! KABOOM!
Naturally, the demons were not blind.
The instant the two entered the building, the creatures erupted into chaos.
Even without seeing it, they could tell the wooden first and second floors would soon be smashed apart and collapse completely.
BOOM, BOOM!
But the houses here had been built packed tightly together.
Moving in perfect sync, Deathbringer and Meister broke down a wall before the demons could.
The neighboring house welcomed them.
“Keep going! Farther!”
They climbed through windows to cross alleys barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through—
avoiding the demons’ eyes was difficult, but it was still better than throwing away their lives—
and occasionally broke through walls as they passed through several more houses.
Fortunately, the flying demons remained focused on the first building they had entered.
At least for this moment, they could breathe.
The two dropped into the corridor of a house and desperately supplied oxygen to the skin that had gone deathly pale.
“I never want to do a chase like that again.”
“…I hate agreeing with you, but I’m with you on that one.”
Why were ordinary people having a chase scene with demons?
They writhed in self-loathing, but neither regretted their decision by thinking, We should’ve just run away from the start.
“…This time, phew. I’ll admit it. Never thought the day would come when someone as catastrophically stupid as you would help me.”
“Either insult me or compliment me. Pick one. But yeah, you did pretty well too.”
What they had just accomplished was something only the two of them could have done.
It was their best.
Something they could proudly boast of before anyone.
“That being said, let’s fire one more time.”
“What, you bastard?”
“You said we can shoot again.”
“You want to do what we just did again? You’re completely insane.”
“What we did helped the Hero and the city, sure, but it wasn’t enough to completely overturn the battle. We need another shot.”
“Ha. You think I don’t know that……?”
Meister stared at Deathbringer in exasperation, then grabbed their head.
Their rational mind had, in fact, reached much the same conclusion.
“…Damn it. Fine, let’s do it! Our chances of getting out of here alive are already close to zero. What difference is one more insane thing going to make?”
If they were going to die anyway, they might as well burn themselves out properly.
Backing away merely because they were afraid would leave them unable to accomplish anything.
Meister’s pride stood rigidly upright.
For Deathbringer, who had abandoned any expectation of returning alive from the very beginning, that was good news.
“Let’s go up. We need to set up in a tall building.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
They picked up the equipment they had so carefully carried this far and stepped onto the stairs.
Fortunately, the building they were currently inside was the tallest one nearby, so they did not need to search for anything higher.
Meister settled beside a third-floor window and began rebuilding the equipment.
“Two amplifiers are broken, so we won’t get anything close to the output from before. Stability’s gone to shit too, so it might not fire at all. It might even explode. We could just attract every demon in the area and gain absolutely nothing. You prepared for that?”
“Fuck, I prepared for all that before I came here.”
“Good.”
Each destroyed amplifier caused the output to plummet.
And only three amplifiers remained.
They had to assume they would not achieve anything close to full power.
Compared to the first shot, the difference would be like a sword versus a toothpick.
“The target… the Great Demon?”
“…No. Let’s aim for that instead.”
“What? The seal?”
“I don’t think we’ll accomplish much by targeting the Great Demon. If that’s the case, we might as well free one person.”
“I doubt freeing that one is going to accomplish much either.”
Meister clicked their tongue while looking where Deathbringer pointed.
“But… fine. I’ll trust your judgment this once.”
Deathbringer’s decisions on the way here had usually been right.
So Meister decided to trust him again.
The completed barrel aimed at the cocoon sealing the person inside.
They couldn’t risk hitting the person directly and melting them, so the trajectory was deliberately shifted slightly away from the body.
“Then here we—!?”
KABOOM!
Before Meister could activate the device, the entire building shook.
“Damn it! They found us!”
Deathbringer drew the Corruption Sword and thrust it forward.
CRRRACK!
The building’s wall was ripped away a moment later.
“Don’t worry about me! Just shoot!”
If they turned the barrel now, they might be able to kill the demon directly in front of them.
Deathbringer rejected that option before Meister could even consider it.
KABOOM!
And so Meister had no choice but to respect his decision.
With an explosive roar, a beam of light stretched across the city.
[Ah.
Finally.]
Someone awakened.