Ch.134Chapter 20. Request (9)

There was no need to think about the cause of the gunshots.

Japan is one of the places where civilian gun ownership is almost completely prohibited. It’s probably similar to Korea in that regard.

So it’s impossible to grab a shotgun kept in the house and fire it when a monster appears in the backyard.

If someone fired a gun, it means there are people with professions that allow them to use firearms.

Probably government people or maybe even the Self-Defense Forces.

How did they follow us? That’s not so important. What matters is that we need to do something about this situation right now or we’re in big trouble.

Just because the sound came from some distance away, does that mean we’re safe? This whole mess started with Kosuzu, so it won’t end that easily.

If we don’t take care of it, it might come down here and cause trouble.

What happened to Satori?

Well, honestly, at this point, that story has flown out the window. Staying alive is more important right now.

“Wait.”

As I staggered forward, Kagami grabbed my arm.

When I turned my head, Kagami was looking at me.

I think this might be the widest I’ve ever seen Kagami’s eyes.

Since the expression I usually see is almost always a sly smile, honestly, this wasn’t an easy expression to get used to.

“Where are you going in that condition?”

“To deal with that thing.”

When I answered Kagami’s question, the hand gripping my arm tightened.

“We should retreat for now.”

“Retreat?”

“Yes. It’s too much for you in that condition. Let’s withdraw for now and come back later. After you’ve recovered more and found people to help.”

“…”

Thud.

I looked toward the sound.

I could hear screams in the distance. The sound of trees falling continued too. Perhaps nearby residents were opening their windows one by one to check what was happening.

“If you’re worried about the people—”

“No.”

I cut Kagami off sharply, guessing what would come next.

Yes. Honestly, I am concerned. Even in my past life, I was in a profession that saved people.

But right now, I wasn’t doing this because of professional duty.

“We can’t retreat from here.”

Why?

Kagami’s face was demanding an explanation. Koko was the same. She looked like she wanted to grab me and drag me away.

“…My power is borrowed from the one watching me.”

Only after hearing my words did the expression drain from Kagami’s face.

That’s right.

Even if we run away from here, my life would still be in danger.

The reason is simple.

The fact that Nirlas lent me power without asking for anything specific means he wants me to follow this situation through to the end using that power.

I don’t know what would happen if I ignore the request.

Probably anything could happen.

I might suddenly die, my appearance might become hideous, I might feel terrible pain, or he might never grant any future requests.

No, that’s not the issue.

…Nirlas can use my body.

I don’t know how long that would last, but it doesn’t take much time to harm someone.

No, it doesn’t take long to ruin relationships.

Who knows what he might do with my body after I’ve severely upset him?

“You’re overthinking this,” Nirlas whispered in my ear, but I couldn’t even snicker at such words coming from someone who had just set a person on fire.

“This is the price. I can’t stop moving until this blood stops flowing. If you’re not satisfied, the blood won’t stop either.”

At my words, the people standing around fell silent.

Koko looking at me with a bewildered expression. Kagami keeping her mouth shut, saying nothing.

Even Hagiwara, who had come closer trying to communicate somehow.

“But even if you go, is there a way…?”

“…There is a way.”

I answered Kagami’s question.

Yes.

If there’s a method, Nirlas has already “shown” it.

He’s already given me a hint.

“…You still have the talisman, right?”

If you have a torch that doesn’t easily extinguish, what can you do with it?

Besides illuminating, doesn’t a torch have one more function?

*

My head is throbbing.

It seems my body can’t process all the information it’s receiving at once. Blood is flowing from my left wrist, and my entire body is starting to feel chills. Perhaps because I’ve lost too much blood, my temperature regulation seems to be malfunctioning bit by bit.

My limbs felt like they would cramp at any moment from forcing my already exhausted body to move, and my consciousness seemed to be wavering.

Thump.

As I staggered toward the sound, someone grabbed my arm.

It was Hagiwara, who had somehow come close.

“…You.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again.

Did she want to tell me not to push myself? But that would be meaningless in this situation. What answer would you expect if you told someone who’s setting themselves on fire to burn an enemy “don’t overdo it”?

The correct answer is “no answer at all.” Right now, I needed to use what little strength I had to take even one more step forward.

Since hearing my plan, Kagami couldn’t bring herself to touch me.

How strange.

At first, I definitely thought she was an inhuman being without any sense of shame, and even when I was uncertain whether she was human or not, I thought she was a cold-hearted cult leader.

But the more time we spent face to face, the more human Kagami gradually felt.

No, Kagami is probably just a human being. Someone who took over after her sister abruptly left, having done all sorts of radical things in the cult without being satisfied with the results.

I don’t know the details, of course.

Perhaps Kagami felt similarly? After meeting and talking with me several times, did she eventually come to think of me as something almost human?

Because a professional relationship is completely different from one where you have personal conversations over time.

Koko had been holding my arm from the opposite side of Hagiwara for a while now. She seemed to be trying to support me, but honestly, it wasn’t helping much.

A careful gesture, like holding something that might break if gripped too tightly.

…Is there a reason she’s not moving faster when she could?

I only feel sorry toward Koko, as I’m doing something terrible to her.

“…Senior.”

“Yes.”

“Use my blood. Like you did last time.”

“…”

“I trust you won’t refuse to use heretical power at this point. Not if you don’t want to see the people following us die.”

“…I brought proper holy water this time.”

“We’ve seen that holy water alone isn’t enough.”

There are still many bodies scattered on the ground where we were. The slime-like things will disappear without a trace before long since they fall into the category of yokai. But human corpses must be cleaned up by someone.

Though it was dark and far away so I couldn’t see properly, their condition must be horrific.

“…”

Hagiwara didn’t nod, but she didn’t object to my words either. She probably couldn’t have objected anyway.

“Then—”

BOOM!

The ground that had been rumbling was now making explosive sounds. For a moment, I thought my feet had left the ground.

As I staggered, Koko, who had barely been touching my arm until then, firmly supported my body.

“…Alright.”

Sensing the moment had come, I spoke.

“Kosuzu probably didn’t see how Waitley fought. Since we’re this far apart.”

Of course, being from the same cult, she would have anticipated some countermeasures. She said it was the result of research by the man next door, but that doesn’t mean Kosuzu couldn’t have researched something similar.

She would have prepared for the talismans.

However, she still wouldn’t have seen how I fought. Just thinking about which would be harder to control gives you the answer.

She knows that I, or Koko, would be vulnerable to those talismans, but she wouldn’t have guessed what I’m planning to do.

There must be a reason why Nirlas specifically gave that “example.”

“It feels good to be trusted so much.”

“…”

Stop talking.

BOOM!

There was a sound of something being crushed, followed by an explosion. I saw something flash over there. Maybe a car exploded, or perhaps they were trying to stop it with some kind of explosive.

I freed myself from the arms supporting me on both sides.

Then I held out my hand to Hagiwara.

Hagiwara hesitated a bit, but eventually gave me her knife.

I lightly brushed the blade against my wrist. A faint red blood stained the tip of the knife. It probably wouldn’t be visible after a few swings, but I confirmed during our summer retreat that the effect itself works quite well.

“Then, let’s move as I explained.”

At my words, Hagiwara finally seemed to gather her resolve and nodded.

“Don’t die.”

What, because I need to receive God’s judgment when I die?

Well, even I know this isn’t the time for such jokes.

“I won’t die here.”

I answered cleanly and moved forward.

“…Kotone…”

“Koko. Please.”

I said in a serious voice.

“If we don’t succeed, we won’t even make it to Christmas.”

“Uuu…”

I paused briefly and looked at Koko.

Then, patting her head, I said:

“I promise. Since this is about saving many people, Santa Claus will definitely come.”

But Koko wasn’t happy with those words.

That was expected, but—

Reaching out her hand, Koko grabbed my sleeve and said:

“…Kotone is more important.”

“…”

“I don’t care if I don’t get presents. But if Kotone disappears, she won’t come back.”

…

For a moment, I found it awkward to respond to those words.

Racking my brain for a short time, I finally came up with an answer.

“I’ll come back, I promise.”

It was a terrible answer.

Koko stared up at me silently for a while, but then:

“Uuu…”

Even while making that sound, she nodded.

She’s a good child. Really.

She was too precious to be my sister.

…Well, the same could be said for my siblings in my past life.

“…Please take care of Koko.”

“…Yes.”

Kagami answered my request.

We picked up our pace again.

*

Chaos.

That’s the only word I could use to describe the scene.

Waitley had an invisible body, so the results of its movement were extremely bizarre. Just the simple fact that you couldn’t see what was stepping on and crushing things made it look like objects were breaking and crumpling by themselves.

And if those self-crumpling things were people, it was even worse.

“AAAAARGH!?”

I ran toward a man screaming as he watched his leg being crushed, and swung my sword without hesitation.

The sword that cuts things of this world sliced through the air. Yellow blood splattered. It was the same as the blood Waitley had shed.

Right after that, my body flew backward.

I wasn’t hit by anything.

Instead, I was gently placed a few steps back. Judging by the wind that brushed past my face immediately afterward, it seemed to be more about saving me than attacking me.

Glancing to the side, I saw Koko. Her hair was just shrinking back to normal.

I see.

At least I wasn’t alone, which was fortunate.

Thud.

A large footprint appeared very close to me. Thanks to that, the soldier whose leg had been crushed was quickly dragged away by others who rushed in.

Unfortunately, the remains of his leg were left behind, completely torn apart.

Ratatata, the sound of rifles tore through the sky.

But there were no effective attacks.

Small bullets lodged in something filling the empty space, but unlike when I cut it, no blood splattered. They just paused briefly, then slid down and dropped.

I shook my left hand.

Blood splattered, and several chi fell.

Some of them caught on my hand before falling.

I ran forward with all my might and threw that chi hard.

Splat!

The blood burst like a water balloon, painting a tiny bit of color on the invisible being, like being hit with a paintball gun in a survival game.

But that little bit of coloring seemed extremely uncomfortable for the foreign deity’s son.

Whoosh.

If I hadn’t heard the sound of air splitting, I would have been flattened long ago.

About the same speed as Koko.

The fortunate thing is that the opponent is huge.

I don’t think being huge makes it slow. However, the travel distance itself becomes longer. You’re much more likely to dodge something falling from 5 meters above your head than a knife swung from 5cm in front of you.

Whoosh.

There was a sound of flames blazing, and a blue light flashed at the edge of my vision.

The sound of a whip being swung wasn’t coming only from the giant Waitley.

If what I threw was a water balloon, Koko’s swinging hair was like plow marks drawn across a field. The field was so huge that hand plowing barely made a difference, but since the body was transparent, the wounds themselves were clearly visible.

Besides, there were also slime-like things I had seen earlier. Again, I’m glad I didn’t come alone. Otherwise, there would be no survivors here. Instead, there would only be corpses half-dissolved after merging with the slimes.

Koko’s hair and Kagami’s blue flames burned them, and in the process, advanced forward to set a tiny bit of fire on the monster’s body.

As expected, setting fire from the outside isn’t enough.

I shook my left hand again. Creating tentacles, I grabbed a tree and yanked my body.

“Eek!?”

The soldiers carrying the wounded were terrified when they saw me approaching with such an obviously alien appearance.

I cut down several slimes approaching those people and moved closer.

Then, I held out my hand to them.

Hmm. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.

The spectacle of small wriggling worms emerging from a large tentacle that covered my entire arm and was also wriggling.

“…Put this in your gun barrels and fire.”

“What?”

A soldier mumbled blankly.

“If you’ve come this far, you must know the situation. You’ve seen that regular bullets don’t work on that thing. We don’t have time.”

“Ugh…”

Perhaps shocked back to their senses by the groans of the soldier whose leg was mangled, the soldiers or Self-Defense Force members, whatever they were, seemed to snap out of it.

Eventually, as people hesitantly reached out their hands, I spoke again:

“Tell Miura-san too. Tell him to distribute it to everyone.”

Honestly, I’m not sure if it will work properly.

Coating my sword with it was effective, but simply hitting places where my blood was smeared didn’t work very well. If it had, all attacks should have worked after the small Waitley was hit with my blood earlier.

Still, it’s better than nothing.

To make it as chaotic as possible, and to draw attention as the most chaotic entity.

I brought up Miura-san as a gamble, but it seems to have worked unexpectedly well.

The soldiers looked at each other’s faces, and eventually took a handful of wriggling chi from my hand.

I didn’t have time to see if they were using it properly. If I didn’t move, the people running around over there would be in danger.

I turned back and ran.

And headed toward the frantically struggling Waitley.

Several cars were completely flattened. The surrounding trees were all lying down, leaving almost no space to step.

I swung my arm, splattering blood on Waitley’s body, and dots of blood appeared. Though it was dark, light was shining from all directions.

Searchlights from where the soldiers were, holy water from the church people, and blue flames from Kagami’s direction.

Good. That should be enough.

I stretched out my left arm.

And grabbing the most visible tentacle, I pulled.

My body was thrown into the sky. It was like being shot from a slingshot. Honestly, if not for the situation, it would have felt good. The cold night air forced its way into my lungs, making my head feel a bit clearer.

I cut the tentacle.

Creating another tentacle, this time I wrapped it around my body.

Splat!

Blood splattered. To others, it probably looked like I had burst into droplets of blood in mid-air.

But what burst was just the airbag that had briefly wrapped my body.

My body was thrown, but I could withstand the impact. Probably just got a small fracture somewhere.

Creating tentacles again, this time I aimed for the swinging tentacles.

The blood sprayed in all directions from the burst airbag made the tentacles a bit more visible. Maybe it was because I was looking down from above.

When my tentacle wrapped around its tentacle, my vision suddenly reversed. If I had been cutting through the air refreshingly until just now, this time it felt like my body itself had become a centrifuge.

Pop!

The tentacle burst.

Blood poured down, painting the monster’s body. A straight line was drawn across its face like a war painting made of blood.

And thanks to that, I could see it.

The mouth.

I couldn’t see its overall appearance, and I don’t know why there was a human head attached to it. A huge human head that could swallow someone my size in one gulp.

Two eyes were looking up at me.

Ratatata!

Gunshots rang out, and yellow blood splattered profusely, but there was no significant damage.

Of course not. It was the same in “The Dunwich Horror.” If ordinary people’s attacks worked, it wouldn’t have been an object of terror in the first place.

I shook my arm, creating dozens of small chi and spreading them forward. Splat, blood splattered in all directions, revealing a tiny silhouette of the creature.

How should I describe it?

It looked like a human head placed on top of a large cupcake, with dozens of worms stuck in the cupcake, all wriggling.

Well, I don’t know if there were really dozens. Maybe there were only five or six in reality. I’m just saying it looked like more than what my eyes could see.

Several of those tentacles rose toward me.

Meanwhile, some were busily hitting the ground, and several supporting the body were constantly moving this massive… bio-battleship up the mountain.

I don’t know what its purpose is.

I’ll just kill it first and figure that out later.

I swing my left arm again. Before my body falls, I wrap around a tentacle, spin once, and shoot upward.

Then I throw my sword.

Thunk.

For a moment, my falling speed seems to decrease slightly. Instead, I think my eardrums have been damaged. The sound the monster made from below was loud enough to make my clothes vibrate.

The sword was stuck in the monster’s eye.

“Nirlas.”

As I murmured the name, Nirlas chuckled.

Bang!

The sword exploded. Along with the monster’s left eye socket.

The monster’s mouth opened wide.

It seems to have no intention of wrapping me in its tentacles. It was so angry that it looked ready to chew me alive.

This was very good news for me.

Actually, if Nirlas hadn’t told me, I would have thought this strategy was pretty useless too.

If blue flames can’t completely burn the skin surface, a fire inside wouldn’t last long either.

Originally, all living creatures are moister inside than outside.

But I am a torch, aren’t I?

Somehow turning my body in mid-air, I positioned my head forward.

So that even if the timing was bad and the mouth closed, cutting off part of my body, I could still maintain consciousness.

And then I fell.

Ah, “fell” might not be the right expression.

I did spray some blood from my left hand. To fall as fast as possible.

I don’t know if it worked, but thanks to it, my vision could turn black in an instant.

And what I felt was a rotten smell.

I had successfully entered its mouth.

“…Ugh.”

Holding back the urge to vomit, I landed on what might be its tongue. Smack. The tongue moved inside the mouth and stuck to the palate.

“Blech.”

Fortunately, nothing came out.

I twisted my left arm to bring blood to the tongue, and the monster’s tongue moved again as if convulsing. Yeah, doesn’t taste good, right? Everyone says so.

My body was briefly free, but it seemed like I would fall straight into the monster’s stomach.

Before my arm became uncomfortable from being pressed by the esophagus again, I barely managed to put my hand inside my clothes.

And took out the talisman.

“Phew.”

After preparing myself mentally for just a moment, I immediately tore the talisman.

If there was any consolation, at least this time I didn’t need to hold back my screams.