F Volume 3 Chapter 1

WARNING: More gore in graphic detail

I was alone.

There weren't any footsteps or any laughter. I was all alone in a lonely world in which even time seemed to have stopped.

"Louie, Eru, where are you?"

My desperate pleas were crushed only by silence.

***

"——I have to calm down."

I pressed down on my forehead with both my hands and pacified myself before I fell into confusion. I took three deep breaths.

I looked back on everything that had happened until now in order to grasp the situation and to understand why I was all alone in an unfamiliar place.

"This isn't j.a.pan."

By a twist of fate, I had been brought to Evelier, a world in another dimension that was at the brink of destruction.

The ravaged earth. The forests had dried up, and the towns were like ruins. The skies were always somewhat dark. All of the people had been turned into terrifying monsters called Reims.

Then, I had gained the cooperation of two kind G.o.ds and set forth on a journey to restore the people back to normal with Louie, a knight, and Eru, a sacred beast.

If we stopped the destruction of Evelier, then the distortions in my world would disappear too.

"Um, that's right. We were in a temple in Lavann until just earlier."

We were supposed to be able to make it all the way to Jinshan, the capital, in one shot if we used the ritual tools for translocation that were set up at most temples. Like a warp.

But a problem had arisen at a critical time. I couldn't read the spell to activate the circle.

"Then, I used the power I got from Silvai and somehow made the translocation work——"

I swallowed the rest of my words mid-way through my sentence.

I was certain that the circle had reacted. Louie and Eru should have been translocated here too.

But, I had forcefully activated the circle using powers I couldn't fully control without chanting the proper spell. Could it be that their landing point skewed a little from mine because of that?

"They have to be close by, right?"

I wanted to believe they were. I timidly looked around at my surroundings. In any case, I had to figure out where I was.

I was in a large magnificent hall that closely resembled the temple at Lavann in structure. I would've been overawed by the grand impression it would've given off if it weren't for the dust and cobwebs. It was about the size of the gymnasium at the school I attended. Amber statues representing the guardian G.o.d here were lined up along the walls.

"I feel like the statues are observing me with this harsh look in their eyes."

I simultaneously felt both a peculiar awkwardness and fear.

Deeper inside were gold-plated wooden pillars with a shallow pattern engraved into them to both my left and right. There was an embellished altar with steps set up right in between them. There were things that were probably some kind of sacred tool placed on each level of the steps. There were even exquisitely made candle stands on them. Next to the altar was a wooden podium for something that looked like a sacred text.

Hanging from the ceiling was a decorative stone that gave off a gorgeous glitter like a chandelier. Shards of diamond-shaped stained gla.s.s were set up around it like petals of a flower with the stone at the center. Even those were stained by soot and had dulled in color.

"The decorations here are even more showy than the ones at Lavann. Is the thing carved along the entire wall some kind of spell?"

Or, it could've just been some kind of pattern. Next, I looked to the floor.

The cold stone floor was covered with a layer of dust. When I gently brushed it away with my hand, I saw that there was a ring that looked like the base of another magic circle here too. I was sitting right square in the middle of it.

"This is definitely Jinshan, the capital, right?"

I could clearly see the entirety of the large hall even without any other light source thanks to the light emitted from the circle.

"I wonder where Louie and Eru are. I hope they're both safe."

No one was here to answer me no matter how many times I called out. My anxiety grew. And, at the same time, by heart grew noisier and noisier.

"What should I do……?"

The pain I'd felt on my waist and back when I fell was nothing in comparison to how helpless I felt now.

"I have to figure out a way to get in contact with Louie."

The only thing I had with me was the divine sword. All of my other luggage was tied to Eru's back.

While it was good that I at least had my sword, it did little to erase the anxiety coloring my heart.

What do I do? I let slip out again as I found myself at a loss. The silence was deep enough that it made my ears ring. The air was permeated with the stench of dust and mold.

I felt that I would get possessed by the stupid delusion that I'd eventually turn into one of the statues lining the walls if I stood still for long enough.

"I shouldn't move around so recklessly at times like this, right?"

I whispered to myself in order to combat the eerie silence. I wanted to hear something —anything.

"Louie and Eru might come find me if I wait here."

But what if they were sent somewhere completely different?

"I wonder how big Jinshan is?"

I mean, they called it the royal capital. It had to have been bigger and more prosperous than Lavann.

I should have asked Louie for more details. I didn't know anything —like Jinshan's population, it's total area, or even its special color.

"We should've decided on how to contact each other if we were ever separated, too."

I was filled with only regret. I hadn't thought in my wildest dreams that we'd be separated at a time like this. I bet Louie hadn't imagine it either.

"……Or, maybe he did worry about it but didn't say anything?"

He had a tendency to bury his words in his heart from time to time. There was an invisible curtain in between us that would hide away the important things that we really wanted to say to each other.

"Seriously, what am I supposed to do?"

My voice echoed weakly. I had to keep my wits together, but I didn't even have the courage to stand up right now.

It really hit home how much Louie and Eru had supported me.

I'd come to know how terrifying being all alone was for the first time since coming to this land.

***

I had only been able to stay docile for thirty or forty minutes or so. I didn't have a watch, so I couldn't say anything for sure. It could've been longer, or it could've been as short as fifteen minutes.

The circle's remaining powers vanished and the freezing darkness slowly filled the large hall.

I stood up while trembling. I needed a source of light.

"There should've been candle stands over there."

I ran up to the altar and looked for candles. But there wasn't any left on the candle stands.

"Oh no……there isn't a lamp or something?"

I glanced through the sacred tools laid out on the altar, but nothing stood out to me. Or rather, other than the silverware, everything looked so peculiar that I didn't know how I was supposed to use it.

"I wished I at least had the zippo lighter with me."

I bit down hard on my thumb. I felt like I'd start screaming if I didn't keep my jaw clenched.

What would happen next? I s.h.i.+vered as I found myself in a situation where I couldn't predict anything.

"——Yeah, I can't. I can't do this."

I was scared of the darkness. I didn't have the confidence to stay calm for even an hour……no, for even just a few short minutes.

"I'll leave the building and wait near the exit."

I was sure that it would be brighter outside than it was inside. I moved my legs in a hurry, pushed forward by the fear pressing down my back.

I quickly lost my nerves the moment I entered the hallway.

"It's pitch black."

There wasn't even a single source of light. I couldn't even tell how long it went on for because I couldn't see.

"It's like a cave. ……I have to walk through this?"

I quivered as a new terror crawled up from the bottom of my soles.

I didn't know how large the building was, what time it was, or where I was located in the building. Louie and Eru weren't here, either, and I didn't have any food, or water, or anything——.

All that existed was the overwhelming darkness. I felt like I'd go crazy if I kept thinking about it.

"Anyway, I'll go outside for now! I'll decide on what to do next after that."

I steeled myself and carefully proceeded forward with one hand along the wall.

The remains of some sort of tools and fragments of broken walls littered the hallway floor. I was being careful, but I still caught my foot on such obstacles and stumbled multiple times.

"I might really hurt myself. It might be better to look for a candle first."

It gave me strength to think about what I could do right now and put it to words.

I approached one of the rooms that lined the hallway walls.

Fear crawled up my spine as I tried to open the door. I heard something quiet from the inside.

"There's something inside……?"

The image of the Reims I saw at the village of Urs popped into my mind.

I pressed down at my mouth with one hand and stifled a scream that threatened to escape my throat. I quietly stepped back and moved away.

"There still should've been some time left before the Reims started appearing, right?"

Which meant it was some type of monster or beast that could move even during the day inside. Even then, they were plenty dangerous. I couldn't say that even just proceeding through this hallway was safe at all.

There was a possibility that a starving beast would jump me from behind the moment I let my guard down.

The divine sword, my sole weapon, couldn't cut through normal beasts.

Even if it could, there was still the fundamental problem that I wouldn't be able to wield it properly because I didn't even know the basics of swordplay. More importantly, the darkness would get in my way. I had to do my best just to keep walking.

"Louie, Eru……I'm so scared!"

Only my footsteps and my ragged breathing reverberated through the darkness.

Calm down, it's okay, it's okay. But my terror and anxiety only increased no matter how many times I repeated this to myself.

I couldn't stop sweating even though it was uncomfortably chilly. Even the feeling of sweat dripping down my neck turned into fear.

"Am I even walking straight?"

I wasn't circling the same place over and over again, right? Where in the building was I right now?

"Ow!!"

I stumbled on something again and fell over. A small piece of stone had buried itself in my flesh when fell on my hands. I pressed against it and curled up in pain for a little while.

"……I see, so Louie spent so much time all alone when it's this terrifying…"

I was reaching my limit. Each minute felt like an hour. Each hour felt like a day.

I hadn't known that being alone was so terrifying. Louie had really done well to endure it for so long.

"I wanna see Louie."

I finally understood how he felt.

Would he die or would he go crazy first? ——It must've felt like a miracle when someone other than himself had appeared before him and reached out to him as he lived through such cruel days.

It was only natural that he'd been so desperate not to lose what he'd just found.

"It hurts so much to only be able to hear your own footsteps."

You didn't want anything, and you didn't need them to do anything for you. All you needed was someone to stay with you and hold your hand. And that would lead to hope for survival.

"I'll do my best. It's all over if I give up."

I got up and stepped forward again while fumbling through the darkness.

***

After I had progressed along the wall and had turned left once.

I arrived at a dead end after going straight for a while. There was a door there. It was st.u.r.dier than the others.

"Is it the exit?"

I remembered to be wary despite my antic.i.p.ation and carefully cracked the door open. Fresh air drafted in from the gap in the door. It was bright. I enthusiastically pushed the door the rest of the way open.

"……A courtyard? It kinda feels like an outdoor ritual chamber. There's a lot of strange objects lying around……"

The surface of the ground, which looked like a lawn, didn't actually have gra.s.s on it. Instead, it was blanketed by fine sand that was dark green in color.

Several buildings that were connected by stone pa.s.sageways surrounded this expansive courtyard.

Furthermore, there were imposing buildings that looked like imperial shrines both inside the courtyard and out. They were built in multiple areas, like a maze. The majority of the splendid shrines were tall and angular. There weren't many with soft, feminine roofs. Still, they were very vibrant in color. I was sure they'd be gorgeous once you cleaned them off.

"I think different types of buildings had different colors to them, right?"

Lavann, which wors.h.i.+pped the G.o.d of wind, used a lot of blue.

However, all of the colors were being used here. In other words, it might be that the temple in the royal capital enshrined the G.o.ds that governed over those colors——that there were many different G.o.ds here.

"It's like the boss of all temples……. Oh, maybe it's like a symbol of authority?"

It looked like I could make it outside the temple if I climbed over the handrail of the pa.s.sageway between the buildings and cut across it.

"The Kingdom of Gallè is so strange. Louie has Western features, but most of the buildings feel more Asian…… It's kinda like j.a.pan, how the two cultures are mixed together like it's only natural."

I shook my head and let out a soft sigh. I would've been able to talk to Louie if he were here. I looked up to clear away my growing loneliness and started. It was almost sunset.

"I have to hurry——it'll be night soon."

The time of despair that made me feel like my spine would freeze just by remembering about it. It was impossible for me to endure that darkness on my own.

I moved my feet in a hurry. I headed for the pa.s.sageway I'd looked to earlier so that I could move to the next area for the time being.

Everything went well until then. But it was much more difficult to get out of the temple area than I'd thought it would be.

The pa.s.sageways that connected the buildings weren't uniformly made. Some were composed of only roofs and pillars while others had walls, making them impossible to cut across. When I came across the latter, I had to enter the building and use the proper exit in order to get back outside.

Maybe I could've just looked for the pa.s.sageways that I could cut across, but the temple was too big. It would've taken up a lot of time just looking for the open pa.s.sageways.

"Is this supposed to be a measure against intruders? ……Kinda like me, I guess."

I was deeply relieved when I finally stepped out of a door that looked like a side entrance of sorts and made it outside.

I placed my hand against the outer wall and steadied my breathing. I noticed that there was a lamp, like the one Louie used in Lavann, in a hollow along the wall. I copied what he had done and twisted the screw-like thing at the bottom.

"……Oh! It turned on; thank goodness."

A long sigh escaped my lips. Having a source of light made a huge impact on your psyche.

"It's great that I was able to get out of the area with the buildings……, but I still have a mountain of problems ahead of me."

Everything around me was large and vast, and perhaps this was what made the capital impressive.

My immediately surroundings were dense with trees, like a forest.

Most of them had lifeless leaves hanging limply from their branches, but there was one spot of color that caught my eye. There was one tree with a lot of vitality that was bustling with plenty of richly-colored leaves.

It was proof that this world wasn't completely broken.

I saw a tall building peeking out above the trees in the distance when I looked around.

I couldn't tell what kind of facility it was. It only looked black to me, like a shadow.

"It'll be night soon."

I quivered. ——The time for the Reims to appear was creeping closer.

I checked that my sword was still at my waist with the hand that wasn't holding the lamp.

This sword was my only weapon. I wasn't the least bit prepared to fight the Reims.

"But it doesn't matter whether I'm prepared or not."

No matter how much I hated and rejected it, there was no doubt that Reims would appear at night since this was the capital. Naturally, there'd be a lot more than there had been at the village of Urs. I took another deep breath and stuck close to the wall.

Once again, I felt the shock of being alone anew.

"……Should I try shouting for them? They might hear me and come here if they're close by."

But it was risky too. There was a chance that there were starving monsters and beasts hiding in the area too. I might call over something dangerous if I made needless noise.

All I'd be able to do was run if they found me and attacked.

"I should probably turn off the lamp too, right?"

I was sure that having a light in the darkness was just as bad as shouting out loud.

But, I couldn't go through with it although I knew that I should abandon the lamp ASAP.

"It's because I'm a coward."

I covered my face with an arm. I was all alone in an unfamiliar place. I really didn't think I'd be able to stand it if I didn't have any light on top of that.

"What should I do; what can I do right now?"

I worked my brain so hard that it hurt from its core. If I had some fireworks or flares for example——no, there isn't a point in making plans that involved things I don't currently have on hand.

"Then, should I write on the ground? ……But I can't write in the Kingdom of Gallè's language."

I grew more and more irritated at my pathetic bewilderment. I was always like this.

What could I do to send a signal to Louie and Eru when I didn't even know if they were nearby or far away?

The outlines of the trees around me eventually blurred and began to take on the same color as the night. There was no wind and nothing made any noise.

My fear and panic mimicked the darkness and grew denser. I felt like my sanity would be swallowed up by the darkness too, like the trees and the buildings. My thoughts grew shallow and I couldn't come up with a proper plan.

"Eru, Louie. Where are you……?!"

The tips of my fingers trembled pitiably. My heart was beating furiously. I was so scared of Evelier's darkness that my breathing was growing ragged! My terror grew by the second and made me terribly dizzy.

"Please, don't leave me alone!"

An earnest wish pushed through my lips. Oh, Louie was saying the same thing. He asked me to grant him repose if I was going to leave him by himself.

I now understood that feeling well. I wanted to cling to something, to anything. If someone appeared before me now and stayed by my side, I'd do anything for them. I'd give them everything I had!

I saw that the frail moon had risen above the forest when I finally put my arm down. Its light was fragile, as if it had given up on any and all hope.

"Somebody answer me, anybody!"

I slowly sank down where I stood.

In just a little while longer, a darkness so overwhelming that it wouldn't matter if my eyes were open or not would cover the area.

"How did Louie survive this darkness all by himself?"

What brightly burning hopes had carried him through to tomorrow?

Was there even a shard of hope left within me?

——Never forget.

I suddenly remembered what Olin had said. Never forget. We are your protectors.

I blinked. The places where I'd received the G.o.ds' blessings had suddenly started to grow warm.

"It's like they're trying to cheer me up."

A small flame, like the lamp in my hand, lit up in my heart when I put it to words.

"……I won't forget. It'll be okay, I won't lose. I can still fight."

I had to have hope. I needed to have a will as strong as steel that wouldn't give in no matter how miserable the situation was.

"I wanna see Louie and Eru again. I'll tell all of Evelier about the G.o.ds that were erased. I'll turn everyone back human. And then, and then…"

It's okay, my heart is still alive. I can endure this, I affirmed to myself.

"I have to press forward."

My heart hadn't lost the ability to keep wis.h.i.+ng yet.

"Let's go!"

It happened after my forceful declaration, when I'd clenched together my sweaty fingers and moved away from the wall.

Rustle. Something was making noise even though there wasn't any wind.

"……What?"

Rustle rustle. It was the sound of something crus.h.i.+ng the undergrowth underfoot.

It wasn't the sound of a monster's footsteps. It was the sound of something long——being dragged.

I bit down on my lip. I looked down at my lightly quivering legs. I was all alone here. Neither Louie, who'd protect me, nor Eru, who's cover for me, were here.

I recalled what had happened at the village of Urs. I didn't know where the Reims had appeared from. Maybe they crawled up from underneath the earth once they sensed that it was nighttime.

My chances of victory weren't zero.

"It was still pretty sluggish before it transformed completely into a Reim."

Even I could kill them during that time.

"I have a weapon. And light. And the powers that that G.o.ds gave me."

I approached the source of the noise and drew my sword. The light from the lamp reflected dimly off the rusty color of the blade.

Rustle, swish. It was really close.

I listened close to pinpoint where the sound was coming from. It would truly be night soon. The buildings' shadows, the trees' shadows, and my own shadow. The shadows on the ground were dying it even darker. I had to do something before they finished.

Then, I suddenly noticed something. The shadow of the thick tree diagonally in front of me had swelled up and was writhing.

"Oh, I see…"

Do the Reims appear from the darkest shadows when night draws closer?

I approached it stealthily. I stopped right in front of the creepy shadow.

"……That's a really stretched-out arm."

I heard the sound of something chewing something soft. It rudely chewed noisily and swallowed. I heard the sound of flesh being torn apart, too.

Ahh, ahh, I heard cries echoing from elsewhere. Ahh, ahh. The cries joined together in a chorus and melted away.

I took in a deep breath. Then, I held up the lamp.

I saw it chewing its own flesh as it dropped out in chunks from its torn-up abdomen.

I looked at the Reim that was mindlessly feasting on its own broken body.

The Reim abruptly stopped as I watched and looked back at me. It had one long arm and its ankles were ripped to shreds.

The light of the lamp, which pushed back the color of the budding night, shone brightly on the grotesque figure and created an even more ominous shadow behind it. I readjusted my grip on my sword and looked to the Reim, which was swaying slightly as if it was embarra.s.sed. It was rather small.

"Is it……a child?"

The strength left my body as I suddenly felt like I couldn't go through with it.

It felt crueler for a child to suffer than for an adult to, even if the circ.u.mstances remained the same. And yet, I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

The Reim devoted itself to tearing off and chewing on its own body after it lost interest and looked away. It smoothly pulled out a bone of its b.l.o.o.d.y wrist from under the rent skin of its arm. It began gnawing on the bone after taking a good look at it. A thin line of saliva hung down from the Reim's mouth like a spider's web. I tightened my grip on my sword.

"It's now or never."

It would be difficult to kill once it had completed shedding its "humanity".

I have to kill it quickly! But my limbs were frozen and refused to move even when I told myself to hurry.

How was I supposed to drown out my hesitation and fear?

My ears were ringing something terrible. It was like there were little flies flying around my head. They persistently kept buzzing around me no matter how many times I tried to shake them off.

"I have to hurry……!"

I placed the lamp on the ground and grasped my sword firmly with both hands. All I had to do was swing down the blade.

What are you doing; you have to hurry! Look, there are Reims everywhere—there, and over there too.

They'll just keep gathering. Move!

——Kill!!

I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw went numb as I swung up my sword.

The rust-colored blade wedged into the Reimu's neck without even an afterimage.

It pierced through the flesh, and I felt the hard feeling of bone being cut through my sword. It was intensely unpleasant. I shuddered. I wanted to let go!

In my terror I had the delusion that my hands had turned to sand and were crumbling away. And yet, I also thought that I'd suddenly turned into a cold, merciless killer.

"Ur, urgh!"

A cold and muddy feeling stirred up a whirlpool in my heart. Unable to withstand it, I groaned.

I'd learned from the first time around that I had to cut it off in one fell swoop.

I covered my trembling right hand with my left and pressed my weight into the hilt of my sword. I looked away for a brief moment, unable to look at the Reim's pitiful figure head on.

Just then, the Reim's resistance and weight abruptly vanished and the tip of my sword fell heavily to the ground. I pitched forward a little, having lost my support. I realized that I'd successfully severed the Reim's head.

"I did it!"

I looked up. I heard something popping pleasantly. Pieces of flesh scattered as the Reim's miraculous resurrection began.

I stared in a daze as it happened.

The scattered chunks of flesh gathered back up into one place and was covered by a translucent membrane. I saw hands, feet, and a torso form with terrifying speed. Human-like order was being restored to it.

"Mm, urgh……"

I heard a voice. It belonged to a "human", and not a Reim. The human broke through the membrane and tumbled out, spilling out the liquid that looked like amniotic fluid in the process. Their shoulders heaved like they were gasping and they collapsed.

——They turned back.

My fingers had tightened their grip on my sword before I'd realized.

This made it the second time I'd resurrected someone. But I wasn't surging with joy like I had been last time.

Instead, I grew cautious. Did I really succeed? I won't make the same mistake twice, will I?

……Will fate rear its merciless fangs the moment I let myself be happy?

"Ah, ahh……"

A feeble voice painfully escaped them. I put a lid on my dark thoughts and went to look at how they were doing.

They weren't a child, as I'd thought they were, but a slender boy with shapely features.

He was about twelve or thirteen. His wet charcoal hair clung to his cheeks. He coughed painfully a few times before narrowing his eyes and breathing deeply with his delicate shoulders moving up and down.

I moved in front of the boy. He looked up when he sensed my presence. His dark blue almond eyes opened wide. There was an unexpected glint of intelligence in his surprised eyes.

"How are you——"

I suddenly noticed as I started calling out to him. There was a stone the same color as his eyes on his earlobe, which was sticking out from underneath his wet hair. It looked like an earring, but it wasn't. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was digging into his skin.

Was it a divine stone?

"Can you understand me? How are you feeling; can you move?"

I came back to my senses and rapidly asked him questions.

I felt bad for him, but I couldn't let him rest at leisure right now. Rustle rustle. I could clearly hear more of the Reim's characteristic wailing and digestion noises.

"We have to go somewhere we can hide."

I unfastened my outer sash in a hurry, took off my thin and long outer robe, and draped it over the dazed boy's shoulders. It would be impossible for me to turn all of the Reims in the surrounding area back human before night completely settled in.

——But even still.

I would seal away my fear cut down as many Reims as I could for now. There was no other way.

Besides, I'd be in danger too if I didn't turn as many Reims as possible back human.

If I was lucky, there might even be a knight who was skilled with the sword or someone who was knowledgeable about the structure of the temple and knew of a safe place.

"Stay here!"

I said to the boy, who still didn't seem to have fully grasped what was going on, and ran over to where another Reim was writhing. The light from the lamp just barely reached me. I wasn't too far away from where the boy was.

The Reim was crouching down and was single-mindedly devouring its own flesh, which was bulging inside its cheeks, with undivided attention. Strands of its hair fell out every time it moved its jaw.

I clenched my teeth again and moved behind the Reim so that it'd be easier to kill.

——It's okay. I can kill it.

"I'm going to kill you once. I'm sorry,"

I whispered to the Reim, who was eating away at its own body, and swung up my sword.

This was my third time cutting off a Reim's head including that one time at Urs. It was my second time here. My arms were already starting to get tired because it took a lot of strength to sever through the bone.

But I couldn't slack off. The Reim would feel pain if it was cut. It had a sense of pain just like humans did.

If they had to be in pain no matter what, then I at least wanted it to be over quickly.

I was sure that this was what made me feel so guilty. There was the fact that they were originally human, too, but there was also the way how the Reims resisted in so much pain, in so much sorrow, when you killed them while they were defenseless.

Did Fortune leave a way for the Reims to be resurrected in order to inflict pain on both the people who wielded the sword and the people who were killed by it? The question suddenly popped into my mind.

It was an incredibly merciless decision, if that was the case.

"Does Fortune really hate Evelier that much?"

Or rather, why can't Fortune help but hate Evelier?

I idly thought about Fortune as I watched the second person resurrect with amazing speed. Fortune, the strange existence who had dropped me into this cruel fate. Was Fortune a he, or a she? I couldn't tell his gender or even how old he was.

I let out a small sigh and cleared Fortune's figure from my mind.

The second person who'd turned back was a st.u.r.dy man around his forties. His dark blond hair was tangled and wet with bodily fluid.

I was bewildered for a moment because I didn't have any other clothes to give him, but I quickly decided to prioritize his safety first. I didn't have the time to waste just because I was embarra.s.sed.

"Go to where that kid is,"

I whispered in the man's ear. His vibrant indigo eyes turned to me. I ran to yet another Reim after I voicelessly urged him on by looking back at him.

The light from the lamp hardly reached at me at all. I confirmed the Reim's location based on its presence and the sound of its chewing, which was making my eardrums tingle.

My sword arm felt awfully heavy. My body felt weird, too. I couldn't help but keep getting the chills.

"……I have to kill the next one."

I didn't feel anything even though I'd successfully resurrected two people, possibly because I didn't have the time to. It was like my body wasn't really mine.

"How many more can I cut down in the time I have left?"

I thought, all businesslike, as I killed the third Reim. I couldn't lift my arm up properly because I was so tired. I was swinging around my sword almost blindly, like what I had done at Urs.

Bodily fluids came gus.h.i.+ng out from a wound that I hadn't fully cut through. It hit me head on, as I wasn't able to dodge it on the spot. I idly thought that it felt as gross as I'd thought it would be.

"Next."

I was careful not to get hit by any bodily fluids when I killed the fourth one. I lent the fourth person a shoulder after they were safely resurrected in order to help them to where the boy and the others were.

I'd mistakenly thought that they were a young man until I'd actually touched them, because they were tall and slender. It was actually a woman. Her hair, cut in a short bob, had a stiff atmosphere to it as if she had intentionally cut away any femininity from it. When we reached the edges of the lamp's light, I saw that her hair wasn't completely black, but had a bit of red to it.

Shoot, I should've given the robe to her instead. I regretted my earlier actions in a corner of my mind, but I ultimately didn't end up saying anything to her. It felt like I was lacking something important right now.

I couldn't even say anything to try to cheer them up in their uneasiness.

"I have to kill more."

I looked around and ran to yet another Reim. I began to panic a little at myself as I went through with its resurrection in a mechanical manner. What's happened to me——?

"And the fifth."

I could see somewhat around here even without relying on the lamp because of the moonlight. That being said, the moonlight was pretty weak and I could only just barely see about an arm's reach ahead.

But I could clearly make out the Reim, so I had no complaints.

When I swung up my sword, the fifth Reim turned to me and suddenly raised its arms.

I paused in my tracks for a breath. The Reim was holding its own eyeb.a.l.l.s in its raised hands.

Something was piercing into my chest. But I brushed away even that feeling like it had nothing to do with me.

I closed my eyes, changed my angle, and swung down my sword. I'd more or less figured out the gist of it now.

I couldn't just hit them straight on with my sword to cut off their heads in one go—I had to aim for the place where the bone was connected it cut slightly at an angle.

"This is hard……"

And it wasn't as if the Reims stayed still like dolls.

The fifth person was a man. He was in his thirties. I pointed him to where the boy and the others were and turned my back on him to kill the next Reim.

"I'm getting heartburn,"

I said to cover up how terrible I felt and killed the sixth Reim. The sound of rending flesh. The sound of shattering bone.

Both my sword and I were being dyed by the Reims' bodily fluids. It smelled horribly raw. I felt faint.

——Kill.

The seventh was a girl. She was a cute girl around my age. I felt incredibly wretched after seeing clear white skin. The girl, who had just finished resurrecting, was fresh and clean.

But me, on the other hand. I had a sword in my hand and was covered in sweat. Plus, I was also a murderer——.

——Kill.

"I know. I'm doing it."

The voice echoing in my heart had suddenly changed from a voice of encouragement to a cold-hearted command at some point.

I approached the eighth Reim with heavy footsteps.

I fell down heavily on my knee along the way.

"Ow……"

I quickly used my sword to prop myself back up and locked my gaze back on the Reim.

The eighth Reim——had almost finished "shedding". The bulging skin on its back was breaking open like flower.

The next one would probably be my last. Time mercilessly brought along a life-threatening danger with it.

This Reim fought back the most out of all the Reims so far, maybe because it was close to completion. I failed to cut through it multiple times, and a voice of anguish gushed out of the Reim each time I did. My stamina was draining fast and my mental state wasn't doing any better.

"Stop it, stop fighting back!"

I desperately swung down my sword even as I started to feel nauseous. I felt like I was cruelly persecuting the Reim with my haphazard strikes. The Reim's screams were loud.

"I'm the one who wants to scream……!"

I held the hilt of my sword, which was slippery from all the bodily fluids, with my left hand and swung the sword again repeatedly.

The eighth person, whom I'd finally turned back human, was a moody-looking man in his fifties.

I tried to tell him to go to the boy, but the words got stuck in my throat. I couldn't speak because of the saliva that had pooled up in my mouth.

I dropped the tip of my sword to the ground and clung to it like a cane with both hands while breathing heavily.

No more. My arms hurt. Everything hurts. I want to throw up.

——Kill. Kill.

"No. I'm really, really tired!"

Don't be spoiled. What right do you have to cry like that?

Voices of reason and emotion mixed together in my mind. It was like I had another personality inside me. The voice commanding me to keep killing was so cold I could hardly believe it was mine.

I spat out what saliva I couldn't swallow. I really wasn't acting like a girl at all. I'd never done anything like this before in j.a.pan. I fell into a depressing bout of self-loathing for a brief moment. But it was too late for such thoughts. I mean, at least it's better than throwing up?

The stench of the Reims' bodily fluids permeated into even my saliva.

——Kill. Kill. Kill.

My heart was immediately buried under the voice's relentless orders. I rearranged my thoughts and gave it a rea.s.suring reply.

"I know. I won't run away this time."

I'd save even just one more person. That was why I was holding my sword.

It was the murder of the Reims that was tormenting me right now. But, at the same time, it was also the pillar supporting my soul.

When I looked up, holding onto my sword so tightly that the tips of my fingers had turned white, I realized that the Reims had stopped their crying.

"It's night!"

I trembled. It was the advent of a broken time. Despair mercilessly poured down from the skies.

"——Everyone inside the building!"

I turned around and shouted at the people who were all huddling close together in a daze on the ground. I didn't want to sacrifice them like I had the woman at Urs.

"I have to survive the night no matter what!"

To be honest, I wanted to escape from the Reims with everyone else. I sealed away my ugly thoughts and turned my sword to the darkness. There was a moment of silence. The thick presence of something unearthly drifted over to me in the darkness.

The feeble light of the lamp wasn't enough anymore.

"Should I go to where the moonlight reaches……!?"

But I couldn't go too far from the others either. I wouldn't be able to help them if anything happened.

"Hurry up and go inside!"

No one made an attempt to move, maybe because they were bewildered or maybe it was because they weren't fully awake yet. I held down my growing frustration and turned back around to tell them to evacuate into the building again.

"You'll be attacked by the Reims. Go hide!"

——Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

"I get it already!"

I yelled back a little at the monotonous voice echoing in my heart.

I felt something off about this voice of mine that told me to kill the Reims —not turn them back human.

"……I have to focus."

A second of carelessness could rob me of my life. I shook away any excess thoughts and sharpened my nerves against the disquieting darkness.

Finally, the people behind be began to move, albeit hesitantly. I felt the presence of Reims writhing on the other side of the darkness. I didn't hear them crying out in sorrow anymore. Their cries had changed into echoes of glee welcoming the advent of night. They were Reims that had finished "shedding" and had become complete.

"——I want to see Louie and Eru."

The words fell from my lips. But, at the same time, I was also glad they weren't here.

"Please be somewhere safe."

Night had only just begun. I would be tested to see whether I could survive it.

I suddenly remembered about my time in the interworld forest. About Louie, who wielded his sword all alone.

I found it strange that I'd remembered that scene so suddenly and so vividly, even though the circ.u.mstances had been so different from what they were now.

I hadn't understood anything about the situation or how serious it was at the time. I was vaguely nervous, but I was still carefree because I hadn't thought that my "everyday life" would be completely upturned even in my wildest dreams.

"If I could go back to the past…"

I wasn't able to finish that sentence. The darkness in front of me had wavered. My arms reacted quickly in response —so quickly that I could hardly believe that I'd had the reflexes to move that fast. I hit away precisely at the mysterious object that had flown my way.

A white skull fell down audibly and rolled next to the lamp.

It looked like a Reim had thrown it as a prank or something.

The hand holding my sword tingled and hurt a lot. I felt like the skin of my palms would tear off because I'd decapitated all those Reims from earlier with brute strength alone.

When I readjusted my grip, my skin stuck right to the hilt like it was glued on. It was a strange sensation.

And——the back of my hand was strangely hot.

"There is where Olin kissed me……?"

——Delicious.

"Delicious?"

I was startled by the outrageous thing the voice echoing in my heart said.

"What the heck am I thinking?"

But, was that really me?

I was so confused. I looked down at my sword only to be surprised again in a different sense.

The sword's blade should have been a rusty color. But right now, it was changing like it was peeling off a thin layer of skin. A crystal-like transparent blade was peeking through behind the rusted layer. The inexplicable transparence of the blade was captivating even in the darkness.

Delicious, the voice in my heart sounded again.

"No, I didn't think that!"

So why do these strange words keep popping up in my head?

I felt like blood was being sucked away from the palm of my hand. I stared at the transparent portion of the blade. Then, I saw a splash of red, like a drop of blood, get mixed into it.

"What the? ……Is it really sucking my blood?"

The back of my hand pulsed. I felt myself break out in gooseb.u.mps.

I felt a mysterious power ignore my will and vigorously spread itself along my arm.

——Kill. Kill, killkillkill!

The cold-hearted voice resounded through my heart like thunder rending the skies.

It's not just one voice!

It sounded like a bunch of people's voices had merged together.

"It's not me. That isn't my voice!"

The voices' persistent commands made me shudder.

"Olin, what's with this sword!?"

——Now, kill!

A large, wall-like Reim blocked my path when the inside of my head went blank. It had multiple arms growing out of its back like an insect.

——Offer up your fear, your pain, as sustenance!

The voices flooded my heart. It definitely isn't mine. But then……!?

"Whose is it? ……Is it the divine sword's?"

I gulped, and the thin rusty layer peeled off the blade completely at that very moment.

The sword was transparent, like a red crystal. It was so clear that it looked sinister.

"What's going on…?"

I forgot to remain cautious of my surroundings because I was distracted by my sword.

"Ahh!?"

A Reim grabbed hold of me and picked me up.

It was strong enough that my bones started creaking. I couldn't even scream. I wasn't in any situation to focus on holding onto my sword, but it never left my hand.

——Girl, incompetent Master!

A voice of scorn echoed throughout my heart.

The Reim's giant hand engulfing my body began to tighten. It was crus.h.i.+ng me. My sword arm grew hot like it was burning when I panicked.

"——Ah, ahh!"

No way. It's really burning——.

The Reim's hand, which had been squeezing my body, suddenly burst apart and scattered chunks of flesh everywhere. I abruptly fell to the ground because of it. But I wasn't in any state to care about my fall.

My sword arm was burning. The flames were red and transparent. My robes, though, weren't catching fire for some reason.

I saw my arm peeking out from under my sleeves and screamed.

A thick vein had popped up profusely on my arm.

And——numerous small tumors that looked like human faces had risen on my skin.

"No……no!!"

The faces, which flickered in and out of existence suddenly grinned all as one.

A face more p.r.o.nounced than the rest appeared on the back of my left hand, which was still holding my sword.

That face was also grinning, like the rest, and began to move its mouth.

Now, let us feast, it said.

I screamed again. Though, in reality, all that left my throat was a weak, hoa.r.s.e whimper. The red flames that had been enveloping my arm vanished like they had melted away. Then, my vision became really clear for some reason. I could see far away even without any light.

——Useless Master, if you won't move on your own, then you will move for us.

"Hyaah!"

I pitched forward as if an invisible hand had pulled at my arm.

My arm was moving on its own. The face on the back of my hand holding the divine sword was sticking out as if it was trying break free from my skin.

It had determined that my consciousness was unnecessary and was trying to move on its own. I couldn't help but think this.

"Stop it!"

I didn't know what was going on. But, no matter what, I couldn't bring myself to believe that the faces were something divine. Rather, they felt more like malicious beings br.i.m.m.i.n.g with sinister feelings.

"Ah!"

I let out a short scream. The faces weren't the problem right now. The Reim, whose arm had burst apart, roared in fury and began sprouting something like acid from its mouth.

But I wasn't hit by it. My body moved without any input from me and just barely dodged the acid. I spun around to change directions, stepped in towards the Reim in a favorable manner, and slashed deeply into the Reim's shoulder. Then, I jumped back before it could reach me with its remaining outstretched hand.

This is impossible, there's no way that I can fight like this——.

——d.a.m.ned monster, we'll devour you.

The voice wasn't mine. Many different voices melted together and echoed noisily in my heart. I felt like my heart had been tossed right in the middle of the s.h.i.+buya Scramble Crossing.

"Ah!"

I heard the chilling and ominous sound of something tearing apart resounding from inside my arm.

No way, what the h.e.l.l? My arm was pulsating fiercely. My veins and blood vessels were bulging visibly, and was swelling alongside the growing struggles of the smaller faces——.

My voice had given out. My left arm was transforming into a visibly horrible creature.

I stood there in a daze when the large Reim starting spewing fire at my direction. And it wasn't any normal fire. The flames were black, as if they were poisonous or something. I thought that the flames had taken the shape of a monstrous beast for a moment.

"I can't dodge this——"

My arm had already begun to move by the time the words left my mouth. It twirled my body around to dodge the fire and beat back at the flames with little difficulty. I was saved, but I didn't really have the time to catch my breath.

There were other Reims gathering around me one after another.

I broke out in gooseb.u.mps all over. Several Reims jumped out at me at once, as if they'd been waiting for their chance. There was a Reim that looked like a praying mantis, one that looked like a fly, one that looked like a rat……there was an infinite variety of them. They looked like monsters straight out of a horror game. They filled my field of vision.

"I'm being surrounded……!"

There were monsters to both my left and my right. It was like the world of man had vanished out of existence.

"I can't defeat this many."

My heart was filled by a bloodcurdling voice said, 'We'll devour every last one of you,' with great delight in contrast to my pessimistic whisper. My arm, which had increased in thickness and creepiness, transformed yet again and stretched out. I heard the sound of something tearing, like my nerves, as it did. Am I going to become a monster too?

My swelling, creepy arm shot out like a whip and smacked the Reim at the front of the swarm.

"Ah, Ahh!"

These unbelievable things just kept happening. Next, my arm swallowed up the sword whole and——Ahh, no way, my arm transformed again and turned into a giant mouth monster.

"No……, Nooo!!"

——Gross, such unpalatable meat.

It's eating. It's eating the Reims!

My arm, which had absorbed the divine sword, was brutally ripping apart and messily eating the Reims. And at astonis.h.i.+ng speed.

"S, stop……"

It wouldn't stop. My arm paid no heed to my pleas and moved only to harm the Reims. My body moved on its own like a puppet. The sound of the Reims' screams and the sound of flesh being torn apart reverberated in turns. None of them had turned back human.

My arm —the divine sword— was adjusting its power on purpose so that it could continue tormenting the Reims without killing them.

"Please……, just stop…"

My arm continued to be eroded further. At first, it had only gone up to my elbow, but the tearing sounds continued up my arm and eventually reached my shoulder.

My arm had now branched off into pieces and taken on a snake-like appearance. It looks like a Yamato-no-Orochi.1 The silly thought filled my mind. The sight of it made me feel like my mind would break into pieces.

"Just how much of a monster am I going to turn into?"

——Watch and learn, girl. There are ranks to Reims. The small-fry taste disgusting. But that one's been refined well.

The overbearing voice echoed in my heart. The face that had appeared on the back on my hand earlier reappeared on a portion of my arm, which had now swollen up, expanded, and grown in length. It rolled its eyes before looking at me.

The Reim that the face had singled out was the fire-spitting Reim that was a cut larger than the rest. So there are strong Reims and weak Reims. I thought in a daze.

I was about to pa.s.s out, unable to accept how my arm kept transforming.

"I mean, there's no way this can be real——"

The large Reim that the face had acknowledged roared a low roar that seemed to reverberate through my stomach and swung around the arms that still remained unharmed on its back in an effort to seal my movements. My body easily evaded its arms, which were waving around like tentacles. I could tell that my arm, which had transformed into an evil snake, was having fun even if it didn't say anything. I could feel its cold-blooded elation at facing a strong enemy.

"No, this isn't me."

These swift and unhesitant movements that the normal me could have never made. It overlapped perfectly with the image of the convenient ideal that I had drawn up for myself. The image of the "me" who stood up and fought resolutely even in the face of danger.

It was me, but at the same time, it wasn't.

The version of me that I had wanted to become, that I had looked up to and admired, had now become reality.

"But I'm not happy about it at all."

Even if it was my body that was moving, this wasn't any better than being a puppet.

"This isn't what I wanted."

My body jumped vigorously the very moment I muttered the words to myself with my consciousness blurring. I jumped toward the giant Reim. My arm-turned-Yamato-no-Orochi viciously bit at the Reim's shoulder. Chunks of flesh flew everywhere. As did its lukewarm body fluids. Everything reflected into my eyes like an afterimage.

"I don't want to torment them——"

I nimbly landed on the ground.

The Reim was crying. It had lost its temper because of its anger and fear.

——Let us feast. Let us feast.

No, you can't!

The real me shouted desperately in the midst of my crumbling consciousness.

You can't eat them. I have to turn everybody back human. It's not the time to be huddled up in fear!!

Get up and open your eyes.

"……Stop it."

Listen to me.

I pressed down at my left hand, which tried to move to toy with the Reim, with my unchanged right hand.

The other Reims had hidden themselves in the darkness again, possibly because they were afraid of my sinister arm that had swallowed the divine sword. It let me focus only on the giant Reim before me for now.

"Stop it, divine sword."

It wouldn't stop even when I begged. The giant Reim, who had been bitten at the shoulder, started to spew out black flames again. I could see as clearly as if I was equipped with night-vision goggles even though both the moon and the lamp were far away, possibly because my arm-turned-monster had also taken over a good portion of my consciousness.

"——That's right, the lamp!"

I was taken aback. The fact that the lamp existed shone vividly in my mind.

My body was moving about as it pleased even still. My greedy arm swallowed down even the black fire in one gulp. It licked its barred fangs with a long tongue as if to say that the fire had been delicious. My body moved again and bit off the multiple arms that were growing out of the Reim's back. The faces' loud laughter echoed throughout my heart. They were jeering at the Reim as it cried out in pain and agony.

"Stop……stop it!"

Jeez——you're p.i.s.sing me off!!

Blood suddenly rushed to my head. There was no way that it was okay to hurt the Reims like this. They might have lost their ego and turned grotesque for now, but they were originally ordinary people. Just like me.

"I don't want my body to be taken over by a monster when I don't know what the heck's going on!!"

The faces raised their voices of dissent within my heart.

It felt like they were opposing what I'd said. The way they'd reacted p.i.s.sed me off too.

Finally, I snapped and flew into a rage.

"Seriously, what is with this ridiculous turn of events?!"

I, I…

"I'm still technically a girl, you know!?"

……I exploded in anger over something that had absolutely no relevance to the situation. I just couldn't help myself, now that I'd already erupted in a rage. At this point, I was going to say everything and anything I want to!

Besides, what was their deal with turning a girl's arm into this hideous thing?!

"If you're gonna make my arm this gross, then you could at least cooperate with me a little!"

It was really just too creepy. This was just way too much. I hadn't completely lost my sanity because this was a strange world where Reims and monsters existed, but I would've fainted a long time ago if my arm had turned monstrous out of nowhere while I was still in j.a.pan! Plus, it was being super self-righteous about it too!!

"Enough already! Give me back my body!!"

I resisted against my body, which was still trying to move against my will, with everything I had and ended up spinning around. I now had my back to the large Reim that was writing in pain after having its arms eaten off.

——d.a.m.n you, girl! What are you planning to do?!

I'm the one who wants to curse right now!

"Listen to me!"

Voices of refusal immediately rose up from within my heart after I yelled. Shut up shut up shut up! they wailed as if they were spitting at me. They were so horrible!

"No, if you don't listen——"

I ran to the lamp. What can a helpless little girl like you possibly do? the face on my arm mocked. Wow, it really looks mad.

But still! Just who's body do you think this is?

"If you're gonna borrow someone's body, then you have to be humble and respect the owner's wishes and emotions!"

I won't let you move without my permission again.

"Because——I'm the master here!!"

——Girl!!

A startled voice rang throughout my heart. I ignored it and did something incredibly reckless.

I took the lamp and pressed it against my arm, or rather, against one of the heads of the Yamato-no-Orochi.

I heard the lamp's receptacle break. The fire inside it, which should have been weak enough that you could blow it out in one breath, was incredibly effective against the mouth on my arm.

"Whoa!"

It was in so much pain that even I, who'd done this without thinking about the potential consequences, was taken aback.

With a thunderous noise, the fire from the lamp suddenly flared up like a pillar of flame. All of the faces screamed at once. For some reason, though, I personally didn't feel any heat. I only flinched back in surprise because their terrible screams, loud enough to split my ears, echoed throughout my body.

The pillar of fire vanished the moment I pulled the lamp away.

"Huh, it really worked?"

My monstrous arm returned back to normal in the blink of an eye. The divine sword with the transparent red blade was held tightly in my hand.

I stared fixedly at it.

You could see through the transparent sword even in the dark. It fit into my hand perfectly, now that I'd noticed it.

"I, I'll punish you again if you don't do as I say!"

I questioned myself for complaining at and threatening the sword in this kind of situation, but, how should I put this, I felt that I absolutely had to exert my dominance over the divine sword. I wanted it to stop turning my arm from turning into a Yamato-no-Orochi.

The sword fell silent. Was it giving me the silent treatment? It was so childis.h.!.+

"Jeez!"

……But now wasn't the time to be bickering with the sword!

I felt something rustling from behind me.

"H, hey, lend me your power! I'm technically your master, right!?"

I shouted as I turned around and was horrified. The giant Reim was right behind me.

By the time I thought, Oh, I feel like someone just clicked their tongue at me, my body had already moved to evade the Reim's attack by a hair's breadth.

"That was so reckless!"

Unlike the nimble movements from earlier, the dodge this time was crude and sloppy and permeated with malice. It felt horrible!

"Kill it!"

By the time I'd thought, Oh, this time it feels like someone's grumbling at me, by body had leapt into the air like a master swordsman. The sword swung up. Then, without a moment's hesitation, it came down and severed the giant Reim's head.

The Reim turned back human with miraculous speed. But I didn't have the leisure to watch over and call out to them.

The Reims that had been hiding in the darkness were coming closer, maybe because the divine sword had stopped giving off an ominous air.

"There's so many……"

Just as I'd wiped off the sweat on my forehead and braced myself. An arrow of light suddenly shot out from behind me.

The light suddenly exploded, dispersed, and changed into a transparent s.h.i.+eld with an incantation engraved within it. The Reims were on the other side. They couldn't cross over even if they slammed their bodies against the transparent s.h.i.+eld.

"Over here, hurry! It won't last long!"

I turned around, surprised by the sudden call, and found the boy wearing the long robes I'd lent him standing at the entrance to the temple with a torch in hand.

He was evidently the one who created the s.h.i.+eld. I guess he really was able to use either magic or sorcery.

"Hurry!"

Bam, the s.h.i.+eld sounded. Cracks began to run across the transparent s.h.i.+eld with letters engraved in it as the Reims slammed against it.

I quickly returned the divine sword to its sheath, slung the man in his mid-thirties who had just finished resurrecting on top of my shoulders, and tried to go to the boy. ……Which was fine and all, but he was heavy!

"I, I can't move!"

It was impossible for me to run while carrying the weight of a fully-grown man.

I heard footsteps approach me just as I was about to be crushed by his weight.

I met with someone's gaze in the darkness. The man's weight was lifted from my shoulders.

"I'll carry him."

I heard the somber voice of a man I'd never met before. I understood that one of the people who I'd turned back human earlier was lending me a hand. I couldn't make out his facial features. That being said, my vision was no long clear, likely because I'd re-sheathed the divine sword.

"Now, let's go over there."

We hurried over to the temple entrance where the boy was waiting.

The tall lady with the reddish-black hair was also there with him.

Apparently, she had found clothes somewhere. She was wearing men's attire, so it became even harder to tell apart her gender. She carried a sword in her right hand.

Was she a female knight? I metaphorically tilted my head to the side when she looked down at me in rejection and hatred.

Why was she looking at me like that? I then recalled what I'd looked like just earlier just as the question came to mind.

My monstrous arm had been a far cry from looking holy. Maybe she'd seen it. Had my arm's transformation been so bizarre even in a world where monsters existed?

"Let's go back inside,"

the boy holding the torch said curtly. His face looked incredibly tense under the light. I couldn't tell if he was being wary of me or if he was just afraid of the Reims.

I heard someone rummaging around next to me and shook out my shoulders. The person who was carrying the slender man in his mid-thirties who was still mostly unconscious from having just been turned back human had fallen in line with me. It was the second person I'd killed before night had truly fallen. The st.u.r.dy man around his forties with dark blond hair. He, too, had a stern look on his face.

"……We can't fight against those numbers. We don't have enough allies."

I looked down a little to bite down at my lip so no one could see.

I turned back around once my facial expression had returned to normal. The Reims were desperately throwing themselves against the transparent s.h.i.+eld in the darkness in an attempt to break through.

We escaped deeper inside the temple as the sound of the Reims body slamming resounded in our ears.

***

Reims had infiltrated inside the temple too, though there weren't as many as there were outside.

Reims had some kind of homing instinct, or rather, Louie had said that they retained their habits from when they were human. They stubbornly adhered to their homes or to places there were strongly attached to.

If this was true, then the Reims that appeared here were undoubtably once people who moved about the temple a lot, or those who were more strongly attached to the temple than anywhere else.

"They wander around unconsciously even after they've turned into Reims."

If there were a lot of people who were related to the temple here, did that mean that there might be a sorcerer or priest who's familiar with magic and stuff among them? The boy holding the torch up at the forefront of the group had used something like magic to create the s.h.i.+eld.

The last man I'd killed outside of the temple seemed pretty powerful. Though, he still wasn't fully conscious yet and had to be supported by the man with the dark blond hair.

As for why I'd guessed this, it was because something that the face on my arm had said had caught my attention.

"Reims have ranks……"

The "ranks" that the face was talking about probably didn't refer to social status. It probably had to do with someone's character and abilities. The unconscious man had spat out intense black flames when he was a Reim. There were other Reims that had been able to shoot out bullets that changed the coloring on the ground upon impact, but he was the first one to spit out poisonous fire.

"Which is proof that he's just that strong."

I muttered to myself in order to organize my thoughts. My monstrous arm that had swallowed up the divine sword wouldn't have been able to face off against it if that fire had been normal.

After all, the divine sword was only effective against monsters and Reims.

The boy leading us suddenly stopped in his tracks when we turned around the corner.

"……I hear something."

Just as the boy, who was listening in closely, had said, we heard the delighted cry of something that sounded like it was fawning. It was a Reim.

The knightly woman to the boy's left stopped as well and readied her sword. The blond man, the man who hadn't completely awakened yet, and I had been walking behind them.

The two in front of us had stopped, so we did as well.

"It's not very easy to see with just the light from the torch……"

The boy placed his hand close to the fire and whispered something. Then, strangely enough, the torch grew brighter although the size of the flames hadn't really changed much at all. The light extended all the way to the end of the corridor.

It was thanks to this that we could see the Reim lurking at the end of the hall, instead of only hearing it.

Noticing us, the Reim turned around. It was slender. Its waist was so skinny it looked like it had been wrung out, while its lower half was quite fat. It was tall, too. It's four arms were shaped like swords.

"I'll go,"

the woman declared curtly and poised herself for battle before the boy stopped her.

"Wait. They were human once."

"But they will kill us if we don't finish them first."

The boy shook his head at the irritated woman and threw a quick glance at me.

That's right, he's the first person that I resurrected. He must've regained his senses earlier than the others.

He was probably the first to have calmly accepted the fact that it was possible to resurrect the Reims as well.

"Is it all right to kill them here……?"

The boy looked hesitant for a moment. I could more or less guess why.

Even if he knew that I could turn the Reims back human, right now he probably couldn't decide if I was a friend or foe.

It was also highly likely that he had seen my monstrous arm.

"Here it comes!"

The man with the dark blond hair yelled sharply.

The slender Reim had started charging from us from the other end of the corridor with surprising speed.

"——I'll go. The rest of you stay here and don't move."

I drew the divine sword from its sheath and began running.

My heart was pounding so hard that it hurt, and my sword arm was trembling.

After all, my consciousness had returned to normal right now. I was holding the divine sword completely of my own volition.

"Please, divine sword, let me fight……!"

I prayed as hard as I could as I readjusted my grip on my sword. The Reim brandished one of its sword-like arms down from above my head when I drew close. I somehow managed to block it with the divine sword……but it was shockingly strong, and I was easily blasted away. My body was flung up into the air like a ball and I slammed into the corridor wall.

"Ow, my back!"

I slid down to the floor just as I was from the impact and pain resulting from having been thrown against the wall.

I was in a pathetic state where I was fortunate just to have held on to the divine sword.

No way, the divine sword isn't responding!

"I'm pretty sure you'd be troubled too if I die right now, since no one else can handle you!"

I said to the divine sword, though I didn't know if I was threatening it or pleading with it.

The Reim's sharp arm was swinging down at me diagonally just as I thought, Oh, I feel something that vaguely feels like extreme reluctance. It was planning to rip me apart.

I couldn't react immediately——or so I'd thought, but in actuality, I'd taken up the barest minimum of defensive measures.

My sword arm moved to block the Reim's sword.

But there was no helping the sheer difference in power between it and me.

"I don't believe this, you're definitely holding back on me, divine sword!"

I was pathetically blasted away yet again. Well, I'm not mad, and I'm not trying to blame you or anything, but…!

"And that Reim is stupidly strong too!"

Oh, as I'd thought, my nimble movements from before were only possible thanks to this selfish divine sword.

The only reason that I'd been able to turn the boy and the others back human before the divine sword had awakened was because the Reims had hardly resisted because they hadn't been complete yet.

"I'm way too weak right now!"

Just as I panicked and tried to hurry back up to my feet.

"I'll back you up!"

The boy's voice resounded through the air.

"Back me up?!"

I didn't have the time to turn around. The Reim was brandis.h.i.+ng its sword-like arms down at me again. I somehow managed to dodge it, though it put me in an awkward position.

"Th, thank goodness."

But it seemed like it was too early for me to soothe down my heart. The first attack had just been a trigger, and its arms swung down again at where I had escaped to.

"Wh, whoa, ahh!"

I was fortunate to have been awkwardly positioned. I stumbled as I tried to get up and plopped down backwards instead and coincidentally managed to evade the next attack as I did. I Reim's arm just barely grazed past my head.

"That was clo……!"

I was taken aback. Even more of its sharp, sword-like arms were coming for me. The Reim had four arms.

But again, how should I put this, my utterly lacking combat abilities proved to be my fortune.

Just when I'd tried to get back up in a panic, the tip of the divine sword got caught in a crack in the floor and lurched me forward. I heard the chilling sound of something cutting through the air coming from above me as I landed face-first.

"Please, if you're gonna back me up then do it fast!"

I probably wouldn't be able to dodge the next one. When I'd finally managed to hastily pick myself up, I found that the Reim was about to thrust all four of its arms at me at once this time. I even forgot to run away as I froze in place.

Then, just as the Reim's sharp, sword-like extremity was just a few centimeters away from piercing through my brow.

"Ah!?"

A thin ring of light wrapped around the Reim's arm and sealed its movements.

"Move over here!"

the boy called out to me forcefully. I couldn't respond immediately and ended up staring earnestly at the Reim.

The mysterious circle of light. It looked like a thread at a first glance, but it wasn't. It was actually a string of tiny s.h.i.+ning letters.

The boy had blocked the Reim with magic. I crawled away from the Reim and readjusted my grip on my sword.

"It'll break through the spell soon. Hurry!"

"Okay, thanks!"

The thin ring of words looked like it would shatter at any moment as the Reim struggled against it.

"Divine sword. Let's bring this person back to life."

I swiftly circled behind the Reim and, seizing my chance when the Reim stooped forward to push harder against its arm, swung down the divine sword.

I felt the horrible crunching —something that I'll never get used to no matter how many times I hear it— run through my hands.

***

"I don't believe this,"

whispered the man with the dark blond hair as he looked down at the young man in his mid-twenties who had just finished resurrecting. His gaze then moved from the limp young man to me.

"This is really difficult to believe,"

he repeated again emotionlessly to himself.

But right now, I didn't have the time to answer the mountain of questions and surprise that was hidden in his gaze.

"Where are the others?"

I asked the boy. The only people here were me, the boy, the swordswoman, and the three men.

There should've also been a girl around my age and a man in his fifties.

The boy and the others probably had anyone who weren't suited to fighting hide somewhere before coming to rescue me. But the temple wasn't exactly safe either. I was worried if they were okay.

"The others are somewhere where we put up a barrier. We'll take you there."

The boy let out a soft sigh and brushed aside his dark grey hair from his cheeks with the tips of his fingers before speaking briefly without saying anything superfluous. Well, it wasn't as if I'd know where it was even if he had explained it to me. It was for the best that he took me there directly. The boy continued,

"only, it's a simplified barrier. I won't be able to maintain it for long."

I see, so we should hurry then.

"Got it. Let's go to where the other five are. I'll fight the Reims. If you can, can you please back me up like you did just now?"

The boy nodded obediently and turned to the woman who was looking at me with obvious caution. He ordered her to, "Take care of him," in a tone that suggested she couldn't say no.

The woman, who had the air of a young male knight about her, looked like she wanted to say something, but she obeyed the boy's commands nevertheless and lent a shoulder to the young man who had just turned back human.

Was the boy of a high social standing? I'd thought that he was the youngest out of all the people I'd resurrected, but he wasn't timid and seemed to be used to ordering people around.

That, and the others didn't seem to mind his att.i.tude in particular either.

"This way. Let us hurry."

The boy rolled up the sleeves of the robes I'd given him and began to walk down the corridor at a brisk pace.

He looked a little hesitant when I followed after him and slowed down ever so slightly.

"……Are you unhurt?"

"I'm okay."

When I quietly replied back and smiled, the boy jerked his shoulders a little like he'd seem something completely unexpected and lowered his gaze.

He was such a strange child. He'd treated the other woman like he was her master, but he was respectful toward me and even seemed to be a little shy. It didn't feel like he was treating me like this only because I was creepy and scary to him.

"How about you?"

"Yes. I'm fine,"

the boy replied feebly while still looking down.

I was relieved. ……There really was a "person" walking next to me. And I could hear the woman and the other's footsteps coming from behind.

I listened closer. Right now, it was a sound that made my heart soar higher than even beautiful music could.

"Your footsteps make me happy."

"……I beg your pardon?"

"No, it's nothing."

It was so heartening to know that I wasn't alone.

It was still painful and scary to have to kill the Reims. But the fact that someone was behind me and would lend me a hand gave me sense of relief and courage that was a bit different from leisure.

I brought forth in me the strong desire to "absolutely do something about it" even when the situation got urgent. ……The divine sword had fallen silent like it was sulking, though.

I turned five more people back human by the time we made it to where the barrier was. It wouldn't have been possible if the boy hadn't helped me with his magic.

A sudden thought shadowed my heart even as I encouraged and supported the people who had just been resurrected.

"I wonder where Louie and Eru are right now?"

↑ Yamato-no-Orochi: A legendary eight-headed and eight-tailed snake/dragon from j.a.panese folklore.