Ch.8080. The Truth?

“······S-Senior?”

Her sudden words made me flinch momentarily, but knowing my priorities well enough, I didn’t let emotions sway me into stopping my movements.

After retrieving my sword, I instantly increased the gravity affecting her several dozen times while simultaneously spewing flames from the tip of my blade.

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

Flames of such high temperature that they appeared as a vivid, deep blue engulfed her, rigid from the gravity. The sheer heat vaporized not only the building she stood on but several nearby structures as well.

And right after the flames from my sword tip ceased.

“Senior···········!”

There was Yusea, who had deployed her coffin’s defense mode and somehow switched her weapon to dual pistols, taking a thrusting stance just as I had done earlier.

WOOOOOOONG!!!

A red psychic energy beam shot out from the tip of her greatsword, which was remarkably similar in color to obsidian, but such output-focused attacks are precisely why hunters can never defeat monsters.

Sizzzzzzzzle········.

Using the wide blade of my flaming greatsword as a shield to deflect the psychic beam, I leaped with all my might, drawing surrounding energy into my sword and swung it again───

“────That technique, it’s your technique, Senior!”

My attack was nullified rather ridiculously when Yusea mimicked my stance in reverse, swinging her greatsword upward from below.

The flames escaped my control and scattered everywhere, and my greatsword was deflected by what appeared to be an extraordinary technique—frankly speaking, what seemed to be a greatsword parrying skill.

Of course, for me as a monster, the greatsword was merely one of many weapons.

Click.

After stowing the greatsword, I brought out the gauntlet embedded in my suit’s right arm───a charge fist—and clenched my fist, striking down hard toward her shoulder.

KUUUUUUNG!

“Ugh, kuh!”

But she managed to defend against this blow too.

Using her wide blade as a shield just as I had done earlier, she blocked my gauntlet, but unable to withstand the recoil, she flew backward.

And watching Yusea fly away───

‘········I never thought she would imitate me.’

Seeing Yusea perfectly mimicking the techniques that I, the former player, used to employ, I felt a strange emotion───something akin to pride, a subtle feeling.

Despite it being just a game, thinking that she must have either missed or admired me enough to learn my techniques gave me an odd sense of intimacy.

Meanwhile, Yusea, who had been sent flying and had bisected a debris monster that attacked her───

“Could it be········that Senior’s disappearance·······.”

After landing on the ground and slicing through the shadow monsters around her, she was muttering incomprehensible words to herself.

‘Huh? Did I········or rather, my character, go missing?’

I had thought that since there were no records after a certain point, my character must have simply retired, but hearing her words, it seems my character disappeared after the campaign story ended—specifically three years later (the campaign story ran for two years in real-time, and the sixth installment is a new work released five years after the fifth).

While I found this fact interesting, I still prepared for another surprise attack to deal with Yusea.

I completely dismantled an entire building, super-fused its materials with the shadows contained inside to create what I estimated to be a first-class monster, and released the fog on the ground───souls of monsters I had completely absorbed from my memory.

As I was summoning troops of different quality and scale to deplete the fuel and energy of the coffin—the reason I had no choice but to engage in single combat—since she was crushing all my monsters attacking from all directions.

“That’s, could it be Senior’s········.”

‘Hm? ············Hmm. There’s no risk even if I fail, so should I try?’

Hearing that whisper she made while looking at my───mech, I suddenly had a very good idea.

※ ※ ※

After that, I actively attacked Yusea while blending in among the monsters.

Sometimes I coordinated attacks with Orc Lords, sometimes I hid among the aerial maneuvers of Dolphinmen, and sometimes I used giant psychic whales as platforms for hit-and-run tactics.

During this combat process, I altered the shape of the orichalcum body inside my suit while deliberately lowering the durability of the helmet portion.

And when the time seemed right───

CRACK──THUD!

“········Huh?”

I deliberately allowed the helmet portion of my suit to be destroyed, revealing the face inside──────which I had changed in advance to match my character avatar from the fifth installment.

Of course, I made sure to implement clear differences from the original.

While my original character had dark gray hair and golden eyes, the face I implemented now had unnaturally vivid red eyes and white hair created with mythril threads.

Additionally, I deliberately gave the impression that orichalcum fragments were attached to the skin on both sides of my jaw, as if they had climbed up from my neck, and crucially, I attached coffin-like objects all over the sides of my head.

At a glance, it was clear that I wasn’t in my right mind───moreover, I gave the impression of having been modified by something.

“········S-Senior····this is············ah, aaah, aaaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa───!!!!!”

And the effect of this face seems quite impressive.

Just by looking at me, Yusea was half-panicked and letting out a terrible scream.

This was Yusea, who had been actively involved in the story of the fifth installment, played a central role in its events, and furthermore, had become a top-tier hunter after going through thick and thin since the fifth installment ended.

From this alone, I could roughly understand what the protagonist of the fifth installment meant to her, but right now that didn’t particularly matter───moreover, this was an opportunity to deliver a critical blow to Yusea.

So I grabbed my greatsword without changing my expression and struck at the panicked, disoriented Yusea, but───

“Senior, what have they done to youuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!”

‘Uh───’

CLAAANG!

As if suddenly receiving some rage buff, Yusea glared at me with eyes burning with anger, deflected my attack, and began swinging her sword like mad.

“You fake! Fake! Fake! Where did you send the real Seniooooor!!!!”

‘I am the real one!’

Suppressing the urge to retort at Yusea, who was shouting as if she thought this mech was some kind of clone, I defended against each of her familiar sword techniques one by one.

I nullified her national combo of Guard Break-Triple Strike-Power Hit at the Guard Break stage, and when she tried to activate her greatsword ultimate skill, I deflected it by using the exact same skill but in a different direction.

And in that brief moment when we gained some distance after deflecting each other’s greatswords.

[········That is incorrect.]

“Sen········ior?”

Intending to completely shake her resolve, I calmly opened my mouth and denied her words.

“No way! Something like you couldn’t be Senior!”

Of course, my words were shocking to her; she shouted like that as if desperately denying reality despite having somewhat realized the truth in her heart.

[Unfortunately, I am indeed your senior, Yusea. You just seem unable to accept it.]

“············Ah.”

But to shake her resolve, I needed to break through her denial of reality, so I coldly and calmly refuted her words.

“The real, Senior···········.”

Finally accepting reality, Yusea lowered her greatsword to the ground, and with an expression that defies description, she opened her mouth.

“Senior, then. If you’re really Senior, are you·······being controlled by the Bomb Spider?”

With desperation and a last glimmer of hope, Yusea addressed me, and she succeeded in stirring my heart somewhat.

But regardless of my feelings, I had to twist her psyche and reveal the cruel truth to her.

[No, I stand here entirely of my own will.]

“That’s a lie! Senior, you’re being controlled by that Bomb Spider───”

[The Hive Mind known as the Bomb Spider is me.]

“············What?”

So I rapidly constructed a scenario about why the protagonist of the fifth installment had disappeared, then laid it out for the shocked and immobilized Yusea.

[I was betrayed by humanity. The high officials of South Korea, whom I protected, didn’t like having a hero around, so they tried to eliminate me.]

“But········Senior, you were a top-tier hunter! How could a mere national organization·······?!”

Seemingly now truly believing me to be the missing protagonist of the fifth installment, Yusea asked this, to which I sighed and replied.

[When the anti-psychic bomb was dropped on the Pyongyang Hive Mind, which existed before those seven Hive Minds, I was there───in Pyongyang.]

“············Pyongyang? That means, could it be·······.”

[Yes. Your suspicion is correct. It was a scheme to blow away both me and those creatures after I secretly went on an extermination mission. Yet here I remain, in this state.]

As I said this, I showed a bitter smile.

“That, that can’t be······.”

I quietly hid the guilt of deceiving this innocent young lady in a corner of my heart.