Ch.132Chapter 20. Request (7)

“What the—”

One of the men covered in my blood in this cold weather was horrified.

No, it’s probably not just because of the cold. Being drenched in blood with its strong iron smell, such a reaction is only natural.

Not that I can do anything to accommodate them.

There was a metallic sound, and Koko’s hair moved incredibly fast. In the darkness of night, I could barely see the afterimage, making it seem like a bullet had stopped a flying sword. Whether it was starlight or moonlight, seeing a gleaming sword deflect in mid-air on its own was somewhat surreal.

“Wait!”

I heard someone shouting from over there.

“Not them!”

I knew the owner of that voice.

…Hagiwara.

I see. Then the flying sword must be one of those straight bayonets used by the church.

But I didn’t have time to make leisurely judgments.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up again.

I swung my sword somewhat hastily.

Slash.

I felt something catch on my sword in mid-air. Another chill ran down my spine. This time, not because of a yokai, but from the realization that I had narrowly avoided danger.

Splash.

What fell to the ground was the tip of a tentacle. If I hadn’t swung my sword like a windshield wiper, it would have been piercing or strangling my neck by now.

Seeing this, Koko moved to block in front of me.

She lowered her waist and bent her legs slightly. In a stance ready to spring away at the slightest misstep, she raised her hair.

At first, her hair rose as if charged with static electricity, then each strand began to writhe as if possessing its own will. The tips were as sharp as needles. In reality, they were probably “sharper than” needles. And harder too.

Koko wasn’t the only one who moved. Kagami also stood up abruptly.

When Koko moved, I wasn’t too worried.

To be more precise, it’s not that I wasn’t worried, but I wasn’t “overly” concerned. I trusted that Koko could definitely protect herself.

But Kagami… isn’t she just a normal person?

As I thought this with my mouth open, looking at Kagami, she looked back at me.

Our eyes met briefly. Even in this darkness, I could see Kagami’s eyes clearly. Was it because she happened to be in a spot that caught the light?

Kagami threw the talismans she was holding into the air.

As with any thin paper thrown upward, the talismans couldn’t fly very high. They floated briefly, then caught the air with their wide surface area and suddenly, sharply stopped in mid-air, losing their balance, before fluttering back down.

At first glance, it might seem laughable. In manga, they usually throw these thin talismans as if they were throwing stars.

But it seemed Kagami hadn’t thrown them as weapons.

The writing on the talismans, which were splitting into several pieces and fluttering down, glowed blue. Unlike the Chinese characters typically seen on talismans, these were characters I’d never seen before, glowing like flames before actually catching fire.

“…!”

Immediately after, the tentacles rushing toward Kagami froze in mid-air, then burst into blue flames.

If you pour oil in a straight line on the ground and light one end, the fire will spread along the oil. That’s what was happening in mid-air now.

The blue flame traveled along the tentacle, then suddenly broke off and fell to the ground.

“…You had something that good? You should’ve shared.”

“My. If I had simply said it was good and offered it to you, would you have believed me?”

Kagami replied to my comment.

It was such an accurate assessment that I had nothing to say.

“What’s the principle behind it?”

“As I said before, we’re professionals in our own right. We even have staff with actual academic degrees in this field. Your next-door neighbor, in fact.”

“Ah.”

“Think about Greek mythology. Even gods kill each other, right? If there are good relationships, there are also bad ones. Honestly, we don’t fully understand the principle either. We just know it works that way.”

Kagami said, pulling out another talisman from inside her clothes.

In Cthulhu mythology, Cthulhu, the face of the mythos, is generally known to have a bad relationship with a god named Hastur.

I’m not sure if that’s what’s happening now, but if this is also influenced by Cthulhu mythology, it would be a similar principle.

“…Is that safe?”

“…Well.”

Kagami said with a smile.

“I heard it’s made by diluting some branch powder to use like ink for writing ancient spells. The person who recreated this actually thinks it’s just for ‘ceremonial purposes.'”

“…”

“Let’s hope the moods of those involved with this power don’t get too upset.”

No, no matter how I look at it, it seems terribly dangerous.

But even as I thought this, Kagami threw another talisman upward with an unfazed expression. Again, blue flames ignited, creating what looked like a thin blue veil in mid-air.

“Oh, and just in case, you two should stay a bit away from me. If something goes wrong, you might end up like them over there.”

“Yes, it would be better to be careful.”

As if agreeing with Kagami’s words, I heard a voice whispering in my ear.

Though the voice was tinged with laughter.

It seems to be looking forward to that happening.

“…Koko, let’s be careful.”

“Uu.”

Koko nodded at my words.

The sound of clashing metal continued steadily.

The other side seemed to have greater numbers, but apparently they didn’t have weapons that could directly confront the enemy like we did.

Weightly didn’t seem completely immune to physical force from this world. It felt like it was constantly hovering somewhere between this world and the other. Of course, to inflict real damage, such weapons would be necessary.

Flash.

Well, it seems they’re not completely without similar tools over there.

The bright light didn’t seem to be from turning a flashlight on and off.

Koko and I moved positions.

We left Kagami to protect the yakuza men. Thanks to the blue flames blooming in mid-air, I didn’t see any more tentacles extending toward them, but—

“Koko!”

“Yes!”

Right.

Their weapons aren’t limited to Weightly.

In environments where others might see, using only Weightly would be more convenient. After all, Weightly is invisible to others’ eyes.

But like this, when there’s no chance of being discovered by others—

Thud.

I saw something moving quickly on the ground and stabbed my knife into it.

Then I raised my left hand, forming the flowing blood into a spear shape and stabbed again.

The flesh-colored monster, which looked like a melted human, could be killed this way.

It was the same for Koko. She extended her hair long in all directions, stabbing at the ground.

We could somehow fend off those things that were trying to get past Kagami’s barrier, sticking flat to the ground and approaching rapidly.

Though we did get hurt.

“Kotone…”

“I’m fine.”

Koko worried about me, though she appeared to be in much better shape than I was, at least outwardly, but I quickly replied.

“More importantly, let’s take down the enemy now.”

I’m not sure if we can completely block Weightly. But if we don’t repel it here, the church people are in immediate danger.

Hagiwara is among them, after all.

Flash, flash. Again, those white lights flared up in bursts, but the shouts and the sound of something splashing as it fell continued.

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

Koko shouted at my words.

A steep mountain, and one densely covered with trees at that. It would be impossible to climb easily with this fragile body.

But now, I had the power of an outer god.

Clang!

Another metallic sound came from in front of me. Blood sprayed slightly into the air.

I threw the chi I was holding forward. It burst in mid-air, blood spraying in all directions, and part of a tentacle became visible.

I swung my sword toward it. At the same time, I stretched my arm forward.

As I thought, but in a way that didn’t seem like I was moving it, the mass of blood completely enveloping one of my arms moved.

It wrapped around a tree in front of me and pulled me straight toward it.

No, it wasn’t simply pulling me in a straight line. Avoiding the trees growing complexly in all directions, that mass of blood moved as if taking care not to damage my body, which was honestly a bit creepy.

“Ptui.”

Well, that’s not to say I didn’t hit a branch in the face at least once.

Spitting out leaves and dust that had gotten into my mouth, I checked where the blood mass had led me.

As I hurriedly covered my body with my left arm, the blood mass exploded completely. Much more blood than when I threw the chi burst like a water balloon, and blood spread out as if not just sprayed with a sprayer but as if fog had settled.

“Cough, cough.”

Some of that blood entered my nose and mouth, and I coughed while trying to see ahead.

Gradually, that blood slowly stained some entity.

The first thing visible was disgustingly protruding tentacles. The next was a strangely bent spine.

A bizarre back, as if each vertebra had been carefully cut in half and the spaces between stretched out.

The spaces seemed to be supported by forcibly stretched spinal cord or nerves, constantly writhing.

The back was bent forward almost at a right angle.

Human skin is generally no different from animal skin. Even for a person with unusually thick hair, the skin underneath is visible.

Moreover, hair and tentacles are completely different in shape. No one would think of sea anemones when looking at leg hair.

But looking at its back, I thought of sea anemones. Short, writhing tentacles densely filled its back like tumors.

“Wah!”

Koko didn’t hesitate.

Her hair, gathered into one, struck its back like a whip, and blood splattered. Yellowish blood that didn’t seem human.

“Gaaah!”

It screamed.

Perhaps because it had directed all its tentacles toward the church.

In that sense, Kagami’s talismans were definitely effective. They made it turn its attention to the easier targets to deal with before us.

But still, it wasn’t easy to fight.

“Kuh…!”

I jumped back and bumped into a tree.

Several tentacles shot up from the ground where I had been standing like long spines. And what raised its head was a slime with a face like a snail half-dissolved in salt.

…No.

It was a person.

Through the semi-transparent melted skin, somehow unmelted eyeballs and a partially dissolved skull were visible. In front of those eyeballs, a similarly semi-transparent lump of flesh was moistly protruding.

That’s what had become like the spike platform in a platformer game.

Several of those things raised their heads.

It makes me sick.

When reading Cthulhu mythology, I couldn’t understand why people would go mad at the sight of shoggoths, which externally looked no different from slimes, but if they looked like half-melted people, I would certainly be horrified too.

I hope I don’t dream about those things.

I hurriedly created another shield.

Crack.

I heard the sound of pointed things piercing through the blood, and the shield burst again.

Whether they had names or not, I wasn’t sure—but they were different from yokai. Even covered in my blood, they prepared for the next attack as if they were emotionless machines, without any sign of horror.

But Koko wasn’t idle either. Several of their heads were cut off at once.

I rushed in and skewered the rolling heads with my sword.

Not all of them. As I turned to do the same to the next one, tentacles flew at me again. This time from Weightly.

If Koko hadn’t rushed in to push me aside, it would have been my head that was skewered this time.

Thud!

But it wasn’t us who were being attacked from both sides—it was them.

A sword with some kind of glimmering light stuck into Weightly’s body.

It didn’t spray as much blood as when I cut it with my sword. The sword that had completely penetrated slowly fell down. Like inserting a knife into an amorphous substance and moving it downward, it didn’t seem to inflict much damage.

Is the glimmering from holy water?

Was that why the sword flying toward me was glimmering?

It wasn’t just one sword that flew.

There must have been several people in the fan-shaped space centered on Weightly. I could also hear faint murmuring prayers from far away.

Weightly growled as if annoyed.

I exerted force on my left arm next to Koko, piercing Weightly with blood again.

Whoosh.

Weightly’s waist bent.

With its waist bent at an angle that would have caused extreme pain or even death from shock for a normal person, Weightly was looking down at me. A face stained red, and eyes also stained with my blood.

It was terrifying.

But Koko’s hair pierced that face.

As Koko rose, I also rolled on the ground and got up.

The slime’s head was right in front of my face, but I raised my sword from below and stabbed it from chin to head. Fortunately, it was a “slime,” and the bones inside had mostly melted, so it could be destroyed even with a knife.

I pulled the sword out through its face and leaped toward Weightly.

The tentacles flying toward me were caught by Koko’s tentacles. Some survived between the cut tentacles and aimed for my neck, but they were blocked by my blood shield.

And swords were still flying at Weightly from all directions.

With the sound of breaking glass, a white light clearly visible in contrast to Kagami’s blue flames appeared. Several slimes on the ground were writhing like salted slugs. There was no sound. It was still horrific nonetheless.

The blue flames were getting closer.

Whether Kagami was using talismans as she approached us, or just from the heat alone, several slimes were already turning to flee.

“Grr…!”

Weightly groaned like that, then speared several slimes from the ground with its tentacles.

Then it grabbed them with its large hand, put their heads in its mouth, and crunched them.

…The sight of what had clearly looked like a human face opening wide and chewing on a slime head larger than my own was something beyond the grotesque or horror. It was incredibly realistic without any trace of CG, yet simultaneously unreal—a bizarre sight where these contradictions coexisted.

And half of the remaining slime flew at me.

I threw myself sideways in terror, but couldn’t completely avoid the bodily fluids that burst when it hit the ground.

“Gah…!”

It was incredibly hot. Not in the sense of being acidic, but literally as if its body temperature was tremendously high. Like water just before boiling.

Koko cut through things like that?

Weightly’s body was recovering.

“Step back!”

Kagami shouted. Having fallen to the ground while dodging sideways, I rolled up and quickly moved away.

Weightly also attacked Kagami.

And succeeded.

Whether the blue barrier couldn’t completely block the attack itself, Weightly’s tentacles penetrated the barrier.

Of course, Weightly’s body also caught fire.

But just as a person doesn’t die immediately when set on fire, Weightly’s body, much tougher than a human’s, endured it.

I ran with all my might.

Fortunately, where I had been lying wasn’t too far from Kagami.

“…!”

Kagami’s eyes widened seeing me rushing toward her.

No, there’s a tentacle piercing your shoulder right now, you know? With blue fire attached to it.

How do you have time to worry about me rushing toward you?

“Kotone!”

Only when Koko called me did I realize that I was actually the one who should have been concerned.

Ah, right. That’s right.

Kagami had told me and Koko to keep our distance just in case.

I only remembered this belatedly after cutting off the tentacle stuck in Kagami’s shoulder.

By then, my sword was already burning blue. The flames spread too easily to my hand.

I didn’t scream.

The flames—

“That must be hot.”

I heard a voice whispering in my ear.

“That must hurt. Right?”

It hurt.

So much that my mind went white for a moment.

“But don’t worry. It’s not enough to burn your body. Not enough to make you flee from here.”

As if knowing from the beginning.

My vision turned blue.

It hurts.

It hurts.

While my mind was going white, my body was moving. It wasn’t my will.

…Ah, that’s right.

Nirlas could move my body.

“It seems right to discard what has become boring. Well, if it has entertained me this far, then it has served its purpose.”

Nirlas laughed.

As if that laughter was clearly reflected, my steps were light. As if I were out for a stroll.

Tentacles flew at me, but my body dodged them smoothly, as if dancing.

“Ah, how delightful. I can hear your cries.”

Nirlas said.

If you know—

But with no intention of releasing my body, Nirlas joyfully moved my burning body toward Weightly.

Weightly looked down at me.

Those eyes examined me.

Did it see something there?

Was it because it saw the approaching ember that would burn it?

The expression of the red blood drops floating in the air changed.

It was fear.

“That would be troublesome.”

As Weightly belatedly turned its body, Nirlas spoke through my mouth.

“It would be troublesome to ruin my enjoyment.”

My sword lengthened.

The red sword burning blue, now much longer than my height—

Easily sliced through everything in front of it.

That was the end.