The Ancient Missing Link (13)
“…………Ah.”
Yerna stared blankly at the blood pouring from her body, catching it in her hand as she looked at us. The madness in her eyes faded, replaced by a twisted clarity. That gaze, like a final flicker of life, turned toward Franc.
“……Hah. Different species, born in different places, and yet you call yourselves family?”
The elf muttered with bitter cynicism, then narrowed her eyes in clear disgust.
“……This really pisses me off.”
─Thud.
Yerna’s head lolled as she dropped her hand to the floor. And just like that, the greatest nemesis I had made in this other world would never look at the sky again.
The long, bitter feud had finally come to an end.
I confirmed that she had truly breathed her last this time before closing my eyes.
─Thump.
Franc set her hammer down with a heavy clang, as if she could no longer hold it, and dropped to her knees.
“……We won, right?”
Even as she spoke, Franc pressed on her wounds with a groan, her strength clearly drained. Ah, damn it. This wasn’t the time to get sentimental over some dead bitch.
“Let’s get you treated. Your body is way more important than this bitch’s corpse.”
Both Franc and I were in such terrible shape that we had no potions left. When I carefully lifted her into my arms, she gave me a tired smile.
“Hehe. Thanks. I’m satisfied that I got to land a hit on her too.”
“You did really well. If that idiot had run off by herself, we probably would’ve lost her.”
Yerna must have feared I would go berserk again. But honestly, after getting hit with that sage time, I doubted I could have flipped the berserk switch back on even if I tried. Even if the only exit was that well, if I had abandoned Franc and sprinted like hell, the clone I sent out might have actually accomplished something. My mind had been so overwhelmed that I couldn’t even think of that.
Well, after getting beaten to a pulp, washed, and turned into a rag again, it made sense. It wasn’t just that my personal grim reaper was nearby — I probably wanted to piss myself and run too.
─Flap! Flap!
Just then, the newly transformed Veronica descended into the underground tomb carrying the rest of the party on her back. I knew it was her because there probably wasn’t any other giant bird with horns in this world.
As soon as they reached the surface, the group canceled their transformations and came running.
“Senior!! Franc unnie is── Ah.”
“My lord!! The situation is…… Ugh.”
The two party members who had kept their sanity seemed to grasp the situation the moment they saw Yerna’s corpse and the state we were in. I was wondering where Dana was when Veronica answered before I could even ask.
“Dana was treating Franc when that woman suddenly appeared from behind and attacked her. But do not worry. She used the spare we brought. She is currently resting within the rune barrier.”
“Here! Hurry and give some to Franc unnie too!”
Larilura held out a glass bottle that had somehow survived the chaos. The contents were nearly half gone, so I could imagine Dana hadn’t gotten off lightly either.
I glared at Yerna’s corpse.
‘Fucking bitch.’
It was far from a clean death. I should have tortured her a little more before sending her off. Still, if I had grown stronger and met her again, she probably would have done something with the mana she’d stolen today. This clone, the underground tomb — it felt like something was still hidden down there.
“Give it here. I’ll adjust the dosage.”
I took the glass bottle from Larilura. It was the Elixir we had stashed away in Sargadis just in case someone died or got seriously injured.
─Glug glug.
I diluted it properly with water and had Franc drink the appropriate amount. It was a shame we didn’t have a syringe. Her wound was on her lower back, after all. When I carefully poured the liquid — which was practically liquid gold — into my hand, Franc panicked.
“N-Nord! Stop! The rest of my wounds can heal with potions!”
“If you leave it, it’ll scar. Even if it costs a hundred gold coins, we can’t let our Franc’s body get marked up.”
Medicine exists to be bitter. Before I could pour any more, I quickly called her over and treated the wound.
─Fwaaaaah!
The ancient civilization’s magic potion lived up to its name. It radiated light as it healed the rope-burn-like gashes on Franc’s back until they vanished completely. This was a potion that could even fix severe bodily damage — this much was nothing. I mixed more diluted Elixir into an unbroken bottle and handed it to her.
“You might have internal injuries, so drink this too. Get a proper checkup later. If something happens to your body, we can never build that happy family, you know?”
“……Yeah.”
Franc’s face turned red, as if she had remembered what she’d shouted before beating the hell out of Yerna. They say that when people are pushed to their limits, their true feelings or momentary slips come out. That shout must have been the true heart she had never put into words in front of me.
‘……A happy family.’
I felt like I finally understood a little why Franc wanted to be such a devoted wife to me.
“Senior? Is Franc unnie fully healed? What about you?”
Larilura asked while casually lifting up my clothes. This girl was getting more and more shameless with physical contact these days.
─Thwack!
I flicked her forehead to make her back off, then rolled my shoulders.
“I’m not hurt. As for what happened…… I’ll explain later.”
It was all personal speculation anyway, and this wasn’t the kind of story to tell in a city crawling with zombies. Although I had used up quite a bit of power, as long as the underground tomb remained, this city of the dead would never become a place where people could live again.
‘No, even if they knew about the mana generator, Germania definitely wouldn’t try to restore it to its original state.’
But leaving it alone would create far too many opportunities for abuse. In any case, we would only learn the details by going back down into the tomb.
With recovery finished, I glanced at Veronica just in case. She quickly pulled out a jade seal and another rune stone from her bosom.
“Here. Is this the item you wanted? It fell during the fight with that woman. Seeing that absurd power, I thought there was a chance you might have defeated her, so I brought it.”
“Well done. Thank you.”
“……Ahem. It is nothing. Do not make it awkward.”
I received the stone engraved with the ᛈ (Perth) rune from a blushing Veronica who had cleared her throat. It was an item made from the rune I had obtained after beating that ogre bastard. From my previous experience, I had learned that extracting information by threatening souls was extremely troublesome, so I had personally crafted this using the rune mana I had acquired.
The ᛈ (Perth) rune symbolized recovery and development of health, hidden secrets, and the key to resolving them. Modern people in this world often imbued it into crystals or dice. Neither Veronica nor I had the aptitude for healing magic-like effects, so we couldn’t use it that way. Veronica mainly used it for divination, but I had a different application in mind.
I filled my MP using the mana stored in the jade seal and aimed the rune stone at the corpse. The reversed ᛈ (Perth) meant “a box that hides secrets.” If someone with high aptitude for soul-manipulating magic like me used it, in some cases it would function as a spell that would require playing happy happy tag with the Romanian inquisitors.
In other words—
‘It means I can extract information directly from the soul.’
A magical tool that could pull fragmentary information from a soul incapable of conversation! You could think of it as something similar to psychometry.
─Huuuuuuuurk!
A pale something was drawn out of Yerna’s body and trapped inside the rune stone. Originally, the ᛈ (Perth) rune had been eliminated from consideration because I didn’t want to waste precious rune mana. The fact that it was nearly black magic was also a reason, but the biggest factor was that the souls I had met so far had all obediently followed my words. However, these thoroughly beaten bastards would never willingly talk even after becoming souls. Since they were already dead, threats wouldn’t work very well either.
I had chosen this rune based on the lesson I learned during the promotion exam last time. The advantage was that I wouldn’t have to look at those shitty bastards’ faces again. If that fucking bitch started yapping again, I would probably get so pissed off that I’d pass out first. Reading the stored memories would require another procedure, but I could do that after we returned.
And so, I sucked out only the memories of that water-type professor monster. Yerna’s soul did not remain. For a soul without a body, memories are information that proves its ego. The Perth box copied it while touching it, placing a heavy burden on the soul. It was a little disappointing. I had been hoping she would be dragged off to hell.
‘Still, there’s no way she went to a good place.’
Strangely, this other world had very few afterlife realms with the image of hell. The afterlife was usually heaven. If I had to pick, Germania’s Valhalla-Niflheim was probably the closest thing to heaven and hell.
─Whoosh.
It was right when I was thinking that. Suddenly, flames began to engulf Yerna’s corpse.
“What the fuck?!”
Damn it! What the hell was it this time? Self-destruct? Or was she going to gigantify like the monsters in Vectorman? We hurriedly distanced ourselves from her corpse in alarm, but Yerna’s body spontaneously combusted like pyrokinesis and vanished without even leaving bone fragments.
“……Fuck. Don’t tell me it was another clone or something?”
“Wait a moment. ᚹ (Wunjo).”
When I voiced the chilling thought, Veronica waved her hand.
─Whirrr!
The rune activated. It was a rune that symbolized the exchange and movement of energy, as well as sharing of objectives. When used on a living body, it strengthened physical abilities, but since Veronica had no restrictions on rune magic, she seemed to know how to use it differently.
─Twitch.
Veronica furrowed her brows and gave a look of contempt.
“……It is a curse. A spell that makes the corpse disappear if killed by another’s hand.”
“Is it a rune?”
“No……. It is similar to Aztec rain god worship magic. There does not seem to be a strict hierarchy like with the rain god worshippers, but the intent to preserve secrets is clear.”
“So there’s a group? Bad people always belong to some organization even when they’re working alone☆!”
Larilura said with clear displeasure. She was smiling playfully, but her eyes were not smiling at all. She was definitely angry.
“Those who are not part of the world’s mainstream end up like that, whether good or evil. This woman believed herself to be on the side of good even while committing evil…… If there are that many people with similar ideologies, it is truly unsettling.”
I could relate to Veronica’s sigh. Tabula’s organization, Immortalis, Yerna’s organization. That already made three fucking clubs of bastards.
‘There are way too many trash people in this world.’
If their numbers were cut in half, the universe might actually find peace. A sigh escaped me automatically. Still, the fact that they were growling at each other too was probably a silver lining.
I jotted down some of the delirious mutterings Yerna had spat out while in her frenzy. Because Franc had been captured at the time, I hadn’t been able to focus on the content. Still, it was better than forgetting it entirely.
Franc retrieved her hammer and spoke.
“Let’s head down. I’m worried about Dana.”
“Yes! If the other adventurers hear the commotion and come, it’ll be a big problem☆!”
“Ah, damn it. That’s right. We weren’t the only ones here.”
Now that I thought about it, that was true. The sound of me roaring, smashing, and rampaging across the sky and earth would have reached even the Germania kingdom army.
‘The adventurers probably all ran away too, so we need to move quickly.’
I didn’t want to say goodbye to the underground tomb just yet, and I also needed to hide the ceiling I had violently opened. I wasn’t sure if we had enough time.
We took the risk and entered the underground tomb anyway.
“……You fucking bastard. You really came back crawling, huh.”
Dana, who had been treating her wounds inside the barrier, saw me and reacted like a foul-mouthed mother whose son had just returned alive from war.
“Did you win?”
“I crushed her. Two wins, one loss, so it’s a win by decision.”
“You got your thesis stolen and got your ass kicked, so it’s two-two, a draw, you idiot. At this rate, you’ll end up counting how many wives you have on your fingers later.”
“That’s within the range of what I can handle with one hand.”
“Discuss that with your damn lower body, will you?”
Dana, who had answered roughly, placed her hand on my chest. On my bare pecs, to be exact. Following macho law, I first made my left and right chest muscles bounce, but I had no idea why Dana was suddenly groping someone else’s body.
“What? Are you jealous of me because I have bigger breasts than you?”
“A bastard whose face looks like it got punched with bread dough has chest hair growing according to his conscience. Your tits are just protein. The ingredient list is different, you fucker.”
─Slap!
With veins popping on her forehead, Dana smacked my ass with her gauntleted hand. It hurt like hell, but since I had deliberately done something to deserve it and had braced myself, I survived. It was a kind of married couple strongman show.
“Tsk. Bastard, the way you’re talking, you really are our husband. Your head seems fine too.”
Dana grumbled and scratched her head. Ah, I see. Since she had seen me rampaging like that, she must have been worried whether her husband was still sane. The place she had touched was also where I had been hit by the vine drill.
‘Anyway, our Dana really is a complicated woman who’s easy to understand.’
When I looked at her with that thought, Dana glared at me as if a demon had possessed my skull, then let out a small sigh.
“So? How do you feel?”
“Feel? What feel?”
“What else, you moron. You got your revenge. Does it feel refreshing?”
Dana asked with her hands on her hips. At those words, I looked at the condition of my party members. Everyone looked injured and exhausted. It could be said we suffered more than expected, or that it went easier than expected. We had encountered a powerful enemy, but the exploration of the ruins had been wrapped up in a single day.
Still, the rest of the party seemed to have complicated feelings. Since the one who should be the happiest was staying quiet, the others who hadn’t actually done much couldn’t bring themselves to rejoice first.
“……I guess so.”
I crossed my arms. Today’s victory was the same as always. As many questions as I had resolved, just as many tasks and new questions piled up. It was the usual otherworld life. Our otherworld is open for normal business. No matter how many times I thought about it, it wouldn’t be strange if this world collapsed at any moment.
‘It can’t be helped.’
The deep, hidden secret history buried in this fucking otherworld’s past was not something our master’s and doctoral students and our unique group of friends could unravel with just one or two years of effort. There would also be bastards who buried history however they pleased, just as many secrets as had been lost. The organization Yerna mentioned sounded exactly like a special unit specialized in that kind of work. Should I call them the dark Red Guards? No, saying it like that makes them sound like a good organization. Anyway, that’s how it is. It was the same damn otherworld as always — where each race and these worldwide motherless friends wanted to set the yardstick according to their own dicks.
It made me sad to think that only kind and good people like me and my friends had to suffer. Living in any world comes with its share of bullshit. It’s indescribably shitty, but when has our otherworld ever not been like this?
“Yeah. You’re right, Dana.”
After roughly putting out the urgent fire, I felt relieved. A new emotion filled the empty space in my loosened heart. I had been ready to give up on recovering the thesis that bitch had stolen, but if Yerna was quietly handled as a missing person, I might be able to challenge a thesis MeToo in a few years. Thinking that way, maybe this was a hopeful victory after all. No matter the reason, a win was a win.
This was a fantasy boring world with no TV, no computers, and no smartphones. If not at a time like this, when else would I get to feel joy?
After deep contemplation, I arrived at that answer. Therefore, I slowly raised both arms in a victory pose.
“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucking!!!!!!!!! This feels so damn goooooooooooooooooooooooooood────────!!!!!!!!!!!”
I expressed the greatest joy my vocal cords would allow.
──Our lives, like a blood-pressure marathon where taking one step forward lets you see ten steps ahead. We wouldn’t be punished for being happy for just a few dozen minutes.
Only then did I laugh heartily while looking at my smiling wives and friends, who were laughing in a way that finally felt like me. Avengers Nord, disbanding as of this moment.