Chapter 18 — I Was Kind of Hoping to See What She Would Do
In the depths of the forest, a young man wearing a suit of armor and a girl wearing a stage performer’s outfit were facing off against each other: Suguru Yazaki, the General, and Sora Akino, the Idol. Behind Yazaki were four others: a boy in a business suit, the Consultant Haruto Ootori; a girl wearing a similar outfit, the Beauty Coordinator Asuha Kouriyama; a girl in a cheerleader’s outfit, the Cheerleader Yui Ootani; and lastly a girl wearing a thick apron, the Dressmaker Runa Harufuji. All of them were carrying swords, standing in a formation headed by Yazaki.
“Looks like you’ve built up a bit of a harem, haven’t you?” Sora sneered. “I wouldn’t have imagined you could pull together such a large group in a free-for-all like this.”
“These four have bet their lives on me,” Yazaki replied.
None of those supporting him had much in the way of combat ability on their own. But with Yazaki’s Group Command skill, there was a chance they could survive together. Alone, they couldn’t possibly stand against the others, so why not bet everything on a natural leader?
Haruto had planted the idea in their heads. For these girls, who couldn’t bring themselves to kill their classmates and had all but given up, his words were exactly the out they were looking for. At the very least, their chances of surviving the first hour would improve. While it didn’t solve the ultimate problem they were facing, it at least gave them more time.
“As long as we survive, we have a chance to get stronger,” he continued. “Then we can try to take down the Sage. If we’re going to die anyway, we might as well go all out. That’s what we’ve decided, anyway.”
“In that case it shouldn’t matter who you kill, but you went out of your way to target me. Are you that bitter about me being in charge of the class?”
Haruto’s Problem Resolution skill allowed him to access an archive of all the information housed in this world. Since it took time to decompress the information he retrieved, he couldn’t use it to learn things in real time, so pinpointing the exact locations of their classmates was impossible. But by limiting the information he was drawing from the database, he could at least get a general impression of where they were.
“If you want to cooperate with us, we won’t kill you,” Yazaki offered. “You’re more than welcome to join us. Your Oath skill would be quite useful.”
“So, you were planning on adding me to your harem? Unfortunately, I’ll have to decline.”
“That’s too bad.”
With negotiations having broken down, Yazaki instructed his subordinates to attack. The five of them moved to surround Sora, perfectly in sync thanks to the abilities of the General class.
“Siege Formation!”
“Oh, you’re actually going to surround the enemy this time?”
Siege Formation was a variation of the Formation skill that the General class possessed. Even without encircling the opponent, it gave them the benefit of having done so, forcing their enemies to stay within a limited area. On top of that, it empowered the area-of-effect attacks of the soldiers within the formation, allowing them to fight large numbers of opponents at once.
The fight was five against one. It was unlikely that someone with a class like Idol would have much in the way of combat ability, so they assumed it would be a short encounter, but the soldiers in Yazaki’s army suddenly froze.
Sora wasn’t alone. A number of others had appeared, surrounding her — a crowd so large it was impossible to believe they had been there beforehand.
“Oh, did you think I was out here wandering on my own? An Idol is made by her fans, remember?” Sora had never participated in combat directly, but she’d still always had the utmost confidence in her abilities. Haruto had figured she had some sort of trick up her sleeve, and clearly this was it. He didn’t know the particulars, but it seemed she could instantly summon her “fans.” The fact that Haruto couldn’t see through to the true nature of her skill indicated how high-level it really was.
“Who cares?! We’ll take them down with you! The whole point of the Siege Formation is to fight multiple enemies at once!” Asuha cried, slashing at the crowd surrounding Sora.
Those who had received the Gift had the bare minimum of strength necessary to survive in this world. Even the support classes boasted physical strength far greater than any ordinary person, and had automatically gained a basic proficiency with weapons. So even though her class was Beauty Coordinator, the average person stood no chance against Asuha. Her sword sliced through Sora’s fans like they were nothing. They didn’t seem to have any special abilities.
But suddenly, Asuha found herself restrained from behind. Haruto looked around to find that it was they who were now surrounded. Their group of five had encircled Sora, but her fans had positioned themselves around the five of them in turn.
“We can still take them! We’re strong enough to handle this many!” Yazaki shouted in encouragement.
He was right. Though she had been taken by surprise, Asuha should have been able to throw off the fans holding her without a problem. But before she could, they exploded.
Being in physical contact with them, Asuha had no way of avoiding the blast. By the time the spray of blood had cleared, the top half of her body had vanished along with the people holding her.
“Y-You! You forced your own friends to self-destruct?!”
“They’re my fans, aren’t they? It’s only natural they would lay down their lives for me.”
This was bad; far worse than Haruto had first suspected. At this rate, it didn’t seem like sticking with Yazaki would be the correct choice. He had thought it best to stay with the group for a while to see how things played out, but that would no longer be wise. He should retreat.
With that thought, he glanced over at Yazaki, but the sight took him completely by surprise. The right half of the General’s body was gone. Or rather, everything from his right shoulder down to his hip was missing.
Haruto looked back at Sora, figuring it was another one of her attacks, but she too was being consumed by some sort of semitransparent mass. The mass had shot straight towards her, erasing everything in its path. Even her meat shield of fans hadn’t slowed it down in the slightest.
“Noooo! Help me! Haruto!” Yui screamed as another one of the blobs moved in and swallowed her as well.
There were several of them all around. Runa immediately created a suit of armor for herself, but she was consumed along with the others all the same. No amount of defensive ability seemed to matter against the things. One by one, more masses appeared, devouring everything in their path. They ate without distinction, from the forest itself to Sora and her fans to Yazaki and his formation. They sucked up all they touched, dissolving and absorbing.
Haruto leaped into the air. Sprouting wings from his back, he flew straight up as high as he could. Separate from the Gift of the Sages, this was his own personal ace in the hole. Once he had lifted himself high enough above the carnage, he looked down at the world around him. The blobby masses were spilling out from the center of the Underworld, coming up from the darkness to consume the entire landscape. From where he was, he could tell there weren’t many of them yet, but as sporadic as their appearances were, their numbers were definitely growing.
“What on earth are those things? What is going on?” Haruto was baffled by the shocking and surreal sight.
Her breathing was ragged and uneven. Her heart was racing. She was trembling and sweating profusely, and her feet were unsteady. These were all the result of pure fear.
Yogiri Takatou. To Romiko, he was terrifying. She didn’t even understand why. She had no idea why she was so scared of him. He was standing there idly; nothing about his appearance was the slightest bit intimidating. His only ability was to kill insects, he wasn’t particularly muscular, and neither was he particularly athletic. With Mokomoko’s power, she should have been able to kill him in an instant.
But he was terrifying. A violent fear was flooding her mind, to the point where it felt like she was going insane. She had no idea what he would do, but she somehow understood that her life was gripped firmly in his hands. She wanted to run away as fast as she could, but her body wouldn’t respond. Her legs were frozen, her horror rooting her to the spot.
As she cursed her own body for having such a nonsensical reaction, she finally understood. This was the fear that Mokomoko was feeling. But she didn’t know why the ghost would be afraid in the first place. Although they had merged, she was just borrowing the spirit’s power. Whatever happened to Romiko, it shouldn’t have any effect on the ghost itself. Yet an apocalyptic terror was overflowing from her.
The spirits under her control as a Necromancer couldn’t resist her will, so it was impossible for this to be a result of Mokomoko trying to fight back. She was simply feeling the side effects of Mokomoko’s fear herself.
Romiko had entirely lost track of what she was doing. Her initial goal had been to avoid doing any hard work, but once it had become a battle royale, she had been doing whatever it took to ensure that her chances of survival would increase. For that reason, she had approached Tomochika and taken Mokomoko for herself. At this point, she should have had an overwhelming advantage, but instead she was being confronted by an unbearable sense of dread. She felt like she was being crushed beneath a despair she didn’t even understand.
Fear was a response to danger. It was an instinct to avoid things that could threaten one’s existence, so it was crucial to one’s survival. But Romiko’s ability to think had been crippled. Fear had overtaken all other thoughts and feelings, robbing her of any way to decide on a course of action. As she felt her consciousness begin to fade and started to accept that the end had arrived, she heard a voice.
Do you want power?
She thought it was a hallucination at first, and in fact that wasn’t far from the truth. It was a voice calling out from deep inside her.
This isn’t the limit of a Necromancer’s power.
And then she realized. Awakening. This must have been what Sion had spoken about, a sudden explosive growth in a potential Sage’s power in order to escape from fear and despair.
Now, release the source of your fear.
At the voice’s urging, Romiko realized that if she wanted to be free of the fear, she merely had to let go of Mokomoko. With the terror dominating her mind, such a simple solution had been beyond her.
With a simple mental command, the spirit was released. Immediately, the fear disappeared. As if it had all been a lie, her heart quickly calmed and her tunnel vision widened. The world almost seemed to be glowing.
In place of the fear came an overwhelming feeling of superiority, a realization of her own strength, an increase in her powers to make control of the dead seem like nothing. She had been unable to see it before, but she could now even use the faint lingering regrets of the deceased. She could reconstruct the powers of those who had died in this place and use them for herself. More than a million souls.
Gathering them all together, she awakened as a being capable of controlling them all. And that rush, that feeling of omnipotence, led her to make a fatal mistake.
Yogiri had decided to begin his search from the wall. When he had last been in contact with Mokomoko, she had told him that was where they were hiding. If they hadn’t moved, he would find them relatively quickly, and if they weren’t there, he still might find a clue about where they’d gone.
As he was walking through the forest, he heard a loud noise, like a tree falling. He decided to check that out first. And when he did, he found Tomochika and Romiko Jougasaki arguing. He didn’t know Romiko well, but something seemed strange about her. She was speaking exactly like Mokomoko did.
“Oh, sorry. Unfortunately, I still have full control over the armor. Purge!” Lines suddenly ran across Tomochika’s armored body.
Realizing what was about to happen, Yogiri delivered a swift chop to Hanakawa. His unhappy companion hadn’t seen the attack coming. Taking the blow directly to his eyes, Hanakawa dropped David and fell to the ground, covering his face. Though it probably wasn’t such a big deal, Yogiri was somewhat averse to letting Hanakawa see what was about to happen.
“Cover your eyes for a bit. If you try to look, I’ll kill your eyes.” He wasn’t sure if he could actually carry out the threat, and he didn’t intend to try. A threat was all it was.
“Hey, what do you mean, ‘good job’?!”
Yogiri felt like he should enjoy these kinds of situations to the fullest, but at Tomochika’s response, he decided that praising Mokomoko was perhaps going a bit far. Handing his blazer to Tomochika, he looked over at Romiko. She had seemed ready to attack Tomochika. Judging by the situation, she had somehow taken control of the Dannoura spirit.
“That’s Mokomoko, right?”
“I’m surprised you guessed.”
“I could kind of tell by the way she spoke. I don’t know what’s going on here, but if she’s going to attack us, I’ll have to kill her.”
That’s where Mokomoko fell on Yogiri’s list of priorities. He had no desire to proactively get rid of her, but if she tried to hurt them, he wouldn’t hesitate. If he used his power in response to an attack from Romiko, Mokomoko would likely die along with her. Having never dealt with killing a possessed person separately from the ghost inside of them, he had no idea if such a thing were possible. There were situations where it might have been worthwhile to try, but he didn’t feel that applied here.
“Oh, I did say I was going to send you to the next world if you removed my suit like that, didn’t I?” Tomochika snapped, her expression frigid. She seemed upset. Yogiri figured she would probably forgive him even if he did kill her ancestor.
Romiko didn’t move. She was giving off no killing intent, and it was hard to tell if she was even looking at them. Yogiri decided to wait and see what would happen, but it didn’t take long, as Mokomoko suddenly burst back out of her.
Hmm, about that. I never expected such a thing to happen, so my defenses were rather lacking. It all happened before I could even respond. I no longer had the ability to resist.
“Who cares? Can I have my clothes back, please?”
The scattered fragments of the battle suit immediately floated up from the ground and covered her once again.
“So, what’s going on here?” Yogiri asked. Mokomoko seemed desperate to smooth things over.
It seems like she’s awakened some new power. That may be precisely what the Sage was hoping for.
Romiko had returned to her senses. While she had barely seemed aware of her surroundings before, she was now looking directly at them.
An enormous shadow appeared behind her. As it continued to grow — presumably some sort of collection of spirits — it gave off an obvious impression of death. Like an assortment of bones being assembled or rotting meat being sewn together, it took on the shape of a person. Its surface bore numerous faces twisted in anguish, each howling in rage. Black, large, ominous, and warped, the apparition was becoming more vile by the second.
“Hey, Tomochii, do you get it? This feels really good,” Romiko said with a dangerous smile. “It’s like the whole world is kneeling at my feet. Even this is nothing.” Lifting her arm slowly, she pointed at Yogiri.
“Die.”
But her opponent was faster. Before the apparition could make its move, Romiko dropped like dead weight. Her monster quickly dissipated, leaving no trace of its existence behind. She must have been planning to kill Yogiri just to show off her new powers, but he had beaten her to it.
I was hoping to see what she would do, though...
“If I’d waited any longer, she would have killed us.”
“Mikochi...”
Romiko had been Tomochika’s friend, but that was also low on Yogiri’s list. She hadn’t been important enough for him to think of a solution that didn’t involve instant death.
“Well, there was nothing else you could have done,” Tomochika sighed. “Let’s get a move on.”
Yogiri wasn’t sure that her words expressed her true feelings, but at the very least she didn’t seem interested in blaming him for what he had done.
“But Tomochika! What kind of behavior is that for a heroine?!”
“What? Hanakawa? Why are you here?” She finally noticed that their other classmate was with them.
“You need to be softer! Saying things like, ‘This is terrible! This is too much!’ That’s how an ordinary heroine would react to the situation! And then this would be where things start getting rough between you two, and you start drifting apart, leading to a falling out that opens up an opportunity for me to slip in!”
“No matter what happens, there will never be an opportunity for you,” Tomochika replied with a flat expression.
“Aww! I thought it might be okay for me to open my eyes now, but you’re wearing clothes again! Actually, well, a skintight suit is good too, in its own way.”
“I think I should kill his eyes after all.”
“Please have mercy!”
“And why is that pervert here, anyway?”
“I don’t know why, exactly, but he was on the seventh level, so I brought him back up with me. He has access to something like an Underworld elevator, so I thought he’d be useful.”
Now that we have reunited, what do you plan on doing?
“You’re acting like everything is okay, but I haven’t forgiven you yet.”
I-I apologize! I may have gotten a little too into it!
“Save it for later. Hanakawa was entered into the Selection Battle once we reached this level, so I’m thinking we should all just leave the area. If we try to run away, Sion will show up, right?”
I see. That would allow us to complete our primary objective.
“Oh, since we weren’t entered into the battle ourselves, having him around would be convenient, wouldn’t it?” Tomochika mused.
“Tomochika! Could you please stop saying such things! I cannot believe you would agree to such a cruel stratagem! As the heroine, it would be more appropriate for you to propose a humane solution!”
“It’ll be fine. Probably,” she said, averting her eyes. As cruel as it may have been, it sounded like a solid plan to her.
“Wait, wait, wait, I have no issue with you drawing out the Sage, but there is no guarantee I will survive the encounter! I will be the one she targets, after all, right?! You two aren’t even a part of the contest!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll avenge you.”
“So, you’re planning on me dying from the start?!” Hanakawa’s unpleasant scream echoed through the forest.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login