Chapter 22 — No, You Die
The first abnormality appeared in the sky above the capital.
The city was surrounded by an enormous wall, built by the High Wizard to protect those inside. Designed to keep monsters out, it was said to reach far up into the sky, the higher parts invisible but present. In reality, however, one could simply climb over the wall. In addition, among those who could use magic, flying wasn’t an uncommon skill, plus the Sages used their airships to come and go, and there had been no stories of anything blocking their access. So if an invisible barrier was there, it must have been designed to stop only monsters, or so the rumors went.
That barrier had now activated. The sky above the city began to shine with a harsh light, and a pair of people with wings began to descend. Though there were a number of races in this world with peculiar traits, none of them had wings or could fly naturally. These were beings that existed only in myth. Emitting their own light, the two had halos behind them, but looked otherwise human. They descended on the capital of Manii.
The locals had mistaken them for messengers of God. Their divine beauty made it hard to believe they were anything but angels. Landing casually amid the crowd, they crushed people beneath their feet, as if they didn’t realize what was actually below them. At the same time, the light they gave off scorched their surroundings.
It didn’t appear to be an intentional attack. It was similar to the way humans paid no attention to ants underneath their feet as they walked. To these newcomers, humans were life forms with no value.
The two conversed in words beyond human comprehension, then they headed to one of the small shrines set up in the capital: an entrance to the Underworld. The people of the city looked on from a distance. Being close would get them killed. It was forbidden to enter the Underworld now, but would anyone step up to stop these two?
A roar cut through the air. With a surreal howl, space itself seemed to split. A straight line was drawn through the winged beings. Along that line, space seemed to fracture and shift, but only for an instant. A moment later, everything returned to normal. Everything that had been located along that line of attack was sliced in two. The people, the buildings, and even the winged beings had been cut cleanly in half.
Another cry rang out. An otherworldly howl announced the arrival of a new monster, a being of lustrous black covered in blades from head to toe. That was the second abnormality. Those who had been enthralled by the appearance of the winged creatures were snapped out of their collective reverie by its sudden appearance and scattered in all directions. In short order, all that remained were numerous corpses and the forms of the two winged strangers, split in two but still standing.
Putting both hands to their heads, the beings pushed themselves back together. As they did, their parted bodies rejoined. One of them turned to confront the bladed creature while the other continued its initial objective, heading for the shrine.
And then another abnormality sprouted from that shrine. Something came spewing out of it, a reddish-black, glistening stream of flesh. As the winged being had been attempting to enter the temple, it was instead consumed by the tidal wave of meat. Its partner, startled, rose up into the air.
The bladed fiend had disappeared at some point. The torrent of flesh surged out from every entrance to the Underworld in the city, and in no time at all the capital had become a sea of entrails. Without any form of defense, the people and buildings of the city were all swallowed instantly.
The Dark God Mana sought to revive the Dark God Albagarma. Her method was, essentially, to leave things to chance. Of course, she had done everything she could beforehand. Collecting her brother’s personal belongings, his own flesh, relics containing his magical energy, the body of his subordinate and its memories, she had used everything she had on hand with any connection to him at all, imagining, planning out, and constructing the correct form for him. Using multiple techniques, she summoned every bit of soul, consciousness, and reminder of him that she could get a hold of.
But that wasn’t enough to bring him back to life on its own. Her plan was to try for as long as it took to achieve the desired result. By incorporating all of those elements, she would give birth to an unlimited number of offspring in hopes that at some point one of the children she bore would be Albagarma.
It was a straightforward plan. Most would consider it downright insane, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it. In order to give birth to infinite children, she needed an infinitely large body and an infinite number of resources. That was what she was trying to obtain, paying no mind to the physical impossibility of it. Consuming everything, creating embryos, raising them within herself, and then giving birth to them. If any failures were born, she would consume them and try once more with a different mixture of elements. She could repeat the process any number of times. Again and again and again. She felt that this repetition was itself evidence of her love.
Mana continued to absorb everything that she touched. Whatever it was, it would be useful in providing her with more diversity. Absorbing, multiplying, she transformed the Underworld itself into a part of her body, and then filled it. As she did so, she remembered Yogiri Takatou.
The Sage she had consumed earlier had mentioned him. He was the boy said to have killed Albagarma. A pair of individuals had come to tell her that as well, so she remembered his name. The two had asked her to take revenge for them. Of course, she would need to do that, but she had no reason to do so just yet. Her priority was to create a suitable foundation for the birth of her brother.
At least, that’s what she thought on the surface. But the Sage’s expression in those last moments had caught her notice. A face full of conviction. Sion seemed to believe wholeheartedly that this Yogiri person would be able to defeat her. That bothered her. The Sage should have realized how much stronger Mana was, and yet she had tried to make Mana scared of a single worthless human. She couldn’t forgive that.
And so, while she continued her plan for the birth of Albagarma, she began making preparations to kill Yogiri Takatou as well.
The capital had become a veritable hellscape. A reddish-black substance was spewing out of every entrance to the Underworld like piles of viscera or muscle, a substance that was flexible but strong. It attacked everyone on the surface indiscriminately. Anything it caught was helpless to escape and devoured in turn. Those consumed were instantly assimilated, causing the mass to swell even further. Even the Explorers, experts of battle who had made a living from fighting in the Underworld, were unable to defend themselves against it.
There was no way to fight back. No matter how much one struck it or cut it apart, burned it or melted it, the meat surged forth with unceasing vigor, consuming virtually everyone it encountered. Not just people but animals and plants; even the streets and buildings were consumed.
It was, in a word, despair. There was no salvation. There was no way to stop it. There was nothing anyone could do.
The Swordmaster Rick listened to these pessimistic reports quietly. At the entrance hall of the Royal Palace, one of the city guards who had struggled desperately to reach him was now delivering a bleak report. Though it was hard to believe, Rick didn’t think he was lying. Even now, he could hear the screams echoing from the city all around him.
“This is bad,” Rick said. “Does this mean it will start coming up out of the entrance to the Underworld that lies beneath the palace too?”
“Please, flee immediately!” the guard cried.
But even if he wanted to, the palace was in the center of the capital. If something was happening all around the city, it would be difficult to escape from there.
“Isn’t the purpose of the royal family to step in at times like this?”
The role of the royal family, and the basis for their rule over the people, was to keep the monsters of the Underworld at bay and prevent them from reaching the surface. If he abandoned that role, the whole country would fall.
But given the timing, that must mean the Sage candidates...
It was hard to believe they were unrelated. They may have done something down in the Underworld to provoke the current crisis. But more importantly, the fact that the royal family’s suppressive power wasn’t functioning was an issue. The king was dead, so the first prince had temporarily taken over his duties. Things might have been different if he had officially become king, but due to the political chaos caused by the king’s death, a successor had yet to be named, so the coronation hadn’t been held yet. In short, the royal family’s seal on the Underworld wasn’t in perfect condition. They had figured it wouldn’t be a problem, but now that something had emerged from below, the error of that decision was clear.
Rick stepped out of the entrance hall into the front garden of the palace. The flood of meat had already made its way there. Not even a shadow of the beautiful estate remained. The painstakingly maintained plants, the geometrically perfect ponds, and the lovingly crafted sculptures had all been buried under the tide of viscera. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, making the lumps of flesh glistening in the sunlight seem like an awful joke.
Rick drew the sword from his hip and held it over his head. It was a Holy Sword, given to him when he had received the title of Swordmaster, a treasured weapon said to be able to cut through anything. He tightened his grip and light began to wrap itself around the blade, growing strong enough to destroy an entire castle.
Rick swung the blade down at the flesh rushing towards him. The torrent of light cut deep into the oncoming flood. He then swung the blade from side to side, shredding the flesh as far as he could see. The cross cut by the blade of light completely annihilated the sea of meat.
“Ahh! As expected of a Swordmaster!” the guard who had accompanied him breathed.
“No...that was no more than throwing water on a hot stove.” Certainly, it was true that the immediate threat was gone, but the flood of meat was still growing. Wiping away the mass in front of him would only buy them a little time.
If I could use the Holy Sword to open an escape route...
Although he considered that option, Rick was still a novice when it came to using the sword. He couldn’t access all of its power yet, and he couldn’t use flashy techniques like the one he just employed frequently. They would be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the enemy before they could escape its range of influence.
“Let us go back inside.”
There were two primary escape routes from the palace: underground or from the roof. The royal family had already fled the city using them. If the Dark God was rising from the Underworld, going underground now would be too risky. Luckily, the enemy’s vertical movement was fairly slow.
Rick headed for the roof of the palace.
“Ahahahaha! Lady Mana has returned to life at last! She has come to manifest on the surface!”
Using the transportation device reserved for the administrator of the Underworld, Yogiri’s group had made their way out. He, Tomochika, Ryouko, Carol, Hanakawa, and David had crammed themselves into the small elevator-like room. The lift was connected to the surface level, so they had taken it all the way up.
When they stepped out, they were greeted by the sight of a man in monotone priest robes, laughing loudly from his balcony.
“That is Holaris, an Archbishop of the Axis Church,” David said, having finally woken up.
Noticing their arrival, Holaris turned to them. “Oh? And who might you be? How do you have access rights to the shortcut?”
“Die.” At Yogiri’s command, Holaris immediately fell.
“What?! What is wrong with you?! Why are you suddenly killing people again?!”
“I felt killing intent coming from him.”
“Couldn’t you wait a moment longer?! Like, listen to what he has to say! You can go easy on them now, right?!”
“It’s too much trouble to go easy on someone who wants us dead.”
Even if he didn’t kill them outright, the parts he did kill would never function again. If he had no reason to spare their lives, such actions would stir people up against him needlessly. If he was going to bother “going easy” on them, he needed to be ready to suffer a grudge for the rest of his life.
“Ugh...and he seemed like he was about to say something interesting too...”
“Ugh...with Hanakawa here, I feel like my chances to interject have all disappeared...” Tomochika moaned.
“But still, do you not think you take the deaths of others too lightly, Takatou?” Hanakawa continued. “You simply abandoned everyone in the class, saving only the six of us, correct? Do you not feel bad about that?”
“Not really. I didn’t know any of them that well,” he answered frankly.
“It’s unfortunate and sad, but we can’t just drag them along behind us forever.” Tomochika had been fairly quiet since they’d reunited, but it appeared she had settled her feelings on the matter.
“What are you two, a pair of psychopaths?!” Hanakawa wasn’t willing to accept their explanation. He had a surprisingly normal view of life and death.
“So, where are we now?” Yogiri asked, looking around.
They were in a large room with an extravagant desk and sofa. A number of bookshelves lined the walls, one of which had slid aside to allow them entry. The balcony across from them was brightly lit from the outside, so it appeared to be daytime. It wasn’t surprising since time flowed differently in the Underworld.
“It seems like a room where an important person might work, don’t you think?” Hanakawa mused.
“So, it’s probably that Archbishop’s office,” Yogiri suggested.
“Wait, are you sure you should have killed an Archbishop?!”
“It doesn’t matter who they are. If they try to hurt me, I’m going to kill them. If it was the king trying to kill you, would you just sit there and let him do it?”
“Ugh...if it was me, I’d probably die...”
“If this is an Archbishop’s office, does that mean we’re in a church or something?” Yogiri continued, stepping out onto the balcony. He was curious about what Holaris had been looking at.
The sight left him at a loss for words. The scene before him surpassed anything in his imagination. Dark red flesh squirmed like a mixture of muscle and viscera inundating the capital. Since they were quite high up, the sea of flesh hadn’t reached them yet, but most of the buildings had already disappeared beneath the rising tide. The only things that were still intact were the palace and a few other high-rise buildings.
Even now, the middle levels of the palace were transforming into pulsing chunks of meat. The flesh was merging with the structures, transforming them into more and more of itself. That put the building they were currently in in danger as well. They were pretty high up for now, but it wouldn’t be long before the walls around them were transformed into ugly piles of flesh like everything else.
“Wh-What is going on?!” Tomochika stammered, standing beside him.
The others stared outside for a long moment, as speechless as Yogiri.
“It looks like it’s trying to climb over the walls, doesn’t it?” Carol observed. The surface of the sea of meat had risen above the capital’s fortifications like it was trying to spread out even beyond the city.
“Ha, hahaha. I-It’s all fine,” Hanakawa stuttered. “L-Look, something is flashing above the walls, holding it all inside. There appears to be some sort of invisible barrier. It should have no problem keeping it contained...oh.”
As he spoke, whatever invisible barrier had been there gave out under the immense pressure of the assault. With a single bright flash, the blinking stopped, and the sea began spilling over the wall. The built-up flood surged out with a renewed vigor now that the obstacle before it had been removed.
“I-I-I-I-I didn’t do it! It’s not my fault!” Hanakawa sank to the floor, his usual frivolous demeanor vanishing as he was overcome by regret.
“Do you know what’s happening?”
“It’s the Dark God at the bottom of the Underworld. This is all happening because I released the seal...now what are we supposed to do?! This is the bad ending where we all get combined into one, isn’t it?! A formless, always-expanding monster is something no one can stand up to, right?!”
“So, that’s why you wanted to leave so quickly.” Yogiri glanced outside again. It was normal to feel remorse if you knew you had unleashed such a horror upon the world.
The tide of flesh had now destroyed the capital entirely. Hundreds of thousands of people were dead, and the disaster was still spreading. Rather than slowing down, it seemed to be speeding up, so it was unlikely to stop with Manii.
“At this rate, it’ll be hard for us to go anywhere.”
“That’s all you can think about after seeing this?! Wait, does it look to you guys like it’s heading towards us?”
Until now, the Dark God’s movements hadn’t shown any indication of a will behind them. The mass wasn’t attacking anything in particular; it was simply expanding as far as it could. But now its seemingly random movements had stopped, and instead it appeared to be collecting around them. An enormous eyeball appeared, staring up at them from within the sea of flesh.
“Wh-What?” Tomochika blurted out, taken aback by the creepy development.
“Are we the last ones alive in the city? Maybe that’s why it’s looking at us,” Carol offered. It was certainly a possibility.
“Ah, Hanakawa, was it? Perfect,” a voice called out from a gap opening in the mulch. The gap was like a mouth, speaking with a beautiful voice loud enough to be heard across the city.
Hanakawa shrieked. “Wh-Why are you looking for a piece of garbage like me?!” He began to scuttle backwards, still sitting on the floor.
Yogiri felt a twinge of sympathy for him. It must have been pretty gross for such a monster to have called him out by name.
“There is a small thing I would like to ask you.”
The flesh surged upwards. The eye and mouth arranged themselves into the form of a face, and after that a neck, shoulders, and chest appeared. The sea had transformed into the shape of a person. It was a woman beautiful enough to be all but shining, except from the waist down she was still a disgusting torrent of flesh. Tall enough to tower over them, she stared down at the group.
“Oh, do you know her?” Yogiri asked.
“There is no way I would be acquainted with a monster like...Lady Mana?!”
So, he did know her.
“There has been a slight change in my priorities. Take me to the one who killed my brother, Yogiri Takatou.”
“H-He’s right here! This guy just beside me is Yogiri!” Hanakawa pointed, trembling.
“Hanakawa...”
“Hanakawa...”
Yogiri and Tomochika sighed in unison, looking down at their classmate in disappointment.
“No, no, no! I trust in your strength, Takatou! I thought your power might be able to do something about this, so in order to ensure I could draw her towards you, I attempted to curry favor with her!”
“I don’t really care whose side you’re on.” Yogiri looked up at Mana again, and their eyes met. After Hanakawa’s indication, she had turned her attention to him.
“So, you are the one who killed my brother.”
“I mean, not that I know of.” He certainly didn’t have any memory of killing someone who could be related to such a monstrosity.
“Die.”
Mana swung a fist at him. Just by bringing that fist down, everyone around them would be killed. Even if they were able to dodge it somehow, her huge arms would pound the building to dust. Falling from this height would be fatal in and of itself, but if they managed to survive, they would just fall into the sea of meat and be consumed anyway.
“No, you die.”
Yogiri unleashed his power, and Mana’s form immediately crumbled. Her body returned to the appearance of the flesh that had made it up, disappearing back into the sea of meat. The monstrous tide covering the city ceased its movements, its writhing and growing coming to an end.
“Of course, that’s easy enough for you, isn’t it?” Tomochika said, a bit too energetically. She said it so quickly it was almost like she was worried someone would steal the line from her.
“A-As was to be expected! I foresaw nothing less from Sir Takatou! Takatou the Great! With nothing but a cool pose, all your enemies die!” Hanakawa had immediately returned to their side.
“Still, what are we supposed to do now?”
“What indeed...”
The meat covering the capital was dead but that didn’t mean they could easily escape.
“It’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it?” Carol seemed as lost as the rest of them.
Ryouko offered an absolutely terrible idea. “Wouldn’t that meat serve as a good enough cushion if we jumped from here?”
“I don’t think that’s the problem,” Yogiri replied. “If we just wanted to get down, we could use the stairs inside and then break a wall to get out. But how are we going to get through that mess and out of the city?”
“How about heading for the top floor?” David suggested. “The palace has an escape route leading out to the roof. The Seat of the Divine King is almost the same size as the palace, so it may have something similar.”
With no other ideas, they decided to do just that.
“Sorry, Hanakawa, only five people can ride at once.”
“Why are you suddenly acting like a certain spoiled rich kid?!”
As David had predicted, an emergency escape aircraft was waiting on the roof. It was something like a glider, so it had no propulsion mechanism. It was likely intended to take one just beyond the city walls.
“I wanted to try saying it once.”
“This isn’t the time for such jokes! Although, it actually doesn’t look like it can carry too many people, does it?”
Yogiri hadn’t meant for the comment to be serious, but it did indeed appear the craft could only carry about four people.
Very well. We shall find a way to manage, so the rest of you should use it, Mokomoko said.
Per her instructions, Ryouko, Carol, Hanakawa, and David boarded the escape craft. Yogiri and Tomochika watched its long, thin wings carry it into the sky overhead. It glided smoothly through the air, so they would be out of the capital in no time.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Tomochika asked. There were no other aircraft for them to ride.
It is simple. I’ve been researching it for a while.
Wings suddenly sprouted from Tomochika’s back as her battle suit transformed.
“Wait, we can fly with this?!”
Theoretically.
“And what about me?” Yogiri asked.
According to the math, she should be able to fly while carrying you.
“Oh, okay.” They didn’t have any other options, so Yogiri grabbed Tomochika from behind.
“Whoa! Jeez, you don’t hesitate at all, do you?!”
“For a good cause, I won’t hold back.”
“Wait, why did you make Takatou wait here, Mokomoko?! Wouldn’t it have been better if I was carrying Carol or Ninomiya instead?!”
Well...I thought this would be more interesting.
“I really should have gotten rid of this guardian spirit when I had the chance!”
If you hold her there, you’ll get in the way of the wings, so grab her around her waist instead.
In spite of Tomochika’s complaining, she never asked him to stop, so Yogiri did as Mokomoko asked. Putting his arms around her waist, he lifted her up and carried her to the edge of the roof, then immediately leaped off, earning a surprised shriek from her.
“You really don’t hesitate at all! What if Mokomoko was wrong about this?!”
“We’ll deal with that if it happens, I guess.”
Tomochika’s concerns aside, they were able to fly without issue. The black wings attached to her back caught the air, supporting their combined weight easily enough. Soaring over the sea of flesh that had buried the capital, they passed over the barrier built by the High Wizard and safely touched down just beyond the walls. The escape craft used by the others had landed nearby, so they could see Ryouko, Carol, and David not far off.
“So, not everyone in the capital was killed.”
A large crowd of people who had managed to escape the city were milling around the area. Though they were still in a state of total chaos, they would likely calm down once they realized the source of the expanding flesh was gone.
“What should we do now?” Yogiri asked.
“A lot has happened. I think we deserve a break. I really can’t think straight like this.” It wasn’t hard for Yogiri to understand her feelings.
“Why don’t I take you to a nearby town, then? I don’t think any of us can relax here,” David offered. He was of course quite familiar with the area around the capital.
“Wait, where’s Hanakawa?”
“Good question.” They looked around, but he was nowhere to be found. “I guess he ran. Well, there’s no reason to take him with us, so it doesn’t matter.”
“It didn’t seem like he was interested in going back home, anyway.”
He had split off from the class in the first place because he wanted to be free to do his own thing in this world. If he had gotten to safety now, sticking with Yogiri and the others would be an inconvenience for him. As long as he didn’t get in their way, Yogiri didn’t mind leaving him to his own devices.
“Uh, we were planning on going with you, but do you mind?” Carol asked, speaking on Ryouko’s behalf as well.
“That’s fine, but I don’t plan on getting any more energy than it takes to get Dannoura and me home.”
“What? What are you talking about?!” Tomochika sounded surprised. She must have assumed their goal was to get everyone back.
“I don’t know if we can even manage enough energy to get the two of us home. I don’t want to be responsible for others on top of that.” He couldn’t possibly guarantee the means to return the other two as well. He wouldn’t cut them off, but his priority was to get Tomochika home.
“You really are a cold one, aren’t you? Well, that’s fine.”
“I agree. We’ll stick with you for as long as we can.”
“Why don’t we save such complicated problems for when we’ve all calmed down?”
At David’s suggestion, they decided to leave the issue for the time being, and began heading back towards civilization. David led the way with the four students lined up behind him. It would take about an hour to reach their destination.
“Hey, I’m feeling kind of sleepy,” Yogiri remarked. “Could you carry me, Dannoura?”
“Could you maybe man up a bit?!”
“Oh, I’ll carry you if you like!” Ryouko interjected.
“Please don’t encourage him, Ninomiya.”
“No, we must not let Takatou do anything!”
As the two of them were talking, Yogiri turned to watch a carriage go by. He was wondering whether they might let him ride in it when it came to a stop a short distance ahead, and a girl leaped out.
“Yogiri!”
Although she cried out his name as she ran towards him, he didn’t recognize her.
“Who are you?”
“Oh, I’m Risley!” the girl exclaimed. “I know you don’t know my name, though! I just chose it recently, after all!”
She seemed to be about twelve or thirteen years old, a cute young girl in a pink dress.
Yogiri was sure they had never met, but she seemed to feel they were quite close.
“Uhh, okay. Do you need something?” He had no idea what she could possibly want, but if she had come there to meet him, he figured she must have needed something.
“Please marry me!”
“Sorry, but no.”
“Instant rejection?!” Judging from her shock, she had actually believed her proposal would go well.
“Risley, there’s no way a sudden proposal like that would work,” a woman said with a sigh as she stepped out of the carriage.
This one, Yogiri did recognize. “Theodisia, right?”
“Yes, it’s been a while, hasn’t it, Sir Takatou?”
They had worked with this silver-haired, dark-skinned girl back in the tower in the Garula Canyon. He remembered her saying she was going to look for her sister before they had gone their separate ways.
Yogiri turned back to look at Risley, wondering if she was the sister in question. Theodisia was a half-demon, a race characterized by silver hair and dark skin. But Risley’s hair was black and her skin was pale, and their faces didn’t bear any resemblance to each other.
“U-Umm, please don’t stare at me like that...”
“What’s going on here?” Yogiri asked Theodisia, ignoring the bashful child.
“It’s a little complicated,” she replied with a troubled expression. From the look on her face, it was going to be a bit of an explanation.
“That’s right! I have something special to give you, so please listen to my request!”
“I’m still not going to marry you.”
“Ugh, I shouldn’t have said such a weird thing right at the start...but that’s not it. I want you to kill someone for me!” She pulled out a round stone and offered it to him.
“This...is a Philosopher’s Stone?”
“Yes. I used to be a Sage, I guess. I’ll give it to you, so please listen to my request!”
Obtaining their second Philosopher’s Stone turned out to be a lot easier than he had expected.
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