The Hunter's Arrival
A hush fell with the Hunter's appearance. While I'd been getting dragged around, she'd already hunted down several Outer Gods, and the sheer killing intent radiating from her was overwhelming. But her opponents were Outer Gods. Even if she surpassed them in raw combat power, their presence was on another level entirely.
"Oh my, another human's shown up?"
The little sister Outer God giggled at the Hunter, going "ufufu."
"Look at those eyes. She thinks we're pushovers, sis."
"For a human, that's a pretty vicious glare. It's kinda cute."
Just as I'd expected, the twin Outer Gods were looking down on the Hunter and even mocking her. Their voices were dangerously potent—enough to shatter the mind of any ordinary person on the spot.
"What're they blabbering about."
The Hunter just clicked her tongue dismissively.
"Compared to everything I've run into so far, these guys are the noisiest by a mile."
Click, clank. Two BB pellets floated in the air, reloaded at a speed too fast to track with the naked eye. Then she pulled a lollipop from her pocket and stuck it in her mouth.
Crunch.
Now she really gave off that vibe from the game—the Hunter's aura.
Aiming her shotgun at the twin Outer Gods, she shot me a glance.
"You were messing around with trash like this? Makes sense; anything short of a Greater Outer God would be too easy for you, so maybe you were just humoring them. Or..."
The Hunter's gaze shifted to the Immortal Witch. As if she'd pieced something together, she closed her eyes briefly before refocusing on the Outer Gods.
"You're too damn nice for your own good."
With that, she launched into motion. Instead of pulling away, she charged right at them. The two Outer Gods sneered at the approaching Hunter.
"Hahaha! Wow, how much do we underestimate ourselves?"
"Let's take out the weakling quick..."
The little sister Outer God started talking to me just like before, but her mouth snapped shut.
And for good reason.
Bang!
Most of the Hunter's shots were blocked by the car, but one lone pellet grazed the little sister's face, piercing right through her hair.
This had to be a first for her. Even to my eyes, it was a close call—but hair was part of their body, and it'd been pierced.
"Uh, huh?"
"The blizzard's messing with our senses; their scent's getting muddled."
Visibility was zero in the raging snowstorm. As expected of the protagonist—the Hunter. Pinpoint accuracy based purely on smell.
The Hunter tsked once and leveled her shotgun at them again. Maybe that rough attitude made them feel belittled.
"That, that human!"
"Time to teach her a lesson!"
Honk honk! A blaring horn echoed as the car barreled toward the Hunter at high speed.
But speed meant nothing to her. All that mattered was how close the target was.
Which is why...
"Coming closer makes it even easier to sniff you out."
They'd basically dug their own graves. Boom! Just before the car reached her, the twin Outer Gods took a shotgun blast dead-on, forcing them to reverse while steering the crumbling vehicle.
"Gah!"
"W-what the hell?!"
Having retreated far back, the twin Outer Gods' expressions finally darkened. Only now were they realizing it: in this fight, the predators weren't them—it was the Hunter.
"...I can't accept this!"
Then the sister Outer God raised a gun from inside the car. I'd seen something like that before... It resembled the gun Candle had, but it was decked out with useless trinkets—fake gems and stickers that little girls might like.
"...So you copied weapons from the ones you killed, using bits of their bodies. Disgusting."
That's how it looked to the Hunter's eyes, huh. They'd definitely told me they hunted humans too. So they'd seen Candle's gun and mimicked it.
"You think we'd lose to a mere human?"
The sister Outer God aimed what looked like a pistol at the Hunter.
"We are the hunters!"
Peow! She shouted and fired. By sheer luck, the shot nailed the Hunter's double-barrel shotgun, half-destroying it. She'd pegged that gun as the Hunter's only real threat.
"Yes! Now for that pathetic human!"
Peow!
But unfortunately...
"...Huh?"
The Hunter wasn't an idiot. The firing sound—nothing like flesh bullets from an Outer God—rang out, and the sister Outer God's eyes flew wide.
She realized it quick. The Hunter had tossed the broken shotgun aside and drawn a revolver.
"...My underground prison gear was already beat up anyway; it was about time to switch. Damn pests, forcing me to burn cash early."
The Hunter grumbled casually, bringing the revolver to her mouth and lighting the lollipop with a puff.
"Good thing I made spare ammo from those bastards' corpses."
Smoke from the revolver curled, then rose again.
"S-sis!"
"W-what is this? Why does a normal gun hurt..."
She still hadn't figured out what the bullets were. The sister Outer God's words cut off. The Hunter fired four more shots.
Peow! Peow! Peow! Peow!
Ridiculous blasts that mocked the enemy's defeat. With each shot, the sister Outer God's body jerked violently—clear even from here.
"Sis!!!"
The imbalance must've wrecked their car; it split in half, losing form entirely. Now the little sister was supporting her sister with her arm.
Judging it over, the Hunter beckoned me closer. Feeling oddly empty, I followed.
Up close, the sister Outer God's lifeless expression was all too clear. Gunshot wounds, maybe. No visible injury, but she was clearly dying.
"If you're gonna die anyway, just go quietly. Noisy empty carts like you don't get a clean death."
The Hunter aimed her revolver to finish her off.
"N-no!"
The little sister blocked her path. The Hunter scowled, irritated by the pathetic display.
"Now what."
"S-sis's temperature's dropping... Candles said if they get cold, it's bad... We can't let this happen..."
Listening to the anxious little sister, I got it. This Outer God had a mind so naive it didn't even grasp the concept of death.
Damn it, I knew they weren't really like that on the inside. They'd tried to kill me, no question. So why the pity?
But like I'd thought before, some Outer Gods weren't human-friendly. No talking to them—you had to kill them. So I tried to ignore her words.
"...It ended up like this."
The sister Outer God grabbed her little sister's arm with a trembling hand.
"Sis..."
"No helping it... One Candle said it, right? If you're gonna shoot, be ready to get shot."
"Don't... Your hand's getting colder..."
"And we've seen it already...?"
The sister Outer God forced a smile.
"The Candles we watched and copied? They got hunted and buried in the snow too. Wanting to survive isn't just us—dying humans feel it too..."
"N-no, I hate it!"
"Sorry. All I know is this stuff. I made you sad by dragging you along."
I wanted to cover my ears. But I couldn't. Hearing that made me doubt if this was right.
Maybe they were just trying to mesmerize me to survive. But every Outer God I'd met so far wasn't inherently evil.
My sense of self was clashing hard.
"...Outer Gods aren't as perfect as you think. Most like these are just fragments I and other strong ones scattered to dominate this world."
The Gardener spoke flatly as she watched.
"Some nurture their young like me; others abandon theirs. Hell, do they even see them as family?"
Loneliness tinged the Gardener's tone. She'd descended to this world to protect her friend, after all.
This is unfair. Minds too young to know death, raised believing survival meant this and nothing else. Wrong lessons, that's all.
I looked at the Hunter. Her cold eyes screamed she was ready to gun them down any second.
"...Whatever crap she's spouting."
With that, she pulled the trigger.
The twins closed their eyes, accepting death.
Peow!
The gun fired.
But it wasn't the final blow.
"...What the hell are you doing."
My hand had grabbed the Hunter's wrist, twisting it aside.
"L-like that?"